kierthos: (Default)
kierthos ([personal profile] kierthos) wrote2009-11-08 08:42 am

For reference

House Democrats who voted against the health care bill.

It also lists how much they won their last election by, what percentage of non-insured elderly there are in their districts, and some stats on how their district voted in the last presidential election.

Side note: One (and only one) Republican broke ranks in the House to vote for the health care bill. His name is Anh Cao (R-LA), and he's probably not your typical Republican.

[identity profile] mierandra.livejournal.com 2009-11-08 03:58 pm (UTC)(link)
All of that is well and good, but it could go a little further on what the insurance companies are allowed to do price-wise. I heard an NPR story on Maryland's state health care system. They have a board made up of people from insurance, health care, pharma and patient advocates that determines a price for every procedure with a standard medical procedure code and drug legal to prescribe and sets the price there. That way, insurance has to compete using the things they can control- premium prices and quality of service- and doctors have to do the same. It stops being about the cost and starts being about what you can do for the patient.

[identity profile] kierthos.livejournal.com 2009-11-08 04:17 pm (UTC)(link)
That would be nice.

Considering that the large part of the Republican party doesn't seem to actually want to help people, fat chance of it happening. (It would also help if the fucking Democrats had spines instead of strawberry jello.)

Frankly, the most irritating thing about the whole health care debate is when one of these Congress-critters says there's nothing wrong with the health care system. Of course, they have one of the paid tax-payer paid systems available to them for as long as they are in office, so why should they give a fuck about the little guy?

I'd love to see those bastards have to worry about whether their insurance would allow or deny procedures and how much of it they would have to cover out of pocket.

[identity profile] mierandra.livejournal.com 2009-11-08 04:30 pm (UTC)(link)
It's nice to see a new face so far as Republicans actually doing work. Not that any politician from Louisiana is "normal," but still.

[identity profile] kierthos.livejournal.com 2009-11-08 04:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Shit, give it time. Once the Glenn Beck/Sarah Palin crowd read that a Republican broke ranks (and even worse for those ultra-right wingers, he's not a white 'mercan), they'll do whatever they feel is necessary (i.e. lie, cheat, and fuck things up) so a "real Republican" gets elected to that seat.

[identity profile] mierandra.livejournal.com 2009-11-08 04:44 pm (UTC)(link)
They'll find that harder to do in Louisiana than anywhere else in the country. Remember, this is the state that still writes, visits and calls its former politicians while they're in federal prison. :)

[identity profile] kierthos.livejournal.com 2009-11-08 05:44 pm (UTC)(link)
This is true. But I won't be a bit surprised if Cao gets called all kinds of names by the right-wing talking heads.