# The GOP Hates Americans (Health Insurance Exchanges) **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 27, 2013, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gop-hates-americans-health-insurance-exchanges/669797 "2013-09-27T13:08:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gop-hates-americans-health-insurance-exchanges/669797/161 "2013-09-29T21:08:22Z")
It should never have been a right/left problem to begin with. It fucking works, all there is to it. How can you sell loud, shiny crap to people too sick to go to Wal Mart? (Oh, on behalf of me, and me, with the special assistance of me, I thank you…) ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gop-hates-americans-health-insurance-exchanges/669797/162 "2013-09-30T00:35:34Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > now I am a full supporter of either Canadian or UK style UHC for the United States. Let’s go with the Canadian system then. I’m not sure I trust the Brits, and anyway Canada is \*right there… \* ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gop-hates-americans-health-insurance-exchanges/669797/163 "2013-09-30T13:11:26Z")
> [@Mentor\_and\_Liar](#): > > This was your opening? Really? Some of our best lawyers are now employing knock-knock jokes in their opening arguments–with great results–you might try it. Feel free to try out this light bulb joke: > > Bricker: How many people does it take to screw in a light bulb? > World: Dunno, but I’m afraid this isn’t going to be funny. > Bricker: Just one, but he has to watch himself or a loved one suffer death, disease and or disability first. > > Haw haw hawwwww. > > In that this is Great Debates and not Facile Aphorisms, I’m sure you have some hard data on the lifetime nutritional needs met among American anglers. [A quick search indicates that the fishing business is not only in decline but the median income of fishermen in the United States in 2010 barely or does not even equal what would be considered a living wage.](http://www.bls.gov/ooh/farming-fishing-and-forestry/fishers-and-related-fishing-workers.htm) > > You seem to be in favor of a market based solution to something that bears none of the hallmarks of a market good or service. You cannot buy and sell health. There is no secondary market. As a service there are precious few options for purchase. You can almost never choose to forgo it. There are massive barriers to enter the market. I could go on, so could you if it didn’t conflict with your comfortable ideology. > > The closest analog to a free health market is the supplement and vitamin business. If the market worked, this segment would be almost nonexistent. The market offers no solution to health care and the evidence is right before you. You can stack up unfortunate dead children like cord wood and it would remain a poor inspiration to (what?) have earned harder. Well, monsters love to stack dead children, enjoy the stacking. Way too much. Accusations of monster-dom and enjoy stacking dead children against Bricker crosses both the ‘personal insults’ and ‘being a jerk’ lines. Warning issued. Rein it in. ---
**Author:** ![Mentor\_and\_Liar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mentor\_and\_Liar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mentor_and_Liar)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gop-hates-americans-health-insurance-exchanges/669797/164 "2013-09-30T15:16:26Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Way too much. Accusations of monster-dom and enjoy stacking dead children against Bricker crosses both the ‘personal insults’ and ‘being a jerk’ lines. > > Warning issued. Rein it in. Point taken, I retract the last sentence. Through I did not make the initial introduction of the term, concept or personal application of the appellation “monster” I should not have addressed it. Originally I set the last sentence off in it’s own paragraph, carefully avoiding the use of the possessive adjective “your” in favor of the indefinite article “the.” In a moment of pique and personal failure–thinking that the esteemed Bricker is notably blessed with a thick (not of the scaly kind) skin–I snuggled it up into the previous paragraph. This was wrong on my part. For this I apologize to Mr. Bricker, to Mr. Chance and to anyone who might have been subject to my transgression and it’s visual imagery. I did, in fact, consider deleting the last sentence in it’s entirety and I acknowledge that that would have been for the best. That uninsured children do suffer higher mortality rates, I don’t think is in question, the stacking thereof and the preferred pastime of monsters is very much beyond my remit. On the taxonomy of monsters, I recognize that I no longer have anything constructive to say and that that subject rightly should be decided only by deep and personal reflection. Friend Bricker, I am sorry if I have offended you. Please don’t eat me. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gop-hates-americans-health-insurance-exchanges/669797/165 "2013-09-30T15:39:54Z")
Now that is both one handsome apology and possibly a master class in sarcasm. We could use more of that in Great Debates. It requires thought, planning and the ability to forgo posting in anger or in heat. Well done. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gop-hates-americans-health-insurance-exchanges/669797/166 "2013-09-30T16:10:16Z")
> [@Mentor\_and\_Liar](#): > > Friend Bricker, I am sorry if I have offended you. Please don’t eat me. I’d offer to shake hands, but my scales bother people. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gop-hates-americans-health-insurance-exchanges/669797/167 "2013-09-30T22:01:59Z")
I for one applaud Rick Perry’s and Bricker’s efforts. “Let them eat cake” as they say. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gop-hates-americans-health-insurance-exchanges/669797/168 "2013-09-30T22:07:18Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Gov. Rick Perry, and the state GOP generally, aren’t lifting a finger to let them know this opportunity to purchase insurance even exists. What exactly were Rick Perry and the state GOP expected to do to “let them know this opportunity to purchase insurance even exists”? Who or what set those expectations? It irks me when my state government (in Utah) uses taxpayer money to run “sign up for welfare” ad campaigns. If the Texas GOP is being accused of _not_ doing this, then they have my support in doing nothing. Bravo lads! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gop-hates-americans-health-insurance-exchanges/669797.md?page=8)