The Political Right's War on Healthcare for Citizens

Again, during this campaign we have seen and heard Republicons' vitriolic babble on what they're gonna do when they are in control....repeal health care is # 1 on their list(and 1.5 is the Lily Ledbetter act, 2 is defund schools...). They say this because it will be so much better under them (hmmm.....I remember Shrub, Bush I, King Ronnie..nope very much not better for women), but just for debate's sake, I'll decide not to say they're just lying...I mean they are the party that wants schools to get rid of teaching critical thinking skills...so instead of just laughing at their babble, how about tearing it apart with facts and logic, something the 'cons are very lacking:

So, first the evil ObamaCare...or its real name, the Affordable Care Act..Repeal that and women can get insurance easily, right? Wrong.

The ACA provides free screenings for many basic items for men women and children, although I will highlight women and children: mamograms(and breast cancer chemoprevention counseling is she's high risk) being one of the most important, birth control another.  But also, depression, diabetes 2, cholesterol, blood pressure screening are included for basic health concerns. All normal immunizations for children are covered(the ones that children need to go to school). Also, an annual free well-person visit.

Also included for women are screenings for gestational diabetes, HIV, HPV, Hepatitis B, STD(screening/counseling--obviously this is for both genders), Rh Incompatibility, tabacco use, Osteoporosis, folic acid supplements, anemia screening, cervical cancer, domestic/interpersonal violence screening and counseling and breastfeeding counseling

For children? Some of the screenings are: autism, blood pressure, depression, alcohol/drug use assessments for teens, behavioral assessments for all ages, developmental screening, dyslipidemia(if at risk of lipid disorders), hemoglobin screening, lead screening TB testing, vision screening, medical history, obesity screening/counseling. Also many tests for newborns such as: congenital hypothyroidism, hearing, hemoglobinopathies, PKU.

And why is care for children listed in my post about women? Because even if the child lives in a 2-parent household, mothers are the ones that take time off from work for children's health care issues, whether that issue is a doctor's visit, sitting around in a county health center(bring a book and stuff for child to do) or a child's illness. Yes, I know there's that one dad out of thousands that stays home with the kids or the 2 dads out of thousands that shares childcare equally with mom, but they are not in the majority. Not...even...close. It's gotten better, but women still make most of the decisions on many of these issues and spend more time on children's healthcare.

Just this July, people and companies started receiving rebate checks from the Insurance companies due to the Medical Loss Ratio section of the ACA. See, it is now law that Insurance companies must use at least 80%(85% for large companies) of the premium paid for health care. Up until this law, Insurance companies were using maybe 70% for health care, the other 30% was used for "administrative costs"...you know, marketing, those so-called seminars to Costa Rica? Or the bonuses/raises/outlandish salaries paid to the upper echelon of the corporate structure. For comparison, Medicare spends under 5% for Administration costs, Veterans Affairs is under 3% and both of these programs have a much higher patient approval rating than private insurance companies. The ACA also allows children to stay on their parents' insurance until age 26, giving the kids a bit of breathing room after college and parents some peace of mind about the "baby". From personal experience this has been great for my son who was laid off(he worked with the developmentally disabled in schools), but could still access my insurance for a root canal, glasses and allergies.

Did you know that some insurance companies considered pregnancy as a pre-existing condition? No, not that you are pregnant and looking for insurance...you had been pregnant in the past and may become pregnant again so we won't insure you. Under the ACA this practice is illegal. As of July, 2010 children must be covered and no pre-existing condition denials are legal. In 2014 all use of pre-existing crap is no more.

Also, because of that silly pregnancy stuff, women pay higher insurance rates than men in most states. Again, this is now illegal.

Since the takeover of the House of Representatives by the bats**t crazy teabaggers(who even hold their own Speaker hostage), the House has voted 33 times to repeal health care for Americans...oh, and not one vote on any other Jobs bill....

And how does the Romney/Ryan ticket want to handle this? Annihilate it! Those families don't deserve nuthin'!

The Romney/Ryan ticket, along with the Republicons, have promised to repeal the ACA right after he's declared president. And what does he want to do to replace? Well, that's the question, isn't it? "ObamaCare" was fashioned from a republican view--Bob Dole's plan, Heritage plan and oh, yeah, "RomneyCare"...so, this should be pretty embarrassing for the right wing. Of course that would be true if corporate media actually reported this instead of the screaming mimis of the right's doom and gloom...

His answers to this is "secret", just like all of his other plans...memories of Nixon and his "secret plan" to end the Viet Nam war(which actually ended when the Democratic Congress refused to fund it). Any time Romney mentions what he would do during an interview, one of his staff comes up behind him and says, "Well he really didn't mean what he said". Of course Mittiot is being interviewed on National TV and the other guy is reported on radio/newspaper--where many people, specially low information, do not garner information. Romney is not trying to protect citizens...he wants to make sure that the insurance companies can still live in the plutocratic/objectivist paradise of less taxes, less services to citizens and more obscene profits. Take away the ability of women to get free screenings for breast & cervical cancer. Take away the ability of women to receive birth control without having to pay high prescription rates(and please remember that women who use birth control consistently account for only 5% of the rate of unintended pregnancy--and birth control is much cheaper for insurance companies than pregnancies. And, again, many women and children not being able to use our medical system for less expensive preventative care rather than having no choice, but to live in fear of both medical and financial disaster--and costing all of us much much more.

