If North By Northwest Had Been Up For An Oscar In 2014

HEALTH CARE QUESTION

Sarah: “Dumb question, maybe.  What if people lose their job or change jobs to a company which doesn’t provide health insurance?  Is there a ‘deadline’ that they have to take into account in order to sign up for health insurance?”

☞ Good question.  Nope.  Here and here.  Also, FYI, the next open enrollment period is November 15, 2014, through February 15, 2015.  Republican leaders, the Kochs, and Fox News hope it will be a terrible failure.  They just wish they had controlled more states in time to deny Medicaid to even more struggling poor and low-income “takers.”  Like that lazy woman who got up at 4am to take the bus to work to clean your hotel toilet.

(Too shrill? Then how do you account for the 25 states that have willfully, purposely chosen to eschew all that federal money offered to cover 100%, and then 90%, of the cost of providing coverage to the poor?)

HEALTH CARE PITCH

From my inbox Friday:

I am a staunch Republican, a self-proclaimed Fox News addict, and I didn’t vote for the President. And I’m here to tell you that Obamacare works. I’m living proof.

I’m a chemotherapy patient, and was previously paying $428 a month for my health coverage. I was not thrilled when it was cancelled.

Then I submitted an application at HealthCare.gov. I looked at my options. And I signed up for a plan for $62 a month.

It’s the best health care I have ever had.

So right now, here’s what I want to tell anyone who still needs health insurance, or knows someone who does:

Sign up. Follow the instructions on the website. Apply, and look at your options. You still have time, and take it from me: This is something you want to do.

I wrote a letter to President Obama this past February to tell him about my experience with the Health Insurance Marketplace. I hoped he’d read it, and he did.

I may not be a supporter of the President. But now, I get mad when I see Obamacare dragged through the mud on television.

And even though I regularly tune in to conservative pundits, I’d like to tell them they’re getting it wrong. Obamacare works.

So one more time: If you still need health insurance, you have just three days to get it. Do what I did. Go to HealthCare.gov, submit an application, and pick a plan that works for you.

It just might change your life.

Mark D. Bearden, Ph.D.
Monroe, North Carolina

You no longer have three days.  But as I understand it, if you start the process today, it’s still not too late.  Spread the word.

HOBBY LOBBY QUESTION

If corporations are people, my friend, answer me this: are bankruptcy courts death panels?

NORTH BY NORTHWEST

Even if you’ve never seen the 1959 classic, though surely you have, you will enjoy these three minutes.  (Thanks, Mel!)