Obamacare...health care for everybody, really?

[dianaiad]

Some of you know that I have a problem; I haven't been all that shy. Frankly, it makes me mad as all get out.

Oh, not because I HAVE this condition, though frankly, I feel like I would have had better chances of winning the lottery.

I have Multiple Myeloma, stage II, 'high risk.'
It's an odd duck; cancer of the bone marrow. What makes it 'high risk,' is a chromosomal abnormality that doesn't mean good news for survival.

Now I'm actually blessed with great insurance, paid by my husband's retirement; Kaiser Permanente. Because of that, I had a doctor who saw that I was slightly anemic and sent me for some 'further tests.' Those 'further tests' ended up being a LOT of tests (including a bone marrow biopsy, which I recommend to the Spanish Inquisition, or the CIA...perhaps especially the CIA, since nobody could object to the government 'taking care of the prisoner's health') The verdict was, yup, I got this thing; 75% of my bone marrow was cancerous plasma cells.

The REALLY odd thing is that most people who have this don't find out until they have broken bones, kidney failure, dementia, liver failure....it's a nasty disease. Me? My bones are fine and so are my kidneys and liver.

No cracks about my mental capacity, please.

I'm in GREAT health...except for the dying of cancer part.

This Friday I'm going in for a bone marrow transplant. I'll be in the City of Hope for two to three weeks, while they destroy my immune system and then 'reset' it, in hopes that this will put me into a good, long term remission. There's a really good chance that it will work, despite the 'high risk' thing, because they caught it before it did any damage to my bones and organs. It has been borne upon me that this is EXTREMELY rare, that someone with as an aggressive form of this condition as mine is gets caught this early. OK, I'll take that.

After all, this disease mostly affects African American men over 65. I am about as lily white a redheaded blue eyed female as you can find. Why in the world would they even LOOK for something like this?

Now, why this longwinded introduction, she asks?
I'll tell you.

In the normal course of events (pre-Obamacare) I would get the transplant, have the rest of the stem cells (that were collected from me last week) frozen and kept in reserve for another one...which I'm almost guaranteed to need, and if that doesn't work, I'd do a third, using donor cells from one of my sisters. I hope. Neither my age nor my life condition would affect this, because, well, I have Kaiser and I would transfer that to a 'Senior Advantage' Kaiser membership next August. All done. Good thing, because I'm going to be taking extremely expensive medication (as in, $2000 per pill) for the rest of my life.

If I had NOT had good insurance, the City of Hope and the pharmaceutical companies that make the novel drugs for this have all sorts of programs: once you have Multiple Myeloma, you get the care. All you have to do is get to a facility that specializes in it.


I have been told, however, and I have since confirmed this, that if Obamacare gets through as written, this will no longer be true. For one thing, there will be no possibility of a donor transplant, (which is the only hope for an outright cure) the most effective medication won't be available , and it's highly possible that I won't be offered even the second transplant using my OWN stem cells. My prognosis, thanks to Obamacare, will go from a possible ten to fifteen years down to two or three....because the decisions for my health care won't be mine or my doctor's. They will be made by committees according to guidelines, which will include the idea that no matter what, people over 70 won't get that sort of treatment.

It doesn't matter what my doctor says, or what my insurance company now pays for; the government will regulate this.

I'm OK now. Things are getting paid for.

But what about next year, when Obamacare takes me over?

Now me, I'm an example, and of course this is hitting home hard for me....but I'm hardly unique. I have been talking to a great many MM patients from all over the world, and the ones from 'universal health care' nations, like Canada, Australia and Great Britain do not do well. They are sicker and die sooner, and many of them don't even know that there are novel agents that can treat them; because THEIR healthcare won't provide them.

Those of you who know me know that I don't LIKE Obamacare. Now you know why.

So.....here's the topic for debate (and I'll participate for the next three days...). If you wanted to fix health care in this nation, how would YOU do it? Obviously Obamacare isn't going to work.

