Workers' Compensation Discussion Forums

Red, one observation on your medicare/medicaid comments. The government has steadily reduced its payouts to physicians, and abandoned the last round of cuts because doctors threatened to stop seeing medicare patients. Medicare/Medicaid currently serves 80 million people, and will be going broke in the future. It will require a tremendous infusion of (taxpayer) cash to maintain projected spending levels.

The burden to provide open care for all (without severe rationing) will be incredible. In this country, approximately 38% of our income goes to cover all taxes. In Canada, that figure is already over 50%. My biggest concern is that politicians, mostly from one party, have been beating the "tax the rich" drum for so long that they have falsely convinced people that all these promises will be free. Won't cost us anything. We'll just punish (yes, I've heard Hillary use that word) those who have "unfairly benefited. The fact that the top 2% of wage earners in this country already pay something to the order of 40% of all taxes collected is not mentioned.

I wonder how people with a lick of sense can believe Obama?How do people think all his gimme programs are gonna work without raising taxes?The money has to come from somewhere.....The local sonic has laid off several workers because min wage went up along with higer fuel and gro costs......The money from the 3 laid off workers will be spread between the others but it doesnt feed the families of the 3 laid off..
higer oil prices are killing me my electric bill was over 500 dollars last month I can pay it one month but 2 like that will hurt bad......we cant pay anymore taxes...Palin has a real good track record of cutting taxes and staying within budgets....
My hope rests with her

Hi admin...thanks for the reply..smiling..I love to discuss this topic..so I might wear you out...sorry... just ignore as you wish.

My first thought is that we need to separate medicare/medicaid. Medicare is a social security benefit paid into by all workers and a few children with disabilities etc. I do not see Medicare as a socialized type of program. It is very similar to a HMO insurance. I was in the hospital recently and my bill was almost $70,000.00. My copays with MED A (ambulance would not take me to the VA and the hospital refused to transfer until stable) was about $12,000.00. If I had been at the VAMC I would not have paid one cent. As it is I took all the hospital bills to the VAMC and the hospital and all other expenses have returned the Medicare money completely and billed VA and the VA paid 100% of it. I have no out of pocket expense. Yahooooo. The point is however, that medicaid is more like the VA system whereas Medicare is more like the HMO payor as stated earlier. The money to fund each come from a different payor source, but as you said, if the SSI doesn't get it together all tax payers will be paying more soon. There are a lot of reasons for this situation such as the people who recieved it early on, never paid into it, people are living longer, people are using more healthcare now than in the past, mobility is greater so families do not live close to each other to care for each other and so on. I believe that the govenment is attempting to decrease the use of medicaid by taking mothers off of welfare and get them back to work with the mothers to work program. The problem here is that they are not trained and usually end up working a mimimum wage job where they now can't afford insurance and childcare, thus they stop working and return to the welfare program. It is a vicious cycle from what I have seen and I have hired from the program and seen the cycle continue.

In terms of taxes being paid, I know what you mean about how much some people have to pay on their taxes. I use to fall in to a 40% of my wage to taxes. One year, I worked two jobs to only find out that at the end of the year, I owed around $14,000 more dollars other than no claims with an extra $200.00 per month from each company I worked for. I paid as much as I made when you consider state tax, medicare, city tax, and federal tax. Living in Philadelphia I know a lot about a city tax. It is high there. My father in law was an extremely wealthy man. Not the Kennedy's but wealthy. Before I became a nurse I did his books and learn a lot about business deductions for his business and how to pay him differently to make him worth less than the reality was. He owned a yaht, and he would take a emplloyee or a business venture respresetative with him, each time he went to go fishing or just relax in the Ocean...(he didn't take his family too often..we were not a deduction)... this was a deduction for him. I am not saying that at a certain income, mostly your middle income layers that we are not already paying more taxes than we should, but what I am saying is that we are paying for the health care anyway for everyone else as well as paying higher for the health care for ourselvers due to the mis use, and to the use of people seriously needing it without the ability to carry insurance and to pay it themselves. They apply for a hardship service which is the Federal Govenment's money (our tax dollars) anyway. I serioulsly feel that there must be equal healthcare for all. I am so thankful for my healthcare. I am having another attach right now... and thank goodness that I can call and see a doctor before it gets the best of me. Thanks for reading and listening. Red

