Coburn tells weeping victim of broken health care system that government isn’t the solution.
By on Aug 25th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Coburn tells weeping victim of broken health care system that government isn’t the solution.
Yesterday CNN’s Rick Sanchez aired a segment from a health care town hall where a weeping constituent explained to Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that her husband’s health insurer refuses to cover his treatment for a traumatic brain injury. As the woman continued to cry, Coburn told her that his office would try to assist her individually. But, he added, “the idea that the government is the solution to our problems is an inaccurate, a very inaccurate statement.” Watch it:
CNN’s Sanchez follows the segment by asking, “What’s interesting about that is that Senator Coburn just essentially said, ‘The government is not the solution.’ But then you have to ask yourself, he just told her to come and see him. Isn’t he the government?”
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Damn. When Rick Sanchez points out the inconsistencies in your logic, you’ve really gone off the deep end. What’s next, Wolf Blitzer pointing out the irony of Coburn decrying government while drawing a government salary?
August 25th, 2009 at 12:41 pmBeing the compassionate Christian that he is, Coburn was going to lead that poor woman in a prayer…
August 25th, 2009 at 12:43 pm***
CNN’s Sanchez follows the segment by asking, “What’s interesting about that is that Senator Coburn just essentially said, ‘The government is not the solution.’ But then you have to ask yourself, he just told her to come and see him. Isn’t he the government?”
**
god help us, he is.
:|
August 25th, 2009 at 12:44 pmAnd while he’s at it, mebbe Wolfe can ask Coburn if Tom’s satisfied w/ HIS govt mandated healthcare…
Saaaaaaaaaaay… if Coburn has actually accepted that healthcare… and used it… wouldn’t that make Tom a ***GASP***… Socialist???
Oh… Nooooooooooooooooooooooooes…
August 25th, 2009 at 12:45 pmCoburn tells weeping victim of broken health care system that government isn’t the solution.
gee bet his bed side manners were just as caring and good. he should have said SO what you want me to do you are the wants who paid for it.
Oh here call me and i will have my assisted get you in touch with this insurance company xyz but you said its a preexistence condition. then you need to call this number 1-800 to fing bad
August 25th, 2009 at 12:46 pmNeil Cavuto topped that. Have you seen this video of Neil Cavuto saying that it is not Obama’s moral obligation to make sure Americans have health care, but it is his moral obligation to protect the American dollar?
This is unbelievable! here is the clip.
http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2640
August 25th, 2009 at 12:47 pmOh, but Little Tommy Coburn (DRT-AU*) isn’t the government.
He’s a physician and everyone knows that doctors can do anything. Government isn’t the solution; doctors (operating in an unfettered free-market economy) are the answer!
* Dining Room Table – Alternate Universe
[snark off]
August 25th, 2009 at 12:48 pmI accidentally flipped past Fox yesterday and saw Greta’s Man’sSuffrin’ interviewing Coburn re: that exchange.
Not even the friendly cover of a Righty propaganda network could help Coburn sound rational – he was cornered like the mealy-mouthed rat he is, and came out of the interview segment looking like a complete buffoon. He basically said the lady’s friends and neighbors should fill-in and supply the highly specialized care her husband requires.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:49 pmInteresting how many of the Republicans against reform of the health insurance system belong to the C Street ‘Family’…
August 25th, 2009 at 12:50 pmHow can you be against health care for all of your citizens? Is this not a basic right? Why should this woman have to cry in a meeting with a member of Congress just to have her husband get the treatment he needs? Our system is seriously flawed when things like this go on, and she is only one of many. I am sorry that she has to go through this, and sorrier still for her husband who is being denied care. How do the people that work for that insurance company sleep at night?
August 25th, 2009 at 12:51 pmFurther proof that people who say “government is the problem” should not be allowed anywhere near control of the government.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:51 pmCNN’s Sanchez follows the segment by asking, “What’s interesting about that is that Senator Coburn just essentially said, ‘The government is not the solution.’ But then you have to ask yourself, he just told her to come and see him. Isn’t he the government?”
—
aside from the fact that her story is premised on the fact that … wait for it … private health insurance is providing no solution to her problem.
i think the only reasonable take-away is that grassley thinks there is no solution.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:52 pmSaaaaaaaaaaay… if Coburn has actually accepted that healthcare… and used it… wouldn’t that make Tom a ***GASP***… Socialist???
—
i agree, except that the answer most people seem to have to this question is that the government is his employer, so it’s akin to normal employer-provided health care. it would stick, i think, if the care were actually provided by government-employed doctors. i honestly don’t know whether that’s the case. anyone else know?
August 25th, 2009 at 12:54 pmactually NO!, he’s not the government. We The People are. He’s just someone a group of people elected to represent them in the People’s government. It’s about time he, and most everyone else, remembered that.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:54 pmDear Senator Coburn (R – Insurance), The lack of coverage of Americans that currently have private health insurance through an employer or individually is caused by corporate greed. Plain and simple. A government-run public option insurance plan would cost about thirty percent less than a private plan, since profit and greed would be excluded.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:54 pmlarkohio says:
How do the people that work for that insurance company sleep at night?
—
very well. in very comfortable, expensive beds. you know they get bonuses when they deny care to patients, right?
August 25th, 2009 at 12:55 pmIn other words, his offer to “come see us” is a bribe to get her to shut up & go away. Wonder if he’ll even follow up on it.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:55 pmTell him what you think!
http://grassley.senate.gov/contact.cfm
August 25th, 2009 at 12:56 pmCNN’s Sanchez follows the segment by asking, “What’s interesting about that is that Senator Coburn just essentially said, ‘The government is not the solution.’ But then you have to ask yourself, he just told her to come and see him. Isn’t he the government?”
…and Coburn is the brighter of the two Senators from Oklahoma…
August 25th, 2009 at 12:56 pmi am surprised the teabaggers in the audience didn’t mock her and pretend to cry like they did to the jewish man after the trailer park trash teabagger gave him a seig heil
August 25th, 2009 at 12:57 pmTo answer Sanchez…No, Republicans have a wierd cognitive dissonance between the Boogeyman they call government, and themselves. In Republican land, government is something much bigger and scarrier and totally seperate from the people who comprise the government. It is an ideal that needs to be attacked and torn apart, even as they are acting in ways that prove their own theories wrong. It is also ironic, as Bill Maher point out, that Republicans fail to see the connection between their own incompetance and their claims that “government doesn’t work”.
No, to Republicans there is a disconnect between themselves and their own actions, and government. Just like how everyone in the media agrees the media has a liberal bias, and report stories/claims/myths/BS that perpetuate the myth, but at the same time they all say none of THEM are biased. Somehow the media has a liberal bias completely seperate from the actions, stories, facts, that make up the media.
Personally, I don’t think it is a coincidence that BOTH of these issues exist. I think the two are connected as clearly the existence and continuation of these myths can only exist with the help of a complacent media who cares more about scandal than they do fact.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:57 pmThis is what happens when a Repub’s compassion gets in the way of his talking point.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:58 pmWhat political and religious elitism.
“Sorry, lady. You lost playing “private insurance, the board game.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:59 pmNow that the system I endorse has made you a beggar, I’ll be a good christian and help you out some. Maybe. And just you, this one time, because everybody’s looking.”
Coburn is not the government, just an asshole taking up a position that could be held by someone who actually wants to help people.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:00 pmOh, god, that poor woman…
August 25th, 2009 at 1:01 pmHere’s an idea Colburn: How about you try to assist everybody instead of one individual?
Her situation is much more the norm than the crybabies that don’t need help. This is the reason reform needs to happen.
What an idiot: government is not the solution, but he’ll pull some strings for one, not all.
If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. The problem is our government won’t do anything to solve the health care problem. Fck you, Tom.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:02 pmTrue conservatism always trumps compassion.
This constituent’s pursuit of “life, liberty, and happiness” is to be set aside in the name of the pursuit of true conservative goals, by members of the Republican Party.
Sorry. Better luck next time.
Next…
August 25th, 2009 at 1:03 pm.
Dear Senator Coburn,
Why do you thinks Americans DO NOT deserve affordable health care?
.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:03 pmObviously, from this lady’s experience with the private insurance company, the current system is not perfect; therefore, it is incumbent upon Coburn, Grassely, Enzi et. al. to vote against maintaining it.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:04 pmralph the wonder llama says: …and Coburn is the brighter of the two Senators from Oklahoma…
and thats not saying a hold lot.. smiles
But i wonder why he gave up his doctors practice? Guess it was more money in being a dim wit senator. I am surprise he did not tell that lady she should pray more and harder that will cure your husband, if he dies OH well guess you didnt pray hard enough or didnt give enough money to the chruch
August 25th, 2009 at 1:06 pm[...]her husband’s health insurer refuses to cover his treatment for a traumatic brain injury.
