Damn

Marie at Think Progress: "Kaiser Health News reports that federal subsidies to help laid-off workers continue their health care coverage—'one of the key consumer benefits of the federal stimulus package'—will end today. Millions of laid-off workers benefited from federal subsidies for COBRA, a program that allows people who lose their jobs to keep employer-provided insurance, usually for 18 months, if they pay the entire premium and some part of the administrative fees. Congress extended the COBRA subsidy three times to cover workers who lost their jobs through May 2010, but increasing concern about the national deficit led them to decline another extension last year. Health care costs for the unemployed are expected to rise sharply and with them, concerns about how millions of families will cover those expenses."

I don't even know what to say, at least in terms of saying something I haven't already said a million times before.

The US needs socialized healthcare. Healthcare should not be a for-profit enterprise: It is a right, not a privilege. Or it should be, anyway.

I'm so tired of hearing conservatives wailing about the devilry of universal healthcare. The same people who natter endlessly about job creators and small business and entrepreneurship ought to be the most keenly aware that inextricably tying people to jobs just to retain their healthcare stifles business creativity and makes the market less robust, as one of the major risks of starting a small business in the US is abandoning the employer-sponsored healthcare system.

Of course, conservatives aren't actually interested in people starting small businesses, despite their claims to the contrary. Not really. That might mean competition for the global corporations to whom they're beholden, or even the slightest of delays in turning the US into a giant feudal oligarchy.