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.

[micatala]

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?

The right of the majority they hold in the house of Congress in charge of the money, a majority they hold because the American people were so pissed off at the Democrats for what they did without Republican input that they insured a Republican majority in the House.

Fair enough. But he dems did hold on to the Senate. And a lot of this likely was due to the bad economy overall at that time.

Or, as the Democrats love to point out when they WIN elections, 'elections have consequences.'

Fair enough. The people voted for divided government. The problem is, the minority party is trying to have more things their own way than their part of that division deserves.

The thing here is, the election that put Obama back in office was anything BUT a 'mandate of the people.' It was a very divided, close election that might well have gone the other way, had certain voting problems not happened, tipping Obama's way rather than Romney's....some of which should have gone Romney's way.

Perhaps you should check the data.


http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/

Closely divided? Obama want by 4 million votes. He is the first President since Reagan to win two consecutive elections with over 50% of the vote. He trounced Romney.


And, by the way, the Republicans do have more seats in the house, but fewer people voted for Republicans than Democrats in house races. If we want to go with the will of the people, the Republicans would not have even the third of government they now control.

House Democrats won a plurality nation-wide by over 1.7 million more votes (1.4%),[6] but the Republicans were able to retain a 17-seat majority due in part to their gerrymandering in the congressional redistricting process following the 2010 United States Census, . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Sta ... ions,_2012

Obama's election simply wasn't the success y'all are crowing about; a squeeker at best. Perhaps Obama and the Democrats should start thinking about the other half of the nation? The half that DOESN'T AGREE WITH THEM?

The 2000 election was a squeaker. In 2012, Obama one over 330 electoral votes, and as noted above, won the popular vote by about 4 million.

The Republicans also lost the popular vote for the house. They did that because they successfully rigged the system in a lot of states. They tried to rig the system in the Presidential election as well, and still lost.

Because they haven't been. They've been running rough shod over the Republicans for years. Now they are seeing what happens when political power is given, BY THE PEOPLE, to folks who don't agree with them, and who had no other recourse or input to what was done previously.

I see no evidence the American people prefer congressional Republicans to Democrats or the President. Polls indicate rather the opposite. In fact, even polls on repealing Obamacare go against the Republicans.

In fact, even on favoring or opposing the law, polls show the Republicans do not have a majority to support their view. Yes, small majorities have an unfavorable view of Obamacare, but about a fourth of those wanted a single-payer system. If you count those together with those who support the ACA, you have a majority that supports a reform at least as sweeping as what we have.



I am all for restoring civility and decorum and fairness to the political process. I will also certainly accept democrats have in the past not been blameless. But I think most people understand that the tactics and policy position the Republicans are currently pushing are extreme.

[nursebenjamin]

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.

I question the accuracy of your memory. "Obamacare was debated for weeks in Senate committees and received 25 days of debate on the Senate floor. Senators from both parties filed 506 amendments and took 34 roll call votes. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee debated reform for a month and even accepted 164 Republican amendments."[1] Town Hall meeting lasted all summer. The passage of Obamacare was probably one of the most debated and transparent pieces of legislation in recent history.

Also, Obamacare was a major issue in the 2012 elections and Obama was re-elected. Republicans held onto the House only because of extreme gerrymandering. More Americans voted for Democratic Representatives then they did for Republican Representatives. Republicans have completely failed in their in their attempt to repeal Obamacare.

Obamacare is the law of the land. Continuing the government shut-down and holding the government hostage will not change this fact.

[dianaiad]

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)

they did have ideas.
They were...and you can confirm this every way in the world if you want to...not allowed into the process to submit those ideas. They were not allowed in the committee meetings. They were not in the back room consultations. They were ignored and plowed over.

Of course, you are quite free, if you wish, to show me where they WERE allowed to participate, or where their ideas were listened to at all, let alone invited. They were treated as if they did not exist.

[nursebenjamin]

they did have ideas.
They were...and you can confirm this every way in the world if you want to...not allowed into the process to submit those ideas. They were not allowed in the committee meetings. They were not in the back room consultations. They were ignored and plowed over.

Of course, you are quite free, if you wish, to show me where they WERE allowed to participate, or where their ideas were listened to at all, let alone invited. They were treated as if they did not exist.

According to Senator John McCain, "Obamacare was debated for weeks in Senate committees and received 25 days of debate on the Senate floor. Senators from both parties filed 506 amendments and took 34 roll call votes. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee debated reform for a month and even accepted 164 Republican amendments."[1]

[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)

they did have ideas.

Cute. You are smart enough to know that that little misdirection won't work

Again and again and again and again---what were those ideas?

[Philbert]

They were...and you can confirm this every way in the world if you want to...not allowed into the process to submit those ideas. They were not allowed in the committee meetings. They were not in the back room consultations. They were ignored and plowed over.

Of course, you are quite free, if you wish, to show me where they WERE allowed to participate, or where their ideas were listened to at all, let alone invited. They were treated as if they did not exist.

Can you explain why when the Repubs had control of both houses of Congress and the Presidency they did not offer a comprehensive health care reform package?

What were their excuses then?

[bluethread]

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.

By "congress" I presume you mean the senate. The house has presented a budget to the senate every single year. The senate has not only not submitted a budget since Obama became president and the house budgets have just been sitting on Harry Reid's desk gathering dust. This country has been funded on continuing resolutions all that time. Yes, this is getting tiresome. The Senate needs to start submitting budgets on time and negotiating in good faith with the house.

[bluethread]

Obamacare is the law of the land. Continuing the government shut-down and holding the government hostage will not change this fact.

Jim Crow and lifetime slavery were the law of the land at one time also, but that did not stop continued congressional opposition until they were repealed. Oh right, that was also the republicans. I guess your right. Those republicans should stop trying to change "the law of the land".

[nursebenjamin]

Obamacare is the law of the land. Continuing the government shut-down and holding the government hostage will not change this fact.

Jim Crow and lifetime slavery were the law of the land at one time also, but that did not stop continued congressional opposition until they were repealed. Oh right, that was also the republicans. I guess your right. Those republicans should stop trying to change "the law of the land".

I have no problems with Republicans trying to change the law. But they should do so through legislation, not underhandedly by blackmailing the Nation through a government shutdown.

Submitting and voting on legislation is the usual way in which Congress changes the law. Fifth graders in Civics Class can understand this stuff. Why can't Republicans?

[bluethread]

Obamacare is the law of the land. Continuing the government shut-down and holding the government hostage will not change this fact.

Jim Crow and lifetime slavery were the law of the land at one time also, but that did not stop continued congressional opposition until they were repealed. Oh right, that was also the republicans. I guess your right. Those republicans should stop trying to change "the law of the land".

I have no problems with Republicans trying to change the law. But they should do so through legislation, not underhandedly by blackmailing the Nation through a government shutdown.

Submitting and voting on legislation is the usual way in which Congress changes the law. Fifth graders in Civics Class can understand this stuff. Why can't Republicans?

That is exactly what the House is doing. They are submitting legislation and the Senate is refusing to pass it because they want a rubber stamp omnibus spending bill.