What were the reichwingers saying again about the health care overhaul?
Wasn’t it something about a bureaucrat getting “between you and your doctor”?
The rightwing’s lack of awareness is staggering.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:07 pmAs the woman continued to cry, Coburn told her that his office would try to assist her individually.
Of course, what he didn’t add was “I have no fking idea what they can do, but maybe that will shut you up until I get out of this room.”
I don’t know what she’s worried about, though, because the Republicans have assured us that everyone in the country already has guaranteed medical care. All she has to do is run the guy down to the ER and everything will be fixed.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:07 pmI saw that conversation. This is the Coburn that is heading up C-Street, group that feels taxpayers can pay for their junkets to “spread” their idea of Christianity. This is the group that says a child rapist is ok if it is one of their group. How can anyone expect anything better from subhumans like this ?
August 25th, 2009 at 1:07 pmThis poor woman and the two families I met this weekend who are bankrupt, homes forclosed because of severe illness of their children. Compassion ? Everyone opposing healthcare reform are just pure evil.
So government can’t do anything, then why have one? Let’s all live in anarchy…Oh yeah we look at African nations and say well no government isn’t working there.
Also if government can’t do anything why offer your help as a politician?
August 25th, 2009 at 1:07 pmThis makes me angry. I just fired off an email to Coburn’s office.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:10 pmI wish that Coburn moment would be played over and over, let the uneducated, that oppose healthcare see who they are backing.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:10 pmThe numbers of these types of experiences will overshadow the rights bullshit. Shine a light on it.
I live in ok and I have been showing this to many who previously supported coburn. If he thinks Texas is turning blue maybe he should look around his neighborhood.
Many seniors are opening their eyes over this, especially when you point out who got them medicare and who tries to destroy it at every opportunity.
gop’s problem is that the truth is coming out. When that happens, they lose.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:11 pmThis woman’s and her husband’s plight also highlights the lack of many Americans’ health care coverage that rightwingers have so stubbornly denied.
It seems the standard Republican response at this point for most pressing problems (national health care, global climate change, budget deficits, etc.) is to cover their ears, close their eyes, and yell “lah lah lah! I can’t hear you! lah lah lah!” as loudly as they can.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:14 pmWhat a similiarity between “let them eat cake” and why aren’t your neighbors helping. And I thought the Texas Senators were the snakes, guess Ok has its share as well, right along with Iowa.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:14 pmThe rightwingers aren’t ignoring it, they just don’t care about anyone except themselves. Healthcare just too expensive my foot ! Where was all this cost concern when they voted over and over to give bush anything he wanted.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:16 pmThank you Fred…at least you know people that want to open their eyes. It bothers me that Senior Citizens who have the time to educate are some of the ones supporting the dumbest myths out there.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:18 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Faced with a situation where an insurance company was rationing care and stood in the way of the patient getting the care he needed, did Coburn scold the insurance company? NO. Instead, he took a swipe at the government.
In his view, Coburn doesn’t see government as a solution; and, either thinks that this insurance company treatment is what we Americans should find acceptable; or, private insurance isn’t the solution, but is too cowardly to say so.
Well, Tommy, what is your solution, rely solely on your neighbors? Good luck with that.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:20 pmNo… WE the people are the government. That is why Coburn’s comment that we should be good neighbors and help each other out in times of crisis is so ironic. The government/public option is how we, as neighbors, can efficiently pool our resources to help each other. A second irony is that this same A-hole would not say that the heath care corporation, as a neighbor, has any obligation to help out.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:20 pmWhat the media needs to do is print how much each Senator, Representative has received from big pharma. Rachel Maddow has done a great job showing who is backing supposedly citizen groups and how much money is going in.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:21 pmThe problem is you need campaign money and who are the biggest donors ? Not the taxpayer. So guess whose interest you back.
So Coburn is essentially saying that private insurers should have the ability to be death panels at-large, denying life-saving coverage or payments to people at their whim? That is the definition of death panels…
http://www.political-buzz.com/
August 25th, 2009 at 1:22 pmI wonder if the Senator would say the same thing if the woman’s husband was a disabled vet? No, I bet he would pointing out that the man could get care from the Veterans Administration, and that while not perfect care, would be compassionate and as well run as any FREE hospital system in the western world.
Of course, then he would also have to also point out that it is a socialist, government-run system that is taking care of millions of sick or disabled veterans annually.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:22 pmHe’s throwing a decades old talking point at a weeping woman?
Coburn’s name is now mud.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:23 pmDr. Tom is showing his compassionate conservative bedside manner. What a schmuck.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:24 pmRP – This lady is just one case, as I mentioned just by chance talked with two families bankrupt through illness just this weekend. Both were two paycheck, young healthy couples but had ill children. I want Coburn, Grassley, Bach, all the opponents of healthcare I want their insurance. Sure quiet on that idea are they ? And where were all the Republican healthcare reforms over the last 8 years if they have the plan ?
August 25th, 2009 at 1:24 pmIn other words pay taxes and die. Yes if you need help go else where don’t look for the United States Government to help you. Your tax dollars go to Big Business, Wall Street and Law Makers. We have to make sure give away Trillions to other countries and of course let Foreigners come to the US for free medical care.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:25 pmShe’s not being abused by the grand tides of economic change,or any of that–she’s being criminally abused by a large corporation.
In what universe do you not go to the government for JUSTICE?
These are not indigent people–these are working people, people with good jobs–people who used to fall under the category of doing well. And these criminal cartels come and destroy their lives by taking their money–lots of it–and then not providing the vital service they’re supposed to.
If you don’t call the government when that happens, then who? The Justice League of America? Vin Diesel? Jesus?
August 25th, 2009 at 1:25 pmI hope the Dem’s are keeping track of all the Repubs who are claiming that government is not the answer to Americans problems….then ask in 2010 why they should continue to be part of a system they don’t believe works. -
August 25th, 2009 at 1:26 pmSchmuck and name is mud are way too kind for this one and all the ones like him, Cronyin, with his $150,000 airfare to and from Washington. Plenty of taxpayer money for what they want and to hell with the taxpayer.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:27 pmThis video needs to go viral.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:27 pmThis is your idea of a solution. You had years to make it work. Now I demand you answer why it has failed.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:28 pmWhy aren’t we marching in the streets? It still appalls me that so many of us are just waiting to see who wins. Did the fact that our opposition to bush’s war lost ?
August 25th, 2009 at 1:29 pmRP2012 says, “But no, you sit and expect the government to solve your problems.”
We, the people, came together and formed a government in order to provide for the general welfare, amongst other things. We, the people, decide through our representatives, what we want OUR government to do and support those programs through our taxes.
Yes, I expect OUR government to address OUR problems.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:29 pmTom Coburn = Hypocritical Heartless Bastard
August 25th, 2009 at 1:29 pmThe Republic of Stupidity says, “Being the compassionate Christian that he is, Coburn was going to lead that poor woman in a prayer…”
I pray that any politician who opposes a National Health Care System for all Americans, loses their health care coverage and then comes down with a life threatening illness.
Amen.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:32 pmIn other words, Government For The People is not a conservative principle.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:32 pmSome of the Republicans have no shame in addition to no heart. Lincoln is turning over in his grave.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:33 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
RP – Why is it you and your party have plenty of money for war but nothing can be spent for the health of our country ? Why is it your party had a chance to put in some health care reform for 8 years but didn’t ? How do you tell families so sad, too bad that have been working and paying their taxes when their insurance has been used up. And God help them get insurance anywhere else with a sick child. Do you even know the meaning of caring about someone else ?
August 25th, 2009 at 1:33 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
I’d call Coburn a piece of shyte but that would be a compliment.
He couldn’t care less about this poor woman’s husband. The Rethugs would rather watch the destruction of families than admit the government needs to regulate the “wealth insurance” companies!
Someone needs to remind a$$backwards Coburn that he is part of the government and has a chance to do something about the problem.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:34 pmaaronk – Death Panel of 1.
Good for you aaronk, for providing a living definition of the word “hypocrite”.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:35 pmAll of these Ronnie Raygun government bad and corporations are good rethugs need to be sent home to earn their money the old American way they talk about. They have absolutely no business drawing a salary on taxpayer dollars for doing nothing. Coburn is waste.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:36 pmCoburn: The idea that the government is the solution to our problems is an inaccurate, a very inaccurate statement.
Now everybody read that comment again and think about it. Coburn is implying that the government isn’t the solution to our problems. Yet OUR military, through our government is the answer to other countries problems.
Country A has a ruthless, anti-American dictator, the U.S. government solution, spend trillions of dollars in a war to remove him. Country B & C receives billions of dollars in foreign aid….
