06 February 2010

A Message from My Little Sister

Here's a great letter on the reasons for Universal Health Care, penned by my little sister after she got one of those mass e-mail opposition pieces supposedly from an "E.R doctor" *wink*...


First...Mass E-mail Anti-Universal Coverage Propaganda Piece:

Dear Mr. President:
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.
While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer.

And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture", a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me".
Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.

Respectfully,

STARNER JONES, MD

Her (Kick-ASS) Response:


I can appreciate this Dr.’s point, but would like to make one of my own…
When I support the idea of universal healthcare it has nothing to do with this type of situation. Under our current standards people like this are ALREADY covered BY Medicaid! My sympathy is for the people who are in the same position as I was for ten years (thank heaven I now have insurance since it is offered by my husbands company). I was a mother of two who worked a minimum of 40 hours weekly as a waitress. Of course my job didn’t offer any benefits. Since I was willing to work the government offered me no help at all, and the quotes I was given from insurance companies offering individual plans started at $800 and some odd dollars… a price I simply could not afford. Not because of my multiple tattoos or expensive cell phone. I was paying for my mortgage, electricity, water, gas (of both kinds), car note (Nissan Sentra with no options…hardly extravagant), car insurance as required by law, and food. I lived in constant fear of sickness or injury, knowing that a broken leg would bankrupt me.
The idea of universal healthcare is to take care of those who ARE trying to help themselves. The ones on welfare are getting a free ride already. Instead of recycling all of the negative propaganda put out by the insurance companies… look for yourselves at what other countries have been able to do for their citizens! Anyone who uses the argument that we’ll have to wait hours to see our Dr. has obviously never been to any of the physicians covered by my HMO. I already have at least an hour wait as my Dr. tries to squeeze in as much profit per day as possible. Even when I make to the exam room I still wait at least an addition 20 minutes for him to pop in for about 2 minutes, and push some drug on me without ever bothering to discuss preventative measures with me at all. Could this possibly have something to do with the incentive legally offered to him by the drug companies? And don’t even get me started on the 8 hours I spent waiting for emergency care in the ER over a head injury that wasn’t important enough for them to treat in a timely manner, but required every test in the book once they ran my insurance and discovered the 100% ER coverage that guaranteed payment… after the $100 copay of course. Worried about the increase in your taxes? If you currently pay for insurance you’d be SAVING money. Insurance companies are a FOR PROFIT business! That means that its their job to get more money FROM you than they have to spend ON you. Plus you never have to worry about whether or not you have a “preexisting condition”, or an illness not covered by the policy you thought would protect you. On the other hand, I suppose that the tax increase would end up costing those of you who are now in the same position I was in for most of my adult life. But having been there for so long, I can honestly say it would be worth it.
I hope that you will all consider these points the next time the subject comes up, and that you will do a bit of research on your own before drawing any conclusions. If you have any friends in Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Cuba, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Ukraine or the United Kingdom, ask them! If not, get out there and make some new friends! Either way, all I ask is that you go find out for yourselves and quit letting the insurance and drug companies brainwash you… PRETTY PLEASE!

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I'm soooo grateful my little sister let me post this...please pass it on....


P.S. To the Dem's & President: GO FOR BROKE! Pass Universal Coverage! The people who don't understand now will thank you later and ...BIG INSURANCE COMPANIES DESERVE TO DIE THE SAME SLOW AND PAINFUL DEATH THEY HAVE IMPOSED ON MILLIONS....

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