08 Presidential Elections

The only ones I've heard whinning and complaing aobut Obama's 'heathcare plan' are the far right conservatives> He's trying to make it easy and affordable for all Americans, and it takes time to change the system. Here's a brief descirption of his Healthcare plan and some comments from readers~

HEALTHCARE PLANS

 

OBAMA THRIVES IN RUSSIA, SETS THE STAGE FOR U.S. GAINS

President Barck Obama handled the recent summit meeting with Russian leaders wisely. He selected attainable objectives such as nuclear missile reduction so as to build a framework for futhur, more difficult accords. Impressively, Obama succeeded in getting the usually paranoid Russians to permit us to use their airspace to fly military supplies into Afghanistan. To put this perspective:: would the United States permit Russian warplances to fly over our homeland? In the next summit, Obama will be in a strong position to elicit Moscow's ass istance to pressure North Korea to end it's nuclear arms production. Russia has no need for any unpredictable nuclear power on it's border. Equally important, he can get Moscow to cease selling conventional weapons and nuclear technology to Iran. Given it's ongoing conflict with Chechens, Russia has no reason to support Islamic terrorists anywhere, particulary in nearby Iran. Looking furthur int the future, Russia's long border with China will increasingly become a danger. Beijing will be using the billions of dollars obtained from selling America cheap consumer goods to equip a modern military, including potentially, a 10 million to 20 million man army. For the moment, Russia's response to continual NATO expansion in the west has been to shift eastward to join with China, but that is short-sighted. Already Chinese migrants have been crossing into Russian Far East using their cheap labor to take jobs from Russian citizens. Gradually, the Chinese move up into positions where they hire, yet more Chinese and displace Russian as the language of commerce. Fortunatley, Obama has ample diplomatic ammunition to wean Russia away from China, North Korea, korea and iran. The most immediate issue is the Bush-Cheney plan to install a costly "Star Wars" anti-missile complex in Poland. "Star Wars" poses no threat to Russia, but the Russians have for half a century been awed by U.S. military technology, and they assume that any new U.S. eweapon could render Russia's nuclear deterrent useless, hence "Star Wars" is more valuable diplomatically than militarily. Russia possesses the political and economic infulence essential to combat nuclear proliferation, and Obama has set the stage for futhur summits to employ this influence for mutal, and global gain~

Howard Hurlbut.. University of Redlands, California

 

to our President Barack Obama, he's 48, hope his day is filled with joy and happiness, he sure deserves it

 

Good grief. It seems odd to me that people are so down on this whole health care overhaul, when it was one of Obama's main platform cornerpieces. He said he wanted to change health care and now... gasp... he's trying to do it.


And you know what? I love a healthy debate. That's the basis of democracy, after all... but the sheer volume of uneducated tomfoolery is getting beyond tiresome. And the media is not helping things, by taking an ignorant comment and running wild with it. I think the entire US needs to sit down and have a national re-viewing of "Bowling for Columbine", learn to ignore the prevalent "news" reports and then re-approach the whole health care discussion. Ridiculous.

Edited to add- Oh, and then watch Sicko. It would be an interesting double bill!

 

AMEN:bolian: and to think your in Europe and know about it, sad it's wacky:vulcan: such resistance from such nuts, He's trying to hlep us, hell give him a chance, I and others are sick to death of all the naysayers, good grief as Charlie Brown would say. I'll try and find an article about it. Town Hall meetings and that crazed a..hole Rush Limbaugh calling him a NAZI, nice

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/

A brief analysis~

 

Actually, I'm in Canada. i.e. "America Jr." :lol:

 

YEAH, Canada,:bolian: So what mod is in Finland? is it DaWacko? sorry, but millions of people do go to Canada for better health care and that's a shame for us~

Some letters in our local paper here in California~

"Don't fear "socialism"

For those who decry socialism, may I suggest you remove your children from public schools, refrain from calling 911, and turn away police, firefighters who respond to emergencies. Don't accept Social Security and refuse Medicare. Encourage your veteran family and friends not to accept any housing, medical or educational benefits available through Veterans Affairs. For those who are happy with the status quo of employer-based health-care, stratosphere insurance company profits and the practice of rescission, please don't whine about you job loss, pre-existing health conditions or health-care expenses~

Name witheld
Riverside, CA.

Stop the hate mongering and these absurb Town Hall Meetings, there accomplishing nothing. The health care bills, under consideration are no more "socialist" that Medicare, and Medicaid and veterans military and congressional health care programs [all government run] They do not call fro "death panels" They do not take away your current insurance and they do not limit treatments, anymore that insurance companies do. And, Obama is not a Muslim, and her was not born in Kenya. If people would have a civil discussion at these "town hall meetings" instead of disrupting them, you all might learn something~

Name witheld
Riverside, CA.

 

Hi

Just thought I would share this article with you guys, there are some interesting stats at the end:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...h-about-americarsquos-healthcare-1772580.html

Although some of the comments are bizzare to say the least, how some people can turn helping the needy into a bad thing I don't know.

