michelle:
you are so right on this 1 i couldn't believe it till i actually witnessed it,a friend of mine had to have a hysterectemy ''forgive my spelling'' HER doctor wanted her to stay IN the hospital for 2 more days...but a ''insurance cop'' (that's what i callem) said since she wasn't hooked to any iv's they wouldn't pay for it,the doctor was almost beside himself AND worried for her,it is a very sad state of affairs when a insurance company can override a DOCTORS DECISION..THEY HAVE GOTTEN TOTALLY OUT OF HAND...AND GAMBLE WITH OUR LIVES.....

Corker is an idiot. It is fear tactics like these comments causing people to panic about changing insurance as it is today. People fear it, when in reality it is better for all of us. They will fine companies...not individuals. We need a complete change. I have seen insurances where a person pays 100.00 biweekly for coverage with a 3,000.00 deductible and 100.00 copay for an ER visit, plus another 30% out of pocket. How insane is that? Thats not coverage, that is simply robbery. Alot of people are still not getting the care they need, because of the out of pocket, deductibles and copayments. I hate that the government would have to dish out money and increase the deficit. But if you look at how things are now. We still have people who do not work at all that receive FREE healthcare. They do not pay taxes, they do not put into the system but continually take out. That should be stopped. Nothing in life is free, and these people need to stop their free ride. Make them work for the government. Paving roads, doing office work, daycare for each other's children. Grow a garden to feed their masses, Something! These people go to the doctor more frequently than anyone, because of lack of education. They should just open up free clinics for these people, not continually let them abuse the hospitals and doctor's offices. I work every day and I do not want hand outs, but I think a more equalized healthcare system would be great. Why does it have to cost an arm and leg just to get basic health insurance? Because insurance companies have gotten out of hand. THey decide what a patient can and can't have. How many days a patient can stay in the hospital. That should be left up to the physicians. How does some insurance approval clerk sitting in an office in Florida know that a little elderly man who just had surgery only needs to stay in the hospital two days? All cases are different. The doctor should make that call. What does the patient need to make them well? That should be the question. Insurance goes up, hospital charges go up...and our pay barely eeks forward. I think we need a stop and check system. Most people say they do not want the government running healthcare, but right now the insurance companies run it. Who would be more fair?? I would pay a healthcare tax, if we all payed a tax. Stop all the disability claims, stop all the freebies. Make people work again. You want healthcare, WORK! You want to eat, WORK! You want a roof over your head, WORK! Its quite simple. You don't work you die out. LEts stop giving people everything they need. Yes the government should regulate healthcare, but it should come with a cost to those who want it. We are quickly becoming a lazy, greedy, selfish country. We need to get it together.

I wanna see a debate featuring Bob Corker & Ron Ramsey. A full hour of nothing short of incessant, run-on sentences and incoherent mumbling.

Actually, TN's BCBS plan is a not-for-profit and have worked (from what I've read) pretty hard to bring different types of coverage to the less fortunate. That being said, most of the problems with health care and insurance costs aren't simply because some insurance CEO want to pocket millions - it's because people overuse healthcare by getting redunant procedures, there's billions of dollars in malpractice suits that aren't really malpractice, drug seeking doctor-shopping patients, and then the multi-BILLION dollar pharm-advertising that drives people to think that they need a specific brand, etc.

Everyone blames the insurance company. I blame everyone. I rarely get sick or require a doctor's care, yet I pay just as much as someone who is at the doctor weekly. I finally opted for a consumer driven HDHP this year because I'm tired of paying for what I don't need... but the cool thing is my insurance company offers that and helps us with a ton of options on health, fitness, etc. A government-run option for "competition sake" is a lame excuse. It's just a great way to shove their foot in the door to do whatever they want later.

If it, like the last few trillion spent, was so important, they would stop trying to strong-arm everyone into rushing a bill through. It's bad enough the last one was pushed through without ample opportunity to review the fodder it had hidden in it. I'm tired of paying for everyone's pet project.

If you think healthcare is expensive, you should actually try to visualize what the government is currently costing us.

What Corker keeps forgetting is that the bill in its current form would offer a public "option" that the less fortunate could use as health insurance, and nobody who can afford other, private insurance would be forced to use the public option. He would deny those 15% of Americans who currently have NO health insurance an affordable option.

He also says he would vote NO to any "governmental-run health care plan", conveniently ignoring the fact that about 26% of Americans already have a government health-care plan, and most seem to like it. I'll bet he would have voted to NO to Medicare back in the 1960's, too, and probably even Social Security back in FDR's day.

This is all very typical Republican. If he thinks health care reform can be tackled through all these other means, then why hasn't it been done before now. The Bush administration had eight years, six of which had GOP majorities in both houses of Congress, and yet did little in the name of health-care reform.

If the free-market could have given us inexpensive health insurance, there wouldn't be any need for the government to step in with these programs.

This were one of the town hall announced a couple of days ago by Lamar Alexander to try to gin up support for the party of NO to oppose health care for Americans. Notice there was no big announcement. They would rather have us all die and the country fail than actually fix problems. Their Medicare Part D atrocity was run through in the middle of the night, with the floor left open for hours while the Republican majority leaders twisted arms and threatened their members. Wonder how much Corker has gotten in donations from the insurance lobbyists?

make no mistake,insurance companies ARE in the business of making money at the cost of our health ''why u think they don't want to cover pre-existing conditions'' it is also hard to tell how many insurance corporations have ''lined the pockets'' of the ''company backing republicans and democrats too'' and all u people who holler socialism on this is ''full of it''....!!

John Davis, I agree with you. I believe that Obama was a scape goat because nobody could fix the mess that we were already in because of proples greed. The more they say no, the larger their pockets get
I think that many issues need to have a people vote. Put stuff like this on the ballot. We as a country should be able to decide things like health care, abortion, marijuana, down to red light cameras. But, contrary to the constitution, it is not up to us. The bottom line, it is all about big brother and money. The government acts like a bunch of frat boys fighting over a keg of beer.
I think that the health care issue is simple. Tax the illegals 10% work fee and use that money to fund it. Legalize and tax marijuana and let that money fund it.
There are a lot of issues in the bill that we are not aware of I am sure, but I would rather pay a few hundred for an abortion, than keep up a welfare child for 18 years x 20 generations.

The Government already runs Medicare and Medicaid cheaper than the HMO's do.

So Americans should not be on and Equal footing to compete with England, German, France, Denmark, Sweden, ISRAEL and so many others with National Health Care.

When the Republicans created the HMO's under Nixion they were a congame !!!!

Listen to the Nixion Tapes on Youtube.
Search -- Nixion Tapes HMO --- listen for yourself. Provide less medical care and charge more for insurance was the game plan from the beginning.

Yeah, just saying NO to socialism. When it comes to moving the country towards socialism, you can be sure I hope they (anyone who tries it) fail at it. Anyone who believes that the government can do anything more efficiently and cheaper is a fool.