ROFLMAO!!!    

kenwas you are pointing out yet another unforunate fact, the folks we vote for to represent 'our' interests back in Washington aren't doing such a good job of it.  Hmmm, wonder if the voters will remember that for the next 'election'?

True...so givem jobs keeping up the foreclosed homes...TEACH them how.

Very true. Look at 9/11 and the Bush regime.

Agreed. How about give them 6 months to a solution, and if none reached, they have to return their salaries? What I hate the most about the Health Care thing is that everything is being laid at the Doctor's doorstep. We're guilty. B.S.

Take a look at Insurance Co. CEO's, Pharmaceutical Co. CEO's, Hospital Administrator, Politician, etc salaries over the past 10-20 years. You'll understand who's getting the bucks. It ain't the Doctors.

http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/paywatch/ceou/database.cfm 

But, if you think we are, and if you think the most highly regulated Professionals in the USA are getting anything but grief and blame, you're wrong. Hey...I'm ok with free markets, which isn't what's happening for the Doctors.

If you're tired of the crap your Insurance Co. is handing you, remember: That's stockholder driven medical care. You don't like it? Neither do I. DO something about it.

I'm such a stirrer..

Doc, I don't see anyone blaming the doctors. They are just a cog in a broken system.

Insurance companies are the biggest problem. They take billions of dollars from the system in the interest of profit. I know you know this but some people actually believe the shit they hear. Ins. Companies are not needed. They do not benefit us at all. They benefit themselves.

I am open to a regulated pay scale for those in the health industry. If you are a doctor and you are all about making money, then you can do that in the private sector. If your not a good doctor and can't make it in the pricvate sector then tough shit, you are not a good doctor, you will work for scale.

They benefit the execs and stockholders.

Probably because you don't have the responsibility for lives, nor the investment it took in time and money to earn it.

I say deport him. Just gimme all his skins. 

Yeah. That works. On TV.

V started all this. I hate him. He's on the list. Forever.

Among other lobbying groups in the fight: Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealth Group Inc. has spent $1.5 million in the first quarter, up 34 percent from $1.1 million in the same quarter last year; Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna Inc. spent $809,793, up 41 percent from last year; and Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. and Louisville, Ky.-based Humana Inc. both saw first-quarter spending rise 16 percent to $1.2 million and $370,000, respectively.

Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drugmaker, spent more than $6.1 million lobbying the government in the first quarter on health care reform, drug coverage provided under various government programs and other matters, according to a recent disclosure report.

Here's a start in fixing what's broken...no more lobbiest for ANYTHING.  Let the voters, themselves, talk to their politicians, rather than this hired muscle.

Thanx for confirming what I wrote, Karen. Isn't it time to forbid PAC entry to Washington? Isn't it time to forbid their activity?

Isn't it time to isolate the politicians from their heroin (money)? Federalize the elections. NO direct contribution to any candidate greater than $100. No corporate contributions at all.

Wanna make it happen? Go on a tax boycott.

If there were a way to seperate the Docs that care about there patients from the Docs that care about there wallets, I would love to hear your opinion.

I have built houses for many Doctors. Some are the best people for the job but some don't belong doing what they are doing. They are more concerned about their car than their patients.

I don't want to upset you but I have seen the good and bad. 3 years ago I had a doctor fall asleep during my visit. I shit you not. Right there in front of my eyes while I was explainig my back problems to him. He misdiagnosed me and I had steroid injections into my spine because he didn't read the MRI correctly.

Just like anything else, some characters get in that shouldn't be there.

If you are a good Doc that cares about your patients then you can't be paid enough.

Karen, lose the black ops fantasy and you can be my VP.

How many programmers are out on the street right now because their jobs were devalued and they were replaced by a foreign import with less college debt here on an H1b visa?

That is just shooting ourselves in the foot. It simply won't work. When your local police station gets closed, you will regret it.

Outlawing any type of lobbying is a great idea. When Obama changed his lobbying rules, I lost alot of faith in him.

You have legal recourse...and should use it. If he was tired...home to bed...not on your time, and he needs a really good spanking.

Funny...I wasn't ever in it for the money... glad, because I don't have any. But I have lots of good feelings about the folks I've helped. [I buried the rest]  . Not really. A simple 'thank you' goes a long, long way. 

Fantasies are fun, Craig...this is more like a delusional nightmare.  If health care weren't broken in this country, I'd have access to the things necessary to fix my illness, but the way things are, I just have to live with my delusions and other illnesses, self diagnose myself with the help of Google, and use things I find in the health food store and the farm supply store to deal with what ails me.

