43 Responses to Haunting videos from the heartland of Americans in desperate need of healthcare

1. sadlyyes December 10th, 2009 at 7:09 am «

   ,we are the richest country in the world,too bad it all$$$$$$$$$$$ goes to BIgBanks,Big Pharma….and the HIGHWAYMEN of Insurance industry
2. KarenM December 10th, 2009 at 7:19 am «

   Thanks for doing the dirty work, Eve.
• Eve (nyceve) Gittelson December 10th, 2009 at 9:32 am «

  Hi karen- had to take half an Ambien to sleep last night.It’s just so damn overwhelming.
• KarenM December 10th, 2009 at 6:20 pm «

  Eve, I’m just about to put someone else on Silent Unity’s prayer list, good for a month of 24/7. I’m going to put you on their list, too. I hope it helps. Also, something lavender might help with sleep. And knitting is relaxing, too.
• Eve (nyceve) Gittelson December 10th, 2009 at 6:30 pm «

  Thanks for your kind words, Karen!
3. Twain December 10th, 2009 at 9:12 am «

   Eve, we are grateful for a job well done which must have been really heart breaking for you. Thanks for your dedication.
4. Shoto December 10th, 2009 at 9:19 am «

   Here’s Taibbi’s take on the whole, sordid mess…
• eCAHNomics December 10th, 2009 at 9:24 am «

  I disagree with Taibbi. I think I saw that left-handedness is a preexisting condition that will not be covered. /s
• Shoto December 10th, 2009 at 9:25 am «

  Good point.
• Hugh December 10th, 2009 at 10:01 am «

  I disagree with Taibbi. I think I saw that left-handedness is a preexisting condition that will not be covered. /s

  You are on a roll. It is distressing and predictable that most news sources are portraying it as Medicare is being opened up to everyone over 55. A few will site higher rates but almost none stress that it is a tiny subset of 55 and overs who could sign up (and afford it).
5. NCGal December 10th, 2009 at 9:19 am «

   Even in strong economic times, whenever I’ve heard of free healthcare services offered in a one-day event, I also hear of huge crowds, for medical and dental services. There are millions of people “invisible” in this country…
6. georgewalton December 10th, 2009 at 9:22 am «

   Sadly, all too many brainwashed Americans [especially of the dittohead strain] will see videos like this and just shrug it off with, “well, what do you expect from people like them…”

   Capitalist exploitation thrives in America as in no other industrial nation by convincing millions that those who are poor, uninsured, homeless etc. have no one to blame but themselves.

   Then the Fox News, talk radio reactionaries fill their heads further with racist garbage about the shiftless, lazy welfare bums who are all out there stealing the tax dollars of hard working folks like their listeners.

   BeckWorld denizens [mostly white working class and lower middle class folks] are programed to see all government programs as transfer payments from the hard working “real Americans” to, well, to them.

   Ignorance is the fuel the healthcare industry uses to con millions. And the mainstream media, alas, does little to expose it. Why should it? The healthcare industry, after all, is one of their biggest sources of advertising dollars.

   Either progressives come up with a way to breakdown this clyle of lies or the tragedies they beget will just keep on keeping on.
7. VADEM December 10th, 2009 at 9:26 am «

   We’ll be needing many more of these.

   Pelosi just pulled the plug on the po.

   RIP

   I’m furious.
• eCAHNomics December 10th, 2009 at 9:29 am «

  Link?
• VADEM December 10th, 2009 at 9:42 am «

  on HuffPost.
• eCAHNomics December 10th, 2009 at 9:43 am «

  Yes, and msnbc said something that’s probably the same thing.
• VADEM December 10th, 2009 at 9:51 am «

  There will be hell to pay. Now and in 2010 and 2012.

  Now just stop and think how it SHOULD have gone down:

  Obama refuses to sign hcr if there is no po.

  But oh no. We gotta put up with this shit and LIKE it and send the DNC money.

  Wrong.
• eCAHNomics December 10th, 2009 at 9:56 am «

  I typed yesterday that I had been watching the slomo suicide of the U.S. economy by medical costs since 1991, when I first analysed it (but of course, it had to have been a problem long before that in order to accumulate enough evidence for a macroeconomist to notice). Even so, I have been unable to predict the twists and turns of the story. Just seems to keep getting worse despite the evidence. Guessing that will be true of whatever legislation passes.
• Hugh December 10th, 2009 at 10:07 am «

  Even so, I have been unable to predict the twists and turns of the story. Just seems to keep getting worse despite the evidence.

  I was writing at Naked Capitalism last night that in so far as the legislative process is concerned it will get worse and worse because there is no downside to lobbyists going to the max in their demands. Who is gong to penalize them? Obama and the Congress are stumbling all over themselves to give them whatever they want and the American public has been cut out of the process entirely.
8. eCAHNomics December 10th, 2009 at 9:28 am «

   Live report by Ed on msnbc coming up.
9. eCAHNomics December 10th, 2009 at 9:32 am «

   msnbc sez that prez has signed off on senate plan without po.
10. eCAHNomics December 10th, 2009 at 9:38 am «

    Oh geez, allegedly armed perp shot by cops on the street in Times Square.
11. eCAHNomics December 10th, 2009 at 9:39 am «

    Free clinic coverage up on msnbc.
12. eCAHNomics December 10th, 2009 at 9:41 am «

    83% have jobs.
• Twain December 10th, 2009 at 9:42 am «

  who?
• eCAHNomics December 10th, 2009 at 9:54 am «

  Of the people at the Free clinic in KC.
• Twain December 10th, 2009 at 9:55 am «

  thanks. The working poor
• eCAHNomics December 10th, 2009 at 9:57 am «

  Yes. But they also gave out blankets to the homeless who attended.
• Twain December 10th, 2009 at 10:01 am «

  I guess that’s better than nothing when you have limited funds. The people in DC should be ashamed that these pictures are going out around the world and we are constantly talking about “what a great country.” Tell that to the poor.
13. eCAHNomics December 10th, 2009 at 9:41 am «

    1600 patients.
14. Hugh December 10th, 2009 at 9:49 am «

    OT I just saw that Editor and Publisher and Kirkus Review were going to be shut down by their parent company. I always thought it was a mistake for E&P to go to a subscriber model, too few potential subscribers.

