Tag: Health

Biden And Health Care

I will be doing a series of posts dealing with the choices of president-elect Biden for people and policies.

Biden is not a fan of Medicare For All (hence forth will be known as M4A)…….

This pandemic could give Biden the prefect opportunity to use a Trumpian ploy of Executive Order to make M4A a tool to fight this virus and all health issues in the nation.

Journalist David Dayen presented a convincing case Tuesday that President-elect Joe Biden, once sworn into office come January, would have the legal authority to immediately provide complete Medicare coverage to everyone in the country via executive action due to the Covid-19 pandemic—though the very serious question remains: would he?

During the primary season in March, Biden said he would veto a Medicare for All bill should one ever reach his desk, but with the coronavirus infection rate surging—and some scenarios projecting an overall death toll as high as 360,000 by the time the inauguration takes place—is it possible that conditions on the ground could move him on the popular demand for a single-payer solution to the nation’s public health crisis?

“I do not expect Joe Biden to use this power on Inauguration Day to instantly turn the United States into a single-payer country,” Dayen wrote in The American Prospect. “But there’s nothing in the law that would appear to prevent him from doing it.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/17/pandemic-national-emergency-biden-could-enact-medicare-all-executive-action-will-he

This would be the perfect way to get the “progressives” on his side from the first day of his administration.

Sadly he is too deep in the pockets of the health industry and Pharma……they will never let M4A from ever becoming policy……their strangle-hold on health care is too profitable to ever see it broken.

I have said all along that the EO would be the perfect way to get many of the democratic policies enacted.

Biden is in the process of trying to re-create the Obama years…..we need fundamental change not the reform minded lunacy of the Obama years.

I now await all those that think the Obama years changed things.

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KamalaCare

That time of the election cycle…..we have health care issues and promises from all sides…..with the exception of Republicans…..we have Madicare For All, Medicare USA, and now KamalaCare.

This is Kamala Harris proposal for solving our health care dilemma…..but what is it….no really what?

There’s no question that the American health care system is a crazy quilt that leaves health “insurance companies in charge,” as Senator Kamala Harris appreciates. Unfortunately, her health reform proposal, “KamalaCare” does not match her rhetoric. It leaves health insurers running the show.

Harris’ proposal relies extensively on for-profit health insurers to provide coverage. But, they are the reason health care is unaffordable and the reason people are often faced with denials of care and coverage. She claims her plan will hold the health insurers to account if they game the system. That sounds great in theory, but how exactly would it work in practice?

Like Senator Bernie Sanders’ and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal’s Medicare for All legislation, Harris’ proposal makes an improved traditional Medicare public plan available to all Americans. Unlike Sanders and Jayapal, after a ten-year transition, she keeps the for-profit health insurance industry in business, offering Medicare Advantage plan options to people who want a private plan.

KamalaCare leaves health insurers running the show

As usual from the “corporatist” candidates….the health industry stays in control of your health care….so basically it is the status quo with some minor adjustments…..

If you get health insurance at work or buy your own plan, will you be able to keep it? No. Harris says insurance companies will be allowed “to offer a plan” in the government-run system but only if they follow the government’s strict rules to skimp on what’s spent on your care. “If they want to play by our rules, they can be in the system. If not, they have to get out,” she says.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/07/31/the_truth_about_kamalacare_140894.html

This one has holes all through it to allow the industry to keep control of your health care.  Is that what you want?

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One Reason Romney Is A Dud

Daily Agitator

Although it is NOT official, Romney will be running for the GOP nomination for the 2012 election……but as with everything about this guy……the many contradictions and he is , so far, the front runner…..let’s pick a subject….health care comes to mind….why?  His health care plan when he was governor of Massachusetts……funny how it looks a lot like the dreadful Dem “Obamacare”…….

Take a look at a few of his flips……..

Back in 2006, as a Republican governor in a deep blue state, Mitt Romney signed into law a health care plan that would insure almost every resident of Massachusetts. At the time, it was praised by supporters of health care reform as a landmark achievement for the then-governor. The lynchpin of “Romneycare” was an insurance mandate that required the people of Massachusetts to get health insurance.”I think there are a number of features in the Massachusetts plan that could inform Washington on ways to improve health care for all Americans,” Romney told CNN. “The fact that we were able to get people insured without a government option is a model I think they can learn from.”

