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It’s offensive that the insurance industry exploits people who have had serious illnesses to argue against providing health care for people with serious illnesses. It’s offensive that they’re trying to make the argument that the only reason American want a public plan is because PHrma is putting up advertisements supporting a public plan. It’s offensive that wingnuts can get away with asserting that they are just concerned about patient’s rights, or that the American people accept their astroturf bs in overwhelming numbers.
When NYCeve and I were on the Hill yesterday, we spoke to a woman who had to get a legal separation from her husband so she could get cancer treatment for her 10 year-old son. The fact is that 76% of Americans support a public plan because the current system is a bureaucratic nightmare of monumental proportions and anyone who is talking about guarding insurance company profit at this point is a moral monster.
The Blue Dogs just rebelled against the House bill, which currently includes a public option, and 52 members are saying they won’t support it. Their coffers are overflowing with health insurance industry money, and unless people speak out and shame them, tell their health insurance industry horror stories, we’re going to lose this one.
Congress never had ordinary people come to the Hill and tell their insurance industry horror stories. But the insurance industry got plenty of time. We want to know your story. If you tell it to us, we’ll get it to your member of Congress. And we want you to come to Washington DC and join us as we let Congress know that the status quo is an outrage.
It’s time to get mad.
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Well done Jane ! GoldiLocks was spouting garbage and you called her on it … pride and shame are lacking in those who oppose public healthcare.
Jane, it’s been quite some time since I told you how fantastic you are.
Thank you, on behalf of all sane Americans.
Yippie-kayeh, I think, captures the correct tone for this debate. Many thanks for your leadership on this Jane.
A hundred million Americans might become better off because of your efforts at taking on an insurance/drugs/medical industry that controls 16.5% of the American economy.
Time to rock ‘n roll.
This is exactly what President Barack Hussein Obama wants to happen. The public makes a public plan happen…not some DeeCee politician.
Moment of truth…right now! Are you in?
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I picked the wrong time to contemplate removing MSNBC from my cable line-up.
GO JANE!
There is no shortage of stories.
The American Cancer Society has made HC reform its number one priority. They have been collecting stories on their web site for a long time. Zeke Emanuel is on its board.
Families USA, Consumers Union, SEIU, the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center and many others have lots of stories. And Michael Moore, too.
Perhaps what we need to do is to get them all together on one web site or something. We need them to send these stories to their Senators and congress people.
Can we do it?
Jane, good for you for making it personal. You will be seeing that the media LOVE these X vs. Y debates. Their might be some concern trolls talking about how shrill this is, but ignore them.
The PR firms and lobbying groups do not like people calling them on their BS.
I’d like everyone to check out Bill Moyer’s show this Friday (link)
where a former PR exec from the health care industry will be talking about what their techniques and what they have been doing for years.
This is like the movie, “The Insider” only in the health care industry.
Thanks so very much Jane. You give new meaning to the old saw “Lead by doing!”
OMFG. I went to the link about the Blue Dogs “rebellion”…..
here’s my face-planted-on-desk moment:
.
When is this bullcrap going to end? If they don’t wanna play, fine! When will Democrats figure out we don’t need or want the Repubs?
Sorry, Jane – not a direct answer. I’ve actuallly been pretty lucky with my health insurance and care in recent years….but that is mostly luck. I haven’t had any major illnesses for them to deny.
But, I could sure talk about the uselessness of COBRA coverage in most cases, and therefore why coverage needs to be de-coupled from employment.
Yes, not shortage of stories, but are they trained to go on TV and beat down the people from the right who are pushing the insurance companies?
Are they trained to go up against the 1.4 million a day spent by the lobbyists to influence congress.
When we take the fight to them, part of the job is to bust their arguments in front the the media. The media like to sit back and hear “both sides”. They don’t care how right your cause is, just who has the best story. And part of the strategy has to do with exposing their lies so they aren’t given the same creditability.
Note to Jillian Bandes:
1. It’s not smart to contradict figures generally accepted – number of uninsured.
2. It’s not smart to condescend – “Well, I’m sorry I’m not a cancer survivor.”
3. It’s not smart to bring a knife to a gunfight.
And a question:
1. How many times do you have to stop at a gas station air pump on your way home to get your head filled up?
Great job, Jane! You really put it to her. She is totally out of touch with what’s going on all over the country.
Jane SMACKS DOWN SHIRLEY TEMPLE,with facts and charm
BOOOOOOYAH!!! YOU GO GIRL
LOL … SD !
