The government, which should have the best interests of its people in mind, may not always do the best especially with money, but I sure don’t trust a for-profit health system that takes my money and they refuses to allow my doctors to do what is necessary.

Heaven help you if you need an organ transplant and are older. It’s all a bit scary. Guess I better drink more red wine to keep my ticker in shape, altho’ I’ll apparently be paying more “sin” taxes to do it…

Gosh, am I being political again? Sorry for the potential backlash, JLP. Here I am after 2 glasses of wine tonight and I’m still an uptight Republican (well actually a closet Libertarian…)

Have a great weekend everyone! I’m going to engage in every sinful thing I can think of before I have to pay taxes on them!

President Obama admitted he wants the government to decide what health care Americans receive. He said in the Washington Times, “There’s always going to be an asymmetry of information between patient and provider. And part of what I think government can do effectively is to be an honest broker in assessing and evaluating treatment options.”

He stated that “the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here.” For them, he said, “I think that there is going to have to be a conversation that is guided by doctors, scientists, ethicists. And then there is going to have to be a very difficult democratic conversation that takes place.”

The time to *really* worry about your health is when a government bureaucrat, not your personal doctor, tells you what treatment you can have. Yet that’s exactly the scenario endorsed by Mr. Obama. This position clearly leads to health care rationing. Nobody in the government or in any “political channels” should tell individuals how to make decisions about “the end of their lives.” The only conversations happening should be personal, not democratic. It’s not up to government to pull the plug but that’s where we’re headed.

“Change you can believe in” will become “change you won’t believe.”

@ Nicole — I suppose you style yourself as an open-minded, tolerant person. Or does your openess and tolerance only extend to those who agree with your political dogma? Is it possible that Democrats or Republicans might propose bad laws or regulations that affect our personal finances? What’s wrong with calling them out on it? There’s no need to freak out just because (in this case) Democrats are proposing some new taxes and JLP rightly challenges their logic. Honestly, I’ve seen very little from JLP that gets into pure politics since the election. Last time I looked tax law is a personal finance issue.

I realize that taxing some products may lead to a slippery slope, but ultimately that’s all speculation.

This entire debate is about medical costs, and medical insurance costs (hence this is a personal finance issue, and appropriate for this blog).

We should not taxing more just so we can line the pockets of HMOs and insurance companies even more than they currently are! We should be modifying the system so that the HMOs and insurance companies can not increase the cost of BASIC medical care into ridiculous levels.

It should not be cheaper for me to get American-made pharmaceuticals from Canada! Why is it that an MRI costs $200 (converted) in Japan, yet someone with insurance in the US would pay $900 for the same diagnostic test?

Why is it that if I go see a doctor, I have no idea how much I’ll be charged until I get the bill months later. What I do get is a paper that I must sign that says I agree to pay whatever I happen to be charged. Most doctors and office personnel have no idea how much the patients are paying for their care (I’ve asked), because everyone pays a different price depending on who your employer is (which dictates who your insurance company is).

The medical system in the US is a joke. We pay many times more than other “western” countries for our care. Yet we receive sub-par treatment that is tailored to the number of “procedures” performed, instead of actually HEALING people — and that is a direct result of having for-profit companies being in control of your personal health, designed to extract the maximum amount of money from your wallet.

I vote that we only have “not-for-profit” insurance companies, and upfront pricing information in doctor offices / hospitals so patients could actually “shop-around” for lower costs.

EXACTLY!

It’s crazy how far we could take something like this.

What about all the environmental things out there that can cause cancer? How the heck do we tax sunlight?????