Yikes.
UPDATE: I’ve just now noticed that if you squint just so, you can see the part labeled “consumers” tucked away on the far left side. Big giant things called “Bureau of Health Information” and “Health Choices Administrator” occupy Paul Lynde’s square. Shouldn’t something involving health maybe put the consumers in the middle? Just asking.
And “Health Choices Administrator” sounds a bit too Orwellian for my tastes.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Jaymaster, in the comments:
I’m worried about those undefined acronyms.
I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them translates into “Soylent Green”.
That’s OK. According to the Left, Soylent Green is people, too.
Looking at that chart, I’m reminded of the incident many years ago in which a visitor from the People’s Republic of China asked some Americans who was in charge of getting our materials to the right place for manufacturing, eating, etc., and couldn’t believe that there was no person nor agency in charge, because the market took care of it.
Wouldn’t “Hechad” sound even more Orwellian, in the spirit of “Minitruth” and “Minilove” in 1984?
Please tell me this is a parody.
I’m worried about those undefined acronyms.
I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them translates into “Soylent Green”.
HHS to States: “Federal Mandates for Website Design”…?
This is your Colon.
This is your Colon as viewed by a US Government Colonoscope that is operated by a SEIU government worker, paid scale and hired for reasons other than competency.
Any Questions?
Holy Hip Replacement Batman! Not only are we “consumers”(I would prefer the term “patients”) on the sidelines but so are the “providers” aka doctors.
Those with aging parents better pull their heads out of Obama’s ass, because they will be on the hook when this Ponzi scheme refuses a hospital stay, drug, treatment or nursing home care for Mom & Dad.
Keep this monstrosity in mind every time Obama or one of his media lackeys use the phrase “more efficient”.
In a sane world, sight of that thing alone would turn anyone against this naked power grab.
Republican plan:
http://www.tnr.com/yourhealthcaresystem.html
Well, JD, at least the “Republican” plan has ME in big and bold right at the top.
Also, with the (quite dreadful, harmful and irresponsible) exception of Medicare Part D, the “Republican” plan was put in place by… Democrats. You know, if that’s the game you want to play.
So, you want blame Democrats for it?
AND you still want to stick with it!
I won’t even argue; just give the rest of US a chance to have a plan that can work, like every other industrialized nation on earth.
Stick with it?
If it’s a choice between a slow-acting poison and a fast-acting cancer, I’ll take the poison.
Frankly, I’d just scrap the lot of it — but I think you knew that already. But, anyway, thanks for trying to tar me with that old brush.
JD –
PS The guy who slipped me the poison? I’d rather not trust him to treat the cancer. Call it a “thing” of mine.
BJM, you’ve already been advised to skip that expensive ol’, complicated ol’ life-prolonging brain surgery and just take the pain medication already. We have a lot of human underbrush to clear out here.
So did anybody notice that while consumers have premiums and tax arrows leading away from them, and health care flowing to them,
ALL the arrows lead AWAY from health care providers? I don’t see, for example, payment for services. Perhaps that isn’t a discernible portion of the plan.
Oh, but they do get “Cultural and Linguistic Competence Training”. Can’t leave that out.
Thank you for your reply; I wish I’d checked back.
“Frankly, I’d just scrap the lot of it…”
What does this mean?
No HMOs? No Mecicare? No medical care?
Any plan for health care for hundreds of millions of people has to be complex.
Really look (above) at the Republican caricature of the worst case option of the Democratic plan; ignore the gratuitous acronyms, gratuitous typefaces, gratuitous colors, gratuitous glyphs, gratuitous arrows, and look at the what the caricature tries to hide: an improvement over the current US medical system.
If you know of a better and politically feasible option than Obamacare, please post the URL.
The status quo, terrible as it is, is preferable to that House abomination.
The biggest mistake you make, however, is that there must be “a plan.” Who says? Why must government dictate my, your, or anyone else’s options?
I mean, we got into the whole mess of employer-insurance during WWII, as a way around government-imposed wage controls. Everything Washington has done since then has only compounded the initial injury.
Government created the problem? Why, then government must be the cure! Well — no.