My family for one, are forever in debted to Mr Nye Bevan!

 

Thank's Poppet interesting article, and it's pretty horrible right now, I'm not sure what the answer is, but what we have now isn't working The line "gritty area of Inglewood" yes, low-life area. The FORUM concert hall is located there, and I've been to many concerts at the arena location, and was always a bit scared in that neighborhood

 

Universal Health=Socialism??

I really don't understand why Americans are so fearful of universal health care and why they equate it to socialism? There is nothing socialist about ensuring the health of a country's citizens. In fact, health care should be a human right.

I'm so confused. These raging lunatics at the town hall meetings really freak me out!

 

AMEN!

Seeing how messed up the insurance system is, and how so many of the diseases that plague people are preventable, but because of the way the system is, people don't go to the doctor unless they're at death's door practically. I'm so in favor of some sort of universal health care that actually serves people.

There's a book all about how the lack of convenient healtcare service hurts poor people called "Mama Might be Better of Dead" that is worth a read.

http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780226001395-10

 

The "socialism" concept arises out of the idea of the government "controlling" the healthcare, and when people really don't trust the government... Well, you see the problem.

For those who don't know, in Canada, Healthcare is administered on a Provincial level. In BC, for example, people pay a monthly fee for basic healthcare coverage, and this fee is on a sliding scale, based on income. Lower income people pay lower rates, and financial assistance is available. In addition to BC Medical, my company also provides extended medical, which means I also get dental, physio, etc. which wouldn't be provided for free under the provincial coverage. However, this means that any Canadian can walk into a hospital and get treatment without the fear of receiving a bill later on. There are some exceptions, but they're minor- I once had to pay $45 for calling an ambulance to come take me to the hospital. If you were in an accident and the ambulance came to you automatically, however- no charge. And I'd say paying $45 is small potatoes compared to some of the bills I've heard of coming out of the States. And most of the people I know buy travel insurance before they head over to the US, even if it's only for a short jaunt. The idea of having to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for care we would get basically for free in Canada is a foreign concept to us. (BC Medical is not that expensive)

 

In Ontario there's something called a 'health care premium', but if your income is under a certain level, you pay nothing. If you're on government assistance such as Ontario Works (welfare) and Ontario Disability Support Plan (ODSP) you pay nothing.

Now, we don't get coverage for eye examinations and dental care, but for medication there is an insurance plan called Trillium run by the Ontario government and it sets your deductible based on your income. If you're on a lot of meds, it's worth getting. Unforjtunately it doesn't cover all medications, and over the years they delisted some medications, but they have also added on ones as well such as the new ADHD drug, Concerta.

In Ontario, a lot of services over the years have been delisted and there are waiting lists for some medical treatments.

But I laugh my head off when I hear some American doctors criticizing our health care system stating some treatments have waiting lists up to two years-not the life threatening ones you dimwits! :wtf:I don't know where these doctors get their freakin' facts. We have waiting lists, yes, but not for life-threatening surgery. If you have an aneurysm in your brain, they don't make you wait two years for surgery.:wtf:

A lot of American doctors forget we have the Hospital For Sick Children-one of the world's leading pediatric hospitals! Kids are flown in from all over the world to receive life-saving surgeries. It's a very well respected hospital that also has a top knotch research facility.

So these Yankee doctors need to get their facts straight before they start trashing Canada's health care system. It's not perfect, but I'm glad we have it. I'd hate to think of life without it. It just seems so wrong. I'd go so far as saying I think we should have our health care enshrined under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but I don't think that will happen. There are a lot of Canadians who think our health care should be run by private insurance companies.

Health care should not be a free enterprise because the way I see it, a healthier nation is a more productive nation.

 

Good points Baba if onlyHere's a couple of letters from our local newspaper pertaining to our beloved Edward Kennedy~

CARRY ON KENNEDY'S GOAL

Thank you for reporting the passing of our beloved Ted Kenndey. I feel a terrible loss knowing we no longer have this great, intelligent man to protect our interests. Kennedy was righ to support civil rights when it was not popular to do so. He was right to support legislation for the minimum wage. He was right in voting against the war in Iraq. He was right in supporting Barack Obama for president. He was also right in supporting health care for all. His good deeds have touched all. In his honor, I support and pledge my support for health care reform with a public option~
name withheld
Riverside, CA.

Thank you for the article on Sen. Ted Kennedy's death from brain cancer. He was devoted to serving the underprivilged Americans even though he was from a wealthy prestigious family. His experience in negotiating cross-aisle aggreement on vital legislation will be missed. His passing will lessen chances for successful passage of public-option health care reform~
name witheld
San Bernardino, CA.

 

I just hope that Obama doesn't bow before the demands of the insurance companies, or the whole thing will be pointless. It saddens me that my neighbours to the south don't all have access to reasonable healthcare coverage. When so much of the western world can provide fairly amazing coverage (England and France put Canada to shame, even) it should be embarrassing to ALL Americans that not all of your fellow citizens have such a basic right.