-----------------------------------------------------------------
Goanetter Francis Rodrigues (Vasco/Toronto) book launch in
London, England @ the World Goa Day festivities on 15 Aug at 7pm
Details http://www.konkanisongbook.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tuesday, August 11, 2009, 7:33 PM
From: Gilbert Lawrence
The current debate is important for health insurance reforms to provide
near-universal coverage, elimination of restrictions like pre-existing illness,
guaranteed choice of coverage, affordable and portability insurance, and
long-term financial stability of the Healthcare system. etc.
Mario responds:
Hey, Gilbert,
If the government imposes an elimination of restrictions like pre-existing
illness and demands guaranteed choice of coverage, why would people not wait
until they had a serious illness before demanding to be insured, and paying for
their own coughs and colds in the meantime?
And what would that do to the actuarial estimates upon which sound insurance
policies are based?
Aren't such impositions a transparent method of putting private insurance
companies out of business?
Gilbert wrote:
Healthcare is in a critical condition resulting in 52 million uninsured and
under-insured people,...
Mario clarifies:
This is an even more inflated number than the estimate of 46 million being used
by supporters of a government run health care system, which is also inflated.
Why? Because many of these are either illegal aliens, younger Americans who
can afford to buy their own health insurance but don't believe they need it
relative to their other priorities, or Americans between jobs who have lost
their health insurance temporarily.
Here is another more detailed discussion of the uninsured in America:
http://keithhennessey.com/2009/04/09/how-many-uninsured-people-need-additional-help-from-taxpayers/
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:09:24 -0700 (PDT)
From: Gilbert Lawrence <[email protected]>
I claimed the healthcare program for seniors was "government-run
health-insurance called Medicare". I did not claim it was free. Now is Medicare
a "government-run health-insurance" or not? Please answer the question (Y/N).
Mario responds:
Of course it is, which is why it is projected to go bankrupt by 2017. Which is
why I don't want the entire system to go down the same road.
However, that was not the distortion. The distortion was when you wrote, "The
rare exceptions use any pretext to poison the well by presenting flat out lies
like "government take-over of the health-care system," thus bringing what is
now political terrorism from main-street America (see link below) to Goanet.
Boiling to the surface in towns across USA, are open revolts by middle-age
White men, (and few paid women) who use all sorts of red-herrings to display
their under-current of resentment against President Obama and his promotion of
women and minorities."
Your insinuation that people were "poisoning the well by presenting flat out
lies like "government take-over of the health-care system," was itself a
flat-out falsehood.
The Youtube video I posted clearly showed that Obama's goal is an eventual
government run health care system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-bY92mcOdk
Gilbert wrote:
The contents of the following link is from a Republican US senator; and is
likely directed to people like you (a.k.a - Palinistas). Enjoy! Now we may see
you calling this REPUBLICAN senator a socialist. And she being from Alaska,
perhaps you may wish she moves to Russia, without the Palinistas ... of
course.:=))
http://www.adn.com/life/health/story/895431.html
Mario responds:
These distortions never stop.
The fact is that there is end of life counseling in the current draft of
Obamacare. The fact is that one of the brains behind the bill, Dr. Ezekiel
Emanuel, wants the government to make value judgments on what treatments older
Americans should have. The fact is that the state of Oregon already has
socialized medicine which recently sentenced an older woman to death by
refusing to pay for chemotherapy that she wanted, and offering to pay for her
euthanasia. The fact is that socialized health care is rationed in Canada and
Britain and panels decide what's good for a patient or groups of patients.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=12857
Thus, Sarah Palin's description of such end of life panels as Death Panels was
far closer to the truth, even if hyperbolic, than Gilbert's attempts to
demonize what Palin had said by quoting one of her political rivals..
