House passes health care bill

[FOTD]

Healing vibes for Ruf!

[USRufnex]

Lucked out, FOTD.

After the surgery, it was Stage 1.... blood tests good.... 93% five-year survival rate..... I like my odds....

Is there a 93% chance I will work for the same employer 5 years from now?
Not sure.  Volatile industry.... who knows?

There are some real weaknesses in the employer based health system.... feast or famine, hit or miss, have or have-not....

[Red Arrow]

Ruf,

You appear to have had a different experience with COBRA. I was told that one reason to carry COBRA  from one job to the next was to avoid the "previous condition" problem.  This will obviously depend on COBRA not running out before your next insurance kicks in.

[guido911]

Liebermann restates his position that he will not permit the House version of health care to come to a floor vote.

http://www.breitbart.tv/sen-lieberman-restates-vow-to-fillibuster-house-health-bill/

All that drama last night appears to have been a waste. On the up side I get to watch usruf have his hopes to have others pay for his health care momentarily crushed (I am convinced there will be some changes--hopefully focused more on cost containment). 

[Conan71]

Look, if that little dildo Dan had voted no for all the right reasons like Kucinich, at least you would have to give him credit for his reasoning. But he did this to get re-elected.

Thank you for stating the obvious.  Dan Boren is charged with representing the interests of the 2nd Congressional District of Oklahoma.  If Dan is re-elected to his position, that means he's voting the way his constituency wishes.  That's what the man is being paid to do.

Do I need to have an 8th grade civics book left on your doorstep?

[guido911]

Do I need to have an 8th grade civics book left on your doorstep?

On what do you base your assumption that aox can read/understand 8th grade material?

[USRufnex]

Liebermann restates his position that he will not permit the House version of health care to come to a floor vote.

http://www.breitbart.tv/sen-lieberman-restates-vow-to-fillibuster-house-health-bill/

All that drama last night appears to have been a waste. On the up side I get to watch usruf have his hopes to have others pay for his health care momentarily crushed (I am convinced there will be some changes--hopefully focused more on cost containment).  

Hmmm.  Joe "Aetna I'm glad I met ya" Liebermann?
Here's to the REAL moochers.....
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90005996

Others pay for my healthcare?

Nope.  It's called fairness.  Simple fairness.  Evidently, this concept is lost on so-called lawyers like Gweed........ oh, but wait.... Gweed gives to charity, so we should be kissing his pancake for being such a great guy... and his insistence that I pay out the wazoo for insurance if I change jobs is... the equivalent of me being a "moocher"....... yeah, pull my finger.... or maybe I should just get Senator Coburn to be a "good neighbor" and hold a bakesale for me.....  

RA, I got one of those COBRA letters a decade ago after the boss decided to subcontract most of the Chicago-based positions to a golfing buddy's company in Orlando.... capitalist and market forces at work, or maybe it was just cronyism, I'll never know... anyway, I never took unemployment, and the costs for COBRA back then were far too high considering I had just lost my job.... I was younger, so I did without health insurance for a few weeks.  

If I had to deal with a job layoff when, in late 2007, I first noticed blood in my stool, I can tell you right now that I would've likely waited for months until I was able to secure a new job and health benefits before I would've talked to the doctor about it....... and the cancer would have spread, costing the insurance company and my employer lots of money and costing me either chemo or possibly my life with Stage 2 or 3 or 4....    

As I read it, part of the 2009 stimulus $$$ was used to subsidize COBRA so that people who are drawing unemployment can more easily deal with the extra expense-- this is especially important for people with kids.... I guess those people are "moochers" --- I wonder how many are vets.

Frankly, I thought Obama campaigned that young people shouldn't be mandated to purchase health insurance, that insurance should simply be made more affordable to allow more of the uninsured to purchase it.... yet the proposal likely to come out of congress and be signed by the president will more closely resemble Hillarycare and Romneycare....... go figure.

Even moderate Republicans are calling for an end to "pre-existing conditions" used by insurance companies to deny care and/or charge higher and higher prices.  Heck, anybody remember when Andy Ewing (R) dubiously campaigned that we should mooch off the Canadian single payer system by importing drugs from there for our senior citizens?  

I will be a much more productive citizen over the next few decades (god willing) if I do not have the pre-existing condition of cancer hanging over my head if I ever change jobs or dream a little and try to start a business....

Funny how the same guy who's going off in this MOOCHER song-and-dance hasn't said one thing about my interest in getting Tulsa a pro-soccer team when I do not have the $$$ to make it happen....... that, my friend, is "mooching".... although I prefer to call it "schmoozing".....

[USRufnex]

I just saw a commercial from Medicare Today applauding Inhofe and Coburn for resisting cuts to medicare...... guess it's okay for them to try to dismantle medicare the previous year in order to pay to make Bush's tax cuts permanent...... interesting.

http://washingtonindependent.com/55219/gop-embraces-medicare-to-kill-health-care-reform

The moochers from AMA, AARP back House health care bill
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/05/health.care/index.html

[guido911]

Hmmm.  Joe "Aetna I'm glad I met ya" Liebermann?
Here's to the REAL moochers.....
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90005996

Others pay for my healthcare?

