Funny or Die has come out with another one of their “Not-So-Funny But I Don’t Feel Like Dying” videos and this one is about the healthcare crisis in the US. It doesn’t matter what it’s about — Jon Hamm is in it. What else do you need to know? Beet’s favorite, Olivia Wilde, is in it as well, but did I mention about Jon Hamm? When I’m not busy having a completely immoral, extra-marital affair with John Krasinski, Hamm’s my man.
Also in the skit are Will Farrell, Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant from Reno 911, Masi Oka (Heroes), Jordana Spiro (My Boys), Donald Faison (Scrubs) and Linda Cardellini (ER). And Jon Hamm. He’s in it too.
Very Funny. I too believe Americans are getting screwed by the insurance companies. But let me ask you this. Who truly believes the U.S. government will not be equally corrupt/inept/ and dishonest when it comes to providing/managing our health care?
You give your money to the insurance companies and you get screwed.
End result……..you loose money and your illness goes untreated or at best you are treated inadequately.
You give your money to the U.S. government and you get screwed.
End result……..you loose money and your illness goes untreated or at best you are treated inadequately.
So instead of everyone bitching about moving from one extreme to the other – with the same fucking end result – why don’t we just fix the problems that exist?
You know why? Because it would require the hateful/idiotic scum in D.C. to sit down and talk to each other in a civil/respectful manner, require that they use their damn brains, and what would be most difficult for them, they would have to tell the special interest groups/lobbyists to keep their money.
If any of us think we are being represented in the White House or on Capitol Hill, you are dreaming. If this Public Option goes through the first procedure you go see a doctor for should be about having your head removed from your ass.
I am not saying this as a democrat/republican/liberal/conservative/independent/ or whatever.
I am saying it as an American and a father.
oh god…you have kids?
“So instead of everyone bitching about moving from one extreme to the other – with the same fucking end result – why don’t we just fix the problems that exist?
You know why? Because it would require the hateful/idiotic scum in D.C. to sit down and talk to each other in a civil/respectful manner, require that they use their damn brains, and what would be most difficult for them, they would have to tell the special interest groups/lobbyists to keep their money.”
Jerzy, I live here in DC and follow this very closely. You’ve assessed this situation better than any editorial I’ve read the past year.
Jerzy, nobody could have put it better. I’m sure curious as to where they came up with the “80% of the American public support a public plan”. They must have taken that poll in Berkley or something, because they sure didn’t come to survey me, or all of the hundreds of thousands of “crazies” that showed up at the U.S. Capitol a few weeks ago who also have overwhelming doubts regarding the competency of the federal government. Anyone who doesn’t think that a government managed health care program will not almost assuredly turn into a huge bureaucratic and very costly boondoggle should take a look some of the current clusterf***s that are currently in place (e.g. Social Security, Medicare, the Department of Health and Human Services, etc.). Obama went on five networks to sell his plan — all the biggies but Fox News. If he truly has faith and confidence in this proposal, that’s the one network to he SHOULD have appeared on to answer the truly tough questions and try to appeal to his harshest audience and critics. However, after watching his interview with George Stephanopoulos, and seeing how he handled the “tax” question, I can see why maybe he didn’t do so after all.
whoa whoa whoa. Leave my berkeley out of this! :)
Oh AND TWO the state members?!?!? Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant!!!! YAAAAY
I completely agree with Jerzy and Senor Loco that the government doesn’t have a good track record with the handling of social programs. I also agree that there is no way 80% of the public supports the public option. However, I don’t agree that the screaming lunatics filled protesting death panels are in any way the majority, either. If you believe the President of the United States wants to murder your grandparent or handicapped child you are in idiot. Plain and simple. I say this, however, realizing that there are very real and legitimate concerns about a public option. And on that note, I don’t think Barack Obama ever needs to legtimicize Fox News, the “news” channel that constantly compares him to Hitler and claimed he had a deep seeded hatred for white people. I wouldn’t try to make my case with a bunch of lunatics, either. Because those people will NEVER like Obama. Plain and simple.
