Sam Leach - KEEP
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Sam You are inspiring me -- I need to write 45 political direct mail pieces for our municipal March 9th elections. Keeping me real busy. If you'd like after I am done I can start working on some direct mail on your behalf so we can spread your message to the masses. Cheers! Mike
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Starr:
it sure has been quiet here this weekend so far!!
Sometimes that is a good thing.
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Sam Leach:
Hello everyone. I've got family stuff today so I'll have to do a mass post. Hope I don't miss anyone...but if I have....sorry. Christina: Did you watch Liverpool vs Everton on telly ?? Although there was no score it was a great game in which we outclassed Everton. Sam If I got on to a platform I might forget where I was and start chatting about the Beatles. But seriously, I think the Republicans should start looking after the children, the underpaid and the infirm before they give their rich mates more massive contracts for a jaunt to Mars. And their should be some form of National Health scheme for those who can't afford it. Vinny: I like Becks but his going to Spain didn't bother me...as long as he took Posh Spice with him. Only he hasn't, heh, heh. The only thing overweight in Posh is her tongue. And hello to Starr, Kathy, Maccascruff, Tashi, Linda and dB. I really wish I could help US politics for the reasons I've outlined to Sam C above. The only people who can do anything tangible is those of you who are able to vote. So in Novemeber please get out and vote for whoever you prefer. When good people do NOTHING but moan about their fate instead of doing something positive by voting...that's when the baddies win !! I'll be back in about 4 hours. Love and hugs. Sam.
Hi Sam, The problem is that the Democrats offer no viable solutions as well. If the USA is to have some kind of socialized medicine, it has to be paid for(should the government take all of the people's money and redistribute it among the people? I think that would be wrong), inept doctors need to be removed (one of the reason for high malpractice insurance premiums and guess where that charge eventually comes), we need to have massive tort reform because lawyers are the one benefiting from the misery. We need to deal with the incredible waste of litigation in the USA before we are able to address the health insurance problem and the Democrats love trial lawyers. Of course the Republicans need to force USA companies that are selling products here in the USA from moving their headquarters overseas while beneifiting from USA laws and offshoring all of the jobs to China (no friend of the USA), India and Russia. First, manufacturing jobs leave, now the high tech jobs are leaving as well. I see neither party declaring war on economic terrorism. Sorry about the long winded post, but neither Bush or the eight/nine dwarves have any clue how to deal with the problems of this country. That is why I shall not vote for any of those cretins. Have a wonderful day! Sam C.
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Sam C In terms of malpractice rates going up alas doctors getting socked with high premiums -- you can cite that to the insurance industry much more than the trail lawyers. The insurance industry was recently put under oath in the Florida legislature and were asked point blank is your industry really hurting via malpractice claims as you have stated in the press. They had to admit no -- their profits are quite fine but they jack them up becuase they want to make money, naturally. When Clinton proposed his health care plan in 1995 -- the insurance industry spent a billion dollars to demonize the plan. I've worked closely with a State Senator for years on HMO reform in Tallahassee -- and have seen quite closely who is on the side of the insurance industry and who is on the side of consumers. It's not as black and white as that but pretty close. While I personally am like you often dissapointed with both political parties and believe we can benefit from a third party -- on the issue of health care the Republicans and Democrats are oceans apart as opposed to be on the same wave length. Just my opinion from being on the inside -- it's what I do for a living. Cheers! Mike
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Actually there are few good books recently out about health care -- one written by Pete Peterson, a member of previous Republican administrations who basically said We pay more for drugs in this country, more for hospitals, the whole nine yards because we completely leave it to the free market as opposed to the government being able to bid prices down by coming in as the major buyer. While people may or may not like government interference with health care it's pretty clear that some involvenment would lower prices. It's a good country if you don't get sick -- but it's one or perhaps the only industralized country that if someone gets severly sick they go bankrupt or even worse literally can't afford to take care of themselves. For us being supposedly the richest country on earth -- it's pretty shameful, I think. Wow, we are going way off topic -- I am not the one running for office -- this is for people like Sam with political aspirations. Perhaps me and Sam C can serve as advisors!
