My hometown (and alma mater) is in a Salon.com article, And it's on health care reform, I couldn't be more proud Options

[mipadi]

Arlen Specter visited my hometown to hold a town hall meeting on health care reform at the local university (where I went to undergrad) recently. Here's the article.

It's central Pennsylvania, so naturally most of the people were afraid of godless socialism and blind support-our-troops sentiments. Oh, and they completely buy into the "government-sponsored death panel" myth (without realizing that the US already has death panels in the form of large insurance companies). Sigh...

[kryogenix]

No, people are being pissed over real shit, it's just those that are for big government focus only the most radical protesters and try to paint them as the main force behind the protests in an effort to try to discredit those who are against Obama.

Yes, elderly people will end up dying. That's what happens when health care is rationed; some people end up not having access to it and they die while waiting for it. No, it's not people being taken out back and being shot, but it's also not the wonderful and wise government doing the old people a favor.

It's disingenuous to just write off these protests as a bunch of inbred redneck conspiracy theorists. The tea parties were real. The town hall protests were real. The government needs to wake up. They can't ignore the fact that people are unhappy with them for much longer.

[mipadi]

Yes, elderly people will end up dying. That's what happens when health care is rationed; some people end up not having access to it and they die while waiting for it. No, it's not people being taken out back and being shot, but it's also not the wonderful and wise government doing the old people a favor.

It's not like health care isn't rationed now -- it's just that right now, health care is rationed by a large corporation that is more interested in making profits, and thus has a vested interest in collecting payments but refusing to pay for treatments.

[kryogenix]

It's not like health care isn't rationed now -- it's just that right now, health care is rationed by a large corporation that is more interested in making profits, and thus has a vested interest in collecting payments but refusing to pay for treatments.

You mean it would be any different when run by the government? Politicians are merely more interested in votes rather than profit. The key difference though is that companies have to make decisions based on the money they have available. The government can merely borrow and spend as they please, or print money in order to buy those votes.

Healthcare is made up of goods and services, and the only limit on its availability should be the patient's ability to pay.

I trust the businessman more than I trust the politician. If I am unhappy with a company, I can simply cease paying for their goods or services and look for an alternative. With politicians, barring a recall or a revolution, I'm stuck with them until their term is over.