Different Day, Same Shit.

As of this moment, yours truly is doing his best to navigate through the Healthcare.gov site, but between the constant waiting and error messages (how can your account get locked after you tried logging in for the first time?), it's not going well. The deadline itself is being pushed back for those who got started on their applications. More to come later on.

Health insurance. It's something you might not think you need, until you need it. Then you wish you had it. Or perhaps you want it but simply can't afford it. Either way, it's a critical necessity, despite what many people think to the contrary.

Confused over the ongoing fight over Obamacare? What to know exactly what the hell's going on and how it could possibly affect you? Then take a seat and read on as yours truly attempts to hash out an explanation. Keep in mind this explanation is rather simple and to the point, so there might be a few technical things and other nuances that got thrown out of the boat:

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To better understand Obamacare and people's reactions to it across the political spectrum, it's important to understand how health insurance in works, not just in general, but in this country and elsewhere.

How the hell does this health insurance stuff work?

Health insurance is essentially a large group of recipients paying into a pool of money. When a recipient needs medical care, whether it's preventative care (monthly checkups, etc.) or emergency care, money is taken from the pool to pay for their expenses. Since health insurance works on the principle of there being more healthy people than sick, there's always a relatively large pool of money to tap into.

What's up with insurance companies and their coverages and why does the shit cost so much?

The vast majority of people in the United States rely on private health insurance providers. Here, most folks pay either a (steep) monthly or annual premium out of their own wallets or have a portion of their paycheck deducted to pay for a healthcare plan shared with their coworkers. As a result, there are thousands of different pools that people pay into for their coverage, some more expensive than others, all of them with their own rules and guidelines.

Private health insurance providers also have plenty of leeway regarding who gets to dip into the pool and who doesn't. On the face of it, you can't blame them - thousands of scattered insurance pools are more vulnerable to getting syphoned dry by people with a boatload of health risk factors. That means smokers, the morbidly obese, diabetics and others with a slew of health problems are either told to pay ridiculous amounts of money or get tossed out of the pool. Got a preexisting condition? Good luck. Insurance companies also have their profits to think of. These profits usually average around three percent, but that's been bumped up to around eight percent as of late, accompanied by rising premiums. Ordinary Joes and Janes who are the perfect image of health are forced to pay much more than they should, just to cover both profit margins and the folks who need to dip into the money pool.

And that dip's a relatively deep one, too. Thanks to the high cost of health insurance, approximately 48 million Americans, many of whom are on the wrong side of the poverty line, simply go without. That means they go without preventative care unless they're lucky enough to either pay for it out of pocket or land a job that gives them some form of coverage. A lack of preventative care means that potential health issues go undetected, usually for years at a time. In the end, most people won't go to the hospital until the proverbial shit hits the fan and they need a trip to the emergency room. Emergency room care costs big bucks. So does surgery and treatment for issues that could have been nipped in the bud early on (like, say, cancer). At any rate, the overall cost of healthcare skyrockets.

My health insurance provider told me to go fuck myself with a rusty pipe when I got sick. What's up with that?

Of course, insurance companies absolutely hate paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover medical expenses, hence they'll find any excuse in the book (and a few that don't exist) to unceremoniously drop paying recipients if they dip too deep into the money pool too often. In fact, many companies have panels that review medical requests before signing off on them and those that don't meet their particular criteria are often denied. They'll also stiff hospitals on the bill, which is why they routinely charge insurance companies much more than necessary just in case they get shortchanged. The fight between hospitals, private insurers and their customers can easily be replicated by laying down in the middle of a pack of starving pitbulls with a bloody steak on your face.

Did you know that many private health insurance providers have a network of select hospitals their insured customers can only go to if they're to expect continuing coverage? Stray outside of that network and be prepared to take that second mortgage out on your soul.

So what's this single-payer shit I keep hearing about?

