Ted Rall for June 12, 2013

A payday loan will usually also strip your hide pretty much like paraneoplastic pemphigus.

Like teeth.

I got paraneoplastic pemphigus but I treated it myself using pet medications, which are 10 times cheaper.

Were you equally outraged by Bush’s Medicare Part D, which was in effect a trillion dollar giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry?

Next!

“The OTaxCare bill will be an average bill of $20,000 to each American family.”And you get that number from…… where? My insurance plan already exceeds the minimum standards mandated by the so called Obamacare (which was originally conceived by the Heritage Foundation and endorsed by Republicans up until the Democrats agreed to it). If my health insurance exceeds the minimum standards, and the insurance company isn’t allowed to spend more than 20% of the premiums on “overhead” costs, why would my premiums skyrocket as some pseudo-conservatives claim. How is it going to cost your alleged $20,000?

Yes to single payer. Remove the profit mongers from healthcare and many of the problems will go away. Unfortunately America dug this hole a long time ago and it will take nothing short of a revolution to lift us out. Don’t think our sacred right to vote’s going to do it as that institution is rigged as well, thanks to gerrymandering and to a less than supreme court ruling allowing obscene amounts of payola into the coffers that grease the pasty palms of the corporatists, so-called representatives running for office.

As a government employee, I get insurance – and I’m still seeing my doctor in Dominican Republic, where I go for vacation. Regular testing for everything from AIDS to triglycerides was $50 the last time I checked. I had some kidney stones removed with ultrasound – $1,000, done in hours. By comparison, I had been going to see an urologist in the Upper East Side who had me coming for six months without coming to a conclusion/diagnose. I’m so sure he was squeezing my insurance out of every penny he could, but it was terrifying to realize that my life is worth NOTHING for health professionals in this country.

Get your Dr visits in NOW, because thanks to Obama(non)Care you will have to wait about a year to see an actual doctor.

“Why didn’t the Democrats set up the ACA as a Single Payer System?”

Simple. Because they knew it couldn’t pass. And as it is socialized medicine, and people who wouldn’t know socialism if it bit them on the ass were so busy calling the administration “socialist” anyway, it was doomed from the start.

The idea to reform health care started in the Nixon administration, but for over 30 years, the insurance lobby had kept it at bay. The Democratic strategy was to use Republican ideas (Romneycare and the Individual Mandate that is the centerpiece for Medicare Part D) in an effort to get them to go along. Funny thing about expecting Republicans to go along with anything….It was a decent strategy on paper, but didn’t work.

You will notice that Republicans always say “repeal and replace”, but they have no replacement plan. Or maybe it’s with the tax loopholes they say they’ll close, but no one knows what they are.

As far as gerrymandering: I don’t like it regardless of who is doing it. People should be elected because the people want them there, not because the voting districts are twisted into bizarre shapes to provide a theoretical advantage. Of course, gerrymandering wouldn’t mean a thing if people would vote for the candidate based on issues, etc., rather than just looking for an “R” or a “D” after their names.

Healthcare already costs over $20,000 for a family of 4. Most people have employers paying the bulk of the premium, so they have no clue how expensive it really is.

“psst….. that’s what the internet is for. You should learn to use it to research and become less ignorant.”In other words, you can’t back up your claim.