I see it as an option. It should be a choice. You can opt to have government controlled insurance (and all the issues and hassles that will undoubtedly go along with a government run insurance program) or you can opt to have private insurance. And private insurance should have to compete or they do not deserve to keep their standing and billion dollar profits. If they cannot provide coverage to more Americans with lower premiums, they deserve to fail. And they may make the way for better, more efficient insurance companies.
The system now is riddled with problems. Obviously, as a tree hugging lefty loonie, I am very uncomfortable with forcing families to watch as loved ones die because they can’t afford insurance. 45,000 Americans die each year as a result of not having health insurance. That’s inexcusable for a country as great as ours. Americans should not be turning to organizations similar to Drs without Borders to find healthcare. We are not a third world country.
And, on a fiscally conservative note, we spend waaaay too much money on our healthcare as is. The cost of an emergency room visit for an uninsured person is a big part of what drives the premiums up so high. It’s a problem that will keep feeding off itself while getting worse and worse. We spend billions on such a piece of crap industry run by a-holes who have 8 summer homes while they deny your kids coverage because of kidney disease.
This is why I think there ought to be a debate between folks that are serious about this issue and not using it as wedge between dems and repubs. Chuck Grassley cannot say he’ll never support the bill even if it has everything he wants in it. That gang of six needs to get in there and cover every angle to make sure we are spending wisely and are going to make the money back. Nancy Pelosi and the liberal wing of the Democratic party need to agree to support the bill even without a public option if there is another solution to making sure Americans are insured. Paul Krugman commented that Max Baucus’ bill is actually a good start, and I’m interested to see where they’ll go from there.
I guess I think we ought to provide an option now for people to be able to be covered if they are not covered. I think we ought to make sure we are no longer wasting money on healthcare AS MUCH as we are now (I say as much because we all agree government programs have always had problems). The point is, who do you trust more? Insurance companies that exist in order to make a profit off of you and deny you coverage based on past illness, age, typos, etc? Or do you trust the government who cannot make money off of your healthcare? I tend to trust the one not trying to make money off of me.
You all obviously don’t understand what a public option is. If you are happy with your current insurance–you can keep it. but, if you are not, the reform says you can CHOOSE to go to a PUBLIC OPTION. GET IT? You have the CHOICE–that’s why OPTION is right in the name–PUBLIC OPTION. Insurance companies do not do anything but act as a middle man on health insurance and they make billions in profits. They should not be making billions off of the backs of sick people who pay them and then get their claims denied.
Yeah, until the government puts such strict regulations on private insurance that no other company can COMPETE, essentially forming a monopoly of the health care industry in the pretty little palm of the federal government. GREAT IDEA!!!!
Or until your employer decides that since you have the public option, they no longer need to provide insurance, just like they did during the Bush Administration Medicare debacle. The minute that was passed, my company stopped allowing all retirees to have health insurance.
I ask everyone to name one social program the government does well. There isn’t one. Corruption is rampant on all sides.
Also, John Stossel said it best when he said (loosley quoted) “We need food, why isn’t the government foricing us to put all our money in a pool so everyone can have food? Because everyone would buy prime rib and lobster! If we only have to pay a percentage of the bill, why would we buy hamburger?”
There is no “right” to health insurance, nor should there be. 40 years ago, very few even had it.
And where did they get this 30 million people? How many of them are in this country illegally, 12-15 million? We need to take care of ourselves first, it’s called personal responsibility.
They need to begin with Tort Reform. Half the reason health care is so expensive is because malpractice insurance for doctors is so high. If trial lawyers weren’t frothing at the mouth so much to jump on every single malpractice case, prices would drop astronomically. (Not that I don’t think we need malpractice insurance, but right now, it is insane.)
Also, if anyone thinks that a public option will drop costs, they’re crazy. With Medicare, doctors offices only get paid about twenty cents of every dollar they are supposed to get. The doctors have to make this up somewhere else, which is what leads to such high health care prices. This is not because doctors are money hungry, greedy assholes, it’s because it costs a LOT of money to perform their practices and pay their nurses, staff, P.A.s, etc. Not to mention, in the ER, doctors MUST treat patients regardless of whether they have insurance or not. Again, they have to come up with that money somewhere else.
