The 117% Solution

Hey HamsterNation!

I apologize for the erratic timing of the posts, but HP has been busy culling the airways for all the latest garbage and crapola from the world of politics. Hell of it is, I didn't even need to leave the house. The health care debacle has come to the Off White House of the Hamster Party. I call it the 117% Solution, which is, oddly enough, where the title to this little screed came from. Oh, but the irony is just beginning.

See, no matter what the Republican't Party does, no matter how many wingnuts scream, shout epithets, demand their country back, carry guns to Presidential appearances, or invoke Hitler's name, no matter how many tens of millions of dollars the industry throws at it's purchased officials, no matter how many more lies are trotted forth as truth, the real truth is that health care reform is going to happen. The real truth is that the industry knows it. The real truth is that the only thing they want killed is the government option and single-payer. The only thing that frightens them is competition.

But the ABSOLUTE TRUTH is that they already know that not only is it not dead, but it will be part of the reform package that will be signed by President Obama sometime in December of this year. The Public Option is going to happen. They also know that they have 3 years before it kicks in and to make as much money as possible. And in the next 3 years, they are going to rape everyone of us who has health insurance.

It's the 117% Solution. My husband (yes, we are both husbands) works for a municipal government in Southern California. So, by extension, he has roughly the same benefits as all government employees in California. (Even broke, we're the seventh or so largest economy in the world and have more government employees than any other state). They had a pretty good union once, when unions were relevant, and as a result I am able to have the same insurance as he does. He has the monthly payments deducted from his paycheck every two weeks, and we never really miss the money. And we enjoy knowing that, should anything happen, like it did to me a couple of years ago, that we would be covered. Yes, the premiums went up a little last year, but that seemed reasonable enough at the time.

Now, when this insurance was offered, there was no choice as to provider, only to paying to have it or not. You could choose different plans offered by the provider, and whether you wanted to have an HMO or a prohibitively expensive PPO, and all of the usual choices. The only choice missing was for the provider.

This week, Scott was informed by someone in the human resources department that our premiums are going up 117% in January. One hundred and seventeen fucking percent. Scott's annual cost of living increase, if he gets it, will be 114% less than that. I haven't' had a raise in 2 years, and I'm not anticipating one, or at least much of one. Certainly not anything approaching 117%. We got a combined $900 dollars back last year, and most of that was business losses by me trying to stay in the real estate business. Scott actually had to pay. And the Insurance industry reported record profits.

This is happening to a government agency, so can you imagine what they're going to do to you? The only tactic they have left is to completely bankrupt the system before the government can get it's act together and actually start the program thereby being too late to save it. We'll end up giving them our tax money to stay in business, just like the banks and Wall Street, so that the entire behemoth doesn't implode.

Because the ABSOLUTE TRUTH is that they are in the rarefied air of "too big to fail." Like the greedy shits at the banks, investment houses, auto manufacturers, and yes, the insurance industry. Hell, they've already had us bail out one of them, and they were the largest! Think about the combined worth and impact of just the top 10 health care insurers. Add to that the 200+ smaller insurance companies then throw in the ancillary businesses that comprise our total health care system, and you can see where this scenario leads.

Even if it ends up being a delaying-the-inevitable demise of the insurance industry, it will cost us hundreds of billions of dollars. The irony of that is the Repbulican't Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the health care industry. The party that said no to the stimulus package, no to the Cash for Clunkers (which, by the way, is causing GM (r) to up production and re-hire a couple thousand workers, but hey, just because it worked doesn't mean it's a good idea), and have been blocking this reform package arguing, when they're actually trying to seem sincere, that it will cost too much, will end up costing us a helluva lot more.

Our collective nuts are firmly held in their greasy sweating hands. Even for me, that's not a comfortable thought. And along the way they have managed to let loose the morons and their contagious virus of right wingnut-ery, putting into motion the empowerment and recruitment of the lunatic fringe. You know, the ones with all the guns, ammo, and fertilizer. The Confederate Soldiers of 1865 today. Still thinking the war is going on. Eager to bring our their militias. Morons with guns, a cause, and an ill-conceived sense of right and wrong. Great.

The ABSOLUTE TRUTH is that the government can never compete with capitalism. We all know, because they want us to know, that they're behind all this rabble-rousing. They not only know whose palms to grease, both belonging to politicians and the TV "news" people, they have more resources and only one rule: Win.

The "news" people think that they are uncovering this vast conspiracy of "beltway insiders creating AstroTurf protests", when, in reality, they are being spoon-fed the conspiracy. If they didn't want you to know, they wouldn't put their names on it. They make it pretty easy to find, don't they? Rachel Maddow, whom I adore, points out just how easy it is whenever she shows us another one. "All you have to do is find the button that says 'about' and it will tell you who's involved." If they didn't want you to know, trust me, you wouldn't.

In of the best rants I've heard since Dennis Miller smoked too much dope and started backing George II, Keith Olbermann (whose bobble-head doll is the Hamster Paradigm Writing Award trophy... that's how much I love him) castigates and villifies all of the Republican't and Scaredycrat congresspeople who seem to be in the pocket of health care. It was a thing a beauty, and you can see it right here on this blog...just scroll down. It's that easy. It was at once passionate and pointless. Kind of like The Cell: A thing of visual creation mastery ensconced in a preposterous movie. Put on some Pink Floyd and skip to the dream sequences.

I watch you guys every night, and it pains me to tell you that this thing, even as big as you think it is, is bigger than you even know. In anticipation of the passing of the bill, and it's potential effects on the greed masters, there will be huge increases in premiums, less access, fewer approved procedures, less reimbursements, higher co-pays and deductibles, and more unprinted preventable deaths. They will blame the government (all of it, not just the Dems), and convince enough who can't think for themselves that they're right, and I think the rest of us might want to have a good plan B.

The possibility and plausibility of this argument is supported by our very recent past. Business moves at the speed of instant. Government like the O'Hare Starbuck's (R) at 7 am. Causing a collapse is easier and more efficient that creating a recovery. Even the threat of a collapse will cause widespread panic. And it has certainly been proven this past month that it doesn't even have to be the truth.

It's easier and more efficient to kill your enemy than to try to be his friend.

Until next time, for crissakes stay well!

HamsterPrez