very funny

+1 subby

Still chuckling.

+1

Open wide, Obama's health care plan's coming!

I know right? How funny is it that someone is trying to do something about the shiat that is the USA right now!

You know, I used to think our current system is basically fine as it is... until several of my close family members all had nasty run-ins with insurance companies doing some really shady shiat, in apparent breach of their contracts.

Unless we're willing to start throwing some of these insurance people in prison, it's probably time to scrap this system.

I mean, seriously. Kicking a heroin addict out of a rehab program halfway through, because "It's his first time in. We'll pay for the whole treatment the second time"? That's ridiculous. Luckily, it's been a few months, and my cousin's been able to stay clean, but his councilor was on the phone with the insurance company practically begging them to pay for the other two weeks, because he wasn't ready yet. They wouldn't budge.

I saw a company try to get out of paying for my sister's gunshot wound to the neck, paralyzing her from the shoulders down, because in the past she had a payment issue. The issue was resolved, and we had a letter to that effect, but they tried claiming the problem had never been resolved. Luckily, my mother kept a copy of that letter saying "everything's been straightened out," or else my sister would have been out of luck.

When you have bureaucrats with no medical training making medical decisions for doctors, something's wrong.

On the other hand, when you give doctors a blank check to take as much money as they want for unnecessary tests and 500 dollar Tylenol pills, the system will go bankrupt.

I actually don't know what the answer is. I don't know if Obama's plan is right or wrong. I just know the current system is broken.

Suppository you say?

Why don't we abandon health care and let Darwinism rule for a decade?

So then just scrap the entire idea of health care reform. If you have no insurance and get sick/injured just go to the hospital and tear up the bill when it comes.

Yeah, let's trust the for-profit system with health care in the future...

It's done such a bang up job so far. (new window)

Trust the Free Market (new window)

A GOP aide said Democrats on the Sen. Ted Kennedy's Senate committee are "shoving" their options for a health care reform bill down Republicans' throats without considering their ideas.

I'm really curious how the Republicans are managing to work "cut taxes!" into this. It's the only farking thing they seem to be able to say. Oh, other than veiled hate speech.

Sid_6.7: It's the only farking thing they seem to be able to say.

Deregulate!!! It's the only way!!!

Sid_6.7: A GOP aide said Democrats on the Sen. Ted Kennedy's Senate committee are "shoving" their options for a health care reform bill down Republicans' throats without considering their ideas.

I'm really curious how the Republicans are managing to work "cut taxes!" into this. It's the only farking thing they seem to be able to say. Oh, other than veiled hate speech.

Why do you hate the first amendment?

Dammit. I just snorted a piece of pizza into my sinuses.

Sid_6.7: I'm really curious how the Republicans are managing to work "cut taxes!" into this. It's the only farking thing they seem to be able to say. Oh, other than veiled hate speech.

To be fair, they are really good at yelling for pointless tax cuts and stirring up hate.

+1 +1 Bravo subby

+1

AirForceVet: And what did the GOP offer us to swallow instead?

as an insurance company bureaucrat let me just say... very accurate cartoon.

RobertBruce: Sid_6.7: A GOP aide said Democrats on the Sen. Ted Kennedy's Senate committee are "shoving" their options for a health care reform bill down Republicans' throats without considering their ideas.

I'm really curious how the Republicans are managing to work "cut taxes!" into this. It's the only farking thing they seem to be able to say. Oh, other than veiled hate speech.

Why do you hate the first amendment?

And there, folks, is the entire counter argument of the average Republican. No discussion of a counter proposal, no acknowledgment of the problems facing hundreds of millions of Americans- just ad hominem.

Good news, everyone! I've invented a device that makes you all imagine you're hearing Professor Farnsworth's voice as you read this!

A friend of mine died of treatable stomach cancer. His insurance company figured out *on the day of his surgery* that they could legally deny covering the surgery on a technicality -- a problem with the forms he filled out six months earlier when signing up for the policy. Knowing that it was a paperwork issue that would eventually be worked out, the hospital canceled his surgery and rescheduled it for a week later.

Now of course by "treatable", I don't mean "curable". It probably would have killed him within a couple of years. But to get even that couple of years, he needed surgery rightfarkingnow, and all parties concerned knew this. They knew that the delay would probably kill him. He had no next of kin, so there was no one with legal standing to sue the miserable farkers. And of course, they knew that too.

At this point, any plan the insurance companies and hospitals oppose is probably going to be one that is better than the shiatpile we have now.

fnorgby: At this point, any plan the insurance companies and hospitals oppose is probably going to be one that is better than the shiatpile we have now.

