What's So Great About Private Health Insurance?

[Cindy]

That is a good question, but I was being kind of sarcastic and drawing a loop back to if I break my leg, no insurance or money and go to the hospital, then I get fixed up anyway. Perhaps if you went to the hospital and had no insurance, you would be automatically enrolled then.

Not in Texas. And I'm afraid that you wouldn't automatically be guaranteed to get that broke leg fixed there either, depending upon which hospital you went to. Don't know about other places, but folks get turned away here or given the address of the closest charitable organization that might help. Children tend to make out better in that scenario most of the time.

I'm surprised by that. For several years (when Ruth was little), I had no health coverage at all, for either of us. My employer offered it, but for part-time workers like me (who worked 40-50 hours on a regular basis), it was too expensive. My asthma was much worse at the time, because I also couldn't afford the twice-daily dose of Advair to manage it. So I ended up in the ER a lot (I'm still paying off those bills). They always treated me, and I didn't even have to wait. I guess they don't fool around with suffocation. But that's NYS. I assumed it was like this everywhere.

Cindy

[Randy in Maine]

Turns out his car was blocked, and he was heckled by a "Tea Party" Republican operative who gathered like-minded Republican loyalists who screamed "NO SOCIALISM" during his attempt to inform people of the current health care options.

Republicans for the most part today have no interest in solving your "paying for health care" issues. They don't even know what those issues are. They certainly couldn't fix them and have no interst in trying.

They do however have a big interet in making you afraid. Afraid that some agency is going to take away your health care, take away your social security, take away your guns, make you have an abortion, because of illegal aliens and the ACLU.

It is crap I say. Pure crap.

This is partially due to the fact that the Republican party has been moved so far to the right "reactionary side" of the political spectrum that most thinking republicans are no longer welcome or needed or wanted. They just get in the way. It has been going on for a long time and much like a delusional meth addict focused on his next kick, these people only want to maintain power over others and tell them how to live "right". There are a lot of people that are miserable in this country today (for a lot of reasons mostly due to poor decisions they have made in the past) and they have been convinced by "the talking heads" and shout radio that "government" or the "trilateral commission" or the UN is the reason why they are miserable. And that they should stand up and say no to anything that involves any sort of change.

For the record these are not the same republicans of 30 years ago that provided some actual interesting debate on some very basic issues an concepts of government and provided at least some choice to the average voter. Many of them were pretty moderate in their views (and I can name a dozen right off the top of my head). Those moderates politicians and voters are not longer wanted or needed in the republican party.... they are referred to now as RHINOS and are endangered speicies.

I say lets keep our eye on the ball and move along for some common good.

[Sylvester]

What makes me angry is the commercials I saw like the girl from Canada that said she had to come to America to get treatment because they were too slow in her treatment options in Canada. I wonder who paid for her treatment? How does anyone think the way things are right now are just fine and dandy? I know I say this in all my posts, but there are 67 million people I bet who would immediately disagree. How much $$$ would we free up if we stopped the lawn care in Washington DC for a year?

[Cindy]

What makes me angry is the commercials I saw like the girl from Canada that said she had to come to America to get treatment because they were too slow in her treatment options in Canada. I wonder who paid for her treatment? How does anyone think the way things are right now are just fine and dandy? I know I say this in all my posts, but there are 67 million people I bet who would immediately disagree. How much $$$ would we free up if we stopped the lawn care in Washington DC for a year?

A lot of people think it's not working, and needs improvement. But they also seem to think it's a black and white issue. Private insurance or socialism, with no sensible middle ground. My father said a few days ago that Obama's health care plan would involve "educating the elderly in death" instead of treatment. Then my mom said, it might end up like that movie, where people were chosen by lottery to live. Remember that movie--about the comet? A comet was speeding toward earth and only certain people were allowed to survive. Talk about MISINFORMATION. I told them both to stop watching Fox news already. Enough.

Cindy

[Cindy]

Turns out his car was blocked, and he was heckled by a "Tea Party" Republican operative who gathered like-minded Republican loyalists who screamed "NO SOCIALISM" during his attempt to inform people of the current health care options.

Republicans for the most part today have no interest in solving your "paying for health care" issues. They don't even know what those issues are. They certainly couldn't fix them and have no interst in trying.

They do however have a big interet in making you afraid. Afraid that some agency is going to take away your health care, take away your social security, take away your guns, make you have an abortion, because of illegal aliens and the ACLU.

It is crap I say. Pure crap.

This is partially due to the fact that the Republican party has been moved so far to the right "reactionary side" of the political spectrum that most thinking republicans are no longer welcome or needed or wanted. They just get in the way. It has been going on for a long time and much like a delusional meth addict focused on his next kick, these people only want to maintain power over others and tell them how to live "right". There are a lot of people that are miserable in this country today (for a lot of reasons mostly due to poor decisions they have made in the past) and they have been convinced by "the talking heads" and shout radio that "government" or the "trilateral commission" or the UN is the reason why they are miserable. And that they should stand up and say no to anything that involves any sort of change.

For the record these are not the same republicans of 30 years ago that provided some actual interesting debate on some very basic issues an concepts of government and provided at least some choice to the average voter. Many of them were pretty moderate in their views (and I can name a dozen right off the top of my head). Those moderates politicians and voters are not longer wanted or needed in the republican party.... they are referred to now as RHINOS and are endangered speicies.

