Feels like deja vu all over again:
Clinton lays out healthcare plan
Democratic presidential frontrunner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) took aim at the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries in a major policy speech Thursday and outlined a plan she claimed would cut healthcare spending by $120 billion a year.
She says: “The first step toward achieving universal health coverage ?
She says: “The first step toward achieving universal health coverage — which Clinton has said would take more than one term as president to achieve….”
That just gives me the cold, shiverin’ sh*ts.
sigh.
And, Clinton said, “Let’s start getting drug costs under control.”
Gotta agree with that. After all, a few years ago, we were using a single-dose treatment to stop seizures which weren’t stopping otherwise. A plastic syringe, and one dose of a common preparation, very cheap to manufacture, package and etc…and it cost our insurance company $110. per dose. Ridiculous.
then the article continues, “Government-funded research has shown, she said, that expensive prescription drugs are not always better than cheaper alternatives.”
I do fear losing choice. It’s happening already, when dh has had to stop taking a med which is effective, to do a trial run of a similar drug which can be purchased OTC–the insurance company will pay for it–but it’s far less effective. And for some people, the drug which works for most, doesn’t do anything. And for some conditions, namely seizure disorders, you have to try drug after drug after combo of drugs, and other treatments, and you can’t know what will work, and just when it does, the body changes and it no longer works.
1 in 100 Americans has a seizure disorder, and of those, 1/3 get control with drugs, and it doesn’t affect their lives much. 1/3 struggle with keeping control, and 1/3 never get control. We’re teetering on the fine line between the last few groups. And we’ve tried 11 different things–with minimal success. I don’t want HRC’s or anyone else’s plan telling me I have to try the drugs in any order, or that I can’t have a particular one.
sigh.
If I ran the world…..totally other things would be screwed up.
best, d
Bah. Phooey. Healthcare.
“Makes my eyes glaze over.”
No. I ain’t in love with Hilary. Personally I highly doubt that I would ever vote for her (if given a chance, like if she would actually want my vote). But let’s look at what she actually said.
” The first step toward achieving universal health coverage ?
Bah. Phooey. Healthcare.
“Makes my eyes glaze over.”
No. I ain’t in love with Hilary. Personally I highly doubt that I would ever vote for her (if given a chance, like if she would actually want my vote). But let’s look at what she actually said.
” The first step toward achieving universal health coverage — which Clinton has said would take more than one term as president to achieve — is to reduce spending on healthcare services, the senator said. She outlined a detailed plan, including preventive medicine, more coordinated chronic-disease treatment, greater uses of information technology, and lower costs for insurance and prescription drugs, …”
Gee, sounds like words to warm a conservative heart, no? “Reduce spending on healthcare services”. A “detailed plan, preventative medicine, coordinated chronic-disase treatment, lower costs for insurance and prescription drugs” … wow, I see your point, if I was American I would probably run for the hills. Probably head for Canada actually.
Doorkeeper, you know I know of what you speak. Nobody tells us what seizure meds to try (currently on #8 over here), the neuro and I decide together based on his recommendations and my input. You know, the way its suppose to be. Actually I picked the last one (that appears to be actually working!) on my own. Didn’t like what they were offering. And where is it some Americans go to buy cheaper prescription drugs anyway?
Okay, before this turns into a Flight Deck post (oops, too late), just one more comment – Hilary’s plan may well deserve to be panned. I have no idea. And may I be so bold as to suggest, neither do you – not without seeing the actual specifics of what she proposes and how she plans to pay for it. Any takers?
Sheesh, this is too easy. Fire away.
And thanks for the fun, Lex. At least I’m predictable. After all, consistency is a good thing, right?
Michelle, Please wake me when its over… Best
Snake
I’m done. Wakey wake…
Oh, wait, did you mean me or your 2008 elections? That could take a while
Michelle, surely you’er not saying that I’m panning the senator’s plan? L’il ol’ me?
Actually, my eyes glaze over pretty quickly on this health care stuff as I’ve mentioned before. Prolly ought to call Max in.
Although…
When the jr. senator from NY promises to reduce costs, I slap my hand over my wallet. Because I’ve got the sneaking feeling that it’s not my costs she’s so worried about.
And if she does manage to reduce costs – a noble goal! – I hope it’s not through a-listing or rationing or the government interjecting itself into market decisions or the destruction of innovation.
Because if it was really just cheaper drugs we wanted I guess we could buy them off you. It’d only be fair after all: You guys gave us Evangeline Lilly – a debt we can never repay.
But then, that would dry up all of the R&D money for new drugs in the pipeline – a pipeline that, due to gov’t oversight, takes years to clear new meds and raises the risks for phara companies.
It would also make the creation of “niche” drugs for low volume illnesses dry up, prolly.
*THWOK*
Sorry – that was my head hitting the desk.
“…When the jr. senator from NY promises to reduce costs, I slap my hand over my wallet. Because I?
