After we get free health care for all, next reform...

[Jerrycup]

I believe it is time for Obama and the Democrats to move on to a new issue. This healthcare system thing is old news, the majority have the votes, so after the recess, Nancy P can ram it home, and let's get to the next big change.

It's the food delivery system. It is clearly broken, and it is critical that we provide the social justice we need in a public nutrition option. Change NOW!!

Historic weak attempts to fix this are clearly too expensive, too cumbersome, and the don't provide fairness. Yes, you can get food stamps if you have low income, but those credit cards are not adequate to assure that we all get our fair share of quality food. Free breakfasts are not enough, and too many well fed youths are seeing imbalanced diets in their twenties.

Look around. There are restaurants serving steaks and lobsters on china and silver service, and there are people on skid row trying to survive on soup kitchens and a few hundred dollars per month on their food stamp cards.

If we simply had a public food option - cards issued to everyone, good at all stores and restaurants for 90 meal credits per month. These cards would cost a flat $350 per month, and employers will take this amount out of your check, giving it to the Federal Food Fund. In turn, you have the right to appear at any store or restaurant to spend your meal credits as you wish.

Prices on food will be controlled by Federal Food Fund. There is such terrible waste in the existing broken system that was set up by Republicans and other elitists. This can be fixed. There is no need to have expensive chefs and so many menu options. If the the existing investment in raw ingredients is redirected by the Federal Food Fund, the cost of one lobster would buy 12 pounds of beans - enough to serve a family (partners, relatives, and gang members) of 40 or more.

All restaurants will serve anyone who chooses to come. If fancy restaurants can't make their obscene profits due to too much waste, they will soon change menus, decor, and stop wasting money on things like waiters. Lines at the doors of these restaurants will shrink - cafeteria style food is much more efficient, and excellent money saving suggestions like paper towels instead of linen will mean that quality nutrition will be available to all, including those voters who have previously suffered discrimination, prejudice, and imbalanced carbohydrate/protein menus. The long lines at the more "popular" restaurants will soon equalize the situation.

Federally funded green "nutrition factories" will produce vitamin packed gruel that can be delivered in simple fashion to all stores. The new laws will cover pricing to make sure that other food options become competitive with the gruel equivalent.

If some families, gangs, partnerships, or communes cannot afford the $350 per client, they will receive them free or at discounted pricing based on income, state of residence, and whether they have ever voted for a Republican.

It is absurd that some cooks are paid up to $100 per hour for totally needless frills like sauces, dessert, and expensive spices. Good basic nutrition for all is within our grasp, and the Democrat majority is in position to make it happen. All menus will require approval by the expert panel appointed by the FFF planners.

Sure, there will be elitists who will insist they are happy with their fancy foods, wasteful ingredients, and excess variety. These will still be available as an option, but a new food tax placed on all meals and ingredients above those purchased with the universal 90 meal credit will be taxed at 25% to finance the Federal Food Fund.

No need to wait whiles this broken healthcare fixed, CHANGE NOW.

[TCups]

I want to be the new Food Czar for my next occupation, after medicine has gone to Hell.

[Big_Bill]

Jerry,

This is all covered under the New and Improved Health Plan ! If you have medical condition and order food that is not acceptable for you condition, you will made to pay a surtax of $??>?? for your selections. A person with a heart condition may be made to pay $100.00 surtax on an unhealthy meal for your heart !

Get ready America for you daily meal of SOYLENT GREEN !!!

It's funny how much the Obamanations plans for America copy this vintage film.......

Bill

[Gene_SC]

That is exactly correct Bill... And can you imagine how much a pack of cigarettes would cost me since I have had heart surgery?........:(  I would probably have to mortgage my home for a pack of fag's..:(

[sk8rj]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sp-VFBbjpE

Soylent Green is People . . .

[North Pack]

Don't give those idiots any ideas, - gawd knows they have enough. Let me guess though, the Congress et al will be exempt from this too. ... I'll sleep better at night knowing they'll be alright.

[shearload]

How many of us posting to this thread pay for their own and their family's medical care?  I'll be first; I've been insured by various employers for the last thirty years.  One employer shut down about twenty years ago; health insurance costs was one of his biggest reasons for shutting the doors.  Another has drastically reduced coverage over the last ten years.  

My current employer is a French company, and health care is a big deal to them.  My previous employer was a state university, part of a health-care consortium ofsimilar institutions.

I am eligible for medical care paid for by taxpayers, and have chosen not to use it.

How do the rest of you pay your medical bills?

