The Insane Comment From Sen. Jeff Sessions
Posted by Michelle Moquin on March 25th, 2013
Good morning!
Form Rachel Maddow’s blog:
The ‘greatest health care system the world has ever known’
Late last week, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) argued that before the Affordable Care Act came along three years ago, the United States had the “greatest health care system the world has ever known.” He added that the pre-reform system was “marvelous.”
By most measures, that’s insane. It’s true that the United States has some of the best medical professionals, health care facilities, and medical technology, but the health care system itself was a dangerous fiasco — which is precisely why so many Americans have demanded changes for so long. The system itself cost too much, covered too few, and was the only system in the industrialized world that allowed families to go broke when a loved one got sick.
Consider this health care “lottery” in Nashville, and tell me (a) how the most prosperous nation on the planet tolerates such conditions; and (b) how this in any way resembles the “greatest health care system the world has ever known.”
Two nights a year, Tennessee holds a health care lottery of sorts, giving the medically desperate a chance to get help.
State residents who have high medical bills but would not normally qualify for Medicaid, the government health care program for the poor, can call a state phone line and request an application. But the window is tight — the line shuts down after 2,500 calls, typically within an hour — and the demand is so high that it is difficult to get through.
There are other hurdles, too. Applicants have to be elderly, blind, disabled or the “caretaker relative” of a child who qualifies for Medicaid, known here as TennCare. Their medical debt has to be high enough that if they paid it, their income would fall below a certain threshold. Not many people end up qualifying, but that does not stop thousands from trying.
The article is heartbreaking, but I hope folks will take a minute to read it anyway. Note the lawyer with the Tennessee Justice Center who receives calls from panicked Americans who can’t get through to TennCare. Note the uninsured Nashville woman with crippling arthritis who said, “I don’t ask for that much. I just want some insurance.”
It reminds me of the free clinics that are sometimes held in struggling areas, where thousands arrive before dawn, with many sleeping in their cars, hoping to see a physician. Indeed, let’s not forget Wendell Potter, who left his job at a major health insurance company to tell the public the ways in which the industry “put profits before patients.”
When Bill Moyers asked what prompted his change of heart, Potter said he visited a health care expedition in Wise, Virginia, in July 2007. “I just assumed that it would be, you know, like booths set up and people just getting their blood pressure checked and things like that,” he said. “But what I saw were doctors who were set up to provide care in animal stalls. Or they’d erected tents, to care for people…. I’ve got some pictures of people being treated on gurneys, on rain-soaked pavement. And I saw people lined up, standing in line or sitting in these long, long lines, waiting to get care.”
Potter added that families were there from “all over the region” because people had heard, “from word of mouth,” about the possibility of being able to see a doctor without insurance. He asked himself, “What country am I in?”
Reading about struggling people in Tennessee hoping to win a Medicaid “lottery” leads me to ask the same question.
It’s worth emphasizing that the Affordable Care Act will make a world of difference for millions of struggling Americans, providing them to access to insurance that they currently lack. But implementation of “Obamacare” is staggered, and many of the coverage benefits don’t kick in until 2014 — and even then, many will have to know they’re entitled to care and hope they’re not in one of the Republican-led states trying to prevent Medicaid expansion.
As for Sessions, if he looks at this system as the “greatest health care system the world has ever known,” I’m inclined to believe he’s in the wrong line of work.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
*******
Readers: Sen. Sessions is insane. Tell that to all of the people without health care and who have died from the lack of service and coverage. What country does he think he lives in? Talk about being out of touch. Thanks to all who supported the ACA. It will take time before all the benefits kick in, but can you imagine if we didn’t have that to support our health? Some people still have no idea just how many lives ACA will save. It is not all that we wanted but it is a start and much better than what we had before the ACA.
Blog me.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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March 25th, 2013 at 7:46 am
In his defense Misch, it could be that’s how it looks bc his head is so far up his ass, it just might look that good. Can’t be comfortable to walk around like that though…
Luv, Zen Lill
March 25th, 2013 at 11:33 am
I agree with you Zen Lill, he does have his head up his ass.
