Obama campaign goes on offense on the single biggest domestic issue, besides the economy … and which is, after all, 1/6 of our economy. Ezra's got the whole thing.
With just a month to go until election day, I know you’ve all been hearing a lot about politics out here in Virginia. I know you’ve been seeing a lot of ads, and getting a lot of calls, and reading a lot about this election in the newspaper. But being here today to talk with you about health care – this isn’t about politics for me. This is personal.
I’m thinking today about my mother. She died of ovarian cancer at the age of 53. She fought valiantly, and endured the pain and chemotherapy with grace and good humor. But I’ll never forget how she spent the final months of her life. At a time when she should have been focused on getting well, at a time when she should have been taking stock of her life and taking comfort in her family, she was lying in a hospital bed, fighting with her insurance company because they didn’t want to cover her treatment. They claimed that her cancer was a pre-existing condition.
So I know something about the heartbreak caused by our health care system.
The anecdote is effective, and I think that if he and his family want to share it, please do. But prefacing it with the “this is personal” stuff is something that I don’t favor.
<
p>I remember that Edwards always used to say “this is personal for me” about poverty and it always grated on me then, too. I think it invites unpleasant comparisons, including the notion that Obama/whomever doesn’t take other things personally. It makes me want to ask “okay, then, what isn’t personal to you? Are you saying that you have a professional interest in the Iraq situation, but it’s not something that you’re really invested in?” To hear a politician say “this isn’t about politics to me” is on the surface simply not believable, or even desirable, because changing it will be political. This statement I feel also sets up a bad comparison when a millionaire talks about past struggles to voters with current struggles. It echoes the rich kid reminiscing about eating ramen noodles in college…as college kids surviving on ramen noodles listen.
<
p>Think of it this way: what if David Ortiz went to the cameras after batting practice and said “Batting practice isn’t about baseball to me. It’s personal.” and then talked about some folksy anecdote? I’d be screaming that it d-mn better be about baseball to him because we’re paying him to play baseball and his job is to play baseball, not invest as a person!
When a politician tells me it isn’t about politics,
<
p>…it’s about politics.
Well—-it was so personal with me that I went back to school when I was 46 YOA and became a registered nurse. Over 15 years later—-being emplyed full time and part time in many fields of nursing and medicine I have seen how our healthcare system is abused by the folks who need it least and demand the most. I’ve also seen first hand and treated significant number of illegal aliens—none of whom pay a dime.
There are elderly Americans—folks who have paid taxes and into medicare for decades who have services delayed and denied because hospitals are spending unreimbursed money on illegals.
<
p>Obama is either a liar or he is crazy. There is currently not enough money to pay for the present system. There are currently not enough medical practitioners to provide services. You, Obama, Barney Frank or whomever screw around with our healthcare system and you will bring the system down.
<
p>Just as Barney Frank/ and what’s his name in the White House is now bleating: We had the best of intentions—The system comes down and then what?
<
p>You better give this a second thought before congress screws this country—-PERMANENTLY!
I can tell you that you pulled that 30 percent figure right out of your anus.
How about some proof?
I had the pleasure of undergoing significant surgery earlier this year and spending 28 hours at one of our major downtown hospitals (thanks to surgical robots, my stay was reduced from 4-5 nights to 1). Thankfully, I have excellent insurance-the bill from the hospital for my stay and use of the OR (but not the surgeon’s services) was $40,000. For one night’s stay, the room charge alone exceeded $5,000.
<
p>Because I have excellent insurance, I know my insurer paid a significantly lower negotiated amount to the hospital, and I paid only $250. Imagine what happens if the insurer rules the reason for the surgery to be a preexisting condition. Imagine what happens under the new high deductible plans (for some minor procedures, the inflated cost sits at the deductible-the patient pays the whole amount, but if it were covered by a better insurance plan, the doctor would receive only part of what was billed). Imagine what happens to that patient who has cancer but no health insurance. He or she gets the entire bill. The people who can least afford to pay full freight must do so.
<
p>Health insurance billing and payment seem arcane, but there’s something morally wrong with a system that collects so much more money from those least able to pay than from insurance companies.
<
p>I agree with MCRD that there is not enough money to pay for the current system. It’s the system itself that’s broken and in need of radical surgery. If “Obama, Frank or whomever” don’t screw around with the system it will collapse on itself. It already is doing so.
makes me wonder how you as a nurse make the determination of who is and who isn’t “illegal”. And does this apparent obsession of yours have any effect on how you treat your patients?
Your financial analysis of the health care system also leaves much to be desired.
your answer is to not ‘screw around’ with it? By that, I assume you mean ‘don’t change it’. How does that make any sense? If we don’t ‘screw around’ with it, things can only get worse for ordinary people, while Congress continues to enjoy their fine coverage, and the rich buy the best insurance and health care available. Meanwhile, the insurance industry makes billions.
<
p>Maybe we need a better plan that we can pay for – one that doesn’t siphon off those billions for corporate benefit.