Another Free Market Healthcare Success Story!

[NCVol]

Let's see if the free market libertarians and "conservatives" can help me connect the dots of this story story coming out of California.

1) WellPoint earned 2.7 billion dollars in the last quarter of 2009
2) WellPoint CEO Angela Braly earns an annual salary of nearly $10 million and held nearly $2 million in stock options at the end of 2008.
3) WellPoint spent nearly $9.5 million on lobbying against health reforms in 2009
4) Individual premiums in California are set to increase by 30-39% this year. 

Looks clear to me that it's a system that is fundamentally working GREAT and all we need is to get the lawyers off the doctors' backs and open up a little of that magical competition and we'll be fine.  Hey, one older guy's premiums just went up from 20k to 27k.  No biggie.  On a median national income of 50k, this should be no problem for most families.  Just cut out HBO and that fancy iPhone and this guy and his wife shouldn't have a thing to worry about until he gets sick and his copays hit 15 or 20k on top of his premiums, and then he can just bankrupt out of it all!  What a great system. 

[The One Man Gang]

The late Congresscritter Jack Murtha was being treated at a GOVERNMENT hospital.

Oh, and iWon Hoaxandchange made up the story of his supporter being denied care and buried in an "O" t-shirt. 

So, your point is?

[NCVol]

Are you repeating random thoughts you heard on Rush today or something.  Do you have a random wingnut quote generator with the topic set on "heathcare?" 

So fricking what Murtha was treated in a gubment hospital?  That hospital is one of the best on the planet, which is why powerful people like our top military and Congress and often the WH go THERE and not some other hospital. It's one of the privileges of being a member of the leadership class - getting gubment funded access to the worlds best hospitals.   And it sounds like there might have been a mistake made.  What is your point?  That there is some causal relationship between the quality overall of this WORLD CLASS hospital and Murtha's death and the fact that it was owned by the EVIL gubment?

And where in the world did that story about Obama's supporter come from?  Not that I give a damn.  And how does that relate to California jacking up rates by 40% on some people in a beautiful display of how well the current system works and proof that we just need a bit of tinkering around on the edges and like magic all our problems will go away. 

I mean, $27,000 per year for a couple in their 60s is pretty good.  Free markets ROCK, baby!!!Why would anyone think that those kinds of premiums are out of reach for most folks?  Idiots, I tell you, and they can go bankrupt easy enough if they get sick!  Or just waltz into any ER and there you go, healthcare access.  I agree with the GOP approach - let's wait and not do anything drastic except prevent people like Murtha who go in for routine surgery and come out in a body bag from suing. I'm not sure if there was an error, but if so, it's clear that Murtha's family should only get a few thousand dollars since he was an old man and what kind of lost wages and actual expenses does a guy who's 77 have?  What could he make the rest of his life - a few hundred thousand, tops? 

[NCVol]

BTW, with the story about the Obama supporter, am I supposed to be impressed that the right wingers are being astoundingly callous about her death.  The facts are pretty simple.  

http://www.peoplesworld.org/melanie-shouse-health-care-activist-dies-at-4/

1) She was a business owner who couldn't afford a "cadillac" plan like Murtha had so elected for the only policy she could afford which was a catastrophic plan with a $5,000 deductible.***
2) Being a typical small business owner and not member of the top 1%, that $5,000 is a big number. And she didn't PLAN on getting cancer at 37, so when she got sick she couldn't afford to pay the deductible.
3) She delayed some time to get care since the costs would bankrupt her.  And this happens 10s of thousands of times a year for people with insurance, they can't afford the deductibles and copays and if you own a business and get cancer and can't work, well, where the frick is the money going to come from?  The money tree?  
4) So she finally got some treatment, not what was cutting edge since that's reserved for those with better insurance plans, and now she's dead.

Not a remarkable story in any way.  You could say, well, she was treated, lasted 4 years with advanced cancer, that's not bad.  I'm sure she's broke, but hey, what do you expect after getting four years of treatment.  It's kind of the story that most of us would experience if we had a really serious illness - job loss, lose your insurance, go broke paying the premiums for a while, then the deductibles and copays.  Hopefully you get a chance to start over.

And your reaction?

