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To the editor:
In the editorial, “The right vote, for right now,” (July 5, page A8), the Danville Register & Bee claims Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Fifth District, would not “blindly support a bill that would add hundreds or even thousands of dollars to our energy bills.”
Following the 300-page amendment submitted at 3 a.m., a complete copy of the bill did not exist prior to the vote. If nobody read the bill and completely understood its impact, wouldn’t you have to say he did “blindly support” the bill along with everyone else who voted aye?
MARK NICHOLSON
Danville
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Considering national health care. The current health care proposal from this administration requires (not suggests, not recommends, not implys) that people obtain health insurance. For those who can’t afford it, here comes another government give away. But, who decides when you can’t afford it? Apparently the government. It was brought up this morning on ABC’s news magazine “This Week” that under the Obama plan, a family of four with a yearly household income of $27,000 would have to pay the government $3000 for their health coverage—assuming they can’t afford private insurance or obtain it through an employer. If you’ve got a family of four, and you only make $27,000 a year, do you really have an extra $3000 laying around to give to the government for it’s health plan?
This is only one provision. What other screwball nonsense is in that plan?
Oh, and JP, you made a point to tell us about the “all-American white doctor” versus the middle-eastern type. Why do you feel the race of the doctor had anything to do with what you perceive to be poor treatment? Isn’t this a not so veiled attempt at playing the race card? Why would you do that? If the guy’s a bad doctor, he’s a bad doctor. What does race have to do with it?
Queer Rags,
Obviously your niece who died under the German care had a choice of hospital since she went to a “top” specialist in her area. Hence, that puts a big hole in your argument about choice of hospital and doctor. Only Fox News and Rush are spreading that false rumor about the public option as proposed by President Obama.
We don’t have “choice” now; some bureaucratic nurse in our insurance companies decide if we can get a type of surgery and the venue. As for receiving recourse from a botched surgery in America, we still have that; however, I heard Senator McCain this morning strongly suggesting that that recourse be eliminated in this country - he and the GOP have been trying for years to limit any recourse against doctors (like the American version of that “top” specialist in England) who mess up. Interesting how the GOP wants to keep government out of the private side except when it comes to one’s own body (medical litigation, abortion, etc.). Kind of a hypocrisy there, ain’t it?
By the way, I am neither a woman nor a parrot so your attached name of choice doesn’t apply. By the way, again, the name I attached to you refers to “unusual dress,“ nothing at all to do with homosexuality and, by the way, again, again, one doesn’t have to be male to be the type of “queer” you reference. And, by the way, again, again, again - you obviously don’t know anything about me (referencing a post on another board - “elite liberal”, psahw). By the way, again ... I already pay over 28% in fed. taxes every month and when my employer and I add another 15-20% to that for medical insurance, I’m already near the 50% in “taxing.“ I’d rather pay now and have the assurance that there will be insurance for me when I no longer can afford private insurance. The public option offers security for those of us who have remained healthy for our 30-40 years of working and contributing to private health insurance and then have it yanked away when we retire and have to lose everything we have saved to pay medical costs. Something about that just doesn’t seem fair.
Peace to you, my friend.
Polly,
The difference between England having both a public and private option is that they have BOTH a public and private option and they pay about 50% in taxes for that privilege. If this administration has its way, it will implement a subsidized public option that is not required to be profitable which will totally destroy our ability to have private options. In addition, we will probably end up paying 50% (or more) in taxes to pay for all of the unfunded changes they are making to our system. When Medicare part D prescription drug coverage became available, many people lost their private insurance prescription drug coverage either because their employers decided it was too expensive to provide or the insurance provider decided it was too expensive to provide and they were told to use the inferior coverage of Medicare with its huge donut hole in coverage. The same will happen if congress forces through this so called public option insurance. It will force many people who already have adequate insurance onto the roles of government health care, thus driving up the already unsustainable cost.
Yes, I am perfectly familiar with DRMC. In fact, my father recently died in the care of DRMC and I personally blame the understaffing by the administration which had the nurses so overworked that they failed to properly monitor his condition and report it to the doctor in time for appropriate treatment to be implemented. He was admitted after his primary care physician failed to do anything to treat his condition and told him if he got worse to go the ERl. He then waited in the ER for about 8 hours before being admitted to the hospital. Yes, I wish we had taken him to a different hospital. I wish we could have found him a new primary care doctor, but that is getting practically impossible these days, because Medicare is not paying doctors enough and they are refusing to accept new patients. That will only get worse if there is a public option plan similar to Medicare. One big difference in this scenario and one in England (or another country with socialized medicine) is that we do still have a choice as to which hospital to go to. We don’t have to use DRMC or any other hospital which doesn’t provide the type of care we desire.
As far as my niece is concerned: the point here is that she was disabled for life and has no recourse for recieving damages (from the doctor or hospital)other than going on government disability. Do you want to give up your rights to compensation in the event of inadequate or negligent medical care?
By the way, I am neither a man, nor am I homosexual so your queer rags doesn’t really apply. However, Polly the liberal Parrot seems quite apropro.
Queer Rags,
(I like that name better than ragesquir. It seems more fitting). Yes, my daughter does pay taxes. She doesn’t have to pay the outrageous cost of health insurance in this country; she is satisfied with the health care she gets over there.
You mention England as an example of a combined federal/private option. You say that “unfortunately, most people can’t afford private insurance.“ That could be said about Americans today, but we don’t have the public option to fall back on; so, not only is a surgery delayed for those without insurance in this country, it is NOT provided. If given the option, I would prefer to wait for the surgery (most of those that are delayed are elective surgery which can wait, anyway).
