1.
Ada, that last paragraph in particular....

Very well said.

Doofus at 2:39PM on Aug 29th 2008

2. Thank you for pointing out the glaring problems with this moron!! And now he thinks he can nominate a woman, and fix it all...PLEASE!!! I am so tired of this old, clueless man I can't even stand it anymore!! I was raised as a republican, but this year I will vote for the first time democrat. I'm a white woman with kids, and they deserve better than McCain can give them. OBAMA 08!!

April at 2:57PM on Aug 29th 2008

3. Right on, Ada...and even those of us with private insurance costs keep going up - not just copays, but getting bills for what your insurance won't cover. All this will result in is more people not getting preventative care - blood pressure screenings, cholesterol, etc. Soon health insurance will get beyond the reach of the middle class - then they too will end up at emergency rooms. For McCain to say something like this makes my blood boil - another rich, out of touch politician.

David S. at 3:23PM on Aug 29th 2008

4.
I always liked that show until the Revenge of The Nerds guy left.

mac at 3:26PM on Aug 29th 2008

5. Raising the eternal question....

Why do republicans always vote against their own interests?

They are either wagering that they or someone they care about won't face serious illness or injury, or their attitude is, "I've got mine."

Anecdote alert:
I know a diabetic who was just prescribed a medication which, with a discount, costs $570.00 every 90 days. (Same prescription in Canada: $72.00) Insurance company says, "Pre-existing condition," not covered.

Captain Negative at 4:13PM on Aug 29th 2008

6. Ada...McCain actually has the very best idea for health care. Let payments for individual health insurance policies be deductible for income tax, the way it now is for employers. People will buy HIGH DEDUCTIBLE policies, and providers and patients will finally have a motive to keep costs down, which is not currently the case, even though rising medical costs are the central problem.

Bob at 4:27PM on Aug 29th 2008

7. Women's health (mammograms, pap tests, birth control) is free for any female capable of reproduction. (If you're infertile, or not having sex, you're screwed. The government only wants to pay for sexually active and reproductive females...) You just have to go sign up at health & human services.

Children's health care, including well-child care is also available from your state, and many places have income-determined sliding scale fees for people who don't have insurance.

I think our country needs to make a government-type insurance for Students (college age) since not all of us have parents, and not all of us have parents with insurance policies they want to/can afford to/ or availible to them to add us to their policies. My mother recieves VA; I can't get insurance with her because I'm not a veteran nor am I married to one (as she was).

Some states (not Texas. Bah!) have insurance programs for people who fall under the poverty level at any age. It's sort of the luck of the draw, which state you're in what sort of coverage is availible to you, because it's state & local government controlled.

Lilz at 4:44PM on Aug 29th 2008

8. Let payments for individual health insurance policies be deductible for income tax, the way it now is for employers.

xxxx

you missed the second part out of one of mcsame's speeches: at the same time, there will be no more tax breaks to employers for providing insurance.

THIS KILLS GROUP INSURANCE!! You will pay full retail price, NOT group rates and every pre existing condition they can stick on you.

You'll pay more and get less coverage. Any employer who already knows what you'll work for will cut your salary by the tax benefit and take it himself or you get fired and the next proletarian in line gets you job.

Otherwise market forces are a myth.

You think they got into this game yesterday?

Clif Kuplen at 5:06PM on Aug 29th 2008

9. Emergency rooms are not appropriate for the typical headache although I've seen indigents call emt's out for that very purpose. Healthcare is broken by drug companies, insurers but mostly the bar. Medical malpractice and medication costs drive the problem caused by ridiculous lawsuits that are not capped and deliberated by juries that Jerry Springer wouldn't accept. Serious tort reform accompanied by pushing drug mfg's and providers to reduce costs as a result and tax credit for insurance purchases would go much further then either of these president wannabees has articulated. Unfortunately the two houses are filled with lawyers who will bite if you try to empty their and their bretheren's trough.

darkman at 8:49PM on Aug 29th 2008

10. Cliff Kuplen...

You're a moron. Market forces are already at work in health care. The elective surgery side at least. You see, when the gov't and insurance companies aren't in the mix, health care has to compete for dollars just like any other business.

But more to your points: First of all, if YOU are receiving the tax break, YOU get to make the choices in your health coverage. What a concept. Second, part of the tax break shift involves doing away with the stupid state mandates on health coverage. Passing a federal law banning state "minimums" will open up the health insurance industry and make it like shopping for car insurance. Currently, in many states, if you're 55 and don't plan on having kids, you STILL have to have a policy which covers you for it. How stupid is that? Ditto on mental health, addiction, etc.

Third, your employer is not out to screw you. Nor does your employer OWE you a job. I've run a business, and believe me, having the health insurance nightmare eliminated from daily operations would be a boon to operations.

proudconservative at 9:49PM on Aug 29th 2008

11. Third, your employer is not out to screw you. Nor does your employer OWE you a job. I've run a business, and believe me, having the health insurance nightmare eliminated from daily operations would be a boon to operations.

