In the Roanoke Times on August 27, 2009 on page 21 (I'm a subscriber), Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, had an opinion piece that originally appeared in the Washington Post.
The opinion was about health care. It was titled, "Health care GOP style" and it talked about what is wrong with the Democrats' plan for an overhaul.
What struck me out of the whole thing was this sentence:
"Republicans oppose any new government entity overruling a doctor's decision about how to treat his patient."
Ah. But Republicans don't mind sticking their nose in where it doesn't belong in regards to health care, particularly where it pertains to women.
What about abortion? What about the woman who was raped who would have to carry an evil man's child to term under proposed anti-abortion law changes? What would happen then? If the doctor thought her depression from her situation was so severe that an abortion would save her life, you'd say... tough... wouldn't you Mr. Republican? Or if the incested 16-year-old slits her wrist because she's carrying her daddy's baby, I suppose you'd lock her up and force her to term, wouldn't you, Mr. Republican? Because we don't want that girl and her doctor making a decision about her body. It's okay to meddle then, or so you say.
And what about those rules about birth control? Particularly the ones that allow a pharmacist to become an "entity" sticking his nose between a doctor and his patient because he doesn't believe in birth control How about that, Mr. Republican? Maybe you didn't realize that birth control pills are handed out for many things that have nothing to do with birth control? They help many women balance their hormones. Women with endometriosis need them just to get through a day sometimes without searing pain - I know, I was one of them. But that sort of meddling is okay, right, Mr. Republican? So long as it serves the cause, it is okay to overrule.
What a bunch of B.S. The whole thing is a fiasco designed to put more money in other people's pocket. There is not a single politician out there who cares one bit if you or I live or die. Not a single one, not in any party. All they see are dollar signs.
Land of the free. Phtt. Land of the bought and sold, if you ask me.
Excellent points. And few Republicans (and not a few Democrats) mind insurance company bureaucrats deciding what care a patient gets, or doesn't get, all in the interests of the bottom line. In the end business interests (and the money business pays the political parties to keep them in business) trump all.
ReplyDeleteYou go girl!
ReplyDeleteSnappy Di
More and more people are finally waking up and seeing what is going on in this country. The government is owned, lock, stock and barrel, by the financial elite. And the Republicans and a whole bunch of Democrats (the vast majority) are the mouthpiece of the financial elite. Go get em!!
ReplyDeleteYee ha, you go girl! I couldn't even finish reading that article, it frustrated me so much. How can people believe this stuff?! You made some excellent points. They don't want meddling unless THEY agree with the meddling! Anyway, there's plenty of meddling going on right now. My mother who has leukemia keeps getting kicked out of the hospital when she's still sick. I cried to the doctor, "Why do you keep releasing her?!" He said, and I quote, "The insurance company won't let us keep them." That's just one example of how they're rationing her care. Let me tell you another thing. ONE of my mother's pills costs $4300 AFTER her insurance pays their share. You ready that right. Forty-three thousand. For ONE pill. For a month. And she's on a dozen. She and my father are almost through all their retirement savings from the family home they owned for thirty years. This is the system we have now. We are at the mercy of the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies whose only goal is to make a profit. Yes, I want the government to give me another option.
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I am just dumbfounded that both the Washington Post and the Roanoke Times would publish a piece that is full of such fiction, obviously written in a shameless attempt to inflame and manipulate the hearts and minds of non-thinking Americans everywhere. Mr. Steele should be ashamed to put his name to such a pack of lies. I could barely get through the whole thing. In fact, right now, I'm just so angry that I can't even write intelligently, but let me just say I agree with the excellent points you made and those of your commenters. Thanks for this, Anita.
ReplyDeleteI could be wrong, but seems to me that the new health bill does not propose the extremes that allot of people are saying it does. People are blowing it out of proportion like mass delusion.
ReplyDeleteI hope you send a copy of this to the Roanoke Times.
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