I'm sure many of you (I've seen some of the diaries here, even) have had some awkward/painful/hilarious Facebook run-ins as this whole HCR thing heated up. Me being over here safe in a country full of agnostics and socialized medicine, I've managed to steer clear of most of it, but ended up bumping heads with a hometown teabagger after commenting positively on a high school friend's page when she said "Now I can finally get health insurance again!"
Don't want to make this intro paragraph too long, so let's watch the drama unfold...er, on the other side of the fold.
So teabagger jumps in and rambles something to my friend about bootstraps, you could afford health insurance if you stopped paying for everything else you pay for ever, Obamacare is not free, rar rar rar. My first response was pretty much just LOL, because playa hatin on healthcare reform on someone else's Facebook is just so...sad to me. Here was his 2nd post - all spelling errors/typos/WTF-ness is left intact, so please wear protective gloves while reading.
I'm not opposed to health INSURANCE reform. That's not what this is. Are you aware of the 65/35 regulation regarding insurance providers? Regulated by both state and feds. Been on the books forever. It dictates insurers must pay out 65% of premium costs to claims. The 35% goes to overhead (all that stuff it costs to run a business - salary, ... See Morerent, marketing, etc. PLUS the mandatory cash on hand insurance companies have to have for catasrophies when there are literally thousands of people filing at once.). The new bill dictates 85-15. Can't be done. This bill is written specifically to destroy private insurance which means single payer (govt) health insurance, which is socialism. I don't want a socialist USA. That's not how we got to b the BEST country ever. This gives the fed govt power over EVERYTHING. I want my freedom.
This is amazing to me. On so many levels. Let's break this down.
He is defending the poor, poor insurance companies, that are infamous for paying themselves millions of undeserved dollars while turning down claims, and this guy thinks that 85-15 is impossible. I guess he probably also defends Sean Hannity's need to spend all that money on limos and private jets for his "charity."
You know, I've always been offended when people call getting ripped off/cheated/used things like being fucked in the ass, bending over, etc, because 1) it sounds homophobic and 2) anal sex is actually pretty awesome, but this guy is pretty much doing ass-to-mouth with the insurance companies, and as Clerks II told us, you never go ass-to-mouth. I cannot think of a better analogy for a guy who WANTS insurance companies to take his money and not use it for his actual insurance, to the point of defending them vehemently on the internet.
How in the world is a bill that makes everyone get health insurance through INSURANCE COMPANIES killing private insurance? I wish he was right that it was the route to single-payer, but sadly this guy is typical of some of the idiots I left behind in Altmire's district. OH NOES SOCIALISM! USA IS SO AWESOME! ...what? No, I've never been out of the country, why do you ask? I know I don't have to tell you guys how idiotic this is, so I'll save myself some typing time.
But just...wow. "I want my freedom." Yeah, you know what? I like freedom, too. Freedom is kickin' rad!
That's why I'm so happy that people now will have the freedom to leave shitty jobs and not worry about losing their insurance, or not being able to get it again because of pre-existing conditions. I don't know how many people I know who hate their jobs, hate the city they live in, hate their entire lives, but can't leave because of fear of losing their health plan. Seems to me that this bill is giving them a lot MORE freedom.
Or kids out of college that might want to take a chance, start a business, become a brilliant artist of some sort, work a freelance job that they love, instead of selling their souls to a job they hate because mom and dad's insurance got cut off the second they left college. Now they have until 26 to actually USE their youth and not waste it, without worrying about that whole dying thing. Sounds like freedom to me. You know, freedom to actually do that whole "pursuit of happiness" thing we hold so dear. I always liked that part. Guess this guy's idea of freedom is different to that?
Kossacks, what do you think about freedom? And if you're on Facebook, what are some good pro-progressivism/pro-HCR pages to become a fan of, because I need more to join and passively-aggressively bug my conservative friends who keep joining groups like "I BET I CAN FIND 1,000,000 PEOPLE WHO OPPOSE OBAMACARE."