"This healthcare reform effort has been a disgusting display of the rich protecting the rich"

[Better Believe It]

Healthcare Crisis Tears at Fabric of Holiday Traditions
by Donna Smith
Donna Smith is a community organizer for the California Nurses Association and National Co-Chair for the Progressive Democrats of America Healthcare Not Warfare campaign.
December 19, 2009

Our elected officials in Washington, DC, are rushing to finish their work and get home for the holidays. Many of the people who elected them aren't so richly blessed. Millions and millions of Americans do not get the Norman Rockwell holiday scene played out in their lives because millions and millions of people have been left financially and physically broken and battered by the healthcare crisis.

.... for millions of people in this country, the holidays are not the time of joy depicted so openly on commercial television or in advertising everywhere you look. For millions of us, the holidays are reminders that we live in a selfish and cruel society where survival of the fittest is worshiped by the ruling class -- and that ruling class includes those in our elected government bodies who relied on us for their means to riches and the security we cannot embrace for ourselves.

I wanted this Congress and this President to care and to work hard to make sure my future offered dignity and honor for the struggle of millions who cannot achieve what they have been freely given from my labors. My work gave you comfort. My work gave you holidays. And all you can give me is a lukewarm nod to some health reform measure that makes you richer and broadens the control of health insurance giants over my life? Sad.

And I am not excluding the Republicans from blame here. Quite the contrary. They have lied to the American people and said they care about those on Medicare. What they really care about is the votes of those on Medicare. Beyond that they hate Medicare as one of those evil "government run" healthcare plans they so abhor. Make no mistake about it, when it was time to hear a Medicare for all type reform, Republicans and most Democrats wanted nothing more to do with it. Republicans didn't care if the entire Medicare program was gutted so long as they used the perceived "cuts" to the program as sound bite fodder.

This healthcare reform effort in the U.S. Congress has been a disgusting display of the rich protecting the interests of the rich. And all at my expense, quite literally.

I will work to just stay afloat and to buy the insurance I will be forced to purchase when I would far rather pay taxes for the healthcare I need under a real reform plan.

Please read the full article at:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/19-5

[Aramchek]

1. speaking of disgusting displays...

[xchrom]

2. Kinda like the bill you must support. Nt

[rwheeler31]

3. no It is not great but better than nothing.

Would Republicans have done better, come on get up to speed.

[Better Believe It]

6. This legislation will put the private health care industry in firm control for at least a generation

It's far worse than nothing.

And millions of Obama voters will take out their anger on Democrats, not Republicans, for how this bill will negatively impact their lives.

[tbyg52]

7. A gift to the insurance companies *and* politically dumb.

A winning combination.

[undergroundpanther]

4. A quote

"he who takes it(all the wealth from a society) goes to hell, and he who does not goes to the workhouse."

[pecwae]

5. K&R

"...that ruling class includes those in our elected government bodies who relied on us for their means to riches and the security we cannot embrace for ourselves."

A quote that says it all.

[LWolf]

8. k & r nt

[Odin2005]

9. This bill is FASCIST ECONOMICS on full display

Force people to give money to corporations.

[Land Shark]

11. Bingo. As you say "Force people to give money to corporations." nt

[treestar]

10. that's just ridiculous

[truedelphi]

12. You sound a bit cranky today, Better Believe it. Have you overlooked these

Benefits of the new legislation:

Under CompromiseCareTM, people with no coverage will be allowed to keep their current plan.
Medicare will be extended to 55-year-olds as soon as they turn 65.
You will have access to cheap Canadian drugs if you live in Canada.
States whose names contain vowels will be allowed to opt out of the plan.
You get to choose which doctor you cannot afford to see.
You will not have to be pre-certified to qualify for cremation.
A patient will be considered "pre-existing" if he or she already exists.
You'll be free to choose between medications and heating fuel.
Patients can access quality health care if they can prove their name is "Lieberman."
You will have access to natural remedies, such as death.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. *sad snarf*

[Impedimentus]

14. The insurance companies were really feeling low ,,,

after the BIG BANKS got truck loads of money, so the government tried to cheer them up with "health care reform". Now the insurance companies will get big bags of money for years to come. :)

God Bless the Corporate States of America!