"AMERICA’S NATIONAL HEALTHCARE EMERGENCY!
It’s official. America and the World are now in a GLOBAL PANDEMIC. A World EPIDEMIC with potential catastrophic consequences for ALL of the American people. The first PANDEMIC in 41 years. And WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES will have to face this PANDEMIC with the 37th worst quality of healthcare in the developed World.
STAND READY AMERICA TO SEIZE CONTROL OF YOUR NATIONAL HEALTHCARE SYSTEM.
We spend over twice as much of our GDP on healthcare as any other country in the World. And Individual American spend about ten times as much out of pocket on healthcare as any other people in the World. All because of GREED! And the PRIVATE FOR PROFIT healthcare system in America.
And while all this is going on, some members of congress seem mostly concern about how to protect the corporate PROFITS! of our GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT NATIONAL DISGRACE. A PRIVATE FOR PROFIT DISGRACE that is in fact, totally valueless to the public health. And a detriment to national security, public safety, and the public health.
Progressive democrats and others should stand firm in their demand for a robust public option for all Americans, with all of the minimum requirements progressive democrats demanded. If congress can not pass a robust public option with at least 51 votes and all robust minimum requirements, congress should immediately move to scrap healthcare reform and request that President Obama declare a state of NATIONAL HEALTHCARE EMERGENCY! Seizing and replacing all PRIVATE FOR PROFIT health insurance plans with the immediate implementation of National Healthcare for all Americans under the provisions of HR676 (A Single-payer National Healthcare Plan For All).
Coverage can begin immediately through our current medicare system. With immediate expansion through recruitment of displaced workers from the canceled private sector insurance industry. Funding can also begin immediately by substitution of payroll deductions for private insurance plans with payroll deductions for the national healthcare plan. This is what the vast majority of the American people want. And this is what all objective experts unanimously agree would be the best, and most cost effective for the American people and our economy.
In Mexico on average people who received medical care for A-H1N1 (Swine Flu) with in 3 days survived. People who did not receive medical care until 7 days or more died. This has been the same results in the US. But 50 million Americans don’t even have any healthcare coverage. And at least 200 million of you with insurance could not get in to see your private insurance plans doctors in 2 or 3 days, even if your life depended on it. WHICH IT DOES!
If President Obama has to declare a NATIONAL STATE OF EMERGENCY to rescue the American people from our healthcare crisis, he will need all the sustained support you can give him. STICK WITH HIM! He’s doing a brilliant job.
THIS IS THE BIG ONE!
THE BATTLE OF GOOD Vs EVIL!
Join the fight.Contact congress and your representatives NOW! AND SPREAD THE WORD!
God Bless You
Jacksmith – WORKING CLASS"
I have not altered this in anyway, though copying it here did cause it to lose most of its formatting which is unfortunate. Please, go to the link above and look at this comment in its glorious original. I replied briefly, saying that I would respond in detail to this comment later. This post is my response. I also said that the writer, Jacksmith, had won a special prize.
Your prize, Jacksmith, is the formal recognition that you have contributed the first idiot comment in the history of Rantings of a Medical Mind.
Now, I have received a tiny number of spam comments. Those did not see the light of day. But your comment, Jacksmith, is the first comment that I have received (and I have received precious few comments) that violates the rule that I set out at the very outset of my blog. In my very first post I stated that "I will welcome your comments and critiques of my thoughts. I enjoy a spirited debate on the issues." Your comment, Jacksmith -- may I call you Jack? -- provides neither a critique of my thoughts nor is it a spirited debate on the issues.
Jack, your comment is merely a regurgitation of talking points designed to fear-monger and create distress amongst those unfortunate enough to read it. It also contains so much garbage in terms of what passes for "information" that it cannot be taken seriously.
BTW, Jack, I did find you. With your oh-so-common nom de plume, I wasn't sure that I'd be able to run you down, but find you I did. Let's take a look at this posting on Slate -- same stupid arguments, same violation of netiquette by SCREAMING ALL THE TIME, same signature (Jack Smith -- Working Class) -- yep, that's gotta be you. And you have your own blog! But come on, you've only put up one post? I'm well up into the sixties. I will say though, at least it's good to get confirmation that other people are reading my writings, even if it is someone whose brain cells no longer function properly.
Let's begin the autopsy of your comment.
First, we'll cover what you inadvertently happened to get right. Since my post regarded President Obama's public option, and your diatribe did cover that, it was on topic. You mentioned the global H1N1 pandemic -- okay, I'll accept the WHO proclamation on this (even though if the current Mexican flu outbreak defines a pandemic, we need a new word for something like the Spanish flu or the Medieval Black Death). And by the quoted numbers, we do spend something like two times as much of our GDP on "health care" as many other nations, though that number is always in flux. That's about it. Everything else is wrong. Or a lie. And really, what's the difference, except in intent? If you're just mistaken, it means you're an idiot. If you're lying, it means you're a tool of people who are using you to push their agenda, even though you, and everyone else right along with you, will ultimately pay for it in the end (literally and figuratively). I'll choose to be kind and call you an idiot, for in my book, being a tool is far worse.
On second thought, after reading your single blog post, I will have to retract my assessment of you. You are both an idiot and a tool.
