How to fix health care without a government takeover

It's called the "Healthy Americans Act". It is sponsored by Senator Wyden (Democrat) and Senator Bennett (Republican) and includes over a dozen cosponsors, including Michigan's own Debbie Stabenow (Democrat).

Below I have the wikipedia explanation of the bill. The shorter version is this.

Everyone will be required to carry health insurance. The federal government will collect the money for insurance through tax withholdings (the way they collect medicare and other taxes right now). The federal government will disperse the money to the various state agencies that will certify health insurance companies.

Rich people will have to full price. Middle class people will receive a large tax subsidy to buy the insurance. Poor people will receive a much larger subsidy to cover the cost of insurance. The cost of the subsidy will be paid for by a tax on corporations.

Here's the key. You retain the right (the liberty) to purchase more or different health care for yourself and your family, if you so choose. The government will not be the be-all and end-all of health care under this plan. The government will not decide who lives and who dies, who receives treatment and who does not.

Employers will no longer offer health care benefits. This law requires companies to raise your wages to include the money the company formerly spent on your health care expenses.

I urge my friends to look up this bill and write their senators/congressmen urging them to support this sensible, bipartisan reform of health care that covers EVERYONE, from rich to poor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Americans_Act

Elements of the bill

According to a preliminary analysis by the Congressional Budget Office in May 2008, the bill includes the following elements:^[6]

1. Administration of the program is by new state-sponsored "Health Help Agencies" (HHA). States must establish these organizations, which will approve health plans from private insurers, provide for enrollment in plans, and act as a conduit for premium payments from the federal government to individual insurance carriers.
2. All citizens and permanent residents would be required to pay for coverage as part of their federal tax liability. Payment would be made via tax withholding by employers. Individuals would effectively pay the federal government, which would channel the funds to the appropriate HHA and from there to the insurers. Employers would no longer provide basic coverage in most cases.
3. Taxpayers would have a large healthcare standard deduction, which would would increase with inflation. This would help taxpayers pay the tax liability that has now replaced insurance premiums. This essentially replaces the tax exclusion for healthcare benefits presently paid by employers. Certain low-income taxpayers would be eligible for premium assistance.
4. The size of the standard deduction for 2009 would range from $6,000 for individuals to $15,210 for couples with children, with incremental amounts for additional children. As a standard deduction, this reduces the income reported as subject to tax. However, this deduction would phase out for higher-income taxpayers, reducing to zero for couples earning over $250,000.
5. Mandates that employers provide salary and wages increases over a two year period essentially equal to the amount paid previously for basic healthcare insurance premiums, as employers no longer have to provide basic healthcare coverage.
6. Employers pay a new tax equal to between 3 percent and 26 percent of the national average premium for the minimum benefits package for each employee, depending on their firm size and amount of gross revenues per employee.
7. The basic plan would be equal to the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) Program, with some exceptions. For example, Medicare and military healthcare recipients would be outside the scope of this bill.
8. Premiums can vary only to reflect geography and smoking status.
9. Individuals can have more expensive (i.e., non-basic) coverage plans paid directly to insurers.
10. Certain individuals would be phased out of the Medicaid program, via participation in their state's HHA.

What government run health care will cost you...

In a word: Everything.

I cannot believe that I have to write this essay. I cannot believe that I have to explain to otherwise intelligent people -- well-educated, mostly liberal friends of mine -- why it is that leaving the government in charge of rationing out health care is a privacy breech so great, so immensely inviolate of our most basic freedom as to render the rest of the constitution meaningless.

Yet I will try. The most partisan of my friends will have already decided that whatever nonsense the democrat party serves up as a plan, they will dutifully swallow the words and regurgitate them for the rest of us. My hope is that, among my friends, there are some who are open-minded enough to consider that they have been misled into supporting the very destruction of privacy and liberty in this Republic.

LIBERTY. Is it not the cornerstone of what it is to be American? It is hope of liberty, of freedom, that drove the Revolution that freed us from King George's grasp. It is liberty -- not security, not safety, not guaranteed outcomes or preferential treatment -- that causes men and women from across the globe to uproot their families and seek a chance at life here. The islands south of Florida have seen many a family arrive, carried upon a raft made, literally, from the rooftop of their former homes.