Jane, you were wonderful. I noticed Chuck just slump when the airhead made one of her inane statements.
How convenient that Obama is overseas while this is going on. He has a responsibility to lead or we’ll lose this thing. Imagine if he gave an inspiring speech like the one he gave on race on REAL health care reform. Why isn’t he doing so? He needs to rally the nation around very specific measures that must be included in the legislation, not sit back and act nonchalant while our dreams go down the drain.
TIGER jANE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu9xx5Ri278
YOU fight for us pups like a TIGRESS
a million thanks
If anyone ever actually educated the American people, with words and pictures graphically depicting the actual thickness of the layer of FOR PROFIT Oligarchs standing in between the American people, and their doctors (with their hands out – yes you, Warren), the people would not let their Congress get away with the heist they are about to pull off (again).
No American needs health insurance.
Not a single American.
Americans need health CARE (not insurance).
The insurance layer in the system IS THE PROBLEM.
Without it, health CARE costs plummet.
Next, Force the FCC to reinstate the prior ban against prescription drug advertising on US airwaves.
Next, demand that all lobbying in Washington STOP.
Abolish the entire practice and make it illegal.
After that, eliminate ALL funding of political campaigns. Make it illegal.
Designate three cable channels as free public access political education channels, and let the debates rage 24/7 – for free.
And finally, bring the damn troops home, abolish the FED, close down the SEC and start over, reclaim the ill-gotten insider-trading gains reaped by Goldman Sachs, fire every elected official and let them run for their jobs against people with actual integrity and no skeletons in their closet, and finally, arrest GHW Bush and David Rockefeller, the men who delivered this all to you under the banner of the Global War On Terror.
Now, go ahead and calculate how many billions of dollars I just cost the media empire, the prescription drug empire, the insurance empire, the defense empire, etc.
See why we are so screwed? All of the money funnels into the media/political system. That’s your money. You pay for the entire system to operate this way. And you actually pay every month to be brainwashed:
GET PISSED!
Jane, can you provide a link to the insurance nightmare you posted when you were diagnosed with a recurrence, and IIRC, you were actually hassled about coverage for an “unnecessary procedure?”
I’m trying to get some pals and family to write/call their Congresscritters and want to include that memorable (but not easily Googlable!) post you wrote that infuriated me on your behalf.
kept looking at her notes,like CHIMPIE used to
i agree no more pablum….WITH GUSTO
I hope you’re joking, because that’s comical.
We will win in the long run, with or without Mr Obama.
OMG, it’s been so long since I’ve heard that.
*waves* Hi, sadly
PBO…must come out swinging on this like DR.DEAN does.Im NOT JOKING ONE BIT
Hey, Petro! Wazzup?
it reminds me of Janes passion and commitment
waves back
Cowards, cowards, cowards.
They can’t abide by their oath of office for fear of offending their corporate overlords. I go into this at my little site but don’t come near the power of Jane’s magnificent smackdown.
Thank you Jane from one who is facing $8300 in medical bills AFTER insurance just to keep walking.
Outlaw private insurance!
Classic corporate whore. Her daddy probably was a tobacco exec.
Sure.
The system sucks.
So, is the prescription to vote for the system?
The same Zeke Emanuel who’s the subject of this article the NY Review of Books?
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22798
Really informative writeup btw
I am trying to recall which group studied the uninsured and showed its composition: Was it Kaiser? I’ll work on that. The point your opponent cannot prove because it is false is that the uninsured are that way by choice and also the lies about immigrants. Her lie about there not being public support for this issue sounded really bizarre.
The timing of the Blue Dog’s predictable passive- aggressive “spoiler reaction” to all of the progress so far means that the Progressive block’s unity is threatening to them. If we can make heroes of the progressives when they step forward and take a stand, we can turn the Blue dogs into the nano mini-me Republicans they devolve into whenever progress threatens to occur.
Jane, even if my political views opposed yours, thanks for keeping your head and calling bullshit.
Whoever at Townhall.com let such an unprepared, trivial person go on MSNBC as a spokesperson is irresponsible and should be fired by midnight. That was so far beyond embarrassing that it was difficult to watch her. Particularly her snotty, appalling comment about being ’sorry I’m not a cancer survivor’. Her words may one day come home to haunt her.
She was a public embarrassment.
