It's Sunday - Where Is Your Health Care?

Sunday, 21 March 2010 08:29

Patients undergo health screening inside animal pens at the Remote Area Medical (RAM) clinic, Wise, Virginia, 07/20/07. (photo: Suzy Allman/Getty Images)

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t is Sunday morning. There is supposed to be a vote on health care reform today. I assume that Glenn Beck is ensconced in church and praying madly for failure.

I was not aware that it was Lent until Glenn Beck said that scheduling a vote during Lent and on the Sabbath was an "affront to God." Unlike Republicans in 2005 when they voted on Palm Sunday in the Terri Schiavo matter?

I am not big on churches.

But as it is Lent - maybe the Catholic Bishops could give up two things:

1) Molesting children and covering for those who do.

2) Telling women what to do with their bodies.

Just a thought. Like I said, I'm not big on churches.

I see the Malimpabeck trio figured they could take down an 11-year-old kid - but failed. Here's the story from Les Blumenthal at McClatchy. Marcelas Owens knows how to deal with bullies: "My mother always taught me they can have their own opinion but that doesn't mean they are right."

That kid should run for office.

I don't know what is going to happen today. Everyone tells me HCR will pass by a narrow margin. Maybe.

How the Hell did we get to the point of comforting ourselves with the mantra "It's better than nothing."

I'm going to grab a cup of coffee and watch and wait.

Maybe the Rapture will begin and free up some parking spaces.

Speaking of the Rapture: Sean Hannity is being accused of scamming real Americans. He's being accused by a conservative right-wing blogger, Debbie Schlussel.

Maybe there is a God.

Comments

+6 # Guest 2010-03-20 20:54

I wish people would not stop calling this Bill health care reform. It's not really. The health insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies will become even more entrenched if and when this Bill passed. Just like the TARP Bill which bailed out the financial institutions, this Bill does not regulate or limit the amount of premiums that the health insurance companies can charge you each month, nor does it prohibit place the insurance companies under the umbrella of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act as was promised us, which means that, like the oil companies, they can buy each other out and become even bigger and more powerful.

+4 # Guest 2010-03-21 07:42

all true, but if you are reading Cory, I'll assume you are a pragmatist and a progressive. This is just the first step in a long journey and an empathetic psychological shift that just might help jump start collective compassion.

cory on a Sunday...thanks

0 # Guest 2010-03-22 07:27

Thanks Leslie, That's the way I see it.

+6 # Guest 2010-03-20 21:20

I'm not big on organized religion either, but if it helps someone be a better person go for it. But if you think have all the answers, then it's a detriment to yourself and society.

Beck needs to be reminded that the Sabbath is on Saturday. Jesus followed that until the day he died, and would most likely do the same if he were here today. He probably would shake his head if he could see the institutions that have evolved in his name.

However, we do know that Jesus would support health care reform if he were here today. If you can look in the mirror and call yourself a christian and not realize that from his message then you're a hypocrite.

The christian right? How about the unchristian wrong! I think continuing to refer to America as a christian nation is an oxymoron!

+2 # Guest 2010-03-20 23:20

"It's better than nothing."

Small comfort, eh?...that next to nothing becomes something simply because it is a notch above a vacuum.

Did I just hear someone say Washington sucks? That perhaps it blows? Or is that noise just what "next to nothing" sounds like?

I wonder what the sound of "nothing" is like? A wimper maybe? Do the deaf in Washington hear anything, any way?

+18 # Guest 2010-03-21 05:03

As a fascinated external observer of the fads and foibles of your republic, I am constantly bemused by the angst and melodrama in what passes for politics and public discussion in the USA.

Yours is not, as Oscar Wilde said, the only country to go from barbarism to decadence without an intervening period of civilization. After all, you gave the world baseball and basketball (sort of), Mark Twain and Kurt Vonnegut, jazz and rock-and-roll. Good for you!

Still, as H. L. Menchen aptly stated: "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." So, you may very well get some minor, compromised and largely delayed health insurance reform. Those of us, however, who live in advanced liberal democracies with universal, single payer public systems will continue to look upon you with sympathy and wonder when you will catch up.

Health care is not a commodity, no matter how well subsidized and regulated. It is a fundamental human right.

