California Has Tried the Public Option, and It Works Flawlessly »
Posted By Tumultuous 3 months, 2 weeks ago in Political NewsI've been reading about people like Jim Clyburn advocating "pilot projects" to determine if a public option would work. I generally like Rep. Clyburn, but he--like most uninformed Washington-insiders--is falling into the trap of thinking, "if it hasn't been tried by Washington, it hasn't been tried." If Rep. Clyburn had paid attention to the details, he'd know that California has tried a form of a public option, and that it is working flawlessly.
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Tumultuous
Happy Holidays to my fellow Propeller members on both sides of the aisle! Have a Cool Yule!
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miklkit3 months, 2 weeks ago
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Nothing works flawlessly, but this is a good system. The key to this is that there are enough people united together to give their negotiators some good leverage in their tough negotiations with their suppliers. This is something that has crippled Medicare, because the republicons forced Medicare to stop negotiating for the best drug prices and now has to pay whatever big pharma feels like charging. In other words, republicons are AGAINST free market competition!
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CovalentBond3 months, 2 weeks ago
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I live in California and this State is dead broke. Only an utter moron would use Calpers as example for the rest of country to follow. I have a friend who works at Caltrans. The furlough days she has to take really have her pinching pennies to get by. We have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country!
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Libs never worry about the cost and the consequences of their idiot ideas.
Hey Libs the country is broke!
Why do you keep marching full speed ahead into the sea like brainless lemmings?-
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Demzon3 months, 2 weeks ago
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A over all failure in the financials of the state does not mean that all things were a failure. The thing to be learned is that money in the pockets, or off shore number accounts in most cases there, does not make it taxable; especially if they dodge the taxes by keeping money in numbered accounts, and make all the movies in Canada and New Zealand. Honestly, I would like a chance to look in to that whole situation more closely and see what the real numbers are behind the hype being put forth; more than likely they make much more sense than what I keep hearing screamed followed by something involving the word "liberals."
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jordan113 months, 2 weeks ago
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I live in California and this State is dead broke. Only an utter moron would use Calpers as example for the rest of country to follow. >>>>>
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Actually it's a perfect example. Cal Pers is not part of the political establishment of CA. It manages public employee money, and its managers are elected by the employees and retirees. The people who run it have done an outstanding job of investing, and caring for the resources of public employees. They've been said to have the midas touch.
I've been a member of Cal Pers for 40 years, and every year have the option to change my insurance carrier. I have had Kaiser and now have blue shield. My premiums when I was raising kids were minimal, and with all the money Cal Pers pours into insuring public employees, no way are insurers going to go crazy with those premiums. I have $5,000 a year in dental coverage and it costs less than 7.00 a month. If I want, I can get insurance for yearly eye exams and glasses for less than 7.00 a month. Now retired, I pay nothing for general health insurance. It's part of my retirement package.
So before you make statements, check things out. Cal Pers shows exactly what can happen when enough people are in a public insurance pool, & its assets are properly managed. And CA can't touch the money in cal pers. The employees took them to court when they tried once, and the state lost. CA may be broke, but Cal Pers is not. -
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Klarissa3 months, 2 weeks ago
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"Since the market downturn period contained in the Jarvis
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Association report, CalPERS assets have grown by $100 billion to a record $225 billion in assets today and doubled in the past 10 years.
- The funded status of CalPERS – which had dipped to 81 percent
during the market downturn – has risen back up to nearly 90 percent fully funded this year"
Jordan, what is the source of the funding of CalPers? -
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IRONBLUEEYES3 months, 2 weeks ago
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Jordan, I really want to believe what you say and I'll take your word for it that the health care system is insulated from the politicians in CA. On the other hand, given the history of Congressional looting of Social Security, I doubt that could be achieved in Washington. Maybe we could put a foreign country in charge.
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Beau78903 months, 2 weeks ago
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I don't like to repeat myself, but I want to make sure that you and everyone else who believes the Social Security trust fund has been looted sees this. It's my response to Klarissa, who made the same point about "Congressional looting of Social Security" above.
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Actually, the money collected for Social Security IS still in the Social Security trust fund. The government has been deceptively using the Social Security trust fund balance to make the overall federal debt look smaller--that's what you may have heard of as "off-budget" accounting.
But in fact, the actual trust fund money has not been touched, nor is it pledged to any other purpose than to pay Social Security claims. All that money is still there.
If you're really interested, you can read about that here:
http://www.ssa.gov/history/BudgetTreatment.html
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MeaJen303 months, 2 weeks ago
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FTA: As California's other health insurance plans--including Kaiser Permante, the largest health insurance provider in California--are seeing double digit increases in premiums, CalPers premiums are being held to close to the rate of inflation. According to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, CalPers' size gave it the leverage it needed to reduce costs in difficult negotiations with providers
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How is it that the larger companies don't have this same leverage, or even better? It has nothing to do with negotiations, it has everything to do with not having to worry about profits. -
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MeaJen303 months, 2 weeks ago
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If this were to be truly like the national plan, then they would need to pull all uninsured people into the system as well. Including people who can't get insurance because of pre-existing conditions that are very expensive. I'm pretty sure that CalPers would have a much harder time of it if they had people on the plan who didn't pay, or paid only a small portion of their actual premiums.
