Pat Oliphant for September 25, 2013

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    SHAKENDOWN  over 10 years ago

    Junk in the trunk.

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    rockngolfer  over 10 years ago

    Politifact has a top 16 myths about Obamacare because a top 10 wasn’t enough..http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2013/sep/24/top-16-myths-about-health-care-law/

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    lonecat  over 10 years ago

    You’re absolutely right that there are other systems. I don’t know much about them, however. I would like to know what the difference is between the ordinary Swiss plan and the Cadillac plan — what isn’t covered in the ordinary plan? There was a time in Ontario (I think I’m right about this) when you could pay extra for a private hospital room, but I don’t believe that’s allowed any more. But the care was the same no matter. If it’s that kind of difference, I suppose it’s okay. Some years back I had an operation performed at one of the very few private clinics in Toronto, and I had to pay $300 extra — not for the operation, which was covered by the provincial plan. But for the extra money, the clinic was much fancier than the other hospitals in town, carpets, nice chairs, that sort of thing, and they gave me chocolate cookies when I came for the post-op appointment. Very expensive cookies. Anyway, about a year later the owners of the clinic skipped town with some millions of dollars they had been skimming. Eventually they were brought back and I think they’re in jail now. So that didn’t give me a super good feeling about public/private systems.

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    Alexander the Good Enough  over 10 years ago

    Ahem. As I’ve noted here in the past…There is a very good and politically practical reason why “single payer” health care didn’t and won’t get off the ground here in the U. S. of A. Nearly every medical practice/clinic typically has several people working on aspects of “medical billing,” including the physicians themselves, and the “medical billing” departments of hospitals can run to hundreds of employees. And then there is a corresponding number of workers on the other side at the insurance companies. In addition, there are all the administrators, lawyers, accountants and others that are ancillary to the business. Any significant streamlining, let alone the elimination, of the insurance racket would put most of these people out of their jobs. That would no doubt add up to an astonishing number of people unemployed if we went to a far more economically efficient and rational single payer system. The political implications of that are obvious and utterly unacceptable to both the Demipublicans and Republicrats.But then Ted Cruz and his kind of Traitor Party Republicans really don’t care so much about all that. They have a different set of problems that are quite entirely their own.

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    edward thomas Premium Member over 10 years ago

    Facts wrong again. Congress will no longer be able to use the FEHBP. They will have to use the exchanges, but will possibly qualify for “subsidy”. Politifact interview on WOSU, which “myth-busted” so-called facts on BOTH sides yesterday.

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    BillH77  over 10 years ago

    Some of you leftists are in for a really rude shock starting on 1 October.

    So be it.

    One can only hope that some of you over 60 geezers know the people who will be evaluating your health care evaluations. To paraphrase the Soup Nazi, “No new hip for you! Use that wheel chair, old man!!!”

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