dendroica:

shiracoffee:

And since Santorum and Gingrich are good Catholics, you KNOW they will now become advocates of universal health care… right?

The same goes for the six Catholics on the Supreme Court.

(Source: azspot)

While campaigning yesterday in Woodland Park, Colorado, GOP contender Rick Santorum told a sick child and his mother that they shouldn’t complain about the exorbitant cost of his medication because some people spend $900 on iPads. He appeared unmoved by the plight of the family, staunchly defending drug companies’ right to charge whatever they want.

The candidate also said that the parent and childunjustly felt entitled to get life-saving care at an affordable rate:

GOP contender Rick Santorum had a heated exchange with a mother and her sick young son Wednesday, arguing that drug companies were entitled to charge whatever the market demanded for life-saving therapies.[…]

“People have no problem paying $900 for an iPad,” Santorum said, “but paying $900 for a drug they have a problem with — it keeps you alive. Why? Because you’ve been conditioned to think health care is something you can get without having to pay for it.”

The mother said the boy was on the drug Abilify, used to treat schizophrenia, and that, on paper, its costs would exceed $1 million each year.

Santorum said drugs take years to develop and cost millions of dollars to produce, and manufacturers need to turn a profit or they would stop developing new drugs.

Santorum proceeded to lecture the mother and suggest she should be grateful to the drug companies for saving her son’s life. “He’s alive today because drug companies provide care,” Santorum said. “And if they didn’t think they could make money providing that drug, that drug wouldn’t be here.” He also claimed it would “freeze innovation” if pharmaceutical companies were required to offer their drugs at a reasonable price.

Dear Mr. Santorum:

Undercover Nun is praying for your immortal soul.  God knows, you need it.

In Christ’s love,
Me

(Source: silas216)

Undercover Nun came across Rachel’s story in a news article this morning.  Rachel learned in her 30s — as I did — that she has an incurable genetic disorder: Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.  We who have EDS have bodies that are unable to produce collagen correctly, which results in weak tendons and ligaments, fragile skin, and even faulty organs.  The luckiest among us live with daily chronic pain that results from hypermobile joints.  I’m not among the luckiest of us.  Neither is Rachel.

EDS affects certain types of collagen and makes sufferers susceptible to constant nervous-system pain, frequent hyperextension and dislocation of joints, potential arterial ruptures and many other health nightmares. Therapies are available, but there is no cure.

…

Rachel’s most immediate problem is that the connective tissue in her windpipe is collapsing, making breathing increasingly difficult. But with a new procedure developed by Dr. Paulo Macchiarini at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, a new trachea can be grown from stem cells taken from Rachel’s own bone marrow.

The problem?  Those two little words: stem cells.  Even though the stem cells would be harvested from Rachel’s own body — and not from a human embryo — the FDA still does not allow the procedure.

The upshot of this is that if Rachel does not undergo this procedure soon, she will die.  And it’ll cost somewhere around half a million dollars for her to travel to Sweden, where Dr. Macchiarini can save her life.  Rachel’s family has started a web site where we can donate toward her medical costs.  If you don’t have cash, then maybe you could sign a petition: Keep Politics Out of Life Saving Health Care.

Of your goodness, I’ll also ask if you can hold in your prayers those of us who live with EDS and its accompanying conditions. 

Nope, you aren’t reading a story from The Onion, as much as I wish this were so.  A man in North Carolina took a note to a bank and demanded that the teller give him one dollar and call the cops to arrest him.  Why?  Because he has a bad back, a sore foot, an undiagnosed growth on his chest, no job, and three years until Social Security eligibility.

Undercover Nun, as you might imagine, is experiencing a strong reaction to this story.  How dare any American call this a “Christian nation” when we refuse to care for our sick?  How dare we call this a “developed nation” when we deny basic human dignity to our elders?  How dare we hold ourselves up as a light to the world, when we force normal, everyday, ordinary, salt-of-the-earth people into committing robbery in order to be able to get medical help?  How dare we?

The story is telling not just because it shows the sad desperation of uninsured Americans who have trouble finding health care—but also how costly it is to leave such problems unattended. James Verone may have only robbed the bank of one dollar, but the cost of jailing him for just one year in North Carolina is over $23,000, not to mention the legal fees his case will rack up as well. Similarly, if he wasn’t in prison, and his health problems worsened, he could end up in an emergency room, where the state would again have to help foot the bill if he couldn’t pay. Insuring him would likely be the cheapest option—which is one reason why Democrats have made universal coverage a priority under federal health reform.

As the prophet Isaiah wrote: Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. God still speaks these same words today.  Listen, America, pay attention!  Children know their parents as a puppy knows its mother, but you do not know me — you drown out my voice with television and false prophets and the sound of your own voice.  You are a sinful nation, filled with corruption and iniquity.  Your leaders hold laws over your heads that they refuse to follow.  Your people do not work the earth, but they make themselves fat on the harvest of those who do.  You are a nation that is sick, your head weak from wine, your heart faint, your bones rotten and your sinews tattered.  From east coast to west, you are dirtied with greed, selfishness, and fear. You were once filled with justice and righteousness, America, but now you are a faithless den of murderers.

Wash yourself, says your God.  Stop this wickedness of growing fat and rich on the back of the destitute.  Instead, lift up the destitute: hold out the hand of hospitality and give them cool drink and good food; bandage their wounds and welcome them into your home; clothe them in your best garment, help them to find work, and visit them when they have a home. Only by doing justice and mercy can you make yourself clean. Only by doing the will of the God who knew you before you were fully fashioned in your mother’s womb will your wickedness fall from you.