proudconservative
xxxx
Your comment about the employer not owing you a job speaks volumes. An employer better owe someone or someones a job, for without employees he or she is doomed to failure. If it weren't for your employees, you arrogant prick, you would never have made a buck. Your capital was derived from their sweat and labor.
And per your statement that employer is not being out to screw you, I'd like to talk to your former employees, those other than your family members that is. They might have a different take on that.
I work for "a proud conservative' in a proud conservative state. She threatens and bullies her managers and treats the frontline employees like shit.
She pays crap wages and make sure that 90% of the staff remain part time, so that she doesn't have to pay them any benefits. She tends to hire under-educated, and or minority women, many of whom are single with dependent kids.
These women and work their asses off, dealing with vomitus, fecal matter, and other waste matter, while placating our physically and sexually assaultive clients. We do so for a conservative employer who knows that most of her staff have few other viable career options. As such, she feels and has stated, that if any of us don't like it, we can just leave. Where are they to go?
She knows she can use us. So, instead of giving her frontline workers or middle managers raises, she buys herself and her cronies new staff cars while giving them raises, this while we haven't seen but one 2% raise in almost 7 years.
And telling us to go find another job won't change this dynamic one bit. The company will still be run by a greedy republican who lives large while rewarding her cohorts and family with high paying jobs, while the vast majority of her staff work for little more than minimum wage with no benefits.
Don't tell me my employer isn't out to screw me.

Isa Nathiest at 10:49PM on Aug 29th 2008

12. The elective surgery side at least. You see, when the gov't and insurance companies aren't in the mix, health care has to compete for dollars just like any other business.

xxxxx

If I'm a moron, what does that make you, slime mold?

Of course market forces are at work in health care. What a flair for the obvious you've cultivated.

In global unrestrained capitalism the only way to survive is put profit above everything. Services are incidental regardless of what business you're in. The hmo becomes a profit making machine. I've audited them from the inside and know the process very well and how exposure is assessed.

This is just too much, but if you want to see what we need to change, ecce poster child:

xxxxxxxxxxx

Third, your employer is not out to screw you.

xxxxxxxx

I don't have an employer. I already made the money I need. I was always self employed.

xxxxxxxx

Nor does your employer OWE you a job.

xxx

there's the problem. You're out of your ass. You owe someone a job and pay for it and they or you the work or you both go out of business. If you've been brainwashed by supply side economics, you're one step short of fascism. You'd better have the good sense to back away on your own. The future might get a little rougher than you imagine. I've seen this kind of pre-volcanic zeitgeist before. That's a moron word you creme de la cremes probably eschew...aw, snap, another one.

xxxxx
I've run a business, and believe me, having the health insurance nightmare eliminated from daily operations would be a boon to operations.

xxxxxx

Of course, and not having to deal with osha or having your cousin wire the place for ten bucks an hour and buying your supplies from a guy named rico who says they fell off a truck or paying everyone two bucks an hour under the table is in the same category.

Let's cut to the chase, the donald: I say start enforcing the Sherman and Clayton Acts again right here right now. You got a problem with that? Explain yourself.

Clif Kuplen at 1:33AM on Aug 30th 2008

13. For the folks (like Bob) who think buying your own insurance is the answer to all this, be careful what you wish for.

I'm self-employed, as is my spouse. We bought our own insurance for years. It was always high-deductible, since the vast majority of the care that was covered had nothing to do with how we preserve our health.

We had to look for a new policy at increasingly short intervals because once a company got you on board at a low rate, they proceeded to jack up the prices until you were forced to look elsewhere. In 15 years, we'd needed to switch 6 times.

Each new provider required an extensive application, weeks of waiting for a response, stupid requests for niggling details, lost paperwork, etc. This is all time that came out of our work schedule. We won't even discuss the time that went into making sure the few claims we made got paid correctly.

On our last round, one company denied my husband coverage because he supposedly had cardiac issues. This came from an ER visit for a gall bladder attack.

First, the ER was a sucky place to have to go for this, since they have to treat everything as life-threatening. But it was the weekend, and heaven help you if you have a heath issue on the weekend.

Second, the problem stemmed from a clerical error, in which th intake nurse insisted on putting "chest pains" down as his problem despite his repeated efforts to explain that it wasn't his chest that was the problem. Even with an eventual correct diagnosis, that one short notation, along with the stress test they recommended to cover their asses made it impossible to get coverage without exhorbitant premiums or severe limitations of coverage.

We ended up on two policies, with a total of $12,000.00 of deductibles, paying $6000.00 a year in premiums. If anything serious happened, limits of coverage would still have left us destitute.

We finally ended our coverage by choice.

Individuals buying their own insurance and attempting to keep up with all of it is a nightmare, unless there are serious changes to how insurance and the health care industry operate.

Alice at 10:37AM on Aug 30th 2008

14. I am a physician and health care administrator with an MBA from Arizona and practiced emergency medicine for many years. Mr. McCain has ignored Arizona's tragic health care environment totally. He is not interested in our citizen's problems. He gets his great governmet paid health care. I don't know any Arizona physician who supports Mr. McCains so-called health care plan. Health care is not responsive to market forces and the market cannot fix health care's non-existent system in America.

John B. Sullivan MD at 10:02AM on Aug 30th 2008

15. I have my own health care because, being gay, I can't marry in this state and be put on my love's insurance plan. So I have my own policy. I have to pay 1500 a month for it. I have a 1500 deductable after four raises over three years. I'm rounding a little bit. My plan will not cover my anti-depressants nor any therapy or counciling for stress or anxiety. That all comes out of my pocket (to the tune of 500 bucks or so a year) and doesn't go to my deductable. And incidently, that is the cheepest plan I can get here.

So why do I have it? Car wreck insurance. That's about it. If I get into a car wreck or have major organ failure it's to cover my ass. After that, it's only so much toilet paper.

Somber at 10:52AM on Aug 30th 2008