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Happy Mother’s Day from America’s Health Insurance Plans and Mr. Baucus
Wow. America's Health insurance Plan's (AHIP) czar -- and the woman our Congress and president have anointed as the nation's architect of health reform -- has offered a gift to all of America's moms and women. The health insurance industry will stop charging you more - they'll stop discriminating against you - so long as all of you are legally forced to buy their product.
It sounds to me a little like the old saw, "When did you stop beating your wife?" But then when I really thought about it, it made me sicker and sadder and more acutely aware of exactly what this nation's leaders think of all of the mothers and daughters in the land this Mother's Day 2009.
Here's how the New York Times' Robert Pear wrote it, "Insurance companies offered Tuesday to end the practice of charging higher premiums to women than to men for the same coverage.
Karen M. Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, a trade group, made the offer in testifying before the Senate Finance Committee."
Yes sir and yes maam, Mr. Pear. Karen's going to stop beating us real soon. I don't buy that for a moment until they actually go all the way back and acknowledge the fact that the men who impregnated the women charged more for their gender-based ability to be impregnated are made to pay up for all the losses women have suffered at the hands of this unscrupulous industry.
Never mind for one moment that the single payer point of view was systematically shut out of that hearing and nearly all others (as evidenced by the arrests of eight advocates this week at the same hearing - though Mr. Pear chose not to report on those arrests, favoring to lead his piece with an Ignagni tribute).
If we could go back and try to fix the damage from the admitted industry discriminatory practices, how do we charge for the lost lives? The moms who buried children they couldn't afford to buy insurance for? The moms who suffered severe illness and unthinkable pain because Karen and crew deemed them uninsurable?
Now they want to charge women the same as men for this defective product that has been allowed to cause hundreds of thousands of women and kids to suffer?
I've heard some friends in political circles say that Karen Ignagni and AHIP are not the real problem in this health care travesty of a U.S. healthcare system. Some say it's the Dems and the Congress that fail to act that are the real problem, that Karen is just doing the job she's paid so very well to do.
Can't buy that one. It would be like folks saying Hitler wasn't the real problem behind the Holocaust and that the folks who ignored him or feared him were really to blame.
Karen and AHIP have given us exactly the same sort of death and destruction as any of the other major human rights disasters over the past century have done, including the Holocaust. These people are the architects of pain and of long and prolonged suffering for millions of women and kids and families. All for the almighty buck.
So now that in 2009, just in time for Mother's Day, she has agreed to stop charging more for health insurance for women, it does not mean she's agreed to stop the death marches across time for millions of people who will not be able to access the best level of care that this nation has to offer.
Sen. Baucus, and all of his committee members on the Senate Finance Committee, are the observers of an American tragedy. And if Hitler had appeared before them in 1944 and said he'd stop gassing the Jews, what would our Senate have said to him?
Here's what I wish they had said in 2009 to the for-profit health insurance industry folks who have overseen the suffering and deaths of so many women for decades.
And as soon as Ms. Ignagni opened her mouth and acknowledged publicly the discrimination against the mothers of this land, you'd think one of them might have stood for us all and said, "We find it wholly unacceptable that you have violated if not the letter than the clear purpose and intent of the law of this great United States of America in which we have determined some time ago that women are equal citizens to men, mothers are equal to fathers, and therefore entitled to equal treatment. And as a consequence, we - the U.S. Senators elected to serve the women and men of this land - find you unacceptable to participate in the delivery of healthcare, a basic human right, in these United States."
The house would have come down in honor of that Senator and the Senate would have finally honored all moms and children and dads and families in this great debate. It's not too late. It could still happen.
Happy Mother's Day.
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18 Comments so far
Show AllSenator Baucus and his nefarious cohort ought to be given flowers and candy, and taken out to dinner tomorrow-- because they're all truly venal, ruthless, narcissistic, and self-serving muthas.
(No disrespect intended to actual mothers.)
· Yr Obd't Servant
Bust these monster trusts. Don't revive them.
I emailed Baucus and gave him something to think about, real hard. I suggest that all of you do the same. www.senate.gov
From the 1Payer.net website, http://www.1payer.net/action-alerts/265-500calls.html
Call 800-578-4171 and press 0 to leave a message for the White House or 1 to leave a message for Sen. Baucus.
Thank you, I'll do it.
For anyone who hasn't seen the doctors' protest, and Senator Baucus's disgusting performance as he had the doctors arrested at the healthcare hearing, here's the link (copy it in one line on your browser):
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type
=&search_query=Baucus++singlepayer+
healthcare+CSPAN&aq=f
Another lesson in how well those that make us believe that they are doing the job right just because they are making fantastic profits from those that cannot afford 'privatized' health and medical care and it is the only way it can be done, when in reality it is just another badger game for some poor butt licker middleman that is of absolutely no value to what is needed for the people, only here in america, the real banana republic.
"Karen and AHIP have given us exactly the same sort of death and destruction as any of the other major human rights disasters over the past century have done, including the Holocaust."
Donna Smith just crossed the red line. I'll check the comments on this article from time to time. It should be interesting.
18,000 Americans die EACH YEAR because they cannot afford health care insurance. That's SIX 9/11 terrorist attack casualty tolls per year. 30 years of this avoidable death and suffering may not literally add up to the 11 million intentionally killed by the Nazis, the it is certainly a longer period than the Nazi Holocaust years, but the callousness toward vulnerable others springs from the same sociopathic roots in power-and greed-obsessed people.
