And there are some, like our friends the Republicans, who are worried health care reform will hurt insurance company profits. Now that’s getting your priorities in order.David Obey remembers visiting his younger sister in the hospital years ago. She told him she wanted to die by Friday. His sister, who was battling cancer, and her husband had been laid off from their factory jobs, and their insurance was set to run out that day. The thought of leaving her husband and children with a pile of medical bills terrified her. "She died on Friday," Obey said.
Obey's interest in health care reform didn't begin in his sister's hospital room. When he was a boy, Obey watched his father come home after an emergency appendectomy with both arms paralyzed, which left him unable to work. His father gradually regained use of his arms. "That experience showed me you're just one accident or one disease away from economic catastrophe in this country," said Obey, who calls the fact that 50 million Americans don't have health insurance a "moral outrage."
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Sunday, June 7, 2009
Rep. David Obey's Health Care Story.
Republicans continue to BS the public about universal health care, claiming such a plan would ration care. That supposes care isn’t already dramatically rationed when people decide they can’t afford to see a doctor, or get a checkup for preventive care or are denied coverage from an insurance company rationing how much they pay out. The system is all about rationing. And from this failed system, with an endless list of personal tragedies, people have had to endure poverty, suffering and unnecessary deaths. Take from Wisconsin’s own Congressman, David Obey. The Journal Sentinel had this:
ALL HANDS ON DECK!
ReplyDeleteHoward Dean and the Democrats are correct.
"a" (Toothy, Robust, Affordable, Immediate, Triggerless, Medicare-Like ) "public health insurance option" (For All Who Want It) "is more important than bipartisanship, and Democrats should pass health-care legislation that includes the option with 51 votes if necessary."
"Democrats should have "no intention" of working with Republicans if it's not the strongest possible legislation that could be passed with a simple majority." (Howard Dean)
CONTACT CONGRESS and your representatives Now! And tell them you demand ALL of the minimum requirements above. This is the time for maximal, toothy, sustained pressure on Congress to get this done. Be creative. But be relentless.
This is what WE THE PEOPLE gave the Democrats all that power to do for ALL of us.
In medicine and healthcare there is only one acceptable standard. And that standard is the HIGHEST level of EXCELLENCE! you can provide for everyone. Nothing less is acceptable for a precious human life.
And the White House is right. "Good health care reform is essentially good economic policy." (Christina Romer)
BUT HEAR ME WELL! Just as I warned you before 911. Before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And before the US and Global economic crisis.
I must tell you now that healthcare reform is now a critical matter of NATIONAL SECURITY. A-H1N1 (Swine Flu) was yet another loud WAKE-UP! call. And there is MUCH! worse lurking, and poised to strike at any moment. Working against the clock, many of us have known this for a long time now. And this is why we have been pushing so hard for so long without fully saying why. But Congress and the American people are literally running out of time.
I'll tell you more later. But get healthcare reform done NOW!.
SPREAD THE WORD!
God Bless All Of You
jacksmith -- WORKING CLASS