To quote Mike Malloy, "Did I say yet how much I hate these people?"

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



New GOP Rep Doesn't Think Sick Kids Should Get Health Insurance


Meet Diane Black, the new GOP congresswoman from Tennessee’s sixth congressional district. Like most all of her GOP colleagues, she's eager to repeal health care reform. Why? Because she thinks it's a really bad idea to require insurance companies to provide coverage for sick children:

Watch: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/424503/new_gop_rep_doesn%27t_think_sick_kids_should_get_health_insurance/

There is a mandate there that insurance companies must insure children up to the age of 24, and what we have found is that there are a lot of insurance companies that are just saying we’re not going to be in this business any longer, because we know that we can’t survive if that’s what we’re going to do.

And the second piece of that was to insure children regardless of their health care history, and as a result of that, I know several health care insurance agents in my district who have said we’re just dropping any insurance for children whatsoever.

First of all, the law allows parents to keep children on their insurance policy until age 26 -- not 24. But setting aside her ignorance of the most basic details about the bill, the bigger problem with Black's argument is that she's saying insurance companies shouldn't be required to cover sick children because it might put them out of business.

Basically, what Black wants is a world in which insurance companies can drop coverage for anybody who isn't completely healthy. That's obviously a great business model -- sell insurance to people who aren't likely to need it, then drop coverage as soon as they get sick. But if insurance companies can cherry pick and only offer coverage to healthy people, then what's the point of insurance in the first place?

One of the very best things in the new law is that insurance companies are required to offer insurance to everybody. That means they can't deny coverage to kids just because the kids happen to be sick. Diane Black and her GOP colleagues want to do away with that. They want insurance companies to be able to deny coverage to children who aren't healthy. In other words, they want real life death panels. The only good thing you can say here is that at least Black had the courage to admit it.


By Jed Lewison | Sourced from Daily Kos
Posted at January 5, 2011, 1:34 pm


http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/424503/new_gop_rep_doesn%27t_think_sick_kids_should_get_health_insurance/

[gratuitous]

1. Bring back denials for pre-existing conditions!

That seems to be the Republicans' animus toward the new health care law, they're worried that people won't die because some insurance company factotum can't make up some bullshit "pre-existing condition" excuse to deny coverage. But that's such a hard concept, and so very complicated, it's no wonder the Democrats can't articulate it and the popular media can't figure out how to use it in a sound bite. Once again, Republican strategy proves too subtle and nuanced to be reduced to an easily-grasped bumper sticker rebuttal. Curses!

[arcane1]

3. Denial of a claims = bankrupcies = foreclosures

and vultures swooping in at pennies on the dollar.

[gratuitous]

4. No, no, too hard to understand

How can anyone possibly make the connection between bankruptcy due to medical bills and losing everything they have to the vultures? It's just so communicate the idea to the good people out there in teevee land, who don't know anything about catastrophic medical bills. That's the kind of thing that happens to bad people.

[Zoeisright]

2. Repukes get more disgusting every day. Why anyone votes for them and

why they aren't forced to resign in disgrace and flee the country is beyond me.