August 25th, 2009 at 1:36 pmRP2012 says:
But here is the kicker, not a single proponent of the public option would sign on to give up their congressional health care plan and take what they think their constituents have.
So the fact that they don’t think private health insurance plans are good enough makes their support of a public option invalid?
Does “the kicker” mean that you were kicked in the head before you said it?
August 25th, 2009 at 1:37 pmHey dumbass, they need it too. At least democrats are trying to get the same for all Americans. the gop, no, no, no!
America is watching.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:38 pmSo, clearly, rather than fix a broken health care system, all the uninsured have to do is cry before a congressman at a town hall meeting. He fixes the problem, and gives you a tidy lecture that government is not the answer. Health crisis averted!!!
Ah the glory of free market capitalism…
August 25th, 2009 at 1:38 pmBut when Americans are dying or losing everything due to an illness, we shouldn’t depend on the government to assure that all Americans have affordable health care….FY Coburn!
August 25th, 2009 at 1:38 pmI am looking at Grassley at over $2 million, Bach over $2 million and United Health care with a 428% profit and a $11 million salary for the CEO.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:39 pmbush’s war would have paid over and over the cost of a healthcare plan for all. Don’t forget the 9 billion just lost in Iraq, no accountability. Now, our people are suffering but it is ok because some of you have great healthcare. The saying I’ve got mine to hell with you is a republican mantra.
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
In fairness to reality I will point out that you are just wrong. We are protecting it now. bush is the one who put it in jepardy.
You are a fool on a fools errand.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:39 pmSo remember everyone, when you have hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills just ask your neighbours for help to pay them off. I’m sure they will gladly help ya out!
August 25th, 2009 at 1:40 pmThe amazing thing for me is that these thugs with (R) associated with their names are too damned stupid to realize they are failures and are really a laughing stock when it comes to governance. They have no business in government since they hate government.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:40 pmI could explain all day aaronk, and it wouldn’t help.
I might as well try talking to a stool.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:41 pmI think anti-government people are mostly merchant types. This would include people on the political right, and also libertarians.
Right-wing and libertarian dogma tell us (over and over again, with charts) that the free market system is efficient while the goverment is inefficient, that regulations are evil, that business people are honest and square while government people are sneaky and duplicitous, that taxes destroy the world, that everything should be run according to business principles, and that, when you get right down to it, merchants are pretty much the super-race.
It’s just a coincidence that this philosophy–putting the commercial class at the center of the universe–was concocted by members of that class.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:41 pmCoburn is the fountainhead of dogshit. The US is dying a slow and agonizing death and all he can do is lift his leg and say ‘piss on you, all y’all.’
Greed has won. America: R.I.P.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:42 pmHA! – then again, in a sense, I am.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:42 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Coburn to America: Government isn’t the solution to your problems.
Coburn to Iraq: Our military will be the solution to your problem. Our actions will remove your dictator, get you free elections and a new government and a constitution.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:43 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
In no particular order;
From the insurance company perspective, it ain’t broken, so there is no weeping victim of a broken health care system. That person’s insurance company is doing exactly what they want to do; deny a claim. If they pay out on the claim, they don’t make a profit, etc etc, so the name of the game is deny the claim. Eventually, if the insurance companies and their pimps and shills in Congress and other places have their way, people with ‘health care insurance’ will pay their dollars and receive NOTHING. NADA. ZIP. Well, there might be a revolt before that happens, but who the hell knows where that will end.
Coburn knows perfectly well that he’s government associated. Being a good pimp and shill, his route to re-election is to get as much health care industry and insurance money as he can AND to do some constituent service, like call up this constituent’s insurance company lobbyist and ask them to cut her a break. For him, they’ll do it. That puts Coburn further on the hook for them AND it stokes his ego and increases his power among his constituents. It’s a win-win for everyone, unless you, as a constituent, do not have public access to your state or district political pimp.
Of course, as everyone starts resorting to their Senator or Representative to get an insurance company to relent and pay on a claim, guess who gets swamped and starts wanting to reform the system so they can go off and do politics, instead?
August 25th, 2009 at 1:44 pmI don’t believe politicians have changed that much, remember FDR had to fight for Social Security and Johnson for Medicare. It really is, just so much more money from corporations now than it used to be. But, hey, repubs throw us a bone now and then whatever happened down to your beloved trickle down theory ?
August 25th, 2009 at 1:44 pmooh – RonPauliacs in the house….
stuff’s gonna get a little krazee now, people….
August 25th, 2009 at 1:45 pmno aaron – you should.
you can start with a poli-sci degree from Regent,
then intern w/ Sarah P,
and then you can be the next Jack Abramoff.
hoo-ray for you!!!!!
August 25th, 2009 at 1:46 pmRP2012 says:
1) legalize competition among states which will dramatically lower cost.
“““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““`
You really believe that? How much cheaper is your auto insurance which you can get among insurance companies from different states.
This is a myth being propped up by the Health insurance industry and their mouthpieces in the republican party. They know a public option will cut in to their profits and they don’t want that to happen.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:47 pmCoburn’s “solution”… seek help from the community… isn’t that the point of National Healthcare???
Coburn sees a difference where there is none between “begging your neighbors for help” and people joined together in a national healthcare program.
How many doors much she knock on begging for funds to cover $1million dollars in medical assistance?
Maybe if she knocked on every door in America and asked them for 25cents each, she’ll collect enough money.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:47 pmi’m not here to satisfy your standards aaronk.
you don’t like what i say – tough. vote it down.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:47 pmRP – Health insurance HAS FAILED ! When it costs a young healthy family of 4 $7200 a year for insurance that is called failure. As to insurance across state lines, BS the companies would get together and decided what to charge as they do now intra state. When an insurance company executive ADMITS that after paying premiums they can elect to cancel a cancer or whatever customer, THAT IS FAILURE!
August 25th, 2009 at 1:49 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
what purpose is a government that doesn’t work for the well being of its citizens?
is there really any other purpose for a government?
August 25th, 2009 at 1:52 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
It’s just history dude. Learn to read, it will be in the books.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:52 pmPerry logan says:
I think anti-government people are mostly merchant types. This would include people on the political right, and also libertarians.
“““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““`
Not all anti-government people are these types or on the right or libertarians.
I’m a registered democrat who loves my country but despise my government. Both parties have sold us down the river and have allowed the banksters, the crooksters on Wall Street and the corporations to run our country. It’s just that the democrats throw we the people a few more bones.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:52 pmI can see why many of th people in OK continue to send this POS back to the Senate. When this poor woman began crying, the men sitting near her had an expression of what seemed to be disgust and disdain for her circumstances. Hopefully, Coburn and those in OK will one day have their chance to walk in her shoes. That will then give all of them something to clap about.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:54 pm–the–
August 25th, 2009 at 1:54 pmrightio there space cadet. It has failed.
You claiming it hasn’t and quoting some random CEO of big business doesn’t change that.
What inovation? Hard on pills?
Seriously, where’s the cure for cancer if what you say was even remotly true.
you are one gullible fish.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:55 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Texaslady@57:
People are organizing to marches. Check out the links below.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gpfkgg
http://marchforhealthcare.com/events
August 25th, 2009 at 1:57 pmThe other amazing thing about this hypocritical christian (small c) is that he is a medical doctor! How can a chrisian medical doctor turn his head to someone in need in defense of the rethuglican party and a monopoly healthcare industry for profit? You tell me cause I have the answer.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:58 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
stjack says:
Saaaaaaaaaay… if Coburn has actually accepted that healthcare… and used it… wouldn’t that make Tom a ***GASP***… Socialist???
i agree, except that the answer most people seem to have to this question is that the government is his employer,
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
I think it would be more accurate to say the American people are his employer AND are who is providing his insurance which would be pretty much the definition of socialistic
August 25th, 2009 at 2:03 pmLet’s try a little bit of Republican logic for the health care bill… I was looking through the health care bill (HR 3200) and noticed these horrible parts of this government power grab! Check it out for yourself, it’s all in there.
It says “death” “panel” “will” “cause” “premature” “death” “for” “all” “without” “exception” “including children, adolescents, adults, and seniors”.
And I can document every little bit of it! “death” is on page 596; “panel” is on page 513; “will” is on page 475; “cause” is on page 163; “premature” is on page 971; “death” is on page 588; “for” is page 968; “all” is on page 913; “without” is on page 423; “exception” is on page 218 and “including children, adolescents, adults, and seniors” is on page 519.
So who’s crazy now?
