P what I see is people do die because they have no health insurance. There is a man I know not real bright but he worked hard all his life at poor paying jobs with on benifits[ a normal condition in rural Okie land] He starts feelimg a deep pain but he can afford to go to a doc so like lots of people he just keeps working every day, paying his bills like he is suppose to. He keeps hoping it will just go away finally when it hurts so bad he can't work he goes to the Dr. He has to use his families food money but if he doesn't get pain relief he won't be making any more so-----. It was cancer two weeks later he was dead. I personally heard the Dr. say at his grave if he had just came and saw me when he started feeling something he'd be alive today! THIS is the same Dr, who has a great big sign in his offic "NO INSURANCE NO MONEY NO Dr." Now you might say that he could have gone to the emergecy room they have to see him. True but as a walking person all they will do is make sure you are not going to die before morning and give you pain pills and tell you to see the Dr. In those old days your talking about the most expensive thing you would get at E.R. was about a x-ray to see if the bone was broke. Today if we don't find a way to help people there are thousands of people like home healthcare providers, roofers etc. that are facing death because they have no bennies. And here is the real kicker WE ARE PAYING FOR THE HEALTH CARE WE DON'T GET! Why do you think we have the highest healthcare cost with some of the worst results[ our life expectance is down to 27th. 2/3s of all bankrupticesare caused by healtcare cost. 90% of the estates of aged are not left to help their children to get ahead it's spent on healthcvare for grandpaw and grandma. The big insurance people want to save is not there to help you they are there to suck up every penny they can by cutting your healthcare.

Cost is a big issue. How come a person can have the same exact procedure done in Singapore for a fraction of the cost as the US? Could it have something to do with our sue happy society where people are awarded millions and millions of dollars in malpractice suits?

I am interested to know what happens in a socialist healthcare system when a doctor makes a mistake that causes the death of a patient. I do know that in a socialist healthcare system the physicians will make a lot less money, which may help bring down costs, but may lure the best and brightest minds into more lucrative fields.

I think life expectancy can be tied to our overall lowered enthusiasm for healthy living in this country, or is it an increased enthusiasm for great flavors? With every course of every meal being deep fried and smothered in cheese and served with an extra large coca cola to go it's easy to imagine why life expectancy in the states isn't as high as other nations.

One can only hope it's that easy.

In the interest of fairness (and to avoid any chance of confusion), let's finish this out, shall we?

Paul disagreed with the audience on that front. "No," he responded, noting he practiced medicine before Medicaid when churches took care of medical costs--a comment that drew wide audience applause. "We never turned anybody away from the hospital."

Paul voiced support for legalizing alternative health care and argued that the reason medical costs have skyrocketed is that individuals have stopped taking personal responsibility for their health care.

Though Paul spoke to the larger issues of health care and government-backed health insurance--both pivotal in the 2012 election--the audience's reaction has overshadowed the substance of the exchange between the candidates. And the day after the event, Texas Gov. Rick Perry offered his own criticism of the audience response.

"I was a bit taken aback by that myself," Perry told NBC News and the Miami Herald of the audience reaction after appearing at a breakfast fundraiser in Tampa Tuesday morning.

"We're the party of life. We ought to be coming up with ways to save lives."

The campaigns for Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann did not immediately respond to The Ticket's request for comment.

Conservative Andrew Sullivan writing for The Daily Beast's The Dish Tuesday noted that the United States obligates society to save someone in an emergency room. "America, moreover, has a law on the books that makes it a crime not to treat and try to save a human being who walks into an emergency room. So we have already made that collective decision and if the GOP wants to revisit it, they can," Sullivan wrote.

Sullivan also decried the audience reaction, writing: "Maybe a tragedy like the death of a feckless twentysomething is inevitable if we are to restrain healthcare costs. But it is still a tragedy. It is not something a decent person cheers."

Taken from:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/audie...-163216817.html

Ron Paul wasn't cheering but the Tea Party was, and that is the point. The current system offered by private insurance has to change. As long as it continues for the sake of profit alone people will die from lack of care. Christ preached about healing the sick, clothing the naked, and feeding the hungry. He did not once preach that others should die so that one may prosper greatly.

I been waiting for SSI for 4 years due to M.S. AND Cancer.
They say they "lost" all my applications.
I was too busy Dealing with My 3rd wifes Cerebral Stroke at 34, and the Kidnapping of my step kids by her family to think about anything, not even my health issues.
I lost everything, Credit, Insurance, Job, sitting by my wifes bedside after Brain surgery and Coma, and Making sure the Kids were getting to school and so forth.
After I lost my wife, my sister in law shows up for the Kids the day after Christmas.
Nightmare after Nightmare.
I try to move on, and after Meeting Jack Herrer,I decide to carry on with my Cannabis Collective, put the rest of my Cash, Heart and Soul into trying to Open a Recreation and Health center for Prop 215 Patients.
After Refusing to Compromise ta provide low Cost Meds, I got Death Threats from Local Dispensary's, followed by Attempted Blackmail by the local Sheriff and fire Marshall.
Not to mention Vendors pre Kiefing Buds and Patients re selling Meds.

I had ta Shut down when most of my patients Bailed on the Co Op, due to Police pressure.

