There is a sickness in America; its name is corruption. And there is a disease in Florida. His name is Rick Scott.
To first address the latter: Some call our once Governor-now-Senator “Valdemort,” and not without cause beyond appearance. But, personally, I refuse to remand such cutesy cultural references to a man who I consider unequivocally to be the greatest mass murderer in Florida’s history. The butcher of our people; this outsider, this corporate pirate, this thief, this liar, this detestable infection in the heart of our state has defrauded our system, corrupted our democracy and killed more Floridians than any other outsider since DeSoto. He lives to exploit our land and our people for profit, as have so many previous foreigners to these shores.
Like every other conquistador, Scott came to our state from far away in search of easy riches. Hailing originally from Illinois, then Missouri, Scott used his vulture capitalist holdings to purchase several hospitals in South Florida. Among other places. He now owns private hospitals in 38 states, and (of course) runs Trump’s healthcare policy nationwide.
Except Scott doesn’t care much about healthcare. Or Floridians. Which is why in 1997, he and his company ran the largest Medicaid scam in history, defrauding taxpayers of (by some estimates) over a billion dollars through various Medicaid overcharges and kickbacks. Scott spent all of 2000 pleading the fifth, while his company kicked him out and plead guilty to 14 felony counts of fraud. They paid $600 million in fines, and Scott kept the rest.
But simply stealing from us wasn’t enough. No. Scott wanted what every other conquistador does…dominion and death.
Riding the wave of racist backlash against Obama in 2010, Scott stole his first term the way all Republicans do: through a narrow “victory” and highly suspicious “recount” afterward. But, it was too late. Scott’s campaign of rot, ruin and corruption had just begun. It wasn’t enough for Scott to steal health dollars from us; he had to steal healthcare itself.
Like every other conquistador, Scott came to our state from far away in search of easy riches. Hailing originally from Illinois, then Missouri, Scott used his vulture capitalist holdings to purchase several hospitals in South Florida. Among other places. He now owns private hospitals in 38 states, and (of course) runs Trump’s healthcare policy nationwide.
Except Scott doesn’t care much about healthcare. Or Floridians. Which is why in 1997, he and his company ran the largest Medicaid scam in history, defrauding taxpayers of (by some estimates) over a billion dollars through various Medicaid overcharges and kickbacks. Scott spent all of 2000 pleading the fifth, while his company kicked him out and plead guilty to 14 felony counts of fraud. They paid $600 million in fines, and Scott kept the rest.
But simply stealing from us wasn’t enough. No. Scott wanted what every other conquistador does…dominion and death.
Riding the wave of racist backlash against Obama in 2010, Scott stole his first term the way all Republicans do: through a narrow “victory” and highly suspicious “recount” afterward. But, it was too late. Scott’s campaign of rot, ruin and corruption had just begun. It wasn’t enough for Scott to steal health dollars from us; he had to steal healthcare itself.
Evidence one of his first acts of office: denying Floridians the Medicaid expansion guaranteed under Obamacare. An act which has resulted in more than 10,000 deaths in our state alone. My friends, my family, people I’ve loved and cared for…died at his hands. So much sickness, suffering and death; and at the heart of it all, this f***ing vulture of a man.
Yes, Rick…yes. I blame you.
As we all should. Rick Scott is a murderer. A villain, a monster who has rigged election after election to elevate himself higher and higher into power, to kill more and more Americans for his own benefit.
Yes, I’ve suffered plenty from lack of healthcare over my life. I was born with neurofibroma that has put me in unceasing pain for as long as I can remember. I’ve pulled broken and abscessed teeth from my head with channel lock pliers.
Yet, nothing gives me greater agony than seeing this filth, this excrement of greed, this cancerous conquistador and profiteering carrion eater go on to murder scores more Americans to fill his own festering bowels.
And yet, and yet, as much as I passionately hate Rick Scott…I can at least forgive evil, for doing as it is in its nature to do.
There is a disease in America. And it has a name. “Corruption.”
Let’s talk about the alternative: Medicare for All.
Those who oppose MfA for all are usually the ones who know the least about it. If you’re one of those opponents, and think you know…keep reading.
The corporate media, corrupt politicians, hatemongers and the monopoly men who profit from our division have been successful at anything, it’s a fairly phenomenal disinformation campaign about MfA. Red Scare Tactics have been working on the Right for almost a hundred years now; big business conservatives have been running that play for 80 years. Amazing it still works.
Corrupt corporate Democrats, though, rely on disinformation campaigns. Lack of context, dishonest framing or concern trolling; it all comes down to the same thing.
Lies. Corruption. Distortion and fake news. So, to clear up waters intentionally muddied by corporate shills and false friends, here’s a little fact sheet about Medicare for All. If you still oppose it by the end, that’s on you. Explain why to your own children. When your son or daughter gets dropped from their insurance because of job loss, spending caps…or they just drop dead because they couldn’t afford insulin…feel free to stand over their bodies and tell them why you thought it was more important to keep feeding corporate profit margins. Tell them then what you’d give for one more day.
