Private Insurance — “An Umbrella that Melts in the Rain”

[SHRED]

Read this gem from FDL.
Read it and recommend it if it rings true for you like it did for me.

Wow.

Private Insurance — “An Umbrella that Melts in the Rain”
By: libbyliberal
Thursday November 26, 2009 3:08 am


So what if we lived in a society in which fire departments only responded to emergency calls from those citizens who “could afford it”? What if the police protected from criminals only those citizens who “could afford it”? What if the firepersons and police persons were not financially eligible for the very life-risking services they were rendering for well-heeled others? What if you called in your emergency and your financial status had to be accessed to determine if you would be helped or left to your own bad luck crisis?

This is the slippery slope bottom to where we as a “former” democracy are hurtling. Free market systemization destroys the mandate for the collective protection of a citizenry, the common good. Pay to play is the slogan now. Even pay to be saved!

There was a hit song decades ago by Gene Pitney, “A Town Without Pity.” We are a COUNTRY WITHOUT PITY! We are a society that allows 45,000 American citizens to die prematurely each year from lack of humane and affordable healthcare.

We as a country that spends billions upon billions of dollars on militarization that brings death and destruction down on hundreds of thousands of human beings for purposes that are found gravely suspect by the majority of Americans, judging from Obama’s election mandate to end the war. Not to begin ones or escalate unsuccessful ones. Wars launched from lies and fought, many contend, over corporate agendas, often in defiance of basic human rights of the foreign citizens, often with reckless disregard for their lives and the lives of our soldiers.

And Congress passes war funding without debate. But when it comes to health care reforms that would relieve the enormous stress and threat of premature death on citizens? All about nickel and diming help for citizens in the name of the recession by a Congress that rewarded and rescued with taxpayer money financial institutions that brought on the financial crisis, and which Congress now seems about to do the same with the health care and pharmaceutical industries.

Something is terribly wrong with our government now. We are a nation without empathy at home and abroad. We are the only industrial nation that sees fit, or unfit, to not guarantee universal health care for our own citizens. We are a country that defies the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of its citizenry. A society run by and for oligarchs.

MORE:
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/16356

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[debbierlus]

1. K & R

[katanalori]

2. The entire piece is a good read........

and this (near end of article) is important (IMO):

"I am calling the Senate right now to promote the Single Payer Medicare for All S703 bill sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders. As a far, secondary alternative, I am asking they give the states an “opt in” right to organize a single payer system, which hopefully will be offered by Senator Sanders as an S703 amendment to the currently debated bill.

I am encouraging my fellow progressives and also the non-progressives to support Bernie Sanders’ S703 bill or, again, at the very least, Sanders’ S703 amendment. To call a Senator or more — Four toll-free switchboard numbers for the Senate and House: 1-800-828-0498, 1-866-338-1015, 1-866-220-0044, and 1-800-473-6711. Or email or write. It matters. The more the better. Even give the president a call at 1-800-578-4171,

One link to the list of senators:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Please join me. Do it for yourself, your loved ones, your country, those future generations. Be a part of the solution, not the problem. Thanks."

[David in Canada]

5. Hmmm...

It is amazing how the get-the-federal-government-out-of-the-state's-business repugs all of a sudden support federal intervention when the profit margins for their precious worthless insurance scum-panies are at risk.

[inna]

3. Excellent article, thank you for posting!

KR

:kick:

[shadesofgray]

4. K&R

[Greyhound]

6. K&R, but it's psychopathic parasites that run it.

Oligarch sounds somewhat legitimate and soft-peddles the reality.

[zbdent]

7. rain is a pre-existing condition ...

you're better off buying an umbrella in the desert ...

[Vidar]

8. Great find. Recommended.