A little bit of healthcare blathering
Now look, health insurance companies are basically scum--their entire job revolves around doing their damnedest to deny people necessary medical care. It's fucking disgusting, and it's difficult to see how individuals involved in such an enterprise are not cold-blooded sociopaths. It's people like this who make you wish to GOD there were a hell.
So yeah, healthcare reform, it it were anything like ideal, would smash such companies like bugs. It's nonsensical to imagine that this would somehow be a drawback of comprehensive reform. It would be one of that reform's best features. An excellent blog post laying this out in stark terms.
But I recognize that, since this is basically a barbaric country, that kind of reform isn't going to happen, and there's absolutely nothing to be done beyond grinning and bearing it. Still, there are people hurting, and even some lameass compromise would be better than nothing. Perhaps irrationally--I guess we'll see soon enough--I'm vaguely optimistic that at least something better-than-nothing will occur.
But what really bothers my ass is some of the other compromising-with-evil-people things. Specifically: abortion is a medical procedure. The idea that it should be unavailable to women based on socioeconomic status because we have to appease misogynistic, christianist psychopaths (hey, I calls 'em as I sees 'em) is deeply repugnant to me. Am I allowed to opt out of funding our illegal wars? No? Then I even-more-fail to see why I'm meant to be concerned with THESE assholes' delicate sensibilities.
Likewise: "Oh, don't worry! This reform won't give money to illegal aliens!" Oh, thank god. It would be very, very bad and unchristian of us treat such people as if they were human beings! Olbermann and Maddow are going on and on about a part in Obama's speech where he says that this bill doesn't cover undocumented aliens and some asshole republican representative shouts "that's a lie!" from the audience. Sure, the guy's a dick, but how bizarre are our values when something like that outrages us, but the idea of letting unpeople die…shrug. Whatevs?
Sometimes I really wonder what it would be like to live in an actual, honest-to-god Christian Nation.
So yeah, healthcare reform, it it were anything like ideal, would smash such companies like bugs. It's nonsensical to imagine that this would somehow be a drawback of comprehensive reform. It would be one of that reform's best features. An excellent blog post laying this out in stark terms.
But I recognize that, since this is basically a barbaric country, that kind of reform isn't going to happen, and there's absolutely nothing to be done beyond grinning and bearing it. Still, there are people hurting, and even some lameass compromise would be better than nothing. Perhaps irrationally--I guess we'll see soon enough--I'm vaguely optimistic that at least something better-than-nothing will occur.
But what really bothers my ass is some of the other compromising-with-evil-people things. Specifically: abortion is a medical procedure. The idea that it should be unavailable to women based on socioeconomic status because we have to appease misogynistic, christianist psychopaths (hey, I calls 'em as I sees 'em) is deeply repugnant to me. Am I allowed to opt out of funding our illegal wars? No? Then I even-more-fail to see why I'm meant to be concerned with THESE assholes' delicate sensibilities.
Likewise: "Oh, don't worry! This reform won't give money to illegal aliens!" Oh, thank god. It would be very, very bad and unchristian of us treat such people as if they were human beings! Olbermann and Maddow are going on and on about a part in Obama's speech where he says that this bill doesn't cover undocumented aliens and some asshole republican representative shouts "that's a lie!" from the audience. Sure, the guy's a dick, but how bizarre are our values when something like that outrages us, but the idea of letting unpeople die…shrug. Whatevs?
Sometimes I really wonder what it would be like to live in an actual, honest-to-god Christian Nation.
posted by GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. at 10:25 PM
Yep, you do have a point there. For my money another disgusting bit was when he stated that health care providers don't deny care because they're greedy-- they only do it because the market encourages it. Or, to put it another way, you sometimes sink to the level of letting people die because providing treatment would cost too much. But it's not because you're greedy or a bad person, you just did it for the money.
I don't want to condemn him outright, because there were honestly encouraging parts of the speech, but . . . Christ Almighty, people. Do you even realize the implications of what you just said?
-Jeremy
"It's not the fault of insurance companies; it's the evils of capitalism that's to blame!" That's pretty hilarious. It's probably actually true--the logic of capital DOES make things like this inevitable--but, as you say, very (almost certainly unintentionally) radical. Looks like the dudes waving ak-47s and bellowing about socialism were right! I'd love to see the right take this up. "Obama says he doesn't want people to die from being rejected by insurance companies, but not being rejected to die by insurance companies is socialism! Grr!" I mean, that's what they're saying anyway, obviously, but not in so many words.
Man, the subtextual wars being waged in this debate are quite something. Certainly way more interesting than what people think they're saying.