On the other hand, there's single-payer healthcare, commonly known as socialized or universal healthcare. With this type of coverage, there's one money pool (usually administered by a government agency) and every citizen in the country it's enacted in pays into that pool, usually through taxes or mandated fees. Except for the desperately poor, who are given a break and are still allowed to draw out of that pool. The all-inclusive nature of the single-payer system means that 1)there's only one huge pool to pay into and draw out of, therefore 2)there's always enough money in the pool to cover every paying recipient, plus those who aren't able to pay and 3)recipients wind up paying far less in premiums than they had to with private coverage.

Since it's the government footing the bill, hospitals and healthcare providers can rest easier knowing that they'll pay. And since it's the government's dime, the government itself can dictate exactly how much it's willing to pay said hospitals, thereby lowering overall costs.

In short, single-payer saves money. Instead of ignoring that stabbing, throbbing pain in the side for months until you get rushed to the emergency room for a $10k stay and a $100k emergency surgery, your single-payer coverage allows you to go to the doctor to see what that pain's all about. Thanks to that huge pool effectively subsidizing your doctor's visit, the $1k in preventative care costs you zero or damn near close to it.

Other, more respectable countries throughout the world have some form of universal health coverage, provided through public funding sourced from taxes and fees. Some countries combine their publicly funded healthcare with optional coverage from a private health insurer. Other countries leave their healthcare coverage up to these private companies, but strongly regulate how much they can charge and even provide significantly low-cost (or free) health insurance coverage. This is essentially the route that Obamacare's going (but more on that in a minute).

Wait...doesn't that sound an awful lot like Medicare/Medicaid?

It does, doesn't it? In fact, some would say that a single-payer system in America would just be Medicare for All.* As it stands, Medicare is strictly for those over age 65 or anyone with disabilities. Medicaid is for people who are too poor to purchase private coverage on their own - mainly families, women and children. Unfortunately, the eligibility requirements vary among each state. Each year, the federal government disburses a set amount of money to individual states for their Medicare and Medicaid programs. Some states are more generous with the proceeds than others.

Okay...Obamacare.

Once upon a time, President Barack Obama foolishly attempted to bring single-payer healthcare to these United States. The measure was dragged behind the Capitol by conservative legislators and unceremoniously double-tapped in the head. The End.

Said legislators dressed the corpse in a new suit, took out the stuff they didn't really like (like the whole single-payer thing), slapped on a sticker reading "private insurance-friendly" and reintroduced it as the Affordable Care Act, which Congress passed and the president eventually signed in March 2010.

The simplest explanation of "Obamacare" (which is what opponents called it whenever they wanted to disparage it - the name kinda stuck after a while) is that it's a stop-gap between private insurance and single-payer insurance. In other words, all of the private healthcare providers are now part of a regulated "exchange" where they are obligated to insure each and every citizen, regardless of their condition, at something approaching relatively sane premiums.

At the same time, each and every citizen is obligated (hence the term "individual mandate) to sign up for health insurance, so they won't get tempted to sign up for a quick, free dip into the money pool just at the moment they get sick and subsequently screw other paying customers. Those who don't sign up by March 31, 2014 get hit with a penalty, starting at $95 or 1 percent of your taxable income, whichever's greater.

So I lose $95/year if I don't sign up. Big whoop.

$95 or 1 percent of your taxable income. You make $70,000/year? That's $700 you have to pay. And it gets worse. By 2015, the penalty grows to $325 or 2 percent of your taxable income. The year after and subsequent years, its $695 or 2.5 percent of taxable income.

But Mack! I don't even have a pot to piss in, let alone a window. How am I gonna pay for this shit?

You don't. At least if your income's below a certain threshold. In addition to the individual mandate, the Affordable Care Act also expands Medicaid coverage to include individuals age 19 to 65. That means those stuck below the federal poverty line can simply opt for Medicaid coverage. That is, if their state's playing ball.




Thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that mandated voluntary participation, 22 states have opted out or are leaning close to opting out of the federal government's Medicaid expansion through the ACA. That means if you make more than 100% of the federal poverty level, you can buy your health insurance coverage through the exchange for a significant discount. If not, you're left to the tender mercies of your state's income thresholds for Medicaid eligibility.

In the Great State of Alabama, the Medicaid income threshold for a family of three is $3,221. Per year. Make more than $3,221 but fall short of the $19,530 required to qualify for Obamacare? You're just about as screwed as the folks stuck in the Medicare Part D "doughnut hole".

Speaking of Medicare, the Affordable Care Act also unfucks a lot of what was wrong with it. For starters, enrollees get more preventative services (e.g. mammograms, colonoscopies, etc.) without paying extra. Enrollees stuck in the $2,970- $4,750 drug cost "doughnut hole" also receive a 50-percent discount when they purchase Part D-covered brand-name prescription drugs at the counter.

So why do guys like Ted Cruz treat Obamacare like the spawn of Satan and Grace Jones?

Because Tea Party?

But seriously, that's a good question that can only be answered with yet another lengthy and well thought-out blog post.

*Ba boom tish!

Today marks week two of the ongoing government shutdown, brought to you by the House GOP's refusal to sign off on a congressional budget that included funding for the Affordable Care Act, a legislative act that was already passed and signed into law way back in 2010. For some reason, the idea of mandated private health insurance with subsidies for the poor (which itself was downgraded from a far-superior publicly funded single-payer system) sends most conservatives into epileptic seizures. So much so that it's resulted in a crisis that's only gonna get worse, by all indications.

Everyone has a stake in this shutdown. For the political parties, this whole ordeal can end one of two ways: if the Democrats blink, that means the Tea Party element of the GOP can cherry-tap their way towards favorable legislative action through constant hostage-taking. The Democrat party ends up getting its electoral chains snatched and reverts to being the perpetual weak sister of the two parties.* If the Republicans blink, it'll cause an already-burgeoning schism between the moderate and extremist ends of the GOP to fully break open. It won't kill the party, but it will be a deservedly swift kick in the electoral jewels. Oh, and John Boehner faces the possibility of having his position snatched from under him by a vengeful Tea Party.

For President Obama, the stakes are much higher. If he doesn't bend and the GOP refuses to bend, the shutdown keeps on trucking towards yet another fiscal cliff and the president's own image gets tarnished. There'll also be plenty of fuel for an impeachment hearing, if the GOP so desires (a far-gone conclusion). If he bends, the GOP gains victory, adds cherry-tapping to its repertoire of effective legislative strategies and the president's own image gets tarnished. That means the president somehow has to force the extremist and moderate sides of the Republican party to have their own "come to Jesus" moment and pass a clean continuing resolution, preferably before October 17 rolls around.

For the average Joe working for various government agencies, the consequences of maintaining a government shutdown hit home and hit hard. Example? The United States Antarctic Research Program is the latest casualty of the shutdown, which not only affects the livelihoods and aspirations of the 500 or so people stationed at McMurdo, but also the integrity of various other international Antarctic programs that rely on the U.S. for various logistics and support. Meanwhile, NASA's down for the count, along with the Congressional Budget Office and countless other federal agencies. If things keep up beyond October 17, there's no guarantee of whether people will continue receiving their Social Security benefits.

For everyone else, it's a prime example of how a few actors within the government, led on by a large contingent of people who thinks that hamstringing the government's ability to function properly is the best way to make themselves and their agenda known. It's also an example of what happens when a small group of people with the government's worst interests in mind are able to hijack a party and force it to do its bidding or face total destruction.

Or when a party attempts to use a bunch of rabid extremists as its enforcer wing to effect legislative changes without getting their hair mussed.

