Standing in line at the pharmacy today when the octogenarian ahead of me....

[Joe Nation]

...turned around and started talking about the cost of prescriptions and how they keep going up. I thought, "Okay, this guys wants to complain a little and he has the right, he's been around long enough." The next words out of his mouth I maybe should have expected but I was still amazed to hear them just the same.

He said that that crazy woman in New York was going to promise everything to the young people like free medicine, free schooling, free everything just to get votes. I had to ask, but I think that I already knew, what crazy woman he was talking about. He said, "that Ocasio woman". I told him that those things weren't true but that is how Republicans were trying to characterize her policies. In his best Fox News parroting voice he said, "That it was socialism."

He went back to talking about health care and said that we couldn't afford the 9 million dollars for free health care for everyone. I knew what he meant...kind of. So I said, "How is it that places that aren't nearly as rich as this country like Canada, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and pretty much every industrialized country on the planet can afford to provide health care for their citizens and we can't?"

I didn't know an 80 something year old could snap his head back around that fast. I didn't stop. I told him that we could easily provide that same health benefits our European allies provide to their citizens. I told him that the U.S. spends about 34 trillion on health care in 10 years and if we had universal health care, it would actually cost about 2 trillion less over the same period. I just kept whispering facts and statistics over his shoulder as he waited for his turn.

You've never seen a man so grateful to finally reach the head of any line.

[elleng]

1. LOVE it, Joe N!

Will think of your story, for smiles!

[Snotcicles]

22. Facts. The Fox viewers Kryptonite. nt

[guillaumeb]

2. Another Trump voter.

But his Medicare is not socialism because it benefits him personally.

[smirkymonkey]

3. Gubment! Keep your hands off my Medicare!

Ugh, such idiots.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. Good.

People like him need to be told the kinds of things you told him.

[Ohiogal]

5. Well done!

[RKP5637]

6. They just don't get it, they've been brainwashed for so many decades! Some do, but most don't. n/t

[spooky3]

7. You could let him know his prescriptions cost about

Twice what they would cost FOR THE SAME DRUGS in Germany.

[JudyM]

8. Perfect, now hopefully he'll actually think about the questions a bit later.

Questions are the way to go if we want to change minds and hearts.

[SunSeeker]

9. K & R

[donco]

10. That "octogenarian"

is giving us"octogenarians"a bad name.SAD!!

[Joe Nation]

23. Us sexagenarians feel for ya. :)

n/t

[Honeycombe8]

11. They're not used to being spoken to that way, you brash young person!

Seriously, they're not used to people disagreeing, since most ignore their ignorant statements. I think we've all started speaking back, in person and on the internet. If we don't counter their misinformation, then all that's out there is the misinformation.

We may not win them over. But at least we get some information out there. And you never know...maybe a kernel of truth entered their heads.

[PatrickforO]

12. What bothers me is the illogic.

Oh, I'm suffering because my prescription drugs are priced too high.

But Ocasio-Cortez is a socialist because she wants to give me free medicine.

That's socialism, because I don't want to pay for anyone else's!


Think about that disconnect for a minute. I'm suffering because my healthcare is too high priced, but I don't want to pay into Medicare for all Americans!


But if we all paid for Medicare for all Americans, then his medicine would be free to him. It wouldn't cost too much. The problem for him seems to be the concept that he doesn't want to pay for anyone else's.

MASTERFUL decades-long propaganda by corporate-funded right-wing media.

[JoeOtterbein]

13. Great job! Next time, feel free to talk as loud as anyone else in hearing distance! n/t

[IronLionZion]

14. Dude is probably on Medicare and Social Security

and the cost of prescriptions would benefit from better regulation. Because there are plenty of medicines whose prices shot up for no reason to do with research/development, or manufacturing costs, or anything useful. Some company bought monopoly power and jacked up the price knowing the customers don't have any other choice. It's quite the opposite of free market, which encourages competition.

