It seems we may be heading toward a real life version of Logan's Run...

[WCGreen]

In case you aren't familiar with the mid 70's movie, it was set in the distant future, say about 2025, and only the young and perfect were allowed to survive.

When a person reached age 30, they were duped into taking this "trip" to the other side, kind of like taking Timmy's dog to live on the farm where he can frolic and what not. Logan, Michael York, played a enforcer whose job it was to round up any "runners" to make sure the population stayed young and healthy. The title of the movie comes from Logan discovering that their really is no "farm" and that they were just killing people. York, Logan, runs.

Anyway, I was reading in this very popular thread (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3805563) how insurance companies are limiting access to health insurance to a smaller and smaller universe of healthy individuals. They do this by denying drugs to, for instance, people living with diabetes.

Of course this practice is limited to people who "self-insure", the most vulnerable of the population who don't have insurance through work.

People, has it really come to this? Are we facing a true turning point in our country. Do we have to have massive amounts of people dying from treatable disease before we finally turn on the insurance industry?

Remember, it is the insurance industry that got us into this economic mess. Do we really want them in any way shape or form dealing with our health?

They are picking us off one by one. Leaving the healthy middle, the so-called productive members of our society, to thrive under the allusion that they will be covered so why should they care. A lot of typical Americans, I am shamed to say, think this way. Just listen to the Rush and Hannity crowd who complain that they shouldn't have to pay for anything that doesn't impact their lives.

We can afford trillions of dollars protecting the oceans for free trade but we can't grasp the concept of taking care of those who are the weakest amongst us.

Didn't Jesus say we will be judged by how we treat those who need our help, our care our compassion. If this is true, then how can we call ourselves a Christian Nation with a straight face?

If Obama isn't working toward eliminating the insurance industry from the health care system then he is just perpetuating a system truly gone bad. It will literally be the death of us all. Well most of us who are without resources to pay their own way or are not healthy enough to buy into the insurance companies newest Ponzi Scheme.

[Deja Q]

1. "Judeo-Christian" nation - that allows every little gaffe to go through without a reality check.

The term is a gross misnomer anyway, the Old Testament being rather cruel compared to what Jesus and the New Testament offered...

Even having said that, the Old Testament still has a few really nasty things to say of the greedy... find me a preacher that botheres to look up THOSE verses and I'll be there. The Bible is a book of parables, but cherrypicking preferred ones is pretty much dim too.

[Rockholm]

6. The fundies always toss in Judeo-Christian....

When they want the Jews to link up with whatever they are promoting. Usually, the fundies scream at the top of their lungs that we "are a Christian Nation" until they need Jewish backup.

[global1]

2. Surely There Must Be People Here On DU That Work For These Insurance Companies......

if you are one of them - how do you live with yourself?

In general - how do people who deceive, manipulate and take advantage of others - live with themselves?

Surely - they got to realize that their actions will ultimately hurt themselves and their loved ones - friends and families.

I'll never understand that.

What happened to the "Golden Rule"? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

[WCGreen]

3. I know we just can't scap the whole kit-n-kabboled, thank in large part

to AIG, but if we at least started to work away from the for profit insurance model for providing heath care we would all be in a better place.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. This is a most worthy rant!

K&R, dammit.

[screembloodymurder]

5. How old will we be allowed to get?

Will it just be a matter of money? I think 65 is about right.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. I don't think 65 is about right!

That's how old I am, and I'm planning on living a lot more years, thank you very much!

I ain't dead yet!

:P

[azmouse]

9. And I for one look forward to having you with us for a loooong time to come!

:hi:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. Aw, thank you so much, my dear azmouse!

That is really too sweet of you...:hug:

[screembloodymurder]

21. I'm 65 too.

You must be a glass-half-full kinda gal.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

22. I've never been sure just what that means...

Does it mean I look on the positive side?

That's my feeling...

I do tend to be an optimist.

:hi:

[walldude]

7. It's worse than you think... I should be one of those self-insurers

But because my wife has diabetes and heart disease and my youngest son has muscular dystrophy my family can't get insurance. Pre-existing conditions. It's not like I'm not in a position to pay either, the last company I tried had they insured me wanted $1500 a month plus co-pays but they wouldn't take me either. Right now we pay for my wife's doctors visits and meds out of pocket and my son gets his care from MDA but the minute we need a trip to the emergency room we're screwed. I worry that Obama wants to "build on the current system". There is no way to have health care that favors the patient in a for profit system.

