the truth about obamacare

I can't believe they totally figured us out. You all know who 'they' is. 'They' are the brave citizens showing up at the town hall meetings, screaming about how their America is being flushed down the toilet with the feces of socialism. I guess they're just too smart for the President and the rest of the Dems (Not those Blue Dogs though. They know what's up).

First off, these death panels. I mean, how did they figure those out from the text of the 1000+ page plan which I'm sure they read? Yes, Obama totally wants to knock off all of those who are a complete strain on our economy. It's all part of the stimulus, you see. Come on! Old people? Who wants 'em? Their eating up my (future) social security and they're increasing the cost of Medicare with all of those illnesses they keep getting! Sure, Medicare only makes up about 2% of the federal budget (far less than our defense spending or those wars we've been fighting), but that's 2% that can be going to something else. Like the cost of these death squads. They're going to be meeting on a regular basis, I hope. That way we can eliminate the old people as quickly as possible.

And you know what? Even Sarah Palin gets it right every once in a while. Trig better watch out! Children with disabilities are totally on that list. Nevermind that the Democrats are the ones responsible for getting them a special education and all back in the day. Well, we're taking it back! No cushy life for you, disabled kids!

One of my favorite parts of the plan is the mandate for free sex-change surgeries. I heart transgender people. In fact, more people should change their sex. Personally, I've always wanted to know what it was like to be a man (particularly, what it is like to earn a man's wage and using the world as a giant toilet). With Obamacare, you now have that chance!

Another one of my favorites is the mandate for school based clinics. What I like about this is that now we can force abortions upon pregnant teens. Come on! How convenient is that? The clinics can totally replace those day cares that some high schools have. Find yourself inconveniently pregnant at 16? Well, then ditch homeroom and head over to the school clinic. In about an hour, you'll be totally de-pregnified. I wish I had that at my conservative, Catholic high school. I totally would've had promiscuous sex back then!

Speaking of abortions, under Obamacare, they are totally free, paid for by tax payer dollars!  Isn't that awesome?  Despite never having been pregnant, I've always wanted to have one so I plan to take advantage of this benefit.  Nevermind the countless federal laws that prohibit public funding from being used to fund abortions.  Obamacare is totally going to take care of that.  He is, after all, the most pro-abortion president ever.

My favorite part of Obamacare is that you will no longer have to think about what medical procedures you need. The Obama-approved Health Choices commissioner is going to do that for you. Granted, we already have that now. They are commonly known as Kaiser and United and Blue Cross. You know them. They're the same people who denied you that mammogram because of your pre-existing condition (pre-existing condition = being female), remember? Under Obama's plan, only one person will be making those decisions for everyone. Which is great for me because I can be so indecisive sometimes.

And you all know how the economy is crap right now. Well, there's a cost savings measure in the plan too. Basically, any medical procedure costing more than $22000 will not be covered by Obamacare. That's simply too much money for one person. It doesn't matter if that $25000 surgery will save your life. It's still too much money for government rationed health care. What? You think the government is made of money?

Personally, I'm all for this plan. There will be far less annoying old people in the world and abortions for everyone! What a perfect world.

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*SIGH* I guess I can take my tongue out of my cheek now. How ridiculous does this post sound? Well, that's what conservatives think about Obama's plan for health care reform. The hilarious thing is that people are eating the lies that the insurance industry is feeding them and screaming it back to their representatives at these town halls.

So, you can be a sheep for the insurance industry and fight for the status quo which leaves 1/3 of the US population without health insurance, OR you can make up your own mind by doing the research. In fact, I've started the search for you. Here are some non-partisan sites that are dissecting the many health care reform plans that are out there:

politifact.com
factcheck.org
ABC News
AARP

Personally, I think politifact.com is awesome and comprehensive and it has even won a Pulitzer.

new prez + change = science/politics*

Last night, I was delighted to read that a federal judge ruled that the Bush administration was wrong and determined that Plan B (emergency contraception) should be available without a prescription to girls as young as 17. Ok, so the previous age was 18, but still! This is a big step in the right direction. Now, if we can just get Plan B to be truly available over the counter, as opposed to behind the counter and under the judgmental eyes of a pharmacy tech, everything would be awesome!

