OMH! This only gets better! The new health care rationing system is literally going to be DMV health care (it’s so funny that when you joke about these things, they actually do them):
The most revelatory passage in the so-called “plain English” version of the health care bill that the Senate Finance Committee approved on Tuesday (without ever drafting the actual legislative language) says that in the future Americans will be offered the convenience of getting their health insurance at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
This is no joke. If this bill becomes law, it will be the duty of the U.S. secretary of health and human services or the state governments overseeing federally mandated health-insurance exchanges to ensure that you can get your health insurance at the DMV.
You also will be able to get it at Social Security offices, hospitals, schools and “other offices” the government will name later.
Yes, just the people I want to go to for my health care needs. They’re always so chipper and happy there. They can’t handle their current workload without lines, how are they going to handle health care insurance? And schools? Don’t they have enough to do with teaching the children? They aren’t even handling that. And do you really want miscellaneous people wondering around your child’s school looking for health care insurance (or so they say).
posted October 14, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Why don’t you want people to be insured? Why do you think it should be difficult to access health care?
posted October 14, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Somebody please tell me Michele doesn’t get paid for this frivolous nonsense. It has as much to do with faith as a post about what I ate for lunch.
posted October 14, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Michael and Dan,
Why don’t address the issue in the post, rather than ascribing motive to Michele (Michael) or just dismissing the article as nonsense (Dan)?
Can anyone really provide a rationale for thinking the DMV anywhere can effectively administer healthcare? Anyone?
posted October 14, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Well, Les, if you’d actually read the post you’d have seen that the DMV is only one of MANY places someone will be able to go. The DMV will not be administering healthcare. Reading comprehension 101 4TW!
posted October 15, 2009 at 12:13 am
“Why don’t address the issue in the post”
let’s see… dan is addressing the stated focus of the blog “politics and current events from a reformed perspective.” he has clearly pointed out time and time again that what michele does on a regular basis is to blog about politics from a right-wing perspective.
and michael is addressing the post.
“Can anyone really provide a rationale for thinking the DMV anywhere can effectively administer healthcare? Anyone?
they’re not administering healthcare. they’re offering people a location to “enroll in health care plans.”
my guess is that they would have a form and an inbox. forms could be filled out while you’re waiting in line or filled out at home and then returned to the DMV. forms would then likely just be submitted to the appropriate department for processing.
you and michele both need to learn to read and comprehend. nowhere does the article say (even from its author’s right-wing point of view) that the DMV would be administering healthcare. kauko pointed this out.
and for the record, those who have NO health insurance would likely see this as a good thing, even if they have to wait in line to apply. if you already have insurance, your incessant whining is annoying.
posted October 15, 2009 at 5:45 am
It sounds a lot better, and certainly more fair and equitable than our current health care rationing system. I guess that’s a big reason you hate the idea?
Also, I’m sorry to hear your DMV is so bad.
Maybe if you actually worked within the current system to assure better service, things could change. But that might take additional taxes, and from your previous work, I’m assuming you prefer poor service and no taxes to actual good service.
My local DMV is normally responsive and the workers have been very friendly over the last 30 or so years. The only problem comes normally on Saturday mornings, when it’s best to arrive when the office opens, or shortly before. The rest of the time, I rarely have a wait that matches being in line at Walmart. Too bad your state is being strangled by cheapistas.
posted October 15, 2009 at 8:02 am
Kauko:
Well, Les, if you’d actually read the post you’d have seen that the DMV is only one of MANY places someone will be able to go. The DMV will not be administering healthcare. Reading comprehension 101 4TW!
Well, I did actually read the post. I never said the DMV is the only place proposed to get the insurance. You should re-read what I wrote.
But you wrote, The DMV will not be administering healthcare.
Page 19 of the “bill,”
“The Secretary and/or states would do the following: … Enable customers to enroll in health care plans in local hospitals, schools, Departments of Motor Vehicles, local Social Security offices, and other offices designated by the state.”
Reading comprehension Pre-K.
posted October 15, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Enroll = fill out a form. Kind of like motor-voter, where you can register to vote at the DMV.
Seriously, if you’d think this through instead of rely on conservative media to tease your knee-jerk reactions, we’d all be a lot better.
posted October 15, 2009 at 2:04 pm
And I’m sure those DMV, you know the ones handing out car plates and administering DL exams, will be so well able to help people fill out those sure to be easy health care forms. Right. Perhaps you should try using your thinking cap when talking about the government running anything!
posted October 15, 2009 at 2:15 pm
I’m still waiting for the part where it says that the DMV will be administering healthcare Les….
posted October 15, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Kauko,
My apologies. When I asked the earlier question, “Can anyone really provide a rationale for thinking the DMV anywhere can effectively administer healthcare? Anyone?” I should have been more precise in asking…Can anyone really provide a rationale for thinking the DMV anywhere can effectively administer healthcare enrollment? Anyone?” I mistakenly assumed readers would know what I was asking.
So, now that is clear, do you really believe that the DMV will likely be able to handle health care (insurance) enrollment, especially whrn enrollees will have questions about their various options (since we all know there won’t be only one (government) option? Do you really believe that?
posted October 15, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Do you really believe that?
Yes.
It isn’t going to be all that complex. People do it in Canada and across Europe every day. I think Americans can handle it.
posted October 15, 2009 at 5:40 pm
I can’t see what is so ludicrous, scary, whatever, about making it easier for families that do not have health insurance to enroll in approved insurance plans. No one has to go to the DMV to get the insurance forms. Nor do they have to go to a local hospital, school, Social Security Office or other governmental office to do so. If you want to enroll online, feel free to do so. Same with sending away by mail. But if is a convenience for consumers to make health insurance enrollment forms available in places that attract great amounts of traffic, why not do so? It strikes me as a smart way of making the system work better.
Incidentally, you miss the key point of that section of the Baucus bill – it standardizes the various health insurance forms so that, finally, families will be able to make apples to apples comparisons between plans, unlike the extremely fragmented, confusing present system, which operates like competing cell phone plans. So comparing health plans for your family will kind of be like using nutrition labels to compare food products in supermarkets. Of course, there are probably some readers of this blog who think that the nutritional labeling laws are themselves dictatorial parts of the “gulag-style” system conservatives keep saying we are entering into.
posted October 15, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Yes, and the moon is made of cheese.
posted February 10, 2011 at 3:21 am
The last straw will break the camel’s back.