tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12310464.post4581252938740754781..comments2024-02-26T13:34:55.746-06:00Comments on Comrade Kevin's Chrestomathy: Don't Worry about the Donut Hole, First Put Down the DonutComrade Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393718048145784837noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12310464.post-66429743523109465912009-08-12T00:49:38.806-05:002009-08-12T00:49:38.806-05:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12310464.post-2112522405610781412009-08-10T13:29:12.260-05:002009-08-10T13:29:12.260-05:00Utah,
If you intend to immigrate to Canada, I rec...Utah,<br /><br />If you intend to immigrate to Canada, I recommend you start the process now. It's going to take you years and lots of hoops to jump through along the way. I wish you luck. I'm not being sarcastic here, just truthful. <br /><br />But as for the people opposing this plan, they are letting their short-sighted fear of big government get in the way of the great benefit they could receive in response. It's a kind of defeatist mentality that says "I'm not happy with what I have, but I'd rather keep it than take a chance on something that might be worse". <br /><br />I don't think we're a nation of idiots. I think we're a nation of cowards, frankly.Comrade Kevinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11393718048145784837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12310464.post-28418349413304513122009-08-10T13:20:09.960-05:002009-08-10T13:20:09.960-05:00Yes, Kevin, you and I would be deemed too expensiv...Yes, Kevin, you and I would be deemed too expensive to cover. And that is exactly what happened to me under a very costly private insurance company, United Healthcare (the company who was sued successfully for not covering patients at the going rate). the minute I got the bipolar diagnosis they doubled my already exorbitant premium and challenged every charge. On medicare, every charge is paid and no challenges to treatment or choice of doctor has ever been made. Why is this so hard for most Americans to understand? It's cheaper to administer since it just pays. It doesn't require the hiring of thousands of bean-counters to micro manage all charges from legitimate doctors prescribing reasonable treatment.<br /><br />The healthcare debate has made it crystal clear to me that we are a nation of idiots. "I don't want SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, and don't mess with my Medicare!" This statement is being made over and over by the too dumb to live set. Thank god I'm a recluse and don't actually have to try to talk to morons like that. But if this crap goes unchallenged, then they win, and we go another 30 years bankrupting the nation even more. If this thing doesn't pass with a public option, I don't think I'll be able to continue living in a country this stupid and backward. Oh Canada, here I come.Utah Savagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16385093247915560752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12310464.post-78872982847841348512009-08-10T13:02:19.552-05:002009-08-10T13:02:19.552-05:00Utah,
You raise many interesting points, as alwa...Utah, <br /><br />You raise many interesting points, as always. The most pertinent one is that preventative methods are not necessarily the way to avoid to keep from being stricken with something awful. Still, living more healthy will greatly cut down on the odds and until we have a better understanding of disease and genetics, odds are really all we have to play with right now. <br /><br />Whatever we mandated would have to be fully proven before I would go along with it. <br /><br />The conclusion I was trying to draw from this is that taxing the benefits of those who were the unhealthiest according to one definition would end up with the poorest residents footing most of the bill. And not only that, most of them would be from the south. <br /><br />But it wouldn't just be folks from south. It'd be poor, largely uneducated people from all over the country who'd pay this tax. You and I both know that if it came down to a strictly cost-effective matter, bipolar might be considered too costly for coverage. Since the brain is poorly understood, bipolar id a very difficult illness to effectively treat. So that discriminates against people with illnesses too complicated for medicine to easily understand. <br /><br />Lisa,<br /><br />Thank you for your encouraging comment, as always. :) The south is a paradoxical region shot through with a strange combination of irony and tragedy, and it's a wonder any of us who grow up here can maintain any semblance of sanity.Comrade Kevinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11393718048145784837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12310464.post-42543445142594627832009-08-10T12:17:56.154-05:002009-08-10T12:17:56.154-05:00I really enjoyed this post for its coverage of the...I really enjoyed this post for its coverage of the way we think about things. You're very right in your assertion that in the south there is a greater mixing of the races in ways those of us who live in the north don't acknowledge.<br /><br />Eating healthy is costly. There is no doubt about it. And it's no accident that we have a huge problem with things like high fructose corn sugar - something that is very much subsidized by our gov't and thus found in all kinds of foods.lisahgoldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11158660223296807317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12310464.post-18341849602545164842009-08-10T11:51:00.802-05:002009-08-10T11:51:00.802-05:00I have lived as if my life was worth nothing. I t...I have lived as if my life was worth nothing. I took every risk in the book, and since I was taught to smoke at five, why not take risks. I have tried to knock myself of a few times with pills or gas, getting better at it but never quite mastering the art of killing myself. I've alway loved anything covered in mayonnaise and accompanied by chips. I've had high blood pressure since my blood pressure was first taken in my late teens as part of a physical for college. It is a genetic trait as is vascular dementia and heart attack on both sides of my family. So is the bipolar disorder which, along with crazy parents has been the catalyst for my suicide attempts. I have tried the fast method for death and the slow method. But I seem fairly indestructible.<br /><br />My girlfriend, who claims to have been raised by the perfect parents, had a happy childhood and has lived the clean pure life of the lifelong vegetarian, who uses no drugs nor smoked has lung cancer and is very close to losing her life, in part because until early this year turned 65 and is now on Medicare and so is able to get the chemo and radiation necessary to save her life.<br /><br />Healthy living does not necessarily lead to a healthy life. And all the talk about rationing and euthanasia is insane nonsense designed to scare the ignorant into pressuring the politicians to vote against a public option. Oh the cost! they scream. However will we pay for it? We will tax the rich at a very high rate like the rest of the world. We will also tax corporations who would have had to pay for healthcare for all employees but have been dropping coverage and hiring part time workers to avoid paying a living wage and providing benefits. <br /><br />It is not possible to say who will get sick and who will not. Do we refuse treatment to people with genetic illnesses because they cost a lot. MS costs a lot. So does Lou Gehrig's disease. The real questions seems to me to be "How crazy and irrational are we as a country, and do we deserve to survive as a nation, if we are unwilling to provide healthcare to all our citizens even if they live in the Southern states?"Utah Savagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16385093247915560752noreply@blogger.com