This. I'm sorry about your friend, but this is a clear example of the biggest problem with the entire argument:

"Government bureaucracy" isn't some evil beast that will suddenly get in the way of all medical care that was previously readily available in an efficient and timely manner.

Bureaucracy has strangled the health care "industry" for years. Yes, health care is expensive, but it should not be THIS expensive, and a massive part of that expense is the truly breathtaking bureaucratic system that has grown like a cancer over health care.

The case can be made that some bureaucracy is necessary for purely logistical reasons, but the folly of private health care is the fact that every insurance company is, at heart, a business. It looks out for the bottom line, it seeks to cut costs and maximize profits in every way possible, and it has no qualms about denying care when it can, making the system so difficult and convoluted to navigate so even undeniable claims are difficult to push through, and overall make the entire thing an utter farking mess.

Government health care isn't some new layer of bureaucracy. It's a replacement for the massively farked up layer we have that is already in place.

If you oppose the ideological belief that basic health care is a human right in a sufficiently advanced society, bounce this around your brain a few times: we in America pay twice as much as any other first world nation for half the coverage. You constantly hear preached that if you want capitalism to function correctly, vote with your dollars. So why are you paying these guys twice as much to get half the product?

All morality aside, it's bad business.

Bloody William: Bureaucracy has strangled the health care "industry" for years. Yes, health care is expensive, but it should not be THIS expensive, and a massive part of that expense is the truly breathtaking bureaucratic system that has grown like a cancer over health care.

I am fighting with my insurance company over a big chunk of my cancer surgery bills. They are trying to say it was a condition that should have been caught by my previous insurance provider two YEARS ago.

Not even kidding. I went to a doctor for a shoulder problem, the OTHER shoulder, and they are trying to say it should have been diagnosed then.

I will take government bureaucracy over this crap any day. When employees are given incentives NOT to pay out, the whole system needs to be trashed.

fnorgby: A friend of mine died of treatable stomach cancer. His insurance company figured out *on the day of his surgery* that they could legally deny covering the surgery on a technicality -- a problem with the forms he filled out six months earlier when signing up for the policy. Knowing that it was a paperwork issue that would eventually be worked out, the hospital canceled his surgery and rescheduled it for a week later.

Now of course by "treatable", I don't mean "curable". It probably would have killed him within a couple of years. But to get even that couple of years, he needed surgery rightfarkingnow, and all parties concerned knew this. They knew that the delay would probably kill him. He had no next of kin, so there was no one with legal standing to sue the miserable farkers. And of course, they knew that too.

At this point, any plan the insurance companies and hospitals oppose is probably going to be one that is better than the shiatpile we have now.

I am surprised at the lack of suicide bombings in insurance company headquarters in this country whenever I hear stories like that. I guess that's what makes us different than some folks in the world.

Republican ideas: slightly different big government.fark em.

ragekage: RobertBruce: Sid_6.7: A GOP aide said Democrats on the Sen. Ted Kennedy's Senate committee are "shoving" their options for a health care reform bill down Republicans' throats without considering their ideas.

I'm really curious how the Republicans are managing to work "cut taxes!" into this. It's the only farking thing they seem to be able to say. Oh, other than veiled hate speech.

Why do you hate the first amendment?

And there, folks, is the entire counter argument of the average Republican. No discussion of a counter proposal, no acknowledgment of the problems facing hundreds of millions of Americans- just ad hominem.

Hey retard, maybe it got a stupid response because the original post was full of fail like yourself. Maybe you can try something other than "here is our idea, and anyone who disagrees with it is practicing hate speech. hurrrrr. huurrrrrr." You mouth-breathers are getting old.

muck4doo: Hey retard, maybe it got a stupid response because the original post was full of fail like yourself. Maybe you can try something other than "here is our idea, and anyone who disagrees with it is practicing hate speech. hurrrrr. huurrrrrr." You mouth-breathers are getting old.

Last 8 years: "Agree with us or you aren't an American"
Current Repubs: "Agree with us or you don't like the 1st Amendment"

Why should we take ANY of you seriously?

GAT_00: Last 8 years: "Agree with us or you aren't an American"
Current Repubs: "Agree with us or you don't like the 1st Amendment"

Why should we take ANY of you seriously?

Don't be disingenuous, all ideologues hold the belief that you either agree with them or you're wrong. The problem with the modern GOP is that the blind, rabid ideologues control all the levers of power and man all the gates.