August 25th, 2009 at 2:05 pmRP2012 says:
If ignorant brainwashed morons like YOU werent so eager to BE brainwashed morons regurgitating the mantras you were programmed with we would easily be able to do something. You however are stupid. The screechmonkeys play you like chatty Kathy dolls telling you the stupid to repeat and you do it dutifually without ever giving any bit of it a seconds thought. You heartless soulless Ebenezer Scrooge worshippers who dont care how many AMERICANS have to DIE how many have to go bankrupt as long as every dime the government spends gets filtered through the pockets of a rich man. Gotta protect not AMERICANS but profit margins. And too stupid to see how you are being used. Your STUPID is the problem not us in any way.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:06 pmMost people who work for minimum wage? Really?
You really are just retarded aren’t you?
August 25th, 2009 at 2:07 pmaaronk says:
Keep spewing the stupid you were brainwashed with. Of course we already DO with medicare. We already pay for other peoples houses to be safe with police, military and fire Depts. We pay so that other people can get to work on the highways. We all paid so the people in rural parts of the country could get electricity. You do know the stupidity of your statement is monumental dont you? Do you EVER post anything Rush didnt program you with because so far I havent seen it
August 25th, 2009 at 2:09 pmWe’re not talking about the last 100 years asshat. We are talking about the last 20 years in which the insurance and health care costs have quadupled while American’s incomes have stagnated.
You’re the one who made the statement that it is worth it for the gains. I’m asking for you to show the gains.
I know you can’t and so you change the subject. Surprise!!!
August 25th, 2009 at 2:11 pmaaronk @ 107:
Happy to. NOT spending the money to revive the economy means more broke & unemployed Americans with no buying power. A bankrupt economy’s currency isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on (see Germany 1945.)
August 25th, 2009 at 2:13 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
RP2012 says:
I notice you didnt back up the statement that not ONE of them would take the public option but that is irrelevant anyway. I have VERY good healthcare. Perhaps I wouldnt want the public option either. That doesnt mean the public option would do no good. They would provide a competition where people would NOT be excluded for previous condition where they could NOT be denied because they forgot to mention they went to the podiatrist in 1985 that they would NOT lose as soon as their health problems made them lose their job. That would force private insurers to address at least those issues. We could solve that problem by just going to single payer and the Congressmen would have to go to it or pay for their own.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:15 pmvaluable medical innovations come from our State Universities.
private enterprise gives us Enzyte and Restless Leg Syndrome and drugs that have to be recalled for killing people.
only a fool would trust Al Capone’s private enterprise over Elliott Ness’s law and order.
stick it Righties – you’re dupes – cheerleaders to your own gang-rape. good luck with that.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:16 pmRP2012 says:
So we pay the most of any country in the world to be 37th on the quality list. 18,000 Americans per year DIE from lack of acess. 15% cant GET health insurance and about half a million people per year go bankrupt from healthcare costs though more than half of them HAD health insurance and to you that ISNT failure? What would have to happen for it to BE failure would a million people a year need to die?
August 25th, 2009 at 2:18 pmThis sounds childish.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:19 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Coburn is a reeking pile of shit, dishonest, dishonorable, and disingenuous.
But the dumb-fux in Okiedom keep electing him.
It would be best if there were some way to contain the infection. Border fences work for me, and include Texas and most of Kansas…
August 25th, 2009 at 2:21 pmA traffic cop stopped me the other day as I was speeding away from robbing a bank.
I told him that the govt isn’t the solution.
The judge didn’t think it a good idea.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:23 pmRP2012 says:
No I dont think I will stop. That is until YOU stop regurgitating the idiotic talking points you have been brainwashed with. It gets old listening to the same cliched morondroppings from you mindless propanda parrots. How many times am I supposed to put up with being called lazy by MORONS like you who are too stupid to think for yourself? By the way I LOVE the snivelling. It is so amusing to read you insult us then snivel like the PUNK you are that we DARE to do the same thing to you. Dude WWWWWWWAAAAAHHHHHHHHH is not a political argument
August 25th, 2009 at 2:23 pmThe vast majority of useful, helpful therapies and drugs which actually aid people have been developed at government/university/med schoo labs, and have then been appropriated by private interests when they proved successful.
Take the profit motive out of health care ENTIRELY!
If we cannot have truly socialized medicine, atleast it should be not-for-profit…
August 25th, 2009 at 2:24 pmThe true shame of this video is that any one of us could be that woman. How many of us are one major illness away from bankruptcy and total devastation? Yeah, I have a good job, money in savings, and health insurance, but how would that hold up if I was in her situation. I keep hearing the polls about 80% being happy with their health care, but how many of them have experienced a major illness, and how many of those are still happy with their coverage. There needs to be a safety net so situations like this don’t happen. It’s a shame that so many – particularly so called “Christians” on the right are totally void of the empathy gene. At the risk of sounding like a fear monger, just think how you would hold up under similar circumstances. I may be a polly anna, but I just think there’s a better way for our country.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:24 pmIt’s true – the grownups get $1 more per hour. Easily enough to buy a home and save for sending kids to college and retirement.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:24 pmRP2012
Your link doesn’t work and if it did it would prove that you are wrong. Wages have not kept up with the cost of health care over the last 25 years. You can be an idiot and pretend if you want, I don’t care.
your asserstion that only 1 in 25 people draws minimum wage is a joke right? I mean if you are making 8.50 that aint minimum wage but it aint 50k a year either.
are you just a violent and vicious person or are you just ignorant?
August 25th, 2009 at 2:26 pmI’m surprised “Deacon” Tom didn’t refer her to his C Street “Family” for help. Oops, that’s just for his adulterous friends, so the woman is out of luck with the GOP.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:27 pmEugeneDebs says:
First let me see a link to that 37th in quality declaration. I know of it but what it is usually referencing is that though America spends the most we are still the sickest. It is not the quality of our medicine or health care that causes this it is the lack of health. What I mean by that is we are stressed, eat nothing of nutritional value, obese, sedentary and don’t sleep enough. On top of that we take drugs for every single ailment we have. That will not change with Government intervention! It starts with the individual making a choice to lead a healthy life style.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:28 pmDid anyone else notice the volume of applause when Colburn stated that government isn’t the solution? Colburn isn’t the only problem here … it’s the people sitting in that town hall who listened to that poor woman beg for help, yet applauded when their elected representative told her that she was wrong to expect any assistance from our government, along with the millions of other folks out there lucky enough to have healthcare insurance who just don’t care about anything or anyone else beyond themselves.
Heaven help them those people when they find themselves and their families in situations similar to what that woman is experiencing.
Shame on all of them …
August 25th, 2009 at 2:31 pmIt started when Americans decided to stop voting for republicans.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:32 pmFRED!!!!!
READ CAREFULLY
LESS THAN 1 in 25 people who make minimum wage are single parents who work full time. That means that most are teenagers, or married or have a second job!
you said “We are talking about the last 20 years in which the insurance and health care costs have quadupled while American’s incomes have stagnated.”
No household income has not stagnated it have grown substantially. Obviously not as much as health care costs, but hell look at the cost of education.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:32 pmFunny thing is, if that I was the person in that woman’s situation, I would have responded “Then what the f**k are we voting YOU into office for since you aren’t interested in representing the concerns of your constituents?”
August 25th, 2009 at 2:34 pmCoburn, “the idea that the government is the solution to our problems is an inaccurate, a very inaccurate statement.”
Does this @sshat realize that we, the American Government, paid for and set up a universal healthcare system in Iraq???
Mr. Coburn, why is the American Government of the opinion that Iraqi’s deserve a better healthcare system than it’s own citizens get???
August 25th, 2009 at 2:37 pmYou’re worried about “death panels,” conservatives? THERE’S your freaking death panel. They are already here.
This poor woman’s husband is likely to die because insurance company claims reviewers are allowed to make life or death decisions rather than medical professionals.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:41 pmRP2012 says:
No they arent
http://mediamatters.org/research/200405020007
The truth is that only 32 percent of minimum wage earners are teens ages 16 – 19, according to the Economic Policy Institute’s analysis of 2000 U.S. Census Bureau data.
http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/epi_virlib_briefingpapers_1995_whow/
Minimum-wage earners are primarily women (57.9%), have full-time jobs (47.2%) or work between 20 and 35 hours weekly (33.3%), are disproportionately black (15%) or Hispanic (13.8%), and are concentrated in the low-wage retail sector (44.3%).
August 25th, 2009 at 2:43 pmMinimum-wage earners are frequently the only earner in their family (38.8%) and, on average, contribute half of their family’s earnings.
RP2012
READ CAREFULLY
You saying it don’t make it so. You are wrong and you can’t prove it. You made a half hearted attempt but conveniently for you, your link didn’t go anywhere. Prove your lies.
Union pipefitters are making the same per hour wage now that they were making 25 years ago. Concessions to companies and weakening of the unions who set the wages for all workers has kept wages from inceasing.
