Posted on 08/19/2009 7:30:30 AM PDT by ianschwartz
The Hill: A public (or "government-run") healthcare option for Americans would function similarly to the way the post office does, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill.) suggested Tuesday night.
Jackson, in an appearance on CNN, said that just as the government-run post office keeps private mail carriers honest in their prices, so would the public option keep insurers honest.
"Look at it this way: There's Federal Express, there's UPS, and there's DHL," Jackson told CNN host Larry King. "The public option is a stamp; it's email. And because of the email system, because of the post office, it keeps DHL from charging $100 for an overnight letter, or UPS from charging $100 for an overnight letter."
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Is it possible that he’s dumber than his daddy?
“A public (or “government-run”) healthcare option for Americans would function similarly to the way the post office does, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill.) suggested Tuesday night.”
The funny thing is that the socialists actually believe that THIS will calm fears. The only givernment run office that is hated more than the Post Office is the DMV!
Does he mean that noble institution that just posted a $7 billion loss for the 1st half of the year?
These morons keep thinking analogizing ObamaCare to the Postal Service helps ObamaCare’s image. Maybe next they’ll analogize ObamaCare to the DMV or the IRS.
Keep up the good work Jesse! You’re almost as much of a stupid ass as yo’ Daddy!
Definitely. Obama's proposed health care will mean that in many cases you can't get that letter delivered at any price.
It will be fun and heart warming to see a garage full of unfiled medical files like periodically show up from our dear and trusted post office when a delivery person just gives up.
Warmth and joy...and joyness thinking about the PO.
I thought DHL was bailing out of the US?
He’s as dumb as a box of rocks
I think it’s dead...
Yeah, I thought they folded.
DHL did bail out of the US...
It is not the USPS keeping prices in check of course.
Only an idiot would think so.
just as the government-run post office keeps private mail carriers honest in their prices
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
There are no private MAIL carriers. I remember when someone tried to start a mail service decades ago to compete with the USPS and the governemtn passed a law outlawing private mail carries (giving the USPS a legal monopoly.)
There are private PACKAGE services, which cost MORE than the USPS. They can charge extra because the USPS does such a bad job delivering packages.
“Is it possible that he’s dumber than his daddy?”
And, more corrupt?!
http://cbs3.com/national/Blagojevich.arrested.corruption.2.885701.html
Report: Jackson Backers Sought Cash For Obama Post
This is the dumbest talking point that they have come up with. They are really losing it. When the lib network knee padders use this one it demonstrates their firm belief that we’re so dumb we’ll swallow anything.
FedEx and UPS can discount their fees for large users. Their employees come to your office for pickups and deliveries and are happy people (at least our guys here who have been coming to my office for over 15 years). You go to the post office and the one employee behind the counter who is helping a line of people is NOT happy or even remotely nice. He looks at his watch and when it is his break time or lunch he walks out on a line of people standing there. Then there is NO ONE behind the counter to help you so you wait for someone to show up. The worst customer service in the world can be found at a post office. If I ran my business like they do, I can bet I would be out of business.
What’s the problem that a cooperative is supposed to solve? Well, they’ve offered up several different justifications.
First, they’ve said well, you need to keep the insurance companies honest. Insurance companies are one of the most highly regulated industries in the country. Every state has an insurance commissioner that regulates health insurance.
Well, we need to provide competition. Well, there are 1,300 private insurance companies. And one more company isn’t going to help that.
And then they well, but we need a non-profit option. 61% of the insurance companies are non-profit.
Well, you know, and then they have some other excuses. One is there aren’t enough people in the state for regular insurance companies, so the rates are high, and they have a monopoly. And the question is, of course, well, what does adding another insurance company do to solve that problem?
So it doesn’t much matter what the excuse or justification offered up is. There’s no need for it unless you’re a left winger that wants to take over health care, and that is a giant step toward government-run health care.
Taken further, because I don't have access to a private insurance plan, I'm given government care that amounts to less care? So, tell me, how does that raise the bar?