    Re Pelosi:

    http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/pelosi-lets-wait-and-see-what-public-option-compromise-comes-out-of-the-senate.php

    she said the House can accept a healthcare bill w/o a PO.
• SouthernDragon December 10th, 2009 at 9:56 am «

  Yeah, the House can accept a bill without a po and the American people can go piss up a rope.
15. Hugh December 10th, 2009 at 9:55 am «

    Pelosi’s bail is completely expectable. She is a PINO, a progressive in name only. Let’s face it Congressional “progressives” are caving on healthcare just as many of us said they would.

    It is interesting to look at healthcare and financial reform happening now. We see the same kind of sell outs in both and the same stomping out of any hint of real reform in either. It goes to show that this is a feature not a bug, and that we can, with a dash of posturing thrown in, see much the same with regard to Afghanistan.
16. JamesJoyce December 10th, 2009 at 10:01 am «

    “Many of the people I met today are working full time and simply cannot afford the exorbitant monthly health insurance premium, so they go without. The choice is stark. Health insurance or rent, food and clothing for the kids”

    Americans need protections from corporate health insurers as slaves, like Dred Scott needed the protection of law, denied. Slaves made decisions like this everyday. The consequences are still the same, death!

    The 13th Amendment Abolished Involuntary Servitude

    The 14th Amendment bestowed citizenship on all salves and also instilled the seeds of corporate servitude, at the state level. As Americans of color faced discrimination and usurpation of rights by segregationist for a century after emancipation all Americans suffer today legalized discrimination and an insidious form of involuntary Servitude to corporate health injurers today acting at state level claiming state’s rights as slave owners did.

    Here is a novel idea Abolish state run health insurance corporations as we abolished slavery, preserve the constitution, the union, and the rights of the governed from corporations who buy law to undermine the life and liberties of Americans in the lust for endless profit, like drug addicts!
17. SouthernDragon December 10th, 2009 at 10:06 am «

    Well, in a couple weeks we’re gonna see what the “progresssive caucus” is made of.
• Hugh December 10th, 2009 at 10:10 am «

  If they aren’t staking out their positions now, I think it is safe to assume they don’t have any, and won’t have any.
18. Ann in AZ December 10th, 2009 at 10:09 am «

    Jon Walker has a fresh cross-post already in progress: “Don’t Be Shocked When The Democratic Base Does Not Turn Out In 2010”
19. JamesJoyce December 10th, 2009 at 10:17 am «

    I really do hope the Trolls and politicians alike read this. They do have much to be fearful of. The irresponsibility of both political parties for decades in failing to serve the needs of this nation, instead protecting Corporate’ s Identity,” and profits while minimizing the accountability of Officers who profit at the expense of Life and Liberty, is simply staggering. Corporate Sodomy, American Style! Bend over America and smile?
• onitgoes December 10th, 2009 at 1:34 pm «

  I would like to believe that you’re right, but I doubt it. It doesn’t seem to matter how many citizens are in peril. I truly don’t think the Villagers give a shit, and there’s just enough middle class people out there who will vote as they usually do. So the same old corporate whores and pigs at the trough will get back in and continue ripping us off.

  I would sincerely love to be dead wrong about this, and I am certainly going to work my tail off to effect what changes I can. But I’m at the point now where I don’t believe that my vote counts for one damn thing. Certainly the people I voted for are NOT following through on their campaign “promises,” nor are they in any way “representing” me or what I believe is best for all concerned.
20. thelonegunman December 10th, 2009 at 11:56 am «

    you must not have gotten the same memo the MAJORITY dems got from their corporate masters: there is no health insurance ‘crisis’ in this country – you just need a law requiring people to buy such insurance and then everyone will be covered…

    mandatory health insurance + no public option = massive $$$$$ giveaway (transfer of wealth upwards from the rest of us to the monied elite – at the behest of their bought and paid-for political slaves)… but then, after all – that’s what this was all about to begin with… how to get more money from ‘the people’ and make them believe its for their own good…
21. readerOfTeaLeaves December 10th, 2009 at 12:39 pm «

    So it’s a good day for the CEO of GE to mention part of what’s gone wrong in the US over the past generation:

    Quoted at HuffPo:

    He added: “Rewards became perverted. The richest people made the most mistakes with the least accountability. In too many situations, leaders divided us instead of bringing us together.”

    Meanwhile, today’s biz news announces that the UK and France are going to tax banker bonuses.

    But we still have members of the U.S. Senate claiming that the problems in health care derive from the fact that the GOP does not control Congress. As if government has no role whatsoever in protecting monopolies, or clawing back banker’s bonuses.

    So Eve, thanks for doing what you’re doing.
    The videos are powerful; thanks for putting them together and getting them online.
22. Leen December 10th, 2009 at 2:06 pm «

    Eve you are doing amazing work. thank you for giving these folks an outlet to tell their stories. Too bad there is not some way to project a big screen outside the Senate buildings since none of our Reps will go to any of the free clinics to hear these stories.

    Thanks again
• KarenM December 10th, 2009 at 6:27 pm «

  Good idea, but I really think that holography is what is called for in this case. No screen, just 3-d projections, around the clock… say, near the Lincoln memorial. The technology exists…