Yes. Yes, he does.
What prompted this outpouring of affection from reader Dean? Well, first there was a typical cold, knee-jerk, and factually-challenged conservative reaction to a health care reform discussion from another reader:
Ryan said,
Freddie, not only are you trying to eliminate responsibility for health security on the part of insurers, but you are also trying to eliminate responsibility on the part of the insured.
I don’t understand why you liberals think that everyone deserves to have health care given to them. Anything worth having isn’t going to be free, or cheap, right? Why should health care be any different? It is your responsibility to find and afford care for your family, not mine. Let me handle my family, and you go buy the bottom of the barrel crap (public option) for your family that “means so much to youâ€â€¦ In the meantime, I hope you are explaining to your little kids why daddy can’t work for their healthcare, but he can go on a vacation, drive a new car, have every channel on cable (with his plasma tv), and be carrying around the newest blackberry on the market.
You want the best of everything, and you want the government to give it to us. Good luck with that.
To which Freddie issued the following smackdown:
Freddie said,
Ryan, your ability to be obtuse competes favorably with your ability to be insulting.
If you’ve followed any rational discussion about healthcare reform, the general position of those favoring health security is not to remove responsibility from individuals to ensure their own wellness but rather to ensure access to insurance in the event of a pre-existing condition, whether one that occurred at birth or one that is a result of an accident. These aren’t hypotheticals for actuaries or pundits to poke and prod at; they’re real scenarios affecting real Americans.
In an employer-based health insurance model, loss of a job typically means loss of access to affordable health insurance. If you’ve never faced COBRA premiums (which expire) or HIPAA premiums, try it. You won’t like it.
As someone who clearly favors the free market, I’m surprised by your willingness to trap a labor force that could be operating more efficiently in jobs just so that they can maintain access to healthcare.
A number of Americans interested in this debate want to work but can’t lest they earn so much income they no longer qualify for Medicaid. And if they have a severe enough pre-existing condition, they’re uninsurable in the eyes of private insurers or else, if they exercise their HIPAA rights, they’re charged premiums high enough that they’re pushed right back into poverty.
Imagine my surprise if you turn out to be anti-abortion-rights and also anti-health-security for those Americans with pre-existing conditions from birth.
It’s quite nice of you to put words in my mouth by falsely asserting what i want, but let me spell it out for you since you keep getting it wrong: I want access to affordable healthcare for all Americans. The only thing I want government to give me is the right to compete fairly with all Americans, regardless of how any of us were born or affected by unforeseen circumstances.
In order, I favor:
* Medicare for All
* Wyden/Bennett (the bipartisan Healthy Americans Act)
* a version of the current major proposals before Congress that includes a public optionYou’re welcome to adopt a position that punishes the community of Americans who wind up with pre-existing conditions, and I’ll gladly continue to oppose your policy prescriptions.
And….scene.
[...] only other thing I’ll say is that I agree with Freddie, I think the Wyden-Bennet plan has a lot of potential, and I’d probably be less ambivalent [...]
Hot Air O’Daire hijacking the thread FTW!
President Obama’s West Point speech wasn’t a bad one, but it wasn’t a great one either. If anything, it reminded me of bin Laden’s speech — the one where he told us beforehand exactly when he was attacking New York. And remember when the Japanese Imperial Headquarters let us know when the planes would hit Pearl Harbor? Eerily similar.
I kid. None of that happened because our enemies never give us a heads up. But we’re different. Not only do we tell them when and where, but also, when we’ll go home. Terrorists? A few years is nothing when you’re looking at an eternity with 72 virgins.
This is war and we need to call it war. And when we fight a war, you have to back the president. So I’m with him. But I wish he’d, you know, embrace the damn thing and say we’re going to destroy these bastards, minus the egg timer. And to me, the coach shouldn’t openly talk strategy until after the game, when we’ve beaten the beards off the other team.
My guess is, those cadets want a winner not a cost manager. The speech was less a rallying cry and more a statement by a boss who says “keep going, but watch your expenses.” Even more, this is coming from a guy who will throw everything at health care reform or global warming. Shouldn’t the safety of our country and our brave troops come before that crud?
But enough with the petty griping. When it comes to battle, we all stand together. And if General McCrystal is happy, then so am I — for now, I guess!
I would suggest that until Ryan finds out who his Daddy is, he refrain from whining to the rest of us. That’s what Daddies are for, Ryan.