Remember: the object is to make certain that:
1. Those who need health care GET it...the best available, not just the least expensive.
2. The decisions regarding health care should be made by the patient and the doctor, not by some faceless bureaucrat looking at cost/benefit charts.
3. Nobody has to go bankrupt because of health care expenses.
4. Healthcare is delivered efficiently, with no long waiting times.
5. Health professionals get paid enough to justify the student loans, and have autonomy.
6. So do patients, in their ability to choose who provides them health care.


Obamacare does NONE of the above, btw.

Go.

[johnmarc]

And Obamacare is setting us up for one hell of a dystopia.

Go ahead---give us the facts and examples which are almost always vacant in your posts. Go ahead---prove it.

Would you kindly tell me how that is getting ANYBODY better insurance? OR healthcare?

No one would under your scenario but your scenario is completely unsupported. You don't provide a shred of evidence for your scenario except your own personal enthusiasm for the same boogey men that have haunted your posts for years.

[nursebenjamin]

I don't understand the attitude that would hold children with cancer hostage for the passage of a HEALTH CARE BILL.

Woah oh oh. The Health Care Bill has already passed. The vote was a few years ago. Remember?

Tea Bagger Republicans don't have the votes to pass an anti-HEALTH CARE BILL. What right do they have to subvert the democratic process and hold the nation hostage?

You talk about cherry picking and blame the Republicans. The REPUBLICANS are willing to fund these life saving programs. The Democrats are not.

You talk about the Republicans 'cherry picking.' They are not. ...

I find your response ridicules. The Democrats are not against clinical cancer trials. For gods’ sake, they are for increased access the health care; that is what Obamacare is all about.

The Democrats are against Tea Bagger Republicans in the House working outside the democratic process to decide what parts of government get funded and what parts don’t. If Tea Baggers got their way, they would simply not fund Obamacare, Medicare, Social Security, and a host of additional government policies. (By the way, prior to the passage of Obamacare, 40,000 Americans died each year because of the lack of access to health care. So, who is really for/against funding “life saving programs�?)

Tea Baggers House Republicans have voted 42 times to defund Obamacare. They simply do not have the votes to pass an Anti-Health Care Bill. This government shutdown is their attempt to subvert the democratic process to get their way. They are blackmailing the nation in an attempt to do what they could not democratically.

Tea Baggers just need to get over their obsession with Obamacare and acknowledge the reality that health insurance overhaul is happening.

[dianaiad]

And Obamacare is setting us up for one hell of a dystopia.

Go ahead---give us the facts and examples which are almost always vacant in your posts. Go ahead---prove it.

Actually, my posts are usually full of examples, and I support my claims with facts. Indeed, more people yell at me because I provide too many examples than because I don't have 'em.

As to the dystopia comment, that's an opinion, obviously. However, the insurance premium increase of over 100%?

Here

About my claim that fewer and fewer people will accept medicaid and medicare?

Here...

I don't know about you, but to me, having to pay that much more for health insurance that doctors and hospitals are increasingly unwilling to accept, with the health benefits offered by private insurance companies regulated by government IPAB's that make it impossible for the patient to simply find another company or doctor who WILL provide denied care..........

That's a dystopia.

Would you kindly tell me how that is getting ANYBODY better insurance? OR healthcare?

No one would under your scenario but your scenario is completely unsupported. You don't provide a shred of evidence for your scenario except your own personal enthusiasm for the same boogey men that have haunted your posts for years.[/quote]

Well, there's your support.

(shrug) you may not LIKE it, but you can't deny that it is, y'know, actually THERE.

[WinePusher]

Woah oh oh. The Health Care Bill has already passed. The vote was a few years ago. Remember?

Yea, I remember all the legislative scandals during the healthcare bill debates. I remember the bribes, the backroom deals, the reconciliation debate in the Senate. I remember how corrupt Obama, Pelosi and Reid were. The Democrats were the ones who originally subverted the democratically process by pushing through a major piece of legislation without any transparency or bipartisan support.

