LOL! Alaskan caller to C-SPAN

[njlib]

says those who oppose the public option have never had to deal with an insurance company. The moderator asks if he thinks government can run healthcare better than the insurance companies. His answer: "A cage full of monkeys could run healthcare better than the insurance companies"!!

:applause:

[ShortnFiery]

1. Excellent Quip ... Oh So True!

:thumbsup:

[njlib]

2. A woman in the healthcare industry

supports the public option and is discussing what she sees on a daily basis. She's seen the insurance company deny coverage for anesthesia for a c-section because it wasn't medically necessary! How can regular people not support getting insurance companies out of the mix?

[KatyMan]

3. regular people do

it's the morons and insurance shills that don't. Unfortunately, they get the most attention.

[njlib]

5. I know a few regular people who don't

and that's what I really can't understand. I've been engaging in spirited Facebook debate with some of them and it just boggles my mind when I see how they think. At one point, I mentioned something about the CEO's getting their million dollar bonuses after denying care to the sick. The reply I received said "Hello...it's a business and CEO's make money! I guess you'd want athletes and entertainers to give up their million dollar salaries, too". Talk about teh stoopid in action!

I responded with "That's the problem. Healthcare SHOULD NOT be a business! Do I think people should be paid $10 million to hit a ball or act in a movie? No, I don't. Athletes & entertainers make their money because the team owners & studios can afford to pay them. We buy tickets to their games & their merchandise...we go to see their movies. You can't compare going to a ball game or going to see a movie with being treated for a heart condition or diabetes. What do insurance companies contribute to actual healthcare in this country to justify the money they make?"

I never received a reply...wonder why?

[KatyMan]

7. They never reply

when confronted with facts or reason. If it doesn't fit into their worldview, it's a lie.

[JHB]

dupe

[JHB]

14. They write you off as not being "realistic"...

put it in "business" terms. Instead ask them "They're a middleman and they're not adding value. Why shouldn't they be cut out?" And since everybody needs health care at one point or another, then why don't we treat it like water or power, with publicly-owned or private-but-highly regulated utilities? Let the insurance companies go back to what they're supposed to do -- selling insurance against catastrophic loss -- instead of milking a cash cow (and that cash cow would be YOU, dummy).

You won't convince them that health care is a right, but you can pursuade some that it's a damn good idea. (Viruses don't give a damn about your paperwork.)

[njlib]

15. I tried to explain it that way

when someone else asked "Why do you support it? What's in it for you?", which is EXACTLY the problem here! My response was "Just because you're healthy or have insurance now, doesn't mean things might not be different in a year. Anything can happen to any one of us at any time. We have no idea what kind of situation we'll each be in 1 year or 5 years from now. This is something that's going to benefit EVERYBODY, not one person over another." That person never responded either!

[ejpoeta]

25. and at the time that you really need that insurance is not the time you want to find out

that you weren't covered like you thought you were. That's what's happening to people. People who HAVE insurance... they have paid their premiums... tried to do the right thing and then when something happens, the insurance company screws them over. When you are lying in a hospital bed facing cancer or some other seriously critical situation is NOT the time you want to be wondering IF your insurance is going to come through. And how are you going to fight them when you are trying to keep yourself alive!! These insurance companies are counting on people who haven't actually needed to use their insurance to not see what their neighbors down the street are having to struggle with or maybe an aunt or uncle or sibling.... they get some sort of tunnel vision blocking the possibility that they are walking on quicksand and gambling that they won't get sucked in. For some it's like not opening your bills... if you ingore it it isn't happening or won't happen.... but it will.... sooner or later we all have that accident we never saw coming... or we get that diagnosis of some lump somewhere that they have to test. Do we want our first thoughts to be of our family and how we are going to fight it.... or, how am I going to pay for this.

[Ikonoklast]

21. Ask them if they could save money by buying directly from a manufacturer,

for a small set fee, cutting out the middleman or broker.

Instead of paying the amount set by the broker for the goods or services; which can be an arbitrary amount, based on whatever he thinks he can get away with, ask them if they'd rather pay a set percentage fee as commission to cover the paperwork involved and pay a salary to those that handle the transaction, and keep the difference in their own pockets?

For the exact same services, mind you. Nothing has changed, except the way the transaction is handled.

They will always, without question, answer 'yes'.

Then you have them. They agree with your argument.

[njlib]

4. Another caller

just said her sister had her insurance dropped because her bone cancer was "a pre-existing condition". Disgusting!

[gratuitous]

6. Excellent answer to the moderator's loaded question

Government runs any number of programs quite well, really. How often do you hear about corruption in the Fish and Wildlife Department? Or the Fire Bureau? And what you do hear about is ferreted out and dealt with, not by a board of friendly directors who are pals with the CEO, but concerned citizens. Some of those citizens are angry cranks, but a lot more of them are ordinary people who want the best out of their governmental services. And the government, if it wants to keep running, has to respond in some fashion to the citizens, even the angry cranks.

How do insurance companies deal with angry cranks? How do they deal with legitimate complaints? Is there any difference? Bring on the cage full of monkeys.

