Noem squares off in town hall against people seeking socialized medicine

Pat Powers

There are days when you wonder if we still live in the same country we were born into, as it seems people anymore are actively seeking a cradle-to-grave welfare state.  Case in point, the crowd’s reaction at the recent town hall held by Kristi Noem, where people were cheering her warnings about socialized medicine:

“We have a 124 percent policy premium increase that has happened in South Dakota since Obamacare was signed into law,” said Noem, who is also running for governor of South Dakota in 2018.

and…

The philosophical divide was perhaps most starkly on display after the congresswoman sounded alarms about the shrinking number of private health insurance providers in the state.

“We used to have 17 health insurance companies in South Dakota. We have two today,” Noem said, adding that, “We are a year or two away from having government run health care.”

In reaction to Noem’s apparent reference to a universal, or single-payer, health care system, many in the audience erupted in loud cheers and thunderous applause.

“And that probably answers a lot of people’s questions,” Noem said as the clapping died down. “Because you know that I am not in favor of government-run health care. We’re probably going to fundamentally disagree on that.”

Read it here.

Way back in the early 1990s when I worked at the Division of Insurance, one of the biggest concerns for the State regulator was insurance availability – the reality was that health insurers were pulling out of the market left and right, because it was not profitable for them to operate in the state.

And as Congresswoman Noem pointed out, we’ve been moving in a negative direction ever since. We’re down to two.

Between calls for “free tuition at colleges” and now, what we’re basically seeing as calls for “socialized medicine, or government-run single payer health care,”  it should give us all great pause about the kind of country we’re creating for ourselves, because it looks a lot like the kind of system that has collapsed nations such as the Soviet Union and Venezuela.

“The Goverment of free stuff” is not sustainable. And no one should fool themselves into thinking it could work here.

44 thoughts on “Noem squares off in town hall against people seeking socialized medicine”

  1. Spot-on, socialized medicine devalues life. #charliesfight. #freemarket. Repeal, not Retain and Rename.

    1. Look at what is happening in the UK right now with single payer healthcare. The gov. will make decisions on who lives, dies or gets care. The family has NO say in the matter! Make your voice heard, Kristi !! The American people have no idea what single payer healthcare is, they think it just means great FREE healthcare. Wake up people!

      1. Get rid of medicare then…..that is Government run health care. I think Kristi needs to get of her government health care.

      1. Wow, SO, you should take a break from your cartoons and research what happens when single-payer is implemented. #charliesfight.

        1. What kind of data would you like? (I mean, of course, real facts, not the current administration’s alternative facts.)

            1. SO, dig deeper than 3rd listing on Google for your info, try Death Panels or Charlie Gard. What your link fails to tell you is sngl-payer gives gov’t full control over your quality & quantity of life. Let’s say stage 4 cancer has taken over your body, to get treatment & quality care, the gov’t decides if you are worthy of it. Or let’s say you need an expensive med to stay alive, gov’t gets to decide (not you or family) if that cost has become a burden on society, they can take it away just a quickly as they gave it to you. I promise you, you do not want the gov’t in control of your life. What do you think the gov’t would’ve decided for Stephen Hawking or Helen Keller?

              1. It all depends on how you write the law as to who decides on level of care. I suppose you would prefer data from Breitbart, Heritage Foundation, or Fox “News”?

                1. SO, how about first-hand accts from ppl who have faced death panels? If you don’t know anyone, I’d suggest Steven Crowder (LwC). His family is from Canada so he talks about it & he’s funny. Buck Sexton, Ben Shapiro & Dana Loesch also discuss socialism with data & facts. I’m going to bet you are a live & let live person too, Dems don’t want that for us. They think they know what’s best, they attempt to distract with “free” stuff. Get off the plantation.

        1. Wrong again. Medical City in Dubai, Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok rival even Mayo Clinic in quality of care and the price is a fraction of what it costs here. Why do you thing medical tourism was and is very popular among Americans, even paying cash? Sure as hell isn’t ACA that driving people there.

  2. Yikes!

    Hopefully some common sense folks are showing up at these events to make sure the press doesn’t get the impression that this is a majority opinion. The left is extremely energized right now and the right needs to take note or it will come back to bite us.

    1. This issue has NOTHING to do with your “extreme left” opinion but everything to do with taking care of every person’s well being!!

      1. If you think that is the purpose of government then you are “extreme left”.

      2. Have you been to an Indian Healthcare Hospital lately,they are on the verge of being shut down and some have for deplorable care, that ‘s government run healthcare. How about the deplorable conditions at our VA hospitals, that’s government run healthcare. The elites in Washington will have their own healthcare system. You can bet it won’t be single payer and government run!

        1. It’s the costs of health care and waste, fraud and abuse that is out of control.

          1. What is the driver of the cost of health insurance….health care costs!! You never see anybody holding the health care providers feet to the fire. They are the single largest factor in the overall cost of health insurance. Let’s see there financials for a change.

    2. anon July 6 9:28AM is exactly correct. the crowd was not representative of the community at large, it was a workday morning session which was targeted by a few local democrat activist groups for their own political gain. by accounts, noem stuck to her guns and argued her side against the pro-ACA groups and the few repeal-and-run conservatives oh hand, who both reject the republican replacement plan.

      1. Noem has no guns to stick to. She echos the party line, and reflects the will of the Speaker.

        1. Scott, one look at your Twitter tells what kind of person you are; mean & hateful. The garbage is really coming from you. Try treating Noem & others you disagree with with some common courtesy.

          1. By mean and hateful, you really mean “doesn’t agree with you”? Although I do admit to soe level of disgust with Trump and especially his surrogates, and trump a lesser degree, his supporters.