You have proven yourself to be just a run of the mill liar.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:43 pmCan these people stop calling themselves Christians already? Jesus would kick their ass if He was here. If you’re going to support a political philosophy that merely amounts to the antithesis of any form of moral good (i.e. people should help each other) then you really shouldn’t be allowed to refer to yourself as a Christian.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:47 pmaaronk says:
————————————————————–
Fred & tombaker….you guys make claims and won’t back them up at all. Amazing. Anybody care to tell me how this deficit spending will protect the dollar?
=============================================================
Ask your economic failures with (R) associated with their names. The deficit spending cycle began with Ronnie Raygun and was continued with the Bush boys and the tax cutting rethuglicans. I challenge you to point to one rethuglican adiministration that has been, what you hypocrites call, fiscally conservative. You guys are failures and never mention fiscal responsibility until you get your butts handed to you. Now go someplace else to play.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:49 pmRP2012 says:
YOu are a joke. It is the often cited WHO ranking and it is based on things like longevity, infant mortality and the like If you didnt know THIS then you arent even minimally informed on this issue
http://www.who.int/healthinfo/paper30.pdf
Your excuses are CRAP. We dont DO preventative healthcare because there is more profit in catastrophich healthcare and the poor are just left out of healthcare access. THAT is the problem with our healthcare system. Not that what you mentioned isnt a problem for our health but that is irrelevant because no matter how we pay for it will have no effect on those things. I am not saying our doctors and hospitals are the problem it is the access and who doesnt have it that are the problem the problem is it is not universal this adds costs and is morally repugnant.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:51 pmOh my god, that woman just breaks my heart.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:52 pmRP2012 says:
August 25th, 2009 at 2:52 pmby the way where is YOUR Link that not a single congressman would take a public option? If you are demanding links for what I say how about you begin backing up some of your endless basless assertions? Got a link to show that MOST minimum wage workers are teenagers?
It starts with the individual making a choice to lead a healthy life style.
And genetics has absolutely nothing to do with it.
This appears to be an extension of the nature vs. nurture debate. Would making the choice for a healthy lifestyle help those predisposed to disease? How?
August 25th, 2009 at 2:54 pmRP2012 says:
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
texaslady,
I agree. Our members of congress live well above the average American: 174,000 a year and the best health care in the world. It is ridiculous and needs to change. But here is the kicker, not a single proponent of the public option would sign on to give up their congressional health care plan and take what they think their constituents have. It is not just Republicans who are in the wrong it is also Democrats. regarding your comment above about Big Pharma dealings, look to none other than the president.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-fkz5hhDZA
by the way, this clip is from Air America.
The better observation would be: Not a single opponent of the public option is willing to give up their health care plan and risk being at the mercy of the insurance companies that deny care through recision and “pre-existing condition” clauses…
August 25th, 2009 at 2:57 pmIt starts with the individual making a choice to lead a healthy life style.
Sounds like R2D2 troll is advocating death panels.
August 25th, 2009 at 2:58 pmRP2012 says:
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Although this woman’s case is sad it still does not warrant government health care. If all of you lazy complainers would stand up, take action and actually DO SOMETHING to help the problem maybe we could have some progress. But no, you sit and expect the government to solve your problems. How much money do YOU give to charities that deal with health care? Do you volunteer time to help those without insurance? Have any of you started a charity to help the uninsured? I’m sure the answer with 95% of you is no. So instead of relying on the government, like helpless saps, to solve all of your problems why don’t you start a fund to help this woman’s husband instead of using her to promote your socialist cause.
Y’all complain about forking over taxes to the government. What makes you think that you guys will voluntarily contribute to a charity that seeks to cover the uninsured? You guys would still continue your “personal responsibility” talk and there wouldn’t be enough voluntary contributions anyway…Do you do the same as you’ve listed above? Somehow I doubt it, because it seems you want to pontificate to the rest of us…why don’t you walk the walk?
August 25th, 2009 at 2:58 pmRP2012, the people CHOOSE to stay off insurance talking point neglects to mention that people have to choose between health insurance and feeding their families. While they might WANT to have health care, they can’t afford to pay the rent, buy food, AND the premium. So the premium has to go in order to satisfy their hierarchy of needs. Of course the wingnuts have taken this to mean that well people DON’T WANT health care and use it to downplay the numbers of uninsured in this country…
August 25th, 2009 at 3:03 pmWhy doesn’t that slimebag Coburn renounce his own government-backed health care plan?
Screw the repiggies, and screw the teabagger trash.
August 25th, 2009 at 3:11 pmRP2012 says:
If all of you lazy complainers would stand up, take action and actually DO SOMETHING to help the problem maybe we could have some progress. But no, you sit and expect the government to solve your problems.
This is a democracy; the government is us. By supporting health care reform, we are doing something. By opposing it, you advocate doing nothing. Simple as that.
.
aaronk says:
It is not the government’s “moral obligation” to force one person to pay for the healthcare of another.
If anything is a moral obligation, then seeing to the health America is. Why do you hate America?
The simple fact of the matter is, you are OK with the abysmal health care in this country, as well as the fact that those who can’t afford gold-plated coverage get sick and die regularly. Your position is precisely that of moral evil. Why do you advocate evil?
August 25th, 2009 at 3:20 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
How long before Michelle Malkin begins stalking this woman and her family?
August 25th, 2009 at 3:23 pmconservative guy says:
Another sob story. What the woman wants is someone else to pay for health insurance.
She HAD coverage through her husband’s insurance…they pay the premiums every month. This is not about an issue of wanting someone else to pay for coverage. It’s about the heartless practices of putting profit over the well-being of people. Conservatives like yourself claim you’re all so moral and compassionate, but when you are faced with stories like this, you guys are exposed for the FRAUDS you really are. What, she should have taken the personal responsibility not to suffer a traumatic brain injury?
You are a heartless soul, devoid of any empathy and compassion…If you were in the same boat, you would be crying and whining about your insurance company as well…
August 25th, 2009 at 3:30 pmconservaTROLL
Another ignorant post by the stupidest piece of garbage in the known universe ConservaTROLL the maggot infested puke stupider than dogshit
August 25th, 2009 at 3:42 pmI bet the compassionate conservatives out there are mocking her with faux tears…
August 25th, 2009 at 3:42 pmWhat this woman wants is to get what she paid for. She has insurance.
What happened to the party of personal responibility? Did you throw that out with your christain comapassion?
I’ll answer that for you. Yes you did.
And this whole story tells the tale of the gop that was. It is now a thing of the past, a relic. No longer even a viable political party.
August 25th, 2009 at 4:02 pmThe next time I go to the doctor, I’m sending my bill directly to Tom Coburn’s office. It sounds to me like he’s offering to help out.
I bet if everyone who get denied coverage did the same he’d start reconsidering his position.
August 25th, 2009 at 4:03 pmZooey says:
Oh my god, that woman just breaks my heart.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The key there Zooey is you HAVE a heart if our rightwing trolls here ever managed to aquire one THEY might become decent members of socieity
August 25th, 2009 at 4:25 pm3,000 Americans died on 9/11 and we went to war against terrorists. 18,000 Americans die each year due to unaffordable health care or coverage being denied. It’s time to go to war against the greedy, immoral profit driven health care and health insurance industries!
August 25th, 2009 at 4:29 pmThe government isnt the solution to every problem but there can be no rational argument that it can and HAS been a solution to some problems. The really stupid part of the rightwing sees everything in black and white. If the government cannot be a solution to every problem then it cannot be a solution to ANY problem if it has ever been inefficient it can never to anything right. If it has ever failed at ANYTHING they ignore all the successes and say it is the problem. How were we going to get electricity to people living in rural areas when it didnt have a big enough payoff for private enterprise to make the investment? Well the government gave us rural electrification and invested in hydroelectric plants and the economic boom created partially BY that was tremendous. Half of all seniord DIED IN POVERTY so the government stepped in and we have SS now less than 10% die in poverty. Getting our goods from source to market was inefficient the gov stepped in viola a highway system that at the time was a model for the entire world and the increased productivity efficient transportation brought helped EVERYONE. The right will just pretend these things didnt happen. They focus on some of the failures of gov and PRETEND, mostly due to the fact they have been brainwashed to believe, that anything the gov tries is ENEVITABLY going to be a failure. We need to ignore them, marginalize them, pat them on the head and tell them to go play in the sandbox and let the adults invest IN AMERICA since they had their shot and screwed everything up. Time for you wingnuts to just STFU and let the adults clean up your messes
August 25th, 2009 at 4:44 pmconservative guy says:
Another sob story.
You are an evil person. This would all be much easier if your side would openly admit that they were pro-evil and anti-good.
