My thanks go out to the FDL community for all the hard work you have done for real Americans. I have found another story of a lady named Beth. Please watch and try to bring this lady’s story to Congress. This is truly a crime. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gYTZakdG4k

Oh my God, I just can’t bear to watch this stuff, but I will and thanks for sending it to us.

We need to always put a human face on this catastrophe and all the suffering.

Thank you.

There is a human cost to this that corporatedems ignore. Their hearts and souls are cold, mostly because they sold them years ago for power and money.

Damn them. If there’s a God, I’m sure she will.

I miss Jim Cappozola. He was a great blogger, and died in Philly. Lack of health care.

it should happen to kent and max. no, wait: it should happen to someone kent or max loves very much, so they can watch.

But…but…but…this is a prime example of the beauty of the free market!

I’m going to go cry now. Or throw up. Or both. Then I’m gonna email/call/snail mail my useless Congress critters (2 out of 3 hardcore Republicans who would simply laugh this poor story off, as they calculate their latest lobbying checks in their bank accounts).

Maybe we should just write our congress people and tell them that they are committing murder. Might put a different face on the entire problem. But since they won’t be punished, unless we manage to get the out of office, I guess they won’t care. It must be terribly satisfying to them that they have to power of life and death in their hands.

Joe Klein calls the death-panel wingnuts nihilists.

Only the uninsured pay the full rate. Medicare and health insurers negotiated much lower rates. Always wondered whether such a sliding scale was legal.

We should not be surprised capitalism supports greed and contempt for those less fortunate. You cannot put a smiley face on capitalism. No matter how much you regulate and that’s getting less and less possible, it will always be a pig with lipstick.

Oh no doubt about. They have blood dripping from their hands. If Obama turns his back on the American people he too will have blood stained hands. We’ve always known the Republicans bathe in blood.

Has anyone sent this to Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz or Keith Olberman?

These kinds of stories have zero impact on the 25 percenters in the United States, because they have no conscience, as John Dean proved.

If, somehow, deaths like this woman’s can somehow adversely affect the stock prices of insurance corporations, only then will the 25 percenters react with horror and demand reform.

Lost 2 friends in the last year to our ‘Death For Profit System’.
What was that about the US being a Christian nation?
The ‘conservative movement’ is the anti-Christ!

ok, let’s look at the operative pieces here:

1. this wife and her husband thrown to “private” insurance (no employer insurance + pre-existing condition)
2. desperately ill wife thrown to “private” medical care (and excluded because of cost)
3. desperately ill wife thrown to “private” urgent care, which is rationed by the waiting time
4. desperately ill wife lands in “private” hospital ICU.
5. wife and mother is lost to a contagious, multi-vector public health threat.

now, let’s look at the decision making at the policy level:
how did this “death squad” make its decision about letting this beloved mother die?

1. crippled, useless US Public Health Service (killed by Reagan/Bush)
2. no insurance for husband and wife/family even for basic preventive care at family physician
3. “private” urgent care clinic under no obligation to treat a public health contagion threat?
(i.e., how many folks were exposed during the 6-hour wait?)
4. dying wife needs the highest level critical care for 1 week, to no avail.

So, who profits the most?
1. possibly the hospital gets a modest take (maybe from Medicaid if the family can qualify post-facto).
2. not the family, even with their grievous loss
3. you guessed it: the big winner is the insurance companies, who never paid for the husband’s ca treatment, will never have to cover the wife’s end-of-life acute illness, will never have to contribute to public well being of a functional public health service.

Death Squads? Private, Republican Party-affiliated for-profit corporation working with private subsidiaries for lower costs and monopolized profits. Sounds like nazi medicine to me.

Sorry, just a minor correction: Your friend was a Transcriptionist (not a transcriber).

I’m a Medical Transcriptionist also and, like your friend, have no health insurance. And I have a pre-existing condition (type 2 diabetes) and cannot get health insurance, even if I could afford it. My husband works, but his employer does not provide any benefits.

Needless to say, this story hit quite close to home.

Michele

I like the name “Death for Profit System” – seems to be right on point.

The medical costs are not to be believed. Last year I had a non-insured stay in the hospital. I was there for three days(two nights). The treatment I received was no more than simple IVs and yet when the bill arrived it was about $23000. Needless to say the amount was more than I would make in an average year. Yes, I am just a worker drone..

Fundies would claim she didn’t have enough faith..my claim is we don’t have the guts to do something effective to get the health care we need. If we don’t fight the insurance monopolies and drugscos we will deserve the crap we get.

There was an interesting article in the Spokane Spokesman-Review today. My congresscritter, Cathy McMorris Rodgers had a closed town hall meeting in Spokane to discuss health care. About 300 people protested outside, which meant that there was newspaper coverage. The newspaper did a better job than normal on reporting and discussing some of the issues. Even in her open town hall meeting in my county seat (70 percent Republican), people came out to discuss health care both in favor of the public option and opposed. That is truly amazing as Colville may not be the wingnut capital of the world, but it sure seems like.

