Who Is Really Getting Euthanized

UPDATE: Health Care Protesters Largely From Out of District

The forces trying to keep us from getting a new health care system are bussing operatives in to disrupt congresspeople's meetings. These protesters are not people who live in the district. The pattern of using violence to shut down discourse is very disturbing. Contact your congresspeople and let them know you don't want policy set in response to gun toting people brought in from outside to threaten violence.


The right wing fringe is trying to frighten the public with the claim that health reform will mean those close to death will be forced to die because medical care will be withheld.

They prefer the old system, where only those who are poor, unemployed, or have a chronic condition are forced to die because care is withheld.

Shame on them.

Next time some fear monger tries to tell you that health reform means rationing care, remind them we already ration care.

Those with high status jobs get it. Those who work for small business, are laid off for more than 18 months, or are self-employed in businesses that don't earn enough to pay $12,000 a year for an insurance plan do not. Those with a preexisting diagnosis can't get insurance in many states no matter what they are willing to pay.

I get mail every week from people in their 30s and 40s who have LADA (a slow form of Type 1) and severe Type 2 diabetes who have lost their jobs or have jobs without health insurance who cannot afford to see a doctor or pay for the drugs they need.

The media tells you that there are programs for these people. Try finding one when you are faced with a person whose average blood sugar is running around 400 mg/dl but who the emergency room doctor diagnosed as "Type 2." Until they are in DKA or a hyperosmolar state, or have gangrene or kidney failure, they aren't considered in danger. So if cutting carbs doesn't bring down their sugars, they are SOL.

That looks a lot more like euthanasia to me than denying open heart surgery to a demented 90 year old who can no longer recognize her own family.

Who benefits from the current system? Someone, obviously, because a lot of money is going into funding the noisy rent-a-mob protests against health reform.

A country that can pay billions to bail out banks can afford to provide adequate health coverage for every single citizen. My stomach is turned by the arguments that health care reform must save money, while bank bailouts and car bailouts can lose as much as it takes to "keep our economy stable."

Where is it written that some people have a god given right to get wealthy off the sickness and suffering of others? What sick religious belief tells us that we should only help the suffering if we can do it without it costing us money?

The right wing uses fear, lies, violence and name calling when they have no real arguments left. Anyone familiar with the history of fascism should recognize the patterns. Perhaps the right wing is flinging the word "Nazi" around because they have been dipping so freely into the very techniques the Nazis used to rise to power. Scream your lie loud enough, gather a violent mob to attack those who attempt to argue with you, and you can take over a country. For a while.

I think the American people are better than that. If you agree, contact your representatives in congress and let them know what you want to see in health care reform. Let them know that you don't make death threats to those who disagree with you but that you vote and that your friends with diabetes vote and you will be voting for those who do not let the huge corporate interests define "health care" as "The right to profit from the wealthy, employed, privileged sick."