Category Archives: Health Care

Craig T. Nelson, I wish you had stuck to acting

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Craig T. Nelson, someone whose acting work I had previously enjoyed, was opposed to the notion of universal health care coverage because no one helped him out when he was down and out and living on welfare and food stamps. 

Dude, dude, dude: news flash — welfare and food stamps are government subsidies.  Without the government, you would have starved to death. 

But those programs are ok, because you received a direct benefit.  Ok, great.  Now, that you are a big time actor, you don’t want government taking more out of your income or intruding in your life.  But long ago, you invited government to pay to keep you alive while you were following your acting muse.

I will never again pay to see something in which you act.  Actually, I won’t watch it if it is free.

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GOP: Congrats on your Pyrrhic Victory

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So, scare tactics work (see below article).  Great.  Thanks for that information. 

Pyrrhic victory, don’t you think?  No reform now — let’s leave the disaster to our children. 

Thanks, Glenn Beck, Dick Armey, GOP leaders. I hope your children and grandchildren remember that, at this critical juncture, you chose to support big business profits over better medical services and economic stability.

 

From Yahoo:

67 percent of respondents believe that wait times for health care services, such as surgery, will increase (91 percent of Republicans, 37 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of Independents).

About five out of 10 believe the federal government will become directly involved in making personal health care decisions (80 percent of Republicans, 25 percent of Democrats, 56 percent of Independents).

Roughly six out of 10 Americans believe taxpayers will be required to pay for abortions (78 percent of Republicans, 30 percent of Democrats, 58 percent of Independents)

46 percent believe reforms will result in health care coverage for all illegal immigrants (66 percent of Republicans, 29 percent of Democrats, 43 percent of Independents).

54 percent believe the public option will increase premiums for Americans with private health insurance (78 percent of Republicans, 28 percent of Democrats, 58 percent of Independents).

Five out of 10 think cuts will be made to Medicare in order to cover more Americans (66 percent of Republicans, 37 percent of Democrats, 44 percent of Independents).

There were exceptions.

Fewer participants believe “myths” regarding the impact of proposed changes on current health insurance coverage. For instance, less than 30 percent think private insurance coverage will be eliminated. And just 36 percent think a public insurance option will put private insurance companies out of business.

In addition, only three out of 10 respondents believe the government will require the elderly to make decisions about how and when they will die.

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Health care

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We are getting lesser care and paying more and the health care giants are getting richer and doing less. 

Is everyone so afraid of changing the status quo? 

Yet, everyone is dissatisfied with the status quo. 

Am I scared that the public option will be a lumbering giant and people will get lost in the system?  Hell, yeah.  But people are already lost in the current system and something has to change.  Health insurance companies are too entrenched in government and in our lives. 

We have to do something big and bold. 

I am not telling my son that I was too scared to support change to the intolerable status quo.

I stand with President Obama. Do it for your children. Make them proud.

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Jon Cronkite Stewart

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Someone wrote somewhere: push the panic button when Obama loses Jon Stewart.  LBJ knew he lost the confidence of this nation to fight the Vietnam War when Walter Cronkite essentially called it an unwinnable quagmire.

Jon Stewart wondered aloud whether Obama is ten steps ahead of us or if health care is kicking his butt.

According to random and anecdotal polls, Jon Stewart is today’s most trusted name in news.  (Psssst, CNN: stop claiming that honor — you are a weak also-ran at best.)

Here is the crazy part:  wait for it, wait for it, here it comes . . .

He does fake news for Comedy Central. 

That should tell us and the politicians that we are living and thinking in an alternate universe.  The jokesters are the prophets and the leaders are their very own caricatures.

Jon Stewart is just a comedian, but the times make a person.  For now, the times demand that he keeps politicians and talking heads honest within a corrupted system (but only if he is funny, because otherwise no one will watch).

He should get the Presidential Medal of Honesty and Comedy (a quasi military honor known in the military argot as PRE-MED-HAC, which Stewart probably was before he failed Organic Chemistry).

But he should get this high honor only on a president’s last day in office, so it doesn’t interfere with his lampooning.

