Health care is the least of Giuliani's worries. He needs to win over a majority of the right wing GOP. I don;t care what the pundits say: electability will not give him the nomination alone.
http://political-buzz.com/

I used to be in favor of a single payer health care system.  Not one where the gov't owns the hospitals and employs the doctors, but one in which the gov't. takes the role of the insurance companies.  One thing government can do, (but repubs can't seem to master), is administer large public institutions.

But the republicans have convince me that we, as Americans, are too stupid.  

Sure, we can spend 6000/person and barely edge out a country that has only $250/person to spend.  Sure, we have many times more infrastructure and far more doctors than Canada.  And our population is not spread out nearly as much as theirs.

I used to think we could learn from all of their systems, and since we have more money, doctors, and infrastructure to address the problems they have run into, we'd be able to come up with a more efficient system without catering to the parasitic insurance industry that sucks 30% out of every health care dollar.

But, the republicans are right.  We could never use our advantages and hundreds of years of cumulative experience of other countries to come up with a better plan than they have.

We are simply too stupid.  We are incapable of learning anything from history or the experiences of others.  

Too bad.  America is just plain chock-full of stupid people electing stupid leaders who ensure that their supporters have carte blance to bleed them dry.

It'd  be nice to have a system that works even better than the one Germany, Sweden, France, Italy, etc. has.

But if Cuba and Canada and the U.K. have problems with THEIR systems, who are we to think we are any smarter?

Thanks, repubs.  You've helped me see the light and realize that we shouldn't try to do things we are not mentally capable of.  Could'a got in trouble there.

DON'T EVEN TRY IT AMERICA.  WE'RE TOO STUPID.

David:Indeed we can, but I believe that the recipe lay in pilot programs introduced at a several-state level before determining if such sweeping changes will work on a national level. The new vision melds capitalism and socialism in seeing that a broad array of affordable healthcare service packages are provided to the needful customer by a coalition of government agencies [Health and Human Services,Labour,Commerce,Agriculture,VA], working in tandem with private enterprise [this works. We have seen it expertly performed during the 1960s Space Race as well as the Second World War].
             The lowest costs to customers will deal with preventative medicine and can be applied on a universal basis. US-based quality control teams acting as a sort of ''government pharmacist''can be dispatched to nations that export cheaper drugs to America,to determine drug safety and effectiveness. These vetted drugs can then make their way into the country at all states with customers given the option to purchase these cheaper drugs or be given waivers under a government program that would pick up the tab for these cheaper or generic drugs.[Thus eliminating the ''fear of quality/safety concern aspect.Nations under FBI-CIA-STATE watchlists would be ineligible].
                 More doctors. BI-Visas would give top priority to resident-level doctors and nurses at a global scale,allowing these to enter the country after thourough backround checks. They will be required to work at the city-county hospital level for the minimum period of two years before entering private practice.
              Fraud crackdown.This is one of the toughest blocks to better healthcare in America.Hundreds of millions,perhaps billions are lost every year due to lax enforcement of fraud and corruption.If not already in existance,a crime unit at the federal level would be introduced to more aggressively investigate these abuses and imprison/deport scofflaws,either customer or provider.[This would also include making abuse at nursing/senior care centers a federal crime,which it is not at present].
              Out-patient surgery will be placed into packages that couple government subsidy with costcutting at the private level[tax credits as an inducement], engendering competition among services to provide the cheapest[and safest]means of routine vasectomy,gall-kidney stone removal,barium tests,colonoscopies [and other scopes of the human upper/lower DI],heart tests[covered in preventative medicine],simple surgeries and repair/stitching of cuts,breaks and tears.
                   Major surgery offers a more complicated solution. A major public service drive at the level given the AIDS epidemic must be launched in order to encourage organ donation. All healthy Americans unfettered by religious convictions that disallow such donations should involve themselves in offering a most generous life-saving gift.[this poster does]. The race will not go to the richest or most influential but the most deserving,of any economic level,nor will ability to pay be an impediment although cost must be a factor in determining the consequences of major surgery. [It should be pointed out here that preventative medicine,usually informal and counciling in its construct,must import to the individual the eventual costs of continued gross usage of foods,alcohol,drugs,unsafe sex,or tobacco]. We will see the gravest costs to the taxpayer at this level,for it is here that subsidy will be at its highest levels.In the knowlage of this,it must be then imparted to Congress that:

The earmarks for favoured political contacts must end.

The usage of subsidy for arcane or non-essential ''services'' offered by purveyors of ''Piss Jesus''',teacup museums,and the study of Star Trek must stop.

Full public exposure of earmarks must be made in order to pressure Congress to place these monies where they most belong.Riders to the new Farm Bill,for instance,would easily pay for thousands upon thousands of major surgeries at a national level.

Let your representative know that it is YOUR money.''Aztec studies''be damned. You demand a more affordable means of removing your physical pain.

 Thus the revolution must begin with the ordinary American,much as at Breeds Hill on that long ago day.Non-violent in its construction,it yet holds the feet of these pols to the fire and crosses all ideological and political lines. After all,a cancerous polyp does not give a damn whether you are Democrat or Republican. Moore is on the wrong track for the right reasons. Move the discussion away from the ideologues and into the average American home where the impact is at its most influential.A uniquely American solution can be found that is not based on anything French or Cuban. Raise hell. The life you save may be your own.

