A Wingnut Email on Healthcare

I could take this one for you, Bob.Mike,You’re a dumbass (and I know you understand that word, because conservatives invented it, and I ought to know, because I used to be one).You are already paying for other people’s health care. You don’t really believe that your $12000 yearly premium is covering only you, do you? Especially when last year, you maybe went to the doctor once, and had a family member who needed shots and a physical?Mike, Private health insurance is nothing more than the privatization of social health care. Let me explain that. You are in a risk pool with everyone else. That’s social risk underwriting. Your premium is based not on your health, but on the age and health of EVERYONE in that pool.To make this as succinct as possible, you are paying for the health care of people in poor health, so that their premiums won’t be too expensive. In other words, your premiums cost more than they need to, because the pool you are in SPREADS THE COST, AND SPREADS THE WEALTH.Socialism, Mike. Insurance companies didn’t invent it, they just privatized it and profit off of your hard earned dollars.Now how do you feel about socialized medicine, knowing that you already have it?Would you like it to be less expensive and more reliable? Or do you really prefer to pay way, way, way more than you have to for health care?

WowIf a Nazi comparison ever were actually warrented for a change, this would be the case. This guy seems to be anti-ethnics, anti-disabled, probably anti-gay.And im not really informed when it comes to street lingo, but Im pretty sure the “sit on the porch” part was his way of saying he hates black people.You know they might as well just come out and say it since thats what it translates to anyway.

See and I got angry emails because this is the kind of ignorant, redneck fuck I depicted in my blog post from Tuesday. I know these people. I grew up with these people, and ironically, I moved to get away from these people but ended up living in a town full of them! Amazing the breadth of their stupidity and the high price they place on it. Like it’s a badge of honor to be dumb.

How do you argue with people who cannot conceive that there are times when other people, through no fault of their own, need help from others? People who cannot imagine that one day they might need that help? How do you argue with someone who claims to love America and yet is unwilling to make the slightest sacrifice for its citizenry?What PPP said is right on many levels. We all, already pay for the uninsured and underinsured in several ways. Hospitals have to budget millions for charity care i.e. dollars they lose on people who can’t pay the bills. Where do you think that money is made up? It doesn’t just get deleted. The government picks up the tab on a portion of it and the hospitals raise prices on the rest of us to cover the remainder.The larger point, though, is the total lack of compassion or generosity of spirit displayed by people like Mike. I bet he goes to church and thinks of himself as a good person and would still lump 47 million people into the category of fat-asses sitting on their porches. I wonder if Mike will refuse his social security when it comes.

This health care debate sparks a larger issue with me personally, which is the institution of inscurance ITSELF. It’s flawed with its conception. It simply creates more paperwork and loop hole jumping thus increasing the cost of EVERYTHING while providing actual solutions for few. (I understand that it helps with the large money up front issue, however if your premiums are increased anyway- you’re just paying more over time. This can also been seen in the credit issue of America. Sure you THINK you can afford that 51″ plasma when you only pay $100 a month* ((*plus interest)))I have heard in my life time that my mother with cancer must have had a “non-disclosed pre-existing condition” to merit such an aggressive treatment (radiation & chemo) to be covered. My dad ended up paying for it and she died 8 months later, and she had health insurance. We didn’t have time to forge a fight with them while our loved one was sitting up in a hospital fighting for her life. A 41 year old healthy nurse with no previous medical conditions.
I have also heard that my flood damage wouldn’t be covered because “it was not an act of God, but due to a Hurricane.” Now, I’m not going to get into the argument of why “God” is even MENTIONED in a policy, so let’s leave that aside.The entire Insurance industry is the Wall Street of “coverage” and its complete bullshit.People deserve Health Care. The problem with conservatives is that they believe in the institution of Insurance and not Health Care./steps off soap box

Bob, please send PPP’s comment to Mike.

Mike Sez:

“Maybe the redneck needs to haul a chord of wood because he cannot afford his heating bill, because we have to buy our fuel from the Middle East, because someone doesn’t want to drill domestically, and the faggy hybrid piece of crap won’t carry but 2 logs. You people.”