The Republics promote fake christianity purly to get votes.

I have insurance, and still have some unbelievable costs with health care, with co-pays, deductibles, etc. I can’t even imagine what it’s like for those without any coverage.

I recently upped my bi-weekly contribution to my HSA, just to help cover all those expenses, but it’s ridiculous. Our current system is ridiculous – and I’m one of the lucky ones.

Trust me, we will not let them forget.

In 1983 my sister and her husband were in a house fire. They had burns to 75%+ of their bodies. This happened at the end of February. It happened in the Yukon. After a week they were flown to Vancouver. The family had a choice of centres like Edmonton too but had family in BC.

After a month they both ended up in ICU with septic shock. Long story short, my sister died on June 11 after never leaving the ICU. My BiL survived with hearing loss caused by the antibiotics he had to take, scarring and HIV from blood transfusions.

So for my family it was a shitty outcome. It was terrible on the family but the costs were incidental really, in that my mother was not working at the time so she could spend the time in BC as did my BiL’s brother. My father and his parents flew out numerous times.

My aunt from NJ raised money through her church for us/the kids. I say us because it paid for me to fly out to see my sister before she died. Everyone there who donated said, according to my aunt, that had they been in the US our shitty outcome would have also bankrupted both families.

As it is, my BiL lives mostly on disability. Their kids are grown. He’s built a beautiful house on Lake Erie. He’s had ongoing care and ever improving hearing aids.

That’s Canadian healthcare for you. And my sis and hubby really were DFHs.

C’mon people. It’s all about making the right choices. She goes to Disnyland, which isn’t cheap by any means, instead of paying for the Cobra she was entitled to receive. If she has carpal tunnel, does that preclude her from getting another type of job instead of living on the disability payments? Also, why didn’t she go straight to the emergency room? The illegals go all the time.

In the immortal words of Republican apparatchik distinguished economist Martin Feldstein,

Like virtually every economist I know, I believe the right approach to limiting health spending is by reforming the tax rules. But if that is not going to happen, let’s not destroy the high quality of the best of American health care by government rationing and misplaced egalitarianism.

From NYT editorial (with a last name like Kristof, I was shocked to agree with this columnist.)

Astonishingly, many politicians seem to think that we should lead the world in prisons, not in health care or education. The United States is anomalous among industrialized countries in the high proportion of people we incarcerate; likewise, we stand out in the high proportion of people who have no medical care — and partly as a result, our health care outcomes such as life expectancy and infant mortality are unusually poor.

One minor edit I’d suggest, Eve. Your headline should be directed to Mr. Obama as well as Baucus and Conrad.

The death panels exist now…in for-profit insurance companies and in NINO’s [nonprofit in name only]…and in the halls of Congress and the West Wing where coddling the corps takes priority over We, The People….

yeah, I know, how naive of me not to “Get it….”

(Just did a short diary on Klein’s article…he’s a must read today)

Jane has a new post up and ready for our perusal: “If Progressive Members of the House Think We’ll Accept Co-Ops As Public Plan, Think Again”

Why have we not heard more of these insurance horror stories? This needs to be a regular item on most liberal web sites. These horror stories put a face on the plight of most Americans with insurance and show the public just how we’ve been treated by insurance companies that do anything for profit. I feel that just about everyone with insurance has a horror story to tell.

The Obama adminstration had a section on their website to submit Americans healthcare horror stories. What did they do with what they collected? I feel that the insurance horror stories would be a powerful tool in combatting the obstruction tactics of the right. I’m sure that even the paid insurance shills at the townhall meetings can relate to the way they or a family member has been treated by big insurance/big pharma.

Anyway I think these insurance horror stories will hit home with everyone.

I miss Jim too.
Thank you Eve, for everything you do.

[Moderator’s note: Name calling and personal insults to other commenters, no matter how much you think they are warranted, are explicitly prohibited on this site. All such comments will be and have been deleted in moderation.]

Nice!

Please note another blogger in health trouble and seriously needing, ARTHUR SILBER at http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/ a voice that should not be silenced whether you agree with the philosophy/point of view or not. (/bloghooring)

Here is how the healthcare is seen at The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/soci…..re-america
It is a long read but instructive in its comparison between the British NHS and the shambles called American health care. There is no yelling and nazificatory(sp.) derogation by ignorant illiterate eejits involved.

Doubt horror stories will do it. The US is not noted for empathy, sympathy or generosity. Frame the issue in terms of self interest. Premiums will decrease; Industry will be more competitive and jobs more secure. Framing it in terms of helping the downtordden is a minus, not a plus.