March 25th, 2013 at 11:42 am
Michelle, I hope you don’t mind but I would like to change the subject a bit. It is actually not off too far since is is about the idiotic behavior of the white boy.
I read this article on Huff Post. It infuriated me. I mean how come when white america was systematically using the government on all levels, municipal, state and federal to discriminate against us it was okay but if we use a little of the federal to try to get a little of the huge advantage they gained by having it all for their race for 200 plus years they have to go to the polls immediately to end any racial preferential treatment.
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The court on Monday said it would add the Michigan case, which focuses on the 6-year-old voter-approved prohibition on affirmative action and the appeals court ruling that overturned the ban. The new case will be argued in the fall. A decision in the Texas case is expected by late June.
The dispute over affirmative action in Michigan has its roots in the 2003 Supreme Court decision that upheld the use of race as a factor in university admissions. That case concerned the University of Michigan law school.
In response to the court’s 5-4 decision in that case, affirmative action opponents worked to put a ballot measure in front of voters to amend the state constitution to outlaw preferential treatment on the basis of race and other factors in education, as well as government hiring and contracting. In November 2006, 58 percent of Michigan voters approved the measure.
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So it was okay for them to have exclusive use of all the state and private higher learning institutions for 200 plus years by law but the minute a few allotments are set aside to give our race an opportunity to get some of that advantage back they are so offended by the racial preferential treatment for blacks that they must end it immediately. To the Polls to the polls.
I stay away from america just for that reason. Most of the white there are narcissistic bigots. The rest look the other way or try to find some logical reason to go along with the racists’ bullshit.
Ruth,SM
March 25th, 2013 at 12:01 pm
Glad to see you are back Howie. Hope that family thing works out for you.
March 25th, 2013 at 12:02 pm
For those that think affirmative action doesn’t work…please tell us why that does not work as opposed to centuries of the implementation of slavery, disenfranchisement, and all other systematic and legally protected mechanisms for the marginalization of people of color, which worked all too well.
March 25th, 2013 at 1:24 pm
Hi everyone.
I just wanted to recognize today – the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. From the UN’s website:
For over 400 years, more than 15 million men, women and children were the victims of the tragic transatlantic slave trade, one of the darkest chapters in human history.
The annual observance of 25 March as the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade serves as an opportunity to honour and remember those who suffered and died at the hands of the brutal slavery system, and to raise awareness about the dangers of racism and prejudice today.
This year’s theme, “Forever Free: Celebrating Emancipation,” pays tribute to the emancipation of slaves in nations across the world. This year is particularly important with many key anniversaries, including 220 years since France’s General Emancipation decree liberated all slaves in present-day Haiti; 180 years since the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 ended slavery in Canada, the British West Indies and the Cape of Good Hope; and 170 years ago, the Indian Slavery Act of 1843 was signed. Slavery was also abolished 165 years ago in France; 160 years ago in Argentina; 150 years ago in the Dutch colonies; and 125 years ago in Brazil.
2013 is also the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States, which declared that, on 1 January 1863, all persons held as slaves within any States, or designated part of the State, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.
~prayers~
/SB
March 25th, 2013 at 4:12 pm
To My Jewish-American and Israeli readers:
I want to wish you all a HAPPY PASSOVER.
Love,
HOWIE
March 25th, 2013 at 9:34 pm
Affirmative action would be nearly as controversial if it were reserved for African Americans, but today, affirmative action benefits go mostly to whites with Hispanic surnames, especially in Texas where Hispanic students outnumber non-Hispanic white students.
Today in Texas, the majority of students are eleigibnle for affirmative action. The Texas top10% rule rule gurantees aqutomatic admissions to any student wh frinsihes in the top 10% of their high school graduating class.
This benefits poor African American and Hispanic students stuck in poor urban or rural schools. It has grealy increased diversity at the University Texas, where minority sutdents now outnumber non-Hispanic white students.
Affirmative action benefits, however, tend to go to middile- and upper-middile income Hispanics, most of who self-identify as white.