Tea Bagger Republicans don't have the votes to pass an anti-HEALTH CARE BILL. What right do they have to subvert the democratic process and hold the nation hostage?

LOL The Democrats completely butchered the 'democratic process' when they were trying to get the bill passed. You have no right to be complaining about the Republicans after what the Democrats did back in 2008-2009.

[dianaiad]

I don't understand the attitude that would hold children with cancer hostage for the passage of a HEALTH CARE BILL.

Woah oh oh. The Health Care Bill has already passed. The vote was a few years ago. Remember?

Tea Bagger Republicans don't have the votes to pass an anti-HEALTH CARE BILL. What right do they have to subvert the democratic process and hold the nation hostage?

You talk about cherry picking and blame the Republicans. The REPUBLICANS are willing to fund these life saving programs. The Democrats are not.

You talk about the Republicans 'cherry picking.' They are not. ...

I find your response ridicules. The Democrats are not against clinical cancer trials. For gods’ sake, they are for increased access the health care; that is what Obamacare is all about.

Well, that you find it 'ridicules' [sic] is irrelevant. And yet the answer to 'why would you deny this" is 'why would we do that?" When the Republicans are not only willing to fund these programs, they've written and passed bills to fund them. Obama said no.

Reid put the forced vacation of 1100 workers at Nellis AFB above the life saving treatment of children with cancer.........and his comment didn't help the folks at Nellis, either.

The Democrats are against Tea Bagger Republicans in the House working outside the democratic process to decide what parts of government get funded and what parts don’t.

In other words, you don't like it that the House of Representatives is actually doing the job for which they were elected? Here's the thing: they are NOT 'working outside the democratic process."

They are, indeed, working outside the Democrat PARTY process, but that's not quite the same thing.

The House of Representatives' JOB is to 'decide what parts of government get funded and what parts don't.' You might just try reading the constitution if you don't believe me....it's not up to the Senate. It's not up to the Administration, it's up to the House.

If they don't want to fund something, then it won't get funded. That's THEIR JOB.

I don't know how many different ways I can say this, but just because the House does something the Democrats don't like, it doesn't mean that it is 'acting outside the democratic process.' The fact is, the American people elected a Republican majority in the House, and the House is doing what it is constitutionally required to do.

That YOU don't like it, that the Democrats don't....well, perhaps y'all should have been more careful to make the shoes you cobbled for the Republicans a little more comfortable. After all, if you don't, they are going to pinch when YOU have to wear them.

If Tea Baggers

Gee....I wonder how incensed you would get if I referred to the Democrat party, or the Occupy Wall Street folks, with a singularly insulting sexually explicit and disgusting epithet?

yet you have no problem at all being that crude with the Republicans or anybody you don't like. Hypocrites, the lot of you.

got their way, they would simply not fund Obamacare,

Obamacare, yes....but we've been funding all the rest just fine.

Medicare, Social Security, and a host of additional government policies. (By the way, prior to the passage of Obamacare, 40,000 Americans died each year because of the lack of access to health care. So, who is really for/against funding “life saving programs�?)

You are. You are supporting the denial of these life saving programs to people who are in need for purely political grandstanding. Remember, Republicans are quite willing to keep 'em going.

Oh....and Obamacare isn't going to help those 40,000 Americans (and I want the proof of that claim, btw). In fact, more people will be without insurance than there are now, and more people will be denied care than there are now.

Just how likely IS it, I wonder, that a young single mother who can't afford insurance now will be able to afford it later when her premiums go UP between 50 to 100%? Yet you people are going to fine her $2000 for the crime of not being able to afford those increased premiums.

Good job, guys.

ea Baggers

Y'know, I'm going to ask the moderators to rule on the use of that term. We all know what a 'tea bagger' is, and certainly YOU do...or else you wouldn't use the term. If you didn't know, then the use of it wouldn't be any more insulting than 'tea party"...and "Tea Party" is shorter to type.

you might want to think about it....would you like to be referred to as a "Son of a whore?" I know that you would not...and you would complain (and rightly so) at being so described. Yet you continue to use 'Tea bagger."