Well, if the Republicans are going to make these false analogies of Democrats, they should start portraying the Republicans in the same light.  I want to see them talking about Rudy, Romney and Thompson as if they were Hitler, Stalin, and Mousilini. Let's see how Fox Noise responds to that, since they fully endorse what the Republicans say about Democrats falsly.

The point of going to Cuba was NOT to propose that they have better health care than we do but that they have better ACCESS to health care then we do.  Think before you speak because I am TIRED of explaining things even the simplest of concepts.  Pathetic.  

Giuliani is desperate! LOL
I've never met a Republican willing to opt out of Medicare - but they're soooo {{afraid}} of universal health care found in all other industrialized nations.
America = 3rd world country!

John Edwards has the best health care plan.

http://www.johnedwards.com/issues/health-care/

If the Republicans free-market health care system is "working" - why did Bush hide this report from us??


>>>>A surgeon general's report in 2006 that called on Americans to help tackle global health problems has been kept from the public by a Bush political appointee without any background or expertise in medicine or public health, chiefly because the report did not promote the administration's policy accomplishments, according to current and former public health officials.

The report described the link between poverty and poor health, urged the U.S. government to help combat widespread diseases as a key aim of its foreign policy, and called on corporations to help improve health conditions in the countries where they operate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/28/AR2007072801420.html?sub=AR

Hopefully, Giuliani and the Repubs will keep opposing universal health care cause their former followers began waking up in 2006 and finally realized that hating gays and abortion doesn't create jobs and doesn't prevent them from having to file bankruptcy because of exorbitant medical bills.

I am a repubelican and we I Rudy alot.  I think republicans are smarter and more patriodic because we have flags in my yard.

I dont think democrat should stay in montana like my brother who is there.    I like Rudy Gulini but I will vote for Governor Sam Brownback because hes more a republican.

What was the average persons' health care like before Fidel?  I doubt if Batista was too concerned with the health of most Cubans. For a poor country, they probably fare better than others.

I think when the candidates make comments about people who expressed their opinion, then the person with the opinion being challenged should also be featured in the press with their response. Guiliani is allowed to act like an expert without being challenged. That is not a effective way to run the media in a supposed democratic country. In other words, Get Moore's response.

This is almost as hilarious as what I wrote before about Bush on human torture: http://www.crummytwocents.com/2007/07/bush-oks-cia-torture-again.html

Giuliani is pulling all the stops when it comes to adding  a partisan spin to every issue in a vain attempt to survive the primaries. Frankly, his presidential campaign tactics are an insult every voter with even a speck of intelligence about them. How about we stop cowering behind the safety of the Democrat bashing and just keep with the real issues?

For all their complaining about how bad all these "Socialized" systems are, where the Rubber meets the road in Life Expectancy or Child Mortality, the US is standing still and countries that have Government care are zooming by.
The picture is here http://bp2.blogger.com/_3K9pXj9nEFY/RpMNIYPgjqI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/XVqFthn3HOc/s1600-h/healthlifechart3.jpg

When Trade with Cuba starts again, expect medical Tourism to be a big part of it, unless the US has fixed their system.

There is more at my Blog

July 10th, 2007
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0728,barrett,77192,2.html . . . Last week, Rudy Giuliani made a pilgrimage to Pat Robertson's Regent University in Virginia to deliver his one-note anti-terrorism stump speech, and was welcomed by thousands of clapping Christians.
Robertson suddenly seems comfortable with a candidate who hosted anniversary celebrations of Roe v. Wade at City Hall and enacted the most progressive domestic-partnership legislation in the country.
It was Robertson, after all, who had Jerry Falwell on his Christian Broadcasting Network show The 700 Club two days after 9/11, where the two spent about 10 trigger-happy minutes going after the people whom they held partly responsible for the murder of 3,000 Americans that day. Feminists. Lesbians. The ACLU. Abortionists. Christ-haters. Gays.
God allowed "the enemies of America to give us what we deserve," opined Falwell, to amens from Robertson.
In 2004, when Robertson was on the stump against John Kerry, he assailed Kerry's vote against a ban on so-called "partial birth" abortion, which, Robertson explained, meant Kerry was for infanticide. "I think Jesus would be against infanticide, don't you?" he added. Well, Rudy Giuliani didn't just oppose the ban—he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in 1998 that, in New York, late-term abortion "certainly works."
The city's Health & Hospitals Corporation, which Giuliani directly controlled, did thousands of late-term abortions over his eight years in office—so much so that a National Abortions Rights Action League study in 2000 called HHC "the last resort for women with later abortions needs or complications."

The movie Sicko brought this countrys health care problems to the forefront where they belong. It is a great documentary with few discrepencies. Democrats will be in office in 08 and we will get normalcy back to the U.S.

Sicko is a very informative educational movie that no republican will go see. So they won't learn anything new or truthful, because it would hurt them too much.

