Chamber hosts health forum

The Uninsured in America (& Underinsured), PBS

Health Coverage & the Uninsured, Kaiser Family Foundation

Also:

Nearly 44 Million in United States Without Health Insurance in 2008, CDC, July 1, 2009

Health Insurance, NIH MedlinePlus health information

@bnartist:"If private industry had a solution already we wouldn't have this problem. Let the government do what private insurance carriers are unable or unwilling to do. Get everybody into some healthcare plan and have a public option for the millions of Americans not served by private insurance. Insurance is not healthcare."

Your comment is quite full of such an "it takes a village" mentality that I'm not sure where to begin.

All around me I hear young people say "health care is a right" or "look at the poor kids going without health care" and it drives my nuts.

There is no right to anything in life that you cannot earn. No amount of giving things to people has solved any of our societal problems. Scholars even argue that the welfare state has prolonged poverty for millions in this country.

Everyone is already served by private health care insurance, they just choose not to buy it. Any young person could trade their cell phone and cable bills in for a BCBS Healthy Options plan for $100 a month.

My 86 year old gramma, yes she has to pay a lot for her medications, but she get's a reimbursement check back from the feds every year?

Who is driving this demand if the invalids and the impoverished are already in the safety net?

This argument is about choices. I chose to stand with free market values that say you only get what you earn in this life.

Unless your an invalid and then you are already taken care of. Unless you are a child and then you are already taken care of. Unless you are elderly and then you are already taken care of. Unless you are a member of the right special interest group and then you are already taken care of.

Who is left to pay for the "caring of"?

Between the state Democrats raising taxes and the national Democrats raising taxes and my local county Democrats raising taxes, who is gonna have any money left to create jobs to pay these outrageous taxes for social welfare programs?

Read this Wall Street Journal story: Sick and Getting Sicker

Rising health-care costs are pushing entrepreneurs to the limit. Some are changing coverage. Some are eliminating coverage. And some are deciding not to go into business at all.

Don't let your ideology hit you in the back on the way out.

Health-care costs have reached the tipping point for many small businesses.

...Small businesses have been complaining about health-care costs for a long time. But we’re at a point that’s beyond complaining, beyond warning about the crisis that’s coming. Instead, we’re at the point where something has to be done—for the sake of small businesses, and for the sake of the economy.

Skeptical? Listen ... to entrepreneurs who have reluctantly hired freelancers from overseas, or couldn’t hire the caliber of workers they need, or decided not to start a business in the first place—all because of the burden of health-care expenses.

Not a pretty picture. But what can be done to solve it? That’s what the nitty-gritty debate should be all about.

Uninsured people are costing us all more money because the escalating unmanaged, unreimbursed, costs are essentially a tax on paid healthcare services, public and private and the rising costs are a burden on business.

If private industry had a solution already we wouldn't have this problem. Let the government do what private insurance carriers are unable or unwilling to do. Get everybody into some healthcare plan and have a public option for the millions of Americans not served by private insurance. Insurance is not healthcare.

Hello: My name is Jeff Sykes. I live in Reidsville, N.C. I've started this online petition against government run health care. You do not have to join the site to sign the petition. Just fill in the required fields. Please pass to all your friends in North Carolina who might agree with us. I am trying to get 10,000 signatures in North Carolina by July 31, 2009.

Sign the Petition Today

Send this note to your friends:

I've signed this online petition addressed to Kay Hagan stating opposition to the public option plan now in Congress.
I am doing this as a grassroots effort to make my voice heard.
If you live in NC and agree with my petition, please sign it and let your friends know about it.

Wish I could be there because this looks like a very industry heavy panel and I'd love to be able to ask questions, particularly of Blue Cross Blue Shield. I hope that some patient advocates are able to attend and actually get some answers. If you want to know what I think the closest I can get is my blog www.aftercancernowwhat.com I am positive my thoughts are different than theirs.