Maybe the Redneck has been conditioned to believe that to drive a fuel efficient car is faggy and unamerican and heaven forfend, European. Maybe the Redneck has been conditioned to believe that the faggy environmentalists are what stands between him and domestic oil. Maybe the Redneck has been conditioned to believe that his neighbors and fellow citizens not having health insurance has no impact on him at all. Maybe the Redneck has been conditioned to be a very good Redneck sheeple, fiercely fighting to protect the profits of the rich and affluent at the expense of his own family (you know, kind of like the Glorious War Between the States).I take it you’ve never driven a hybrid. I take it you don’t even know that the oil industry in America already has lease to drill domestically but has declined to do so because they want you to pay more for gas because that makes them more money. I take it you don’t know that you already pay higher taxes to support the emergency room visits of your neighbors that your insurance company has decided not to cover because why should they pay for it when they can make you pay for it in addition to your own premiums.I take it you know none of these things as they would upset your own small, immutable world view that insists that everyone else is just lazy, everyone else is just complaining, that everyone else just wants to get in your pocket for your hard earned wages to support their lifestyle.I, like Bob, invite you to enjoy making someone else rich at the expense of you own family. Don’t want to participate in the public option? Then don’t. Keep overpaying. Keep that insurance company CEO rolling in millions. Keep putting twenty after twenty into your gas tank and happily support the family that gave us Osama bin Laden. Keep being a Selfservative Republican footpad. Have at it.The rest of us will be fighting to help all Americans, not just ourselves. And by the way, asshole, that includes helping you.

Here’s something for Mike. Say, you have a heart attack or get cancer. Just watch how fast they dump your stupid ass! Before you know it their billing you for all kinds of things you thought your insurance covered. Oh and by the way, everytime a poor ass person like me has to visit the emergency room, YOUR DUMB ASS IS PAYING FOR IT! I’m starting to believe that we should just kill all of the stupid people in this country. They should be put down like a horse with a broken leg. We need to protect the breed that is the sane people in this country! Take that you crazy bastard!

PPP, you’re spot on. It never ceases to amaze me that people don’t understand the concept of insurance. Had the industry been effectively regulated, a public option wouldn’t be necessary. But the fact that the industry is designed to ensure continually higher profits instead of ensuring quality health care has forced this upon us.

I’ve mentioned before how the “conservatives” turned working people against the poor and mike recites the lesson well.

I’m covered* as a military retiree, so I guess I shouldn’t care about others or the overall burden on the economy of the current system?

* The retiree medical program is continually being changed to decrease coverage and increase out of pocket expenses so at some point it may be as useless as the tricare retiree dental program (TRDP) that is pretty much the same as every other delta dental program.

Seriously, this country with it’s “We’re Number One” bullshit should be asking themselves why we spend more on healthcare but, are 37th on the list of countries who provide healthcare to their citizens. Somehow “We’re Number 37″ just doesn’t have any real umph!

Many thanks to all who have commented here. You’ve elaborated what I’ve been feeling on this matter, and done so more eloquently than I could.

@PPP: Thank you thank you thank you. “You are already paying for other people’s health care. You don’t really believe that your $12000 yearly premium is covering only you, do you?” This is what I keep telling people: we already HAVE publicly funded health care. It’s just funded really, really badly.

PPP, usually you drive me insane. That response, however, was PURE GOLD.Hats off to you and thanks for posting.

I can’t even reply- on my way out to the porch.

Everyone here is being so hateful! I’m absolutely on board with Bob’s message: we need public health care; we have to fight for it (because the industry is so insidious and corrupt); the wingnut Mike is downright wrong in his appraisal of both the current situation, and how public healthcare would affect him.But here’s what I don’t like: the attacks in these comments against Mike are totally counter productive. Calling Mike “a dumbass,” “a nazi,” “an ignorant redneck fuck,” etc. does nothing but inflame the wingnuts even further, pushing them towards irrational and dangerous behavior.I’m not saying any of the points you commenters made are bad arguments, but I worry when the dialog stoops to such lows. The name calling, in my opinion, undermines the efficacy of your words.Remember: IT’S NOT GUYS LIKE MIKE WE NEED TO BEAT — we already showed they’re in the minority this last election. IT’S THE CEO’S OF THE INSURANCE COMPANIES, AND THE POLITICIANS THEY’VE BOUGHT OFF WE’RE FIGHTING!!!!!

The thing that strikes me is that these people are only worried about themselves and their family. It’s all about ME ME ME. Who cares about the other guy?I’ll bet that if this guy comes down with cancer or some chronic illness, his entire attitude will change.

Bob, Send Nano’s too.

Well, to be fair, Bob, socialized health care isn’t “free”, as you claim in your article, any more than the police are free, or the roads. They get paid for through taxes, which is why countries that have universal health care (which is pretty much everywhere, at least pretty much everywhere anyone would want to live) have higher taxes than the US. Canadian income taxes are quite a bit higher than in the US, and taxes in European countries are even higher still – but then, university tuition is commonly zero in Europe.Having said that, it’s absolutely a case of getting what you’re paying for. I’d pay more in tax if it meant that money would never be an obstacle (let alone an insurmountable barrier) to getting necessary health care, or to being able to get the highest level of education that one is capable of. Or efficient public transit systems, for that matter.Plus the fact that US income taxes + health insurance premiums is probably pretty close to Health Care Country income tax.