Or perhaps when a party gerrymanders the living daylights out of its districts to hold on to as many seats and as much power as possible, only to watch that power slip into the hands of ideological fundamentalists with a hankering for a threadbare federal government and a possible subconscious desire to revive the concept of "state's rights," all with the relative consent of their constituents, most of whom regard "Obamacare" and other federal programs as a giveaway for blacks, illegals and the undeserving poor.

Either way it goes, current events are clearly showing folks around the world how not to run a country, because this way just ain't cutting it.

*But at least the perpetual underdogs will still be welcome in every cocktail party in D.C.

Mitt Romney's known for his gaffes and Freudian slips, but this is perhaps the biggest and most revealing by far. In short, here's a guy whose core support group could care less about aside from the vaunted (R) by his name picking a guy who's a bit more palatable to most of that core. Magic underwear meets soup kitchen and cat food sensibility. Anyone hoping he'd pad his campaign with a minority for vice-president were sorely mistaken. So no Sarah Palin and no Michelle Bachmann. I was personally hoping he'd really fall off the rocker and go with Allen West, as a sort of comedy option. It would have been hilarious.

Instead, we get Paul Ryan. Of the Ryan Plan.

This pick pretty much says everything Romney's "supporters" have been thinking to themselves ever since he won the nomination. "Did it really have to be you, Mitt?" If it wasn't for the other nominees undoing themselves spectacularly, Mittens probably would be working on a House or Senate seat right about now.

You go with the nominee you have, not the nominee you wish you had. Unless the nominee you have picks the nominee you wish you had as his running mate, the consolation prize being he's second-in-line to the presidency if Mittens falls off one of his wife's dressage horses on the White House lawn and breaks his back or something equally tragic.

I sincerely hope there isn't some sort of elaborate bait-and-switch plot brewing. Romney has yet to reveal the bulk of his tax information and if there's anything that could cripple his campaign. If things get too hot for him to handle on that front, he could always resign his nomination ahead of the 2012 Republican National Convention. I honestly don't know how that would work, but I can imagine the following happening:

• Mittens finally releases his tax info ahead of 2012 RNC.
• People discover serious improprieties in said tax info.
• Tax info and any other related info quickly becomes a massive scandal.
• Mittens "steps down" to "save" the GOP's electoral chances.
• Paul Ryan is somehow gifted the nomination, barring calls for a impromptu second primary.
• Tea Party-goers and GOP supporters finally get a presidential pick they actually like, causing the saga of the magic underwear-donning gaffe machine to fade into irrelevance.

GOP supporters love Ryan. He's a clean-cut, inoffensive white guy of the proper Christian faith with proper conservative bonafides and no track record of being a walking, talking gaffe machine. The Tea Party loves him, thanks to his supposed fiscal hardassery thanks to the Ryan Plan. If you haven't noticed what the plan actually entails, here's a quick synopsis that'll probably save you time reading the aforementioned Wiki link:

By selecting Ryan, Romney closely associates himself with the author of a controversial budget plan which would dramatically overhaul the federal government. Ryan, as head of the House Budget Committee, has called for big reductions in taxes for both wealthy individuals and corporations and turning Medicare into a program in which each senior citizen gets a voucher of several thousand dollars to purchase their own plan, instead of the current, government-operated program. He would make Medicaid a block grant program where each state could set its own rules.

Under Ryan, corporate taxes would be 25 percent instead of 35 percent, and the highest tax bracket for individuals would also be 25 percent instead of 35 percent. He would also cut trillions in government spending, likely reducing funds for education, health care and transportation at a much faster rate than Democrats have proposed in order to balance the federal budget.

And here's a walk-through of exactly how the Ryan plan will affect millions of Americans:

1. The Ryan Plan shitcans Medicare as we currently know it in 2022 for everyone born after 1956. In other words, everyone under the age of 66 who hasn't already enrolled in Medicare at that point will receive vouchers. These vouchers will go towards purchasing a private health insurance plan of their choice. It's the illusion of choice that opponents of universal health care clamor for. After all, they don't want government "dictating" their health care - that's for the health insurance companies to do.
   
