You Think You Have Health Care?

You think you have health care?

You may have a health care policy, but this is America, and in America our health care is controlled by for profit insurance companies. For profit insurance companies and hospitals used to be against the law in this country back in a time when we had a better health care system. Now they are not against the law...but they should be. Each day they deny health care to their customers, customers who have loyally paid their premiums for years and years. All the for profit health insurance company has to do is give a reason that is acceptable to the company as to why they do not need to cover you for a test, procedure, operation or medication. This is called recission, and they do it all the time to thousands of Americans every day. They are accountable to no one except their shareholders. Basically, all the shareholders care about is that the price of the stock goes up. Health care takes a back seat to profit in America.

You can be denied if they decide you have a pre-existing condition, and they can also initially refuse to accept you as a customer based on this pre-existing condition. You can be denied if the insurance company decides to call your surgery experimental or cosmetic.

Our soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen are all covered with full health care. They do not get denied coverage. They have excellent health care. (Socialized medicine).

Our veterans are covered with full health care. They do not get denied coverage. They have excellent health care. (Socialized medicine).

Our elderly are all coverered with full health care. They do not get denied coverage. They have excellent health care. (Socialized medicine).

All the members of congress in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives are covered with full health care. They do not get denied coverage. They have excellent health care. (Socialized medicine).

As a matter of fact, most Republicans will tell you that our men and women in uniform deserve the very best health care. I certainly do not dispute that. The reason I do not dispute that is because I think that not only do our men and women in uniform deserve the very best health care, I think ALL Americans deserve the very best health care. This is, after all, the wealthiest nation on earth. Can it be possible that the wealthiest nation on earth not only boasts a huge population of citizens (nearly 50 million) who have no health care coverage whatsoever, but also boasts that someone in America, every day of the year, is going bankrupt due to a medical condition, while the for profit health insurance companies are paying outrageous amounts of money to their CEOs and are reporting record profits? Can something as immoral as that be possible here? In the wealthiest nation on earth? The answer is yes. It is not only possible...it is the reality today.

You may have a health care policy, but this is America, and in America, unless you are in the military, are a veteran, are old enough for Medicare, or are in the U.S. Congress, your policy can be denied at any time for just about any procedure, because you are beholden to a for profit health insurance company. You don't have socialized medicine like all those other groups I mentioned. All your for profit health insurance company has to do is say you lied on your initial application. That's it. The lie can be the most trivial lie in history, but they can use it to deny you health care for cancer, for a heart condition, for orthopedic surgeries, for anything. Maybe on the initial application you forgot to put that you once had bronchitis as a kid. They can call that a lie, folks, and they can deny you coverage at the drop of a hat once they call it a lie. They have people working for them who are paid hefty bonuses to come up with a good reason to deny you. That's how they make their money. And they make billions. That is why they are fighting so hard against health care reform. They are making millions and millions of dollars off the way things are right now. So, they pay millions to politicians to poison the argument about health care in this country. They have only one way to win, and that is to scare the living daylights out of you. They cannot win with logic. Logic and reason will kill them in their tracks. The way they have been preventing health care reform has been by scaring the American people with out and out lies for about seventy years!

Now, you remember I mentioned that most Republicans will tell you that our men and women in uniform deserve the very best health care? That's out of one side of their mouth. Out of the other side of their mouth, they will then say that government run health care is no good. The trouble here is that our military has government run health care...you know, what the Republicans call the very best health care. The Republicans and the for profit powers-that-be will lie to you all day long about these things. They will tell you we have the best health care in the world here in America. Not according to the World Health Organization, folks. According to them, we have the 37th best health care in the world. That puts 36 nations ahead of us, the supposedly greatest nation in the world. Oh, we are number one in something: we are number one in the world in our health care costs. For example, you pay 75% more here, for the same drugs that people around the world take. Made by the same companies. If you are lucky enough to have health insurance, you have to pay a big deductible and you have to pay a co-pay every time you visit a doctor. Not in those other countries. Now, call me paranoid, but that sounds like price gouging to me. Why can they gouge us, but not gouge all those other countries? Well, because all those other countries have government run health care, that's why. And in each of those countries, ALL of their citizens have excellent health care coverage. Not one person is denied. Not one person ever goes bankrupt from a medical condition.

