"Bush Receives MRI of Left Shoulder
President Bush has an exam while at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in an attempt to find out why he has been experiencing pain recently. "
The New York Times has us with a record unemployment and a record number of un (healthcare) insured.
"The increase occurred before the recent surge in layoffs because of the slumping economy, the researchers said, suggesting that the problem reflected long-term changes in the nation's health-care system. The recession and the sharp rise in unemployment in recent months have almost certainly contributed to a further rise in the number of uninsured Americans because many people lose health insurance when they lose their jobs."
http://query.nytimes.com/...
Ok, so President Bush has a slight pain question recently (it may be that he is becoming conscious) and heads off to Walter Reed for an MRI. On our tab. Yup, we will be paying Bush's healthcare tab for the rest of his life.
My personal experience with healthcare insurance is that by 2 years ago they (U S Healthcare Aetna) was going to start charging me $32,000.00 a year, up from $25,000. That is a lot of money and they did not pay for any prescriptions. that is for my wife, my teenage daughter and myself. All healthy. I dropped the insurance for a policy which is now $12,000 a year. Still, a lot of money. And we are still healthy. This company pays for the first 3 months of prescriptions, so maybe an upgrade, but there is a lot they don't pay for.
Sorry for the personal info, but it is my only reference to what it all costs. "The United States spends nearly 40 percent more on health care per capita than its G.D.P. per capita would predict. Given the sheer magnitude of the estimated excess spending, it is fair to ask American health care providers what extra benefits the American people receive in return for this enormous extra spending. After all, translated into total dollar spending per year, this excess spending amounted to $570 billion in 2006 and about $650 billion in 2008. The latter figure is over five times the estimated $125 billion or so in additional health spending that would be needed to attain truly universal health insurance coverage in this country."
From:http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/why-does-us-health-care-cost-so-much-part-ii-indef
ensible-administrative-costs/.
That is $550 Billion that is in overhead alone. That is a lot of money which could go to better uses right now.
This expense will shortly be unsustainable ( re: personal experience)/ It is not smart to have healthcare tied with ones employer. People no longer stay at one company forever, and they do become unemployed. We all do remain citizens though, that is the one constant.
This would be better for employers as well. Eliminating employee healthcare issues will make them more competative in the World market, as most of their competators are not saddled with those expenses.
It is time we looked all the issues, Competition, National Security, Economic sense, and so forth and realize that we need a single payer, universal healthcare plan for the United States. Right away.
We Kossacks need to create a force to get all our representatives to back this, or it will not get done.