It's alive

By BRUCE PLANTE - 10/16/2009





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Tulsa World Reader Comments
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Jester1969, Broken Arrow (10/16/2009 8:06:28 PM)
How am I helping GOP?

Jester1969, Broken Arrow (10/16/2009 8:08:40 PM)
Or Humble or Michael for that matter

Jester1969, Broken Arrow (10/16/2009 8:14:19 PM)
Dem, Are you serious? Check with the World if you like. I will make a bet with you that you will find we are not the same person.

Jester1969, Broken Arrow (10/16/2009 8:21:49 PM)
Dem, What should we bet?

Jester1969, Broken Arrow (10/16/2009 8:24:30 PM)
Dem, I would be willing to bet that GOP and HS are not the same person either.

Jester1969, Broken Arrow (10/16/2009 8:27:28 PM)
GOP, I will admit that I am at a loss for words on this one.

Jester1969, Broken Arrow (10/16/2009 10:24:30 PM)
Cory Feldman

Jester1969, Broken Arrow (10/17/2009 12:37:05 PM)
Phoenix, My daughter says that there is an opening on her 6th grade Cheerleading squad if you are interested. She said she could even teach you to do a back hand spring too.

Jester1969, Broken Arrow (10/17/2009 4:20:10 PM)
PhoenixVIII Way to take the wind out of my jab at you.

Jester1969, Broken Arrow (10/16/2009 8:33:49 PM)
Come on GOP, turn into HS and then Cory and then Bluebird...

Jester1969, Broken Arrow (10/16/2009 8:34:54 PM)
Seriously Dem...what's up with the paranoia? Not like you at all.

Jester1969, Broken Arrow (10/16/2009 8:39:27 PM)
For the very brief time that Bluebird was on, she commented on a thread that you and I were arguing. She then sent me a message about Cory because I asked who Cory was.

Jester1969, Broken Arrow (10/16/2009 9:07:03 PM)
GOP, I think a public option would help ensure universal coverage if that is indeed the goal. If you include a public option, it would allow private carriers to continue to be selective regarding insured. I just don't want to see a system that eliminates the private companies.

Jester1969, Broken Arrow (10/16/2009 9:14:12 PM)
GOP, Then how do you cover everyone? Not all employers offer insurance coverage and a lot of people can't afford it on their own. If you make private carriers insure people regardless of risk, than it increases the chances of losses exceeding premiums and investment income. I envision a public option that would need to be qualified for. Holy crap I sound like a liberal, lol.

Jester1969, Broken Arrow (10/16/2009 9:46:55 PM)
Dem, Well, Hijinx obviously didn't like Cory much. There was still one of his messages left on one of the profiles. Ouch. I also agree that all should be made to pay with exceptions made in very rare circumstances. Like I have said in the past, I think that reform is a good goal even if I post my displeasure with some of the proposals. Its the details that concern me, not the overall intent.

Lance-a-lot, Tulsa (10/16/2009 9:11:47 AM)
Hahahahaha...we are congress! We will do whatever we want regardless of what the majority of this great nation thinks! We know what is best! Hahahahaha!

Michael Phillips, Tulsa (10/16/2009 6:56:07 AM)
As long as there is no public option sneaked in at the last minute, it might be reasonably inexpensive.

Democrat, Tulsa County (10/16/2009 7:12:52 AM)
A public option would be placing the head of the hideous monster in the right place. Good cartoon, Bruce.

Democrat, Tulsa County (10/16/2009 9:29:56 AM)
Pigster: The monster would look like George W. Bush if the head was hidden from sight inside the purple shorts.

Democrat, Tulsa County (10/16/2009 10:30:13 AM)
I appreciate you comment beau3985. I don't agree with it, but I appreciate it. Pigster: Why would my comment lead you anywhere near THAT conclusion? Following your reasoning, I should conclude that YOU must look like John Kerry.

Democrat, Tulsa County (10/16/2009 10:37:31 AM)
correction: your comment, not you comment

Democrat, Tulsa County (10/16/2009 11:28:25 AM)
MarkG: Try again on the average profit of a health insurance company. You are using the figures that they wish for you to use. They base their "profit margin" on the amount of premium dollars that they keep after deducting expenses for paying claims, paying clerks and salesmen, paying for lobbying government officials, and paying high-priced corporate executives HUGE salaries. If you look at their profits, compared to the investment in shares of stock, then you will get a truer picture. Its like this, Mark G-- If I can get thousands of people to invest a few billion dollars in stock that I am selling and then I can convince millions of people to pay hundreds of billions of dollars to me for the "service" that I provide. I can then make the claim that I am making only a 5% profit on the hundreds of billions of dollars that are channeled through my company (for no real benefit to my customers) while I make a personal fortune for myself in taking a high CEO salary and I can return a double-digit dividend to my stockholders. Then, the real beauty of it all-- I can convince DUPES like you that I'm only making a 5% profit. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!

Democrat, Tulsa County (10/16/2009 12:45:23 PM)
MarkG: Companion did not question your acceptance of the insurance industry's numbers. I did. I very well understand how the figures are arrived at. Did you understand MY POINT? There is a difference between the money invested in an insurance company and the money handled by an insurance company. Do you deny that the growth in value of stock, coupled with the dividend checks received by the stock holders of health insurance companies are often significantly higher than the profit percentage shown by the companies? Do you fail to comprehend that in addition to the higher overhead of health insurance companies, because of their lobbying expenses, executive salaries, sales commissions, etc. coupled with their 5.5% profits, that some 16% of health insurance dollars go to the insurance companies rather than to the patients? You do understand because of the government's lower overhead and the ZERO profit taken by government, more health care dollars go to patient care when the payer is government? Tell you friend Piglet, that those are facts that he can consider, too.

Democrat, Tulsa County (10/18/2009 7:12:01 AM)
MarkG: Thank you for the compliment, but you are dead-wrong on several points. First, may friend PhoenixIX is hardly a mental midget. He is an attorney and they do not give away law degrees. Secondly, you have yet to ever prove me wrong. Therefore, your assertion that I am often wrong is nothing more than hot air. Thirdly, the "conservatives" on this site are the one' most responsible for engaging in name-calling. Just check out Grand Old Partier's "contributions" to this discussion. He,btw, also ran away from an answer to my questions, not to mention the questions of Faith and Jester1969. Finally MarkG, you "conveniently forgot" to answer my question about what is wrong with both of us getting to choose our preferred options on health care coverage. Is that an admission by you that you are stumped? Or, is this another case where you will claim that I am wrong without bothering to explain how I am wrong?

Democrat, Tulsa County (10/16/2009 9:09:45 PM)
Cory: How many cents of each premium dollar do the non-profits pay for actual patient benefits? The for-profits only pay out about 84-85 cents of each dollar of premiums that they handle. Do you have the statistics for Blue Cross and are there differences among the smaller non-profits? How do they compare with the government in paying about 96.5 cents of each medicare dollar for patient benefits? Your citing of the number of non-profits and numbers of patients are meaningless without us knowing about cost savings.


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