Right Wing Militias on the Rise

[Magox]

The thing is, a significant amount of the time you make highly intelligent, informed cogent posts, like the middle paragraph above. But the vast majority are not and never going to happen and you know it better than anyone, and you rarely give real world answers or solutions. Instead you imply everything the government does is bad, every penny is wasted, they should never spend money on anything. And you constantly infer these programs shouldn't exist at all.

 

Try offering something that is actually possible in a bad situation.

 

Overall, Medicare is a success. Maybe you don't think so but countless millions of seniors over the last 50 years think so. TriCare, from most everything I have heard and read is a pretty damn good program compared to other programs.

Overall, Medicare is a success???????

 

Holy sh-- Dog, what !@#$ing planet are you living on?

 

News flash, Medicare is about to go bankrupt!!!!

 

 

http://www.healthpointpa.com/archives/medi...ruptcy-by-2017/

 

http://www.newsweek.com/id/199167

 

In what world is bankruptcy a success? oh, wait a minute, I forgot, nevermind.....

[Kelly the Dog]

Overall, Medicare is a success???????

 

Holy sh-- Dog, what !@#$ing planet are you living on?

 

News flash, Medicare is about to go bankrupt!!!!

 

 

http://www.healthpointpa.com/archives/medi...ruptcy-by-2017/

 

http://www.newsweek.com/id/199167

 

In what world is bankruptcy a success? oh, wait a minute, I forgot, nevermind.....

It's going bankrupt in a decade or two because baby boomers are retiring and the numbers are completely out of whack because of it. "Overall", it's been an enormous success. That's not to say there isnt some fraud, some waste, some problems, some inefficiencies, but the program over 50+ years is an enormous success. Before it passed, only half of the country's seniors had health insurance.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: A recent Commonwealth Fund survey found that "elderly Medicare beneficiaries reported greater overall satisfaction with their health coverage." Medicare is so popular that most Americans support expanding its coverage to Americans aged 55 to 64. According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll, "over half of Americans (53 percent) 'strongly' support such a proposal and an additional 26 percent say they support it somewhat, totaling 79 percent backing." Similarly, a Health and Human Services Department-commissioned study released in June found that "56 percent of enrollees in traditional fee-for-service Medicare give Medicare a rating of 9 or 10 on a 0-10 scale," while "only 40 percent of Americans enrolled in private health insurance gave their plans a 9 or 10 rating." "The higher scores for Medicare are based on perceptions of better access to care," the National Journal noted, commenting on the surveys, adding that "[m]ore than two thirds (70 percent) of traditional Medicare enrollees say they 'always' get access to needed care (appointments with specialists or other necessary tests and treatment), compared with 63 percent in Medicare managed care plans and only 51 percent of those with private insurance."

[Trader]

Who'd of thunk it...well, actually DHS did. Can anyone remind me how that report was received again? I forget.

 

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...154C7QD9A13T3O0

 

Cue DC Tom and his "Earth First" talking point in 3, 2, 1.

 

 

I would suggest to you that Liberal Democrats need right wing militants like conservatives need terrorists. It gets the faithful movitated.

[Dwight Drane]

Oh, look, the squirrel finally found a nut! (Or perhaps the nut found a squirrel, I'm not sure).

 

If I do find a squirrel, I'll make sure to turn it over to the proper liberal authorities so they can shoot it up their rears.

 

Liberals: Willing to march thousands at a time to promote the naturality of guys putting PP's in each other, yet the guy with a few 22's is the whacko.

[Magox]

It's going bankrupt in a decade or two because baby boomers are retiring and the numbers are completely out of whack because of it. "Overall", it's been an enormous success. That's not to say there isnt some fraud, some waste, some problems, some inefficiencies, but the program over 50+ years is an enormous success. Before it passed, only half of the country's seniors had health insurance.

No offense dog, really, but you always have an excuse. Stimulus Bill didn't avert the 8% unemployment because they didn't have all the data when they came out with that statement, medicare is going bankrupt because of the baby boomers are retiring, Roscoe Parrish hasn't done well because the coaching staff can't get him the ball, there's always an excuse. You should have been a lawyer.

