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I’ll Bet the 10.2 Percent Can’t Keep What They’ve Got
Hey There, Congress and Mr. President. It's your citizens. Lots of us are losing jobs and benefits. We cannot keep the benefits we've got when we lose our jobs. In fact it's really hard to keep paying all the bills without a job and an income. The new jobless numbers are alarming in so many ways.
You keep lying and saying you want to make sure people can keep the health insurance benefits they have if they like them. You call it choice. I call it lying.
Throughout my working life - more than 40 years now - I have never been in control of my own access to healthcare. First, if I have a job I can choose to have the kind of insurance my employer offers at the price negotiated by my employer. Second, those benefits may change when the employer's contract is up and new prices are set. Sometimes I've had to change plans and doctors right in the middle of treatment plans. I had no choice. Finally, if I change jobs or lose my job, I can sign up for COBRA benefits which may or may not be the same coverage with the same providers but which is always a lot more expensive. Often I cannot afford those benefits at all.
For 40 years, I have been at the mercy of someone else when it comes to the care I can get and the cost of that care and the continuation of that care. I am last in line to keep what I have - like it or not.
So, now I am sold healthcare reform allegedly in part because so many Americans want to keep the for-profit private insurance they have? That just isn't true now and it won't be any more true under the new legislation. We'll all still be at the mercy of employers, and now we'll add other folks to control our choices even more - like the people who will police us to make sure we've bought private coverage, and the people who will collect the fines from those who don't buy insurance, or even the people in the "exchanges" who will hawk the various private products we'll have to buy.
No Medicare for all, they say. That breaks the President's promise to all those happy insurance customers. What a lie. The only way to guarantee healthcare I can keep is to guarantee healthcare to all. But the only single-payer amendments we had for the House health reform bill have been stripped away. Sad that the plan offering patients the most choices had to go - it just didn't offer the highest profits to industry folks or the highest campaign donation profits for the leaders writing the bill.
Throughout this recession, millions of Americans have been forced to lose all access to care while Congress and the President dance around political futures and fortunes and calculate re-election strategies. And that is something that has indeed remained constant in my lifetime. Too many of my elected leaders cannot find their way back to the people who elected them when push comes to political shove.
Passing a healthcare reform bill that does not provide me with better access to care or protection from bankruptcy and financial ruin is not what I asked you all to do. Stripping away all reference to a progressively financed, single standard of high quality healthcare for all - also known as single-payer -- is done only to more deeply ensconce the deep pocketed interests in healthcare: the private, for-profit insurance giants, the big pharmaceuticals, the medical equipment companies, the hospital corporations and all the other making huge profits as thousands die needless deaths.
Healthcare is a basic human right. Granting that right is not something to be calculated differently in swing Congressional districts, off-year election strategy or second-Presidential term planning. It is your duty to me, to my fellow citizens and to your nation.
And you are marching away from reality when you think all the hard-working people who counted on you to make this a better healthcare system will not notice when you deliver insurance purchase mandates and a corporate bail-out that will dwarf the Wall Street trillions you've already justified.
When you pass whatever you finally pass, the people will hold you accountable as surely as night follows day. We'll be watching - you can bet on that. And to the 10.2 percent (and that's just those still counted in the numbers of the unemployed), wouldn't it be grand if after losing your job you still knew your healthcare was safe? That could be and should be what your government did for you. Unfortunately and tragically, it doesn't appear that is the road they are brave enough to take on our behalf.
62 Comments so far
Show AllI'm getting the crap beat out of me at KOS for being against the SHIT TACO being cooked up by Congress and calling itself (sic) Health Care reform. It's not Reform and it's not about anyone's health. It's all about making the very same BIG Vampire Care Mafia sucking the blood out of us even bigger and even more into our veins. It's really pathetic that so many on the left are so desperate for anything that even looks like HCR that they'll swallow this noxious product. Once again the Dems. betray us, once again when called upon to live up to their own campaign slogans , party platforms and promises they have nothing but excuses and twisted logic. It appears the damage done by the last 8 yrs. of insanity has deeply infected both parties. The Dems. are nothing more then GOPER lite.
