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Last night on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Keith made his case for why the current Health Care Reform Bill as it stands now should be changed, killed or vetoed by the President. As someone who is not only underutilized but uninsured and as the spouse of someone who is uninsurable let me just say this:
I agree with him 100%.
It is an infuriating state of affairs that a group of people, who have counted themselves as Christians for the past three decades, have decided to turn away from those Christian ideals of charity and loving one’s neighbor to those of greed, selfishness and hate. It is even more infuriating when these same “Sunday Morning Christians” as I call them since they only act like Christians for one hour a week every Sunday Morning while they are at services, choose to deny basic human dignity to a vast majority of the population by denying them access to health care, and the ability to pay for it by seeking to deny them jobs. After all, hasn’t the Tea Party movement not only been about our President, but also about disenfranchising those of us who are out of work and preventing us from returning to the workforce by protesting the Stimulus and making sure it would not create jobs?
It seems to me that all of the shouting from the Tea Party movement about Health Care reform is less about them being able to keep their coverage, and more about denying coverage for the rest of us. To me it seems as if our Parents and Grandparent do not want us to have access to a doctor, much less a job. Yet when we struggle to find a job or a physical ailment they label us as “deadbeats”, “freeloaders”, “worthless”, pantywaists”, “pussies”, “wimps”, and any other derogatory term they can think of. Then when we argue with them about it they come back with the ‘ol “I’m just trying to help you” line. No, they are not trying to help us, they are trying to hurt us as much as they can because it gives then an almost orgasmic pleasure to do so.
Now that is not to say that every senior citizen is like this. I know for a fact that they are not. Some of them are going through hard times along with the rest of us and they know better. It’s just that there are a few of them out there who have bought into the HMO propiganda that Generation X and Generation Y is out to kill the Baby Boomers and they have reacted by trying to kill us first. They are giving the rest of the Baby Boomers, and the HMO’s a bad name.
Well, let’s face it, the HMO’s had a bad name already, and if they are able to kill reform or put together what amounts to a bailout of the HMO’s, then they are going to be seen as the devil incarnate right alongside Wal-Mart in some circles. Some of the Baby Boomers are seeing firsthand just what kind of damage not having Health Insurance can do to the people that they care about. My father-in-law is going to be a witness to what daily life without a job, without health insurance, and without prospects or hope is like when we finally move to NoCal. He is not only going to get to see my struggles to get a job, but he is also going to have to see his daughter struggle with her asthma, Trigeminal neuralgia and her pituitary tumor on a daily basis – all without having health insurance. He is going to see firsthand what it is like to worry about how to afford the medication she needs to stay alive. He is going to be an eyewitness to the hard choice we will have to make if one of us gets sick or hurt up there. He is going to have to live with the fact that if something does happen to us there may be nothing we can do about it.
And then when he shakes his head and can’t understand why we just don’t go to the Emergency Room, he will have to live with us looking him in the eye as we tell him “because we can’t pay the bill.”
That is a future that may of us are facing now as it seems as if Health Care reform might fail – again. I am hoping for an 11th-hour reprieve and that Congressional Democrats will say “bi-partisanship be damned” and just do what they have to do, do the right thing and pass real reform. Because the alternative, what we have now, is not going to be able to sustain itself for very much longer. I truly believe that if nothing changes and if the HMO’s keep driving up their rates that they will price themselves right out of business. I truly believe that sooner or later they will collapse like the banks did – and we should not bail them out!!!
To that end I am announcing here and now that I will be joining Keith Olbermann in his boycott of the HMO ponzi scheme – and that is exactly what it is at this point. If the reform bill is passed, in its present form, then I to will not buy any health insurance, and I urge all of you to do the same. I know, I know, there will be a fine to pay if we do not buy their worthless insurance that will be cancelled when we need it the most. However, in may situations paying the yearly fine would be a cost-saving measure. In our case Wifey is Asthmatic, Over weight, has two bad knees, a tumor behind her sinuses and a painful nerve condition in her face. I have stress-induced high-blood pressure and an elevated cholesterol level that requires medication to control, yet hasn’t been for the past few months because of cost. With those conditions, the cost for insuring Wifey and myself would be in excess of $10,000.00 per year. If we do not buy insurance the fine for us would be $1,500.00 per year.
Do the math! It would be cheaper to pay the fine then it would be to toss our money down into the HMO money pit! If that still isn’t good enough and they want to throw us in jail, then I have a feeling we will be in good company. However I think that the last thing they are going to want to do is to round up everyone who is uninsured and “send them to the camps.”
And yes, I used that reference deliberately.
If this bill does pass and gets signed into law, then civil disobedience is the only option we may have to fight this injustice. It may hurt a lot of people and it will not be easy. A lot of us may get hurt or die before this is over – some of us at the hands of law enforcement, or a Tea-Bagging Baby Boomer who wants to “make an example” out of us. However in the end, it would be worse to buy their overpriced insurance, get sick, go to a hospital, begin treatment only to be told “sorry, you’re insurance has been cancelled. You”re going to have to leave” and get tossed out on the street in a weakened state, waiting to die.
I would rather take my chances on my own then subject myself or my family to that kind of cruelty.
I would ask all of you to look at your own situation and decide for yourselves as to weather or not you should buy into this scam.
And while you are at it, let the HMO’s know exactly how you feel about them trying to cheat you out of your hard-earned money (for those of you lucky enough to have a job) and your good health. Let them know how angry you are – and that you are not alone. I am not saying that you should go to their corporate offices and harrass their staff (at least not alone – it’s better with a picket line or a demonstration of some kind like the Tea-Baggers are so good at). I’m not saying that you should bomb the building – that’s not what I want to have happen (although I wouldn’t be surprised to see it happen eventually). Write them, call them, complain to them, tell them that you won’t be buying their overpriced, undervalued piece of shit insurance – just don’t threaten violence or engage in any violent acts. Let’s leave the violence to the Tea-Baggers, they enjoy seeing blood spilled anyway.
After all, they are the ones with “Socialized Health Care”, if they get hurt in this fight, they can afford it.
