Congressman Steve Kagen won't accept the lavish congressional healthcare plan
Here are words you won’t often find at IHateTheMedia.com:
We’d like to congratulate a Democrat.
To be specific, we’d like to congratulate Wisconsin Democrat Steve Kagen, who is the only member of Congress who refuses to take the rich healthcare benefits lavished on itself.
Kagen says he’ll continue to refuse them until every American citizen is offered the same kind of generous coverage.
“Kagen recently had knee surgery,” the Los Angeles Times reports, “writing checks for more than $4,500 after bargaining for a reduced-rate MRI and a 50% discount on the operation. (He is still dickering over the hospital bill.)”
That simple paragraph explains exactly what’s wrong with all the pie-in-the-sky plans proposed in Congress. Kagen negotiated. He dickered. He actually took control of his own healthcare instead of handing it over to some nameless, faceless, uninterested third party.
Proof that the marketplace is alive and well, even if socialized healthcare is dying.
Source: John Stossel, LA Times
Subscribe, tweet, share, tell a friend!
Browse before and after this article
NEWER: Headline of the Day
“Clinton begins Africa tour in Kenya”
Related Posts
- Republican Congressman calls Democrats’ bluff: Wants all Americans to have same healthcare Congress has
- Good news! We’ve finally found a member of Congress dumber than Nancy Pelosi
- Democrat Detroit city council member pays $68 in property taxes, neighbors pay $6000
- Please sit before reading this: NY Times says Obama should accept Nobel on behalf of American military
- Democrat congresswoman wants Obama healthcare plan to destroy insurance industry
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
This is probably a STUPIDLY uninformed question, but I’m open to the ideas BY THE PEOPLE.
If the villains in HC Reform are the greedy Private HC Insurance Providers: Why can’t the Government focus their efforts on PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANY HC REFORM LAWS that close their loopholes on previous conditions, regulate cost, mandate a ratio of payer to non-payers etc… and leave insurance in the private sector? After all we don’t yet have an INSURANCE CZAR!
For regulation/oversight.
This radical idea fits better than a very suspicious Govt Take Over, that in many officials own words seems to have the objective of “SINGLE PAYER GOVT CONTROLLED HC”
I can appreciate the need for reform but the govt has never managed a successful entitlement program yet.
Insurance is not the problem. Users are the problem. When people have a third party covering the bills, they have very little incentive to monitor the costs vs quality of medical care.
If they had to compete like any other business, where quality AND cost are considered by the end consumer, things would be very different. As things stand, the medical field has no incentive at all to offer the best care at the lowest price.
One hospital stay I had, I asked what stuff cost before they did it/gave it to me. They didn’t know what to do, lol. I wanted to know what they were going to charge my bill for 2 tylenol before I took them, and nobody could answer, and the billing dept was gone for the day, lol. I told them I would have a family member bring me a bottle of tylenol from home, rather than let them charge my insurance $12 or whatever for 25 cents worth of pills. Needless to say they didn’t like me very much
appreciate the opinion. Not sure i understand what you are promoting as my post is as BHO continues to blame Insurance Company’s but thinks the only solution is govt controll. truely if BHO is accurate, lets fix and consentrate the problems that exist in the private sector that would eliminate Govt Take Over w/ a public entitlement program
Middle–
My opinion is based on five years of working in a doctor’s office and handling the billing. It was almost unheard of for anyone to *ever* ask what something cost up front, if insurance was paying the bill for them. They didn’t seem to care, as long as they weren’t paying. I believe this has contributed greatly to the escalation of costs and fees.
I believe that if patients were more involved in the up front costs, and started paying attention, the medical providers might start dropping prices in order to compete with each other.
Insurance companies have tried to do that here and there, with HMO’s and other managed care plans, but it doesn’t seem to be working that well. I think if the actual consumers/users of the services started “shopping around” in some way, there would be more incentive for medical providers to offer good service at reasonable costs.