Health care isn’t cheap. Doctors aren’t cheap. They are paid by the level of their talents, as with any other industry in the world. Only doctors can perform surgery and prescribe medication because they went into the massive debt it takes to go through med school. Put it this way: how much is your health worth to you? Say you need a knee replacement. How much are you willing to pay for your ability to walk with a healthy knee? I’m willing to part with a lot of cash to ensure that I can WALK. People aren’t just entitled to have things for little money because they NEED them. Health care is expensive and serious and should not be taken lightly.
That being said, we DO need reform, but not in the guise of a “public option.” I’ve explained why already. I agree with Jerzy that nobody in D.C. right now has the brains to figure out what the hell to do because it’s all controlled by special interests and lobbyists, both of which should be ILLEGAL.
But should you lose your house and go bankrupt because you can not afford to pay the bill to fix your knee?
Should I have to pay for all the assholes who get pregnant and have no income? I don’t have kids, why should I pay for some welfare couple? Why should I pay for YOUR KNEE, or you mine?
The following comments are not “directly”related to the Health Insurance debate going on at the moment but they are certainly still
applicable.
It used to be that the idiots/haters/and fanatics in Washington were the exception, but now they are the rule. I used to be able to stand with my party on most issues so I would end up standing with them as a whole.
But now, to be honest,I have lost faith in both parties. There isn’t anyone in the Government that I trust. The childish, base, disrespectful, and hateful, …..(shall I go on? I can if you’d like), behavior just seems to continue without pause.
Those in the Senate and Congress are letting the insults/slander fly.
Us Americans are now (according to some elected officials),
“racists”,”brown-shirts”,”astro-turf”, and “terrorists”.
Those comments do not include what they are calling each other.
Trust me, I’m not blaming one party more than the other. They are both equally guilty. That is the point I am trying to make.
Instead of a few bad apples in the bushel the whole damn thing has gone rotten.
Another thing that amazes me is that no one is either willing or able
to take the moral high ground.
Honestly, how many times when you hear arguments from either party on an issue do you hear them say “well the (Clinton)/(Bush) administration (take your pick) did it!
Every time you hear someone in the news trying to defend their fuck-up they point out that the other guys did the same thing (so that apparently makes it all right). We have countless people in Washington with advanced degrees from Americas best
Universities and the best they can come up with is name calling, and using the same old tired, juvenile, school yard excuse of
“he did it first!”
Those are the kind of debate skills 125,000 dollars + worth of schooling gets us?
I recall all of the hoop-la about Bush, after having gotten the Patriot-Act passed and allowing all of the ease-dropping and such, and then the critics complaining about how he then used it on us Americans in ways he shouldn’t have. Whether it was truly allowed/lawful, who will ever know. The point is that
the administration wasn’t honest. They told us one thing with every intent of doing more. Things most Americans would find objectionable.
Yet here we are with Obama and his minions telling us one thing, and yet they have every intention of allowing illegal immigrants to obtain health care, on our dime, and to not exclude federal tax dollars to pay for abortions. The exact same tactic as Bush. Present the noble side of a cause and hide/obfuscate all that is objectionable.
“Public Official”. They should remove the word “public” from that title.
“We The People” are the last things on their minds.
God help us!
Sorry “eavesdropping”
My bad!
They did do it rather “easily” though.
Signed, Jerzy
Jerzy, I love what you’ve got to say and I totally agree. I’m a layman when it comes to politics and I’d love to find out where you get your information. I’d like to be an informed citizen but I don’t even know where to start. I feel like I can’t trust a lot of the information that I get because it is so full of bias and slander.
I find myself agreeing with most of what has been said here. If you want to see examples of what the “public option” will look like you only have to check out how well the government runs the VA or the Indian Health Service. Despite having a lot of dedicated medical personnel both programs are often underfunded, understaffed, and strangled in red tape.