Obama is guaranteeing affordable health care for the uninsured?

The primary reason that -no- socialized program works is due to the absence of market feedback or market indicators. The application of a government-run system destroys the function of a marketplace, which are the only indicators for the government to "plan". In a government-run system, there exists no measurement for the application and distribution of funds. Even the most basic decision in health care is exponentially complex in a system void of "price". Individuals are no longer self-regulated by price/individual income; in their minds, it is now suddenly a "right" - demand will exceed supply.

A good example would be your car insurance/payment. You realize that you must pay X amount of dollars for the car itself, and X amount of dollars for insurance, and you realize that this car must last and maintain value for X number of years. Therefore, you drive carefully, wash, clean, and maintain the vehicle with routine oil changes and checkups. You know that if you abuse the car, it will cost you dearly. That is the essence of self-regulation via price. Imagine if this vehicle wasn't yours. Or, if it was paid for by a faceless entity. Imagine if you knew that no matter what you did, the maintenance and repairs were paid for by that same faceless entity. You would have no incentive to maintain a cost-saving or preventative mentality. While you may at first, the "natural law" of human beings soon takes over. :)

The same phenomenon occurs with health. When a faceless entity is paying for your health care, you have no INCENTIVE to eat properly, exercise, seek preventative care, limit your visits, etc.

This is basic economic law. There is no escaping this fundamental premise. No amount of money can solve the problem. More money, ironically exacerbates the problem. Health care, like anything else, is a scarce resource and the only thing that allows or creates the availability that we now have is through the self-regulation of price.

Lastly, the reasons why health care and insurance costs are so high are due solely to governmental regulation, influence, control, and the ideology that insurance should cover every conceivable doctor visit. Insurance is designed to insure catastrophic issues, not visits, shots, medicine, etc. The health care and health insurance industry is one of the most anti/non-competitive markets we have. Like our standard markets, it has experienced more and more regulation from the 1920s until now, but HMO legislation (thank you Democrat friends...) and FDA regulation was the largest body-blow in recent history to drive up costs and create more dependency on insurance.

People who cite that we spend the greatest amount of money on our health care misses the point. This is a great example of correlation vs. causation. Their argument is fundamentally flawed as it starts in the middle or the end of the problem, rather than attack the cause of the problem. We have the finest health care in the world - it actually increases in overall quality the older one becomes - the problem is the dependence upon insurance to cover the high cost of procedures which are directly related to market manipulation, regulation, and control via the federal government.

I can easily go on, but this is the general answer to your question. ;P

P.S. That 46 million figure includes:

10.1 million are individuals who have income of $66,000 for a family of four, but who elect to remain uninsured.

9.3 million are non-citizens who generally do not pay tax.

6.4 million who are enrolled in Medicaid or S-CHIP but reported to the Census taker that they were not. (This phenomenon is known among statisticians as the Medicaid undercount.)

4.3 million are eligible for Medicaid or S-CHIP but have not enrolled.

5 million are childless adults, mainly healthy, young adults who simply do not wish to pay for insurance (I am in this category).

Performing simple math this equates to: 10.9 million Americans without insurance. This is less than 4% of the population. Throwing out the economics, the Constitution, and ethics, do you honestly believe it is "fair" or even remotely makes sense to enslave 96% of the population to address 4% of the population?

The lie is that we do not want health care/insurance reform... WE DO! A government takeover is not reform. We want to repeal a host of laws, regulations, and controls so we can actually return to a functioning and competitive market that works for ALL other goods and services. Health care and health insurance is fundamentally no different than culinary cuisine, clothing, and home insurance.

Government is already paying for many of the uninsured when they finally go to the ER and cannot pay so the government plan would just make it so that everybody is covered and they can actually get help before something is serious and will lower what is already being spent. The U.S. spends both the most per capita on health care in the Western Industrialized World and the most in actual dollars from government. Consider that, the U.S. is spending more in total and as a percentage of GDP than anywhere else to cover fewer people and provide worse care.

Considering how much the working class takes home to the amount of those fixed welfare recipients ratios, I don't see the reality of this improving our healthcare system... As the current privatized insurance company's will be thrown out of competition.

The less than 1/6th of the population of the country are uninsured. 20 or so million of them are illegals, the other 10 or so million are 20 and 30 year old's that seem to think they don't need it -- that its a hassle.. Which leaves about 10 million that really can't afford it.

--I don't have medical insurance. My job offers a really crappy plan. However, I'm also registered with the VA-- they don't help much either.

Since I don't get sick much does not prove anything, but I feel as if I my lack of medical insurance is tolerable at this time. It is simply quite cheaper than having half my monthly income go to insurance as my job's plans aren't worth it.

Thus, it is quite cheaper for me to go to the VA and pay a 25 dollar deductible. I know this is a govt. expense, and I disagree with it to an extent. However, I don't exactly fall in the hypocrite bunch as I am a veteran... I still have to sit in line for 15 hours and even though most of the time, they are service-connected (meaning that I developed these conditions through the military), I still get shitty services... As all veterans do.

Which is unsatisfactory, but unlike myself, many deserve higher qualities of care.

