Election Year!!!

[Hixter]

I pay $30 a month for insurance in case something catastrophic happens.

 

That figure is waaaay out of the ballpark.

 

Total spending was $2.3 TRILLION in 2007, or $7600 per person. Total health care spending represented 16 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

 

U.S. health care spending is expected to increase at similar levels for the next decade reaching $4.2 TRILLION in 2016, or 20 percent of GDP.

 

In 2007, employer health insurance premiums increased by 6.1 percent - two times the rate of inflation. The annual premium for an employer health plan covering a family of four averaged nearly $12,100. The annual premium for single coverage averaged over $4,400.

 

Health care spending is 4.3 times the amount spent on national defense.

 

The amount of money spent on the Iraq war over the last 5 1/2 years would cover about 3 months of the nation's health care costs. We're talking about astronomical figures here and they're going to continue to skyrocket as baby boomers age.

[Wendy]

I know this is bad, really bad, but I just want to. Hey, Palin let it be taken..

No she did not. It's photoshopped.

[lost highway]

That figure is waaaay out of the ballpark.

 

Total spending was $2.3 TRILLION in 2007, or $7600 per person. Total health care spending represented 16 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

 

U.S. health care spending is expected to increase at similar levels for the next decade reaching $4.2 TRILLION in 2016, or 20 percent of GDP.

 

In 2007, employer health insurance premiums increased by 6.1 percent - two times the rate of inflation. The annual premium for an employer health plan covering a family of four averaged nearly $12,100. The annual premium for single coverage averaged over $4,400.

 

Health care spending is 4.3 times the amount spent on national defense.

 

The amount of money spent on the Iraq war over the last 5 1/2 years would cover about 3 months of the nation's health care costs. We're talking about astronomical figures here and they're going to continue to skyrocket as baby boomers age.

 

No really. I pay $30 a month. That's my current health insurance plan.

 

As to the rest of your knowledge, I absolutely agree that this nation is spending too much on health care, but again that is due in part to receiving health care from massive, private , corporations. The spending is getting bigger, not only as the need for care increases, but also as companies continue to gouge people and the corporate drug industry gets greedier. Take out all the mechanisms for profit and make it an efficient system that collects only what it needs to function (not profit) and it doesn't have to look astronomical.

[Party @ the Moontower]

Oh, there's plenty of real pics of her and her fam posing with guns and lots of dead things, which I find weird and disturbing..and something out of a trailer-park. I'm so sickened by Palin's speech, and the way she used her childern last night...I haven't nothing left to say but that. Here, this isn't photo-shopped, and it's weird.

 

 

Bristol Palin

[Hixter]

No really. I pay $30 a month. That's my current health insurance plan.

 

As to the rest of your knowledge, I absolutely agree that this nation is spending too much on health care, but again that is due in part to receiving health care from massive, private , corporations. The spending is getting bigger, not only as the need for care increases, but also as companies continue to gouge people and the corporate drug industry gets greedier. Take out all the mechanisms for profit and make it an efficient system that collects only what it needs to function (not profit) and it doesn't have to look astronomical.

 

I seriously doubt that a $30 plan is going to offer much coverage - certainly not the type of coverage the average American needs. The UK National Health Service has a budget of over $200 billion for 60 million people, so that amounts to about $300 per month, or ten times the amount you're paying. And I've never visited England and not had several cabbies, pub landlords and train passengers begin to rant about the NHS as soon as they realize I'm an American. "It's a bloody mess, don't let the U.S. fall into the trap ..."

 

As far as I'm concerned, the U.S. already has a socialized medical system: people without insurance are filling hospitals around the country as we speak and it's all being subsidized by those of us with insurance. They won't pay a dime, but I'll wind up picking up the tab every month when I pay my premium.

[bjorn_skurj]

What's so weird about it? Americans love guns. Always have, always will, black or white. Alaska, especially, has a lot of hunting going on.

[Hixter]

Here, this isn't photo-shopped, and it's weird.

 

Many Alaskans carry guns with them. There are things that will eat you or stomp you to death roaming the streets. The woman who runs our facility outside of Fairbanks keeps a gun handy for bear and a BB gun at the ready to shoo away moose.

[bjorn_skurj]

As far as I'm concerned, the U.S. already has a socialized medical system: people without insurance are filling hospitals around the country as we speak and it's all being subsidized by those of us with insurance. They won't pay a dime, but I'll wind up picking up the tab every month when I pay my premium.

Yes, and there has to be a cheaper way to address that situation rather than the show-up-at-the-emergency-room plan. A government-administered HMO?

[mybenito]

Many Alaskans carry guns with them. There are things that will eat you or stomp you to death roaming the streets. The woman who runs our facility outside of Fairbanks keeps a gun handy for bear and a BB gun at the ready to shoo away moose.

What do you need a hand gun for?

[Hixter]

What do you need a hand gun for?

