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Cutting Health Care Costs: New Plan for Seniors

By Pat Racimora on July 30, 2009 at 10:45 AM in Current Affairs, Health Care, Medicare, Universal Health Care

(Bumped up from the morning of July 29)

webr4reaperground_edited-41

My recent toon, Are Grandma and Grandpa the Target? presented the full text of what will be in store for those over 65 years of age. You won’t hear much about this in the MSM, of course.

HARP made a quick comment to that toon: The reaper is cheaper. An image sprang into my mind, and I wanted to create it and share it. (Thanks, HARP, for the inspiration.)

Before you suggest that I am a scare-mongering right-wingnut plant, please read the full text for yourself. (That will be more than many members of the House are apparently willing to do.) If you can’t fully understand it, you are not alone. It reads as ominous and intrusive in a muddled, sneaky sort of way, and it scares the shit out of me!

Quick Update: I am listening to Obama’s virtual Town Hall meeting as I write, and he is assuring everyone that Medicare benefits will not be cut (even though he has said that billions will be cut over the next 10 years). But the question I am asking did come up. His answer was vague–he THINKS that the death counseling is meant to be available only for those who ask for it (the current House draft says no such thing) and adds that if people are worried, it could be changed. Time to write your congressional rep, and at least ask that this section be clarified. It is incomprehensible as it stands.

  • Mamatx

    Unfortunately, your cartoon hits the nail on the head Pat! Let’s hope America’s seniors don’t believe their “watchdog” AARP and wake up before they are shamed into “choosing” to die rather than use up health care that Obama thinks would be better used by others—like illegal immigrants and ACORN workers.

    • bho boo

      Americans Against Retired Persons?
      ———–
      Obama is guilty of treason by promoting the exact same “T-4″ policy of Adolf Hitler.

      U.S. President Barack Obama delivered a nationally-televised press conference at 8 p.m. on July 22nd, in which on five separate occasions he called for health reform legislation featuring the establishment of “an independent board of doctors and health care experts” to make the life-and-death decisions of what care to provide, and what not, based on cost-effectiveness criteria–exactly the infamous “T-4″ policy imposed by Adolf Hitler in 1939, for which the Nazi regime was tried and condemned at Nuremberg.

      http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/obama-admits-recently-passed-laws-havent-helped-average-americans/

      We have got to beat this thing now, because that represents a strategic forcing mechanism; whereas if they ram this thing through in the short term, which they are really desperate to do, then the Constitution is finished, the Republic is gone. It’s the equivalent of the Reichstag fire.

      T4 policy was about actively and intentionally killing patients based on certain criteria, including (for example) people with incurable physical and mental disabilities, often either by coercing their (or their guardian’s) consent or with no consent at all. It was enacted against both adults and children.

    • tek

      It will be outrageous if a health bill passes that covers illegal immigrants and legal Americans have to pay for it.

      You just have to wonder what in the world the feds are up to with the illegal alien issue, both administrations have now supported the illegal entry and maintenance of hispanics.

      • tango

        Not only are illegal immigrants covered, the House bill exempts them from paying a yearly fee if they choose NOT to purchase health insurance. So exactly what is the motivating factor for those here illegally to pursue legal citizenship if they get free health care, don’t have to pay taxes for it if working under the table and aren’t penalized for not purchasing insurance???

        • http://shhhithitsthefan.wordpress.com/ It hits the fan

          So does that mean I can renounce my citizenship, go to Canada and then sneak back across the border and get free health care? Woo Hoo!

          Citizens Unite! If it’s good enough for illegals it’s good enough for the rest of us.

        • Dem NO MORE

          IMO, Obama wants to assure that he will not have a 1 term Presidency. Catering to illegals is probably the only way he’ll be able to get a 2nd term at this rate. I’ll place my bet that he’s going to work on getting them citizenship soon so they can vote.

          (I hope I’m wrong…but I don’t think so.)

          • bho boo

            More like what Dick Morris says:
            Give illegals free care, get them amnesty and the vote, and Obama has a lifetime dictatorship.

      • nan

        All human beings need and deserve good health care.

        • Portia Elizabeth

          They don’t all deserve to have me pay for it.

          • Jules

            The illegal immigrant situation reminds me of the Titanic. How many people can we fit on our life raft before we all drown?

        • listing starboard

          All human beings need and deserve food. Does that give everyone a right to march into the Safeway and take food?

        • don tufts

          your right as long as ezikial rahmm aka dr mengala and his brother have nothing to do with it.which in the currant situation is as likely as michael jackson compleating his london shows,so thanks but no thanks.

        • tek

          But they don’t need to steal it from legal Americans.

    • elizabethrc

      Does Obama truly believe that we’re stupid and will just go along with his insane legislative moves?
      Are they so insulated from real life that they don’t know that the populous is hopping mad and are not going to take these infringements on our rights lying down?
      How dare Obama and any politician think they have the right to decide who lives and who dies, who gets relief from pain and who doesn’t? They don’t and they never will!
      The answer? Vote very carefully in all coming elections and get rid of the ones who are hell bent on destroying our democracy. Make Obama a one termer.
      This is pure descrimination based on age and I can’t wait for the law suits and challenges to start. Obama’s going to be over his head in them!

    • Nellie

      Pat, you wrote

      Before you suggest that I am a scare-mongering right-wingnut plant, please read the full text for yourself. (That will be more than many members of the House are apparently willing to do.) If you can’t fully understand it, you are not alone. It reads as ominous and intrusive in a muddled, sneaky sort of way, and it scares the shit out of me!

      You are a gentle soul, who always is considerate of others.

      However FACTS make this the scariest thing ever. And I am a tough old Yankee from NH who does not care easily, and I am terrified – given what Obama and his “Health Advisory Board” have planned.

      Pat is 100% RIGHT – read the damn thing with a lined pad and pen in hand so you can take notes and try and get a full comprehensive picture.

  • bho boo

    Obama is guilty of treason by promoting the exact same “T-4″ policy of Adolf Hitler.

    U.S. President Barack Obama delivered a nationally-televised press conference at 8 p.m. on July 22nd, in which on five separate occasions he called for health reform legislation featuring the establishment of “an independent board of doctors and health care experts” to make the life-and-death decisions of what care to provide, and what not, based on cost-effectiveness criteria–exactly the infamous “T-4″ policy imposed by Adolf Hitler in 1939, for which the Nazi regime was tried and condemned at Nuremberg.

    http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/obama-admits-recently-passed-laws-havent-helped-average-americans/

    We have got to beat this thing now, because that represents a strategic forcing mechanism; whereas if they ram this thing through in the short term, which they are really desperate to do, then the Constitution is finished, the Republic is gone. It’s the equivalent of the Reichstag fire.

    T4 policy was about actively and intentionally killing patients based on certain criteria, including (for example) people with incurable physical and mental disabilities, often either by coercing their (or their guardian’s) consent or with no consent at all. It was enacted against both adults and children.

    • http://www.rapturealert.com bethtopaz

      Too fat, too ugly, too retarded, too old, too – no health care for you. BO decides, you live or die, based on his opinion and that of his czars – unelected by the people.

      none of this surprises those of us who know what a hideous monster Barack Obama is.

      The Chicago Mafia now runs the country.

  • sowsear

    Trying to send a message to Washington is like trying to talk to the wind. They are already making excuses about why they can’t read that 1000 page, 14lb. bill. And they don’t have two lawyers, they say, to interpret for them as they read anyway!!
    None is so deaf than he who will not hear.

    • NoBamaNoWay

      the only ones who really know what’s in the bill are the lobbyists who wrote it; the congresscrooks, however, sure read the zeros on the checks the lobbyists gave them.

      • Portia Elizabeth

        It’s certain That One doesn’t know what’s in the bill. He’s said as much. And yet he can still pontificate about what is and is not in there when he goes to those town hall hypnosis sessions.

  • tek

    Well, I wonder what he thinks now about Hillary’s failed effort to get healthcare passed?

    Obama=Jerk.

    • politicalidentitycrisis

      I just refer to him as POTIS (President of the incessantly stupid) Biz-Czar.

      How long can this B(o)S continue?

      • tango

        I just call it “Obamanation” – as in abomination. Pretty much covers any and all horrible things he’s done past and current.

  • TexasMirth

    Great cartoon!

    I am listening to Obama’s virtual Town Hall meeting as I write, and he is assuring everyone that Medicare benefits will not be cut (even though he has said that billions will be cut over the next 10 years)

    Confuse, mislead, equivocate…It reminds me of Orwell’s slogans from 1984: “Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength.”

    • tzada

      They will not be cut. But the number of users will be. Of course this is for the “good of the whole.”

    • tzada

      President Obama’s comments during the AARP townhall on Tuesday seem to be at odds with the plan put forward by the White House last month.

