RELIGIOUS HEALTH CARE REFORMERS SPREAD BIG LIE IN PASADENA

Pasadena Sub Rosa ^ | October 20, 2009 | Wayne Lusvardi

[WayneLusvardi]

The Pasadena Star News reports on a religious "vigil" held Monday night at the Pasadena City Hall by a group of about 100 health care reform advocates reportedly from various churches in the area (All Saints, Cavalry Chapel, Altadena Baptist, Jewish synagogue, etc.) propounding a big lie that there are medical "uninsured" in California who do not receive medical treatment. Read here: http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_13594645

This propaganda should not go unchecked.

For the record, there are no people living in California who are denied medical treatment. Everyone is potentially eligible for Medi-Cal, which is partially subsidized by the Federal government. We already have "universal" health care coverage in California, contrary to misinformation spread by the media, government, and the religious communities.

How do I know this? Well, from first hand experience I sat in oncologists offices, hospital emergency rooms, hospital rooms, and surgery waiting rooms for three years when my girlfriend experienced her long travail with Stage 4 cancer. She was "uninsured." But she was able to piece together resources for her cancer surgeries and chemotherapy ($4,000 per chemo treatment) for nearly three years from self-pay, from the Blue Cross Catastrophic Care Program funded by Big Tobacco lawsuits, from hospital charities, and finally from Medi-Care itself once two years of her being fully disabled from cancer had passed.

And next to her in the waiting rooms, hospital rooms, and emergency rooms were people who were totally indigent with cancer who were receiving the same treatment from the same reputable doctors, all of it funded by Medi-Cal.

How do I know this? I made friends with these people given that, like my girlfriend, they were living in purgatory suspended between life and death with late stage cancers. We shared information about medical insurance coverage programs with others because we all were in the same metaphorical life boat taking on water.

Sure, maybe Medi-Cal doesn't pay doctors as much as some gold-plated health insurance plan. But that didn't seem to make a difference with the type or level of treatment they received or the reputation of the doctors that treated them.

I would think it a sin in Judaism or in Christianity to perpetuate such a lie that people are suffering because of lack of health insurance in California. The foundation of the Judeo-Christian religious ethic is to first and foremost know the truth and the truth will set them free from sin and lying, as the Christian scriptures put it. To repeat - it is untrue that there are "uninsured" in California who do not receive medical care or who receive inferior medical care. Posing any so-called "uninsured" victims in photos in newspapers is a religious sin - it bears false witness to your neighbor in violation of the Ten Commandments.

The religious community in Pasadena has lost all moral credibility with this issue. The editor of the local newspaper, however, will likely NOT call them "wing-nuts" or other disparaging terms like he has those middle class Tea Party citizens who have vociferously, but for the most part respectfully, protested the reform of the "universal" health care programs we already have in place in California.

We are waiting for anyone in the religious community to speak up with the truth on this issue. We aren't holding our breath waiting for a response.

[Welcome2thejungle]

I have been attending a weekly class at All Saints Church in Pasadena for the last several months. This “church” feels much more like Democrat Party HQ or BHO HQ than the way a church should be. There are bulletin boards all over the place with literature about upcoming left wing political events. All Saints truly can described as the cental HQ for the Left in the Pasadena area.

It is painful for me to recall, but in the not too distant past, the Pasadena-Glendale are was rock ribbed Goldwater-Reagan country. Now it is every bit as left wing as Berkeley, Santa Cruz, or Santa Monica. Needless to say, the area has gone down hill as well. It used to be very nice.

[socialismisinsidious]

Love the way the loony left does the victim thing....why aren't the uninsured out there marching and rallying for themselves?! Notice how the left always fights to implement their socialist agenda on someone else's behalf.