Six Ways from Sunday

Screwed.

No public option, no Medicare buy-in, no re-importation of drugs: what's left of this alleged "health care reform?" A neverending goddamn gift to insurance companies and big pharma, that's what. Let's break it down.

1)The bill as it stands would require that you buy insurance.

2) It would require that insurance companies cover you regardless of any pre-existing condition.

3) If you could not afford the premiums, the government would provide assistance.

4) It would NOT establish any limits on what insurance companies can charge.

5) It would NOT provide any substantive change in regard to the insurance companies denying specific care on the basis of what they deem is "reasonable" (ie, what is profitable).

So the insurance industry would gain 30 million new customers, and both they and health care providers would have all the incentive in the world to send prices skyrocketing. People needing specific procedures could still be denied based on what is most profitable for the insurance company.

This farce would be almost an exact duplicate of the goddamn bank bailouts: an enormous transfer of public funds from the middle class to a handful of extraordinarily wealthy corporations, and no sanctions to encourage said corporations to conduct business fairly and ethically.

I must add that watching that slimy piece of insurance cartel dogshit Joe Lieberman simper and grin about once more fucking his constituents, and all of us, right in our un-lubed asses, has sent me over the top. I really hope that falsely pious pile of chickenhawk pig vomit dies of a brain aneurysm.

not feeling peaceful,