Ron Paul On Health Insurance: Your Thoughts
September 10, 2007 | Filed under Health Insurance, Insurance, News, Politics
Health insurance is one of the major issues that American faces at the moment, and it is something that Ron Paul will have to deal with if he becomes President in the 2008 US Presidential Elections.
As Ron Paul said himself when speaking on health insurance, “America faces a crisis in health care”.
The cost of health insurance continues to climb and many Americans are living without any health insurance cover.
Could Ron Paul solve the health insurance crisis?
I would say if anyone if going to deal with the issue of health insurance then its Ron Paul. We must not forget that Ron Paul is actually Doctor Ron Paul, a doctor as in medicine. Therefore he knows the health insurance and medical industry. Although many claim that people in the US medical and health insurance industry are just after the money, Ron Paul is not one of those people, often offering his services free of charge.
At the end of the day, health insurance has always come up as a political issue around election time, but nobody has actually done anything about it.
Do you think Ron Paul would deal with the health insurance issues in America if elected?
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Yes. I firmly believe it will be addressed. What I do not think is that it will have an easy and quick solution. Ron Paul himself says that many of the things he’d like to do would need a transition period but being that he is and has been in the medical arena, I think he, better then most of the others. would understand what it will take to improve the health care issues in this country. JMHO
To my understanding, one of the major problems with rising health costs is government regulation. Just a visit to an emergency room can cost between 5-10 grand, even if nothing is done. Simply forcing companies or taxpayers to dish out for everyone elses healthcare is ludicrous. Besides countries with socialized health care have many problems. I know of people in canada who came here for treatment because of the buraucracy they faced there. They would have died waiting for their operation. Yes there is a problem within the medical field and doctors and Health care organizations reap huge profits, but government control is not an answer. I listen to Clinton and Obama and how they are going to FIX everything. Well there’s no more money to fix anything. The American people are already enslaved to pay for generations to come. How can they even consider some kind of socialized health care program? The rest of the repub candidates just want to keep spending money on war mongering ( dems too) so I wonder where the money would come from. WAIT, Thats easy; the Fedearl reserve Banks can just print more and lend it to the government as it has been doing since 1913. A big change is on the horizon and many, many Americans have been waiting for that change. The media knows it and hope they can silence it and perhaps without the internet they would be able to, but the information super highway is being utilized for what it was meant for. Soon Paul supporters everywhere will paint the cities and towns across America “Ron” with signs banners and information posted everywhere to awaken those who still have not heard of the revolution. The media is irresponsible and in the hands of the CFR and the bankers. It is the responsibility of the people to let our neighbors know that there is a different option, a free option, the one millions have been waiting for ,Ron Paul.
Dr. Paul has a fix for this and it’s a vastly better system than the overpriced, over regulated system fraught with waste fraud and abuse we currently have. In fact, todays newspaper headlines critisize Medicare for poor oversight and fault the system for not paying tens of millions of dollars to patients who should have directly gotten the money but didn’t.
Here’s Dr. Paul’s lengthy prescription for a fair and better health care system:
http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/topic.php?id=22
Absolutely! Ron Paul will make health care affordable by doing two things:
1. Getting the federal government and the associated bureaucracy out of the picture.
2. Allow the import of drugs at a fraction of the cost that the US pharmaceutical are currently gouging the US public for.
The already obscene health costs in the US will only go up with ALL of the other candidates from either of the two major parties. The insurance and pharmaceutical companies are salivating at the prospect of government sponsored health care. The GOP candidates will borrow to fund it, the Dems will raise taxes. Dr Paul will end government involvement in medicine, and won’t be at the beck and call of big business that prevent any real competition in the industry.
The number one impediment to affordable health care is the govenment.As children we all had insurance that covered emrgency hospitilization, and our parents paid the Dr cash for office visits.This created competion and and kept rates low.Now isurance is considered an entitlement with the federal government mandating what needs to be covered.We need to go back to a single payor system where the consumer is responsible for the bills, which will lead to lowere costs.Ron Paul is the only candidate who understands this.Be prepared for skyrocketing costs to continue unless Americans resist the main stream candidates and choose an independant leader.
“To my understanding, one of the major problems with rising health costs is government regulation.” Indeed. If you want to see how great Universal Health Care (Socialized Health), just look at the VA. Top notch care right there.
When the cost of living is dramatically reduced, and we aren’t dependent on a failing fiat currency, much of the economy will grow by leaps and bounds in efficiency and value. When we open the floodgates of competition, especially in this Information Age, you’ll see the kind of progress that has only been found in the Computer Industry as of late. The Computer Industry is a great example of a minimally regulated market with lots of freedom to introduce new products into the market.
Dr Paul understands that the products and services most fundamental to prosperity and survival (health, food, energy) are too important to be handled by a bureaucracy.
Private industry handles our food, clothing, housing, construction, transportation, technology, they can handle anything, if given the opportunity and incentive.