jayne.... Obama did go over the top, but I do believe that a lot of govenement spending could be cut to bring some of his ideas to life. I don't believe it will ever bring them all to life at least not while I am living, but maybe a few. Same with McCain...his may or may not come to life also...undecided here... but do like Palin also. She is real and I believe maybe even honest versus the rest of them.... good luck on what you want....love you Red

I have to disagree this is not a dem or rep issue to me I see that we are spending BILLIONS of dollars on a war we do not need to be in and hey this bail out of FREDDIE and FANNIE well they say a couple of BILLION DOLLARS wow yet we should not have health care?

I think in America we can tweak the Canada and British health care to make sense to us hear but to say we do not need more taxes well we have higher taxes and even more now coming our way as the U.S. government now has this bail out oh my gosh are we in for a surprise I am not a person who sees all this and thinks everything is alright it is not we are going to be hit very hard here in our great country is it not funny to see Russia with no debt and to see China buying all or most of our currency how long do you think that will last till they dump it? and when they do it will make 1930's look tame.

A first hint is the bail out of two institutions and several earlier what the government is doing is just keeping the ship afloat a little longer kinda like the little boy trying to plug the dike and more and more holes spilling water out. There are more foreclosures now than in history. I guess I see the cup empty and I have to say history is always doomed to repeat.

This is not one party or the other hey fair is fair what did the republicans do for us not much they gave us more debt well to be fair so has the donkey (democrats) The whole lot of them have done nothing for us what do you think will happen when we have our fallout? to think we will not have a depression and over inflation I say take off your rose colored glasses there is going to be allot more layoffs funny how the news does not cover this. Here is one example on a main strip in my town lets say there was 10 car dealers within a mile now there are 4 seems they have downsized to one location hey how about the restaurants closed and all the construction people who are out of work and more on the way not to mention things costing to much to ship so less trucks it is trickle down dont you know.

Again for me this is not a them against us or who is better thing one thing I see a positive if I had to choose between to evils is McCain a little as his record is not as bad on gun ownership than Obama's who is a total anti gun guy and is willing to remove them from our homes. Now to say anything else on these two nope I cannot stand McCain as he has hurt the POW cause over and over what a well that I will keep to myself he for one should care as he was one, although the others did not like how he caved in back in Vietnam and was paraded all over TV I bet his dad the Admiral loved that enough said there.Oh fair is fair we do not even know if Obama is even a true U.S. citizen a bunch of gray areas there and hey how about the church he goes to and the rev. spewing hate I'm sure he missed all thoughs days in church right.

So what to do pick one right? after all as soon as one gets in we will be in a world of hurt the bottom will crash as the one who gets in will start saying it is not my fault as he will not want it or be blamed for our demise so it will happen then rather than later so he can say look at what the past pres did. Tell me am I wrong do I not see money being spent that we do not have? and where is this money coming from and who do you think will pay it? to say taxes wont be raised and there will be taxes cut i would like to know how? how ever gets in will not cut taxes and it is too late to think of a health care plan as we as a country are broke or am I the only one who sees this? Again is it not ironic to see Russia with no debt and China buying most of our debt? and do you think they will keep it up? I see them dumping it soon I guess I am being to negative but I know money and you cannot spend spend spend I see how are government has just printed money like it is water which causes inflation which makes our dollar go down in price soon it will be super inflation which is a depression why do you think things are costing more? to make up for inflation our dollar is worth less so things cost more and so trickle down trickle down.

Peace to you all no hate here just seeing how it is.

