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    Who Has a Choice on Health Care?

    By Orlando on Mon, 06/29/2009 - 7:08pm | Politics

    Mitt Romney was on Meet the Press on Sunday, where he argued essentially that the United States doesn’t need a public health insurance option because Americans like to have choice when it comes to health care. After hearing this, I realized a couple of things.

    First, Romney needs a Thesaurus for Christmas. Badly. Desperately, too.

    Second, the only choice I’ve ever had when it comes to my health insurance is whether or not to accept the insurance offered by my employer. In my current job, every year I get to choose during open enrollment whether to continued to be insured—despite the rising premiums and deductibles, the constant conflict with the insurance company over coverage, and the general feeling that I’m getting screwed. My other (Romney, pay attention!) option is to roll the dice, pocket the money I pay for premiums, and hope I don’t have a major health problem.

    That is, of course, no choice at all. So, I pay. I get to choose my doctors, but only if they accept my plan. I get to choose when I visit my doctor, which is as infrequently as possible, because it’s expensive, even with insurance.

    I think a public option is putting us on the road to single-payer, and I think that’s why the insurance industry and the conservatives are so freaked out. When it passes, I’m opting out of my company’s plan and into the public option as soon as possible.

    Topics: 
    Politics

    Comments

    I'd like to give Mitt a shovel upside the head.

    Really. All my life, people have told me, "Blah blah violence... blah blah no way to resolve disputes...." To which I have always responded, "Oh yeah?"

    And lately, well, I'm feeling as justified as the ancients of mu mu. I'd like just one piece of evidence that says, "Debating Mitt Romney is better than smacking the prick upside his do avec shovel."

    And meanwhile, we've just wasted so much time. Time we could have used discussing precisely which form of violent shovel-wielding assault would pay the biggest dividends. Is it just one giant roundhouse swing and SmackMitt, down he goes, over and out? Or maybe better to pepper him with sugar-coated shovel-smacks cross the snout?

    These are the questions that keep great minds awake at night. (At least, until I get my milk.)


    by quinn esq on Mon, 06/29/2009 - 10:36pm

    We all know and love (to dislike) Frank Luntz, the rightwing republican wordsmith who has a few things to say.  Well, not things to say, but ways to say things, rather.  Below are his top 3 rhetorical tools to defeat single-payer healthcare

    1)  Rationing:  Republicans are using this term to suggest that government controlled healthcare will result in the rationing of healthcare - ooh, scary

    2)  A bureaucrat between you and health care:  as opposed to a money-hungry corporate monkey?

    3)  One size does not fit all: implying that the single-payer option will treat a newborn exactly the same as an 80 yo - looks like the newborn will have to get used to prescription strength Ben-Gay, sorry baby. 

    You can read his full list here.

    And just when you ask yourself if people are stupid enough to buy this rhetorical cow-pie, remember, we reelected Bush in 2004.  Oh, and the new Transformers movie is #1.


    by Larry Jankens on Tue, 06/30/2009 - 11:17am

    Frank Luntz called insurance industry executives "money hungry corporate monkeys?"

    Maybe I misjudged him.


    by Orlando on Tue, 06/30/2009 - 12:14pm

    Sorry, I should have been more clear.  Everything after the colons are my own take on his assault on the English language and Americans' intelligence.


    by Larry Jankens on Tue, 06/30/2009 - 12:19pm

    You were clear. I was kidding.


    by Orlando on Tue, 06/30/2009 - 4:24pm

    Oh, I'm an idiot. Look, a cartoon!


    by Larry Jankens on Tue, 06/30/2009 - 4:39pm

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