Day: September 1, 2009

Health Debate Gets Creepy

Much and I do mean much has been reported, written and said on the subject of health care and its reform….much of it was pure BS or rather ouright lies….most of that coming from the Repubs but then there are just as many BS artists within the Dems also……..do I have anyone in mind?  Oh, you betcha butt I do!

How about one of the Dem leaders in the Senate….Harry Reid?

“I’ve told people, whoever will listen, that I am in favor of the public option,” Reid said, adding he thinks it’s essential in order to provide competition for private insurance companies that are exempt from anti-trust laws. “We’re working now to try to come up with a program that would allow that to take place.”

Reid went on to say that most people “misunderstand” a public option as “some government run program.”

“But there are many ways we can do it,” he said. “One would be to have an entity like Medicare. I really don’t favor that. I think what we should have is a private entity that has direction from the federal government.”

So Reid is thinking of the public option that is privately run……think about that for a moment…..what the hell would that look like?

To me that sounds like he is working on the idea of the health co-ops, if so then the real public option is DEAD before it was ever brought to life.  Sad to say, with the loss of Sen. Kennedy this could well be the future of health reform….and that would NOT be what the senator had envisioned for the direction of health care.

I have asked if I would support the idea of the creation of health co-ops….I can answer that in one simple word…NO!  Now you would like to know why?  That is a very easy one to answer…it will NOT help the uninsured……it will not help ease the costs over time….and I have a good reason for thinking that…Blue Cross/Blue Shield started off as a type of co-op and it has morphed into a run for profit giant.  That is a perfect example of what the next series of co-ops will become.


On The Road Again…..

Recall the “Straight Talk Express”?  That was the road show that McCain would take to the highways trying to sell himslf as the only candidate with “real” answers to “real” problems.  It did not work out as well as McCain and Palin had hoped…..they LOST the election.

But there is a new road show…it is the “Tea Party Express”:

Conservative political activists associated with the so-called “Tea Party” protests have started a cross-country bus convoy dubbed the Tea Party Express. They plan to stop in 33 cities.

Tea Party Express organizer Mark Williams, also a conservative talk show host, said there is a lot of dissatisfaction in the country right now focused on issues from health care reform to the national debt.

I would like to say that this is a novel idea and that it may work…but I cannot…why?  These people are already busing people into townhall meetings to crash them and in my opinion the “express” has been going on since the first days of the hokey “tea parties”.

These people are billing it as that they are trying to be the leaders of the new protests against the rising tide of liberalism in the country…..stop!……these people seem to think that this is somehow morphing into a new political movement…..but that is delusional…….it is the same ultra right wing BS that they have been trying to sell for the last 20 years or more.

A Visit To The Doctor

I recently had to journey to the office of my doctor for onbe of my month consultations and after the pain of the examination he and I were talking about health care…..he knew that I was a political theorist and analyst and we had an interesting talk……we covered a lot of the same stuff that one normally hears daily on the tube….but then he mentioned illegal aliens getting free heath care…he mentioned the possibility of end of life decisions made by government ……I finally had to stop him and ask just where he was getting his info…..he left the room and in awhile returned with a copy of an email that was making its way around the health care offices……I had to leave but told him I would read it and we could talk later.

I got to my house and after a day or so I got to reading the four page email that my doctor had given me.  After reading about half of the arguments the email presented I ythought some points sounded familiar, so I did some surfing and fond I was correct.

The mail present one point,:

Sec 1233 Pg 429 lines 10-12 states:  “advanced acre consultation” may include an ORDER for end of life plans–AN ORDER FROM GOVT.

I thought that particular one sounded familiar and I found that an email from Liberty Counsel, a subsidiary of Liberty University, A Falwell creation and in that mail I found….you guessed it…

Sec. 1233 Pg 429 Lines 10-12:  “advanced care consultation” may include an ORDER for end of life plans–AN ORDER FROM GOVT.

That is not exactly what the section or the lines say….remember they are saying lines 10-12:

line 10–professional ( as specified by the Secretary and who

line 11:–is acting in the scope of the professional’s au-

line 12–thority under state law in signing such a order, in-

There you go the exact wording of the lines quoted in several right wing emails….but do not take my word for it….go to http://www.house.gov and look up HR 3200 and scroll down to section 1233 on page 429 lines 10-12 and read them for yourself….as I have said DO NOT take my word for it…….or anyone’s word for it…check their sources and FIND the truth for yourself.

Yep, it was word for word on both of the papers I had….but the scary part, at least for me, is that a rational medical person would believe and pass on the lies that are being used by the Right in their fight against health reform.