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mikeskapla:
Sam In terms of malpractice rates going up alas doctors getting socked with high premiums -- you can cite that to the insurance industry much more than the trail lawyers. The insurance industry was recently put under oath in the Florida legislature and were asked point blank is your industry really hurting via malpractice claims as you have stated in the press. They had to admit no -- their profits are quite fine but they jack them up becuase they want to make money, naturally. When Clinton proposed his health care plan in 1995 -- the insurance industry spent a billion dollars to demonize the plan. I've worked closely with a State Senator for years on HMO reform in Tallahassee -- and have seen quite closely who is on the side of the insurance industry and who is on the side of consumers. It's not as black and white as that but pretty close. While I personally am like you often dissapointed with both political parties and believe we can benefit from a third party -- on the issue of health care the Republicans and Democrats are oceans apart as opposed to be on the same wave length. Just my opinion from being on the inside -- it's what I do for a living. Cheers! Mike
Mike, The problems with the health care is that the doctors who screw up don't get thrown out of the system (that would make too much sense, an example was some Doctor in UCH here in Tampa cutting the wrong foot off a diabetic patient, and not the first time he screwed up something), there is no policing internally in the AMA that I can see. I have stated that litigation is one of the biggest drags on the USA economy, and it is quite true as this has added costs to premiums as well. No fan am I of the insurance industry all the way around in the state of Florida. How much has your auto insurance gone up, much less your medical insurance and home owner's insurance? Of course, now some of them are leaving Florida and home owner's insurance is skyrocketing. With the increasing population of snowbirds here in Florida, I see costs skyrocketing there as well, although I do remember (from my reading)what you said that they were making money here. Of course, the problem is not just in Florida, it is in the other 49 states in the USA. I certainly am not for gouging the insurance industry, but I want some money back into the system where it is supposed to go, not into governmental regulators which is essentially what Clinton's plan would have done. Clinton's plan would just shift the money from the insurance company to the government and we all know how wasteful the government is with money, don't we? We all now that government is in control of Social Security and we know that is not acturalially sound. So, I am not in favor of turning it over to the government. So neither party has a viablie solution to this problem. Cheers! Sam C.
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Sam C Reread your post sorry actually you weren't saying that the Republicans and Democrats were the same on this issue -- you were playing up the extreme stereo types of both parties -- picking on the Dems a little more I think in that post. You won't find too many Democrats pushing for socialized medicine in the extreme. Also, you don't find too many Democrats pushing for socialism in this country -- alas redistribution of wealth. In order to even the score a little (I am not really infatuated with either political party, prefer the Dems by a little) The Republicans or Bush have been pushing in my view for a country that is based on 2 classes the haves and the have nots. Bush's tax cuts are stacked to the wealthy in terms of pure money made. The Dems in their current presidential campaigns are talking about reversing the Bush tax cuts -- one because the wealthy benefit the most from them -- but more importantly Bush within 3 years has taken a country that was pretty much debt free to a record amount of debt. Someone is going to have to pay that debt at some point. You can argue that if any party now is the fiscally responsible party its the Democrats. They are far from perfect, don't get me wrong. That's why I'd love to see a third party. The Democratic party is at least talking about reducing the debt. The Republicans with few exceptions don't seem to care. They seem to push forward -- give tax cuts to the wealthy and that money will filter down to the rest of society -- debt is irrelevant -- becuase if we help the wealthy enough they will create jobs, boost the economy and the extra revenue will make up for the debt. Well, I don't think anyone who doesn't subscribe to this theory is a socialist. I know that's not exactly what you are saying but just making the point that the differences between the Democratic Party and the Republicans on the economy went through a transformation in the 90s. The Republicans used to be the fiscally responsible -- cut debt party and keep things in order. Now, they are in my view become quite reckless with the economy. Bush is headed to be the first president since Hoover to have a net job less in his tenure.
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mikeskapla:
Actually there are few good books recently out about health care -- one written by Pete Peterson, a member of previous Republican administrations who basically said: We pay more for drugs in this country, more for hospitals, the whole nine yards because we completely leave it to the free market as opposed to the government being able to bid prices down by coming in as the major buyer. While people may or may not like government interference with health care it's pretty clear that some involvenment would lower prices. It's a good country if you don't get sick -- but it's one or perhaps the only industralized country that if someone gets severly sick they go bankrupt or even worse literally can't afford to take care of themselves. For us being supposedly the richest country on earth -- it's pretty shameful, I think. Wow, we are going way off topic -- I am not the one running for office -- this is for people like Sam with political aspirations. Perhaps me and Sam C can serve as advisors!