Now you will hear Republicans and some others say, "But you have to wait in long lines." Sorry, but there they go again. They are lying about it. It simply is not true. You have to wait here for some procedures, too...it all depends on how serious the situation is. If you need heart surgery, you don't have to wait. If you have a mole that you want removed, well, you might have to wait a little while. It is the same in other countries as it is here when it comes to the "waiting list" argument.

Here is another important thing: America is ranked 18th in life span. That means people in 17 other countries have longer life spans than us...and all of those countries have government run health care. And we supposedly have the best health care in the world? Not hardly.

You see, the Republicans and some others, including some Democrats, want you to think that government run health care is not a good thing. Yet, every member of congress has government run health care, and I have never heard them complain about it. Yet, they tell us that the government run health care that the U.S. military has is the very best health care. Well, as far as I am concerned if government run health care is good enough for our military, our congresspeople, our veterans and our elderly, then it's good enough for me. And the government that runs their health care is the same government that I live under. If it can do it for them, it can do it for all Americans. And if they can do it in all those other countries, they can do it here.

You see, unlike the Republicans and some of those Democrats, I understand that there are some things that should not be "for profit" and should be government run. Like our postal system, for example...it is one of the best, if not the best in the world...and it is government run. Our networks of libraries are also some of the best in the world...government run. Both are not for profit, because some things should not be for profit. Like the postal system, or the libraries, or the federal highway system, etc. And surely if something like the postal service should not be for profit and should be run by the government, then I think health care, something which is even more important than a postal system, libraries, or highways, should certainly be non-profit and run by government.

Now, the health care reform being proposed by the Democrats does not do this. They are not proposing a government run health care system. They are basically wanting to add a government option to our current health care system. So, if you like being with that for profit health insurance company that can deny you coverage at any time because their corporate bureaucrat comes between you and your doctor, then you are more than welcome to keep it. However, if you are a poor person, for example, then you will probably want the government option. But wait! That's not all. Yes, there is a bonus! In the new health care reform that's being proposed, we will go back to those good ol' days when it was illegal to deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions, and, recission will be illegal. Now, for some weird reason, you might not think that's a good thing, but remember, under the new health care reform, you can keep your current insurance if that's what you want. My guess is when you realize that what the Republicans like to call socialized medicine is a pretty damn good thing, you will want to tell that for profit insurance company of yours to take a hike. And that is exactly what the big health insurance companies, the big pharmaceuticals, and all the politicians who get money from them are scared to death of. They know that if we have a public option in our health care system, those big for profit companies are either going to have to quit price gouging us or go out of business!

By now you have probably figured out that I am for a single payer system. That is a system in which all health care in America is run by the government. No more Medicare. No more special government coverage for military or veterans. No more special government coverage for Congresspeople. No more big private health insurance companies. We would all be under a single government run health care system. Each of us will have the same kind of health care that our congresspeople currently enjoy. Now this new health care reform is not proposing a single payer system, unfortunately. You see, those for profit mega corporations are pretty powerful and they have been able to keep the Democrats and the Republicans from even having a single payer health care system on the table for any kind of discussion. I guess we have to take baby steps before we will be able to get to the goal of single payer health care, a health care system where the rich folks and the poor folks and all those in between have the same great health care system. Right now, only a privileged few have a great health care system in this country...those who can afford it. But I believe health care is a human right, and not a privilege for the few. I believe that small businesses and corporations should not have to provide health insurance coverage to their employees. That is becoming more and more of a burden to them and makes it harder and harder for them to compete on a global basis because their competitors from other countries don't have to worry about paying for their employees' health care. Just look at what happened to American car manufacturers recently. It is because of this that our current messed up health care system poses a threat to our economy, and therefore, a threat to our national security. It's time we do something that takes us in the right direction. It is time for health care reform.