We are the torch that lights the world, the beacon that shows the way. We are because, at our core, in our very founding documents, WE DECLARE OURSELVES TO BE FREE. We arranged for a government to govern only with our consent. We declare that all rights belong to all people, being neither granted by government nor assailable by government. They are simply man's state of being, our gift from Creation. We are citizens of a Republic, not subjects to any ruler, be they beneficent or malevolent. We kiss no rings, bow to no man, and owe allegiance to no one but our sacred Republic.

Government run health care stands in direct contradiction to liberty. Remember, under this system, government will control every aspect of health care -- from birth through death. It is government who will determine which citizens are eligible for what treatments, and when. It is government who will decide if your grandfather is "too old" for a new heart treatment, or an expensive cancer drug, or even an exam to check for well-being.

It is government who will decide if the downs syndrome fetus is too risky, too expensive, to be carried to full term or not. It is government who will decide if you are entitled to breast cancer screening, or prostate exams, or cholesterol checks.

How do you, as Citizens of this Republic, expect the government to determine who is, and who is not, eligible for health services? Is it so hard to imagine the government determining that, if a citizen wishes to receive their ration of health care, that they refrain from smoking? Or eating fatty foods? Or drinking beer, taking drugs, eating meat -- any number of activities that could be politically unpopular with any group in power?

Imagine it in another light. What if the next government is Christian fundamentalist and decides that the only cure for cancer they are willing to pay for is prayer? Or that abortion is immoral and we will no longer pay for it. Or birth control. Where will you turn for protection then, when the system that allows you choice in how you live your life is swapped out for one where government calls the shots?

Do not be so hasty to allow government the opportunity to dictate your life to you, for power like this will be quickly utilized and never returned to you. NEVER.

PRIVACY. If government is going to be rationing out health care, they will need to know who they are treating and for what. Government will know your most inner private health issues, from high cholesterol to that STD you picked up in college, from the number of abortions you've had to the anti-depressants you took to cope with your grandmother's death.

What good can come of this, I ask you! What good can come of government keeping tabs on every aspect of the private lives of every American? And yet this is precisely what we would be offering to the government in exchange for "free" health care -- our very core, our freedoms, our liberty, our privacy. We would no longer be Citizens of a Republic, but subjects, subject to the whims and abilities of a ruling class empowered to control every aspect of our lives.

My friends, you will trade all of this for what? Promises of "free" health care? The guarantee is worth nothing. If it can be given by the government, it can just as easily be taken away. That is why the rights of our Constitution were not given by the government we formed, but were simply claimed as the nature of our creation, such that no government could take them away. And here you are, offering to give them away, in exchange for promises of a better system. The promises of government are naught, and the world's history is replete with the corpses of People who relied on the promises of government.

The Constitution is a sacred pact, a blood oath between all Citizens, that we are and shall forever remain free. To do so, we must retain our one truth -- our dignity as Free People, as Citizens of a Glorious Republic. Our freedom, our liberties, our rights, our very LIVES -- they are non-negotiable. We cannot allow government to acquire this power over our lives -- the power to squelch freedom and destroy privacy, and indeed, the power to choose who among us lives and dies. Our Republic will be irreparably shattered if this plan comes to fruition.

I do not know how this will end. Perhaps the lure of security and the false promises of a smooth-talking politician will convince Americans to trade their freedoms for a handful of magic beans. Or perhaps our inner Madisons will awaken and we will, as Citizens of the Republic, stop this nonsense and preserve our very Republic. May the wisdom of our Founders inhabit the hearts of all across this Land.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

The president of the United States is an embarrassment to this nation, to the state he hails from, and even to the party he is rather quickly destroying.

His "stimulus" bill didn't stimulate anything, mostly because it wasn't really geared at stimulus. The entire point of the bill was to throw money at his voters.

His unprecedented and unconstitutional takeover of GM wasn't about bankruptcy and helping a company through the normal process of shedding debt to stay viable. The takeover was designed as a payoff to the auto union workers, at the cost of hundreds of billions in tax dollars.

His health care plan will destroy innovation, progress, research -- indeed, it will destroy any incentive for students to even consider careers in medicine. It will result in substandard, miserable coverage for everyone. It will result in shortages, not just of care, but of the people who provide the care: doctors, nurses, specialists. In other words, Obamacare will kill more people than it saves...and at quite the cost, both monetarily (trillions of dollars) and literally (our lost freedom of control over our own bodies).

