It's refreshing to hear a public official lay it on the line once in a while without leaning too heavily on the euphemisms. Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with the Democrats is the guy!
King, a member of the Senate Intelligence Subcommittee, during a recent network interview, suggested that former Vice President Dick Cheney "should give waterboarding a try himself, if he doesn't believe it's torture." (The subcommittee had just moved to declassify the executive summary of a report on the CIA's interrogation and torture practices during the Bush administration).
The Good Senator has been equally plain-spoken regarding health care. I recently latched onto an archived article in The National Memo; Mr. King lambasted the Koch Brothers and their allies for attempting to scare young people into opting out of the Affordable Care Act. Here's the quote:
(It's) a scandal --- those people are guilty of murder
in my opinion. Some of those people they persuade
are going to end up dying because they don't have
health insurance. For people to do that to other
people in the name of some obscure political ideo-
logy is one of the grossest violations of our humanity
that I can think of. This absolutely drives me crazy.
The mainstream media doesn't seem to be giving him any coverage. I would think that a suitable headline would attract readers. Then again, I guess that's my own naivete in play here.
Still, it's nice to feel validated once in a while. A few of my posts have carried a similar theme: the heartlessness of many Republicans and potentially fatal consequences.*
Hang in there, Senator King. You have a new fan!
* Check out the following posts:
7/8/13: A Must-Read --- Especially for Anyone Who
Votes Republican
9/8/12: Republican Voters --- Accomplices to Murder
5/4/12: Legislative Violence
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Obamacare & The Brussels Sprout: Some Folks Hate It, But It's Good For Us: Part 2
Despite its naysayers' non-stop tongue-clucking and finger-wagging, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is proving to be more popular than even its most dedicated boosters expected. As of March 31st, the sign-up deadline, more than seven million have signed up, not including the state-operated exchanges, nor Medicaid beneficiaries (in the states that have allowed it). Others are still waiting in the wings; many had attempted to apply, but were unable to complete the process owing to system-overload-related crashes. (They're being granted deadline extensions).
Sure, the Affordable Care Act has its warts, but for millions of its beneficiaries, it's a vast improvement over the alternative --- which for many was no coverage at all. Senator Mitch McConnell still insists that the ACA is an impending catastrophe. This, despite the fact that in his native state, His Old Kentucky Home, the ranks of the uninsured have been cut by 40%.
I'd like to offer a couple of anecdotes from two splendid bloggers with The Daily Kos:
1) A gentleman who uses the handle "Old Redneck" had been volunteering at a local library in rural Virginia, assisting an ACA "regional navigator" signing uninsured people up for Obamacare. One of the clients they helped was a single mother of three whose husband had been killed in an industrial accident. She works two part-time jobs and, lacking insurance, couldn't remember when any of her family had last seen a doctor. The navigator found her a policy that pays 95% of her medical bills; her premium is $51 a month. In Old Redneck's words,
She didn't believe it when the navigator printed
her insurance card on the spot. When the fact
of what she had done finally sunk in, she
couldn't stop crying and hugging everyone
in sight. Neither could the rest of us.
2) A young blogger who calls himself "UntyingTheNot" also extolled the virtues of the ACA. UTN stated that his new policy has enabled him to see a doctor for the first time in five years. A fledgling business owner, he works a couple of part-time jobs that enable him to subsist, qualifying him for Medicaid.
Owing to the lengthy time lapse since his last medical exam, his doctor advised him to get a detailed lab work-up as well as vital medication for an ongoing health issue to which he hadn't been attending. His physician also cautioned him to "make 100% sure that your Medicaid is worked out before going for this. [Otherwise] It'd cost over $1000 out of pocket." (Also his prescription would run over $300 a month).
UTN then did the computations. For a wage-earner making $10 an hour, an office visit ($135) in addition to the $1000 lab work plus a year of essential medication ($3600), 473.5 hours --- 12 weeks of full-time work would be required. Of course this excludes all other expenses necessary for basic survival, such as --- uh --- food and shelter.
Absurd, right? Well, this well explains why, prior to the ACA, 47 million Americans had no health insurance!
These two fine bloggers have demonstrated the absolutely vital need for the ACA more effectively than I ever could. Thanks guys!
Oh, by the way Mr. McConnell, what did you mean by impending catastrophe? And Ms. Boonstra (see previous post), shouldn't you feel ashamed?
Sure, the Affordable Care Act has its warts, but for millions of its beneficiaries, it's a vast improvement over the alternative --- which for many was no coverage at all. Senator Mitch McConnell still insists that the ACA is an impending catastrophe. This, despite the fact that in his native state, His Old Kentucky Home, the ranks of the uninsured have been cut by 40%.
I'd like to offer a couple of anecdotes from two splendid bloggers with The Daily Kos:
1) A gentleman who uses the handle "Old Redneck" had been volunteering at a local library in rural Virginia, assisting an ACA "regional navigator" signing uninsured people up for Obamacare. One of the clients they helped was a single mother of three whose husband had been killed in an industrial accident. She works two part-time jobs and, lacking insurance, couldn't remember when any of her family had last seen a doctor. The navigator found her a policy that pays 95% of her medical bills; her premium is $51 a month. In Old Redneck's words,
She didn't believe it when the navigator printed
her insurance card on the spot. When the fact
of what she had done finally sunk in, she
couldn't stop crying and hugging everyone
in sight. Neither could the rest of us.
2) A young blogger who calls himself "UntyingTheNot" also extolled the virtues of the ACA. UTN stated that his new policy has enabled him to see a doctor for the first time in five years. A fledgling business owner, he works a couple of part-time jobs that enable him to subsist, qualifying him for Medicaid.
Owing to the lengthy time lapse since his last medical exam, his doctor advised him to get a detailed lab work-up as well as vital medication for an ongoing health issue to which he hadn't been attending. His physician also cautioned him to "make 100% sure that your Medicaid is worked out before going for this. [Otherwise] It'd cost over $1000 out of pocket." (Also his prescription would run over $300 a month).
UTN then did the computations. For a wage-earner making $10 an hour, an office visit ($135) in addition to the $1000 lab work plus a year of essential medication ($3600), 473.5 hours --- 12 weeks of full-time work would be required. Of course this excludes all other expenses necessary for basic survival, such as --- uh --- food and shelter.
Absurd, right? Well, this well explains why, prior to the ACA, 47 million Americans had no health insurance!
These two fine bloggers have demonstrated the absolutely vital need for the ACA more effectively than I ever could. Thanks guys!
Oh, by the way Mr. McConnell, what did you mean by impending catastrophe? And Ms. Boonstra (see previous post), shouldn't you feel ashamed?
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