Oh. I forgot to mention which country the World Health Organization ranks number one in overall health care: France. They have a single payer system, and their health care is top notch. Well...it's number one in the world.

Why Barack Obama MUST Be the Nominee

Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton. Is that what America is now? A pseudo-monarchy? Is that seriously what a America wishes to perpetuate? Is it logical that by some godawful coincidence that the son of a former president became president because he was the best person for the job, and now a spouse of a former president is supposed to be the next president because she is the best person for the job? I think not. I think it is unamerican. Hillary Clinton and those who rabidly support her candidacy for president are no different from those who rabidly supported George W. Bush for president. They are people who, rather than realizing that America maintains its great status in the world and its fluidity through change. Electing the same people from the same families over and over again does not by any stretch of the imagination represent change any more than hereditary assignment of regency represents change in a monarchy.

The only true change we will see in this election will come from Barack Obama. Those who believe that John McCain in all his pandering antics will be much of a change from the Bush continuum are wearing blinders. Those who believe that Hillary Clinton represents a radical change from her husband's scandal-ridden terminus are wearing even larger blinders.

Logic dictates reality clearly once we take off the blinders. The Republican Party is enjoying the fight going on between Obama and Clinton because it is tearing down the Democratic Party and giving a boost to the Republican Party. The Republicans clearly want Hillary Clinton to win the nomination of the Democrats. Rush Limbaugh exhorts his minions to vote for her. Rupert Murdoch endorses her in his newspapers and gives speeches that favor her. Richard Mellon Scaife is following the lead of Rupert Murdoch and also endorsing Clinton. Most of Fox News coverage of Hillary Clinton has a positive bent hinting that she couls and should win the nomination. While all of this is happening, we see Fox strongly attacking Obama. Newsmax, a vey right wing website, came out with the clips of Rev. Wright and now are bringing out some clips of a vote Obama took regarding gang violence. The right wing has had an eager ally in Hillary Clinton, who's latest ad with pictures of the Wall Street Crash and Osama Bin Laden and other images meant to strike fear into the hearts of Americans looks like something directly out of a Karl Rove strategy session. Hillary knows the Republicans want her to win the nomination and she has made appearances on Fox News and has met with Rupert Murdoch and Richard Mellon Scaife and has actually attacked MoveOn.org to urge the Republicans on and to relish their support. She wishes to destroy Obama just as much as the Republicans do. Her motive is that she simply wants to be the nominee. The Republicans' motive is simply that they know they can tear her apart in a general election and are drooling at the mouth with the thought of a Hillary Clinton candidacy. No single person in American politics can get Republicans and right-leaning Independents of all stripes to come out in droves to vote for the Republican candidate for president as much as Hillary Clinton. If she becomes the Democratic nominee, it will spell disaster for the Democratic Party in November and you can bet everything you own that the Republicans know this. It is pure logic. It is staring us in the face.

Conversely, the Republicans know that if Barack Obama is the nominee of the Democratic Party, they will have a very rough time of it. They have maybe one-tenth the dirt on him that they have on Hillary Clinton. He is much more of a uniting force and a force of hope and inspiration than Hillary Clinton is. He is a hugely sharp contrast with their candidate, John McCain. Independents, including right-leaning Independents such as myself (a former Republican) will vote for him over John McCain. Voters who are against the war in Iraq will see a much greater difference between Obama and McCain than they would between Clinton and McCain and they will vote for Obama. After all, those of us who are against the Iraq war clearly know that no matter how she tries to spin it, Hillary Clinton voted for the resolution to give the president the power to use military force against Iraq while Obama was against this ill-begotten war from the start. Most Americans are against the Iraq war and they who are strongly against it will vote for Obama. This will give him the swing states that Hillary Clinton apparently thinks are her exclusive territory, because while there is a great difference between Obama and Clinton regarding the Iraq war issue, there is little difference between Obama and Clinton regarding the other huge issue, the economy. This will cause swing voters to vote for Obama over McCain, but not necessarily to vote for Clinton over McCain.

