[Vision2020] Health Insurance is NOT Health Care

Wed Sep 23 15:36:57 PDT 2009

Dear Democratic Friends,

I am considered a liberal Democrat by most accounts. Maybe more of a Libertarian Democrat by my definition; I voted for Obama. I was an Idaho State Delegate for Gore in 2000 and an alternative Idaho State Delegate in 2004 for Dennis Kucinich. But I am adamantly opposed to Obama’s Health Insurance Plan, which is unfair to the poor, and to the taxpayer. But most importantly, it will do nothing to improve the quality or quantity of health care to citizens of this country. 

Please, don’t get me wrong! My work in the medical field and personal life experiences tell me that the Government Run Hospitals can be just as equally incompetently/competently function as the private ones.  If the government said,       “Donovan, we are going to take 5-10% of your income and provide you with quality health care,”
 I would be consenting. But that IS NOT what the government is attempting to accomplish here, nor will it if Obama’s plan is successful. But here is what will happen if it does;

First, if I lose my job after 4 months of work in the year, I will go broke.. Obama will force me to buy insurance, which consequentially will be about $300 a month if I lose my job (those offered COBRA, know what I mean first hand). His promise to help the poor, (those making less than $930 a month) won’t apply to me because after 4 months of work, I will be over $10,500 income mark to receive government assistance with insurance costs.  Who can afford $300 a month on $10,500 a year? Obama thinks everyone can. 

Health care is about receiving proper medical services. Insurance companies are about making a profit through the collection of payments. The goal of insurance companies is to make sure that you don’t use your insurance; otherwise they won’t make a profit. 

Second, one way to pay for part of this horrible plan, Obama is going to be making cuts to Medicare. This is horrible. The one thing we know for sure that does work, we are going to cut up and rearrange the pieces.  Medicare patients already face great discrimination as it is because doctors, clinics, and health care provides often take losses because Medicare doesn’t pay as well as private insurance. The only thing I like about a bill that destroys Medicare is that it will motivate the over 55 crowd, a huge chunk of the electorate, to voice opposition against it. 

Next, it would provide free medical care to anyone that could crawl, climb, walk, roll or drive, legally or illegally, into the United States.  To say that we are not going to provide medical care to people until they produce certain documentation is illegal to do (not to mention unethical). Anything that is provided to the general public will also have to be provided to anyone in the country legally of illegally. The courts have already ruled on this, it doesn’t have to be in a bill. This will undoubtedly result in more debt for the nation, as well as invite those unfit and in ill health to attempt illegal border crossings across dangerous terrain to obtain free health care for themselves or their children.

Another aspect of this bill will be an increase in your insurance premiums. If everyone regardless of illness, injury, or ailment, is allowed into your insurance co-op, then there will be more medical costs, and more costs handed to you. The only way insurance companies could absorb those costs would be to raise your premiums and deductibles. 

The last major impact you would experience is a decrease in the quality of life among the poor because health insurance is not health care. Obama tries to liken the requirement of buying health insurance to that of buying automobile insurance. His analogy breaks down because we don’t require people to buy insurance if they cannot afford the car. We give them the option of walking, riding a bike, taking a bus, a cab, or train, or riding with a friend of family member.  No such option exists for alternatives to health insurance. 

Health insurance doesn’t offer people health care, anymore than Auto Insurance offers people quality car care. It simply gives people coverage “in case” something happens and they don’t want to lose everything they own. In poor peoples’ cases, they don’t own anything to lose. Forcing them to buy coverage is pointless when the insurance companies require a deductable or premium so high they cannot use the insurance unless they suffer a catastrophic illness or injury, in which case they would be declaring bankruptcy anyway. 

Requiring a person who makes less than $20,000 a year, or a family less than $36,000 a year to buy a $3500-$6000 deductable insurance plan, or to pay premiums of $100-$350 a month only serves to worsen the living conditions of those families and individuals. $100-$350 a month makes a big difference in the lives of low income peoples. Having $3500-$6000 is also more of a dream than a reality for most low income families. Let them, please, Mr. President, keep their $100. Don’t pry it from their impoverished hands and give it to the wealthy insurance companies. Let them eat. Yes, I do understand the argument that people should pay into the health care system. But poor people don’t have the means. You cannot get blood from stone..  

If you want to reform our health care system, I am for this. I think our system of charging for each service provided, each band-aid, each mile in an ambulance, each bed pan change, makes fraud easy to accomplish and gets away from the focus of the necessity, quality and affordability of care. Forcing people to pay into a system that charges $50 for application of a band-aid is not where we should start, but rather questioning why application of a band-aid is $50. 

