You. Don’t. Count.

[McCamy Taylor]

If you had to quit work, because diabetes destroyed your eyesight, you don’t count.

If your multinational corporation has run into a cash flow problem and will not be able to pay executive bonuses, you are too big to fail.

There is a two year waiting period before folks who are deemed “too sick to work” can qualify for health insurance. That is why Henry, 54, who was fired after a diabetic hemorrhage wrecked his eyes, can not get any help with the chronic infection in his right leg. He has gone to the emergency room multiple times and been placed on antibiotics. He has even been admitted to the hospital a few times for IV medication. It is hard for him to change his dressings, monitor his sugar and manage his medications at home, since he can hardly see, but he can not get home health---no insurance. Even with the best of care, the doctors say that his leg will not heal completely until he can get vascular surgery to restore his circulation. But Henry does not have the money for surgery. Social Security says he is too sick to work, but Medicare says that he does not deserve health care. Henry---and his leg--- do not count .

Under federal rules, most people with disabilities who are younger than 65 aren't eligible for Medicare until more than two years after they qualify for Social Security disability income. A coalition of more than 65 organizations led by the Medicare Rights Center has been pushing Congress to do away with the waiting period. But the effort has stalled because of the high cost to the federal government – an estimated $113 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
snip
Joseph Antos, health care policy scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said that a total elimination of the waiting period was not going to happen. "Across the board eliminating the two years just doesn't seem practical," he said. "This really is a money issue."

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2010/August/27/huntington-waiting-period.aspx

For $10 billion a year, people like Henry could get the health care they need. Meanwhile, in 2008, Wall Street paid out more than $18 billion in bonuses. That was the same year it demanded hundreds of billions of dollars from the government. Back door bailouts have earned the Banksters several trillion more dollars, enabling them to pay even larger bonuses in 2009 and 2010.

If we can save our incompetent—even criminal---banking system, surely we can save Henry’s leg. Just because you don’t count does not mean you can’t count . Do the math. Figure out which elected officials are on your side and which would rather see you dead (so they can steal your Social Security) and vote the latter out of office this fall.

[Fumesucker]

1. K&R for the truth..

[HCE SuiGeneris]

2. A very timely, and important, message.

Recommended.

[hedgehog]

3. The only way the waiting period makes sense is if enough people

die while waiting to compensate for the additional costs to treat the people who survive.

Henry will get his care in two years after his leg is amputated, and the cost of that care will be more in the long run than if he got treatment today.

BTW - somebody pays every time he ends up in the ER, so where's the savings?

[area51]

15. +1

Each day, 273 people die due to lack of health care in the U.S.; that's 100,000 deaths per year.

We need single-payer health care, not a welfare bailout for the serial-killer insurance agencies.

We don't need the GingrichCare of mandated, unregulated, for-profit insurance that is still too expensive, only pays parts of medical bills, denies claims, and bankrupts people. Republinazi '93 plan:

"Subtitle F: Universal Coverage - Requires each citizen or lawful permanent resident to be covered under a qualified health plan or equivalent health care program by January 1, 2005."

"We will never have real reform until people's health stops being treated as a financial opportunity for corporations."

[icnorth]

18. "We will never have real reform

until people's health stops being treated as a financial opportunity for corporations."

Hey all that needs to happen is for the electorate to buy into the Limbaugh, Beck, Breitbart spiel. Get to the polls. Vote Lazio, Miller, Scott, Angle, Paul, Malkin et al. Yeh that ought to correct the deficiencies... :grr: :nuke: :rant:

[bobbolink]

4. EXCELLENT rundown of the facts!

:applaud:

Thanks for finding this, and for posting it!

[Jakes Progress]

5. But, but Obama passed HCR.

Al he has to do is hang on for a bunch of years until all the little stuff - like Henry's life - get fixed. Meanwhile, it is good to know that Pfizer is posting record profits, and Wall Street tycoons are safe.

Feh. Not by any definition of Democratic Party that I know.

[Barack2theFuture]

6. DC is against us.

[bobbolink]

7. The corporations....... they run the show.

We. Dont. Count.

[bertman]

8. The Corporatocracy doesn't give a flying fuck about Henry's leg. All they

want is his tax dollars so they can give them to the wealthiest Americans who can afford the health care that Henry cannot.

Rec.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

9. Powerful and succinct. Very heartfelt K and R n/t

[Initech]

10. Fuck the executives. Every single last fucking one of them.

:argh:

[mackerel]

11. What about DSI and Social Security?

[awoke_in_2003]

36. SSDI?

unless you are in an iron lung they will claim you still have the ability to work, no matter how many doctors say you can't. The routinely reject the initial application and at least one appeal, hoping you will give up. Unless you get a lawyer, you can plan on getting it after about a year of appealing. Compassionate nation we are, huh?