– If she had ever had to spend years paying off co-pays for surgeries, she could not have been that insulting, trivial, or snotty. Anyone who, like me, has actually paid down those huge bills knows she’s insulting, arrogant, and ignorant. She’s an embarrassment for the organization and interests that she is supposed to represent.
– If she had ever had to agonize over the absolutely wrenching decision about whether or not to remove life support from a dearly beloved family member, she could not possibly have been so insulting.
Some years ago, a family member incurred nearly $1,000,000 in health care costs during an extended illness and end-of-life care. I was the hospital contact; guess who had to fight off bogus, fraudulent charges from ‘Doctors’ in several states.
But that’s not even the best part of the story: the family member had premier medical insurance, plus Medicare. This was an individual who was a retired US business exec, whose work helped contribute millions of dollars into the US economy between the late-1950s and the mid-1990s. He was retired from a Fortune 500 company, and carried supplemental insurance.
Apart from the loss, which was wrenching, what this experience truly brought home to me was the number of opportunities for serious fraud in a nation that has so many insurers, and so many plans, that it is: (1) hard for legitimate medical billing personnel to figure it out, especially if it crosses state lines, and (2) a multitude of opportunities for confusion — and therefore ‘open season’ for medical fraud.
I’m grateful that my family member received care.
The following 3 years, much of it as I was reading FDL, was an ongoing horror of basically trying to fight off medical fraud. I was not the Executor of the will — a cousin had that role, and it took up much of the next two years of his evenings and weekends.
This witless, snotty, insulting young woman who was on MSNBC on this segment with you has a great deal to learn about life, and her cluelessness is chilling.
Whoever let her go on this segment as a spokesman for anything other than donuts ought to be fired this evening.
Apart from the legitimate issues regarding access to health care, the fragmentation of the system is almost designed for fraud. If you don’t do health care billing for a living, there are tons of loopholes and it’s easy to think that something is a legitimate bill — when it isn’t. I concluded that medical billing is almost cunningly designed for fraud.
And when you cross state lines, there is no one but the FBI to check on things; they have neither time nor personnel. Your other alternative is to hire a very expensive private investigator.
In the end, I paid an attorney to deal with the phone calls and ongoing threats of lawsuits for bogus bills. Without a lot more FBI resources, we’re all sitting ducks.
If there were a more sane billing system, and consistent medical plans and billing procedures, many of the opportunities for fraud would vanish.
Thanks for keeping your head.
Whoever at Townhall.com had the poor judgment to allow that twit on a national cable show should be fired, and ‘Jillian’? should receive prompt, thorough performance review and more practice — with better facts — before she is allowed to speak to the people in the coffee line at her local Starbuck’s.
I can say that if she’s the best ‘lobbyist’ Pharma can get on MSNBC, they don’t deserve warm coffee, let alone legislation that favors their corporate interests.
Still shaking my head…
Thanks for keeping yours on straight.
sorry bout that…i broke my wriist,and had to go to court,to get paid,forget that i couldnt feed myself clothe,myself,write my name for 6months
I posted an anger-inspiring health care corruption/incompetence diary recently.
“Recission” is the standard operating procedure admitted to by the top insurance execs that as soon as a claim is submitted a ferocious investigation is begun to find an escape loophole to avoid payment and support of a client, after having cashed years’ worth of monthly premium checks. They usually find the reason why a client has violated somehow on some form or some inadvertent medical action the terms of his or her agreement, resulting in their dumping the client and now preventing the client getting further coverage.
Most people who go bankrupt from health care costs were underinsured. 45 million with no insurance. 25 million seriously underinsured.
In 5 years the top 4 health corporations have gained $44 BILLION in profits. HealthCare alone $17 billion.
$90 million was contributed to Dems in Congress by healthcare industries in last election. $65 million to Repubs. Congress is now repaying their debt to them. We pay their salaries with our tax dollars but their fiscal alleigance is now to them.
60 people die every day from lack of healthcare in this country.
Here is my diary again:
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/6166
GO JANE!!
As a self-employed single person, I think I paid in the neighborhood of $27,000 for health insurance during the last 6 years. This was for full coverage with $2500 annual deductible.
I used the insurance maybe 2 or 3 times (not even the 6 times I should have) for annual exams, mammograms (all normal).
When I tried to switch to a more affordable plan, they DENIED coverage and dumped me.
I am a well person. I cannot imagine what it would be like to try to get coverage for chronic illness. This is just outrageous. If they did this to me, you can count on the BS that happens to people who are actually sick.
