Well, Denny, I hear you. I will be 43 next year, but very likely a prime candidate for hip replacement in 15-20 years. That puts me late 50s, early 60s. If I had to do it today, it would cost me about $2000. That's my out-of-pocket maximum on my insurance plan. I could have it done 2 weeks from today.

If this abomination of a bill (or anything similar) get passed, I am willing to bet that in 20 years when I am 63 I will be deemed too old to have the replacement. If it is allowed (through some act of God, or Allah at that point), I will probably have to wait until I am 66 to have it done, at which time I will be deemed too old. And it will have cost me 20+ years of insanely high taxes to be denied.

Actually, I will probably be denied from the get-go because I refuse to be a brain-dead liberal now or ever. I will be classified as undesirable and be referred to the end-of-life counselor who will encourage me to end my pain by committing doctor-assisted suicide.

We have got to fight like hell to keep this crap from happening to us.

Maybe we can get you declared a national landmark or something.

Hopefully, you live until Blownstar 2010! Maybe we should schedule it for November 21, 2010. We can all drink ourselves to death if the democrats hold power, as if we did not try this year.

John C, Stuff like that kinda makes one want to go down in a hail of bullits, don't it? For the first time I am glad that I needed bypass surgery at 60 rather than a few years from now. It has been said that over 80 percent of all health care money is spent in the first month and the last month of our lives. Now we know where the savings will come from. No more $25k/day intensive care stays for old folks, No more transplants after 40, or cancer treatment after 50. As a matter of fact, Why even have medicare? The geezers are going to die soon anyway. Like I said, A hail of bullits.

Don't know how everybody couldn't've seen this comin'! When the guy wanted to make veterans pay for treatment for service-connected injuries, the writing was on the wall in all caps. And did anybody notice that that only raised a flap for a few days, with not one member of the press following up to see if the C-in-C would fire whoever brought up the idea?
I was surprised when more than one vet actually tried to give me the liberal spin about how it was only going to cause vets to have to buy insurance. You can see where that was heading, since insurers would have balked at covering a pre-existing condition. They'd've been painted as anti-vet, and forced to give coverage. That would've established the precedent.
VetSec Shinseki should've fallen on his sword for even having let anybody suggest such a crazy plan, but at least we now know how little the party in power thinks of veterans. And if they have so little respect for vets, what makes the rest of you think you'll be treated any better?
Okay, I'm gettin' off my soap box.
Oh, and by the way, I don't get any treatment through the VA for any service-connected injuries, and they bill my insurance for any health care the VA does provide.

Rob J

Inbredredneck......

Some of us have seen this coming & have been preaching this for years , unfortunately if one reviews the political history of this country with the reluctance of the electorate to give real power to the Republicans with super majority`s since the 1920`s & allowed the Liberals of the Democratic Party to squander our wealth & resources with a resulting decline of American power & influence.

This has prevented any real lasting progress to be made & lead directly to the Carter & Clinton disaster`s crowned with now with the Limp wrist Messiah who apologizes for America & suck`s up to our enemies.

Our Stupid "give me" electorate has even handed this traitor super majority`s which unless we derail his agenda in 2009 will make this country a second class bankrupt power in the world with out credibility or standing.

The destruction of America the land of the free is at hand unless people wake up......this makes this poster angry that we have allowed this to happen & done so gladly with most standing in line with out stretched hands grasping for welfare & entitlements while the Liberal`s Socialist`s have infiltrated so much of our Government & elements of society.
You can be sure their true intent is to be master`s of what remains of America even if we become subservient to our enemies.They do not care & many even follow the political belief`s of these enemie`s.
What is happening now is that which our founding father`s warned us to be vigilant about , but we failed to heed their wisdom & are in danger of losing everything.

It's not too much of a tax increase, in my quick perusal, I only came up with an additional 10.5% with a maximum of ~$14,300/year.... Let's see now, should I buy a house, or pay for insurance... not a very good situation at all. Also, I still have not been able to find the 'congressional loophole' that allows them to keep their current coverage...but I'm still looking.

Since I now have an irregular heartbeat and sleep apnea (yippee for getting older!!), my only hope is that they'll take away the cpap machine and let me drift off to death quietly.

Elizabeth
Imperial Keeper

Yeah, Dud 1, it's been obvious for some time. I'm just more than a little frustrated that so many guys my age fell for that happy hippie shit that Obambi was pushing, and are just now startin' to see where it'll all lead. I hate to say it, but a former Marine buddy has been tryin' to get his 40% rating raised. He seemed to be listening to some of the yahoos at the local vet center when somebody suggested he not bathe for a couple of weeks when he went for his evaluation. I guess that if one gets a 100% rating from the VA it's as good as bein' guaranteed SSI, also. Hope it don't bite him in the butt by puttin' him way up there on the list of those who're too costly to keep around.
While I'm far from being a SRF like Denny, I've tried to do a little bit to take care of my own future. I didn't take the $15K buy out I was recently offered and I ain't signed up yet to collect my geezer/geezerette welfare from SocSec. I don't intend to stop workin' as long as I like what I'm doin',
I guess it could be worse, though. Just think if the Dems had run & won with John F@^#$%* Kerry and Cynthia McKinney!

"I'm still stone free." Tee-hee. You have bigger stones than all of the proponents of the health care bill combined.

BTW, is there something out of the ordinary about the one bottle of wine per person ratio?

Sorry, no flying stories, but since we are quoting P. J. O'Rourke:

"There's one more terrifying fact about old people: I'm going to be one soon."

"The good news is that, according to the Obama administration, the rich will pay for everything. The bad news is that, according to the Obama administration, you're rich."

"The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop."

and finally ... "You can't get rid of poverty by giving people money."

When we get the single-payer system that Obama wants, then the government decides who lives and who dies. In our moment of greatest weakness, our most personal and intimate decisions are to be micromanaged by Obama and his ilk.

The people that will take my (admittedly imperfect) free market choices away from me in favor of their own totalitarianism are traitors to America, and should be treated as such.

Brain dead liberals indeed. They still don't understand this administration's manipulations and subterfuge.
During the campaign Obama told every room he was in, whatever they wanted to hear. Evangelicals thought he was the world's biggest Christian (abortion was just "above his pay grade")and liberals thought he was the world's most freaking liberal.
They are still doing that with the health care bill and liberals STILL don't see it. Clinton just came out yesterday and spelled it out for them and they still won't see it. Clinton said: "Start small and build". Which really means, give them whatever they want and change it later. For the Dems, it's "building" -for the rest of us, it's "sliding down the slippery slope".
AARP gave this it's endorsement because they will get to sell Medi Gap policies... but for how long? How long will it take for the gov't to pass an amendment at midnight- attached to an unrelated bill- that morphs all plans into one Nat'l Health Plan (like England) and there is no MediCare ( or VA services) and therefore, no need for Medi-Gap?
The AMA gave this it's endorsement because they got a concession! The gov't will negotiate fees with doctors instead of issuing a pre "Schedule of Allowances". Aren't the doctors lucky?! Do the fools know how long that will last? I predict VERY early on that concession will bite the dust at midnight too. Even the Republicans won't like the huge, new bureaucracy that will be formed to do all that negotiating. And when the gov't says: "We'll give you $10 an office visit" and the MDs say: "No, we want $250" who do you think will win? The MDs might end up with $12.50.
Right now, they are telling the Blue Dogs that abortion won't be paid for in the new tax-payer funded plan. But remember, they are planning on "building" later................