America is Diseased: Mocking the Dying, Profiting off the Work of Uninsured Artists

[Donnachaidh]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/dave-lindorff/38478/america-is-diseased-mocking-the-dying-profiting-off-the-work-of-uninsured-artists

The first thing that needs to be said to the heartless boneheads who, at the last Republican presidential debate, cheered at the idea of letting a hypothetical 30-year-old cancer victim who hadn’t bought health insurance die, is that this is no mere hypothetical situation. The second thing that needs to be said is that most such people in real life don’t “refuse to get” health insurance. They either cannot afford it (and their employer doesn’t provide it), or they are rejected by insurers because of pre-existing conditions.

If you are a young person, earning a take-home salary of perhaps $20,000, are trying to raise two kids on your own, and you live in Texas, for example (Medicaid eligibility is set state by state), you would not be eligible for Medicaid coverage. Your two kids would supposedly be eligible, but not you. Meanwhile, if your employer, like most employers who are paying minimum wage, doesn’t offer some kind of group policy, if you were lucky enough not to be rejected for some pre-existing medical condition like diabetes or a heart murmer or something, you’d have to come up with perhaps $3,000 to cover yourself with a plan that would not pay for doctor visits, just major hospital bills. But say you were paying $800 a month for rent, and another $3000 a year to keep some 12-year-old rust-bucket of a vehicle insured and on the road to get you to work and home. That would only leave you $7,000 to feed and clothe your kids and yourself. Would you take $3000 of that to pay for health insurance for yourself and reduce your money for living expenses to $4000 for the year?

Of course not! It would be coming right out of your childrens’ mouths!

All over America, especially these days with one in five of us either out of work or working at some job like the one described above or worse, while looking for a decently paying job, millions of individuals and families are struggling with this desperate problem.

More at the link --

[truedelphi]

1. Their hypocrisy is so astounding - on the one hand, Terry Schiavo

Became a sacred cause and on the other, kids die every day because the policies of the Political Elite make this the only nation that doesn't have Universal Single Payer HC, or something damn close to it.

Even South Africa now provides HC to its people.

[RKP5637]

2. But ain't we the best country in the world. It gets revolting after awhile. And many

no doubt think we're the envy of the world.

[tblue37]

3. Even worse, that pre-existing condition that denies you health insurance

can be something as stupid as acne! (Yes, I have read articles about that pre-existing condition being the reason a woman was dropped from her insurance plan.)

[reggie the dog]

4. this is exactly why i am honing my cannabis growing skills

when you are poor from your legit job you need to make money appear or pull yourself up by your bootstraps or whatever so weed will be my bootstraps