BILLION or MILLION?

You need to keep in mind that not only is this one GIANT step towards Gov't health care for all; it will also put a number of small businesses out of business. How does a 3000% increase on your cigar sound? Sure we have found cigarettes to be harmful, but wasn't that kajillion dollar settlement a few years back designed to fund healthcare?

Every step of the way with this ever eroding society of ours, you need to ask yourself; "What has the government done so efficiently and with such quality that I can't wait for them to take over another sector of private industry."

How about another solution to funding health care for children?

When multi million dollar CEO's are caught with their hands in the cookie jar offer them freedom from prison by offering the option of giving the income and stock options from the same number of past years as their future prison terms.

I am an accountant. This is an easy solution

Yes i assume it is $35 Billion not $35 Million for the 10 million children who may be covered. If it was a Million then $3.50 per child would not do anything.

My physician wife and i as office manager went to a conference in San Franciso years ago. The topic was containing costs v. ethics.

The first case was a woman of about 90 who had seldom been to the doctor. She presented (this is the correct term) at the Emergency Room with one serious problem. Then a number of others hatched while she was in the hospital. Ethics requires keeping the hopeless alive as long as possible.

The conference moderator said a group of Russian physicians were touring the hospital They went to the accounting office and found that about $100,000 had been spent on this woman. They said, "We could have vaccinated most of Siberia for you keeping a 90 year old alive for another month in intensive care."

The topic was when does a physician stop care to save costs when they are trained to do everything possible to prolong life. NOTE: Specialists are paid to do this by the Federal Government out of Medicare. A conflict of money interest.

Then the moderator asked questions before the lecture on this topic as prepared. The 500 physicians kept asking medical questions as if they were trying to diagnose the problem medically rather than ethically v. costs.

When they were finally cut off the moderator said we had to go to the next case as time had run out before the presentation could be done.

I had wanted to stand up and yell, "Wake Up you Idiots!"

My response was to have my wife leave as nothing would be accomplished. We may as well go shopping in San Franciso.

Then we discharged all of our Medicare patients from her Family Practice. Her usefullness was more valuable in diagnosing cancer, treating the young and preventing illness in the healthy than in spending time in the intensive care ward.

Our president starts a war in two nations and wastes Hundreds of dollars ... oops I meant Trillions... murdering poor people in the name of fighting terrorism (and securing oil so all the soccer moms can run the gas guzzling SUVs?)

Now he wants to keep children from having basic health care? CEOs are paid $10 to 40 million a year to run a company then many are involved in fraud to boost their options.

The Healthy Children Program works fine. Not sure of the correct name as it has been seven years. Parents with lower incomes get Blue Cross insurance for the children, not themselves. The co-payment is $5.

Most children have simple problems. They can be diagnosed in a minute (singular)easily and treated for almost nothing. This insurance prevents parents taking the child to the ER. Even then many parents go to the ER in order to avoid the low co-payments on Medi-cal and other low income insurances. This is info from an ER nurse. Even very simple cases show up at night in the ER. The parents even admit they waited until the clinics closed to avoid the $5 cost.

Our hospitals are required to treat and then collect little. The parents pay nothing as they stiff the ER.

The aged have extremely complex problems. Three to five children can be treated in the time it takes to treat one aged person. Most of the office visit with a young person is social. My wife said she could solve the problem in one or two minutes. The remaining time of the 15 minutes allocated are social.

I had heard that 50% of the expenses in Medicare go for the last month of a patient's life.

Cancer treatments are often $300,000. I know because this was the insurance cost for my wife suffering of ovarian cancer for 18 months then dying. Her chances were 1/30. She wanted to skip treatment as she knew the odds.

Even when we had agreed years before on not keeping one of us alive when it was hopeless we could not abandon even a fragment of hope.

I do agree the government is a waste at getting anything done. Having a 30 year job with retirement does not train individuals to actually work effectively.

It would be preferable for an agency and fund to be set up privately for donations to fund Healthy Children's Programs.

Keep the government mismanagement out of it. "Give the cash and stay away."

Recruit volunteer retired business executives who know how to set up a business.

A side thought. Tap the ones from prison where many are now. Our prison has a program where inmates clean up brush along the highway and even pick up golf balls from the prison employee driving range.

Have the government match donations from individuals or corporations and give full tax breaks.

How about another solution? Supra as an introduction.

When multi million dollar CEO's are caught with their hands in the cookie jar offer them freedom from prison by giving the income and stock options from the same number of past years as their future prison terms.

Robert

and for my wife

Elizabeth.

This is great info to know.