He’s In The Army Now
A middle aged guy with a teen-aged kid just enlisted so that his wife could get treatment for her cancer.
A middle aged guy with a teen-aged kid just enlisted so that his wife could get treatment for her cancer.
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October 20th, 2009 at 11:44 am
Sadly it’s not unusual. When I was in basic we had a guy who was 38. His wife had been diagnosed with MS and his insurance dropped her for this “pre-exisiting condition” that she never knew she had. After searching for months for coverage that would cover her treatments and finding nothing, he joined the army.
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October 20th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
I am 35 years old and I can unashamedly say that that story had me close to tears. It hit to close to home for comfort.
I lost my father over a year ago to Multiple Myeloma. A particularly nasty cancer of the blood.
http://www.nswcc.org.au/editorial.asp?pageid=1103
It was both the most heart breaking and heart warming 8 years with a roller-coaster of ups and downs. It was his heart that gave out in the end, not the cancer. His body just had enough and he passed away in his sleep in the early hours of the morning.
The last thing I want to do is to have it seem like I’m gloating or making fun of a VERY bad situation but after hearing a story like that, I count how lucky I am to live in Australia where we have a National Public Health Scheme that basically paid for all my father’s treatments and procedures.
I really feel for people in that position and don’t understand why there is all that resistance to Obama’s proposal for a National Health Scheme. Are people really that selfish?
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kat reply on October 20th, 2009 5:03 pm:
Unfortunately, yes, people really are that selfish. Somehow they think that if other people have healthcare it will somehow deprive them. The thing that I’ve noticed (working where I do) is that the people who object most strenuously are those who are already on healthcare paid by the government, Medicare, Medicaid, or they are a state or federal employee. If you stop and think about it, something like a third of this country is already on government funded healthcare. Everyone who uses Medicare, Medicaid, is a state or federal employee, Military and their family, veteran or HAS EVER COME THE THE ER AND NOT BEEN ABLE TO PAY FOR IT has had their care subsidized by the government. I have government healthcare (Tricare), so do the republican senators who are bitching and moaning about government healthcare. Chances are, that crack-whore they just paid $50 to also has government healthcare (having been declared disabled because she is too strung out all the time to work). And really, I’d love to not have to listen to the doctors bitch about how they know they won’t get paid by such-and-such patient, but they have to take care of them anyway, so it’s a big win for me.
/rant
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Susan reply on October 20th, 2009 5:12 pm:
ShuttleZ – The real reason we won’t have a national health plan in America, is, get this: abortion. It’s generally covered in private employers’ plans, but not in federal plans, including military. There’s just no way anybody’s going to figure out a compromise on that one, IMHO.
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Lokim8 reply on October 21st, 2009 3:11 am:
I have a question, if you are such a free country then why is abortion such an issue? Abortion strikes me as a topic that is entierly personal opinion and circumstance and as such to enforce an anti-abortion policy would be to the contrary. But hey i live in Queensland, Australia, our politicians are shit heads.
StoneWolf reply on October 21st, 2009 4:44 am:
For Lokim8
Because most American’s these days do not understand how the country is supposed to work. They foolishly interperet “Freedom” to mean “Free to live like me”. When they object to what somebody else does, instead of simply not doing it themselves they try to stop everyone because somehow that makes them “right”. The other part of the problem, specific to abortion, is that they see it as murder, being the unjustified killing of another human being. We have laws against that sort of thing. On the other hand, people who aren’t opposed to abortion generally don’t see it as murder. So we come to the classic problem that the opposition truly believes they are doing good works and generally are not motivated by malice. Yet they’re still trying to tell other people how to live their lives. For my part, I object to abortion as birth control, but I still don’t think its my place to tell a woman what to do with her own body or the spawnling growing inside her.
To try to understand the other side, try this thought experiment. You’re neighbor is a generally decent fellow, but whenever he gets horny, he goes out and finds a woman to rape to fufil his lust. He doesn’t see this as wrong in the least. Would you try to stop him? I think that’s kinda how they see it.
So unfortunetly the issue is a touch more complex than the usual “You don’t worship God the way I do” nonsense.
LT Ronald reply on October 21st, 2009 1:46 pm:
Abortion and government healthcare are topics near and dear to every right-wing asshat out there.
“At least with the undoubtedly Pro-Murder justices that will be named to the supreme court we hopefully wont have to worry about as many stupid/lazy fucks, because it will become legal in all states for everyone to shove a pair of scissors in the heads of partially born crack babies and vacuum their crack-baby brains out with a saw filled vacuum. Chances are that teenage pregnancies can also go down because parents of these teenagers won’t know that little Suzy went down and committed murder in order to fit properly in her prom dress because she couldn’t just take it up the ass like a good little whore.”
A cookie for whoever has been around long enough to remember who wrote the above first.
—Right-wing asshat shows himself out
Sequoia reply on October 21st, 2009 2:34 pm:
YOU DID! Now where is my goddamn cookie?
And I agreed with all that.
-Other Right-Wing Asshat shows himself out, wondering when he’ll get the cookie.
skippy reply on October 21st, 2009 3:18 pm:
If you don’t wait for the invisible hand of the market to give you a cookie you’re a socialist.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I really have nothing to add to the abortion question above except to say that; Stonewolf, That it possibly one of the best arguments regarding the issue i’ve read in a long while. I study law, so I appreciate it when someone can communicate clearly, quickly and at the same time elouqently. Its harder than you think! Props.
I really find it sad that the man in this story was forced to such extremes to pay for health care, I frankly find it disgusting that there are Americans that argue against universal health care. I’ve always believed there are certain inaliable rights a person has, healthcare amoungst them. Then again, I’m a proud Canuck, so I’ve never NOT had healthcare. God Bless Tommy Douglas! One of only a handful of politicians to truly improve our country. Socialist? Damn right its Socialist. But why’s that a bad thing?
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August 20th, 2010 at 11:10 pm
The only unalienable right people have is to die
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October 23rd, 2011 at 9:54 pm
I’m aware this is a really really late post to this thread but I couldn’t let it go by: dear right-wing ass hats – if you had some kind of deal that meant you could get free dental care, would you go out and get a root canal for kicks? Would you stop brushing your teeth and start coating your gums with sugar (for some reason) because, hey, the dental care’s free?
Of course not. Because it’s painful, unnecessary and strange. However, if someone tried to use those reasons to take your free dental away – that is, that you’re too stupid to use it properly – you’d probably feel a little insulted.
There’s this thing you can do, which is assume that women, like men, are by and large reasonable, competent adults. There are many many reasons women need abortions and reducing it to a “WHORE KILL BABIES FOR KICKS” (complete with gory details) line is pretty predictable and useless.
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