[Downwinder]

12. Can he get SSI and Medicaid? n/t

On edit:

I am thinking not. Because his Disability Social Security payments are too high to qualify for SSI, and some states require you to be on SSI to qualify for Medicaid.

[inna]

13. how the american people put up with this crap is absolutely beyond me.

we are THE only nation in the world that puts corporate profits above/before people's health and lives.

:banghead:

[icnorth]

21. Unfortunately inna it's what happens when people

allow themselves to be brainwashed by an ideology that supersedes critical thinking. (It will only change at such time as that ideology comes back and bites them in the ass.)

[Jackpine Radical]

23. Even when their own denial and adherence to bogus ideology

"bite them in the ass," they will still manage to transfer the blame to the people who tried to save them from themselves. Rush will be right there to tell them it's the illegal immigrants and the Halfrican President who are creating all their problems.

[awoke_in_2003]

37. the media does not address those in need...

and the part of the population who is getting by just don't give a fuck.

[nilram]

14. k&r. Cool that the issue is being highlighted by Kaiser.

Maybe they'll put some lobbyists behind it.

[ehrnst]

17. They're not Kaiser Permanente - that's another Kaiser.

The news service is from Kaiser Family Foundation - it was founded by the same Kaiser that founded the health insurance company, but they've never been connected to each other otherwise.

http://www.kff.org/about/

KFF doesn't lobby, they just provide research and analysis on health care policy issues, and Kaiser Health News is probably the only independent, self-funded news source for health care issues there is.

[nilram]

29. Ah, thanks for that. Good to know.

[KG]

16. thank goodness for the 'uniquely american' solution to the health care problem

:eyes:

[Brickbat]

19. K&R. This country is eating itself alive.

[BeFree]

22. Billions for bombs

Bombs are cool. Medical care is drab.
That's why we give bombs away and charge like crazy for meds.

We are one f'd society, eh?

[peace frog]

24. You got that right, bunky

Situation normal, all effed up.

[BeFree]

30. Just the way they like it

Confusion always is to the advantage of the thieves.

[Dulcinea]

31. Because the bottom line is...the bottom line.

Bombs make big bucks for defense contractors. Health care COSTS money.

[BeFree]

35. Well

We spend billions on bombs to kill people, so it makes sense to limit spending on keeping people alive.
:sarcasm:

[democracy1st]

20. K & R

[Dappleganger]

25. These are the in-between homeless faces...

living from living room to living room in the homes of friends, turned out onto the porch and on their own to find a place for the night on their own.

They are in every city in this country. They are in your small towns and fishing towns.

[keepCAblue]

26. Hits close to home. Sick and disgusted with selfish Americans...

...all those conservatives and self-proclaimed "moderate Democrats" who scream "Socialism!" whenever someone mentions single-payer health care. TRILLIONS of our tax dollars to pay for, not one, but TWO wars -- neither of which is about protecting our freedom and EVERYTHING to do with lining the pockets of oil companies and chicken hawks. And then there are the "missing" billions of dollars -- again, our tax dollars -- which were earmarked to rebuild Iraq and no doubt wound up in the secret, off-shore accounts of people like Cheney, Bush, Bolton, Rumsfeld and the like. Those "missing" billions alone would have more than been enough to provide basic and essential health care for desperately ill Americans, like Henry.

[Vinca]

27. Rec. 1,000 times.

We need single-payer so no one will be left without access to the care they need. It's amazing how many of us "don't count." Yesterday I was thinking about my own plight and it occurred to me how accustomed I've become to pain. It's like the new normal for me and that is just not right.

[xxqqqzme]

28. When did this 'waiting period' requirement begin?

I was finally awarded SS disability 5 years after I was disabled. (I was rejected 3 times before I finally got an attorney). I got my medicare card w/ my approval notice. Was the two year waiting period incorporated in the time it took to get approved - like time served!?

[McCamy Taylor]

33. If you appeal and they judge that you were disabled when they first denied you,

your two years may already be up.

[Homer Wells]

34. That is what we were told.

That the waiting period began when the claim was first filed.
I expect that early SS claims (my wife is 62) generally take some time to even be processed, what with the usual denial and appeal process that often goes on.
Regardless of the governments rationalizations, health problems occur in real time, and not on some bureaucratic timetable.
Like I say, sometimes it just plain SUCKS!!!

[Homer Wells]

32. A big KICK for this!

Mrs. Wells was forced to quit work and retire due to both Menieres disease and glaucoma. We filed for her SS, but we were also told that she would have to wait for two years before her Medicare would kick in. Sometimes it really sucks when it comes to medical care in this country!


:scared: :shrug:

[lunasun]

38. Think of our military budget and what that could pay for too!!!!