Thanks for asking.
Ron Paul has thought about all of the issues in a careful, logical manner. However, in debates, he is usually only asked questions about the war in Iraq.
Ron Paul on the issues at http://www.ronpaullibrary.org
The other posters have addressed the topic of government meddling in health care admirably. However, one aspect of health care is the FDA, which not only has an unholy alliance with BigPharma but would seek to ban various dietary supplements. As many of us know, the best form of medicine is prevention; dietary supplements go a long way to help preventing a variety of diseases and conditions. Consider: scurvy is non-existence thanks to widespread availability of vitamin C; Rickets, BeriBeri and pellagra are all non-existent disease, thanks to (even small dose) vitamin availability. To this end, Dr. Paul has put forward a bill in the House, HR 2117, which would get the FDA off the backs of consumers. Look it up! Then send a note to your representative to support or co-sponsor this bill. This is another fine way Dr. Paul is already making things better for us all, regardless of party affiliation.
Everyone needs to see GOA head David Walker report. Ron Paul is the only candidate being honest as David Walker.
Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIgrxpp97OQ
Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXr_Ga_n0pY
Congressman Paul would absolutely address the health care issues, but not by giving everybody guaranteed coverage and an open taxpayer-funded checkbook.
Getting the insurance companies out of routine care is a far better plan than making sure insurance companies get an absolute cut of every health care dollar we spend.
Increasing the number of MDs in the market is a far better way to bring down prices than letting them extort a premium for merely existing.
Letting midwives and Nurse Practitioners have more freedom, not less, in providing routine care is a much better option than making sure the MD’s corner the market in routine strep tests and home births.
Doesn’t anybody here remember when women couldn’t buy a treatment for a yeast infection without waiting 6 months to see an OB/GYN? I haven’t seen a marked increase in women dying since that happened.
All I can say is, I hope the government takes care of me. Because I sure do not know how to take care of myself.
I sometimes eat things that are bad for my health, and most likely do not get the government regulated daily allowance of vitamins that I should be (don’t tell the FDA Agents!).
With the government taking care of me all should be well. Just like how they fix everything else they get involved in.
I think Dr. Paul is the cure to the partially socialised, legislated by insurance company lobbyists’ payouts to curropt politicians, hardly “free market” system. Ron Paul’s knowledge of Economics is thorough, and his personal experience in Medicine is invaluable. He is steadfast and consistent in his believes and he does not take money from special interests.
Ron Paul is the only chance of America escaping the same fate of our more “liberal” friends around the world, the suffering and death of so many while waiting for their government provided “universal” healthcare.
Those who say the government needs to take the reins on healthcare simply amaze me. Youre talking about the same people who oversaw relief and rescue during Katrina, bungled the Iraq war and half the time cant get your letter from point A to B; if I need a new heart or kidney pronto these are the LAST people I want to have to come to.
As someone else mentioned as well, we simply CANNOT AFFORD IT. Neo-cons and liberals (is there really a difference?) seem to operate on a system of “put it on your tab” promises where they promise a govt solution to all the world’s/life’s problems in the form of a bureau or agency or department or program. What they neglect EVERY SINGLE TIME, is that while these programs LOOK and SOUND great and effectively give them bragging rights on “having done something,” they DO NOT WORK and suffer from chronic inefficiency about 90% of the time. Meanwhile the clowns we elect operate within horrendous debt as an accepted matter of course and run up a multi-trillion dollar bill that the peole have to foot. Sooner or later it all comes crashing down.
Its also worth mentioning that a lot of our healthcare problems including overpriced and ineffective medicine stem from blatantly corrupt, overblown, and frankly insane drug policy.
Ive heard pharmacologists say, for instance, they believe over half the more dangerous and addicting pharmaceuticals could be replaced with medical marijuana- which in many cases would be more effective and would always be cheaper. This is to say nothing of the medical research coming to light in recent years suggesting cannabinoids have anti-tumor properties…
Ron Paul has repeatedly vouched for his opposition to the drug war and the federal government’s terrorizing state-sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries. That could end up being very important in the larger scheme of things.
It’s obviously agreed that healthcare is a priority issue for many Americans, but it is just one of the many “symptoms” of the core disease that is at the heart of everything financial. Our “money”… or what people have been taught to believe is money. Dr. Ron Paul, being the master Constitutionalist, understands this (see Article I, sections 8 & 10 of ours). I believe that the most compelling issue that Dr. Paul intends to tackle, the dismantling of The Fed, is at the nexus. It is the core disease… the unseen tax. Dr. Paul’s position regarding this issue is unwavering because he understands that by correcting that disease (being the good Doctor), the symptoms will subside. For those who have never seen it, an insightful read on how this cancer works may be found at:
http://www.321gold.com/fed/greenspan/1966.html
Most people get their in formation from an increasingly mis leading, untrustworthy source, the Boob Tube, Did we learn, if we found out at all, that as much as 70% of our grain,corn and soy, products are Genetically Modified from this great source? I did not. I did learn more about Brittney then I ever needed to know though. This stuff is making us sick. What to do? The F.D.A. Allowed this, they also allowed these products to be sold without needing to inform us, contains G.M. products. So we get sick, but thats o.k. we’ve got a great health/drug care plan and after several (paid for-free) painful, invasive, inconclusive tests and very expensive procedures they will give us a pharmaceutical drug to attack but not cure, the symtom. read the bottle for possible side affects, FREE ??