 

A large-caliber pistol is a weapon of last resort when you're attacked by a bear. A rifle won't do any good once the bear is on top of you. I knew an Alaskan who kept his pistol on a rope around his neck when he was in the boonies so that he wouldn't drop it if a bear jumped him.

[mybenito]

A large-caliber pistol is a weapon of last resort when you're attacked by a bear. A rifle won't do any good once the bear is on top of you. I knew an Alaskan who kept his pistol on a rope around his neck when he was in the boonies so that he wouldn't drop it if a bear jumped him.

Did a bear ever jump him?

[austrya]

My dad was an avid hunter and he used to go bear hunting in Canada a lot. He would always carry a hand gun with him in the woods because, like Hixter said, a rifle won't do shit if you're being attacked by a bear.

[mybenito]

My dad was an avid hunter and he used to go bear hunting in Canada a lot. He would always carry a hand gun with him in the woods because, like Hixter said, a rifle won't do shit if you're being attacked by a bear.

Did a bear ever attack him?

[austrya]

Did a bear ever attack him?

 

No, unfortunately he died in a car accident a few years ago.

 

I take it you wear your seat belt, right? Do you get in a car accident every time you drive?

[lost highway]

As far as I'm concerned, the U.S. already has a socialized medical system: people without insurance are filling hospitals around the country as we speak and it's all being subsidized by those of us with insurance. They won't pay a dime, but I'll wind up picking up the tab every month when I pay my premium.

 

That right there is the logic gap, that seems to come out of everyone who is anti-socialized health care. You don't pay for them on your premium. You pay for them on your taxes. Your premium is through the roof cause the chairman of the board for the company that provides your health care wants a new yacht and his kid is ready for his second Ferrari and god damn it if you don't want to spend a hundred dollars just to get some albuterol for your coal power-plant, blackened lungs.

[mybenito]

No, unfortunately he died in a car accident a few years ago.

 

I take it you wear your seat belt, right? Do you get in a car accident every time you drive?

Sorry to hear that.

[Hixter]

That right there is the logic gap, that seems to come out of everyone who is anti-socialized health care. You don't pay for them on your premium. You pay for them on your taxes. Your premium is through the roof cause the chairman of the board for the company that provides your health care wants a new yacht and his kid is ready for his second Ferrari and god damn it if you don't want to spend a hundred dollars just to get some albuterol for your coal power-plant, blackened lungs.

 

You're mistaken. I pay for it on my premium because even though it's a not-for-profit hospital, they don't want to be a for-a-loss enterprise, hence the hefty charges to those who can afford to pay.

[mybenito]

This just in: Palin Lies

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

Sorry to hear that.

 

 

[Analogman]

It does not look a hunting party going on in that photo - but rather, some teenagers going off to shoot stuff. In the two TRAILER PARKS I grew up in, we would go to the woods and shoot stuff - with pellet guns. Although, we were all children of poor white trash redneck blue collar truck drivers, our parents would not let us have guns.

[Party @ the Moontower]

Palin does not need to carry a gun guys, or her kids. As far as me thinking it's weird and sick on her animal rights issues in Alaska, I'm not alone on this one. I support humane hunting for food, not sport, and not for the use of clothing. I also do not support killing wildlife from planes for sport like Palin does. Here is a brief description of Palin's fine work in Alsaka from the Defenders of Wildlife.

 

 

http://www.defendersactionfund.org/

"Sarah Palin's positions against America's wildlife could put her to the right of even the Bush administration," said Schlickeisen. "She is a promoter of one of our nation's most ugly and cruel wildlife hunting programs and Americans deserve to know her views on such matters before they vote."

She also blocked the vote from her own people in Alsaka so she could have her way.

She actively opposed a ballot measure campaign seeking to end the aerial hunting of wolves by private hunters and approved a $400,000 state-funded campaign aimed at swaying people's votes on the issue.

She also introduced legislation to make it easier to kill wolves and bears and which would have also removed the aerial hunting initiative from the ballot and block the ability of citizens to vote on the issue.

http://www.defendersactionfund.org/newsroom/sarah_palin.html

[mybenito]

A bear didn't attack his Dad.

[Hixter]

Here is a brief description of Palin's fine work in Alsaka from the Defenders of Wildlife.

 

"The Defenders Action Fund focuses on stopping the anti-conservation policies of the Bush administration."

"Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund is organized under Section 501©(4) of the tax code. As such, it can lobby and engage in unlimited work to influence legislative action. Because of this, the Action Fund is not a charitable organization"

 

And an endorsement by Ed Asner in case you weren't sure if this was a politically motivated (i.e. anti-Republican) group.

[Party @ the Moontower]

 

So we should know the history of all VC members in case we make a reference to something in their lives that might upset them? Not foot in the mouth @ all. He didn't, or couldn't have known this.

 

And Austrya, I am sorry to hear your dad passed in such a horrible way.

[Duck-Billed Catechist]

Most people here are politically motivated. The question is whether the information is accurate or not.