The proposed health care bill thread (merged)

[geetrue]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

How do you feel about the public school system, police, fire, water, hospitals, roads, etc, etc....?

Good pointbut are they mandatory unless you need them?

[Sea Demon]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

How do you feel about the public school system, police, fire, water, hospitals, roads, etc, etc....?

My kids go to private school currently. I don't like paying twice. Public education should be more of a local/state concern anyway. I've been advocating getting the feds out of the education system for years. None of the parents who put their kids in government schools pay a cent for my kids schooling. Other than perhaps some funding allocated for the UC system or the CSU system here, I don't feel compelled to pay for everyone's education. That's their responsibility....not mine. Fire, police and other public services are mutually beneficial services that serves society at large and are things we all need to fund as part of the taxpayer contract. At some point, I may need these services. Public health and education, I don't need them or use them at all.

If I opt out of government health, I absolutely don't want to pay for it. The people who would use a "public plan" aren't chipping in for my private health plan. They should pay for their own.

BTW, IF we're talking about introducing "competition" into the mix (As many a dem are talking the big game about)...exactly how would that work with a public "socialized" option where people who have their own health plans fund the health option that doesn't need to make a profit. And doesn't reciprocate in funding the private plans (although that's not desired either). Sounds lousy to me.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

How do you feel about the public school system, police, fire, water, hospitals, roads, etc, etc....?

LOL one thing that grinds my gears every year is property taxes. Nearly 80% of them are slated for schools.

I dont have any school age kids and my nephews are now in colledge. :rotfl:

Oh well such is the price in living in a socialist country.

I look on the bright side in that we do alot of work for different schools around here so I get a small ... very small portion of it back.

But when I see what goes into classrooms these days its staggering. Computers, projection systems, media retreval, lab benches, sound rienforcement systems (for hearing impared) not to mention new mandates for lighting systems, occupancy sensors, building energy management systems, and on and on. Hundereds of thousands of dollars on alot of stuff and we havent even bought pencils and paper yet.

[Buddahaid]

There were people who's kids were grown paying for your kids and on and on. What burns me more is how much of what we already pay goes to those who purport frauds. Even the system as it is now is bilked like all insurance.

Buddahaid

[geetrue]

This is one plan they are looking at:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/07/health-care-insurance-democrat-opinions-columnists-public-option.html

One model for a possible compromise was described in Tuesday's New York Times that examined the workings of the Group Health Cooperative (GHC) in Washington state.

This innovative not-for-profit program, which was founded by trade unions and farmers to fill a void in the marketplace, already accomplished many of the goals Obama has set for his reform agenda.

Most notably, it has succeeded in refocusing the incentive structure for delivering care on quality rather than quantity by paying doctors a base salary with bonuses for high performance instead of paying them based on the number of procedures they order.

The co-op model is no panacea. The GHC has a mixed record on controlling costs. It has clearly fared better than the private plans in Washington against which it competes but it has been forced to raise premiums anyway. (According to the Times, premiums have increased an average of 12% annually since 2000.)