THIS is what has been missing from the debate on HCR~just maybe if the focus was on reality, we

[jillan]

may have actually won public support for true reform.

Get your hanky.....

The pain in Dan Abrams' leg throbbed so much he could barely stand.

Still, the 60-year-old Somerville resident, who friends say had just canceled his health insurance because of the tough economy, debated from a hospital emergency room whether he should stay and run up thousands of dollars in debt, or take antibiotics from home and hope they arrested the mysterious infection in his leg.

Fearing he could lose his home and flooring business, Abrams chose to leave Somerset Medical Center after a hospital physician said staying would "run him a lot of money," said Connie Dodd, a close friend who drove him to the hospital and heard the conversation. "I begged him to stay. But Dan's a proud man. Talk of all the bills got him scared."

When Connie and her partner, Cindy Weiss, brought Abrams dinner the next night, July 29, they found his lifeless body in bed. Weiss performed CPR but it was too late. "It was a nightmare," Dodd said.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-15/1260662707183190.xml&coll=1

Heartless bastards who say we don't need true reform
:cry: :cry:

[valerief]

1. It's almost like this is what our Senate wants for us. Die quickly. Grayson was right. nt

[jillan]

2. Why wasn't the debate framed on the people rather than the money?

There is a moral aspect here, and why the D's ignored that fact is beyond me.
Every day they should have been on that Senate floor with another story like this one.
The let the teabaggers take over the debate. And people like Abrams lose in the end.

[valerief]

3. Because it was always about the money to the insurance companies, not about the people.

We don't matter.

The Senate hates America.

[jillan]

4. It really feels that way.

[quiet.american]

8. Can't understand how you can say this. That is exactly what 'D's have been doing.

Democrats, from Pres. Obama, to Anthony Weiner, to Alan Grayson to Nancy Pelosi, have talked about how this effects people personally from day 1 of the beginning of this effort.

I would challenge anyone who thinks they haven't done so, to go over to C-Span.org and watch the daylong House debate on the House bill.

Go to Rep. Grayson's website: namesofthedead.com.

Watch the President's town halls and interviews on the subject.

It's just flat-out wrong to claim Democrats have ignored the moral aspect. In fact, I believe they have used that very term "moral" to stress why it is important to get this thing done.

[jillan]

9. Yes - there have been instances of this - Grayson has been the best - BUT

if you listen to the debate today around healthcare it's all about costs, cutting medicare, etc.

Somewhere the moral framing on this debate lost its way. Everytime the repugs say socialized medicine, the Dems should have done a better job of making the case as to why. Everytime, every sentence.

[quiet.american]

11. Take your point, but can't entirely agree.

In following this debate, it seems to me there's been much more than just a mention here or an instance there by Democrats in relating the human cost of doing nothing.

And now that the Blue Dogs/GOP have taken to justifying their opposition with their "concerns over costs," it would seem that that's why there's much more focus on it now.

Granted, Democrats can do both at the same time -- and it still looks to me that they are. I'm in the middle of listening to the conference call that David Axelrod had with bloggers, and he's just actually said, "This isn't just about dealing with the fiscal implications of the runaway costs of healthcare, this is about dealing with the human implications of a system that doesn't work for well for businesses and families across the country."

There's always room for improvement, but I'll give credit where credit is due.

[kctim]

10. Why the money instead of some people?

Because the vast majority are satisfied with their current health care.
Because Americans aren't too fond of people pushing morals onto them.

[kestrel91316]

5. He was 60. It was time for the useless old geezer to get out of the way.

:sarcasm:

[laughingliberal]

6. My husband is just like this. He will die, I'm sure, before he will go in without insurance and ask

for any help. It's just a case of waiting for the shoe to drop. With any luck when some serious event occurs he'll be unconscious and won't be able to refuse transport by the EMT's.

[enlightenment]

7. ARGH.

Knowlton said he hopes the report becomes the hospital equivalent of the Kelley Blue Book for price-conscious car buyers. "This is a new tool in the consumer's tool belt, to allow you to go to the hospital and say "This is your charge; your competitors in spitting distance from you charge this. What can you do for me?'" he said.

Yes, I'm sure the NJ resident who lands in the ER with the heart attack, ruptured appendix, stroke, etc., is going to ask for a time-out from the emergency treatment of the problem so he/she can consult the report and bargain with the hospital.

Health care should not be a 'consumer' good.

:banghead:

[Mithreal]

12. The same bastards who don't care when you are sick care less when you are dead

[mdmc]

13. --