Calling it an national emergency legally opens options for the hospitals to take in case a really big influx of patients were to occur. It seems like good planning. Naturally any good deed goes punished by right wingers. Obama scratches a kitten’s chin and Fox accuses him of slitting the little thing’s throat.
People throwing around the term “Socialized Medicine” have no idea what it means. If they did they’d know the proposals, which PRIMARILY deal w/ reforming the more serious abuses that insurance companies engage in, are no where near socialzed medicine. England has socialized medicine: the government owns the hospital and pays the staff, doctors included. The bulk of the western industrialized countries have a system where there are private insurance companies, but they are non-profit, they must accept anyone, they can’t cancel them for pre-existing conditions, and everyone must have insurance (to prevent people from only getting it once they have an expensive problem.) The employer and the person pay premiums. The government pays when the person loses his/her job or can’t afford it. This doesn’t sound so bad to me. All the mean nasty people who jump to the conclusion that anyone not as lucky as they are are “lazy bums” have no idea of the reality out there. The term “working poor” applies here. For instance, I know many home health aides who are the very hard working poor. These are the ones who change your grandma’s diapers, bathe her, feed her, dress her, clean her house, and are bloody lucky if they make more than minimum wage. These are the people who are breaking their own backs for others…. and they can not afford health care for themselves.
Howie and GNW, lets worry about the treatment for your paranoid delusions first, shall we?
And GNW, many of my patients are getting expensive cancer treatment- from Medicare, which is what the public option would be modeled after. However I do have a patient who had the entire stomach removed for cancer because the insurance company delayed treatment for 3 months. If done right away, the patient would still be able to eat. Now the patient has a permanent line in for nutrition.
This is the 2nd cartoonist drawing KSM to look like bin Laden.