Can it get any crazier? Dick Armey suing Sebelius with reference to lack of CHOICE with Medicare

[Emit]

Dick Armey has had his government, tax-supported health care dating all the way back to when he was a University teacher in Texas, and then as a US Congressman and then as a retired government worker.

When his Medicare kicked in, he wanted to keep his own tax payer subsidized insurance and SSA/Medicare wouldn't let him - if you give up Medicare you give up SS retirement and vice versa. He wanted a government option! He couldn't get out of Medicare without losing his SS.

So now he's joined a suit charging the SSA and HHS (Brian Hall, et al. v. Kathleen Sebelius, et al.) challenging the agencies' decision to deny Social Security benefits to seniors who refuse to accept Medicare coverage.

His main beef? Lack of government option to choose the medical services that best meet their needs.

Via Bill Moyers, Bill Moyers on the Man Behind the March: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/2009/09/bill_moyers_on_taxpayer_tea_pa.html

More info, with a request for donations!:

Medicare Lawsuit

Filed on Oct.9, 2008, in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Brian Hall, et al. v. Kathleen Sebelius, et al. charges the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with improperly adopting illegal and coercive policies that deny otherwise eligible retirees their rightful Social Security benefits if those retirees choose not to enroll in Medicare.

Lead plaintiff Brian Hall and plaintiffs Richard “Dick” Armey, John Kraus, Lewis Randall, and Norman Rogers seek a restraining order and a temporary and permanent injunction prohibiting SSA and HHS from implementing policies that force American citizens to participate in Medicare, the federal government’s voluntary health insurance entitlement program.

In addition to the legal, due process, constitutional and discrimination issues raised in Hall v. Sebelius, the lawsuit also affects the freedom of individuals to choose the medical services that best meet their needs.

~snip~

http://thefundforpersonalliberty.org/about/medicare-lawsuit/

[elleng]

1. Wonder how much SS he's entitled to.

As a long-time Fed employee, mine is pretty small; receive Fed retirement, and SS for time not working for Fed.

[spanone]

2. their hypocrisy is astounding

[Emit]

4. Isn't it!

Jaw-dropping.

[troubledamerican]

14. In Nazi politics, Hypocrisy Is A Virtue

[CC]

3. Dick Armey is full of BS and

filing one of those frivolous lawsuits they so loved to whine about.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Is it just me or does anyone notice a problem with the date

and mention of Kathleen Seblius?

Medicare Lawsuit

Filed on Oct.9, 2008, in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Brian Hall, et al. v. Kathleen Sebelius, et al.

:shrug:

I was trying to see if Sebelius was involved in any of this back before the election in any kind of capacity while Governor of Kansas. Did he revise the suit and originally sued Republican HHS Sect'y Leavett and then switched to Sebilus after she was confirmed at the end of April 2009?

[gratuitous]

10. Captions for suits against federal agencies

The caption for a lawsuit against a federal agency often lists the head of the agency as the lead defendant; when the head of the agency changes, the caption is changed.

[bain_sidhe]

6. Oh, good.

Sorta joking. But sorta not... just imagine if this suit became the vehicle for opening up Medicare to anybody who wants to buy into it?

Granted, I'm just dreaming... but the quote "the lawsuit also affects the freedom of individuals to choose the medical services that best meet their needs" seems to me to be the sort of thing that people under 65 could argue as justification if they happen to think that Medicare is the medical service that best meets their needs.

[Emit]

7. The thought had crossed my mind, too

the irony abounds

[Faryn Balyncd]

8. These bastards (Zeke Emanuel as well) are SERIOUS & unrelenting in their quest to PRIVATIZE MEDICARE

The long term goal of PRIVATIZING MEDICARE is being fought on multiple fronts by corporatists that bill themselves as Republicans and Democrats, including high placed advisers related to our chief of staff.


We would be crazy to underestimate these bastards.




(K & R, by the way)

[Faryn Balyncd]

9. Armey is engaged in full scale JUDICIAL ACTIVISM - attempting to "legislate through the courts" as..

....the RW likes to say.


And with Scalia, Roberts, Thomas, etc in place, he's not going to stop.

[Festivito]

11. Is that their "needs" beyond actual health care?

Such as his political need to make a statement only understood by people who think they understand things even though there was nothing for them to understand.

[Faryn Balyncd]

12. Armey's goal is make Medicare NON-universal for elderly & open floodgates on MD NON-participation in

...Medicare.

If he achieves that, then Medicare will cease being universal for the elderly & will evolve into a mostly indigent program.

Then the Republicans can achieve what they have been falsely accusing Democrats of planning: cut funding to Medicare, thus rationing care for the indigent, while affluent elderly contract privately with non-participating physicians.

[Overseas]

13. K&R -- more disgusting GOP operations to crush that dreaded good government. //nt

[Qutzupalotl]

15. K&R