“…When the jr. senator from NY promises to reduce costs, I slap my hand over my wallet. Because I’ve got the sneaking feeling that it’s not my costs she’s so worried about…”
Agreed.
Okay, I give. Who exactly is she?
Followed the link but…sorry, can’t place the face. Anyway whomever she may be, sometimes export can be a good thing, you know
So just out of curiousity, who has a healthcare plan for you on the Pub side? Or is everything just hunky dory as is?
About Lilly, you’re kidding, right? Kate, from “Lost”?
And I’m not a Republican, ‘Chelle, I’m a libertarian conservative. Or a conservative libertarian. Or whatever.
I hate change.
I’m also uniquely unqualified to talk about market solutions to health care, since my entire adult life has been spent in the arms of the state for medical service – military medicine is socialized medicine.
Which means that I’ve waited for several hours in a “free clinic” that was my only choice for medical service while my wife miscarried because we didn’t have an appointment and a bunch of people with sniffles and ear aches were ahead of us in line. People who ordinarily probably wouldn’t have bothered with it, but hey, it was free, why not?
Which means that after having waited for several hours, the clinic staff ran tests to determine that, yes, my wife was pregnant – something we told *them* walking in the door – and no there was nothing they could do for her. Off we went to a *real* hospital, where they repeated those same tests before ultimately telling me that nothing could be done, it was over. Tough luck kid, but you guys are young, etc. You can always have more.
Which means that I’ve gone to funerals for young lieutenants – two of them – who were misdiagnosed for grave illnesses and told to take two aspirin, call us in the morning. Could have happened anywhere, I suppose. But it didn’t.
Which means that I’ve noticed that the quality of my care seems to have gotten better with each promotion, even as I know that it will get much worse again as soon as I retire. Because I’ve seen those poor old folks waiting in line for meds and young sailors who are confused by all of it, but it’s not like they’ve got anything else to do.
Any movement towards government control of medical cost by the injection of state-sponsored bureaucracy just gives me a bit of the willies. I got my reasons.
Lex, I’m really sorry. I really am. That kind of stuff happens in a lot of places and there’s really no excuse for it.
Perhaps, just perhaps, lawyers have their place occasionally. For the simple fact that our world is often so screwed up that sometimes it seems like the only thing that motivates some people is fear of liability. Liability for their own stupidity.
But you know as well as I do that there are horror stories with managed care and insurance companies as well. No easy answers…
BTW I wasn’t intending to label you as a Pub, just wondering if any of the potential Pub candidates were taking on the issue of healthcare.
Ah well, so much for a semi-light hearted chat/debate. Again, my sympathies.
PS I was serious about Lilly, believe it or not. There are lots of shows I like but I have never watched Lost. Have a lot of friends who seem stuck on it though. So I take it that particular export was a good import for America then.
Lex – so sorry Sir. I know it was probably a long time ago, but that kind of pain lingers. Warm thoughts your way.
Ah, that was probably an overshare. Long time ago, no need for anyone to feel bad about it now.
Life happens.
I’m with Lex, about The very attractive Miss Lilly.
Thank you very much Canada.
State run medicine too.
I damn near died from a burst appendix,till I demanded to see a real Doctor, as drinking more Pepto-Bismol just wasn’t doing the trick.
All I know is when I want to make something cheaper, putting a bunch of Harvard lawyers and politicians in charge of it has never crossed my mind.
I’m betting the details of this “plan” don’t come out until after the election. Wouldn’t do to say anything that can be refuted.
– Max
Another thing I am frightened of, M, is that we’ll lose our right to refuse certain “preventive” measures that Ms. Clintons espouses, and the first which leaps to mind, is vaccination.
A big catchword in all the change-health-care talks is PREVENTION, as if we could lower health care just by doing something so we’ll never need it! wow, what a concept…what a dream.
As for the vaccine issue, you know what I mean. ’nuff said.
d
?
“Our present system is outdated, ineffective and unsustainable,” Clinton said at George Washington University. “It is, simply put, broken. As president, I will make it my mission to fix it.”
Oh, for a second there I thought she was talking about a previous gov’t created mess of a ponzi-scheme, Social Security. Maybe she should consider fixing that before creating yet another gigantic drain on our national wealth. I mean, isn’t social security a perfect example of how well the gov’t runs income resditribution schemes? And we want more??
“which Clinton has said would take more than one term as president to achieve….”
Oh Lawdy! She’s already running for 2012!
Seems I’ve read this all before. It brings to mind something I heard once about painting, polishing or plating a cow flop. I think I shall go to the cupboard for to pour two fingers of Black Jack. To cut the “glaze” doncha know.
….Oh, and Unkawill; 50, almost 60 years ago my dad saved a young boy who had a burst appendix. His folks bought him to the house. He was all doubled up, moaning and running a super high fever. (Remember?) Dad did this on the kitchen table with a massive dose of Penicillin. The kid’s, er, man is still alive and walking around in SFO. (Oh, and the test for apendicitis is so simple a cave man can do it).