They Were Asking For It

Every time I think they can't go lower, lower they go.

The Far-Right is still on about the racist name-calling that they say didn't take place before the HCR vote, even though Congressmen attest to the name-calling, not to mention the spitting (but of course they're just gay Congressmen and black Congressmen and women Congressmen, not to mention Democrats, so it's not like anything they say counts, not if you put what they say up against what people who weren't even there say or who were somewhere else in the crowd* and are good God-fearing Tea Party members say).  And anyway, if it did take place, any of it, well, it was because those Congressmen and women provoked it, by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and by walking where they ought to have known not to walk.

You know, like women provoke their own rapes by going out in short skirts, and gay guys provoke beatings by being gay, and black people provoke lynchings by owning property in the South and shit like that.

Here's our buddy Rush to explain it to you, in case you're confused:

LIMBAUGH: I know it didn't happen. There's no evidence it happened. If they had videotape evidence that it had happened, they would have shown it. They don't have it. They were trying to create it. They were being provocative. They were being contentious. There's no reason that that group of people from Congress had to walk through the crowd. They never go to the Capitol that way. They get there in the underground tunnels. They want -- and Pelosi carrying that big gavel with that, you know, excrement-eating grin on her face. They were trying to provoke everybody into an incident. 

*From "Creekrat" in comments:

"I WAS THERE !!! I saw none of this. Lot of chanting, but great folks who care about this country. Not a speck of trash left behind, either !!"

It's so sweet, isn't it?  How the Republicans never litter or cuss?  Guess it's because they all have Jesus in their hearts the way they do.

Yay Obama!

Lookit This!

More On Healthcare

The Free Clinics came to Arkansas.

These are the same folk that take free medical care to third world countries, and took them to LA a while ago.  They went to Little Rock, and, as usual, had people lined up for hours.

No health care crisis in this country, nah.

Health Care Reform

A bit of movement on Health Care Reform, not supported by Blanche Lincoln, the Democratic Senator from my benighted state, and coming too late for one of my best students, who this past Saturday had a major stroke and is, as we speak, in one of our two local hospitals.

She had worked all of her life, as most of my students have, in one of our local factories, and suffered multiple health problems because of it, include severe hearing loss.  She also had no health insurance, although, because she had some Native American blood -- again, as many of my student do -- she was able to use what she called "the Indian clinic" in Tallequah.  

Well, she was able to use it when (a) she could reach it and (b) it could fit her into its schedule.  Since so many of our local impoverished depend on it, it was nearly always overbooked.

What this worked out to was that her high blood pressure (not to mention her hearing loss and bad vision and dental issues and other problems, but we'll stick to the blood pressure problem) went untreated for years.  All last summer she kept driving over to Tallequah, trying to get her medication adjusted.  Her car was ancient and unreliable, she had to sit for hours at the clinic, and often they sent her home unseen because the doctors were overbooked.

So: stress, poverty, illness, overwork, and she was a semester away from graduation, set to graduate this spring, so there's that too.

Now she's in the ICU, and who knows what she'll be able to do?

Nor was she that old -- late fifties.  With proper medical care, she would have been an excellent English teacher in the public schools, a productive member of our economy.  Now she's going to cost Arkansas a ton of money for quite some time.

Heck of a job, Blanche.

Best Health Care in the World

Bill Frist was on the Maher show Friday night, doing a better job that I expected, frankly. He did repeat that canard about America having the best health-care system in the world, however, which is probably true if you are a rich fuck like him.

For the rest of us, however, the world looks a bit different.

The Consumers Union survey of 1,002 adults from Sept. 17 to 20 found that among the ways people have tried to cut back on health care costs:
-- 28 percent put off doctors' visits.
-- 25 percent have been unable to afford medical bills or medication.
-- 22 percent put off medical procedures.
-- 20 percent declined medical tests.
-- 20 percent skipped filling prescriptions.
-- 15 percent took expired medication.
-- 15 percent skipped scheduled dosages of prescriptions.

I have done nearly all of those, including skipping filling prescription and skipping dosages: not for the kid, but for me; and I have done them more than once. I'd say, in fact, I have done them often. (To be fair, my meds are fucking pricey.)

