Luckily, I was able to get tests done that turned out to show the lump was nothing, even the test that found the lump in the first place.  That’s why I’m AMAZED when I hear people defending the rationing of things like mammograms, etc. when it comes to healthcare stating that age is a factor in whether these tests are effective or not (and thus justifying their rationing). Also, a sidenote – I didn’t have health insurance at the time because I was between grad. school and a new job but I was able to pay for my tests on my own.

I was 25!!!! Nowhere near the average statistic of women who find lumps in their breasts. Now for me, my lump was not cancerous but what if it had been and I had been denied that testing. That’s what HotAir.com asks in two of its recent posts – the first an address from Carly Fiorina who also had a personal stake in these types of breast cancer-related tests, and another post citing how the state of California is now rationing breast-cancer tests due to failed govt.-run healthcare engineering.

And now what we get is rationing, because the government created these programs based on rosy revenue projections that can’t be met.

HotAir.com states the failure (and following ration recommendations) were the result of California’s poor planning/funding from their tobacco tax. Here in Illinois they’ve done the same thing with S-CHIP, believing that tobacco taxes will help those programs that affect the “less fortunate,” when in fact if they took 2 seconds at the research they’d see the tobacco tax burden affects the poor more and doesn’t have the success rate to continually fund these types of govt.-run entitlement programs.

Check this out then from HealthCare BS Blog.

The study shows that elasticity of demand for tobacco products depends largely on socioeconomic status. As prices go up, better off smokers tend to quit. However, for smokers further down the ladder, price doesn’t have the same effect.

It’s only a matter of time before these govt. programs use the tax code further for more failed social-engineering OR start to ration other necessary illness-preventative measures.  Gee, govt.-run programs sure are GRRRRRRRRRRRRREAT!  And then liberals wonder why there are millions of taxpayers who DON’T want a government-run or single-payer system for healthcare. Good grief, their ignorance amazes me.

To the average American it seems to be a higher priority to get the latest iPod or have the most TV channels possible than it is for them to save for their future, including healthcare costs.  And when they don’t prepare for these types of guaranteed future expenses (because EVERYONE GETS OLD!) we’re now blaming private industry and demanding that government, not ourselves, fix the situation. How does that make any sense? Are there ways we can afford healthcare even without insurance? Sure there is. Just look around your living room.

Currently there are around 125 million cable TV subscribers in the US. So the majority of Americans want their MTV.  Around 250 million have health insurance currently to put it in perspective. So about 2/3 of people with health insurance may also have cable TV (although I’m sure there are lots of people w/o insurance who also have themselves a fancy smancy satellite dish).

Well, is cable TV more important to us than our health? What if you could pay for your health – would you need the government to come in and fix healthcare?

Let’s take a look -

$150 – What an average cable TV package costs around (this can probably range from subscriber, to market to what channels you get, but for the argument’s sake we’ll go with this. And mind you, most cable packages cost this when you go for those 200+ channels. You may start out for two months at $50, but then the bill goes up. For instance, Dish Network states their middle-of-the-road package is around $100/mo)

12 months in a year – You typically are billed cable monthly (@$150/mo, that equates $1800 a year)

50 years – Let’s say from age 22 to age 72 you have cable TV every day

If you add that up to what it would cost you to have cable TV most of your adult life, guess what you’d have in the bank if you saved that money instead:

$90,000!!!!

Yes, Ninety-freakin’-thousand-dollars…Chaaaa-ching @#$@$!#!#! I’m riiiiich, biyatch! (well, not really…I just like saying that phrase. Sue me.) Even if the cable TV package cost $50 a month you’d save $30,000 over the course of 50 years. And I’m not even factoring in compounding interest which would make these savings even larger.

Let’s see what giving up your episode of watching the useless twats, on The Hills and amateur porn stars with reality shows on E!, now gets you: (via MSN Money)

Gastric-bypass surgery has an average list price of $35,552 in the West and $59,500 in the South.

You’re going to pay a lot more in Kansas for a defibrillator implant. Costs range from $96,028 in the Midwest to $78,832 in the Northeast.

For a low-cost vasectomy, you might want to head West, where the average list price is $682, compared with $872 in the Midwest.

The average list price to deliver a baby, without complications, is $6,700 in western states compared with $12,400 in the Northeast.

Click this link to get even more reports on the average prices of emergency surgeries and outpatient surgeries. I’m sure it’s out there but so far the most expensive ones I’ve seen are around $50k, still leaving you with $40k from your cable TV savings.

