And 9 times out of 10, the news involved in these email blasts are urban legends. Whenever you get such an email that contains some pretty wild statements, always check it out at snopes.com - or other sources, to see how old the news is, and whether or not it's been debunked.
Today's missive shared with me a three paragraph letter from a doctor. Whether it is from a real dcotor I don't know, but read it, please, and then I'll get to my point.
Dear Mr. President:
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive
brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone. While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer.
And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture", a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me".
Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.
Respectfully,
STARNER JONES, MD
Now, I'm sure this doctor, or any doctor, sees plenty of people come into the emergency room looking too poor to be dressed in anything but rags, but nevertheless sporting the latest tattoos, name-brand shoes, and cell phones, but it was this comment tht I found interesting.
Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture", a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance.
And that is of course the thing that puzzles me. Whatever you think of Obamacare, people who currently are getting free health care, will not be getting free healthcare under Obamacare. They will have to purchase health insurance! That's one of the rules! (And one that Republicans are fighting tooth and nail!)
And I just don't understand that. Rush talks about freeloading students and freeloading unions, but when a law is enacted trying to make people have to buy health insurance - so they won't be getting healthcare for free, he says this is unconstutional!
Of course, I know the reality is that while everyone may have to buy health insurance, not everyone will have to pay for it. The poor, who can't afford to keep themselves as it is, will of course have their healthcare insurance payments subsidized, and so of course we'll be in the same boat we're in today.
Take away those subsidies, make everyone have to pay their own way, or suffer the consequences, and we might see some changes made in how people go about their lives. (But probably not. They'll still have babies they can't afford, and if the government lets them starve in the streets, it will be "uncivilized" on our part to allow that to happen.)
[And of course I'm not talking about legitimate government subsidies. People who had good jobs, and had kids while they had a good job, and have now lost that job and need some state assistance until they find another job...that's perfectly fine and exactly what the system should do. But to reward people for not trying to improve their lot except by having kids to increase their welfare payments, that should not be condoned.]
_______________
In the interests of Order and Method: My Schedule of Regular Posts
*Monday through Friday morning - schedules of President, VP and Secretary of State and her diplomats
*Monday through Friday afternoon - List of topics Limbaugh discussed on his program that day
*Monday through Friday througout the day - My posts on anything that I feel like talking about. At least one or two a day, sometimes more.
*Saturday through Sunday morning - An addition to my booklist of political books - covering Democrats, Republicans and other interested parties.
No comments:
Post a Comment