The same thing is happening over at HuffPo. The Stand with Obama crowd has taken over the joint. What are they saying: It's better than nothing. It will lead to single payer. Pass it now and make changes next year.
These are just of the delusional and misguided thoughts of these folks.
Here's the play-by-play update if you guys haven't checked it out on HuffPo:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/07/house-health-care-vote-br_n_349468.html
As I said before, the comments are priceless.
Let me guess what they're saying:
1. "Purity troll"
2. "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good"
3. "Go vote for Nader"
I voted for Obama. Then fell and broke my foot; I almost lost it, had it amputated. From a broken metatarsul? And this w/ insurance?
Healthcare in this country will kill you. If you can access it.
I apologize 100% for voting for The Whimp. The Chimp & Dick had me delerious.
Great article.
What else can we expect from the best government corporate money can buy?
"Too many of my elected leaders ..."
Donna, we need to come up with a different term than "leaders." Yes, I am guilty of the same...calling them leaders. But, the sad fact is these people aren't leaders at all. They are self serving parasites that are about as effective as leaders as are leeches for controlling high blood pressure, which I have been suffering from badly as of late. These so-called leaders will say anything to get elected, but once elected virtually every one of them settle into the mode of ignoring those who actually put them into office and start sucking up to their corporate sponsers to collect funds for their re-election rather than doing the job they were elected to do. They have the best health insurance money can buy, they have the ability to give themselves raises even though they don't perform. They have the gall to give themselves a 5% pay increase in a year they deny those who depend on the money that has been taken from them through Social Security taxes a cost of living adjustment because supposedly prices have dropped over the year. They don't even try to cover the fact that they protect the very predators government is supposed to protect us from while protecting those same predators from us. They will say any lie or cut any backroom deal. They have absolutely no shame whatsoever in the pursuit of benefitting themselves while ignoring us, their very employers.
Leaders? Hardly. How about "our selected parasites?" Or would that be considered flattery?
"Too many of my elected leaders ..." -- Donna Smith
"Donna, we need to come up with a different term than "leaders." Yes, I am guilty of the same...calling them leaders." -- aussidawg
Very good points made in the article by Ms. Smith. She brings additional angles to the issues that I am going to inculcate into my own arguments. The fact that our health care insurance depends upon having a job is not even a possibility in today's job market, as unemployment numbers continue to rise. And, they "juke the stats," too. As Dave Lindorff reported in his article, and Paul Craig Roberts has also been reporting for a very long time, the real unemployment figures are closer to 20%.
But, I agree with aussidawg -- these people, crooks, are NOT leaders, or at least not OUR leaders, meaning "we the people. They are Wall Street's leaders, though. And, they are leading the corporations to higher profits -- banksters, health industries, defense contractors, etc.
"Parasites' does fit because they are taking everything we have, sucking us dry, so to speak, while propping up the already massively wealthy. And, we have NO benefits, or recourse, but WE HAVE to PAY for THEIR BENEFITS -- salaries, health care insurance, pensions, their illegal wars, etc. Our elected officials do NOT represent "we the people!"
Donna, we need to come up with a different term than "leaders." Yes, I am guilty of the same...calling them leaders. But, the sad fact is these people aren't leaders at all.
--------------------------------
'Rulers' seems to work for me, Dawg. They don't meet our needs, they force us to meet theirs. That certainly seems to fit the definition of 'ruler', though 'dictator' is also in with a good chance.
How about "dicktaters?"
ooooOOOOOooooo VERY nice! :-)
I vote that that be the official new CD term for the ruling class: dicktaters, with the emphasis on the dick.
There are three cures: Term limits, Public Campaign Funding, or Recall! I am afraid there is a fourth and probably the only way possible, revolution!
instant runoff elections...... let's break the duopoly ruining our country.....
and the oligarchy we call a democracy
we're in the cancer stage of capitalism - either we fix it or it fixes us!
The problem is that IRV, by itself, is just a cheaper way to get the same unrepresentative results while masking that they're unrepresentative.
