With a huge thank you to Gorette for alerting me to this epic follow up Round Two.
Please read it. Read every word of Elizabeth Edwards extraordinary blog entry posted in The Wonk Room. It's a withering screed against Mr. McHypocrite. No one, I repeat, no one can discuss the horrors of the U.S. healthcare system as well as Elizabeth Edwards.
She wants a little straight talk, not "fuzzy language and feel-good lines". Seems Elizabeth like so many Americans, has had it with the stream of never-ending bullshit and never-ending wars, spewed from Mr. McStraightTalk.
You want straight talk? Here it is.
If you do only one thing today, read her questions about healthcare addressed to John McHypocrite. Then ask yourself a few questions. Why is Elizabeth Edwards doing the heavy lifting? Is Elizabeth running for President? Why are our candidates hurling invectives at each other and not McBush, the true evil-doer?
What the hell is going on here?
Elizabeth Edwards Responds: Why Are People Like Me Left Out Of Your Health Care Proposal, Sen. McCain?posted on The Wonk Room
The problem, Douglas, is that, despite fuzzy language and feel-good lines in the Senator’s proposal, I do understand exactly how devastating it will be to people who have the health conditions with which the Senator and I are confronted (melanoma for him, breast cancer for me) but do not have the financial resources we have. In very unconfusing language: they are left outside the clinic doors.
http://thinkprogress.org/...
What could I possibly add?
That Elizabeth Edwards is a force of nature.
That single-handedly, Elizabeth Edwards is focusing the debate, exposing the lies, and asking all the important questions. This is known as holding the lying feet of your opponent to the fire.
It is so overdue for the political establishment, the candidates and their surrogates, to use Elizabeth as a template. Observe how she challenges a dishonest and hypocritical self-annointed maverick politican and shreds him, like a loin of pork. She puts all of you to shame.
This is more straight talk from Elizabeth.She is good.
She is really good.
Senator McCain likes to start speeches with a litany of questions that, presumedly, less plain-spoken politicians would refuse to answer. Well, here are some questions he does not ask but, as that plain-spoken politician, he might want to answer:
- Under your plan, Senator McCain, would any health insurer be required to sell you or me (or those like us with pre-existing conditions) a health insurance policy?
- You say your plan is going to increase competition to the point that it actually lowers costs. Isn’t there competition today among insurance companies? Haven’t costs continued to go up despite that competition?
- You say that under your plan everyone is going to pay less for health insurance. Nice words, I admit, but they are words we have heard before. You must know when American families calculate the actual cost of health care, they have to include those deductibles and co-pays and not just the cost of the insurance. Are you talking about cheaper overall or just a cheap policy that doesn’t kick in until after thousands of dollars of deductibles have been paid?
- Isn’t the type of competition you are talking about really a rush to the bottom? As long as you allow insurers to underwrite and deny access, you encourage insurers to offer plans that may be cheap, but that get that way by avoiding people with cancer or other high-cost diseases or by limiting benefits and treatments, particularly if the treatment is expensive or might be needed for a long time. We all live in the real world; those of us lucky enough to have health insurance have seen how insurers cut coverage and up co-pays or deny particular treatments. The insurance company makes money when it doesn’t have to pay for our health care. (I suspect that if they could, they would write obstetrical-only policies for nuns.) Doesn’t your plan really encourage insurers plans to compete to avoid people with cancer or other high-cost diseases? Don’t you think that the kind of competition that starts with a decent level of required coverage, that doesn’t exclude the care we actually need, would be better?
I am not confused about your reputation: you are the straight-talker, you like to say. This is about health care, Senator McCain. Doesn’t the American voter deserve some straight answers to these questions? As one of those with a pre-existing condition, I sure would like some straight talk.– Elizabeth Edwards
Like I said, it's time for our two wonderful candidates to stop tearing each other apart, take a cue from Elizabeth, and instead send John McFourMoreYears into an Arizona retirement home.