Political Psychic

Daily Rants about Politics

bumper sticker

I just saw this bumper sticker about an hour ago and I had to do a double take. I couldn’t believe how idiotic it sounded.

Does the right wing seriously believe health care is MORE expensive under the European/Single Payer system??

There’s a reason why every single person is covered under their system – even foreigners, tourists, and the like. Because everyone pays into the system, via taxes.

It’s not free – but it sure isn’t more expensive than our system, which will wipe you out within a matter of weeks or months, the moment you start receiving your bills. And that’s if you’re lucky enough to avoid getting canceled by your carrier.

I wonder what their bumper stickers would say if we didn’t have VA Medical Care, Social Security or Unemployment Insurance?

What would your response be if you walked into your neighborhood pharmacy and the price of aspirin shot up to $150 a bottle? If you’re lucky enough to have the means – because you’re working or having money to spare, you’d pay for it.

But if you’re like half of America right now: You’d simply try to find an alternative or go without the aspirin.

Insurance companies are bilking the healthiest Americans out of their life savings – and kicking the poor and the sick to the curb by denying them coverage.

Why we need health care reform is not rocket science.

Yet, it becomes a heartless, selfish, idiotic argument when you try to live in denial of that fact.

We keep hearing arguments in favor of protecting insurance companies from a “government takeover”.

There is absolutely NO government takeover being proposed. Americans are simply begging for rules to be put in place that prevent insurance companies from acting like a-holes.

It’s that simple.

Here are a few rules (regulations) that have been suggested:

Don’t drop coverage for the sick.

Don’t drop people because of pre-existing conditions.

Don’t raise rates every year by more than 2 to 5% (instead of 39%).

Don’t create high deductibles as an alternative to paying a slightly lower premium.

Don’t force consumers to pay outrageous prices for medicine, tests and therapy.

Don’t discriminate against patients because they are gay, have aids, or had an abortion.

And for goodness sakes, stop donating money to politicians – and stop putting out false or misleading ads.

People are DYING because we don’t have any rules that look like these.

It’s not that the progressives don’t “appreciate” what’s being done for them.

It’s just that lawmakers are still very much out of touch with the general public. Based on the “reforms” listed, I am even more convinced that not much will come from this.

Lawmakers are being loyal to their corporate donors – both on the left and the right. And the corporations have absolutely no interest whatsoever in the general public, either.

No one seems to be operating on behalf of the general public.

Unless you’re a corporation, then you won’t really matter to a lawmaker. And vice versa – if you’re not a lawmaker, then you mean nothing to a corporation. Profits are being placed before the needs of people – and you don’t need profits from people (i.e. consumers) anymore – you need them only from Wall Street.

It’s that painfully simple.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

It turns out that he didn’t come to the U.S. for it’s “world class” health care, but instead for the sunny Florida weather where he could recuperate after his mitral valve surgery, at his luxury winter vacation condo.

The surgery he needed to have done is typically done in an open-heart method (where they have to crack your chest open to get to the heart), but he wanted a riskier, less popular method, which few doctors perform. He was concerned about scar tissue, and chose to have a laprascopic method, instead. While it might not be the best method for what he wanted done, it would indeed leave the least amount of damage in order to access the surgically sensitive area.

Canada’s Newfoundland Premier came to the U.S. to have mitral valve surgery on his heart. But the procedure he wanted is also available in Canada, where some of the best mitral valve heart surgeons exist. He defended his decision by saying that he preferred to come to the U.S. to have it done.

So, why the U.S.?? It turns out that he had access to a very nice condo not far from the doctor’s office, and would’ve been far happier recuperating in a sunny location like South Florida, instead of a cold, wintery location like Quebec or New Foundland.

Poor baby. I hope the right-wingers who tout this guy include this interesting bit of detail in their mantra of “we’ve got the best health care in the world”. Yes, we do…but only if you’re a billionaire or foreign dignitary.

