Think again if you think being insured = security

Americans love to believe things that are demonstrably untrue - tax cuts equaling increased government revenue and a stronger economy, for starters. Oh, and the whole idea of for-profit insurance companies being an efficient way to finance our health care being another.

So I'm just passing this along - it's not going to make a whit of difference in the debate. The University of Arizona has found that being insured doesn't affect whether you have medical debt.

According to a study published online June 16 by the American Journal of Public Health, after taking age, income and health status into account, simply being insured does not lower the odds of accruing debt related to medical care or medications....

"On average, insurance coverage in Arizona is not protecting families from experiencing medical debt. From other studies we knew that paying medical bills is a problem for a substantial portion of both insured and uninsured Americans. This study helped clarify that the fact of medical debt is an additional and larger barrier to getting needed health care than whether a person is insured or not."

That's according to University of Arizona College of Pharmacy research scientist Patricia M. Herman.

But don't expect the Americans who are swayed by the big-business money that preaches anti-government ideology to take note. (Hell, the mainstream media didn't even take note.)

They're busy admiring Michele Bachmann's poll numbers in Florida, leaving the fact that she's a delusional liar to, at best, the papers' online blogs, to be read by the choir.

Social darwinist Bachmann is quite concerned about a mythical $105 billion "hidden" mandatory spending in the health care reform bill passed last year. That would be the most-debated bill ever passed. Right, Michele.

And the shot heard round the world was fired in New Hampshire. Uh huh. Obviously memory fails us all now and then. But when a third or so of Americans begin to channel the single-minded Walter Sobchak (You're goddamn right I'm living in the fucking past!") from The Big Lebowski, it's hard to know where to begin. As The Dude says, "Walter, I love you, but sooner or later, you're going to have to face the fact you're a goddamn moron."

The scary thing is that these folks aren't just channeling film rage, they and their leaders are unwittingly channeling mass murderers. Bachmann again: “But what I want them to know is just like John Wayne, who is from Waterloo, Iowa – that’s the kind of spirit that I have too.”

As one L.A. Times commenter wrote, "I don't think she was mistaken, she was just speaking in secret code to her minions. She well intends to rape the nation like [John Wayne] Gacy [who was from Waterloo] did to his victims..."

Another commenter offered a SOP right-wing solution: "Let's go to John Wayne's Wikipedia page and change it so that she is right."