Socialized Medicine = Jesus

I'm back. I haven't blogged in a while. I've been busy, but now that health care is safely past, and Obama accomplished more in a week than Bush accomplished in 8 years (12 if you count Daddy Bush), I decided to share some thoughts.

The Tea Baggers et al really flipped out over the passage of the health care reform bill. You'd think that it was actually going to affect them in some way. Democrats in Congress have received many death threats and other types of threats of bodily harm from Sarah Palin showing Congressional with targets over them on her Facebook page to Bart Stupack, Alan Grayson and others receiving threatening phone calls. It is not happening on both sides as some misguided and uninformed Republicans would love to believe. Eric Cantor received a death threat from some psycho anti-semite. That wasn't even related to the health care bill so it doesn't qualify as "happening on both sides." Those on the right-wing in the media and in Congress are being irresponsible because they are inciting these folks who are fragile to begin with. If anyone gets hurt, I hold them responsible.

These tea baggers are extremely misguided and uninformed. For instance, they believe this bill is socialized medicine. What about this bill is socialized? There is nothing in it that is government run. The only thing that is government run is Medicare, and most of the these morons don't even understand that because they call for government to stay out of health care in one breath and don't touch my medicare with the other. How about if we do away with medicare? Would that make them happy?

If we had a public option, that would be a form of socialized medicine. However, the whole system would not be socialized because there is still the private insurers. Yes, they're being regulated, but they should be because peoples' lives are at stake just like with air travel, prescription drugs, food, pollution etc. All these have some sort of regulation for the public safety.

If we had a single payer system, which we don't, that would be socialized medicine. That is, health care for all. What's wrong with that? Everyone would get health care, no one would be denied. It works in Denmark. Shoot, it works in Taiwan. Citizens in both countries pay less for health care. Imagine if Jesus asked for proof of health insurance. Imagine if Jesus refused to treat people because of pre-existing conditions.

I can't think of a concept more inline with the spirit of Jesus than socialized medicine.