What are you smoking. I want some so I can get that rose colored glasses look at the disaster our government bureaucracy has created.

Medicare is a mess. Ask any physician who serves Medicare patients. The MediCare bill is increasing astronomically. There is over 60 billion dollars wasted to outright fraud each year. This doesn’t even consider the fudged billings so physicians can cover their costs.

Social Security is a mess. It is a ponzi scheme that is running out of new suckers. I am in the SSA system and it stinks.

Our military is run as a “close enough for government work” organization. Ask any enlisted member of the military. The ‘kiss butts to get a promotion’ gets in the way of effective use of our tax dollars.

The Treasury is not even run by our government. It is ghost administered by the Federal Reserve for the benefit of the ultra-rich. Try to get a straight answer from the Treasury or Fed Reserve.

Take a look at the United States Postal Service. They can deliver a simple letter without asking for more money each year. They are statutorily protected from Fed Ex and UPS and still lose money.

Reid-Pelosi care will be a catastrophe. Eventually, we will run out of rich peoples’ money to tax away from them.

Mark – if I’m not mistaken, I believe those statistics are based on Adjusted Gross Income. Lots of stuff deducted from income to calculate AGI.

The lowest of income earners may pay little to no federal income tax, but 100% of their income is subject to social security taxes (as opposed to someone who makes $10 million where only the first approximately $100k is subject to the tax), so the lowest earners pay social security tax, medicare tax, local and state income taxes, along with sales taxes. These taxes add up to a substantial proportion of their real income.

But you may already know this to be true. It’s really not as “unfair” as it seems.

As for government being able to run things, it seems to be able to run Medicare fine. Seems to run our military fine. Seems to run social security benefits fine. Seems to run the treasury fine. There is zero evidence that private insurance companies will disappear because of this bill… Sure, a multi-trillion dollar industry will just disappear overnight. LOL!

The Republican’s alternative plan is not even a plan. It covers only 3 million more Americans than today, and continues to allow insurance companies to deny you coverage for a pre-existing condition. That’s not “reform,” that’s the status quo + a little bit to make it sound like something. It’s the most abysmal reply to legislation I’ve ever seen.

I mean, look at this quote, “Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, called it the “greatest threat to freedom that I have seen in the 19 years I’ve been in Washington.”” How does trying to cover more Americans with healthcare access a “threat to freedom?” Apparently Mr. Boehner has never been unemployed or without health insurance in his life. Too bad, because his voice is a radical fringe element that preys on Americans’ fears rather than discuss the facts of the bill.

The American Cancer Society, the AARP, and the AMA have all thrown their support behind this bill. There is unlikely to be a better compromise to help change American healthcare again in our lifetime.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/health/policy/06health.html?_r=1&ref=health

Q: Why is it not reasonable to require lawmakers to READ the legislation upon which they vote?

Q: Why do I need insurance at all if I can buy it at the same price after I get sick?

Q: Why does ObamaCare explicitly abolish my HSA? What could possibly be wrong with people saving and paying for their OWN medical care?

Q: Answer the question that White House Press Spokesman Gibbs has repeatedly dodged: Of the many socialized health care systems in the world, which one would you offer as a model of success after which we should base ours?

Q: Name ONE government run entitlement program that isn’t bankrupt or facing bankruptcy in the proximate future?

Q: Name ONE government run entitlement program that hasn’t cost =multiples= of what it was initially promised to cost? There is always excess demand for a free good or service.

Of the 47 million uninsured in the 2000 census, 10-12 million are in the United States illegally (when do they become the burden of the U.S. taxpayer?), another 20% earn over $75,000 a year and can afford to buy their own, and around 30% are under the age of 30 and =choose= not to buy health insurance. All of these groups would be covered under the proposed legislation.

Contrary to what Obama & Pelosi have said, the proposed health care bill WILL abolish most private coverage by mandating a time window within which employers must transition to an approved government-run plan.

Obama and the Democrat leadership has said that such government largess will be funded by taxing “the rich”. First of all, the top 10% of income earners already pay two-thirds of all income taxes; the bottom 40% of all American wage-earners pay $0.

Secondly, “the rich” includes all business owners whose operation GROSSES over $250K per year. This is basically a tax on ALL businesses, because for a business owner usually must gross that amount to earn a NET income of even $30K-$50K a year–hardly qualifying him or her as “rich”.

So, no, I don’t see great benefit to the mental health of Americans. I see a segments of the health industry awaiting a taxpayer-sponsored boom in their customer base.

If you think health care is expensive now, just wait till it’s free.

Regards,
Mark

I guess I am skeptical that they won’t just find another way around providing quality mental health care benefits.

Here is a mental health trend that is disturbing: EAP offering only telephonic contact with a mental health professional. It used to be EAP would provide for 3 or 6 visits. My EAP told me that for face to face consultation, I would need to use my plan’s mental health benefits ($5000 deductible…)

Yet I feel that we are moving in the right direction in healthcare reform. It sure has people talking and that’s a good thing.

St. Catharines, Ont.

– Privacy Commissioner of Canada (Sect. 25,26,28)

- C.M.H.A – Brock University

And don’t forget for a moment that payers will still set fees, and pay us as little as they want. They will have to cover the costs associated with equal access somehow and you know reducing profit margins is not going to be on the table for them. In the context of parity, negotiating sessions based on benefit, or a fixed number of sessions, in return for better rates and relative autonomy would be moot. Parity does not address the outcome of the service.

The costs of untreated mental health concerns in society are high — the cost of loss productivity at work, the cost of broken marriages and bad parenting, the cost of people’s lives torn apart by lack of access to affordable care.

Medicine does not lend itself well to pure marketplace competition. As it is *your* life you’re talking about, you will always place a much higher price on it than anyone else. Because of this, costs are artificially inflated while we all focus on “Whatever it takes.”

The reform bills now being considered are a healthy step in the right direction. And while they don’t do a great job in addressing specific mental health services, they do indirectly with the parity act requirements kicking in next year.

A little reality check, please. You think politicians are going to show deference and consideration to the mental health community, regardless of the 2008 parity act, that took an additional 1 plus year to get enacted? I have little to no regard for defenders and apologists for matters that are geared to benefit minority and self interest agendas, not public or majority causes.

If it sounds too good to be true, then, maybe it isn’t. I defy any commenter to come forth and honestly admit this individual not only read the whole bill, but could understand at least 70% of it. And yet that simple point gets swept under the table by said defenders and apologists.

And this said by a mental health care provider who would love to see mental health care be equally prioritized as any somatic matter. It won’t with the current system and alleged leaders running the show. Don’t believe me, just watch what happens when the results of ill conceived interventions ooze through our communities.

Sorry, not a choir comment.