MEDICARE. Not free. Not an entitlement.

When whiny-ass Paul Ryan and the rest of the Greedy Old Pigs call Medicare an “entitlement,” they should all have to give up their healthcare entitlement, which is paid for with your tax dollars. Actually, they should have no insurance, they should be poor, and they and those they love should be sick… just a little fantasy of mine.

Medicare is not something the government gives you. You pay, as do your employers, into Medicare through the FICA payroll tax, which is deducted from every paycheck you receive. So Medicare isn’t a gift from the government. You earned it your whole working life.

Medicare is also NOT FREE. I pay almost $300 a month just for Medicare, Medigap (for all that stuff Medicare does not cover) and a prescription plan that spends less than what I pay out of pocket every month and frequently denies coverage altogether. My “co-pay” for the drugs they will cover brings it up to about $500 a month for me. My husband pays about $200 more for prescriptions than I do, bringing us to a total of about $1200 a month for a two-person family unless and until some pharmaceutical company decides to charge more. And they always do. Whether you’re retired or still slugging it away out there, we in the US pay more for our healthcare than any other developed country in the world.

So don’t fall for the government’s “Entitlement” crap. You pay all your working life, and then you keep paying, actually overpaying, for the rest of your life which, by the way, is shortened because our healthcare for all that expense isn’t really that good compared with that of other countries. In fact, not only are we not “number one,” we’re number 37. Let that sink in when you continue to struggle to pay for healthcare and you and your loved ones die younger than you should.

So stop drinking the Kool-Aid and get the facts here:
Healthcare Comparison
and here:
US Healthcare Spending
and here:
International Comparison of Healthcare Costs
Still wanting to believe that “We’re Number One” bullshit? Of course you are. Who likes to be the patsy of lying politicians and greedy corporations? Need more proof? Check out the World Health Organization’s ranking of healthcare systems throughout the world: World Health Organization’s Ranking of the World’s Health Systems.

But how bad is it? Check this out: How Bad American Healthcare Is

Bottom line: You pay more; you stay sicker; you die sooner. If you want to know how much longer we might live if we weren’t screwed by our healthcare system, look at this: Comparison with Other Nations

When your government tells you Universal Healthcare will be more expensive and won’t be as good as what we now have, they are fucking lying, they know they’re lying, and they don’t fucking care. They are depending on our remaining ignorant. When they tell you that Medicare is an “entitlement” that is draining the government’s budget, they’re getting their pockets lined by lobbyists for Health Insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies to tell you that, and you are paying through the nose for your shabby healthcare. And that’s if you’re lucky enough to even have healthcare.

Let’s call them on their lies. Fight back. Vote the scumbags out. Protest and fight for your rights because that’s the only way you’ll get them.

Here are some anti-lying bitches T-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, and so on. Keep up the good fight.