CSotD: Dr. Welby is no longer practicing
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Jimmy Margulies comments on the timing of John McCain's surgery, which neatly saved Obamacare, as well as saving the GOP from another faceplant.
My initial reaction to the announcement was that it was a put-up, that McCain purposefully scheduled the procedure to stall the vote, but I've since seen some analysis that indicates it was not only necessary but potentially a bit of an emergency. Apparently he had one of those regular checks for some melanoma and related oncology events and something turned up.
A number of cartoons have capitalized on the idea that Congress has better healthcare than is available under the ACA, but they actually are required to have ACA coverage, at least for now, though with a subsidy, plus they're in an income bracket where "affordable" isn't a huge issue anyway.
Plus McCain is retired military and so could get coverage under the GI Bill, so that ol' dog won't hunt.
Good luck to him, but, then again, none of that detracts from the serendipity of the timing for the GOP, and for the rest of us, and Margulies' commentary holds.
And so does this piece by Kevin Siers, who may have been watching the bizarre "Made in America Week" coverage yesterday, in which Dear Leader, in one of his inspiring, incoherent streams of semi-consciousness, began to praise American industry and then wandered off into the weeds with a rant about Obamacare.
It's good that we know Trump is a teetotaller, because otherwise anyone listening to this would assume the man was three sheets to the wind. Go here and start at 1.25.30 for Mike Pence's cheerleader intro and then the "Oh my god, does this man truly have access to the codes?" speech that follows.
Or you can go to the transcript, but it doesn't provide the full flavor of misfiring axons that you get with the video.
However, if you do skim through the transcript, you'll have time to listen to NHPR's "Civics 101" podcast on the 25th Amendment which I should warn you is not likely to apply in a case where the President has support of the Congress and, by the way, hasn't changed since he was voted into office.
I defer to the late Dennis Green for this analysis of our election process.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Dave Whamond takes advantage of the notion that nobody in the developed world shares our approach to health care and simply widens the scope a tad.
Meanwhile, over at Rudy Park, I find myself chuckling over Sadie's rant because, stingy and sociopathic as her politics are, her analysis is spot on.
I am old enough for Medicare and so the Repeal/Replace thing will unfold without directly impacting me, though, by happenstance, the subsidized premium for my former ACA coverage was the same as my current premiums for enhanced Medicare coverage.
Last week was the one-year anniversary of my cancer surgery, an extensive, 12-hour procedure that not only cancelled the "dead in six months" prognosis but made me healthy enough that it became apparent that I had a perforated ulcer and that my gall bladder had quit working some time ago.
So I went back a month later to repair the former and remove the latter, and I promise you that, had I not had good coverage, between those two trips, they (the hospital) would have drained my retirement account and then looked around for more, while they (the Republicans) wouldn't have given a good goddamn.
As it is, I'm not sure how much basic Medicare would have covered and how much I can attribute to my Medicare supplement, but I hit my deductible before I was fully anesthetized for that first surgery.
Here's how it shakes out, for those of us who are not poor, but not in the One Percent.
Including:
- The deduction from my Social Security for basic Medicare coverage, plus
- What I paid for my Medicare Supplement and my Part D prescription coverage, plus
- The aforementioned deductible, plus
- Out-of-pocket drugs costs not covered …
… I claimed $7,322 in medical expenses in 2016.
Which is doable for someone like me who works after retirement, but the average Social Security payout is $1360 a month, which comes to $16,320 per year.
Subtract seven grand from that, then pay either your land taxes, school taxes and remaining mortgage if applicable, or your rent, plus toss in some utility bills and then let us know how your food budget looks and how you plan to get to the store anyway.
There used to be a little old lady in clean but shabby clothes who would walk past my apartment every day or so, then back from the grocery store, two blocks away. In the summer, she rode an old one-speed bike with a basket. She always had a smile for you, though not a lot to say, and I haven't seen her in about a year.
I wonder if she had the good fortune to die or if the poor old soul is squirreled away some place and, if so, if it's clean there.
People like her fall down the hidey-holes every day, and even well-intentioned people say, "I haven't seen her in about a year," worry for thirty seconds and then go on about their business.
Look: Medicare is good, but it's no free ride — basic coverage is about two grand a year — so, for anyone trying to live on Social Security, another three or four hundred a month for supplemental coverages is not gonna be affordable, which means you can count on spending a lot more than seven grand if anything goes wrong.
Oh, and we need to cut Medicaid because it's costing the government too much.
As Clay Jones notes, the GOP is coping with this problem by not having town hall meetings anymore.
Had to. People kept showing up and complaining about stuff.
Now here's their moment of zen
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