So the next time you hear somebody mindlessly complaining about how people are uninsured (which FYI – isn’t really the problem of the healthcare industry) or that they can’t afford healthcare, do this: Ask them if they’re willing to go without cable TV and their Dancing With the HasBeens to save someone’s life. Cause people are dying in the streets right? Exactly. My guess is that bleeding heart liberal won’t be able to put their money where their mouth is. And I’m sure that’s a bet where the odds are in your favor.

Exit question: Cable TV is just one material item where healthcare is forsaken as a lower priority. What other things are out there – how about DVD collections (because you know some people are their own private Blockbuster)? What about wardrobes? What about going out to eat? What about the massive purchases of luxury cars or the limos those bleeding heart liberals like to spend their time in? Get it – limo liberal. Hardy-Har-Har. But just think all things we put as a priority over our health but then say we can’t afford to pay for it. Even just your average latte, around $5/day.

Me: Senators refusing to meet with constituents to help explain how radical legislation will work are not productive, and thus not worth re-election. (via my Mouffffffffffff)

Add Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) to the list of Milk Carton Politicians, with a special mention for hubris and arrogance.  Unlike some of his colleagues, who put their mouths into hiding along with the rest of their bodies rather than face angry constituents, Durbin tells the public that meeting with voters is just “not productive.” But do you know what is productive [according to Durbin]?  Meeting with lobbyists.

What a doofus. What is even more of a crime is that this yookle will get re-elected to office, because that’s how Illinois rolls. The more corrupt you are, the more likely your odds at getting elected.  Yeah, let’s elect another dimwit Senator who cares more about how full his back pocket is than the constituents who voted him into office.

Way to go, Illinois! Lincoln is probably rolling in his grave.

The idea that healthcare will be cheaper if the government takes control is absurd. If you look at the House bill for instance – and I’m not making this up, read it for yourself – the insurance exchange is a classic price-fixing schematic. Disagree? Then show me an example of where govt. price fixing actually works? I triple, daaaaaawg dare you. (I know – Oooooooh!)

Instead you have example after example during the 30s, 40s, 70s, etc. where price fixing by the govt. leads to drastically negative results. They start as ‘keeping the costs low’ and end up in raised costs over time with lower supply/quality. This insurance exchange is a very similar setup to the slaughter houses during WWII who were required by the Office of Price Administration to process their meat for less the cost to them of cattle on the hoof and the labor of slaughter and processing.

You cannot hold the price of any commodity below its current market level without in time bringing about two consequences – increase in the demand and/or reduce in the supply. Because of these consequences, production of that commodity is discouraged in order to save at cost to keep hold on the damaging below-market value. Then profits margins are reduced, companies are forced to take losses, and private sector competitors are wiped out. All you are left with is an inefficient, govt. monopoly on the commodity. This is a backhanded way of promoting ‘reform’ when, in fact, it is a backdoor to rationing, cost control, etc.

And before any lefties get on the comment board – this is not a lie, not a smear. It is a fact based in the historical evidence from economists like Henry Hazlitt. If you think I’m smearing with these facts, then tell me an example of when supply was reduced, demand continued to increase and yet somehow the price stayed low, quality high without wiping out any services, companies, or jobs.

I’m willing to listen. What cat got your tongue?

Also, employer-based insurance basically came out of wage-control, private sector regulation from WWII as well. The main burst of it happened in 1942. So if anyone is to blame for our sad state of employer-based insurance, you don’t need to look any further than the beltway. A lot of govt. mandates, like blocking of interstate commerce in insurance coverage which would lead to competition and lower prices, actually add to higher insurance premiums. Insurance is one of the most highly regulated industries out there and MORE regulation is supposed to make it cheaper??? You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see the BS in this concept, folks.

Hey, I’m on the same page when it come to making healthcare more affordable, better access and competitive. But a backdoor way to single payer, I’m not going to support. And I’m not going to support a new exchange system that by LAW says you as a private citizen are not allowed to change your private insurance the year this bill takes affect, and that moving forward you must purchase your private insurance through the exchange that dictates separate regulations between private/public and yet is also where the public option ‘competes.’

The truth is that if a private company rigged a market to be like that, our country would be up in arms about it. Can anyone say Enron? But because it’s govt. it’s called reform and if you disagree you’re labeled as ‘lying’ or being ’simply un-American.’ Paaahlease.

