From From THINK PROGRESS:
Ensuring that insurers don’t reject any American for health coverage because of a pre-existing condition is a top priority of the public. Republicans have repeatedly said that they also want to make this change, but in the alternative legislation they released, Americans with pre-existing conditions would still be left out to dry.
Today on CNN, FreedomWorks head Dick Armey defended the industry’s discriminatory practices by saying that if you have diabetes because you “eat like a pig,” you don’t deserve coverage:
ARMEY: But now, they [government officials] come along and they say, irrespective of the fact they’ve gone 20, 30, 40 years of their adult life without ever having bought insurance prior to getting a liver inflammation due to their excessive drinking habits or diabetes because they eat like a pig, you must now insure them.
In reality, these pre-existing conditions that can disqualify people from receiving health insurance often have nothing to do with unhealthy lifestyle choices — and they disproportionately target women. Some pre-existing conditions are having a Caesarean-section pregnancy, being a victim of domestic violence, or being a victim of rape. Most individual health insurance markets don’t even cover maternity care. Other pre-existing conditions that insurers have used to either deny people outright or charge exorbitant fees for coverage include being an expectant father, having acne, or being a police officer.
Many Republicans, like Armey, seem unable to grasp that denial based on pre-existing conditions is discriminatory. Last week, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) said that insurers are justified in charging women more than men because we’re “all different.” He then compared a woman to a “smoker” and a man to a “non-smoker” to argue that insurers should be allowed to discriminate.
Armey also recently told the New York Times that the “largest empirical problem we have in health care today is too many people are too overinsured.” (He’s wrong.)
(Transcript and video at THINK PROGRESS link above)
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
I do think that in the cases where people cause their own medical problems (ie. smoking, etc.), there should be exclusions. But, for those who have absolutely no control over their medical condition (probably the majority) there should be no exceptions.
Hold on…I’ve thought about it two minutes more. Include everyone, just charge much higher rates for those who have a death sentence.
i think it would be easier to raise taxes on tobacco rather than try to figure out who smokes and who doesn’t. people will lie and say they don’t smoke or that they quit. same thing for drinkers. how do you prove someone is an alcoholic and is destroying their liver? raise taxes on booze, and those who drink more will pay more. the same goes for junk food. the more people have to pay for it, hopefully, the less they will buy.
You’re right, Nonnie, but that’s an idea that would make too much sense.
yeah, it’s way too simple. how could they translate that into a few thousand pages of law? and how could they connect it all to abortion?
Well, they could link it to a cut in the income tax or property tax. The GOP did that in Michigan 15 years ago with a sales tax increase.
one hand giveth, and the other taketh away.
If Dick could get his head out of his ass, he might learn that diabetes is, in part metabolism gone awry, in part the pancreatic failure to function properly.
Medical researchers are exploring meds that trigger the correct response (leptin), that tells your body you are full, because diabetes is in part the malfunction of cellular level receptors that alert the brain sensors that there is enough fuel onboard.
Nice way to blame people with a major chronic disease, jerk wad.
the jackass also ignores the fact that obesity can be genetic, due to medications, and often a result of people not being able to afford foods that are filling but not fattening. another example of a rethug with absolutely no compassion or empathy. fat people can lose weight; fatheads are often fatheads forever.
Ok, causing ‘your own’ medical issues is bullshit folks. Sure, some people do cause themselves harm..willful ignorance being what it is..
But Armey’s simplistic excuse really slays me. For that bag of pond scum..it always comes down to something simplistic. So if we extrapolate his reasoning out…we can use that simple excuse for damn near anything. Run a red light? No medical help for you or the child in your backseat! Forget to turn off the stove? Sorry, but the fire dept can’t save your house.
Dick Armey..Biggest douche nozzle in North America.
dickhead armey understands (but will never admit) that early detection will save a lot of health care bucks later on. however, it will mean that insurance companies would have to spend money on seemingly healthy younger people. they would rather collect all the money, wait for those people to get sick, and then dump them.
I know this Chihuahua down the street that eats like a frackin’ pig, and I also know a pig with diabetes that eats like a Chihuahua. The Chihuahua has BlueCross BlueShield, and the pig can’t get insurance because it has been a victim of domestic violence. What to do?
It’s obvious, isn’t it? Collect all the feces from both of them for as long as it takes Congress to pass single-payer, and then force it down the throats of every teabagging, corporate-dong sucking Republicant you can find, until they have to be rushed to the emergency room for enemas, where the compassion of the American people gladly pay the cost of knocking the shit out of them.
Oh, the reason Dick Armey looks that way is because he sucks the heady juice of his exalted self-importance from the bitter weed of failure.
dick armey would feast on both the chihuahua and the pig, and then denigrate people who are poor and hungry.
always comes down to something simplistic.
that is why the republicans have a following – they make even the lies and propaganda simple. the dems love 1000 page bills
dick “america is whining” armey is a cold hearted piece of elephant shit. i will say this among friends – the planet would be a better place without him. (it was armey who led the charge in getting rid of Glass Steagall – the bill that for 66 years protected America from the Lehman Brothers and AIGs of the world).
i hope Dick Armey gets an army of crabs in his dick.
the patriot act was 342 pages, so the rethugs can pile up the paper, too.
dick armey and phil gramm are like evil bookends. 2 rancid peas in a rotting pod. poetic justice would be both of them forced to spend eternity with the other.
Dick Armey, huh?
Sounds like he’s really into a lotta dick.
Therefore, he has a pre-existing condition that precludes him from being insured.
a lot of times, dicks with the loudest voices are really dickless. i think it’s called overcompensation.
It’s truly ironic (OK, nothing really is ironic with these guys) that a man who would watch people die for not taking personal responsibility, spent his entire life protecting the corporations that push fast food, tobacco and booze from any responsibility or liability.
excellent point, jeb. not many of those protesting teabaggers look like they spend their days at the gym and the juice bar either. 🙄
I hate to say this as it will make me seem like a really horrible person, but I would dearly love to meet Mr. Armey in a dark alley so that I could fuck him up. I would dearly love for that to happen. He and Jim DeMint cause me much anger and frustration and since it’s not possible to debate these fucking tools, I’d just love to let my fists do my talking for me. That’s awful to say, but that’s how I feel everytime I see this douche open his fucking mouth.
Sorry about the double post. I stopped the first one when I caught a misspelling and corrected it, only to discover that both posts went through after the correction. My bad.
no worries, z. i deleted the first one. wordpress is really good about catching double postings, but if you change a letter, it no longer recognizes it, so i guess your correction flew under the wp radar.
i know how you feel about armey and demint. i honestly despise them, as well as quite a few others that i won’t bother to list. i find them loathsome and selfish.
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