And, Again, Mr. Romney,

WHERE ARE YOUR TAX RECORDS?!?!?!?

WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?!?!!?!

Facts are just evil Liberal icky things!

There are many times in these days of tea party (anti) reality or misinformation(in my world, that's called lies) that I just have to take a deep breath and shake my head...and this misinformation(or lies) has infected our nation. We all saw the teabaggers with their signs saying, "Keep your government off of my Medicare/Social Security!" and the more informed of us thought, "How stupid can a person be to not know that both of those programs are government programs", but this is where we've gotten ourselves to and its time to educate each other with facts, not talking points. 
Social security is broke, medicare is broke, rich people need larger tax cuts so they can make more jobs(12 years of tax cuts have lost jobs, not created them). We hear the fear mongering daily, but what is the truth? Facts seem to be, for the right, evil liberal icky things...Glad you asked:
I think a good place to start with facts would be Social Security:

Social Security Myth Buster from the Alliance for Retired Americans

Social security is driving up the federal deficit

Social security doesn't add to the federal budget, it is fully funded by us, American workers. It is funded directly by payroll contributions from workers and employers, not tax funds.

Social Security trust fund is just a bunch of worthless IOU's!

The US Treasury bonds owned by the trust fund are the same as any other Treasury obligation, they are just as real as the ones that George Bush, among other rich right wing individuals, corporations and other governments own. In fact, Treasury bonds are listed as assets in financial profiles by rich people, corporations and governments--why does the right call them worthless IOU's when the little people own them? OH....a lie....

Social Security is going broke!

There is $2.7 trillion in the trust fund and is projected to grow to $3.7 by 2022. It is not going broke, its NOT in the red. It is paying out more in benefits than it is collecting in contributions, but the interest Social Security makes off of the Treasury bonds(you know, those worthless IOU's) makes up the difference. Similar shortfalls have occurred over 15 times since the 60's and congress has made changes to the program over time, but it has not cut back on benefits, rather congress has always opted to change the salary cap. What's the salary cap? I you make less than $106,000 per year, you pay FICA tax on every dollar. If you make $1 million? You still only pay FICA tax on the first $106,000--that's the salary cap. The cap has been changed to reflect salary changes through out Social Security history. The republican led congress doesn't want to change the salary cap, it wants to cut benefits---another lie.

Everybody needs to sacrifice. Cut senior's COLA's!

The cost of living adjustments(COLA) helps keep retirees with inflation. The average retirement benefit is around $1100, that's not exhorbinant, specially considering how gas and food have sky-rocketed this last year. BUT there are proposals to cut the COLA by moving it to a chained CPI(formula used to calculate the COLA). According to Social Security Actuaries, this would mean an immediate benefit cut and this cut would compound over time. This CPI ignores the true needs of America's retirees and tries to balance the budget on our seniors!

People are living longer, so it makes sense to raise the retirement age

Yes, life expectancy seems to have gotten better, but the facts(there's that evil liberal icky thing again) show that the reason life expectancy has lengthened, its because infant, child mortality has improved as well as a significant decrease in women dying in childbirth(that's cuz of those evil liberal things like pre-natal/neo-natal care and programs such as WIC)...its not that we are living longer, its because babies aren't dying. Another FACT is that average retirees are living abut the same amount of time as they were in the 1930's; the retirement age has been moved to 67. Raising it higher would just push retirement completely out of reach for many Americans.

What about means testing? We could cut benefits for Millionaires

The majority of Social security beneficiaries are not millionaires, only about 2% of benefits go to individuals with earnings over $100,000. To actually get any savings from means testing, it would need to hit people with incomes around $40,000---the middle class.  Again, if you want to make it more equitable, scrap the cap(salary cap). 

Illegal Immigrants are ripping off Social Security!

Illegal immigrants are ineligible to receive benefits(since 1996). In fact(evil liberal icky thing) undocumented workers contribute about $7 billion annually in FICA taxes which they are not allowed to claim.

Social Security is a burden to our youth

The burdens that youth have are no jobs, stagnant wages, student loan debt and a shift from traditional pensions to 401(k) plans. If anything, our youth will rely much more on social security than we do! We need to talk to them about the benefits of Social Security for old and young alike(survivor benefits, SSI) instead of pushing for cuts to Social security.


So, there's a list of facts, not fear mongering sound bytes. We need to educate ourselves and our families and friends to truth, so we are armed for the next onslaught of attacks on benefits we have earned and should be proud to have earned, not shamed into allowing them to disappear...so the uber rich can pay less taxes.