Tag Archives: healthcare

Healthcare comparison…

Well…as one of the things that I read about on Mastodon is the frequent comparisons by people who have lived in Europe for a while and then come back to the US…and one of the things that gets the most comments is the difference in how healthcare is run in the EU versus the US and the comparison is not flattering to the US…one comment came today is how easy it is to get medical care in the EU…you just walk in the door and they treat you since everyone is covered even if you’re not a citizen…no bills, no nothing for whatever you need…they consider good healthcare a human right over there…but when this person came back here, he ran into the normal bullshit and saw the same gofundme pleas from people trying to be able to afford their medicine or treatment bills that I see at least 20 of every day….and there is just something wrong with that…and I say that with the prospect of a 5K bill coming my way for my cancer treatment…that never happens in the EU….you just get treated and then go home to live…and being retired and on medicare who has to pay 200 dollars a month for what healthcare I do have, I think there just has to be a better way….especially when the insurance companies make billions of dollars every year that they are siphoning off to pay their ceos 20 million dollars a year…there just has to be a better way than what we are doing…geez…

No trump today…

Well….have been sitting here trying to think of something non-trump to write about and I’m not having much luck. I just don’t want to even think about the idiot anymore….so, what to write about? I could do one about the coming total solar eclipse but I’m not in the mood right now…okay, how about the idiot McConnell? When have you ever seen legislators so pressured to vote for a bill that none of them have seen or will see before the vote tomorrow? A vote that will take insurance away from 18 million people next year and from 32 million by 2026. And there is not one repub that cares…all of them are going to vote for it…and maybe that’s a good thing…no, I shouldn’t say that…it will be good for our election prospects but how heartless do the repubs have to be to kill thousands of people just to give more tax cuts to the rich?  Yep…I’m feeling burned out on the whole thing right now so I’m going to quit here…..impeach….

Paul Ryan, sooper genius….

Well…one of the great mysteries of the past few years is why anyone would think that Paul Ryan was a successful “policy wonk” and the “brains” of the repub party. Just take a look at his accomplishments since he has been in the House….he did get a post office in his district renamed….hmmm…but what else? He introduced legislation that would have privatized Social Security and been a huge giveaway to the investment community….but the real kicker of that legislation was that if converted to buying stocks for SS, the program would have owned every stock and in every company by 2050….I wonder what that is called? Could it be Communism? Where the government owns all of the means of production? Yep, this sooper genius wanted to put the country on the path to communism since he is just not bright enough to think of the long term consequences of what he proposes. Just like the turd of a healthcare law he just introduced that will kick 24 million people off their health insurance they have gained under the ACA….you could probably say that that is the purpose of the law since allowing low income and middle class people to be able to afford health insurance is something the repubs don’t give a damn about….but, given the total failure of a career that Ryan has had, it might be that he is just that stupid and didn’t see the consequences of what he is proposing…I hope this debacle once and for all puts a stake in the vampire idea that Ryan is the “brains” of the repub party….he is just a no talent hack that has played the pliant media for saps….

Hillary is lying…again…

Well….as you know, I normally don’t go after those on the left since they actually have some good ideas that would make people’s lives better here in the US…but when they lie or propose something that would be normal coming from a repub, all bets are off and I will. The latest comes from an attack on Bernie by Hillary the other day over healthcare and how it should be delivered in the US…it is well known that Bernie wants a “Medicare for all” single payer system that would insure everyone at birth…and Hillary has stated that she wants to nibble around the edges of Obamacare and try to fix the flaws in that system. Now, that is where the lies come in…the other day Hillary trotted out her daughter to lie and say the Bernie wanted to “eliminate Medicare, Obamacare, and Medicaid” and throw millions of people off their insurance….while technically true; those programs would go away and be replaced by single payer…under Bernie’s plan everyone would automatically have insurance in the new program so no one would ever go without medical care again. Now…I can understand Hillary attacking Bernie since he has pulled even in the polls, but to use lies to do it just echoes the worst of the right and was what led to her downfall in ’08….so, since I want Bernie to win, keep it up Hillary…keep using the repub lite playbook…that will alienate the base that you need to win…what an idiot…

