Tag Archives: Health care

Just Another Political Rant

Assorted international currency notes.

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  Power, greed and deception are the rules and conditions of politics. Almost every single politician is concerned with their own wealth and the power that comes with their elected position. Campaign promises created to get votes and bills filled with hidden earmarks and agendas fill the congress. Healthcare is only affordable by the rich and pharmaceutical companies push the medical industry to use pharmaceuticals to manage diseases instead of educating the patients or surgery.

  There is far more money in selling overpriced pharmaceuticals to manage a health problem than to come up with an actual cure. This is not to say there isn’t anyone out there looking for cures, just that funding and priority for finding a cure for a disease is lower than the research for drugs that help manage a disease. Though I will give the present administration a thumbs up for the fact they are pushing the idea of better diet and physical fitness as a preventative measure in keeping good health.

It still gets me quite upset that there are some congress officials and hopefuls looking for a way to increase the retirement age and or diminish the social security plan. For one thing even if the average life expectancy is like 80 it does not mean the majority of humans will survive to that age. The percentage that are lucky enough to live to see retirement are usually not as healthy due to having to work so hard and long. With the fact that it takes the lower and below middleclass citizen 2 to 3 jobs to maintain a decent standard of living only puts more strain on the health of those individuals.

  For as Medicare/Medicaid and any federal or state funded health care , it should be limited to legal citizens who have and will contribute to the tax systems both at state and federal levels. The only way illegal aliens could be a part of the system is if the government went to a national sales tax to replace the current income tax. This would insure every individual living in the united states would and could contribute their fair share to the government funds. Of course this federal sales tax should not be on food or necessities of life such as utilities only on luxuries.

  One thing I have learned is if it makes sense the government will either ignore the idea or take it and load it down with so many earmarks or amendments it becomes a useless idea and bill/law. Once in a while one might actually slip through with little change but that is becoming a very rare occasion in recent years.

Well enough rambling on about politics and such.
Peace to all Raymond Barbier.

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Filed under Health and wellness, Political

The News Media, Politicians and More

With his family by his side, Barack Obama is s...

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  Seems to me now days the news media is more about shaping the political views of its watchers than about bringing facts and information to the viewers. One News network transmits mainly Obama pro ideals as another may transmit anti Obama views. But all of them are guilty of playing news that boosts ratings. Okay I understand that ratings are important to any network being cable news or local television but somewhere down the line Integrity has been lost in the news media or at least to the most part.

  Now don’t get me wrong there are still a few people in the news media dedicated to bringing us the facts and the truth in the news they report. Politicians are exactly what they always have been and very few of them are completely honest with the people they represent. They are human so they will lie, cheat and whatever else they deem necessary to get what they want and sometimes what their constituents need. Even though our government system is flawed and those in power usually become corrupt there is still hope. I am one to believe that there is still some good people in power just not enough to get the job done far as making America the shining star she used to be.

The U.S. used to be a leader in technology, industry and innovation. Now we are leaders in consumption and contentment. We used to export far more than import and now we export a very small percentage of our goods and import most of what the consumers buy. We spend more than we earn and we earn less than what is necessary to survive. The Minimum wage is not enough to even be able to afford decent housing and food, leaving us in the hole financially before we even look for health insurance and other necessities of life. And if you work part time you earn too much for any aid such as food stamps, housing or welfare. So if you try to do the right thing and work you are on your own unless you cheat the system like some people do.

Our country need Healthcare Reform for sure but there are allot of issues that need to be address also.

One is the inequality of pay amongst all Americans, there are some who make billions as others scrape to get by. Not saying that CEOs or business owners shouldn’t profit from their companies but why must they make more in one year than any of their workers can in a lifetime. They always layoff workers to cut costs and move the jobs overseas to continue making profits when if they took a meager pay cut themselves they could achieve about the same thing.

And just personal observation, i can not see how a emergency room doctor is worth 800 dollars for 10 minutes of his time that is just ridiculous. i understand paying for the convenience of emergency care
but no man is worth that much per minute. And the reason i am for healthcare reform including a possible public option on insurance is all my insurance would pay for my 2000 dollar visit to the emergency room was 250 dollars of the blood work and that was my yearly limit. So i am actually loosing money paying for my insurance since what they paid out is not much more than the monthly charge I pay for their services.

  I know this is not a perfect world and that it will never be a perfect world. The wealthy will always be wealthy and the poor mostly will get the pointed end of the stick. I guess you cant blame a guy for dreaming can you?

Raymond Barbier 08/25/2009

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Filed under News and politics, The World Today