LesGuvment, Sand Springs (2/9/2009 5:11:28 AM)

Agreed.

Bullhead, Nicut (2/9/2009 5:47:12 AM)

Very good news.

justiceawaits, Claremore (2/9/2009 6:33:01 AM)

You want to make my cigarettes pay for Your kids heath insurance.Welfare mentality.

Travis, Tahlequah (2/9/2009 7:20:13 AM)

Attention non smokers: A tax increase is on the horizon for you too. As the number of people smoking declines the government will see diminishing returns on tobacco tax increases. We all known government programs run in perpetuity and the funding needs will only increase. The funding shortfalls will be made up by tax increases elsewhere.

Echos, Tulsa (2/9/2009 7:48:09 AM)

Why dont we try and control medical cost themselves while were at it. For anyone, insurance or not, the costs are outrageous. I belong to a PPO and they reduce hundreds of dollars from the doctor bills everytime I go. That tells me they do not have to charge as much as they do.

Echos, Tulsa (2/9/2009 7:53:56 AM)

Travis, I think you are correct. Last year 10 people in my family smoked. Last year alone 3 quit. 3 more are planning on quiting as soon as this tax takes effect because they can no longer afford the habit. So basically 6 out of 10 smokers in my family are no longer going to be contributing. Maybe they should start increasing alcohol taxes

Skyhawk, Downtown Tulsa (2/9/2009 7:57:27 AM)

BVYD LOL SWEET PIC!

Raise the Tax on Cigs !
They are addicted, not stupid.

They will go to the smoke shops...

elyocp, (2/9/2009 8:23:53 AM)

Dan is showing true leadership. He's not a follower like the other representatives in the state. Each year even though this country may gain more millionaire, we also gain even more indigent people. Somewhere down the road, it's going to come to a head. Taxes won't be enough. Socialist ideas I feel will ultimately play out. Bush claims to be a compassionate conservative. I think he uses the term loosely and facetious.

Graychin, Eucha (2/9/2009 8:31:30 AM)

Travis: You warn us that a tax increase is on the way as if that were a bad thing.

It ain't necessarily so. You get what you pay for - at best.

52favoriteteacher, Southwest Trojans Rock! (2/9/2009 8:39:37 AM)

Another very good article

TW---keep it up!!!

concernedpapa, Kiefer (2/9/2009 9:21:44 AM)

righton if you run out of dog food let me nkow I will make sure you have plenty.

moogle, Tulsa (2/9/2009 9:34:45 AM)

If healthcare is to become nationalized, then just get on with it and get it done rather than using the current piecemeal approach of targeting specific age and social groups.

Hijinx, (2/9/2009 10:28:43 AM)

The solution is obvious: nationalize the healthcare system. Doctors and nurses should be federal employees. Hospitals should be healing centers, not for-profit corporations beholden to shareholders. If socialized medicine is too radical, however, there's always the single-payer system.

The unbridled greed of corporatized healthcare is breathtaking. United HealthGroup, currently listed as #37 on the Fortune 500, earned $3.3 billion in net profits in 2006--up 28 percent from the year before. Wellpoint made a whopping $2.5 billion, a 157 percent increase. When is the last time you got a 28 percent raise? 157 percent? It's blood money, pure and simple. How much profit is generated by the death of an uninsured or undertreated American?

Even the military, which uses healthcare coverage as a recruitment tool, is welching on its duty to treat illnesses--even those it causes.

In December 2005 Private Bradley Brown went to an Army doctor at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, complaining of back pain. Brown told the South Bend (IN) Tribune that "the doctor gave him an anti-inflammatory nonsteroid prescription for Naproxen and shot dye into his veins for radiographic (X-ray) studies."

Two weeks later he was in an Indiana emergency room, a victim of near-fatal IgA Nephropathy, also known as Berger's Disease, as well as acute tubular necrosis--which is caused by "a number of things, two of which are reactions to dye used for radiographic studies and nonsteroid anti-inflammatory medication." Bradley requires a kidney transplant, but the Army--which threw him out of the service and refused to pay him wages while he was fighting for his life--said no. "I don't know how this is allowed," says his mother, who is hoping the Army will help a vet whose own procedures left him with a stutter and memory loss. "I sent them a perfectly healthy child. Now we have a broken one."

zzx375, BA (2/9/2009 10:51:05 AM)

"The solution is obvious: nationalize the healthcare system."

Who decides who gets treatment and when?

Your eight-year old daughter is diagnosed with a pediatric cancer occurring in 1 out of 100,000 children. She needs a bone-marrow transplant.
Will she be able to get it when needed?

Hijinx, (2/9/2009 11:01:58 AM)

zzx375

I can tell you who I don’t want deciding, the insurance company.

If left up to them she may not. Its not uncommon to stall and delay until its to late. All to protect the bottom line.

Hijinx, (2/9/2009 11:07:35 AM)

We (Americans) are being called the Canadians Mexicans. We flood the canuck system with Americans crossing the border for health care.

Rocketman, Tulsa (2/9/2009 11:22:34 AM)

Really Hijinx? Are masses of uninsured Americans seeking medical care for free in Canada? Could you direct me to an article please.

Graychin, Eucha (2/9/2009 11:44:43 AM)

Rocketman, he didn't say "for free." But you knew that.

Who worse to ration care than an insurance company? They are accountable to no one.

I wouldn't go as far as Hijinx. I would like to put insurance companies out of the health care business (yes, BUSINESS) and start a single-payer program like Medicare. Medicare works very well, and it has far fewer horror stories about it than any insurance company you care to name.

Tying health care to employment as we do in the US is crazy. We are the only country that does that. It doesn't work, and it disadvantages American employers as compared to companies overseas.

Hijinx, (2/9/2009 12:05:36 PM)

Rocketman,

I can direct you to an interesting article:

Mythbusting Canadian Health Care, Part II: Debunking the Free Marketeers

John M, Tulsa (2/9/2009 12:17:43 PM)

This is good. Anything that can be done to help more people get health insurance will help the whole health care system. Now more kids are more likely to get preventative care which will keep them out of the costly and over-used emergency rooms. I am hoping that now we can get the Insure Oklahoma program expanded to help low income adults get insurance.

Thanks TW for continuing to report on this topic.

Rocketman, Tulsa (2/9/2009 1:22:00 PM)

hijinx,

It did not mention one word about Americans who do not have health care crossing the border to recieve free Canadian healthcare. Or, did I miss it?

Hijinx, (2/9/2009 1:33:07 PM)

Rocketman,

No you didn’t. It was a phrase I heard. I cant back up who said it. Never less I do know it happens or so I have heard on different blogs and such. I don’t have actual numbers but I thought it drew some parallels with what we deal with here.

Rocketman, Tulsa (2/9/2009 1:39:55 PM)

According to the NYT - you know "All The News That Is Fit To Print"

Only legal residents qualify for free medical care in Canada, using plastic health cards for identification. Others are supposed to pay for medical services they may require, but many are submitting counterfeit, borrowed or fradulently obtained cards.
I do not trust socialist websites like the one you directed me to previously, Hijinx.

Hijinx, (2/9/2009 1:46:17 PM)

LOL don’t be so paranoid.

Frites and Mayo, Tulsa (2/9/2009 1:53:20 PM)

The Prez just totally slammed right(?)on...