Senator Shelby says Public Option Would Destroy "The Best Health Care System World Has Ever Known"

[flpoljunkie]

This is what we are up against--those who put healthcare profits above everything else, and threaten the American people in the process. We are in for a fight, and we had better be ready.

From Talkingpointsmemo:

Shelby: Public Option Would Destroy "The Best Health Care System The World Has Ever Known"

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) warned that a public option for health care would "be the first steps in the -- destroying the best health care system the world has ever known." Shelby explained: "Because government -- when the government's involved more and more in the details, and you start the one pay deal, and you've got the government competing with private enterprise, with all the incentives government has and the power, they will destroy the marketplace for health care, and it will be a mistake, and the American people better be careful in what they want."

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/06/hillary-obama-has-passed-3-am-test.php

[NC_Nurse]

1. I wonder what Big Pharma's got him on? Oxycontin? Xanax? He's got to be

drugged to buy into that shit. Or maybe he doesn't realize that we aren't ALL on Congress' plan. :crazy:

[Jack Rabbit]

14. Money

It will make a congresscritter say the most ridiculous things.

[lisa58]

2. he's such an....

...ass.

He thinks he's helping the country, when all he doing is pretending it's the "best" at everything.

A little honesty, please.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. the fact is Mr Shelby the US is low in the healthcare rankings of the world

#37

http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html

[flpoljunkie]

5. Low in the rankings, but highest in the amount of money spent on healthcare.

The worst of all worlds.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

13. because doctors do uneccessary procedures in order to make money

like dentists

[flpoljunkie]

21. This is a problem with Medicare as well, and it needs to stop. We need more fraud investigators.

[rhett o rick]

45. He doesn't accept facts. nm

[AtomicKitten]

4. No, it would destroy the 'everything goes' incompetence and greed of the private ins. co's. n/t

[vaberella]

6. Did someone ask him why Democrats and Republicans believe we need health care reform? Or,

Did someone ask him if it was the best why 51 million people don't have it?

[Brigid]

7. Now let me get this straight . . .

We have upwards of 46 million people without health insurance, administrative costs of $25 or more per claim because health insurance companies fight every claim tooth and nail before they pay, delays of claims so long people's credit ratings get damaged because providers put it on credit reports, and medical bills are the #1 cause of personal bankruptcies. Oh, yes-- and we rank near the bottom of every study done on the general health of people in industrialized countries. That's the best health care system the world has ever known? :wtf:

[That Is Quite Enough]

8. Fuck you, Shelby, this healthcare system is a wreck.

[Tansy_Gold]

9. Dear Senator You Obviously Aren't Walkin' in My Shoes Shelby:

I have no health insurance at all.

I am self-employed.

I am not eligible for my state's version of Medicaid.

I am not eligible for Medicare.

I cannot get health insurance because I have a "pre-existing" condition.

If I could get private health insurance, I could not afford the premiums.

In any other industrialized (at least for the time being) nation on this planet, I would have ready access to affordable (if not free) health care.


BEST IN THE WORLD? NOT FOR ME IT AIN'T!


Tansy Gold, hoping she stays healthy for at least another 4.5 years and that Medicare is still solvent by then

[YewNork]

37. I'm n a similar boat

My employer doesn't offer health insurance.

I cannot get insurance because of a pre-existing condition (they won't just exclude the pre-existing condition - they won't insure me, period).

My state does not have a high risk pool for people who are uninsurable.

But, at least I know that if I do develop a serious illness, and once my life savings are used up and I declare bankruptcy, all the rest of the people who are covered under the "best health care system in the world" will be absorbing my health care costs by the higher fees that they pay to their doctors and hospitals.

[napi21]

10. Hey Shelby! If it really IS the best in the world, then another

competitor won't destroy it! Companies don't worry about competition that is worse then them...they worry about those that just might be BETTER THAN THEM!

[movonne]

11. FU shelby...asshole corporate ass kisser....

[Kerrytravelers]

12. The stupidity would be laughable is this idiot's deep pockets from the health care industry weren't

so deadly to the American people.

[flpoljunkie]

20. Health industry contributions from the '08 election cycle: $167.6 million--up from $99.8 mil in '06

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?cycle=2010&ind=H

[sandnsea]

15. Yesterday was the Organizing Kickoff

I haven't seen any posts on how any of them went. I'm holding comment on mine, waiting for others' opinions.

[flpoljunkie]

27. Any discussion of Obama exempting those who can't afford insurance, including small business?

This, I neither accept or understand.

[sandnsea]

28. At the meeting?

Or in general?

I'll discuss in general. I think his view is that there really are people who are going to be caught in a pickle with a mandate and he doesn't want to see that. I appreciate that. On the other hand, if we're going to get universal health care and bring costs down, there has to be an avenue for absolutely everybody to have coverage, and some method to make sure absolutely everybody is paying what they can afford.