I mean, I get it because I used to think this way – “Companies don’t need this many profits, the govt. is looking out for us.” But over time and just learning about these issues it’s painfully clear to me that this has been a smear perpetuated. Should we go back to the govt. regulating the phone industry? Because profits, free market and less govt. regulation didn’t do jack for the phone industry. All those whipper snappers walking around with their iPhones. Where’s my rotary!!! Oh, that’s right it’s now in that iPhone – Damm you free market, Damm you!

Remember this video from Steven Crowder on how the public system works in Canada. On the weekend he went to get a blood test which had him and his friends not getting access from one government/public-plan clinic and at another having to wait in nearly a 3-hour line.

Yeah, well one of my liberal friends couldn’t bring himself to watch the full 10 minute video, but deemed himself educated enough to make a snarky (yet WRONG) evaluation. He said that Crowder’s research was incorrect and that it would be the same if you went to the hospital in the US through the private system.

Errrrrrr…..which brought me to MAH experience (for nearly 10 examples of how wrong that argument is just this year alone). I’ve been having to get a lot of blood tests done this year and I’ve dealt with a variety of setups (all private and paid for through my insurance Cigna). Sometimes it’s through an appointment and other times it is just walking up to the reception and asking to get blood drawn.

But apparently my experiences with this, although true, are not enough evidence to show how much better our private system is. My liberal friend still demanded that our private system doesn’t work and therefore we need a public system like Canada’s. Yes, he said this even though he his reason was that Crowder’s experiences didn’t count because he went through a public system and not by the means of a private system. So, doesn’t that mean our private system is better than a public one…No, according to my liberal friend. Whaaaaaaat? Exactly.  He’s too smart to be this stupid in his arguments, grabbing at straws but oh well.

So imagine my “surprise” when this Sunday – SUNDAY, people, SUNDAY! – when I literally walked up with NO APPOINTMENT to the reception desk at the hospital to take a blood test. I was given one of those beeper machines, it went off within minutes, I registered (and the check in clerk set it up so that I wouldn’t have to register the other times I come in this month – imagine that happening under a public option, yeah right), and then within 20 minutes – no joke 20 minutes – I was walking in the parking lot done with my blood test. Again, a blood test I had no appointment for and went in to get on the weekend, specifically a Sunday, at noon.

Goooooooooooooo,

Obamacare!!!!

Pelosi 2009 – “Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American.” (via USAToday) Yeah, tell me again how the Iraq veteran, who can cite the Constitution from memory is ‘un-American’ ?????  I’d argue he knows the founding principles and Constitution of this nation better than our own Speaker.

But let me guess, the Botox floozie thinks these SEIU thugs ARE acting ‘American’. ????

Here’s a thought, if you don’t like having to answer to angry constituents you can either:

1). Resign from your Congressional office and don’t run for public office in the future.

OR

2). Don’t run Congress like a dictatorship, super-party majority after you promised bi-partisanship in order to score votes on the campaign trail. You reap what you sew and this has never been more apparent than now.

Simple, non?

Personally, I wonder if this new guy I’m seeing on YouTube – LaRouche is Right – has a point. Because honestly, if the silver tongue had worked on people as it did on the campaign trail you wouldn’t have people demanding answers, you’d have people drunk on kool-aid falling into line of support. Just sayin’

Quit acting like people who are vocalizing their opposition to Obamacare (with good reason) are some rebel rowsers stirring up action that’s in the minority. You only have to look at the polls to see the majority of America knows what’s in the bill when it comes to this “reform.” (Psssssss – if you still don’t get it, it’s the big red button to the left!)

So now the people are speaking up, because they’re mad as hell and they’re NOT. GONNA. TAKE. IT. ANYMORE! a la Network if you will. When Arleeeene Specter gets up and actually defends not reading through bills prior to voting on the legislation, you bet your ass he’s gonna get some negative feedback. His job as a Congressman is just to do that, not acquiring campaign funds at elitist cocktail parties. If I had been at that townhall you would have heard a whole heck of a bigger mouthful. “Hey, Arlene…Pull down your skirt! Your panties are showing!”

Now you’ve got members of organizations like AARP, that have endorsed or showed some support of  Obamacare, fighting back to their organization’s representatives and management. And you can tell it was starting to work (ie, have an effect) because this week the Unicorn Princess’ Stable, aka the White House, issued an order to the Kool-Aid Nation to ‘Get in their Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace!” to anyone who opposes Obamacare. They also went as far to label people who oppose Obamacare as liars, mobs, terrorists/extremists, and labeled them as Nazis (geesus, how is Pelotox not properly labeled a bigot and kicked out of Congress; Oh! That’s right if you’re a Congressmen you get to be a racist, bigot, or asshole and still keep your job, just ask Byrd).

