That Seal Was Real

August 19, 2012 9:15 am

Thanks to you. (x)

1,267 notes

July 31, 2012 2:15 am

Praise-Worthy in Israel, Socialism in the U.S.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney had some very kind things to say about the Israeli health care system at a fundraiser there Monday. He praised Israel for spending just 8 percent of its GDP on health care and still remaining a “pretty healthy nation:”

When our health care costs are completely out of control. Do you realize what health care spending is as a percentage of the GDP in Israel? 8 percent. You spend 8 percent of GDP on health care. And you’re a pretty healthy nation. We spend 18 percent of our GDP on health care. 10 percentage points more. That gap, that 10 percent cost, let me compare that with the size of our military. Our military budget is 4 percent. Our gap with Israel is 10 points of GDP. We have to find ways, not just to provide health care to more people, but to find ways to finally manage our health care costs.

Romney’s point about Israel’s success in controlling health care costs is spot on: Its health care system has seen health care costs grow much slower than other industrialized nations.

How it has gotten there, however, may not be to the Republican candidate’s liking: Israel regulates its health care system aggressively, requiring all residents to carry insurance and capping revenue for various parts of the country’s health care system.

Israel created a national health care system in 1995, largely funded through payroll and general tax revenue. The government provides all citizens with health insurance: They get to pick from one of four competing, nonprofit plans. Those insurance plans have to accept all customers—including people with pre-existing conditions—and provide residents with a broad set of government-mandated benefits.

More here.

(via stfuconservatives)

142 notes

July 6, 2012 6:17 pm

"Mitt Romney said the White House wasn’t sleeping well last night. You know who else wasn’t sleeping well? The mother with a child who has leukemia. The recent college grad who’s unemployed and thinking about making a doctor’s appointment. The grandfather who isn’t sure if he’ll be able to afford the prescription medication he needs. The middle-class family who isn’t sure if they’ll be able to keep their home if their medical bills broach the lifetime cap “Obamacare” eliminated. What would Romney and his bravado do for each of them? Nothing."

—

Rachel Maddow (via many-worlds)

Beautiful

(via peopledontalwayssuck)

I think I’m going to reblog this every day. The anxiety people I know feel about unforseen health problems is crippling, and the alternatives to the problematically dubbed “Obamacare” besides repealing it? Nothing whatsoever. What does it say about a political party that sees a situation profoundly effecting huge swaths of the population and offering nothing as a response?

(via invisiblelad)

(via trulybadtiming)

2,274 notes

July 2, 2012 9:58 pm

christopherstreet:

Governor Piyush “Bobby” Jindal stands proud Louisiana is 48th in states ranking of uninsured children.

(via stoneagechronicles)

15 notes

July 1, 2012 11:00 am

According to the CBO the Affordable Care Act will reduce the deficit by $124 billion over 10 years. Repealing it would add $210 billion.

joegressivism:

Just the facts, repealing the ACA would add to the deficit. Anything else is just conjecture and lies.

51 notes

June 30, 2012 4:36 pm

robrogers:

ObamaCare - 29 Jun 2012

(via nonplussedbyreligion-deactivate)

93 notes

June 2, 2012 10:30 pm

"Instead, even as state legislators are finding new ways to interfere with a woman’s or couple’s decisions about baby-making, they are reducing the services upon which families depend. Arizona legislators have been particularly harsh. In 2009, Governor Brewer closed her state’s $1.6 billion budget gap partly by eliminating $155 million from the state’s Department of Economic Security—money that had gone toward early-education and therapy programs for the developmentally disabled. The following year, the legislature tried to ax the state’s $9 million Children’s Health Insurance Program for low-income families, KidsCare. In 2011, state Senator Andy Biggs, who in campaign literature advertises himself as a pro-life Republican, proposed eliminating Arizona’s Medicaid program, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, altogether. That would have saved the state $2 billion but cost it $7.5 billion in federal matching funds.

“There have been a lot of impassioned speeches from my Republican colleagues about the significance of a child’s life regardless of their disability, and about the value of human life,” says Arizona House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, a Phoenix Democrat. “But when they do a budget, it doesn’t include the concern for human life they talk about all the time.” The Children’s Health Insurance Program remains but with enrollment frozen as of January 2010. In 2008, KidsCare covered close to 65,000 children; now it serves 14,000. The waiting list for the program has grown to more than 100,000."

—

from “The Pro-Life Paradox” at The American Prospect

It’s only a “paradox” because they self-identify by the blatantly false moniker “pro-life.”

(again, h/t to SS)

[NB: More people than just cis women need and want access to abortion care]

(via keepyourbsoutofmyuterus)

By defunding therapy and education programs for kids with disabilities, you’re only creating more financial need down the line when they don’t develop the skills they need to be as independent as possible.

Just more proof that conservatives take the easiest, showiest “moral” stance possible by fetishizing the fetus while ripping away support systems for parents and children.

(via bebinn)

(via stfuconservatives)

208 notes

April 28, 2012 1:31 pm

"And what Washington shouldn’t be doing is exploiting the challenges that young Americans face for political gain. And it shouldn’t be sticking small businesses with a health care law that’s…making it more difficult for them to hire workers."

—

John Boehner denouncing the exploitation of college students for political gain by exploiting college students for political gain.

-Joe

(via stfuconservatives)

75 notes

March 17, 2012 9:46 am

nonplussedbyreligion:

As horrible as this imagined future is, it barely begins to touch all of the problems that could exist if someone like Santorum were to win and was able to have his way. There was a time when I used to believe that the sane politicians would stand up and not allow some of the crap to happen, but I’m losing faith in that happening more and more each day. It is scary to me that I can’t say with certainty that some things will never happen. Am I the only one a little terrified by this?

I suppose the Orwellian nightmare that seems to becoming more of a reality by the day won’t be that terrifying if no one is left alive to see its culmination.

(via nonplussedbyreligion-deactivate)

168 notes

December 7, 2011 1:44 pm

"Dying? I reject that number completely, that people die in America because of lack of health insurance. People die in America because people die in America. And people make poor decisions with respect to their health and their healthcare. And they don’t go to the emergency room or they don’t go to the doctor when they need to."

—

Rick Santorum

A student, cited a 2009 Harvard University study, saying he didn’t “think God appreciates the fact that we have 50 to 100,000 uninsured Americans dying due to a lack of healthcare every year. - The Raw Story

(via brooklynmutt)

Wow. Heartless.

-Jess

(via stfuconservatives)