William Shatner has an interview show called “Raw Nerve.” When I was at DragonCon last September, he and Leonard Nimoy talked briefly about this show and Shatner mentioned that he’d gotten to interview Rush Limbaugh.
A clip from that interview has been release in which the two talk about health care. I have a personal issue with linking to anything that propagates Rush to a larger audience, so I’ll just give you a transcription of what I believe to be the money quotes.
SHATNER:
If you have money, you’re going to get health care. If you don’t have money it’s more difficult.
LIMBAUGH:
If you have money you’re going to get a house on the beach. If you don’t have money you’re going to live in a bungalow somewhere.
SHATNER:
But we’re talking about health care.
LIMBAUGH:
What’s the difference?
And there it is. That’s the source of all the conflict laid bare. The conservatives do not believe there is a difference between health care and anything else one might buy or own. And trying to explain it the difference is like banging your head against a wall made of stupid.
The difference is that if you don’t have access to health care, you can die. The difference is that, while conservatives are all about the free market and competition, the health insurance industry is exempted from antitrust laws – meaning they are a cartel, allowed to fix prices and therefore work outside of the free market. They buy congressmen in wholesale lots so despite polls that show a public option has widespread popularity, you get “independent” senators like Joe Lieberman who will vote against any bill that includes anything that might change the status quo.
Our congressmen work for the health insurance industry, not for us.
I am so sick and tired of hearing conservative pundits say we have the best health care system in the world. I’m tired of hearing people tell me that no one is turned away for lack of ability to pay. That’s just not the case.
If I go to the emergency room today with something serious, like a tumor. They have no obligation to remove it. They are obliged to get me stable enough to go home.
I am tired of conservatives complaining that they don’t want to have to pay for someone else’s health care. We do not get to pick and choose what our tax dollars are spent on. If we could, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would have been defunded years ago. I have news for you. You’re already paying for other people’s health care. Every time someone goes to the emergency room and can’t pay, you pay.
So, would you rather pay on the front end – preventative care that is cheaper and ultimately more successful – or on the back end – emergency room care that is the most expensive way to get care.
They scream about “rationing health care” but our health care is already rationed. If I were to go to the largest medical partnership in my town as a new patient and ask to see a doctor for a physical check up, the earliest I could get an appointment is March. MARCH! They might could get me in next month if I’m willing to see a nurse, instead. I can go the walk-in clinic, but they don’t do physicals or well visits. And if I can’t pay, I’ll be banned.
The current model cannot hold because it is bankrupting people. Insurance companies are cherry picking healthy people and dropping the sick ones so even if you can afford insurance and make your payments, as soon as you need their help, they will drop you. Once that happens, you cannot get insurance because of your “pre-existing condition.”
I was making this point with a conservative friend recently. As soon as I mentioned health care reform, she said “Meaning everyone has the same health care.”
“No,” I said. “Meaning everyone can afford health care insurance.”
“Meaning the government gets involved.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t want to have this conversation with you.”
The government is not our enemy. I don’t understand why, with the success and popularity of Medicare and Medicaid, that conservatives believe the government is incapable of running a health care system. They say they don’t want a government bureaucrat to get between a patient and doctor. But we currently have a corporate bureaucrat doing that very thing.
I don’t understand why small business owners aren’t on the steps of the capital demanding a single-payer government health care system like Medicare for everyone. Wouldn’t not having to provide health insurance for your employees help your bottom line?
Let’s be clear about our terms:
Socialized Medicine: that’s where all the hospitals are owned by the government and all the doctors, nurses and staff work for the government.
Single payer: that’s like Medicare, where hospitals and doctors work pretty much as they do now, but they bill the government for services and everyone is covered.
Public option: who the hell knows?