I don't agree with the bill because I don't believe in the government interfering the lives of it's citizens. There is no reason for a middle man, nor a reason for the government to act as a intervenire on the people's behalf-- making life/ death decisions. That's ludicrous!

I'd like to see myself finally escaping the erroneous repetative work routine and branch out into growing my small business full-time. The idea being introduced to some competetive insurance rates is indeed in the future...

But HR 3200 and the current admin will kill my plans and make it very hard for the current economy to withstand particular blows, which will just put us back into a recession. Probably worse off than we are now.

If we had used the money that was spent on the Stimulus, on more productive programs like stateside manufacturing and backyard drilling, we could have thrown the rest into a pile and let sit. We needed to save our cold hard cash... The Stimulus was to save nearly 2.5 million jobs, indefinately losing 500,000 in the process. But the damn thing had so many flaws in the network itself, as having so many overlays of future programs that would have been funded no matter what. We ended up losing 1.5 million more in the aftermath of passing the Stimulus anyway... The Stimulus even covers funding for the current unpassed healthcare reform bill HR 3200... It's rediculous!

I don't trust anything this man is allowing. The left has the mentality that everyone wants this piece of **** on the table. We need to recycle this into toilet paper and turn up the volume on public intellectuals that have a financial clue; not necessarily public officials.

Everyone keeps on bashing Bush.. Bush has been out of office for a little over half a year. Hell, Barrack makes Bush look like a coupon-clipping housewife!

Speaking of trust, Obama can be shot down knowing that though he promised transparency, we have yet to see this?

HR 3200 says on the bill itself that the Stimulus has productive reserves to positively fund it's employees for the initial three months.

I don't recall hearing/ reading that the Stimulus Bill would assist in the financial development of "Healthcare Reform 2009." I don't even recall being allowed to track a Stimulus Bill Citation?

Sometimes the most simplistic questions become the best!

--Rob USMC

To add to Jamie's fiery and correct post: Even if the government did not force or mandate what the private insurers must provide to their clients, the law of averages dictates that eventually a disproportionate amount of people would be on the public plan (socialized medicine) and bankrupt the private industry.

To make matters worse, the tax code... which they have no intention of changing (it is getting worse)... makes it more advantageous for an employer to take the tax penalty rather than offer the employees insurance. Which means that under this legislation, they would automatically be FORCED to take the public plan. Do you still think we're fear mongering?

☼Solar☼ "Eliminating paper and going electronically will save close to a trillion dollars. Besides taxpayers already pay for those without insurance at the local county hospitals."

LOL!

Do you have any idea as to how ridiculous you sound? Do you realize that you're suggesting just under 1/2 of what you spend on health care is in PAPER? You think we're nutty when we bring pure economics and history to the table, but you say things like this and you expect to be taken seriously? Not one of you (who want this system) could even begin to tell me how an economy functions, yet you "believe" the system will work. The directors of government-run health care systems in my country (and other countries) are begging and warning you not to go to this system, but you think it's right-wing fear mongering?

I'm convinced that Y!A is a breeding ground for the least intelligent in our population. The demographics confirm this, actually.

Every single government-run health care system in the world is either bankrupt or reaching bankruptcy. All of you who are wishing for this system are incoherent, illiterate, and being led like lambs to the slaughter. Private corporations cannot compete with public entities due to tax dollars lowering the public entities' operating cost below the market's ability to stay afloat. But NOOOOO.... you'll be able to keep your private insurance! It will bring in competition! Right? WRONG! This is so basic it's ridiculous that is must be explained.

UPS and FedEx cannot offer first, second, and third class mail at competitive prices, so they compete with different products and services. Congress, according to this bill, will FORCE what private insurers must insure... it has to meet the same plan as the government plan. The government doesn't force UPS and FedEx to compete with them in the same product lines. They can't compete against the government in a same-product realm, because they are funded by TAX DOLLARS NOT BY DIRECT PAYMENT FROM THE CUSTOMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You people are ridiculously ignorant and you're taking your (I'm soon to be a citizen of) country down the tubes. Thanks, public education!

I was coming to America to escape socialism, and you're trying your hardest to create even more!

The affordable health care is a myth. It will not lower the cost of health care. It will increase the cost of health care. Only those who don't pay taxes will have free health care. The rest of us are going to be taxed into the stone age.

This health care "reform" is going to create THE BIGGEST government bureaucracy the world has EVER seen. And as the thinking people know, the government is a consumer that feeds off the producers - "We the people"

There are no guarantees in life, except: death and taxes...

There are no safeguards built into the proposed legislation that protects the American People from governmental abuse, either now or in the future...

The Democrats have already proved themselves to be untrustworthy with the check book bailing out the millionaires and billionaires and acting like spoiled little rich kids playing monopoly with corporate assets ( G.E., G.M., AIG, Chrysler, et al).

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No. The public option would be paid for via premiums much like any other insurance plan.

The existence of a public option also encourages competition for customers among private companies, who will have good reason to offer better pricing, better options and improved coverage to patients.

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Eliminating paper and going electronically will save close to a trillion dollars. Besides taxpayers already pay for those without insurance at the local county hospitals.