After all that, I moved to nowhere land Nevada TO TRY TO REGROUP.
Before I can get myself together ,I started getting Very,Very ill, and I now am 4 Mo into waiting for my reapplication to go thru.
They are trying to prove that the M.S. is not bad enough to keep me from working, even tho I cant walk, mostly blind, and am bed ridden 22 hours a day. Even their own Doctors have said the M.S. has gone into a permanent downward spiral.
Now I gotta try to survive a 9 hr road trip to see their Neurologist.
Meanwhile,I keep begging to be sent to an Oncologist, cause the Cancer has obviously come back with a vengeance.
They just keep ignoring my requests, and I still have 30 day's ta wait to be approved.
I have a feeling they are trying to outlast me.
It's not like the Chemo or more surgery will do me any good.
But, not having any income for 4 years have left me almost homeless, and I am having a harder time providing Meds for myself and the few patients I care for now.
It took 3 Years, and 2 Strokes for my 2nd wife to get SSI, so I dont have much hope on being approved this go around.
Which means another 6 mo wait, if I am lucky and dont have to get a Lawyer.
If they dont lose my application again. Doubt I would survive that.
I been thinking of contacting WAMM in Santa Cruz since they have a Hospice there, and they can Care for my 2nd wife there, since I am getting too ill.

This is my story.

I will know in 30 Days if I can start living like a human being again,before I croak, and the wait is literally killing me.

Sharki

Right, and I get that. The Tea Party isn't Ron Paul and vice-versa, though it seems many wanna make that connection in order to marginalize.

In any event, I feel insurance company MONOPOLIES are what keeps the cost of healthcare high. Monopoly by for-profit industry is never good for costs or quality IMHO.

In the video contained in Tim's link, @ 1:28, Ron Paul says:

“That’s the reason the cost is so high. The cost is so high because we dump it on the government, it becomes a bureaucracy, it becomes special interest, it kowtows to the insurance companies and to the drug companies - then on top of that you have the inflation.
The inflation devalues the dollar. We have a lack of competition; there is no competition.
We have no competition in medicine. Everybody’s protected by licensing. We should actually legalize alternative healthcare, allow people to practice what they want.”

Along those lines, why is it that in the State of Oregon (possibly others, though I haven't researched it) Naturopaths (NDs) have full DRUG prescribing rights, but CANNOT sign for their patients to have legal access to cannabis for medicinal purposes?

NDs are likely the BEST advocates for medical cannabis efficacy for patients with whom they've established primary care relationships, and yet the State insists patients must have the sig of an MD or DO, and that such "acceptable" doctor be the primary care physician in order to recommend marijuana as medicine.

Sounds to me like the State has solid interests in:
1. Severely restricting access to plant-based medicines (protecting big pharma)

2. Protecting the monopolies of certain Medical Colleges over others

Why not have the freedom to choose your own care provider in a free-market? Likewise, why not have a free-market in health insurance.

I suppose I digress, as I'm actually not at all for insurance, I am for affordable care for ALL. I am for OUTSTANDING care for every citizen, regardless of socioeconomic status. Hell, I was even gung-ho about the government option at one point, just so that there was ANY competition for the insurance market.

Ideally, universal CARE would be something a society would support because I believe a healthy citizenry is beneficial to the nation as a whole; I guess this probably makes me one of those damned socialists Ron Paul mentions in that same video, LOL.

In any case, I'm for whatever goes against the grain with regard to the Government-endorsed Medical/Pharma-industrial Complex we have now.

I'm sorry, Sharki.

Sounds like the Government is in no way a "safety net" for those most in need. Also sounds like a very broken system in which bureaucracy is an obstacle being navigated by those least able to shoulder such burden.

I fear community, compassion, and advocacy are absent in this country of ours

I am sorry to read about your plight, Sharki. Hope things get better soon.

Thanks, but my story Pales besides some of my patients.
Fact is I dont care about myself. Have not done much more but going thru the paces since I lost my beloved wife.
My main concern,lately,is that lightning strikes blew out 3 of my 4 Ballasts, and I cant afford to replace them.
Therefore, most of my patients have gone back ta paying 20 a gram for Regs in this podunk town.
I cant afford ta give Meds away anymore, which also sucks
Social Security Income will allow me ta keep on Helping others, which is my only pleasure these days.
I have been givin 6 mo to live so many times now, I really know no Doctor will do much more then torture me ta death, if I let them.
Helping others has kept me goin, and I intend to keep trying till someone has ta pry my watering can outa my cold dead hands.
I also believe that Social Security will start Drug testing patients very soon.
All Cannabis Patients know what that will mean.
The ONLY Thing that has kept me well enough, and self sufficient, has been Cannabis, and my 25 years experience growing this wonderful Plant.
I am interested in working with anyone to establish a WAMM STYLE CO OP.I have been pounding that pavement for 20 years and I will not give up because of some Stupid Pain, or not being able to see.
I refuse ta die till Marc Emery and I can smoke a Bong hit in front of the white house. So, I might live forever unfortunatly.

If it were not for Jack Herrer,and a lifetime of Martial Arts, I would have Hung myself long ago.
Which is how a high percentage of M.S. Patients end the pain.

Thanks Jack, and Gichen Funakoshi, for your words of inspiration, that have kept this Sad ol Hippy Goin,in such very Hard times.

Sharki