John mccain was a pow and yes he caved which i might add he admits to and is ashamed of but I still see various pow groups supporting mccain. I guess the point I want to make is until you walk in his shoes how can you you know what he went through or what he suffered. At least he was willing to go to war for this great country whereas obama has never served a day in our armed forces. Hmm why are folks attacking mccain and palin on personal levels? Are they afraid to discuss issues? Just my thoughts. I love reading all your posts and think this has been very informative.

I do not think John McCain did anything to hurt the "POW cause". His story on that front is incredible, and does not deserve the attacks it is receiving (Jimmy Carter saying McCain is "milking" his POW experience. Don't get me started!)

The war is a much larger, devisive issue. I understand that it is not popular. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. After all, its a free country. Not many places on earth where we can all feel comfortable sharing our diverse views like we can here in the US. Personally, I am a hawk when it comes to the war. 17 UN resolutions completely ignored by Saddam Hussein, while daily he fires on our jets supporting the UN mandated no fly zone. Certainly says "act of war" to me! I believe we have made a statement in Iraq that would never be equaled by a stern verbal warning. If we are successful (which remains to be seen), we will have changed the landscape of the middle east. Freedom is infectious, and will have an impact in that dictatorially dominated region.

Personally, if I were king for a day, Iran would now be a parking lot for Baghdad Disneyworld.... (probably the Goofy section)

Soonermom, the attacks are personal because these two, especially Palin, are real threats to their opponents. I think they are truly frightened by them. When you are desperate you lash out at anything - even if it is a pregnant 17 year old girl.

As a wife and mother who have had both my husband and daughters in this war...while I dont like any war I know this one was needed...My husband and my military kids say the media isnt portraying the good things happening and our local newspaper even says altho he is agaisnt the war he is sick and tired of newsmen and women telling us what they think we should hear and their opinion of it...They should report the news and let us make up our minds....But lets face it they are not going to so I watch alot of news programs and try and form my own opinions....I listen to my kids and their husbands who are serving in this war about what THEY see and do over there.... is it worth it? None of them would change anything except to a person they would have asked for more firepower from planes before going in....
As far as health care a socialized health care would be just what we are dealing with right now with WC... a non medical adjuster telling our Docs when and what tests they can run and what treatments we can have and waiting 4 to 6 weeks for an appt then going home and waiting on the OKs from someone for the tests then waiting for another appt.No one will want to go thru the training and expense to become a doctor as there will be no way to recoup there 6 -12 years of schooling costs...it will be like our teachers of today...Best and brightest doing something else to get there collage fees back....
Everyone has an opinion of what we need and want for america and they are all good ideas its how we get there that alot of us differ.
See when it came for that war I would have sent in the Airforce and let them blow the place to hell and to the victor go the spoils.....Clean out nits and all.....and the warning to the surrounding countries you hide em we will distroy you......You lay a bomb in our country and your whole country is a giant hole waiting to be filled with water,stocked and a good bass tournament will be the following year.....See we wanna talk peace with a group of crazy people they dont want peace...They have a whole lot of people thinking the only way to get to heaven is to blow yourselves up on a plane load of people or to strap a bomb on your young child and send him into a market place and blow him to heaven...you cant reason with people like this....and it happens every day over there....
As far as the medical system its broke but its the best in the world......We can bring medical and RX costs down by not allowing people to sue for honest mistakes...and if a doc is bad he goes to jail just like if you and I got drunk and cut off someones leg....But people in countries all over the world come here to get things fixed they cant in their countries because of socialized health care...Our hospitals and clinics are filled with other countries best and brightest cuz they cant get their schooling cost back in their countries or practice they way they need to because of an adjuster telling them how and what they can do....Be very careful about that grass always being greener on the other side cuz its not it just looks that way...after all before we all got hurt what did we believe about getting hurt at work.

WOW ok nope hey Admin and soonermom I do not agree with McCain and I do not agree with Obama I really care less for either one sorry you feel I attacked you cause I did not.

As for war it is such a waste of time to be there I do not think we need to be there I have not seen the house and senate vote for it I thought to go to war the house and senate must vote and ratify it? sure they vote to agree on spending more money there, but no vote on ratifying it so I guess it is law the pres can make war whenever he/she wants to and forget the Constitution.

