The argument, I guess, is that as a country we don't need to care; that for people like these, the proper response is "Tough luck. Not my problem." The operative ethic, evidently, is that because the ACA pays for itself by raising certain fees (as opposed to Bush's Medicare Part D, which didn't pay for itself in any way), and, by every measure taken of it, lowers the deficit, it must be repealed. No matter what good it may do for millions of people: if we have to pay, we ain't gonna do it. We got ours: screw you. You don't deserve it, it's not a priority, go away.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the R view of American exceptionalism.
"Raising Certain Fees"?
ReplyDeleteis this 1984?
Not only a great year, but Van Halen's best album IMHO.
You mean those tobacco/tanning taxes I stopped paying?
And Truth in advertising, haven't given up the Evil Weed entirely, but now its 2 or 3 handcrafted Hondurans(from a Cuban, Ironicly)instead of a pack of Luckys/day.
And as much as I like raising my melanoma risk 200% in 10 minutes, you can't beat Natural Radiation.
You probably dont see it much in Seattle,
its called "The Sun"
I know one seriously far-right Republican woman who happens to be a nurse who decided to change jobs a few years ago, and so, she was going to have to buy her own health insurance.
ReplyDeleteShe's diabetic.
She had no idea what was coming. She sputtered about Blue Cross being, like, the gold standard of health insurance, and my answer is, not anymore--not since the Republicans talked a bunch of states to allow health insurance companies to switch to for-profit status, including here in California. That's when the CEO of Wellpoint, according to one site tracking such things, made $54 million in salary and extras--and claimed with a straight face that it had no impact on the care provided out there.
I LOVE that the ACA doesn't tell such people that they can't be paid that much; it simply stipulates that the companies must pay out so much of a percentage in actual care, and actually, it's less than what Kaiser already does.
And while the Wellpoint CEO was making out like a bandit (quite literally), the CEO of another health insurance company was pulling down 299k and living the comfortable suburban life in Atlanta. It can be done.
I had an intramedullary spinal cord tumor, and now a helluva case of syringomyelia. I'm crippled. Of course SSD turned me down. My wife, an ICU nurse, is a breast cancer survivor. Can you say, "pre-existing conditions"? My PCP whom I've been seeing for 10 years was just dropped from our insurance network, which by the way, shrank by 30% this year. As well, the 30% the insurance company used to pay for out of network, has disappeared. I'm all in for the ACA. Frank- you can stick your Cuban where the sun don't shine. Perhaps I'll get my crippled ass down to ATL to help you do it... wait a sec... Those stoggies are probably just link trainers for you anyway... you friggin dumbass.
ReplyDeleteOh... I forgot to mention my 24 year old daughter, two years ago, was denied health insurance due to an ovarian cyst. When she did get insurance, all ovarian issues were written out, not covered. Now due to ACA she is cover fully under our insurance. Albeit, shitty coverage, in two years she will have much better options.
ReplyDeleteYou're the perfect example of what's wrong with our health care system, Cory, and it's really shameful. The ACA corrects much of it, but not enough. It shouldn't even be a question, in the US of A, whether you or anyone in your family, should have access to health care without bankruptcy. And yet, Rs rail against the ACA as the end of civilization. And, of course, it works on people of teabagger mentality.
ReplyDeleteI remember a patient -- wrote about it on Surgeonsblog, I think -- whose hemorrhoids I fixed, after which her insurance company told her she'd no longer be covered for any disease of the gastro-intestinal tract! Colon cancer, stomach ulcer, all of it!!
I feel like a perfect example Sid. And I'm angry about it, nearing the end of my eternally optimistic rope, which doesn't help me in the slightest. It's a given how frightened we are given the crop of potential GOP nominee's and the real possibility of a Republican President this next cycle. The upcoming Supreme Court decision on the ACA mandates adds to the frustration. A friend of ours from Canada is visiting for the weekend- she can't believe that what our health insurance is doing isn't illegal, I'm with her on that one!
ReplyDelete