From Jonathan Alter's column titled "What's Not To Like?" in Newsweek:
Go ahead, shoot me. I like the status quo on health care in the United States. I've got health insurance and I don't give a damn about the 47 million suckers who don't. Obama and Congress must be stopped. No bill! I'm better off the way things are.
I'm with that woman who wrote the president complaining about "socialized medicine" and added: "Now keep your hands off my Medicare." That's the spirit!
Why should I be entitled to the same insurance that members of Congress get? Blue Dogs need a lot of medical attention to treat their blueness. I'm just a regular guy and definitely deserve less.
I had cancer a few years ago. I like the fact that if I lose my job, I won't be able to get any insurance because of my illness. It reminds me of my homeowners' insurance, which gets canceled after a break-in. I like the choice I'd face if, God forbid, the cancer recurs—sell my house to pay for the hundreds of thousands of dollars in treatment, or die. That's what you call a "post-existing condition."
Please, please read it all. Read how little of the money that the health insurance companies take in is devoted to actual medical care and how much is devoted to "loading fees". How about the lady on Medicare who complained about "socialized medicare"? Ya gotta love her.
It is a good sarcasm piece.
ReplyDeleteIt hit me while reading this.... is there a parallel between the "rushing" argument on rushing a healthcare solution (after so many decades) and the argument that we are rushing glbt inclusion because we have not yet done the theology?
OK... so I am slow.....
Brian, of course there's a parallel. Neither issue is being rushed. They've both been been studied to death. It's nothing more than further delaying tactics by opponents of equality on the two issues.
ReplyDeleteIt's getting to be tough times for well and well-off straight white men, isn't it? Next thing ya know, wise Latina women will be filling their job vacancies.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder they are not in a rush for equality on anything!
Apologies to Grandpere, s'il vous plait!
Apologies to Grandpere, s'il vous plait!
ReplyDeletePat, he's with me on health care. I won't let him be anywhere else if he wants any peace in his life.
Of course, we're covered by that useless, "socialistic" health care plan called Medicare.
Go see my posting today on how much a recent trip to the ER cost.
ReplyDeleteA system rotten to the core!
ReplyDeleteThe column is brilliant. Since becoming a freelancer four years ago, this issue has really been driven home to me. We're being squeezed to death just to provide ourselves with health insurance that has a very high deductible. And God forbid we ever become truly sick because we'll lose even that.
ReplyDeleteRuth, what kind of a health care system is it when you get dumped if you get sick? It's becoming an impossible situation for self-employed folks like you and your husband. It's shocking, scandalous, and infuriating, and I'm afraid that Congress will shrink from the task of getting the bill right for anyone but the health insurance companies.
ReplyDeleteI read this on a friend's facebook update.
ReplyDeleteit's so true. I'm a big fan of sarcasm, though.
I just don't get what keeps going on with health care. Of course, I think that single payer is the ultimate solution, but however we get going down the road, as long as we get reform going, I'll take it. what we have is so inhumane.
Diane, I'm a big fan of sarcasm, too, sometimes to a fault.
ReplyDeleteA single-payer plan is the solution, but we'll get there only by increments, if ever.