If I had just one drop of litigious blood I would have. I just wanted to focus on getting better which I did with exercise and watching what I do. The moron had me 6 weeks from surgery.

I graduated from Sackler Med School...Univ. of Tel-Aviv. I only served in the IDF, learned Hebrew first (all the teaching was in Hebrew)...Yom Kippur War and all the 'non war' actions. Got a scholarship...otherwise I'd be doing something productive.

Lotsa the Docs you mentioned serve in poverty areas, and are grateful to be able to do so. I wish folks could walk a few miles in other folks' shoes...I'd make a fortune treating Athlete's foot.

Back in 1973...on my Archie trip to the UK and Europe....there was a 20 storey office building in London....entirely empty other than a 'janitor'....brand spanking, it was ....but it was also more financially beneficial to its owners to remain empty....rather than tenant it.

The economic system has been screwed for quite a long time....and is entirely no fault of any one individual, certainly NOT the USA's most recently elected President.

Anyone who thinks otherwise is quite simply delusional.

Bulldozing new housing is just plain, fucking stupid, and more evidence of society's values up shit creek.

As for welfare 'leeches' ... the alternative is more crime and thus arguably more cost to the 'tax payer', than the welfare itself.

Solution is:- execute the inept, incapable, disfunctional, and poor.

That'll fix it....;p

Damn you Paul. Now I got a black van following me around.

In a perfect world it seems stupid but this ain't no perfect world. It is just a matter of time before the run down, unmaintained homes get demolished. Do it now and turn the land back into farmland. Grow hemp (not marijuana, thats just stupid) and give the US something to manufacture. Or rebuild as necessary.

Of course me being in Construction, you will have decide what my motivation is.. Muaaaahaaaaaaaahaaaahaaaaaaa.

I don't see much of a downside to it.

About 5 years ago Cisco Systems built a massive complex in my neighboring town. It is unbelieveably huge. Were talking 100 acres of brick and steel. It sits empty, except for a few security vehicles. I don't mind because I have my own little race track to go play at.  It is so much fun. I love Cisco for it.

It's all Jafo's fault. Careful analysis has shown this.

Now the black vans and helicopters are hovering, and he's off in Oz, cackling.

All NT cares about is his damn motorcycle.  The reason? It's black. He blends in with the vans and makes his escape. 

Nope, My STi.

Jafo will never be allowed in the US now.

let's not and say you did.

I pretty sure this is a tongue in cheek but there is a valid point hidden under this rock. if you are not productive (making money) your value to society is limited and you are taking up funds that could be spent on other "things" (whatever that might be). we stiff our youth and elderly because they do not contribute and that is a shame.

want to fix the health care system, nationalize all of the hospitals, turn them over to Kaiser and tell Kaiser to do what they do best. my last dcotor visit was $396US (we have insurance) I was charged for and "office" visit and a "preventive" visit. I went in for "preventive" visit but also got charged for stepping into the examination room. Personally I think the hospitals and insurance companies are in bed with each other to keep health care costs high. who gets the shaft, the doctors and the patients.

Seth, thanks for sharing.

Dunno about that.....from the look of it I'm the only one here who actually likes your Prez.

Of course.....this time last year....

Nuvva story entirely....;p

As far as health care is concerned, it is immensely complicated issue but one thing is clear to me.  I find it impossible to believe that the government can run ANYTHING in a cost effective and productive way.  It is just not conceivable to me, ergo the Post Office and Amtrak, never mind something as immense as the national health care industry.  I also find no evidence of a state run health care system in the world that provides timely services and has not viirtually bankrupted the country.

Kissing up now won't help.

*sigh. doc thinks Jafo would have had a good time here. 

Absolutely correct. Medicare, Medicaid are a mess. No means testing, fraud, unmodified "Entitlement"....sorry, the whole thing has to be redone:

Multipayer, competition, means testing, gradually decreasing entitlement with age. Sorry, but if you wish to get a handle on price that's the way.

Most folks want a balance: Quality and price. I've yet to see anyone in D.C. talk about that.

What we're going to end up with is far less than we deserve, and it's the system which has to change: From top to bottom. I want to know who is making the money. I want to know who and what is driving the inflation. There should be figures which prove that.

I am behind him for the most part. He just needs to stop his "please like me" tour and grow some nuts. He beats around the BUSH way too much. Tell it like it is for a change.