Health care provisions in H.R. 1

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I heard this from my mother earlier today. Believe me, she was furious.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I heard this from my mother earlier today. Believe me, she was furious.

Just remembering how Rostenkowski was attacked a few years ago when he suggested reductions in ss.

If the Republicans had any brains (well, they wouldn't have nominated McCain), but they would send out a mailer to all registered voters who are over 55 telling them about this.

     Indeed. Though my mother hated Obama anyway, other people, some of whom will have been Obama supporters, will catch wind of this as well.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I heard this from my mother earlier today. Believe me, she was furious.

I'm curious -- what would she prefer?  Increased federal spending with no rationing at all, or a rationing system that artificially gave credit to the elderly due to their age, at expense of the young?  Would she/you be furious at any sort of cut, because of support for universalized healthcare?

I apologize if this is a false dichotomy.

     She would prefer more the former. She sees this as the equivalent of the Inuit putting their elderly out on an ice floe to die.

     FTR, I don't support universal health care (anymore) so much as I support a change to the system. By its nature, the health care industry seems useless if it cannot be trusted to serve its customers. Doesn't mean that I believe in getting rid of the system.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I heard this from my mother earlier today. Believe me, she was furious.

I'm curious -- what would she prefer?  Increased federal spending with no rationing at all, or a rationing system that artificially gave credit to the elderly due to their age, at expense of the young?  Would she/you be furious at any sort of cut, because of support for universalized healthcare?

I apologize if this is a false dichotomy.

     She would prefer more the former. She sees this as the equivalent of the Inuit putting their elderly out on an ice floe to die.

     FTR, I don't support universal health care (anymore) so much as I support a change to the system. By its nature, the health care industry seems useless if it cannot be trusted to serve its customers. Doesn't mean that I believe in getting rid of the system.

I thought you had more sense than Alcon. 

     I used to be really pro-universal health care (due more to my personal issues with the industry than anything else, as immature as that is). Nowadays I realize that there are far less intrusive ways of dealing with health care costs. In that sense, I guess I'm getting somewhere, though I still need to do research into the full array of small-government alternatives to a government health insurance program.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I heard this from my mother earlier today. Believe me, she was furious.

I'm curious -- what would she prefer?  Increased federal spending with no rationing at all, or a rationing system that artificially gave credit to the elderly due to their age, at expense of the young?  Would she/you be furious at any sort of cut, because of support for universalized healthcare?

I apologize if this is a false dichotomy.

     She would prefer more the former. She sees this as the equivalent of the Inuit putting their elderly out on an ice floe to die.

     FTR, I don't support universal health care (anymore) so much as I support a change to the system. By its nature, the health care industry seems useless if it cannot be trusted to serve its customers. Doesn't mean that I believe in getting rid of the system.

But if funding is limited, you have to put someone else on the ice floe.  Is putting a 24-year-old with 60 years to live out to pasture worse than cutting care to a 75-year-old?  Lower treatment efficacy, just to avoid "age discrimination"?

I'm not understanding what you're advocating in this situation.

     This is my mother, not me. I don't necessarily think that her position makes sense.

     Anyway, her approach to a situation like that would basically be that of triage. She thinks that survivability should be the major deciding factor.