tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post475204869180980573..comments2024-03-28T10:49:14.510-05:00Comments on Horizons: Confusing Thoughtfulness with CowardiceNancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-3216460585078086412015-08-25T04:10:03.587-05:002015-08-25T04:10:03.587-05:00These people wouldn't know progress if it hit ...These people wouldn't know progress if it hit them in the face. They either don't know or care to learn from history. First of All The New Deal yeah that one was a compromise between Liberal Democrats and Southern Dixiecrats. African Americans were left out of The New Deal, it had to be amended so blacks and other people of color could reap the benefits. The Civil Rights Act was a compromise also between the two factions even some Republicans voted for it. It takes years for progress to occur.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17626298404279432713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-84950064882393376572015-08-24T16:59:35.212-05:002015-08-24T16:59:35.212-05:00Wow! That's a pretty strange leap.Wow! That's a pretty strange leap. Nancy LeTourneauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-53755550795516582192015-08-24T13:08:50.144-05:002015-08-24T13:08:50.144-05:00Could it be any more obvious than this?
Being stym...Could it be any more obvious than this?<br />Being stymied by a do-nothing Congress makes Obama thoughtful.<br />Being stymied by a do-nothing Congress makes Sanders a failure. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-72097549766234907862015-08-24T12:57:15.659-05:002015-08-24T12:57:15.659-05:00The root problem is expectations. Single payer ad...The root problem is expectations. Single payer advocates typically think single payer is magic; as soon as single payer is there, prices automatically come down and you can get anything at all treated at the hospital with no out-of-pocket expenses. All for a low low price of maybe $100/month!<br /><br />Unfortunately, with medical prices as high as they are, you can't get universal coverage, platinum coverage, and low premiums. You can get two out of the three, perhaps, but not all three. Green Mountain tried for all three, and failed. The ACA succeeds because it lets you pick the balance between coverage level and premium cost that works for you.<br /><br />I'll do the revised analysis right now. The ACA caps profits at 15%-20%, so a perfectly efficient single payer system could provide equivalent coverage for 15%-20% cheaper. But that's still going to be vastly higher than the rest of the Western world pays for their coverage.<br /><br />The other factor is the system by which hospitals set prices -- where they start with insanely high list prices ($1.50 for a Tylenol capsule), insurance companies negotiate those prices down, the end result is still a huge mark-up for the hospitals. Now that sounds like a racket to me, and one that Congress should do something about. Congress regulates credit card rates, and I don't see this as vastly different in concept. (Yes, single payer could theoretically do the same bargaining that insurance companies do, but if Green Mountain's experience is relevant, single payer can't bargain it down enough to keep prices manageable.)King Beauregardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04043228078537079759noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-30585937752438842192015-08-24T11:51:35.697-05:002015-08-24T11:51:35.697-05:00Be fair, felonious - he successfully renamed two p...Be fair, felonious - he successfully renamed two post offices.Churchlady320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-2404622547621969022015-08-24T11:48:37.948-05:002015-08-24T11:48:37.948-05:00I think he has avoided this like the plague becaus...I think he has avoided this like the plague because it impact the entire scope of single payer. Why can ACA provide help to low income people at very affordable rates based on income (1-9%) but Green Mountain could not come in under 11%? If he won't - and no single payer person has - do the math and explain it, it is not a policy but a polemical rant. I supported it for years until ACA came along. Then we needed to do a revised analysis and never did. I'm fed up with rhetoric but no numbers. Bernie is as feckless as his supporters in pretending you can still insist single payer is better without once saying for whom and HOW.Churchlady320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-85162283746946352542015-08-24T03:56:44.657-05:002015-08-24T03:56:44.657-05:00Ach! I remember getting into it with an Emo who ke...Ach! I remember getting into it with an Emo who kept whining about The President not integrating the LGBT and straight troops by fiat like Truman had done. This person seemed to neither know nor care that there was a problem that would take an act of Congress to solve permanently, and that Obama was concentrating on getting that done rather than going for the feelgood temporary fix.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-29469703064077751582015-08-23T19:17:18.114-05:002015-08-23T19:17:18.114-05:00Emos actually think that they're liberal, no m...Emos actually think that they're liberal, no matter how many poor and disenfranchised people they're ready to sacrifice on the alter of their purity. On a lot of on-line black websites, "Progressive" is now synonymous with White racists of the Bernie brand. <br /><br />In 26 years, with the power of a U.S. Senator, he has not authored a single bill that has been passed into law. He has authored one bill on dentistry that has gone nowhere. Talk, talk, talk...<br /><br />What tools.felonious grammarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09245209715977361248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-16207616094808897272015-08-23T16:56:29.909-05:002015-08-23T16:56:29.909-05:00It's why I am growing tired of some of the sup...<i>It's why I am growing tired of some of the supporters of Senator Sanders--they have put ideological purity ahead of actually putting something together that will create change over time. I believe that Senator Sanders is a good man and a progressive--but some of his supporters are not seeing the big picture and are putting him on the pedestal of "He'll do everything he says with the snap of his fingers!" No he will not--not without a solid base and a Congress that can help. It is sad to see that so many on the liberal/Left/Progressive side of the fence have fallen for the instant gratification instead of the hard work needed to set foundations and build over time.</i><br /><br />Just wait until Bernie has to debate someone or anyone. The failure of Vermont's Green Mountain single payer is going to come up, and thus far, Bernie is not willing to say he knows why it failed. So basically it's like if a space shuttle blew up, NASA never bothered to find out what went wrong, but promised to put us all on the next shuttle.<br /><br />Of course, if Bernie has spent five minutes studying Green Mountain, he knows what went wrong: medical costs are as yet too high to allow for tolerably low single payer premiums. So a serious candidate -- I stress, a SERIOUS candidate -- would say, "okay, we need to set single payer aside until we do something about costs, and then we can go back to single payer". Bernie ain't doing that, though. Either he doesn't really care why Green Mountain failed, or he is pandering to his base and offering them what he knows to be snake oil.<br /><br />Well, that's going to come out during debates, and I don't think Bernie's ready to handle it. His base sure as heck isn't: either Bernie will come clean and it'll look like the last part of "Jesus Christ Superstar", or he's going to tank in the debates and his fan base will swear to punish Hillary in the general election.King Beauregardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04043228078537079759noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-17655806898413128592015-08-23T16:15:21.810-05:002015-08-23T16:15:21.810-05:00Frankly, this is one of those things that often fr...<i>Frankly, this is one of those things that often frustrates me about liberals. The idea that a leader would craft a working solution to a problem rather than run after ideological purity is cast as "cowardice." </i><br /><br />Exactly, Nancy. It has been so frustrating to see the shots taken at President Obama--even before he reached the White House--that amount to "He didn't do this in two seconds or less". President Obama told us on the night of his first election victory that the problems we faced would not be solved in a week, a month, a year, or even one term. It seems that many did not listen or it went in one ear and out the other.<br /><br />It's why I am growing tired of some of the supporters of Senator Sanders--they have put ideological purity ahead of actually putting something together that will create change over time. I believe that Senator Sanders is a good man and a progressive--but some of his supporters are not seeing the big picture and are putting him on the pedestal of "He'll do everything he says with the snap of his fingers!" No he will not--not without a solid base and a Congress that can help. It is sad to see that so many on the liberal/Left/Progressive side of the fence have fallen for the instant gratification instead of the hard work needed to set foundations and build over time.Marc McKenziehttp://redshoulder.deviantart.com/gallery/noreply@blogger.com