His cap and tax environmental scheme will destroy the economy while providing nearly ZERO benefit to the environment.

He has moved toward creating a permanent, non-military "army", under command of the president, to work on "civil" projects. The last such army in the civilized world spent its time rounding up jews and gays and gypsies for the gas chambers.

He and his party are now denouncing protesters as angry mobs trying to take him down. These are not angry mobs, "president" Obama, these are ordinary Americans who are sick and tired of seeing Washington take over more and more of our lives, our liberties, and our income. These are mothers and fathers who are sickened by how much debt you and your cronies are piling on the backs of our children. HOW DARE YOU TREAT THESE PEOPLE, THESE VOTERS, THESE AMERICANS, WITH SUCH CONTEMPT?!

His latest creation is a website where people can go and alert the government of folks who are "spreading lies" about his health care plan. My democrat friends, if this last bit does not frighten the living wits out of you, then you are simply too partisan to see that your president is a fascist, a statist, and -- in a country founded on dissent and free speech -- your president values none of those things.

I will no longer refer to President Obama as my president, because in my opinion, he is no longer worthy to serve. He can be your president, and you -- my friends who misguidedly voted for a conman as commander in chief -- can have his mistakes on your hands. I will spend my time working for change that respects the constitution we live under and understands the freedoms he or she ought to be defending, not destroying.

Coming Out Crazy

I know how terrifying it must feel for gay kids to try and tell their families their truth. I've been trying to figure out the best way to tell my friends and family what it is that my doctor says is likely the chemical cause behind my emotion troubles. So I suppose the best way to do it is just take my fear of what you all might think and just spit the words out.

Bipolar Disorder II.

There, I said it.

It makes sense. I don't have Bipolar I, where your brain cycles between periods of really high and really low. But, if my doctor's theory is right, I have its little cousin. The highs aren't as high, and the lows aren't as low, but my brain switches back and forth so frequently that I many times experience both -- all -- emotions at once. With this, I get some ADD symptoms and its memory issues, some OCD stuff, some compulsive behaviors (in my case, I compulsively eat -- which is why I keep gaining weight).

The way my doctor described it, you can picture your brain having a traffic cop. When you're in a good mood, he's waving the "good" traffic through the intersection. You stay in a good mood. Then something bad happens, and he holds up a stop sign for the good traffic and starts waving through the unhappy traffic. You experience whatever emotion fits the occasion -- anger, sadness, whatever. That's how YOUR brain works.

In my brain, replace the traffic cop with a hyperactive monkey on coke and meth. My traffic cop can switch from "good" traffic to "bad" traffic for any reason at all, or no reason. He can switch from good to bad to good to bad to good to bad...all in an hour, and out of proportion to whatever signals the traffic cop received. So I might watch a sad movie and laugh or cry or feel nothing or get all ADD and go play warcraft; you might tell me you like the blue shirt rather than the red one and i'll flip my shit or agree. It all depends on what my traffic cop randomly does. That's how MY brain works. That's Bipolar Disorder II.

By itself, Bipolar Disorder in any form is a pain in the ass. It's difficult to diagnose. You end up with a lot of other psychiatric issues that cloud this diagnosis (in my case, ADD and mild OCD and Anxiety and Depression all are present, and each one had to be tested with medication to see if they were the root.) In other words, I've been on more drugs the past two years than most hippies...

Add to this diagnosis all of the psychological stuff I am dealing with from growing up with parents who ruled with guilt and fear, and you have what my therapist and I referred to as my perfect storm -- a broken brain and a wounded soul. It's a wonder I didn't kill myself when I was younger -- I fit the profile perfectly.

The bitch of it is, I know that a lot of people already have an opinion of Bipolar people, and it's incredibly unlikely that any of these preformed opinions are positive. Hell, my first thought was "you gotta be fucking kidding me, lady" when my doctor told me what her thoughts were.

No one wants the "crazy" label. But, as far as society is concerned, I'm "crazy". C'est la vie. I suppose the same people who'd judge me as "crazy" are the ones who call my friends "faggots"...which is why this is my "Coming Out Crazy" post.

So what's next? More medications. The $55 a month ADD drugs didn't do shit. The antidepressants make my anxiety worse. The anti-anxiety drugs are a bandaid, when they work, but aren't a cure -- and they usually knock me out, which makes working difficult.