I've also gone without going in for medical care, especially when I know a visit is likely to lead to something expensive.

We have insurance, but it doesn't cover everything; and I am still paying off doctors and dentists and specialists and for Herr Dr. Delagar's manifold medical issues...about $300 off the top of every paycheck goes for medical bills, which that's over and above what we pay for insurance.

Who needs medical reform? Well, not Bill Frist, I guess.

Health Care Crisis

Here, from Daily Kos, are a series of charts breaking down the data, state by state, on how many of us are uninsured, and how many of us who, despite having insurance, are nevertheless going broke paying for healthcare -- paying 10%-25% or more of our income on healthcare costs despite having insurance.

I haven't run the numbers on what I am paying, because, duh, numbers, but I'll reckon I fall in there somewhere, since every month I'm paying the orthodontist, two different dentists, five different doctors and hospital bills, nine different prescription meds (five for me, four for mr. delagar), not to mention any little ancillary bills that might come up, such as if the kid gets an earache or mr. delagar needs a new CPAP or I need a new set of glasses ($480 dollars that was, not one penny of it covered).  And I have health insurance!  I pay something like five hundred a month for health insurance, and extra for dental!

And then there's this (scroll down) -- did you see this?  RAM, which is an organization that visits Third World Countries, to provide medical care for their populations, went to Los Angeles! To provide health care for United States Citizens!  And the lines were three days long!  That's what we are now!  Third world citizens!

Best health care in the world my liberal ass.

Racist? Us?

Excellent posting by Tim Wise over at Daily Kos.

(Via Angry Black Woman)

Why We Should Want Obama's Health Care Reform

Here we go -- a link for everyone.

My favorite graph:

7. No Free Lunch for Businesses

Currently, large employers that rely on low-skilled workforces usually offer little or no health coverage, and much of these workers' health care is already subsidized by taxpayers in the form of Medicaid and Medicare payments, other public programs and unpaid bills for emergency-room visits. Under the proposals in Congress, medium and large firms would face a simple choice: Offer their employees decent coverage or pay something into the system to offset the burden their employees' health needs impose on the American taxpayer.

Obama's Healthcare Plan Is Killing Grandma!

Have you seen the idiot anti-healthcare reform ad, the one where Ma and Pa Kettle sit at the kitchen table and Pa is furious because gummit healthcare has denied him his surgery, while nevertheless his tax dollars are paying for abortions?

"They can't do that!" Ma Kettle says.  "You need that treatment!"

Pa Kettle says, "People like me can't get the medical care we need, but we're being forced to pay for abortions!"

Hold on Ma and Pa Kettle staring, outraged and distraught, into one another's good, honest, moral, American eyes.

Nearly as hearty as the ad that claims that if the HC Reform passes YOU will be FORCED to consider euthanasia as an OPTION!!!1!

Amanda says this:

Hell, the government in all but a couple of states already has inhumane laws limiting the choice of how to die for people with terminal illnesses.  We’re still pushing back against states that set artificial limits on how much morphine a dying person can have for fear that they’ll get addicted, presumably in the afterlife.  We haven’t even set foot on the slippery slop towards mandatory euthanasia that anti-choicers tell us we’ll all be on if we allow the dying to have some pain relief and dignity. But now we’re told that Obama’s going to take your guns and shoot grandma with them. 

And more, basically pointing out the fallacious goodness to all these stories the Insurance Companies and their lobbies are spreading.

Which doesn't stop the Right from lapping it up, like the lap dogs they are.

Conservative Lying Tools Trying to Block Health Care Reform!

Here is the story Rachel presented last night which had my back up.

Here's Rachel's actual version.

But also see this.

American Health Care

I don't know if you watch Bill Maher. He can get down my neck from time to time, as can his guests. He had Joe Queenan on this past Friday, spouting drool about American health care; Queenan's main thesis seemed to be I Got Mine, Jack.

So it's too bad, Queenan said, 50 million Americans don't have health insurance. The rest of us do. Do you really expect us to up our taxes to buy a system that will pay for those without? Please. What are we, altrustic? Bah.

