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United States News Title: Did the US Taxpayers Foot the Bill for Cheney's New Heart? Yes. After several heart attacks and operations, and now a complete heart transplant, I wish Mr. Cheney well and a speedy recovery. Soon, millions of Americans will find out their fate for the future of health care coverage for themselves and their families. It all rests in the hands of the Supreme Court and more specifically, five of the most right-wing, activist partisan ideologues, Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Scalia (RATS) one inaptly named swing vote, Anthony Kennedy who votes mostly with his 4 Republican-appointed colleagues. We will know whether the Affordable Health Care Act survives in part, or not at all. That is the fate for millions of struggling American citizens with zero health care coverage and millions more who are under-insured with plans that have high co-pays, high deductibles and often limited coverage. Many plans today have lifetime caps on how much insurance companies will pay for health care. Generally, that amount is capped at around $2 million. That sounds like a lot of money but over a person's lifetime it may evaporate in a matter of a few years or even months if that person happens to have a debilitating, life-threatening medical condition. One wonders, how much did it cost the U.S. taxpayers to cover Mr. Cheney's multiple heart ailments and operations? How much did it cost to get a transplanted heart and the accompanying critical care that he will need during his recovery? One wonders how many times over has his care exceeded the lifetime cap of the average workers' health insurance maximum? Under Barack Obama's Affordable Health Care Act, the lifetime cap is completely removed. Republican/Tea Partyers don't like that. They claim that this will destroy their freedoms and liberties. Under Barack Obama's Affordable Health Care Act the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug bill's requirement that seniors must pay 100% of their prescription drugs once they enter the doughnut hole will completely disappear. Republican/Tea Partyers are now saying that this requirement will destroy their freedoms and liberties. The Republican bill of course was passed using reconciliation, meaning it needed only 51% approval to sail through the Republican-controlled House. It was also a $720 billion unfunded mandate. No howling then over offsets that it must be paid for by cutting other programs when Republicans were in charge. After all, Big Pharma got the gift they wanted from Republicans when they more than doubled the cost of drugs when seniors entered the doughnut hole. Not only that, but the Republican bill specifically forbids the federal government from negotiating for lower drug prices on behalf of impoverished seniors who could, if they were approved, purchase their drugs more cheaply across the border in Canada. Another requirement under the Affordable Health Care Act that is in effect now is that families with college-age children can keep them on their family plans until they reach the age of 26. Republican/Tea Partyers claim this will destroy their freedoms and liberties. Obama's Affordable Health Care Act forbids the practice by insurance companies in denying coverage to anyone with a preexisting condition. This seems to be the right thing to do but Republican/Tea Partyers wail that this restriction will destroy their freedoms and liberties. The Affordable Health Care Act also forbids health insurance companies from kicking patients off their plans if a patient becomes too sick and too expensive to treat in the judgment of the insurance company. Republican/Tea Partyers screech that this imposition on the insurance companies will destroy their freedoms and liberties. A few years ago on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart's guest was ultra-conservative William Kristol. The subject was health care coverage and who should be entitled to it. Stewart posed a question: "If the best taxpayer-paid-for health care system in the world is good enough for the U.S. military then why shouldn't the rest of American citizens be entitled to the same right?" Kristol replied, "Because they don't deserve it." It's that simple for Republicans. With such seething and blatant misanthropy then we can understand their utter contempt for the average struggling American citizen for whom they hold in utter disrespect. Anything that raises the standard of living, anything that respects the value of a healthy society is anathema to Republican/Tea Partyers who believe that the Affordable Health Care Act will destroy their freedoms and liberties. Mary Brown, a 56-year-old woman who opposes the Affordable Health Care Act is one of the Republicans' plaintiffs in the case before the Supreme Court. Brown, true to her Republican/Tea Partyers' views, claims that having to pay for health insurance is a violation of the Constitution and a threat to her individual liberty. Mary Brown and her husband, however, filed a $55,000 bankruptcy $4,500 of which was in unpaid medical bills. Her position is that she can force the American taxpayers to pay for all of her medical needs and care if she goes to an emergency center where the costs are typically three times higher than they would have been had she purchased health insurance coverage for herself and her husband. Be well, Mr. Cheney. Just think how much more fortunate you are that if you had not been covered in total by the U.S. taxpayers you might well have exceeded your $2 million maximum cap 30 years ago. You no doubt don't have to worry about that doughnut hole prescription drug cost that seniors must face while barely surviving on a meager Social Security check. Be well, Mr. Cheney, knowing that all those sick days you spent in Walter Reed and at George Washington University hospitals recovering with your transplanted heart, you could be one of those struggling seniors or young American workers who are living paycheck to paycheck, wondering how they can feed their families. And they can only pray that they never become as sick as you have been because they would never in their wildest dreams have expected to get a modicum of the wonderful health care that you have received. Sooner rather than later, possibly by June this year, Republicans will have much to cheer about if the Affordable Health Care Act is struck down by the rats/corporate/insurance company-friendly court. Just remember this: When Dick Cheney emerges from the Intensive Care Unit of Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia he will be a nightmarish testimony and reminder to Republican/Tea Partyers that his outstanding U.S. taxpayer-paid-for health care is destroying their freedoms and liberties. Mr. Cheney, I wish you well. Most Americans can only pray for and dream for the quality and the munificence of the care you have been so fortunate to receive.
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