We've some mouths to feed. Biotech is one of the bright spots in our economy--mostly because of the onerous nature of the regulatory approval process and need to get to profitability. Add those two together and you get the U.S.--where we'll pay what the market bears rather than what the NHS dictates your life is worth.

The government can't even operate a DMV properly. Why the hell would you want them to know every last thing about your health history? You'd think all of the people on this board railing against the Patriot act would have at least thought that one through.

It's simple Tony, it's called a public option, the keyword being "option". Look it up if you must. The DMV and Bush's Power Grab Act are not optional,

I'm puzzled. First, the DMV in Florida, from my own experience with it over the past 21 years, works just fine. Would that my Medicare supplement insurance worked as well.

Didn't we read a few days ago that four of the five manufacturers of H1N1 vaccine are located outside of the US? But I guess US Biotech is doing fine importing foreign products.

It's OK for the insurance companies to know "every last thing about your health history," but not the government? If everyone were covered, there would be no reason to scour health records in order to find grounds to deny coverage, would there? Oh well.

Long live the Empire!

So if I were an employer in a low margin industry, like a restaurant chain or retail store, and I didn't provide qualifying health insurance to my employees, I'd have the OPTION to pay a government fine in lieu of not providing the mandated insurance? I guess that'd be my option. I'd just write a letter to the IRS stating that I'm exercising my option not to pay the fine. Wait, it's not a fine, it's a fee not a tax, to participate in the public option, which I'm not participating in. Clinton would say it's a contribution. Hmmm.

Or, if I did provide insurance to my emploees, and the fine per employee was cheaper than my current health cost, I'd have the option of kicking everyone off their current private insurance and paying the fine, instead. Then, it'd be my employees who would have the OPTION, because Obama assures us, "the government will not force you to change plans...what this plan will do is make the insurance you have work better for you." True, and true, because I'd be the one forcing them to change their plan and the plan will be better than the insurance they have, which is none.

Gotta keep our options open.

I think you ought to look up option.

You should probably also look up the history of FNMA and FDMC to see what the future looks like when government tries to get involved in functioning markets.

You should probably look up 'DMV'. They are run by local governments, not the Federal gov't.

It's hysterical how that's used as some kind of negative on the Fed gov't, when the Feds don't have a damn thing to do with your local DMV. Do you blame the Feds for the unfilled potholes in your town, too?

tonydavisnelson- "You should probably also look up the history of FNMA and FDMC to see what the future looks like when government tries to get involved in functioning markets."

It would seem tony is viewing the situation as a traditional American meaning everything, including one's life and health, is considered part of the "market", something to be bought and sold, something which fluctuates in value depending on productivity.

It would also seem he considers the US government to be the worst in the world as most others are capable of providing affordable, high quality health care. Due to tony's mindset it might be that we are doomed to live as Americans have lived for decades, paying more for worse healthcare and having one of the shortest average lifespans for industrialized nations.

tonydavisnelson:

I think you ought to look up option.

You should probably also look up the history of FNMA and FDMC to see what the future looks like when government tries to get involved in functioning markets.

I think you should look up AIG and see what happened when the federal government allowed the credit default swap market to do whatever it wanted.

Here's a hint: its cost us over $1.4 Trillion so far to prevent that free market's excesses from completely destroying the world economy.