By Jean Card
Until our tiresome, bickering leaders in the capital city can sort out how to fix the costly, ObamaCare-exacerbated disaster that is America’s health insurance market, my husband and I are looking for creative ways to afford health-care coverage. A trial-lawyer-and-union-supported environmental fringe group in Missouri has given us a fresh idea about how we might get health care for free, courtesy of American taxpayers.
A bit of background on why we are thinking outside the box on health insurance: As reasonably successful (God forbid!) self-employed people, the government regulations, taxes, and costs of ObamaCare have left my husband and I in the position of paying out the nose ($950 each month) for a health insurance plan that covers a bunch of things we don’t want or need – but only if we reach our gasp-worthy deductible of over $14,000 first. It’s the cheapest plan available to us, on or off the ObamaCare exchanges. When you remember that the ObamaCare requires every American to have health insurance, you can understand why I mutter “extortion” each month when we pay Aetna in order to comply with federal law.
What’s a small-business owner to do? Perhaps we can be inspired by Just Moms STL – an activist group outside St. Louis, Missouri. These women are boldly asking America’s taxpayers to make a currently benign environmental situation dangerous through excavation and transport of an EPA Superfund site called West Lake Landfill, and to pay for all the protection and rescuing they think they need from something that currently doesn’t pose any health threats. Extensive study of the landfill and surrounding residential areas has proven, over and over, that it is secured and safe – not leaking, leaching or fuming. If Just Moms get what they are asking for, you can bet that health-care-for-life – for them, their families and quite possibly subsequent generations – will be part of the prize.
Why didn’t I think of this sooner? Surely there is some kind of landfill or unclean something or other close enough to where I live that the government – and by that I mean YOU – should pay for me to move into a new house and receive top-shelf health care forever.
Just Moms STL really has things figured out. First of all, they called themselves “Just Moms” – a moniker that begs for scrutiny. If you’re really just moms, why do you have to say you’re “just moms?” Methinks you ladies protest too much, but, apparently, this too-cute-by-half group name is effective when working with certain government officials. For example, Missouri State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal – mostly known for her call for the assassination of President Donald Trump, a move that earned her a Secret Service investigation and censure from her legislative colleagues – is a good friend of Just Moms STL. Chapelle-Nadal is the perpetual sponsor of legislation that seeks to secure home buyouts for the people who live near-ish the West Lake Landfill.
Local law firms and representatives of the Teamsters Union are also just fine with Just Moms – probably because the Just Moms agenda would deliver a colossal cleanup contract to the union members (via the Army Corps of Engineers) and open the door to lottery-sized lawsuits for the lawyers. Everybody would win! Except the taxpayers who would foot the bill for digging up waste and moving it – a move that would increase the risk of exposure to toxic waste.
Common sense and science are not the expertise of Just Moms STL. They are, after all, just moms! But I will give them credit for creative thinking. And if they earn health care for life through their taxpayer blackmail campaign, I’ll have to think about my own options. I think I saw some oil on the street in front of my house the other day. It’s time for someone to buy me some really great ObamaCare health insurance, don’t you think?