Like most of us, I have a family member who means well but will believe anything they get in an email. While he doesn't identify as a Republican or a Democrat, most of the emails before the election were clearly on the anti-Obama side such as the '50 lies' email and what not and each time I replied back quickly smacking down the email. (In the end, I did convince him to vote for Obama.)
Its been quiet since the election until earlier today when I received the email 'SENIOR DEATH WARRANTS' from him. My response is below.
Sorry, but this is completely false.
http://www.factcheck.org/...
Ask yourself before you forward political emails: is this email trying to rationally and calmly inform me on an issue, no matter what political beliefs it may support, or is it just trying to scare the hell out of me with subject lines like 'SENIOR DEATH WARRANTS' with no facts to back it up and no idea who wrote it?
No matter where you stand on Obama's health care plan, please just think of these few thoughts (with sources):
- Over 60% of bankruptcies are not due to reckless spending, but overwhelming medical bills.
CNN
Overall, three-quarters of the people with a medically-related bankruptcy had health insurance, they say.
"That was actually the predominant problem in patients in our study -- 78 percent of them had health insurance, but many of them were bankrupted anyway because there were gaps in their coverage like co-payments and deductibles and uncovered services," says Woolhandler. "Other people had private insurance but got so sick that they lost their job and lost their insurance."
- Private insurance companies are spending over $1,000,000 per day to kill the public option.
Washington Post
Drugmakers, hospitals and insurers continued to pour millions of dollars into lobbying during the second quarter of this year, hoping to limit the damage to their bottom line as lawmakers and the Obama administration wrangle over landmark health-care legislation.
Many health companies and associations increased their first-quarter lobbying expenditures, sometimes dramatically. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association upped its lobbying expenditures by a full million, to 2.8 million dollars in the second quarter; GlaxoSmithKline's spending jumped from $1.8 million to $2.3 million; Novartis grew from $1.4 million to $1.8 million; and Metlife Group reported $1.7 million, up nearly 50 percent. Allstate, which spent less than $900,000 on lobbying through March, boosted its spending to more than $1.5 million from April to June.
- A horrible, but commonly practiced, process of rescinding people's health care when you most need it and then rewarding insurance employees for denying millions of dollars in claims.
LA Times
But documents obtained by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and released today show that the company's employee performance evaluation program did include a review of rescission activity.
The documents show, for instance, that one Blue Cross employee earned a perfect score of "5" for "exceptional performance" on an evaluation that noted the employee's role in dropping thousands of policyholders and avoiding nearly $10 million worth of medical care.
WellPoint's Blue Cross of California subsidiary and two other insurers saved more than $300 million in medical claims by canceling more than 20,000 sick policyholders over a five-year period, the House committee said.
"When times are good, the insurance company is happy to sign you up and take your money in the form of premiums," Stupak said. "But when times are bad, and you are afflicted with cancer or some other life-threatening disease, it is supposed to honor its commitments and stand by you in your time of need.
"Instead, some insurance companies use a technicality to justify breaking its promise, at a time when most patients are too weak to fight back," he said.
The committee investigation uncovered several rescission practices that one lawmaker called egregious, including targeting every policyholder diagnosed with leukemia, breast cancer and 1,400 other serious illnesses. Such investigations involve scouring the policyholder's original application and years' worth of medical and pharmacy records in search of any discrepancies.
This has been the status quo for years yet they say we don't need to change anything.
If you think we are fine with the way things are, tell me why.
Chad
Here's the email, in all its horrendous 'fowarded 20 times' glory:
>>> > Subj: SENIOR DEATH WARRANTS:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> SENIOR DEATH
>>> WARRANTS:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> In God We Must
>>> Trust
>>> From a concerned friend:
>>>
>>> SENIOR DEATH WARRANTS:
>>> I can vouch for this to a degree.