      Reuters report on June 13th: President Barack Obama Saturday proposed an additional $313 billion in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and other programs to pay for health care reforms expected to cost about $1 trillion over the next decade.

      http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-error-at-aarp-nobody-is-talking-about-cutting-medicare-benefits/

    • Nellie

      Goebles, Hitler henchman, also advocated those “communication” techniques

  • tango

    This is the way I see it:

    Benefits don’t need to be cut as in saying such and such will no longer be covered in order to save money. Just do as the House bill proposes and cut back reimbursements to Medicare/Medicaid providers and say it’s “cutting out waste”. So where the government might have paid $100 for such and such before, only pay $75 now. When providers make less for the same amount of work as before, using the same amount of resources and personnel, more providers will no longer accept new Medicare/Medicaid patients or even drop the ones they currently treat. That means the elderly and poor wait longer to get an appointment, travel longer distances for care, and experience longer turnaround times for treatment after diagnosis which equals more of them dying quicker which ultimately saves the government money.

    • http://shhhithitsthefan.wordpress.com/ It hits the fan

      When providers make less for the same amount of work as before, using the same amount of resources and personnel, more providers will no longer accept new Medicare/Medicaid patients or even drop the ones they currently treat. That means the elderly and poor wait longer to get an appointment, travel longer distances for care, and experience longer turnaround times for treatment after diagnosis which equals more of them dying quicker which ultimately saves the government money.

      Yep, that is right on the money. The dirty little secret the government isn’t talking about.

  • tzada

    You hit it right Pat. I will not use Medicaid or their insurance either. I hope everyone will make that decision.

    I have been researching and preparing for the last 2/3 years “knowing” that this was going to happen. Consider doing like I have, research medical problems and herbal/nutrition ways to solve them. Do it now.

    There are online sites for the plants and seeds. Order OP or heirloom food seeds. Do these things NOW. Don’t wait until the drug companies and their friends, perhaps stockholders outlaw this too.

    Print out as well as store this knowledge on disks, flash drives and your pc. Get a laptop. Get solar powered. Get ready.

  • oowawa

    A little gothic rock sentiment to accompany the ‘toon from Blue Oyster Cult:

    All our times have come
    Here but now they’re gone
    Seasons don’t fear the reaper
    Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain (we can be like they are)
    Come on baby…(don’t fear the reaper)
    Baby take my hand…(don’t fear the reaper)
    We’ll be able to fly…(don’t fear the reaper)
    Baby I’m your man…

    Okay, I’m ready! Bring on the O Health Care Plan along with a frosty Sayonara Cocktail with a little umbrella in it! Don’t fear the reaper!

    • Tricia Spiegel

      Love it oowawa!

  • WMCB

    Some candid thoughts and snapshots of healthcare today from the provider side:

    I’m just off the phone with my husband (he calls me most every morning from the hospital right before his 9am case management meeting, the sweetie.)

    He and his PA have 45 inpatients in the hospital today. Of those, 21 are uninsured, including 3 in ICU beds. The group he works for does manage to pay him $35 a day for uninsured patients, so at least he gets a little something for their very complicated ICU care. His hospital is on the southside, which is the poorest section of the city

    Meanwhile, another large hospital here in San Antonio is affiliated with the University. It is politically influential, being a big research hospital affiliated with some big name professors, etc. University hospital gets a very generous allowance from Bexar county, paid for with tax dollars, to care for the uninsured. The deal is supposed to be that they are supposed to accept transfers of the uninsured from all the other hospitals here. NONE of the other hospitals get that chunk of money. Sound suspiciously like a certain well-connected hospital in Chicago?

    In the 2 years hubby has worked here, he has had University accept an uninsured patient maybe 5 times. If you call them to try to get one transferred, the answer is invariably “sorry, we don’t have any beds available”. The other docs from outlying hospitals will tell you the same- University almost never agrees to take the uninsured patients they are paid to take. It’s patient dumping, pure and simple, with them making a nice profit from those tax dollars.

    Our system is BROKEN. And if we don’t get real reform (not Obamacare), and soon, it’s going to get worse. I can’t tell you the number of medical professionals I personally know who are discouraged enough to say they are going to just say “fuck it” and get out of the whole profession. These docs and nurses and hospitals can’t keep pulling this load forever. Something’s got to give.

    • oowawa

      Very interesting account from “real life,” WMCB–thanks!

      “Something’s got to give.” Indeed.

    • Pat Racimora

      I so agree, WMCB, We DO need reform. But it needs to be a plan that those who vote for it READ and UNIDERSRAND. We are being fed summaries, and they just don’t cut it. If you go in and read the actual bill, it doesn’t add up and lots of major points (such as the ones I have been raising) appear nowhere in the summaries.

      I heard NPR last night and they were saying that “aids” had gathered Congresspeople in the basement to try to explain the bill (which they had not read themselves, of course.)

      QUESTION: Who actually wrote the damn thing????

      • WMCB

        Obama and Congress’ plan is crap, and nothing but a power grab for both govt and “favored” insurance companies.

        The reality is

        a) we have people in this country who need care, and are unable to pay

        b) we have decided as a country that we can’t just let them suffer and die, so that care will be provided, at least on the hospital level. We have laws saying that they cannot be refused.

        c) so who is going to PAY for this care that we have ALREADY mandated by law?

        There are a lot of other areas to the healthcare reform debate, about routine and preventative care that I haven’t addressed here, but the facts above are facts.

        So either quit forcing docs and hospitals to WORK FOR FREE by laws forbidding them to refuse care, or the rest of the population needs to cough up some bucks to cover it. Because the current system is going to BREAK in a very ugly way.

        • Nellie

          The wording in the Bill is primarily from Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Rahm Emanuel’s brother.

      • WMCB

        I agree that they are clueless in DC, just wanting to “pass something.” It’s criminal negligence, IMO.

      • http://shhhithitsthefan.wordpress.com/ It hits the fan

        QUESTION: Who actually wrote the damn thing????

        The insurance industry, Big Pharma and the morticians.

      • http://shhhithitsthefan.wordpress.com/ It hits the fan

        QUESTION: Who actually wrote the damn thing????

        Answer: Insurance industry lobbyists, Big Pharma lobbyists and the Mortician’s Union. And Michelle Obama.

      • Juliet16

        Yes, that’s what I want to know…WHO wrote this bill? It wasn’t Waxman. Was it stitched together from wacko lobbyists from the American Communist Party?(LMAO)

        Seriously, I do agree we need some real reform – but not Obamacare. And NO to the GOVERNMENT RUN PLAN.

        I wouldn’t mind some provisions for helping to ensure those who lost their jobs or providing some care to the indigent, but I don’t want to see our entire system turned over to the Federal Government, with DMV and Postal Service folks telling my doctor what treatment I can have or not have.

        First of all, why no enforcement of immigration – by either party? And if we are going to use foreign work force, how about setting up a good system and letting them work legally and control who comes in, for how long, how their health care should be covered, etc. – without amnesty – but possibly allowing some path to citizenship for those who truly want it and show good faith effor to comply by our laws.

        Actually Bush tried to address immigration reform years ago and back then many folks were against it, didn’t trust him or his ideas – the country just wasn’t ready for it most likeley, but looking back at the immigration issues now, it might have resolved some of these problems

        Now, years later, nothing is resolved.

    • tzada

      Send the illegals home and make the welfare people, who can and won’t work, work. Strange concept eh? Selfish on my part? Who cares what I am called. I am angry, mad as hell.

      Why should I and others have worked all our lives, agree to let them kill us at whim? I have worked hard both in menial and professional jobs. Three jobs at a time, twice in my life. Take and give? I think NOT.

    • MBC

      From another provider’s perspective, currently Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement is below cost. We can only continue to provide care to everyone because of the reimbursement we receive from the commercial insurance companies. The number of Medicare/Medicaid patients is growing and is not being equaled out by the regular payers. Something is going to give if we don’t do something, but offering more public insurance that doesn’t adequately reimburse providers, as in Obamacare is NOT the answer.

  • tzada

    Why public health care is philosophically wrong

    Forget all the scare stories about waiting lines and denied services. I live in Canada, and I have a million such stories to tell. Like my mother wanting to commit suicide due to her excruciating pain — even though she wore a morphine patch the size of her back — all because she had to wait three long years for a simple disc operation.

    These horror stories are everywhere. But they are not the most horrific consequences of a public health care system.

    If you focus on scare stories of public health care systems gone wrong (and they all go wrong), you will fall into the leftists’ trap of arguing over the most effective way to publicly manage health.

    What we desire is liberty. The freedom to choose. Domain over our own bodies. Our selves.

    That is what America stands for. That is what the first Americans fought and died for. It is the very essence of the American character. And it is what these people will destroy if they bring in public health care.

    http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/07/why_public_health_care_is_phil.html

    • blue orchid

      I lived in Canada as well, and some other countries like Germany etc. besides. And though you can always find fault with any health care system if you set your mind to it, there is absolutely no question that any public health care system in other Western industrialized nations is vastly superior to ours for profit private health care. Public health care is not only far more efficient, equitable, fair and humane, but there is far less restriction on your choice of health care providers etc.

      It is ironic that in this country of the frees of ours, people would tolerate so many restrictions imposed by the private insurance industry.

      It is hard to imagine that people in other Western countries would have put up with health care conditions like ours. In fact, when asked in a survey, no Canadian was willing to trade their heath care system with ours.

      Our health care is the ultimate testimony that utterly disproves the myth that private for profit system is superior to the public one.