This was when I started screaming tool at the screen.

Because, no, you fuckwit, that is not what we're doing with healthcare reform and not why we need it.

Yes, obviously, that so many citizens are without that basic need is an issue -- just not the biggest one.

The biggest one is that for most of us, the health care system is broken. (See Sarah Wildman, who, like Joe, has health insurance, and still ended up deeply in debt after childbirth. See Jesse Taylor, who has health insurance and still ended up deeply in debt after minor surgery. See me, who declared bankruptcy a few years ago, due to medical debts well in the hundred thousand dollar range, over half of which were incurred while I had health insurance.)

Nor does it have to be the scary major illness that shoves Americans into disaster -- for me, for my family? It's high blood pressure, it's a kid who has anxiety issues (the shrink is covered, but there's a $1500/year deductible), it's well child care that's not covered, vision care that's not covered, dental benefits that run out in July (only a thousand dollars a year per family, so, well, one root canal and you're fucked), prescription drug benefits that run out in October (I'm on five different meds, mr. delagar is on six, our insurance has a yearly cap for medications), it's how only 80% of the shoulder surgery is covered, and it's how this shit adds up, especially when at the same time the cost of fuel and everything else has doubled and wages?

Wages are flat.

So maybe Queenan, the tool, is doing fine. Maybe he's got his. But for the rest of us out here? It's a problem.

Right-Wing Attempts To Think

...About Health-Care Reform.

Only they aren't any better at thinking that over than at much else, apparently. This Robert Broadus argues that he should not have to be taxed for health care, see, because of the bill of rights, which he believes means he should not have to pay taxes for health care if he doesn't want to, since he has not been buying health insurance, which has been saving him (he says) $2,500/year and he's been doing fine with that.

"What if you get sick?" he is asked.

"What if you break a leg?" he is asked.

"Who pays then?"

Of course, we would -- his fellow citizens -- unless his family is filthy rich -- which, since he says earlier he's been helping to support them, I somehow doubt is the case.

So if he gets sick, his fellow taxpayers will foot the bill, because I really doubt he will just eat his gun. But that's not the point! He's a free citizen! We can't MAKE him pay for a health care system just because he might use it some day!

And J.T. Plumber and Fox News, of course, love this fella to bits.

That's what passes for bold thinking on the Right these days.

 

Here is what I keep pointing out to my students and anyone else that will listen to me:

The United States now devotes one-sixth of its economy to medicine. Divvy that up, and health care will cost the typical household roughly $15,000 this year, including the often-invisible contributions by employers. That is almost twice as much as two decades ago (adjusting for inflation). It's about $6,500 more than in other rich countries, on average.

If you think health care reform will make health care too expensive, guess what? It already is.

The Right and Socialized Medicine

As you know, I lurk on the Right-Wing blogs (as much as I can bear to).  I used to comment, on the few blogs over there that allow comments (many of them do not, which I speculate has to do with their authoritarian natures: no one is allowed to speak in this house but Daddy), except, well, no matter how polite and reasonable I attempted to be (and I swear! I swear! I tried polite and reasonable!) I always ended up being banned, almost always for the high crime of using that evil tool, reason, against them.

Anyway, now I mainly just lurk.

Here is what I have discovered about socialized medicine. 

The Right-Wing seems to hate and fear socialized medicine for a couple of reasons.

(1) It will "be like the post office," by which they mean, well, I don't know.  What's wrong with the post office?  I love the post office. For less then fifty cents they bring letters from anywhere in the country right to my door.  For far less than ten bucks, they bring books, DVDs, toys, exotic foods -- well, you get the picture -- again, right to my door.  They don't require me to be home, either, as UPS and Fed Ex frequently do.  They'll leave the package in my parked car, if I leave it unlocked, or tucked out of sight behind my stoop wall.

When I go into the post office, my post office folk are friendly and efficient.  They remember not only me but the kid and that she likes science and manga.  If the line is getting long, as it always is around lunch and three o'clock (redneck rushhour, mr. delagar calls this) they do what they can to sort things and move them along, though of course they can only do so much -- at lunch, some of them are eating, too, and at all times, only so many of them are on shift.