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Fair and balanced disagreement

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The play-by-play of my review of the Senate bill and my back-and-forth with Mr. Rightcommentary on twitter.  He and I are at odds because, I surmise, we fundamentally disagree on the issue of whether health care is a right or a privilege.  That is a FAIR disagreement.  His theory is based on systemic forces and not a smoking gun in the legislation.  That is also fair.  I can respectfully disagree with him.

Tweets:

  1. I’m on p.104/615 of Senate bill & only controversial provision is feds will give grants to states to provide low cost insurance alternative. 5:03 PM Aug 15th from mobile web  
  2. Sarah P: I’m reading the bills & no death panels so far5:05 PM Aug 15th from mobile web
  3. the bills don’t create nationalized medicine either. i get to keep my insurance & coverage will be better.5:06 PM Aug 15th from mobile web
  4. tax is only on certain persons who don’t buy or provide insurance for workers. many exceptions though. Better than use my taxpayer $$5 :11 PM Aug 15th from mobile web
  5. credits for employers who pay full premium; fed grant for under-served communities5:16 PM Aug 15th from mobile web
  6. p.225 of senate bill tries to set standards of acceptable practice – not as death panel but safe harbor against spurious litigation5:20 PM Aug 15th from mobile web
  7. oh, wait — p.301 talks about education on medical decision-making btwn patient. MD, family — still no death panels.5:29 PM Aug 15th from mobile web
  8.  @rightcommentary — i am reading the bills — senate first . what page of HR bill does it say public op for all?about 10 hours ago from mobile web
  9. @rightcommentary: really, please point to the page in HR bill. I am reading now.
  10. about 9 hours ago from mobile web
  11. rightcommentary@40andoverblog I‘ll try and re-read it today. Basically that qualified plan req makes everyone’s coverage ultimately the same.  about 9 hours ago from web in reply to 40andoverblog 
  12. rightcommentary@40andoverblog The requirements of page 15 as i recall where it sets up what is a “qualified plan” combined with the reqs re: old policies about 9 hours ago from web in reply to 40andoverblog
  13. @rightcommentary: I am reading H.R. 3200. Tell me where the offensive provisions are.about 8 hours ago from mobile web 
  14. rightcommentary@40andoverblog it’s just too hard to do in 140 chars. about 7 hours ago from web in reply to 40andoverblog
  15. rightcommentary@40andoverblog email me an email account at[DELETED] and I’ll give you my theory on how it might work…about 7 hours ago from web in reply to 40andoverblog
  16. @rightcommentary just give me the section references in a few tweets. or you can comment on http://40andoverblog.com about 6 hours ago from mobile web
  17. @rightcommentary: creating a floor for basic coverage is not = nationalized medicine.about 6 hours ago from mobile web
  18. @rightcommentary: with coops instead of a govt-run program, are you ok with the legislation?about 3 hours ago from web
  19. rightcommentary no. I’m not. Pretty much anything Washington wants to do other than void the 1973 HMO Act – I’m against.@40andoverblogabout 2 hours ago from web in reply to 40andoverblog 

 

end of twitter conversation

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Kiss today goodbye

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Today:

in 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act.  This was a day of celebration for my grandfather who grew up in Czarist Russia and came of age during the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

In 1945, Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, ending World War II.

In 1980, Lech Walesa led workers on a strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, leading to the creation of the Solidarity labor movement.

In 2009, Barack Obama, our President, goes to Montana to fight for affordable health care.

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Another GOP protest instigator gets caught

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Dick Armey hasn’t used his given name, Richard, in a long time because, well, Dick really fits the man he is.

Let’s see, he is stoking and organizing faux protesters to spread baseless rumors and instill fear of health care reform in order to serve the health care industry.  Well, I am not going to quarrel with his not using Richard.

From Politico:

Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) is resigning from DLA Piper law firm amid a wave of negative attention his grassroots organization, Freedom Works, has drawn for helping to organize protesters at health care town hall meetings with members of Congress.

In an interview with POLITCO Armey said that he was concerned about the media scrutiny the health care protests were drawing to the firm he has been associated with since retiring from Congress.

On Aug. 7 MSNBC host Rachel Maddow raised questions about the law firm’s potential role in the protests.