      • armymom

        I work for a Doctor. We see people from Canada every week, almost every day, and the picture you are painting isn’t true. My state is Ohio and it’s a short drive (when they want quality healthcare) for those who want healthcare that isn’t metered out. And as far as quality, who do you think you’re kidding? Seriously?

        If you truly think this healthcare in this country is so bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet. I know personally many doctors who are going to leave the field if this deathcare passes.

        • Docelder

          We see people from Canada every week, almost every day,

          Everybody here could afford some vanity medical care as well… if they weren’t paying exorbitant rates for health insurance. To a certain point, Canadians have extra spendable income because of their government care system. Here, we pay exorbitant tax rates, and the middle class gets very little in return for that in terms of dollars we get to keep because the government does something for us that we need and would otherwise need to pay for ourselves. Our government is going to tax us until we revolt anyway, we might as well get something back for it that we actually need. Otherwise, there are going to be a lot of happy field mice, because congress isn’t going to stop spending money. Our representatives are shopaholics.

        • blue orchid

          Armymom,

          As I wrote in my previous reply to you, my husband is a doctor, a professor at medical school and works at several hospitals and he is employed by the government.

          During the 5 years I spent in Canada, I had been able to go to any top doctor anytime I want to and was free to have any test and treatment I need with no restriction whatsoever. Best of all, we didn’t have to deal with any medical bills at all. I certainly would prefer Canadian health care over ours by far. No wonder when surveyed, no single Canadian was willing to trade their health care with ours.

          • WMCB

            The Canadian system was a smashing success at first, but is faltering now. The waiting lists ARE becoming a problem. They are steadily moving toward a two-tiered system, which is in TRUTH what most of Europe has or is evolving to. I.e., there is universal basic coverage, but private clinics and private insurance do a booming business providing extras or faster service for those who don’t wish to wait, or treatments that are not covered, etc.

            In recent years, Canadians went to court to demand the right to privately pay for services if they want to, and won. Since then, private clinics are opening at an VERY fast clip. So, while most Canadians do want to keep basic govt coverage for all, they ALSO want a free-market element that they can access if they want to.

            http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/28/international/americas/28canada.html?_r=1

            • blue orchid

              So why are we so afraid of giving our people the freedom to choose between private and public insurance?

              • WMCB

                Why not open up a public plan, and anyone who WANTS to can buy in AT COST, being subsidized only if they are below a certain income? We’d pay a few taxes for the subsidized people, but not anywhere near what they are talking about spending now.

                Leave everyone and everything else alone. How hard is that? Does that take 1000 pages and 500 new agencies and the govt sniffing its nose into everyone’s business to do??? No!

              • Jules

                Because the government doesn’t have to turn a profit to stay in business. They also make all the laws and can manipulate everything to their advantage, hide fees to conceal the true costs to the taxpayer, etc (look at Medicare). Therefore they have an advantage over private health insurance and will drive the private insurers out of business. Then you are left with only the government option (no choice), and an entire industry out of business and more unemployment.

                • blue orchid

                  Jules,

                  So you prefer the private insurers making $ billions profit (the CEO of United Health care alone was paid $ 1.7 billion last year)by denying cares and bankrupting the entire country.

                  • Jules

                    1.7 BILLION? Really? Because I am reading it was 3.2 MILLION including bonuses. And in word YES, I much prefer that he get that money than turn healthcare over to the government. Why don’t you really educate yourself instead of throwing out inaccuracies because they are easily accepted (oooh insurance companies are evil aren’t they everyone!). The government’s whole plan is going to be based on denying care, especially to seniors, if not outright encouraging them do die for ‘good of the whole’. And THE GOVERNMENT has bankrupted the entire country due to their own personal greed and lust for power.

                    If you want to talk about bankrupting the country, it doesn’t help that we already give illegal immigrants free care at our emergency rooms, bankrupting multiple hospitals. You do realize no one by law can be turned away at our hospitals because of inability to pay? Is it fair that these hospitals go bankrupt and shut down due to this and then can’t provide services to legitimate citizens?

                    I have worked for several insurance companies, including HMOs, in my past and been insured by them myself and the care was nothing but top notch. They were not making big profits, and in fact they all went bankrupt, partially because of our state regulation. See the state made a law that said you could not cap future rate increases for insured groups. Oh, EXCEPT for the state employees plan of course. Every insurance plan in the state lost millions every year on that deal until they couldn’t hang on any longer.

        • Dem NO MORE

          I’m in Michigan and agree–there are many Canadians here looking for treatment rather than a waiting list.

          IMO–this is a bot with little life experience towing the company line.

      • Juliet16

        We have the most expensive system by far, but the most effective.

        ANALOGY:
        It’s like we are all driving around in brand new BMW’s with all the latest features…but we complain how much we have to pay for the car.

        Whereas others are riding bicycles and motor scooters, for which the government pays out of their tax dollars, but the costs are hidden from them.

        Eyeopener – watch this:
        http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/video.aspx?v=GduznzqGaG

  • HARP

    I wonder why AARP has caved in ?? Something smells fishy concerning this group.

    • oowawa

      AARP? You mean Insurance Is Us? Nope–they couldn’t possibly have any ulterior motives. Try googling ‘AARP insurance” . . . Cancelled my membership for this reason a long time ago . . .

      • Docelder

        What we are seeing is now even the non-profit entities like AARP are really themselves businesses. Businesses are partnering with government and carving out future niches for themselves. Nobody represents real Americans anymore.

        • Dem NO MORE

          I’m a caretaker for two elderly parents who have had AARP memberships for decades. (We sent in questions for Obama through AARP yesterday.) If AARP isn’t the watchdog they claim to be my folks are mailing a cancellation asap. Please keep your elderly family members and friends informed on this issue–unfortunately, those who are supposed to be looking out for them aren’t.

          I don’t suppose I’ll make it to being a senior citizen–I’m sure with my health problems I’ll be cut off from medical care early and given a blue pill and counseling instead.

    • alibe

      they sold out many years ago during the Bush Reign of Terror. They changed the board, got a new president who was in cahoots with the GOP and Newt Gingrich. They just use the organization to exploit their members to back right wing drivel all the while selling piss poor insurance. AARP Medicare supplement is actually United Health Care. They may approve something initially but then won’t pay. They used the good name of the AARP and took it over. Sort of what 0bama did to the Democratic Party.

      • Juliet16

        Except AARP organization is controlled by DEMOCRATS, not REPUBLICANS.

        True, these AARP VIPs may be wealthy elitists, but don’t assume that means they are Republicans – most are “inside the beltway” Democrats and most donated heavily to Obama’s campaigns. In effect, ultra-lib Dems appear to have hi-jacked the AARP years ago, and exploit the elderly members into backing Lefty policies –same as the DNC was hijacked. Get it now?

        http://www.verumserum.com/?p=6253&cpage=1

        In 2007, the AARP joined forces with the Service Employee International Union (SEIU), led by Andy Stern, to launch a $60+ million promotional campaign called “Divided We Fail” to advance an agenda within their membership base centered around universal healthcare. And while the AARP ostensibly claims to be non-partisan, the SEIU makes no such pretense. In fact they are solidly behind the President’s health reform plans including the public insurance “option”.

        Commenter writes:
        AARP backs Government programs; they are afraid of losing their tax-exempt status.
        AARP is only interested in selling insurance; AARP President makes more than President of U.S.
        AARP is only interested in making money off seniors; they will not confront Obama.
        Where do you go?
        http://www.seniors league; phone 202-776-0640 might be an answer.

    • Scout

      AARP is advertising for their supplemental (to Medicare) insurance plan on TV as I write this.

    • cathnealon

      Harp
      Look at who is in charge at AARP–a real Obamaite–Rand–hired in March 2009 and his introductory article in their newsletter quotes him with phrases right out of ACORN’s playbook. Check it out, don’t have a link set up here AARP didn’t cave–they’ve always been out of touch.
      Also, Dr Ezekial, along with his brother,is overseeing anything in this bill–it wouldn’t surprise me if he wrote the whole damn mess with the help of Favreau.

      • http://noquarter foxyladi14

        you mean he quit fondling cutouts long enogh

  • brodie

    They’d better watch out- those “geezers” might get radical and decide they don’t wish to be shuffled off.

    • oowawa

      Just fetch me my walker and let me shuffle on over to the barricades . . .

      • Ellen D

        I’ll join you oowawa and don’t forget the bubble that is the baby boomers is a giant group that is becoming seniors. It could be the sixties all over again.
        After all, we also now have Viagra.

        • http://noquarter foxyladi14

          but not birth control

      • tzada

        Me too

  • http://helpmejoseph.typepad.com/puma_for_life/ Puma for Life

    I just cancelled my membership in aarp; I hope we baby boomers can form an alternative organization that will work for our right to the same medical care that the previous generous has had and that the younger generation hopes to seize from us.

    • HARP

      Same here. They can take my walker out of my cold dead hands.

      • oowawa

        Yep–we’re about ready for a march on DC with walkers and wheeling oxygen bottles. We’ll tie up traffic for days . . .

        • Ellen D

          A senior protest – can we make it like Woodstock? I’m not ready yet for a walker.