   The vouchers feature a fixed amount indexed to the projected net federal spending per capita for the average 65-year-old in the old Medicare, specified to be somewhere around $8,000 for 2022. If your private health insurance plan is more than that amount, then you'll just have to supplement it with your own money.
   
2. Age eligibility for Medicare increases by two months per year starting in 2022, until it reaches 67 in 2033. God help you if you can't afford or qualify for insurance until then, because the Ryan Plan also shitcans the Affordable Care Act.
   
3. Medicaid goes from a state/federal funded program to a block grant program, where the federal government simply hands over a set amount (which will be much less than the current federal government funding) and lets the states do as they wish regarding their Medicaid programs. States like Alabama are guaranteed to be parsimonious with this eligibility, which means millions of low-income people will be without some form of insurance coverage.
   
4. Federal discretionary spending takes a dive to 6 percent of the nation's GDP by 2021 and 3.75 percent by 2050, or less than one-third of today's current spending. Meanwhile, Ryan and Romney are pushing for increases in defense spending. There's plenty wrong with that picture.
   
5. The Alternative Minimum Tax and taxation on foreign profits goes away and the corporate tax rate drops from 35 percent to 25 percent. Meanwhile, the tax burden on the poor is set to increase.

Personally, I don't understand why Republicans are falling over themselves over Paul Ryan. If anything, the GOP should be running away from him as fast as they can. The Ryan Plan is the GOP's very own Fukushima  Daiichi in the making and all it needs is a tsunami to make Romney/Ryan radioactive to voters. It's only a matter of time before the GOP's thrown into panic mode when the sheer toxicity of the dynamic duo reaches campaign-threatening levels.

I'm sure it's easy for President Obama to dismiss these clowns, but even clowns like Ryan and Romney display cunning every once in a while.

"By the way, I had the priv[i]lege of speaking today at the NAACP convention in Houston and I gave them the same speech I am giving you. I don't give different speeches to different audiences alright. I gave them the same speech. When I mentioned I am going to get rid of Obamacare they weren't happy, I didn't get the same response. That's ok, I want people to know what I stand for and if I don't stand for what they want, go vote for someone else, that's just fine. But I hope people understand this, your friends who like Obamacare, you remind them of this, if they want more stuff from government tell them to go vote for the other guy-more free stuff. But don't forget nothing is really free. it has to paid for by people in the private sector creating goods and services, and if people want jobs more than they want free stuff from government, then they are going to have to get government to be smaller. And if they don't want to repeal Obamacare they are going to have to give me some other stuff they are thinking about cutting, but my list takes Obamacare off first and I have a lot of other things I am thinking of cutting."

Sounds like Mitt Romney's still smarting from his cold treatment at the hands of the NAACP. The above was said at a fundraiser held in Montana shortly after his NAACP appearance. In spite of how massively hypocritical it makes him in light of Romneycare, the presidential hopeful remains intent on banging the "Obamacare = Welfare" drum. Gee, I thought it was a tax.

Meanwhile, there's a growing chorus of folks calling for Mittens to release his full tax records and not just the ones from 2010 and 2011. Even the governor of Alabama's calling for him to get it over with. After all, he's got nothing to hide, right?

If you're one of the millions of unlucky bastards following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on the Affordable Care Act on CNN, you probably saw the following:


Turns out the reports of the individual mandate's death have been greatly exaggerated:

Correction: The Supreme Court backs all parts of President Obama’s signature health care law, including the individual mandate that requires all to have health insurance.

Watch live coverage and analysis of the pivotal decision, its impact on you and on the presidential race now on CNN TV, CNN’s mobile apps and http://cnn.com/live

In a race to break the story first, CNN tripped all over its half-tied shoelaces. Looks like it's time to invest in some Velcro slip-ons. H/T to Redeye.

