I'm so angry. My mom, turning red all over her face and down her neck, told me today that, according to her, "Obama's healthcare plan" passed, meaning, as she put it, that "we pay for everyone else."
I can't even process this, it's so crazy. OH YES, obviously the KRAZY BLACK MAN wanted YOU to pay for EVERYONE ELSE.
Just for starters, what does she think health insurance already IS? Mike and I pay more than our mortgage per month for our insurance, and we have a $2000 deductible per person. She pays $1000 per month for her insurance and has a $10,000 deductible. Where does that money go? In a nice safe savings account for our own health insurance coverage? NO, it pays for OTHER PEOPLE'S health coverage. And, if we need it, other people's money pays for ours.
She was all, "I don't want to pay for other people's health insurance!" Which, first of all, as I just said, that is what health insurance IS: everyone pays in, and the people who need it take out. And secondly, who does she thinks pays for Medicaid and Medicare? That's TAXES. That's US, paying for OTHER PEOPLE'S costs. She is 100% anti-abortion (that is, she is against abortion even if the mother will die otherwise), and who does she want to pay for the programs that support mothers who have their children rather than aborting them? Us! That's what she WANTS.
I'm so mad, I can't stand this. I can't watch her face and neck turn bright red as she blames THE BLACK DEMOCRAT for what has been the case ALL ALONG. She and my dad retired before age 65: who, again, is to blame that they don't have health insurance through an employer? How, again, are they being hurt by a "socialist health care" plan that has not in fact had any effect on the health insurance either of us has -slash- pays for? Both THEY and WE have exactly the same cost/coverage as when Bush was president, so WHAT IS THE ISSUE HERE?
I think if you are paying more than $200 a month for health insurance you shouldn't have to pay a deductible or co-pay period. We pay $700 a month ($150 less than our mortage) for insurance through my husband's employer. $1500 deduct per person (up to 4 people) before they cover 80%, $40 co-pay per office visit. We found out the hard way that we can't take our kids to the ER without paying the deductable first. So now when one of my kids falls or when they are playing a little rough, I get all worked up because it's going to cost us almost $1500 to go to the emergency room. My husband wants to move to Canada because he is so sick of the insurance BS in America. Oh, and tell me how much sense this makes. My insurance won't cover my birth control, but they cover viagra. It costs them WAY more money for me to have a baby than to help me to prevent having one.
ReplyDeleteAnyway. I am with you. I am sorry you are so mad at your mom. This is my total soap-box issue. Thankfully my mom agrees with me because I would be very mad at her too.
I wish your mom and those who think like she does could go live in France for a while so that they could see how "socialist" health care really works. I bet they'd love it. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteEver notice how 'socialist' is the new 'communist'?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, if you figure out the issue, let me know. Because I can't figure it out either. I'm sorry, hon.
The way I see it your mom (and so many others!) aren't pissed off at Obama or the health care plan, they are pissed off at MATH! Which is so ludicrous it should at least be entertaining for you and I. But because their thought process on the whole subject involves no critical thinking whatsoever as far as I can tell, it just makes me angry. So much so that I can feel my blood pressure rising as I am typing this!
ReplyDeleteI mean, really. Pissed off AT MATH? It should be funny. But it isn't. It is just aggravating!
Wowza, how'd I miss this? I hate it when people I love and share a background with totally can't see the light on topics such as these. It's proof that brainwashing exists, I believe. So very frustrating. I'm fuming FOR you.
ReplyDeleteYeah, sorry to hear that your mom is mad at the basic concept of group insurance -- perhaps she would prefer to have no insurance and then would be rest assured that her money doesn't pay for someone else's care...
ReplyDeleteI know when I am extremely frustrated I lash out at any easy victim. Maybe your mom rationally knows all that you wrote here, she's just pissed in genreal. Totally frustrating nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteUS healthcare is just terrible. It's embarrassing, in addition to being highway robbery. No good comes of it, no wonder it's causing fights between you and your mom.
I don't know that this is remotely true of your mother, but I think many older, white Americans are more mad that our president is Black than that he's Democrat (I think my mom may have harbored a secret crush on Clinton) - which is hard for me to fathom, but that's how it feels.
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo - my mom (who is on Medicare) and my sister (who works for the government) both are outraged at the idea of Obama's healthcare plan. When I point out it would help someone like me who has been unemployed for too long now and has no insurance - they change the subject or assure me any day I'll have a job with health coverage again soon. That's not the point - this is life and death. I used to argue the point that people are ok with funding public education but not public health (if you live, well then, we will educate you for free) - but lately I hear tea party types saying shit like public education is also intolerable so - I don't know. The small-minded meanness is incredible and surprising to me that it often comes from people who hold tightly to religion. You think God is proud of you? Cause if he is, I think he's a real asshole.
Sorry. I got carried away here.
I suspect it IS true of my mother, and I suspect that she's having a lot of conflict about it because she thinks of herself as NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT RACIST---and yet here she is, having a massive problem with the president being black.
ReplyDeleteSuffice it to say, I enjoyed ALL of your comment.