Inaru's Comments (196)

“Nothing to audit. I'm disabled by my HMO and dirt poor after 35+ yrs work, thanks to the Wall St pigs gorging on my 401k.”

“That's just a song on infinite Repeat, and how can you trust govt to regulate since it's so inefficient? Govts fall, every empire certainly has. We have corporations that're older than many democracies they've helped overthrow. Keep your faith in corporations. It's exactly why the American Empire is dying. The corporations will just relocate like Halliburton. If you rely on corporations over activism and meaningful participation/hellraising, good luck w/that. Sit back and watch what happens.”

“OK, here's a try: Sanders, Harkin, Feingold - by not taking corp donations (at least Sanders for the most part) they're more dependent on the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, which gets donations wherever they can, then decides which senators get how much campaign funding help from the DSCC. They've all been told, senators by the DSCC, house reps by the DCCC (Dem Congressional Campaign Committee) that they either go along, or don't come looking for donations for reelection.

Nobody wants the bill thrown out. We can keep the regulations, add teeth/enforcement, then take all the financing matters out and put a Medicare-for-All bill into reconciliation, where you can only pass bills with just 51 votes that are purely budgetary and don't create new govt programs. Folks could still keep what they have, with a mandate with subsidies, but we'd have a real choice from a real non-profit public health insurance program.”

“Nope, mandated funds don't go directly into health care. Mandated funds go to private insurers, who are already making bank from weaseling their way into processing Medicaid claims in many states, and collecting separate premiums for Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage in all states. The middle-men who only increase costs for us and profits for themselves get a bigger piece of the pie, with no guarantee we'll get any better healthcare.”

“Burton, where in Hades have you read that any progressive wants the system to stay the same? Give up the FAUX/Repugnican/Rahm Emmanuel talking points, please. We want:

To keep the regulations and add teeth - sharp gnashing teeth.
To move all budgetary matters related to health care to reconciliation, where 51 votes can pass Medicare-For-All, and end the multiple-tier system of Poor People's Ghetto Coverage/Medicaid, chronically-ill and elderly soon-to-be-bankrupt coverage/Medicare, and private plans that cover from zero to everything, depending on your bankroll.”

“muledriver & BurtonOerney, you're right, the Medicaid expansion is enormous and long overdue. IF all you want is a continuation of Medicaid aka Ghetto Coverage, Medicare aka high-cost Disabled/Elderly Coverage, and a third for-profit system, the bill is fine. But neither Medicaid nor Medicare cover what is now so glibly labeled Cadillac Care: dental fillings, dentures, crowns, root canal, glasses with any added perks (scratch-proof or anti-glare for astigmatics, e.g.), hearing aids, orthopedic equipment. As a matter of fact, no doctor can leave you with an untreated infection - except dentists. You can be left to die from a severe infection of the gums! Gum infections can easily lead to heart disease. Now, strokes and heart attacks ARE covered by Medicaid/Medicare. Pathetic, ain't it?

Oh, and every day there are less doctors who will take "new" Medicaid/Medicare patients. So exactly where will all the new poor and in-debt-for-thousand$$ "middle-class" Medicaid patients go for care? Shall we just hold our breaths until all those public clinics get built/staffed/equipped?”

“Oh yeah, that terrifying IRS that has so many millions of pages of corporate tax loopholes that the biggest corporations pay zero most years. Yeah, right. It's the corporations that extorted the govt, dear. Our choices are go along w/them, or keep the status quo - either way we lose.”

“If all the subsidies were going only to Medicaid, and if Medicaid claims weren't already contracted out to private insurers to process in many states, that would be fine. That would be taxpayer $$ to govt-provided services. This is taxpayer $$ to private corporations-only, no choice of a govt-provided direct claims-processing service, which is, ultimately, all that ins cos do.”

