Dear GOP - the collective you are an Idiot

[teleen_fiction]

Originally posted by ladyqkat at Dear GOP - the collective you are an Idiot

(Post originally seen in this post by ramblin_phyl. I have been notified that it was originally posted by suricattus in her journal post. The story and words are hers, but I do believe that it needs to go viral and that as many people as possible need to get their stories out there. Only by making a noise about this can we make a change in our society.)  Re-posted from kadymae.

There is a move afoot in the nation -driven by the GOP - to repeal the new health care laws, to protect corporate interests, to defend against fear-mongering (and stupid) cries of "socialism!", and to ensure that people are forced to choose between keeping a roof over their heads or getting necessary health care.

This movement is killing people.

Think I'm overstating the fact?

Ask the friends and family of writer/reviewer Melissa Mia Hall, who died of a heart attack last week because she was so terrified of medical bills, she didn't go see a doctor who could have saved her life.

From another writer friend: One person. Not the only one. That could have been me. Yeah, I have access to insurance -- I live in New York City, which is freelancer-friendly, and have access to freelancer advocacy groups. Through them, I can pay over $400/month ($5,760/year) as a single, healthy woman, so that if I go to the hospital I'm not driven to bankruptcy. But a doctor's appointment - a routine physical - can still cost me several hundred dollars each visit. So unless something's terribly wrong? I won't go.

My husband worked for the government for 30 years. We have government employee (retired) insurance. It is the only thing of value he took away from that job. His pension is pitiful. He still works part time. My writing income has diminished drastically. Our combined income is now less than what it was before T retired fifteen years ago. Inflation has diminished it further. In the last 30 days I have racked up over $8000 in medical bills for tests and the beginning of treatment. Our co-pay is 20% after the deductible. And there is more to come. Our savings are already gone. I have the gold standard of insurance and I still can't pay all the medical bills.

Another friend lost her insurance when her husband lost his job. She couldn't afford medication and ended up bed ridden for three months at the end of over a year of no job and therefore no insurance until he found work again.

It's our responsibility. All of us, together. As a nation.

EtA: Nobody is trying to put insurance companies out of business. They will always be able to offer a better plan for a premium. We simply want to ensure that every citizen - from infant to senior citizen - doesn't have to choose between medical care, and keeping a roof over their heads, or having enough to eat.

We're trying to get this to go viral. Pass it along.

I'm going to post my story as the first comment to this post if anyone would like to read it. If anyone wants to tell their story, please tell it on your own journal and post a link in the comments. Maybe, just maybe, TPTB will listen to the slaves peons who clean their toilets before they have to clean their own.

Comments

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

My husband and I didn't see a doctor for 2.5 years because we weren't covered and hubby's blood work just came back with an iron level of 10 (should be between 65 & 175). We haven't been managing his Crohn's because the tests and treatments are too expensive. His anti-inflammatory WITH drug coverage was $95 and if he runs out before they allow it to be covered again, it'll be nearly $600 to fill it.

The coverage we have has an $11,000 yearly maximum, after which we'll be on our own for paying for whatever tests/treatment he needs.

We're paying over $400 for said coverage.

Basically, we're fucked.

[fiwen1010.livejournal.com]

Stuff like this makes me realise just how lucky I am to have been born British, and also makes me extremely angry about the way that people bash the NHS and the government seems to want to take it apart.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

You're very lucky and I don't blame you for being angry, :(.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

This movement is killing people.

What on Earth makes you think this is an UNintended consequence?

These people masturbate at the altar of Ayn Rand, the woman who based every notion she had of "the ideal Objectivist man" on a SERIAL KILLER.

Sociopathic cruelty is not a BUG in these people's philosophy; it's a FEATURE.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

According to RIII, who is the biggest comic book fan on the planet (present company included, seriously), Rorschach is based on Objectivist philosophy.

Here's the thing, though. While I haven't read anything of Ayn Rand other than "Anthem", RIII has read them all.... And he supports Universal Health care because true Objectivist philosophy understands that having a healthy population is good for every individual.

Bottom line: I don't know enough about her to have an in-depth argument with you about her. I know she was a hypocrite in her personal life and had a thing about making evil people ugly and good people beautiful in her books, but I do think that she gets something of a bad rap in modern society.

Atlas Shrugged and and The Fountainhead are about extraordinarily talented people who were being exploited by those who were unwilling to work as hard as they were. In the Fountainhead, they steal his ideas and basically try to get him to work for nothing.

There is a happy medium between saying that everyone should look after themselves before looking after anyone else (i.e., put on your own oxygen mask before you put it on your kid if the airplane's crashing) and saying that she was in favor of only the strong surviving.

No, she was in favor of those who were actually doing the work to keep a society going getting credit for their effort and being able to keep the fruits of their labor.

Assholes have taken her Capitalist ideas and perverted them to the idea that she would have been in favor of the corporate paristitism that prevails today, when everything points to her being against any entity that didn't actually produce anything making profit off of the people who were actually doing the work (i.e., corrupt banks, Wall Street, big corporations with 'dead peasant insurance policies and health insurance companies whose bottom line depends upon people dying.)

The idea is for EVERYONE to be able to make it in the world without having to be responsible for those who don't produce anything. Again, this isn't about being anti-welfare, though that's how it's been perverted, this is about being anti-golden parachutes, anti-Enron and anti-housing bubbles.

This is about every person who is willing to work for it actually having a chance to make it without someone else stealing their ideas.

That's how I interpret it anyway.