OK, five years ago Mitt-care would have been a good example for the nation….and then we have this said by Romney….

Well, it’s filled with so many defects it’s hard to know where exactly to begin. I’d say from a process standpoint the idea of rushing through a piece of legislation which will define the health care system for this country is a very bad idea. The right approach is one which includes extensive analysis, evaluation of systems that have been implemented in other countries and in other states, a bipartisan effort which includes different perspectives and views, the inputs of physicians, patients, advocacy groups, hospitals, business, and labor. This should be a very inclusive and extensive process, and President Obama, out of an apparent desire to score a victory, is not willing to give health care the deliberative process it deserves.

His justification of this flip is that tired old GOP tactic of state’s rights….Romney is suffering from the same disease as McCain had back ’08…..ideas are only good if they are his ideas….others just don’t get it….

Romney is just getting out ahead of the criticism before he has some serious contenders….this way he has addressed the issue and is trying to lessen any impact that would be coming his way from other GOPers……

But his biggest WTF moment was when he said……

“The nation already has over a thousand private insurance companies, many of the largest of which are not for profit, so his excuse for forming the public government option –that it’s necessary to give people choices — is obviously fallacious.”

1000’s of insurance companies,  many are not for profit……(pause here for some genuine surprise at a completely stupid statement)…..Romney is turning into the typical GOP candidate…..full of crap and lies…..how much is he getting from the insurance industry?  That would explain such a bogus and unthoughtful  response…..keep the donors happy and you will get your just rewards…..you think you have it bad now…then vote for this guy and learn the REAL meaning of misery!

More Normal Than Abnormal

There is youtube which has been replaced by facebook….then we have flickr and twitter and ……..anyway a wealth of sites where we can be famous at least for a short time….we can see our vids and fotos and words and…….we can have our instant gratification…we buy zit cream to give us the perfect skin or dye for that perfect blonde color….and with that comes bigger tits….firmer ass and a vacuum of the gut….

Then we go to the gym and do pilates and jazzercise and lift VWs….or we buy home dildos to work every portion of our body or we buy a pill that promises 6 pack abs…..we buy special shoes when worn will give you the perfect ass…..and it goes on and on…..to the point that we are a narcissistic society…..a society of self-center turds……

Back in the day that was called…..

Narcissistic personality disorder, characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance and the need for constant attention, has been eliminated from the upcoming manual of mental disorders, which psychiatrists use to diagnose mental illness.

Yes…if you suffered with this disorder….then you were mentally ill……but in today’s world all that has changed….But wait!

As Charles Zanor reports in today’s Science Times, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — due out in 2013 and known as D.S.M.-5 — has eliminated five of the 10 personality disorders that are listed in the current edition. The best known of these is narcissistic personality disorder.

So what once was abnormal is now normal…….what a great day for society……justification for self-absorb little turds!

I Have A Health Care Plan

This is a re-post of one of my previous posts on Info Ink….this one is from April 2007…..

An Alternative Healthcare Proposal

For years, the most pressing problem that the US faces is that of adequate healthcare for all the American people. Leaders have toyed with the problem, the people have wanted more, presidents have given it tons of lip service, but yet no one has an idea that will work. It either would cost too much money or it would not be politically advantageous or……..and the beat goes on. To date there is still no adequate healthcare or a workable plan. My question is–how long will they debate and promise and ……?

I have had a thought on one possible path they could be taken to help the American people with adequate healthcare. And the really good part of it, it will not add much cost to the system that would needed to be funded by more taxes.

But I start I want to make it clear that this plan is for doctors and visists it will not encompass hospitalization of any kind. The easy part would be the doctor’s end of the equation, the hospital part will take a massive plan to fix it. This then is just a small part of the problem, but could be fixed with little increase to the American people.

This is a plan that I sent to my Congressman several years ago and his reply had nothing to do with what I had outlined. In other words, the pig did not read it and some low level gopher sent me a reply to my proposal. Needless to say, I have little use for my congressman, who by the way is still on my dime in Washington.

First let us start with seemingly unrelated problems; the healthcare of the American people and those who default on their student loans. Is there a connection? Well, yeah! One of the worst abusers of non-payment of student loans are those in the medical field; doctors to be more exact.

