KIng Street Patriots, Tea Party & Republicans Have High Regard For Dead Black People

The so-called King Street Patriots, a local Tea Party cell in Houston, care a lot about black people when they are dead. It is just the living ones that they don’t worry so much about.

The King Street Patriots are taking part in an effort to clean the Olivewood Cemetery in Houston. It’s a campaign stunt by the Republican running against Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee in the 18th Congressional district of Texas.

Olivewood is a historic black cemetery in Ms. Jackson Lee’s district. Above is a picture of Olivewood that I took a few days ago.

At the same time they are tending with such respect for the dead, the King Street Patriots and the Republicans want to repeal Health Care Reform.

Here are some of the things that HCR accomplishes—

Insurers Will No Longer Be Able To:

• Deny coverage to kids with pre-existing conditions. Health plans cannot limit or deny benefits or deny coverage for a child younger than age 19 simply because the child has a pre-existing condition like asthma.
• Put lifetime limits on benefits. Health plans can no longer put a lifetime dollar limit on the benefits of people with costly conditions like cancer
• Cancel your policy without proving fraud. Health plans can’t retroactively cancel insurance coverage – often at the time you need it most – solely because you or your employer made an honest mistake on your insurance application.
• Deny claims without a chance for appeal. In new health plans, you now have the right to demand that your health plan reconsider a decision to deny payment for a test or treatment. That also includes an external appeal to an independent reviewer.

Consumers in New Health Plans Will Be Able to:

• Receive cost-free preventive services. New health plans must give you access to recommended preventive services such as screenings, vaccinations and counseling without any out-of-pocket costs to you.
• Keep young adults on a parent’s plan until age 26. If your health plan covers children, you can now most likely add or keep your children on your health insurance policy until they turn 26 years old if they don’t have coverage on the job.
• Choose a primary care doctor, ob/gyn and pediatrician. New health plans must let you choose the primary care doctor or pediatrician you want from your health plan’s provider network and let you see an OB-GYN doctor without needing a referral from another doctor.
• Use the nearest emergency room without penalty. New health plans can’t require you to get prior approval before seeking emergency room services from a provider or hospital outside your plan’s network – and they can’t require higher copayments or co-insurance for out-of-network emergency room services.

These are the facts. This is what the Tea Party/Republican Party opposes. And as the plan rolls out, millions will do not now have access to coverage will get access to coverage.

In 2007, 19.5% of black Americans had no health insurance. This was in comparison to 10.4% without insurance for whites. And these numbers were from before the recession.

Republicans had years to do something about the problem of access to health insurance in our nation. They did nothing.

Here is a story about average Americans who are now so much better off because they can get care.

The King Street Patriots, the Tea Party movement, and the Republican Party  have such regard for dead people, that they want to make sure we have as many dead people as possible from the lack of health insurance.

Yet you can bet your last dollar that just like with Social Security, these people will take the benefits of Health Care Reform when it serves their personal needs.