Buffalo Boy's Blog
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Recently in healthcare Category
Subsidizing COBRA Isn't Welfare
Congress has shot down one of the healthcare subsidies that since last year was allowing those who were laid off, fired or recently unemployed to get up to 65% of their COBRA payments subsidized by the government.
Someone tell me why this a bad thing? For those of you who have been laid off or have been faced with losing your health insurance from your employer you understand where Im coming from. Last summer my wife and I faced that and her employer wouldn't apply the subsidy to her COBRA. It was either pay $1000 per month out of pocket for family coverage for the two of us or lose our health insurance.
The guy in the above article is facing losing his job and will have to pay $1500 per month, more than a lot of peoples mortgages, just to keep his health insurance for his family.
How does a family afford that when one person is laid off?
This isn't welfare folks. This is human decency that there is some sort of subsidy to keep these people insured. This is where it comes down to my opinion that healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. In countries like Canada they obviously value their citizens more than we do, they have a right to affordable healthcare through their government. Ours takes it away. Healthcare for all citizens isn't socialism. Its called altruism. Unconditionally caring about every human being especially those that are citizens of this country.
Category: Politics | healthcare
She Can't Be Serious: Bartering for Healthcare????
This has seriously got to be disturbing for healthcare providers across the country if this Sue Lowden is serious. She is running for Harry Reid's senate seat in Nevada. I don't know what part of Nevada she is from but they must not have running water or electricity yet because this clueless bimbo is still back in the 1800's.
Her ideas on healthcare instead of what was just passed for healthcare reform? Bartering. Thats right...if someone can't afford to pay for their healthcare they can trade something for their healthcare services they get like a ....get this...a chicken.......
Im a physical therapist who enjoys getting paid in cash, not in someones old trash they want to trade me instead of my hard earned pay check. If someones livestock is accepted payment on my mortgage in 2010 I say great idea. But something tells me when I go to pay my national fuel bill they won't accept Mrs. Smith's quilt she just made as payment on my heat bill. If this Sue Lowden keeps up this crazy talk I hope voters send her a nice little message and send Harry Reid back to the senate.Category: Politics | healthcare
Violent Threats Over Health Bill?
Is this going too far? Threats of gun violence over a healthcare bill? This is basically admitting that your are willing to shoot people to get your way, that is domestic terrorism and for this sign this guy should be arrested on the spot.
Its a threat of violence, that is enough to issue an arrest warrant is it not? We are talking about healthcare not warfare, Does this healthcare bill really threaten you that much? Its not perfect but its not going to threaten you physically, if it needs to be fixed they will fix the bill, hopefully to help the people.
Category: healthcare
FINALLY!
Well after a year of bickering and fighting and lies from the repukes and mismanagement of the argument from the president and democrats here we are, healtcare reform has passed.
I'll write more later but for now all Im going to say is that this bill, while not perfect by any stretch (it didn't go far enough for liberals/democrats) was and is necessary. There is no argument from the other side that private insurance companies have raped the middle class and poor of this country and are killing small business with ever increasing rates and people losing insurance for getting sick.
The wait is over, time will tell if this bill will be worth the wait, if it needs to be tweeked now it can and hopefully the first tweek is getting the public option in it somehow.
For the repukes out there, you lost. The majority of Americans, we being the democratic/liberals of this country won, live with it or leave. Personally, I would rather have fewer of the republican variety that scorns parkinson's patients but hey what do I know.
Category: healthcare
Passing Healthcare
Where were advertisements like this back in July and August when the teabaggers were crashing the townhall meetings on healthcare?
Is it too little too late to get this thing passed? I think both sides republican and democrat are hoping this bill does what they say it is going to do, cut costs/debt and hold private insurance companies accountable while providing some competition to the private industry.
I hope Obama and the democrats are right too:
Because if this bill works, it shuts these scumbags up:Category: Politics | healthcare
Flu Shot: Never Again
This past October was the first and let me be up front....THE LAST TIME I ever get a flu shot. Why? Because I got it anyway.
I was forced to get it because I work in healthcare and next year if the same crap goes down I will make phone calls and fight it because despite getting one this year I still somehow miraculously got....the flu.
I know I am going to catch shit for this post and I fully expect Mike Boon who is a big supporter of flu shots to come and leave his comment, so fire away, I don't care. The fact is why should I be forced into getting something injected into me that may or may not work?
Folks, the regular flu shot is a crap shoot. Researchers take an educated guess as to what strain is going to make its way around in the upcoming flu season and they cross their fingers and go with it.
I don't care what the state tells me I have to do next year, Im better off fighting this stuff off with my own immune system. Nothing replaces a good diet and strong immune system built up naturally, why are doctors so afraid to prescribe antibiotics yet so willing to give a flu shot when you're not even sick? Im not sold and after this year will never be sold on flu shots.
Its fear mongering at its best, turning us all into a bunch of "germ-o-phobs or phobes". So, next year folks I'm using common sense instead of bowing to public frenzys and the frantic news media that feeds into it all.
