the great American healthcare debate

What does everyone make of it?

Personally I find it funny that the Dems can't even seem to get a public option passed given that they basically have supermajorities in both houses of Congress but yeah whatever.

I think it's funny that there is such an anti-tax sentiment in the US that the one group who would benefit greatly from single payer (or UHC) is the one group protesting most vociferously.

I also find it funny that the republican party has set out to sabotage whatever legislation may be brought forward, even going so far as to try to prevent the bill even coming up for debate in the Senate.

I really enjoyed an observation made recently that the republican party is strictly conservative, and the democratic party's weakness is the fact that they actually have members who don't wholly subscribe to one supra-ideology, which makes it difficult to get legislation moving even if they do have the majority.

Even though I consider myself libertarian I don't really see what the big deal is regarding the current healthcare legislation. Republicans seem to be under the delusion that healthcare as it is now is provided for by a free market but that's not even remotely the case; healthcare left the free market bandwagon decades ago. Massive amounts of regulation exist for example that basically serve to prop up the pharmaceutical industry but the GOP doesn't give a damn since their special interests serve to benefit from it. So why shouldn't the government give a hand to consumers to balance the playing field?

If only the same guidelines that apparently apply to healthcare legislation (eg, being deficit neutral) also applied to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It would also be nice if the same concerns about government conspiracies, death panels, etc, were applied to the Patriot Act, warrantless wiretapping, torture, etc etc etc.

You'll find no argument from me on those points Sirrah, so I suppose that leaves us with nothing but the weather to discuss...

How...convenient for you...

If only the same guidelines that apparently apply to healthcare legislation (eg, being deficit neutral) also applied to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It would also be nice if the same concerns about government conspiracies, death panels, etc, were applied to the Patriot Act, warrantless wiretapping, torture, etc etc etc.

Click to expand...

Thank goodness the pharma companies are raising prices on prescriptions like there's no tomorrow. (Hopefully there isn't one for them )

As one reporter noted, many in the US don't notice just how bad the healthcare debate looks for outsiders, but as I see you're not one of them.
It is sad that there even is such a debate for a system that is in place in many countries since decades, sometimes even a hundred years by now.

Yes, but you see, we're america, and are therefore different+better than any of those countries most people would consider analogous.

It would be sweet to have UHC as I think the current figure for medically related bankruptcies in the US is somewhere around 60% of total bankruptcies.

It is kind of social and humane too.

lol yeah I'm sure the world loves us right now.

You're all a bunch of commie pinko fascists btw