Post written before Cheney got his heart transplant this weekend. It's updated to reflect that. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/07/15/multiple-heart-attacks-how-dick-cheney-keeps-going.html
Where does this leave the doofuses that the Democrats have put up as vice presidents? Algore? Biden? I'd take Dick Cheney over either in a heartbeat (which might be skipped occasionally). Bush v. Obama? Give me either Bush any day. I would like to know if Cheney received the heart of liberal, and if so, is it still bleeding? (old Doonesbury cartoon, I believe)
To state that Obama is worse is faint praise indeed. Or that Cheney is better than Biden. One would certainly hope so. Bush gave us the Patriot Act, the TSA, the DHS, and greatly advanced the total security state. I imagine the heart came from that lawyer Cheney shot.
They'll probably give the guy a big . Did you actually read the details in the article? I'd bet that if he'd simply stood 5-10' away and had his say, he would not have been busted.
These cliches are a bit worn out, Lisa, sounds more like something spewing out Daily Kos on a day when the needle's stuck: I tried reading the article in the base post. I think I'll just puke instead: Slightly over two years ago, I spent 3.5 weeks in a coronary ICU, followed by another week+ in a regular coronary ward. The total billings were $600K. That was followed by a week & a half in a nursing home & two months of kidney dialysis & physical therapy costing a few more $10's of thousands. This is ordinary medical care that countless Americans receive when they need it. All this left wing/right wing/oil baron crap is just that: CRAP. Our health care system could use some improvement, but it's there & it works & it's among the best in the world. Ten years earlier I probably would have been toast. I'm not only still here but able to lead a normal lifestyle with no physical limitations. All for about $150K more (cheap! 'cause without it you wouldn't have TUG! ) than they've invested in Dick Cheney.
With all due respect, baloney. You had health insurance. That's why you got great care. That's why you survived. Countless people don't. And talk about cliche -- our health care is among the best in the world?? Again, if you have insurance. If you don't, you're screwed. And our system still, still, costs more than any other health care system in the world and still has worse outcomes in several categories, infant mortality, for example. WHO rates this stuff every year. We come out way down on the list after other industrialized nations with Scary National Health Care. The fact that the guy who wrote that column admittedly turns people off with his (accurate) characterization of Cheney doesn't negate the fact that "Devices are studied in hospitals propped up by Medicaid and Medicare dollars, organized by doctors funded by federal grants."
I don't care whether Cheney received a transplant or not. I'm saying he's rich so he can afford to receive whatever he wants.
So when I was in the ICU (in an annex separate from the main part of the hospital) & the message went out on the intercoms for staff to report concerning an "unidentified D.B. in room xxx", are you telling me they had insurance info for the D.B. but no name? When I was on dialysis, most of my fellow patients did not appears to the sort who were working or who had insurance to pay for it. A number of of them were escorted to their dialysis sessions by deputies from the county jail. People get urgently needed health in the country. What needs improvement most of all is the delivery of affordable preventive health care. Universal health care is inevitable in this country, so I consider it important to fix it, and I really hope that the Supreme Court rejects the pending case. At the same time it's very important not to destroy the health care system that we have. Otherwise we might end up like the UK where you might wait weeks for treatment of venereal diseases, and the Canadians who need health care will have nowhere to go after we end up like them.
Perhaps that's why so many Americans go to Canada for health care. And my friend D. in Arizona, who at age 48 makes a whopping $18,000 a year, goes to Thailand. Because it's still cheaper than getting treated here.
I'm not Lisa, but I'll jump in. No, I don't think he should have received the transplant. It's not even about the money. He's 71 years old and hearts don't grow on trees. The heart should have gone to someone younger (imo). That said, the comments to the article I linked to are good and raise other important issues about who should and who shouldn't be eligible for transplants.