March 25th, 2013 at 9:35 pm
I grew up in Chicago public schools back when janitors were paid more than teachers there. I saw the difference with my kids’ schools. I never even had to write a paper in high school. My son had to write a 50 page paper in 5th grade in the suburbs! My daughter had to read a 60 page little book 3 times in one night in 1st grade!
And the class sizes were so much better, while city kids are used to 30 to 40 students in each class.
In CPS, only 15% of the students in inner city have computers, and the schools sure have very few, only 1 for every 44 students.
The suburban white parents frequently can help with homework, they graduated college. Whereas the parents of my daughter’s students frequently haven’t gone beyond 3rd grade.
Plus many inner city kids have to work to help support the family.
CPS is improving, test scores increase 85% in 10 years! But they are still nowhere near suburban schools.
March 25th, 2013 at 9:51 pm
Affirmative action is one way of righting the wrong done to african americans over many centuries. Who would deny they were wronged? Race issues will never disappear from our sight. It is a daily issue and ignoring it can only generate more tensions. We have to deal with it the best way we can.
I am in favor of upholding affimative action until you come up with a better solution for righting the wrong done to those who have suffered from slave traders evil practices, government and state laws.
Unless you are ready to deny it ever happened – which many can do while looking right into your eyes. The wrong is so huge, affirmative action cannot solve it at once. But it is one step toward fixing it.
You do wrong, you apologize, and if you can and have the resources to do so, you fix it. Government/state is a continuum. Affirmative action can be extended to low income families too.
None had suffered human inflicted injustice like the africans who were brought to America against their will and oppressed for so many years. We enslaved those people and bred them like animals for more than 200 years.
Like the jews who have suffered persecution over centuries from all rulers they have had to deal with, and other minorities, their history is unique and therefore, is hardly comparable to another people’s.
March 25th, 2013 at 9:52 pm
My grandparents came to America in the late 1800′s. They never had slaves; their ancestors had been slaves and serfs and worse. They came here with nothing in search of a better life because they and their ancestors had been oppressed from the beginning of recorded time.
They worked long and hard at menial jobs. Why should my children and grandchildren now be charged with the responsibility of righting wrongs that occurred long before our family came here and certainly were not of their doing?
March 25th, 2013 at 10:17 pm
Henry, your ancestors reaped the benefits of this country. This country’s economy was built up on the backs of blacks and other minorities, it chose to exploit. I understand, it’s one of those unseen or unheard of history lessons.
But how difficult is it for you to understand that your white skin and that of your ancestors enabled you to benefit and them to benefit from the laws that gave you every advantage.
How difficult is it for you to imagine that those same laws deprived the OTW of all those advantages it made available to your ancestors. If they didn’t take advantage of them, whose fault was that?
March 26th, 2013 at 12:18 am
The Scary Link Between Binge Drinking and Dementia
Quiz: What group of people binge drinks most frequently?
I’ll bet that many readers would answer, “Beer-swilling college kids.” But they’d be wrong.
Astonishingly, the correct answer is…seniors! Yes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), among US adults ages 18 and up who drink alcohol, binge drinking takes place more frequently in the age 65+ group than in any other age group.
If you picture in your mind the seniors you know, I bet you can think of at least one who really knocks ’em back.
Binge drinking is defined as consuming four or more servings of alcohol on one occasion. That kind of drinking isn’t healthy for anyone…but for seniors, it’s particularly risky.
Reason: Binge drinking can greatly increase the risk for cognitive decline, recent research reveals—and there’s a proven link between cognitive decline and dementia.
Here’s why you should avoid binge drinking—not only on St. Patrick’s Day, but every day…
BRAIN STRAIN
The brain study looked at American men and women age 65 and older. For eight years, participants reported their drinking patterns.
Also, at the start and end of the study period, they took standardized tests (such as doing arithmetic and recalling lists of common words) to assess their cognitive function, including memory.
Then researchers analyzed the data to identify the 10% of people who experienced the worst decline in cognition…and the 10% who suffered the worst decline in memory.