 

In regards to:

 

 

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: A recent Commonwealth Fund survey found that "elderly Medicare beneficiaries reported greater overall satisfaction with their health coverage." Medicare is so popular that most Americans support expanding its coverage to Americans aged 55 to 64. According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll, "over half of Americans (53 percent) 'strongly' support such a proposal and an additional 26 percent say they support it somewhat, totaling 79 percent backing." Similarly, a Health and Human Services Department-commissioned study released in June found that "56 percent of enrollees in traditional fee-for-service Medicare give Medicare a rating of 9 or 10 on a 0-10 scale," while "only 40 percent of Americans enrolled in private health insurance gave their plans a 9 or 10 rating." "The higher scores for Medicare are based on perceptions of better access to care," the National Journal noted, commenting on the surveys, adding that "[m]ore than two thirds (70 percent) of traditional Medicare enrollees say they 'always' get access to needed care (appointments with specialists or other necessary tests and treatment), compared with 63 percent in Medicare managed care plans and only 51 percent of those with private insurance."

 

No sh--!! The government is subsidizing the remaing funds that aren't available.

 

of course people like it, until one day the piper has to be paid, which it will.

 

I'm sure if you polled or surveyed all the people who received a home loan from Fannie Mae or Freddy Mac, they would say something like "most Americans that received loans from Fannie Mae 'strongly' support the expanding funds available for them to purchase homes"

 

The bottom line Dog, no rational person would tell you that a program that is about to go bankrupt would be considered an "overall" success.

[Kelly the Dog]

The bottom line Dog, no rational person would tell you that a program that is about to go bankrupt would be considered an "overall" success.

You mean like "capitalism" in October of 2008? The car industry in America hasn't been an overall success? We are better off without having welfare? Do you think we should never have had Medicare or Social Security? A lot of systems and programs and businesses and industries make a series of mistakes and go into bankruptcy or to the brink of bankruptcy, make changes and then return to prosperity. They are overall successes.

 

Talk about wanting to kill off gramma.

[Booster4324]

You just got EVERYONE in the room, except for maybe AD and Tom squirming in their pants.

 

Very well done, my boy...VERY well done.

 

You overestimate the fringe groups IMO. I would guess there is around a 1/3rd of the "room" that basically said, nice point.

[DC Tom]

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: A recent Commonwealth Fund survey found that "elderly Medicare beneficiaries reported greater overall satisfaction with their health coverage." Medicare is so popular that most Americans support expanding its coverage to Americans aged 55 to 64. According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll, "over half of Americans (53 percent) 'strongly' support such a proposal and an additional 26 percent say they support it somewhat, totaling 79 percent backing." Similarly, a Health and Human Services Department-commissioned study released in June found that "56 percent of enrollees in traditional fee-for-service Medicare give Medicare a rating of 9 or 10 on a 0-10 scale," while "only 40 percent of Americans enrolled in private health insurance gave their plans a 9 or 10 rating." "The higher scores for Medicare are based on perceptions of better access to care," the National Journal noted, commenting on the surveys, adding that "[m]ore than two thirds (70 percent) of traditional Medicare enrollees say they 'always' get access to needed care (appointments with specialists or other necessary tests and treatment), compared with 63 percent in Medicare managed care plans and only 51 percent of those with private insurance."

 

Important point to consider: a good portion of senior citizens who would be dissatisfied with Medicare are probably dead.

 

I mean, it's really easy to be satisfied when a successful aortic valve replacement saves your life. It's a little more difficult to say "I'm not satisfied, my aortic valve replacement wasn't successful and I croaked" or "I died from a post-operative infection."

[X. Benedict]

If you liberals are so smart, why haven't you figured it out yet that you currently own substantial control over the House and Senate, and that the President happens to be the most liberal democrat ever?

 

 

More liberal than FDR, Johnson, Nixon, Carter? I'm not sure.

 

Weren't these the guys who are "smarter" than all of America put together? What's with the disingenuous hand wringing and stalling over passing the healthcare reform bill?

Will you stop being a bunch of douches and just pass the damn thing? Either they're "smarter" than us or they're pathetic looking wimps looking for a scapegoat. Which is it?

 

You think the Democratic Party is a monolith. It's not. And that's a good thing.

[X. Benedict]

Who're we supposed to be more afraid of, the right wing militias or the radical muslims? Fear mongering is only awesome when the liberals are doing it.

 

Obviously Right Wing Militias and Radical Muslims are running the country.

 

The reality - Right Wing Militias aren't very dangerous because they don't believe in the Federal government - therefore, not a part of it. Very hard to legislate from a mountain bunker.

