Political ad

I'm not a health care professional, so I don't know the specifics. What I do know is something has to change. I have not had health insurance for 10+ years, and I am in debt from it. I make to much for public assistance, but to little to pay for it myself! I also don't have $10,000 a year of extra money to put into a savings account in case of an unexpected health issue! It is impossible to get health insurance with pre-existing conditions for some what of an affordable price. And its not just me, there is so many people without health insurance that really need it.....

BecauseI totally think doctors have my best interests in mind at all times and not their own asses (which are undoubtedly insured by the hospitals they work for) and medical licenses.

matt1420 said:

I'm not a health care professional, so I don't know the specifics. What I do know is something has to change. I have not had health insurance for 10+ years, and I am in debt from it. I make to much for public assistance, but to little to pay for it myself! I also don't have $10,000 a year of extra money to put into a savings account in case of an unexpected health issue! It is impossible to get health insurance with pre-existing conditions for some what of an affordable price. And its not just me, there is so many people without health insurance that really need it.....

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I do not know why Matt you cannot save $10K a year, and place it away for the unexpected health crisis ... What is wrong with you? ( Sarcasm all the way here Bro ) Even if you did save 10K, what in the world is that going to pay for? Last year when I had my 2nd heart attack, just the bill from Maine Med was $87K, and that did not even count the ambulance ride from Waterville to Portland ($5,700), plus all the little bills from "The Team" that amounted to more than another $15K. It is just ridiculous what the costs are when it comes to medicine (medical) issues.

jujubee said:

I wonder why NH is doing so much better economically than Maine.

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NH is closer to Boston. Boston is a medical city and avoided the recession. I'd wager that if you did a county by county survey you'd find that the northern two thirds of NH is similar to the northern two thirds of Maine.

jujubee said:

Here is a good article from Dr. Sulak's website on why medicare for everyone is not a good idea.

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Yes, universal - or even expanded access to - healthcare will change the rationing mechanism in healthcare. What this article fails to mention is that ability to pay (price) functions as the current rationing mechanism. I just don't believe that a humane society should ration health based on wealth.

I also have to add, only anarchists get to use the word statist as a criticism. Libertarians like to throw the term around, but lack the convictions of classical anarchists and support some level of statism. In other words, as far as i can tell Libertarianism is an ideology of hypocrisy. They like to rail about the evils of the state but cannot conceive of living without a state.

Maine Brookies said:

NH is closer to Boston. Boston is a medical city and avoided the recession.

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The MA poverty rate is 10.5%.

t

jujubee said:

The MA unemployment rate is 10.5%.

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Not according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate currently for MA is 6.1%, and for the Boston it is 5.5%.

tet1953 said:

t

Not according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate currently for MA is 6.1%, and for the Boston it is 5.5%.

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You are right. 10.5% is the poverty rate, not the unemployment rate.



Massachusetts min wage: $8.00 per hour

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_poverty_rate
1 New Hampshire 5.6%
public assistance 3.2%

14 Massachusetts 10.5%
public assistance 3.0%

33 Maine 12.6%
public assistance 5.2%

Allrighty then. The unemployment numbers didn't work, so now I guess we're making a different point. Ok, what is it exactly? Is it the fact that MA, with its higher minimum wage, has fewer people in poverty? Or that Maine, with its lower minimum wage, has more people on public assistance?

jujubee said:

33 Maine 12.6%
public assistance 5.2%

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Post hoc ergo propter hoc; correlation is not causation. Asserting causation without presenting evidence to support your assertion is faulty logic. A rational person with a different perspective would look at those number and draw the conclusion that all three states are incredibly tight with public assistance.

Maine Brookies said:

Post hoc ergo propter hoc; correlation is not causation. Asserting causation without presenting evidence to support your assertion is faulty logic. A rational person with a different perspective would look at those number and draw the conclusion that all three states are incredibly tight with public assistance.

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I am not asserting causation, just pointing out stats.

tet1953 said:

Allrighty then. The unemployment numbers didn't work, so now I guess we're making a different point. Ok, what is it exactly? Is it the fact that MA, with its higher minimum wage, has fewer people in poverty? Or that Maine, with its lower minimum wage, has more people on public assistance?

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I was comparing ME and NH. Someone else added MA into the mix.

The point is NH is doing better off economically than ME or MA, even with only fed min wage.

12 years ago ME had a lower unemployment rate. ME is headed in the wrong direction.

The interesting thing about raising the minimum wage is its effect on the cost of every thing else. I own said store, and am told I must pay my employees more, and I have such a small profit margin now, I must find that money some where, thus I raise the cost of my product, now that minimum wage has just raised the cost of living.

Back to the original post, yes the politicians are slime, and our current 2 party system is broke. All they do is blame the other party and nobody gets a dam thing done.

Angus in my opinion did a fine job running the state, thus I will gladly vote for him. I doubt he will fix the system, I doubt he even tries, but at least its a step toward changing the 2 party system.

hey are u a cargiver by any chance

jujubee said:

The point is NH is doing better off economically than ME or MA, even with only fed min wage.

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It's still comparing apples and oranges. Southern NH functions as a bedroom community for Boston and that drives the state's economy.

Maine is heading in the wrong direction because of FTAs, not the minimum wage.

Shark Bait said:

The interesting thing about raising the minimum wage is its effect on the cost of every thing else. I own said store, and am told I must pay my employees more, and I have such a small profit margin now, I must find that money some where, thus I raise the cost of my product, now that minimum wage has just raised the cost of living.

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This is frequently stated, and it does have an intuitive attraction. Unfortunately, macroeconomics is often counter-intuitive. There is scant evidence that increasing the minimum wage actually causes inflation. Capitalists only raise price as a last resort; most are able to offset increased production costs by increasing labor efficiency. And, that raises a well-established tenet of microeconomics - compensation and efficiency have a direct relationship.

usmc55555 said:

hey are u a cargiver by any chance

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No thread hijacks allowed!

Maine Brookies said:

This is frequently stated, and it does have an intuitive attraction. Unfortunately, macroeconomics is often counter-intuitive. There is scant evidence that increasing the minimum wage actually causes inflation. Capitalists only raise price as a last resort; most are able to offset increased production costs by increasing labor efficiency. And, that raises a well-established tenet of microeconomics - compensation and efficiency have a direct relationship.

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I do agree with what you stated on the large scale, but let's look at Mom and Pop, the business that at one time made Maine tick. The little guys don't have room to find the money elsewhere, and I think what we are seeing with the Big Companies and the cost of their failure, the powers that be don't ever take the hit, we get it no matter what.

Shark Bait said:

The little guys don't have room to find the money elsewhere

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Correct as far it goes, but don't forget that there's more than one way to deal with increasing production costs. In order of preference, business can increase productivity, increase sales volume or increase sales price to keep pace with rising production cost. For a small business, it's much more realistic to think that you can get more out of your workers than it is to try to get more out of your customers.

budwich said:

Spent a shit load on the ad to.

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Most of it is money from outside the state also. I dont think anyone out of the state should be buying ads affecting Mainers, or any states peoples, on their state issues.Its clear they almost always dont have Mainers best self interest.