Meanwhile, Jim DeMint is echoing a sentiment supposedly offered by Old Hickory himself:

“This government takeover of health care remains as destructive, unsustainable, and unconstitutional as it was the day it was passed, unread, by a since-fired congressional majority. Now as then, our first step toward real health care reform and economic renewal remains Obamacare’s full repeal, down to the last letter and punctuation mark.

“I urge every governor to stop implementing the health care exchanges that would help implement the harmful effects of this misguided law. Americans have loudly rejected this federal takeover of health care, and governors should join with the people and reject its implementation.”

It looks like states already have a roundabout way for opting out of ACA:

The bottom line is that: (1) Congress acted constitutionally in offering states funds to expand coverage to millions of new individuals; (2) So states can agree to expand coverage in exchange for those new funds; (3) If the state accepts the expansion funds, it must obey by the new rules and expand coverage; (4) but a state can refuse to participate in the expansion without losing all of its Medicaid funds; instead the state will have the option of continue the its current, unexpanded plan as is.

State governors can opt out of Medicare expansion if it offends the sensibilities of their constituents, most of whom are a part of the one in four Americans who are currently without health insurance of any kind.

The next move for conservatives is to convince Americans that ACA, otherwise known as the semi-derogatory "Obamacare," is actually a tax on hardworking middle-class folk, 26,000 whom die annually without having any coverage. This way, conservatives can sell themselves the story of how Justice Roberts pulled off a clever end-run on the Obama administration:

The Supreme Court has upheld the Affordable Care Act. Chief Justice John Roberts has upheld the individual mandate. But not under the commerce clause. Instead, Roberts has said that the law can proceed under Congress’s ability to tax.

It’s a tax. That thing that Democrats were trying so hard not to do so Republicans couldn’t call Obama a “tax and spend” Democrat is now called a tax by the Supreme Court. And now it’s a victory. Until the GOP starts saying that Obama “raised your taxes.”

Americans really have little concept of how they pay taxes in the first place, why they should pay and how the tax brackets actually work. There's also the mostly-unspoken fear of how minorities are gonna steal everyone's tax monies and spend them on rims, fried chicken, lotto tickets and whatever else those people spend their money on. It's how the GOP can convince conservatives to vote against their interests (in the form of tax cuts for billionaires and corporations) and how these folks just can't connect the dots between their ridiculously low taxes and the growing number of potholes and dead street lamps on their block.

These same people want to keep anything approaching universal health from coming to fruition, yet continue paying private healthcare insurance providers thousands of dollars per year on coverage that might get dropped from under them if the provider thinks it'll put even a small scratch in their bottom lines. I don't like having the Emergency Room as my only option because it costs a significant part of my wages to be insured. Or because my insurer unceremoniously drops my coverage over a lifesaving procedure. Or because of "preexisting conditions" no one will touch with a ten-foot pole.

For anyone considering the ACA a sop to the healthcare industry (in the same way state-mandated auto insurance is to that industry), it'll seem that way unless enough people hop aboard the "Medicare for All" bandwagon to make that concern moot or unless the Obama administration finds a way to lower healthcare insurance premiums, the overall cost of healthcare or both.

So far, this has been an interesting week. Not only did our political village idiots speak on President Obama's address on Trayvon Martin, but one particular idiot had the temerity to chastise a fellow House Rep. for standing in solidarity with the slain young man, by citing an obscure and formerly unknown (to the public) dress code forbidding hats, or in this case, hoodies. As Abagond dutifully noted, there's an ongoing media campaign to drag Trayvon Martin's name into the dirt. Apparently, having an empty ziplock bag is a surefire sign of criminality in some parts.

Meanwhile, its 2012 and a small group of village idiots thought it was 1928 all over again:



At least this guy got to wear bracelets, but a felony charge was too much to ask? I suppose if the black guy who stood up to this walking, talking symbol of cowardice and stupidity had brandished a weapon, he'd be cooling his heels in lockup, sans bail, with a felony charge right about now.

