Kay gets Townhalled in Kernersville
Submitted by scharrison on Thu, 08/19/2010 - 12:23pm
Likely Fox News followers applaud nauseating performance art:
"Conversations with Kay" quickly turned into "Confrontation With Kay" when Sen. Kay Hagan visited the Kernersville Senior Enrichment Center.
"My children will suffer because of this health care bill," the concerned woman loudly told Hagan . The woman said she's raising two chronically ill children who have been under anesthesia 50 times in the last 14 years.
"I don't want free health care. Because I will sell everything I own to pay for my children because this is America." the concerned parent said.
You can watch the raw version of the video by clicking the link embedded in the article, but my attempts to copy the embed failed.
In addition to what the article quotes, this lady also goes on a rant about how her vehicle is falling apart, yet she's "seen" Medicaid recipients climb into brand new vehicles in the parking lot of the hospital.
She also stabs a finger towards Kay and declares, "I want the benefits you have!", apparently forgetting her previous declaration about not wanting that damn gubmint free health care thingie.
The irate lady is not identified in the article or the video, but that is only a small speedbump for an intrepid web sleuth. :)
Yes, I know who she is, but I'm not going to reveal that information at this time. I would like to carry on a serious debate with the management of tv stations like WXII who see fit to give air time to folks who attack elected officials while refusing to identify themselves. That, in my opinion, is extremely poor due diligence, and has facilitated the systematic disruption of elected officials' attempts to engage with their constituencies.
I will say the following: the lady in question has flirted with anti-government extremism, but doesn't appear to be deeply involved with any movement or astro-turfing organizations. And I think most of WXII viewers would assume she is very poor, when in fact she lives in a two-story, 2,500 square-foot home valued around $200,000.
Offensive remark
Sorry Scharrison but you lost me at "Senior citizens are easily entertained". Why is that: do you think they're too old and dumb therefore they're easily entertained or are they easily entertained because the acts that come to the old folks home involve clogging. In other words: I'm offended by your little remark. You didn't have to go there to get your point across.
Watch the video, Scarlet
I'm not saying it wasn't a poor choice of words; you may be right about that. But I wrote that because the folks applauded the lady who was berating Senator Hagan.
I fixed it
It is less offensive, yes?
Better
Thank you!!
Kay Hagan: "I think we need
This is my problem with the health care reform bill. I agree the cost of health care is a problem, however the bill passed does nothing to address the cost of care. Hagan even tells what the bill does and does not list "reduce the cost of care" as one of the things in the bill.
It may reduce the cost of insurance for some people, but that is treating the symptom, not the cause. Insurance is expensive because health care is expensive, not the other way around.
Just my $0.02 worth.
It may be more circular,
or at least less linear than "costs dictate premiums".
Health care is an industry sector (the biggest, by the way), and insurance companies, along with doctors, pharma, medical device companies, etc., coexist within that sector. Frankly, I haven't seen evidence that any of the elements within that sector have genuinely worked towards reducing (end) costs to consumers, including insurance companies/underwriters.
And I'll tell you something else that recently happened to a family member: A doctor, who was well-informed that his patient did not have health insurance or a decent-paying job, prescribed a new (supplemental) drug for said patient, giving him a month's-worth of free samples. When time came to fill the first prescription, it was $527 for 30 pills.
I'm not going to say what the drug was, but if you watch television for more than a few minutes per day, you've seen expensive commercials promoting it.
What the hell was the doctor thinking? He either knew how expensive the drug was, and how it would impact his patient, or he didn't know how much it would cost. Either way, he should be flogged for choosing that course.
Frankly, I haven't seen
I haven't either and why should they work toward reducing costs? Doctor's for the most part don't care because they aren't paying the bill. Patients for the most part don't care because they aren't paying the bill (minus copays of course ).
Of course the Health Insurance Reform bill just passed will only serve to make doctors and patients care even less about the cost of the care they deliver/receive.
Ok, some medicare/aid docs are going to get pinched. I guess they can either cut costs or drop out of medicare/aid. That's really the only "cost" control I know. Likely a lot of 'em will just pass the cost onto the rest of their patients because they know their patients aren't the ones paying for the care.
It's never that simple, but the fact remains Hagan has identified the problem and done absolutely nothing to solve it.
Patients are payiing the bill
Most insurance plans have an annual deductible of $1000 per individual, $2000 per family or higher. A lot of insurance plans have percentage co-pays of up to 50% of charges and only minor discounts. There are lots of families that are not getting necessary care even with insurance because they cannot afford the co-pays and deductibles. And that is for the shrinking number of folks who have health insurance.
Consider trying to pay co-pays and deductibles from income on jobs that pay the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour or the prevailing entry and retail wage in the Triangle of $9.00 an hour.
The economic argument fails when applied to patients because of the extreme elasticity of demand. When you are seriously ill, price is not an object. Also consider that no healthcare professional post rates so that patients can decide before being seen whether they can afford to be seen.
The healthcare reform bill just passed will not change these realities; the exchanges will only permit the uninsured to get the same high-deductible insurance that the currently insured get.
It is now not doctors who make decisions about the cost of care, but huge healthcare systems with multi-million dollar CEO and and a stack of highly-paid manager that make pricing decisions.
Meanwhile service in those large healthcare systems' business offices are declining. And the doctors and nurses are doing the best they can with the workload.
It is not just Hagan. The Congress has failed to solve the cost problem. Mainly because it leads straight to a single-payer solution.
50 states, 210 media market, 435 Congressional Districts, 3080 counties, 192,480 precincts
Bravo!
Well said. I especially appreciated the last line. Numbers help.
Martha Brock