Finally, the math is clear. The only way Hillary Clinton can be the nominee of the Democratic Party is if it is handed to her by the "Superdelegates". This would have one effect and only one effect: it will destroy the Democratic Party and it will cause the Democratic Party to lose not only the White House, but also not gains as many seats in the House and Senate as they could were they to have picked Obama.

The conclusion is clear: Barack Obama represents the future of the Democratic Party. They can swim with him, or they can drown with Hillary.

To Geraldine Ferraro - Why I Support Barack Obama

Geraldine Ferraro has said that Barack Obama is lucky to be where he is, and that if he were white or were a woman he more than likely would not be where he is. I must disagree with this.

I would not care if Obama were white, brown, yellow, red, female or gay. I have not decided to support him based on any of these parameters. I read of women who support Hillary because she is a woman...that is not a good reason to support a candidate. I read of blacks who support Obama because he is black...that is not a good reason to support a candidate. I am a Republican who recently changed my registration to Unaffiliated because finally, after all these years, I have grown disgusted with the policies of the Republican Party. Lately, I have also seen little to like about the Democratic Party. I have decided to support Barack Obama, and I have contributed to his campaign, for several reasons, some of which I list here:

I support him because I believe that he is level-headed under pressure...the kind of level-headedness it takes when crucial decisions of great import that require clear and proper judgement are to be made...the kind of judgement and level-headed demeanor that I, as a Vietnam Veteran, would want to see in my Commander-in Chief. I do not see this kind of level-headedness or proper judgement in his opponents, Hillary Clinton and John McCain.

I support him because I believe he has the leadership skills and the oratorical skills it takes to change the direction of this country. The way he has led his campaign is outstanding and reflects on how he would lead the country. His gift of oratory not only makes complex issues easy for all Americans to understand, but also he uses it in a positive way to express a powerful vision of hope that provides the kind of inspiration it takes to effect great change.

I support him because he is very intelligent, yet he is down to earth.

I support him because he impresses me as being honest...more so than most of the politicians we have seen and heard over the years.

I support him because he has led a campaign that takes its roots from the ground up and its money from the masses, rather than the priviledged few.

I support him because his vision is that of a United States that can strive to heal its divisions rather than a United States that must further fan the fires of division. I do not see this in his opponents, Hillary Clinton and John McCain.

I support him because he wishes to do away with and rise above the politics of old and he wishes to fundamentally change a government that is clearly out of touch with the common man.

I support him because he wishes to nourish a middle class that has been squeezed and is so important to this great machine of progress.

I support him because he talks to me and not at me.

I support him because I can see that he has true greatness in him, and I have not seen true greatness in an American president in far too many years.

I support him because in 2002 he had the judgement to recognize that invading iraq was a war of choice and not a war of necessity that would eventually become not only a major distraction from our true goals, but also a major recruiting poster for Osama Bin Laden that would make this world more dangerous, not safer, even though at the time he was going against the political grain and the waves of patriotic fervor that so many of our politicians and countrymen were swept up in...this took courage.

I support him because he is courageous in the face of the division, the old politics, the racism...all of it. He stands above this and says we can heal it and that we can hope again. The last courageous American leader to do these things was assassinated. Obama knows this, yet he perseveres. That takes tremendous courage.

I support him because I believe that his policies will truly change not only the course of our nation to the right direction, but also the fundamental way our government is run. He will make government transparent so that the people may know what their leaders are doing.