I'm still wrapping my head around the whole individual mandate and single-payer healthcare thing. I'm not that good with bullshit jargon, but apparently it's necessary to sneak any hope of having national healthcare a la Canada or [add sane country here], but with so many people ready to vote against their interests to the benefit of the healthcare insurance industry, I guess you have to sugar coat this pill to have any hope in hell of average Americans chancing a swallow. No telling how this will pan out in the Supreme Court.

Last time, President Barack Obama sidestepped the GOP and Catholic Church's opposition to birth control as a part of health insurance coverage, by allowing health insurance providers to directly offer that coverage to employees without religious entities and employers paying a single dime, thereby eliminating the possibility of "material cooperation with evil." Bereft of the ability to claim a religious objection to birth control in health care plans, the GOP is going for broke:

In response to the Obama administration’s requirement that all healthcare plans provide birth control, Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO), in another effort to pander the 1% of the female population who have never used birth control and the men who want them to be barefoot and pregnant, introduced an amendment to the transportation bill (that’s right, transportation bill) that would allow any employer to deny any coverage on any whim.

Sen. Blunt knew this measure would die a hot death if it wasn't quietly buried in an unrelated bill when no one was looking. And this, ladies and gents, is why the Democrats should be constantly on guard for such legislative treachery from the GOP -- they'd do anything to achieve their goals, no matter how.

Fortunately, Harry Reid was able to smell this bullshit and put a quick end to it:

The move was intercepted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who blocked the contraception-repeal amendment being called for by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., calling it “senseless.”

”I appreciate the Republicans’ opportunity to never lose an opportunity to mess up a good piece of legislation,” Reid said sarcastically. “Let’s do the banking part of this bill. Let’s do the finance part of this bill. Let’s do the commerce part of this bill. But to show how the Republicans never lose an opportunity to mess up a good piece of legislation, listen to this: They’re talking about 1st amendment rights, the Constitution.”

Now, now, Harry. We all know the First Amendment and the Constitution in general only applies when it works in the GOP's favor.

And here is why this measure was so dangerous in the first place:

Under the measure, an insurer or an employer would be able to claim a moral or religious objection to covering HIV/AIDS screenings, Type 2 Diabetes treatments, cancer tests or anything else they deem inappropriate or the result of an “unhealthy” or “immoral” lifestyle. Similarly, a health plan could refuse to cover mental health care on the grounds that the plan believes that psychiatric problems should be treated with prayer.

Imagine going to your doctor to have a life-saving procedure performed, only to be denied health coverage for it because your employer deems it anathema to his/her/their religious beliefs. In order to eradicate the scourge of women having open and affordable access to birth control, they're ready and willing to place other lives in danger.

Right now, there are 52 million Americans who do not have health insurance. An additional 73 million Americans have trouble paying for their health care, and 75 million deferred medical treatment because of it.

This is the story of one man who, like many Americans, didn't have health insurance. And it cost him his life.

Doctors at University Hospital in Cincinnati said a 24-year-old father died Wednesday from a tooth infection.

Patti Collins, wife of famed local musician Bootsy Collins, said she couldn't believe what happened to her nephew, Kyle Willis, who left behind a 6-year-old daughter.

"I said, 'What do you mean they're calling the family?' (My daughter) said, 'Mom, the infection (Willis) had in his tooth has gone to his brain," Collins said.

But doctors said that rare as it may be, what started out as a toothache eventually killed the young father and aspiring paralegal.

Family members said Willis' wisdom tooth started hurting two weeks ago. Dentists said it needed to be pulled, but being an unemployed single father, Willis decided to ignore the pain.

Collins said her nephew was out of work and didn't have health insurance.

In most cases, the only way Americans can get decent health benefits without paying an arm and a leg (pardon) for them is to find a job that offers health benefits as a perk. Like many Americans, I'm sure he lost whatever health benefits he had the moment he was laid off.

