"We're worth more dead than we are alive..."

[Skidmore]

Did anyone else hear the letter Contessa Brewer just read on MSNBC about the guy with liver disease and his wife with a rare form of cancer who had decided to find parents for their children so they could die and not leave their children in penury? Both had been turned down by their insurer even though they paid $1000/mo in premiums. The man was told by the hospital that they would not "waste a liver" on him because his total worth could not bankroll the transplant cost. He and his wife wanted to know why the lives of legislators are worth more than theirs, especially since legislators have access to caddilac plans which would probably cover them.

[phantom power]

1. I think the Conservative view would be that this is the System Working...

Just a couple of parents making a Rational Economic Decision.

:woohoo:

[aquart]

2. They have insurance?

Arrest the insurers for attempted murder.

[Skidmore]

3. Yes, they have insurance and were turned down for the care they

needed when they they sought care.

[liberalhistorian]

5. And yet Baucus would force us all to be

under the "care" of such robber barons, who make their profits off of the rest of us AFTER they've taken all the premium monies and done NOTHING with it. No fucking thank you.

[Double T]

4. Where are the government run death panels when you need them?

The parts have always been worth more than the sum.

[Greyhound]

6. To the Greatest Page (for now). n/t

[Horse with no Name]

7. This is precisely what "tort reform" has turned out to be in Texas

I've seen several cases of gross negligence not being considered worthy of a lawsuit because the people didn't have the net worth to make their lives "worth" suing for in the eyes of the law.
I just heard of one that made my heart break--it wasn't "just another patient". It was a girl that I went to school with. Very popular and pretty and nice...a rare combination.
I was talking to her sister--someone that I haven't seen in many years since my first and last attendance at a class reunion, but when I inquired how her sister was, she proceeded to tell me a horrific story.
Her sister had a rare congenital malformation that nobody had ever detected. Apparently, her blood pressure shot up and this malformation ruptured in her brain, causing bleeding. She ended up at a major FOR PROFIT hospital (based in Tennessee) and when they put a tracheostomy tube in, apparently the inner cannula of the tube was too small and she aspirated it into her trachea, causing her to suffocate. In any other world--that is malpractice. But in Texas, the family was told they should be "grateful" because she was uninsured and now they wouldn't be burdened with making "tough decisions" on her care.:wtf:
No lawyer would touch it because she didn't have underage children and wasn't married and didn't have a career that paid her a substantial amount of money. She was just a "nothing" in the eyes of the law.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

8. kick

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Why I keep saying we are a third world country

all illusions to the side

[babylonsister]

10. I heard it; it was heartbreaking. nt

[skygazer]

11. What is it we're paying for when we puchase insurance?

I'm a little fuzzy on that.

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. We pay a thousand dollars a month to be able to only be charged

a 20 dollar co-pay on an office visit.

[elehhhhna]

12. Introducing the DIY Death Panel! Save time and money!!!

[Skidmore]

13. Max Baucus and his Dobeedoo Boys just killed public option in

the Finance Committee. I hope these craven bastards choke on their duplicity.

[blueworld]

15. Ah yes, corporate for profit death panels, Mrs. Palin - are you listening?

Something similar happened to my mother years ago. Undoubtedly the anti-choice so-called "pro-lifers" will be screaming & holding tea parties over this abomination, right? Ho, ho, ho. Will Rush or shithead Beck do a program on it? Ha!

Perhaps these folks can find out if any of their employers EVER had a "dead peasant's life insurance" policy on them. Some of that tax-free windfall could be used to fund a liver & some chemo or take care of the kids!

I'm personally almost at the point of literal revolution. Every taxpayer in this country who's supported troops & education & freakin' Congress health care plans for decades must now drop dead & quit bitchin' because we can't support CEO's & Wall Street & bailouts & wars & black prisons AND the common welfare???? God help us.

[ehrnst]

16. Does anyone have a link? I want to share this with folks at work.

[sofa king]

17. We're worth more alive and healthy than we are sick.

That's why insurance only covers us when we're healthy, and drops us when we're sick.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

18. Rec