I support him because he will stand face to face with our enemies and will communicate directly to them that they may know our position and that they may see that we do not fear them, yet we are willing to reason with them. He will restore our place and reputation in this world. His opponents scoff at this notion. They forget that we are America. We need not fear to negotiate face to face with our enemies. John Kennedy knew this. Ronald Reagan knew this. Barack Obama's opponents believe that we must not talk to our enemies unless they quit being our enemies first. This is not the way things happen in the real world. They think that we are above all nations. Barack Obama knows that for America to be great in the eyes of the world, America must not look down at the world.

I support him because he has promised that by the end of his first term as president, this country will have universal health care, thereby removing from us the dubious distinction of being the only industrialized nation in the world that does not have universal health care. Being an older man with pre-existing medical conditions, I know that as it is today in this country, any of the big health insurance companies can and probably will turn me down, though I have worked hard all my life, and have tried to be a good American, just as they did to Barack Obama's mother who later died of cancer.

I support him because he will fight to make it possible for any American child, no matter their place in society, to have the opportunity for a strong, well-rounded education not only for the first 12 years, but also in college. Additionally, at the college level, he offers students a $4000 per year tuition credit in return for community service.

I support him because he will treat our troops as they should be treated. He will not send them out on extended and repeated tours of duty. He will not send them out to fight unnecessary wars. He will not use them as if they were toy soldiers. He respects them as he does all of his fellow Americans. He knows that "support the troops" does not mean "abuse the troops". He will put an end to the current abuse.

I support him because he will treat our veterans right. He will keep the promise that our nation has made and broken so many times. He respects them, as he does all of his fellow Americans.

There are many more reasons why I support Barack Obama for president, but suffice it to say that race and gender and luck have nothing to do with it. And that is why I must respectfully disagree with Geraldine Ferraro.

The Swiftboats Must Be Sunk

What the Clintons used to call the "Politics of Personal Destruction" has become a mantel they have draped over their own shoulders. In a blog on the Huffington Post on February 18th, 2008, Taylor Marsh, apparently a strong Hillary Clinton supporter, in referring to the "plagiarism" accusations the Clinton camp has been making against Barack Obama, says:

Barack Obama isn't an original. He's the first 21st century L. Ron Hubbard of politics, Elmer Gantry, name your huckster.

"I have a dream" just became "I have a con."

This blog by Taylor Marsh is a perfect example of the Clinton/Bush politics of tearing down your opponent. It has nothing to do with issues. And, as I read the comments made here and on other blogs by Clinton supporters, it saddens me.

This is a perfect example of why Clintons and Bushes are and have been so divisive, in case you have ever wondered why so many people say that Clintons or Bushes are divisive. We have seen this kind of thing for 20 years now! It basically started with George H. W. Bush's "Willie Horton" ad against Michael Dukakis in, oh, I think it was 1988. This kind of politics, these negative attacks, this style of "tearing down" or "smearing" one's opponent, is just the thing that most Americans, especially young Americans, have grown weary of.

This is why so many young Americans are excited by the Obama campaign. This is why Barack Obama has just won 11 states in a row. He does not try to tear down his opponents. He will answer their charges, but he will not try to smear them. That is a breath of fresh air on the political stage! That is just one of the reasons why Barack Obama will not only win the Democratic nomination, but will also soundly defeat John McCain in November.

Get a clue, Hillary supporters: you are upholding, promoting, and supporting a style of politics that most Americans, especially young Americans who have seen it their whole adult life, are fed up with...it not only hurts Hillary, it not only hurts the Democractic party, it hurts America. It is something best left to the Republicans. Over the past seven years, under the tutelage of Karl Rove, they have made this kind of sleaze descend into a a kind of political art form...and I am talking about the dark arts here. Let the Democratic party rise above it, and Democrats everywhere will win seats this November.

The swiftboats are sinking in their own morass, and our nation will be the better for it. It is the spark that will enable Barack Obama to make the sweeping, positive changes our country so desperately needs.