English FAIL Blog

No pubes for you!!!1

I’ve always wondered about the intelligence of people who think that poor people don’t deserve health care.

This sign explains a lot.

She needs a pubic option.

I am all for the option of having the carpet match the curtains.

Yes, it does.

I have always wondered about the intelligence of people that think that “poor people” don’t have access to health care and that justifies stealing from others.

Your comment explains a lot.

I can speak with some experience on this topic. A close relative with no pre-existing conditions was stricken with a series of ailments which began about 20 years ago. At the time, he had health insurance coverage through his employer’s benefits program. One condition led to a second, then a third. As his series of tests and diagnoses expanded, his insurance through his employer benefits dropped him requiring him to buy very expensive individual medical insurance. As the doctors ordered multiple tests (often the same tests within a week–one department refusing to use the results of another department’s blood test, for example), his bills began piling up. Then his expensive individual insurance which he had been paying into for years dropped his coverage even though he never missed an insurance payment. Fortunately, he had relatives which were able to help him with his medical bills, which included (multiple weekly) doctor visits, expensive prescription drugs, emerengy-room and hospital stays (at about a frequency of every 4-to-6 months). The more research one does, the more one realizes that this is not an isolated nor a unique case. Some people believe that the state of US healthcare is a non-issue; but the evidence squarely speaks otherwise.

This merely indicates a need for greater regulation in the health insurance industry, not a need for killing it altogether.

The opponents argue against any type of reform. In their mind, regulation is equal to government intervention. The accusations that the opponents of reform have used (death panels, rationing, etc.) are false and have been created by talkng-heads who are bitter about the results of the 2008 election and the current state of the Democratic majorities in congress. I have no doubt that many of the people who are protesting the reforms are so misled that they’re oblivious to the fact that many of them stand to benefit from such reforms.

When I was 21, I simultaneously finished university and was removed from my parents’ insurance plan. And then, as if on cue, I became chronically ill. I couldn’t work, so I couldn’t get any health insurance from an employer. And then, when I applied for private insurance from every company I could, I was denied because of my condition. For three-quarters of a year (until my husband’s insurance kicked in at HIS job) I was paying over $300 every month in prescription and doctor costs. What would I have done if I hadn’t been married? I have no idea. The $300+ a month would have gone on for years, and I’d have probably had to go into debt.

Now I’m somewhat back up on my feet, and I’d be THRILLED to be part of a system that helps out people who are dealing with situations similar to what I dealt with.

Thanks for calling me an aspiring thief, though. That was nice.

No one is arguing against any reform. One only has to look at the reforms that have been put forth and see that they have been shot down. Look what happened to the CEO of Whole Foods. Republicans have offered other ideas including tort reform. That went over like a lead balloon since there are provisions in the managed health bill that reward lawyers while they take from the people as well.

There is no public option in the bill. The bill allows governmental access to your bank accounts. The “death panel” has been taken away, but while that provision has been in previous bills, the difference was that in this bill, doctors were being paid to meet with a patient in what is essentially a private and family matter.

Medicare / Medicaid have 80 BILLION dollars worth of fraud. How many people could we insure with 80 billion a year?

In 2005, the average cost to add a family to a private insurance company was $1200. That same family added to the rolls of Medicare / Medicare costs $1900.

Doctors are bailing out of taking Medicare patients because of the lack of timely payments.

Today CNN reports that the government paid $23 million in bonuses to people (the same type of bonuses that Obama and Peloisi hated) while VA payments for claims are still waiting because of slow processing times.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/22/veterans.affairs.bonuses/index.html

Until the government shows that it can meet its current health care obligations, there are going to be a lot of people that are against the bill. We look at the DMV, the USPS, Medicare, Medicaid and a host of other government run agencies and wonder if the government can’t or won’t run them efficiently, why should we trust them to run a single payer system any better?

Rationed care will be a reality. If you think that dealing with insurance companies is bad, how much better do you think that a nameless, faceless bureaucrat in DC will be?

It needs to start somewhere. Republicans were not concerned about healthcare reform until the Democratic party swept the 2008 election with healthcare reform being one of the platforms which won the election for them. Now that Republicans understand that this is an issue they cannot sweep under the carpet or kill as they did in 1993 (when reform was certainly needed; but the situation was not nearly as out-of-control as it is today), they are coming up with their own plans which eliminate “death panels” (which never existed in the first place) and throw around ideas like medical cooperatives. The problem with any Republican plan is that there are too many different ones too late in this process. While the President was (and still is) seeking bipartisan support, Republican constituents and talk-show-hosts throw around hot-button words which stoke hate and fear making it nearly impossible for any intelligent input from Republicans on this matter. Believe me, if one existed, I’d be open to it.

As for the VA issue, once again I can speak from some level of experience on this matter. A relative who injured his back while in the service several years ago feigns severe back pain every time he visits the doctor who regularly evaluates the status of his injury. His immediate family thinks it’s great and hilarious that he walks normally and without pain until the day of his evaluation–then, he suddenly is unable to walk upright, hunching himself over and requiring a cane. Otherwise, he is healthy, pain free, and unemployed living off of his VA disability checks and his wife who supports him. I believe that he will not seek full-time employment because this would interfere with the payment he receives from the government. Could situations such as this one, perhaps, be part of the cause of the slow processing times?