[North Pack]

Shear, - no one doubts some changes with health care would be a good idea. It is costly to say the least - and will become even more costly if/when the government runs it. Right now, I use Medicare, for which I pay a monthly premium, (as most do) and on top of that I buy supplemental insurance with a monthly premium also. Back when I was working for different companies, health insurance was provided by the employer. During the years I was self-employed, I bought my own health insurance. We need to use the "market place" in making our health care decisions. I just had to have some dental work done, - and have no dental insurance. By shopping around, getting free cost appraisals, - I saved almost $6,000.00 from the highest cost dentist, to the one I ended up with. Like most, if I had dental insurance, - bingo, someone else is paying - who gives a s**t what it costs?

[shearload]

I don't know much about Medicare; do you get statements periodically telling how much the government has spent for your medical care?  We get statements from our insurance company.  Medical care costs a lot now.  My wife and I are at the age when problems begin to show up; over the last six years, our insurance company has spent about $300,000 for our medical care.  As an example, one fairly routine office vist to and oncologist runs $5,000, drugs and all.

I'm smart enough to know that my insurance company doesn't pay my medical bills out of Christian charity.  I and my co-workers pay them the full cost of everyone's care each year, plus enough to cover administrative costs and profits.  I hear that profits have been really good lately for the insurance companies, even with (or maybe because of) rising medical costs.

My medical insurance costs a lot.  How much do you think yours would cost, if we closed down Medicare?  After all, nobody in this generation wants to pay for Medicare.  If we have any principles at all, and the guts to stand by them, we will shut down any government medical program we are unwilling to pay for.  Some people argue that Medicare and other federal programs have contributed to increased medical costs.  If so, then shutting down Medicare may lower my family's medical bills.  Should we begin a campaign to end all government involvement in medical care, since they can't run anything efficiently?  We could get rid of the VA, too, and let veterans hassle with insurance companies like everyone else does.  That should save taxpayer money, and that is the primary goal, isn't it?

If your are eligible for Medicare, then you probably remember that, before it passed, senior citizens could not buy full coverage health insurance.  Period.  Insurance companies didn't want to sell to them, for good economic reasons.

[North Pack]

As I said above Shear, health insurance is expensive, - and some changes in the way health insurance is operated could well be a good idea. I'm glad to hear your insurance company may be doing well, certainly hope so. I'd like to see heath insurance is available for everyone, and no exclusions for age or pre-existing conditions. IF BO's plan were to become law, - Medicare would be closed down - and we'd all have the same coverage. BTW Shear, - I do get cost statements from my supplemental insurance, not Medicare. Most folks on Medicare carry supplemental insurance. If you believe it's in your best interest to see that Medicare is shut-down, then write to your Representatives and see if you can get the ball rolling, - that's what I'd do. ...

[shearload]

I don't think we should end Medicare; I think we should pay for it.  If we can't afford to pay for it, then we should cut it back.  We should end the prescription drug benefit, because we do not want to pay for it.

I'm reading and watching the medical care debate.  The system we have needs fixing.  If you believe that government should play no part in the solution (as many of the speakers at town meetings seem to believe), then tell how you think it should be fixed.  If you know how to fix the system without government participation, then let's fix Medicare the same way.  Let's get government out of medical care altogether.  Just tell me how you plan to do it.

[Jerrycup]

Shear, I think it is absurd that private companies should be required to insure people with pre-existing conditions.

Most people who say it needs to be "fixed" seem to be saying that they should not have to pay insurance rates based on actuarial analysis.

If that's your definition, then I say it does not need to be fixed, your expectation needs to change. And by all means, the Federal government should stay out, entirely.

I think that the existing Medicare and for that matter, Social Security is a near socialistic means of offering medical coverage to large numbers of people who can't afford it, paid for by those who pay into the system. It has been slowly changed to pay enormous amounts to huge numbers of recipients in a totally non-sustainable way. Increasing taxes to give this entitlement to even more people is wrong. Expanding to universal coverage is an impossibility on a financially stable basis, only by printing money will Obama make this happen. Doing this is stupid, it will mean that we will slowly load the economy to make it slowly spin down and down.

You can demand that someone tell you how it is to be fixed, but this does not mean that it is really "broken". An expectation of "fairness" or "justice" for everyone in the country is a fiction that cannot be made reality except on some distorted or temporary basis.

I say let the free market limit just how many people go in for $5K visits to their doctor. It will happen, it is happening. Those who are squeezed will say that it is wrong, but it isn't. Care is already available to the poor and aged from counties, states, and private charities. Standing by and letting demagog liberals claim the Federal government feed the masses with loaves and fishes is not in my future. Obama is a false prophet, he has no plan, and there is not likely to be one.

[North Pack]

Like so many "bright ideas" from Washington, - Medicare has morphed into a huge program, way past it's original intent. Washington's constant improving/tinkering got us to where we are today, - so much for the original idea. Now the solution to our self-inflicted health care problems lies in another "Washington" program. One MUCH, MUCH grander than what Medicare started out to be. ... What was Einstein's definition of insanity? ..."Doing the same thing over and over, - and expecting a different result".