Since the Republicans are so good at giving us scarey images, let's give them one maybe even they can understand. It's not as cute as "death panels" not as cuddly as "socialism" but it has the advantage of being factual.
I know the headline might be considered hyperbole or exaggeration. Alas it is fact.
I propose that every time anyone brings up death panels, government rationing of health care, etc etc we just throw back at them that, with the current system, right now almost six times as many people die each year from lack of health insurance and health care as died on 9/11. That's 18,000 people a year.
Sources: According to Wikipedia, 2,993 people died on 9/11. USA Today estimates 18,000 unnecesary deaths per year due to lack of health insurance. Other sources say 22,000. And that doesn't count the thousands of deaths among people underinsured or who have been denied care by their insurers.
And since that's every year, in just the 15 years since the Clinton administration's health care reform was derailed by Republicann in 1994, approximately 270,000 Americans have died due to lack of reform.
That means without any help from Osama Bin Laden and only the greed of our private health insurance industry to do the heavy lifting, since 1994 we have wiped out the equivalent of the population any of the following cities:
- Buffalo, New York
- Plano, Texas
- Lincoln, Nebraska
- Fort Wayne, Indiana
- Greensboro, North Carolina
- Petersburg, Florida
- Jersey City, New Jersey
- Scottsdale, Arizona
- Madison, Wisconsin OR
- Orlando, Florida
- ........ and so many more
You get the drift.
And so many more have suffered unnecessarily or incurred permanent disability all because we as a nation don't think they deserve health care and because the insurance companies have always made stockholder profits and executive pay their key priority with delivering quality, affordable care to their customers a mere blip in their rear view mirrors.
PS Just getting started writing diaries. Suggestions/criticisms welcome.