            1. Calling people a B-word & telling them to go F themselves is mean & hateful. So, should I tell my kids that a bully is just “disagreeing” with them when they’re called names. You are a troll & spew what your SJW buddies would call hate speech.

              1. Who did I ever call the b-word (except perhaps De Vos)?! Who did I ever tell to go F themselves (except maybe Trump)?!

              2. Who did I ever call the b-word (except perhaps De Vos)?! Who did I ever tell to go F themselves (except maybe Trump)?! I’m innocent of all charges (except with people in public positions when words fail me)

  3. Go Kristi. Glad she pushed back on that idea.

    Whether you support her for governor or not, we should all support her in moving away from Obamacare!

  4. If you can’t take care of your own needs why not move? Go to California or New Yawk where they meet your every need and control your every thought. I guess if the twit in New Yawk, Cuomo, says conservatives aren’t welcome in New Yawk, we should be allowed to say that socialist takers aren’t welcome in South Dakota.

    Some people say, “It takes all kinds to make the world”; I say, “It doesn’t take all kinds, there just are all kinds”. I think it is safe to say that if more people were self-reliant and had enough pride to not live off of the government (taxpayer) handouts, this would be a better country. Try to argue with that.

    2. Not everyone is capable of being self reliant, and often, living off the government is not a matter of pride, but a matter of necessity. I’d love to see you ill and unexpectedly laid off having worked for minimum wage and trying to get along without help. Good luck with that.

  5. Those two insurance companies between the two of them offer 20 different plans, however.

    The major reason health insurance companies have left South Dakota is because the ACA (ObamaCare) requires insurance companies to spend 80 % of their premiums on the actual costs of health care and not administrated costs. Most of those former 15 health insurance companies were only spending 65% of their premiums on actual health care costs. And when you consider that many socialist plans in other countries for years have worked with the 80% standard, that you would think that a system in a far more capitalistic society could naturally meet the 80% standard, but apparently many American insurance companies could not because they had too much of a “for profit” mentality at the expense of adequate and credible insurance plans….

    And if Rep. Noem is against government run health care, then why does she always claim to support Medicare and Medicaid? And why was she so concerned about maintaining standards on the reservations with IHS, too?

    1. Medicare is part of Social Security that elders have paid into for years. Medicaid is for those who cannot provide for their own needs. Fortunately, not everyone falls into either of these categories. We should provide for own need… nowhere in the Constitution does it state that you are to be provided health care.

      1. Medicare is a separate federal trust fund from the one that governs Social Security. Actually, there are two trust funds for Medicare.

        And regardless of who, what, or when, are the purposes of Medicaid, how can you say you are an advocate of Medicaid, when you claim to also be against government run health care? People who try to make this distinction remind me of those within the Tea Party movement who use to carry signs that said, “Keep the Government out of my Medicare”………HUH??????

        Where does it say in the Constitution that farmers in South Dakota should have farm aid, too? Both farm aid, health care, as well as many other programs are by-products of the ‘commerce clause’ of the Constitution…. that’s where you can find it……. And if you do not believe that health care is commerce, then you have just deleted a 1/3 of the entire US economy, in order, to say that…..

        1. Great answer on Farm Aid. It’s not in the constitution and it’s of far less consequence than Healthcare.

      3. Maybe instead of single payer it should be called medicare for all, where everybody pays in.

    2. Medicare is part of Social Security that elders have paid into for years. Medicaid is for those who cannot provide for their own needs. Fortunately, not everyone falls into either of these categories. We should provide for own need… nowhere in the Constitution does it state that you are to be provided health care.

  6. I really don’t believe everyone in South Dakota understands who pays for socialized medicine; BUT they REALLY DON’T WANT ACA cancelled and John Thune’s mess of a replacement to take affect.
    This is exactly what I have been telling you for weeks now, and you refuse to listen!!

  8. “The Goverment of free stuff” is not sustainable. And no one should fool themselves into thinking it could work here.”

    Where in the world to you come up with “government of free stuff”? The ACA and even single payer, is not “free stuff”, it’s based on the principle that younger and more healthy individuals pay a little more to support older, sicker, and poorer individuals, so that everyone, regardless of means, can afford healthcare. Insurance companies couldn’t careless about people who are sick, and of all the things that can be done for profit, healthcare should not be one of them. Either require insurance and healthcare providers to be non-profit, or let the government (or contractor) manage the system for a fixed fee.

  9. we are all at the mercy of the marketing gurus in politics, who use this issue to hype our fear of death for political gain. at the end of the day, we started with a free market system, which balanced the need to cover extraordinary loss with the need to limit liability exposure. we mixed in a whole class of politician who made great strides for their own careers promising a panacea of government-funded-everything. via ‘obamacare,’ these politicians crafted a monster-system that WOULD cover everything, AND force a tiered implementation of shoving the inflated cost of it all onto the population at large and making the notion of risk pools meaningless. today, we have the ACA supporters laughing and treading water as they bide their time – while the opponents of ACA fight over repeal-or-replace as the ACA finishes destroying the remaining shards of the free market system. we have to conquer our own personal fear of death again, or we will never make the right decisions to solve this thing.

    1. There are solutions in the context of the ACA that preserve the private health insurance industry. Requiring EVERYONE to carry health insurance through a private carrier is one of those. Reducing costs of care is another. Yet another is using a government intermediary to negotiate rates for health services, and base these rates on the carrier’s ability to increase wellness (i.e., results, rather than services delivered). Forcing a change in the insurance industry to require the health care arm to be not-for-profit might also be a reasonable idea, but a difficult one to make them swallow.

      Risk pools are a losing proposition, so seeing them go doesn’t not cause me to lose sleep.

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