The “Missouri Foundation for Health” is a scam, plain and simple. They took the proceeds of a settlement which was supposed to be in the public interest, and placed them into an organization which is controlled by a partisan official who happens to be running for governor. As one could have easily predicted, not a few of those dollars - and, by the way, this goes way beyond the one organization mentioned in the above link - have found their way to liberal activist groups.

The right thing to do here would have simply been to give the money to the Department of Health and Senior Services. There was no reason, other than to give Nixon control of this money, to set up this organization. A shadowy organization skimming public money for partisan purposes … yet another way our attorney general reminds me of another politician with whom he shares a surname.

I hope that Cover Missouri proposes a single payer health insurance system to deal with the uninsured and the myriad other problems in our current system. Ideally, a single payer system would be national, but we could implement it in Missouri first, and show the country what a great system it is.

Sadly, Obama is not proposing a single payer health insurance system. At least, he will work to increase the number of people who are covered.

However, McCain is proposing to SCRAP employer-based health insurance, and replace it with NOTHING, which will throw MANY of the 158 million who now rely on employer insurance into the “uninsured boat.” How ironic that if McCain tried to get insurance under his own plan, even HE would be REJECTED due to his history of cancer. But when your wife is worth $100 million, I guess you don’t have to worry about trivial things like health insurance.

Just look at the “grants” they give out. All democrat front groups like Missouri Budget Project, Missouri Citizen Education Fund, GRO etc.

Nixon was very good at setting up this slush funder and now he is doing it again with pharmacutical benefit settlement $’s. It’s good to be a friend and ally of Jay Nixon. Lot’s of money for you, lot’s of money for democrat front grops and little to nothing but crumbs for those who supposedly were going to be helped by these “settlements”.

As we can see, only democrat front groups are really being helped by Nixon and his ill-gotten money. God help us if he becomes Governor. If the democrats think the capitol is for sale now - wait until Nixon arrives on the scene - he will show us how to really sell the taxpayers down the drain. I predict he will make Pendergast proud.

I like the MoFoundationForHealth - they’re smart, well-meaning, and I agree with their positions. On the other hand when Bill McClellan wrote a column about a health-care policy that didnt cover much and hurt the family when they were ill, I wrote the Foundation asking why they didnt analyze policies available, rate them and say advantages and disadvantages of each of the major ones and make recommendations, as Consumer Reports might do; you know, this would really do some good for people and drive people to the better policies, giving insurers incentive to make them good. Kimmey etal basically told me it was too much trouble and they werent interested, and they werent very nice about it. The chance to get out of their ivory tower and do some real good and they passed. I wasnt impressed. I dont think you should be either. I dont have a monopoly on wisdom, nor am always right, but this was a good idea they gave less than 5 seconds thought to. Even liberal well-meaning organizations are human and political. On the other hand, what they do, whatever that is, they do well.

Nick you nailed this one yet again! Great post

Lisa12 (post #2) I’m sorry that you can’t make the decisions for your family’s health care. Most of the rest of us can… and do. And we want to go on doing it.

tsquare,
When you get rejection letters from the health insurance companies, you won’t have to make any decisions. Except what kind of funeral you want.

lisa12 - It is true that for a fairly small minority, health insurance is a problem. But those who advocate a single-payer government funded plan live in a fantasy world. They believe it will bring us unlimited health care for everyone, for free. In fact, it will bring limits on care to everyone, with no ability for an employer or individual to provide better care if desired - and the cost will be staggering.

Right now, the bean counters all say that the government will be a more efficient provider. Somehow, it never seems to work out that way … and most people don’t care, because they are putting on somebody else’s credit card. What they don’t realize - or don’t care - is that they are putting it on their yet to be born grandchildren’s credit cards.

Lisa12, after the government starts providing your healthcare coverage, what will you ask them for next? A car? A house? How about food and clothing?

Please give it a rest. Every single government program is inefficient and expensive and yet you want to grant one more responsibility to the inefficient machine. You need to use your current insurance to check your sanity.

Where is universal care actually working? No where!

All the socialized medicine countries have a reduced level of care for everyone. As Nick aptly points out - 85% of us will see reduction in our healthcare while 15% MIGHT see some improvement. Given government performance in Medicare and Medicaid that is very doubtful.

Liberals need to establish a fund that they can contribute as much money as they want to taking care of this issue. If people are really bothered by this issue - they will contribute. The problem is that they don’t want to do that - they want to spend everyone else’s money.

Nick and Jason,
Do you really understand what McCain is proposing? Right now, 158 million people get insurance from employers. He wants those people to get individual policies instead. That means every one of those 158 million people with a pre-existing condition will be REJECTED. (I could see that easily being 100 million people.) AND, if you get sick with individual coverage, they can CANCEL your policy. I have to believe that you don’t understand, or else you would be worried. Unless you just feel 100% certain that you will never get sick, and your wives will never get sick, and your kids will never get sick. But in that case, why even have health insurance???