Elizabeth: “Actually, I haven’t seen it yet — though for the record, I can’t see myself disliking a movie that demands the government foot the bill for those insanely expensive henna infusion treatments I use to keep my nipples shiny and plump like laquered raspberry gumdrops.*
” — Speaking of which, have I ever told you about the time Bill Richardson showed up at my house in a matador jacket and boots, and called my nipples ‘his tasty little pinata booty?”*
****
update: Okay, okay. Credit where it’s due (thanks to Dan. Tons.)
From the NRO editorial:
Deregulating health insurance would make it more affordable, and thus increase the number of Americans with coverage.
I remember a similiar argument being made in favor of deregulating cable, and since then my bill has only ever moved in one direction. Anyone want to guess which?
I actually favor the individual ownership plan, where companies stop paying and give their employees what they were paying in the form of a higher salary/hourly rate. For those who still could not afford insurance, an improved version of medicare or medicaid.
Portability and choice are the two keys, so far as I’m concerned. Individual ownership is a potentially workable solution. But what NRO has right is that conservatives have a chance here to really open up this debate and push workable conservative reforms.
And they should force such a debate by taking truly conservative positions – not trying to come across as “compassionate conservatives” by making disingenuous rhetorical concessions to the entrenched “truths” of progressive policy makers.
For instance, conservatives should be willing to explain why “universal” health care is not necessarily a good thing — particularly in a society that prides itself on individual choice and autonomy.
I’d be curious to see how that would be implemented in union-type environments, and I’d be curious to see how it’s determined that one can’t afford health insurance at that point and qualified for assistance.
The reason I’m wondering about union-type environments is because of our experience with the very large school district my husband works in, which seems to me to be a microcosm of what would happen if healthcare were nationalized with an option to buy a better policy. In my husband’s school district, all the retirees are insured from the same pool as the active employees. When I quit my full-time job three years ago (I was carrying the insurance) we were shocked to find out that it would cost us twice as much to insure our family through the district than it did through my former employer – we assumed that a school district that large would be able to negotiate some awesome rates, and leapt before we looked. Three years ago it cost us something like $600 a month for a low-end Pacificare plan through the district. That same plan is somewhere in the neighborhood of $1200 a month now, and the absolute cheapest Kaiser Permanente policy you can buy through the district is $1000 a month for a family. Every year, more people find other ways to insure themselves, although the district requires proof of having coverage through another group to bail on their insurance. Each year, more healthy people find ways to bail on the district’s insurance policy, and the only people left are those who are retired or can’t manage to purchase insurance elsewhere due to the district’s restrictions on having to have insurance through a group policy.
We consider ourselves lucky to have set up an LLC for our contract work, and this year is the first year we’ve been able to purchase a group policy through it. For a company with two employees, we’re able to insure our whole family for a little over $600 a month. Still expensive, but not nearly as much as the plan through the school district.
Thanks, Jeff. I know I’ll be branded a concern troll, because I like to mock Andrew, but I do kind of like the guy still, even though I think he’s a borderline hysteric sometimes. Gleen, on the other hand is a straightforward mendacious douchebag.
Meh. I’ve been called worse.
And on an ugly side note – the lowest-paid teaching position in the district pays about $35K. If they’re lucky they can get a hard-to-fill assignment at a ghetto school and get a bonus for that. The district reimburses about $250 a month for health insurance. And the median home price for the first quarter of 2007 for the city is $225K. Do the math.
King Harvest (Has Surely Come)
Corn in the fields.
Listen to the rice when the wind blows ‘cross the water,
King harvest has surely come.
I work for the union ’cause she’s so good to me;
And I’m bound to come out on top,
That’s where i should be.
I will hear ev’ry word the boss may say,
For he’s the one who hands me down my pay.
Looks like this time i’m gonna get to stay,
I’m a union man, now, all the way.
The smell of the leaves,
From the magnolia trees in the meadow,
King harvest has surely come.
Dry summer, then comes fall,
Which i depend on most of all.
Hey, rainmaker, can’t you hear my call?
Please let these crops grow tall.
Long enough I’ve been up on skid row
And it’s plain to see, i’ve nothin to show.
I’m glad to pay those union dues,
Just don’t judge me by my shoes.
Scarecrow and a yellow moon,
And pretty soon a carnival on the edge of town,
King harvest has surely come.
Last year, this time, weren’t no joke,
My whole damn barn went up in smoke.
My horse Jethro, well he went mad
And i can’t remember things bein’ so bad.
Then there comes a man with a paper and a pen
Tellin’ us our hard times are about to end.
And then, if they don’t give us what we like
He said, “men, that’s when you gotta go on strike.”
Corn in the fields.
Listen to the rice when the wind blows ‘cross the water,
King harvest has surely come.
— The Band
Education guy said: “I remember a similiar argument being made in favor of deregulating cable, and since then my bill has only ever moved in one direction. Anyone want to guess which?”
I’m not arguing whether or not cable was “deregulated”, but cable companies have a monopoly on a given market – for providing cable services. They compete with satellite companies and now, in some areas, AT&T’s Uverse, but I don’t have a choice between, for example, Comcast and Time Warner. If I don’t like Comcast, my only choice is to switch to something else, like DirecTV.
Makes me wonder – if they split off the cable infrastructure (like they have with the power companies, for example) and I could choose my programming from any cable provider (and I’m sure someone’s about to tell me that it’s technologically not possible, but I don’t believe it), I bet we would see more downward pressure on cable prices. Still, if you don’t like cable right now, you can get a satellite dish.
And of course, I should mention that I believe there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that deregulating does, in fact, produce lower prices. An exception does not disprove the rule – some would suggest just the opposite, in fact.
Does this, and your previous comment, say something about the unions or the public education system in general. For many of the same reasons I am against “universal health coverage” I am against “universal public education”.
“Does this, and your previous comment, say something about the unions or the public education system in general. For many of the same reasons I am against “universal health coverage†I am against “universal public educationâ€Â.”
I think the unions have spent so much time worrying about what they can get for the right-now generation that they’ve screwed the future generations – which is now the right-now generation. Some of the things the district caved in to the unions on years ago are now coming back to haunt the present teachers – who don’t understand why their cost of living raises don’t even cover their increase in health insurance premiums. (Cost of living adjustment this past year was a little over 3% for teachers, health insurance went up 15%)
Good morning. Here’s a great appraisal of the wonderful system to the north, which Michael Moore just loves.
There, apparently, even if one has dual incomes from a public school retirement and a personally-owned LLC that will eventually allow double-dipping into Social Security and also Medicare, one still must wait for a year to get an MRI to diagnose a malignant brain tumor. The patient, fortunately, had the means to escape Canada and get life-saving treatment in the good old U.S. of A. Single-source is definitely not the way to go.
Education guy said: “I remember a similiar argument being made in favor of deregulating cable, and since then my bill has only ever moved in one direction. Anyone want to guess which?â€Â
My bill has gone up, too. Of course, when I got cable in ’98 after 6 years without, I received about 50 channels. Now I get about 200, easy, to the point I don’t know what the hell some of these channels are… or, in the case of Logo (the gay and lesbian channel), they aren’t directed to my demographic – hell, they don’t even show any good women-in-prison films. Damn philistines.
Michael Moore is great! If you want to me extremely misinformed!
geile huisvrouwen
Being Christian and single, I’ve been finding it hard to meet someone with similar views.
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