I used to be republican

[rsnnh12]

millions of dollars?

get the fukk outta here!

your privileged ass act likes there's no compassion in this world!

get tha fark outta here

http://www.consumerhealthratings.com/index.php?action=showSubCats&cat_id=274

Check out some of these links. Average inpatient room cost per day in 2006 for seniors was over $2700. That's not even counting any operations, any meds, nothing. 10 days in a hospital (fall and broken hip could easily take this long, how common is it?) is $27,000. Add in surgeries at $10k+++++, meds, physical therapy at $100+/hr, and it wouldn't be hard to hit 7 figures in a year.

I have a friend who got hit by a car while walking last year. In and out of the hospital since, PT visits like crazy, 2 surgeries and a lot of medications. Guess his bill? It currently sits at $3.3 million, and he didn't even get any advanced, complicated surgeries, just a couple pretty basic ones.

Do you really think that older people won't rack up massive bills? Its a very real, very serious issue that we'll have to deal with, especially with the Baby Boomers getting up there in age and fewer people paying into the system.

[jw]

Do senior citizens get unlimited free medical care forever under socialized medical care programs? Will Canada, France or Germany spend $5 million dollars on an 80 year old patient if the need arises?

Yes ... they will ... so do women, children, minorities, and rich folks alike ... (As long as a treatment has a shot of working and extending life .. treatment is generally given .. ) you really don't know much about the government run healthcare that you are so quick to bash do you ?

[golfrulz]

wow the reps believe in the sanctity of life but.......screw all old people...another fine example of republican compassion. you sanctimonous hypocrites make me sick. remember karma.....ur turn is coming.

[philswin]

Government needs to find a balance between helping people who cannot support themselves and incenting irresponsible behaivor and bad decisions that lead people to not be able to care for themselves. It is a hard balance to maintain. We have tipped the scales more towards incenting the bad behaivor. Politicians once in office do little to reform the laws because it generally means loss of votes, as they are attacked from every angle if they even suggest cutting programs. We need a consumption tax (National Sales tax) instead of income tax to bring all individuals into the tax equation and spread evenly based on spending/consumption. We need to enforce our Immigration laws, which is another subject elected politicians stay clear of for loss of votes.

[jarvol]

Government needs to find a balance between helping people who cannot support themselves and incenting irresponsible behaivor and bad decisions that lead people to not be able to care for themselves. It is a hard balance to maintain.

That would be near impossible to determine and at the end of the day shouldn't really matter. If someone can't take care of themself and their family, their friends, their tax-exempt church, and charities can't or won't take care of them.....well it really isn't up to the government to rob money from others to take care of them.

[philswin]

Not really hard to track if you cut welfare benefits for able bodied individuals by 25% who have been on welfare an extended period of time. Then you tracked the movement in those people applying for welfare benefits and saw that number decreased, then you would no your are not incenting as much irresponsible behaivor.

[newguy]

Not really hard to track if you cut welfare benefits for able bodied individuals by 25% who have been on welfare an extended period of time. Then you tracked the movement in those people applying for welfare benefits and saw that number decreased, then you would no your are not incenting as much irresponsible behaivor.

Go try and find one able-bodied individual that is on welfare. You won't be able to do it. It isn't because they aren't out there - but if they are scammer enough to work the system and be the scum of the earth they are - they are smart enough to not get caught with the limited budget the government has to find them.

I know in healthcare there are government contracts that are awarded to companies who review medicare claims for fraud. The company who wins the contract gets a set percentage of all fraud found and repaid. So if a doctor submits a claim for $15k for some surgery and this company can prove its fraud (or more frequently its considered "mis-billed", the doctor has to re-pay the $15k, and the company who found the fraud gets lets say $1,500 and the government recoups the rest.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) ran a test program on 6 states for the years 2005-2008. The test program recovered $900 million in "over-billings" - that $900m (http://www.cms.gov/apps/media/press/factsheet.asp?Counter=3292&intNumPerPage =10&checkDate=&checkKey=&srchType=1&numD ays=3500&srchOpt=0&srchData=&keywordType =All&chkNewsType=6&intPage=&showAll=&pYe ar=&year=&desc=&cboOrder=date) was returned to the program obviously. I am sure the same type of thing can be done in welfare also. Obviously there is a cost to the program - but because free markets dictate the cost (for the CMS contract, companies were basically judged on what percentage of costs recovered they would keep - I want to say the winning companies came in around 6-7%). So the government would recover 93% of the cost in that example - AND be creating jobs (the researchers to find the fraud).

[DwightShrute]

wow the reps believe in the sanctity of life but.......screw all old people...another fine example of republican compassion.

simply not true Golf.

[newguy]

simply not true Golf.

He knows its not true. I would think any sane person would agree that there needs to be compassion but with limits - I think we all have to just hope that we have people around us that love us and can make the tough decisions when they need to be made.

[rkelly110]

So, I take it the all mighty buck reigns over life?

Doctors swore to up hold life. If you were in an accident and hanging on by a thread,
would you want the doctors to say, he's not going to make it, let him die, because it
will cost too much to fix him?

That's where the karma will come in.

Yeah, you rich guys say you can save for a rainy day like that, but I'll bet you won't
touch that money. You'll use your insurance and if you have to pay 10 or 20% you will be
cleaned out or let them die, because you don't want to touch that money.

[newguy]

If I was truly not going to make it - or would be a vegetable for the rest of my life - yea - don't bother - there is a difference between living and being alive.

[sneak-a-peak]

The president doesnt run anything they are just puppets controlled by the hook noses

true but in order to win the office you have to have a puppet the MAJORITY like