That is what I'm for the restoring of the Constitution enough with presidents waging war when it suits them after all there where no weapons of mass destruction there, another lie by this lame duck president we have. I believe the States hold the power and the government is there to agree to the States will the peoples will and not to the corporations and war machine that runs it now.

Oh do not get me started on Mr. O and how the Democrats failed us too after all they said they would end the war and bring the troops home instead these donkeys just did the same as the republicans see no change and I say this with every breath i take there will be no change in the White House things will remain the same. We are heading to a financial crises like there has never been so go ahead and spend like there is no tomorrow watch the deficit keep rising do you think a few cuts here and there are going to take care of what we owe?

So yes funny I get blamed for not liking one guy over the next I do not care as they both are going to be lame ducks anyway. I have done my part and do not care if anyone listens about our financial collapse coming so sure if you think I'm so evil for not liking one guy over the next when I have been saying neither is worth it,well not true as I said I would if I had to pick one over the other pick McCain just because of the gun issue so there one for McCain but yet one for Mr. Obama for at least trying health care.

All I care about is where the money is going to come from to keep paying for a war we cannot afford and for the war they are trying to cause with Iran. Hey so we bail out another bank so where are these 100's of billions of dollars coming from? so we spend at what cost so your grandchildren will pay off a debt caused now,damn the torpedoes right! full steam ahead personal responsibility as I for one do not want my kids paying for something they where not the cause of or their kids. I keep saying this our country is printing money backed by nothing no gold standard as Nixon took that away.

LOL I will end this and not return to this post as I can see people do not care about the facts and the facts are we are broke as a nation China has more wealth than us in fact the are buying are dollars and soon will stop then what? find out what would happen once they sell or I should say dump it we will be in a world of hurt soon.

Funny I grew up with my preacher saying how we in America turned our backs on GOD and he will judge us soon for what we did for allowing everything happen I would sit there like right look we are the greatest nation on earth we have all the money and on and on. Now I have grown up and see it coming funny how fast things have changed for this once great nation we are a bunch of debtors and we will be sunk by or own greed,pride is horrible and I must say I did my share but I repent for my greed and pride.A nation who throws things away why on earth do we build cars that do not last? cause they want to sell more to you so they build cheap cars and trucks.We have been spoiled here and it will be our downfall soon our greed and pride.

So again why is Russia debt free? and China now the darlings of corporations where have all the jobs gone? to China,India,Vietnam all the countries over there we will be the new 3rd world they will drive our wages to that of Mexico if you wanna know why they do not stop Mexicans from coming over the border. So laugh at me say I am bad for not liking your man I do not care as we will be in allot of pain soon and neither will stop it from happening as it is meant to happen so we see the errors in our ways oh by the way IN GOD WE TRUST IS COMING OF OUR MONEY! LOL we have turned our backs on GOD folks so judgment is coming to us.

One more thing on this war and wanting to nuke everything well kinda would be a problem as if we do we would cause more damage lets say we do it well than India and Pakistan go at it and BOOM another nuke oh yes China said they back Iran so BOOM they strike back and oops forgot Russia and how we are stepping on there toes as we say we can put missals all around you but dont put one in Cuba HUGH? so we can do what we want when we want? since when? after all is it not like we are being a bully? so anyway Russia nukes Poland like they sad they would well than all Europe goes at it OOPS WWIII and nukes out of the bag so we all die!
OK we all die yippee sorry kids there is no world for you.

Thanks

More and more interesting reading everday! truly an education here. Need to read with an unbiased mind.


CAP

unclebuck Wrote:As for war it is such a waste of time to be there I do not think we need to be there I have not seen the house and senate vote for it I thought to go to war the house and senate must vote and ratify it? sure they vote to agree on spending more money there, but no vote on ratifying it so I guess it is law the pres can make war whenever he/she wants to and forget the Constitution.

Here's a little something for your viewing, Mr. Unclebuck:



DEAR MR. OBAMA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4fe9GlWS8