[ejpoeta]

10. and it's almost like they've got you by the balls because you have to have some sort of

healthcare.. and most of us can't qualify for medicaid or even a state family health insurance. we were lucky that our kids could qualify for child health plus without having to be without insurance for six months.... your health isn't like going to a movie or a ball game.... you can go without entertainment. and they get their money for providing a service.... if they don't give good customer service or their customers are not satisfied, then they lose customers. In the insurance industry, they make their money by NOT providing the service they promised to provide. And they know that you don't have much choice, so who cares about customer service. Imagine if you went to the ballgame or a movie and you sat down in the seats and then they said, oh, well.... we aren't going to provide you with the game or movie. AND we are keeping the money too. If they pulled that, then you would have legal recourse against them. But insurance companies can get away with it. THAT's why you can't use the same business model you would use for sports or movies or anything else when dealing with health.

[ejpoeta]

8. that is SOO funny!! glad to hear that someone who can say it so anyone could understand

got on the air. LOL! a cage full of monkeys... lol

[KharmaTrain]

9. It Really Is Two Worlds Out There...

Many who oppose healthcare reform or feign not to know enough have never had to directly deal with this corrpt and frustrating system. Most have been lucky to have good health and most never have taken the time to see how much of their money is being sucked by insurance cause it's done through their paychecks.

Then there was the caller who bitched about all the people who'd be out of work if the insurance companies were reigned in. Now it's bad for the economy to have a healthier country? Also, if the government expands medical coverage, they're gonna need new bodies to handle the paperwork. Sheesh...short sighted and self absorbed.

[ejpoeta]

11. and i think in some states the restrictions placed on insurance companies by the state

create an invisible buffer that people take for granted and don't realize are only there BECAUSE of the government forcing them to be there. In NY there are regulations requiring things to be covered and at least for mental health copays that they be the same as specialist copays. I am sure they have other restrictions. I know my brother listens to limbaugh and beck and froths at the mouth about government... but his wife and son have asthma.... that alone could get them unable to get insurance in some states. and i bet he LOVES the idea of buying insurance over state lines. He doesn't realize how royally he would be screwing himself and his family if that were the case. And if the state didn't make insurance companies here follow certain rules. But there is no talking to him. He refuses to listen to anything anyone says.

The thing that gets me the most is that if nothing is done... things are only going to get worse. And people like my brother will be the first ones bitching that the government isn't doing anything to stop the insurance companies from screwing us over and raising the rates all the time. All these idiots out there with their misspelled signs will be the first ones complaining that no one is fixing the healthcare problem. I can almost guarantee it.

[KharmaTrain]

12. They'll Also Be The First In Line...

It can't be said enough how it is both amazing and tragic how so many rushpublicans vote against their own best interests. They hear the talking points and find comfort is living in a bubble of "self-assurance" as they get their daily affirmations from hate radio and teevee. So many have been brainwashed by a lifetime of slogans and boogiemen that now allow them to be manipulated in such contorted and illogical ways.

You are correct...many states are far more active in healthcare than the federal...also they've taken the biggest hits. Much of the big defecits being rung up by the states are the large number of unfunded mandates the boooosh regime left it combined with that destructive tax cut to the rich that meant less tax money on the state level as well...plus add to that the sharp drop in property and retail taxes. These losers want...or should I say...feel entitled to services yet never want to pay for them. It fits the profile of being both arrogant and selfish...the "value" that all these wingnuts seem to share.

Cheers...

[njlib]

17. You couldn't be more right, KharmaTrain

I don't understand how so many with so little can keep siding with those that have so much! I've had debates with people before where I've told them that the odds are they're NEVER going to end up being a CEO, never going to make millions, never going to have a mansion & a yacht (sorry Fudds). Why do they continue to vote against themselves? I've also pointed out that repubs use abortion as a wedge issue. They had the legislative & executive branches for how long, appointed conservative justices to the Supreme Court, so why abortion is still legal? They're being used & lied to, so why do they continue to support that party? Don't usually get many responses to those questions either...which just aggravates me even more!

[njlib]

16. Not only that

but my former employer, 18 or 19 employees, was paying close to $15k/month for medical/dental. What's $15K x 12 months/year? That's quite a nice chunk of change that can be put back into the business, employees can be hired, raises/bonuses can be given. Why should that money go for some CEO's vacation home? How many small employers would save thousands each year? What kind of boost would that give to the economy?? This is such a no-brainer, I really don't understand the opposition of certain groups of citizens.

[laughingliberal]

20. The same people who didn't think we should help the auto companies

and did not care about all the people that would be put out of work in that industry which actually produces something other than misery for its customers.

[njlib]

23. Exactly

Insurance company workers could be brought into administration of the public option. I read something last week that said 445,000 people are employed by health insurance companies, so a very large chunk of those people could be used to process the large amount of claims through the public option. They'd pretty much be doing the same job, just with a different signature on their paycheck. That's completely different from someone who's worked an assembly line for 20 years.

[xchrom]

13. kicking for 'a cage full of monkeys'. nt

[njlib]

19. LOL

Don't monkeys also do as good or better than the "experts" when it comes to playing the stock market?

[xchrom]

22. i think chickens do too -- but monkeys are probably more fun. nt

[njlib]

24. Chickens & monkeys would not only do a better job

but they'd be HONEST...unless they rigged the chickenfeed & banana futures markets!

LOL...I just thought of the Careerbuilder commercials with the monkeys in the cubicles and in the boardroom with the sales charts!

[Bluenorthwest]

18. That caller should be in charge of communications

for the reform movement.