AnyMarxistscaretactic, when did we all of a sudden move to Russia??? Just sayin’…For the last 8 years it’s been “patriotic” to speak out (sometimes run around like a rabid dog) against the government, but now the policy is fall in line or you’re gonna get it. WTF!

Yeah, check out the folks at the AARP meeting where members were questioning the organization’s management decision to back Obamacare. (via Hotair) I’m mean, it’s so obvious. Those hoodlums speaking out against Obamacare. How dare they! Check out that lady in the walker…girlfriend seems like an Astroturfin’ whipper snapper to me. Where’s the Kool-Aid Police!!! I know in her head she’s singing – It’s the thuggish, ruggish, boooooone!

But big surprise, the Beltway elitists didn’t want to vote in favor of that. You mean Nancy Pelosi who drives SUVs to “save the earfffffff” rallies is a hypocrite????

GASP!!!!!  You. don’t. say.

John Stossel, libertarian and overall McSmartypants, is at it again:

Maybe one reason that Congress demands that health insurance companies must provide levels of coverage that will make their business model unsustainable is because their own coverage is excessive.

and this time with some help from the LA Times to remind us of the facts of what each Congressman gets in their private insurance plan:

A choice of 10 healthcare plans that provide access to a national network of doctors, as well as several HMOs that serve each member’s home state. By contrast, 85% of private companies offering health coverage provide their employees one type of plan — take it or leave it.

Lawmakers also get special treatment at Washington’s federal medical facilities and, for a few hundred dollars a month, access to their own pharmacy and doctors, nurses and medical technicians standing by in an office conveniently located between the House and Senate chambers…

Why can’t everyone enjoy the same benefits as members of Congress? The answer: The country probably couldn’t afford it  …

The plan most favored by federal workers is Blue Cross Blue Shield, which covers a family for about $1,030 a month. Taxpayers kick in $700, and employees pay the rest. Seeing a doctor costs $20. Generic prescriptions cost $10. Immunizations are free. There is no coverage limit…

There is no such thing as a preexisting condition…

If you need further proof, here’s Congressman Paul Ryan clearing up the myth that Congress is under a public plan. Remember this the next time some Congressman is trying to act like he’s “one of the folks” twisting words into making people not mob him and support the sham of Medicare 2.0 aka Obamacare. You’ll hear that a bunch from Congressmen how they want every American to have the same care, but funny when you read the devil in the details the proposed bills on the table are nothing like the private health plans Congressmen use and don’t want to give up.

Congress DOES NOT have a Public healthcare plan. They have access/choice in up to 10 PRIVATE plans. They select that plan and then that is paid through public/taxpayer funds just like their salaries. But their insurance is still private, yeah, that same private insurance Nancy Pelosi says is evil. The same private insurance that gives Congress elite medical care to specialty treatment at Duke University, like the recent Senator Ted Kennedy.

I’ve tackled this myth in several posts/columns on my blog, yet the kool-aid drunk youth, and Arlen Specter (oooh, he’s so hip!), keep spouting it off ignoring things like the facts. 47 million uninsured is not a fact, it’s a lie. A lie that is being pushed on you so that you will not look at the situation of Obamacare based on logic but on emotion. Don’t fall for it. We are want to help those less fortunate and increase access to healthcare, but we don’t need to do that by attacking the private sector, an attack propelled by Michael Moore-sized propaganda lies.

If you’re in the area tomorrow – come join us! Let’s get some answers and demand Congress represent how 85% of the country are happy with their healthcare as is. You can reform healthcare and still leave ours alone! Stop the expansion of socialized healthcare. We already have Medicare and Medicaid – they are failure and bankrupt. I don’t want the same for my health and we as taxpayers shouldn’t be forced into it either.

Here’s the announcement:

As you might have seen, Patriots are popping up all over the country to counter protest pro-socialist Government healthcare rallies. Well, we have a chance to do so right here in Chicago tomorrow evening in downtown.

There is an astroturf, union fueled pro-Obamacare rally happening tomorrow evening. The details can be seen on this PDF.
http://ericjodom.com/obamacare.pdf

When: Tuesday, August 4th, 4:30PM to 6:00PM
Where: Federal Plaza (Adams & Clark)
Who: US Rep Jan Schakowsky

If any of you can get downtown and counter their protest please do so! We need all hands on deck!

I’m waiting to find out when Durbin will have the backbone to face the public. When he does I’ll be there with bells on and some heated questions.