Ben Stein is so wrong about health care it’s hard to know where to begin

Canada Free Press ^ | 05/06/17 | David Hogberg

[Sean_Anthony]

Part 1: Single-payer does not protect people with pre-existing conditions

Ben Stein appeared on “Your World with Neil Cavuto” Wednesday to discuss late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel’s touching monologue that included ill-informed statements about health care. Instead of trying to correct Kimmel’s assertions, though, Stein just added to the confusion.

Regarding the future of our health care system, Stein said, “At the end of the day … it’s going to be single-payer. And the taxpayers are going to have to pick up the tab, and we might as well face that fact as soon as possible. I don’t like it … but Jimmy is totally right. We cannot let Americans be denied health care because of preexisting conditions.”

[Williams]

Jimmy is not right about anything.

[Lurker]

Neither is Stein.

L

[Parley Baer]

IMHO Ben Stein has been out to lunch on a lot of issues.

[Kickass Conservative]

Any other FReepers remember the pre Obamacare Days when you would be stepping over Dead Bodies lying in the Street on your way to Work?

Me neither...

[SecondAmendment]

Krauthammer was saying the same on Fox.

It seems like the vast majority of a certain ethnic group have an inexplicable fetish for socialism.

[FredZarguna]

Here's where you begin with the issue: There is no warrant in the Constitution for the Federal Government to provide health care.

Game over.

Here's where you begin with Ben Stein: Before he was born.

Ben Stein is the son of one of Nixon's economists. Like his father, and like Nixon, he is no conservative. His father was the economic advisor who recommended wage and price controls to curb inflation. Ben's idol, Nixon, gave us OSHA, the EPA, and numerous other liberal ideas and institutions. Ben has supported various stupid ideas throughout his career, including the preposterous one that it's time to pay more taxes so we can raise military pay. (Not that that outcome would be bad, but it would never happen. And Stein knows that.)

Ben Stein is like the Bush family. He's a Republican who's occasionally motivated by some conservative instincts, but he has no real ideology and most of his political thoughts are badly disorganized.

[SanchoP]

"No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!"

President Reagan agreed.

[LostInBayport]

I believe Ben has a seriously ill family member. That, like Kimmel’s meltdown, tends to color perspective on this issue.

[SoFloFreeper]

Yep. Let’s make the single payer Ben Stein. Then, once he is bankrupt, we can move on to single payer Jimmy Kimmel. Then when his wealth is exhausted, let’s go on to Barack Hussein Obama. After he is depleted of monies, I say we hit up the single payer Warren Buffet. When he is eliminated of resources....

this is exactly what “single payer” will do, just in a slower method.

Do it like that.

[sheana]

So sick of this crap. We already have single payer for poor people. It’s called MEDICAID! And they expanded it immensely with Obamacare.

[LS]

England isn’t. England is two-tiered. Gubment, but if you got money, a fantastic free market system.

[OttawaFreeper]

Surprised to see no jokes about Ben Stein’s Money on this thread yet.

[wastoute]

Well, if your goal is to destroy the US, putting the gummint in charge of health care is a fast way to do it.

[bigbob]

Stein and Kimmel are old buddies, so who knows how much is what he thinks and how much is what he’s being paid to say to help his pal try to save his crappy show.

[Nuc 1.1]

Many of our people no longer cleave to freedom. Much less demand the Feds follow the Constitution. We have devolved to tyranny following the century long seditious / subversive attack upon the country by the marxists. The government must provide health care. What rot.

[DannyTN]

There must be several ways of providing health care to preexisting conditions:

• Force emergency providers to provide care to anyone regardless of ability to pay. We already do that. I view it as an unconstitutional taking. It forces the providers to raise prices to the other sick people. Instead of tax payers sharing the burden of the government mandate it's sick people sharing the burden of the government mandate.
• Mandate that insurance companies must cover pre-existing conditions. This was done in Obamacare. And is similar to the first one, but the burden is shared over all insured instead of just the sick. And it's unfair to people who have kept insurance.
• Force insurance companies to cover a condition that develops while insured for the life of the patient. This won't capture all pre-existing patients. But it removes the incentive for companies to fire sick people for insurance reasons instead of just performance. And it eliminates that pool of people that lost their insurance because they got fired.
• Allow insurance companies to charge extra for insuring the pre-existing condition. A version of this was in the Republican replacement plan. Don't know whether it survived.
• Allow separate pre-existing condition insurance. Similar to the last one but the pre-existing condtion would be removed from the base insurance. Could cause fights between insurance companies with the patient in the middle.
• Create reinsurance pools for pre-existing conditions.
• Create a division of Medicaid that deals strickly with pre-existing conditions for people that would be unduly burdened with additional premiums.
• Death Panels to decide what pre-existing conditions are worth treating. (Not recommending this, but it's in the list.)
• Gas Chambers...nazi style elimination of unproductive members of society. (Not recommending this, but it's in the list.)

[DesertRhino]

The moron. We used to have government enforced monopolies in the airline and telecom industries too. Back then nobody flew much and process were sky high. And anyone remember long distance bills and zero choice on your phone?

After government got out, the airline industry exploded with competition, and prices fell to the floor. After ma bell was broken up, the telecom world exploded. Now they almost give you a landline for free, and paying for long distance is over. You can get unlimited talk and text for 30-50 bucks a month on a smartphone.

If the damned government would simply completely get out of healthcare, I mean 100% deregulate, people would be astonished at the explosion of services and the super low prices.

[Jim Noble]

Ben Stein is exactly correct, and the window for a good single payer system is rapidly closing.

By next year at this time, the Democrats will be running on a fully nationalized system with no private option, and if what they are running against is the AHCA or anything remotely like it, they will win huge majorities.

Somebody’s going to get it in the neck- patients, providers, or insurance companies/banks.

Your call.