Replying to a message of Bob Klahn to Bob Ackley:

 BK>>>  The only real problem is the lack of a real national health care
 BK>>> plan to pick up the difference. All Americans should have full
 BK>>> health coverage, which would eliminate the health benefits  problem
 BK>>> for all employers.

 BA>> Oh baloney, Bob.  You keep harping on nationalizing the
 BA>> health care system as if that were a good thing.  The only

 BK>  It is, compared to what we have now.

Hardly.  Remember, *my* health care is provided by what is effectively a
nationalized system similar to what you want - and the government has been
cutting that back and at best making it more inconvenient (and expensive) for
a quarter of a century, now.  Tricare does *NOT* pay the bills, it pays
between 20% and 40% of them.  It's the same for Medicare.

 BA>> thing nationalizing the health care system will accomplish
 BA>> is the destruction of quality health care in this country

 BK>  Not unless republicans are running it. America's health care
 BK>  system in on the low end of evaluations of industrialized
 BK>  countries. America even ranks low compared to Cuba. We have the
 BK>  best medical technology, and about the worst delivery system.

 BA>> (and vastly improving it along the US border in Mexico,
 BA>> Bermuda, the Caribbean islands and probably Canada).

 BK>  Funny you should mention Canada. And we are already sending
 BK>  people to Mexico for health care, and India, and South East
 BK>  Asia.

Nonsense.  We aren't sending anybody anyplace.  People are *choosing* to go
to Canada, Mexico and India for (certain) health care procedures.  It's perfectly
true that for *some* procedures it's less expensive to travel to India to have it
done than it is to have it done here; I don't deny that's a problem, more of a
symptom, actually.

 BA>> You'll also see the best and brightest choosing careers
 BA>> other than medicine; heck, for years physicians have been
 BA>> advising their children *not* to go into medicine.

 BK>  And that's under our current system.

Which will only get worse under any form of nationalization.

 BA>> You're also inconsistent.  You want to have the government
 BA>> take over the health care system but you don't demand that
 BA>> the government *also* take over the food production and
 BA>> distribution system.  After all, food is much more
 BA>> necessary to continued existence than is health care.

 BK>  And the food production and distribution system are not in the
 BK>  trouble the medical care system is. If we had 45 million people
 BK>  in this country who could not get food we would have riots in
 BK>  the street.

Despite your propaganda, the health care system in this country is NOT
in trouble and never has been.  I can tell you how to reduce the price of
health care in this country by at least 1/3 and probably by 1/2, virtually
overnight:  eliminate price discounting by insurors, specifically including
Medicare, and eliminate all the government-imposed record keeping and
reporting.  Neither of those actions is going to happen.

You claim the food production system isn't in trouble?  Unless one has *the*
winning Powerball ticket one cannot afford to get into farming; one needs at
least 4 million dollars up front for the land and (used) equipment - and that's
for a fairly small operation.  The joke that one can make a small fortune in
farming - provided one starts with a large fortune, is perfectly true.  Most
farmers are barely making enough to meet expenses.  The *average* age of
farmers in Nebraska is about sixty, and in Iowa is in the late fifties; when I
worked at a grain elevator in 2006 two of the farmers hauling in grain were
in their eighties (one of them lives 2-1/4 miles down the street from me).
Youngsters are still moving to the big cities.

Note also that the USA is importing increasing amounts of food.  Fresh vegetables
are almost all imported during the winter months.  In addition to the beef grown
here, the US imports beef from both Argentina and Australia.

You might not be aware that several hundred US farmers have emigrated to Brazil
and Argentina, taking their knowledge and experience with them.  And that John
Deere (among others) now builds farm equipment in both Brazil and Argentina.
Another couple of decades and those two countries will be outproducing the US
in most farm products - and underselling the US on the international markets.
Which means the price of farm products in this country (i.e. food) will either go
up or the farmers in this country will go out of business, take your pick.

 BA>>>> care benefits alone for GM amounted to over $1,300 of the
 BA>>>> price of every vehicle GM made - and that was several years

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