[Guest Political Cartoon] The Health Care Situation – by Mark Fearing

9 Responses to [Guest Political Cartoon] The Health Care Situation – by Mark Fearing

1. Mr Supergeek | July 22, 2009 at 11:24 am |

   @rasta
   selah.

   @mep….As always a pleasure to read…the world needs more americans like you….the phrase ‘understand the cost of everything and the value of nothing’ comes to mind….and on that note we cue the music…for Mep.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQsI73D830I

   “Smile out of style, laugh on the walk screwface back in town”

2. Veritas | July 22, 2009 at 9:35 am |

   This comic seems to miss a basic point.

   Whenever I go in to see a doctor, if I tell them I don’t have insurance they become visibly angry. They always act like they don’t want my business period.

   If I call first and ask how much it’s going to cost, they seem to delight in inventing the highest amount they can think of. I’ve seen this at many doctors’ offices over the past decade.

   It’s not just insurance companies that are the problem.

3. Mep | July 22, 2009 at 8:26 am |

   “It’s so simple. Most people who can’t afford health insurance are also too poor to owe taxes. But if you give them a deduction from the taxes they don’t owe, they can use the money they’re not getting back from what they haven’t given to buy the health care they can’t afford.”

   – Stephen Colbert

4. Rasta | July 22, 2009 at 6:46 am |

   HEY!

   take it easy on Rasta. lol

   @Freudian…..Rasta is not an ism or a schism.
   Rasta is reality.

   give thanks for the tree of life, the wisdom weed, the birthright of all free people of the earth.

   ganja should be like seat belts….you get a fine for not using it.

   legalize it.

5. Tim Gandee | July 22, 2009 at 6:46 am |

   First off, we have had government intervention in healthcare since the 70′s in America, AKA Managed Care. From good ol’ Wiki – The term managed care is used to describe a variety of techniques intended to reduce the cost of providing health benefits and improve the quality of care (“managed care techniques”) for organizations that use those techniques or provide them as services to other organizations (“managed care organization or MCO”), or to describe systems of financing and delivering health care to enrollees organized around managed care techniques and concepts (“managed care delivery systems”). This is how it was sold to the serfs in America in the 70′s and look at where we stand today.

   Our American government steals money from us in the form of taxes and then selects which industries will receive that money from the government. Recently, Bush pushed a prescription drug coverage program on the people to lower costs. Indeed, the Vicodin my wife was recently prescribed for her wisdom teeth removal only cost my $4 for 15qty. 500 mg pills. However, one has to look at the costs associated with this and the unintended consequences. For instance, the drug maker received the government subsidy for this medication at the cost of EVERYONE. My wife and I very rarely take any prescription drugs so the only way I benefit from the subsidy is if we are prescription drugs constantly. Since the price for the prescription does actually lower on the books of the pharma company, the pharma company still receives the added profits for the medicine at the expense of every taxpayer and everyone who uses dollars. Since the government is insolvent, they have to create more dollars and devalue the currency. It feels good to have a $4 prescription, but the costs that are unseen make this whole example a joke.

   I have a better idea, get government out of the way. The higher costs associated with our managed care are because of direct government involvement on the Federal level. Most of the regulations that our hospitals deal with are heavily involved in government audits that takes years to prepare for and thousands of hours of administrative costs and the improvements suggested from said audits usually result in additional administrative costs, which take from the patient talented doctors and nurses to fiddle with paper work and what-not. The government creates the inflation of healthcare prices on all levels and in order to create this inflation in prices, they use the taxpayer’s funds. Government is not the answer.

   Furthermore, we can only gain health insurance from carriers in our state of residence and that strictly limits competition for coverage. You have statewide monopolies that are supported by the Federal Government and the rules imposed allow for these monopolies to continue. How about giving someone in Ohio a chance to obtain insurance from a company in Indiana or Texas? Nope.

   The best answer to many of our problems in America would be to simply allow for free market competition for health insurance, get the Federal Government out of the way of hospital operations, and to allow people to keep the fruits of their labor. Why not go back to pre-1913 America and get rid of the income tax or maybe just get rid of the theft for medical taxes that are raped from each of our paychecks? If people had more money in their pockets and government was no longer subsidizing the medical insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies, prices would come down and people would have more money in their pocket to pay for health care when needed.

   Why does the government have to be the answer and why can’t we just take care of our needs as needed? The answer is painfully obvious to many of us in America that are involved with Campaign for Liberty. It is because of the expanded role of government created by the use of fiat currencies. With these fiat currencies, governments can continue to grow beyond their means, give the increases in money supply to their cronies first (for this example of healthcare that means insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies) so that the politicians can ensure reelection with continued donations from the same cronies that received the increase in money supply first. Without this fiat money, the cycle would die and a rebuilding process could begin where personal responsibility would be taken into consideration again.

   Congressman Ron Paul has said it best when he talks about the fact that our Federal Government is just “tinkering on the edges” of our problems without dealing with the root cause. The system is so corrupt and the control is no longer in the hands of the people. In fact, in my 31 years of existence it has never been a choice for me to pretty much do anything without permission of some politician forcing his “good intentions” on me. They created the problems for which they have a solution.

   Peter Schiff summed it up best when he said something along the lines of government is the force that brakes someone’s leg, offers them a crutch, and then point to the rest of the people and states, “See? If it weren’t for us this man wouldn’t be walking.”

6. Daniel S | July 22, 2009 at 5:24 am |

   The same idea could be applied to fire insurance.

   Also, it hits close to the idea of local financing. If people financed the projects in their communities directly, they would avoid the problem of banks profiting most when borrowers default. They’d have an interest in helping to turn a failing loan around which would help their local economy, not to mention the retention of more money in the community by paying interest to community members, some of which would end up reinvested/spent locally creating a snowballing effect.

   Central bankers would argue the dangers of concentrated investments but the fact is that they themselves don’t promote genuine diversity within local economies because it would reduce default rates. Local investors would have an interest in promoting genuine diversity that over time would protect them from becoming one factory towns without a factory.

   I’m still convinced that most poor communities are rich communities that let a variety of middlemen and monopolists keep sucking out most of the wealth they don’t need to survive day to day.

7. one cool dude | July 22, 2009 at 4:11 am |

   Part 3 of this cartoon absolute lunacy. Why didn’t you post that part?

   “At least a government program would answer to the public and not just stockholders who demand more and more revenue”

   Give me a break.

8. Freudian Slit | July 22, 2009 at 3:51 am |

   There is a spectre haunting the Caribbean; it the spectre of Rastafarianism… Pot-head Bob Marley fans of the world unite!

9. Mother Earth | July 22, 2009 at 2:43 am |

   We had a dentist in Rotterdam that sold 20 years care to all his patients for about 3000 Euro pp. That is what I would call private insurance..