This whole healthcare reform thing is blowing up in a really weird way, huh?
I honestly expected the misguided cries of “Socialism!” from conservatives, but the lie that right-wing media is selling that old people and people with special needs are going to be ordered to die? I did not see that one coming.
I also didn’t expect a bunch of middle-aged and elderly people who are on Medicare to demand that government get out of healthcare. Same with the folks who rely on SSI (Disability) or the VA for their care. Shows what I know.
I am shocked that the various insurance and healthcare special interests are estimated to spending, on average, almost $2 million dollars a day fighting healthcare reform.
I am horrified that some batshit crazy people seem to think that talking about (threatening) assassinating the President and other elected officials is a legitimate form of political discourse. I am not surprised that all of these people seem to be middle-aged white people.
I think that the US desperately needs to implement a single-payer healthcare system (according to some recent polls so do 70% of Americans that are not me). The healthcare reform that is being discussed is not that system (thus the poll numbers that describe between 45%-55% of Americans that are not happy with how this reform is coming along).
I think that most people who oppose healthcare reform don’t actually oppose healthcare reform. I think they oppose their candidate & political party losing the last election, I think they oppose a black man being president, and I think they believe whatever they see or hear on TV and radio from celebrities who pose as journalists.
The locations, ages and skin color of the people I see in the news opposing the reform tell me that these people are the product of strong labor unions who have won them a lifetime of excellent benefits and that they are the beneficiaries of strong social government programs like Medicare and Social Security.
I don’t know anyone under the age of 55 who has those kinds of benefits, and I’m married to a teacher and worked in Human Resources for most of my adult life. You would think if anyone would have encountered health insurance and care worth keeping, it would be me, especially when you consider that I have mostly worked for technology companies and healthcare companies – which tend to offer a fairly high standard of benefits.
What is comes down to is these people who oppose healthcare reform have an incredible sense of entitlement and the thought that anyone might have access to the same care that they do means that they might have to give something up – that they might have to share.
Fuck ‘em. They’re bigots and assholes. It’s not their right to determine who gets access to basic human rights. It’s the same mentality that keeps GLBTQ people, ethnic minorities, and women from having the same rights that a straight white man does. So, I say we ignore these bitchy whiners and do what needs to be done.
Fuck ‘em.
Yep.
But…but…sharing = socialism!
God I love you.
Word.
I haven’t heard much about these proposed healthcare reforms, but of course it made the papers when certain US spokesmen started calling the NHS “evil”. That made me blink a few times. The NHS is many things, not all of them good, but evil? Wow. Some people really are desperate.
They’re not bigots and assholes. They’re people who have a different opinion than you do. Access to health care may be a “basic human right”, whatever that little catchphrase means, but this discussion is about health insurance, and who pays.
I have a small business, and I offer health insurance to my full time employees. If the government wants to step in, fine with me, but don’t expect me to have to pay more taxes so that the government can establish a huge bureaucracy, with all the bells, whistles and pensions for government employees.
Belinda, you do realize that if we establish a single payer system (which would really be expanding Medicare to cover everyone) it will cover you as well?
“Basic human right” means exactly what it states. If you can’t grasp that (or that a “catch phrase” is something a character uses as an identifying piece of dialogue), I can’t help you.
And they are bigots and assholes. I know that when someone points out unacceptable behavior that it can be uncomfortable, especially when you see something in yourself that you don’t like, but that’s your problem to work through. The people who think that “immigrants” are going to steal their Medicare are bigots. The people who want to keep people from marrying each other are bigots. The people who think that President Obama is not American are bigots. They are all assholes.
This discussion is about healthcare, not health insurance. Health insurance is an industry that thrives on huge profit margins which it sucks out of the health care industry, an industry which is collapsing, BTW. Healthcare DOES NOT EQUAL health insurance.
BTW, we all already pay for healthcare for everyone – it’s called the Emergency Room and it’s where most healthcare in the US takes place and it’s the place the least amount of insurance dollars are spent.
We need single payer or the expansion of Medicare in order to change how health care is delivered in the US.
I’m not opposed to paying taxes for that. I’m not opposed to paying higher insurance premiums for that. I’m not opposed to it at all. Even if it does create jobs that give people pensions! I happen to think that jobs for Americans, whether they are government jobs or small businesses, are good things. Why don’t you? What don’t you want to help your fellow Americans?