Ryan, as evidenced by your desire to “talk about this,” you’re quite good at talking but less good at listening.
I have a problem with the cost of healthcare, which is why I’m interested in serious proposals to reduce costs, and I’m glad that discussion is part of the broader debate about reform. But what I have a bigger problem with is access.
Let’s say I have a pre-existing condition. And let’s say I was born with it. Now let’s say I graduate from college, get a job that provides health insurance as a benefit, and no longer qualify as a dependent on my parents’ plan. Now, I’m in my early twenties, I feel invincible, and I don’t pay too much attention to the fact that my employer-based private insurance provider stuck a rider in my policy that they’re not going to cover anything related to my pre-existing condition for, oh, let’s say a year. No worries. I’m fine. Okay, now I’m in my mid-twenties. Now the economy tanks, and unemployment goes up. I’m laid off. I get COBRA (which is more expensive than when my employer was paying a good chunk of the premiums for me). Finally, I get another job. Phew. And they even offer health insurance. Unfortunately, in the year during which I was unemployed, my pre-existing condition began creating chronic symptoms that incurred medical costs. These were covered by my previous insurer thanks to COBRA. Only now, when I’m newly employed, that rider that has a waiting period for my pre-existing condition means something. I wind up having to go to the hospital, and it isn’t covered. I incur tens of thousands of dollars in expenses. I was working. I was insured. And I got screwed. Because I wasn’t profitable for private insurers.
In short, millions of Americans have been trying your proposal for years, and it isn’t working for them. So I’m glad you’re signed up and ready to support a public option!
Ryan,
If you are going to consider the economic incentives of health care, then you’ll realize that the system, as currently constructed, is broken to it’s roots. If doctors and hospitals keep us as healthy as possible, they lose business (in the short and mid-terms). If doctors propose unnecessary procedures, they make more money to pay off their school bills. If we only cover emergency procedures, what incentive do people have to pay out of pocket for preventative maintenance? If insurance companies can collect premiums from you while you are cheap, and then drop you the second that you actually need their services, what services are they providing that deserve any profits?
The fee-for-service model of health care needs to be fixed. And the sooner the better.
Personally, I’m not asking the government to pay for anything. I’ve been paying a percentage of the social security deductions from my paycheck towards Medicare for decades now. If we were to roll out Medicare for everybody, I’d gladly pay a larger percentage towards this universal healthcare.
Ryan, you’re the kind of dittohead conservative that gives selfishness a bad name. If all Americans have equal access to affordable healthcare, it would not only be good for all of us, it would also be good for your financial portfolio. Healthy workers are happier, more productive, miss fewer days of work, and wouldn’t have to worry about healthcare. Companies wouldn’t have to go broke trying to figure out how to pay for health insurance, and profits would rise. Isn’t that what you pro-big business cons want????
Ryan:
If I get sick and have to go to the hospital, am I buying health care, or do I need health care? It goes back to whether you think health is a condition or a commodity, and whether you think health care is a human right.
Those of us who have the money AND have access to insurance do exactly what you suggest, and we are connected with the cost. But there those who don’t have the money or don’t have access to insurance mostly because either a) they’ve lost their job, or their insurer doesn’t offer insurance, or; b) they’ve been denied coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
When you’re talking about the rising cost of health care, don’t forget to include those industry-wide record profits.
I make it into ANOTHER blog! Heck yes.
Lets talk about this..
You want Medicare for everyone.. right? Is that kind of like TennCare, for everyone? If not, what is the difference? If a “public option” is what you need, why does TennCare not work for you? (be careful)
I have a solution for your problem with the cost of health insurance. I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but it will lower the cost of insurance. Let’s treat insurance as INSURANCE.. for events that cost a lot of money (cancer, HIV, broken bones, etc).. When you go to the doctor for a head cold, a shot, a physical, (etc) PAY for it. I know, it’s a foreign concept.. being connected with the actual cost of what you are buying. It will lower cost for both insurance and actual cost of care (since you will be able to shop pricing more comfortably)..
How about try that one first, then, if it doesn’t work… Public option it is.. Just give us a year to try it, and we can save those billions in Medicade in the meantime, right?
It was beautiful — reminded me of the Dr. J poster I had on my wall when I was 10, with the Good Doctor dunking over some helpless chap.
[...] » “Damn, Freddie. You kick ass.â€Posted 33 minutes [...]