If you recall, Plan B was held up for OTC approval in the FDA by many Bush cronies who did not want this pill to be available to teens because of the potential for the creation of teen sex cults!!! No, seriously. That was one of the reasons. Their line of reasoning was that, with increased availability to Plan B, teens would not be able to control their raging hormones any longer and engage in wanton (unprotected) group sex and then pop Plan B pills like candy afterwards. This wasn't based on actual facts (naturally, this was the Bush Administration after all) or anything. In fact, studies showed that teens didn't engage necessarily in careless sex if Plan B was available to them. In fact, their sexual habits showed no change.

But we all know that the Bush administration was averse to science and research and facts (global warming is another great example).

After 8 years of anti-science crap, we now have a president who does not place politics over science. Last month, the new administration worked to remove one of Bush's last acts known as the Provider Refusal Rule. Essentially, the Provider Refusal Rule or "Conscience Clause" (was written to be incredibly ambiguous and open to interpretation on purpose) allowed for religious ideology in the clinical setting. Under the rule, workers in health-care settings -- from doctors to janitors -- can refuse to provide services, information or advice to patients on subjects such as contraception, family planning, blood transfusions and even vaccine counseling if they are morally against it.

For example, if a clinician felt uncomfortable providing birth control or a Plan B prescription or the HPV vaccine, it was within his/her right to refuse to provide it to their patients. The thing is that judgment has NO place in health care, especially religious judgment. If you have a problem dispensing birth control (but not Viagra), then don't be a pharmacist. Don't want to perform an abortion if the mother's life is in danger? Well, then maybe you shouldn't be an OBGYN.

It's the same thing outside of health care. Do you hate Latinos and think gays should burn in hell? Then you wouldn't want my job. So why was the health care field specifically targeted in the Conscience Clause? Because of abortion, of course!

As a public health geek, it is so refreshing to have a president who thinks sound science should be the basis for policy as opposed to religious ideology. The NY Times piece above quoted Dr. Susan Wood, former director of the Office of Women's Health at the FDA who resigned because she didn't want to be part of Bush's morality militia. She commented, "There is a new chance to restore the scientific integrity of the F.D.A.”

Oh God I hope so.

*the title should be read as: new president plus change equals science over politics.

a public service announcement

Smoking is bad for you.

Have you heard this enough in your life? Do you need help finding a way to quit?

To be honest, I've never smoked a day in my life. Not a single thing. I'm probably the only person I know who didn't experiment with smoking 'something' in college. (By the way, this does not mean I was Straight Edge Girl in college. I just made drinking my vice.) So before you smokers assume I'm going to get all self-righteous on you, I promise you that I won't.

It's hard to quit stuff that you're addicted to that aren't good for you. For example, I LOVE sour candy. Can't get enough of the stuff. And now I have cavities. That's what happens when you indulge in something that isn't good for you.

I recently had the pleasure of helping a co-worker quit smoking. Actually, he's a former co-worker as he has since been fired from his job for not doing it. Work, that is.

But Ed (let's call him that, shall we?) is a young man of maybe 22. The kind of guy who would flirt with the cute girls who attended our health fairs even though he was being paid to work (yup, that firing = Karma). He's a good looking guy, I guess, if 'young' and 'baby-faced' is your thing.

So one day, during one of Ed's many smoke breaks, I informed him that smoking was bad for him. He told me that he already knew but he had tried quitting and it didn't stick. And then I asked him if he liked having sex (hey, I do this with random strangers when I do outreach. I have no qualms about asking a personal question). Naturally, he replied 'yes'. Then I said, "Did you know that male smokers are at risk for decreased sexual function? Meaning, if you keep smoking, don't expect to get it up when you're older." He answered, "Yeah, right." I replied, "Oh you don't believe me? I'll be happy to show you the research study that proves this."

The next day, I emailed him a link to the study abstract.

His email reply? "LOL. Ok, I'm quitting right now."

Ed never took a smoke break again.

So the threat of lung cancer or emphysema didn't work. But the threat of ED...yup, that did the trick.