“Knock-knock Philclock. Govt prints the money which then pours into the pockets of CEOs, here and abroad. Govt is a corporate slave, not vice-versa. Why else did both presidents, Republican and Democratic, bail out the banks? Charity? Puh-lease! Let the banks empty the vaults to their overseas corporate offices, and then show me how our "police power" remains in the hands of govt. The police/military works for thems that pays/equips them.”

“Huh? Where do you live? In most states where I've lived, you don't need to get a ticket first. If you're just stopped and can't provide proof of insurance, poof, ticket!”

“Oh no Christy1947, progressives do not want to kill the bill entirely - that's a MSM and esp FAUX talking point. We have a very lucid, rational proposition:
- Keep the new regulations on the ins industry in the bill - including ending the monopolies/anti-trust exemptions
- Add enforcement teeth that would put a Great White shark to shame
- Remove all budgetary proposals from the bill
- Start a reconciliation bill with Medicare-for-All buy-in available to all under 65. Reconciliation bills can be passed with just 51 votes if it's only budgetary matters with no new fed programs or state obligations.”

“I'm your first fan, papau! Thanks for lucid points. Insurance claim processors are not extremely well-paid as a rule, but their skills are transferable so a new system just means a new employer. Ins cos hire as many temps as possible to avoid offering health care benefits to their own staff, ironically. And since the ins cos pay the temp agencies more than their ins workers earn, the temps can't afford insurance.

This is all so pathetic, time for a funny movie, to laugh 'til I cry. 'night.”

“lovethesinner, fanned/faved. coastalthinker2, already your fan, and yep, with the added billions in profits for insurers, we will be lobbied/screwed out of any improvements ever, in the near or distant future.”

“Well, we've got the no limits on coverage, and capped out-of-pocket expenses, but the cap's too high and based on calendar year. Tough if we got one huge expensive health cost in Dec and a new one in Jan. And meds? No breaks, except they're cut to half-cost for Medicare patients stuck in the donut hole - so we can stay stuck in the hole for twice as long!

And don't we get our subsidies as tax refunds, which means we have to pay them out on our own first and wait all year for a refund?

I'd add to your list:
- No private insurers to process either Medicaid or Medicare - which is where they're making the most buck$ right now that so many have lost their jobs/insurance. State and fed govts should be hiring the people to process those payments.

Sigh. We didn't even kick private insurers out of Medicare Part D. And they keep their monopolies - legally! Ugh.”

“That 2.5-4% profit margin is bogus. That's AFTER they take their big CEO salaries, their bonuses, pay their PACs and lobbyists million$$, and toss a few pennies to their shareholders. Oh, and don't forget their 10s if not 100s of thousands of stock shares, not counted until cashed out. 2.5-4% - hah! I wish.

"Even things out" - again, I wish. Everyone won't pay the same, older people will pay 3-4X as much, pre-existing must be covered - but not at the same rates as non-pre-existing condition clients. The ins cos will even out their risk, but we won't even out our premiums. And to circumvent the don't exclude pre-existings rule, they'll find one thing you didn't even know was on your medical record that you didn't report, and charge you w/fraud to avoid covering you. Just watch.

Finally, if it doesn't ruffle your feathers to be deemed a criminal for not funding a monopoly, with either your premium$ or taxe$ or both, good for you! If I ever lose my Medicare, I'll go to prison before I pay taxes or premiums to a corporation that's exempt from monopoly laws, especially for mediocre but necessary healthcare. At least my inferior healthcare will be free in prison. I don't even use Microsoft's software, for pity's sake. Bad enough my only choices are one broadband internet provider.”

“Thank you for a sane succinct summary. War is always about resources and profit. It is never, ever about morality. Well, occasionally when the empire is challenged, but in the end, the means destroys the ends.”

