Mike Morton addresses protestors at the Federal Building. (John Bailey, RN-T.com)
HealthProtest; Kathy Cole of Villa Rica holds a sign protesting government healthcare at the intersection of E 6th Avenue and E 1st Street. Ken Caruthers/RN-T.com
“Americans do not want socialized health care,” said speaker Mike Morton, the chairman of the Floyd County Republican party. “We have the best system of health care in the world.”
The protesters called for people concerned with government intervention in health care to contact their elected representatives with their thoughts.
Morton said anyone that doesn’t know how to get in touch with their elected officials can contact him at 706-346-3400.
“We have to reach across the board to talk to everybody. It doesn't matter if they're a Republican or Democrat,” said speaker Jennifer Hulsey. “They could vote on this by this afternoon so we can't wait.”
She said a bipartisan town hall meeting is slated 10 a.m. to noon July 25 at Georgia Highlands College to discuss health care and the possibility of reforms to the current system.
“We definitely have to do something, I just don't think socialized health care is the answer,” Hulsey said. “Everyone is welcome to come with their ideas.”
Chris Jackson, communications director for Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Mariettea, said the local congressman “whole heartedly agrees.”
“We’re very proud of that grassroots effort,” said Jackson. “That’s a movement that's going on all around the country and we’re very excited to see that our folks are participating in that.”
The president’s plan has two main goals — to expand health care coverage to nearly 50 million uninsured Americans and to restructure the system to contain long-term costs. It could cost roughly $1 trillion over a decade, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates.
On Friday, two House committees approved their portions of the health care bill over Republican objections. That left one more panel to act, but conservative Democrats were rebelling, demanding additional measures to hold down skyrocketing costs.
The president is pushing for Congress to OK the plan before its August recess.
Montezuma seems to have some misconceptions about what we're talking about. He says he can't get health insurance at all because of his pre-existing conditions, therefore he wants to pay out of pocket rather than accept any government insurance plan which might have limits or restrictions, but he can't afford to pay for the treatments he needs. And he says he has been trying to get private health insurance, but none of the companies will insure him; if he gets private health insurance, he will be putting his health in the hands of corporate bureaucrats, as opposed to government ones. HMOs are notorious for restricting health care, denying necessary treatments, etc.
He is one of the very people who the plan is designed to help: The people who the health insurance industry have deemed to be unprofitable to insure, and who aren't independently wealthy and able to pay for their own health care out of pocket. If it weren't for his parents' help, Montezuma would be in the situation that millions of people face every day, when they have to choose between paying the rent or paying for their medical bills.
The plan won't force him to take the government insurance plan. However, in his case, it appears that will be his only option, since no for-profit insurance company would insure him. It will just give him the option to either continue to pay out of pocket as long as he can, until he has exhausted all of his resources and has to choose between food on the table or pain meds, or swallow his pride and buy into the government plan.
Also, everybody from the President on down are using the old uninsured numbers from a 2005 Federal study, before the recession; the latest numbers I saw were from Fall 2007, when the number had hit 57 million and was still climbing. And that's the people without any insurance at all; a lot of the people who said they had medical insurance had a policy which had extremely prohibitive deductibles, copays and restrictions which prevented them from getting necessary treatments or medicine. A good estimate is that, when you include the underinsured, about 85 million people don't have adequate health insurance.
If you will recall, the Government already pays for 57 million people on Medicare, the Fed, State and Local gov't insurance plans cover about 38 million, then there's the VA, Medicaid, Postal Service, various disability and indigent programs, 3 million people in prison, etc.; all totaled, it spends about 1/3 of all the money spent on health care, and provides coverage for over half the population already.
If I was trying to fix the Medical system, I would first lump all of the Federal programs into the Medicare program, then figure out the cost per person for the aggregate program, and allow anybody who wants to, to buy into the system for that amount of money per year. If they don't like Medicare, they can still pay for their own health care from their choice of insurance companies, or just do without. Likewise, businesses could buy into Medicare or choose a private insurance plan.
