America has the best Healthcare System In the World!

(via http://www.journaltimes.com/sports/bucks/article_efc79902-4ebd-11e0-8c1b-001cc4c002e0.html)

Kim Hughes was in trouble, more trouble than he ever envisioned.

While working as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers seven years ago, Hughes was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

(which may make him the only person named Kim to have ever had  prostate worries.)

But then Hughes encountered yet another major obstacle.


"I contacted the Clippers about medical coverage and they said the surgery wouldn't be covered," Hughes said. "I said, ‘Are you kidding me?' And they said if they did it for one person, they'd have to do for everybody else."

If you're not familiar with the worst franchise in pro sports, the Clippers are owned by a low-rent Trump clone named Donald Sterling, who is just a really horrible person.

When Dunleavy learned the Clippers wouldn't cover the cost of Hughes' surgery, he mentioned it to his players.


Several of them, including now Milwaukee Bucks forward Corey Maggette, Chris Kaman, Elton Brand and Marko Jaric, were taken aback by the news and decided to offer their assistance.


"Kim was one of our coaches and he's a really good friend of mine, too," Maggette said. "He was in a situation where the Clippers' medical coverage wouldn't cover his surgery. I thought it was a great opportunity to help someone in need, to do something that Christ would do.

Did you hear that, "Christian" Right?  Corey Magette gets the whole Jesus thing better than any of you.

If Hughes had delayed the surgery, and if Maggette and his teammates hadn't provided the necessary financial assistance, Hughes doesn't know what would have occurred.
Well, actually, he does.


"Those guys saved my life," Hughes said. "They paid the whole medical bill. It was like $70,000 or more. It wasn't cheap.

See, the system works! If your employer can't or won't cover your medical expenses, all you have to do is make friends with a bunch of millionaires! It's so simple, and damned effective! Why would anyone want to reform the American healthvare system, the best system in the world!

Idiotic Member of the GA Delegation of the Day.

Lest you get the impression that the entire Georgia Delegation is, shall we say, Gingresque, I should point out that my Congressman is Civil Rights Legend John Lewis (seen here in 1965 being so much cooler than your congressman will ever be.)

 

On the other hand, if you thought Phil Gingery  (the man who replaced Newt Gingrich, hence my coining of the super-clever adjective "Gingresqe") was an embarrassment, meet Paul Broun.



Paul Brown, besides being a Congressman, is also a Doctor. So he has some insight into the Healthcare Crisis:

From his website, the assault on grammar and syntax is his:

Health Care

Our current health care system, with a reliance on third party, or employer provided, insurance is a relic of the 1940’s. As time marches on we are finding that individual patients, which should be the primary concern in any health care system, are being relegated to the backseat in the decision making process, leaving it up to their physicians to try to obtain payment from insurance providers, with varying degrees of success.

So this is rather a promising start. Dr. Broun is at least willing to admit that our system sucks. That's actually a pretty big step away from the official right-wing position that the US has "the greatest healthcare system in the world."  So what's his solution?

We must also take steps to ensure a transparent and market-based billing process. If a patient knows what they are paying for and receiving for that payment, then they can not help but be an active and engaged participant throughout the entire process. 

Okay, two things.  First, this is the very next sentence, so I don't know what the "also" is in reference to. But more importantly, what the hell? I've been hospitalized. They gave me a very detailed breakdown of what all the charges were for and how much I was being charged for which service and it didn't help me one bit. If anything, it just pissed me off knowing, it didn't allow me to negotiate a lower bill. They charged some outrageous ammount, I forget, it was years ago, for a "surgical consult" which consisted of a surgeon coming into my room looking at an X-Ray for all of thirty seconds and declaring that surgery would not be necessary. Knowing how much I was paying for that didn't do me any good. 

The right choice is to focus all of our efforts on laying a ground work for the free market to establish universal access to affordable, patient-centered health care coverage. 

And there it is. Of course, that's the answer. Of course it is. What else could it possibly be? You know, Doc, the free market has had, according to your opening sentence, SEVENTY FUCKING YEARS to get this shit right, and guess what? They still haven't come close. They are never ever ever going to be interested in "universal access to affordable, patient centered healthcare." That would slightly reduce their profits, covering everyone. It's ridiculous to think that they would ever be willing to provide universal access. 
So, of course it follows that Broun would put out this press release:

Broun Introduces Bill to Repeal and Replace Obamacare
I have introduced a bill to repeal the health care law and replace it with four simple, commonsense solutions that would lower costs and increase accessibility without government interference

 Oh, I can't wait to hear these! "Commonsense Solutions," eh? Bring 'em on!

H.R. 299:

• Allows all individuals and businesses to deduct 100 percent of their health care expenses, including insurance premiums; 

Oh, that's going to be a Huuuuuuuuge help to those of us who can not get insurance at any cost. Also very reassuring to know that if I get hit with a $50,000 or $100,000 hospital bill, I will be able to deduct that from my taxes. It's more than I earned last year, but the deduction should cover the shortfall.