Don't forget how long it takes for the government to approve these drugs and how long it takes to go to market.... There is nothing bad about the free market to develop new drugs and profit from them, but unless they show some (the operative word here is some) profit from their labors, there is no incentive for any research to be made to develop these new drugs. Then there are reactions to the drugs as well. There are always side effects to the new drugs, and sometimes you don't find out about them until years later....So who takes on the liability for this? As Mike has admitted and as already delved into this topic, it is not a black and white issue. Best, Sam C.
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Hi Mike & Samcat. You've both hit on the head the problems that have to be solved. And from what I can see very few Republicans are interested in helping the people who need it most....Mr and Mrs Average American. BTW don't get carried away with stumping for me, heh, heh. But I wish I could legally run because I KNOW where the problem lies. The Super rich Corporates making sure they retain the `Status Quo'. Cheers. Sam.
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Hi Sam Your point is spot on in terms of campaign contributions coming from corporations. The idea that our govenrment us for sale -- in my view is more driven by the Republicans. The Republicans outraise the Democrats 3 to 1 in a typical race -- why do lobbyists, insurance companies, oil companies, tobacco companies, etc -- all prefer Republicans? Think about it. Yes, the Democrats get help from labor and trail lawyers, Hollywood types but they are no way even remotely competitive with the Republican money machine. Not too long ago, people thought it was absurd for presidential candidates to raise 20 million for a campaign. George Bush is braking the bank and headed towards 200,000 million. Sam C In terms of Social Security -- it's regarded to be going broke for 2 reasons 1. People are living longer than ever -- too few working people paying for two many retired people. 2. The government has raided the fund for other purposes -- actually the Republicans have been the ones including this adminsitation who seemed to be more guilty of that. In 1996, the Democrats put a bill on the table which said that Social Security is off limits and the Republicans rejected it. Yeah programs like Social Security and Medicare aren't perfect but it has helped relieve poverty among the elderly. Can you imagine the eldery fending for themselves, instead -- with our nation's high health care costs -- I think that would be a disaster. While I agree big government is not the solution to our problems -- government intervention with health care I think can be quite helpful. Clinton wasn't talking about government taking over our nation's healthcare -- that's what the insurance industry said with their billion dollar TV ads. Governemnt has its faults but I place my bets on them with my health care as opposed to the insurance industy and HMOs looking out for me any day of the week. Cheers! Mike
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mikeskapla:
Sam In terms of malpractice rates going up alas doctors getting socked with high premiums -- you can cite that to the insurance industry much more than the trail lawyers. The insurance industry was recently put under oath in the Florida legislature and were asked point blank is your industry really hurting via malpractice claims as you have stated in the press. They had to admit no -- their profits are quite fine but they jack them up becuase they want to make money, naturally. When Clinton proposed his health care plan in 1995 -- the insurance industry spent a billion dollars to demonize the plan. I've worked closely with a State Senator for years on HMO reform in Tallahassee -- and have seen quite closely who is on the side of the insurance industry and who is on the side of consumers. It's not as black and white as that but pretty close. While I personally am like you often dissapointed with both political parties and believe we can benefit from a third party -- on the issue of health care the Republicans and Democrats are oceans apart as opposed to be on the same wave length. Just my opinion from being on the inside -- it's what I do for a living. Cheers! Mike
Mike, As I noted in a previous post, that has to do with the insurance company here in Florida, not nationwide. There are reasons why doctors get his with those high premiums, because based on past experience and statistics. Of course, if the AMA would police their own, they might not have that. Why the high premiums? Because of the losses they will incur from big results from civil suits, some they may have not taken into consideration. It is all about liablity. The insurance company needs to have sufficient funds on hand (plus profit) to deal with the trial lawyers who come at them with the incompetence of doctors that should have been removed some time ago. Oh, and I agree the insurance companies have their hand in the pocket too. I know of doctors (who give their services away) that have to pay high premiums. It has to do with all of the parties failure to police themselves, and the iron law of responsibility may be on its's way. I just don't want government control of this already screwed up situation. They will find a way to make it worse. They always do. Best, Sam C.
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Sam. it's so true what you are saying about the Mars mission, etc. Wish you really could go for Pressie. Our health care system stinks, I have no clue why so much $ is being sunk into the space program (maybe we're looking for an alternate place to live after the world blows up from all of this terrifying war situation.Ha! Ha?). Wonder why it's so incredibly clear, what needs to be done over here, but no one, in office, does anything about it?