        • tzada

          There will be a march on Washington in Sept.12th

          You can find their route along with dates and times. I hope many of us join them.

          http://www.teapartyexpress.org/

          • Dem NO MORE

            Y’all are clever!

            I think I’ll borrow mom’s walker and see if I can hitch a ride there too. That would be a riot if everyone, young and old, showed up with walkers and canes. It sure would make great youtube coverage since you know the MSM won’t cover it.

            • tzada

              lol…..great idea.

        • Portia Elizabeth

          OMG! Y’all are hysterical!

    • http://firefox Annie (Whitey) Collier

      Glad to hear I’m not the only one not to renew my AARP membership. I have United supplemental and have had no problems with my particular plan; my plan pays the yearly deductible and the 20% after Medicare deems what they will pay…I’m embarrassed that they pay the doctors and hospitals so little. The premiums do go up every year and I’m getting a bit stretched making them but don’t qualify for Medicaid (try to find a CA Doctor who accepts that!) so I am forced to continue with them for a safety net. Fortunately, I’m pretty healthy. I want the coverage Congress and Bambi have and if they can’t bear that, then they can join us with the 3rd world coverage they want the citizenry to have.

      My problem with AARP is strictly due to their unconscionable lack of representation of the real needs of seniors. To hell with them.

  • EWard

    If Obama’s health plan is so great, why doesn’t it apply to BO, Congress, and governmental officials? Obama and the AARP are lying to the public!

    The US will lose its edge and innovation due to this. We don’t want to be like England, Canada, or Europe. These countries look to us for new breakthroughs in medicine.

    Impeach Obama!!!!!!

    • blue orchid

      Based on my personal experience of having lived in both places, we would be lucky to have health care like in Canada or Europe. Our for profit insurance industry is not the funder of new breakthroughs in medicine, our government is.

      • Dem NO MORE

        “for profit” insurance? You’ve got to be a bot. This is the USA–”for profit” is the way of capitalism and companies trying to make money is not the evil the marxists would have you to believe. After all, all those “for profit” businesses who have become Obama’s public enemy number one are laying people off or closing down–haven’t y’all figured out why there are so many unemployed right now?

        Who do you work for that isn’t looking to make a profit? The government?

        • Jules

          Also, lets not forget that government employees are payed with taxpayer dollars…money that has to be taken from the profits of the private sector. Why would they want to kill off the private sector when it will lead to lower tax revenues? It makes no sense whatsoever unless they are purposely trying to break the country.

    • http://noquarter foxyladi14

      best idea i.ve heard all day.

  • http://www.rabblerouserruminations.blogspot.com/ Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy

    DANG, Pat – what an outstanding toon!! You have hit the nail on the head.

    And good one by HARP, too (“Reaper is Cheaper”)!

  • Barry 0351

    “Mama we’re all going to hell
    Mama we’re all gonna die,
    Mama we’re all full of lies,
    Mama we’re meant for the flies.”
    Chemical romance

    • oowawa

      Cool, Barry. Reminds me of “Mother” by Pink Floyd from The Wall:

      Momma’s gonna make all of your nightmares come true
      Momma’s gonna put all of her fears into you
      Momma’s gonna keep you right here under her wing . . .

      Momma won’t let anyone dirty get through
      Momma’s gonna wait up until you get in
      Momma will always find out where you’ve been
      Momma’s gonna keep Baby healthy and clean . . .

      Mother me, O mighty health plan! I’ll trust you to give me my medicine . . .

  • helenk

    If this atrocity passes the counselor will be at my door. I will tell them to leave now as I have places to go , things to do , and people to see.
    When congress persons have to get counseling to die then come talk to me, until then take a hike.
    I guess I will no longer be eligible for medical care but if I have to I will go to another country.
    Like most Americans I have family that fought and died for this country all the way back to the war of 1812 but now the government just believes those who sacrificed just should get out of the way and die.

    WOMEN WITH EXPERIENCE, AND INTELLIGENCE, MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS

    PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE

    • oowawa

      but now the government just believes those who sacrificed just should get out of the way and die.

      There was a bluegrass supergroup called “Old and In the Way.” At least two of the original members (Jerry Garcia and John Kahn) have shuffled off this mortal coil and are no longer old and in the way.

      I feel like I’m too old and slow to make a run for it, as in Logan’s Run. I hope the “death counselers” will make house calls.

      • TeakWoodKite

        Old and in the way
        That’s what I heard him say
        They used to heed the words he said
        But that was yesterday
        Coal will turn to gray
        And youth will fade away
        They’ll never care about you
        Cause you’re old and in the way

  • helenk

    If you go to the Mexican border now the number of people from all over the USA going to Mexico for health care is enormous. Dental care and eye care and prescriptions are affordable for people. In a lot of towns near the border this is a big business.

    WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS

    PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE

    • oowawa

      If you go to the Mexican border now the number of people from all over the USA going to Mexico for health care is enormous.

      HaHa. And while you’re getting your triple bypass in Tijuana, you can have your car upholstered.

      • helenk

        oowawa
        the saddest part of the exodus to Mexico for medical care is that many seniors who have worked hard all their lives can not afford health care here.
        Have you priced eyeglasses lately? Several hundred dollars for one pair.
        People come once or twice a year to Mexico for medical reasons. These people come from all the states in the USA .There is a hospital in Mexico that the Amish travel to for cancer care.
        We are one of the richest countries in the world and people have to travel to another country for medical care due to cost here. That is just wrong.

        The phony healthcare bill of backtracks will not help the problem. All it will do is make his owners more money.

        WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS

        PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE

        • armymom

          I live around Amish country and the main reason that they go to Mexico is for alternative medicine that is not allowed in this country by the FDA. I know of 2 who have personally died by going that route. One was a mother with breast cancer and refused to take chemo or any other medicine available here in the US. It had nothing to do with price. I’m not doubting that isn’t the case with some, but the 2 instances I know about, it was not price. This mother had 17 children and was diagnosed with breast cancer while carrying her last child. She died before the child was 3 mos old.

          • helenk

            When I traveled several times back and forth from Ca to Pa I met several Amish people on the trains that were going to Mexico for treatment.
            That is how I found out that they did this.
            I admire their strength but could never live their life style. I am too spoiled.

            WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS

            PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE

          • blue orchid

            Armymom,

            I know what you wrote is true (I saw TV reports about this), but it is not the whole story. There are indeed countless Americans who go abroad (India, Thailand, Singapore etc.)for medical treatments because of price. There has been TV documentaries about this as well.

            • Docelder

              They call it medical tourism. I think it is going to be big in the future for health care for chronic illnesses. It would be a lot cheaper to take care of people in living facilities in Mexico as opposed to here.

    • jangles

      I have a home near the border and this Mexican health care migration is very true. Dental and medical are about 10 cents on the dollar and everyone I know who goes is very pleased with the results. Most border towns have clinics that are set up especially to attract American customers.

      • Tricia Spiegel

        I have a friend who also has extensive dental work done in Mexico. The problem is that the last time there was a terrible infection. Now what? Probably cost more in the long run getting that taken care of here.

  • http://shhhithitsthefan.wordpress.com/ It hits the fan

    You are absolutely right, grandma and grandpa (or mom and dad, or hell, just me in a few years)are going to get screwed and no amount of Viagra will make them like it.

    Perhaps the scariest part of all of this is that the government will know the status of health of every American citizen. Can you imagine the abuses that will come with that info?

    Apparently Obama wasn’t kidding when he suggested giving pain pills to the elderly instead of life saving care. He is going to kill them but make certain it doesn’t hurt so bad.

    Let’s stop this so-called health care reform nonsense before it/he kills us all.

    • tzada

      They will also have access to our bank accounts and know what we buy and who we buy from.

  • http://shhhithitsthefan.wordpress.com/ It hits the fan

    I guess my last comment was caught in the spam filter.

  • TexasMirth

    pparently Obama wasn’t kidding when he suggested giving pain pills to the elderly instead of life saving care. He is going to kill them but make certain it doesn’t hurt so bad.

    Isn’t Obama practicing medicine without a license?

    • oowawa

      Isn’t Obama practicing medicine without a license?

      Isn’t Obama practicing POTUS without a . . . O wait–don’t want to be accused of Birtherism . . .

      • TeakWoodKite

        Speaking of “birthers” ( a term I view with utter contempt) how does “midwivery” fair in this bill?

        (sorry If I am using the wrong term)

        Are we allowed to self medicate to save money?

        • tzada

          Don’t ask and don’t tell.

  • TexasMirth

    From the all-knowing, all-wise Obama:

    “We also want to start rewarding doctors for quality, not the quantity of care that they provide. Instead of rewarding them for how many procedures they perform or how many tests they order, we’ll bundle payments so providers aren’t paid for every treatment they offer when they chronic — to a patient with a chronic condition like diabetes, but instead are paid for how are they managing that disease overall.”

    Oh my gosh–this is unbelievable. Which bureaucrats will be assigned the task of grading the “quality” of your doctor’s care? Cut costs by robbing doctors of their salaries? SLAVERY IS BACK.

    • WMCB

      Not to mention the fact that doctors are not the only ones responsible for how a disease like diabetes is managed. The patient is sometimes the problem.