[onit2day]

28. Both programs are socialism so he's already a socialist. Never define the term

Just point to the socialist programs that already exist and he will find he's already a socialist and America is a democratic socialist republic which we want to expand since we are the Government.

[DangerousRhythm]

15. My father is 70 and told me yesterday...

...that "crazy woman" wants to tear down all the buildings in New York and socialism, free shit, blah blah. The buildings thing was new to me as far as whatever bullshit propaganda FOX and their ilk must be spreading. I haven't yet tried to Google to find out what the hell he was on about, but I'm not really sure I want to fall down that dark rabbit hole either.

[Duppers]

25. Wait...wait. The fact that your father is 70...

has nothing to do with his ignorance. I'm 72.
But it probably has to do with his location, where he grew up (was programmed), and his level of education.

Sorry he seems to have become a Faux-bot.

[Stonepounder]

16. These dumbshits drive me absolutely crazy!

I've been lucky, I've been on 2 prescriptions and 2 OTC meds for years. Thanks to Medicare (actually I'm on a Medicare Advantage plan that costs me $0.00 out of pocket, they just take my Medicare allowance as my premium payment). My wife is on 7 prescription meds. All of our prescriptions cost $2.00 ea.

Recently I was diagnosed with something akin to Pulmonary Fibrosis, which is scarring of the lungs, which keeps the lungs from expanding fully and you end up being out of breath from simple things like walking from one room to another. It is incurable, since there is no way to get rid of the scarring and up until a few years ago anyone diagnosed with it had a life expectancy of 3-5 years. However, about 3 years ago a new drug came out that seems to halt or at least slow down the progression of the scarring. You don't ever get better, but you don't get worse. Only one little problem with the new meds. They are considered to be an 'orphan drug' and the retail cost runs about $90K a year. However, since I am on Medicare and we don't have a whole lot of assets, the company that sells the drug worked with Medicare and my insurance co and gave me a significant discount - to the tune of ... $90K a year.

So don't even suggest that somehow universal healthcare is a bad thing! And it would cost LESS than the crazy patchwork system we have now. And, oh, by the way, one of the reasons that hospitals are so expensive is that someone has to bear the cost of all the folks who don't have access to, or can't afford health insurance end up using the Emergency Room (the most expensive part of the hospital) for the needed health care.

[watoos]

17. I live among them

They are zombies, I don’t waste my time talking facts to them. I give them some jabs once in a while.

[Maru Kitteh]

18. He wants free medicine for himself, and he wants to make sure nobody (read here brown people or

hippies) threatens his access to medicine by jumping into line with him.

My racist MIL bought that whole "death panel" crap hook line and sinker.

[mainstreetonce]

19. Can I send you Uncle Wally's phone number?

Please?

[Pepsidog]

20. F'CKEN FOX must be dealt with!!

[Dem2theMax]

21. I'm surprised his head didn't explode right in front of you.

You were filling it with actual facts, and his brain obviously doesn't know what to do with the truth.

[dalton99a]

24. Kick

[mr_lebowski]

26. Aside from the other great comments above, I'd have sure mentioned "You DO realize that Republicans

are the ones who've insisted, year after year, that Medicare should NOT be allowed to negotiate for lower Rx Prices for YOU, right? And that it's the Democrats, on the other hand, who have consistently voted in FAVOR of using the buying power of Medicare to bring down your Rx costs, RIGHT?"

And

"Sure, Trump has a done a decent job of PRETENDING that the Democrat's good idea is his own, but he's actually done NOTHING to bring down drug costs whatsoever in ... how long has he had now? Over two years?"

[erronis]

27. Not necessarily apropos, but I heard today that people that watch a lot of T.V.

also suffer from dementia more often than the others.

Perhaps related to never having to use your brain to ask questions - just being fed "facts".

[ooky]

29. When I hear a Trump humper complaining about prescription costs I remind that

person that Trump and Republicans had the House and Senate majorities for 2 years and did nothing.

[Joe Nation]

30. I carry little copies of this around in my wallet to give to dumb people instead of talking to them