Anthem/Blue Cross of California has just proposed a 39% rate hike!!! http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/02/12/ ... r-options/

Insurance companies are making record profits at our expense but idiots keep screaming to keep things as they are. Once their COBRA benefits run out the unemployed won't be able to afford health insurance.
Smaller government? No or fewer regulations? No government run health care? No socialized health care? Give me a break!!! Supporting insurance companies over the individual is like having the fox in charge of the hen house.

A friend of mine, who's a paraplegic, has spent the last few years going through surgery after surgery for pressure sores. He was issued an air mattress after what he thought was his last operation. When the insurance company bean counters decided that he was "cured" they had the mattress taken back. Guess what? He developed more pressure sores and had to go back in the hospital for more surgeries and two months of convalescent care. Sure! Let's keep supporting insurance companies! Duh!

Yikes. Prayers just said & vibes sent for your friend...

Thanks Cheryl. But I think health care reform would do him more good. Maybe send those prayers and vibes for a better Congress, Democrats, Republicans and whatever.

After reading this i am glad that whe have a more socialized system overhere ( its probebly someting where much Americans are afraid of )

Yeah, we do need a better congress both Dems and Republicans...

Partesianship is the real problem...both parties are so busy protecting their agenda they've totally lost sight of what's good for America. Lots of them also have huge problems remembering that there is a Constitution that mandates a separation of church and state...which means making decisions based on policy according to fundamental Christian dogma has no place in the House or Senate.

Partisanship and short-term thinking -- the kind of thinking that goes, "Now, what do I need to do (or not do) in order to get re-elected (or elected)?" and stops there.

And we're just as much to blame for that as them, because we reward it.

Unfortuantly, a lot of them are also in the pockets of Big Insurance...so they've got no motivation to change the way we do things in regards to health care, because that would put a stop to their particular gravy train.

Yep. Politicians suck.

But being in the pockets of big insurance only helps them because big insurance helps pay for their campaigns and, since they then win their campaigns using big insurance's $$, they think it's necessary to be in the pockets of big insurance and do what big insurance says. So, I think voters are as much to blame because they (we) are the ones falling for the campaigns that big insurance funds. And when I say "we," I mean "we the people." I have no idea how to change this -- too many people out there (including all of us, sometimes, I think) are all too willing to fall for a good lie, without thinking critically about what we're being told or doing our own research.

Yeah, and in the meantime, Monsanto is in charge of raising most of the grain crops in the nation...what do you think about that?? They've put hundreds of small farmers out of business; they've quietly planted "test plots" of their bioengineered corn and wheat close to large privately owned farms, and then sued the farmers when the crops turn out having Monsanto's patented genes in their makeup from the free-floating pollen in the air...keeping the farmers from being able to market the product as they wanted, and making it impossible for them to save back their own seeds. It's buy seed from Monsanto, or sell the farm to Monsanto, since they tend to sue for more than the farm is worth.

Let's see .....
No regulations in the stock market ("The market will take care of itself," Alan Greenspan) .... market collapses.

No banking regulations ...... banks collapse.

No credit card regulations ..... credit collapse.

No health care insurance regs ..... people can't afford health care insurance .... people collapse.

No regulations for big business ....... businesses collapse.

Few regulations for big agri-businesses ....... ?????? Uh, oh! Soylent green.

Sue -- I think Monsanto is a horrible company for the reasons you give (and others -- Agent Orange, dumping toxic waste, exposing child laborers to pesticides in India, where do we stop?) and their corporate charter should be revoked. Fat chance of that, but it is what should happen.

I don't mean at all to imply that insurance companies and other corporations shouldn't be regulated or that I think they should be able to make unlimited campaign contributions. I'm all for changing that, even if a constitutional amendment is necessary to deny the "personhood" of corporations. But I also think that while money talks, we have a responsibility to stop listening to it.

Back to the Monsanto front, though, the Public Patent Foundation (begun by one nerdy patent lawyer) got four of Monsanto's patents reexamined and rejected in 2007:

http://www.pubpat.org/monsantorejections.htm

That's apparently not the end of things -- it looks like the rejections are just one step in the Patent Office's reexamination process (a process I don't completely understand) -- but it's a start.

Eileen

Another reason we need health care reform ..... now:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/opini ... ugman.html

More:
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/19 ... -2010feb20

and

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_14435478? ... ck_check=1