[Peace-discuss] [Discuss] Fw: What hath got rot?

[John W.]

On this list, three of us have been and are the harshest critics of the new
health care 'reform' bill:  Carl, Dave Johnson, and me.  I'm curious which
of the three of us has NOT, in the eyes of Bob and Melodye, worked our asses
off to try to make both the local community and the larger society a better
place, according to our lights and talents.  Name some fucking names.

The way I see it, most of the folks on this list have decent health
insurance, so they have the luxury of being "ambivalent" about the health
care bill, reminding us of its many virtues and counseling us to take a
'wait and see' approach.  I, on the other hand, have no health insurance,
and will NOT have Medicare when I'm 65 due to a quirk in the law over which
I had and have no control.  I can't speak for Carl and Dave, but I have
actually suffered the indignity of sitting in the Frances Nelson Clinic,
getting a different doctor every time, KNOWING that there were tests not
being performed because Frances Nelson could not perform them in-house, and
having pills shoved at me which I KNEW would do no good but which were all
that Frances Nelson had to offer.  Having to present proof of income
documents over and over so that even Frances Nelson's precious and scarce
resources would not be "wasted" on me.

The only decent medical care I've received in LIFE was at McKinley Clinic
when I was a student at UIUC.  They have government-run, "socialized"
medicine there; the doctors are on salary and all the services are "free",
even the prescription meds, paid for by a student fee.  There I finally
found a physician (female - God bless her) who cared about me as a human
being, and ordered tests that were based on what I as a patient NEEDED
rather than on what I could afford or on what paid the doctor the most
money.  Sadly, when I ceased to be a student I could no longer avail myself
of her services.  God bless her.

So I'm afraid I can't be as blase as the rest of you about this shitty bill
which leaves health insurance companies firmly in control.  Nothing at all
has changed for me, not a God-damned thing.  And you can bet that if nothing
has changed for me, it's not changing for millions of other Americans who
are not, perhaps, as articulate as I am.

Oh, yes, I forgot.  Something HAS changed for me after all, or it will in -
what?  2014?   I'll be mandated to purchase a terrible private-sector health
insurance plan, with money I don't have and with deductibles and co-pays so
high I won't ever be able to actually use it, or else I'll be fined for my
failure to purchase it.  Please forgive me if I don't see that as a benefit.

Yeah, I'll shut up now.  Every time I try to talk personal realities "on the
ground" rather than abstractions, all the liberals' eyes start darting
around the room, looking for an escape route.  Don't think I don't see it.

John W.


On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 5:31 PM, Bob Illyes <illyes at uiuc.edu> wrote:



> Melodye writes:
>
> "It never ceases to amaze me how some of the biggest critics (on every
> subject) coming out of the shadows have done---- what?"
>
> Precisely, Melodye.
>
> Some pretext is generally behind this lack of accomplishment. A "Christian"
> pretext is that because of Original Sin it is not possible for a person to
> do good. A "Marxist" pretext is that the middle class will always prevent
> political progress, which isn't possible because the middle class is not yet
> destroyed. Market Fundamentalism supplies its own unsubstantiated theology.
> But don't be fooled. These are just excuses to hold in contempt those who do
> their part to leave the world better rather than worse. These critics get
> off on contempt. They attempt to set up abusive relationships with those who
> would do good.
>
> On a slightly different subject, I confess I have never seen anything quite
> so revolting as the Social Darwinian arguments coming from opponents of the
> efforts of our first black President and our first woman Speaker. (Their
> race and gender have nothing to do with this, right?) In the Gilded Age, it
> was seriously proposed that charity was vice, because it lessened the
> pressure on those on the bottom to change their evil ways. And now the new
> Gilded Age has arrived, with the same recycled pseudo-scientific nonsense,
> that we all already get what we deserve.....
>
> Bob
>

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