There have been many plans over the years to try an get the money out of these abusers, but most were a dismal failure. One such plan, the doctor would go where the US needed him/her and work until the loan was paid down. Not bad, but unfortunately, there were always loopholes that allowed the people to escape from this plan.

My proposal is simple, the doctor opens a clinic in Willacuchi, Ga and begins seeing patients. He would then choose a day a week that the poor would be treated. The amount of the visit, supplies and medication that he used that day would be deducted from his loan balance and this would be continued until the entire loan was paid off. NO ESCAPE CLAUSES!

The doctor, no matter what city or town, would not have to give up their private practice or their goals of riches accumulation. The Dept. of Health and Human Services would monitor the transactions, to keep them honest.

This proposal will not eliminate the need for more sweeping changes in the healthcare of Americans, but it would be a start at helping those who cannot afford to visit the doctor on regular basis. Those people who do not have insurance or money enough for doctors appointments. I realize that this is simplistic and if the government gets involved it might become a nightmare, but it is a start

It would not take DHHS long to come up with a satisfactory method of determining who is in need and who is scamming. This would not be that difficult and I say why not give it a try?  Plus it would not grow the size of the bureaucracy; it is already in place.  The only cost to the government would be to vote it in and then get the word out…there are agencies in every state that could handle that……

CHUQ

31/03/07

Obama’s Health Reform (A Continuing Saga)

Stop your grinning!  Here it comes!  The VOTE that will be heard around the country!

Like a song that will NOT end….the health reform debate has gone on and on and on and……..it is the time of a maximum of lying on both sides trying to influence a vote here and a vote there……

They say, whoever they are, that the passage of the health reform bill is close, very close…..The Repubs are still defying proper conduct in the Senate and as well as in the House…….Washington!  The town misinformation built……But if you are interested in the newest version of the reform bill then I have what you need….

The AP did a great job putting together the facts, just the facts, they felt the bullsh*t and misinformation behind…..

IMMEDIATE CHANGES:  Uninsured people with medical problems will have a workable alternative. The bill pumps $5 billion into high-risk insurance pools run by the states to provide coverage to those in frail health. Taxpayer-backed insurance won’t be free, but premiums should be much lower than what’s charged by private insurers willing to take those in poor health.

For people with private health insurance — about two-thirds of Americans — there would be some new safeguards. For example, insurers would be barred from placing lifetime dollar limits on coverage and from canceling policies except in cases of fraud. Children could stay on their parents’ coverage until age 26.

THE SELF-EMPLOYED:  Starting in 2014, self-employed people and those whose employers don’t offer coverage would be able to pick a plan through a health insurance exchange, like a supermarket. It’s modeled on the federal employee health program available to members of Congress, which offers a range of private insurance. Small businesses could also join the exchange.

More than 30 million people would buy their own coverage through state exchanges, and nearly 6 in 10 would be eligible for tax credits to help pay premiums. The aid would be generous for lower-income families, less so for those solidly in the middle class.

SENIORS:  Seniors have been understandably worried about the health care plan, since much of it is financed with Medicare cuts the government’s own experts say could be unsustainable.

On the block are subsidies to private Medicare Advantage insurance plans, which now enroll about one-quarter of seniors. The government overpays the plans when compared to the cost of care under traditional Medicare. That largesse translates to lower out-of-pocket costs for seniors in the plans, and the bill could trigger an exodus from Medicare Advantage as insurers are forced to raise their rates to stay in business.

But seniors stand to gain as well. Obama would gradually close the coverage gap in the middle of the Medicare prescription drug benefit. The so-called doughnut hole would start to shrink immediately, but it wouldn’t be fully closed until 2020. In the meantime, seniors in the gap would get a 50 percent discount on brand name drugs.

The plan also improves preventive benefits for seniors in traditional Medicare.

DOCTORS:  Primary care doctors and general surgeons practicing in underserved areas such as inner cities and rural communities would get a 10 percent bonus from Medicare. But the more significant changes for doctors would unfold slowly. The goal is to start rewarding doctors for keeping patients healthy, not just treating them when they get sick.

The plan would use Medicare as a testing ground for new ways of coordinating care for patients with multiple chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, diabetes and heart problems, a common combination. Primary care doctors would become care managers for such patients, keeping close tabs on medications and basic health indicators.

