Which GOP will win: infantile, idiotic, dangerous or conservative?

The GOP is having an identity crisis. They're clearly losers--because they've lost (and this is the thing they can't stand the most--though losing to an African American man probably makes it worse for many of them).

The GOP is being exposed as "the party of NO," and as the RADICALS that they have been. They aren't conservatives, they are neo-CONS (con-men). They have given us the biggest government, the biggest deficit, the most intrusion on our personal lives of any US administration in history. They are really Fascists, controlled by corporations (that's what Fascists are) but they either don't know the meaning of the word, or pretend not to.

The GOP used to have solidarity through greed (by way of stupidity--as if what was good for the few was good for the many--instead of what Kennedy said, "A rising tide lifts all boats" which is really what happens in society).

Now the GOP has multiple directions it can go

• The Palin (I'm so stupid I don't know I'm stupid and I'm afraid of smart people who might outsmart me, and I believe that stupid people are the best people to run things because they won't outsmart you except they will be so stupid they can only make things worse/Bush route).
  
• The "we're really conservatives--we remember what that means--we're almost libertarians but we're not wackos.
  
• The WE HATE EVERYBODY including ourselves *because we secretly like all the things we claim to hate)--but mostly we hate anybody who isn't one of us, because you're either with us or you're a terrorist--obviously.

Two of those three directions require a high-degree of stupidity, and an even higher degree of fear. One of those directions has logic behind it, rather than just infantile idiotic crying and screaming about how everyone else is going to ruin their lovely little country which is perfect as it is, and please, work against our self-interest, because we are the stupidest creatures on the planet.

But it's hard to imagine that the intelligent, logical, true-conservative (vs. the neo-con-men), can beat the screaming and crying which is so much easier to understand, because you don't have to understand anything at all.

The Republicans have a century long history of saying NO to anything new including Medicare and Social Security. Those both cost money and we don't want to spend our money--on other people. Though, interestingly, you don't see Republicans turning down that money and saying, "We have principals, and since we're against these programs, we aren't going to be part of them." No, they cash their checks, and then complain about the other people who had the unmitigated gall to cash theirs.

So which GOP do I think will win? The ones who are the biggest, loudest, most insincere hypocrites. Because when it comes to the history of the GOP, they usually have.

US Health Insurance is disgraceful--and so are the Democrats lack of backbone to fix it

I don't know what's wrong with the Democrats.

Why do they even listen to the whining and screaming of the Republicans they know are either idiots or are totally in the pocket of pharma and insurance companies?

They know almost 80% of Americans want and need reform, and that they have a majority, and they still act like they're the whipped minority bitches of the GOP.

I don't get it at all.

It was one thing when they were in the minority and had no say in things--though even then they could have put up a fight and gone to the public and done some smart marketing--but they never did. Independent groups tried, but then the congresspeople and senators did nothing to stand up to them.

If you have no power, at least you can do is create a fuss.

You have to give Republicans credit, they have two things in common--greed and fear, and when they don't have power, they make one hell of a fuss and stop any kind of progress. I don't know why this makes them feel safe, since in reality it makes everyone much more vulnerable to the kind of insecurity and abuse that we're under from the insurance and pharma companies.

As I've said, Republicans must be the dumbest creatures on the planet, because they are the only ones who will actively work against their own interest. But work it they do. Which is more than can be said for the Democrats.

Here's my latest health insurance story--I went to an ear, nose and throat doc because I'd been coughing for weeks and had trouble with my sense of smell. He gave me a lot of free drug samples (pushers always give it to you for free first :) and then said I should get an MRI.

I said I would if he got approval. It took two weeks, but a nurse from his office called and said I had approval and to schedule an appointment.

I called the insurance company to find out how much the co-pay would be. The agent said they had no approval on file (I had received a letter in the mail from a third party company saying I had approval and giving me the active code and dates!), and what's more, they wouldn't pay for anything until I'd spent all of my $3,500 out-of-pocket max for the year.

Oh--I pay $600 a month, and have given them tens of thousands of dollars. For that, I get two doctor visits a year. That's all. I get $1,000 in prescriptions (worth about $500 at Canadian drug prices). So far it's been a great deal for them, because I have no claims--for years. Surely, out of those tens of thousands of dollars they could manage to cough up, oh, I'll guess, $500 tops. But no.

Now I want a test that with a "list price" of $1106. How they get the $6 I don't know, but this is what the doctor told me. Insurance companies only ever pay a fraction of the listed price, so I know it's less than that, but don't know how much less.

The good news is that my expensive insurance allows me to get the "contracted negotiated price," which means I only have to pay what the insurance company pays--not the $1106 I'd have to pay if I didn't have insurance. $300? $900?

This has never made sense--as without insurance it should cost less, since insurance companies have more money!

OK--so how much is that "contract rate?"

THEY WON'T TELL ME. The doctor doesn't know, because it's different for each carrier and policy, so I get that. They won't call and find out, either, as that would take them 45 minutes which is expensive. The insurance company told me to call them and they tell me to call in the insurance company.

Now the insurance company says I just need the doctor's tax ID number and their CPT code which they have to give me, so I call back and get them and they give them.

I call the insurance company back (it's taken almost four hours to get to this point, whereas the insurance company could have just told me what I needed to start). I give the info to the agent who tells me I'll get the price in 24 hours via email.

Now--this is the same insurance company that said they couldn't tell me the contracted rate, because it was in the contract not to tell, but apparently if you work hard enough and call enough people and spend four hours they can tell you.

Except--they never did. I got no email. No call. No nothing. I did get an email saying I had "secure" email on their site. I went to their site and couldn't see any place to read email, secure or otherwise. After 15 minutes of clicking on EVERYTHING I found something about health history that took me to a version of webMD.com that doesn't seem all that secure, and there were four messages, like "You're late for your flu shot!!!" (which the insurance won't pay for), and other nice reminders of things I was supposed to do--had I ever known to check this email area, which I never knew existed.

But no email with the price of the MRI. So--I guess I have to call the insurance company again and ask and waste more of my time (and theirs, talking to those agents costs the insurance companies money they could be turning into pure profit, if only us pesky human beings didn't have questions they don't want to answer, so they basically don't).

OK--so here's what I've finally figured out:

THE ENTIRE SYSTEM IS DESIGNED TO MAKE YOU GIVE UP.

"No, I don't need the procedure after all, it's just too hard to find out what it costs. I'll just give up."

"Oh, the insurance company decided they weren't going to pay for something they approved and I talked to 12 people on the phone and I still have no answers and it might just be easier to write that check..."

What a disgraceful, disgusting system. Designed to make you feel grateful they'll take your money and give you little or nothing in return--with the full knowledge that they can cancel you any time--when you actually have met all their requirements and it's their turn to pay for the services you've paid for for years.

But can the Democrats do anything about it? Well, yes, they could. But do they? No. Of course, they have great health insurance--for life. No wonder they work so hard to get elected--the insurance alone is worth it!

Maybe if we all had the same insurance they had there'd be fewer idiots running for office just so they could get it!