Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Politics

A friend just let me know she'd thought about inviting me over for the weekend to watch the Health Care Reform bill on CSPAN with her and her husband, saying "it was like the superbowl at our house!" Totally chuffed by that.

 
I can't wait until I won't be denied coverage for my pre-existing conditions of:
  • non-fatal allergies that require some intervention to make me a consistently productive citizen
  • an extra aorta which is totally asymptomatic and likely to remain that way
  • past history of mental health issues (this is why I was denied coverage for personal disability insurance shortly after I participated in a fitness camp run by Navy SEALs)
  • tendinitis in my feet
  • being a female with gender specific needs (oh, wait, that one might still be unavailable)
So, 2014, just gotta hang on to insurance until then.

 
As long as we're on politics, I finally found someone documenting all the hypocricies that have been making my head explode, then a few more for good measure.

 
Some people get on my case about how I should allow that other people may feel differently than me on certain heated topics. Well, I'll allow for the fact that people can disagree with me up to when they start spouting the FOX/Rove talking points that are directly contradicting what they, themselves said they believed two years ago. The one that really gets to me is the exact same commentators (and follower) who called it treasonous at worst and unpatriotic at best to be questioning the president or his motives or his actions when Bush was in the white house are all but calling for violent action against Obama and push for obstructing everything the current, legally elected American President does as being unAmerican. They're not even pretending to be honest about that. And I don't feel any need whatsoever to assume they're being honest when they are provably not being honest. Dissent is patriotic and makes our nation stronger. Infantile obstructionism and fear mongering is just that, and makes everyone weaker.

 
So. /rant.

 
(update from 2 days later... whoops! hit save instead of publish. Wondered why it wasn't showing up.)

3 comments:

Oh Miss West said...

I too am looking forward to the healthcare reform. Like you (as you may remember), I have preexisting conditions, plus that whole pesky being-a-woman thing they like to charge us extra premuims for.

We had a debate about it in my constitution class (my teacher and I being about the only two liberals in the class, it was interesting), and most of the class was up in arms about it being all socialist. My instructor brought up the best argument I've heard yet- if the healthcare bill is socialist, what do you call Medicare, Medicade and Social Security?

I will happily take running the risk of socialism, if it means people like you and me are finally covered equally and fairly.

CrankyOtter said...

Here's hoping it works out. I went without insurance in the year between school and finding a job because with my exised, but recorded, pre-existing conditions, It would have cost me, and unemployed, perfectly healthy single, $400/month to buy it on my own. 15 years ago. Standard rent at that time was $350/month. Ridiculous.

My expenses for the year were about $10,000 without it, almost all of which I could pay for with temp jobs. Would have been almost $15,000 with it, all the extra being borrowed money. So I didn't have insurance that year. Barring kidney failure, it was cheaper to pay my own way.

Given that experience, no false calls of socialism are going to sway me. Even real calls. Basic health is necessary to, um, life and pursuing happiness, so I'm good with the government helping out. Did the people in your class say anything that wasn't a fox news sound byte?

Oh Miss West said...

The cost of private healthcare is ridiculous. It has been for years.

Unfortunately, most of the people in my class are sitting firmly on the far, far right side on the health care issue. And yes, at the very least, the loudmouth of the class quoted Fox news.

I will give Toni absolute credit- she tries very hard to keep the class impartial, and keep her teaching as independant as her political affiliations are. But it's very hard when you're teaching a class that leans so far in one direction (the class not only is strongly republican, they are also very young and uninformed).

She did make the try to make the point that it's absolutely ridiculous that a country such as ours, largely regarded as the "strongest", "greatest" and "most powerful" (general terms, not necessarily hers), has not had healthcare. But I think it fell on largely deaf ears.