That is how they have sold us insurance on everything from our cars to our pets to our lives and our health, for decades. We all pay in. Essentially, we are helping to pay for others when they need it, and others are paying for us when we need it.
The way insurance works now, is different. The insurance companies take our money, raise our rates at will. When we need the product, they make us fight them to get it. Even then, they will deny us access to the very thing we have been paying for all these years.
People are paying 10-25% or more, of their income, for 'health insurance'. Add to that premium, the deductibles, co-pays and the cost goes up substantially. People who are unemployed or lose their jobs can continue to access insurance at exorbitant rates. Anywhere from 80-120% or more, of their Unemployment Benefits check.
The laws governing and regulating business have been thrown out the window so that Insurance companies could grow bigger, play dirtier, give less and make higher profits.
The Public Option would change all that.
- We would not be denied Insurance.
- We would have substantially less cash outgo, and in some cases, have subsidies to pay for it.
- We would only have to worry about getting better, not about going bankrupt, dying and leaving our families with nothing but bills.
- We could rely on receiving good preventative care, and we could, if needed, get the best possible care for terminal diseases.
- It would cost employers a fraction of what it costs them now. that translates into more money into the consumer economy.
- Hospitals would be better, more efficiently run because they would have more predictable workloads. As it stands now, the ER fills up with everything from infected hangnails, heart attacks and deadly flu viruses. Being able to see a doctor by appointment for non-emergency events would free up our waiting rooms, and put less stress on our medical personnel and the facilities.
- Babies would be born healthier because their mothers could get prenatal care.
- Babies born with defects could be cared for without the family going bankrupt. There would be more babies born.
Single Payer would be a boon to every man, woman and child in the country. Every business, large and small, would benefit and make higher profits if they didn't have to offer such high cost benefits as "Health Insurance" with their ever increasing premiums.
The only business that would "Suffer" if you can call it that, are the Insurance Companies that have been allowed to run wild through our economy, with no rules, no leashes, and no conscience. They would have to 'settle' for profits in the hundreds of millions instead of the hundreds of billions.
Opening up Medicare, a system that is already in place and works well, would be the best possible of all worlds. It would bring more money into Medicare, improve the efficiency of Medicare and we would not need to establish yet a whole 'nother' bureaucracy to run Health Care.
What Grampa McCain and the other bought and paid for by the Insurance Companies, Politicians are saying to us, in their outright lies and misrepresentations is this:
"You are meat. You are not human. You live to serve the Insurance Companies profits. You are not entitled to good care at a reasonable cost. You are too stupid to know what is best for you and you will fight this until the Insurance Companies Win."
He knows that the 'cost cuts' to Medicare that are proposed are cutting the waste and abuse that exists in Medicare. Waste and abuse that is, much of it, profitable to the Insurance companies that sell "supplemental" insurance to seniors, and then take over their Medicare payments, and then charge extra for the very things that Medicare, by itself, would cover!
He, Grassley, and the rest of them KNOW this would be the very best thing for the economy, for our overall health, and it would cut the debt.
They are not arguing to improve this bill and make it better. They are trying to kill this bill so that they can continue to get funds from the big boys that done bought them already.
It is estimated that 40-45 thousand people a year, die for lack of Health Insurance. They have it, but it is taken away when they need it. Or, they can't afford the premiums.
What is not in the statistics is how many people go bankrupt every year because of medical costs. How many people have permanent damage or disabilities related to not being able to get treatable injuries or illnesses taken care of.
I am guessing that that number is much, much higher.
What we do know is this: The Insurance Companies give themselves billions in bonuses every year. Some of their board members get as much or more, than $1billion every year.
Who do you think is paying for that?
So, for those who say they don't want to pay for someone else's medical bills, I ask this: Do you have insurance now? If so, then when you get sick, someone else is paying for YOUR bills. If you are well, you are already paying for someone else's bills--- and those obscene bonuses.
If you don't have insurance and you are opposed to Public Option/Single Payer, then you are either wealthy enough to cover any medical expense that comes your way, or you are willing to suffer and die, or watch members of your family suffer and die, for lack of it. How far will your principles carry you?
One of the ways Societies are judged is in how they take care of their sick and their disabled.
Look around.
By even entertaining the obscene lies in opposition to major, substantial Health Care Reform, we are allowing the craziest, the stupidest and the most mean-spirited, to drive us over the financial cliff.
It is time to take the wheel away from crazy, and get us to a safer place.
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