Max BaucASS found a rattlesnacke who had been hit by a car. It was dying. He took it in, nursed it back to health , and when he went to set it free, it bit him. As he lay dying, he cried, out “Snake, how could you! I saved your life! I took care of you! How could you bite me!”

The snake replied, “You knew I was a snake you dumbass bitch!” (snake’s words..lol)

Renamed , the fable of BaucASS and the insurance industry

Blackspeare - “...and more denial of claims are in the offering” - indeed, and here they come: 

Madam, you are not covered for treatment of skin cancer, which you appear to have, because ‘skin’ is a pre-existing condition for skin cancer. Supposing you had, foreinstance, pneumonia.  Not covered because obviously your lungs are a pre-existing condition for pneumonia.  Your pancreas? A pre-existing for pancreatic cancer.

But madam, do come back and see us when the occasion arises that you have no malady associated with being a human being - and your premium is a little late this month.

Baucus’ initial legislation called for mandatory medical insurance via private insurers with government assistance for the poor and the further use of insurance co-ops.  This of course is a windfall for the insurance industry.  And for the poor probably not a bad deal, but for the vast middle class hold onto your wallets——larger deductions, less coverage, and more denial of claims are in the offering.  A public option is the only way to assure a large pool of people and in that way keep a lid on costs.  The smaller the pool, the more the costs have to be passed to assure a profit.

For follow up on this, the best place on the web is really the Daily Kos website, where people like nyceve and slinkerwink, among others, follow what is going on practically minute by minute and are doing a good job of it. 

If you want to help push the legislation to the best result possible, there are lists of legislators by district and where they stand so phone calls and emails can be targeted.  You can search the archives for such key words as “whip count”.

It looks to me like the dailykos community has actually kept the public option in play and helped push the support that the progressive caucus needs to actually have traction. 

The Baucus bill is only a starting point for the real sausage making to come.  Now is the time to really pay attention, as the bills will morph in front of our eyes, as the hundreds of amendments either stick or are lost along the way.

I don’t think trying to win the opinion spouting contest is worth a heckuva lot at this point.  Keeping up with what is going on will take some time and effort, and then there is the need to look for swing vote legislators to contact, write letters to the editor and maybe even contribute to the Act Blue effort.

Please stop calling this a Health Care bill! It is a tax reform bill because it will funnel billions of tax payers money directly to private insurance companies without improving my health care a bit. Compared to this abomination, George Bush’s tax cut bill was the acme of transparency.

How come an ass hole from a state with a population of 3 people gets to tell the rest of us what kind of medical plan we all want, I want his plan!

Somebody pound a stake throught this fucker’s heart before he rises again….

And those at the top wonder why people are angry,.