Obama calls for 'public option' for Obamacare

CNN ^ | July 11, 2016 | Tami Luhby

[PROCON]

President Obama joined the chorus of Democrats calling for the creation of a government run health insurance program as Obamacare is facing growing problems.

In an article published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the president called for Congress to revisit the "public option" for Obamacare in areas where few insurers offer coverage.

"Some parts of the country have struggled with limited insurance market competition for many years, which is one reason that, in the original debate over health reform, Congress considered and I supported including a Medicare-like public plan," Obama wrote in the piece.

A public option would mean a government run health insurance plan.

[RedElement]

This whole BO-care thing has worked so well, why wouldn’t we want to give the guvmint more control? And they spend money so carefully, why wouldn’t we want to give them more?

One phrase: VA

[goodnesswins]

Well...except MedExpress Doctors probably don’t go on strike at times...which they did while we lived there.

[PROCON]

One phrase: VA

Disclaimer: my VA care is excellent, par none.

[AJFavish]

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/07/obamacare_and_the_private_practitioner_2016.html

[rlmorel]

I volunteer to administer the lashings!

[rlmorel]

Not a flame here, but I do not share your perspective in any way whatsoever.

There are people all over the world who come to the United States for their medical care, and there is a reason for that.

People who can afford to travel for their quality healthcare often do so. Those who can't or don't wish to, take what they get and put a good face on it.

Healthcare in the USA may not be free market, but it is close enough to encourage competition in the healthcare marketplace which increases the likelihood of better service. It isn't perfect, and certainly not perfect for people who think medical care can be completely error free.

As opposed to damned government drones working in the British NHS. They don't love it over there, but they take it, unless they are wealthy enough to travel out of country, because they have zero choice. Even the dummies up in Canada who outlawed private imaging clinics had to change their mind over the years because the wait times for an MRI or CT became so lengthy they became fatal. So they figured out a way to allow people to open those up and make some money, and provide a service they couldn't.

There are very, VERY few things a government run entity can do better than a private one with a profit motive, and health care is not one of them.

[Scutter]

This has been predicted by many since the genesis of “Obamacare”. Many, myself included, think it’s always been the plan.

[EternalVigilance]

It was predicted by Ronald Reagan in the early nineteen sixties.

It’s always been clear to thinking people that the Left’s real goal is single-payer socialized medicine.

[Scutter]

That’s very true, but I think the salient point here is that some people believe that Obamacare was deliberately designed to fail so that Big Government could ride in and propose a single-payer system as the “fix”.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Rather, there should be an option for the public, i.e. a free market.

Socialists claim “society” as the name for government

. . . whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil - Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)

The way to understand the proper relation between society and government, IMHO, is that

government is society’s immune system.

Like an immune system, government is essential - but the immune system exists to destroy. As such, it is dangerous - there are as many as 80 types of autoimmune diseases.

Socialism is an autoimmune disorder of society. It happens when cynicism controls the commanding heights of propaganda and power in society, and it results is abject mismanagement as the night follows the day. It has to produce mismanagement, because its principle is the divorcing of authority - which is arrogated by the government - from responsibility, which is systematically assigned to scapegoats who are naive enough to try to work to a measurable bottom line.

[philled]

Yep, Canadian health care is loved by everyone and is great! Well, except for the plaintiff in Choullii v Quebec, and the Canadian Supreme Court that held “Access to a waiting list is not access to health care.” Oh, and people that need care and can’t get to the USA, or those on the WCWL (western Canada Wait List).

[Gene Eric]

>> the chorus of Democrats

More like the wailing swine

[AC86UT89]

Well sure they screwed up the entire healthcare system 7 years ago. Now let’s give them even more control over it!

Have they fixed the web site yet?

[AC86UT89]

Why don’t they just pass it in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve like they did the last time?

[Laser_Ray]

Canada’s military presence worldwide is basically squat.

Canada isn’t burdened with ~30% of their population being bongo-pounding savages and unwed minority mothers who are literally good for nothing.

Canada has a fraction of our population period.

What works in Canada will not work in America.