Dear GOP - the collective you are an Idiot
Originally posted by ladyqkat at Dear GOP - the collective you are an Idiot
(Post originally seen in this post by ramblin_phyl. I have been notified that it was originally posted by suricattus in her journal post. The story and words are hers, but I do believe that it needs to go viral and that as many people as possible need to get their stories out there. Only by making a noise about this can we make a change in our society.)
There is a move afoot in the nation -driven by the GOP - to repeal the new health care laws, to protect corporate interests, to defend against fear-mongering (and stupid) cries of "socialism!", and to ensure that people are forced to choose between keeping a roof over their heads or getting necessary health care.
This movement is killing people.
Think I'm overstating the fact?
Ask the friends and family of writer/reviewer Melissa Mia Hall, who died of a heart attack last week because she was so terrified of medical bills, she didn't go see a doctor who could have saved her life.
From another writer friend: One person. Not the only one. That could have been me. Yeah, I have access to insurance -- I live in New York City, which is freelancer-friendly, and have access to freelancer advocacy groups. Through them, I can pay over $400/month ($5,760/year) as a single, healthy woman, so that if I go to the hospital I'm not driven to bankruptcy. But a doctor's appointment - a routine physical - can still cost me several hundred dollars each visit. So unless something's terribly wrong? I won't go.
My husband worked for the government for 30 years. We have government employee (retired) insurance. It is the only thing of value he took away from that job. His pension is pitiful. He still works part time. My writing income has diminished drastically. Our combined income is now less than what it was before T retired fifteen years ago. Inflation has diminished it further. In the last 30 days I have racked up over $8000 in medical bills for tests and the beginning of treatment. Our co-pay is 20% after the deductible. And there is more to come. Our savings are already gone. I have the gold standard of insurance and I still can't pay all the medical bills.
Another friend lost her insurance when her husband lost his job. She couldn't afford medication and ended up bed ridden for three months at the end of over a year of no job and therefore no insurance until he found work again.
It's our responsibility. All of us, together. As a nation.
EtA: Nobody is trying to put insurance companies out of business. They will always be able to offer a better plan for a premium. We simply want to ensure that every citizen - from infant to senior citizen - doesn't have to choose between medical care, and keeping a roof over their heads, or having enough to eat.
We're trying to get this to go viral. Pass it along.
I'm going to post my story as the first comment to this post if anyone would like to read it. If anyone wants to tell their story, please tell it on your own journal and post a link in the comments. Maybe, just maybe, TPTB will listen to the slaves peons who clean their toilets before they have to clean their own.
Originally I wasn't going to bandwagon this, but several things changed my mind:
(Post originally seen in this post by ramblin_phyl. I have been notified that it was originally posted by suricattus in her journal post. The story and words are hers, but I do believe that it needs to go viral and that as many people as possible need to get their stories out there. Only by making a noise about this can we make a change in our society.)
There is a move afoot in the nation -driven by the GOP - to repeal the new health care laws, to protect corporate interests, to defend against fear-mongering (and stupid) cries of "socialism!", and to ensure that people are forced to choose between keeping a roof over their heads or getting necessary health care.
This movement is killing people.
Think I'm overstating the fact?
Ask the friends and family of writer/reviewer Melissa Mia Hall, who died of a heart attack last week because she was so terrified of medical bills, she didn't go see a doctor who could have saved her life.
From another writer friend: One person. Not the only one. That could have been me. Yeah, I have access to insurance -- I live in New York City, which is freelancer-friendly, and have access to freelancer advocacy groups. Through them, I can pay over $400/month ($5,760/year) as a single, healthy woman, so that if I go to the hospital I'm not driven to bankruptcy. But a doctor's appointment - a routine physical - can still cost me several hundred dollars each visit. So unless something's terribly wrong? I won't go.
My husband worked for the government for 30 years. We have government employee (retired) insurance. It is the only thing of value he took away from that job. His pension is pitiful. He still works part time. My writing income has diminished drastically. Our combined income is now less than what it was before T retired fifteen years ago. Inflation has diminished it further. In the last 30 days I have racked up over $8000 in medical bills for tests and the beginning of treatment. Our co-pay is 20% after the deductible. And there is more to come. Our savings are already gone. I have the gold standard of insurance and I still can't pay all the medical bills.
Another friend lost her insurance when her husband lost his job. She couldn't afford medication and ended up bed ridden for three months at the end of over a year of no job and therefore no insurance until he found work again.
It's our responsibility. All of us, together. As a nation.
EtA: Nobody is trying to put insurance companies out of business. They will always be able to offer a better plan for a premium. We simply want to ensure that every citizen - from infant to senior citizen - doesn't have to choose between medical care, and keeping a roof over their heads, or having enough to eat.
We're trying to get this to go viral. Pass it along.
I'm going to post my story as the first comment to this post if anyone would like to read it. If anyone wants to tell their story, please tell it on your own journal and post a link in the comments. Maybe, just maybe, TPTB will listen to the slaves peons who clean their toilets before they have to clean their own.
Originally I wasn't going to bandwagon this, but several things changed my mind:
- I finally got insurance again, but the bastards have hit datapard and I with a 6 month "pre-existing conditions" clause. So it is almost useless. Thanks, Indian carpetbagger company that I worked for just before this job, for being too fucking cheap to insure your employees. I have been without insurance before, ten years ago, and wasn't hit with a pre-existing, but that was before Bush the GOP got fully in bed with the health insurance mafiaoligarchs.
- There was a teabagger on suricattus original post prattling on about socialism and how health care was just a wedge to make us all socialist drones. I flipped, sick of seeing the same pack of lies and distortions, packaged up as some great concern for freedom and democracy. He was quoting Reagan, or some other such asshole, bleating about how socialism would destroy us. (Reagan and the machine behind him is a big part of why our society is so badly fucked up now.
- Trying to claim that it's "just a few outliers as victims" is nonsense. datapard and I are victims of the GOP insensitivity that refuses to see real, basic healthcare as a human right. Our teeth are rotting out of our heads, and we haven't dared go for checkups or mammograms because of the costs. Before the first of this month, if either of us had been in a wreck, we would have been pretty much SOL, dead or bankrupt, because car insurance medical doesn't begin to cover the costs. I would have ended up working the rest of my fucking life to pay off medical bills. This is very common among many people I know, in the "liberal" state of California
- Another self-employed friend was telling me how she wanted to get a "Do Not Resuscitate" tattoo on her chest, because she couldn't afford to pay any medical bills if she was hospitalized. Small business owner, pure bootstraps, but no love from the GOP.
- Covering everyone under a basic single-payer plan would be the most cost efficient for the country as a whole. It would remove the major cost burden for small businesses, and would enable entrepreneurship in those who are now chained to an employer to provide their families health insurance. Want to kick start the economy? "Socialize" basic medical and dental care, so that small businesses and their employees do not have it as a burden. It does wonders for productivity.