Your concern about the Mexican flu is not totally warranted. As of July 3, 2009 (2 days ago), WHO has confirmed worldwide 89,921 cases of H1N1 with 382 deaths. This is a case fatality rate of 0.43%, much lower than that of the regular seasonal flu. The CDC reports, as of July 2, 2009, that in the US there have been 33,902 cases with 170 deaths, for a case fatality rate of 0.50%, again lower than that of the regular seasonal flu. So, currently, this flu is not something to get all hot and bothered about. It is true that the first cases of Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 have just now been reported, but you couldn't have known that when you posted your comment, so you get no points for that. Besides, we have medicines we can use other than Tamiflu.
In regards to your discussion of the H1N1 cases in Mexico, I don't know where you are getting your information, since the Mexican health authorities have been incredibly tight-lipped about what has been going on there. WHO reports only 10,262 confirmed cases in Mexico with 119 deaths, for a case fatality rate of 1.16%, higher than elsewhere, but still not terribly high (the Third World nature of the Mexican health care system may have something to do with this). Also, as reported in this article from Reuters, the higher case fatality rate in the area of origin of the epidemic is consistent with what has been seen with other epidemics in the past. This article also mentions that the majority of deaths in Mexico are among people under the age of 59, which is unusual for influenza and is NOT the pattern being seen elsewhere in the world. Investigators think this may be because people above age 52 may have some residual partial immunity from the last H1N1 strain that circulated before 1957.
[Yes, I am calling it the Mexican flu. Naming convention for influenza epidemics in the past have named the outbreak with the name of the country in which the outbreak was first publicly identified. In this case, Mexico drew the short straw. There is nothing racist about it. I'm sure that Spain doesn't like that the Spanish flu was named thusly, since the virus most likely originated in the American and European soldiers fighting World War I, but since the first public information about the outbreak came from Spain, the name became Spanish flu. By the same token, this flu is the Mexican flu.]
In your comment, Jack, you strongly push for the adoption of President Obama's health reform plan. Have you even read the plan? "Coverage can begin immediately through our current medicare system" -- Obama's plan doesn't change Medicare and does not involve enrolling anyone into Medicare. "Funding can also begin immediately by substitution of payroll deductions for private insurance plans with payroll deductions for the national healthcare plan" -- Obama's plan doesn't call for the institution of direct payroll deductions for the public option, but rather the payment by the employer into the public pool, from which non-covered workers will receive funds to buy insurance from the Exchange. "With immediate expansion through recruitment of displaced workers from the canceled private sector insurance industry" -- Obama's plan doesn't call for the cancellation of the private insurance industry......
But I see from your blog post that what you are really after is a single payer, government controlled system. And you are too stupid to see that Obama's plan doesn't call for that -- oh, now I see. You are shilling for Obama's plan, a plan you favor, because you want a single payer system, and you also see Obama's plan as a way into a single payer system. Thank you for making that point crystal clear. (This was supposed to be a secret! For a tool, you really aren't very sharp, you know that?)
Furthermore, you want President Obama to declare a national health emergency if your precious plan doesn't pass, during which he is to seize all the insurance companies and impose the single payer system that the American people, through Congress, have just rejected. Now I know that certain laws were passed after 9/11 that allow the President (and even the state governors) to declare such emergencies and impose things like quarantines, forced vaccinations, forced redistribution of medical supplies, and the like, but these bills do not give the President the power to seize industries and impose radical system change. But you want him to have these powers. Because you are a "progressive Democrat". You are a "World Citizen" (from your blog). You are a member of the "Working Class". (Shouldn't that last one really be "Proletariat"?)
You really hate privately run "health care" systems, don't you, Jack? Look at the way you just shriek those hateful words -- "GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT NATIONAL DISGRACE". Is it just the profit driven "health care" system you hate, or is it any for-profit endeavor? How about taking over the computer industry, or the auto industry -- wait, bad example. President Obama has already done that. Bet that made you feel really good inside, didn't it? While the rest of America had to fight to keep from retching. And then there's this, from your blog:
"Health care is NOT! a private for profit business. Healthcare is an essential public service. Like police, and fire. And healthcare is also a human right! PRIVATE FOR PROFIT HEALTHCARE IS AN OXYMORON, AND AN IMMORAL AND UNETHICAL PERVERSION OF HEALTHCARE AND HUMAN RIGHTS."
Health care is a public service?? Not even electricity and water are public services. Regulated utilites, yes, but not public services. Just try not paying your electric or water bills for a while and see what happens. Making health care a public service puts me and all other health care workers at your disposal -- making us your servants, or worse. And I will repeat once more -- Healthcare is Not a Right!
It's time to pull back the curtains and let the purifying light of truth shine upon you, Jack. You are a Communist (and yes, I meant that to be with a capital 'C'). You are a relic of an outmoded political ideology that was completely discredited with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Even China is slowly moving away from the true Communist structure. You are so blinded by your ideology that you do not realize that you are being used by other people to advance their agendas, not yours, and that when you finally realize this and you protest, you will be discarded like the used, empty and crushed beer can that you are.
I pray that God blesses you, Jack. I pray that He gives you the ability to clearly see the truth and the wisdom to be able to correct the errors of your ways.
As always, I welcome critiques of my thoughts and rants, and I eagerly look forward to a spirited discussion of the issues.
But Jack, if you come back at me with another regurgitation of talking points or a pile of useless drivel with no thought behind it and no evidence to back it up, I will be forced to wipe it from my blog and throw it away, just like I wipe up and throw away the hairballs that my cat spits up. Spitting up the hairballs at least serves a useful purpose, if only for the cat. Your droppings don't even make good manure.
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