Edit: Oh and BTW Logans Run is in the process of being remade...

[PassingFair]

10. The "health middle" are the ones being picked off!

If you are indigent, you can get care.

If you have a good corpo job, you can get care.

If you are rich, you can get care.

If you are self-employed, employed by a
small business, retired or laid-off,
you are SCREWN.

Heath Care = Bankruptcy for millions
of Americans ....

and it's gaining in numbers like a
snowball down a hill.

[bbgrunt]

12. It's eugenics by the profit motive.

[NanceGreggs]

13. Excellent piece of writing ...

Well said!

:kick: and REC'D!!!

[DKRC]

14. K&R!

Thanks for posting. Excellent points.

:thumbsup:

[smoogatz]

15. More like Soylent Green, in the end.

[Deja Q]

16. Well, that gives a new meaning to the term "Asian Buffet"...

:hide:

[HopeOverFear]

17. Amen

I also wish Obama would leave the health care industry out of the health reform debate, but alas...:(

[undergroundpanther]

18. They are social darwinists

Much of the criticism of the $787 billion stimulus bill is focused on its cost. But what's really at issue is a matter of life and death. Buried deep in the package, there is an expensive new health care program that could jeopardize the health, even the lives, of millions of patients.

The bill funnels about $1 billion into government-run "comparative effectiveness research" (CER). Sounds innocuous enough -- that's a relatively paltry sum given the package's $800 billion-plus price tag. But CER will have profound effects on the availability of top-notch treatments in this country. Stripped of bureaucratic jargon, it is the precursor for a national health care rationing board.
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/02/18/the-hidden-healthcare-horror

http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/health_care/


The so called "elite" seek to have people die off.One way is to deny the "weaker" medications and health care,by using utilitarian arguments that amount to the same shit,it is social darwinism rolled in some sugar.
These elite assholes think around 90 million people must be 'culled'from this planet so the earth will survive..I kid you NOT.Why are we fighting these pointless wars? Why do injured (weakened not perfect)vets get such shitty care?
It all adds up in dead bodies in the name of "population control" if you look at health care from the elitist and social darwinist bullshit perspective that mega rich ceos and other opulent assholes seem to hold so dear..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://american_almanac.tripod.com/cull.htm

http://thefinaledition.net/2008/01/27/eugenics-and-depopulation-plans-21st-century/

http://www.green-agenda.com/deepecology.html
http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/gba.htm

[truedelphi]

19. Inthis household, my husband lived without insulin for diabetes for

About 45 days. At one point, we went to the local ER, thinking that maybe they would rather furnish some insulin, which of course would cost a bit, as an alternative to having to hospitalize M. as a result of not having the medication for a long time.

But our health system is so broken that an ER cannot even furnish needed meds. Their response was to write out a prescription for insulin, and they pretended that that was what we were asking for. (We already had the prescription - we just could not afford it.)

Now we are so poor that we qualify for County assistance in having the meds. But I will never forget those long long 45 days.

[WCGreen]

26. Compassion is sorely lacking in the many parts of the medical/insurance

industrial complex.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

20. We must not only turn on the so-called insurance industry...

I am coming to think that we must either totally revamp it, or cause it to disappear. They are serving fewer and fewer people the way they were supposed to, and more and more they are turning against the vast numbers who could really benefit.

Our message must be: Totally revamp, or get put out of business.

I don't see any other way...

Wish I could recommend your thread again.

[Touchdown]

23. 23rd century to be exact.

And in the book, citizens were killed (renewed) at 21 years old.

But at 42, Michael York looked like a credible 26 year old.:crazy:

Still love the movie. Old man... "I'm not alone. I have all these cats!"

The book's time was 2100 something.

Interesting factoid. The euthanasia room depicted in Logan's Run the book was recreated for the film Soylent Green. So the writers of LR had to come up with a different euthanasia concept for their film, thus "Carousel", which is visually striking, but is not faithful to the book.

[WCGreen]

25. I use to call Columbus the home of Logan's Run...

The place was growing so fast, by Ohio standards, in the 80's and early 90's that I felt obsolete at age 42.

As for the date when Logan's' Run took place, I was just guessing.

Peter Ustinov in the movie.

[gabby garcia]

24. only the rich..

can afford to grow old.