Thank you, John. And thanks to everyone who is ready to get pissed. Or is already pissed. It is the appropriate response.
Shuster did really well with Judd Gregg too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr71rf__NV8
Thank you for this!
I’m so angry and emotional after watching that segment, and then trying to write a comment that wasn’t 80% raging obscenities, that I really, really needed laugh.
Thank you!
yea,i saw that
that guy needs to be primaried he is NO Dem
somebody with a video camera,who lives in DeeCee,needs to do this
somebody NEEDS TO SETUP a mike at the capital steps and vidEo congresscritters with one question
ARE YOU WILLING TO GIVE UP YOUR GOV PAID HEALTHCARE?
make a commercial and run it
EVERYWHERE
Good job, Jane. Goldilocks was reprehensible and talking out of her butt. The compassionate side of conservatism.
Great idea! Don’t count on the corporate media to do it, however. Bruno or Borat would probably be willing.
sadly – you probably already remembered by now – he is a Republican.
OH man! I’m so pissed at the gall of people trying to stand in the way of health care for all AMERICANS. I’m tired of their ‘talking points’, their lies, their ignorance on the subject.
Damn right it’s time to get mad!
Good goin’ Jane! YOU have the platform and our backs!!! Keep up the good work!!
You’re welcome. That’s quite the story you’ve shared with us. Thank you for that. I have a friend who is going to be blind sooner or later and I’m not looking forward to dealing with the bureaucrats when that happens.
i would do it
im sorry, i thought not
We must make sure that those who vote against the health care plan pay a price for it. They need to have opposition even if it’s just someone who makes them campaign and spend money. Someone who will be willing to tell the truth about what’s been happening and who has nothing to lose by doing so.
Honestly, I’d suggest that you start asking around for the names of good attorneys in your city, just to make contact and have someone ‘in your back pocket’.
I’m not litigious.
I don’t care to bring lawsuits.
But after putting out fire, after fire, after fire…. it’s exhausting and I was getting a genuine loathing of anyone who even worked near medical care.
You may not need an attorney, but just knowing that you have one lined up may help relieve stress. The key is finding a someone with a good, solid knowledge of the health care industry.
watertiger’s up with
Hush Hush Sweet Coburn
He hasn’t had insurance in a couple years. Couldn’t afford it. So all my crap will be with county, state and federal agencies. If his eye (already blind in left eye) holds out until he’s eligible for Medicare it won’t be so bad. Now if we can just get his sight to stick around for another 5 years.
Jane, in addition to “great job on TV”, y’all have done a fantastic job on the new branding for your site. Much more bold and substantial in look & feel. Whoever your designer is, he or she has been doing a great job creating individual looks for each subsite, and now topped off by the parent-site branding.
Grassroots 3.0 seems to be shaking up quite a bit — a great sign. Markos has fallen way behind the curve, and though he’s got Dkos version 4 coming in 4th quarter, which will have individual blogging sites for members, it’s coming too little, too late. Though dKos still rules in traffic, they’re going to be overtaken by having crap soap-opera-esque diaries for too long sucking up all the energy of the site, and diminishing the quality and prominence of the good writers they have – particularly mcjoan and meteor blades.
Huffington Post — where I know you still have a strong relationship — to me has succumbed to the monetary drivers of tabloid rags, and in such a shirt time has undermined the credibility they built up so rapidly when they began.
Thankfully Josh Marshall has been guiding TPM smartly, as John Amato has guided C&L. So, I’m glad to see that the FDL site and branding will raise the profile of the great analysts here, for me, in particular, you and marcy wheeler.
my 2cents :)
Thanks for doing such a great job, Jane. Your opponent in the debate knew nothing about you nor the issues. I’m one of the 42 to 50 million right now. Had to choose to insure my wife but not me, until our finances are in better shape. Then, I’ll have to deal with any pre-existing conditions (it would be better for me if I hadn’t had that back surgery 6 years ago – I get charged extra for having had a problem fixed!).
And to answer her question – yes, enough food to survive on should be a right in this richest of countries. In the coming years, we may see [more] starving children in the U.S., due to unemployment, immigration, and states going bankrupt. We shouldn’t have to depend on churches to run our soup lines. How can people be so heartless?!?
