OMG, I really understand now why we need

[PatSeg]

a Public Option in ways I didn't before. I think Medicare may have saved my life literally. I will post a more definitive message later, but my experience has been very profound. I understood it before intellectually, but now I understand it personally. I've had really "good" insurance, but it never had the power that "Medicare" has. Everyone deserves to have that option.

I will post more when my head is clear and I can explain it coherently. I am just terribly grateful to be alive right now and want that everyone.

[gateley]

1. I'm so glad to hear it was there when you needed it. And encouraged that

you feel it's a good plan.

We're terribly grateful you're alive right now, too! :hug:

[WheelWalker]

2. +1 times 10 to the 99th

[CrispyQ]

3. I hope you are well, Pat!

Looking forward to your post.

:hug:

[PatSeg]

8. Thank you Crispy!

I'm doing quite well, best I've felt in a long time. I will post soon. I've just been a bit distracted the past few days, but in a good way.

[jillan]

4. Oh Pat - I'm so thankful you had Medicare to cover you.

I just don't understand how anyone could want to deny coverage to another human being....and many of those people that want to deny are the same ones that call themselves religious.

Take care of yourself :pals:

[PatSeg]

9. It is getting harder and harder

to listen to the political debates about healthcare reform, when the answers are pretty basic. We have to have a Public Option available for anyone who wants or needs. The idea of mandating that people buy private insurance is repugnant to me.

[sandnsea]

5. I feel that way about my subsidized insurance

It would be great to have Medicare for All, but since that isn't going to happen - subsidized insurance is a very good option and saved my life and my husbands and thousands of others in Oregon and Mass and Vermont who also have it.

[jillan]

6. Let's just hope the Dems can get something resembling true healthcare reform passed.

I am looking forward to Thursday to see what comes out of this meeting. Theatrics or the beginning of a bill. Will it help people, or the insurance companies?

I'm glad you also had coverage when you needed it :pals:

[gateley]

7. I'm looking forward to seeing this. The Repubs can't really be opposed to everything,

because their game has been exposed. But how can they agree on anything when they've shot down every aspect before?

Then, if this just turns out to be a futile exercise and the Reps DO continue to say NO,1 I wonder if Obama will FINALLY say enough, then usher in the reconciliation process.

I can hardly wait.

[PatSeg]

11. If it wasn't such a serious issue,

it would be hysterically funny. I've never seen anything quite like it before. The republicans are all over the place on everything these days. The Dems have to keep the message clear and persistent. We have a public option that has worked for forty years and no republican in his right mind would undermine Medicare. Our guys should study Rachel. She gets the message across clearly and coherently on a nightly basis. She is amazing!

[gateley]

12. I couldn't agree with you more strongly about Rachel. She needs to be the

Press Secretary and THEN some.

It's still funny in that the Reps are probably in a panic -- WTF do we do NOW? I love that he called their bluff - and hope he continues to do so.

[PatSeg]

13. Well, history shows that tyrants never endure

In this case they are as inept as they are evil. If their greed doesn't do them in, their stupidity will.

[jillan]

18. Rachel is the best I have seen.

She is excellent at framing and explaining complicated issues in a way that anyone could understand.

[PatSeg]

21. Listening to her is an education

and she is fun to boot!

[PatSeg]

10. I'm so tired (almost said "sick")

of politicizing something as basic as healthcare, especially when we're talking about saving lives. Countries all over the world have experimented with government run healthcare programs. The groundwork has already been done and there are reasonable answers if politicians were willing. The people already know what they want. I found it interesting that in other developed nations, NO ONE ever goes bankrupt because of medical costs and they find the concept insane.

How did we fall so far behind?

[jillan]

14. AND the insurance rates are going crazy. It's unbelievable.

[PatSeg]

15. Their audacity blows my mind

They don't even try to pretend that they're not greedy bastards. Same with the banks and credit card companies. "Okay, we're all crooks and lone sharks. Whatta you gonna do about it? Huh?" The arrogance is stunning, if not frightening.

This is what we get when there is little or no government oversight of private industry. "Free Markets" pretty much means "free to do whatever the hell we want".

