GW Buxh's "Ownership Society" is a vehicle for personal bankruptcy.

[JohnnyRingo]

While he's barely started destroying Social Security, Buxh is making quiet moves to ELIMINATE employer funded health care.
Just today on CNN he spoke again of "private health care savings accounts".

I'm not sure where to begin countering Buxh's multi-front attack on the working people of America.

Excerpt:
WASHINGTON — Emboldened by their success at the polls, the Bush administration and Republican leaders in Congress believe they have a new opportunity to move the nation away from the system of employer-provided health insurance that has covered most working Americans for the last half-century.

In its place, they want to erect a system in which workers — instead of looking to employers for health insurance — would take personal responsibility for protecting themselves and their families: They would buy high-deductible "catastrophic" insurance policies to cover major medical needs, then pay routine costs with money set aside in tax-sheltered health savings accounts.

Elements of that approach have been on the conservative agenda for years, but what has suddenly put it on the fast track is GOP confidence that the political balance of power has changed.

More:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-health31jan31,1,2508032,print.story?coll=la-news-politics-national&ctrack=2&cset=true

Keeping in mind that nearly half of all bankruptcies are because of med bills:

Excerpt:
Half of all U.S. bankruptcies are caused by soaring medical bills and most people sent into debt by illness are middle-class workers with health insurance, researchers said on Wednesday.

The study, published in the journal Health Affairs, estimated that medical bankruptcies affect about 2 million Americans every year, if both debtors and their dependents, including about 700,000 children, are counted.

"Our study is frightening. Unless you're Bill Gates (news - web sites) you're just one serious illness away from bankruptcy," said Dr. David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School (news - web sites) who led the study.

More:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=8&u=/nm/20050202/ts_nm/health_bankruptcy_dc

"Ownership society" my ass.

[CottonBear]

1. What will we do when over 100 million people

have no health insurance and are totally broke and indebted with no hope of physical or financial recovery? We'd be worse off than in the early 1900's.

[BoogDoc7]

5. Problem is...

That HSA's a VERY consumer-friendly. It provides incentive to see what you're getting charged and overcharged.

I've got one, and catastrophic costs are covered fairly well. Sound savings will cover my end of the deal.

[Lars39]

12. I had a catastrophic policy....

and went heavily into debt with it.
If your illness/surgery straddles the new year, you are so out of luck.
That $4,000 deductible/debt that you were still paying on quickly becomes $8,000.
Anyone else in your family get sick/need surgery during the same yr
and you are out of luck again.
Health coverage should be a basic human right, not a fast track to bankruptcy or death.

[Dogmudgeon]

2. Been there. Done that.

Still there, in fact.

If my life is any indication of how even a single illness can destroy a person's financial life, this country is doomed.

Not even Jeebus can save us now.

--p!

[bryant69]

3. Well they've also taken steps

to make sure that people who go into bankruptcy get it in the shorts, or in some cases, can't even declare bankruptcy.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[loudestchick]

4. Personal story: My husband has become an independent computer

consultant in the last 3mo. I work part-time for a company w/ excellent healthcare benefits. My employer is restructuring and layoffs are in the works...If I get layed off? I'm afraid to think about it. We looked into self-insurance...outrageous!

[flordehinojos]

6. GWB is a megalomaniac (among other things). The Merrian-Webster Dictionary

on line defines megalomania as: "A DELUSIONAL MENTAL DISORDER THAT IS MARKED BY INFANTILE FEELINGS OF PERSONAL OMNIPOTENCE AND GRANDEUR". NO WONDER BUSH THINKS HE IS GOD... the sad thing is that those in his inner circle like Karl Rober Rove, Condolora Lice and BlankYourselfCheney all treat him as if he were a god. Poppy's little boy who never go spanked!

[rkc3]

7. At least we'll have Wal-Mart as the company store,

when we're all bankrupt and homeless.

[tubbacheez]

8. harvard study: half of all personal bankrupcies due to medical bills.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0202-08.htm

"Our study is frightening. Unless you're Bill Gates you're just one serious illness away from bankruptcy," said Dr. David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who led the study.

"Most of the medically bankrupt were average Americans who happened to get sick. Health insurance offered little protection."

...

"Among those whose illnesses led to bankruptcy, out-of-pocket costs averaged $11,854 since the start of illness; 75.7 percent had insurance at the onset of illness."

The average bankrupt person surveyed had spent $13,460 on co-payments, deductibles and uncovered services if they had private insurance. People with no insurance spent an average of $10,893 for such out-of-pocket expenses.





Audio:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4475013&sourceCode=RSS

According to a new study from Harvard University, half of all personal bankruptcies filed in 2001 by Americans resulted from people being unable to pay their medical bills. Researchers say even more surprising is that most people who declared bankrupcy had health insurance.

[TomClash]

9. Ownership Society means

They own the mansion and you own the outhouse.

[Warpy]

10. No, it means they own the mansions,

and we CLEAN the outhouse, if we're lucky and obsequious enough to get the job.

[TomClash]

11. Fair enough

but my point was that we own shit. ;)

[SpiralHawk]

14. The "Elite" own the Proles

"The nation has progressed through the following sequence:

"From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back into bondage."

- Alexander Fraser Tytler (1748-1813)
"The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic"

[Ilsa]

13. The savings in those tax-sheltered accounts doesn't amount to

much if people are paying lower percentages of income taxes. All their tax burden is getting shifted to the local level where there is no shelter.

[JohnnyRingo]

15. Very well put....

Q: Mr. Pres....How are you going to pay for these tax cuts?
A: "I'm going to let the states govern themselves".

[Gemini Cat]

16. The only thing we will own in bush's

"ownership" society is the debt. That's the thing we will own.
Lose your house, your health or even lose your life, but you'll own the debt.
Totally outrageous.