Hopefully people will realize that merely giving a little girl a chance at life isn’t enough — because that little girl, when saved from her condition through expensive treatment that could all but bankrupt her parents, is consigned to a life without insurance, because she has a “pre-existing condition”.
That is, unless you do something to fix the insurance scam that currently hangs over the heads of every man, woman and child in the USA like the sword of Damocles.
Video by Stephanie Zvan. She actually knows Beatrix, and the video apparently accurately describes everything about the case except for the affordability of her treatment. So even the case it makes is grossly understated.
I had a friend when I was working in Toronto, whose son was born with a transposition of the great arteries. This caused the heart to circulate extremely poorly, and his brain was barely oxygenated at all. My friend was not rich, nor was he terribly well insured, nor was he in the best province in the country for health care (Ontario is notoriously poor compared to the rest of Canada, with no health ombudsman to watchdog the health care system, and all counterexamples you will see about Canadian health care come from that province). And yet, the baby was saved, at no special cost to the parents.
No special cost. Sure, there were a few minor costs, like travel back and forth to and from the hospital, or the cost associated with missing several weeks of work. But think about that for a second. No fund raisers, no charity drives, no fear of bankruptcy.
Would you be willing to pay an extra 2 or 3% on the money you make over $400,000 in order to insure everyone in your country gets a shot at life, without ruining the family in question? Would you be willing to eliminate an entire breed of health care carrion, a bureaucracy that has interposed itself between you and your doctor, making sure they make profits on whether you live or die? If you say no, like many Republicans or fundamentalists do, then are you certain you’re pro-life?
Please repost this video, Stephanie would like it to get wider exposure.
Thank you, Jason.
My pleasure… wish I could do more.
Denny, you blind, odious ass, her parents were trying to buy health insurance–but no one would sell it to them. This is why the public option is needed, a plan that can’t turn people down just because they don’t meet some shareholders’ idea of profitability.
And Medicare is not Medicaid. They’re very different.
You can be such an asshole sometimes, Zdenny. Pro-life until they’re out of the womb, then they’re on their fuckin’ own.
First off, 47 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured. That means they have no choice in whether they’re going to live or die when they get into an accident or have a sudden health problem. Secondly, as Mike said, it’s possible to be so close to the poverty line that insuring your kid costs as much money as you have, and you’re still considered to be making more money than you require to get on Medicaid.
Right now, all Americans are forced to pay for fire, police, and military coverage. Do you support eliminating all three of those things, in exchange for more “freedom”? If there’s one thing government is good for, and there’s only two things government IS good for, it’s this: providing essential services to keep society running in exchange for taxes, as part of a social contract that you make with your country by agreeing to live there. (The other thing government is good for, is keeping businesses that grow uncontrollably like cancers on our society, in check. Businesses like the health insurance industry.)
Also — do you mean to tell me you earn in the top 1% of earners and might be affected by such tax raises as are proposed to pay for the health care reform as it stands presently? I strongly doubt it. But if you do, and you’re too busy hording your money rather than trying to better others’ lives with it, then that’s not terribly Jesus-like, is it you fucking hypocritical douchebag?
And here’s a follow up post from “Mom,” at All That’s Past is Prologue.
Your argue that the government should FORCE people to pay for insurance. This is not freedom and does not represent a free society. I prefer my freedom rather than forced action by any government. Once the government starts forcing people to do stuff it is like a disease that spreads.
If the parents were really poor, then Medicare will take care of the children in the U.S. which is a safety net in our society for those who make bad decisions. The parents failed to be responsible parents and this is what is really at issue.
<snark on>
Hold on now, zdenny may be right for a change…
That’s right ZDENNY, this sort of thing shouldn’t be allowed. I’m tired of footing the bill for the stuff the government does that I don’t like. I want all the tax money that I’ve paid in that has subsequently been spent on war to be returned to me. I want all the money that I paid in that was spent as salaries for military chaplains returned to me. I want all the money that I paid in that was spent on everything that I disagree with to be returned to me. The government is forcing me to pay for things that I don’t like, and that should be unconstitutional!
<snark off>
Do you know what, zdenny? You really are a heartless, despicable excuse for a human being. I wouldn’t go so far as to piss on you if you were on fire.
I’ve heard it said that health care is not a “right”. That makes me curious though, didn’t the Declaration of Independence list three important rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Isn’t health care an intrinsic part of helping to maintain life?
What sickens me the most about people like zdenny is that I used to think almost exactly like them, and I supported American-style health care in Canada. Over the past six years, my wife has wound up with a handful of health problems that would have made her uninsurable in the States. If I had succeeded in getting my selfish way back ten years ago and Canada had adopted such a medical system, my wife and I would be bankrupt and living in a family member’s basement, or else I’d be a widower.