Quite a few of us moderately healthy people would be willing to buy into Medicare. It would probably actually bring down the cost per person, since Medicare currently cares for the oldest and sickest of us, for less than any private insurance plan charges for the younger, healthier parts of the population.
..."render unto Caesar" passage...
...two different views.
I thought you were going to law school, not seminary.
Please offer an exegesis on how the "render unto Caesar passage" and the parable of the sheep and the goats from Matthew can be interpreted in two (or more) different ways. Please cite the scripture to show how it supports two differnt views. Or will you conveniently not have enough time?
It would be a good exercise for law school.
My disability coverage took care of my medical cost from the car wreak, but that is not what caused my disability. There were no lawyers in the mix, the government I worked for took great care of me and I had no complaints. My aim was to squash the "anonymous" child who believes they are some snowflake.
Want more facts? I drive a 2000 Jeep Wrangler, which is paid off. I worked in law enforcement from the time I was 18(I am 30 now) and also picked up side jobs in security and other types of work. I saved a large portion of my income and invested it well, but I am burning through that money quickly. Even though my parents are providing me a room and food, I do my best to cover all of my other expenses. My parents do cover my car insurance as well, but this is all to get me through school and on to a career.
I take 14 different medications, down slightly from where it was a few months ago; you can do some basic math to start and get an idea. I have to see my pain management doctor every three month, one of the group's nurses every month(which cost me money to just get refills), and my general practice doctor at least once a month. Just let me know if you need any assistance with the math. If you want to change something, then allow for refills on schedule II medications. I could care less if idiots decide to abuse those drugs, it should not be as difficult as it is to get refills when people like me need them.
As far as my education is concerned, a few more classes will cover the rest of my undergraduate and then I am on to my post-graduate education.
We do not need some Euro trash health care system in this country, nor do we need one modeled after Canada or England. While I do believe that some aspects of the health care system needs to be improved, blowing money that this country does not have is not the answer. Long wait times, rationing of care(which will happen), and quality of care are all problems of these "oh so wonderful" setups in European countries, England, Canada, and other places with public health care. My guess is that next you will want us to merge with Canada and Mexico, along with the European Union(what a joke) and form a World Union. If so, then I am done talking to you.
Contrary to what Michael Moore and Barack Obama tells you, those countries are not the beacons of hope that they appear to be. Of course, people like you are too blind and ideologically(and probably literally) too in love with Obama to think for yourselves on this issue.
I have attempted to purchase medical insurance for quite a while, but the insurance companies refuse to sell me a policy. Even if I could find a company to sell to me, the price would be high and my disability is a "pre-existing condition". I am not paying thousands of dollars a year, then waiting 18 months to even start using the insurance I am paying for. Of course, this wonderful public health insurance that is being discussed will be "oh, so much better".
I would rather pay out of pocket and continue to get the "self-pay discount" I get, which is between 10% and 13.5% depending on which doctor I am seeing. I refuse to give up control of my medical treatment decisions to bureaucrats, whether they be private or public.
I spend around $13,000 to $16,000 a year due to my disability, but I cannot afford to preferred treatment for my condition, as it runs in the neighborhood of $300,000 to $500,000. You can save me the hand wringing; we have all been there and done it.
I lost the use of my left leg through no fault of my own. I lost the ability to do my job, so I had to attend college to enter into a career that I am physically capable of doing. I hate it that you have some trouble with your medical bills; there are many people with the same trouble. If you cannot afford to pay the bill, then you can talk to the hospital about getting assistance. If you can afford to pay, then you pay your bills and be happy that treatment was given.
I do agree that the cost of treatment has gotten out of control, but it is the reality of the world. It cost money to do business. It might be a shock to many of you, but there are few people in the world that will work 80 hour weeks and pour thousands of man hours into a project without an extraordinary salary. Guess how those salaries are recouped: Through the cost of the medication.
E.W.: There you go again, slanting bible verses to fit your viewpoint. First off, that verse is claimed by two different sides and everyone does not agree to what was actually being stated in that verse. Of course, you failed to comprehend what I posted, so I am not going to waste anymore time explaining anything to you at this time.