Mike’s a bedwetting crybaby closet case. Is that “hateful” enough for anyone?But seriously, what PPP said. Although I can see the response from Mike, “But at least the people I pay for aren’t lazy ni-(bong)*.”* See Blazing Saddles – the new sheriff is a ni-(bong).

>>>Plus the fact that US income taxes + health insurance premiums is probably pretty close to Health Care Country income tax.If by “pretty close” you mean way, way more. Sure, they pay more in taxes, but that’s because private healthcare costs are minimal in those countries. The good ol’ US of A is first in total healthcare expenditures. France, for instance, pays about 1/2 of what we do per capita for healthcare, while getting way, way more for it.PS Dr Squid, I think he said ‘the sheriff is near!’ lol.

Mike,You ignorant piece of stuck in 1972 piece of shit. If I knew you and saw this dripping off the toilet paper “opinion” -hey! amoebas have opinions but all you offer is a load of foul bacterium laden pile of disgustipated crap -I would say it to your face. And then I would be forced to decide to reason with you or pull the trigger.I would ask you “isn’t it true that people believe what they want to believe?” And your answer would determine your fate.You have no idea brother. None. Not an iota. All you have is your belief system and it’s pretty much full of hate that you’ve allowed to coagulate in that cesspool heart of yours.Here you go. Pull the trigger yourself. Do it. A very good friend once told me that when a person dies, in spite of all the good, bad and the ugly, at least 6 people benefit from that person’s passing. And if the person was bad, willfully ignorant, evil, or refused to change or grow as a person, nobody benefited, yet dozens would be relieved.roxsteady:Just give the gun to Mike and let him do it for us. You’re right: we should kill the stupid dumbasses simply because they threaten to make life worse for all of us.Signed,Someone made disabled TWICE by America’s great health care mafia. If anyone should be bitter it should be me. But I’m not, unfortunately. I simply got off of my death bed TWICE to find my self unwilling and completely unable to tolerate the intolerable stupid fucking assholes like my brother Mike.

This really exemplifies the whole right-wing objection to public health insurance: if people don’t have health insurance already, it’s because they’re lazy, stupid fuckups who don’t deserve it. All of the nonsense about the cost of the public option is a smokescreen; what Bob is saying is exactly what most Republican legislators are thinking.It just stuns me that so many Republicans can wax rhapsodic over the plight of the freedom-loving people in Iran, but they don’t want to help their fellow citizens.

It’s people who are working (or recently not working) who aren’t covered. If you’re poor, you qualify for Medicaid – paid for by that 1.25% tax on working people’s wages…And this is the 2nd or 3rd time this week I’ve agreed with 3P. It’s getting a bit creepy….

Mike W.I’m not sure what English-speaking has to do with it except to convince everyone else that you’re not really concerned about health care at all.How much time have you spent at your local Work Source Office lately? Or reading the want ads? They’re full of people looking for jobs that aren’t there. Have you noticed how many businesses closed because of the policies of the previous administration? Spend a little time asking those people on the porch how easy it is to find a job, much less one that provides health insurance before you suggest that people that aren’t working are lazy.The wonderful thing about helping each other? Your dollar won’t go far, but put it with my dollar, and Bob’s dollar, and everyone else’s dollar, and we can fix the road, build a school, and pay for health care. That’s what you were supposed to learn in church but obviously didn’t.

(*UNINSURED*)Serious capitalists ought to love this idea, where everyone can get treatment for illness no matter how catastrophic. Off the books! But no.Too many ill informed and sadly misanthropic fucks go along with the royalist notion that you’re on your own. I am on my own, but I contribute to society too, you misanthropic fucks. I’m even employed. You’re welcome.No, not good enough? Fake insurance would cost me more than my house and car and food. No thanks.Empathy is for SUCKERS.(*UNINSURED*)

Mike-

As others have already pointed out the most obvious problem with your letter (that you ARE paying for other people’s health care under your private plan) I won’t belabor the subject. As for your other comments…

“I have not had unreliable coverage. I have not been randomly booted from a plan. I am quite content with the health insurance I currently have.”

