Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Media / News Bites Laughter Is the Best Medicine, And Even Americans Can Afford It
Posted by Michael Miner on Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 7:44 PM
If you're hoping President Obama passes his health care reform bill, Tuesday has been a good day — and there haven't been many.
First came word that when she was a little girl in Alaska, Sarah Palin's family would take the train into the Yukon to see the doctor. "Isn't that kind of ironic now," Palin marveled during a weekend speech in Calgary. "Zooming over the border, getting health care from Canada."
Then Rush Limbaugh let it be known on the radio that if Obama gets his way with health care, Limbaugh will seek his medical treatment in some other country. "I'll go to Costa Rica," he said, though, as AOL's David Knowles points out, Costa Rica offers its people universal health care.
It's hard to say where Limbaugh would go, since just about every first-world country but our own underwrites health care. Maybe he'll slip off to Whitehorse and say Sarah Palin sent him.
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You would think you would verify your laughter, seeing the story you cite
is bogus.
Thanks indeed for the laugh.
Rush Limbaugh will leave the country if the health of every American man, woman and child is insured. How patriotic.
This is the best reason yet I've heard for passing serious health care reform. I have the perfect place for el Rushbo to relocate to: Somalia! The place would be perfect for him - no government, lots and lots of guns, no taxes - an NO health care!
An America without Rush Limbaugh....Adios, Rush! It's been real - Sort of.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
Goshen NY
Somalia is actually the ideal libertarian state, though right-wingers should find it quite agreeable as well.
As for this health care bill, near as I can tell it's unlikely to do anything to reduce overall denial of care. Health insurers would just have to shift to less transparent justifications. Ditto for cost containment: the insurers would merely have to reclassify grossly duplicative, counterproductive overhead as health-delivery efficiency initiatives and they'd be golden. Almost literally.
But as hideous as the bill is, there is the upside effect of jettisoning Limbaugh. That's something.
the MSM has dropped the ball on the oft mentioned obama goal of preventing insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.
in order to keep the industry from an outright revolt, not long after the goal was announced the administration then agreed in exchange for stopping this discriminatory practice the industry could charge those folks whatever they want.
this self castration was reported i think maybe once.
should any bill end up passing, those uninsured w/ significant chronic conditions could easily be looking at $7,000 to $10,000 monthly premiums.
on the plus side, laughter will remain cheap
The Sarah Palin story is "bogus" in winoneforthegipper's view for reasons that are not what you'd assume. Yes, Palin's family took the train to Whitehorse to see the doctor. Yes, she joked about the irony of it in a speech in Calgary. But here's the catch. Though the Canada Assistance Plan introduced what winoneforthegipper would presumably call socialized medicine to Canada in 1966, the Yukon did not pass enabling legislation to provide for federal cost-sharing until 1972 -- which means there is reason to believe the Palins' family doctor in Whitehorse was driven by the good old-fashioned profit motive and sent them a whopping bill. Palin will surely be happy to hear that she might technically still be a virgin.
Not only that, Michael, but Palin was six at the time, so she was hardly responsible for her parents' health care decisions. But why did her parents take her family to Canada for health care? According to Palin's father, quality and/or cost of care had nothing to do with it; location was everything. The family lived in a relatively remote area with undependable travel options; the hospital in the Yukon was the closest to them and the easiest to get to. A lot of folks who had a field day with this without considering the facts should consider just how much their behavior mirrors that of their political enemies.
"A lot of folks who had a field day with this without considering the facts should consider just how much their behavior mirrors that of their political enemies."
Cry me a river.
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