This is a test to see if anything matters. . .
If you want to continue to live in the sewer with Sarah Palin and the Repuglican party, that of course is your choice.
But if this is how you choose to spend your time, at least think about other Americans less fortunate than you, who are struggling to survive until Barack Obama and Joe Biden are elected.
The Americans I hear from, don't have the luxury of focusing on nonentities like Sarah Palin, who simply put, is the latest Republican assault against the American people. These are Americans too preoccupied about how they'll pay for the September health insurance premium. What to do about the doughnut hole which their sick mother is staring in the face. Yeah, little things like that.
And all those Americans who bought junk insurance because it was all they could afford. The high deductible con game crap, you want to know what's happening to them? They're being fired by their doctors because, guess what, they're not paying their bills.
Hey, this is why we call it junk insurance, and this, my friend, is McPalin's idea of change.
Now let's talk about reality.
Today the California Nurses Assocation launches the Casualty of the Day Series. This project will profile a victim of the U.S. healthcare system every day between now and the election. In America, the abuses and atrocities of the system, compel that a list of this sort be complied.
This should also be a poignant reminder to everyone of the enormous stakes we are facing.
Here's more reality. Look at what we Americans spend and what we get.
Some middle class America reality.
Let's return for a moment to all those middle class Americans being "fired" by their doctors. Fired--told not to return-- simply because they bought junk insurance (which was all they could afford), and now find themselves caught between putting food on the table, filling the gas tank or paying for their healthcare. You see, junk insurance is bare bones insurance. Insurance in name only.
Health plan reality: Clinics firing patients
Smaller clinics are now dropping patients with high-deductible policies who aren't paying up after treatment.
The clinic has been terminating an average of 16 patients a month. Most have high-deductible health plans and haven't paid their bills for more than nine months.
"For the most part, these are college-educated and middle-class folks," said Dr. Rochelle Taube, one of four doctors in the practice. "We send them a letter and say unfortunately, we're not able to care for you."
Break-up letters from doctors are just one unintended consequence in the roll-out of high-deductible plans, the fastest-growing segment of the medical insurance market as traditional plans become ever more unaffordable.
Patients opt for higher deductibles to get lower monthly premiums -- gambling that most years they won't have enough health problems to warrant coughing up thousands of deductible dollars before their insurance kicks in. But if they haven't saved enough to cover the deductible and the unexpected happens, bills can mount up and the possibility of being fired by a clinic becomes real.
http://www.startribune.com/...
The truth is, most Americans who have high deductible junk insurance, don't go to the doctor until they become so sick they have no alternative. So I would postulate, that these people being fired by their doctors, are among the sickest of the sick. And when they do give up and go for medical help, many still end up in bankruptcy court.
So what's an American to do?
Like I said, the heroes at the California Nurses Association have taken the lead, as they always do, in responding to this depraved state of affairs by launching a campaign (God bless them), to highlight the Casualty of the Day. I urge you to participate in the CNA Casualty of the Day series.
Day one begins with Nick Colombo who you--Kossacks working together rescued from Murder By Spreadsheet Pacificare.
I think for once, CNA is being far too generous in their description of the situation. I would call the people caught in the deathgrip of the American healthcare catastrophe, Casualties of War.