Get Sick, Have Health Insurance, Go Bankrupt

In 2007, 62% of all personal bankruptcies were the result of an illness. And 78% of those people already had health insurance when they first became ill. Most of these ill and bankrupt people had been covered by a private insurance carrier, not Medicare or Medicaid.

Compare these figures to 1981, when only 8% of personal bankruptcies were caused by illness.

If you’ve seen Sicko, you’ll remember that all of the victims from that movie had health insurance as well. It’s one thing to dismiss Sicko as just the ramblings of a flagburning socialist. But it’ll be harder for the knuckledragging community to dismiss this article, unless Business Week is just another communist front group.

According to this article, most of the people who filed for bankruptcy were middle class; two thirds of them owned their homes. One of the authors of this study, Dr. David Himmelstein, said:

"For middle-class Americans, health insurance offers little protection. Most of us have policies with so many loopholes, co-payments and deductibles that illness can put you in the poorhouse. Unless you're Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy.”

Dr. Himmelstein has also described health insurance as “an umbrella that melts in the rain.”

So — how can we pass health insurance reform over the objections of the multi-billion dollar health insurance industry and their harem of prostitutes (formerly known as “Congress”)?

Obama needs a villain, according to this article by Josh Skolnick. He says:

“Obama needs more than deadlines, his charm, and Rahm Emmanuel’s legendary arm-twisting abilities to get this kind of mammoth legislation passed. He needs a villain…He needs to out the nefarious characters blocking change — to put a face to the opposition.”

Republicans have known this for decades. For that matter, it’s ALL they’ve ever known. Get the public riled up, terrified, boiling with fury, and then create a villain. Presto!

How many laws have Republicans ever passed without conjuring up images of “Terrorists,” “Communism,” “parasites on welfare,” “bumbling faceless bureaucrats meddling in our Free Enterprise system,” etc. Zero. Nada. Zip point shit.

The article continues with: “So far Obama has only shown us the victims of the system. The enemies are insurance companies—but can you name a single insurance company executive?”

Time to start naming names. Let the Swiftboating begin. Vilify!

And how do we pay for health insurance reform? There’s a bill in the House that would raise taxes on the wealthiest 1.2% of the population. Republicans are hysterical about this. As they point out, successful Americans haven’t paid such outrageous taxes since 1986, when this rabble-rousing commie was in charge.

cross-posted at Bring It On!