If corporations are people:

Where’s the birth certificate?
What sex are they?
What’s their blood type?
What’s their grandmother’s maiden name on their father’s side?

Our conservative friends set a lot of store by common sense. What does their common sense tell them about treating corporations as persons protected under the 14th Amendment?

Our conservative friends also loathe the idea of special rights for certain classes of persons. If corporations get to hide their income in the Caymans, why can’t I? If corporations get to deduct their labor costs when calculating net income, why can’t I? (Call it a wash – if you get a paycheck, you have no income.) If they commit a felony, they don’t go to jail. What sayeth the scions of personal responsibility?

On the other hand, if corporations are nonsexed persons, I think it’s only right that we prohibit them from marrying (like BOA and Merrill Lynch) and enjoying the benefits of naturally sexed couples, don’t you? I already feel threatened.

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Illegal. Go to jail illegal. To sell primary health insurance for profit. Because inevitably the company will have to decide between lives and profits.

This simple fact was censored across the board in the Wall Street media, not only Fuxx News but the “liberal media” too. New York Times, CBS, Gannett, etc. Censored by corporate media.

(Cons will object that “It’s only censorship if the gummint does it” but when the government is controlled by corporations, the corporations are the government, and so it is that instead of Pravda we have WallStreetMedia Inc.)

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By definition these are not options if you are not eligible.

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And if we’d pay for the military with a carbon tax and pay for healthcare with a sugar tax, we’d use less oil, need less military, be healthier and spend less on health care.

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Thanks, Gordon for pointing out an often-overlooked aspect of this health care debate:

I currently pay a large lump of my money each month to a private insurance company. Under this arrangement:
a) My rates continually go up. Prescription costs have almost doubled in two years.
b) The insurance company attempts to avoid paying for things already agreed upon in the plan through a variety of maneuvers.
c) My doctor office files claim using false billing codes to be paid at a higher rate–the proper code wouldn’t reimburse as much.
d) My claims/medical information passes though multiple offices (my office, at least two levels of corporate offices, the doctor’s office, the local pharmacy and their national office). Thus multiple individuals have access to my private medical information (Yes, I know it’s coded but anyone with can look up the codes online).
e) I’m required to submit more and more personal information (as much allowed by law).
f) If employment ends, I have no insurance (since I couldn’t afford COBRA).

I have no say under this system, since this is a private company. Employers also have limited say/options to offer.

Under a public option, I would at least have some say through the electoral process. It’s also likely that I’d pay less under a public option.

Other counties are making this sort of system work.

Not sure I’d go as far as to describe it as a “right” but it is immoral/unmerciful not to offer some basic care to all.

Where’s the logic in continuing with the current systems?

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2. Medicare and Medicaid are not public “options.” If Medicare was an “option” I would opt in right now. I would have preferred that Medicare be opened to all who wish to join. The premiums would come from the policy holder’s pocket but should be much less than the cost of “for profit” insurance companies.

Medicaid is income tested and is out of the question for most people who have a job, perhaps a home, and some meager savings but no group health and no ability to pay the really high premiums for private insurance.

3. I do believe that Medicare could be pared down some and still provide excellent benefits. Medicare picks up expenses for goods and services that are conveniences rather than needs (maybe deals with the companies providing these goods). At the risk of being totally bloody minded, it might be sensible to decrease the amount of hugely expensive diagnostic tests done on 90+ year old patients whose clinical condition allows no treatment. I’m not doing a good job of explaining this but if one is 93 years old, has cancer and heart disease along with near respiratory collapse, the $10-12,000.00 of Radiology studies accomplish nothing. This patient cannot tolerate surgery and is in that awful situation where if one problem is treated, another problem is exacerbated by the treatment. I am not talking about “death panels” but I am talking about common sense and good medical practice.

4. Defense Budget – Isn’t defense the alpha and omega responsibility of the federal govt? The only problem I have is that money is wasted there also. We should always get what we pay for and it should be both plentiful and the very best.

WHY would it be harmful to remove the anti-trust exemption from health insurance companies?

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The question is who is to be in charge? One man, one vote is meaningless when, as Rep. Marcy Kaptur said of congress, “The people here really aren’t in charge,” meaning Wall Street is. There’s a lot of lost democracy to be retaken. Every little bit helps.

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You can spot the philosophical divide at one glance. Would you rather pay Blue Cross/Blue Shield for your health insurance, or would rather pay taxes for a public option? What if the taxes are cheaper than the premiums?

Some find giving their money to private companies more palatable than giving less of their money to government to do the same thing. Having been to other countries and experienced their health care systems, I’m not at all uncomfortable with the idea of a public option and private companies living side by side in competitive harmony.

Knowing that tens of millions are uninsured because they can’t afford health care also figures into my thinking, but that’s another point to make and I’m all out of smarts.

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You notion-haver.

All y’all,

Good conversation to have. I’d say something intelligent, but I’ve got to save up my smarts for tying my shoes in the morning. Carry on.

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