Nope.  It's called fairness.  Simple fairness.  Evidently, this concept is lost on so-called lawyers like Gweed........ oh, but wait.... Gweed gives to charity, so we should be kissing his pancake for being such a great guy... and his insistence that I pay out the wazoo for insurance if I change jobs is... the equivalent of me being a "moocher"....... yeah, pull my finger.... or maybe I should just get Senator Coburn to be a "good neighbor" and hold a bakesale for me.....  

Fair to who; you? How is government taking someone else's property by threat of fine or imprisonment and giving it to you "fair"? No, what you advocate is the punishment of those who sacrifice and take chances (you know, the folks that made it possible for you to have a job and, yes, insurance) and reward mediocrity or even failure. And another thing, stop with the whole "working class", which by itself is not only tired but is nothing but sixties/Stalinist era BS lingo for wealth envy, and how the rich are mooching off them. I wonder if your boss knows you think of him as a mooch.

[FOTD]

Thank you for stating the obvious.  Dan Boren is charged with representing the interests of the 2nd Congressional District of Oklahoma.  If Dan is re-elected to his position, that means he's voting the way his constituency wishes.  That's what the man is being paid to do.

Do I need to have an 8th grade civics book left on your doorstep?

CoCo,

Looks like he's ignoring %30 0f non-elderly uninsured in his district. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/08/us/politics/1108-health-care-vote.html

Let's not ever hear you complain how there are two or more pharmacies on every corner.

And you and Boren can stick up for the health care mafia. No civics lesson necessary.


Ruf, they've been running those ads nonstop....ad nausea?

[USRufnex]

Healthcare is a RIGHT, not a privilege.  So is a good public education.

When someone goes into the emergency room, that person is treated, even if they have no insurance.  We have a problem with people who don't have insurance going to expensive emergency rooms rather than doctors/clinics....  
When someone loses their insurance through no fault of their own, maybe you'd rather they just be uninsured and DIE.

Government is ALREADY TAKING TAX MONEY to subsidize and coddle the insurance industry.... and the financial industry....

I do not have wealth envy.
I believe in meritocracy and equal opportunity.

I just don't like heartless, pompous, holier-and-richer-than-thou dogmatic conservatives like yourself, Gweed.  So, you get to live because of your perceived value to society, and I get to play Russian Roulette with my cancer using the current system because you perceive me as a "moocher."  Got it.  

I hope that doctor of yours can fit your sorry a$$ through the eye of a needle....

I shouldn't have to lose access to healthcare due to the oftentimes arbitrary and draconian limitations of an outdated, for-profit, bloated employer-based system.... and neither should anyone else.  People used to work for the "company store" all their lives back when an employer-based system made some sense; but those days are over.  And I'd rather have regressive taxes on "sodas and potato chips" pay for this than tax the rich, but hey, what you gonna do?

Simple, eh?

[Red Arrow]

RUF,
When I (involuntarily) changed jobs about 6-1/2 years ago, I bought COBRA just in case, even though it was way more expensive than I thought it should be. I was fortunate enough to have enough savings to do it until my new insurance took effect.

[Hoss]

RUF,
When I (involuntarily) changed jobs about 6-1/2 years ago, I bought COBRA just in case, even though it was way more expensive than I thought it should be. I was fortunate enough to have enough savings to do it until my new insurance took effect.

But the whole point is that it should never take more than half of your salary to pay for insurance.  The insurance companies are making out like bandits and would rather see the status quo than to have a competitive market place.  My insurance will go up AGAIN this year; the third such raising of rates in three years, and never in line with my pay raise each year, which has been minimal and just enough to cover the COL increases.

Time the insurance companies felt the pain and learned how to compete in a 'fair-market'.  As it is now, some states allow near-monopolies for some insurance companies.

[nathanm]

RUF,
When I (involuntarily) changed jobs about 6-1/2 years ago, I bought COBRA just in case, even though it was way more expensive than I thought it should be. I was fortunate enough to have enough savings to do it until my new insurance took effect.

It seemed expensive because you were seeing the full cost of your insurance for the first time. When my SO last switched jobs she got a COBRA notice (but didn't need to use it because she had no gap in coverage anyway). The coverage for the both of us would have been around $2000 a month. She was paying around $150 a month to her employer to cover us.

It was a nice plan, though. Medical (including mental health), dental, and vision. There was no medical deductible and the highest copay was the relatively punitive $50 for an ER visit. A regular doctor's visit was $10 or $15.

[Red Arrow]

It seemed expensive because you were seeing the full cost of your insurance for the first time. When my SO last switched jobs she got a COBRA notice (but didn't need to use it because she had no gap in coverage anyway). The coverage for the both of us would have been around $2000 a month. She was paying around $150 a month to her employer to cover us.

It was a nice plan, though. Medical (including mental health), dental, and vision. There was no medical deductible and the highest copay was the relatively punitive $50 for an ER visit. A regular doctor's visit was $10 or $15.

It not only seemed expensive, it was. Being single it wasn't as bad as it could have been if I had dependents.   I know that I was paying the full cost at my former employer's rate but it was probably still a lot less expensive than finding some insurance on my own.  I was already old enough to have a possible pre-existing condition to make paying the premium the correct choice for me.