And I am living in a small city, less than a hundred thousand people.  Some of the Right-Wing folk might be living in bigger places.  I suspect, though, that their main complain is that, where they live, the post office is staffed by "those" people.  You know -- N.O.C.D.*  

Which is what they're afraid of -- that if socialized medicine comes, why, Black and Brown people might easily get put into positions where they could be telling good White People to stand in line!  What to Do!  Denying WHITE PEOPLE the right to -- to -- 

Well, it doesn't matter.  World Turned Upside Down, that's the point here.

(You can tell this is what they're worried about by reading between the lines of their screeds.  They almost never openly say "black people" when they're speaking about their experience with the post office or their experiences with public hospitals.  But watch for code words -- "fingernails this long," or "that hair," or "popping that gum the way they do"-- dogwhistle terms they all understand.)

(2) Poor people will get medicine too.  This is bad.  Some of them come right out and say this.  We can't give the poor access to medicine because then they'll survive and who wants this?  Others pretend to care about the poor, but, as in Doctor Wife Mom's blog, you can see she really only wants medicine going to her tribe -- rich white people with health insurance.  (In other posts she's been snitty and angry about nasty slutty women -- she's careful not to say black women -- who have dozens of abortions, using abortions, she claims, as birth control.  She says she's seen plenty of these women in her years as a doctor.)

People without health insurance, or people without money?  Well, they're really not on Doctor Wife Mom's radar.  I'm guessing she doesn't even really consider them people.  They're not in her Tribe, are they?  How could they be people, then?  People in her Tribe need the Best Medical Care Evah, which means no rationing, no Socialized Medicine, no sparing of any attempt to squeeze even an extra second, damn the cost, full speed ahead....but those poor (brown) people over there across the county that can't afford to pay the $1500.00 it would cost for a day in the ER, and so can't get this nifty wonderful care that's been keeping her Daddy going?  Well, she just can't see them at all.  

(Which this is what's been happening to one of my students -- I'm not drawing that figure out of a hat.  She's a black woman with three kids, two hers and one a niece she's taken in.  She had chest pains back in May, went to the ER, because she has no health insurance.  She works a minimum wage job 30 hours a week and goes to school part time.  They work her up, run some tests.  She gets a bill a few days later for just over 1500 dollars, which did I mention she's got three kids in the house and is working for minimum wage?  So the next time she gets chest pains, guess what she does?  She lies down and waits for them to go away.**)

(3) It will cost a lot of money, which will raise taxes.  Waaah!  Those Lie-brals are so stupid for calling it "Free" health care!  Okay, first, who is saying that socialized medicine is "free"?  Second, yes, taxes, boogah-boogah.  You know what else we pay taxes for? Roads, the FDA, the military, National Parks, the Supreme Court, hundreds of other things we want and need.  Socialized medicine is something most of us want and need.  Also, does anyone think we are not paying for medical care now?  Some sources I've seen say we're paying one-fifth of our GNP for the lousy medical care we get now.  I know a huge chunk of my personal income goes straight to medical care -- first the insurance, that comes off the top, and then I write a dozen checks to the various doctors I owe money to, around town (the surgeon who did my shoulder, the three separate dentists we are always in hock to, the orthodontist, the anesthesiologist I am still paying off, for my surgery which was done in December, the check to the clinic for my daughter's test, from three years ago, I'm still paying those off...) -- and this isn't counting the money for our prescription drugs and the little incidental medical expenses that keep coming up: mr. delagar needs a new CPAP machine, or the kid loses a filling...so you know what?  Slightly higher taxes?  Do you think I actually care?

What they're really worried about, of course, is Brown people getting something for nothing.  Brown people don't pay taxes -- it's a Right-Wing article of faith.  So if we have socialized medicine, well, all those NOCD people will be getting a free ride!  Bad enough they get a free education and all that free welfare!  Now they'll get free X-Rays and free chemotherapy, oh, you can just see steam coming out of the wingnut ears.

*In England, this was Not Our Class, Dear.  In America, of course, it's Not Our Color, Dear.

**Our school has a clinic for students; I set her up with this.