I am also probably making poor use of this song by Filter, but to the flu shot fanatics, here is a sarcastically toned "Hey Man Nice Shot", thanks for nothing.Category: Miscellaneous | healthcare
How Did Healthcare Get So Screwed Up?
Scott Brown, the republican candidate who won Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts, didn't win because democrats or liberals changed sides, he won because they stayed home. This had nothing to do with out bad the current healthcare bills are, it had everything to do with the fact that they don't do enough for liberals and democrats and they sent a message by staying home. Independents sent up a big middle finger to Obama and voted for Brown because they figure they won't get healthcare anyway.
So my question is this: Mr. Obama, with just about every independent voter, every liberal and democrat out there at your feet, why did you screw up healthcare? You screwed it by not going for the gusto from the start.
When you go in to negotiate your salary at your job you don't go in to negotiate at your current salary. Thats exactly where we started. Obama should have started with single payer, Medicare for all and that would have had all of us in support.
The proposal for single payer medicare for all is on the Physicians for National Health Program website and its about 8 pages long, not thousands of pages. It would have been simple to explain and would have avoided all the fear mongering by Repukes who did nothing to contribute to whats on the table except bitchfest and teabag anything good out of the bill including the only sign of hope, the public option right out of it.
Mr. Obama, we are pissed off as liberals and democrats, not because we don't believe in you, but we believe you are weak right now. Be strong and go for what we voted you in for, CHANGE!. This wishy washy bipartisan crap has to stop. Where is Howard Dean when we need him? He was on the TV a few weeks ago but geez Mr. Dean get in the President's ear a little and steer him in the right direction.
This mess could have been avoided last February by going all the way on Healthcare. Now its a cluster fuck and we may not get any reform. Have any of you looked at your healthcare premiums lately? They are going up and up and up, where does it stop?
If Obama had been strong on healthcare and started with single payer we'd be energized and probably would have had Joe Liebermans head on a platter and Ted Kennedy's Senate seat would be safe and in the hands of a democrat.
If you start at single payer and negotiate to public option everyone is happy. Maybe we don't get the single payer that we want but its a step in the right direction. Now we have an insurance bill that continues to benefit the private insurance companies and decreases Medicare. Its maddening and I put all the blame on Obama, get some guts man. This was year one, you have three more years to get this done. Anyone who says that healthcare reform is dead needs to be taken out and beaten, its not dead, its just a bad bill, start over and insist on single payer from the get go.
Category: Politics | healthcare
Franken Plays Hardball for Dems
Finally, FINALLY! Someone in the democratic party plays a little hard ball with the repukes. Yes I know Joe Leiberman is technically a democrat but what this move by Al Franken and Senate democrats says is thanks but no thanks Joe.
Seriously, I respect Al Gore a lot, but what ever possessed him to pick this sniveling, little prick like Leiberman back in 2000 as a running mate? Could you imagine if Al Gore had won in 2000, this is really pushing the envelope but, Joe "The Ho" Leiberman could have been a very viable presidential candidate in 2008 and we could be looking at this bought off bag of sleeze running our country.....Yikes.
Yeah thats right Joe shut the hell up, and while your at it, take that crabby old bastard John McCain with you, you can both go cuddle with each other under an Arizona cactus. What did Joe Leiberman expect? The repukes probably under his direction had the Bernie Sander's single payer bill read on the floor on Wednesday just to waste time!!!! Seriously, I know there are republicans/conservatives who read my blog but ask yourselves one thing here, can you name one idea, one constructive idea the republicans have contributed to the healthcare bill? From day one President Obama has bent himself over so far backwards that hes now got his own head firmly entrenched in his ass and has pissed off his entire base just to have the republicans involved in the healthcare bill. Obama ran on single payer, that was what he ran on, but he started negotiating by not even having the single payer bill at the table much to the dismay of those who elected him. He made the first move in negotiating this bill, yet from day one republicans in both the house and the senate have bitch slapped the president and the democrats with lies and obstructionist tactics instead of actually trying to come up with ideas to insert into the bill. As far as I am concerned I applaud Al Franken for providing a little piss and vinegar for the first time on the democratic side and giving the republicans a little of their own medicine. The Repukes continue to be no ideas and all obstructionism. Maybe they should rename the republican party to the Obstructionist party, or the Idealess party, both fit.Category: Politics | healthcare
Merry Christmas Big Pharma/Insurance
Category: News | Politics | healthcare
Health Insurance Greed
Wellpoint is an insurance company that is wildly profitable. They recently sued the state of Maine because according to them they had to raise premiums on the 12,000 members in the state of Maine by over 18% in order to make enough money.
Meanwhile, Wellpoint spends close to 10 million a year on lobbyists blocking healthcare reform and their CEO sits pretty with a $9.8 million salary, all while the company makes huge profits by denying members care they need and making it impossible for small businesses to provide insurance to their employees. This is unbelievable that this kind of company is allowed to operate like this in the healthcare industry. Profiting off the sick. Absolutely disgusting.Category: healthcare