      So if a doc has a stubborn old coot who just refuses to do anything the doc tells him, doesn’t take his medicine regularly, won’t check or write down his blood sugars as asked, refuses to eat the right diet, etc, the DOCTOR is going to be financially penalized because his diabetes is not “under control”?

      • Docelder

        the DOCTOR is going to be financially penalized because his diabetes is not “under control”?

        So that is going to further necessitate a method for doctors to report non-compliant patients to the government. This puts doctors in the role of government snitches. This will put patients in the position to report ineffective treatment to the government creating patient snitches. So what I fear is a society where everybody is going to be spying on their neighbors looking to turn them in for brownie points. This slippery slope is more like a bobsled trail.

        • jwrjr

          Little doubt that “non-compliant” patients will be put on the pain-pill diet.

          • Docelder

            This is going to ultimately foster corruption and the “gaming” of the system. But, Obama loves him some “game”.

        • tango

          What will happen is the government will blackmail you to behave as it sees fit or deny you some way. Oh, you need a knee transplant? Lose 35 pounds first before surgery will be scheduled. Gee, you want government to cover the cost of your blood pressure medicine even if you are normal weight and eat healthy? You must enroll in and regularily attend exercise classes (that you pay for of course) at an approved athletic club and bring in written proof of attendance in order to get next months prescription. You own a business and want to bid to on a Federal contract or program? Certify beforehand that all your employees are non-smokers before you are allowed to bid. And you want a job with that company? You must personally sign a contract agreeing to your immediate termination if you fail a randomly administered nicotine test. And so on.

          • BlueTopaz

            Obama smokes. Hmmmmmm……

          • http://firefox Annie (Whitey) Collier

            This already happens to some degree. When my mother needed vascular surgery 25 years ago, her surgeon told her he would not waste his time operating unless she quit smoking. Of course, she quit until she had fully recuperated then started again. She had smoked all her adult life…difficult. And, of course, 5 years later she did die of vascular disease. But, I do think her last years were enjoyable and worth living.

            Medicare has certain protocols that have to be tried before joint surgery…a friend has been put off by the hand surgeon for joint replacement for her disintegrating thumb joint…must try steroids first. Oh, can’t tolerate those? Well how about a nice little custom fitted hand brace. Still in pain? Here’s a low level pain pill. Still no surgery though. He probably doesn’t get paid much for it.

      • Nellie

        The Doc won’t be in trouble for long. With Obama care they will be deceased, so the problem will just disappear.

    • TeakWoodKite

      Merit Pay for Doctors?

      WTF? I was, until this “HealthCare” Debate, of the opinion that BO was unqualified to be POTUS. Now I have to include bad for my health as well.

      TexasMirth, I just heard that clip on the AM band.

      Obama needs to shut his f*cking mouth before all people over 65 die of a panic attack or worse.

      I can not imagine the level of distrust for a government “of the people, By the people , for the people, this fool is impregnating the country with.

      I should take a mental vacation at this point but I have know idea what I can afford.

      Maybe I can start consuming mass quantities of Peyote. Then maybe Mescalito can help me sense out of all this.

      • Patrick Henry

        Kite..You Rock..!!

        • TeakWoodKite

          OT;
          Hey Patrick Henry; Back at you! Thanks for the Orville thing. Turns out one of the first Smithsonian’s exhibits was a collection of Kites from Imperial China during the mid 1800′s, of which Orville wrote to inquire after during his childhood.

          It was a question on Jeopardy the other night.
          —
          I think we should have members of Congress play Jeapordy, where all questions are related to current legislation. The winner gets a wad of Campaign cash. Think of all the possible catagories.
          Pay to Play for 1000 Alex or “Acting Stupidly” , The Reaper is Cheaper for 500…(sound effects, audience gasps) You have a double Jeopardy!!! You can bet your life on this question.

          • Patrick Henry

            Kite…They could just put the Legislation on a roulette Wheel..and give it a Spin..

            Its going to come up Black or RED anyhow..

            so..place your Bets Elected Officials..then go home on Your HOT August Break..and take Pulses…You might however find out that Old Folks are dying from either HEAT Exhaustion
            or Neglect..

            Oh, wait, The government is looking for ways to p-ut them out of thier misery..Since they are adding a Grime Reaper to the Roulette Wheel..and the JOKERS WILD..

            • TeakWoodKite

              BO figures with all the Jokers and wild cards in the deck, every hand is a winner.

              I wonder if the AARP endorsement is a bit like the NY Chapter of NOW. I do hope that members of congress FACE the heat and get a clue.

              When a bill can be written in plain English that resolves;
              1) health care for profit is immoral
              2) nothing is free
              3) the DOCTOR and patient have the final say on care and treatment then I am willing to listen.
              4) capping mal practice insurance premiums for health care professional…, except in cases of gross negligence.

              On the mid-day news HH Sec Sibileous(?) was saying the healthcare will BE MANDATORY or there will be “fines and penalties and the young people are to be the part of the risk pool to offset the older folks.

              So when they they get to be old will the system be broke like SS is today?

      • http://firefox Annie (Whitey) Collier

        Obama needs to shut his f*cking mouth before all people over 65 die of a panic attack or worse.

        Gosh, don’t give him any more ideas. If he could kill all of us off in one gigantic panic attack don’t you think he would?

        My take is that they want to get rid of our generation as quickly as possible so there won’t be anyone left to remember America and the life that was so great. He wants control of his clones and drones. They will go along with a Dimocrat Dictatorship.

        Somewhere I heard that the cut off is age 76 for deciding whether you are worth life saving measures or not. My grandmother, aunts and our last elder all lived into their 90′s and had good mental health and were active physically to their last year…when they started to decline. In their 70′s and 80′s they were still traveling, volunteering, enjoying life. It gives me the creeps to think of them (or me) having “end of life” counseling.

        • lorac

          Seniors are becoming the majority in the country. Of course, that means that health care will rise, but it also means that older people could have the most political influence. I’m remembering Donna Brazile in the election saying that the “new Democratic party” was only interested in young minority people – it didn’t need anyone else. But since the young minority people are actually a minority, I guess they have to force a shift in demographics by getting rid of the older people…. scary….

    • Ellen D

      “We also want to start rewarding doctors for quality, not the quantity of care that they provide. Instead of rewarding them for how many procedures they perform or how many tests they order, we’ll bundle payments so providers aren’t paid for every treatment they offer when they chronic — to a patient with a chronic condition like diabetes, but instead are paid for how are they managing that disease overall.”

      Well, that’ll eliminate all doctors taking Medicare patients.

      How can you not pay doctors for the work they perform?

      This is nuts.

      • Scout

        I think I’ll mosey on over to my local mechanic and tell him that rather than pay him directly for my brake job, I’ll pay him based on how well my car operates over the next 5 years. If I run into anyone, he’ll be docked pay directly. And I will decide what constitutes poor performance on his part. Furthermore, I will only pay him 20 dollars per month for all the repairs and maintenance he performs, no matter what goes wrong with the car.

        Sound fine? That’s the current plan for primary care doctors under capitation in my area. Welcome to medicine, new docs, now go become a plumber.

      • lorac

        How about making Obama’s weekly pay be based on his falling approval numbers… make him be paid based on how well we feel he is “managing our overall country’s ills”….

        • BlueTopaz

          LOL

  • Diana

    I’m reading the full thing now and just taking a break. I’ve read the full Affordable Health Choices Act. But, I’m just 200 pages into HR3200, so I’ll wait till I read the rest. The way they’ve worded the Affordable Health Choices, it looks to me like it will basically be left up to whomever is in charge and how they interpret it.

    • WMCB

      Yep. Whoever the “Healthcare Czar” is will have full leeway to pick and choose what standards to apply, and which insurance plans will be accepted, and can change or adjust that at will. And Congress, once the bill is passed, will have ZERO further oversight on that, it will be an entirely executive branch deal.

      Can we say “insurance companies who play ball and make nice campaign contributions will get preference”, kiddies? It could end up the biggest Chicago style pay-to-play scheme ever created.

      • Solara 9

        Yikes–WMCB. This is scarier than the cartoon, and that was scary enough.

      • Mary

        BINGO, WMCB.

        Not only insurance companies….

        Can you imagine how many Acorn chapters will re-arrange their mission statements to get government money for “counseling” the people Obama’s bill dictates must be counseled?

        It’s manna from heaven for them.

  • Scranton4Hillary

    We all better get to the commune early to get a good spot to pitch our tents.

  • Obama: Dubya’ 2 Electric Boogaloo

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html

    Obama now under 54% in the latest RCP average. Gallup has Obamacus at 53% among adults, a new low for Obama.

  • Marvin

    Beautiful cartoon, Pat! Straight out of a Ingmar Bergman film. . .

  • I’m a Linda too

    Thanks, did that this morning.

  • TeakWoodKite

    Thanks Pat for the ominous Toon.

  • tzada

    The history of the synthetic H1N1 flu virus and a not-so-rosy future

    The history of the extraction of the genetic material from the corpses of victims of the 1918 Spanish influenza virus who were buried in Arctic permafrost is part “X-Files” and part “Jurassic Park.”

