Teddy calls out 99 members of the U.S. Senate over their taxpayer subsidized health benefits
Who wouldn't walk to the end of the earth linked arm-in-arm with this great American?
Senator Kennedy has devoted his life to fighting for the American people. His simple idea is to bring guaranteed affordable, cradle to grave healthcare to all of us.
He never shies away from shaming his seemingly shameless colleagues who eagerly accept heavily taxpayer subsidized healthcare benefits while denying you and me--the American people what they have.
Always remember the Little Pink Card given on on Day One to every member of the United States Senate.
His candor is utterly refreshing.
Save for Sherrod Brown of Ohio, all 99 members of the United States Senate eagerly accept taxpayer subsidized health benefits.
Kennedy's favorite line which he repeats at every opportunity is, "the American taxpayer is paying 72% of the healthcare premium for every member of the United States Senate."
It's long overdue that this taxpayer generosity be ended. Each member of the U.S. Senate should be forced into the merciless for-profit individual market. They should experience the depraved world of pre-existing conditions, exclusions, waiting periods and denials, the same grim reality as so many of the people they represent.
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for us with a sense of history
Teddy remains a pretty special character in the history of progessive politics. It was great to see him at the convention and great to hear that the one issue he spoke out on was healthcare. After we elect a new president, then the real work begins to organize for real change in healthcare.
Teddy
I hope and pray as we all do, that Senator Kennedy will be here to witness President Obama sign sweeping healthcare legislation into law.
It would be fitting if the legislation were named in honor of Kennedy.
Teddy Care
CNA spent a great deal of time, energy, and our dues money on the Chaney Care campain to illustrate how the Rich like Dick Chaney get such superior healthcare than the rest of us. So when Teddy got sick and got red carpet healthcare why was CNA not making an issue of his privilage.
Think healthcare is expensive now, wait until its free. The countries where its free have to use rationing to make it work. Being "Free" is an illusion. They pay for it in different ways such as also much higher income taxes and several dollars a gallon gas taxes. And what do you think the wages of their RN's are? Much less than those bargined for by CNA. I work with Nurses from countries with "Free" healthcare and am not impressed with tere pay or working conditions. CNA needs to represent its nurses rather than a political idiology.
Like what? Dave, I'm a nurse
Like what?
Dave, I'm a nurse too..but if you think it's bad now, wait until Uncle Sam takes over.
I Have One Simple Word!
I Have One Simple Word! Medicare! Medicare This IS "Government Operated Healthcare! All we have to do is lower the age of eligibility to 1 day, instead of age 62. With 95% of Seniors Pleased, it's a Bad Argument! The Same Republicans who say Government Healthcare would be Bad, Are the exact Same People Who Fought Medicare. We don't have to re-invent the wheel. We Already have National Health it's called MEDICARE! A Proven Success!
I prefer reality to delusions
And the reality is that every other wealthy country in the world covers all of its people for their health care, does it at less cost than we do and achieves results that are as good or better - often a lot better - than ours. And none of them - not one - has a major role for for profit insurance companies. Why do you think Americans are so uniquely incompetent that we can't do what so many others do? Do you hate America or something?
on the contrary
America earned its rep and achieved it's success by doing what others didn't do. And it inspired many to do what might be achievable i.e. the spread of self governing societies...
here's a thought - why should the american taxpayer pay for elected representatives healthcare at all? if we're paying 72% of it, which is probabaly less than $10k per congressman/woman, then how does that compare to their overall salary? we pay them a lot more than median wages. They shoudl get average salaries and average healthcare benefits.
and the reality
is that this country houses the most inspiration, the most wealth, the most generosity, the most innovation that the rest of world either benefits from or wants to move here so they can participate in a free economy with significant personal liberties. This bill is basically a step in the opposite direction. it trades financial freedom for security. Take your pick.
People from third-world countries want to move here
But there's no great flocking of people from the developed world. Most of those folks would far rather live in a country where they have health security and know that a single illness won't destroy them. Just curious - since you are so big on self-reliance, where do you get your health coverage from? And have you ever had to test it with a major illness?
