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The DOPE is George Will… end of story.

The DOPE is anyone who doesn’t realize George Will summed up liberalism so well. End of story.

@ RAP What specifically did you disagree with?

I wanted George to jump across the table and thrash that stupid jerk Reich.

He basically did Thom, he pretty much did!

Brother Bob:

What George Will says assumes all can afford to purchase health care. That is simply ignorance at it’s finest. If a person has to decide between buying groceries or buying health insurance. What kind of ability to buy insurance is that? I stand by my statement George Will is the DOPE here.

@ RAP:

I understand that there will always be some who can not afford insurance, but how many are choosing to buy things like an air conditioner, a cell phone, or a car instead? This article does a great job of showing how much wealthier we’ve become over the last few decades, but health care wasn’t a crisis until politicians want more control over our lives:

http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/44568.html

For that matter, why not take steps to make health care cheaper? Tort reform and removing barriers to trade across state lines will make the industry more competitive and cheaper.

What suggestions do you have?

Brother Bob:

Tort Reform what a joke! that was tried in California. IT DID NOTHING to make health care less expensive. You sound like a person who has health care. Think about the MILLIONS who do not. Simply put it is not affordable for most of them no matter what else they give up.. Would you want them to live on the streets so they afford health care? give up a meal a day for health care?

What suggestions do I have?? I would like to see ALL the health insurance providers become NON profit organizations. Plus be very closely regulated. Or go to single payer health care.
Blue Cross Blue Shield started as a non profit. Frankly the bill the democrats currently have doesn’t go far enough. Most on the right hate these ideas. They will ask why give the government control over your health care. That is a BS question, a better question is: Why would I want to have a corporation decide my fate because they want to show a profit?

@Real American Patriot:

Tort Reform what a joke! that was tried in California. IT DID NOTHING to make health care less expensive.

Buzzer sounds.

Sorry Sky55110/cRAP…that is just not true:

Coincidentally, 2003 is the year the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that high litigation costs contributed to declines in health care quality. The report noted that California’s 25-year-old limit on noneconomic damages reduced health care costs without other adverse consequences.

Indeed, “insurance premiums in California have risen by [just] 167 percent over this period while those in the rest of the country have increased 505 percent,” the report said.

Furthermore, that article cites tort reform success in Texas, West Virginia, Mississippi, Missouri, and Alabama.

Yes, tort reform is a proven solution.

Your words to the contrary are just that, words.

Thanks for playing though.

Heh, here’s Bob Beckel urging democrats to buck the trial lawyers and take the tort reform issue away from the Republicans:

Why haven’t we talked about tort reform during this entire debate? Because we haven’t wanted to bite one of the biggest hands that feed us. That substantial and legitimate disagreement over the effects of medical malpractice awards on health care costs is another. And there is our child-like fear the trail lawyers will abandon us.

~~~~~

“… Even if the CBO refuses to put a savings on national caps for punitive damages, we have those Republican studies confirming savings of 30 to 100 BILLION dollars per year. As a Democrat, I’m glad to accept these figures and stipulate that they are accurate. Combined with proposed savings in Medicare and Medicaid, taxing high end insurance plans, and savings promised from the pharmaceutical companies and hospitals, the GOP savings from tort reform would provide for revenue neutral universal coverage over ten years and contribute to a downward curve in out year health costs.

And despite the CBO reluctance (dare I say courage) to score tort reform savings one irrefutable fact remains; between 1997 and 2007 medical tort costs (including insurance premiums) have risen from $15 billion to $30 billion a year. That fact alone should insure that yearly savings in the billions from medical tort reform would pass the credibility test.

Politically, I am convinced that by adding tort reform to healthcare legislation will instantaneously change the debate; take a major weapon to defeat healthcare reform from the GOP arsenal; bring huge numbers of doctors and healthcare providers to the reformers side, and in one stroke rekindle the momentum for reform before the summer of “death panels” soured the public support for singularly the most important legislation Democrats have enacted since the civil rights laws.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/08/18/dems_ace_in_the_hole_on_health_care_tort_reform_97919.html