pete:

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When will people quit misusing the label Socialism to label every government program or regulation they don’t like. Socialism applies to the government ownership of the means of production, Government services are not socialism. Government regulation of business and commerce are not socialism. The government doesn’t own or run any businesses it delivers services which are not run on a business basis and are not competitive with business and Wall Street. Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security are services and the are used more like Medical Savings accounts than insurance. Insurance is based on getting premiums from a large people and making few pay outs. Insurances issue premiums with the idea that most of their customers will never receive a payout or that the payout as with life insurance will be 30 to 40 years after the policy was issued. Insurances rely on a certain number of policy holders dropping the policy before they can use it. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are being run today on the assumption that they will be used by a large number of people or their families. Today with both members of the family working in many cases long enough to collect payments one spouses benefits will not necessarily have to be used to cover both spouses. When Social Security was founded in a large number of cases only the male spouse worked and paid into Social Security which was supposed to cover both spouses and children. Today both spouses may have coverage that can be used to some how cover the family. When same sex married couples are allowed to participate then their may well be more double coverage.

As far as Medicare and Medicaid are concerned they are expected to be used to promote healthier living and prevent illnesses from developing to more advanced stages where more medical services are needed. When I was younger and medical insurance was less expense most people only sought out medical services when they were in the most serious stages of their illnesses and most of their health had been seriously compromised by that illness. Now people are supposed to seek early treatment for diabetes, high blood pressure, gastric reflex, cancer, and heart disease and more people use health insurance more often. There also is a large increase in diagnostic tests run to determine just what an individuals health issues really are and to treat these issues before they become life threatening and more expensive to treat. Everyone is also expected to seek out treatment even if they don’t have medical insurance. All of these factors increased premiums and make it more impossible for individuals or the people they work for to be able to pay for health insurance for them.

Therefore we need to rethink Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security and how we pay for them. This does not mean contracting them out to private business and putting them at the mercy of Wall Street. This means streamlining the programs and their data bases and how they and the medical practices are organized. This does not mean that the government owns or runs medicine but it does mean that no medical services provider can opt out of the system, This does not mean that the government runs health insurance companies, but it does mean that all companies have to cover a basic standard of health care which covers all of the major chronic illnesses including gender and sexually based health care for everyone. It means that their is a national health care base so that all of a patients health records are at one central location to prevent the running of duplicate tests unless they are required by the doctor and that a patient does not receive multiple prescriptions for the same medicine for the same time period. This does mean second opinions when requested by the patient and that the patient be able to request diagnostic testing when medical services are not treating his medical problem. We regulate transportation and dictate which side of the street everyone has to travel on and that everyone have a driver’s licence and insurance. Receiving medical treatment in the United States is a right not a privilege because it is written our government was instituted to promote the health and welfare of its citizens.

Get over it Republicans, Americans are not ready to let people die in the streets. The rich are not willing to tithe enough to the churches to cover taking care of the needy. And we do not have to belong to a religious institution and we do not have to depend upon religion to take care of us. That is one of the functions of government. Not all rights are written many are implied.

Every citizen also has the right to vote their should be no road blocks such as state identification to stop people from voting. If individuals have been living in a community all of their lives and their neighbors know them and they have been voting for years or many not voting but have been residents within the community all of their lives they don’t need special identification. Not every body flies, in fact most of us don’t or if we have its only one or two times in our entire lives.