I agree entirely on this point. It is bureaucratic BS, and I hope somebody straightens it for her in time. Let her cut her income back to what it is before, if that’s what she wants to do–what’s necessary for her to receive care as things stand.
But I’m not clear on what Starving Artist sees as the ideal we should be working toward.
Okay, so the government shouldn’t be in charge.
Whose “programs to assist people who are truly needy” are these then, the ones you support?
She doesn’t “make” more money, dumbass. She was offered benefits for her son after six months of treatment and on the cusp of expensive surgery. Those benefits would have the effect of making her ineligible for further treatment, and she was denied the abilty to cancel those benefits in order to continue to receive treatment. So she was tricked into accepting benefits that would cancel her treatment and told “tough shit” when she tried to correct it. There is simply no way you or anyone else can spin this in order to make it fit with your notion of caring and beneficent government care.
Naturally however, I don’t expect for a minute that this fact will stop you from trying.
And yet the position you adopt on health-care reform makes situations like this INEVITABLE.
As long as we ration health care by income level, shit like this will ALWAYS happen. There will always be someone who deserves help who just misses the cut-off, or who gets their coverage canceled at the wrong moment, or who exceeds the lifetime cap. This woman is in dire straits because of YOUR POLITICS. So either OWN the cruelty that is the unavoidable result of your position (I’m sure Rand Rover would), or join forces with the people who are trying to fix things.
How was she tricked, Starving Artist? She was sent a letter that she had to sign and return (and presumably read and look into before doing so). Who forced her to do that?
How would you propose we’d (The rhetorical we. I already get universal coverage, courtesy of these fine folks, plus an employer-provided optional private insurance) provide universal coverage to all US citizens, using only private insurance companies, while not making it a monopoly?
The thing is, the purpose of a government is to provide for it’s citizens. And the purpose of a company is to make profit. The government is answerable to you. And a company to it’s board of directors/investors. Why would you trust the private company more?
Well, I can certainly see how she was tricked. Or, to turn it around, if a private company sent her a form to fill out to get a benefit that would just happen to end up saving them a lot of expense to pay for a costly operation, I doubt anyone would be seriously asking ‘how was this a trick??’.
What I’m confused about with this whole thing though is this: Isn’t this the kind of thing the reforms are trying to FIX? I mean, they haven’t actually started to take effect yet, so, this whole lash up is still part of the old, fucked up system…no? We don’t know how the new, fucked us system will even handle something like this (do we?) since, afaik, it is still years before this kind of things gets addressed. No?
No, I think you’ve spun this around so many times yourself that centripetal force has squashed it out of all resemblance to anything in the real world.
Getting more money from the government is … uh … “more money”! :rolleyes:
What do you want? Do you want Medicare NOT to be means-tested?
Personally, I think it’s disgusting that she should be expected to CANCEL benefits for her son in order to make herself sufficiently indigent to deserve our charity. But that’s exactly the sort of institutional cruelty that conservatives like you get off on. We can’t just *give *health care to the poor … you want to make sure they *grovel *for it.
I have yet to see one positive idea from Starving Artist to improve anything. Not a single one. In fact, I started a thread to solicit any ideas he might have had to improve the country, and he couldn’t come up with jack shit. All he does is complain.
I suggest that if he has nothing to add to the discussion other than whining, he and the other opponents of any and all progress should quiet down and let the grown ups in the room try to solve problems.
In the broadest sense it is. Where I’m going with this is that you, are the government. You, the woman in your OP, RNATB, Tiger Woods, Der Trihs, Sarah Palin and all the rest of you, are The Government. That’s how democracy works. In essence, when you say that The Government can’t do anything right, you’re saying that you just can’t get shit done.
The Government is all of you together, making sure you don’t get screwed over. Be that by private companies, individuals, or other governments. Think of it as collective bargaining, in enormous scale. Sometimes you don’t get a deal that gives the best possible benefit to you individually. But it’s helluva lot better than letting faceless people, whose only responsibility is to make profit, lord over your basic sickness and health.
As it should be in a capitalist society, nothing prevents you individually from picking and choosing extra coverage after the basics have been taken care of, should some private company offer it.
I would say that the two agencies probably don’t cross reference. It’s not like she got the letter from Medicare she got it from Social Security. I’m sure it wasn’t a trick in the sense that the letter she got wasn’t meant to do anything more than get her more benefits.
However, that is besides the point that SA is so fucking stupid he’s actually arguing for UHC without understanding it.
How come when whiny little bitches have nothing substantive to post, they always say, "I don’t have time at the moment… " or somesuch? Like we care what the hell you are (not) doing in your life. Like this is not the internet, and we have no fucking way to verify that you were actually too busy with your fascinating life to prove us all wrong. Why would anyone give a rip about your schedule, unless it’s because you’re over-explaining (a sure sign of lying) and you don’t actually have shit to do, you just want to be a whiny bitch on a message board that demands you back it up. And you don’t got jack.
Oh, you don’t have time right now? Ok, honey. You go ahead. We’ll wait for you to devastate us with your reposte and boy you’ll show us.
I would post more, but I don’t have time right now since I have to maybe masturbate and then take a nap.
The same person who prevents him from addressing her responsibility in this mess?
She receives government benefits that she had to apply for and that the agencies make crystal clear are based on income. She receives an unsolicted document that gives her additional income as the parent of the minor child and apparently without understanding it (or just maybe talking to her caseworker first) just signs it and returns it without a second thought. No one forced her to do so
