Hey Gibbs - I'd be richer if I was Canadian

[midnight armadillo]

I was thinking about Gibbs' off-hand comment about Canadian health care in his recent stab-your-base-in-the-back rant. Putting aside differences in salary levels and cost-of-living, be they up or down, if I were Canadian I'd have more money in my pocket. The past 6 years of my company's health insurance has cost me $6-8k per year in out-of-pocket health care costs. Maxing out the FSA account that's offered saves $2.5k per year, sort of, since that's money that's out of my salary pre-tax. So let's see, that $2500 would be I dunno $1600 post-tax, spent on health care. That comes to ~$8500 per year in out-of-pocket health care costs (which really fucking hurts the budget!), or around $50,000 that I would have in my bank account, free to spend on my "handyman's special" house, saving for our kid's college fund, or who knows what else. Instead it's pissed away so I can attempt to live a middle class existence as an American with crappy, intensely stressful health insurance.

Remind me again why socialized universal coverage would be so bad?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. We can have single payer healthcare

we just have to get more seats in Congress. People seem to think that it's done.

[DJ13]

Thats right

So, we need 90 in the Senate then?

Sure thing.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. so how do YOU propose we get it?

[Fumesucker]

3. I figure if we had 120 Dems in the Senate we might get a public option..

250 Dems in the Senate might get us single payer..

I'm not holding my breath for it.

[midnight armadillo]

5. Not without $1 billion in lobbyists-for-single-payer contributions

Those votes aren't free, you know.

[Pirate Smile]

2. I can not believe that with all the crazy RW bullshit going on right now that you still want to

bitch about Gibbs.

Amazing.

Look around.

Figure out who the real enemy is.

[midnight armadillo]

4. bitching about Gibbs?

Clearly, you did not read the post. Gibbs is a gnat.

[Pirate Smile]

7. You are right. I reacted to the subject line. I'm a bit overloaded on disgust watching the

Republicans right now and reacted based on that.

The thing is, I bet Gibbs would be happy to have Canadian-style HC. He just thinks there is no way in hell it can get passed here. Watching the news today has just emphasized the heavy dose of RW insanity that infects everything and limits so much of what we are able to do.

The "Ground Zero Mosque" is this August's "Death Panel". The insanity and uselessness of the media this August seems just as obvious as it did last August. Why does the friggin county lose its mind every year at this time? If only we could all take the month off.

Yes, I wasn't focused on the substance of your post. I'm sorry.