Tort reform. Hilarious subject, Taxpayer–Indiana and 20-plus other states already have jury caps. Put in place here, I might add, under the watchful eye of a doctor-governor who gave us the Property Tax Replacement Fund. So we n=know he was drunk with power and stupidity.

Ho Ho Ho. A lump of coal for them all.

Tort reform. Hilarious subject, Taxpayer–Indiana and 20-plus other states already have jury caps. Put in place here, I might add, under the watchful eye of a doctor-governor who gave us the Property Tax Replacement Fund. So we n=know he was drunk with power and stupidity.

Ho Ho Ho. A lump of coal for them all.

Balls in my court on data substantiation of health corporation profits, as I still owe a tort/malpractice rebuttal.

I hope Dr. Flier of Harvard, the majority of the American people, the WSJ, & I are mistaken, I hope the “reform”, if passed, is better than what we had. I'm still working against it because it is too corrupt & asks too much sacrifice for too few. I agree wrath is an ugly thing at the ballot box. I don't want the pendulum to swing as far as last election, but I see it coming. The “reform” is not exactly the poster child to foster moderate cooperation. When do our parties pass legislation that reflects a bipartisan common sense approach instead of our take-no-prisoners method?

Nixon's treatment only begat Clinton's treatment which brought Bush excesses which brings us to now. We've lost the notion that a good ballgame is one in which the fans of both teams are unhappy, because the game got called down the middle. Our success is based on down the middle, not rejoicing on one side and creating Nancy Polosi or Dick Cheney dartboards on the other.

I'm going to work on cleaning house for Christmas. Not a day for dartboards for any of us.

But you're dead wrong on health insurance companies. The five largest ones, including our own Wellpoint, averaged 26.6% annual profits over the last nine years.

Hospitals are a big part of the problem too. They're allowed to overbuild, willy-nilly, and place those hugely-under-used facilities into their rate base, and pass it along to insurers, or, ultimately, the taxpayers and policy holders

Think Clarian. A Carmel hospital AND one at Exit 10/I-69? Please. Someone should be ashamed. St. Frances abandoned a perfectly good downtown Beech Grove facility for a sprawling mega-complex on south I-65. And every damned one of them has every damned expensive piece of diagnostic equipment known to man. God forbid any of them should share these resources. No, just “build new” and let it get used at a rate of 20-30% occupancy per month. Yeah, that's real smart. Building for the 'burbs. Funny thing is, the burb folks are the most-able to transport themselves to any facility anywhere. Those left without are the inner-city, the poor…

The Senate bill passed yesterday is a start. Obama campaigned on this, and said he'd help pay for it with a tax on the wealthy. Like it or not, it's hardly money-envy, Taxpayer. Did you know that our medicare tax stops at about $340,000 of gross income, regardless how much you earn? Continue that tax on all income above that threshold, and you pay for every single Medicare expansion. Couple that with the elimination of fraud inside the program, also sought in this bill, and it's a good start.

It ain't perfect. But it may be the best you can get now, inside this corrupt and bought/paid for Senate. And as folks begin to realize it's not what Mitch McConnell says it is…well, wrath is an ugly thing at the ballot box.

1) It's been established health care “corporations” don't make the alleged obscene profits, but some American corporate (and Congressional) heads darn sure do. I'm with you that the “honor system” of self-regulation of banks and Wall Street works about as well as “a home for everybody”. In other words- bloody awful.

2) If we're so damned enthusiastic to have national health care, I'll take the 50 insurance commisioners over the blatant bribery and gouging that makes midway carneys look respectable we've preliminarily passed. Besides, there won't be 50 commisioners because that would mean respecting the rights of states and missing the opportunity for an Interstate Insurance Czar. We can't miss that one.
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Hey, I 'm not the one that thinks national health care (except emergency care) makes sense unless your country is incredibly affluent- and then it's proven to be a temporary solution. Fix the problems with the free market of the private industry you have. Mayber we're closer to agreeing that America needs to be more of a participative co-op up the center of our demographics, that a pepetual candy store for the edges. Both edges.
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Merry Christmas to all.

Americans are grossly overtaxed & therefore overcharged for the wanton irresponsibility of government. When taxes are increased, economic activity decreases in response. More tax means less disposable income (the personal property & fruits of one's labor) for investment or spending; fewer transactions that also generate tax revenue.

To be fair, taxes should be broadly based & applied, sales being the most common to everyone. Tax targeting is agenda burdened mistreatment of a select group which is wrong; patently unfair & barbaric. Envy doesn't excuse theft.

And, there's no immutable law which says 200 or so insurance companies can't compete in Indiana or any other state. In time & with genetic mapping, we all will be known to have “pre-existing conditions,” there should be no such disallowance. Indiana ain't too bad but torte reform is needed in many states.

Anyone in Congress who enabled that legislative dung to advance, without appropriate disclosure of what the wealth scare bill actually says, including those who signed without reading it, needs to be held accountable for their malpractice.

P.S. I apologize for using such common words.

Decode, please.

And could you please stop sleeping with a Thesaurus, huh?

Like many of you, I've marveled at the extravagance of some wealthy folks. But caterers, party planners, architects, house keepers, gardeners, country clubs, etc. are employment & part of the economy. It's their money, to spend as they wish. No amount of prejudicial contempt or envy can justify stealing from or mistreating anyone.

We're capable of traveling to other planets but can't handle an adventure in insurance, deregulation, competition, etc.? That's crazy.

As for across-state-line purchasing,unless the federal government regulates that, as they do trucking tariffs, etc., we'd have 50 state insurance commissioners who effectively become national insurance commissioner. A true mess.

The idea sounds great. Practically, it can't work.