>>> Wednesday I was at the doctor whom I have
>>> been going to since
>>> we moved down here (he is the one who discovered
>>> my
>>> cancer). I
>>> have to get a very expensive shot every 3 months
>>> ($3000) that
>>> is
>>> designed to keep the PSI down and help to prevent a
>>> recurrence of the
>>> cancer. Has some uncomfortable side
>>> effects,
>>> and I was questioning the need
>>> to continue with it, which he
>>> assured me was necessary. He then asked how
>>> old I was, and when
>>> I replied 70, he said that if this legislation
>>> goes
>>> through as
>>> intended by the powers that be, that I probably
>>> would not be
>>> able
>>> to get it next year, as that would be money better
>>> spent
>>> on someone else
>>> with greater longevity. I would be refe
>>
>> rred to
>>>
>>> someone to "counsel" me.
>>>
>>> I asked him why the AMA had
>>> recently endorsed the plan. He replied that only
>>> about 15% of
>>> the nation's doctors were members of AMA, and
>>> most of them
>>> were
>>> not really on the front lines of doctorhood but in
>>> some
>>> other areas of
>>> medicine. He said he was a member, but would not
>>> be after this membership
>>> year.
>>>
>>> This man got part
>>> of his training in London, and
>>> practiced in
>>> Canada for
>>> 16
>>> years
>>> before coming to the US, and he has no use for
>>> socialized
>>> medicine,
>>> regardless of how you wrap it, or what kind of bow to
>>> put on it. He said
>>> that we have a shortfall of around 400,000
>>> doctors at the present time, and
>>> many of today's doctors are of
>>> the baby boomer
>>> generation who
>>> are nearing
>>> retirement and/or will decide to hang it up rather
>>> than deal with the
>>> results this is sure to
>>> bring.
>>>
>>> Scary, my friends. The picture for our age
>>> group is not pretty.
>>> ALL THE MORE REASON TO PUT YOUR
>>
>> FAITH IN
>>>
>>> GOD, NOT
>>> GOVERNMENT.
>>>
>>> SENIOR DEATH WARRANTS:
>>> In England
>>> anyone over 59 cannot
>>> receive heart repairs or stents or? bypass
>>> because it is not
>>> covered as being too expensive and not needed.
>>> Obama wants to
>>> have a healthcare system just like Canada's and
>>> England's.
>>> I
>>> got this today and am sending it on.
>>> If Obama's
>>> plans in other areas don't scare you, this
>>> should.
>>> Please do
>>> not let Obama sign senior death warrants.
>>>
>>> Everybody that is
>>> on this mailing list is either a senior
>>> citizen,
>>> is
>>> getting close or knows somebody that is.
>>>
>>> Most
>>> of you know by now that the Senate version (at
>>> least) of the
>>> "stimulus"
>>> bill includes provisions for extensive rationing of
>>> health care for senior
>>> citizens. The author of this part of the
>>> bill, former senator and tax
>>> evader,? Tom
>>> Daschle was credited
>>> today by Bloomberg with the
>>> following
>>> statement:
>>> Bloomberg: Daschle says
>>> "health-care reform will not be pain free.
>>> Seniors
>>> should be
>>>
>> more accepting of the conditions that come with age
>>>
>>> instead
>>> of
>>> treating them."
>>>
>>> If this does not sufficiently
>>> raise your ire, just remember that our
>>> esteemed Senators and
>>> Congressmen have their own healthcare plan that is
>>> first dollar
>>> or very low co-pay which they are guaranteed the
>>> remainder
>>> of
>>> their lives and are not subject to this new law if it
>>> passes.
>>>
>>> Please use the power of the Internet to get this
>>> message out.
>>> Talk it up at the grassroots level. We have an
>>> election coming up in one
>>> year and five months. And we have the
>>> ability to address and reverse the
>>> dangerous direction the
>>> Obama administration and its allies have begun and
>>> in the
>>> interim, we can make their lives miserable. Lets do
>>> this!
>>>
>>>
>>> If you disagree, do
>>> nothing.