Link to Arthur Silber’s last post: http://powerofnarrative.blogsp…..times.html a “there but for the grace of doG” story.

You’re just trying to rile people up.

Although, taking a trip to Disneyland in lieu of paying for insurance does seem ill-advised.

All I am saying is that if 85% of people in the US have healthcare why are we going to start a massive entitlement program to serve the 15% who can’t
or won’t sacrifice for the important things that they need. If 40% of the money is coming from savings in Medicare, why don’t we use that money to save Medicare which is a looming fiscal disaster. 90% of the homes foreclosed on in CA. had flat screen tvs!

Why?

We don’t need to start a massive new entitlement program to insure everyone. Simply open Medicare to every one who wants to buy into it. If you’re under 65 you can join, but you have to pay a premium. Everything we need for that is already in place, and the premiums would go some distance toward improving Medicare’s balance sheets.

And though it may seem cold, please consider that this poor woman potentially infected hundreds of people with H1N1 during the week she did not receive treatment for her fatal infection. When people get all ranty about not wanting to cover “illegals”, I want to ask them why they want people with untreated infectious diseases working around them. I would really rather that the grocery store bagger, or hotel maid, or food processing worker get treatment for the flu, or tuberculosis, or a staph infection, or pneumonia.

It is in the public interest for all infectious diseases to be treated, no matter who has them.

So why is Obama proposing a 1000 page “solution” when we can just open Medicare?

Sambot, your’e and[Edited by Moderator. Please do not direct personal insults towards other commenters.].

I think more people should be sharing their stories, at 2:30 pm I was watching this lady on MSNBC reading personal stories people left on her facebook page.

She seemed shocked that care was being rationed by the insurance companies.

Keep sharing stories, maybe send copies of your denial letters to your congressmen and senators, letting them know your conditions.

I have on my cars rear window, “:WWJD”, in small letters,
and directly below, in giant letters,” Single Payer” ( and a small heart)

This is painted on my window with a window paint dabber.
I got the idea to spread a message everywhere I drive, (much like when
high school kids graduate, and decorate their cars), and want everyone
to know.

I have gotten a lot of smiles, and a lot of thumbs up, and a few folks have
asked me what that means….so I explain.

It is inhuman to allow our brothers and sisters to suffer and die for lack of
health care.
Are we not the wealthiest country? A christian nation?
Then we need to force our government to mandate a “Single Payer”, not for
profit health care system…the best in the world!
Yes, we can!

Has anyone done any kind of attempt to determine the cost to society and the economy from people like this who are lost productivity, if you don’t want to think about lost lives? What about the significant number of people who go bankrupt from medical bills? That’s a loss to the economy. There there’s the opportunity loss from people who might be willing to go out on their own and start their own business but are afraid because health care costs too much.

We can make all the impassioned and humane arguments we want, but we can also make economic arguments that support the compassionate inclinations we have. We keep hearing about the costs of the solution, what about the costs of the problem? I’ve not seen any study yet that addresses this in any detail.

Plane Crazy

I really think that showing that ordinary citizens getting screwed by their insurance company will frame the argument very well. It will remind others that this may happen to them at some point in their life. Show the public that these people have paid and paid and paid into their healthcare system just to be denied or dropped from their carrier.

I also think we need to emphasize the fact that we don’t have healthcare, we have employee driven health insurance. If you lose your job, there goes your health insurance. I’m sure many out of work people have tried to get health insurance but it’s just about impossible to get it if you don’t have your employer to help with the premiums.

I do believe that framing the argument as a self interest one is a good idea, but I also believe that there are still Americans who do care for their neighbors. Maybe I’m naive, but I still want to believe that. At least if you show the public just how many people have been screwed over by their insurance companies, they will start to think maybe I’m next.

You got off easy. I spent 18 hours in a Phoenix AZ hospital with an operation for a burst appendix. When I called the hospital, the billing clerk told me all she had was the bill for the room – 39,000+. No doctor fee, no surgeon’s fee, no medications fee, just the damn room.

Of course, this modern hospital is run by an order of nuns, who, despite charges like this, are totally tax free.

The american medical system has become as obscene as the banks, the insurance companies, the Wall Street people and unfortunately the members of congress and the senate as well as a lying do-nothing president.

I almost choked when Obama told the clerics that this was a moral thing, while his administration is totally of, by and for the rich.

President he may be, but like the majority of the washington, dc gang definitely not a christian in the meaning of the new testament.

A friend of my mother-in-law had a baby,recently, born with ’spinal brifida’ and their insurance co will not cover the baby because the parents knew about the condition before the birth.
The wingnuts are in hysterics about ‘forced abortions’ when it sounds to me the insurance co is puinshing these parents for NOT getting one.

She lived in California. It was a day trip.

But how very kind of you to degrudge her a day with her child.