There's a nice comparison of various voting methods and how well they satisfy various desirable criteria near the bottom of the page at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schulze_method
I've long been a fan of IRV but Mairead (response below, 2:47pm) has entered a new dimension I hadn't thought of. Still, IRV is a start and we need to get the corporate personhood amendment introduced. Who is the brave soul for that one? Maybe IRV would give us someone, but how do we implement this? Unfortunately, it may be too late for anything.
Power will concede nothing of its own volition. It never has and never will. When 1% of the population has all the wealth, i.e. power, the poor have a problem.
What the rich can't understand, or won't admit, is that they have a problem too.
Well said.
Term limits are not the answer. An engaged Citizenry is the answer to term limits. The problem is people are too busy living in their little ignorant worlds living scared becase Fox news tells them to be scared. And don't count on CNN to tell you what's really happening either. They're just as much to blame because they're all part of the for-profit corporate media which sits in the lap of the conservative movement.
The unofficial but actual unemployment is at least 22%. How come it's fine to talk about official rates but not unofficial but true rates?
what we have in America is a form of indentured slavery -
lose your job and you lose your health care......if you or a family member has a pre-existing condition you KNOW you won't be able to get new insurance - and so you are stuck w/ the job you have and CANNOT LEAVE IT without losing your health care coverage.....
and if you lose your coverage and have pre-existng condition that doesn't get treatment that is the same as having violence committed against you.
AND those numbers of 45 million without coverage - that was BEFORE the current economic meltdown - does anyone think that number hasn't gone up substantially in the last year?
When you're drowning what's the difference between being thrown a 10lb rock(demos) as opposed to a 25lb rock(rethugs)?
at what point do we get to fight back? After the knife is at our throats or after it is drawn across it?
"lose your job and you lose your health care......"
Yes. I have found a situation even worse. I am disabled and HAVE to rely on Social Security disability benefits, which isn't enough to live on. I want to work, badly! But if I try and make even a pittance of an income for more than 6 months (ever) I lose benefits and lose eligibility for Medicare (losing eligibility for Medicare is by far the biggest risk.) Being disabled (from a work injury at that) there is no way that I could ever think about trying to pay for, even if I could get, private health insurance. The same goes for a job one may currently have. If you have any health problem existing and go for more than 90 days without insurance between jobs, you get stuck with pre-existing condition clauses that will follow you for the rest of your life. Sure, you can get insurance...it just won't cover you and will cost you 50% of your income to boot. This is too big of a risk for anybody other than a very young healthy person who wants to start their own business, or even change to a better job as the waiting period for insurance coverage at a new job is usually...90 days. Hummm. Now why would that be?
This whole clusterphuck is a setup to keep us from even trying to realize a better possible future for ourselves and our families. Somehow, someway, we need to put elected parasites back in their proper place. Only those who truly want make our society better and are willing to sacrifice personally to do so should ever serve public office. As it is, these parasitical beings run for office for the sole purpose of enriching themselves (even more so...most are millionaires prior to taking office.) WE pay their salaries, health insurance, and expenses, therefore, WE absolutely must make certain that their relative comfort of life is directly related to the comfort of that of the average citizen they are supposed to represent. If it will directly benefit them to improve the lives of those they are supposed to serve, and on the other hand harm them (from cutting their individual pay for incompetance to hard prison time for corruption) if they harm those who elected them, then we once again have a representative government. Everyone in society at the present time EXCEPT elected officials live by these rules. If we don't do this (and don't stop putting people already very wealthy in office), we will continue to be screwed as we are now. We MUST implement public campaign financing only and establish a mandatory minimum starting salary for newly elected officials to begin with and build on that. We MUST eliminate lobbying and make it a crime to accept ANY donations from corporations or weealthy individuals. Finally, if they don't do the job they were elected to do, we must have a way to remove them from office. It's time to take the knife away from them and put it to their throats! If they don't do the job they were elected to do, then it's time to use it.
Pelosi on stripping the single-payer amendment: It is not in line with what President Obama wants. It is about what King Barack Obama wants and not what the people want, period. All the "tough talk" to the insurers by these two clowns was all theater. Remember those headlines not too long ago? That's what this whole process has been, nothing but theater.