“In addition to fronting [FreedomWorks], Dick Armey is a senior policy adviser at a law firm called DLA Piper. DLA Piper just happens to have received $830,000 this year, so far, from a giant pharmaceutical firm called Medicines Company. This after the $1.5 million Medicines Company paid Mr. Armey’s firm last year.

“The fact that Dick Armey and FreedomWorks are standing alongside regular Joes like Rick Scott to lead the charge against health care reform could be just a coincidence. Or it could be a stark reminder of who we’re dealing with here. Who is actively organizing the campaign against health care reform? Scaring real Americans with increasingly paranoid and kooky lies about health care and then providing a script for how to express that fear.”

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The reason why I watch Jon Stewart

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Dan Rather wrote a book entitled, “The Camera Never Blinks”.  Now, with the Internet, nothing is ever lost.

Last night, Jon Stewart showed Glenn Beck railing against the health care system when he was a CNN host and now saying that health care is awesome as a FOX News host.  During Glenn’s time at CNN, he experienced the health care system first hand, with a botched hemorrhoid procedure.  Hypocrisy revealed.

Jon Stewart took aim at Hillary Clinton’s outburst and Blagojevich’s downfall, so he is not a Democratic partisan hack.  In fact, I understand that he would have voted for McCain in 2000.  But let’s face it, Republicans are doing such stupid things these days that dumb Democrats rarely get any coverage.

I know, I know, Jon Stewart is just a comedian.  A political satirist.  And so funny.

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Health Care Lobbyists on Capitol Hill

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According to Bloomberg, there are FIVE lobbyists for every one member of Congress and the ratio is growing.  These lobbyists fall along the entire health care spectrum.

The burning question is:  Is this our legislative body or an episode of HBO’s Entourage?

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Reckless Indifference to the Truth

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If Sarah Palin believed what she says, then, ok, people can disagree on things. 

End of life issues are difficult, emotionally, culturally, religiously and not for the undecisive. 

But unless Sarah Palin wants to explain in Kerry-like fashion how she was for it before she was against it, I think she is just using anything to burnish her image as the true neo-con leader for 2012.

Why? because a Google search shows the text of her proclamation supporting end of life and quality of life decision-making:

spacerState of Alaska > Governor > Proclamations > Proclamations Archive

Healthcare Decisions Day  Print Now Printer Friendly

WHEREAS, Healthcare Decisions Day is designed to raise public awareness of the need to plan ahead for healthcare decisions, related to end of life care and medical decision-making whenever patients are unable to speak for themselves and to encourage the specific use of advance directives to communicate these important healthcare decisions.

WHEREAS, in Alaska, Alaska Statute 13.52 provides the specifics of the advance directives law and offers a model form for patient use.  

WHEREAS, it is estimated that only about 20 percent of people in Alaska have executed an advance directive. Moreover, it is estimated that less than 50 percent of severely or terminally ill patients have an advance directive.

WHEREAS, it is likely that a significant reason for these low percentages is that there is both a lack of knowledge and considerable confusion in the public about Advance Directives.

WHEREAS, one of the principal goals of Healthcare Decisions Day is to encourage hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, continuing care retirement communities, and hospices to participate in a statewide effort to provide clear and consistent information to the public about advance directives, as well as to encourage medical professionals and lawyers to volunteer their time and efforts to improve public knowledge and increase the number of Alaska’s citizens with advance directives.

WHEREAS, the Foundation for End of Life Care in Juneau, Alaska, and other organizations throughout the United States have endorsed this event and are committed to educating the public about the importance of discussing healthcare choices and executing advance directives.

WHEREAS, as a result of April 16, 2008, being recognized as Healthcare Decisions Day in Alaska, more citizens will have conversations about their healthcare decisions; more citizens will execute advance directives to make their wishes known; and fewer families and healthcare providers will have to struggle with making difficult healthcare decisions in the absence of guidance from the patient.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Sarah Palin, Governor of the state of Alaska, do hereby proclaim April 16, 2008, as:

Healthcare Decisions Day in Alaska, and I call this observance to the attention of all our citizens.

Dated: April 16, 2008

The only thing being murdered is the truth.

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