Read the full news story here:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/its-my-health-its-my-choice-danny-williams-says/article1477872/

http://news.sympatico.ctv.ca/Canada/ContentPosting?newsitemid=CTVNews%2F20100224%2Fwilliams_cardiologists_100224&feedname=CTV-NATIONAL_V3&show=False&number=0&showbyline=False&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=False

I **LOVE** this!!!  We need more Democrats like this!  Representative Anthony Weiner (from New York) tells it exactly like it is.  And the House tries to say that he’s being offensive.  It’s such a shame that telling the truth is deemed “offensive” by the House.  Ugh.

Your wife is on the Board of Directors for WellPoint, the second largest health care corporation in America. Conflict of interest, much?

I think that speaks volumes on why we couldn’t get your cooperation on health care votes.

And the reason you gave for leaving? That it’s too partisan??! Speak for yourself, buddy. The partisanship is coming from blue dog a-holes, like yourself.

Everyone is whining about what a jerk Evan Bayh is for giving absolutely no notice about not running. I think it’s a god-send, personally. When Evan Bayh’s name was revealed as a potential V.P. candidate, Rachel Maddow on MSNBC went ballistic. It spoke volumes about Obama’s views on gay marriage, gays in the military, and human rights, in general. The whole notion of picking someone with such a strong rightwing attitude – just because he comes from a “hard to win” state like Indiana – didn’t seem justified. It was clear at the time that Indiana was not going to go for McCain. Heck, half the south was for Obama. It was an unbelievable blow-out. The notion of picking Bayh — while promising some kind of healthcare reform — just seemed too weird. (Maybe he figured Bayh’s inability to vote in the Senate would mean more?). Dunno…

I’m just glad Evan Bayh has decided to leave. He is still there until next January…but at least the Dems have until Friday to look for another candidate. Indiana’s Republican candidate is extremely unpopular (which is why Bayh was ahead by 20 pts), so this is certainly not going to be hard. Unless, of course, you’re counting on Harry Reid for any kind of help…

Every other country in the world considers it a crime to make a profit off of charging people for health care. Every country except ours.

When you ask a congress person why we can’t seem to get people to see what’s wrong, they say, “they like their health insurance coverage, so they don’t want to change it”.

I feel like I’m being told the biggest lie I’ve ever heard told – and people do nothing but nod their heads in agreement with it. I used to have great coverage, too, when I worked – but I would’ve been waaaayyyy happier if I could’ve gotten health insurance that didn’t try to rip me off every time something important had to get done.

Every day, I read and listen to stories about people who’ve traveled abroad who’ve been through really incredible health crisis problems while out of the country. Not one single one of them had to pay a bill or wait three weeks to see a doctor. Not one single one of them had to worry about their financial situation or feel like a second class citizen while waiting to receive care. Even in Mexico, a foreigner can get better health care – for free – while visiting their country.

People are DYING in this country while trying to receive care – they are dying because they are not able to pay for health care.  They are dying because they’ve lost their homes trying to pay their bills.  They are homeless, broke, hungry, and completely lost, and cannot work because they are too sick – and can’t get well because they have NO health care.

I really wish people would open their eyes and stop sitting idly reading these stories. We have to hit the streets, protest out loud, and really start shaking things up. Enough is ENOUGH.

Under the new proposed bill, the insurance companies will be given everything they’ve been asking for – and they will get it all because they pumped millions of dollars a day in negative campaigning against “Government-Run Health Care”.

Insurance companies will be on steroids, dumping more and more people for no reason at all – Charging more and more money every year for premiums and deductibles, providing less and less coverage.

And now that the Supreme Court has passed a law saying corporations are protected in saying whatever they want, just like people, they can run more commercials to fight reform.

Obama made a HUGE mistake trying to make nice with everyone. He made a huge mistake assuming Democrats would be happy with “any kind” of “health care reform”.

Make no mistake about this, though: We Dems are not going to vote Republican just because of this – But we certainly won’t be voting for the Blue Dog Dem incumbents. The legislature needs to grow a backbone and stop worrying about trying to please Republicans in the House and Senate.

