Health reform by numbers: What it means for Montana

What the hell happened? (0.00 / 0)

There was a string of comments here.  I know, because they're listed in the 'recent comments' column in the right-hand margin. Some of them were mine (a little over the top, blame it on Jim Beam) but it looks like many others that I didn't get a chance to read.  Technological glitch?  Too personal? In bad taste? (I doubt that.) Wassup?    

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by: pete talbot @ Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 23:57:45 PM CST

Shit, my fault, wish I could erase my comments sometimes -- looking at the wrong post. (0.00 / 0)

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by: pete talbot @ Wed Nov 25, 2009 at 00:02:26 AM CST

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Jeezuz Pete....focus...focus! (0.00 / 0)

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by: bigsage @ Wed Nov 25, 2009 at 07:39:45 AM CST

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After an evening with Jim?!! (0.00 / 0)

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by: jed @ Wed Nov 25, 2009 at 10:00:16 AM CST

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more bogus clap trap from the right winger at Left in the West (0.00 / 0)

This bill is a major Windfall for the Insurance Cartel. NOTHING else is pertinent or significant. The treacherous verbiage touting this bill is like GW Bush touting NAFTA.
The good folks at LitW are corporate shills and or sock puppets for the insurance cartel.

There is nothing redeeming in this Windfall for the Insurance Cartel READ it subsidies for the Insurance Cartel are why we are in this horrid mess. But Singer and company are clueless as usual and spreading their bull shit rhetoric.

KILL the BILL

This note from a (mainly) single-payer supporter who now believes that "No bill is better than a bad bill." Dianne is a Massachusetts resident, and their state plan has the same mandates congress is putting into its bill.

As a Massachusetts resident and victim among many of the Romney/Kennedy mandated healthcare system, we aren't interested in killing only the Stupak amendment. We ARE interested Killing ALL the Bills. We do not want this takeover of our lives. Massachusetts residents know full well what it's like living under such an oppressive decree. Health insurance premiums have increased steadily since this law was implemented a little more than three years ago while people struggle to make ends meet and have enough left over to pay the tax penalty for being uninsured because they couldn't afford the "affordable" insurance - subsidized or not - that the government decided they could afford.
Many have had to intentionally lower their incomes to be eligible for a more affordable premium or cheaper penalty. On the other hand, anyone who earns a bit more - which is needed to pay for the increases in property taxes, food, heat and utilities -  is stuck between a rock and a hard place because the cost of the insurance increases according to income. So, that extra money can't be used to pay the cost-of-living bills - it goes to pay for the new, more expensive premium and may not even be enough to cover this increase! This is regressive and certainly not good for the individual, family, community or economy.
Massachusetts continues to raise new revenues by increasing taxes and taking advantage of increased federal assistance to prop up the failed Massachusetts plan - the underlying model in the national health insurance bills. Important programs for seniors have been cut several times along with aide to cities and towns. The number of state workers has been reduced, and cost sharing for state employees' health insurance has increased. All of this trickles down to each of us in an adverse manner and only exacerbates our current problems. The same will happen across the nation under such a plan.
It is also highly unlikely that states will be able to handle the expansion of Medicaid as this consistently mediocre insurance plan has always been subject to significant cuts due to constraints in federal funding.

People in other states will find out soon enough if any of this is signed into law. These bills have nothing to do with health care reform and everything to do with taking over people's finances, health care choices, physician and hospital choices, who gets care and what kind, etc. We do not want our lives run by an expensive, bureaucratic morass that is not synonymous with access and the delivery of health care.

We don't want a law that forces people found to be Medicaid-eligible into this lousy plan that is filled with disparities and caveats such as estate recovery for people 55 and up; in some states the age is lower. We don't want a law that forces people to purchase expensive health insurance policies that they can't afford although the government has decided they are affordable, and the people can't afford to use them either. And we don't want to do business with the insurance companies - they are the problem, not the solution.

Obama and the Democrats have sold us down the river by mandating that we buy these failed products which also brings up a salient point: A government that threatens hard-working taxpayers with an IRS penalty for refusing to purchase a specific product for whatever reason that person has is not a government that cares about its people. This is known in the real world as coercion and collusion. Coercion is deliberate violence and is inhumane.

So, I have no respect for those who voted for this House bill and the Baucus bill. These people have no integrity. I know others who feel this way, and I believe there are many across this country. This faux health care debate has been nothing but theatrics and political shenanigans.

We do not support being treated in this manner and having our government call it health care reform, and we will join in with the GOP if necessary to stop this from happening. No bill is better than what they are voting on.

Dianne Bridges

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by: Darwin26 @ Wed Nov 25, 2009 at 13:09:09 PM CST

As Wulfgar will remind us ... (0.00 / 0)

There is some very, very clever stuff going on here, and the Democrats, crafty devils that they are, have constructed the best bill possible given the circumstances. They are very, very clever. Did I say that?

The circumstances, or course, mostly involve the inability of  Democrats to lead. They lack convictions, much less courage of convictions.

What the hell am I saying?! They got us the best deal possible under the circumstances. They are very smart, clever people who have tricked the health insurance companies into their own demise. I have never in my life seen such clever negotiating. God they're good.

What the hell am I saying? Democrats screwed us.  

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by: Mark Tokarski @ Wed Nov 25, 2009 at 13:25:10 PM CST

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Putting words in my mouth again, Mark? (0.00 / 0)

There is some very, very clever stuff going on here, and the Democrats, crafty devils that they are, have constructed the best bill possible given the circumstances. They are very, very clever. Did I say that?

I've claimed no such thing.  Seek help.

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by: Wulfgar @ Wed Nov 25, 2009 at 15:50:52 PM CST

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