OpenGov - Open Government Brainstorm

And since I'm already taxed over 50% how many more months a year should I be a slave to the government to pay for other peoples poor choices?

You do understand punishing producers eventually causes them to quit producing- don't you? Then who will pay for this Marxist crap?

I said nothing about taxing us. I think if they stopped paying $50.00 for a paperclip it just might work.

Beautiful idea! Why has so much ink been spilled on so many complicated solutions that don't get to the root of the problem when it can all be summed up in 17 words? Eliminate the insurance companies, who get rich by denying us all health care services we need. All we need is one simple system. If it's good enough for them, why isn't it good enough for the rest of us?

You're sending mixed signals, Dan. Either you are for Constitutional government or you are not. We are in the mess we're in today because too many people are willing to wink at usurpation of power if it benefits them. I guess you like the "living" Constitution idea.

You're not taxed over 50% by the federal govt. Stop telling lies. There's lots of savings to be had by eliminating ridiculous govt. programs: End the war on drugs, stop subsidizing corporate agriculture, end the tax deduction for the third child and beyond, build mass transit to reduce dependency on autos, stop buying weapons systems that either don't work or are targeted at the last enemy, close our 750+ overseas military bases are a few ideas. This would free far more money than we need for health care. But all we really need to do is cut the insurance industry out of the equation. We're already paying for full health care for all (15% of our GDP as opposed to 11-12% for the UK or Germany, or 8-9% for Canada) we're just not getting it because the money's going to outrageous CEO salaries, bureaucracies that work to deny coverage, advertising, and outright fraud.

As to Marxist crap: In a marxist system, (which doesn't work and has never existed but has been used by the wealthy elite as a bogeyman to enhance their profits and consolidate their control of our economy- it's easy to scare ignorant pinheads) the doctors would be paid the same as everyone else through the state (until it withered away of course). What we're talking about is doctors working for themselves or forming partnerships and corporations just as they do now. Only instead of having to hire staff to deal with scores of different insurance providers who are dedicated to denying claims, they would have one system to deal with. That's not marxist at all. No insurance company would be nationalized, they'll just have to screw you out of your hard earned money with life insurance, or fire, or auto. In fact this would really be a legal subsidy of American business, putting it on a level footing with Canada, Europe, and Japan, where employers do not have to provide health care.

Even if you idea of using the money already they are spending worked, free health care would not.

First off, we do not have enough Doctors, nurses and other medical professionals to fulfill this kind of health care. Second, we would not have more medical professionals because they would not want to work for the pay that the Gov would give them,so noone would go to school. Third, the lawmakers/politicians are not going to give up their "special" care so YOU can have equal care. Are you kidding?

Did you get to have the taxpayers foot the bill so you could fly over NY for a photo op? Did you get to fly to NY for a night out with your spouce on the dime of the taxpayers? NOPE... they will NOT give up their luxuries by sharing... NO way.

I want to be responsible for my OWN health care. IF the Gov would get out of the business of the people, then we just might be able to have the money in our pocket to go to the Doc!

Don't worry about a shortage of doctors, roxy. There'll be an abundance of waiting lists.

Nice utopian dream, but financially impossible in the real world!

I think lawmakers in Washington should have the same healthcare as all other Americans... Medicare and Social Security.

Then maybe they'd be more motivated to fix it, instead of raiding it and then lying about it.

Why is it financially impossible in the real world? That's hogwash. Every other developed country in the world, in Europe, Canada, and Australia, has national health care, they pay less for it than we do, they get better care and they have lower rates of preventable diseases.

And everyone is covered.

Or as a modest first step, give lawmakers in Washington the same coverage as the rest of us have. That should wake them up.

One big problem with our government "of the people, by the people" is that the "people" in Congress don't live in the same world as those they represent.