Government-Run Healthcare means you won’t get dropped, you won’t lose your coverage, and you won’t lose your house. Obama simply needs to write an executive order demanding “Medicare for All” and simply put us on a Single Payer system – Where every man, woman and child is covered by insurance. The same way every other country on the face of the planet is.

The blue dogs consistently claim that they’re “all for reforming health care – as long as it’s not too expensive”.

But if you ask them if $100 billion per year is “too much” for another war – they’re all on board, behind Obama and the Republicans.

Literally, we have more children living in poverty now than any other time in history (since the great depression), and unemployment is in the double-digits.

Obama says healthcare costs must be controlled, and nothing of substantial change will occur until 2013…!!!!!

But another 3-4 years in Afghanistan? Hell yeah, let’s spend another $2-3 BILLION PER WEEK for a war we CANNOT AFFORD!

I seriously don’t give a rat’s ass about terrorism – Sorry, but I just don’t. Your chances of being killed in a terrorist attack? You are more likely to win the lottery – twice – this year – than to ever – EVER – be killed by a terrorist.

More people die in plane crashes per year than in terrorist attacks.

Are we doing anything about airline safety – due to crashes? Nope. Are we doing anything about safety when it involves terrorism? Every single g-damned time I go the airport, I’m reminded of what a huge effing a-hole G.W. Bush was on 9/11, pretending to care more about capturing Bin Laden, but instead sending us to Iraq to hi-jack oil fields for his buddies.

But, hey, I shouldn’t complain.

We have a “Democrat” in the White House – who will more than likely help the Republicans get control next November.

Back when I was in junior college, I took a business law class (I was originally a business major at the time, before I switched to liberal arts).  Our class was reviewing a case in our textbook that provided some clear-cut examples of particular laws on the books at the time.

The case was about a man who was walking on the beach one day and happened to spot a man who happened to be drowning, and would’ve certainly lost his life if the man who witnessed his calls for help had gone unheard.  Other people in the area who saw the drowning man stood by feeling helpless about how to help him.

In his testimony, he explained that his reasons for going in were done not to save his life – but to collect a reward from the drowning man for saving his life.  He made sure that after he had jumped in to save him, he paraded himself – in front of the media and to anyone passing by – as the **hero** to everyone who was present, so that there would be absolutely no mistake whatsoever that **he** was the one who did the heroic deed.

Soon after the tragedy had passed, the “hero” contacted the saved drowning victim to claim his reward.  Aghast, the victim was horrified and offended to find that the man who had saved his life was not at all happy about the fact that he could claim himself a hero.  He wanted financial compensation and demanded that he receive a financial reward for it.

The “hero” soon saw that his claims for reward were not going to be rewarded and decided to sue the victim, claiming that he was entitled to financial compensation for his good deeds.

Needless to say, I was deeply sickened by the greed and insensitivity of the man who sought his “reward”.

I think of that story often when I see what our health insurance companies are doing to families and victims of, as Glenn Beck puts it, the “world’s greatest healthcare system”.  How laughable, if it weren’t so painful to watch.

People are being pulled off of respirators, kicked out off hospital beds, and being forced to put up and shut up if they cannot meet their extremely high deductible rates.  God forbid you have a pre-existing condition, like hemorroids or acne, to disqualify you for receiving life-saving cancer surgery.

It’s simply ridiculous and outright offensive.

Every industrialized (and third-world) country on this planet has a healthcare system that is designed to make sure you don’t get treated like a liability or sack of you-know-what before you see a doctor.

If you break your leg while visiting in England, Canada, Germany or France, you are rushed to a hospital, seen immediately by a doctor, cared for like a human being worthy of respect and healthcare, and NEVER given a bill for the care you received.

In our country, that would be labeled as “free healthcare for illegal immigrants”.

Ugh…

Oh, and that guy in the story – the “hero” – he lost his case.  The court was so offended by his demands for a reward that they threw the case out.

We need to do the same to our current profit-before-people healtcare system.