Politics: Health Care

ICHC FTW!

Our fine President shows you that he knows EXACTLY what he's talking about.

Here, in his fine speech at the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Town Hall on health care, he lays out clearly, point by point, what he's been doing and what he is doing and what he WILL BE doing.

So, listen to our President on CNN — listen to the whole fucking speech, OK? Because he states exactly what his vision of health care reform is. And he is so fucking right. Everything he is saying is backed up by facts, statistics, reports, studies, and individual anecdotes. And he is right, goddamn it, right!

"No one in America should go broke because they get sick," he says. No more ludicrous out-of-pocket limits! Preventive care and routine screening to take care of illness before it becomes costly and unaffordable.

"Our deficit will continue to grow because Medicare and Medicaid are" on an unsustainable path, he says. Within eight to 10 years, Medicaid will go broke. "Change is hard, and it doesn't start in Washington," he says. He's asking for our help. Knock on doors, talk to neighbours, spread the facts. "If health care reform was easy, it would already have been done," says our President. And he's right.

He's got the figures to back him too. He talks about the $177 billion dollar subsidy to the health insurance industry. He talks about the $80 billion in rebates that the drug industry has agreed to give their customers under the Reform Act. He talks about the administrative problems inherent in transitioning to single-payer healthcare. He's thought the issues through. He talks about the need for the reform to be self-sustaining, and about the ability of private insurers to compete with the government as a provider of health coverage, and about the cost to small businesses.

He won't sign a bill that adds to the deficit or the national debt. He points out that the previous health care legislation signed was Medicare Part D, which was not paid for at all and created a huge problem with the national debt, as well as creating the "doughnut hole" that forces seniors to pay for costly medication out of pocket. He wants to pay for the reforms by rolling back the Bush tax cuts.

He points out that 14,000 Americans lose their health coverage each day; that insurance company bean counters currently decide whether people can or should have a procedure or a medication. And you know what? He is right.

Nataline Sarkisyan

This, folks, is the face of our current health care system. Nataline Sarkisyan was a teenager covered by her parents' supposedly excellent health care plan. But when she needed a liver transplant, the insurance company that covered her decided that they wouldn't pay for her liver transplant, in essence condemning this child to death.

So if anyone starts yawping about government-run "death panels" (Yes, I'm looking at you, Bible Spice, you unregenerate attention-whore)? La Casa de Los Gatos recommends you print out Nataline Sarkisyan's picture on some good heavy board, roll it into a tube and stick up their collective asses. Alternatively, a couple of "edjumacations" with the trademarked Golden Bat o'Clue might help them towards a faint hint of enlightenment.

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