I was waiting for someone to write a great article on this choice thing. I've been screaming about this for some time. Every time Obama opens his mouth and spouts that ridiculous line I gag. I have spoken to so many people in the past months since this debate started, that have insurance, including my brother, and all I hear is powerlessness over what the employer wants and what you're stuck with. My brother's employer, the Diocese of Brooklyn, is changing his insurance, plus he just got a small raise -- just in time because, guess what? The new co-pay on the policy will cost him the entire small raise and then some. Bottom line? No raise and no choice. And, of course, as always, he will probably have to get new docs, too.
Thank you, Donna, for writing about the lie of if you like your insurance you can keep it. I'm sure the number that have this choice from their employer is a small fraction, and they're probably in the upper echelon of the work force.
In all these months of debate over health insurance—and with the growing incidence of influenza— no one has come up to illuminate the concept of public health.
If people around you are ill, you're more likely to fall ill.
The psychological toll of being unemployed effects health.
The economies of European nations with universal health care are far more stable than the brittle US economy. Health care is not subject to loss.
The agonizingly slow and dull-witted debate over what should be a shoe-in proves that everyone knows what has to happen in the US: the end of this war business and the start of a government that looks after its own people.
But few, especially the "haves", are willing to let go of their booty for the sake of a greater good. The concept of public interest must regain its lost ground.
But it may take a real public health crisis to shake the foundations of this broken system.
Face it, the entire country is not only broke, it is also broken. As this decrepit system falls apart, new things will arise. And new knowledge of life along with clearer thinking is necessary.
twin 1:31 ---- good post.
I believe the Pig Flu is just another fear tactic to distract and stress the population.
"...let go of their booty for the sake of a greater good."
There is some booty I wouldn't be too quick to let go of either. :-)
Reminds me of a line delivered by Frozone in the movie Incredibles
(Lucius: YOU TELL ME WHERE MY SUIT IS, WOMAN! We are talking about the greater good!
Honey: "Greater good"?! I am your wife! I'm the greatest good you are ever gonna get!)
Sorry, couldn't resit. :-)
On a more serious note, though, I think it would have been best to enact S-chip (have they yet?) and then to have proceeded to single payer from there.
I'll be honest with you, here, I believe this would not be a bad time to emigrate away from the US, if it is an option. I see this greedy country descending into chaos, and at some critical mass all hell will break loose.
Jason, you may be right about connecting with each other but we have our God given rights to hold our leaders' feet to the fire. In your out of touch view, the progressives are "whiny spoiled brats who mainly want to feel better about themselves" but if you had actually bothered to look at the leadership that is supposed to represent them, you would have known better than to call them brats. Progressives have no leader. Take a close look at the 2000 page plus bs called Obamacare and tell us why that should be passed instead of aingle payer.
Donna, I just wish that all our fellow health care workers would see reality as clearly as you do. I have spent 3 decades in this industry and most of the time have not had health care insurance for myself. I am an RN, too.
In fact, most of the country's nursing assistants care for people that at times are less sick than themselves, and many of them do not have health care coverage for themselves and their family members! What a sadistic system! These poor people work alongside myself in this Alice in Wonderland set up.
Literally millions of health care workers are left uncovered for their own health care needs! SICKO. We are extremely angry but cannot show it too much just to keep our jobs. It is all very sad.
This is too true. Unionization is definitely the way to go, even for private duty nurses and home care attendants. A union can demand health care coverage. An individual is in no position to do so.
I have a cousin who is over 80 years old who is still working on an hourly basis in a nursing home taking care of people younger than she. (A former Playboy bunny, she is still shapely and youthful looking - you would never know.) Luckily she has Medicare, because there are no health benefits.
RN, LPN, aide or attendant, nurses rock!
Joe
With 44 percent of Congresspersons Millionaires (No doubt that number MUCH higher in the Senate) and 55 percent of Congress wanting to become Millionaires what you have is.
1 Percent of the members of Government representing the 99 percent of Americans who are NOT millionaires and 99 percent of the Government representing the 1 percent of the people who are.
