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One more observation: if replacing that corporate bureaucrat with a government bureaucrat is so socialistically awful, then why aren't you and your fellow morons out there demanding an end to Medicare? "Hell no, we won't take Medicare!"
And let's not forget the Veterans Administration. Let's make all those former soldiers go out and buy health insurance like everyone else, the little leeches. Right? Well, either that's right or you're wrong about the public option.
The Public Option is Socialized Medicine
"Paging doctor Marx, Dr. Marx, Dr. Engels needs the communal anal-thermometer, stat.."
Look you knuckleheads, we already have socialized medicine. Every time you figure out what you're paying for health insurance every year, add to it approximately $1100. That's what you're paying to cover the 50 million un- and under-insured Americans. Yep.. you're paying for all that "free government" health care that has to be provided by hospitals by law.
So, another hard choice confronts you: Do you want to change the law, or change the system? Want to just deny medical care to the uninsured? "Let'em eat camomile!"
Or we can change the system to enlarge the actuarial pool by making insurance affordable to 98% of Americans. One way to do that is to inject a low-cost public run plan into the mix, forcing down costs, creating real competition for private insurance companies for the first time, and sparking a revolution in medical industry efficiency, technology and delivery.
If you don't want to do that, then maybe you should reconsider your opposition to forced euthenasia, not for Sarah Palin's baby or granny, but uninsured patients.
They Will Ration Medical Care
Whatsamatta bucko? Were you born with an ugly nose? Got Gucci-size bags under your eyes? Want bigger, perkier boobs? Well if so, you're right. You're not getting them paid for.
If you really want your beak chopped and lowered, your bags emptied or your boobs hydraulically lifted, you're going to have pony up the dough yourself.
So, if that's what you mean by rationing of medical care, you're right.
Oh, and one more thing. You think there's no rationing right now? Just try to stick your private insurance company with those kind vanity procedures and see how fast they tell you to get used to your body the way it is.
Another one more thing. This isn't part of any of the reforms I've read about so far, but ought to be. We Baby Boomers are about as self-indulgent bunch as you'll ever meet. In our 60's now we insist on trying to do the same things we did when were 25. Which has meant we're two-legged ATM machines for the orthopedic industry.
Ortho docs see the same guys over and over, coming in for another knee job because they're still out there on the basketball court trying to slam dunk with the kids. Or the gal with her fourth torn rotator cuff from playing tennis. They come in with one demand, "Fix me again so I get back out there on the court."
If I were medical tsar I'd have a rule: One rotator cuff, one knee tendon, one ankle, one elbow fix, one sports-related fix per geriatric patient. If they come back in again, with the same problem, due to the same age-denying stupidity, they get handed a cane. At least that will keep them off the court, for good. Fixing the same people, over and over again, for the the same self-inflicted wound, is not good medical care, it's enabling. And we simply can't afford it. Some would call that "rationing." I call it tough love.
