It will be so tragic in the end when Tony dies.

I have been (probably mis-)diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. The treatments cost from $1200 to $8000 a month. The drug companies have spent an incredible amount of money putting together marketing packages trying to get me to pick their drugs, which I will need to take for the rest of my life. Oh, and there is a less than 50% chance that any of the drugs will give me any benefit. The only thing certain is the debilitating side effects.

Not only that, but this has all taken place in a time when I am unemployed and uninsured. Whether the MS diagnosis is correct or not, I will never be able to get insurance from a private insurance company for the rest of my life. Because that would, you know, eat into the insurance companies' obscene profits.

I may be forced to move to another country in order to get any health insurance.

God Bless America!!!`

I need insurance now. And if it isn't government-mandated, I won't be able to get it.

Stupid me for ending up with an incurable auto-immune condition that is slowly stealing away my ability to be a self-supporting member of society.

I have a health condition that is incurable, and requires life-long medical care. No private insurer will insure me, because I wouldn't be a source of obscene profits. Without a public option I will never get insurance for the rest of my life.

So, thanks you greedy spineless fucks. Thanks for nothing.

BTW, what will actually be reformed here? Will it be like Hillary Care, a windfall for the corporations who are screwing us already?

I don't want to move to another country. But I don't see an option.

He is abandoning me to the corporate greedhead insurance companies.

He will never have the approval of those people he is pandering to. He is an idiot if he thinks his craven rolling over will get the support of any of those people.

The support he is losing is from people who expected him to do the right thing, instead of surrendering before a shot was fired. Single payer is the only conscionable reform. And Obama has retreated from it.

Obama has been far more despicable than supportable.

Obama isn't as despicable as McCain would be. That makes it all good!

Wow, nobody could have ever predicted that.

And the best part is, not one of these despicable politicians will ever have to pay any price for this malfeasance. They will continue to get re-elected by pinhead voters. You just gotta love our democracy.

Whatcha smokin'? Where can I get some?

The Certificate of Live Birth" available on the internet appears to have been electronically created, as opposed to being a scan of an actual paper document.

This is because it was electronically created, as opposed to being a scan of an actual paper document.

When Hawaii went all digital, digital documents had to be created for previously existing paper documents. So some amateur digital "artist" created the COLB we all know and love (or love to hate). This, of course, has absolutely nothing to do with the actual paper "long form" birth certificate that Republican state officials assure us exists, and proves beyond any reasonable (read "sane") doubt that Obama is fully qualified to serve as president.

But for my part, I say...

Go Stinky Go!!!

How stupid do you have to be to debate someone citing Ann Coulter?

Ann Freaking Coulter???

Let's start debating the merits of Eric Cartman's rants next, shall we?

You say:

Just don't pay the insurance companies and they will dry up and go away.

Pay the doctors directly.

How can we make that happen? How can we wrest power from a multi-billion-dollar industry?

Congress isn't going to do it. They are far too beholden to insurance company largess. Someone has to start it, and that takes a very substantial amount of seed money. How can we make it happen?

I am not being snarky, I truly want to know. This issue is crucial to my life, since I have a pre-existing condition that makes it impossible for me to ever get private health insurance for the rest of my life, and any worthwhile job I get will make the limited state-sponsored insurance I have go away completely.

No hospitalization (so far), just lifelong medication.

Currently the only drug option that has a success rate higher than 50% (54-58) costs $100,000 a year. The drugs that cost less than $20,000 a year have a success rate about the same as the placebo effect.

My left leg is so weak I can barely lift it. I have no stamina. My balance is so poor that I have a major fall at least once a month.

Currently I can still walk with a cane, but if things keep degenerating, I will be wheelchair bound in the next two or three years.

The normal treatment requires MRIs once or twice a year, and regular visits to a neurologist. (As an aside, cardio-vascular surgeons may be more arrogant and dismissive than neurologist, but they are the only ones. There is only one neurologist within reasonable driving distance who will even make an appointment with someone who has my condition and no insurance, and he is an asshole who doesn't pay any attention to anything his patients say.)

I am a college-educated professional, but because I lost my job at the wrong time I can never return to my chosen profession without a federally-mandated public option. I will never have insurance that allows me to earn a wage anywhere near what I used to earn while I was healthy.