What's the Prognosis, Doc? Well, You're Suffering From Lack of Insurance. Oh, No! How Long Do I Have?

In passing at the crack of pre-dawn the first of what I understand to be three votes to move towards cloture on the Senate health care bill along strictly partisan lines 60-40, the Democrats have settled in on their fate for the 2010 elections. (Seriously, how bad is the bill that the two Maine Senotards Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe won't vote for it?) They will likely live or die by the memory of the voting public 10 months from now.

Defending the bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Ried (D. Nev.) spoke about individual Nevadans (because apparently progressives believe that consensus opinion (global warming) and anecdotal stories are valid scientific evidence) who have suffered at the hands of insurance companies. Specifically, Dirty Harry said that "...an American dies from lack of health insurance every 10 minutes." When you're agreeing with Congressman Alan Grayson (D. Fla.), you know you're either lying or in trouble from an intellectual stance.

I had no idea the coroner could mark lack of health insurance as a cause of death. I wonder what the symptoms are? I would guess a sense of heat on the back of your neck and a sense of vague unease that Congress is looking over your shoulder. Health insurance does not guarantee good health. You can have health insurance and contract a fatal disease. You can get sick without health insurance and receive treatment.

The rhetoric on the left defies all logic. Either they aren't passing this bill for the reasons they state, or their brains are operating on a level barely sufficient to control their autonomic functions. I wonder how many citizens in the United Kingdom die each year from the affirmative act of government bureaucracies which deny coverage making it literally unavailable anywhere unless you're rich enough to leave the country for treatment. We have sitcoms about baby's born in odd situations because there wasn't time to get them to the hospital. They have stories about babies born in the hallways, office, toilets and elevators of their hospitals.

I just heard liberal commentator Bob Beckel on the Fox morning program note that a number of Democratic congressman are retiring and don't have to worry about the political consequences of their vote. Well, thank God we live in a representative democracy where the representatives doen't have to worry about being accountable. The fact that he can say that alluding to it as a good thing is disgusting.