We Already Have a Public Option

This is why Chuck Grassley should be beaten senseless:

ROBERTS: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. How far would you go to get good health insurance? One man who lost his job and medical benefits reenlisted in the Army just to get his family covered and then he paid the ultimate price. This is a story that you’ll see only here on CNN.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Army Specialist Greg Missman was only on the ground in Afghanistan for one month.

JIM MISSMAN, FATHER OF ARMY SPC. GREG MISSMAN: My son’s convoy had been ambushed.

ACOSTA: In July, his father Jim got that knock on the door.

J. MISSMAN: A chaplain and a master sergeant showed up. So it was – it was not a pleasant day.

ACOSTA: It was an abrupt end to what was actually Missman’s second stint in the Army. He left the service 11 years ago, but last year, he lost his job as a computer consultant.

(on camera): He lost his job?

J. MISSMAN: Um-hmm.

ACOSTA: And became unemployed.

J. MISSMAN: Became unemployed. Lost his health insurance.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Missman says his son reenlisted to see to it his family had health insurance.

[via]

Steve in Manhattan
8:30 pm • Monday • September 7, 2009
comment »

12 Comments

al2o3cr

8:39 pm • Monday • September 7, 2009

Unrelated article – “Obama is an anti-demo-derby guy”

Apparently, Cash For Clunkers has made it just a bit harder for rednecks to try to kill each other with cars.

ManchuCandidate

9:56 pm • Monday • September 7, 2009

Apparently, there was a death panel, an Afghani one.

Benedick

10:33 pm • Monday • September 7, 2009

@al2o3cr: Apparently, Cash For Clunkers has made it just a bit harder for rednecks to try to kill each other with cars. Damn. That’s a pity.

SanFranLefty

11:10 pm • Monday • September 7, 2009

I can’t snark on this because it hits really close to home. But yes, I agree, Grassley should be beaten to a pulp by the prosthetic arms and legs of American soldiers.

Mistress Cynica

11:20 pm • Monday • September 7, 2009

@Benedick: Indeed.
On topic: does the family get to keep the insurance, or get coverage as part of survivor benefits, or are they totally SOL?

11:22 pm • Monday • September 7, 2009

@Mistress Cynica: SOL, unless they have a really good social worker to help them get the survivor benefits – which are limited.

11:32 pm • Monday • September 7, 2009

@SanFranLefty: Well, fine. Just perfect.
BTW, my godson who’s in boot camp now has made the I-hope-not-fatal mistake of getting top scores in marksmanship. I fear the only “human intel” he’ll be doing is through a sniper’s scope.

11:46 pm • Monday • September 7, 2009

@Mistress Cynica: Oh honey, my heart is breaking. If he makes that cut, I know someone who was a sniper for the Israeli army in the ’80s and ’90s who he should talk to.

blogenfreude

11:52 pm • Monday • September 7, 2009

@SanFranLefty: I wonder if a dead soldier’s family gets to keep the health plan. So many die for healthcare, and in different ways.

12:19 am • Tuesday • September 8, 2009

I can’t cope. This is too horrible.

redmanlaw

10:17 am • Tuesday • September 8, 2009

@SanFranLefty: Dr Ruth, also.

http://doubletapper.blogspot.com/2009/08/idf-women-spotlight.html

Dodgerblue

10:26 am • Tuesday • September 8, 2009

@redmanlaw: Yeah, with Dr. Ruth, if the sex wasn’t good, she’d kill you.