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injest3 months, 2 weeks ago
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Demzon
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"Humm... Cuba you say... AIDS infection rate of 0.1% as opposed to 0.3% in the US;….. Your right; maybe we should look in to this Cuba thing.
Just because some one doesn't agree with you does not automatically make them wrong, and spouting random nonsense will just make you look like a fool every time."
LOL, really
So if someone has HIV/AIDS you support rounding them up and putting them in a sorta lepers colony?
An outside critique of Cuba's AIDS program
Cuba's strategy to control AIDS involves:
(5) massive mandatory HIV testing;
(6) contact tracing;
(7) lifetime quarantine; and
public AIDS education
JAMA -- Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Quarantine in Cuba ...
In 1986, 1 year after documenting its first case of AIDS, Cuba instituted the world's only mandatory quarantine policy for people with human ..-
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Demzon3 months, 2 weeks ago
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The colony was taken down a few months after it started, but I still think it was a good idea when you get down to how to control really nasty viruses. The same was done for Bubonic Plague in a few places and it worked. The colony was removed and shut down due to pressure by the UN health guys and WHO. The only thing that remains is the mandatory testing that people in the US should be doing, but is voluntary so cases go for years with no treatment.
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injest3 months, 2 weeks ago
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Demzon
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“A over all failure in the financials of the state does not mean that all things were a failure.
The thing to be learned is that money in the pockets,….in most cases there, does not make it taxable”
Who’s money, in who’s pockets?
If your talking about someone who lives and works in CA that money was already taxed, and will be taxed again when it is spent.
CA has one of the highest income taxes and one of the highest sale taxes along with highest “targeted taxes” Gas, vehicle registration.
Vehicle registration, Case in point.
CA budget revenue was $40 million short for State parks, meaning not enough people visited the State park paying the “park fee” (Fee is code for tax).
“Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, has unveiled a plan to raise vehicle fees by $10 for all Californians to provide unlimited "free" day-use access to all the state parks.
Laird, chair of the budget committee, said the plan would raise a total of $282 million, $40 million of which would backfill lost revenue from park entrance fees”
This is the mentality the causes CA budget problems.
Short $40 million, this idiot wants to take $282 million more out of the economy, this was just a few months ago.
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Demzon3 months, 2 weeks ago
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Your right; I did miss the object of that sentence. I was talking about those living in the rather expensive areas; mainly those associated with the movie industry who are well known for hiding money for tax purposes.
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As for the other information you present; this sounds like another case when I point out that those in the state elected those representatives. I will also add the statement that usually follows that people need to vote for the person that they believe can do the job best and not just a name or party.
Also, If you would in the future use the reply link with the arrow next to it in the lower right hand side of any comment. This threads the responses so everyone is clear as to what was typed before hand. Thanks.
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injest3 months, 2 weeks ago
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“Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz “$282 million, $40 million of which would backfill lost revenue from park entrance fees.
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The remainder -- $242 million -- would go to increase the budget of the parks system”
Lets see, hum, ya need $40 million to cover the “Budget Short fall FOR THE PARKS”.
So raise the tax to collect $282 million, to cover the “Budget Short fall FOR THE PARKS”.
Then with the extra $242 million, ya raise the Budget for the parks by $282 million.
This almost guarantees a “Budget Short fall FOR THE PARKS” of $282 million next year?
There is no amount of money collected that will solve or help California’s budget problems.
The problem is not now nor has it ever been a “revenue” problem; it is as it always has been a spending problem.
BTW, remember that video a couple of weeks ago? The one with the woman who thinks vegetables grow on trees and everything is like free?
John Laird, D-Santa Cruz is her Assemblyman. -
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miklkit3 months, 2 weeks ago
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The only thing "bloated" here is your putrid logic. California has one of the lowest state employee to population ratios in this country. Those people are being paid a good wage for a job well done. And they are smart enough to manage their money wisely. Which is more than you republicons have done.
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simonsez3 months, 2 weeks ago
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Klarissa3 months, 2 weeks ago
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4,820 CalPERS RETIREES RECEIVE ANNUAL PENSIONS IN EXCESS OF $100,000
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Marcia Fritz, California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility
As of May, 2008, there were 4,820 CalPERS retirees receiving annual pensions in excess of $100,000. That didn’t include government retirees in 80 other plans in California—judges, UC, STRS, charter cities, and 1937 Act counties. About half of these retirees were public safety workers: cops, firefighters, prison guards. The remaining half includes former city managers, assistant managers, county executives, district attorneys, engineers, finance officers, personnel directors, computer scientists, and physicists.
Since May 2008, more than 120 new retirees have joined the “$100,000 Club” – each month - every month. That’s been going on for the last 12 months – more than 1,500 have joined that well-paid retirement group ; this rate of increase will accelerate as droves of retired public safety workers who are now in the $90,000 to $100,000 range receive annual cost of living increases.
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