I pay Fed income taxes in four different scenarios, and nine states, to boot...and I guarantee I pay more in taxes this week than you have in the past ten years...and not only do my taxes pay for your health care, the 10% excise tax I pay on everything fishing related pays for federal programs to promote fish and fisheries.

Sitting on your ass all day behind a computer does not give you much of a leg to stand on when you are talking about paying taxes and working.

Fish on...

Todd

I suppose if I were in violation it would be relevent, but since I'm not, you're just bloviating.......................................... again.

I don't know why, but I do feel the need to chime in here. I can join Todd in saying I am now uninsured. After years of paying over $2,000 a month for horrible health care, I hit a slow spot in my job and couldn't keep it up. I wanted to swith to a high deductable, but guess what. No one will cover my son or wife under that type of policy. Its either the group policy of just under $2,000 a month or nothing. The joke was when they told me they wouldn't cover my wife because she never had surgery for her endimeitriosis. Same company that kept her from getting the same surgery for the last 3 years we had the policy.
I thought about putting her back on until after the surgery, but realized they would fight me so long I might as well just pay cash for it since it probably will be less than the premiums.
Like Todd probably can, I can pay for most of my health care needs. What is scary is if something real bad happens. That means I will probably be forced into bankruptcy. If the government really wanted to help the uninsured public, they would simply impliment a high end casulty policy for all americans, based off of your yearly income. For those making little or no money, they would pay a small copay or cap and be covered for the rest. For those of us making a little more, we may be faced with paying 10% of our annual income. That means a family making $20,000 is responsible for the first $2,000 of their care each year, and so on. We all get to chose our primary doctors. We all would shop around to get the best price. Seems to me it is more reasonable then telling people to just pay up to the breaking point and then making them go bankrupt.

Now exactly WHO didn't see this coming?

Bingo . Very well said RVW.

And thank you Marsha for holding the fort down for your family, so he could concentrate on serving our Country.

4 Salt, Todd, KK, and GoHarley, Thank you & your spouse's for helping to keep this country safe if you served in the Armed Forces.

Mf

Ding, ding, ding!! There it is folks, the "poor ol' pitiful me, I'm the victim" card. So predictable. So pathetically predictable. But speaking of waste, I'd consider you a waste of human flesh and an oxygen thief as well.

For the claims that public health care for those who need it already exists, it does... have you ever tried it? Maybe its great in OR, it isnt most places and it is not only limited but it is also reliant on availability... I know, no sympathy right? Well as long as it isn't my kids or grand kids...

Is giving money to claim denying / policy dropping insurance companies really better? If so, are you a CEO of an insurance company? If not are you beer bonging GOP Kool Aide?

To champion the system that has been raping Americans for years on one hand and say that the liberals wanting a baseline government health care system (that actually works and allows you to still throw as much premium money toward any CEO's salary you wish) just want to spend "MY HARD EARNED TAX DOLLARS" and implement more government is pretty limp if you ask me. BTW, they are my tax dollars too...

I don't want more government, I don't want more taxes, but just like I want good schools I want good health care if for nothing more than some sars ridden slacker that has no insurance and cant take the day off to go to county not hacking all over my Big Mac.

A single-payer system can and does work if it's administered correctly.

I'm not sure our government can administer it correctly.

Too many party first/country second types in elected office.

But there's no question that the system is broken, and it WILL be torn down and rebuilt eventually.

We already have socialized medicine. If you're uninsured and get hauled to the ER, you'll be treated, and the hospital will make up for your lack of coverage by running 32 diagnostic tests on the next insured guy that comes through the doors.

The major problem with the socialized medicine we now have is that health care is being delivered to the uninsured and underinsured via the ER, which is easily the most expensive way to deliver health care. And people go to the ER for sh!t like a simple case of the flu, or a kid with a fever because they have no other access to healthcare. And that's the kind of stuff that's driving the premiums of those that ARE insured through the roof. We're approaching having health care exepnditures totalling 20% of our GDP.

Check this:

National Health Care Spending
In 2008, health care spending in the United States reached $2.4 trillion, and was projected to reach $3.1 trillion in 2012.1 Health care spending is projected to reach $4.3 trillion by 2016.

Health care spending is 4.3 times the amount spent on national defense.

In 2008, the United States will spend 17 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health care. It is projected that the percentage will reach 20 percent by 2017.

Although nearly 46 million Americans are uninsured, the United States spends more on health care than other industrialized nations, and those countries provide health insurance to all their citizens.

Health care spending accounted for 10.9 percent of the GDP in Switzerland, 10.7 percent in Germany, 9.7 percent in Canada and 9.5 percent in France, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development."
..............................................................

Clearly, it's a broken system. It needs to be fixed, and it could be fixed if people would quit acting like f'n kids about it, and discuss how to go about getting it done. There are single-payer systems that work. Click the link and you can read about systems being used in 5 different countries, and how it's turned out for them.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/countries/

Either that or we could just keep flinging poop. Let me know which way you want to go with it.

Oh sure, Dan, just lower the percentage of GDP going to health care and end up like......... FRANCE!!! You f'n socialist.

The usual progression...

1. A topic comes up.
2. It stays civil for a bit.
3. Marsha rants a little.
4. Marsha rants a lot.
5. Marsha rants like a fuckin lunatic.
6. Marsha calls everyone names.
7. Marsha talks about how hard it is to sit on her ass all day on a computer.
8. Marsha belittles people with actual jobs who don't sit on their asses all day on the computer.
9. Marsha whines that everyone is so mean to poor ol' her, sitting on her ass behind a computer all day.
10. Marsha takes a sabbatical to get away from all the meanies.

We're on numbers 8 and 9 right now...does that mean you'll sulk off with your ass between your legs again for a few months?

You won't be missed, just like you weren't last time.

Back to the topic at hand...

It doesn't make sense for me to buy insurance right now...anything I can even remotely afford gives me virtually nothing, with a very high deductible. My only option now is to pay out of pocket for small things, and if something big comes up I'll have it done and someone else will pay for it, or not. I really won't care.

All the while, though, I'll be paying yours, Marsha...enjoy.

Fish on...

Todd

Not true .

Mf

You missed her? Bummer.

Fish on...

Todd

What is really screwed, IMO, is that I don't dislike either Aunty or Todd, in fact I respect both, and I wish you two would just knock it off. You both are good for the fish, and that's more than I can say for the present fish managers (both sides).......and as far as I'm concerned the rest of this crap isn't worth it. Just my opinion, and that's worth exactly what you paid for it. And yes, you both can suck at times.

In before the lock.....Oh wait, this ain't the humpy thread's.....

Double standards....

Mf

To be so full of self-loathing due to having absolutely no life whatsoever and full of hate and anger for everything else in the world must be a very heavy burden, Marsha...I wouldn't wish it on anyone, even you, but you made your bed, so now I guess you get to lie in it.

I'd pity you, but it would just make you more angry...if possible.

Fish on...

Todd

It does, however, provide an excellent context to be a faux-centrist...a position you seem to relish in. I'm glad you find happiness in something, no matter how retarded it is. We all need to be happy about something.

Fish on...

Todd

it is quite comical that 2 humpy threads got locked in recent days. how is it not a single mod has stepped up to slam this shut?

PP is going down the tubes.

It's the Dark Side.

It's not just a clever name.

The Dark Side is much less heavily moderated...

Fish on...

Todd

They sleep on pillows stuffed with $100 bills, that's how they sleep at night...and comforters filled with unpaid invoices and denied claims.

Fish on...

Todd