I have given you a great land, says the LORD, a land rich with abundance for all of my children.  Truly I tell you, you need not fear scarcity: I have given you enough.  Stop your fearful hoarding and share your plenty with those who have none. Set aside your fear, and live in faith and trust. My Holy Spirit lives with you, so that you never need be alone. I promised you life — I promised you abundant life — but woe be to those who foolishly grasp for more than they need.  To live abundantly, you must learn to do good.  Cease doing evil.  Protect widows and orphans; be good to everyone smaller than you.  Visit the sick, and take care of them.  Help the disabled: the blind, the deaf, the homebound, the Alzheimer’s patient.  Give space to the sojourner and the homeless; make work for the unemployed.

This is my justice, says God, that my children live together as a family, taking care of each other in my name.  Choose mercy.  Choose life.  When you live in my justice, you are showered with blessings.  Until then, Undercover Nun is praying for your immortal soul.

Before I say anything else: Undercover Nun is not an Australian.  I know that some of my followers and friends do live in Australia, and I hope that this story will move you to speak up on Ms. Myint’s behalf.  No person should have to go through what she is.

A Perth woman battling chronic fatigue syndrome was committed to the locked ward of Fremantle Hospital after an attempt to euthanise herself in a desperate bid to address her crippling condition.

Theda Myint, 34, has grappled with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) – better known as chronic fatigue syndrome – for 11 years. The condition has left her bedridden with crippling migraines, severe body pain and an extremely low tolerance to light and noise.

She and her mother, Carol Adams, have campaigned to raise awareness of the condition, which they say is commonly misunderstood in the medical world.

Heh.  You don’t have to take the word of Ms. Adams and Ms. Myint: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is commonly misunderstood in the medical world.  PWCs (persons with…) are commonly dismissed by the medical community as drug-seekers, as lazy, as trying to pull the wool over their eyes, as looking for an excuse for a handout.  Well, I’ll tell you: nobody I know who has struggled with CFS would choose this condition over wellness!  I’ll tell you something else: we may seem resistant to treatment at times, but that’s because we’ve tried so many different things that we doubt this new treatment will work… or maybe that the cost of this treatment — in terms of dollars, energy, time, and devastating exhaustion — will be higher than we think we can pay.  It’s not that we don’t want to be better; it’s that we’ve found our hopes dashed so many times that we don’t believe we can get better.

That’s where Ms. Myint found herself: bed-ridden by tremendous pain, every hour of every day; suffering from debilitating migraines; requiring medication through an IV, just to be able to stand the pain; hearing the government deny her in-home care.  Is it any surprise that she would want to end her life?  It certainly isn’t to me!

But then, the story becomes even worse.  She gets wonderful treatment in the ER for her pain, and then…

Her mother Carol Adams said ambulance, emergency and intensive care staff were “fantastic” in treating her debilitating ME pain, and it wasn’t until she was transferred to one of the hospital’s medical wards that things took a turn for the worst.

Ward staff informed Ms Adams that they would not be able to provide food for her daughter due to her intolerances to potatoes, gluten, eggs, lactose and legumes brought on by her condition. In desperation, the family was forced to turn to highly processed food from a vending machine after Ms Myint went without food for two days.

While on the medical ward, a psychiatrist reviewed her case in light of her suicide attempt and made the decision to move her onto a locked ward, rescinding her rights and placing doctors in full control of her wellbeing.

“She was in so much pain. As soon as she was put in the locked ward, her ME needs were not being met,” Ms Adams said. “She was in a nine out of 10 for pain, and she was being refused treatment for that.

“She asked to have a hot bath or shower to ease her pain, and she was told she couldn’t because it would disturb the other patients.

“She asked to see another doctor, and she was refused. She then asked to be taken back to emergency, and that was also refused because she was in the psychiatric ward.”

Yup.  Insanity happened, but it wasn’t Theda Myint’s insanity; the hospital staff acted in complete defiance of reasonable thought.

Fremantle Hospital, how can you let a patient go two full days without food?  That is cruel beyond belief!

Fremantle Hospital, how can you justify denying treatment to a patient in severe pain?  This is cruelty again!

Fremantle Hospital, how can you justify your turnaround, providing treatment to Ms. Myint after a news reporter called you?  It was then that Ms Adams appealed to WAtoday.com.au for help. After a call was placed by this website to the hospital on Saturday morning, Ms Myint began getting the treatment she required and that afternoon she was released from hospital.  Do you only treat patients if you’ll get good press as a result?  How can you sleep at night?

Fremantle Hospital, how can you say this: “We have every confidence in the care provided to Theda during her recent admission to Fremantle Hospital. We are unable to comment any further due to patient confidentiality”?  How can you say that with a straight face, you hypocrites?  The first words any physician signs up for are Do no harm, and yet you took it upon yourselves to inflict grave harm on a chronically ill young woman who was so desperate for relief that she sought euthanasia!  You brood of vipers! 

Is it any surprise, then, that this precious young woman’s mother observes “She is extremely distressed and she just wants to die. She has just lost all hope. She doesn’t believe anyone can help her anymore. She’s had so many knockbacks and has been let down so many times, she’s just frightened to have hope”?  Truly, who wouldn’t lose hope after all of this?

(via vruz) (via changetheratio)

To every Congressperson who voted for this clear and obvious offense to Judaism and Christianity:

May God have mercy on your immortal soul.

In Christ’s love,
Undercover Nun