I say lets keep our eye on the ball and move along for some common good.

=D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D>

[dtrumbo]

My wife's parents and her other siblings are hard-core Republicans. Her folks are covered under the retired-military benefits, but both of her sisters husbands are self-employed and therefore have no coverage as it is too expensive. Why on earth wouldn't these folks be FOR universal coverage. You would think that FINALLY all that precious tax money they begrudgingly pay every year would go to something that would directly benefit THEM! Instead they sit around and complain that the gun store they stop at every week is always out of ammunition.

[RussellK]

Speaking of insurance companies. Did you hear about the couple that switched coverage? The woman wasn't pregnant at the time of the switch but when she became pregnant learned her coverage would be refused as a pre-existing condition. The insurance company's rationale was they were working on getting pregnant at the time of the change. I'm not sure how you work this one out so coverage isn't jeopardized. Perhaps call your agent and say tonight it's just for fun.

[BellePlaine]

What do you say about the idea that members of Congress are exempt from participating in the plan?

[Manfred]

Republicans for the most part today have no interest in solving your "paying for health care" issues. They don't even know what those issues are. They certainly couldn't fix them and have no interst in trying.

They do however have a big interet in making you afraid. Afraid that some agency is going to take away your health care, take away your social security, take away your guns, make you have an abortion, because of illegal aliens and the ACLU.

It is crap I say. Pure crap.

This is partially due to the fact that the Republican party has been moved so far to the right "reactionary side" of the political spectrum that most thinking republicans are no longer welcome or needed or wanted. They just get in the way. It has been going on for a long time and much like a delusional meth addict focused on his next kick, these people only want to maintain power over others and tell them how to live "right". There are a lot of people that are miserable in this country today (for a lot of reasons mostly due to poor decisions they have made in the past) and they have been convinced by "the talking heads" and shout radio that "government" or the "trilateral commission" or the UN is the reason why they are miserable. And that they should stand up and say no to anything that involves any sort of change.

For the record these are not the same republicans of 30 years ago that provided some actual interesting debate on some very basic issues an concepts of government and provided at least some choice to the average voter. Many of them were pretty moderate in their views (and I can name a dozen right off the top of my head). Those moderates politicians and voters are not longer wanted or needed in the republican party.... they are referred to now as RHINOS and are endangered speicies.

I say lets keep our eye on the ball and move along for some common good.

What I find really interesting is how easy it is to get the Republican base to believe these completely illogical arguments. The powers that control the Republican party don't even have the core values their base has. The power group just wants the money and they need the votes to do that, so they come up with these smear campaigns designed to appeal to people with strong religious views, people that are very easy to scare, and people that want to blame others for their problems.

I've seen the email strings that went back and forth between the GWB cronies. They regard their base as fools who will do anything they (the power) tell them to do.

[Amskeptic]

I'm not sure how you work this one out so coverage isn't jeopardized. Perhaps call your agent and say tonight it's just for fun.

=D>

[Sylvester]

What do you say about the idea that members of Congress are exempt from participating in the plan?

You mean the Universal Health Plan? Why would they want to?

[BellePlaine]

What do you say about the idea that members of Congress are exempt from participating in the plan?

You mean the Universal Health Plan? Why would they want to?

Why wouldn't they? If it's affordable.

[RussellK]

What do you say about the idea that members of Congress are exempt from participating in the plan?

You mean the Universal Health Plan? Why would they want to?

Why wouldn't they? If it's affordable.

They already have the best plan in the world and it's theirs the rest of their life.

My guess is they are exempting themselves from participation to eliminate the criticism they are self serving. At the same time they enjoy the added benefit of keeping their lifetime plan. Here is what would make me happy. If they get to vote on my plan - it only seems reasonable that I vote on theirs.

[Ritter]

The whole thing about preexisting conditions is fucked. So, if you have coverage and you ever get something serious (asthma, heart issue, cancer, etc.) and use your coverage as it would apparently be intended to be used, you get a rap as a preexisting condition. Should you lose your job and insurance, you can't get other insurance because the fuckers deny or gouge you for having had an ailment. We'd go a long way toward making things possible just by getting rid of the preexisting condition bs.

My wife has one. My daughter has one. No pressure to stay employed and covered, eh?

[Velokid1]

The powers that control the Republican party don't even have the core values their base has.

The same is often true of the Democratic party, as well. It's just that in the case of the Democrats, this...

The power group just wants the money and they need the votes to do that, so they come up with these smear campaigns designed to appeal to people with strong religious views, people that are very easy to scare, and people that want to blame others for their problems.

...becomes...

The power group just wants the money and they need the votes to do that, so they come up with these falsely-sympathetic campaigns designed to appeal to people who actually care that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, people who are already scared because they see that humans are poisoning themselves right off the planet, and people that want so badly to see the wealthy elite and convenience-addicts who are to blame for those problems step away from the helm.

I personally believe that my bleeding-heart liberal concerns are more valid than those of the I-want-what's-mine conservatives, but it's definitely the case that the Democratic powers-that-be make lots of money and gain lots of power by playing on my fears.