Findings:
Compared with seniors who did not binge drink…
Those who reported binge drinking at least twice a month were 2.5 times more likely to be in the groups that experienced the worst declines in cognitive function and/or in memory.
Even participants who reported bingeing only once a month or more were 62% more likely to be among those who had the worst cognitive decline…and 27% more likely to be among those who had the worst memory decline.
Gender bender:
Frequent bingeing was mostly a “guy thing”— 4.3% of men in the study reported binge drinking twice a month or more, while 8.3% did so at least once a month. Women weren’t entirely immune, though—0.5% binged twice or more per month and 1.5% did so at least monthly. And the damaging effects of binge drinking on cognition and memory were about the same for both genders, I heard from study leader Iain Lang, PhD.
SIZE DOES MATTER
It can be tricky to gauge how much alcohol you’re actually consuming on any given occasion—in part because today’s beverage glasses tend to be oversized.
For instance, you might think that you had “just two glasses of wine” with dinner. But if your goblet held 10 ounces—rather than the standard five ounces—you really drank the equivalent of four glasses. In other words, you had a binge.
Reality check:
The standard US definition of one drink is 12 ounces of beer…eight to nine ounces of malt liquor…five ounces of table wine…three to four ounces of fortified wine, such as sherry or port…two to three ounces of cordial, liqueur or aperitif…or 1.5 ounces of hard liquor or brandy.
Recognize, too, that a single mixed drink may contain up to three times the amount of alcohol in a single serving of a plain drink, depending on what spirits are combined in the recipe.
Moderate drinking means no more than two drinks per day for men or one drink per day for women. But don’t fool yourself into believing that it’s OK to “save up” some of those drinks and consume them all at once. Having four drinks over the course of four days is fine for many adults—but abstaining for three days and then having four drinks on the fourth day is most definitely not fine.
Best:
If you’re having trouble limiting your alcohol intake—even if you drink only occasionally—confide in your doctor. With help, you can overcome binge drinking…and safeguard your memory and your mind.
Source: Iain A. Lang, PhD, consultant and senior lecturer in public health, National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care for the South West Peninsula (NIHR PenCLAHRC), University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, UK.
His study was presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2012 in Vancouver, Canada.
March 26th, 2013 at 12:26 am
Social Butterfly, I wish I lived in your famous “Bay Area.” My friend who reads this blog religiously, said that you were from there.
Your post are so informative. I suspect a social occasion with you would be delightful.
March 26th, 2013 at 6:32 am
“What country am I in?’
You are in America where only the wealthy or lucky get health care.
March 26th, 2013 at 6:34 am
Five Ugly Extremes of Inequality in America– The Contrasts Will Drop Your Chin to the Floor
Any of the ten richest Americans could pay a year’s rent for all of America’s homeless with their 2012 income.
March 24, 2013 |
The first step is to learn the facts, and then to get angry and to ask ourselves, as progressives and caring human beings, what we can do about the relentless transfer of wealth to a small group of well-positioned Americans.
1. $2.13 per hour vs. $3,000,000.00 per hour
Each of the Koch brothers saw his investments grow by $6 billion in one year, which is three million dollars per hour based on a 40-hour ‘work’ week. They used some of the money to try to kill renewable energy standards around the country.
Their income portrays them, in a society measured by economic status, as a million times more valuable than the restaurant server who cheers up our lunch hours while hoping to make enough in tips to pay the bills.
A comparison of top and bottom salaries within large corporations is much less severe, but a lot more common. For CEOs and minimum-wage workers, the difference is $5,000.00 per hour vs. $7.25 per hour.
2. A single top income could buy housing for every homeless person in the U.S.
On a winter day in 2012 over 633,000 people were homeless in the United States. Based on an annual single room occupancy (SRO) cost of $558 per month, any ONE of the ten richest Americans would have enough with his 2012 income to pay for a room for every homeless person in the U.S. for the entire year. These ten rich men together made more than our entire housing budget.