"...you'd think one of them might have stood for us all and said, "We find it wholly unacceptable that you have violated if not the letter than the clear purpose and intent of the law of this great United States of America in which we have determined some time ago that women are equal citizens to men, mothers are equal to fathers, and therefore entitled to equal treatment. And as a consequence, we - the U.S. Senators elected to serve the women and men of this land - find you unacceptable to participate in the delivery of healthcare, a basic human right, in these United States."
Absolutely the smartest thing I've read today.
And, really, WHY NOT? And don't tell me its because of corporate pigs. It is because we have no 'legal standing' as citizens. That's the real reason. Now let us discuss that one??!
When even my conservative parents, and yes both my mother and father are conservative though they voted for Obama unlike previous elections, strongly support single payer healthcare, it's amazing that our supposedly "liberal" Congress won't even allow the idea to be brought up without getting arrested. As for getting the people's support, we need to reach out to people on all political spectrums because as it turns out, even some so-called "liberals" are not supporting single payer while even some staunch conservatives are. In North Dakota, conservatives and liberals teamed up to support the legalization of farmers growing hemp for industrial use. Perhaps the same thing could happen for single payer healthcare. I guess that it will be a matter of getting single payer passed on the local and state levels before Washington DC will listen let alone approve. I used to believe that mothers suffer the most from a broken-hearted privatized healthcare system but I realize that fathers have been catching up to the suffering. Neither sex should be the victims of a broken-hearted privatized healthcare system.
The Dems. have the knife pointed right @ our collective backs. They will hand us all over to the clutches of some of the most ruthless Corp. monsters on the planet. The fix is in and reform will be more of the same. Some much for CHANGE we can believe in. Not a word from Mr. Obama.
Usually I don't believe in revenge because two wrongs do not make a right, and because revenge is an irrational act, and as such, is always wrong. However, revenge against a CORPORATION does not carry the same moral implications as revenge against a living human. So, after careful thought, I say, kill the bastards (health insurance companies) after severely torturing them (by not paying your protection money premiums). It's OK. Corporate blood is sweet. These entities have committed crimes against humanity for too long. They deserve death. If even a small minority of everyone who has insurance, but finds it worthless and expensive simply did not pay, the combination of the protest and the recession would finish off these vile beasts before Congress could save them. JUST SAY NO TO FOR PROFIT HEALTH INSURANCE. DO NOT write the check. Throw the bill in the trash. If God does not protect you, these PIECES OF EXCREMENT CERTAINLY WON'T. You are being used. Until a plan exists that removes the profit from the equation, which can only be a single payer plan of some kind, innocent Americans will continue to die at the rate of SIX WTC DISASTERS every year. Imagine the fuss if these were not poor people. We'd have solved the problem years ago. There IS a class war, and the rich are winning. In this battle, however, physical death is the penalty for poverty. Why does anyone with two or more functional brain cells want to preserve this pernicious system? Unless you are sick and collecting benefits, just stop paying. The value difference between some cheap-ass corporation claiming to protect you and nothing is not worth the price of a brick bounced off a corrupt Senator's head.
It's not revenge, it's justice.
I had a revelation the other week after having heard Howard Dean. In my question to him I really hadn't nailed down why I support single payer, and as expected he dodged around, talking about preserving "choice" in insurance. My thoughts came together the next day, when my spouse mentioned our Blue Cross/ Blue Shield payments had gone up again, from $500 to $545. It is this:
I would rather pay $545 to a single payer pool that, if we did not use, would at least be going toward a common pool that could help my neighbors and friends. As of now my money goes to a big corporation, paying for advertising, billings, and executive salaries, and my neighbors and friend are still hung out to dry.
I want to thank the doctors who got arrested, and all around the country working to support HR 676. We need to make the government do it. That's our job.
Joe in Gainesville
I still don't have and can't afford health insurance. I was denied coverage for a "pre-existing" condition (that the majority of people over age 35 have) and applied for coverage through a state pool for the uninsurable. Even with a 75% reduction in rates because of my income level, I couldn't afford the premiums (with a $500 deductible) and was dropped after being unable to pay. A friend pays over $500 a month for himself and one family member (through a large employer with a very big plan) and now the copays and deductibles are going up. Another friend used to have about $12,000 a year deducted from his salary for himself and his family. Yet, even with these high rates, one must come up with money for a "copay" and deductibles when there are tests or expensive procedures or hospitalization. But try telling that to the anti-Single Payer crowd who whine about "higher taxes." They are very bad at math and can't seem to understand that no one will be paying $10,000 a year in taxes for health care.
Try my lousy policy for my family $1400 a month ! That covers what? Sure as hell doesn't cover us. But without it today u leave yourself open to bankruptcy in a moment if u get sick and have to go to a hospital. The so called health system in this country is a deadly farce anymore and it's getting worse fast. I knew we were in trouble 20 yrs. ago when my local hospital started to look like a fancy vacation hotel in Can Cun. I also afraid that the so called reform coming will just be more of the same.
To Joe in Gainesville...Dean opposed Single Payer when he was governor of Vermont. He is the Universal Politician - not much of a humanitarian.
Glad I voted for Nader.
Most everyone knows the health insurance industry tortures our society and, so far, the unaccountable government officials that allow it to continue.
The torture memos did nothing to enforce our Constitution, ideals, morals and values. So I wonder, will voters forget these atrocities or be easily fooled with spin in the 2010 election?