August 25th, 2009 at 4:54 pmRemember how soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan have a very high incidence of traumatic brain injury because their armor kept them from dying but didn’t protect their brains? A lot of research is being done on traumatic brain injury right now. Most advances in the treatment of TBI will probably be coming from that government research. Just another example of how our medical industry benefits from government dollars and government work. Private industry can’t be bothered with something until they’ve found a way to make money off of it.
August 25th, 2009 at 5:10 pmaaronk says:
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Fred & tombaker….you guys make claims and won’t back them up at all. Amazing. Anybody care to tell me how this deficit spending will protect the dollar?
“Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.” ~V.P.Dick Cheney
August 25th, 2009 at 5:14 pmSpeaking of which, aaronk, I notice there are some questions from a previous conversation which for some reason you neglected to answer. If you could give us your thoughts on those at some point, that’d be great. Thank you.
August 25th, 2009 at 5:49 pmWhat an idiot.
He says government isn’t the answer then he uses his government position to help her.
Don’t you teabaggers realize that we want to help all not just one?
Repugs will never be in the WH again.
August 25th, 2009 at 6:45 pmThis so reminds me of the time when Bush complimented that woman as being “uniquely American” when she said she had to work three jobs to support her family.
Republicans are vile and hateful people.
August 25th, 2009 at 7:59 pmI don’t think some of you realize how this bill reads. Each hospital will be alloted so much money for each illness or surgery. Once it’s been used up you will have to go to another hospital. You better hope that a hospital somewhere in the US has some money left for your affliction otherwise you will have to wait till the next calender year when the money is replenished. That spells death for a lot of people! This is NOT the way to go for health care. Notice how the politicians are going to have a DIFFERENT health care plan the we the people. We should all have the same. If that happened we would have politicans who were motivated to find something that does work! I don’t know how Obama can sleep at night!
August 25th, 2009 at 9:08 pmHere’s the point that nobody seems to have mentioned. Goverment healthcare isn’t going to pay for this woman’s husbands brain injury treatment either. Are any of you familiar with your state medicare and how many medicines and procedures are routinely denied? I am, I can relate many heartbreaking stories of patient being denied treatment because state public aid wouldn’t pay for it–in spite of the patient’s doctor writing a letter citing why such treatment is medically necessary. From what I’ve seen, insurances follow the governments lead in limiting treatments (ie public aid will stop paying for a treatment and then 12 – 18 months later the insurances stop paying for it.) Government healthcart will undoubtedly fix some problems, and also create new ones. But let’s not pretend everyone is going to get any medically necessary treatment that they require–people on public aid don’t now, and they aren’t going to even if the federal government takes over.
August 25th, 2009 at 9:11 pmNo matter how you cut it the problem come back to money.
In the USA the Cenral Bankers are destorying the USA when the USA could print it’s own money and never pay interest to any banker ever.
As long as bankers control our Government it is VITAL that Americans take defensive action to protect all Americans until we can free our selves of these paracites !!!!
Learn from Eroupeans who have been dealing with Central Bankers 300 years longer the Americans have. Central Bankers are destorying America in their quest to have a one world government they control !!!!
August 25th, 2009 at 9:37 pmGame of Life says:
Repugs will never be in the WH again.
That’s what they said about us. Don’t misunderestimate them.
.
heather113 says:
I don’t think some of you realize how this bill reads. Each hospital will be alloted so much money for each illness or surgery. Once it’s been used up you will have to go to another hospital.
I don’t think you understand that, much like the “death panels,” it doesn’t say what you’re saying it says at all.
While we’re at it, how under the current “system” do hospitals currently have unlimited budgets? The fact is that they don’t. So if they have budgets both before and after, then there is no change there.
I am simply apalled at how much you have to twist, skew and imagine things to complain about when they’re not in this bill at all. Or did someone else tell you that’s what the bill said?
Aren’t you outraged at the liars who are manipulating you to make you look like a fool? Why aren’t they the targets of your anger?
.
AgentOrange says:
Here’s the point that nobody seems to have mentioned. Goverment healthcare isn’t going to pay for this woman’s husbands brain injury treatment either.
Could you kindly point to the portion of the bill that specifies that? Or is this another thing that you say exists that doesn’t exist?
.
AgentOrange says:
Are any of you familiar with your state medicare and how many medicines and procedures are routinely denied? I am, I can relate many heartbreaking stories of patient being denied treatment because state public aid wouldn’t pay for it–in spite of the patient’s doctor writing a letter citing why such treatment is medically necessary.
No you can’t, or you would have referred us to some of these “stories.” Of course, you can manufacture any “stories” you want on the Internet, but overall statistics support the publicly known fact that nations that have public health care systems provide better care to more people for less cost.
In any case if such a decision had to be made, I’d much rather have such a decision made by a public official following democratically instantiated laws than a corporate bureaucrat following secret rules designed to maximize his shareholder’s profits.
.
AgentOrange says:
Government healthcart will undoubtedly fix some problems, and also create new ones. But let’s not pretend everyone is going to get any medically necessary treatment that they require…
Agreed 100%. Public health care would not be a perfect utopia. There will still be problems. There will still be sob stories. Nevertheless, it will be significantly better than it is now.
.
dadw5boys says:
(central banking bad!)
I’ll be glad to engage your points in a more appropriate topic for them.
August 25th, 2009 at 10:54 pmAs a retired gov’t employee I have a good health insurance plan. I mourn this woman’s predicament, as well as all those who are uninsured and underinsured. Politicians like Coburn should have to walk in her shoes to experience the frustration and sorrow she feels. I think their conservative and christian air of superiority would crumble when faced with such a predicament. How can the voters who elect such dunces to represent them live with themselves.
August 25th, 2009 at 11:46 pmMichelle Bachamnn says prayer and fasting will defeat health care reform. After all of those crazy, self-starved people need medical care, hopefully we’ll be able to provide it to them.
August 25th, 2009 at 11:49 pmDid I miss something here? I thought he said we Americans need to do more for our neighbors and not rely on government because government is not the answer. He would help see if he could help her individually. I don’t see why this statement is so bothersome. Wouldn’t it be great if he could throw a benefit luncheon for her?
Better yet why didn’t Rick offer to put up a phone number so people like me could donate money to help that poor woman and her husband.
It saddens me to think that so many people think we should have the government do everything for us. I cannot think of one government agency that is run efficiently or handles 100% of everyone’s issues related to that agency.
Why would it be any different now?
August 26th, 2009 at 12:21 amYou missed the whole point, cmykprnt.
This women and her husband have health insurance,
August 26th, 2009 at 1:03 ambut their insurance company is rationing his care.
Just the way the teabaggers tell us that government healthcare would. But they don’t.
Ain’t that ironic.
So, why should she be a charity case?
cmykprnt says:
Did I miss something here? I thought he said we Americans need to do more for our neighbors and not rely on government because government is not the answer. He would help see if he could help her individually. I don’t see why this statement is so bothersome.
What about all the people in a similar situation who didn’t get to speak to him personally? What about the people who’s neighbors can’t fix all their problems? What about them?
You didn’t see them on TV so you don’t care about them, that’s what.
.
cmykprnt says:
Better yet why didn’t Rick offer to put up a phone number so people like me could donate money to help that poor woman and her husband.
You didn’t donate crap last year to help people who’s insurance companies refused to deliver the service they were paying for.
Have you ever heard a charity say “no thanks, we made enough money to cover all the need this year?” Nope, neither have I.
Doing it through the government would ensure that the most poeple possible can be taken care of. As other countries have demonstrated, it can be done with better outcomes, for much less cost than what we pay now.
You can’t say you want to meet the need while refusing the one method proven to meet the need.
.
cmykprnt says:
I cannot think of one government agency that is run efficiently or handles 100% of everyone’s issues related to that agency.
I can’t think of any private agency that does it either. Comparatively, a government agency would do it better. Not 100% perfect, but significantly better nonetheless.
August 26th, 2009 at 1:14 amI guess my senator’s moral priority is giving guidance and moral support to John Ensign and the other c-street adulterers.
August 26th, 2009 at 1:26 amThis poor woman will have to face her insurance company’s death panel alone.
Shame on them all.
173. cmykprnt sez:…
Yup. Ya missed something. Coburn is a Senator; ya probably got that. Maybe what you missed is the context that goes with that. As a Senator, Coburn is part of the government. His saying that he will have his office help her individually should not distract you from the fact that anything he or his office does for her is really a very ordinary part of constituent service. What his office will do, if they actually get around to it, is call the lobbyist from the health insurance company that is denying her husband’s claim and see if anything can be done. The insurance company claims people won’t like it, but their government affairs office will probably insist that they cease and desist in making the company look bad on this particular individual’s claim. This sort of thing happens with some frequency; it ain’t new.