Most folks in America who have health insurance don't realize they are just one major illness away from financial devastation. And contrary to some people's fantasy, a great deal of illness is NOT preventable and NOT related to lifestyle choices. I deal daily with folks who have exercised, eaten reasonably well and not smoked and still get heart disease. Not to mention the diseases like pancreatic cancer and MS and a host of others that just come for no good reason we know of. Since I like to do a lot of exercise I am outside a lot. So I got skin cancer, which in America made me uninsurable. What's the free market answer for that one?
Also, in many ways, our lack of a healthcare system stifles financial freedom. My nephew is a brilliant mechanical enginieer, who for years was frustrated working for a large company, wanted to start his own business, but couldn't because his wife had a history of thyroid cancer. It had been successfully treated, and she was at no great risk, but uninsurable nonetheless if he left his job with the big company. Once she got the kids to a point where she could get a teaching job and get insurance, he could finally start his own company and make the kind of economic contribution he wanted to. But it was her teacher's insurance that created the security to make it possible - not the free market in insurance.
And what does the
And what does the presumptive democratic nominee and his veep pick have to say? The best response you'll get is crickets chirping.
Look folks, if you truly want the generosity to end, then start a nationwide petition to end unlimited terms in both the House and the Senate.
Teddy Kennedy should be ashamed of himself. For over 30 years he has benefited from the generosity of the taypayers. When he was healthy, not once have I ever heard him speak out against subsidized care for himself and the other cronies in Congress and now that he looking at the grim reaper, it's not good anymore?! Gimme a break!
Ted Kennedy certainly has benefited . . .
and he is the only one to repeatedly shame his colleagues. There are many, many other documented instances of him shaming his senate colleagues for the taxpayer subsidized healthcare they happily accept and deny us, but unfortunately I am only able to load one You Tube into a diary.
He has devoted his life to getting all Americans healthcare as a right not a privilege.
NYCEVE, I understand you
NYCEVE, I understand you like 'ol Teddy, but the guy is a hypocrite. He can't have it both ways.
Right?
How can you say that? It is my right to force a doctor to treat me? is it a right to force someone to house me? is it right to force someone to feed me? It could be considered a question of ethics or morality, but not a question of rights.
Libertarians are so cute
it's fun to watch them in their fantasy world.
There is no such thing as a natural right, unless you mean the right to take whatever you can by force - that's natural. In civilized societies, a "right" is whatever the majority of the society decides it is.
We have decided to provide fire protection to all as a right. (by the way we didn't used to - in the early years of our country we had private, fee-for-service fire departments - it worked really badly) We've decided to provide the services of a police department as a right. Public libraries, roads, etc. And we have decided to tax ourselves to pay for them. If we decide as a society to do the same with healthcare, then that's a right too. Which is a decision that most other developed countries have made, with the result that they have healthier people and SPEND LESS on healthcare than we do - quite a lot less. And no one in those countries has to hold a yard sale to pay for their kid's cancer treatment.
Dave, those "developed"
Dave, those "developed" nations you and others like to look at are very homogenous (Sweden, Norway, Finland, etc.) and much smaller in population size than the US and they don't have a very serious immigration problem. However, these welfare countries you admire also have higher unemployment rates and taxes then we do. And it's hurting them badly. Why? Because their economies are the flip side of ours. They are heavily dependent on government unionized jobs to get them by. And there's not enough of those jobs to go around, not to mention they too have an aging population. They import more than they export. It's one of the reasons they're desparately trying to encourage foreign investment to help build up their private sector to ease the burden. The generous "safety nets" they employed took away any incentives for their citizens to work. (A jobless workforce does not generate revenue)
BTW, a lot of those jobless college grads head straight for the good 'ol US of A. I should know, there are 2 Sweds and a German working in our radiology and pharmacy departments. Go figure!
I think France is a reasonable comparison
They have a population of 60 million, just as diverse as ours, with major immigration and racial/ethnic/religious issues. They have a somewhat complicated, but essentially single payer system which covers everyone and their total spending on it is about 60% of what we spend. They have more doctors per capita (3.3/1,000 vs 2.8/1,000) more hospital beds per capita, longer life expectancy, and generally better health care specific outcomes. Also one can see a doctor much easier and quicker and there are no HMO style gatekeepers. Doctors and nurses make a bit less, but nurses still have solidly middle class lives and doctors quite upper middle class. Seems to work just fine to me.