Conventions

September 5, 2008 | Filed Under Main, Politics |

First – Thank God they are over.

Second – The only bit of the Dems I watched was Obama’s speech the morning after. So I watched just McCain’s speech as well (at least up until the point where he started “My opponent will raise taxes! My opponent will increase government! My opponent will suckle terrorists!” – all that holy horseshit some are taught at birth). Up to that point, I was thinking about all the folks in his own party who screwed him over the past eight years and I thought – though I could be wrong – But I thought I saw the look of revenge in his eyes. And for a moment, that made the concept of a McCain presidency very interesting.

But then he said the word ‘choice’ and I threw my Pop Tart at the TV and turned it off. He was, of course, referring to health care and tossing aside all the uninsured and those struggling to pay insurance by offering instead ‘choice’. Choice and the Market. Let me tell you – as someone who has vetted insurance companies for small businesses for 20 years - that is the greatest lie in the Republican platform. There is no choice. For one, most employers are not allowed to offer a choice of insurance packages. Most insurers don’t like competing for dollars within a company. You have to choose one. Now some insurance companies won’t take you because you’re too big. Others because you are not big enough. Others won’t bid on your firm because they don’t like your firm’s risk assessment (too many babies, large cancer claims, maybe an AIDS case). Others will offer insurance at a low cost but with half the coverage your employees had before. And there is no telling whether the low rate is introductory and will be jacked up the following year to where you began (which happens ALL the time).

Then there are the doctors. Doctors don’t like ‘choice’ because that means more forms to file and different insurance mazes to muddle through. Most limit your ‘choice’ of insurance company by only accepting certain ones (anything else and you’re Out-Of-Network). If you work in New York, you need a company that has doctors in Connecticut and New Jersey and THAT limits your ‘choice’ down to two. And because of heavy lobbying of doctors to one side or the other, you only have ONE insurer that you can choose that will cover maybe 85% of the doctors for a 100 person firm. This – and the cost always goes up. The Market argument is bullshit.

Then Mr. McCain said, “We don’t want a bureaucracy making health decisions!” WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENS NOW, you old fart?! You think Doctors judge claims? Are you crazy?? One of two things occurs when you call an insurance company about a claim: a) you reach someone in India or b) you reach a person with two phones on their desk. One is for answering insurance questions and the other is for selling magazine subscriptions. Trust me – that person is making $10 an hour. They don’t care about you, they don’t care about your pain and they don’t care about your costs. Their job is dependent on NOT spending the company’s money… because that insurance companies shareholders get upset when they spend money on poor, sick people. (And they call us elitist!) McCain wouldn’t know this because he has government run healthcare – like anyone else in Congress. (Bill O’Reilly doesn’t know this because he has “people” who take care of those things for him. I don’t have “people”).

So if anyone comes up to you to talk about health care and says ‘choice’ or ‘market blah-blah’ – Deck ‘em! Anything else they may have to say will be a lie, too.

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2 comments so far
  1. Ray Waldron September 5, 2008 6:31 pm

    First, thankfully the conventions are over so I can now get some sleep. I am getting old!

    Second, can anyone on the tickets talk about the issues and not engage in the playground name calling? While Obama has done the least of this, I nearly threw the tv out the window with Rudy “My Favorite # is 911″ Giuliani doing more trash talking than Stephon Marbury and then Gov Sarah “Abstinence Works” Palin continue the piling on of comments(the aforementioned nicknames were added for your ironic twists of the day).

    It would be refreshing to hear both sides say that their plan is better than their opponent because of this or that. It would be great to hear someone today refer to the notion of the loyal opposition, a quaint idea which was good enough for those who founded this country and good enough for Abraham Lincoln throughout his career and even good enough for Ronald Reagan who had a great deal of respect and affection for Tip O’Neill. In today’s world of Hannity and Colmes, Bill O’Reilly, and even Keith Olberman the notion of someone having an opposing viewpoint is characterized the same way the current President Bush said “Either you are with us or you are against us”. There is no respect; there is no middle ground (and lets get a clue folks life is all about the middle ground).

    Having an intelligent and respectful conversation about the issues is just no fun unless we can somehow turn it into a verbal pro wrestling match complete with villains and good guys. I am afraid that we will continue to spiral further down until the national discourse resembles the backyard wrestling you can see on YouTube. People like Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and Jay Severin do nothing to add to our national conversation. They merely establish divisions among the populace with their name calling thus making it easier for their respective marketing departments to optimize ratings and ad revenue. Somewhere (Philadelphia, actually) Ben Franklin is spinning in his grave.

    The Daily Show, thankfully, has skewered those in need of such a treatment in a manner that is truly fair and balanced (no apologies to the “Fogs” News Network - more irony). Here is to Jon Stewart, our last best hope.

  2. mburma September 6, 2008 2:19 am

    The next three months are going to be a cash fueled mud fest… like always only more cash. And especially now that Pallin has “energized” the Christian Right.

    Didn’t the term ‘christian’ mean a follower of the teachings of Christ? when did that stop exactly?