Tom Toles for October 14, 2012

It’s amazing how many folks are wiling to shoot themselves in the head, right handed at that.

Don’t worry. As Mitt recently said, no one dies because they don’t have health insurance. Isn’t that reassuring?

Somehow the rest of the hospital above the emergency room gives the impression of being a prison. I wonder if that was deliberate or if I’m just reading things into it that Toles didn’t put into the strip?

I’m very interested in knowing how many of the right wing ignorati know the actual name of Obama’s health bill. They mimic the Fox ‘news’ idiots and say ‘Obamacare’, and I bet not one in three could tell you the true name. You haters might want to think on that a bit.

If poor working people can afford regular preventative care, regular checkups and care through their family physician, they are far less likely to develop life threatening illnesses that force them into the outrageously expensive emergency rooms. This is the part of the system, as it is now, that costs other people so much money. It’s better than letting people die, of course, but a poor substitute for a real national healthcare program that would maintain the health of the citizens rather than casting them off into high cost emergency situations. Single payer is the way to get to a really good healthcare system. What we have now is one that is rated 47th in the world! 47th! Far from being the best healthcare system in the world. It’s expensive and inefficient. Obamacare takes us a little bit down the road to a better system. The conservative idea of leaving it as it is now, is just a failure of common sense. Vote for Obama!

Yeah R’money wants everyone who can’t afford health insurance to go to the emergency room on the taxpayer dime. Not going to reduce the deficit that way Wrongway Mitt!.That’s happening now. Open your eyes.

Thanks for the link. Here’s one paragraph from late in the article:

Of fundamental consequence would be Romney’s tax and budget policies. If his proposals for a balanced budget, defense spending hikes, and nondefense spending reductions are achieved, all nondefense programs except Social Security would require cuts averaging 29% in 2016 and 59% in 2022. Included would be Medicare, Medicaid, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Veterans Health Administration, and every other federal health program. Absent the balanced-budget requirement, cuts of 40% would still be required by 2022. It is difficult to contemplate federal health spending reductions at such unprecedented levels. As Kaiser Family Foundation tracking polls show, public support for Medicare and Medicaid surpasses 80%, with strong support even among Republican and Tea Party–identified voters.

One of the better points of Obama’s health care bills was that hospitals which currently foot the bill for uninsured patients would get reimbursed for their charity. One hospital administrator of my acquaintance told me that his hospital saw an increase of $50 million of reimbursements for treating indigents. I’d like to see Mittens do the same.

Lots of good comments here. Some are true! Our local hospital says in a quarterly newsletter that the ACA will save them over $51 million a year by not cariing for those without insurance that is normally passed on to those with insurance. My doctor says it will more closely reflect payment he receives from medicare. Thanks to the last Congress for stopping a 20% cut in Medicare reimbursement.

I recently got a flu shot. It was provided ‘free’, i.e. it was added to my coverage for no charge.-I have no statistics, but I’m guessing that for every million flu shots, the providers collectively avoid about half a million phone calls, 2 – 300,000 dr visits and Rx, and maybe 50k visits to the E R along with a few hospitalizations. -If you don’t like my numbers, you can make up your own, but the savings are significant and increase as the shots are more widespread. -Why you wouldn’t want to apply this on a national scale (or more) is beyond me.-I guess it’s those 47% scum that won’t pay for their flu shots. I guess it’s not my job, or especially Republicans’ job to worry about them.-You would think that even Republicans would comprehend the economics of the situation, but they are more interested in expressing hatred for the 47%.

I’d love to know what all of those doctors are going to do after they leave their practices because of Obamacare.An M.D. working for a small practice makes about $150k a year. Specialist tend to make much more. I don’t see them making that much money by working at Wal-Mart.We need to figure out ways to educate more doctors and decrease the cost of getting an M.D. Republicans aren’t going to do anything about that.

Having watched my wife go through 6 surgeries, 11 procedures, and more pre/post/followup appointments in the last 19 months, I’ve had much time to hang out with medical professionals. My own 2 surgeries et al in the same time period are giving me more.There is a solution. It will need to be adjusted in small ways state by state, city by city, need by need.It must be lobbyist free. No one corp or group of corp should be given a place in the decision making process as they will be compromised by their desire to suppress competition and increase profitability. Its not wrong for them to profit, its just wrong to let them set standards for how services from which they’d profit be written.My son went 2 years without medical insurance and stopped playing soccer or other activities that could effect him financially until his business made it possible to do so.Had the insured until 25 rule been in place, he would have been insured without interupption.I pay insurance in order to drive my car. The majority of medical professionals to whom I’ve spoken, whether they are D or R, feel that everyone who CAN afford the insurance should have to buy it, and those who can’t—The opinions become mixed at best.If the boat has a hole in the bottom and the only thing I can jamb into it is a sock…don’t yell at each other about how stupid the sock idea is…give us a better idea. At least the leak has slowed, but if we don’t do something, we’re going down.Respectfully,C.

Here’s the fix. 9 minutes. Worth watching whole thing.http://www.pbs.org/newshour/video/module.html?mod=0&pkg=28082009&seg=5

Jude: Except for one little detail: we don’t have the right to vote for president, 534 anonymous elite alone have that right. In officially designated “swing states” there is a slight influence, but the anonymous elite there don’t have to follow the citizens’ vote in their own. Otherwise, it won’t mean a thing if your state cannot swing. You might as well cast a protest vote for Jill Stein and the Green Party. At least that would help build a viable opposition which favors both the medical system civilized nations use, and work toward permitting you, the citizen, to actually cast a meaningful vote for president.

Yeah, right. - "It’s not my job to worry about those people.-“Hey! Corporations are people, my friend!”

Romney is a moron. We ALL need doctors formore than just emergencies. The ER is NOT a PCP!