Hypocrite.

House Republicans have voted 42 times to defund Obamacare. They simply do not have the votes to pass an Anti-Health Care Bill. This government shutdown is their attempt to subvert the democratic process to get their way. They are blackmailing the nation in an attempt to do what they could not democratically.

They can do it legally, it's their job, get over it.

Tea Baggers just need to get over their obsession with Obamacare and acknowledge the reality that health insurance overhaul is happening.

Health insurance overhaul is needed.

But it would have been nice if fully half the nation and half the political representatives of the nation had not been excluded in the process. Now you are feeling the consequences of that high handed method..............

and frankly, I would be supporting the Republican side right now in this if I LIKED Obamacare, for that reason alone.

How DARE you prate about 'the democratic process" when Obamacare was shoved down our throats by a bunch of tin-pot dictator types who arrogantly refused to allow Republicans even to ATTEND THE MEETINGS?

[nursebenjamin]

Actually, my posts are usually full of examples, and I support my claims with facts. Indeed, more people yell at me because I provide too many examples than because I don't have 'em.

As to the dystopia comment, that's an opinion, obviously. However, the insurance premium increase of over 100%?

Here

The author compares the "cheapest market pre-Obamacare" plan to the "cheapest exchange post-Obamacare" plan in various states. However, he failed to include was what is covered by the pre-ACA and post-ACA plans when comparing the premiums.

All post-ACA insurance plans are real insurance plans that actually cover medical expenses, pre-existing conditions, have no lifetime or yearly maximums and have caps on out-of-pocket expenses.

The pre-ACA cheapo insurance plans were basically junk insurance and the coverage nearly worthless. These cheap plans are often so meager that regulators don’t consider them to be health insurance at all.[1]

What this author has done is basically compare a match box car with a Toyota and then exclaim, “The Toyota costs more!!!�

The author also failed to include the subsidies that are available to lower income individuals. Is there any way that you could pick a more dishonest article?

[Nickman]

There are thousands of government civilians who are without pay right now, because republicans don't want to fund The Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, Congress is still collecting a check. My best friends at work are laid off. The same type of crap happened during the Clinton Administration. Newt Gingrich made sure of it. He ended up looking stupid. It is gettin tiresome. Congress is not able to settle on a budget for DOD employees yet they are willing to bomb Syria.

[dianaiad]

There are thousands of government civilians who are without pay right now, because republicans don't want to fund The Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, Congress is still collecting a check. My best friends at work are laid off. The same type of crap happened during the Clinton Administration. Newt Gingrich made sure of it. He ended up looking stupid. It is gettin tiresome. Congress is not able to settle on a budget for DOD employees yet they are willing to bomb Syria.

Uhmn...WHO is 'willing to bomb Syria?"

If the Democrats had included the Republicans in the formation of this incredible piece of stupidity, then there wouldn't be a problem right now. Since they did not, then they are responsible for the Republicans using their legal rights to MAKE them listen now.

[johnmarc]

If the Democrats had included the Republicans in the formation of this incredible piece of stupidity, then there wouldn't be a problem right now. Since they did not, then they are responsible for the Republicans using their legal rights to MAKE them listen now.

This is your stand and it is dead wrong. The Republicans never had a plan except to criticize and denounce every Democratic attempt at reform. If the Republicans had a contrasting plan which they were unable to submit...


Submit it here so we can all see it and compare it with the Democratic plan (which does exist)

[micatala]

The Democrat attitude is summed up in what Harry Reid said, in answer to the question of why he wouldn't help a child with cancer: 'Why would we do that? there are 1100 people at Nellis AFB sitting at home with problems of their own."

..............all this about the Republican's willingness to pass spending bills to fund those programs that provide cancer treatment and immediate, life saving, care. ...