I’m glad you haven’t had these problems. But I’m also betting your family has had the good fortune of never suffering through a long-term illness or a serious injury. My family has not been so lucky. My mom was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis about 15 years ago, a debilitating autoimmune disease. She has been wheelchair-bound (actually, she’s usually bedridden now) for most of that period and requires constant care because of a litany of health problems associated with the disease. The disease alone would be enough of a nightmare, even without our problems with Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

My dad makes about $80,000 per year as a systems analyst/consultant, but he has been working a second job as a community college teacher for several years to help pay for my mom’s astronomical medical bills. Even with this extra income, he is constantly on the verge of insolvency. How is this possible when my mom is covered by my dad’s plan? Because the insurance company tries its damnedest to pay for as little of her care as possible.

My dad frequently fights with the insurance company to pay for things they’re supposed to be covering, but can seemingly arbitrarily deny. This is the fundamental flaw with private insurance companies in terms of safeguarding public health. Generally speaking, a business’ primary objective is maximizing shareholder wealth. For many industries, this is fine. But health insurance is supposed to protect families from being crippled by medical bills and private insurance companies simply do not do that because they want to profit.

My question to you, Mike, is what is to stop this from happening to you?

“Maybe the redneck needs to haul a chord of wood because he cannot afford his heating bill, because we have to buy our fuel from the Middle East, because someone doesn’t want to drill domestically, and the faggy hybrid piece of crap won’t carry but 2 logs. You people.”

Same issue as above. The oil industry earns billions and billions of dollars each year, and oil companies already own a great deal of American land on which they aren’t drilling. Furthermore, expanding domestic drilling operations is putting a band-aid on gunshot wound. Oil is a finite resource that is horrible for the environment. The world’s population is dramatically increasing and its oil consumption will rise accordingly. We need energy independence because oil won’t be around forever, and the sooner we make these changes, the better off we’ll all be.

Furthermore, if someone can’t afford his heating bill, maybe he should also take advantage of government incentives to winterize his house or install solar panels to cut down on his utility bills instead of burning wood.

“I’m waiting for the day Obama asks all you sheeple to drink some of his Jim Jones flavored cyanide laced Jungle Juice, so we REAL Americans can dig our country out of the hole you communists have buried us in.”

We both know the Republican party was in charge for the past eight years. I have a great deal of difficulty seeing how you can realistically blame our country’s problems on “communists.”

Mike,Just a couple more thoughts to add.My family has been fortunate and always had health-care. Unfortunately, I discovered after I had 2 children that I inherited my mother’s autoimmune syndrome which I recently discovered I have passed on to my daughter. Even with insurance, 20% of all those medical bills, even with both myself and my husband working, plus co-pays for prescriptions that added up to $500+/month, made it impossible for us to save much if anything. With the meltdown on Wall Street, thanks to the Republicans, the equity in our home (our pension), and my husband’s 401k (which might support us for a couple of months) gone, means he won’t get to retire.I recently earned a masters degree, planning to go to work to become the primary breadwinner, but hey, guess what? Who wants to hire a 50 something woman with what will probably be higher insurance rates? My husband has Medicare already, but I’m not old enough. I worked sporadically (you know, staying home off and on to raise my children?) so don’t qualify for SSDI and have too many assets to qualify for SSI. I guess I could divorce my husband… Now there’s family values for you!If my husband loses his job, very likely as he works for a small manufacturing plant, we couldn’t afford to pay for COBRA as it costs 2/3 as much as his SS check. I’m supposed to have some tests for what is possibly cancer, but because I’m unemployed, we can’t afford our part of the costs or what it would cost for treatment in any case. Plus, I don’t want that diagnosis on my record until I have a job that has health care so it isn’t a pre-existing condition.We’re already skating on thin ice with our insurance company. Every time I go to one of my 6 doctors, or fill one of my 10 prescriptions, I have to fill out forms justifying the visit/procedure/expense even though it is nothing new. The doctor’s staff has to fill out extra paperwork for me at each visit for me to send in. I’ve asked, and nobody else my husband works with has to do this. One of the nurses husbands at one of my doctor’s offices works with my husband so has the same insurance. She’s never seen anyone have to do the same amount of paperwork or go through so much hassle for coverage as I do. I’ve had the insurance company change the dose of my medications, change the quantity of pills I receive each month (even though it’s illegal) and force me to take a generic (even though it is not the same as the brand) (also illegal) even though I was willing to pay the higher co-pay.So Mike. I’m truly glad that you and your family appear to be healthy and apparently have had no problems with your coverage. I am grateful that you apparently have job security and a good health plan (by any chance do you work for the government? or a union?). I don’t know anyone of any race, ethnicity, or class who is willingly sitting on their porch waiting for everyone else to provide for them. I work (when I can find it) with the poor and homeless, and they are for the most part, mentally ill, self-medicating, and have stories that if you knew, would change your world view forever. Or not. You’d have to open your ears first.

“Jungle Juice”?! Are you fucking kidding me?!