Lost in the shuffle…

Well…with all of the uproar over the repubs latest gift to their corporate masters…the Kochs and the DeVos’s…another piece of legislation is being jammed through in this same lame duck session that is not getting any attention…although it should. These middle class/worker hating folks that now control our state are stabbing them in the back with new legislation that would allow employers to use their own “conscience” to decide what they will provide in the health care plans for their employees…don’t like abortion? Don’t have to cover it….don’t like smokers? Don’t have to cover anyone who smokes….don’t like people that ride motorcycles? Don’t have to cover any of them either. Can’t anyone else see how big an intrusion this is into people’s lives? It’s bad enough how workers are treated here in the US; why do employers need another tool to make their lives even more miserable? But, that is the repubs across this country…all of the rights that have been fought for by generations of workers will be gone if they get their way…and, I’ll bet that a lot of these jokers passing these laws have benefited from the sacrifices of labor over the years…but they don’t give a damn about that…can’t wait for the next election when we can send them back home….geez…

Boycott Papa John’s…

Well…the craziness continues on the right with their loss in the election and the latest ceo to take it out on his employees is the idiot that owns Papa John’s pizza….his is so crazy about the election that he has said that he will cut the hours of all of his employees to make them part time so he doesn’t have to offer health care under Obamacare….saying that it will bankrupt his company if he doesn’t…this is just more crap in the war on workers where these out of touch rich idiots….especially this one who lives in a 45,000 square foot house with a garage that holds over 20 cars, use the election to throw a hissy fit since their outdated ideas were soundly rejected by the country. Let’s set the record straight…offering health care for all of his employees would only cost about 5 million dollars a year…this, from a company whose NET profits will reach close to 60 million dollars this year…so, just another lie from a smug, privileged 1% er who only cares about more and more for himself. So, I call for a boycott of Papa John’s until this idiot turns into a human being and does the right thing…I’ll never buy another pizza from them….geez…

Just a little more Mitt…

Well…I find the recent effort by ole Mitt’s campaign to ‘humanize” him by putting out ads that says he cares about all Americans laughable and such a transparent lie that I really don’t know what they are thinking….and then they roll him out to do interviews where he is proud that 100% of children in Mass have health insurance through Romneycare…but he sees no conflict with his stated promise that he will repeal Obamacare if he is elected throwing millions of children out into the cold with healthcare. Is this guy just stupid or has he no core? I am astounded that anyone still listens to this liar…geez…

Just can’t get outraged…oh, maybe I can…

Well…I’m not sure what is going on since I haven’t been able to work up any political outrage for the last couple of weeks…I did want to make a short comment on the ‘promise’ from the repubs that, if the healthcare law gets struck down by the supreme court, that they will do nothing on healthcare until after the election…they will do nothing for the millions of young people who will be thrown off their parents policies, they will do nothing for the millions of people who will lose their coverage due to pre-existing conditions…and they will do nothing for the millions of people who will still be living on the ragged edge of losing it all for being uninsured. But, as you know, that is what the repubs do…nothing…and then just sit there and bitch about someone else trying to make things better for the middle class all the while convincing the stupid electorate that if they trust them, they will do something in the future…like more tax cuts for the rich…geez…

More nonsense from Scalia and Thomas….

Well….if you had any doubt of the outcome of the court challenges to the new healthcare law, all you have to do is take a look at who was dining with the the major challengers of the law. The other day, both justices Thomas and Scalia dined at a dinner that was sponsored by the law firm that will be challenging the law in court…yep, you heard it right, the justices that are supposed to be the most impartial and held to the highest standards of any court in the land are out rubbing elbows with not only the law firm that will be arguing in front of them but with trade associations who are financially backing the suit. Doesn’t this look like a conflict of interest to anyone else? This doesn’t even include that justice Thomas’s wife is a leading proponent of repeal and makes millions of dollars as a lobbyist for the repeal crowd. This isn’t even the first time these two have done something that is, by statute, not illegal, but still stinks of influence coming from the big money folks on the right…they have been regulars at the Koch brothers sponsored events for years…and I don’t care how much they protest that they will still be objective, all you have to do is read some of their opinions to see that the right’s machine has friends on the court. Geez….

Can Mitt be this stupid?

Well…one of the funny things that came out of the repub debate from a couple of days ago falls under the heading of “can Mitt be this stupid” and made me laugh like crazy. When ole Mitt was spouting the usual talking points of repealing “Obamacare”, he made mention of a comparison that the left has been making for decades now…that every other industrialized country in the world pays less for healthcare than the US does…and he attributed the extra cost to the government being involved. But, what he fails to realize is that every other country that he noted has some form of a single-payer system that the government runs. So, now, Mitt…are you for or against a single-payer system? Or are you going to be against it today and for it tomorrow? Or, are you saying that the lie you and your repub cronies are spouting is just a cynical ploy to ensure that the insurance companies can continue to steal from the country?
Which is it, Mitt? Or,is it both…or is it neither? And, what will it be tomorrow?