They are driven by PERSONAL self interest and what is good for their own personal well being and NOT by the wants and needs of the American Citizens.
They are not going to put in legislation that will make the already wealthy LESS wealthy.
It baffles me how people that live in societies that extoll the virtues of Capitalism, the haves and the have nots and puts INDIVIDUAL wants over the Communities NEEDS as to why people believe they would act differently.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Oh well, no substantial progress has happened in this country until enough of the bourgeoisie
middle-class gets its teeth kicked in. Now some of them are starting to see what it's been like for the rest of us for 15 years--retraining for the computer field at considerable expense only to be downsized from job after job while they went offshore and we got, first, temped out with no benefits, and second, watched the wages for the few crappy jobs we could get go downward or remain low and stagnant. I worked in the health care field for a while, too, with no benefits, so I have sympathy for health care workers in that position because they are trying to help heal people. But I have little sympathy for all the middle-class gits whining about losing benefits the rest of us on the other side of the tracks haven't had in going on two decades. Plenty of those fools voted Republican so often they helped drive the Democratic Party to the Right. Now they're half cry-baby and half tar-baby.
metal 3:17 good post.
I originally thought the 10.2% referred to those who own 90% of USA wealth.
The lower 3/4's 0f the population can only be crushed so much before there is a powerful rebound.
I guess that is why taxpayer money is going to spy apparatus and domestic control rather than education and heathcare ( to resist the rebound).
I'd say that's a good bet, especially given the investment in mercenaries and in riot gear. If this is not preparation to fight Americans, the coincidence is odd.
Those fuckers plan ahead.
You can bet your jackboots on that!
genicon
"Its better than nothing, it will lead to single payer"
More lesser of two evils thinking,see where that got us?
Accepting less than what's right and just is cowardly and self destructive.
Campaign finance reform and term limits are the answer, but how do you get them to legislate against their own self interest?
What a sellout. What a shame. This progressive can't help but hope these Democrat charlatans pass nothing at all this year.
Then next year will be a "Throw the Bums Out" kind of election unlike we haven't seen in our lifetimes. And all these GOP and Democrat thugs will have to battle for their political lives and many of them will join us unemployed young folks in the unemployment line.
What a sellout. What a shame.
Single-Payer Now!!!
http://pubofidealism.wordpress.com/
one 3:26 good post
Any Dem secure in their position today may be in for a big surprise come election, possibly the voting machines may not have to be rigged again.
More people you have working with you the better chances you have of succeeding (unless a secret is involved).
Thus solidarity is extremely important.
Because people are complaining does not imply that they are not taking concrete steps to overturn a corrupt system, some are and some are not.
One must also realize that citizens are at different stages of political awareness and action, all levels are necessary and natural.
Knowledge is power and much knowledge is shared amongst the complaining.
The complaining itself is therapeutic and revelatory and supportive of comradeship.
One forum can have many uses and they are all valid if each use contributes in any way to a positive result.
Long Live the People !!!!!!!!!
"Too many of my elected leaders cannot find their way back to the people who elected them when push comes to political shove"
Maybe a critical mass of your fellow voters can find their way back to the progressive principles they abandoned in the voting booth in Nov 2008, after this latest push came to shove. And if this latest shove isn't enough, maybe the next one will be, and if not that one, maybe the next.
It's our fault, plain and simple. We progs and libs and even conservatives with a human heart - not only didn't we fight hard enough (hardly at all,) but we gave up The Right of Health Care for All Americans at the first sign of trouble.
Once we bit at the 'public option,' "They" knew they had us. Now, they're just reeling us in for the kill...
Just remember this: for about $2 per day per American, all could be covered better than they've ever been in their lives.
We can afford 2 illegal occupations, trillions in free Bankster rewards, and Big Everything Else subsidies through the ying-yang, but we let them convince enough fellow citizens we couldn't afford $2 bucks a day for a checkup.
Next time, maybe we come to the game with more than some blogs, emails and tiny little 'protests'...
