Live&DieBillsFootball

There are a lot of critical parts that need fixing. Hillarycare was fought tooth and nail back in the 90's and subsequently buried and very little reform has been brought about since. Health care takes up close to 20% of GDP and doesn't cover 50 million. The private market for insurance has very few options for even healthy young people. Choice is becoming scarce even for those working for big companies or municipalities. Left on their own, the insurance companies haven't done squat to increase options or access to care. Proposed legislation may not be any better, but the insurance industry has shown a lack of interest in reforming anything while they are in charge. Maybe its time to say !@#$ them.

HSA's wouldn't be a bad idea if there was transparency in pricing in health care. In a perfect world, you could shop with your dollars for the best deal and providers could compete for your dollars. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way in real life. Try getting a quote for anything more involved than a proctology exam. Hell, just try to pay cash for a visit at a doctors office...they don't even know what they charge depending on insurance discounts and what insurance you may or not have.

There are probably a lot of things that can be done without government intrusion. But the GOP doesn't appear to want to put forward anything other than opposing everything. They've spent more time perpetuating lies about "Death Panels" than in proposing anything to reform the current system. Don't look now but the Dems may try to ram it through without any need for Republican support by splitting it into 2 bills. There may be a lot more government intrusion than if the repubs had played ball.

Where do you see freedom of choice in today's health care market? Almost every employer that offers health care benefits now offers only one plan. Whoever provides the best or cheapest plan gets selected by a company for all employees. Even municipals and school boards are moving to just one plan. And the individual insurance market is even worse. I've been looking for an individual plan for my healthy 19 yr old son in WNY and have found exactly one plan. There are lots of other plans but all are just discount plans. Go in the hospital for surgery and they pay a whopping $500 per day plus supposedly negotiate discounts for you. Sounds like a great plan. Adding a public plan or co-ops to the existing landscape will only INCREASE choice, because right now there is none.

I thought you wanted us to send you SMUT.

Yeah, it sucks that some people are now receiving true facts about health care reform instead of being told that the bills puts in place "death panels" and other BS by the GOP.

If I thought the world was about to end, I would want to go big. Maybe see how much coke I could snort in one sitting. Or maybe, do a header off of the Empire State Bldg. Or, sucker punch a Hell's Angel in a biker bar. Just a few ideas for you.

I think the cab driver and the 2 Kane's should get together and have a beer together. Oops, make that root beers.

The one I hate the most is "state of the art".

There was one running play that I saw Wood push his guy at least 7 yards downfield before finally putting him on the ground. Not sure the last time I saw a Bills guard do that. He may have made some mistakes, but he sure looked like a football player to this untrained eye.

It's great that this Statesman finally has been freed up to help provide constructive criticism to the urgent need for health care reform in this country. Her knowledge and unique perspective are whats been missing from the debate.

Hope Plax can keep from dropping his soap in prison. No Club Fed for him. Looks like he's headed for pound me in the ask prison.

If someone has never been laid off, or moved without having a job lined up, or became disabled, or retired early, or worked for a company without a medical plan, or had to purchase an individual policy, or had their kids no longer covered under their policy, or ever had a pre-existing condition then...they might think that our current system is great. I also like the posters who pay $10 a week toward their employer-paid coverage that think that the free market has great solutions for the uninsured. They get their medical insurance tax-free but want the uninsured to pony up $1200 a month of after-tax money for a substandard policy. I'm not sure what the solution is. I just know that the current system sucks.

Fuzzy math: O'Reilly says higher Canadian life expectancy is "to be expected" because "we have 10 times as many people" Mensa member Bill O'Reilly'

Not to pick on you, but if you lost your coverage and had to buy in the market based on your health history you would be phucked. Most likely you would be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions. Also, any coverage that you find would probably not include mental health or prescription coverage. Like the Chef and most of us who have employer coverage, there is a worry that our sweet deal may get affected by health reform. However, the bigger worry that we should have is losing our coverage due to job loss or a major health issue.

Sorry, but the status quo sucks worse. There are 40 million plus uninsured. The private individual market is a joke...try to find an individual policy that you can afford if you have anyone in your family with a pre-existing condition. Even if you don't have existing issues, you probably won't find a policy to cover prescriptions. I'm sure that the millions of recently unemployed are learning the hard truth about the cost of Cobra coverage. Try paying $1200 a month to cover your family while living on unemployment benefits. Our current system is great if you work for a large company and plan to stay there for life. Otherwise, there are plenty of minefields. Every feature of the proposed Obamacare has been trashed by the Republicans. Where is the GOP alternative? So far they have come out with a mission statement, but have yet to utter a single alternative. Their only plan is to keep things as they are.

The worst part about this is that Rush, Lou Dobbs, Gordon Liddy, Liz Cheney and a number of GOP congressmen are all keeping this crap alive, although every one of them KNOWS it to be BS. Good job of inciting the lunatic fringe. At least the GOP has room in their tent for these folks.

Could you specifically tell us when the End Times will be? Additionally, can you promise to shut the !@#$ up after that date?

My 19 year old son has been traveling around the country all summer with his rock band. I follow all of his bandmates on Twitter. From their tweets I know that they arrived safe each day, where they are staying, what they're doing, etc. I also seem to get a lot more details than what I get from texting or calling my son. I've only tweeted back (or is it twatted ) a few times. Mostly just use it to follow.

Isn't that another big part of the problem? How is it that US Pharma can sell drugs to Canada at a low enough price that it can be re-imported to the US and sold for a lower price than someone can buy in the US? I always thought that that was one of the more perverse things about people going to Canada to buy prescription drugs.

I think that a big part of the current problem is that many people have too much health insurance. There are a lot of gold-plated plans that have no deductibles for doctor visits, prescriptions, etc. I have 2 friends that work for local school districts. Neither pays a deductible for prescriptions whether they use brand-name or generic. They have absolutely no incentive to try to cut their prescription costs. My plan has tiers with different co-pays for different kinds of drugs. Whenever I get a script from my doctor I make sure that he writes it for one that is on the $10 for 90 day list at Walmart or Target. This costs my insurance carrier nada. I pay the $10 which pays for the script in full. I think that it's a good idea to have zero deductibles for annual physicals and vaccinations. But if you have a $20 - $30 deductible for a doctor visit, maybe you'll think twice before going to a doctor and getting an MRI because your nose is stuffy.

Wow, that's enlightening. Maybe we should knock 50 million off of the government health plans and then we could give the 200 million who have still health insurance a $1000 for each member of their family. That would be so cool. If we knock everyone who is insured by a public plan (seniors, military, government workers, teachers, etc), we could probably give $10,000 or even $20,000 each to the people on private plans. If no one ever got sick any more and no one needed health care, think of how much we could give to the few people who still had health insurance. Probably something like a gazillion dollars. Awesome.

The article you quote is comparing the cost of components in Jan 2006. That's like a century ago in terms of technology. Intel macs and intel pcs have the same hardware inside. How can you justify spending the extra $1000 on an operating system and a fancy keyboard and mouse?

It only seemed like Hillary resigned since she never did anything for NY. She never actually held a press conference and quit in the middle of her term.

Can anyone please translate what the !@#$ she was talking about? I got the not running for re-election and stepping down in late July, and the world needs more Trigs. The rest sounded like her Katie Couric interview.