The following is a journal entry I wrote shortly following the passage of the historic HCR bill back in March. The chorus of discontent and sky-is-falling rhetoric from the right was at a fever pitch; I found myself participating in a higher volume of absurd water-cooler conversations than normal attempting to dispel the myths, lies, and outright propaganda programmed into the heads of my largely right-wing co-workers.
Considering that I'm starting to hear a lot of noise again from my friends on the right about the evils of HCR and the "repeal and replace" meme with respect to the upcoming elections this November, it seems timely to re-visit the pledge that you should insist ALL of your right-wing HCR-hating friends, family, and co-workers sign on to...
Rather then re-argue the war on facts that has been the health care debate in LARGE part, let me offer an olive branch, to those who are besides themselves on this issue and the fact that the HCR bill has passed and has been signed into law.
I offer to completely respect anyone's insistence on opposing this legislation so long as they are consistent about that opposition in practice - and that means agreeing to the following pact that all who opposed this bill should be completely willing to take:
The Honest Health Care Opposition Pledge
As a dedicated supporter of the Republican Party's opposition to Health Care Reform legislation and the chilling socialist shadow it has cast over American Free Enterprise and our Capitalist Economy, I pledge to do my part to ensure that I do not allow myself to be a participant, directly or indirectly, in the socialist redistribution of resources that is HCR. As such, I pledge compliance to the following four points:
- Since the HCR bill bars American private insurance companies from dropping policy holders once they are diagnosed with an expensive to treat disease or condition, I, in opposition to HCR, do pledge, should I in my lifetime be diagnosed with an expensive to treat illness, disease, or medical condition, to voluntarily cancel my existing American private insurance coverage plan, so that I do not become a burden on the glorious and all-important capitalist machine that IS America. It is my duty as an American citizen not to impede on the freedoms of American Business to remain as profitable as possible. I will accept the medical bills placed upon me for my treatment, and perhaps forego said treatment altogether giving my quality of life, and quite possibly, my life, in service to the greatness that is the American Free Enterprise. To do otherwise would clearly be Socialism. God Bless America!!!
- Since the HCR bill bars American private insurance companies from imposing lifetime caps on coverage for my medical costs, I will volunteer to terminate my existing American private insurance coverage the moment it feels like I'm costing a Great American Enterprise an awful lot of money that should be used to enrich the hard-working executives and stockholders of this Great American Business. To do otherwise would clearly be Socialism. God Bless America!!!
- Since Medicare is a socialist, government-run takeover of one sixth of the economy, as a Great American, I pledge not to waste taxpayers' money on my own selfish needs by refusing to accept enrollment in Medicare or Medicaid in my lifetime. To do otherwise would clearly be Socialism. God Bless America!!!
- Finally, since health care reform also mandates that health insurance plans spend 80-85% of the people's dollars on actual HEALTH CARE, which is disgustingly socialist and communist and the end of our free society as we know it, I will keep a close eye on the benefits I receive from my Great American Health Care Plan, and if it's clear I'm receiving a level of benefits that preclude my Great American Insurance Company from realizing adequate profit to be spent on marketing, administrative costs, and by gum, shareholder value, I will do the right thing and send my Great American Insurance Company a check they can use towards these costs. To do otherwise would clearly be Socialism. God Bless America!!!
So, there you go. If you can honestly make this pledge, you have proven yourself a worthy opponent of health care reform, and will have made your stand for keeping the world's only first-world country for-profit health care system alive and well!