Further more this same F.D.A. would make it illegal for an informed layperson to purchase as a preventive measure vitamins, minerals or other nutrients that have been proven to help, ward off or even cure disease without their blessing and a doctor ordered prescription at about four times the cost, for our own good of course. Health care is not health care it is drug care. it is a guaranteed subsidy to gigantic drug companys that are proving themselves less and less able to heal the sick. Dr. Paul would allow ME to choose, which is just one reason he gets my vote.
Well, to answer your question, the Ron Paul election would also have to spirit in another set of reforms to be truly effective: to reform that parasitic, do-nothing body we call Congress. A number of incumbents are going to have to be tossed out, and the people are going to have to enforce term limits. I believe in term limits, but the other runaway body, the Supreme Court, serves to protect the ELITE instead of minding their Constitutional business. Yes, we Americans have been lax and played for fools. And we’re paying the price for not draining the swamp.
That said, if you follow the GAO, David Walker notes that the cost of Health Care is the number one fiscal issue facing this country. Paul could certainly do a few things quickly, but it will take years:
- Get the focus off the current “privatization” mantra, which equates to adding layers of “private corporate sponges” onto the system. I have had experience with this–these sponges just shuffle papers, complicate the process, and collect big.
- Induce fiscal responsibility, which only exacerbates the deficit problem and inflation. That is, no more runaway supplementals, no more big handouts to the security state, no more military adventures, etc. A lot of hidden costs here. Thus, reign in the Executive.
- Push to get rid of the big money sops: Homeland Insecurity, for one.
- Reinforce the doctor-patient relationship and cut the middlemen out, as much as possible.
Ron Paul would let the free-market address the issue of healthcare in the US. Competition and entrepreneurs would lower costs and widen coverage. His plan is to ween the public off the current government programs and remove goverment controls from the system in a way that would not hurt those who have become dependent on it. http://www.ronpaul2008.com/issues/health-freedom/
This OpEd Article is trying to discredit RP in his stance that the Iraqi War was illegal:
http://www.opinioneditorials.com/guestcontributors/jbell_20070911.html
My response:
Sir:
You’re hand picking your facts to suit an irresponsible position contrary to Dr. Paul’s assertions.
No one has questioned the illegality of the war in the debates because it IS illegal. If it were in fact *legal*, then the candidates in the debates (and the press) would show proof of the legality and Dr. Paul would be ridiculed. THIS HAS NOT AND WILL NOT HAPPEN BECAUSE THE WAR IN IRAQ IS ILLEGAL.
According to Public Law 105-235 (that you hand picked your facts from), the actual verbiage of the Joint Resolution to Authorize Use of Force Against Iraq is as follows:”…the President is urged to take appropriate action, in accordance with the Constitution and relevant laws of the United States, to bring Iraq into compliance with its international obligations”.
The Joint Resolution is critically flawed and therefore illegal, because it justifies the US occupation by linking Iraq as the perpetrator to 9/11 (Public Law 105-40). Furthermore Public Law 102-1 only authorizes US intervention to bring Iraq into UN compliance (668), not invasion.
Clearly the president is NOT following the constitution (have you even read it?) and bringing Iraq “into compliance” does not mean forcible occupation.
The Joint Resolution backs up the invasion with Public Law 105-338 “The Liberation of Iraq”, but that law specifically says that the US is ONLY supporting Iraqi nationals in their quest for a regime change, not a military occupation by US forces.
Furthermore, Joint Resolution Sec. 3 that Authorizes Force, specifically limits intervention to 1) defending the threat…posed by Iraq, and 2) enforcing UN resolutions.
And lastly, the War Powers Resolution as demanded in Sec. 3 (c) of the Joint Resolution, this war is required “…to remove U.S. armed forces from hostilities if Congress has not declared war or passed a resolution authorizing the use of force…”
The War on Terror is a farce. Its a war today because they’re fighting us to defend their own sovereign nation — of course hostilities will continue indefinitely as long as we’re occupying their country.
Bush is trying to save face and he is ultimately culpable for his interpretations of the misinformation he received and the only MORAL, LEGAL, and CONSTITUTIONAL thing to do IS GET OUT OF IRAQ, NOW.
Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich are my favorites on this issue. Personally, I hope Ron Paul finds a spot for Dennis in the administration when he gets elected.
Great post Tom