[jillan]

16. Oh yes. Can you imagine what it's going to be like now that these crooked corporations have free

speech? Makes me want to :puke:

[PatSeg]

17. I feel like I'm living in some strange

alternate universe. It must have happened when I was sleeping. It is not the world I was raised in.

Insurance companies used to be reputable and respected. Basic health care was affordable for pretty much everyone. Insurance companies paid almost, if not everything when you became sick and prescription drugs were affordable. What happened? This is absolutely crazy!

Dental? When I was young, you didn't go to the dentist, because you were afraid, not because you couldn't afford it. Almost anyone could afford very basic dentistry. Now you have to sell your soul to get a tooth filled.

I think we need to get rid of "insurance" when it comes to health care. I understand insurance for cars and homes, but health care is very different. Everyone needs some kind of health care at some time in their life and insuring it is somehow insidious. "Oops, you got pregnant!!!" No, that isn't necessarily an accident, it is part of life.

This isn't right or left, republican or democrat. It affects everyone. It really isn't political.

[WheelWalker]

19. When I was growing up (pre-puberty, i.e.) my doctor (Dr. Nagel) lived on the corner

of our block on Revere Drive in Toledo. His office was in the basement of his home, down a set of outside stairs. There was a sign on his front lawn - "Michael Nagel, M.D." He made house calls. I'm not sure, but I don't think health insurance was discovered yet.

[PatSeg]

20. I had a dentist

who had his office in his basement too. He was a great guy and a filling cost $5. Tooth extraction $10. Had to send me to an oral surgeon once and that cost a bit more.

Money was rarely an issue unless you needed a heart transplant. People could afford the treatments that today is unavailable to so many because of money. Prescription drugs were also moderately priced. I could have never imagined things getting this bad.

[CrispyQ]

23. Empire of the Sunset

This article really resonates with me.

Empire of the Sunset
by Randall Amster

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/02/12

snip...

Sometimes, I really miss America -- or at least the idea of it. You know: that can-do spirit, streets paved with gold, champion of the tired and poor, purple mountains majesty, that sort of thing. Say what you will, and call it naïve, but the storybook values at the heart of America's erstwhile image are inspiring.

Like most who grew up here, I was steeped in the lore and legend of this place. Despite obvious flaws in the narrative (how exactly does one ‘discover' land upon which others are living, anyway?) there existed a strong sense that at the end of the day some part of our cherished ideals would emerge in time to set things right. Principles like due process, free speech, the work ethic, checks and balances, equal opportunity, and the pursuit of happiness held meaning if only as a reminder that our collective lives stood for something and that our destinies were in our own hands. It may well have been an illusion all along, yet even the most cynical among us likely believed in the underlying ethos at some point in time.

Unfortunately, that America -- even in its illusory state -- has ceased to exist. We are no longer an abstract beacon of hope to the world, but rather a purveyor of concrete hellfire. We rain automated death from above and commit orchestrated theft from below. We export despair and import disdain. We've abandoned even keeping up the pretense of fair play and adherence to principle. We've become global pariahs and domestic piranhas. Awash in a sea of surfaces, distractions, and palliatives, we unsurprisingly have failed to notice that the sun has already started to set on our adolescent empire.

~more at link
=====

I'm quickly losing hope that the People will be able to set things right. I hate to admit that I am just about where TPTB want me - completely demoralized & hopeless. I'm not sure I can even bring myself to vote any more. I've come full circle - I'm back where I was in 1980 - completely disgusted with a system that is nothing but a facade to keep the proles in line. Oh, I'll vote for funds for the library, but candidates? I don't see the point. If they go into office with any kind of ideals, those ideals are swiftly bought out by corporate money. The recent SCOTUS decision is just going to make that worse.

I spend less & less time on DU & never watch the 'news' & I'm in a better mood for it.

On a happier note, some company finally bought the rights to Max Headroom & it's coming out on DVD. ;)

[CrispyQ]

22. On the Greatest page today:

Hartmann caller "If our health care is the best, why don't other countries want it?" nt

That sums it up perfectly.