    After an unsuccessful 1951 mission, that involved U.S. biological warfare specialists, to extract 1918 Spanish flu genetic material in 1951 from a cemetery in the Inupiat Eskimo village of Brevig Mission, Alaska, scientists made another attempt, a successful one it turns out, in 1997.

    Dr. Johan Hultin, from the State University of Iowa, successfully extracted genetic material from the corpse of an obese 30-something female who died from the Spanish flu in 1918, along with 85 percent of Brevig Mission’s (called Teller Mission in 1918) villagers in a single week. The pandemic killed at least 50 million people around the world.

    Once the Spanish flu genetic material was obtained from the lungs, spleen, liver, and heart of the Eskimo woman’s corpse, scientists, in a scene reminiscent of the fictional movie “Jurassic Park,” in which genetic material from extinct dinosaurs is used to bring the creatures back to life, recreated the long-since dead 1918 Spanish flu in a U.S. government-funded laboratory. The woman’s organs were cut into one-inch cubes and shipped to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Rockville, Maryland, where the virus’s genetic RNA material was identified and the 1918 Spanish flu was successfully brought back to life.

    The search for the frozen bodies of 1918 flu victims was not limited to Alaska. Another team of scientists, acting like Dr. Frankenstein’s “Igor,” set out to dig up the graves of miners who died from the flu in the remote Norwegian mining village of Longyearbyen in Spitsbergen, which lies north of the Arctic Circle

    In a January 29, 2006, New York Times article by Jamie Shreeve, titled “Why Revive a Deadly Flu Virus?,” it is reported that the 1918 flu had been successfully revived. The article states: “In October, a team of scientists, [CDC’s Terrence] Tumpey among them, announced that they had recreated the extinct organism from its genetic code — essentially the scenario played out in the movie ‘‘Jurassic Park,’’ albeit on a microbial scale. In the movie, the scientists’ self-serving revivification of dinosaurs leads to mayhem and death . . . How dangerous is the 1918 virus to today’s population? Its genetic code is now in public databases, where other researchers can download it to conduct experiments. Scientists from the University of Wisconsin and the National Microbiology Laboratory in Canada have already collaborated to reconstruct the virus from the publicly available sequence. How easy would it be for a bioterrorist to exploit the same information for malevolent ends?”

    Military planning for possible H1N1
    outbreak

    WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. military wants to establish regional teams of military personnel to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, according to Defense Department officials.

    http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/07/28/military.swine.flu/

  • tzada

    Fox News: After days of intensive negotiations, a group of key moderate Democrats on Wednesday announced that they reached a health care reform deal with the White House and congressional leaders. The compromise would cut the cost of the $1 trillion-plus package by $100 billion, according to one member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition. The deal would also ensure that the proposed government-run insurance program would not be forced on anyone.

    http://www.breitbart.tv/blue-dog-democrats-announce-deal-on-health-care-reform/

  • LDW

    “So is the Obama plan really better than nothing?
    The Obama plan seems calculated to buy time for private insurers, to end the health care discussion for a decade or more without solving the health care problem, do so in a way that discredits the very idea of everybody in- nobody out health care. It will leave tens of millions uninsured, a hundred million or more underinsured, and the same parasitic private interests in charge of the American health care system that run it now.
    The Obama plan as it now stands requires us to let another 18,000 die for each of the next three years and allow more than a million additional families to be bankrupted by medical expenses before we can judge whether or not the plan is working. It’s easy to imagine Obama partisans telling us in mid 2013 that it’s still too early to be sure.”

    Read the entire article:

    http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/obama-health-care-plan-really-better-nothing

  • Lisabona

    After I left( escaped) from the communist paradise, my sisters lived tru this ” counseling” health care system. Anytime, my dear old mother get sick, they literally had to lie her age. Otherwise the ambulance refused to came out. First question they ask ” How old is the patient”? So, please, for the love and respect of your old loved one,fight against this inhuman act. Our health care system needs change, but not distruction. Find the right change, that will benefit every American.

  • bayareavoter

    Really good column today in the SF Chronicle that dovetails with your post –by a California doc.

    In the print edition it’s titled:

    Rushing End of Life Decisions

    on-line it is titled: Health care reform: What is costly overuse, what is humane?

    anyway, it’s not long and worth reading

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/29/EDV218VMTQ.DTL

    I think this is really scary and don’t think the public would approve if they actually knew about it.

  • Tricia Spiegel

    Excellent piece that does dovetail right in. We need to hear more from doctors themselves who care about what they are doing and have been around for a while.

    Thanks for the link.

  • bayareavoter

    This is another relevant piece from last year about the high cost of gun violence in Oakland bankrupting the local hospital.

    http://www.eastbayexpress.com/gyrobase/the_high_cost_of_gun_violence/Content?oid=742997&page=1

    Is the govt going to decide these people should be left to die? Or are they worth saving because they’re young? Is this the kind of country we want to live in?

    It sounds Orwellian to me.

  • Doc99

    Stephen King or George Romero is more like it.

  • jangles

    I saw another post today that says the whole thing about end of life consultations is not true. It says that the bill is just saying that medicare will pay the cost “if the patient wants such counseling”. I remember that in Dec. 1991 when my father was dying of colon cancer, we had hospice and end of life counseling—but that was paid for at that time by medicare and it was helpful to all of us.

    My question is what the hell is really in the bill—if it is just that you can request such counseling every 5 years and it will be paid by medicare, then I have no problem with it. If it is that you must have such a counseling session every 5 years after age 65 or when a health event occurs—then I think that is really going to far.

    But this is the problem with all this legislation—we simply do not know what is in the bills and what is not!

    • Tricia Spiegel

      Jangles–if you read it, it doesn’t say what they are saying it says at all. I agree–if it were just a service that people could request that would be fine (and another expense, of course). But it gets much worse–go to Pat’s earlier cartoon (link is hot in the main story above) and you can read the entire section verbatim.

    • PotVsKtl

      What you read is what is really in the bill – people will have access to optional end of life consultations, just like they do now. All the rest is just fearmongering.

  • jangles

    I knew the Blue Dogs would cave. And it only took a 100 million to buy them off.

  • tango

    And look at the fraud already rampant in Medicare. If that system is already defective in verifying coverage and validating claims, then why would anyone think adding 47 million more people under the government option would save us money?

    Using about a dozen agents in targeted cities, including Miami, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, has recovered $371 million in false Medicare claims and charged 145 people across the country in just two months.

    That’s just 2 months. Imagine how much has been lost in the past 20 years!! Here in the Houston area, they arrested a gentleman earlier this week who had received almost $30 million in the past two years from the US Government from filing fraudulent Medicare/Medicaid claims.

    http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D99O9QSG4&show_article=1

  • Dem NO MORE

    Pat and Harp, I can’t thank you enough for this spot-on cartoon and caption!

    I don’t want the government in my medical records to see if I’ve been a bad girl and worthy of an early death for not taking good enough care of myself. No worries for Bambi and company who’ve done more drugs than I’ve ever done but, then again, I’m not a part of the government elite that won’t have to subject themselves to their prescription for the health care of all of us peons.

    I don’t want to become one of those statistics gathered from my imaged medical records–Lord knows what the government does with too much information! (Anyone see the questions that are coming in the census? And you think THAT is invasive?)

    • LDW

      ‘DEM no more’ are you so worried about the government having access to your health records and denying you care? What the hell do you think the insurance companies are going to do with the access to your records that they already have? They can ask you just about anything, and if you lie they can cut you off, even when your lie has nothing to do with the refused claim. And, if they don’t think you’re a good risk, they have a legion of employees who can figure out ‘legal’ means to exclude you from coverage.

      In a single payer system, every legal resident is insured.(OK, there are some delays to coverage for new immigrants and some foreign workers on visas have to have private insurance, but these people wouldn’t fare any better in America) Let me repeat: In a single payer system, every resident is insured. You cannot become uninsured, no matter what pre-existing conditions you might have. From birth, every legal resident is insured. In Canada, for example, you get a Healthcare card and you present it at the doctor’s office or hospital and that’s it. The only paperwork is health-related. No insurance clerk has to pre-approve your treatment. The only paperwork you get to take home is special instructions regarding things like your medication dosages, if you were prescribed something. No bills. No insurance forms. Nadda. Nothing.

      Waiting lists? Yes, there are some problems, especially for rural patients who live in communities too small to support a full range of specialists. And there are problems with some waiting lists for elective surgery, and it’s true that some people would rather travel to the US and fork over a few thousand dollars rather than wait, but most people are satisfied with their care. They certainly wouldn’t change it for the American system, because it’s one thing to pay for a knee replacement out of your savings, and quite another to face a catastrophic illness that means you can’t keep your job, and your healthcare will expire within 18 months.

      And, single payer healthcare is cheaper. For half of what Americans are now paying, every legal resident could be insured. Not for cosmetic surgery or weekly chiropractic visits, but basic healthcare from the womb to the tomb, without ever being excluded for a pre-existing condition. Individuals would be free to change jobs or start their own businesses knowing they had healthcare for life. Who cares if the government knows about your lifestyle and pre-existing conditions? Don’t you get it???!!! With single payer healthcare, EVERY LEGAL RESIDENT is covered.

