Grandpère and I are home safe from the raucous meeting. Tonight, I uploaded my pictures, but my story will come tomorrow, because I am exhausted.
NOLA.com live-blogged the meeting. Read it bottom to top, if you want to start from the beginning.
The man with his mouth wide open in the center of the picture at NOLA.com lost his voice by the end of the meeting. What does that tell you? He does not believe that everyone has a right to health care. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is all that we're entitled to. Sometimes it's hard to have life if you can't get medical treatment for your illness. Just a thought.
I remember seeing lots of families with small children at the big anti-war rallies at the start of the Iraq war up here in dangerous godless New York.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't imagine taking children to something like this. Were there any there?
He punctuated lengthy remarks with, "People should take care of themselves. ... Government is not responsible." Landrieu answered: "He is entitled to his opinion. It's not a majority opinion." The man added, "We've set up a system where everybody thinks they are entitled to everything." He also said he does not believe that "all people are equal."
ReplyDeleteSome, clearly, are more equal than others. Wonder if there's any way to get this man to see this is not a zero-sum game, that we don't have to diminish his lot in order to improve the lot of someone else.
Nah, probably not.
Sorry, I promise to stop after this one, although this is like eating peanuts....
ReplyDeleteA woman told Sen. Landrieu that she pays $8,000 in annual premiums for a policy with a $6,600 deductible, and she went on to quote statistics about fraud in Medicare and Medicaid committed by doctors and other providers. Landrieu asked the woman, "Do you think we need to leave that like it is for your insurance company or do something?" The woman responded, "We need tort reform. ... We've got to stop the waste and the fraud."
Waste and fraud have nothing to do with "tort reform." And we got that ('reform') in Texas. Insurance rates haven't gone down, and doctors haven't quit complaining about not getting paid enough.
Funny the insurance companies aren't the problem, eh?
Last one, I promise:
ReplyDeleteLandrieu responded: "We have to do our very best to see that our citizens have a decent fighting chance to get health insurance. ... Now, it's not a guarantee, but we should give people a chance to have it." Then she asked the audience, "Should this woman who worked 30 years, does she deserve a chance?" The response was a smattering of applause and murmuring.
Yeah, well, I guess so...kill the bill! Kill the bill!
(I can't say what I'm really thinking in response to this, so sarcasm will have to suffice.)
Counterlight, I saw no children there, and surely they did not belong there. The mood of some of the people was truly ugly.
ReplyDeleteRmj, I heard over and over, I'm OK, and the hell with everyone else, and don't mess with what I have. Many who spoke make no pretense of caring about the common good.
And haven't you heard, tort reform will save us all. That is THE answer to the rise in costs of health care. Get with the program.
"I heard over and over, I'm OK, and the hell with everyone else, and don't mess with what I have."
ReplyDeleteSounds like some conversations I've had with my own family. My brother is all for Liberty... his liberty, and everyone else can just stay in their chains.
The other thing I hear a lot is something along the lines of "why should I pay for the health effects of someone else's bad habits and unhealthy living?' If you really pursued that logic, then only 22 year old decathalon champions would "deserve" health insurance.
I've never seen anyone in these rallies who looks like a decathalon champion.
Well, it's that "zero sum game," isn't it? If I give you liberty, it takes away some of mine. And if you have help from the government, I'm the one who pays for it.
ReplyDeleteWhen, of course, universal health care would benefit everyone, since it's the same idea as insurance: we all share the costs and the risks, and it's less expensive for everyone. Funny how hard it is to understand that now, when everyone carries insurance for their car, their house, their life, their boat, etc., etc., etc.
And we all pay taxes for police and the fire department, and expect the ambulance to come when we're hurt, and so on and so forth. I suppose we could go back to private ambulance companies (not that old an idea) or further back, and let everyone pay a private company for fire protection.....
Grandmere --did you get a chance to speak --I mean other than when you were spoken to so rudely???? What did you say? Inquiring minds want to know...
ReplyDeleteMargaret, I did not get a chance to speak, although I raised my hand, but others spoke my concerns, so it really didn't matter.
ReplyDeletePeople don't understand spreading risks and costs. People are ignorant to the point that I want to tear my hair out.
Sometimes it's hard to have life if you can't get medical treatment for your illness.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of those ideas that should be obvious, but apparently isn't. It's rather frightening, really.
My personal preference is a single payer system, but I think that the Senator said a lot when she said: "Anything we do, we have to put people first and think about people before profits. But profits are a part of our system. This is a capitalist system."
ReplyDeleteProfits seem to be the biggest barrier in getting any kind of real health insurance reform. United Health Care made $859,000,000.00 in profits in the second quarter of this year alone.
As a Christian, I find the entire idea of "for profit" healtcare to be abhorrent.
Good on you and grand-père for going into the lion's den.
Uber-g, I'm getting ready to write the post on the meeting, but I'm procrastinating, because I found the whole experience depressing, leaving me questioning the very concept of democracy. But what is the alternative?
ReplyDelete"... leaving me questioning the very concept of democracy. But what is the alternative?"
ReplyDeleteThere are days when I agree with General Sherman when he said "Vox Populi, pox populi!"
Pardon me for mentioning General Sherman to a Southern Lady.
There's quite a splendid statue of the bastard in Central Park. Did you seen the Augustus St. Gaudens exhibit?
ReplyDelete