I did some price comparisons today….

For a family of four:

Vermont $1198.58 per month ($3500 deductible, $30 co-pay, https://www.bcbsvt.com/pages/products/freedomplandirect.html)
New Hampshire $295.00 per month ($2500 deductible, $20 co-pay, https://www.ehealthinsurance.com)

And for those who might say that NH is $800 cheaper simply due to the greater population, then here is WY which has 150,000 fewer people than Vermont…

Wyoming $225.91 per month ( $2500 deductible, 25% co-pay after deductible reached, https://www.ehealthinsurance.com)

When Vermonters can’t afford to stay, it is time for the folks in Montpelier to go.

And just to be clear, I read GMD all of the time. I just don’t want to butt into every conversation with my POV. That is what I have this blog for.

I was just being a wiseass…

And, though I’m enjoying our dialogue, please don’t hesitate to tell me to go away if my challenges to your statements start to become annoying.

I say this especially because you’ve mentioned that you purposely don’t go over to GMD very often to join a debate because you feel it’s a place for the left to talk amongst ourselves.

NO, NO, NO, NO, NO! I do not agree with expanding Medicare and Medicaid!

There have been studies of the breakdown of who is insured. I can look it up later, but basically there are those who can afford it, but choose not to; those who are poor, but already eligible for government programs; and the third, the one that would bolster your side, those who are too poor to afford it, and do not qualify for government programs. The third group is only a small portion of that alleged 40 million.

Then there is the fact that the number of uninsured includes people who are uninsured for only a temporary time period. If I am uninsured for 9 months or a year while looking for a new job, should I be included in the number of uninsured? I don’t think so. Yeah, it would really be a bummer if something happened during that time, but if I am normally able to benefit from the current system, I might not want to be used to defend overhauling it.

Okay, I have to go.

I was working on a post about our security discussion, but it is not finished. I hope to have it up later.

and…

It then follows that we needn’t provide healthcare to everyone, only those who cannot provide it for themselves.

So, do these statements indicate that you agree with Howard Dean and Rich Tarrant that we should expand Medicare and Medicaid for the over 40 million (a rather large number, I think) currently uninsured Americans?

Mentally ill people living on the streets is a different issue entirely than poverty. People who display anti-social or violent or otherwise generally unacceptable behaviors toward others are not easy to help. It takes more than just food and housing to help these people.

I agree that having them live in the streets is not an acceptable way to deal with them either.

“Should food be communally funded?….What about housing?”

Charity, in every major city in this country, you can find homeless people begging for money. These homeless individuals are frequently mentally ill. They live in horrible conditions in the richest country in the world. When I think of these mentally ill homeless people, my answer to your two questions is YES!. Yes, every community should provide some type of food and shelter for those individuals who are simply unable to provide it for themselves.

We should be ashamed that there are so many ill people who are living in the streets.