      Tell your politicians you want single payer healthcare. Tell them today. Tell them often. If they don’t deliver, vote them out of office.

      • Dem NO MORE

        you’re full of it.

        I have several “pre-existing conditions”. This is the usual strawman argument that’s Obama’s hallmark.

        If you want a single payer system, there are plenty of countries to choose from. I’ll see ya when you come back.

        Oh, forget the “fear” of the “insurance companies”. They aren’t the kind of folks who want to tax me, punish me for gaining weight, or use my personal information for their own political purposes.

        Quit using a script and get a few years of experience under your belt.

        • Dem NO MORE

          PS–I have NEVER been denied coverage for a pre-existing condition in 28 years. Obama uses that argument in every speech–what I want to know is someone who has actually had that happen and what kind of insurance they actually had.

          If Obama gets people back to work, maybe the more people could get health insurance. As it is, 80% of Americans have health insurance they are happy with. The other 20% includes people who choose not to have health insurance. How about finding coverage for what’s left over rather than forcing the government into another area of my life.

    • tzada

      No what are they? We need to know what they are and if by law we have to answer and if ACORN (I totally dislike that name) will be involved.

      There was one state senator (I think) who said all she would answer on it was how many people lived in her household.

  • Stan Davis

    FactCheck.org: False Euthanasia Claims

    The claim that the House health care bill pushes suicide is nonsense.
    July 29, 2009

    Summary

    On former Sen. Fred Thompson’s radio show, former lieutenant governor of New York Betsy McCaughey said that the House’s proposed health care bill contained a provision that would institute mandatory counseling sessions telling seniors how “to do what’s in society’s best interest . and cut your life short.” House Minority Leader John Boehner made a slightly more measured statement, warning that the same provision “may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia if enacted into law.”

    In truth, that section of the bill would require Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling sessions helping seniors to plan for end-of-life medical care, including designating a health care proxy, choosing a hospice and making decisions about life-sustaining treatment. It would not require doctors to counsel that their patients refuse medical intervention.

    Note: This is a summary only. The full article with analysis, images and citations may be viewed on our Web site:

    Desktop Users
    http://factcheck.org/2009/07/false-euthanasia-claims/

    Mobile Users
    http://m.factcheck.org/2009/07/false-euthanasia-claims/

    • Pat Racimora

      Please note, Stan, that I reviewed Betsy McCaughey’s work carefully as well as a number of those who think she is nuts. And I agree that nowhere is euthanisia specified as a “must.”

      The best thing to do is to READ the section as it is written, not as someone interprets it. I defy anyone to tell me what it all means. The tone is intrusive and ominous, and we will have to learn–possibly the hard way–what it really means in practice.

      • Dem NO MORE

        Pat—Please keep on this…you’re helping so many become informed. I heard “Zeke Emanuel” said the following:

        If health care is rationed, how would that work? White House health advisor Zeke Emanuel (who is also the brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel) wrote an entire article on this subject in the Lancet on January 31, 2009. In the article, Emanuel advocated giving young adults priority over senior citizens. Suppose a 25-year-old and a 65-year-old each has a life-threatening disease. Since the 25-year-old has many more potential years of life ahead of him, he should receive preferential treatment, according to Emanuel. He justifies denying care to elderly patients in the following way:

        Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination; every person lives through different life stages rather than being a single age. Even if 25-year-olds receive priority over 65-year-olds, everyone who is 65 years now was previously 25 years.

        There is more! In another article written in 1996 for the Hastings Center Report , Emanuel said health services should not be guaranteed to “individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens.” He continues, “An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia.”

        Ultimately, such a health care plan would ignore the end-of-life needs of many Americans!

        http://www.fedupnetwork.com/?p=913

    • tzada

      Fact Check is a Soros created site as is snopes and Move On.org …..Pretty sure I am correct. Also 0 is paying 11 to 16 per hour for “grass roots” Health Care pushers. Who’s money is paying for this?

      Was George Soros in Hitlers Nazi youth or is that just a nasty rumor too? Let me pursue Fact Check.

  • Just Me

    The entire issue is so muddied with partisan politics, bull-sheet-rock and mis-understandings of both the bill and the process that this reform is now a waste of both money and time. I will point out the both AARP and the AMA who fought against the Clinton Medical Reform Bill favor this reform package, while there is much more that needs to be done to cut waste, like the practice of defensive medicine…

    The real losers here are the American public because the smoke is being blown so thick on this bill from both right and left that the truth is getting lost.

    And more people who cannot afford healt insurance will die…

  • Just Me

    I have to do some research and see if this bill provides for coverage from illnesses like acute contagious moronitius..

    I just heard Mitch McConnel do his Kentucky chicken dance on this reform bill. The man makes me sick. I wonder if I can get coverage for that?

    • Mary

      With all due respect, Mitch McConnell doesn’t BAMBOOZLE anywhere near the amount that Obama does.

  • http://firefox Annie (Whitey) Collier

    We may have to resort to Alinsky tactics ourselves. Re-read Tom Wolfe’s “Radical Chic and MauMauing The Flak Catchers” about minorities in the 60′s in SF who were expert at intimidation and frightening the bureaucrats. Rather than 7 foot Samoans carrying staffs, it may be 5 foot angry seniors pounding the floor with canes and walkers. Might be enough to discourage some of those “end of life” counseling sessions should they become mandatory. We all need living wills with all the details on care we want or don’t want as well as an advocate to see that they are carried out. We have had that in our family and don’t need government help knowing what to do.

    The first story, “Radical Chic” about Lenny Bernstein’s cocktail party for the NY elite and the Black Panthers could be told today with the ultra rich in the Dim party playing at being “revolutionaries”…Soros, Pelosi, Feinstein, Boxer and on. Disgusting people.

    One thing for sure we have to turn the tables on these thugs.

  • http://www.grantbailoutplan.com/ Mary

    With all due respect, Mitch McConnell doesn’t BAMBOOZLE anywhere near the amount that Obama does.
    OH! You’re my new favorite blogger fyi

  • margaret

    Wow, what a great cartoon Pat. Can’t wait to see a full collection for sale in a book.

  • I’m a Linda too

    Top Ten Ways To Tell Your President & His Party Aren’t Fighting For Health Care For Everybody

    by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

    http://blackagendareport.com/?q=content/top-ten-ways-tell-your-president-his-party-arent-fighting-health-care-everybody

  • tzada

    Military planning for possible H1N1 outbreak

    WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. military wants to establish regional teams of military personnel to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, according to Defense Department officials.
    The proposal is awaiting final approval from Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
    The officials would not be identified because the proposal from U.S. Northern Command’s Gen. Victor Renuart has not been approved by the secretary.
    The plan calls for military task forces to work in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There is no final decision on how the military effort would be manned, but one source said it would likely include personnel from all branches of the military.

    http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/07/28/military.swine.flu/

    Posse Comitatus laws barring direct military action domestically … Wonder if they will have that flesh eating robot with them? What could possibly go wrong? Now who put that banana peel on this slippery slope?

    • Arabella Trefoil

      Obama is praying for a flu epidemic.

      • I’m a Linda too

        praying? He’s been coaching it along, hasn’t he?

        Could he have done any less, is my questsion. He even managed to get all health officials to go with the….come on, everyone say it with me, “they had other health problems that contributed to their death” Yeah, among the most serious, living in this country under the Obamanation.

    • Docelder

      What troubles me is the report that six interns in Washington DC have H1N1. In that same report it goes onto later say that the six weren’t actually tested for H1N1… just that it is assumed to be H1N1 because they have a summer flu? But it has been reported as fact.

      • Arabella Trefoil

        This kind of thing happens all the time. Trust me, I’ve seen it.

        I’d give examples, but I’d out myself.

        There’s a lot of misreporting and a lot of out-right lying involved in tracking infections.

        Real life example: Parent gets call from school secretary asking why John isn’t in school today. Mother reports John has swine flu. School nurse reviews daily absence record and calls mother back to confirm that child has swine flu. Mother denies that John has swine flu. School nurse investigates further and finds out that John’s mom is running a licensed day-care center out of her house.

        Does John have swine flu or doesn’t he? Depends on who asks John’s mother.

        • Docelder

          Here’s another aspect of mania. A worker in the Bank of America building in Fort Worth sprays perfume. A couple of workers smell it and start to think they feel bad. Others begin to feel symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning. So by the time it was over 110 people had to be medically evaluated and the office building of about 2000 people was evacuated. Something like 34 people went to the hospital. All it was somebody sprayed their perfume. Personally, this swine flu is being oversold. It can be serious, for most it isn’t. But you can say the same thing for the ordinary flu. Tamiflu is not without side effects. We really, really need a voice of reason from this administration. We don’t need any more mania.

  • Doc99

    This sounds quite Dickensian:

    “…And if they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.” Ebenezer Scrooge.

  • Arabella Trefoil

    Obama numbers continue to fall. I take great comfort in this trend.

    I had my Anatomy & Physiology mid-term yesterday, and am taking a day off today. Going back to school at age 57 is quite an experience. The younger generation frightens me. They would love old people like me to die and get out of the way. They really don’t like people older than 50.

    Read Anthony Trollops’s “The Fixed Period” if you can find it.