For anyone still believing “they earned it,” it should be noted that most of the Forbes 400 earnings came from minimally-taxed, non-job-creating capital gains.
3. The poorest 47% of Americans have no wealth
In 1983 the poorest 47% of America had $15,000 per family, 2.5 percent of the nation’s wealth.
In 2009 the poorest 47% of America owned ZERO PERCENT of the nation’s wealth (their debt exceeded their assets).
At the other extreme, the 400 wealthiest Americans own as much wealth as 80 million families — 62% of America. The reason, once again, is the stock market. Since 1980 the American GDP has approximatelydoubled. Inflation-adjusted wages have gone down. But the stock market has increased by over ten times, and the richest quintile of Americans owns 93% of it.
4. The U.S. is nearly the most wealth-unequal country in the entire world
Out of 141 countries, the U.S. has the 4th-highest degree of wealth inequality in the world, trailing only Russia, Ukraine, and Lebanon.
Yet the financial industry keeps creating new wealth for its millionaires. According to the authors of theGlobal Wealth Report, the world’s wealth has doubled in ten years, from $113 trillion to $223 trillion, and is expected to reach $330 trillion by 2017.
5. A can of soup for a black or Hispanic woman, a mansion and yacht for the businessman
That’s literally true. For every one dollar of assets owned by a single black or Hispanic woman, a member of the Forbes 400 has over forty million dollars.
Minority families once had substantial equity in their homes, but after Wall Street caused the housing crash, median wealth fell 66% for Hispanic households and 53% for black households. Now the average single black or Hispanic woman has about $100 in net worth.
What to do?
End the capital gains giveaway, which benefits the wealthy almost exclusively.
Institute a Financial Speculation Tax, both to raise needed funds from a currently untaxed subsidy on stock purchases, and to reduce the risk of the irresponsible trading that nearly brought down the economy.
Perhaps above all, we progressives have to choose one strategy and pursue it in a cohesive, unrelenting attack on greed. Only this will heal the ugly gash of inequality that has split our country in two.
March 26th, 2013 at 6:35 am
Really? Sessions, I guess you didn’t read this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organization_ranking_of_health_systems
March 26th, 2013 at 6:39 am
Sessions like the rest of the BAPF Congress is in the pocket of the health care lobbyists.
March 26th, 2013 at 6:40 am
I think he meant that as a member of congress He personally had the “greatest health care system the world has ever known.”
March 26th, 2013 at 6:43 am
Our white politicians always address us as the greatest people the world has ever known with the greatest this and that the world has ever known and it charms the ignorant and the fox news audience into contentment and self satisfaction.
March 26th, 2013 at 7:00 am
Ayurvedic Secrets to Finding the Best Type of Exercise for You
To get the full benefit of exercise, you need to do it consistently. If you’re like most of us, one reason you don’t always stick with an exercise program is that you don’t always enjoy it.
To the rescue—Ayurveda, an ancient East Indian system of healing that promotes balance of the mind and body. The teachings of Ayurveda can be applied to many aspects of health, including exercise.
Ayurveda can help you identify the type of exercise that you really will enjoy. According to Ayurveda, each of us has physical and psychological characteristics that identify us as one of three personality types or doshas—Vata, Kapha or Pitta.
The thinking: Your primary dosha—the one that represents your most obvious or assertive characteristics—may actually guide you to exercise choices that are not optimal for you. Instead, you need exercises that balance your primary dosha.
Example:
You might be a naturally quick-moving Vata who wants to be a runner but may lack the patience and endurance for this type of exercise.
To find out more about doshas and the exercise that’s best for you, our editors turned to John Douillard, PhD, DC, an Ayurveda practitioner and owner of LifeSpa in Boulder, Colorado. Take a break from one-size-fits-all exercise, and choose one that works best for your body.
FIND THE BEST EXERCISE FOR YOU
Doshas reflect body temperature, digestive patterns, learning styles and natural energy level.
The descriptions below will help you determine your dosha. Most people have a number of characteristics that align with each of the doshas, although one tends to dominate.
