Empathy & Sympathy -Things of the Past

Avatar for ddnlj
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Empathy & Sympathy -Things of the Past
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Fri, 09-25-2009 - 9:24am

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

At the Richmond Times-Dispatch “public square” forum yesterday, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) took questions from his constituents on the health reform debate for the first time this summer. One such constituent, Patricia Churchill, spoke about a close family member, now unemployed and thus uninsured, who is dying of tumors. Cantor suggested that Churchill’s relative seek “existing government programs” or find charity.

This is all interesting, because Cantor is against a public option, yet he wants Churchill to find a government program (or charity). Yeah, we know how easy that is.


 


CHURCHILL: I have a very close relative, a woman in her early forties, who did have a wonderful, high-paying job, owns her own home and was a real contributing member of society. She lost her job. Just a couple of weeks ago, she found out that she has tumors in her belly and that she needs an operation. Her doctors told her that they are growing and that she needs to get this operation quickly. She has no insurance. I am just wondering gentlemen, we can talk about high-flown ideas and we can talk theory all we want to. But this person is a very close member of my family, she's ill, and she has no way to get this operation. So I'm asking you, what would you do if this were your close relative

CANTOR: First of all, I guess I would ask what the situation is in terms of income eligibility and the existing programs that are out there. Because if we look at the uninsured that are out there right now, there is probably 23, 24% of the uninsured that is already eligible for an existing government program Beyond that, I know that there are programs, there are charitable organizations, there are hospitals here who do provide charity care that if there’s an instance of indigency and the individual is not eligible for existing programs that there can be some cooperative effort. No one in this country, given who we are, should be sitting without an option to go be addressed.


What? Cantor is saying no one in this country should not have an option? That would be the public option, or universal health care, that all other industrialized nations have, in one form or another.


But, truly, why would Representative Cantor CARE about anyone else? He HAS gold standard healthcare for himself and his loved ones. Everyone else can just go DIE.


 

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-03-2009
Sat, 09-26-2009 - 8:04pm

Not all people can qualify for help with COBRA (kinda funny to see suggestions of government help and financial assistance from the same people who are shrieking about budget deficits and "socialism"):

"The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 expanded eligibility for COBRA and provides a premium reduction to certain qualified individuals who lost their job on or after September 1, 2008 through December 31, 2009. The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) of 1986 is a health benefit allowing qualified terminated employees to continue their health care coverage until they find another job that provides employer sponsored health insurance.

Under Obama's Stimulus Package, you may be eligible for a 65% reduction in COBRA premiums as soon as March 1, 2009. Your employer should notify you if you are eligible for COBRA and if you are eligible to receive the premium reduction. If your employer does not inform you about the COBRA premium reduction, contact one of the sources at the end of this article. If you are already on COBRA, you will not receive a reduction for premiums already paid, but you can apply for reductions in the remaining COBRA payments you will make after March 1, 2009.

COBRA provides certain former employees, retirees, spouses, former spouses, and dependent children the right to temporary continuation of health coverage at group rates. Employees that had a reduction in hours leading to loss of benefits may also qualify for COBRA. Once you have been approved for COBRA, you make the premium payments for your health insurance. The length of time you are allowed to receive health benefits under COBRA varies depending on your situation."
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1508773/obama_stimulus_package_65_cobra_premium.html?cat=3

Jabberwocka

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
Sat, 09-26-2009 - 8:50pm

"Not all people can qualify for help with COBRA (kinda funny to see suggestions of government help and financial assistance from the same people who are shrieking about budget deficits and "socialism"):"

Didn't vote for it, but it is there. You'd prefer it not be?

Watching the reaction of so many to programs such as this merely confirm the gimmee, gimmee nature of some people.

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
Sat, 09-26-2009 - 9:01pm

"I'll tell you what's not fair. To be unable to afford to pay out-of-pocket for basic health care services."

Who will pay the bills for those who can not afford to do so?

"To develop a condition which causes one's company to drop coverage and render one unable to get coverage from anybody else--remember Maggie Yount?"

I try to forget. Hopefully, she has either returned to Canada or her husband has gotten off his arse and gotten a job that provides health benefits.

"To have a whole industry which provides nothing at all in terms of health care services (insurance)."

Why would anyone expect an insurance company to provide health care services? That's not their job.

"DH and I have paid premiums for decades, hundreds of thousands in dollars. Would I mind seeing a change even after such major expense? NOT AT ALL!"

I would greatly mind seeing my current quality of health care decline.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2002
Sat, 09-26-2009 - 9:53pm

***or her husband has gotten off his arse and gotten a job that provides health benefits. ***


Like the millions of other unemployed people who are just



iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
Sat, 09-26-2009 - 10:17pm
Well perhaps you are right ... we shouldn't expect such an irresponsible individual to suddenly straighten up his act in economic hard times. Just another reason so many of us oppose our taxes going to support such irresponsible behavior ..... perhaps we should encourage them to move to Canada?
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-03-2009
Sat, 09-26-2009 - 11:30pm

No. Asking for assistance with COBRA, considering the exorbitant cost of health insurance, is far from "gimme, gimme". I remember a time long ago as a young mother when my toddler son was crying with pain from an ear infection which we simply didn't have the money to treat. Hell. Absolutely awful. Don't ever want to be there again or have others face the same wrenching worry.

I have seen people who are so tight-fisted, so intent on getting what they feel they deserve, that anybody else's distress is seen as a ploy, a weakness, a con to take something from the Scooges of this world. It's a meanness of spirit which takes no heed whatsoever of John Donne. But he's right, not the Scrooges.

"Perchance he for whom this bell tolls, may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me...may have caused it to toll for me...and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

Jabberwocka

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-03-2009
Sat, 09-26-2009 - 11:45pm

Guess what. It's not all about you. This nation has millions of people from all walks of life, in all sorts of circumstances.

An awful lot of those people work hard. Some work two or three jobs to make ends meet but don't have enough hours at any one job to qualify for health insurance Others, like Maggie Yount's husband, work as consultants because that's the only work they can get in a recession where unemployment is getting into the double digits thanks to the buffoonery of BushCo.

And small business owners like my husband do "work their arses off" just to keep their heads above water.

Be careful. Self-absorption tends to be progressive and can eat at the soul just as surely as cancer can eat at a body.

Jabberwocka

Avatar for claddagh49
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-20-2004
Sun, 09-27-2009 - 8:57am
God knows their selfish hearts. God knows how they feel about their fellow man. I can't even stand to read some of the posts, I go to a Cancer survivors board, and there are several woman on there who lost their jobs, and found out they had cancer
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2002
Sun, 09-27-2009 - 12:17pm
You know, if rugged individualists just would up and admit that people who screw up (or have bad luck) should die in the gutter, I'm cool with that. I can see the philosophy there.

Of course, any time I run into a rugged individualist (or RI), I feel the need to somehow sign them up to be an apprentice to a farrier or something. There's something grotesque about espousing 19th century virtues while eating bon-bons and typing on a keyboard with one outstretched finger.


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Sun, 09-27-2009 - 12:40pm

I am no fan of this buy insurance or go to jail idea.


As requested by others here already,


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