Occam's Chainsaw: So why are you paying these guys twice as much to get half the product?

Because profit-motive. STFU you goddamn communist. We have the best health care in the world!

STFU you 50,000,000 screaming hippies!

GOOD NEWS!!!

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+1 Subby.

Well done.

Senate Dems 'Shoving' Health Care Bill Down Republicans' Throat

That's not how a suppository works.

The GOP aide on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee said Democrats are "shoving" Kennedy's bill down Republicans' throats without considering their ideas.

well yeah - you get to do spiffy stuff like that when you're the majority party. Don't like it, vote the Democrats out of office.

Weaver95: The GOP aide on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee said Democrats are "shoving" Kennedy's bill down Republicans' throats without considering their ideas.

well yeah - you get to do spiffy stuff like that when you're the majority party. Don't like it, vote the Democrats out of office.

You're just not grasping the nature of a genuine populist movement, and what it is to represent the majority of Americans. Just because the majority of people vote for another party with different ideas in some kind of election doesn't mean that this other party should somehow have more power until the next election, or get to dictate policy. That's just wacky.

Don't you understand democracy? What people vote for doesn't matter. It's whether or not you believe you're on the right side.

No suppository reference in the article and Obama didn't actually make that joke. Which is unfortunate, because it would have been awesome.

Great headline subby

\ah hear a giant SCOOTCHIN' sound....

As much as I like Obama, I just don't see any sort of health care change going through without some massive support from both the house and the senate.

Bloody William: Good news, everyone! I've invented a device that makes you all imagine you're hearing Professor Farnsworth's voice as you read this!

Your device works perfectly.

Bloody William: Government health care isn't some new layer of bureaucracy. It's a replacement for the massively farked up layer we have that is already in place.

True, but if we get anything new, it'll have to be in addition to the old bureaucracy for a while, instead of replacing it. Which will make things more bureaucratic..

I just hope they create something that will allow small businesses to compete with large corporations for talented workers.

Right now, I would not move to a small company because they cannot offer me health benefits but the large megacorporations can.

Universal health care helps create small business, why do the republicans hate small businesses?

Weaver95
The GOP aide on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee said Democrats are "shoving" Kennedy's bill down Republicans' throats without considering their ideas.

well yeah - you get to do spiffy stuff like that when you're the majority party. Don't like it, vote the Democrats out of office.

This is a big part of the problem with having a two-party system, and one of the reasons I sincerely wish we had a model for coalition government in this country. There is absolutely no incentive for a majority party to work with a minority party when legislation can be passed by simple majority or, in a worst-case scenario, by 60 votes. Without the necessity of forming conceptual coalitions with representatives of divergent viewpoints, no true marketplace of ideas can exist, and the level of discourse is lowered to a win-lose, black-or-white, my party-vs-your party paradigm.

Everyone loses. The political viability of legislation becomes more important than the merit of its proposals; opposition is based more on idealogy than intelligent critiques; and the American people are denied the opportunity to weigh the relative merits of multiple solutions to complex problems.

The loss of intelligent opposition is particularly galling. The legislation giving regulatory control of tobacco to the FDA is a powerful example of the way that coporations like Phillip Morris can use the government to further secure their market share. It has little benefit to the people of this country, and further burdens an already unwieldly government agency. And yet, even if the Republican Party had the good judgment to make these objections, it would matter very little in the end. There's room within our system for critical, thoughtful opposition. But if you're in the majority, you don't need to give it a damn bit of attention. Your coalition is your party. Reaching across the aisle is, at best, a kind gesture. To me, that's a crying shame.

CheetahOlivetti: Dammit. I just snorted a piece of pizza into my sinuses.


That's going to cost you...

jack21221: You know, I used to think our current system is basically fine as it is... until several of my close family members all had nasty run-ins with insurance companies doing some really shady shiat, in apparent breach of their contracts.


Yeah - our healthcare system is great... until you REALLY NEED IT.


If you have a serious illness, there are two scenarios:

Insured and want to live? Don't lose your job!

Uninsured and want to live? Financial ruin!


I used to think the healthcare system was fine. Then I talked to people who have ongoing serious medical problems, like people with MS, who will be out on the street if they ever lose their jobs. And then I had my own run-in with a hospital that tried to rob my grandfather of his life-savings before admitting to our attorney that they just try to get as much as they can first.

I'm all for debating how to fix the system, but the GOP morons who won't even admit it's BROKEN can suck it.

How sad: subby wants to be P.J. O'Rourke.

He isn't funny any more, either.