Note that some exercises, such as walking and yoga, are good choices for all three doshas, since you can adapt the intensity of the workout to your own needs. Follow the guidelines for the exercise type you most resemble…
Dosha: Vata
Body type: Slender build, thin. Have a difficult time gaining weight.
Personality: Quick-thinking. Restless. Enjoy being active.
Movement style: Quick-moving. Have quick, short bursts of energy. Not much resilience or endurance. You are drawn to vigorous activity but tire easily.
Exercise to keep you in balance: Exercises that slow you down, including hiking, tai chi, walking, yoga and Pilates. You may enjoy these much more than you expect. Weight training for stability.
Walking: Gentle pace
Dosha: Kapha
Body type: Big-boned. Tends to be heavy, sluggish and gain weight easily.
Personality: Easygoing. Good under pressure, calm and stable.
Movement style: Excels in endurance activities and mind-body coordination. You benefit most from vigorous aerobic activities.
Exercise to keep you in balance: Exercises such as running or cycling that counter your tendency toward weight gain. Diverse activities (such as biking one day and swimming the next) will help you stick with an exercise program (rather than doing the same activity every day).
Walking: Brisk pace
Dosha: Pitta
Body type: Moderate build. Agile.
Personality: Fiery by nature. Competitive and highly motivated. Not happy unless you win. Can get overheated, dehydrated and irritated easily.
Movement style: Good at individual competition requiring speed, strength and stamina. You sometimes overexert yourself, especially when in the spotlight.
Exercise to keep you in balance: Recreational sports such as volleyball that counter your drive to individually excel. Winter sports such as skating and summer sports such as swimming are good for you because they counter your tendency to overheat. Exercise is especially important as a stress reliever for your type.
Walking: Moderate pace
For more help identifying your dosha, go to http://www.LifeSpa.com and click on “Body Type Quiz” on the right side of the page. To find an Ayurveda practitioner in your area, contact the National Ayurvedic Medical Association (www.Ayurveda-nama.org).
Source: John Douillard, PhD, DC, an Ayurveda practitioner and owner of LifeSpa in Boulder, Colorado. http://www.LifeSpa.com
March 26th, 2013 at 7:04 am
During the ACA debate I was amazed that some Republicans pushed this nonsense that everything was peaches and cream before evil Obama took over. It’s another one of those Republican assertations that requires you to not trust your own eyes, ears, or brains…
March 26th, 2013 at 7:04 am
Thanks to Obamacare, my 8-year-old niece will be able to have the dialysis and kindney transplant that she needs. Without Obamacare she would just have to die.
March 26th, 2013 at 7:12 am
Yes, this is the same Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) that signed Rand Paul’s budget.
Here’s what the health insurance situation was in Alabama. http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/04/number_of_uninsured_in_alabama.html
Here’s the positive changes ACA (Obama Care)is bringing to the state. http://www.healthcare.gov/law/information-for-you/al.html
Sessions doesn’t care about the citizens of Alabama, he cares about hop-nobbing with VIPs and looking important to his home town cronies.
The Alabama social scene was small potatoes to Jeff Sessions; so selling out his state by lying about ACA and the horrific unemployment and poverty conditions of Alabama just to keep his WA status is small potatoes too. How do I know? I used to live there.
If you are wondering why such a piece of shit keeps getting elected, it’s because he is one of those white politicians that Robert#20 is talking about. He tells his white constituents that and assures them that he will keep their 250 year plus position as America’s Affirmative Action Beneficiaries.
Simpler put: He appeals to the racism in them.
March 26th, 2013 at 7:17 am
Let’s not forget the high incidence of leathal and crippling domestic violence toward women and children. Most of which is not recognized as a violation by their criminal courts.
March 26th, 2013 at 7:19 am
What is also JAW DROPPING is the fact that these same people calling into try and get healthcare , are the same people who vote the GOP into office , and have prevented any changes to our HC system.