EMPLOYERS:  Obama’s plan wouldn’t require employers to provide insurance to their workers, but it would hit them with a stiff fine if even one of their workers gets a federally subsidized coverage. Companies with 50 or fewer workers would be exempt, and those with 25 workers or fewer could get federal assistance.

INSURANCE COMPANIES:  Health insurance companies would face unprecedented federal regulation and particularly close scrutiny of their bottom line. A fixed percentage of income from premiums would have to go to medical care, otherwise insurers would be forced to provide rebates to consumers. That share is 85 percent for large group plans, and 80 percent for plans in the small group and individual markets.

There you have the facts…..like them or not……personally, I think it is a cop out from the Progressive stance held during the campaign……Rep. Kucinich is dead set against Obama’s bill…..he is a lone voice for 300 million Americans and NO one is listening….it is NOT reform it is a tweak that will be challenged at the next change in Congress and all will be for naught and then we can start all over again….You asked for it…You got it!

UPDATE:  Kucinich was come around and will now vote yes on the bill……CBO report is in and the bill will cut budget by $394 billion in the 1st 10 yrs and $1.3 trillion in the next 10….

Obama Pounces On Health Insurance Lobby

And if you believe that piece of fantasy, then I have some land in Florida that I will sell by the gallon…..

Recently the insurance lobby left the fold, so to speak, and issued a report saying that if the Baucus bill or one similar is passed then insurance premiums will go up and very considerably.  This report has been proven to be erroneous but it is still quoted as gospel by those on the Right.  This report is about as reliable as those coming from the Lewin Group, which is funded by the insurance industry…so to say that their findings would be cooked is an understatement.

In his defense Obama hit the airways:

This is the unsustainable path we’re on, and it’s the path the insurers want to keep us on. In fact, the insurance industry is rolling out the big guns and breaking open their massive war chest – to marshal their forces for one last fight to save the status quo. They’re filling the airwaves with deceptive and dishonest ads. They’re flooding Capitol Hill with lobbyists and campaign contributions.  And they’re funding studies designed to mislead the American people. […]

It’s smoke and mirrors. It’s bogus. And it’s all too familiar. Every time we get close to passing reform, the insurance companies produce these phony studies as a prescription and say, “Take one of these, and call us in a decade.” Well, not this time. The fact is, the insurance industry is making this last-ditch effort to stop reform even as costs continue to rise and our health care dollars continue to be poured into their profits, bonuses, and administrative costs that do nothing to make us healthy – that often actually go toward figuring out how to avoid covering people. And they’re earning these profits and bonuses while enjoying a privileged exception from our anti-trust laws, a matter that Congress is rightfully reviewing.

Which his statements made me smile….why?…..he is attacking the industry for our behalf…but is he?

He has waffled on his statement in the past, that he would NOT sign a bill that did not have a public option in it…..now he saying that it is not necessary for a reform bill but that he would prefer that it contained an option.

There is more…..the Congress seems to be reluctant to lift the anti-trust exemption of insurance companies that give them a virtual free ride to run rough shod over the consumer.  This exemption allows insurance to be a virtual monopoly which in turn allows them to control the health insurance market…lets them fix prices, eliminate competition and make obscene profits with no need to justify the mistreatment of the insured.

Now that there is a bill in the Senate with a public option (well, sort of) the question now is, will the White House and the Dems truly go after the insurance anti-trust exemption?  If they do I am sure it will be the same sort of watered down bill that gave us the “public option”.  The industry has too much money on the buying of friends in the Congress to ever let something like this get in their way.

Blue Dogs’ Yellow Streak Turns Green

First of all for all you students of art……if you combine blue and yellow….what color do you get?  Green……..

I have been a critic, a sharp critic, of the Dems that call themselves Blue Dogs, those supposedly fiscal conservatives in th US House of Representatives.  Anyway, the yellow streak of the Blue Dogs has turned to green….meaning……there stance on holding up health care has turned into cash for the coalition.

This is the complete article written for USA Today by Fredreka Schouten of the papers Congress Team:

The conservative House Democrats known as the Blue Dog Coalition have seen their political clout grow dramatically as they work to shape the health care debate.

So have their campaign coffers — and much of the money has come from industries seeking to influence President Obama’s health care overhaul and other key legislative efforts in Congress, according to reports out today.