My perception is that these are the details we're supposed to be organizing to fight for - if we could get the single payer people to stick to their own agenda.

[flpoljunkie]

29. At the meeting you attended.

Also, am not clear what you mean by 'if we could get the single payer people to stick to their own agenda.'

[sandnsea]

31. No, that didn't come up

We talked about Baucus being a corporate whore and Obama flip-flopping about single payer from what he said in the campaign and the public option being a sham to shove all the sick people in and, well, you get the picture?

[d_b]

16. "the American people better be careful in what they want."

:rofl:

[rosesaylavee]

17. Fine. I think he should share this great healthcare.

Let's take away Congress' healthcare and sign them up with a 70/30 plan if they have no pre-existing conditions. And if they do have pre-existing conditions, everything but THOSE will be covered.

And I am not kidding. I think this should be done.


edit to add: Just sent this suggestion to the WH. Nifty way to reduce our budget costs - have Congress change it's elite all expenses paid healthcare to the equivalent of our best healthcare in the world plans. Give them a 70/30 for everything but pre-existing and anything pre-existing, they pay out of pocket. Nifty.

[Brigid]

26. More than nifty. Perfect.

Me likey very much. :evilgrin:

[Captain Hilts]

18. Wish I could use the "best healthcare system the world has ever known." nt

[Autumn]

19. Well Shelby's health care is the best,

I sure as the fuck don't have the health care he does. In fact I don't have any fucking health care. So he can fuck off and die.Bastard.

[andym]

22. This is the opening salvo in the move to oppose any serious healthcare reform

This it the opening salvo in the move to oppose any serious helathcare reform. This is a survey tested idea. Most people who already have healthcare (the majority of Americans) give high marks to the quality of their own healthcare. It turns out that their scoring is not borne out by realistic tests of quality, but nevertheless this is an important "meme" to counter.

[4lbs]

23. How can the "best healthcare system in the world" not allow 1/6 of it's own populace to access it?

50 million out of 300 million cannot access this "best healthcare" because they are uninsured.

Yeah, some best... :eyes:

[flyingfysh]

24. it would destroy the Swedish system???

[NorthCarolina]

32. EXACTLY!!!

:rofl:

[Kermitt Gribble]

25. He's right.

When you look at it from the ins companies' perspective, which, being funded by these corporations, is how most or our representatives look at it. They don't even consider, much less care, how it looks from our point of view.

[Cass]

30. The "best health care system in the world" means nothing if you can't access it.

And more and more people cannot access it at all.

I am just fed up with these jerks who have access to affordable and excellent care subsidized by taxpayers so eager to deny it to everyone else. Really frosts my ass.

[Hippo_Tron]

33. Technically he's right, if you have as much money as he does

If you can afford to pay for it, we do have the best health care system in the world.

[Hekate]

34. Shelby needs to have his taxpayer-funded safety net removed from him so he can experience...

... what the rest of us have.

The USA has a Third World health care access system: for those who can PAY, it's the best; those who CAN'T pay have the liberty to die in agony after losing their home to pay for their treatments.

I'd just love to have our Sens and Reps be able to experience this.

Hekate

[Vinca]

35. It would be nice if someone confronted people like Shelby when

they spew this crap. What we're talking about here is a payment system. That's it. A payment system. If anything gets destroyed it will be big insurance and that's a good thing.

[harun]

36. See how good he thinks it is if he has to pay out of pocket for it.

[depakid]

43. Edwards had the right idea there....

cut the fuckers off.

Not sure how or whether one could accomplish that, but the Pres could sure jawbone the shit out of them every day about it.

[quantass]

38. WTF...so we, outside the U.S., with Single-Payer are F'ed?!?

Hmmmm..last i checked everyone living in any other developed nation (besides the U.S.) lives significantly longer lives. I guess the value of an average American isnt as it once was.

[bigdarryl]

39. If the healthcare system is good the way it is then this fat bastard

should give up his FREE health care he's getting as a Senator

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

40. "The 37th best health care system the world has ever known!"

:woohoo:

[flpoljunkie]

42. Good one! Too bad the media ignores this salient fact.

[depakid]

41. Few things in this world are more irrational, dishonest and counter productive

than a Southern Republican ideologue.

These sorts of people have been the bane of the nation's existence since the day it was founded.

[Brigid]

46. Amen to that.

Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if we had just let the South go when they seceded at the beginning of the Civil War, since they never have seemed to really be part of this country anyway. Of course that would have meant that slavery would have continued to blight the continent for a while longer. :(

[Wednesdays]

44. K&R

:kick:

[bunkerbuster1]

47. Sounds good to me. I'll man the wrecking ball.

This "greatest system" can get chucked into a black hole today and nobody outside of the for-profit insurance industry and its hangers-on will mourn its passing.