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Hey guys!!!! Before I forget. Watch the Today show Tuesday between 7 and 8 AM. They are doing a Beatles segment, and I'm on it! I'm the lady with the Yellow Sub , in my hand, and the Hard Day's Night shirt on. They interviewed me and had a bunch of Beatle fans singing to beatle songs.
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Mike, Social Security is going broke because it is actuarlialy unsound. Always has been. They continue to use the funds to spend it on things that it never was intended to do and quiet inefficiently I might add. Government is not the answer, because they will screw it up even more than it is now. If we need the government to protect us like this, then we should let the government decide where we live, where we should work, etc etc. I am not for that kind of government. The thing is to pass laws that will regulate the industry on all fronts, insuraance companies, the medical field and the trial lawyers. All are to blame for this fiasco. Of course that is easier said than done. Trial lawyers are powerful, much more powerful than the insurance companies. The USA has more lawyers per capita than any nation on the face of the world. Why? They are a drag on the economy. We need tort reform as well as insurance reform. If we give it to the government, it will be just as inefficient as social security and we will have NO money left for ourselves while the government wastes it. Best, Sam C.
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Lacey Fox:
Sam. it's so true what you are saying about the Mars mission, etc. Wish you really could go for Pressie. Our health care system stinks, I have no clue why so much $ is being sunk into the space program (maybe we're looking for an alternate place to live after the world blows up from all of this terrifying war situation.Ha! Ha?). Wonder why it's so incredibly clear, what needs to be done over here, but no one, in office, does anything about it?
Lacey, It does seem to come at the time of the one year anniversary of the disaster of the victims of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Which was today. Also, it has to do with the two rovers over on Mars as well. But if you want to look at a huge waste of money here in the USA, look at Homeland Insecurity and their rainbow of colours. Cheers! Sam C.
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Sam C In terms of the mal practice issue -- am just saying that based on stuff I've read it's an issue where the insurance industry, lawyers, and doctors are pretty much complicit. You seem to be picking on bad doctors and overzealous lawyers as the key cause, I am saying based on what I've read the insurance industry is most at fault. The reason why I responded to your post is more becuase you seem to be characterizing mal practice as the major problem with our health care costs, I disagree with that -- You are repeating the Republican mantra (whether you intend to or not) about our nation's health care. They like to say stop the trial lawyers and the rest of the system is fine no need to mess with it. It's self serving rhetoric on their end becuase as you've pointed out trial lawyers tend to support Democrats. By profession, trial lawyers want to find ways to nail big corporations while the Republicans generally do what they can to protect big corporations. Personally, I don't think mal practice rates are the main reason why drug costs are higher in this nation than the rest of the world, we have 50 million people that are uninsured, HMOs are having problems properly taking care of their patients, people especially eldery have to choose between mediciation and food, etc. My point is that malpractice claims have something to do with it but it's a small part of the big picture. Cheers! Mike
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Sam C Having actually worked at AARP's research division in Washington DC during grad school -- I am absolutely unconvinced that the main problem with Social Security is accounting -- even most anti-government Republicans agree that the main problem with Social Security is quite simple. When Social Security was first enacted -- people lived on average 2-5 years to collect it. Now that number is closer to 20 years. Social Security is a pay as you go system -- where each generation pays for the subsequent generation. Here's why D day is coming Generation X My generation is one of the smallest groups ever in poplualtion Bbaby Boomers Are headed to retire. they are one of the biggest generations ever. Also, we are living longer than ever -- so they will probably live in retirment for much longer. The numbers just don't compute. The key issue is the fact that people are living longer putting more pressure on the now generations. If Social Security is managed so ineptly than how come it's worked woithout a hitch for about 70 years?
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Boy, we can publish the debates with Sam C Ram is it well regarded or not? Health care & Social Security what are the solutions? Next we will debate global warming All in fun, though. Cheers! Mike
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Hello Lacey!! nice to see you here!! How've you been? And where is Paulfan and Tashi?? Hello there!! Hi To Samuel, Sam, Mike and everyone else!!
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Hi Starr!! I've been doing good, just busy as a bee with kids and art jobs! I have to remind myself to carve out a bit of time for myself, and to check in with my friends!!! Hope you're doing well. Hope you are feeling better, I know you've had a hard time after your kitty passed away. Mine passed away four months ago, and I'm just now feeling better.