But stand close, and speak quickly; there are vultures in the wings. And they wait. Always.
But, if that thought doesn’t persuade you to support Medicare for All, here are a few more worth mulling over.
- Medicare for All is CHEAPER than the Current System. – The Media loves to throw around MfA’s predicted $32 Trillion price tag. What they don’t tell you is that the current private system is costing us over $35 trillion. Which means passing MfA would actually save America more than $3,000,000,000,000 over ten years. Almost entirely by cutting corporations and billionaires out of the profit loop. All the money that would have gone to Cayman Islands bank accounts and parties with Jeff Epstein will go right back into your pocket.
- It’s a 15% Pay Raise for America – Another point media loves to toss out is the 5 percent tax hike from MfA. What they never, ever fail to leave out is that the average American is already spending 20 percent of their income on healthcare. And that’s getting the third-rate GarbageCare we are now. But, it doesn’t take Ian Malcolm to do this math: 20 – 5 = 15 percent. That’s how much more money you’ll be taking home under MfA compared to private insurance. For some of us, that’s our entire mortgage payment. You’re getting that back, for free…and getting amazing healthcare on top.
- MfA isn’t Actually Medicare – It only uses the name. Most people who have it love Medicare, but it’s got its flaws. Medicare for All is a completely new program, and covers far more than Medicare ever did. Cheaper, too. Vision, dental, prenatal, cancer screenings, pediatric; if you can think of it, it’s covered. Unlike Medicare, you don’t need “gap insurance,” because there are no gaps to cover. For those already on Medicare, you’ll get more coverage for less money than ever before.
- You Can’t Buy Insurance this Good. – Question for corpo shills: Why are you keeping Americans from getting great insurance? Even MfA’s biggest opponents are forced to admit this insurance would be a Cadillac Plan by any private standards. Better, in fact. Because with MfA, there are no deductables, co-pays or drug costs except for a few prescriptions. The most you can possibly pay is $200 per year. Try and find any private insurance plan in America that comes close to this coverage at any price. Let alone the pittance MfA will cost us.
- Wait Times Will be the Same or Less Than They Are Today. A favorite talking point of opponents, this frank lie usually underpins a lot of the fearmongering about MfA. Fact is, we already have absurd wait times in America. Unless you have top flight insurance (sometimes not even then), you’re going to stand in line for doctors appointments like anyone else. Yet, even under this ridiculous system, you’re still not denied emergency surgery…unless the insurance company doesn’t want to pay for it. Then the line becomes infinitely long. Till you’re dead. That cannot happen under MfA, which will use the same surgical scheduling structure we have today, without worrying about whether or not that surgery will be covered.
- You Can Still Buy Supplemental Insurance or Hire Private Doctors— The ideal is to get rid of insurance vulture and misery profiteering of all kinds. But, it may be a while before we get there. And the fact is, there are certain elective and cosmetic surgeries the taxpayer shouldn’t have to foot the bill for. Which is why almost every country offering state healthcare (which is essentially all of them but America) still maintains the option of private insurance and private doctors. This is true even at the extremes, in outright communist countries. Private doctors are still a thing; and still cheaper than any in America today.
- There are No “Government Death Panels.” – This is one of the most despicable lies told by opponents, usually from the Infowars sphere. For two reasons. First, because by the very nature of MfA, you cannot be denied healthcare for anything it covers. Which is effectively everything. Same way you can walk into an ER for an emergency today, you can walk into a doctor’s office for cancer screening tomorrow. You CANNOT BE DENIED HEALTHCARE. That’s the whole point of MfA. There are no government death panels deciding on whether or not you get care. Structurally, legally, financially, that’s just not how MfA is set up.
- We Have Corporate Death Panels NOW. – This is the flip side Alex Jones never mentions: We already have death panels. We already have guys in business suits deciding on who lives and who dies. Only, they work in middle management at every insurance company on Earth. They’re sitting in corporate boardrooms, deciding when you’ve hit your lifetime cap. They’re making sweetheart deals for drugs you can’t afford. They’re taking your money, and deciding to deny you treatment so they can buy a few new mansions in the Hamptons.
Medicare for All gets rid of the corporate Death Panels, and guarantees nobody will ever be denied the healthcare they need. That’s the whole point of the program. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you. And they know they are.
Medicare for All is better insurance than anyone will let you have now, and cheaper for all but the richest 5 percent of America. Including the 5 percent tax, you’re still going home with an extra 15 percent on your paycheck, and healthcare for life. You’re literally getting paid to take the best insurance money can’t buy. And you’ll have it for the rest of your life; no employer, spiteful spouse or corporate death panel will ever be able to change that.
Next week I’ll talk about why you don’t actually want to keep your insurance, and why that’s not a real argument against the institution of MfA.
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