What is bothersome is that the Senator is trying to have it both ways; he gets to spout conservative nonsense (”Government bad, government not solution, private sector right next door to Heaven AND Eden.”) while using the inherent power of his office to correct one wrong out of thousands of the same sort (health care insurance provider decides to deny claim, thus bankrupting yet another American family).
Insurance companies deny claims every day, sometimes with good reason, and sometimes not. They will deny claims in order to cut loss or increase profit, they’ll deny claims and terminate coverage because the insured got sick or injured. Insurance company bureaucracies can be worse than any government bureaucracy, and regardless of all the heartwarming advertisements, they’re in it for the buck. Government may not be the solution, but insurance companies are the wrong answer.
August 26th, 2009 at 1:32 amheather113 says:
Yeah heather I dont think you know what you are talking about. Dont tell us when Rush TOLD you to think that cough up the place in the bill where it says this or spare us any further of your delusions.
August 26th, 2009 at 1:42 amcmykprnt says:
It saddens me that people like YOU are so brainwashed you spew these stupid talking points. The military is efficient at what they do. They may be expensive but they get the job DONE when used for what they were designed for. The government SAID in 1960 that we would go to the moon within a decade. NO one thought we could. It was only three years after the first satelite. They DID it. So yes the government CAN be efficient. If gov healthcare runs HALF as efficiently as the Flagstaff DMV we would all thank our lucky stars.
August 26th, 2009 at 1:48 amI agree the government needs to control healthcare. It has done so much for social security, medicare, medicaid and the post office, how could this possibly become a bigger disaster? Healthcare insurance needs reform and oversight, but giving another project for congress to ruin is not the answer. Even a British member of parlaiment sent a message over here saying “don’t do it”. He also said the Brits would love to privatize healthcare again, but it is one of the biggest government institutions over there. Maybe a few years down the road we will be able to financially sustain a government run healthcare system, but I think right now I would rather have the president and congress working to fix the economy. The white house just released news of a 9 TRILLION dollar defecit over 10 years. This country did not begin with healthcare for all, but it did begin with many people working hard. I would rather have a job than healthcare right this minute.
August 26th, 2009 at 1:59 amI felt it would be wrong to just quote a person out of hand. this is from an article written by Daniel Hannon- member of British Parlaiment. “…None the less, I felt it would be less than frank not to caution the US against state-run medical care. So, having praised the patriotism and sense of service of the people who work in the NHS, I went on to cite the league tables on survival rates and waiting times, where Britain fares very poorly among developed nations. I added that, precisely because so many people were involved, fundamental change was politically unsaleable.”
Apparently everything being said about how “other countries have better healthcare” is not quite the full truth.
August 26th, 2009 at 2:12 am
get2the point says:
I agree the government needs to control healthcare. It has done so much for social security, medicare, medicaid and the post office, how could this possibly become a bigger disaster?
Agreed. All of the programs you have cited are doing vastly better than they could have as private companies. More to the point, no private company would have had an interest in doing them, so they wouldn’t have been done at all.
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get2the point says:
Healthcare insurance needs reform and oversight, but giving another project for congress to ruin is not the answer.
Y’all keep saying that, but I still haven’t heard an alternative suggestion from any of you.
Except for using this crisis as an excuse to strip away a patient’s right to sue.
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get2the point says:
Even a British member of parlaiment sent a message over here saying “don’t do it”. He also said the Brits would love to privatize healthcare again, but it is one of the biggest government institutions over there.
How many members of Parliament does Britain have? I suspect it’s more than 2, which would make that guy’s opinion a minority at the very least.
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get2the point says:
Maybe a few years down the road we will be able to financially sustain a government run healthcare system, but I think right now I would rather have the president and congress working to fix the economy.
That’s what the GOP said when Clinton attempted health care reform in 1993, and also when Truman attempted it in 1947.
As a wise man once said, “a President should be able to do more than one thing at a time.”
Furthermore, spiraling health care costs are a horrific burden on every other industry in the economy. Apparently you’ve never met a small business owner or an HR employee at a larger company. Fixing health care is fixing the economy.
August 26th, 2009 at 2:37 amThis is a TOTALLY one sided piece! Told ONLY from this woman’s point of view. There is ZERO input from either care givers, doctors, OR the Insurance company! You CAN NOT come to a fair conclusion, with ONLY this deposition, as to whether or not the system truely failed them. For all you know, perhaps absolutely NOTHING can really be done for this person, and upon hearing that information, this woman has just plain lost it, and is blaming everyone else for an outcome not to their liking.
August 26th, 2009 at 3:02 amTo all: I must say, these responses to this story are heartwarming. I’ve looked at the healthcare stories in the media and wondered “Who are these fools lacking in mercy?” I have healthcare but want to see the elderly stop choosing between medicine and food. I have healthcare but know – from losing my husband to cancer – that even with great healthcare you can easily go bankrupt when you get a terminal illness (many do). I have seen so many middle class working folks downsized who cannot afford COBRA so they do without healthcare. I have understood that many who so rudely disrupt healthcare meetings with their rhetoric are ill informed and ignorant. They are the ones who allow politicians to play on their fears. Sadly, many of them – and their families – would benefit if affordable health care/health care reform passed and they are not wise enough to realize it. Sadly, they lack the wisdom to understand that they will one day need healthcare reform, too. It will affect them personally one day as they age and grow ill. It will affect them if they are laid off. It will affect them in a major illness comes to them or their family members. They lack the wisdom to understand that their rhetoric and “righteous anger” is responsible for the death of some as they argue. So, as I start my day…I want to say “thank you” to all of the decent, caring people who have responded with such compassion – you have renewed my spirit…and filled me with hope. I have always said that people of good will would win in the end. You have convinced me that I am right.
August 26th, 2009 at 3:45 amSo, Coburn…government can’t help, huh? ….if I wasn’t helping to pay for your wages and health care (the amount you “officially declare”) ..I could pay for my own Health Insurance….you goddamn blood-sucking leech
August 26th, 2009 at 4:45 amWell, to be honest, I may not be much for politics, but I do know right and wrong. And to be quite honest, so many things about the Republican ideals seem wrong. Most seem just incredibly short sighted.
Lower taxes. It doesn’t really trickle down, since it’s based on a percentage of your wealth and the people with the most money have to pay the most taxes. Unfortunately, this includes companies that contribute to the poor job market by shipping jobs overseas because its cheaper. Doesn’t matter that with this decrease in funding that you’ll host an expensive as hell war on a foreign country and give aid to another country because your government can solve their problems.
Don’t let the government offer a public health care insurer. While many opponents claim it’ll end up just burdening the rest of the country for illegal aliens; it’ll set up a death panel to where each person is evaluated to live or die; it’ll just be worse than private care. To be honest, I’ve heard the horror stories from the media about what happens in Canada. But who’s actually spoken with a Canadian? As it turns out, one of my Canuck friends who came down here almost had a coronary – not really funny since she was stabbed near the heart – when she saw her bill. She was used to it being really cheap if present.
Like I said, I’m not one for politics, but if we’re giving away almost a third of the money we work for, why does it feel like it’s not coming back? It seems to go over seas to help other countries that spit on us in one breath and ask for more money in the next. It seems to go to buy rockets, bullets, missiles, etc to end more lives rather than save them. It seems to line pockets of people who claim “I work for you” in one breath while their actions say “I’m better than you in the next”.
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like everyone’s okay with “socialism” if we call it “Welfare”, “Social Security”, “VA”, “Medicaid”, “Unemployment”, “Affirmative Action”, or even something so simple as “Emergency Services” or “Public School Systems”. Do you know there’s this scam to pay firefighters to put out fires at someone else’s house with your money? The cops do it to, protecting people you don’t know and may never meet with your tax dollars. Don’t forget teachers. If you don’t have kids, why are you footing the bill for someone else?
For those incredibly quick to scream “socialism” after everything Obama says, you need to take a look at what you have been able to have on someone else’s dime. Now ask yourself, if having an OPTION to go for healthcare that is cheaper while also actually covering most of the things you need is a good idea. One where you don’t shell out big bucks just to hear “we don’t cover that” or “we’re refusing to cover that” to help line pockets.
I apologize if you think the healthcare situation doesn’t need reform, but I find it a bit disturbing that healthcare companies report more profit while there’s more uninsured. And fact check, the increase in uninsured comes from across the board. That means even from states that don’t have high immigration issues. However, that’s one person’s thoughts that isn’t much for politics.
August 26th, 2009 at 4:50 amget2the point says:
This country did not begin with healthcare for all, but it did begin with many people working hard. I would rather have a job than healthcare right this minute.
