Bloggers agree: "Government-run" tag is worst threat to health care bill:
This week's National Journal poll of political bloggers asked the bloggers "How serious is each of the following challenges in selling health care reform?" Bloggers of the Left and the Right agreed that "Government-run health care" was the biggest challenge, and that "Too costly" ranked second.
The challenge that I ranked as greatest, "Nothing for the insured," came in last place on the Left, and next-to-last on the Right. My rationale:
"The real problem is that rather than getting 'nothing,' the already-insured will end up worse off, and more and more of them are realizing that. Tens of millions of them will get pushed out of their current private insurance, end up stuck in the public 'option,' and have to live with British/Canadian-style rationing by queue -- in which survival rates for cancer are much lower, people wait for many months for operations, and every doctor-patient transaction is controlled by the government."Question 2 was "What's the bigger political problem facing President Obama right now?" Seventy-five percent of the Right, and 33% of the Left, thought, "Concerns about his handling of the economy." The majority of the Left voted for "The prospect Congress won't enact health care reform this year."
I voted for the economy, but saw it as linked to health care: "The latter is helping to cause the former. The irresponsible, reckless, pork-filled, wasteful, government-centric deficit spending spree in the so-called 'stimulus' has raised justifiable concerns that a health care system run by the same crowd of people will raise rather than lower costs, and will not be effectively managed."
Which is to say that Obama's competence and character are, to say the least, highly questionable. That is his biggest political problem right now.
Funny, removing state regulation of insurance was something McCain advocated, right? Seems like the House is combining the worst of his ideas with Obama's.
This probably accounts for most of the anger on the issue from the Left, and a decent amount of it on the Right. It's a proxy fight over Barack. Like everything else with the guy, it's always about him.
The biggest obstacle to health-care reform worthy of the name is our failure as a nation to require every adult wishing to opine or vote on the subject to have TANSTAAFL tattooed permanently on his forehead.
Obama's biggest political problem right now is that there's no higher political office for which he could be running, so that he's forced into the degrading and icky business of governing, which bores him utterly.
So your argument is the typical Obama voter is a delusional narcissist trying to convince you shit smells like perfume? Good luck winning an election in this lifetime.
The infatuation may be wearing off. Once people get past the pretty smile, flawless rhetorical timing, and "change" mantra, suppose they see just another lying, conniving pol on a power trip?
That's Obama's biggest problem, in my opinion.
No, if it's on their forehead, they can't read it. Put it on the backs of their hands.
Congress is creating bills that are full of pork and payoffs, and every little idea a democrat has had in the last 20 years. The result is a huge mess. If Obama just stood up to his own party and forced simplicity and clarity into these bills, he would get a lot more respect.
Frankly, I don't think he has the political smarts to do it.
That is why I support the President, but oppose his policies.
Hey what the Hell, that disingenuous "I support the troops" crap worked for The Left.
you do understand that arguing that the country with the highest survival rate for cancer doesn't have the highest survival rate for cancer because you claim one or more cancers have higher survival rates elsewhere makes you look like a twit, right?
I think this is absolutely correct. Not to mention that upon ascension he had almost no experience with the business of governing or managing.
And this more than just his "political problem right now." I would think it is going to be a growing and festering problem that dogs his presidency. There is no higher office to which he can escape.
January 20, 2009 was Barack Obama's Peter Principle moment.
authored it don't understand what the "health care" problem is.
Gee, Borris, how come you never mentioned that before? (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7).
Give it a break already. Right wing hacks everywhere are cringing in embarrassment.
If their observations have some truth to them, this could be the biggest problem the plan faces.
NPR mentioned yesterday on their piece regarding Canadian healthcare that the US ranks lower (worse) in child mortality rates compared to Canada and other Western countries. Apparently, The UN and the CIA both agree.
Careless didn't mention where he/she got the statistics to show that US cancer survival is the best. A Google search got me multiple articles all quoting from a single study done in the 90s by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In that study "the researchers compared the five-year survival rates for breast, colon, rectal and prostate cancer." US News and World Report has their article on it. According to the study as reported by USNWR, the US has the highest in only two of the four, with Japan and France ranking "best" too. The study also found differences in US care based on race and location.
While I have yet to take a position on the health care plans being debated, I do not think chest-thumping about how the US is better in two kinds of cancer is convincing that our current system works. I'm more concerned about the wide variety of care that appears to vary based on wealth that is reported in the above cancer study. Long wait times are a common charge against the Canadian system but US HMO specialist denial rates or the wait incurred in fighting your HMO for access to specialists is not mentioned to balance the Canadian data. If you simply don't attempt to get care because you know you have no insurance and cannot afford it, that's a pretty long "wait". My insurance won't pay for a colonoscopy for another 6 years despite the fact that my dad had pre-cancerous polyps discovered at nearly my current age. Do I pay for that out of pocket or do I wait? How is that different than waiting in Canada or similar national insurance plans?
I am not convinced the US system is better than other Western countries. I see no evidence of it. What I see is that if you are lucky enough to have full insurance in the US or qualify for Medicare or the VA, you do fairly well. If you are unable to get good or any coverage, you don't do so well. In Canada, at least, everyone is covered.
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