And to say that the profit motive is what makes US healthcare so great is laughably absurd. Like, if he said that to my face I would laugh at him and his foolishness.

Let him. Our nations history has proven him wrong.

I certainly didn’t spend hundreds of hours in high school and college shooting and editing video because I expected to be wealthy off the bat. I did it because I liked it. I understand that to get anywhere near that level that a lot of hard, good work and time will have to pass.

Spoken like a true enemy of the state.

You will one day soon pass into that ugly horizon known as the NO Government help for JOOO zone.

One day you will wake up and realize your not beholden to the government. They are beholden to you. Thats when the change occurs. You might still be a democrat or a Republican or a libertarian but something will be different.

That something is that you no longer are beholden to the system. You are like NEO…unplugged and on your own.

Keep up the good work.

Now if we could just figure out a way to bring the poor out of their poverty and make them productive members of society….wouldnt America truly be gREAT!!!!

@Michael Merritt

@Michael Merritt
I like your comments ! Who could be against the highest quality care, overall professionalism and putting no limits on your compensation ? It’s admirable that doctors want to give everyone the most expensive care while also covering their own asses with defensive medicine. Realisticly, I believe BASIC medical care ONLY is a “right.” Call me a “death panel advocate” but we cannot afford the most expensive care for everyone. We need a public option for BASIC CARE ONLY (covering certain things with dollar limits) and if you want the best care pay extra for the insurance on it.

A second, more subtle problem with the Medicare entitlement is the mental attitudes that it fosters among both patients and physicians, namely that unlimited medical care is an essential right of every American and that equal outcomes, medically speaking, are both deserved and desirable for all Americans.

You’ll first have to fight off the AARP, who is as powerful, if not more powerful, than the pro-Israel lobby in this country. Even Republicans didn’t put up any fights against Medicare this time around. They know where the increasing majority of voters are, and it’s not among the younger crowd.

Undoubtedly some were moved by love of their fellow man; however, most were motivated to the field by a combination of aptitude and the desire to avoid the manual labor performed by their peers. In other words, doctors use their minds and skills to make a better life for themselves, their actions being the essence of the American Dream as it was defined by our Founding Fathers.

I get your point, but I actually think the primary motivation of money over patient care is becoming very problematic in our country. More often than not these days you see doctors (and it always seems to be with the older ones) who just don’t care, even if they once did. This leads to care of a lesser quality, and I’m sure this must lead to increasing costs when the patient doesn’t end up getting the attention they need.

I think of my own profession. Yes, I like to get money for it, and yes, getting money for it is a big incentive to do good work, but I certainly have no delusions of grandeur, at last not being relatively new to “real life” video work. I’ve heard lectures on that more than once!

I certainly didn’t spend hundreds of hours in high school and college shooting and editing video because I expected to be wealthy off the bat. I did it because I liked it. I understand that to get anywhere near that level that a lot of hard, good work and time will have to pass.

I’m not saying that doctors shouldn’t be paid well for their work. I’m saying that too often some doctors care more about getting through patients quickly. If they cared some more about their work, I’m guessing we might not have some of the health issues we see today. Less health problems, less costs.

“Yeah, that thing is loaded down with a whole lot of bu****it, most of which doesn’t even apply to the bills actually being passed. The cost containment measures that are actually in the thing are more targeted towards doctors who dubiously order much more services than is medically necessary or prudent on behalf of the patients so that they can line their pockets.

If the bill was Medicare for all or had a really strong public option that used Medicare rates to determine its price level in addition to being open to a vast majority of the populace, then he might potentially have a point about costs being extracted out of the providers. But that stuff sure isn’t in there, and a lot of the cost containment on the provider side and pharmaceutical side has been cut out or weakened in the Senate bill.

And to say that the profit motive is what makes US healthcare so great is laughably absurd. Like, if he said that to my face I would laugh at him and his foolishness.”

‘Write those letters now. Call your friends, and tell them to write them … And if you don’t do this, and if I don’t do it, one of these days, you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children’s children, what it once was like in America when men were free.’

– Ronald Reagan, taking the Drama Llama route when discussing Medicare bill.

The GOP has cried socialist wolf before. Where is your humility, while demanding it from “liberals”?

So you want a public option instead? A majority of voters want that. Claiming that only legislation that has majority support should be enacted *never* works. It *always* comes back to bite you in the hind quarters. Try another approach.

“The Democrats will ram this thing down the throats of real Americans – those who work and pay taxes and provide for their own medical care”

The rests are… Burmese? Mexican? Samoan? If not “really” American, what are they? What if I called people who oppose same-sex marriage “unreal” Americans? Also, in America you can go bankrupt and be denied care even if you’ve paid all your premiums like a good, honest and “real” American.

“News and analysis from different moderate perspectives” ololololol.

“This will happen, despite the inevitable whining from the fringe left who will have to wait a few more years to sneak their abortion agenda into the national plan.”

Yes heaven forbid that the perspective on what is essentially appendectomies should be a secular one. Face it – scientifically there is no way to imagine anything like a human being existing within the confines of a ten-week fetus. The only way you can imagine something like that having some metaphysical existence is if you resort to theological arguments – but if you want theology to decide what women can do with their bodies, America might not be the place for you.

This is why I can not take the American right seriously. They chant about freedom, tyranny and the founding fathers as if their lives depend on it, but when it comes to abortions it’s time for the majority to dictate over the minority, and for special interests to run the agenda. Hypocrite!