This Big Fat Hog Went To Market

by DarkSyde - Sun Sep 30, 2007 at 06:32:27 AM EDT

I can understand why conservatives are terrified of healthcare. It's the tender Achilles heel of their failed ideology. It cuts across otherwise entrenched party lines and cracks open the most prized propaganda chestnuts of the right. And most important of all, it's not just a political winner all the way around for Democrats, it's a Republican massacre:

CBS -- In the new poll, the public gives the Democrats a big edge over the Republicans on handling health care issues. Asked which party they believe will best improve the health care system, 62 percent said the Democrats, while just 19 percent said the Republicans.

NYT 2 March 2007 --A majority of Americans say the federal government should guarantee health insurance to every American, especially children, and are willing to pay higher taxes to do it, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. ... access to affordable health care is at the top of the public's domestic agenda, ranked far more important than immigration, cutting taxes or promoting traditional values.

And the scare tactics used to deprive us of decent, affordable medical insurance time and time again? Well, those old gray talking points ain't what they used to be ...

Universal Healthcare means waiting in line for rationed, life-saving treatment!

Do people who spout this crap truly believe that anyone is buying it any more? We're waiting in line now and everyone knows it. The waiting and rationing forced upon the existing insured isn't a fluke. It is intentionally placed at the core of the modern for profit health insurance model: You will wait and hope that your meager ration of healthcare is stingily approved, someday, while your insurance company tries to wait you out until hell freezes over, or until you are dead.

If, like most insured Americans, you rely on employer sponsored healthcare insurance, you already wait in line for your ration. You wait for a day the doc can see you, you wait at the office; there's a reason they call it the waiting room. You wait in the examining room; you'll wait some more at the front desk, check out, and probably wait another hour or two for a prescription to be filled. That's all SOP, except nowadays all those waiting times are greatly extended due to the staggering patient load our current greedy healthcare industry forces on your doctor, so that s/he can make a living.

But more to the point, you will wait for at least days, probably weeks, and in some cases months while you fight past the obligatory stall to get approval for further, specialized treatment. Odds are good your approval will be arbitrarily denied, and you'll have to wait through the inevitable fight to get the care you have coming. You may then wait, again, while your granted approval is rescinded and re-rescinded. And then, if you're lucky and everything goes OK, you'll wait while your insurance company grudgingly rations out your approved treatment. That's assuming they don't suddenly discover an improperly coded form or unchecked box after the fact, allowing them to close down any follow up treatment and stop payment on past care without botheirng to tell you right away, thus dissuading the doctor from seeing you again.

CONTINUED -

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/9/30/63125/8870