Goddamn it.

[apocalypsos]

Ted Kennedy finally passed away.

I'm of three minds about this:

1.) I'm depressed, because he's done some great things in his time. (Some bad things, too, but still.)
2.) I'm happy that at least he's not suffering anymore.
3.) I'm PISSED OFF, because they better change the name of the health care reform bill to the Edward Kennedy Comprehensive Health Care Reform Bill, slam single-payer or the public option into it, and shove that fucking thing so far up Congress's collective ass it makes it that much harder for them to spout bullshit lies out of their singular asses. And if any of those motherfuckers says, "This is a sign from God that he doesn't think we should have health care reform!" -- and my God, how appalling is it that that's a genuine concern in this country? -- I'm going to go to their congressional offices in DC and piss on their desk.

EDIT: You know what I can't stop thinking of right now? Ted Kennedy passed away from brain cancer. The mother of my best friend from high school is on her third recurrence of brain cancer. And she doesn't have the bank account or government-provided health care that Ted Kennedy did. God, I can't even imagine what their hospital bills look like.

Comments

[ficangel.livejournal.com]

I went without pap smears and without the HPV vaccine for two years before landing my current job--even though a particularly aggressive form of cervical cancer runs in my family--because I was either underinsured through the expensive and basically only good for catastrophic occurrence (and I had to fucking do battle with them to even get that) that Retail Hell offered or had nothing at all. Since I couldn't have paid for treatment, I preferred to just not know. I swear, it was the stress of wondering that made me sicker than anything else.

As to the points made by the above poster with a hate-on by the DMV, 1) yes, I work for the state, and, yes, my health insurance comes from a private company on contract. I still get it for free. I don't fucking care where it comes from, so long as I have it. But even if the government could never build its own health-insurance infrastructure and had to contract out indefinitely, 2) my job with the state is to loom over private companies and make certain that they are following regulations. Because guess what! They do that when it's the government controlling whether they're paid! And when it's only individuals, they fuck people over!