Your Jesus comments are a joke. Don't you remember the verses from Matthew I copied on RN-T blogs for you previously?
1) Jesus, when asked about tax, said "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, render unto God that which is His." He did not take much time to criticize Caesar for misspending Palestinian tax revenues. His kingdom is not of this world.
2) Jesus said that, whenever we help the poor and the sick, it is as if we are helping Him; and when we neglect the poor and the sick, we are neglecting him. "Conservative Christians" always seem so concerned with how far our country is drifting from their faith. If we are not helping the poor and the sick, we are not simply drifting away; it is as if we are neglecting (and often deriding) Jesus himself.
In light of those two principles, I think "Conservative Christians" should err on the side of caution and take care of the poor and the sick in this country...EVEN IF IT COSTS MORE.
You obviously have never had any of the following medical events happen to you: (1) been injured in a car accident in which the other person was at fault but had minimum liability limits and no assets and the medical bills topped $100,000; (2) had a teenage child have to undergo two major surgeries to cure ills that had been present since birth but which the medical community could not do the surgery until she reached a certain point in her development (each surgery had bills that totaled well over $100,000); or (3) had an inpatient necessary emergency surgery as an adult in which the hospital bill (where you stayed one night in ICU) alone totaled more than $90,000. I was fortunate in that I had good health insurance in each case but I was still left owing a lot of money out of pocket. The average person could not begin to pay any of these bills. Our quality of care in this community is first class. However, the only people who believe oyr system isn't broken are the ones who don't care about those who through no fault of their own are less fortunate. 99 percent of the people in this world are one layoff or one bad business month away from bankruptcy if they have any significant health event occur.
Obama is only going to ruin this country, more than it already is. While many of the people who post on this site count themselves among the liberal/progressive idiot movement, thankfully you are all in the minority in this town.
Dr Feelgood: Learn to writing using proper grammar. Posting a wall of text shows you to be a moron. Also, using Jesus' name in your post is disgusting. God speaks sternly against debt, but you probably would not know anything about that. Jesus would want us to take care of others, but he would also speak against the government stealing money from others to pay for the useless projects and items, as it does today.
Here is a little fact for you to chew on:
In Germany, where everybody is covered, the cost of health care is 8.2 percent of the GNP. Here, where 50 Million people are not covered, the cost of health care is more than 15 percent of the GNP.
Why do you think our school are run so poorly? Republicans need lots of people like you that can't figure out what is good for them because they never got passed 3rd grade math
Dr. Feelgood. You seem to believe this was a Republican event. You could not be more wrong! This was a protest from freedom loving Americans who don't want the Federal Government running our healthcare when they cannot run themselves. Government cannot even do 3rd grade mathmatics if they think that the taxpayers of this nation can afford to be saddled with forced, government run healthcare!!!!!
And for the rest who thinlk that this is going to be "free". When ALL businesses are FORCED to provide healthcare to their employees, who do you think they are going to pass these extra costs along to? You guessed it! We The People. Inflation will skyrocket. All taxes will go up for all Americans. All prices will go up for everything you buy INCLUDING food, fuel, clothing.
Then the businesses who are big enough will just move to Mexico or some other Country where they don't HAVE to provide insurance, thereby costing everyone their jobs.
Still think this "free government health care" is so great?
Although this is a reference to me, I will point out that you noticed no such thing. I said that the protestors most likely already have adequate private health insurance -- not that none of them have illness in their families. Besides, why would someone without private coverage even be at such a protest?
Try to read more closely next time, instead of reading into.
Dr. Feelgood: Good to see that you are just adding to the mouth-breathing, liberal/progressive population on this site. Mr. Morton has a facebook? Oh wow, that is awesome to the extreme!
Oh, you just be referring to his Facebook page. What is the problem with Sarah Palin? Why do so many liberal idiots go into a rage over her? Are you upset over successful, conservative women? Do they make you realize just how small a person you really are? Do not worry, there are enough sad liberals here to help comfort you.