Handing medicare over to private insurance industries, what could possibly go wrong......

And you know this to be incorrect?

Paul Ryan seems to disagree with you:

Isn't he that guy who used to be married to 7 of 9?

After the budget thing started heating up this week I pretty much stopped watching the news. It wasn't doing my blood pressure any good.

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Wrong Ryan. He had to withdraw after his divorce records were made public. I guessed he asked 7 of 9 to do sexual things in public and sex clubs. He was running against our current president for the senate.

I guess if I were involved with her I'd want to show it off as well, but probably not to that extreme.

What a brilliant idea for a ratings booster.

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Well put. I'm thinking Ayn Rand and Howdy Doody had a baby . . .

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Uhhh . . . restoring the Clinton era tax rates? Is the Wall St. 7 figure crowd really going to suffer if their rate goes from 30 % up to 35%?

Ryan wants to lower it to 25%. That oughta destroy the deficit.

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I do not care what the rate is so much. I am curious what they actually pay. The corporate tax rate is about 30% right? GE did not pay 30% so what does it mater what the rate is if no one pays it? From the sounds of it you could drop it to 20% and if you took the loopholes away and they paid the 20% it would be more than they are paying now and more than we are making now.

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^ ^ That is a very good point, and I actually thought about that when I posted. People who make 7, 8 figures and more annually have the best accountants money can buy.

Ryan talks about closing loopholes, so perhaps he can deliver some service in some way. But I'm still wary of much of his spiel.

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Hmm, having medicare run by bureaucrats, what could possibly go wrong.....no, really, just leave it the way it is, it's perfect.

This isn't a story about privatization either. The insurers that would be replacing medicare are indeed considered private companies, but they are regulated to within an inch of their lives by the states and the feds.

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Las Vegas NV

Now thats really funny. It's not a story about privatization but medicare taken over by private company's

Of course they'll be regulated, by the lobbiest pushing for higher rates

By god, Bubba Jim-Bob, you've convinced me. If the ol' boy don't look rat, I ain't a votin' fur 'im.

So kind of you to replace the substantive part of his post with "..." That technique is right out of the Fox News editing handbook.

I consider myself a libertarian if detail is needed, and I work in the insurance industry (not health lines), for a private company, dealing with government regulators both state and fed. The regulation of insurers isn't perfect but it's necessary and fairly effective. The question about medicare and healthcare coverage in general is whether it is better managed as part of a government bureaucracy or by private companies. We have to pay either way.

If medicare becomes the only healthcare buyer - a single payer system as some want, then the regulation will be congressional only. If private companies insure health risks in a multi payor system spread across all states, the spread itself becomes a regulator of sorts. This is how the property and casualty insurance business works today - though not perfect - most would judge it to be equitable.

There are few out there that believe congress is a good regulator, of almost anything. In fact, I propose that government should be smaller, not as a knee jerk reaction to endless spending and taxing, or some social dogma perspective, but because something as big as the federal system cannot be managed or regulated by 535 people elected to 2 and 6 year terms. At what point does every working productive person in the country have their own bureaucrat? Someone to manage your affairs...make sure you don't get screwed by the other guy...and while you're at it, why not take on a few wards too.

And, yes, we utilize lobbyists in the insurance industry. They are our access point to legislators. They consolidate the interests of the like-minded in order to present those interests to legislators that cannot possibly listen to the rabble of their millions of constituents. It's not a perfect system, but it's the one we have - but you wish it bigger at your own peril.

Paul Ryan makes important points about a lot of things and no, he won't get it all, but he's at least starting a discussion that has been avoided for most of the century.

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DS
2010 CL550 - Heaven help me but it's beautiful
87 300D a labor of love
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99 E320 too rusted, sold
87 260E Donated to Newgate School
www.Newgateschool.org - check it out.
12 Ford Escape, sold, forgotten
87 300D, sold, what a mistake
06 Passat 2.0T, PITA, sold

Las Vegas NV

I don't see how the looming Medicare crisis has much, if anything, to do with excessive government regulation. The problem is skyrocketing health care costs. Ryan claims, without evidence, that "competition" will drive down costs under his plan. Like many of Ryan's positions, that theory has no historical basis. He proposes things that never worked before. Why people think they will work now is beyond me.

The federal government does some things better than private industry could ever hope to do, social security being a prime example.

If THAT is your example of a well-run government program, we can't even talk.
Words simply fail me.

If by "well-run" you mean that the checks go out on time, you might have a point. But if you mean fiscally well-run, I'd have to disagree, strongly.

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