    • Solara 9

      OMG–It IS available.

      Google The fixed period By Anthony Trollope, Robert Henry Super

      for info.

      This is must reading for those concerned about what could be coming down the pike.

      Pat–do another toon.

      • Pat Racimora

        You can read most of it for free here:

        http://tinyurl.com/n3f3qf

        (Pat – I gave you a tiny url. AGI)

        • Pat Racimora

          Oh, the link is hot–can go right in. Amazing book!

      • Arabella Trefoil

        Please, everybody. Read this book. It is short.

    • ConfusedAmerican

      Congrads on the school…
      Do you realize now why Obama got so many of the voters from the college crowd.

      I too went back in my late 40s early 50s.
      I found that many still had a bit of a problem with critical thinking. Give them a math problem of 2 + 4 = 6 and they did fine. Yet when asked why, they went blank.

      • Arabella Trefoil

        They all seem to be little machines who have been programmed to do well on tests. Very self-involved and materialistic – no spirituality or real interest in the world outside themselves. There is no questioning of anything.

        Plus there is a creepy need for group acceptance and an intolerance for anything that puts somebody outside the the circle.

        Granted, not all of them are like that, but the ones that dominate are like that.

        • Solara 9

          Or, heaven forbid, take blame for anything. (It’s always someone’s else’s fault.) What happened to taking responsibility???

  • Surfered

    The reason you won’t see “much of this” in the main stream media is that it is not true.

    • Arabella Trefoil

      What do mean? What isn’t true?

    • Solara 9

      Read it for yourself, Surfered. Go to the horses mouth (the actual bill) and then come back and try to say that.

      • Arabella Trefoil

        I’m trying to read the actual bill because if some of us don’t nobody (including the legislators) will know what’s in it.

        The devil in in the details.

  • Doc99

    “…And in times of economic stringency, when the first call on public expenditure is the payment of the salaries and pensions of health-care staff, we can rely with absolute confidence on the capacity of government sophists to find good reasons for doing bad things.”

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203517304574306170677645070.html

    Read the whole thing.

  • helenk

    http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/07/obamacare-killing-me-softly-with-his-words-killing-me-softly.html

    more on this issue

    WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS

    PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE

  • Hg

    Pat R. I got to tell you about this.
    I just spent the last 24 hours in an intensive care unit and regular hospital room. I went to emergency with chest pains around midnight. Had a discussion with interns and nurses about what is happening
    w/health care while they are hooking up EKG and afterwards other monitors. I have medicare and a supplement. Nevertheless, AFTER the emergency room I was trounced on by a heart specialist (cardiologist), and then a lung specialist, a gastrointestanel specialist, and last but not least my family Doc a GP.
    Later as my male nurse was wheeling me to my car (hospital rules), when I was discharged, he said “all those physicians are working to keep you around to help vote that guy (Obama) out of office next time around”. Then my nurse says “I will push this wheel chair anywhere you want to go, even to the voting booths if necessary”. Oh yeah, the chest pain was a false alarm, I had a spastic (cramps) esophogus. Felt just like the last heart attack I had.

    • Pat Racimora

      Hey, Hg–glad you are OK! Eat many healthy small meals a day and chew well and swallow often and slowly also That will stop that esophogeal dismotility from acting up!

      OK–back to my toon gig. My goodness–what a story about how the staff feels!!!! Thanks for sharing that.

  • Alice Paul

    Tango, some of that medicare “false” claiming has to do with hospice patients being kept on past what medicare deems is a respectable time for them to have died. Truly. You have a hospice and they have a client who gets medicare and medicaid for six months, well what if they live past that? Right now you cannot be getting ANY care save for comfort care and get hospice services. You have to have basically agreed to go ahead and die with no extreme measures….sometimes people want to try a few months in the middle of care of chemo again…do it and you are off hospice care..well, if a hospice keeps that patient on for even a few weeks to council them or to continue their meds as a stop gap measure they are so called “wasting” medicare funds.

    It’s a hard call but, I know of one hospice fined a million dollars for keeping patients on for a few weeks past the six month cut off…funding is not provided for it but, they did bill medicare anyway….they should not have done that but, it’s NOT as cut and dried as some claim.

    Also, under Obamacare, medicare and medicaid ARE being cut and hospices are already letting medical social workers go and cutting medical staff. Even those who voted for the jerk are afraid for their jobs right now. So no hospice care??? Where will those in the dying process and their families go??? HOW will end of life care be paid for???

    There was no good way to do this except cover everybody…it will not work Obama’s way but, he’s pandering to the lobbiest who will benefit from this enormously.

    You can have a two tiered system with dental, physio in some cases and eye care say being with private insurers and everything else being public medicine. I’ve lived all over the place and my family are mostly all medical care providers in the U.S…..the scare mongering about the Canadian health care system is laughable…we need a similar system or there is NO WAY IN HELL it will even resemble something that will work best for most Americans.

    Obamacare is not national health care for all..it’s bullshit wrapped in the language of “health care” as usual Obama using “words” with no meaning behind them. He has not got a clue what he’s doing and on this score a lot of people are going to suffer for it. Not only that but, anything even coming CLOSE to Hillarycare will not ever get passed now because Obama will screw things up SO badly that HIS example will be pointed to in the future as an example of “what might happen by the same people who brought you Harry and Louise.

    *sigh* Can this GET anymore fucked up?? The question is rhetorical because with Obama YES IT CAN!!

  • WMCB

    As we have seen with both TARP and the stimulus bill, something is NOT always better than nothing. Let’s throw the Patriot Act in there, too. Sorry, but this business of Congress or the president running around like chickens screaming “We must DO SOMETHING!!!”, then crafting utterly and completely SHITTY pieces of legislation in response, has got to stop. And I’m sick of supporting it, lest I be railed against for “denying there is a problem.”

    I’m done. If I don’t like it, I’m not supporting it, period, and you guys can wail about how I don’t understand the severity of the crisis all you want. Believe me, I understand all too well. So? You don’t want me stubborn and digging in my heels, congress? Then stop giving me the choice of “Nothing or Crap – take yer pick.” in order to browbeat me into picking CRAP.

    I’ve decided not to play by those rules anymore. I can and I WILL start choosing “Nothing”, until you morons start doing your damn jobs.

  • Barry

    Pat Racimora and NQ are you now getting paid by the health insurance companies? Have they hired you to lobby for killing healthcare reform?

    Or do you just take it upon yourselves to spread complete utter falsehoods? I guess Pat, we would consider you one of the “Deathers” conspiracy people. Frankly, it is despicable that people like you are shilling for the health insurance industry. A few trying to destroy a very important reform for our nation by spreading falsehoods or at the minimum not doing the work to know what they are talking about or presenting all sides of the story. I know this fits into your and NQ’s trash Obama no matter what narrative, but this is ridiculous, given this very important issue.

    “Deathers point to several parts of the House bill as evidence that health care reform means letting old people die. Most prominent is the end-of-life consultation provision mentioned above. An article on World Net Daily argues that the proposal “specifically calls for the consultation to recommend ‘palliative care and hospice’ for seniors in their mandatory counseling sessions.” In fact, the bill says the meeting must include “an explanation by the practitioner of the end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice”—not a recommendation of it. Still, Obama pointed out that it’s not too late to remove the language: “If this is something that really bothers people, I suspect that members of Congress might take a second look at it.”

    Another seemingly scary provision is one that permits “the use of artificially administered nutrition and hydration”—or, more accurately, the withholding of it. Some think the provision is a disturbing example of the government making decisions for the patient. But the bill specifically says that an order to withhold, say, an IV drip, must be one that “effectively communicates the individual’s preferences regarding life sustaining treatment, including an indication of the treatment and care desired by the individual.” In other words, a doctor can’t make you do it.

    Yet another bugaboo is “shared decision-making.” The House bill would establish a program that “provide[s] patients with information about trade-offs among treatment options, and facilitates the incorporation of patient preferences and values into the medical plan.” The legislation makes clear that this is an educational tool to help patients make informed decisions about whether a treatment is likely to help.”

    http://www.slate.com/id/2223754

    • Pat Racimora

      Barry, darling, you are way too agitated. Take a deep breath. You have been around here long enough to know that NQ writers and staff are in nobody’s pocket. He call ‘em as we see ‘em.

      “Deathers.” That’s what those of us who have read the 1,000 plus pages of the latest bill and have problems with it are to be called now? H’mm, sort of like when I worked for Hillary Clinton and was called a racist.

      We need health care reform. Badly! But this bill is a mess. Even Democrats have said that you need 2 lawyers to understand it. It is so vague in so many places that you can interpret it however you want.

      Well, tell you what. Let’s meet here in a year and see what’s what. If I owe you an apology, I will give it willingly and sincerely. But I believe it will be you who will be telling me that maybe I was on to something back then.

  • http://www.grantbailoutplan.com/ PotVsKtl

    What you read is what is really in the bill – people will have access to optional end of life consultations, just like they do now. All the rest is just fearmongering.
    BTW I love your blog!

    • Tricia Spiegel

      PVK–You really need to read the bill. It is WAY too ambiguous as to what it really means. It’s a Rorchach test.