In other words, those who can't afford high deductible private insurance and paying for state of the art equipment and top of class physicians will receive “if-y, at best,” hits-the-mark-80%-of-the-time (even if sometimes in a taped up crunched package with a note) may not arrive in time care. Swell. That's sure what I hope for the poor and middle class folks in this country.
Hm..m..m, nope. I'd stay away from that analogy were I them. Go for something closer to soak the rich. That would sell. Vilify everyone who has worked all their life because they must provide health insurance for their families — that's better.
FedEx and UPS can discount their fees for large users. Their employees come to your office for pickups and deliveries and are happy people (at least our guys here who have been coming to my office for over 15 years). You go to the post office and the one employee behind the counter who is helping a line of people is NOT happy or even remotely nice. He looks at his watch and when it is his break time or lunch he walks out on a line of people standing there. Then there is NO ONE behind the counter to help you so you wait for someone to show up. The worst customer service in the world can be found at a post office. If I ran my business like they do, I can bet I would be out of business.
The main problem with health insurance costs has nothing to do with lack of competition (though removing government mandates for certain types of coverage to be included and moving the purchase of insurance away from employers and to consumers would increase competition.).
The problem is that the claims the “evil” insurance companies must pay continue to rise.
If it cost DHL, UPS and Fedex, $95.00 in jet fuel, gas, labor, etc., to delivery an overnight letter, they would all need to charge at least $100, just to stay in business.
The way to drive down medical costs is to put more of the burden on the patient/consumer, in the form of coinsurance, instead of copays.
If I had to pay, say 20 or 30% of most of my medical bills, I'd make darn sure the doctors weren't giving me any expensive, unnecessary tests, or yanking healthy tonsils out of my throat.
Plus, I would look for less expensive doctors. If I pay the same copay for the overpriced Park Avenue doctor, or a normal, competent physician, what is my motivation to use the lower priced doctor?
Also, if I have a choice between Obama’s hypothetical, “red pill and blue pill”, I'd probably choose the cheaper one, unless I felt the more expensive one was worth the cost. Right now, I have no motivation to choose the cheaper pill.
If we make the patient the gatekeeper of medical costs, they will go down drastically.
“When the lib network knee padders use this one it demonstrates their firm belief that we’re so dumb we’ll swallow anything.”
The sad thing is that our leaders, and the knee padders, really are that dumb. This is like the other recent unbelievably dumb talking point that Conyers and Specter expected the public to swallow: that our representatives in Congress should not be expected to know what is in a bill before they vote on it.
These guys are living in a bubble. They way overestimate themselves and underestimate most of the rest of us.
Here’s one for ya’~~ “The Black Politician and the Usage of Similes and Metaphor”
Yes Jessem just like the public schools work to. FREAKING BAFOON!
Jesse’s right. Applying his logic we need “public option” restaurants, gas stations, movie theaters, grocery stores, underwear etc, etc, etc
Is Kyl on one of the senate committees that is working on this monstrosity? He certainly gets it.
test
Test Again757
I was gonna ask about the $1 million for the Blagojevich pay-to-play ...
In mid-1981 FedEx announced a new product that would bring it into direct competition with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for the first time: the overnight letter. The document-size cardboard envelope, which could contain up to two ounces, would be delivered overnight for $9.50 at that time.
BTW, $9.50 in 1881 dollars is equal to $22.51 in 2009 inflation-adjusted dollars.
So even when FedEx had a monopoly position regarding overnight letters, they offered the product at a fair price. Even today, the vaunted USPS contracts with FedEx to facilitate the government's competing overnight program.
Absolutely! Or under some overpass.
Yes, I believe you’re right. The USPS does have a monopoly on 1st class letters. But since these morons have no faith in the market sytem and haven’t read a book on market economics that wasn’t a crtique, they actually believe a government monopoly is more efficient thana market driven enterprise. They really do. They can’t tell you how or show 1 example of this, but it’s true, their little marxist brains tell them it is so. Facts be damned.
Useful idiot.
Remember those $900 toilets from years past? A symbol of wastefulness. That’s your government at work. And now they want to run the health care system.
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