Why Should They Get HealthCare when their Constituents Dont? UPDATED

Skye Writer at November Fifth has posed a very good question, that we should all be asking.

She has created a petition, that is worth signing to get this question into the public eye.

There are a lot of cheesey petitions out there. Some of them suggest things that are improbable and unlawful. But I believe that if enough people are outraged by this, that this particular petition could create a new and pertinent facet in the National Dialogue on the cost of Healthcare for the average person.

"It's simple logic. Members of Congress who are elected to represent the interests of all of us have excellent health care benefits. Why shouldn't the rest of Americans?"

Congress uses the same healthcare services as Veterans and Military Members, however their care is of a better quality. As one signer pointed out, getting rid of this could free up quality medical services for our service members and veterans and their family members. Right now, the VA is approaching it's 1 Millionth Health Care Claim. So every little bit helps at this time.

The Veterans Affairs Department appears poised to hit a milestone it would rather avoid: 1 million claims to process.The milestone approaches as the agency scrambles to hire and train new claims processors, which can take two years. VA officials are working with the Pentagon under orders from President Barack Obama to create by 2012 a system that will allow the two agencies to electronically exchange records, a process now done manually on paper. Meanwhile, veterans, some of whom were severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, continue to endure financial hardship while their claims are processed. They wait more than four months on average for a claim to be processed, and appealing a claim takes a year and a half on average.

Doctors that might normally be sequestered to treat people on the hill---could be recirculated throughout the DoD system, which would also include VA hospitals. Even though on paper these two entities are treated as separate, never forget that they are inextricably intwined with each other for a variety of reasons.


We could save millions of dollars because we aren't footing the bill, and their money {they would then have to pay into the health care industry} could help Stimulate the economy, instead of being a drain on it. Why would I even consider this suggestion serious? Because of this MSNBC Story:

WASHINGTON - Medical bills are involved in more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, an increase of 50 percent in just six years, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.More than 75 percent of these bankrupt families had health insurance but still were overwhelmed by their medical debts, the team at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University reported in the American Journal of Medicine."Using a conservative definition, 62.1 percent of all bankruptcies in 2007 were medical; 92 percent of these medical debtors had medical debts over $5,000, or 10 percent of pretax family income," the researchers wrote.
"Most medical debtors were well-educated, owned homes and had middle-class occupations."

Lets recap that:

1. 60 % of US Personal Bankruptcies are strongly influenced by exorbant medical bills.

2. 75% of those families were Insured but still could not afford their medical debt

3. 62% of Bankruptcies in 2007 were Medical.

4. 92% of these people had debts over 5,000$ or 10 percent of pretax family income.

AND5. ---Most of these Medical Debtors were White Collar Homeowners {Middle Class}

"Unless you're Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy," Harvard's Dr. David Himmelstein, an advocate for a single-payer health insurance program for the United States, said in a statement.

No shit sherlock!

When Senator Kennedy went in for treatment for his Brain Cancer, we didn't read a story like this:

Her insurance carrier precertified her for a double mastectomy and hospital stay. But three days before the operation, the insurance company called and told her they had red-flagged her chart and she would not be able to have her surgery.

We don't see outraged politicians bemoaning the fact that the Health Care System is playing Fuck Fuck games when they are dealing with potentially deadly diseases and conditions.

But if they did have to deal with the health care system from this perspective, how fast do you think things would change? What would it be like if they had to go back to paying for medical and dental like the rest of us, for themselves and their whole family. Most people make the equivalent of a Mortgage Payment to keep insurance that might not be worth a shit--should they come down with a serious illness, and they pay into this for years only to be screwed when it means life or death.

I say deport the Insurance CEOs without their money to some third world country and put them to work vaccinating people for Marburg virus.

So what are the Benefits for politicians that Skye is talking about? According to the Senior Citizen's League:

Why not scrap Medicare in favor of something better? I refer to the cost-effective health plan enjoyed by all of Congress. I understand it includes prescription drugs. I've asked my Congressman, Joe Hoeffel (D-PA) to spell out what's in his health plan, what he pays and how it is funded. He has ignored my requests. I've heard it referred to as the Rolls Royce health care plan. This seems like a good idea for everybody instead of trying to fix the damn-near broke Medicare.-T.M, Plymouth Meeting, PA

Whoooa Dogey--Rolls Royce, well aint that Fancy. I bet they gots indoor plumbings and a cement pond too!

