From Pine View Farm

Health and Sanity category archive

The Doctor Is In(censed) 0

In The Charlotte Observer, a North Carolina physician unloads on the AHCA (that is, Trumpcare). A snippet:

As a retired pediatrician, I am frankly frustrated, angry and ashamed to be an American because of what we are about to do. As long as other developed countries enjoy adequate and successful health insurance for all of their citizens, we are not the most successful nation on the planet. We are, in reality, guilty of economic racism, and the utter failure of states’ rights when it comes to equality in health care.

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How Stuff Works, Insurance Dept. 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Mark B. Baer explains why Trumpcare is in no way health “insurance.”

Read it.

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Ryan’s Derp 0

Woman and child standing on steps of mobile home as woman looks at medical bills.  She is saying,

Via Job’s Anger.

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DonaldPaul’s Baby 0

Paul Ryan and Donald Trump staring through the window into the maternity ward, where their baby, named


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You’ve met the parents. Now meet the midwife.

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Follow the Money 0

Thom suggests that Trumpcare is motivated by tax cuts for the rich and nothing more, then reviews the potential costs to ordinary citizens.

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Elephant Hunt 0

Smiling Republican elephant labeled


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“The Party of Personal Responsibility” 0

House GOP to little baby:  Born with a pre-existing condition, were you?  Well, don't expect us healthy God-fearing citizens to pay for your preexisting condition, kid!


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In related news, Dick Polman dissects the hypocrisy.

Image via The Bob Cesca Show Blog.

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Wall of Lies, Reprise 0

Via Raw Story.

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The Missing Piece (Updated) 0

Republican Elephants as doctor gathered around a surgical patient labeled

The reason Republicans are so determined to repeal the ACA, which they chose to dub “Obamacare,” is quite simple.

They cannot stand that the Black Guy did it.

Via Job’s Anger.

Addendum, Later That Same Day:

Josh Marshall comments on ACA repeal passing the House (emphasis added):

. . . this should remind us of what I’ve previously called the Iron Law of Republican Politics. That is, the ‘GOP moderates’ will always cave. I learned this law back in 1998-99 during the impeachment drama. Lots of Republicans thought impeachment was insanity. They warned against it. Said it shouldn’t happen. Said it would be a disaster. Every Republican in the House but four ended up voting for it.

That’s the Iron Law: the ‘GOP moderates’ will always cave.

More at the link.

Afterthought:

In order to have a “crisis of conscience,” you must first have a conscience.

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Speaking of Health Care Fantasies . . . . 0

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The Art of the Con, Free Market Fantasies Dept. 0

At the San Francisco Chronicle, Kristin Luker skewers some of the “free market” fantasies with which Republican dress up their attempts to deny health care to the citizenry.

Here’s the list; follow the link for the discussion (emphasis in the original):

  • Fantasy No. 1 is the idea that people shop for health insurance just as they shop for peas.
  • Fantasy No. 2 is the idea that the patient is the consumer. No. The physician is the consumer . . . .
  • Fantasy No. 3 is that health care is an individual matter. This is nonsense — all health is public health.

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GOP Health Care: “Don’t Get Sick. If You Do Get Sick, Die Quickly” 0

Dick Polman takes a look at Trump Care v. 2.0. A snippet (italics in the original):

Under Obamacare, insurance companies can’t slap higher premiums on people who have pre-existing health conditions. This has long been one of the law’s most popular features. But when Trump was asked yesterday the simplest of questions – does the new Republican bill protect these people or not? – he was incapable of clarity. Either he was purposefully duplicitous (naw, him?) or simply ignorant about what the bill actually says (naw, him?).

His answer:

“Pre-existing conditions are in the bill. And I just watched another network than yours, and they were saying ‘Pre-existing is not covered.’ Pre-existing conditions are in the bill. And I mandate it. I said, ‘Has to be.’….They say we don’t cover pre-existing conditions. We cover it beautifully.”

I know this might shock you, but the truth is precisely the opposite of what Trump said.

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Trumpling the Art of Compromise 0

Donald Trump dressed as Hollywood gangster at end of dock resting foot on bucket labeled


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Health Care Fundamental 0

Atrios states the core issue.

If you get sick, should you just die if you aren’t rich?

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The Pusher Men 0

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Still in Search of That Elusive Buck 0

Daniel Ruth considers Donald Trump’s reaction the the failure of Paul Ryan’s “they laughing call it a health care” bill. A snippet:

This wasn’t a health care proposal. It was a health care pogrom on the American people. It was Trump Scare.

Despite all the finger-pointing and Trump’s efforts to blame the United Nations, the Brownies, the Peace Corps, Saturday Night Live and Ted Cruz’s father for the failure of the Think of Dead as Just a Chronic Condition Act, the measure was supported by only 17 percent of the public. And that was probably the membership at the Mar-a-Lago Golf Club.

Meanwhile, TPM reports that Republicans are considering trying again, apparently because being against the Affordable Care Act seems to be all they know how to do.

Afterthought:

We have traded the “rule of law” for the “rule of flaw.”

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Self-Help Book 0

Title:  The President's New Book.  Image:  Book in jacket that says,

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A Diet of Worms 0

Warning: Language.

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Projecting the Loss 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Stanton Peel returns with another post about Donald Trump; Peele argues that Trump’s reaction to Republicans’ pulling their “they laughingly call it a health care” bill is a classic illustration of psychological projection.

Here’s a bit:

“We got no Democratic votes,” President Trump said in an interview as he attempted to put the best possible face on a major defeat.

Um, Mr. President? No votes were taken with Democrats present.

Psychological projection is a syndrome in which humans defend themselves against their own unconscious impulses or qualities by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others.

Donald Trump’s speech on the defeat of the health care bill he supported was a model of projection.

Do please read the rest.

Read more »

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Ryan’s Derp (Updated, Kicked to the Top) 0

It’s one battle.

It’s not the war.

Afterthought:

Thanks, Obama.

Addendum:

SeattlePI previews the next strategy to make America sick again.

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