The Blue Dog’s political action committee has collected $1.1 million in the first six months of the year — more than any other political action committee, according to CQ. (Subscription required.) Nearly 54% came from the energy, financial services and health care industries, according to an analysis by the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity. That’s up from 45% in 2004. The center’s reporting appeared in Politico.

The 52-member coalition has demanded changes to health care legislation to rein in spending and address their concerns about disparities in Medicare reimbursement rates between urban and rural communities — slowing action on legislation that Obama and congressional leaders had sought to put on a fast track.

Who says it does not pay to be a coward?  The Blue Dogs have proven that accusation wrong.

Health Care: Hot Button Issue

The health care “reform” proposals being developed by the Obama administration, like every element of its policy, are entirely subordinated to the interests of the corporate and financial elite. For this reason, they are not only inadequate, they are reactionary and will serve only to deepen the health care crisis in the United States.

As of yet, the administration’s health care proposals have been described only in the vaguest terms. This is for definite reasons. Obama is seeking a procedure for ditching even his limited campaign pledges regarding health care. At the same time, he wants to make clear that business interests will have the final say on how any new program is structured.

It is already clear that a number of the proposals on which Obama campaigned only a few months ago—including a limited government-operated insurance program and a measure that would force employers to pay more for health care—will be ditched. Other more far-reaching proposals, such as the establishment of a single-payer universal health insurance program, have been excluded from the discussion entirely.

Unlike many industrialized countries, the United States never implemented a state-run universal system of health insurance or health care. Some 50 million Americans are completely uninsured, while tens of millions more are inadequately insured. Most workers who are able to get insurance do so through their employers or from Medicare or Medicaid, the federal entitlement programs for the elderly and the poor. Others are forced to purchase high-cost private insurance.

In the midst of a growing economic crisis, employers are anxious to cut costs by reducing health care payments or eliminating company insurance programs completely. The program developed by the Obama administration will likely establish as a substitute the partial subsidization of private insurance. This will be a boondoggle for the insurance companies and allow companies to cut back or eliminate health coverage for their employees, while forcing workers to pay more for less-comprehensive care.

There is more to the story……

The Obama administration is signaling that it’s open to taxing employee health benefits, a position that President Barack Obama criticized U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for holding during last fall’s campaign.

The potential tax would finance an overhaul of the U.S. health-care system, according to reports. However, it may prove to be politically troublesome for Mr. Obama, who decried the idea, accusing Mr. McCain of ruining the health-care system for the middle class.

Currently, health-care benefits provided by employers are tax-free, regardless of the details of the plan or the salary of the employee. Although any change in the current system would be opposed by union leaders and some employers, the New York Times reported while the president will not propose changing the tax-free status of employee health benefits himself, he would not oppose the same measure if proposed by Congress.

Is it just me or are things not changing for the better?

Careless Disregard For The Troops

We have all heard about the troops that had to find ways to buy their own body armor or to armor plate their vehicles and now another violation of the soldiers well being has come to light.

Thousands of GIs have suffered preventable hearing loss because they were not supplied with earplugs to reduce the din of battle. Many have a permanent ringing in their ears they will suffer throughout their lives.

The condition is widespread. In 2006, the Veterans Administration paid out more than a half billion dollars to veterans with tinnitus, a condition which affects nearly half of those troops exposed to blasts.

The US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine conducted a study 141,000 GIs between April, 2003, and March, 2004, that showed tinnitus – ringing in the ears – accounted for more than 30 per cent of post-deployment-related diagnoses.

According to an article in the February 9th issue of The New Yorker, from which the data for this article is taken, author Jerome Groopman writes, “the Pentagon had failed to anticipate the kind of hearing-protection devices that were needed. Even soldiers who were provided with earplugs were given insufficient instruction in their use; mistakenly believing that the earplugs could interfere with low-frequency sounds, like whispered commands during search-and-destroy operations, many chose not to use them.”

When governments want their citizens to fight their wars they appeal to their patriotism. How little some regimes truly care about their people as human beings, though, is shown by the many troops they send into battle with insufficient protection for their bodies and their vehicles, and also if they deny them their deserved care and compensation upon their return home.

Yet more UNACCEPTABLE conduct of the government toward the troops…somewhere, somehow there has got to be a place to stop this blatant disregard of the physical welfare of the troops.  It will be interesting to see how the government worms its way out of being held accountable for the damage it inflicts on its soldiers…make NO mistake if the can…they WILL!