I have yet to hear a “story” except it isn’t a story….. it’s real life
I am employed and have fair insurance ($3000) out of pocket
-Frank bleeding from bladder – 5 hour ER visit and sent home with a catheter and a referral to a urologist. NO scans done
-Consult with urologist, CT of pelvis – told over the phone (yes) of a 7.5 cm tumor in my kidney. Referred to an oncologist, CT of chest and obtained cardiac clearance from my PCP.
-Scheduled 6 weeks out for my Radical Nephrectomy, could not get an earlier date but my body took that issue in hand by starting to bleed. Directed to another hospital ER. It took 9 1/4 hours from walking in the door to I finally was put into a bed.
-Went to emergency surgery 2 days later. Uneventful course
Fast forward a year, follow up CT scans of chest & pelvis shows advanced cancer. Stage 4 – Renal Cell CA which is terminal but treatable.
-2 eight day hospital admissions to Telemetry & ICU for high dose interlukin-2
-New scans found that HDIL-2 did not work and started on a oral targeted chemo drug
-Started an extensive evaluation at the Mayo clinic – found multiple brain tumors, a tumor that obstructed my bronchus. Whole brain radiation and broncoscopy performed for tumors.
So what is the horror story?
I have applied for social security disability insurance and waiting for approval. When it is approved it will back date to my first month as disabled probably April. I am off work using short and now long term disability with benefits until mid November.
What most people don’t know is that once a person qualifies for SSDI that person has to wait 24 months to qualify for Medicare. I need to pay at least 11 months of COBRA and try to live on the $1700 SSDI income. Pay the mortgage, COBRA, all the other bills. I could be facing selling my home or loosing it or draining my savings to make ends meet.
So the horror story is the future….
not pay for COBRA and die for lack of treatment
try to sell my house or loose it to foreclosure
Apparently the ads are working. It’s time to work over Heath Shuler, Baron Hill, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, and Charlie Melancon. Hey, you could just repurpose the Landrieu ad for Melancon.
Oh yeah, Jane — this is a P.S.
Hopefully you read all the comments attached to your pieces, though I’m not sure you do.
All the compliments above stand, but I wanted to point out something that is very mushy/ hazy in the information design.
As you have expanded the offerings and content types at FDL, I think a little too much gets taken for granted that people who come here are already familiar with the “departments” and formats. That’s not so. Especially as you draw new visitors who become community members.
** It is simply UNCLEAR that there is a section of the site where individuals can post a Diary or blog entry. I only discovered that a few days ago, ironically just on the last 2-3 days of Oxdown Gazette. I’d seen that banner numerous times over the months, but because that section was not part of my reading habits, I had NO IDEA at all that that was the “community section” of the site, where the peeps can post their views.
Now that you’ve just made a substantial change, reworking that section into your addition of The Seminal blog group, it is completely unclear to anyone new coming to this site that, if you’re looking for where readers can post blog entries at FDL, it’s in THAT section.
That can easily be fixed by making sure information design trumps graphic design. You should consider adding, above The Seminal “tab”, something like “Community Blogs” in smaller type.. so that anyone reading the masthead on any of the site sections understands, in a bulletproof way, that FDL even HAS this feature, and where it lives.
I hope you’ll take this advice – especially at this time — at the start of this new launch, so that immediately this new message can be communicated to newcomers.
rhfactor+
I’m greatly saddened by the utter and complete asinine and adolescent behavior of the young woman you were debating with, Mz. Hamsher.
It’s completely unthinkable that people of her generation think they can utter such nasty, harmful and incorrect diatribes against someone else as part of defending their position. And on MSNBC, at that.
I’m sure conservatives who watched that think she really took it to you, but all I saw was an angry, stupid young woman being mean enough to attract some hostile attention to herself in her life to come. What she did was completely inhumane, besides being stupid and lacking facts and truth about the subject.
Great work on your part, sorry you had to unload on her, but she had it coming.
And as mentioned above, GREAT makeover at FDL, and welcome Seminal, ONE AND ALL!
(Glad YOU young people are different from that one Mz. Hamsher had to maul up) *G*
You shouldn’t have to think about finances at a time like this and I’m very angry that you have to.
Thank you Jane! For speaking for many of us who can not get affordable health care.
And thank you to David Shuster of MSNBC who is doing a fantastic job of asking the tough questions about this important issue. See Shuster stun Senator-Bought-By-Lobbyists Carper ($$-DE) yesterday http://www.americablog.com/200…..nator.html
Serious kudos to you Jane for being so polite to that republican mouthpiece.