Cherry-picking/Quote mining

DANA BASH (CNN): You all talked about children with cancer unable to go to clinical trials. The House is specifically going to pass a bill that -- (off mic) -- given what you said, would you at least pass that? And if not, aren't you playing the same political games as Republicans are?

SEN. REID: Listen, Senator Durbin explained that very well. And he did it here, and he did it on the floor earlier, as did Senator Schumer. And it's this. What right did they have to pick and choose what part of government's going to be funded? It's obvious what's going on here. You talk about reckless and irresponsible. Wow.

What this is all about is "Obamacare." They are obsessed. I don't know what other word I can use. I don't know what other word I can use. They are obsessed with this "Obamacare" thing. As has been pointed on the floor the last few days, they did the same thing on Social Security. They did the same thing on Medicare. Now they're doing it on this.

It's working now, and it'll continue to work, and people will love it even more than they do now by far. So they have no right to pick and choose.

BASH: But if you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn't you do it?

HARRY REID: Listen (INAUDIBLE) what do --

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Why pit one against the other?

REID: Why do they -- why -- why would we want to do that? I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force Base that are sitting home. They have the -- they have a few problems of their own.



Later, in an interview with The Bill Press Show, Reid elaborated on the exchange.

"The whole answer is this -- why would we want to have the House of Representatives, John Boehner, cherry pick what stays open and what should be closed?" he said. "Listen, I gave a speech on the floor talking about the babies, 30 babies, little kids who are not going to have clinical trials. Of course I care about that. I have 16 of my own grandchildren and five of my own children."

I don't understand the attitude that would hold children with cancer hostage for the passage of a HEALTH CARE BILL.

Woah oh oh. The Health Care Bill has already passed. The vote was a few years ago. Remember?

Tea Bagger Republicans don't have the votes to pass an anti-HEALTH CARE BILL. What right do they have to subvert the democratic process and hold the nation hostage?

You talk about cherry picking and blame the Republicans. The REPUBLICANS are willing to fund these life saving programs. The Democrats are not.

Well, first of all this does not address your cherry-picking, which you (or your source) clearly did. The quote you provide does not accurately reflect Reid's meanign or the context, period.


Secondly, it is false to assert the Democrats do not want to fund the programs. Presumably, giving the Republicans the benefit of the doubt, they both want to fund the program. The Republicans simply want to leave a lot of other things unfunded. It's just postuing.

You talk about the Republicans 'cherry picking.' They are not.

Yes, they are. For the purposes of political postuing, they are trying to look like 'heroes' for saving the hostages that they themselves took. This is like Syndrome in the Incredibles where he created a robot to destroy the city just so he could be the hero and save the city from the robot.

So don't go talking about 'quote mining' and 'cherry picking' with me.

None of what you wrote, including what I left out, negates the cherry-picking evident in your post. ANd yes, I will continue to talk about it as necessary.

And if this is what the Republicans have to do in order to FINALLY force the Democrats to allow them into the conversation, then I guess that's what is going to have to happen, because.............as I have mentioned and nobody has denied.......they were not given any sort of seat or input into the process of forming or enacting Obamacare.

I deny it here and now. The Republicans were not locked out of the initial process. The fact that they did not like the result and did not have all of their ideas enacted is not evidence they were 'locked out.' It would be more accurate to say they sought to sabotage the process from the get go.

Now the Republicans are not willing to hold ill children hostage.
But Obama is.
Reid is.

Not accurate. The fact that Obama and Reid are insisting that all the hostages need to be returned does not equate to not wanting the particular hostages the Republicans are deinging to let go returned.




Also, you keep referring to Obamacare as a bill. It is not a bill, it is a law.



What the Republicans are (or were at least until they moved on to other hostage demands) is like saying "If you abandon the house your already purchased, or at least move out for the next year, we'll let you keep the gas in your car and enough money to rent an apartment for a month. That's our compromise. If you don't take it, your the one being stubborn."