Dick Cheney would have died long ago if he didn't have government-run health care

Cheney photographed asleep at emergency meeting as VP in 2006

Cheney is a classic case of how being in positions of government, with its government-run single payer health care, has helped him since 1978. After his first heart attack (where he didn't have government-run health care), he has had

If Cheney had lived in a World where coverage was taken away due to pre-existing conditions, he would have gone broke and probably would have died due to not being able to sustain coverage for his horrific health.

1978 - Heart attack #1 (age 37)
1984 - Heart attack #2
1988-06 - Heart attack #3
1988-08 - Coronary bypass surgery
2000-11 - Heart attack #4
2000-11 - Coronary stent placed
2000-11 - Abnormal heart function
2001-03 - Unstable angina
2001-03 - Coronary angioplasty
2001-06 - Cardiac defibrillator implanted
2005-09 - Popliteal artery aneurysm repair
2006-01 - Congestive heart failure
2007-03 - Venous thrombosis
2007-11 - Atrial fibrillation
2009-02 - Heart attack #5

Imagine a health insurance company getting this assessment about a patient before they deny him coverage due to pre-existing conditions:





If it wasn't for Obama's "radical" approach to health care reform and goverment-run health care that he has used repeatedly to stay alive, Cheney would have taken a dirt nap a long time ago.

Assuming he is using the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan, as a retired Federal Employee, he has selected one of the many insurance plans among which all such employees may choose. His CARE is provided by hospitals and doctors generally available.

http://www.opm.gov/insure/federal_employ/index.asp

Um... you are utterly missing the point.

No, the doctors are not government workers necessarily. But the health care packages that Cheney was given were run by the government. He didn't call some fellas in Laramie to hook him up with a privately-run health insurance package. He got his coverage from the government. He got choices from what the government offered.

is available to all Federal employees, and retirees if they choose to use it. He (and I, and my husband, and millions of others) receive the 'package' as soon as we became Federal employees.

The Office of Personnel Management (opm) asks insurance companies if they would like to offer policies that conform to opm's requirement to Federal employees.

Read all about it:

http://www.opm.gov/insure/federal_employ/index.asp

But before 65 I would assume he had private insurance just like all other federal employees.

backing up your assertions, please? ASSUMING is NOT any sort of proof.

which insurance company he's using. The only PROOF I have that his care is payed for by one of the insurance carriers available thru the Federal Employees Health Benefit plan is LOGIC: the choices are many, varied, and are decently priced. Read about them.

http://www.opm.gov/insure/federal_employ/index.asp

he would have been dropped ages ago. He is being protected because of his involvement in the government insurance programs that are availble.

We have an excellent program, and many would like it to be available to everyone. Employees pay a premium, and the employer, the Federal government, pays the remainder. The insurance companies are the same that non-government employees use, but the government has the clout to require attributes that others don't.

the Federal Government, excluding the Postal Service, is the Nation's largest employer.

http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs041.htm

anti HCR post here at DU!!:hi:

a great thing to advertise.

:rofl:

If put to a vote, MANY woulds NOT support it, as freedom of speech is available to you, me, AND OTHERS WITH WHOM WE DISAGREE, whose speech we hate.

We're for it when it goes our way, and we're against it when it doesn't; depends on what 'it' is.

:dilemma:

I actually do defend the right of people (even Repubs and Teabaggers) to speak their minds. The first amendment, to me, is the MOST important part of the US Constitution.

I believe Voltaire said something along the lines of: "I may not agree with what you say; but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

But it seems to me that part of the freedom of speech is also accepting that you are then open to freedom of criticism from your opposition.


That said, now referring back to my original joke, it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect support of liberal, progressive Democratic principles uch as HCR on DU (and the OP wasn't really anti-HCR). And BTW freedom of speech really doesn't apply here on DU. It, as a moderated forum, is subject to censorship by it's moderators.


Edit: sp

the doctors will take her off the ventilators this monday--and, frankly, the best outcome would be for her NOT to start breathing, as, in all likelihood, she will be a vegetable.

she hasn't had any kind of decent health care, very little insurance, very little money. had SHE had the kind of coverage darth cheney has, maybe, just maybe, some of her health problems could have been addressed much earlier. and maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't be waiting in dread for monday morning.

FU to all those who are blocking any actual health CARE.

Words can't express what that situation is. All the best in any efforts to get through that horrible situation.

:grouphug:

He made tens of millions of dollars in the private sector before being the VP.

Remember, he was the CEO and Chairman of Halliburton and got paid a huge sum of money for it annually.

Before that, he was on the board of American Enterprise Institute.

By the time he became VP, he was already worth about $50 million.


He's likely worth about $100 million now, as he's getting about $8 million annually from various entities.

Yes, he's wealthy and could buy a wing of a hospital if he wanted... but the mere fact that he has used government-run health care all these years to survive completely prove the point that it's not the big bad boogie man...

account", he figured he'd live on the taxpayer tit.

Yet, he and his ilk don't want any of us to be able to do that. Unless we have $20+ million that is....

is making use of any program that is available to him as a former federal employee, former VP, or as a person over 65.

He had good insurance when he was a federal employee a long time ago, plus he was rich after that.

1978 - Heart attack #1 (age 37)
1984 - Heart attack #2
1988-06 - Heart attack #3
1988-08 - Coronary bypass surgery
2000-11 - Heart attack #4
2000-11 - Coronary stent placed
2000-11 - Abnormal heart function

Maybe we can pull it from all those anti-socialist Rethug Congresscritters soon, whether they want to surrender their coverage or not.

as for the Military, and medical insurance programs OFFERED THRU the government, which is what Federal employees and retirees have.

'k?

if every American had that same type of government run health care the life expectancy for individuals would greatly increase.Which is what Repugs don't want.Plain and Simple.A Presidential success.

His party, with his support, had proposed closing (defunding) the type of emergency clinic to which he was taken.