It is hard for me to feel bad for these people in Tenn or Bama after they stop EVERYONE from receiving HC over and over again
Another problem with this debate, no one knows how messed up our HC system is till they get sick , I just want to puke every time I see a LA story about 5 doctors saving a 10 year old with cancer on a msm show.
They never tell you what it all costs, or how GOVERNMENT FUNDING helped find the cure.
It is all just flowers and unicorns, while a person a block away just lost their house and job after getting cancer, or another person who was uninsured and died of cancer, you never here those heart felt stories on the main stream media.
March 26th, 2013 at 7:21 am
My ex is a primary-care physician who practiced in the Bay Area of California. Even twenty years ago, he and his colleagues feared for the system, which they would describe as a train wreck about to happen. From their vantage point, then-current levels of care and insurance costs were unsustainable, and it was a matter of time before the system collapsed entirely.
As I’ve said before here, the ACA does not in any way mean government-run health care. I don’t understand why people don’t get this. Even before the ACA kicks in, insurance companies have been able to determine which procedures/treatments are appropriate to a diagnosis and would be covered under the policy, and we didn’t call those Death Panels.
But what so many people don’t understand is that people without health insurance get no care whatsoever. And just as Steve highlights in this blog, it’s hard to believe that such a travesty could be happening in America.
I wish those “health-crisis deniers” could see the effects of rural and inner-city medical deserts, because they might start whistling a different tune.
March 26th, 2013 at 7:23 am
I’m afraid that we live in a nation with too many village idiots – many of which, watch FOX and listen to Rush. Too much of America is anti-intellectual…
March 26th, 2013 at 7:27 am
Sessions is as easy to read as a comic book. Had he been born in roughly the same situation, in the same place, a century and a half earlier, he’d be assuring everyone who’d listen about how happy and content his slaves were.
He’s Bought And Paid For(BFAD) alright. The only mystery about Sessions is how his seat is so safe in a state where the similarly fortunate are so vastly outnumbered by ‘the other kind’.
Then again, I guess Alycedale #24 answered that very well.
March 26th, 2013 at 7:29 am
I would ask Wendall Potter where he lives in his little bubble. The human suffering due to lack of affordable health care is apparent on the street where you live.
And you have turned a blind eye to the suffering of those who clean your toilet, and do your lawn care in your country home. I am relieved that Mr. Potter got his “eye opener”, but it took an en mass shock to wake him up.
In such a prosperous nation, this kind of suffering is an abomination. The evil ones who speak against health care for all are literally killing our nation and cause undue suffering to those who work for the wealthy who pay pennies on the dollar for service. Check your stats.
March 26th, 2013 at 7:40 am
This is tragic, especially since the primary goal of the Affordable Care act never got through Congress, which was a govt. sponsored health care based on the same lines that federal officials enjoy.
But Republicans made sure that the people who voted them to power never enjoyed the same benefits they did.
The amount of money spent by vested interests towards convincing the voters that Obama was trying to take away something they did not have in the first place, was sufficient to provide enough healthcare for all the uninsured in the US.
There is a saying, that people get the government they deserve. This is very true in this case. White America has been discriminating against the OTWs for centuries and taking the largest part of the economic benefits of this country for themselves. So now they are getting some of the same from the riches of their own.
March 26th, 2013 at 7:40 am
It is very hard to shame people who have no morals. It is a sin what has been happening in this country for decades upon decades, and there’s no one willing to stop it. Like Obama, they get beaten down over and over (by people who have the very best health care!).
March 26th, 2013 at 7:45 am
Howie, we haven’t heard from Al. How is he doing?
March 26th, 2013 at 7:47 am
“ignorance of the real world increases geometrically south of the Mason-Dixon ”
And “South Bashing” increases geometrically …. well everywhere. Like politicians from AK, AZ, WI, WY, and so on are all brilliant humanists and scholars and the folks in rural ND and PA always vote for the best interests of the country.
March 26th, 2013 at 7:50 am
I can’t help but think that a big part of the problem is that these folks in Tennessee and other deeply-red states have been conditioned by the likes of Jeff Sessions, et al. to hate Obama and ‘Obamacare’.
