Speaking of Medicaid expansion, yesterday brought the first meeting of the South Dakota Legislature's Bipartisan Medicaid Expansion Exploratory Committee (B-MEEC? No! Be bold!). According to SDPB, 21 citizens came forward to speak in favor of accepting the Medicaid expansion offered under the Affordable Care Act. Two citizens testified in opposition... and they're both nuts:
“We all have heard many stories that tug at the heartstrings, but we have to be realistic,” says Florence Thompson from Caputa. She is one of two people who came forward to oppose expansion of Medicaid.
“The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money. This was said by Margaret Thatcher,” Thompson says. “Obamacare, Medicaid, all these things are a form of socialism, and our government is, in fact, bankrupt.”
Thompson says attempts at central control distort the free market through price controls and regulation [Victoria Wicks, "Committee Hears Consequences of No Health Insurance," SDPB.org, 2013.02.20].
It must be nice to latch onto a few key words—socialism, central control—and use them as your excuse not to think about real policy issues.
Stephanie Strong from Rapid City says she opposes Medicaid expansion because she wants limited government, and she expresses distrust of current insurance and healthcare practices.
“You go for trip to the doctor and it costs your elderly people a thousand dollars for a blood draw,” Strong says. “I think that the administration of the government is stealing from South Dakotans and other folks out there that are taking this fallacy about Medicaid’s going to fix you.”
A majority can be wrong. But when the politically inept Stephanie Strong and Florence Thompson are the only people telling you not to do something, there's a strong possibility that you should go with the flow and do it.
"they're both nuts"
Take their guns away.
So where is the funding coming from...federal debt. Speaking of nuts.
so my question to people like this loon Thompson is, What do you want to propose to fix the problem?
These people are all the same. They scream that the black man is leading us to socialism and then offer no solutions.
"What do you want to propose to fix the problem?"
The free market.... [editorial note from CAH: This comment went to heck in a handbasket from here on out. Sorry, folks. I'm hitting hard Delete.]
"It costs your elderly people a thousand dollars for a blood draw"
Now they are just making stuff up. Let's see the bill.
I believe there might be medical charges on bills that might show $1,000 for blood draws. The charges are all bogus. Nobody in their right mind would pays them. If you have good insurance, all those charges get boiled down to some secret cost to the insurance company and some minimal co-pay. If you have shitty insurance, you might end up paying some reduced charge. If you have no insurance, the charges may be shown on a bill, and they may try to collect. For elderly people on Medicare with a good supplemental plan, the charges are usually printed out, and then you'll see what charges Medicare will accept as resonable, what part Medicare paid and what part the supplemental paid and what part the patient owes.
The free market doesn't work for most medical care because you can't shop for medical care. Oh, I suppose for breast implants, the free market works. But not for most care. Even in larger urban areas there is no competition for prices, though there is competition for convenience and some competition for competence. In rural areas, you take what's offered. Charges by docs, hospitals, etc., are all bogus, and not based on anything rational. Even if you can get a full print out of the charges, there is no rhyme or reason to them.
Rumor was at the time that Margaret Thatcher was really Ronald Reagan in drag. Maybe he zipped across the pond during one of his press conference siesta's.
larry,
I think you may have gone too far when you compared Sibby to Coulter. Sibby does not look like a walking cadaver; further, he has not sunk to Coulter's level of irrationality.
I've heard that Dante had to quit writing the Inferno because he dreamed up a character like Coulter but he couldn't find a level of punishment suitable for her.
My error, LK although sleeping with PP must be hell.
If you read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort has a piece of his soul split off and attached to Harry on October 31st, 1981.
Distortions of the free market? You mean like artificially creating private health insurers so the medical community can collude?
I found this to be very interesting about how the hospitals are actually making most of the rise in the healthcare costs. To me, this article speaks of one thing that is always missing in the debate, why is healthcare so expensive? The reason is simple, smoke and mirrors to prevent the actual sight of the billing process. I can tell you that if a provider submits a bill to the insurance company and if it is coded correctly, the insurance company must pay it. Of course there are ways to try to make sure that the billing is correct before that happens, but this is how it works. Here is a link to Time for a report that was just made available, it should make you all mad as hell and want to get the pitchforks out and go after the big hospitals in our state for the continuing theft of our tax dollars and our premium money. The hospitals are just exactly like Wall Street bankers and just as slimy.
http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/?iid=hl-main-lead
There is no such thing as a $1,000.00 blood draw though.
While I do not deny that both of these loons continue to embarrass themselves in front of an audience, we should applaud them for the entertainment and be thankful that they were not elected.
"go after the big hospitals in our state for the continuing theft of our tax dollars and our premium money"
And they are for the Medicaid expansion.
Medicare for all has been reintroduced:
http://www.healthcare-now.org/take-action-medicare-for-all-act-reintroduced
I am for Medicaid expansion as well and I am no hospital. I fail to see the connection between the two, but as you seem too, pray tell, what is it?
Yes Larry it has and we should all hope that it does pass as this is the most fair deal around. We all know now that the new republican smoke screen about not touching anything from age 55 upwards, was just that. The grand guru, Paul Ryan, is not so talkative about that anymore. We, who can walk upright, could cipher that in a real hurry. Of course the knuckle draggers, you know who I am speaking of, could not. At any rate, the news you post is nothing but good news and we all look forward to our own Ms. NOem to say yes to it.
I wonder what the people that are against expanding medicaid would/will do, if all of a sudden they loose their money and health care and desperately need extensive medical treatment.
"What do you want to propose to fix the problem?"
The free market. ANd the black man is jsut a puppet for the Anglo-Saxon ruling elite:"
Free market Steve? So if you have no insurance your screwed? Good Christian way to do things. Hope you always have isnurance Steve.
Just like they have always done Joan, demand Medicaid to cover their sorry fanny while they are in the nursing home and then try to hide their assets. This is what we call Tea Party New Republicans. You can hear them coming with the whir of the tax payer funded Scooters to complain loudly about people needing those same Scooters for their mobility as well. For the New Republicans, it is all about them. Solidarity to them is a good stool.
How many more banner ads in stadiums should hospitals be allowed to buy when they jack up charges to cash payers and government? How many so-called health sport facilities? How many $1,000,000 or more executives? How many more ski lodges for doctors?
Of course Thune got a chunk of money to help his big campaign from the hospital system or systems. Don't expect him to raise a finger to control costs or aid the needy.