To mock Obama and this dead woman.  Nice job OMG!  

I mean, she supported Obama - to hell with the whining beotch, right?  


***This illustrates the fundamental dishonesty with touting "choice" in insurance plans.  You can "choose" between levels of coverage if you've got plenty of money and can effectively self insure huge chunks of your care.  But if you're not well off or are starting a small business on a shoe string, which we should encourage, then the choice is "what can I afford."  And then you get THAT plan, with whatever has to be excluded etc. and hope and pray you never NEED your policy, since if you really need it the cost will bankrupt you.  That's the "choice" this woman had.  

[Flummoxed Lummox]

The late Congresscritter Jack Murtha was being treated at a GOVERNMENT hospital.

Oh, and iWon Hoaxandchange made up the story of his supporter being denied care and buried in an "O" t-shirt.  

So, your point is?

  Dear Buddha you are an imbecile.

NC Vol beat me to the punch. His response should silence you ... until you post your next drive-by, callous, innaccurate bilge.

[Flummoxed Lummox]

BTW, with the story about the Obama supporter, am I supposed to be impressed that the right wingers are being astoundingly callous about her death.  The facts are pretty simple.  

http://www.peoplesworld.org/melanie-shouse-health-care-activist-dies-at-4/

1) She was a business owner who couldn't afford a "cadillac" plan like Murtha had so elected for the only policy she could afford which was a catastrophic plan with a $5,000 deductible.***
2) Being a typical small business owner and not member of the top 1%, that $5,000 is a big number. And she didn't PLAN on getting cancer at 37, so when she got sick she couldn't afford to pay the deductible.
3) She delayed some time to get care since the costs would bankrupt her.  And this happens 10s of thousands of times a year for people with insurance, they can't afford the deductibles and copays and if you own a business and get cancer and can't work, well, where the frick is the money going to come from?  The money tree?  
4) So she finally got some treatment, not what was cutting edge since that's reserved for those with better insurance plans, and now she's dead.

Not a remarkable story in any way.  You could say, well, she was treated, lasted 4 years with advanced cancer, that's not bad.  I'm sure she's broke, but hey, what do you expect after getting four years of treatment.  It's kind of the story that most of us would experience if we had a really serious illness - job loss, lose your insurance, go broke paying the premiums for a while, then the deductibles and copays.  Hopefully you get a chance to start over.

And your reaction?

To mock Obama and this dead woman.  Nice job OMG!  

I mean, she supported Obama - to hell with the whining beotch, right?  


***This illustrates the fundamental dishonesty with touting "choice" in insurance plans.  You can "choose" between levels of coverage if you've got plenty of money and can effectively self insure huge chunks of your care.  But if you're not well off or are starting a small business on a shoe string, which we should encourage, then the choice is "what can I afford."  And then you get THAT plan, with whatever has to be excluded etc. and hope and pray you never NEED your policy, since if you really need it the cost will bankrupt you.  That's the "choice" this woman had.  

NC Vol,

It never ceases to amaze me just how callous so many rightwingers are when it comes to providing health care. The same people, many of whom claim to be "Christians" and who are in church on Sunday, would be screaming if they were in the same shoes as Melanie Shouse. But because they aren't personally affected, they are indifferent to the suffering of thousands of Americans as if they were animals.

It reminds me of the parable of the Good Samaritan. Today's "conservatives" are just as inhumane, callous, and uncaring as the priest and Levite who ignored the Jewish man beaten on the side of the road. I don't see a Good Samaritan in the bunch, certainly not OMG.

[The One Man Gang]

All it took was three sentences. 

 

[NCVol]

To show once again that you have nothing to add to just about any discussion that moves beyond blasting the democrats you worked for years ago? 

[Flummoxed Lummox]

All it took was three sentences. 

 

...to show you're a gutless, drive-by poster who is too insecure to engage in honest debate with those who don't share your neocon world view.

...to prove you have zip, zilch, nada to add to this forum.

...to confirm you make outrageous and absurd posts, usually with no facts to back up your opinions, and then run when others expose your inaccurate statements with facts and reason.

[The One Man Gang]

Three sentences.

Think about it.

[Flummoxed Lummox]

Three sentences.

Think about it.

You're a gutless coward. Think about it.