Sunday, December 12, 2010

And More! Meet Joe, The Gift That Keeps On Giving...

This one speaks for itself, no intro necessary. I give you the estimable Joe:

"Dave has a vested interest in the poor, because they make up his livelihood."

Nice try. The ad hominem attack. Last resort stuff. Joe can't attack my facts, so he goes after my motives and integrity. Classic!

You don't pay attention, Joe. The poor do not make up my livelihood any more or less than they make up an oncologist's or primary care doctor's livelihood. I admit anyone with insurance and a psychiatric problem grave enough to force profit-driven health insurance companies to open their bulging coffers and squeeze out a few nickels for treatment. Unless the patient is blessed with Medicaid, a literal lifesaver for anyone lucky and poor enough to qualify for government-funded health insurance, and they get better care that costs less.

And BTW, I'm sure you didn't know this, but the companies administering not-for-profit Medicaid health plans are the same ones who run the fabulously lucrative private ones. There is no "government takeover of health care" underway. The difference is, a poor person's Network Health Plan has top medicine co-pays of $3. A middle-class worker's inferior, for-profit version of the same plan, using the same doctors and the same medication formularies, have top co-pays of $35. Take three medicines a month and you may be hit with a bill for over a hundred dollars, in addition to your hefty monthly share of your plan's premiums.

You don't listen, Joe. You just find the sources you need to back up your pre-existing, ill-informed opinion, then march into battle.

The people I serve are, I will say again and again, the same as me and you, and I've already said that, but you don't listen. Quote whomever you like.

I'm not Don Quixote. If you insist on being a windmill I'll just have to give up jousting with you.

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