I am Mad – and I am calling and emailing. And I can never thank you enough for all of your efforts.
regarding the Townhall woman’s fear mongering on rationing…
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…..h-care#c47
Cheers,
but remember, nowhere are we saying or implying that anyone should do anything but support Democrats in even numbered years, no matter what happens on health care. there’s mad, and then there’s crazy.
lawdy me, it just gives us the vapors, the very thought.
one day, we will push that Donkey 90ft up the ladder backwards and get it to pass a real single-payer plan, so everyone keep pushing!
Jane, you did great on Schuster’s program: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh8YvifcA6c
Brava Jane on your Valkyrie appearance on Schuster. Woke from a brief siesta to your voice callin’ shame on the ‘bot and I cheered. In a place I can’t leave right now, but know that you have the Sunshine family support 100%…and we are using our own avenues to make that point. Give ‘em hell, Jane.
Wonder what will happen to her when she gets sick. The healthy can’t seem to imagine what it is to get some dread disease/disorder. But everyone gets something sooner or later.
Wonder how much she got paid to betray herself?
That comment about illegal immigrants was really over the top also…prolly one of their main talking points.
She was totally infuriating, rude and your basic a**hole.
Loved the fire in your eyes, Jane.
I think if we keep fighting we’ll get something; but I have a real concern it will be crappy and no competition for the insurance gangsters.
The whole thing just blows me away that a public option is what they are negotiating from. They should have started OUT with single payer and negotiated from there. It was rigged against us from the start if they can say stuuf like this is a success:
People on these programs already feel like they’re walking into the Dr’s office shaking a tin cup with pencils in it, after Bush cut the feet our from under them…how much worse will it be now?
I recently went to the ER with a very sore foot. I could hardly walk. They looked at it quickly and took a blood sample. The doctor preliminarily said it was probably tendonitis or gout. When the test came back they said it was borderline gout, but they still weren’t sure. In either case they prescribed a pill which would handle either the tendonitis or gout. I took about 3 or 4 of the pills and it all went away.
Why they did the tests isn’t so clear since the prescription was the same in either and the doctor seemed to know the problem from the start.
Still, the bills
doctor $300+
ER $270+
pills $ 20+
————
Total $590
What I want to know is how these people sleep at night. Have they no conscience?
The doctor knew up front what it was and the pills I took were probably no more than $5.00.
So, what’s the other $585 for?
Using the ER for non-life-threatening care is much more expensive than using a walk-in center.
Jane, I couldn’t buy insurance on my own because of a pre-existing condition that (a) I was born with (congenital, not genetic) and (b) wasn’t discovered until I was in my 20s. It hasn’t required unusual treatment (or any treatment) … so far. But by the rules of the f*cking insurance companies, I’m not coverable.
My brother couldn’t get coverage on his own, because he’s been treated, successfully AFAIK, for melanoma.
What’s insurance supposed to be for, if it isn’t there when you need it?
Why should we have to pay for something (and it’s expensive), the use of which is denied us at the very times it’s supposed to be there for?
How many members of Congress have a clue about this?
I watched you on MSNBC…great job. Do any of these people against the PUBLIC OPTION understand that people like myself and my husband who have insurance are being battered by the insurance carriers??? Even though our premiums have increased, copays increased, deductibles increased and coverage decreased….not to mention they deny perfectly legitmate claims on a regular basis…this is ridiculous…it has to stop. THE ONLY REAL REFORM HAS TO HAVE A PUBLIC OPTION, or else the insurance companies greed for profits will continue…Pres Obama needs to get some backbone on this, or I cannot support him in 2012..its time for the change we can believe in. With the WH, SENATE AND HOUSE…WHAT IS HE WAITING FOR? THE REP. LOST AND YET THEY ARE STILL TELLING AMERICANS AND THE DEMS WHAT TO DO…UNBELIEVABLE.
KEEP UP THE FIGHT JANE HAMSHER…WE NEED YOU TO BE OUR VOICE.
Mackie
Believe me, the Dems would like to cave in on this one so badly. They did it very quickly in 1994, and lost Congress for 12 years. They’re very nostalgic for a return to minority it seems. But the pressure is having some effect. But they’re still going to cave if they can find the opportunity. Reid’s “60 votes doesn’t mean anything
when there’s one dissatisfied Republican whose vote is more important that the health of the country” comment is a good example. Despite his recent admonishing of Baucus, still don’t trust the son of a bitch.I think Rahm acted on his own recently by trying to downplay the public option. This is what Rahm probably said….”public health care? Fuck that. We’ll put some lame ass trigger option, and call it a bipartisan compromise, and the American people will have to eat that, and if they don’t like it, fuck ‘em. We all got health care, right? Hahaha!”.