[Fingon]

You mean like "capitalism" in October of 2008? The car industry in America hasn't been an overall success? We are better off without having welfare? Do you think we should never have had Medicare or Social Security? A lot of systems and programs and businesses and industries make a series of mistakes and go into bankruptcy or to the brink of bankruptcy, make changes and then return to prosperity. They are overall successes.

 

Talk about wanting to kill off gramma.

Actually, Social Security is a fiscal nightmare. The average citizen puts far more into SS than they will ever receive from it. Putting the money into a 1% savings account would yield much more money for retirement than the current system. Overall, social security is a complete failure.

[X. Benedict]

Actually, Social Security is a fiscal nightmare. The average citizen puts far more into SS than they will ever receive from it. Putting the money into a 1% savings account would yield much more money for retirement than the current system. Overall, social security is a complete failure.

 

I'm not sure where you get your numbers...but aren't about a third of Social Security recipients the survivors of dead or disabled workers.

So it's not all a retirement plan.

[Magox]

You mean like "capitalism" in October of 2008? The car industry in America hasn't been an overall success? We are better off without having welfare? Do you think we should never have had Medicare or Social Security? A lot of systems and programs and businesses and industries make a series of mistakes and go into bankruptcy or to the brink of bankruptcy, make changes and then return to prosperity. They are overall successes.

 

Talk about wanting to kill off gramma.

killing off gramma?

 

That's a stretch, considering I responded to your claim that Medicare is an "overall" success, which of course is another stretch, stretchy. Does Medicare serve a purpose, yes, is it an "overall" success, hardly.

 

In response to your "capitalism" analogy, bad example, "capitalism" is an idealogy that refers to an economic system in which production of goods and services are sold and traded in markets; and profits and wages are for the most part kept in the private sector.

 

Is it a perfect system, no, because greed is it's biggest ally and enemy. However, it is the best system out there IMO, because it promotes production and efficiency, and is also once again in my view the most fairly rewarding system out there. Capitalism can't go bankrupt.

 

The auto industry? An overall success? OK. Really?

 

It has had success, yes. An overall success, No.

 

I think your definition and mine differ in what the word "overall" means.

[Fingon]

I'm not sure where you get your numbers...but aren't about a third of Social Security recipients the survivors of dead or disabled workers.

So it's not all a retirement plan.

I'd like to see a citation on that numbers, because as i remember it, the disability part is a small percentage. If i recall correctly, congress uses your SS money to fund other programs like roads, wars,etc...

[X. Benedict]

I'd like to see a citation on that numbers, because as i remember it, the disability part is a small percentage. If i recall correctly, congress uses your SS money to fund other programs like roads, wars,etc...

 

I guess I was asking you....but I could look it up.

[X. Benedict]

I'd like to see a citation on that numbers, because as i remember it, the disability part is a small percentage. If i recall correctly, congress uses your SS money to fund other programs like roads, wars,etc...

 

it looks like survivor plus disability make up about 1/3 of payments.

 

Check the graph on page 6.

 

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/5171682/The-Fu...Social-Security

 

Best I can do at the moment.

[Alaska Darin]

The thing is, a significant amount of the time you make highly intelligent, informed cogent posts, like the middle paragraph above. But the vast majority are not and never going to happen and you know it better than anyone, and you rarely give real world answers or solutions. Instead you imply everything the government does is bad, every penny is wasted, they should never spend money on anything. And you constantly infer these programs shouldn't exist at all.

As opposed to your "pie in the sky" optimism when the left is involved? The difference is I'm consistent no matter who has the reigns.

Try offering something that is actually possible in a bad situation.

Like what? The electorate is blindly stupid and the elected care about nothing but power and spending. Neither is going to solve much of anything. Somehow I doubt that giving the government a whole lot more money to spend is going to drive down the price of anything. Is education cheaper now? How about the military?

 

We already KNOW they won't be using economies of scale to drive down the cost of prescription drugs, which are a significant portion of the expense of health care now, so where is all the savings going to come from? Please say administration. Please.

Overall, Medicare is a success. Maybe you don't think so but countless millions of seniors over the last 50 years think so. TriCare, from most everything I have heard and read is a pretty damn good program compared to other programs.

