The Health Care Debate Is Bad For Your Health

I find is very hard to write on the subject of health care reform at all because the realities of the current American health care system become more and more a part of my everyday life as I get older. This happened very quickly in fact. During the election, Obama's promise of universal health care was an abstract concept to me, but one that I felt the need to get behind in order to help people less fortunate than myself I thought. Now though, my job situation has cause this issue to hit home more than ever as I am faced with prospect of not being able to afford my necessary monthly blood pressure medication.

It is because of the personal implication of this issue (not that I am under any illusion that things will instantly change the moment a bill is passed) that I find myself extremely disillusioned and disappointed at a large chunk of the conservative Republican wing of this country. Look I understand politics, and eight years of Bush should have taught me to be shocked by nothing, but it seems to me that the out right lie is becoming an all too common accepted part of our national political discourse.

The mainstream media is only interested in the idea that every story has two sides, no matter how fantastical or flat out fabricated the other side of the issue is. It is now up to us as media consumers to filter out our own bullshit. This takes some discipline and a little more time than most people are willing or able to give during a normal day. That is the reason I am passing on some helpful facts to dispel a lot of the myths and lies that are out there about Health Care reform. My source is moveon.org.

Top Five Health Care Reform Lies—and How to Fight Back

Lie #1: President Obama wants to euthanize your grandma!!!

The truth: These accusations—of "death panels" and forced euthanasia—are, of course, flatly untrue. As an article from the Associated Press puts it: "No 'death panel' in health care bill."⁴ What's the real deal? Reform legislation includes a provision, supported by the AARP, to offer senior citizens access to a professional medical counselor who will provide them with information on preparing a living will and other issues facing older Americans.⁵

Lie #2: Democrats are going to outlaw private insurance and force you into a government plan!!!

The truth: With reform, choices will increase, not decrease. Obama's reform plans will create a health insurance exchange, a one-stop shopping marketplace for affordable, high-quality insurance options.⁶ Included in the exchange is the public health insurance option—a nationwide plan with a broad network of providers—that will operate alongside private insurance companies, injecting competition into the market to drive quality up and costs down.⁷

If you're happy with your coverage and doctors, you can keep them.⁸ But the new public plan will expand choices to millions of businesses or individuals who choose to opt into it, including many who simply can't afford health care now.

Lie #3: President Obama wants to implement Soviet-style rationing!!!

The truth: Health care reform will expand access to high-quality health insurance, and give individuals, families, and businesses more choices for coverage. Right now, big corporations decide whether to give you coverage, what doctors you get to see, and whether a particular procedure or medicine is covered—thatis rationed care. And a big part of reform is to stop that.

Health care reform will do away with some of the most nefarious aspects of this rationing: discrimination for pre-existing conditions, insurers that cancel coverage when you get sick, gender discrimination, and lifetime and yearly limits on coverage.⁹ And outside of that, as noted above, reform will increase insurance options, not force anyone into a rationed situation.

Lie #4: Obama is secretly plotting to cut senior citizens' Medicare benefits!!!

The truth: Health care reform plans will not reduce Medicare benefits.¹⁰ Reform includes savings from Medicare that are unrelated to patient care—in fact, the savings comes from cutting billions of dollars in overpayments to insurance companies and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.¹¹

Lie #5: Obama's health care plan will bankrupt America!!!

The truth: We need health care reform now in order to prevent bankruptcy—to control spiraling costs that affect individuals, families, small businesses, and the American economy.

I hope these help dispel any crazy notions you have heard floating around. For a much more entertaining and hilarious look at health care reform and the efforts to stop it than I could ever produce, check out Tuesday's Daily Show.

Just the Funny Bits: Teabagging

You would have to be living in a cave (with no wifi) this week to not have heard the term "teabagging" at least 100 times. Fox News and some other right wing groups organized "tea parties" on tax day, to protest taxes and big government. Without barrels of loose tea around to dump into harbors, landlocked protesters took to throwing or wearing old tea bags. Many protesters talked about "teabagging Barack Obama" without knowledge of the terms common street (or bedroom) usage. 

(Ok, some of them knew.)

MSNBC got on board early with the mocking. Rachel Maddow and a guest spent a good ten minutes trying to cram the words "tea bagging" as many time as possible into one segment without giggling, and David Shuster quipped the winning pun, "if you are planning simultaneous tea bagging all around the country, you're going to need a Dick Armey." Ahhh yes, that one was good. The Daily Show even mused that MSNBC was the new Daily Show, with Jon Stewart refusing to go back to waiting tables. I wouldn't worry Jon, your scrotal humor crown is in no danger, not with hilarious field reporting the likes of John Oliver's on Thursday night. (I have the full episode here, John Oliver's is the second segment.)

I thought for sure the Daily Show had put the tea bag to rest (it's had a busy week), but not so. Today I find people [BoingBoing] going to the tea bagging source, who is apparently John Waters, to ask where the term originates. 

JOHN WATERS: "Teabagging" is by my definition the act of dragging your testicles across your partner's forehead. In the UK it is dipping your testicles in your partner's mouth. I didn't invent the term or the act but DID introduce it to film in my movie "Pecker." "Teabagging" was a popular dance step that male go-go boys did to their customers for tips at The Atlantis, a now defunct bar in Baltimore. Hope this helps. -- John Waters

John Waters is always so full of helpful answers to sleazy questions! Here's a clip from what is one of our family favorites, Pecker [also BoingBoing], if you didn't make it to the protests, you get a chance to see some tea bagging in action. (See it's so hard not to make a bad joke!)

Just The Funny Bits

Besides last night's interview, which was kinda dry, the Daily Show was extremely hilarious on Tuesday! It was hard to pick out just the funny bits in a episode which also featured Senior Women's Issues Commentator Kristen Schaal, from Flight of the Conchores fame stating, "In California, you're an unfit parent if you're gay, but not if you're straight, unemployed, live with your parents and have an Angelina Jolie fetish."

In the end though, I just decided to pick out the very funniest of all bits, the latest in the continuing saga of Cramer vs. Non-Cramer. CNBC's Jim Cramer has been getting his ass handed to him all week, and should really just keep his mouth shut at this point; he's not going to beat Jon Stewart. Can't be done. Jonny Stew is just going to lay a smack down of sweet sweet logic based humor. Of course Jon may humiliate himself in the process, but again you will loose because everyone knows that just makes him more lovable.