That Townhall woman was not asked if she had health care. The answer would have been that she has great health care. We don’t need people on TV who have great health care giving the impression that they speak for about 300 million Americans who have shitty health care at astronomical prices.
No one should ever be without health care. I am without health care every time I change a job, get laid off, etc…
If you get laid off, COBRA is $1000 to continue your health care, gee thanks! Reagan’s taxing of unemployment would be $500 of your unemployment check.
You get 4 $500 unemployment checks: 2 go to COBRA, 1 goes to Reagan’s tax of unemployment (why isn’t that tax being repealed btw??? is that insane???)
SO…you get to live off $500/month…IF you want to have health care via COBRA. That’s $500 for: food, mortgage, electricity, water, all your credit card bills, your loans, everything – $500/month. That is why people are losing their homes.
I know, I went through it. Around 5 years ago, my wife (teacher) got cancer and I (computer pgmr) got laid off. My wife got NOTHING, no disability, no unemployment, no mortgage aid (PHFA), nothing. We lost our home. That’s 2 people with 2 good jobs, we lost our home. That’s 5 years ago. We were at the beginning, now it’s happening to everyone. No one paid attention when this was happening to the first of us.
That Townhall woman, I’d love to speak with her in person. She’s the type of person who has the mental capacity to only care about herself, not about others. A stoppage of advancement in Piaget’s theory of mental and emotional maturity development. The real serious problem is, it will take it happening to her or someone in her family or someone she knows, for her to change her mind. She’s the “I got mine, so FUCK YOU!” rightwing club.
Oh, yeah, and btw…I’m not making it up, like those FAKE fuckers on commercials (Harry & Louise) or this Townhall bitch on TV.
Maybe this Townhall woman can help us get our house back. Of course, that didn’t happen (in her mind).
According to that Townhall woman, everyone has health care!
Why do Republican seem to love women who speak with a Valley Girl accent. Here we have Jillian Bandes, in the past we have been subjected to Meghan McCain.
Ever since Moon Unit Zappa popularized the Valley Girl accent in 1982 this has been a bonding device that young impressionable girls can pick up when they start college. These days it is common in Sororities and is often called a ‘Sorority Accent’. Most women know to lose this accent when they leave college but I guess among Republicans retaining a college Sorority accent makes a speaker childish, cute, and desirable.
(before Valley Girl became popular, “boarding school British” was a semi-common young woman accent – females would leave home for a (typically all female) boarding school or college and would ape the accent of admired instructors who spoke with a real or fake British accent.)
I hope he’s the “big brother” in the family who would kick his “other” brother’s ass.
The single most retarded argument I’ve heard in the healthcare debate is the one that goes “Do you want some politician making your health care choices for you?” To which my answer is “fuck yes I do! Better him than some insurance claims adjuster trying to maximize profits.”
Never mind the fact that the politicians wouldn’t be making choices, they’d be sending money straight to the hospitals and letting them make the choices.
Great job in the segment. I thought you showed admirable restraint and great poise. I don’t know how anyone can do so well against the wingnuts and their nonfacts and nonarguments. “What about the 50 million uninsured?” “That’s a made-up number, because of [more made-up numbers], it’s really only 20 million.” You call that an argument? One is too many.
I can’t tell you how many time, when we “happen to have” health coverage, that we had to FIGHT with the company to pay something OR even get approved! Why should some non-medial bozo in a suit somewhere be telling me if I’m approved or not to get medical treatment!
HELL YES! LET THE GOVERNMENT TAKE IT OVER! HELL YES!
Right now? You know who’s “getting between me and my doctor” (to use the rightwing propaganda phrase)? The health insurance company I’m paying $1000/month to!
I have no other choice than to believe that people like this Townhall woman are lying propagandists. And probably being paid to be a lying propagandist. And they get on TV because they have the money to get on TV.
I believe this woman is a knowing liar, fully aware that she’s lying. FULLY!!! I don’t believe she’s unaware of the real state of health care in America, I go a step beyond, and say she’s KNOWINGLY LYING AND BEING PAID FOR LYING!