They’ll never seemingly be convinced that they can change their own fates with their votes — meaning, stop voting into office those whose entire political strategy consists of keeping their constituents poor and uneducated so that the GOP can continue to prevail in the South.
March 26th, 2013 at 7:59 am
They just have no shame.
The cost of the attendant suffering and deaths don’t move these people one iota. Now here it is 2013, and they hand us the Ryan plan. My God.
March 26th, 2013 at 8:02 am
Not to mention names (rhymes with ratzy) but the Tenn. system sounds an awful lot like a guy standing on a railroad platform during WW ll directing men to the right, women, children, and the elderly to the left.
March 26th, 2013 at 8:06 am
Let’s post the reason for all this ONE more time:
http://economy.money.cnn.com/2013/03/08/wealth-video/
March 26th, 2013 at 8:09 am
The US best health care system was rated thirty seventh in the world for health care quality. France is rated number one and affords it for everyone. Do not reinvent the wheel. Use the French system as a model or are we too egotistical to learn from others?
March 26th, 2013 at 8:09 am
are we too egotistical to learn from others?
Hey, we’re Amurrikins – the bestest people in the most wonderfullest place that ever was or ever will be!
/snark
March 26th, 2013 at 8:11 am
I am issuing an invitation to this buffoon. I am inviting him to come and live at my building for a year (a HUD subsidized apartment building for the elderly and disabled).
The only rub is his income HAS to be only the amount paid to my other tenants on Social Security (either retirement or disability) and his ONLY health insurance is Medicare and Medicaid.
I think that this man (and other politicians who talk about the utopia this country was) are every bit as delusional as any of my tenants who have stopped taking their medications (psychotropic meds I mean).
I have worked/lived here for about 11 years and I have watched so many of my tenants be approved for dental work (but not dentures), or approved for a scooter (but not the back up battery).
This system to date has been a joke, especially for the folks that depend on it (or have to work with it for those that depend on it). I just keep shaking my head in disbelief. Who exactly are these crazy politicians talking to, the voices in their head?
March 26th, 2013 at 8:15 am
Wanna see how “marvelous” the old US Health Care System is? Just get sick. It’ll make you a believer in “Obama Care” the Affordable Care Act. Believe me!
March 26th, 2013 at 8:16 am
The 2nd amendment, and the right to take a life is absolute, no gun control, no universal background checks, but healthcare, which helps insure the right to life? Screw em, I’ve got mine.
March 26th, 2013 at 8:19 am
“Greatest healthcare system in the history of the world”????? I don’t think my monitor will survive the massive spray of soda that I just showered upon it!!
Maybe if the cutoff for “history of the world” was 1865, he may have a point, but the US ranks dead last in healthcare among developed nations.
As long as our “system” is ruled by insurance companies that are nothing more than middlemen that drive up costs, as long as doctors are paid per procedure rather than a fixed salary like the rest of us peons, then we will continue to have a ramshackle system that is the laughingstock of the world.
March 26th, 2013 at 8:25 am
It’s obvious that the insurance company lobbyists own Sessions; of course he has no qualms with the health care system because us taxpayers provide him with the best insurance money can buy. This Bagger, as with all of them, is completely out of touch with reality.
Health insurance has been on the decline for roughly 30 years, and with that, medical care has followed suit, because the insurance companies dictate what the physician can and can’t do–the patient has no control control over the matter and therefore has to receive substandard care.
Health care insurance constitutes nothing more than a discount plan or something akin to a “dollar off” coupon. I’ll opt for Obamacare over the cr@p I got now.
March 26th, 2013 at 8:29 am
Compared to all of the western and modern world, we pay double for the same quality of care and we, unlike most of them, don’t cover everyone. What’s the difference?
Everyone else has some form of socialized healthcare either socialized insurance or socialized medicine. The very few that don’t offer some kind of public healthcare have private systems that are highly regulated.
So to sum it up, we pay double for care that isn’t any better. What else do you need to know?
April 28th, 2013 at 11:02 pm
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