The new medication is a "mood stabilizer". It's job is to grab my traffic cop by the collar and help him slow down, process the traffic coming in, and allow me more time to make a decision if I want "good" or "bad" traffic to come through.

Thoughts on life at 2 am

It's 2 am, I'm due up for work in 4 hours and 30 minutes, and despite my nightly dose of klonopin and a booster of xanax, I am wide awake. This is probably the state of mind Jerry Maguire was in as he wrote his essay on what was wrong with his company.

I've always admired that document, what it says and what it means. Once you've gone there, it's something you can't un-see. You can't watch that movie and listen to that speech and believe in the idea and then turn around and go back. You can't ever be one of those souless money-grubbing parasites that we've come to accept as "capitalists".

They are not capitalists, not in the way of men and women we revere, who create and drive our world. They are vampires, parasites -- empty shallow greedy beings who have the indecency to measure humanity in dollars and cents. They have bankrupted this country and this world and they still beg for more.

You can't watch Jerry Maguire and ever be one of them, unless, I suppose, you root for Bob Sugar...in which case, fuck you. You probably also root for the yankees and the cowboys, you impotent little succubi.

One theme from therapy: my life, my choices, my power. I don't ever realize it -- not that I occassionally forget that my life is my own, but literally, I NEVER realize that my life is my own. I simply don't get it. I suppose it's one of those things you either learn as a child or you don't, and I didn't. I learned the opposite.

All of which serves to make working for my office an exercise in futility. My company does so many stupid things, from where we sit to what we work on to how we work on it to what we wear, well, actually I cannot think of one thing we do right. I can't think of one good thing to say about the Amistad I climb aboard every day to take my place as slave-employee.

Everyone who has ever read anything I put effort into -- newspaper columns when that was my thing, or perhaps papers for school, or just essays for shits and giggles -- says the same thing: John should be a writer. That is my calling. That is what I am good at and that is really the only job that will make me happy professionally. I believe, with a lucky break and a lot of hard work -- on top of the thousands of hours ive spent writing thus far in my life -- I could be one who makes it as a writer.

But I proofread business cards, and I do it for people who hate me. I can think of half a dozen people who don't hate me -- out of a company of 700. The people who run things, if you can even call the little bastards that, could give a shit if I lived or died. This is true of all their employees.

We are numbers on a spreadsheet, data to be mined and extracted and pored over and manipulated -- and then regurgitated via life-altering layoffs. I've lost so many friends the past year that I've started to refer to my department as the nursing home -- when someone goes now, it's not even unexpected. It's just how things go. It's how we fucking roll.

I guess this is a long way of saying I wish I had the means to stop working for people who sicken me, literally -- a large portion of my anxiety stems from working where I work -- and find a way to put my talents to good use.

<3
john

Where is our churchill

(I'm warming myself up for some writing with a light dose of churchill. Here he is at his best.)

I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty's Government-every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation.

The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength.

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

What else do I miss about writing

Gems like this:

http://johnthorpe.blogspot.com/2005/01/weyco-goes-nanners.html

Maybe now that i'm snapping out of my two year anxiety-depression funk, maybe I can re-discover that guy.

Writing in the age of Obama

This is a strange time to be a columnist in my shoes. The left-right world axis that has defined our politics for, really, our entire lifetimes, no longer really applies. Neither side won the fight, neither side lost the fight, and neither side is really fighting any more.

My whole life I've been able to say "i'm a republican" or at least "i'm a republican on these issues". Now? Can you even say that about any issue, any party, any person? Take an example: Barack Obama and Dick Cheney. Obama is the most liberal man elected president in decades, if not ever. Cheney is so conservative that even Wyoming wasn't 100% behind him...and yet, it is Cheney who supports gay marriage.

Jigga what?

Democrats, long the party of the little guy, are handing out trillions to corporations. Republicans are calling for health care reform. Someone even suggested that we might replay the great depression by legalizing our vice (drugs this time, rather than booze) and taxing the shit out of it.

Personally, I've taken the opportunity here to redefine myself. I don't know what party I belong to, because I don't think either party has the faintest idea what it stands for anymore, other than getting re-elected and giving away tax dollars to their friends.

Strange times.