All the dems have to do with Rudy is keep showing him dressed up like a woman-like he did numerous times and hes toast as a candidate.What a fool!

Jerry- the DEMOCRATS have indicated health care was great in Cuba, or a fat guy named Moore did?  Please elaborate.  

But Russel in Maryland- haven't you heard?  GOD is on THEIR side!!

R Cruz- for the last time: Gore NEVER said he invented the internet.  That's one of those things that prove the old adage that if you say something enough times, it becomes the truth.  And as to global (Hemispherical??) warmaing, I agree with you.  He could vety well be way off base and totally wrong.  If he is, what a horrible thing it would to see us screw up, and put millions of tons LESS of pollutants in the environment, huh?  To paraphrase a line I see here a few times today- "why do so many Repubs and other 'Me-Firsters hate our environment"?

Navy Senior Chief -

Why don't you give up your socialized military medical coverage, come out into the real world and  then talk to us about not changing the medical system.

We just want coverage as good as your coverage at the same cost instead of being gouged by the insurance companies. Is that too much to ask? Every other western society has it. That was Moore's point. We are paying more for coverage the quality of which statistically equals Cuba's.

Boy I really look forward to the day when Guiliani has a shot at negotiating for a better price under his market based plan on that open heart surgury he needs as the ambulance rushes him to the hospital of his choice. I'm sure he'll be able to find not only the best deal on a capable doctor but a very reasonably priced hospital room too.  

Ahh! The great market based health care system has provided America the best health care in the world. So what if no one can really afford it and have assets below $1,500.00 before any assistance. But Hey!, Let's spend $500 billion and counting on a corporate welfare war. Sounds like we Americans sure have our priorities and compassion in the right place!

Giuliani's loyalty to the private healthcare non-system is charming ... however self-serving it might be: http://todaysseniorsnetwork.com/guiliani_sells_out.htm

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/05/oxycontin_the_g.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18672413/

Precisely what America needs post-Bush ... a corporate lobbyist President.

how much do three wives cost to carry on that policy.I can barely pay for one.

AN IDIOTIC GOVERNMENT FOR AN IDIOTIC NATION.
GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT.
SEEMS FAIR TO ME.

DOES IT REALLY MATTER WHO'S IN CHARGE?

NOPE.

Buzz:And while we are about it,Bush never said that the ''Constitution was just a goddamned piece of paper''either. Also see: The Urban Legends Referance Pages at www.snopes.com for more on that. Pass to the environment, and what Americans have readily seen,is that,like the GOP on ''family values'', liberals are base hypocrites when it comes to environmental stewardship. Ye gods,for what reason named do rock bands,support staff,assorted hangers-on,massive equipment using gasoline,caterers,security,need to be dotted around the world landscape in order to tell us that these people will most definately be flying to Cannes or Sundance next year in private LEAR Jets rather than focus attention on global warming by not flying to Cannes or Sundance? Nor is algore any paean of virtue. He still has his polluting Zinc mines,his oil company stock and his carbon credit company. These people are not the ones to step up as role models.
             Healthcare gets trickier. Lost in Michael Hirshs NEWSWEEK column today[this guy has been sharpening his verbal Ginsu knives at Bush for about forever]regarding the use of diplomacy as a means of containment, is the vast cost involved.This cost will be borne by the American taxpayer right about the time the newest healthcare scheme kicks in. The FED reports today that consumer confidence is at a six year high. This will evaporate with a new majority that couples pork,with Middle East diplomacy-as-containment[which will fail as have all of the rest of such schemes carried through both GOP and Democrat administrations,especially upon any retreat from Iraq],with healthcare,with truckling to teachers unions as a means of dealing with education,and with increasing trade protectionism which will break the backs of the working/middle class in taxes. [MSNBC craftily inserts ''healthcare''as a stand-alone program that these ''52%''would be willing to pay more taxes for,leaving alone ,for the moment,these other areas which will create economic duress for the entire nation, Carter-style. Thus, forward. Into the past.

It continues in my view to be amazing why there is so much arguments over healthcare between the ones who have and the ones that don't. Would it not be in everyones interest to do what is best for the citizens and the wellfare of our nation. Take the best from existing plans and improve them from other plans, regardless of what country the idea would come from. The bunch of politician running for office have alreadt shown what they are not capable of doing, having a decent and realistic conversation. Who are you kidding ?? Michael Moore has brought a very important issue to the publics attention, let's deal with it the best way possible using common sense

Look at Michael Moore - is he really someone who should be discussing HEALTH?!!! Sometimes I get confused if he directed Farenheit 911 or if he starred in "Supersized."

Cuba only pretends to have a top notch health care system for political show. While it does provide access to primary care providers by forcing doctors to serve in assigned neighborhoods, only the goverment elite and visiting foreigners have access to medication and top equipment.When I was there only the black market had  amoxicillin. Will sombody tell me what pharmacy has the $2 asthma inhaler seen in Moore's film so that I can save the $50 I spend sending it to my relatives. Other times they have blamed the US embargo, but it exempts medicine and food and most of the drug companies are European anyway. I think Moore has toher agendas or that was his fee for access to the Cuban side of Guantanamo,for he is neither stupid nor blind

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