A Small Amount of Choice
The British are trying something interesting—choice:
Elderly people will be given money to pay for their own care as part of a radical shake-up of the welfare system, Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, will announce today.
The new personal care budgets will give millions of pensioners and younger disabled people the power to decide what kind of care they want and where they buy it.Currently, elderly people are at the mercy of social workers who dictate the services they need to live in their own homes.
Under the new system, which will be introduced next April, older people or their families will set up bank accounts into which councils will pay a monthly sum.
Beneficiaries will be means-tested to assess their needs before they are able to shop around for the best “personal care” packages, which will include help with getting dressed or washed, meals on wheels, cleaning services and cooking.
But wait! Michael Moore said the NHS was wonderful! They certainly don’t need to moving closer to the evil bloodthirsty capitalist monstrosity in the United States. This sounds awfully similar to the HSAs and other voucher programs proposed by evil heartless Republicans who are in the pocket of the for-profit healthcare industry. And we all know that people are way too stupid to decide how to spend their healthcare money.
The world’s falling apart, I tells ya.
Comments
Sounds good. If they’re literally just getting the money in their bank account they could just hire anyone they wanted to help… like the family next door to cook an extra dinner portion every day for say.... $5 (vs. a company contracted by the government to drive it over in a van).... Maybe they can dump some social worker positions too….
I’m seeing some fraud potential (and I’m seeing the lefties centering on that in the future) but all social programs have some fraud and abuse… at one level or another…
I don’t understand why Michael Moore makes some people so angry. In your heart of hearts, do you really think he hates America? That’s just rhetoric, a slogan conservatives use to get people riled up. I think you purposely cloud issues with this name-calling because when you look at the issues, your thinking just doesn’t hold up. If the HMO’s and the drug companies weren’t so damn greedy, maybe for-profit healthcare might work, but as it is, the rich just want to keep getting richer. I understand Capitalism is what this country was founded on, but don’t we owe anything to our fellow man? Should one man die because he is denied coverage, while the CEO flies in his private jet? Does the disparity between the haves and the have-nots HAVE to be so cavernous? How much does one person really need? There but for the grace of god go any one of us, and I don’t forget it for a minute. Please help me understand where your heads are at.
Lord help me not to make the obvious response to this onesie about where their head is at.
Posted by Jamilynne on 12/13/2007 at 01:16 PM (Link to this comment | )
“I don’t understand why Michael Moore makes some people so angry. In your heart of hearts, do you really think he hates America? That’s just rhetoric, a slogan conservatives use to get people riled up. I think you purposely cloud issues with this name-calling because when you look at the issues, your thinking just doesn’t hold up.”
We’re just talking here. Mostly about thinking this new program might work well.
“If the HMO’s and the drug companies weren’t so damn greedy, maybe for-profit healthcare might work, but as it is, the rich just want to keep getting richer.”
Now, take your thoughts on your strawman about what we think about Moore and apply to yourself in regards to HMOs, drug companies, for profit healthcare, and throw in CEOs and maybe Bush.
See, simple projection. I’m willing to talk using reason and meet middle way (get the most bang for our tax buck in helping the needy). You seem to have a thing against the free market.
the rich just want to keep getting richer
Uh, Jamilynne, isn’t that just a phrase that liberals use just to get people riled up? Don’t in fact the middle class also want to get richer? And what about the poor—do you think they want to remain poor, or to get poorer?
I understand Capitalism is what this country was founded on
Then you understand incorrectly—our country was founded on liberty and justice for all. Our economic system is founded upon capitalism.
don’t we owe anything to our fellow man?
Yes, we owe him the respect to offer to teach him to fish if he does not know how. That does not mean that I hand him a fish every day.
Rann, I disagree—I think Jamilynne is reachable, we just need to educate her. I say we offer to teach her to fish. Maybe then she’ll teach someone else, and so on…
Jamilynne, that was all so...original…
Rann, I disagree—I think Jamilynne is reachable, we just need to educate her.
We’ll see. A Coke says we never see another comment, and if we do, it’s just yet more “You just hate Moore” stuff.
(two days pass...)
Rann, it looks like I owe you a Coke, my friend.
Don’t worry about it, those cans are tough to fit through ethernet cables.
I once heard from a very strong conservative and narrow minded, i will admit, say something that made me laugh, because old people always say the craziest things.
“Them damn liberals should love capitalism! They are pushing all this evolution crap on our kids in schools now instead of creationism like when I grew up. Capitalism is the purest form of ‘ole Darwin’s theory. SURVIVAL OF THE RICHEST!”
Jamilynne’s comment reminded me of this, and I thought i would share it with you.
Posted by TacoJoe on 12/16/2007 at 04:44 AM (Link to this comment | )
“Them damn liberals should love capitalism! They are pushing all this evolution crap on our kids in schools now instead of creationism like when I grew up. Capitalism is the purest form of ‘ole Darwin’s theory. SURVIVAL OF THE RICHEST!”
It is one of those ironies that many of the same progressives who harped on the free market as ‘social Darwinism’ (which, they meant to be bad)… turned around and supported forced eugenics movements… ahem… what the hell is forced sterilization of undesirables (often black or other minorities and the poor) if not [actual] social Darwinism?
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I found the following passage interesting, if not frightening:
I want to live in a society that keeps people at their mercy and dictates to them. Social welfare’s a great thing, huh? Once again, it seems that guvment run services don’t have enough funds to keep them solvent--even when they’re taxing people through the roof.