Love this by Kellen Squire (emergency room nurse, Democratic candidate for Virginia House of Delegates); I just wish we had a bunch more Kellen Squires with the ability and willingness to take on “wrong as heck & smarmy to boot” Virginia GOP Chair John Whitbeck (or as I call him, Whit-less). In this case, Squire savages the following Whit-less tweet about single-payer healthcare. See that tweet, and Squire’s awesome “tweetstorm” response, below. Oh, and enjoy! 🙂
October surprise for @VA_GOP in a good way. Dems call for single payer in Va https://t.co/MSE3APEsbH
— John Whitbeck (@JohnWhitbeck) October 2, 2017
Heh. Oh, @JohnWhitbeck, nothing more certain than death, taxes, and you bein’ wrong as heck & smarmy to boot. Let’s break this down, mmkay?
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! I’ve got news for you all- we CURRENTLY have universal healthcare in the Commonwealth of Virginia RIGHT NOW! (1)
It’s from a law called EMTALA, signed into law by notorious socialist Ronald Reagan. It says if you come to my ER, WE HAVE TO TREAT YOU. (2)
This is great, it means people don’t die in the streets. But d’you know why you pay $964 for a tylenol? Because of EMTALA. (3)
YOU’RE PAYING FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE NOW! Except, thanks to @JohnWhitbeck and the @VA_GOP, we’re doing it the least efficient way! (4)
So if you like paying $964 for a tylenol, $4500 for a CT Scan, & emergency services providers like me being everyone’s PCP, vote @GOP!
But if you want to provide care in a more efficient, farther reaching, &- oh my gosh, dare I say it… FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE WAY… (6)
#SinglePayer is the way to go. That’s why smarmy folks like Johnny here don’t fool folks. I’m old enough to remember 2007, y’all! (7)
Rickrolling was the craze du jure, and ROMNEYCARE was the cutting edge idea that was going to save the Republican party! (8)
A @Heritage written policy that required a “no free rider, everyone has to have skin in the game” clause, that was pretty well written! (9)
It was inefficient by it’s nature, but was built that way with the knowledge it’d keep the government out of it as much as possible. (10)
The conservative argument was, well, we know it’ll cost more but that’s the price you pay for coverage & less gov. Okay, fine. (11)
Then a young senator from Illinois started to like the plan, & all of a sudden, that mere fact made it radioactive to folks like Johnny! (12)
John and the @GOP had their chance to pass healthcare reform- it was what became the ACA. And it would probably have worked! Alas… (13)
Stigginit to Obama was so important they even abandoned all of their “principled conservative” positions to do it! (14)
So I find it HILARIOUS when folks like Johnny, or @DelRBell, like to chortle about you getting stuck with the bill for single payer. (15)
YOU ARE ALL PAYING FOR IT RIGHT NOW. EVERYONE READING THIS TWEET. Yes, you! You! You’re PAYING for it, RIGHT NOW! And BIGLY! (16)
We pay more for healthcare than ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD- and not by a little, by a LOT. Not even close! And outcomes? (17)
I got news for y’all- our outcomes aren’t even in the top 10. Or top 20. Or top 30 in some metrics. It’s unacceptable. (18)
I could go on & on about this. For instance, how much does a CT Scan actually cost? Nobody knows b/c the shell games we play now. (19)
Johnny here might advocate for “shopping around” or something, but the system he is pushing makes consumer transparency IMPOSSIBLE. (20)
Listen, fellow Virginians- you’re paying for single payer right now. For that and a bunch more. (21)
Unless Johnny, @DelRBell, and the @VA_GOP are gonna come out in favor of repealing EMTALA, you’re going to KEEP paying for it. (22)
You like paying almost $1000 for a tylenol? Vote @GOP, absolutely. Me? I got more respect for your damn tax dollars than that. (23)
And remember, the @VA_GOP is asking ME- literally ME- & my colleagues in emergency services to make up for their inability to govern. (24)
We’re supposed to take one for the team- but it ain’t Johnny who’s gotta take his kids to the ER for their PCP needs. (25)
It’s the folks in @ElktonVA and @ScottsvilleTown and anywhere else in the Commonwealth that working class folks live. (26)
And I am sick and DAMN TIRED of having MY CONSTITUENTS, who work TOO DAMN HARD for their money, bein’ told by smarmy folks like Johnny (27)
That they make too much money @ $9k/year, or it’s just TOO HARD a problem to fix, or whatever other excuse they have for doing NOTHING. (28)
That’s why I’m fighting to fix this and provide for the folks in my district, and everyone across the Commonwealth of Virginia. (29)
And I got news for ya, Johnny. ME and @carterforva and everyone else running in the HOD this year ain’t gonna stop UNTIL IT GETS DONE. (30)
Let this be a lesson to you for getting in the way of a #nurse and taking care of our patients. Look for a follow-up on 07-NOV. (31)
