Uninsured 22-Year-Old Boehner Constituent Dies From Swine Flu

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/25/swineflu-boehner-constituent/
[Last link of the night, I swear. This one I had to include... ]

Think Progress:

A 22-year-old woman from Oxford, Ohio, died from swine flu on Wednesday. Kimberly Young graduated from Miami University in December and continued to live in Oxford, Ohio, within Minority Leader John Boehner’s congressional distrct. Reports now indicate that after initially getting sick, Young put off treatment because she was uninsured:

Young became ill about two weeks ago, but didn’t seek care initially because she didn’t have health insurance and was worried about the cost, according to Brent Mowery, her friend and former roommate. […]

On Tuesday, Sept. 22, Young’s condition suddenly worsened and her roommate drove her to McCullough Hyde Memorial Hospital in Oxford, where she was flown in critical condition to University Hospital in Cincinnati.

“That’s the most tragic part about it. If she had insurance, she would have gone to the doctor,” Mowery said...

****

RIP Kimberly Young and may your death not be in vain...

"No one should die because they cannot afford health care... "

Mobilization for Health Care for All | Down with Death Panels!

http://www.mobilizeforhealthcare.org/
On September 29th in New York City, October 8th in Chicago, and in cities across the country on October 15th, over 100 people who have signed this pledge will put our bodies on the line to challenge the real death panels.

We will enter the offices of the major insurance companies and demand that they cover the care they are denying to their members. We won't leave until they do. The companies will have to decide - admit they're wrong and approve the care, or have us arrested and show the world how far they will go to protect their obscene profits. If we're arrested, some of us will even refuse to give our names and be released until the insurance companies meet our demand.

We hope that our actions will save the lives of some of the people who are being denied critical care by these death panels today. But we know we can save the lives of millions in the years to come by putting a spotlight on just why our system is broken and how urgently we need fundamental change. We will go to jail to demand that the insurance companies stop denying care to their members immediately, but our sacrifice will be a call to our entire nation to stand up to these death panels and demand real reform - Medicare for All - that finally ensures that every one of us gets the health care we need.

Adventures in the Rabbit Hole | Talking Points Memo

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/08/adventures_in_the_rabbit_hole.php
[Don't know if this has been posted here previously, but I think it makes some excellent points. As Bill Moyers suggested, why isn't this dude writing the healthcare reform effort?]

Adventures in the Rabbit Hole
Josh Marshall | August 27, 2009, 2:45PM

In an interview with the Economist magazine recently, former House Majority Leader and current FreedomWorks Capo Dick Armey said that something like a Public Option would be great. But the issue comes down to choice.

"If you in fact freely choose to enroll in Medicare that's a wonderful gift," said Armey, "it's a charity, it's something I applaud. But when they force you in, that's tyranny."

Needless to say, Armey, albeit a native English speaker, has not apparently focused in on the 'option' part of 'public option' since obviously, in the reality-based world, this is the whole point. It's an option if you either cannot get or do not want insurance from a private company.

It also points back to the question (a frustratingly good one) of why the advocates of a public option and just reform in general have not simply explained this as allowing people to buy into Medicare at any age. Because, essentially, that's what it is. And I think I could pretty much guarantee you that if the question in the public mind was "Would you like the option of buying into Medicare before you turn 65?" the opposition would be vastly diminished.

This isn't just rhetoric. This is the most accurate and graspable explanation of what's being proposed. Indeed, the big secret not many people are discussing is that in the current iterations of the 'public option' in most of the bills in committee that 'option' isn't given as an option to many people. Most people aren't allowed to access it. And it's designed that way in order to put a crimp on any competition it might provide to private sector insurers.

But what we're stuck with is 'public option,' which a crew of bamboozlers have warped into some sort of Logan's Run government program in which your ten year old will need to make his case for his future contributions to society to ensure he can get his broken leg set rather than be euthanized and ground into Soylent Green to feed yet more illegal aliens on welfare.

Why this isn't being used as a way to explain this program is simply beyond me.

Free Speech and Hillary The Movie

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear rearguments on a case that could up-end campaign finance laws restricting corporate contributions going back to 1907. The case concerns a scathing documentary about Hillary Rodham Clinton, called “Hillary: The Movie,” which was produced by Citizens United, a conservative nonprofit group.

The group wanted to broadcast commercials for the film and to run it on a cable video-on-demand service, but in 2008 a federal district court ruled that the commercials violated a provision in the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law banning the broadcast or cable transmission of “electioneering communications” paid for by corporations in the 30 days before a presidential primary and in the 60 days before the general election. Opponents of the law argue that restrictions on corporate speech in elections violates the First Amendment.

Does the application of campaign finance laws to “Hillary: The Movie” violate free speech rights? What are the implications for electoral politics if the Supreme Court rules in favor of Citizens United?
 

See what legal scholars have to say, click here and scroll down.