THIS IS FRIGGIN' SCARY

Why have people buy health insurance if they're going to take your money and pull crap like this:

“When Steve and Leslie Shaeffer’s daughter, Selah, was diagnosed at age 4 with a potentially fatal tumor in her jaw, they figured their health insurance would cover the bulk of her treatment costs.” But “shortly after Selah’s medical bills hit $20,000, Blue Cross stopped covering them and eventually canceled her coverage retroactively.”

HAT TIP: Egalia and crew over at Tennessee Guerilla Woman. I recommend you head over to Egalia's place to read the rest of the Insurance Coverage Horror Stories - where the insurance company essentially takes your money and don't give you coverage if it's going to be costly.

Now, we should be putting on our thinking hats and wondering who the hell in Congress is taking payola from the HMOs to make sure there's no effective legislation on record to combat this crap? One person comes to mind...



For my money, I wish they would take the phrase "Honorable" away when addressing Mr. Wynn. He's as Honorable as...Jack Abramoff.

And, since he now appears to have to steal elections in order to continue sitting in the House and doing jack regarding his constituents except sell out their interests to the highest bidder, my fondest wish is that he spends the next two years with the FBI breathing down his back, and progressives watching his voting record like a fly on stink. Every vote against his district's interests is going to fall into Donna Edwards' arsenal in 2008 and I hope she clobbers him with it. Even if he's gotten his seat back, just how much influence do you think Wynn has for the next two years? He's going to look like a sick horse that needs to be put down. Donna Edwards is going to be back with a vengence, but for now, I hope she's readying her attorneys to fight the election results, because they appear to be tainted and maimed, and Wynn has the blood on his hands, especially after being fool enough to actually brag about it.

Here's a tidbit. Hat tip to Matt Stoller at MyDD

BARTON: Down in Texas, we had a Democratic primary about 50 years ago that Lyndon Johnson won by 54 votes. And he got the nickname "Landslide Lyndon." We have Mr. Wynn next. He had a little bit of a tussle last week, but he did win. And so, I want to recognize "Landslide Wynn" for any opening statement that he wishes...
WYNN: Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. In fact, they're still counting, but we're quite optimistic. And I did take a couple pages out of Lyndon's book, so if I win, it can be attributed to Texas know-how.
(LAUGHTER)
(UNKNOWN): Did you (inaudible)?
BARTON: I hope not. I hope you win fair and square.
(LAUGHTER)
WYNN: A win is a win.

I don't know about you, but anytime the oil-soaked Joe Barton is giving you props, you are a suspect DLCer and bipartisanship be damned. Even the hapless Harold Ford, Jr. is smarter than Wynn to gloat about what he's doing to win the Senate seat in Tennessee and I actually respect that. Albert Wynn is worse than Joe Lieberman, and his narcissism knows no bounds. But I hope that we in the progressive blogsphere can make his term a living hell.