“Natural gas is abundant here alright - if you're willing to use and pollute all your water resources to pull it out of the rocky areas where it rests in pockets. Study the NY state debate and tell me: what will it cost to develop methods to clean the pollution out of formerly pristine water (what little is left of that) after you use billions of gallons to extract the gas? http://nywellwatch.org/what-is-the-marcellus-shale/ And here's an article questioning lng output and cost http://www.aspousa.org/index.php/2009/11/umbrage-in-the-gas-patch/

And we ARE in Afghanistan for natural gas pipelines. As usual, it'll be easier to destroy other countries' water and exploit their labor, rather than fight Greens and labor movements here. http://bit.ly/rUeOA”

“List:, off the top of my sleep head:

Ends: denial for preexisting conditions, caps on bills paid, caps on yearly/lifetime maximum, bankruptcies, monopolies, donut hole in Medicare

Starts: competition to stop 10-25% rate increases, an exchange to compare/choose, free preventative exams for Medicare, a public option, subsidies for lower middle class that can't afford premiums, a cap on how much you're forced to pay yearly

Denial of choice in subsidized care is 33 years old, since 1976 Hyde Amendment. Change it. Activism got us the right to choice. Only activism will keep it. Complacency always gets us screwed.”

“But we've allowed discrimination against poor women's right to choose with the Hyde Amendment that prohibits fed funding since 1976.”

“Dems sold out 33 yrs ago when they let Hyde Amendment discriminate against the poor. Like poverty in general, this is just more women impacted - this time, the lower middle class.”

“Middle class now needs subsidies to afford premiums. Public option is absolutely subsidized. All plans in the exchange can be subsidized if people can't afford the exorbitant premiums. Anyone can need a subsidy at some point, even if they can afford it on their own now, if they lose a job. Want subsidies to not exclude choice? Tackle Hyde Amendment. Fact is poverty's up, wages stagnant, indebtedness killed the middle class. What we let govt do to the poor eventually trickles up to the plastic-credit-card supported lower middle class.”

“No, Beca. The 33 year old Hyde Amendment of 1976 cut off subsidies/tax dollars for abortion, and that's how long poor women have been relegated to donation-supported clinics, if there's one in their town or even state.

Now it's the middle class that needs subsidies for insurance premiums, so based on Hyde, not on Stupak, abortion funding is prohibited. Any plan in the exchange could end up being subsidized (unemployment, loss of wages for any reason), so all plans must carry the Hyde stipulation, even if Stupak gets thrown out, which it won't in the more reactionary senate.

We must organize and be non-stop activists to defeat the 33 yr old Hyde amendment. It's been court-challenged - no good. It even stopped funding for rape/incest-related abortions for 13 years, from 1980-1993, and that took lots of activism to reverse.”

“Fanned/faved for the sentiment, now for facts. Stupak's bill's based on 33 year old Hyde Amendment of 1976, which denied fed funds for abortion, but only poor women relied on fed funds (Medicaid, Medicare, CHIP, Indian Health Service). Now the once-middle-class can't afford health care, so if we want any subsidies plus choice, Hyde must go or Stupak stands. It'll take at least a year, probably longer. In 1980, the Hyde was revised to forbid fed funds for rape/incest abortions. It took 13 years, until 1993, to turn it back so at least it now covers that.

We gave them an inch and let them discriminate against the poor. They took a mile and now discriminate against the middle class when it's been decimated, indebted, and needs subsidies. It took years of organized activism to get the right to choice. It'll take at least a year probably more to get it back.”

“Nope, poor women have been denied fed funds for abortions since 1976 Hyde Amendment. Now that we're subsidizing middle class also - that's who can no longer afford exorbitant premiums - it applies to all plans that can be subsidized. Want a different outcome w/federal subsidies, whether public option or single payer? First get rid of 33 yr old Hyde Amendment. That requires activism to push congress, and will take at least a year to organize.”

“Fed funds have been prohibited for abortion since 1973, Hyde Amendment, read the article. To have single payer or any govt subsidized health care, you must first get congress to not renew the Hyde Amendment, or repeal it. Fact.”