And like most Americans without health insurance, he had to wait until he absolutely had to go to the emergency room in order to receive treatment.

But when Willis started getting headaches and his face began to swell, he went to the emergency room.

"The (doctors) gave him antibiotic and pain medication. But he couldn't afford to pay for the antibiotic, so he chose the pain meds, which was not what he needed," Collins said.

Doctors told Willis' family that while the pain had stopped, the infection kept spreading -- eventually attacking his brain and causing it to swell.

"He should have gone to the dentist to take care of the toothache, and it wouldn't have escalated to this. It's a lesson learned by all," Collins said. 

Collins said the family wants to make sure what happened to Willis never happens to anyone else.
Family members said they are trying to get an account together for Willis' funeral expenses, and they're also hoping to create another fund for his daughter's college education.

This man will never get to see his daughter grow up, go off to college, start a career or start her a family of her own. And this man will never get to realize his goal of becoming a paralegal. A promising life lost and a family torn apart.

But wait...he's the nephew of Bootsy Collins' wife? Couldn't he have gotten his rich uncle to foot the medical bills?

It's a shame his uncle didn't come forward with a measley $20 when it would have saved his life.

Who knows what the family situation was like? I know family members who wouldn't piss on one another to put them out if they were on fire. Family dynamics are strange like that.

At some point, the comments were "cleansed" of the more "base" comments. And here's one such comment, in all it's epic glory:

Terrible, a dentist actually expects to get paid for their work? Horrible people, those dentists. ENTITLEMENTS that is what is wrong with the healthcare system, just like the rest of the country. Who is making money? The dentist down the street, or the MEGA Corp "insurance" company with it's skyscrapers? A good living, hopefully, vs dividends for shareholders. Quit blaming dentists for the troubles. How many smokes can you give up to get your teeth worked on? What about the stupid lotto tickets

Everyone complaining about dental "insurance" being hard to get, it is NOT insurance. It is a dental "benefit". It was not designed for people who don't take care of themselves. The max benefit is the same as it was in 1964 for most people. Benefit companies do everything they can to make sure you don't use it if you have it too. WHHHAAA, dentists are too expensive. You go to school, get the loans, risk your license on idiots all day, then see if you think it should be cheaper.

All the people who want the govt to be involved in their health are CRAZY. The govt has no interest in your health, just your votes. Healthcare reform won't fix stupid. This was just dumb, this is pure neglect, bad choices in life. Quit blaming everyone else for your bad choices. Sad he died, but no different than a grown man playing in rush hour traffic. It was bound to happen.

The guy had gold on his neck he could have pawned. He could have brushed and flossed like all of you SHOULD and he would not have had this happen. Quit trying to blame everyone else, he let it happen to himself. If he cared enough to spend ~$8 a month on his teeth (floss/paste/brush) and use them correctly, he isn't going to get this kind of thing happening. PERIOD. All the bellyachers saying I don't have any enamel/I have soft teeth too, GROW UP. No, breast feeding DOES NOT hurt your teeth.

The stupid, it burns.

Instead of treating universal health care as a preventative measure that not only saves lives, but also lowers the cost to taxpayers and businesses, it's deemed a "socialist/Marxist" invention used by limp-wristed socialist Europeans and Canadians, one that seeks to make doctors poor, bleed God-fearing taxpayers dry and keep welfare queens nice and healthy. And to die-hard conservatives, the fact that you don't have health insurance is a personal failing, therefore you deserve everything that happens to you.

These same people often have enough money to swing the thousands of dollars per year needed for health coverage or have the federal government take care of that (DoD/DoJ/government contractors). It's a case of "Got Mine, Fuck You" Syndrome.

It's too bad Obama passed that limp-wristed healthcare reform bill without including the public option. If it didn't help Kyle Willis in time, at least it would have helped so many other Americans currently without health insurance.