-13 # Guest 2010-03-21 08:30

The question no one asks is "Who will pay for the 30 million uninsured?" Do the uninsured have to abide by responsibile behavior if I am to pay? Can I stop paying if they have two color TVs, or two cell phones? Can I stop if they insist on a two pack a day habit? Or two six packs? How many lotto tickets can they buy and still force me to pay their insurance? What if they insist on unsafe sexual practice? If they get a desease do I still have to pay?
How long must I help them? Till they "get on their feet?" For one year? Two years? Forever?
If insurance companies must accept pre-existing conditions why doesn't everyone quit paying the premiums and wait till they get sick? After all, if they cannot be refused, why not?
Finally, can we at least learn what is in the 2,700 pages before being forced to accept it. As information becomes more available to the public, the worse it shows up in the polls.
When a salesman wants you to "hurry" - be afraid. Be very afraid.

+2 # Guest 2010-03-21 09:45

Who is paying for them now??? Duh! I really don't like paying higher premiums for my own insurance to cover idiots that choose not to have insurance but have other unhealthy habits. It is like the uproar about individual rights and the helmet law. If they also choose not to have healthcare, then I have to pay for your long-term health when you land on your head, but that is the situation until things change.

+1 # Guest 2010-03-21 10:00

Quoting

If insurance companies must accept pre-existing conditions why doesn't everyone quit paying the premiums and wait till they get sick? After all, if they cannot be refused, why not?

The healthcare bill is looking more and more like just another bailout bill, this time for the Insurance Industry?

"To subsidize those who can’t pay, the Senate bill would make families earning two to four times the poverty level who don’t have employer-sponsored insurance surrender 8% to 12% of their income to insurance payments, or pay a fine. In another effort to make the insurance payments “affordable,” the Senate bill calls for the lowest cost plan to cover only sixty percent of health care costs. “In other words,” wrote Dr. Andrew Coates in a November 23 article, “a guarantee of insurance industry dominance and the continued privatization of health care in every arena.”
Source: http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/eat_cake2.php

+4 # Guest 2010-03-21 09:24

It's probably far more likely that the passing of this bill will end the health care debate for a very long time. Pelosi will just shrug off future attempts with a 'been there, done that.' It will be old news, so 'ten minutes ago.' Future attempts will have a hard time getting traction in the corporate press. It's been done, it's no longer news. Screwed? Let me count the ways.

+3 # Guest 2010-03-21 10:10

EXCELLENT point! And that's EXACTLY why this legislation is NOT "better than nothing." It's much, much worse than nothing!

+4 # Guest 2010-03-21 18:42

I agree you made a good point but there is more to it. The insurance industry will be there tomorrow next month and next year with their donations and their request from the politicians. It is not gong to get better with time for you and me.

acomfort

+4 # Guest 2010-03-21 09:43

I am a christian but I'm not big on churches either. But I am big on following God's law and to Mr. Beck I say the sabbath is NOT sundays but from sundown Friday to Saturday evening. Sunday worship was not started until the 4th century.

+1 # Guest 2010-03-21 10:29

RonaldV4, I would love to disagree with you but you are 100% correct! Jesus would still honor the Sabbath as you describe it. Jesus would indeed be appalled at what "Christians" have done in his name. Jesus Christ never came to start a church! He was basically "kidnapped" by the Catholic church (since they want all the credit for "being" the Christian church en toto) through the Apostle Paul. What Paul followed in Jesus' time is a far cry from what the Catholic church instituted. Jesus did not give up his jewish lineage just to satisfy the church's lust for power.
Dakotahgeo, M.Div. Pastor/Chaplain

+2 # Guest 2010-03-21 10:15

I don't know, why anyone expected anything different. Do not, the corporations rule the president and both houses?!? Did you think once Obama was elected, after the hefty contributions from the health insurance industry, and the pharmaceutical industry, that he would push for a Universal healthcare plan?!? Did you actually think this so-called democratic Congress and Senate would be working for OUR good??? Dick Durbin said, "the banks own us"--what more do you need to know?!! Anyone who thinks this is a stepping stone, to Single-Payer healthcare, needs to have a lobotomy. Wake up, people! WE need to take back OUR country!! The only thing our president and reps are interested in, is the next elections! WE can do something about that!!

+2 # Guest 2010-03-21 15:09

It is a gift of 30+ million new customers to the private health insurance industry. Why should anyone make a profit on the sick and dying, especially the unnecessary intermediaries of the health insurance industry?

Americans and politicians should remember that the bottom line of business is profit and the bottom line of government is people.

In return for the million in campaign contributions Obama received from Goldman Sacks. He gave them billions in unregulated bailouts and filled the Treasury Department with Goldman Sacks employees, who caused and profited from the financial meltdown.

How much did the Democrats get for this health insurance bailout?

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