FCC and the internet

[Douglas Pollard]

Steve Furbish wrote:
> Samuel Thurston, III wrote:
>   
>> On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 10:25 AM, Steve Furbish <sfurbish at nerdshack.com> wrote:
>>   
>>     
>>> Some estimates suggest between 15% and 25% of those represent people who
>>> entered our country illegally.  Strange that they came to our country
>>> rather than one of the more progessive socialist countries with superior
>>> healthcare systems?
>>>     
>>>       
>> And by all means, we should let them die in the streets for their
>> transgression? No. Healthcare should be a human right.
>>   
>>     
>
> I could agree that EMERGENCY healthcare is a human right, but full 
> medical coverage with eyecare and dental is more a luxury that should be 
> reserved for those who are willing to pay for it and who are legally 
> within our borders. It would be less of a burden to pay their way back 
> home than to guarantee free access to total healthcare. I'm not 
> suggesting that we let people die in the streets, but I do feel that all 
> people should be responsible in part for the consequences of their own 
> choices.
>
>   
>> I don't know if you're aware of this, but Mexico actually is currently
>> experiencing an influx of sick American residents seeking medical
>> care.
>> http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE57C40C20090813
>>   
>>     
>
> Government regulation is one very substantial reason why drug therapies 
> are so much more expensive here than in Mexico. The outrageous costs of 
> malpractice insurance drive physician costs higher and higher here while 
> Mexico  employs a system of arbitration to resolve malpractice claims.
>   
>>> Samuel sees it in a light most favorable to his own situation.
>>>     
>>>       
>> I sure do.  But I know that I will be employing people in the near
>> future and would like to make sure that they have coverage that both
>> they and I can afford, that my wife will soon be covered by an
>> employer-subsidized plan, and that I have  a young child who has to
>> live with the ramifications of the system we set up now.  So "my
>> situation" is vastly more nuanced than you might think.  I've been
>> doing research on healthcare reform on and off for 15 years, after we
>> covered it as a topic in high school debate and I found it
>> fascinating.
>>   
>>     
> I haven't (knowingly) been involved in a high school debate since the 
> early 1970s, but it seems kind of obvious to me that if we increase the 
> numbers of the covered base of insured we have to make some substantial 
> cost cuts as well as increase tax revenues and everything I've seen 
> suggested by congress fails in at least half of that equation.
>
>
>   
>>> That's
>>> how most Americans look at it and that is why there is a very large
>>> portion of the populace that cannot come to agreement on a plan that is
>>> fair to all.
>>>     
>>>       
>> Yet, a very large portion of the populace is in favor of the public
>> option, and a small majority would like single payer.
>>
>> http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/upload/7943.pdf
>> http://www.srbi.com/TimePoll4794_Final_%20Report.pdf
>> http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/PollMemo.pdf
>>
>>   
>>     
>
> Yet with the exception of the oldest poll listed the numbers suggest 
> less than 1/2 favor such an option while nearly 2/3rds of those in the 
> Kaiserpoll listed improving the economy and creating jobs as the top 
> priority. I just don't see the polls you listed backing up your position 
> that well even if one were to have great faith in polls.
>
> Steve
>
>   
    I wonder what percentage of Governement it will take to manage and 
run health care? I wonder what percentage in Europe , England and other 
countries where vast hoards of bureaucrats inhabit the halls of 
government as in our own.   Is there a human cost to having some well 
populated organization determine the conditions under which you live and 
die.
    I am a sailor, I sail boats out into the never, never land of the 
worlds seas.  I have had Liberals tell me that I should pay a tax before 
leaving in case the Government decides to rescue me at huge expense to 
the country. I am not Kidding!  These same people would carry on board 
their boat the biggest most powerful radio they could find so they could 
call for help. I carry a small radio that at most can call a ship and 
tell him I am a few miles away  right in front of him and I will be 
changing my heading to avoid being run over.   If he runs over me anyway 
there will be no calling the Coast Guard to come get me. The carrier of 
the big radio should pay the tax. I have saved all my life and with 
those investments My wife and I don't need insurance. I can pay  my own 
hospital bills , I can negotiate them  and I can pay them. I can get on 
an airplane  and fly to Mexico for an operation at 20% the cost if  I 
want.  I paid for health care insurance until I was age 40  as I felt 
they were the years when I was able to buy it at reasonable rates after 
that I have depended on my own investments. I lost 40% of my investments 
in this last disaster but I have also regained nearly 20% of that 
back.   You don't have to have all the other people in the country 
looking out for you while you are looking out for them with 
politicizations and bureaucrats taking their bite out of the middle of 
all of it.
    Maybe most people can't do this but they could  if they didn't have 
to pay Social Security,  Medicare plus the salaries of the many that run 
them and the many that collect the taxes to pay for all of it.   The 
cost of Government health care will be many time the cost of our present 
day care.   With a few minor modifications to our present very efficient 
system costs could drop a considerable amount. 
    As to tort reform, we have a system that punishes wrong doers or or 
incompetents buy way of paying out to those whom they have injured and 
this is the only way it can be under our system of individual rights.  
But this system does more.  The Government not the lawyers decided to 
use the system to punish the person who has been negligent  and harmed 
someone. Note: this is not to reward the harmed individual it is to 
punish the wrong doer.  Mrs Joe Blow receives millions of  dollars 
because finger was removed instead of the wart on her hand.  The finger 
may be worth $20.000  and suffering might be $100,000.00  so by way of 
punitive rewards she gets one hundred million with you and I paying it 
all in the long run.  Why not just put the negligent party in jail if he 
committed a felony  and give the harmed party The $120,000 plus a good 
lawyers fee. 
  I have Medicare because I paid for it not because I wanted it, so I 
might as well have it.  I will never go to Mexico for treatment, Why 
should I I have already paid for it by way of medicare.  The good news 
is my kids will get my savings one day and won't they be surprised.
    You folks in Europe are paying far mor that the cost of health care 
by the same hidden cost method.  Insurance companies don't have the 
ability to hide cost as does government.   Their profits are far cheaper 
than Government overhead which is not included in their stated costs.
                                                                       
                                                                         
Doug