August 26th, 2009 at 1:59 am
_______________
It also began with many of those “people working hard” as unpaid slave labor. Would you like to restore that tradition as well?
August 26th, 2009 at 7:02 amHow disgusting, We need Health Care Reform Now, esp for America’s Forgotten like me!
August 26th, 2009 at 7:16 amget2the point says:
Government is going to offer a public OPTION they arent trying to take over healthcare. As for your BLAH BLAH I hate government it cant do anything right stupidity. Yeah we know you have been instructed to beleive this and are so brainwashed you believe what you are TOLD to but its stupid. Its an old cliched talking point fit only for morons.
August 26th, 2009 at 7:25 amThere is logic after all – the bum says that governement is not the solution to the lady’s huge problem, then he offers help – hopefully to find a solution to her problem.
What the bum ment was that governement is not the solution but it can find a solution, you guys!!!
All what we need now is more republicans like him finding health solutions for the remainder of the uninsured or SBI(screwed by insurance) voters – and we have it, health solutions in the land of the brave – where indeed we are brave to live under the constant fear of loosing jobs,houses,insurance, health and health care and keep our cool about it.
Giving the willingness to help individual voters, I propose that each voter with health coverage problems requests the help of the much talked about bum – “it is not the government the solution, it is the politicians,you stupid!” that is the logic.
August 26th, 2009 at 9:52 ammustangmach says:
This is a TOTALLY one sided piece! Told ONLY from this woman’s point of view. There is ZERO input from either care givers, doctors, OR the Insurance company! You CAN NOT come to a fair conclusion, with ONLY this deposition, as to whether or not the system truely failed them.
So you’re calling her a filthy liar? Figures.
August 26th, 2009 at 11:37 amlarkohio
August 26th, 2009 at 1:12 pmNO health care isn’t a basic right. Neither is food, water, housing, cars, phones, or anything else. All of those things are an option. That is what you libs can’t understand. Neither the Bill of rights nor the Constitution give you the right to any of the things that I listed.
And this notion that everyone should have the right to health care and that it costs to much is to funny. There is a federal law that requires all hospitals and clinic’s to treat people weather they can pay or not.
You can’t even get your arguement right as to what you are fighting for. Are you wanting Health Care reform or Health Insurance reform. The Bill in the House, HR 3200 is all about health insurance not care. You are complaining about how much the Insurance companies charge you for your Insurance and they are the ones that provide the care. They are the ones that pay for it. So why don’t you get your arguement right before you start posting.
183. mustangmach sez:…
So what, mustang?
You’re correct, we know very little of this woman’s actual problem; she could be a plant (a false flag operator), she could be just neurotically over the top or the edge, she could be the real deal, whatever. I would think that if we assume at the outset that she wasn’t planted as a ploy by the Senator himself or his staff, they will find out in short order whether she’s real or not and procede as they ordinarily would with a constituent problem.
The topic is really what the Senator’s response tells us about the problems we have with some of our Congresscritters and governmental infrastructure and perhaps something of what will be required to correct same. The Senator’s response tells me that he isn’t going to be much help with the larger issue of health care insurance and systems. He has the “gummint the problem, gummint not a solution” attitude. That is BS, and is instantly shown to be such by the fact that HE is in government and HE is trying to provide a solution for at least one person. Of course, HE will actually fob the whole thing off on his office staff.
However, that does point toward one component of a solution; government as ombudsman. There’s no reason one of the consumer protection agencies cannot be tasked with, mandated to, intercede with health insurance companies on problems of this sort (denied claims, refusal of coverage, etc). If that agency were given regulatory and other legal clout to resolve such issues, they could probably make some headway on clearing up some of the unfair practices for which the health insurance industry is notorious.
August 26th, 2009 at 3:40 pm183. outlawr284 sez:…
Many howdies, outlaw. Still making life mizzerbull for folks out there on the internets, eh?
You’re right, outlaw. The Constitution doesn’t do any of that or very little. In fact, in some respects it’s a relatively spare or sparse document. However, it does do one thing which you continually ignore. It gives the Congress the right and privilege of determining what the General Welfare is and allows it to proceed accordingly.
August 26th, 2009 at 3:46 pm195. correction, that’s 193 there outlaw. wouldn’t want to unsettle you with a fracking miscount on the comment…
August 26th, 2009 at 3:48 pmSenator Coburns response was quite succint. This lady should have directed her plea to her neighbors in the audience, I am sure many of them would have been glad to help her out of simple human kindness- just as Coburn offered –charitable help as a private citizen.
Instead, she is asking a government official to force those same neighbors to help her, whether they want to, or not..
August 26th, 2009 at 4:06 pmthere is nothing about the lady FORCING her neighbors to help her out. You are trying to distort the debate by forcing your prejudices and stereotypes onto these people who don’t deserve them. Rather, it’s about the immoral practice of recision and how health insurance companies routinely deny care in the name of profit. What part of that don’t you understand? She and her husband paid her dues and premiums. Yet, the care they should get has been denied. You on the right are heartless and judgmental.
August 26th, 2009 at 4:59 pmThere’s an excellent book out “HealthCare, Guaranteed” by Ezekiel J Emanuel. It provides excellent, reasoned and sensible discussion to HealthCare for all Americans.
August 26th, 2009 at 5:53 pmUCSB Kitty,
You are simply wrong — How in the world could it be the insurance companies fault –they’re not doctors? If this lady had the money, she could get the best care in the world. Its not the insurance company’s fault — they’re simply saying they don’t want to pay for her healthcare either. Its the fact that she has no MONEY! So what she wants now, is for everyone else to pay her husbands medical bill, whether they like it or not. Im sure there are plenty of private citizens who are glad to help her by donating money, charity hospitals, foundations, churches, etc., what about her family, her friends in the community? There are many people out there like you, who aren’t “heartless”, who could give this lady money to help her out..
Its not the government’s or anybody elses obligation to pay for her healthcare, plain and simple.
Whats so unfair about everyone paying for their own care?
August 26th, 2009 at 6:31 pm200. PaulMorphy sez:… I think UCSBKitty may be closer to the mark than you, PM. Assuming that the woman in the video is actually experiencing the problem she’s describing, the only part you may be correct on is that the insurance company doesn’t want to part with any of “its” money for the care of her husband. If she and/or her husband and their employer(s) have been paying premiums for some years, why shouldn’t the insurance company pay? That’s part of their contract. They assume a risk and take your money. If the risk or risks don’t actualize, they keep the money; if it does actualize, they pay. If they decide to welsh on the deal by denying coverage after the fact for something everyone thought was covered, if they decide to yank coverage because someone got sick once too often, but is still up-to-date on premiums, then it damned well is the insurance companies fault that they aren’t being covered. It is the insurance company’s obligation; why the hell do you think they’re being paid?
August 26th, 2009 at 7:14 pmNew public, bureaucratic rules for health care tax dollars, could help all citizens better utilize our current government services!?! In light of the fact that communities vary with respect to many factors, including material wealth, we absolutely, do not vary in the fact that good money is paid and fair value is captured, for goods and services. Therefore, because insurance companies may operate locally, it is unlikely that they will be nearly as effective as a centralized agency which asserts sensitivity, toward all variegated regions!?
August 26th, 2009 at 9:00 pmIts not the insurance company’s fault — they’re simply saying they don’t want to pay for her healthcare either. Its the fact that she has no MONEY!
That is an utter lie and you know it. Again you are an apologist for the insurance companies and want to turn this into a personal responsibility issue. They ARE paying into their premiums, so it is the insurance company’s RESPONSIBILITY to pay. What part of that don’t you understand? The insurance company is trying to get out of their responsibility. Of course, personal responsibility never applies to the HMOs, doesn’t it?
August 27th, 2009 at 3:14 amNow I am sure that you (UCSBKitty) are completely incapable of rational thought or the expression thereof.– This lady’s arrangement with the insurance company is a “contract” – she agrees to pay a certain amount..and they tell her what they’ll cover. The insurance company did not send someone over to her house and threaten her into signing up for something she didn’t want. She did it “voluntarily” because she felt is was a good arrangement at the time. If the insurance company violated the agreement, she can file suit against them.
Believe me, if she had enough cash, NOBODY would turn her down for care… In fact, hospitals would be fighting each other for her business — hey wait a minute, there’s a novel concept?
August 27th, 2009 at 4:29 pmTo virtual pebble — see my above remarks. If the insurance company is in violation of the contract, sue them. If not, get lost. This is the way contracts and the fundamental legal system in the USA works. Now if you want to nullify all contracts in the USA, and creat some arbitrary reasoning by which to enforce them, I just don’t think thats going to work …
August 27th, 2009 at 4:42 pmvery thanks for article!
August 29th, 2009 at 9:49 am