…that many of the ‘protestors’ who are against Universal Healthcare appear to be close to, or at, Medicare age? Damn that socialist healthcare — now give me my Medicare! I’ve earned it! LOL.

I’m thinking of getting one of these wristbands:

And to those who say “you can get healthcare, just go to the emergency room, they have to treat you for free”, I say: Good luck with that. The only way that hospital is going to write you off is if you give them a fake name and SSN. Give them the real info (and the EMS will), and you are on the hook.

Oh god, and I hear quotes like “they are taking away our freedom”. Ha. Ha. Ha. You mean that your desire to stick with your Mega Insurance Plan? The one Which Pays 70% After Meeting The $5000 Co-Pay? Which was probably chosen by your employer as the lowest bidder? That “choice”? So that non-existent “freedom” is more imporant than the huge rollbacks of civil liberties over the last 8 years?

Some random thoughts:

• Allow 100% of medical expenses to be deducted starting at the first dollar spent. If I can deduct a ream of paper for my business expenses, I should be able to deduct the $200 for a bottle of pills. I spent thousands of dollars IN CASH on medical expenses last year, but couldn’t use them as deductions, because the gigantic percentage required to meet the threshold. (Basically, if you meet the threshold, you’ve also probably gone bankrupt.)
• Reward people with chronic illnesses with inexpensive medications. I’ve never understood why I’m, in effect, penalized for taking care of myself. Why won’t my insurance company pay for my blood pressure medicine, but will pay for an ER heart attack?  I could have bought 5 years of meds for the cost of my last trip to the ER — and that was a 4 hour stay (and was due to an allergy, and not my heart)!
• Have coverage available to all — but don’t make it a free ride. Provide affordable coverage ($600 a month is NOT affordable) to even high-risk people, but require them to be monitored. For example, I would love to get a big discount on my insurance premiums if I was required to see the doctor quarterly, prove that I am taking my medications, staying healthy, etc. Sure, it sounds like Big Brother — but it would be my choice. If I didn’t want the monitoring, I’d pay $600 a month. If I went with the program, I’d pay $200 a month.
• Admit that COBRA is useless and get rid of it. Oh sure, you can keep your previous coverage when you leave an employer, until you realize how much (or little) the employer was putting into the pot. Sorry, but I’d rather spend my $600 on food.

That’s enough for now. That’s what you get when I read the CNN home page too early in the day.