Overall, you're full of crap. I have TriCare. You don't. Who do you think is more qualified to make a judgment? Medicare is friggin' broke. BROKE. And it only covers a tiny percentage of people but collects tons of cash from EVERY taxpayer. But that's your idea of a rampaging success.

 

Do yourself a favor and try common sense instead of idealism.

[Kelly the Dog]

Overall, you're full of crap. I have TriCare. You don't. Who do you think is more qualified to make a judgment? Medicare is friggin' broke. BROKE. And it only covers a tiny percentage of people but collects tons of cash from EVERY taxpayer. But that's your idea of a rampaging success.

 

Do yourself a favor and try common sense instead of idealism.

1] Common sense? I ask you for something/anything that is a real world solution and your response is "like what?". In other words, zero like always. Just another rant about how everything and everyone sucks.

 

2] Common sense is trying to find a tolerable solution in a bad situation that became bad because you can't trust American citizens to do the right thing: whether it is to elect the right people, take the right stand, do the right thing, do the most efficient thing, help thy neighbor, etc. But that's where we are and you offer nothing but complaints. Fine, I actually like listening to your complaints because a good portion of them are right on the money. And they're honest and they're mostly informed. It still doesn't at all offer any solution that is possible in the real world.

 

3] Actually, in all honesty, I do think that everyone paying a little every year for their entire lives to get decent health care to all of our old people and disabled people is cool. I think that's a success, yeah. If you don't that's cool with me, we'll agree to disagree.

 

4] You have TriCare, I don't. You're right. What I have read says it's a darn good plan. I wouldn't have believed it but Bill Kristol said it was the best plan on Earth so I had to believe him. What I would like to know is why you think that equal/comparable plans in the private sector are so much worse? I'm not doubting it, I just want to know what you think stinks about it and why private sector versions would be so much better for you?

[Booster4324]

Thats becuase the OTHER 2/3 arent man enough to admit what Trader said.

 

Fair enough, I give you credit for admitting it. That sounds sorta snarky, but isn't.

[Alaska Darin]

1] Common sense? I ask you for something/anything that is a real world solution and your response is "like what?". In other words, zero like always. Just another rant about how everything and everyone sucks.

I gave you a whole bunch of things in the first post. All of which are do-able. Your response is "how about something based in reality?" I don't pretend to know what your fuggin' reality is but mine is pretty straight forward. If that's too hard for you to handle, you should probably go back to your Hollywood pals and their "solutions".

2] Common sense is trying to find a tolerable solution in a bad situation that became bad because you can't trust American citizens to do the right thing: whether it is to elect the right people, take the right stand, do the right thing, do the most efficient thing, help thy neighbor, etc. But that's where we are and you offer nothing but complaints. Fine, I actually like listening to your complaints because a good portion of them are right on the money. And they're honest and they're mostly informed. It still doesn't at all offer any solution that is possible in the real world.

Because you say so? Forgive me for my uproarious laughter.

3] Actually, in all honesty, I do think that everyone paying a little every year for their entire lives to get decent health care to all of our old people and disabled people is cool. I think that's a success, yeah. If you don't that's cool with me, we'll agree to disagree.

Way to miss the whole point. Typical.

4] You have TriCare, I don't. You're right. What I have read says it's a darn good plan. I wouldn't have believed it but Bill Kristol said it was the best plan on Earth so I had to believe him. What I would like to know is why you think that equal/comparable plans in the private sector are so much worse? I'm not doubting it, I just want to know what you think stinks about it and why private sector versions would be so much better for you?

Yeah, it's so good that Congress took away private employers ability to pay for the supplement to it in an attempt to get people who have EARNED the benefit to stop using it.

 

Problems:

 

1. Most good doctors won't accept it and the number of people who're eligible are growing at a rate that outpaces new offices.

2. Paperwork is an absolute nightmare. We have all the same BS that the civilian providers deal with, plus the government crap. Try getting a referral authorization. Then try getting it paid for in anything that resembles a timely manner.

3. Reimbursement is ridiculously slow. Beyond ridiculous, really.

4. The reimbursement rates are artificially low. Many times that means you don't get to see a quality doctor.

 

I'm not saying the same things don't exist in the civilian world. TriCare has many of the same problems with the added "benefit" of the Washington bureaucracy. It's not "good" by any stretch of the imagination. I don't think the Private Sector is significantly better, though I though Kaiser Permanente (via Champus Prime) was excellent when we were in California (that could have changed in the 15 years since we left.