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The health care debate, Taibbi-style
The guy who ripped apart Goldman Sachs in Rolling Stone has a new target. The magazine's latest issue has Matt Taibbi eviscerating the health care system and the US government. And today, on CNBC, he and Maria Bartiromo really got into it.
Here's Rolling Stone's summary of Taibbi's article:
America's disastrous health care system is responsible for incalculable amounts of illness, death, lost productivity and federal deficit -- not to mention anxiety, anger and disgrace. And it's not going to get fixed, writes Matt Taibbi in the new issue of Rolling Stone, because it's encased in another failed system: the U.S. government. Rather than attempt to remedy the problem this summer, our government sat down and demonstrated its dizzying ineptitude. "We might look back on this summer someday and think of it as the moment when our government lost us for good," writes Taibbi. "It was that bad."
And his tussle with Maria on CNBC:
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In this debate I've not heard one person bring up the postal service.
The postal service is clearly established by the constitution as a government monopoly in very simple language. It's been that way since the birth of our country. Does that make us a socialist country? No.
Secondly we have allowed other services to develop in the meantime as competition, FedEx and UPS to name two. If you want their more superior service you are free to send your parcel with them, just pay up.
The postal service provides a cheap, safe and secure means of communication to the people of this country. It may not be the best, it may not be fun or convenient, and most of us dread going there. But it is an option.
I bet you postage wouldn't be 44 cents if we let the free market determine what the going rate was.
People with insurance are getting soaked by the system. I fought one hospital for over 6 months over a $750 emergency charge for an ace bandage (the entire bill for a finger x-ray was over $1000, the $750 was just for them to tell me it was not broken and give me an elastic bandage).
I tried to get a copy of their billing policy and the hospital refused. I even filed a complaint with the state AG who said they can't do anything about arbitrary charges and that the hospital does not have to give you their prices up front.
Ridiculous!
the point she is completely missing, is there is nothing in the UK that stops you from PAYING for the drugs themselves. Nothing in the UK system stops you buying top-up insurance that adds-on to what the UK system provides, better rooms, different hospitals, less proven drugs where you can't get them from the NHS.
The woman interviewer is really arrogant and obnoxious. I am weary of these right wing idiots parroting the same thing over "I don't want the federal government deciding what healthcare I get". Oh, so you really think it's <b>better</b> to have a public corporation — whose massive profits depend on you NOT getting health care — decide what you get?
Let's get real. The whole layer of corporate profits must be removed from the equation.
<i>I am weary of these right wing idiots parroting the same thing over “I don’t want the federal government deciding what healthcare I getâ€. Oh, so you really think it’s better to have a public corporation — whose massive profits depend on you NOT getting health care — decide what you get?</i>
I'm not a right wing idiot, but I'd much rather have a public corporation decide rather than the federal government. By the time the government got back to me with their decision, I'd be dead anyway.
I'm also more leery of the left wing idiots that you seem to be parroting than the right wing idiots you seem to demonize, but not by much.