Your Frustrated Friend,

Donovan Arnold
(Yes, the real one, not someone using my name or an old account as some people on the V enjoy doing)

--- On Wed, 9/23/09, Gier, Nicholas <NGIER at uidaho.edu> wrote:

From: Gier, Nicholas <NGIER at uidaho.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Chris Witmer
To: "keely emerinemix" <kjajmix1 at msn.com>, eimyreekenxlime at hotmail.com, vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Wednesday, September 23, 2009, 9:08 PM

Hi Keely,

Paste away!

You have my undying support.

Hey, Chris: you are nothing but a coward!

Nick

-----Original Message-----
From: keely emerinemix [mailto:kjajmix1 at msn.com]
Sent: Wed 9/23/2009 1:25 PM
To: Gier, Nicholas; eimyreekenxlime at hotmail.com; vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Chris Witmer

Thank you, Nick.  Would you mind if I pasted your comments onto my blog, whose readers are heavily biased against me and toward Witmer?

Either way, I appreciate the support.

Keely
www.keely-prevailingwinds.com

Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:30:52 -0700
From: NGIER at uidaho.edu
To: eimyreekenxlime at hotmail.com; vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Chris Witmer

RE: [Vision2020] Chris Witmer

Good Morning Visionaries,

When Chris Witmer learned that I was traveling to Tokyo in December, 2007, he invited me

to have lunch with him while I was there.  I declined saying that I was astounded that he thought

that I would want to see him after all the nasty things he had said about me and my friends.

In a return e-mail he apologized profusely for any wrong that he had done me, and urged me

to reconsider lunch.  I answered that I didn't trust him and that was the end of the matter.

If Witmer could apologize to me, then certainly he can apologize to Keely, one of the most

eloquent and elegant ladies that I know.

What about it, Chris??  If you were man enough to apologize to me, then you are certainly man

enough to apologize to Keely.  Of course, it has nothing to do with "manliness"; it has everything

to do with being a decent human being.

And while you at it, shut down your vicious and perverse blog.

We are eagerly waiting.

Nick Gier

-----Original Message-----

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com on behalf of Eimy Reekenxlime

Sent: Tue 9/22/2009 11:02 PM

To: vision2020 at moscow.com

Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Chris Witmer

Gee, that got mangled pretty badly; let's try that again --

Well nobody

is approving of anti-gay violence, let alone homosexuals' violence

against themselves and other homosexuals, but apparently the grieving

parents had by that time managed to pull themselves together enough to

reaffirm that 1) they had done right by their son by making no effort

to get him to change and 2) rather than seeking to change homosexuals

they would try to change society to accept homosexuals. And of course

behind all that is the underlying assumption that biblical Christian

morality is part of the problem. That being the case, I hardly think

the gentle rebuke in that letter makes someone a "godless soul";

however, perhaps you would like to put the same question to Joe and

Marion Allen, whose son Bart was murdered by his homosexual live-in

lover when he was trying to come out of homosexuality.

Allen's parents, Joe and Marion, founded Hope for the Broken Heart

after his tragic murder. They have spoken at numerous Exodus

International events since then.

When Bart was struggling with unwanted homosexual feelings, he sought

out a counselor for help. The counselor, however, told him he was born

gay. (No doubt Saundra Lund and Mr. and Mrs. Clayton would consider

that to be good counsel.) According to Joe and Marion, "When Bart came

out of her office, he looked like he had been given a death sentence. I

know this lady did not realize what she was doing . . . but she had

told him he was born gay. She told him we were doing him an injustice

by telling him this was wrong and he needed to go back [to the

homosexual lifestyle].

Bart Allen did go back to homosexuality, but he couldn't accept it. His

lover, however, refused to accept the fact that Bart wanted to leave

homosexuality behind. While Bart was asleep, his partner strangled him

to death with a dog leash.

You can see and hear Joe and Marion Allen's testimony here (first of two parts):

http://www.vimeo.com/2532972

No doubt it is easy for people who have not struggled with this sort of

thing in their own families to pass judgment on "godless"

Bible-thumpers from a distance, especially in a way that very

conveniently allows one to think of one's self as open-minded, loving,

accepting, tolerant, etc.

But the fact of the matter is, when homosexuality is embraced by people

who experience such temptations, it becomes a deathstyle for them in

the fullest and truest, most tragic sense of that word. Especially for

those of us who are struggling with such problems in our own families,

we don't have the luxury of sitting back and telling people who are

headed for damnation that they are just fine the way they are. If

speaking such truth makes one a "godless soul" then I pray that such

"godlessness" might flourish.

Eimy Reekenxlime

===========================

Can you handle the truth?

http://vipergalsinwind.blogspot.com/

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