Yes, I’d scrap the lot of it, and let the genius of the American people decide what’s best for each of them. Without government, medicine and medical care wouldn’t disappear; it would prosper.
“Yes, I’d scrap the lot of it, and let the genius of the American people decide what’s best for each of them.”
You mean the American people who want public insurance by more than 2 to 1?
I agree.
“Without government, medicine and medical care wouldn’t disappear; it would prosper.”
It already does; the impoverished patients, the uninsured, the under insured, the people who find out that the insurance they spent years paying for is worthless when they actually need it… not so much.
Yet, even the AMA signed on to Obamacare.
Free market free enterprise capitalism does most things very well; other things, like the interstate highways, the internet, law enforcement, etc. seem to require government, much as we may loathe it.
Free market competition has proven, in every nation on earth, that government does health care better.
Canada did not establish its national health care program with a bold, immediate political move by the federal government… universal, publicly-funded “single-payer” health care… in Saskatchewan proved to be so successful and so popular that it was eventually adopted by other provinces and, ultimately, by Canada’s federal government.
Parenthetically, free markets and governments seem to both compete with and depend on each other.
Canada is a failure…..
Money is fungible.
David Malleau awoke in hospital with a gaping hole in his skull.
The 44-year-old Hamilton truck driver had suffered a devastating car accident in 2004 that forced doctors at Hamilton General Hospital to remove a fist-sized piece of bone from his skull to relieve pressure on his brain.
Once the swelling subsided and he was ready for surgery in March 2005, Malleau was sent home and placed on a waiting list.
Three months passed. Then six. He waited at home, a prisoner unable to leave the house for fear something would hit the exposed side of his brain – for him a potentially fatal incident. In the end, it took nearly a year before he could get skull replacement surgery.
If Malleau lived anywhere else but Ontario, the provincial ombudsman’s office could have investigated why he had to wait so long for neurosurgery….
Canada is not a failure; hence the increasing barriers to the increasing numbers of US citizens trying to immigrate.
Your writing, “Money is fungible” seems to mean that rich people already get fine health care; agreed.
At the end of your post you write, “If Malleau lived anywhere else but Ontario, the provincial ombudsman’s office could have investigated…” Provincial rights, like states rights, provide problems as well as flexibility. Ontario could have adopted the proven successful legislation from Sasketchewan; as you wrote, that obviously that didn’t happen, Ontario made an exception of itself, and David Malleu almost certainly suffered an unnecessarily early death as a result.
I’ve read the David Malleau story several times since 2004; he died last year. His tragedy forced legislation to prevent such a disaster from ever happening again, which explains why Republicans have to keep harping on the same personal tragedy, which explains why I keep getting it.
Perhaps someone could find a more recent failure, or at least a different failure, north of our border? Also, please realize that this happens daily in the US as people “find out that the insurance they spent years paying for is worthless when they actually need it.”
http://stories.barackobama.com/healthcare/
Here is a print friendly URL for an article on the Malleaus:
http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/216280
Please read the whole article, and note:
“If Malleau lived anywhere else [in Canada] but Ontario, the provincial ombudsman’s office could have investigated why he had to wait so long for neurosurgery.
When patients or their families feel their complaints about the hospital system are falling on deaf ears, there is no independent body in Ontario with the power to conduct an independent investigation. All other Canadian provinces give their ombudsmen power to scrutinize hospitals…
“The position of hospitals continues to be, `Let’s keep our dirty laundry to ourselves,’” says Ontario Ombudsman André Marin. “There’s tens of billions of dollars signed away in the form of a blank cheque to run health care. (Independent oversight) is a complete no-brainer … It’s frankly embarrassing.”
With nowhere to turn, Pat Malleau, who quit her job in order to care for her house-bound husband… she never got a satisfactory reason for the lengthy delay and was shocked by the lack of response from hospital officials.”
In short, in this case, Ontario = USA. The rest of Canada did does better; now, so does Ontario… and so can we.
You can read more here:
http://www.thespec.com/article/198814
http://ontariondp.com/node/10
“… patients deserve a bill of rights to ensure they can have access to quality and timely care.”
Again, you can look at US health care here:
http://stories.barackobama.com/healthcare/