Action Alert: Call Your Congressperson About the Public Option!

September 8, 2009

I took part in this action
(that resulted in the video above) and you can see a very unflattering
(but definitely pathetic and sick-looking) photo of me in the middle of
this video. (Hint: I look less Asian the older I get. Plus: bad hair
day.) I've been sick since I was eleven years old with an unpreventable genetic disease, and I'm "uninsurable" ... at least in the US I am. In Europe, most of Latin America and Asia, and Australia, as well as many countries in Africa, I'm totally insurable. But in the most powerful country on Earth? Not so much.

Aside from the horrible injustice of people dying of easily curable diseases because they can't afford to pay for the cure ... aside from the huge weight on our economy of masses having to make financial sacrifices (like, you know, losing their homes) for life-saving medicine ... aside from the fact that we're losing services in less lucrative sectors (like the arts, media, after school programs, summer education, adult education, sports, all social services that aren't government agencies, etc.) because the people who do the work can't afford to work part time anymore because they don't get insurance that way ... aside from all that, it's just plain embarrassing that we're such a podunk-ass backwards country that we don't have the same things all other industrialized nations have. What kind of savages are we?

For those of you wanting to unload a pile of shit about how we're all
pinkos and there will be death panels and five hour waits for doctor's
visits ... don't. Newsflash: pretty much everyone who has ever lived
with government subsidized health insurance (in another country), and
then lived with the nuclear nightmare we call US healthcare today,
supports government subsidized health insurance. Including me.

I got
good, affordable health care in Germany while I lived there. And yes, I
did have to wait an hour, often two, to see my doctor. He was
also the best doctor I've ever had. I could get in to see him any day
of the week. Emergency? No problem, come on down. And he spent all the
time I needed him to spend with me, answering all my questions. He
could never tell ahead of time how long our visits would last, because
each visit was unique to what was going on with me at the time.

That's why the long wait. And you know what? I'll take it again. In fact, I expect it. If you can't get time off of work for long doctor's visits, that's terrible, but that's a different issue.
Talk to your union rep about it. What? You don't have a union? Huh,
funny, they have those everywhere where there's universal health care.
I wonder if the two issues are related ...

Okay, have at it now, but watch your language.

Contributor: 

Comments

Comments

Why A Strong Public Option Is Essential - By jacksmith — Working ClassIt's not just because more than two thirds of the American people want a single payer health care system. And if they cant have a single payer system 77% of all Americans want a strong government-run public option on day one (86% of democrats, 75% of independents, and 72% republicans). Basically everyone.It's not just because according to a new AARP POLL: 86 percent of seniors want universal healthcare security for All, including 93% of Democrats, 87% of Independents, and 78% of Republicans. With 79% of seniors supporting creating a new strong Government-run public option plan, available immediately. Including 89% of Democrats, 80% of Independents, and 61% of Republicans, STUNNING!!It's not just because it will lower cost. Because a strong public option will dramatically lower cost for everyone. And dramatically improved the quality of care everyone receives in America and around the World. Rich, middle class, and poor a like.It's not just because it will save trillions of dollars and prevent the needless deaths of millions more of YOU, caused by a rush to profit by the DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX!It's not just because every expert in every field, including economist, and Nobel laureates all agree that free market based healthcare systems don't work. Never have and never will. The US has the only truly free market based healthcare system in the World. And as you all know now, IT IS A DISASTER!It's not just because providing or denying medically necessary care for profit motivations is wrong. Because it is WRONG! It's professionally, ethically, and morally REPUGNANT!, Animalistic, VILE and EVIL.THE REASON THE PUBLIC OPTION IS ESSENTIAL:The public option is ESSENTIAL because over 200 million of you are trapped in the forest of the wolves. Which is the forest of the DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX! With no way out except through needless inhumane suffering, and DEATH. While the wolves tear at your flesh, and rip you limb from lib. Then feast on your lifeless bodies like a dead carcase for transplant parts.At the most vulnerable times of your lives (when you were sick and hurting), millions of you have had to fight and loose cruel, but heroic battles. Fighting against the big guns of the DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX! in the forest of the wolves. All because you have no place else to go. You have no other CHOICE!But the PUBLIC OPTION will give you someplace safe to go. And it will give us someplace safe to take you. The public option will be your refugium (your refuge). Where the wolves cannot get at you when your down, hurting, and vulnerable. Where everyone who needs it can find rest, security, comfort and the care they need. Protected by the BIG GUNS of We The People Of The United States. THE MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE AND COUNTRY ON EARTH.This is why it is so critical that we do not lead another 50 million vulnerable, uninsured Americans into the forest of the wolves, without the protections of a Strong Government-run public option. We The People Of The United States MUST NOT LET THAT HAPPEN to any more of our fellow Americans. If healthcare reform does not contain a strong public option on day one. YOU MUST! KILL IT. Or you will do far more harm than good. And millions more will die needlessly. Rich, middle class, and poor a like.To those who would continue to obstruct good and true healthcare reform for the American people, and who seek to trap millions more vulnerable Americans in the forest of the wolves. We will continue to fight you. We are prepared to wage all out war against you, and will eagerly DESTROY! you. Time...is...UP! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! No Co-op's! No Triggers!Healthcare reform can be the GREATEST! Accomplishment of our time and century. A time when future generations may say of us, that we were all, AMERICAS GREATEST GENERATIONS.BUT WE MUST ACT!I therefore call on all my fellow Americans and the peoples of the World. To join us in this fight so that we may finish becoming the better America that we aspire to be for everyone.SPREAD THE WORD!I have been privileged to be witness as many of you fought, and struggled to take your first breath, and your last breath on this earth. Rich, middle class, and poor a like. Life is precious.Whatever the cost. WE! MUST SUCCEED.God Bless You My Fellow Human Beingsjacksmith — Working ClassSenator Bernie Sanders on healthcare (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSM8t_cLZgk&feature=player_embedded)
okay folks, this is the last grandstanding -- or cut-and-paste -- post i'll allow. i'm only allowing it because i haven't made that rule before. i've made the rule now. discuss if you'd like, but please don't use our comments section as a billboard.