This may contain some English mistakes, cause I’m not a native. But this topic is one of the shocking things I’ve ever heard of about the North American culture. Socialism? Seriously, guys…. Here in Brazil we have free health insurance and our conditions as a country aren’t the best. But there’s poor people everywhere, and I can’t figure out what it would be of the poor people if they hadn’t health insurance.

Astute observation - probably this person is against free education, as well. ;-}}

Waxing; the Ultimate Pubic Option!

ha ha, awesome! seriously, though, waxing is socialist.

I am very surprised that America what I thought is the richest western country in the world, does have Universal Health Care…
When I see things how people use scare tactics like “socialized medicine” all I can do is laugh… if only Americans knew how good it was elsewhere…

Here in Australia we have full Universal Heath Care. We have a system called Medicare that covers every single citizen. It is paid for through the normal taxes we pay about $600 a year. If you earn over $70,000 a year you pay a Medicare levy unless you have private health care.

Here, I dont have any insurance whatsoever. Yet, I like every Australian can walk into any doctor, any hospital and be seen for free and get treatment for free. The government doesn’t tell me what doctor i can and cant see, I can see ANY doctor, get any tests, xrays, scans.. whatever done and it is all free.

We also have something called the PBS (Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme) where the government will actually pay for all our prescription medication. So long as you’re a citizen or permanent resident you get this. For example I had to get some medication that was normally $155.00 for a box of 30 tablets… cause of the PBS I only paid a maximum of $32.50, the government paid the other $122.50 for me cause medicine is capped at $32.50 here for everyone… if you’re on a pension or unemployed then you get it cheaper… about $6.00… I had to pay $32.50 though cause I have a full time job.

In Australia we just expect that the government look after all of us as we pay taxes.. We do have health insurance too if we want it… but mainly people use that for things like dental that Medicare doesn’t cover… and with that.. if you get heath insurance in Australia… the government will actually pay 30% of your premium every year. But not many people bother getting insurance cause the public system is very good.

If you can’t spell it properly, you’re too stupid to have an opinion on it.
Proofread your shit.

One point for the Australian and one for LKM.
Gotta love how Americans jump on the bandwagon of “Socialist Democrats are the devil” or “Republican tightasses are the devil.”

Although I have to add that after working as a caregiver, I say kudus to whoever is brave enough to try to deal with the healthcare system in this country.

*kudos
not kudus

(see, I practice what I preach.)

Stealing from others? How can you claim to be intelligent when you think of a socialized version of health care as stealing? So, when our kids go to public schools, is that stealing? When I go to a library, is that stealing? Also, who is doing the stealing when we pay more for our health care than almost every other first world country on this planet? The corporations are stealing, you moron. Corrupt insurance companies have stolen what we are entitled to: heath care. Look at France, Sweden, Canada, and Britain. You’re an idiot if you think that we, by ANY means, have it better than they do!

I know. Try living with these idiots. I’m setting out to prove that at least a quarter of the people who live in this country are legally retarded. It takes a special kind of stupidity to be so easily swayed and cheated by a system so corrupt and greedy. And they’re proud of it! End this mindless Capitalism!

Please come to America and slap these people. I’d do it personally but they just call me a “Commie”. I don’t know if they know what it means, but they say it.

Just i would like to ask from where i have to start to answer this question. ,

I am often suprised that the (supposedly) richest, and most powerful country in the world is unable to provide to best care for citizens. Not just with health care, but with a great many things - look at New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. One would have thought that, in the richest, most powerful country in the world, the city would be up and running as it used to be, after around three years.

A government that does not provide adequate health care for citizens cannot be deemed a good government, as it is not giving them a safe, and healthy environment to live in, to its best ability - which, as the richest country in the world, it should have a great capacity to do so. I echo the words of other Australians who have posted here - we are not faced with worries of health care, because it is provided for us. If we are sick or injured, we know that treatment is there, no matter if we are unemployed, or a multi-billionaire. Surely 600 dollars out of our tax is no big deal? It may just go to help yourself one day.

The American government needs to do the proper job of caring for citizens, which should be at the top of any government’s priorities, instead of wasting time and money on nuclear weapons and war-mongering, which does not benifit citizens in any way. All its spending on the military hasn’t gotten far - America has still been attacked by terrorists, an “invasion”of sorts. Australia, whom has a universal health care system, and therefore, spends less on military defense, has not been attacked by terrorists, or even invaded at all, since the japanese attempted in WWII. Taking into account that we are right next door to several more volitile Eastern nations (this is not racism, merely a fact), much closer than America, but we haven’t been attacked, despite our inferior defense. However, our citizens are able to benifit from easily accessible health care, which American citizens are constantly denied in a almost stictly capatalist society. A good blend of communism and capatalism is essential for the suscess and advancement of any society - shown by the extreme effect the global ecconomic downturn had on America.

weird how one can find an argument on public option everywhere =]

So should the government pay for our houses? How about our food, our water, and our energy? It is not a right to have access to healthcare, and it is not a right to have government pay for our necessities. And, even if we do get government-run healthcare, how will we pay for it? Stopping the war and emptying our pockets will not be enough to pay for this.

We already have a debt of $12,000,000,000,000, and now you say that we must spend another $1,000,000,000,000 (over the next decade) that we don’t have? Using common sense, you should know that one should have enough money to pay for something before they buy it. It is called living within our means. We should get some sort of healthcare reform, but not this.