The LuLac Edition #2529, October 2nd, 2013
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WRITE ON WEDNESDAY
HEALTH EXCHANGES HEALTH INSURANCE IS NOW A LONG-DESERVED RIGHT
The St. Louis Post Dispatch said it best regarding the new health exchanges. Thanks to the Times Leader for running this editorial in their paper.
Tuesday was a historic day in America.
Because too many Republicans in the U.S. House have lost touch with reality, the nation is hurtling toward a government shutdown that could create an economic meltdown. That’s irresponsible on an epic scale, but not historic.
Tuesday will be remembered for generations because for the first time in the nation’s grand history, health care is a right.
One could argue that Thomas Jefferson always meant it to be that way. Here’s what he and other founders wrote in the Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
For much of our nation’s history, including and up to the last day of September of 2013, those courageous and simple sentiments were not manifested in public policy.
America’s poor, even many of them who work for a living, were not equal, not when it came to health insurance. America’s sick, such as those with cancer and other ailments determined by insurance companies to be “pre-existing conditions,” didn’t have the same access to health care insurance.
That made health care a privilege, not a right.
It’s hard to pursue life, or happiness, without the ability to go to a doctor.
In fact, a study by scientists at Harvard Medical School proves it so. In 2009, researchers determined that a lack of health insurance contributes to 45,000 deaths a year in the U.S. Those are 45,000 people who cannot fulfill the Founders’ ideals because some Republicans have decided insurance company profits are more important that the nation’s well-being.
We have referenced that Harvard study several times on these pages because behind all the smoke and mirrors of the national political debate over the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, this is what it comes down to: life or death.
More people having health insurance means fewer unnecessary deaths. That’s good public policy.
Perhaps that’s why U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, last week briefly broke from the extremists in his party by stating the obvious for poor people who on this very day become eligible for government subsidized health insurance.
“The exchanges are there,” Mr. Blunt told the Springfield News-Leader last week. “People need insurance.”
It was hardly a ringing endorsement for the law Mr. Blunt has spent too many days fighting, but it was in stark contrast to the irresponsible and cynical behavior of Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder and other Republicans who actually told people not to sign up for that right they had earned through hard-fought congressional action, brave advocacy by President Barack Obama, and a Supreme Court that verified the law’s constitutionality.
Today, between 300,000 and 500,000 Missourians (depending on who is doing the figuring) can join millions of Americans who will have an opportunity over the next six months to obtain access to the health care they need. Their lives will be improved. Some lives will be saved. Yes, that’s historic.
The numbers should be even higher. There are 877,000 uninsured Missourians, but Republicans in the Legislature have callously refused to make many of them eligible for insurance they could obtain if they lived in Illinois or a majority of other states.
Be prepared: There will be delays on the exchanges at healthcare.gov. There will be complications.
Every glitch will be magnified by a Republican Party with nothing better to do than sabotage the nation’s government, refuse to pay its bills, and stand in the way of, well, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
In the meantime, though, there is hope. Go to healthcare.gov. Follow Mr. Blunt’s advice.
As of today, the exchanges are there. People need insurance.
St. Louis Post Dispatch
posted by David Yonki @ 11:21 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Health care is not a right.
It’s a valuable service provided by intelligent, hard-working professionals with years of painstaking education and training, people who, like other Americans, deserve equal protection under the law, people who, like other Americans, have a right to their own life, liberty, property and the pursuit of their own happiness.
Doctors, nurses, hospitals, drug-makers, and health insurers are no more “servants” of the masses, or even of those in need of health care, than are businessmen, bankers, teachers, journalists, or truck drivers servants of those who need their services. If you want to pay for the services of health care providers, simply do so; if you can’t afford it, try to negotiate a discount, or pay by installments, or seek access to private charity; but you have no “right” to take from health care providers what they’re not willing to supply.
This Census report says that within the borders of the United States as of 2007 there were 45.65 people without health insurance. But this number, according to the Census Bureau, included 9.73 million foreigners, leaving only 35.92 Americans who were uninsured.
In 2007 the Census Bureau also said that of these 35.92 million uninsured Americans the number includes 9.1 million people who earn more than $75,000 a year and simply choose not to purchase insurance.
If you factor in the 18 to 31 demo we have created this beast for significantly LESS than the 47 million people figure the government has foisted upon us.
So how do you folks who had their hours reduced to a part-timers 28 hour week feel?
Me? I ready for a REAL change.
Gotta love the GOP. Now they want to pick and choose which departments should be funded and reopened! They are responsible for this cluster.... and now they still want their way and nothing short of it. I'm reminded of the rich kid on the playground who if he didn't get his way took his ball and went home. Their actions are beyond belief. I wish they would just go home permanently! They failed to oust Obama and they have derailed the country with piss ant bills and childish behavior because they didn't achieve their #1 goal. Assholes all!!!
This has to be the dumbest column I ever read.
" In 2009, researchers determined that a lack of health insurance contributes to 45,000 deaths a year in the U.S."
Tell me how many fat ****s contribute to their own ill health and death by not taking care of themselves?
How many drunks, destroy their livers every year, again contributing to their own ill health and death?
How many smokers contribute to various forms of cancer and contribute to their own ill health and death?
The fact is that while not all health issues are within our control, many are, and many chose not to do a fucking thing about it.
They guzzle beer, eat processed meats and diet sodas and then scream to their doctor, "take care of me, take care of me."
46,000 is a drop in the bucket compared to the contributory negligence of most in this country.
So BLATANT it's hard to imagine.
Check out the official number that Health and Human Services wants Americans to dial when seeking health care.
Obamacare’s national call center really did list its number as 1-800-318-2596, helpfully spelling out President Barack Obama’s tendency to blatantly flip the bird in plain view.
1-800-3(F) 8(U) 2(C) 5(K) 9(Y) 6(O).
That’s 1-800-FUCKYO. Sadly, the Obama administration failed to swap the useless 1 for a more functional 8 to complete the heartfelt message.
Hey Barrack call me; 1-800-8796877
Tarone: use this!!!
Dave..please tell me why Obamacare is good for Americans who are uninsured. I would like an honest opinion from you if thats cool. I keep hearing a lot of hooing and hawwing from the right and i would like to hear the other side of this.
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