The government (meaning taxpayers like you and me) pays 72% of the average premium but not more than 75%. Your Congressman saw the remaining 25% deducted from his $12,500 monthly paycheck (also paid for by you and me). This is similar to the amount the government pays under Medicare. Under Medicare, the government pays 75% of the Part B premium and the other 25% monthly premium is deducted from your Social Security check (which is much, much less than $12,500 per month).

Kinda puts a whole new spin on that joke about the definition of Poly-Ticks don't it?

Apparently this idea has been offered before and shot down in flames:

It makes for a compelling stump speech. And the leading Democratic candidates for president are all saying pretty much the same thing: adapt the health care program that covers Congress and offer it to the 47 million Americans currently without insurance.The American people should have access to the same array of health care choices and benefits as the senators and representatives they elect,” Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said as she introduced her health care plan last month.

This story was posted in 2007--hence the reference to Hillary Clinton.

The story shoots this idea down, not because it might "Socialize Medicine" as many panicked chicken GOP littles have been crowing, but because it would be too expensive. I guess that leaves some room for pairing down healthcare service costs in general. Maybe if recent medical school grads didn't leave with over 100,000.$ in college loan debt, then they wouldnt have to charge us so much for the services we need.

The only way to fix this problem is to make healthcare affordable, so that coverage is no longer an issue. We will still need medical records transcriptionists, but the others that work in that industry may need to be retrained in some other field. Quite frankly I dont believe I should have to die in order to pay a bureaucracy that is only going to let me die anyway. The rest of us have to contend with possibly working at Burger King, what the fuck makes the employees of private insurance bureaucracies so goddamn special?

The idea of using the federal plan as a model for the larger population is hardly new, having been floated periodically for well over a decade by politicians from both parties.

healing is a vocation. It should be service based. And not dependent on the Bottom Line--$$$ We need more doctors and nurses and midwives working fewer hours at a respectable wage so that Americans can have the personal treatment/relationship by medical professionals that good healthcare requires.

That being said, Why Should Congressional People get a Rolls Royce when the rest of us can barely afford to pull a little red wagon? If even that?

For a run down of the tired old arguments against attempts to reform healthcare so everyone has meaningful access in this country, check out this video. First seen on Have a Great Day. Go over to my blog Roll and check it out!




Here is my responses to these cock and bull answers:

1. Takeover. Our healthcare system has already been taken over by insurance bureaucracies. We pay for their house, their kid's college bill, and keep the heat on in the winter. really they should send us all a big fat Thank You card to all of us unwitting investors.

2. RATIONING: We are already Rationing our Health Care due to cost. People Ration their pills, because they cannot afford refills on their perscriptions. And people regularly ration their visits to the doctor because they cannot afford that bill in addition to their premiums {remember someone's snot nosed kid needs to go to an Ivy League School!} Preventive Care? That's for Warran Buffet and the CEOs of AIG and Chrysler on their private jets while they beg for more bailout money. Rationing is what the rest of us mortals here on earth do.

3. BUREAUCRACY: Um, we already deal with that too. If you have ever had to jump through your own little pink asshole to see if a procedure is covered by your plan or if a doctor or specialist is in your network, then you have already encountered the bureaucracy. If you have ever gone through what the women quoted earlier in this story did, which involved having her coverage rescinded when she was about to go in for Chemo and Cancer surgery, then you have encountered that Bureaucracy. If you have ever been billed for a procedure you didn't get and could't find the right person to talk to, to clear that problem up, then you have dealt with the bureaucracy.

4. Socialized Health Care: Just like the Vets and the Military Gets--I guess that its not good enough for regular Americans, then why the fuck do we impose this on our vets? Or is that its similar to what Politicians get for coverage and they just don't want to share?

Republicons want to "Protect us" from "Health Care Hell." The only problem is that these fuctards are so far removed from the life of the average American reality, that they don't realize that WE ARE ALREADY THERE!

ATTENTION REPUBLICONS, AMERICA IS ALREADY IN HEALTHCARE HELL. AND WE ALREADY SUFFER THE IMPOSITION OF THE THREATS YOU SAY WILL COME TO PASS IF THE GOVERNMENT TAKES OVER.