As for your niece in Germany, I would question, first of all, if that was a “top” specialist who provided the surgery and secondly, let me tell you about Danville Regional, a “top” hospital in our community:
1. I heard this week that a friend of mine went to the emergency room here with chest pains; after an hour of waiting, his wife took him to Chapel Hill where he was seen immediately.
2. I went to the ER with my wife a couple of years ago; she was having symptoms of a stroke. We both have good insurance and waited in the ER for 3 hours before a “top” ER physician saw her, suggested she go home. The next morning, her symptoms were twice as bad, she went to the hospital where she stayed for 3 days having tests done.
By the way - the first physician who sent her home was a white “All American” doctor; the second physician was middle eastern. Very rarely will you find an individual who has lived in this town for more than five years who hasn’t either had a bad experience at the local hospital or knows someone who has had a bad experience.
Sorry about your niece; however, such horror stories are just as common under the knives of “top” specialists in our country under private health care as they are in countries with private health care with the public option. Peace, Q.R.
Polly,
(I like that name better than JaPo. It seems more fitting.) Just curious, does your daughter actually work and pay taxes in this socialized country she lives in or is she one of the dead weights who is dragging down its system? I don’t think even you with your unselfish heart would like to pay the tax rates of Germany or England or any of those Scandinavian countries whose virtues you like to extol. Have you yourself ever lived in one of these countries? I have and I have seen first hand how “wonderful” their healthcare is. England for one does have private insurance as well as the public socialized insurance. Unfortunately, most people can’t afford private insurance. Even more unfortunately, if you don’t have private insurance, you wait for months just to get an evaluation appointment and years to get needed surgery (assuming it is approved).
I also have a niece who lives in Germany. She had hand surgery by a “top” specialist in one of the wonderful socialized medicine hospitals. The surgeon bungled the surgery and several severe infections and a several surgeries later she has minimun use of her hand. She is 22 years old and will be on disability the rest of her life. Her recourse against the medical system? Nil.
I’ve worked and lived in many European countries during my military career, and what nobody talks about is the amount of taxes that those Europeans have to pay for their substandard care. When you have had to utilize their healthcare system like I have, you can talk about how great it is. I’ll take Danville Regional anytime.
When you can prove that our elected officials are reading what they vote on, I’ll pay attention. What should scare every American is the fact that parts of the bill were going to be added later on down the road long after the bill had passed. And when did aides have the right to vote in the House of Representatives? I would hope someone working double-duty could suck it up and do the job he was elected to do.
Sawdust. You have become the suppository .... er .... repository for so much misinformation you have become rather pathetic.
I have a child who lives in a European country with socialized medicine, and she and her friends have no worry about their health care and are very satisfied with the health care they receive.
And, as for the USA militarily supporting Europe, that is so “Cold War” thinking. In the country where my child lives, all young people are required to commit two years to the military - not a choice. They have a standing army that may not be as well equipped as the US, but they don’t go around invading other sovereign nations like we do (and making enemies of the people living in those formerly sovereign countries).
For lack of another term, you, Sawdust, are “provincial” and need to get out more. The United States is a good place to live, but there are plenty of places in this world that are equally good, and some are even better and some are far worse.
This is the country where we live, but we need to be informed so that we don’t take false pride in something that, in many way, is mediocre. There is always room for CHANGE - oops, there’s the term the conservatives don’t like. Peace.
polly; You might want to check with some of the folks in England about how their socialized medicine is working out. And the only reason that any of the European countries can afford it at all is that the good old USA provides security for them. They have miniscule defense budgets, if they have one at all. And just look at the average European male; indolent, looking for the gummint to take care of him and his family, unable even to provide for his own defense. Oh, yeah, let’s copy the Europeans.
Sawdust. Why do you mention two communist countries and a strong armed “democracy” as examples of where socialism hasn’t worked? It is working very well in the Scandinavian countries, England, and a large number of the other industrial countries. The problem with capitalism is that it breeds the Madoffs and greedy bankers which can bring down the country without some federal regulations. Capitalism with a dose of socialism is not a bad economic mix - it has worked elsewhere, and the plan Obama has offered is a plan that is uniquely American. Of course, there are those, like yourself, who would be opposed to anything Obama suggested just because he suggested it. That is, with all due respect, a close-minded way of looking at things. I don’t support Obama 100%; he has done some things I wish he would have done differently, but he has only been in office for 6 months; it took Bush 7 1/2 years to bring this nation to its knees; it will take a few years to get it back and standing up-right. Peace.
Polly; good to see you back, I was wondering how long it would be until I saw ‘parroting’ again.
I’m not against change, just against the kind of change that Obama wishes to bring about. He has clearly been influenced by all the socialists and radicals with whom he has associated all his life. This country was founded with the idea of equal opportunity for all, Obama’s vision is one of equal outcome, or making life fair. This has proven to be a failure wherever it has been tried, and it has been tried all over the world, from Cuba to North Korea to Venezuela, and it never works. Why anyone would believe that it will work here is beyond me.
The American model of maximum individual liberty and the free market, on the other hand, brought this nation to the top of the food chain in less than 200 years. That’s why I have such a fondness for it, and oppose Obama’s grand socialist schemes. Why do you support them so avidly? Do you believe that when he says “Yes, we can” that’s all that is necessary to make it possible? Why do you believe he can make it work when no one else can?
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