Snarky, but, at points, oh so sadly true. The vocal minority who are against the public option are misinformed about the true meaning of a public option; like the "gentleman" who stood up during one of the town halls and said, "We don't want the government putting their hands on our Medicare!".....oops ... I think it's a bit late for that :)

Oh boy. I can't laugh at this. I just can't. Not because it isn't funny, or accurate, or well done. It's because in the last 4 years my health insurance (which is part of a GOVERNMENT CONTRACT) has increased their prescription payment per script by 200%. The overall number of inpatient procedures that are fully covered has DECREASED by 75%. Copays for routine dr visits has gone up 125%. And basic 'well child' visits, which used to be FREE, are now over $200 per. And we still pay for our monthly dues to the tune of $600.

It makes me so sick, so sad. When one of my kids got really, really sick last year I found myself debating should I bring him to the ER or not, since I know it will cost us a min of $1500 even if it turns out everything is fine.... Why should that even be a consideration when your kid is coughing up blood? And he has HEALTH INSURANCE???

Obviously I took him to the ER. And they ran their tests and found out he had a serious condition that required prolonged hospitalization. And once he was released, we got a $13,000 bill from the hospital for 'non-covered' bills.

When we first signed up for this health insurance 6 years ago, most ever necessary procedure was covered. About 3 years ago the insurance company redefined what was and wasn't necessary. They DID NOT inform us of these changes, so we went in blind. When I talked to the hospital billing center, they said AND I QUOTE: "We send the bill to the Insurance company. They'll pay or they won't and we never know from one day to the next what they will pay. So really you just have to pay what they don't. They don't have to give you notice or anything so just pay and get it over with.

I'm sorry, can you fucking BITE ME?

A pal of mine just sent me this via Facebook. It seems particularly pertinent on this blog because I believe a recent question of the day was about Michael Moore stopping making movies. I saw Sicko last year and as a Canadian, I was horrified. Not by Moore's generalizations about Canadians (he seems to think we don't have waits in Emergency and that we don't lock our doors), but by people dying because they couldn't convince the insurance companies that they needed treatment, by sick homeless people being dumped by ambulances back into the street, by people losing everything they worked for because they had the misfortune to have an accident or become seriously ill. I mean, until Moore made that movie, I had no idea just how bad it was. The Canadian (and the British, etc) system is by no means perfect, but when we get sick or hurt, we get treated.