I love it when I hear Mr. Obama tell me that I can keep my health-care plan. If I like my plan, well, I can keep it. If I like my doctor, I can keep her, too. His words just make me feel so cared for, so protected.
But what I note rather quickly is that Mr. Obama never says I can actually keep my insurance. No, I can keep my "plan." What I take from this is that if I want to keep my plan, call it PLAN BILL provided by IFB: Insurance For Bloggers, the government will provide me with an identical PLAN BILL.
Seriously, Mr. Obama has never said I can keep my insurance. Not once. At least I've never heard him say that I can. I have instead heard him slide from discussing insurance reform into language about my health care "plan." Well, everyone knows, at least they should know, that there is a significant difference between the plans an insurer offers and the insurer itself.
Besides, if my insurance company has to be realigned according to Mr. Obama's new standards of efficiency and equity, then I can't keep my plan, can I? My insurance will change, at least that's what is promised by Mr. Obama. And this despite his promise that I can keep my plan -- if I like it. But Mr. Obama, don't you see that I do like it just the way it is?
Questions for the next White House press conference: Are you saying that if a person likes his health insurance and the company that provides it exactly as they are, he can keep them that way? If so, what does reform mean? If not, then why are you telling people that they can keep their "plans"? Or are you equivocating, shifting meaning, obfuscating for political gain?
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On a slightly different note, somewhere I spotted a comment in a blog post about health-care reform that made me shake my head incredulously at certain aspects of the reforms lately proposed to the country. The idea that a person should not be exempted from receiving health-care coverage because of a pre-existing condition prompted the commenter to note that this should mean people should simply purchase insurance once they are sick. The writer compared the whole thing to purchasing car insurance: just buy the insurance after your car has been wrecked. Or homeowners insurance: purchase protection after your house has been burglarized, torched, or crushed by a meteorite. Why have health-care coverage at all for anyone prior to illness or injury?
I guess it's a bit like asking for protection AFTER pregnancy. But wait. I guess there will be some insurance for that sort of thing, too.
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2 comments:
I cannot tell you how frightened I've become during the past few months with our compatriots. I've met so many people who absolutely cannot see what this administration is up to. I read them passages from the 1000 page bill in the House and they tell me, "it doesn't say that," or "the President promises . . ." It is as if 40-50% of the population has been zombie-fied. The examples are legion.
The real scary thing though is not necessarily the stupidity or ignorance or blindness. Rather it is the militant hatred which is expressed and directed against anyone who dares to disagree with the beatification of Obama.
I was talking to someone I thought was a friend --a smart, rational person-- about the effects of Obamanomics on my small business, the deficit, and all the pitfalls of Obamacare.
I laid out my points and cited evidence from the bills and nonpartisan sources. No Fox News or talk radio.
He had no response.
None. No counter evidence whatsoever. Yet, before I realized it, he had balled his fists and was screaming at me. Finally, he shoved me out the way with an "F*** you" and left.
Unbelievable.
Sorry for the long comment.
Dear R.,
Sorry to hear about your friend's reaction. That sort of thing is very difficult not only to explain, but to forget. It's also the stuff that hurts. I had a similar experience on a very lonely dirt road during the 2004 election cycle. An old schoolmate was passing me as I drove in the opposite direction; we flagged each other down, backed up and chatted happily through our open windows. Suddenly my friend asked me about the upcoming election between George Bush and John Kerry. I was surprised by the question; I thought this particular man utterly indifferent to politics. I laughed lightly to signal I was not taking any of this too seriously, and I said -- and I remember this clearly -- "I don't care for either of them, to be honest, but I think Bush is the better of two evils." Suddenly my friend's affable expression disappeared. He dropped his F-250 into gear and stood on the gas pedal, his tires flinging gravel. I thought he was just joking, that he'd stop in a few feet and return to talk. I laughed heartily and loudly, loud enough for him to hear that I got the joke, and then turned to look out my driver's window as he sped up the dirt road. With a sudden jerk of his left arm, he pointed out his window toward a sticker mounted behind his head on his truck's lumber rack. There I spotted a W with a slash through it. He never stopped accelerating, he never looked back, he never called to explain or apologize or say it was all a big joke, and he never waved to me again when we'd pass along the local roadways. And he would snub me when I'd see him in the local market.
I can honestly testify I have never treated anyone that way. Never.
Your friend probably thinks you have no right complaining because you're "rich", "privileged", "successful".
What is going on here is that for our more liberal friends, GOVERNMENT is the highest form of religious duty, of religious fulfillment. An informed and active and engaged citizenry, one that works towards prescribed ideals of justice, IS the MOST important thing in the world. True religion, not the stuff you find "in the pews," is about politics, about "giving back", the "common good", and "leaving the world better than you found it." It's a light and small footprint, even a small carbon footprint.
This is really all about psychology, faith, religion. You challenged someone's very fundamentals, and you were hated for it. Yes, hated.
Peace to you,
Bill Gnade
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