We haven't given up the goal of Health Care for All Americans at all. These people have just wasted this opportunity. It is absolutely their fault, no others. Pelosi and Reid and any that support them did this.
Hey henry8 - I too am disgusted by Pelosi et al, but what about the Republicans, the insurance companies, the health care corporations. They are equally at fault, if not more.
Joe
As much as you are correct, the Democrats had the strong majority to stop Republican mischief but they squandered away their power to the GOP. The Republicans, by their numbers in both chambers of Congress, are still irrelevant. They could have stopped "free" trade, outsourcing, persecution of small businesses and small farmers, rewarding big businesses that stifle local growth, etc ... but they chose to copy the GOP at its worst. The same goes for health care but even worse, HR 676 and S 703 could have been put on the table instead of what turned out to be HR 3962 and whatever the Senate version is. People from all political sides, even the social conservatives, have been crying for single payer but Congress would much rather shut the doors and "boldly" bat for Big Insurance/Pharma.
I don't think Henry8 wants to see the GOP in power either but I understand his anger and upset feeling with the Democrats. Don't get me or Henry8 wrong. Neither of us are Republicans whatsoever but the level of betrayal and selling out by the Demos just can't stop getting worse and has us very worried about our future and that of our children. We all like to have pols who legislate with their hearts and minds for the American people and not pols who shamelessly take bribes from Big Pharma/Insurance and then make a 1,990 page sludge bill called "reform".
Emails and letters to congressman get ignored and thrown away. Protesting gets you put in jail, and also does not affect them.
We're screwed.
Progressives still have hope in Barak Hoover Obama.
Some still actually believe he's playing chess, getting what he can first before showing his hand. Playing nice with wall street crooks and corporate swindlers so that they might propose their own cure. I no longer have hope in this corporate sellout. He brings to the floor some of the issues we proudly supported him for, only to sell us out, right from the start, a slap in the face to all but those expecting failure. bill clinton's third term. Bernie Sanders has lobbiests physically removed from his office, as bribery is a crime.
I haven't had any health insurance since 1992. Luckily I haven't gotten sick. In 1987 I was on my bike and hit by a car and my wrist/hand was a mess but I had health insurance then, and luckily I got well.
What's all this about the 10.2% getting to keep their health insurance after they leave their jobs? Leave what job? Oh, and it's really about 17% unemployed -- please don't anyone buy the 10% baloney.
And if you're a teenager of color, just forget about that 17% figure. You just don't have much of a chance. Your country abandoned your type to maybe be hungry. Your demographic doesn't register to vote anyways, so why should the politicos care? Are you going to vote them out? Fat chance!
More like 22%.
http://www.shadowstats.com/
Donna,
Thank you for publicly saying that the leadership lied. The lies were calculated to delay, obfuscate, derail and confuse. The bureacratic games ("scoring", etc.) were all a long stream of fecal coliforms.
Now when someone asks you what you think of the "health care reform" bill passed by congress, ask them the following:
What health care reform?
Thank you for the force of will you have shown in your "Healthcare, not warfare" message. The people are sick and tired of wars for profit. We know congress cannot be trusted to respond to the people. In 2010, let's not go by what any of these politicians say. Let's go by their voting record. They can get on their knees and promise the moon. Ignore promises. We are long past promises. If they want to rule us by force, they'll have to openly declare a dictatorship. We are finished cooperating with these vipers. There is no way in hell that most people will be able to afford these ridiculous insurance policies. They won't pay them and they'll dare the government to put them in jail. We are going to tell Pelosi to "Go ahead, make our day".
FREE AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY
The current situation is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!!! It's way past time to SHOW our government, the robber baron insurance companies, and the plundering Corporatocracy who really OWNS this country - we the people.
It's time for a National Stand Down from Work Day - to show them that without us, they are doomed! If one day doesn't do it, perhaps a week or two, or a month!!! We don't need to wait til the next rigged election to TAKE ACTION.
This is the only WEAPON we have left to us! They certainly aren't listening to us - they treat us as NOTHING!
"Healthcare is a basic human right."
This is an assertion. Where's the proof? Or is it just a statement of your own wish?