Strengthens and expands new avenues for affordable health care for sick Americans through state high-risk pools; 

Ah, that makes sense. Let the insurance companies cover the low-risk/high-profit customers and let the state take the loss on the high-riskers. Now that's what I call  "Free-Market solution," in that the market is free of  any risk.

Expands choice and competition by allowing consumers to shop for health insurance across state lines; 

You know, if that were actually going to be good for consumers, the insurance companies wouldn't be drooling over it, which I'm pretty sure they are. I think that the point of the "crossing state lines" thing is to prevent any state from being able to effectively regulate the industry. This isn't so much a common-sense solution, as it is a way to exacerbate the existing problems. 

And creates association health plans, which would allow businesses, individuals and any entity to form pools that will increase availability and allow their sheer size to negotiate lower costs for their employees or members.

I think that is what most companies already do. I think it's called a "group health plan." Maybe an "association health plan" is different, but I can't imagine that this is much of an improvement.
 
 But anyway, healthcare disingenuousness is one thing. You pretty much expect that from a Republican. Today, Rep. Broun is in the news with a statement that approaches Michele Bachmann territory.

Broun warns of dictatorship

Congressman stays on message - freedom at risk

Oh, here we go!

MADISON - U.S. Rep. Paul Broun is again raising the specter of Democrats turning the United States into a totalitarian state.
Broun, R-Athens, apparently has not changed his belief that President Obama may be a fascist since he made similar remarks in Augusta in November and then in an Associated Press 

How can he be a fascist when he is clearly a Marxist?

 

He told a meeting of the Morgan County Republicans on Wednesday night that Obama already has or will have the three things he needs to make himself a dictator: a national police force, gun control and control over the press.
"He has the three things that are necessary to establish an authoritarian government," Broun said.

Of course, of course, right this way, Mr. Broun. . .

 

As he did when comparing Obama to Hitler and the Soviets last year, Broun cited a speech Obama gave in Colorado during the campaign last July calling for "a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded" as the military.

 Yes, the imaginary fictional security force is terrifying

 Broun also said he thinks the national media is openly supporting Obama's policies. He also said he believes the president and Attorney General Eric Holder will enact new gun-control policies.

Sure, they had to go to the mat to get medical care for 9/11 responders, but they'll have no trouble getting gun-control through both houses.

Holder said in February that he wants to renew a Clinton-era ban on assault weapons, but Obama said in April that he is putting the issue on the back burner.

And we all remember the tyrranny of the Clinton Years. Without our ak-47's, federal stormtroopers were kicking in our doors every other day.

At a town hall meeting in Clarkesville last month, Broun called Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid a "socialistic elite" and agreed with a constituent who said they might use a flu pandemic to declare martial law.
"They're trying to develop an environment where they can take over," Broun said. "We've seen that historically."

Jeezus Christ! When did we get to a point in our nation's history when someone who is clearly a delusional paranoid can be elected to public office and no one even blinks? If this nut actually believes half of this, he should be locked away where he can't hurt himself or anyone else.  A flu pandemic? Martial Law? Does this guy listen to himself? When has Obama displayed any totalitarian tendencies? Was it when he was getting steamrolled by Senate Republicans? When his judicial nominees were being filibustered? How would any sane person think that Obama might possibly be a threat to impose martial law? Wouldn't he be too busy imposing Sharia Law?



Paul Broun, everybody! Give him a hand. He's the idiotic member of the Georgia Delegation of the Day!

Stupid Quote of the Day

From Georgia's own Phil Gingery:

One hundred and twenty nine million people with pre-existing conditions! They would all have to have hang nails and fever blisters to have pre-existing conditions and if you believe those statistics, I’ve got a beach to sell you in Pennsylvania.

You know, Phil, pre-existing conditions are used by the insurance companies to deny coverage. It's not a mqtter of whether or not those conditions are themselves serious. Remember Otto Radatz?

Here was a man lining up to get surgery for cancer. The hospital appointment was booked when, surprise, the insurance company decided to rescind the policy. Why? Because Otto had failed to disclose the fact he had acne as a teen! This was a serious pre-existing condition and likely an indicator he would get cancer later in his life. His failure to disclose it justified rescission.

(source)
Yeah, acne. Obviously acne is not a serious medical condition. That isn't the point. The point is that his insurance company was able to use this extrememly minor condition as an excuse to cancel his coverage when he had an extremely serious medical issue. And don't think that they're above denying someone say, open heart surgery, based on their having had hangnails and fever blisters.

Steve King Won't Let Them Steal Your Liberty!

Somehow, this article from the horrible dishonesty factory "Newsmax" ended up in my inbox:

Steve King: Obamacare 'A Theft of Liberty'

 

 Rep. Steve King, a leader of House Republicans seeking the repeal of Obamacare, tells Newsmax that the healthcare reform law constitutes “a theft of the liberty of the American people” and repeal is an ultimate certainty.

Wow. How many ways can you be wrong in one sentence?

Let's see.

1. There is no such thing as "Obamacare."

2. No liberty is being stolen from anyone by healthcare reform, unless you mean the liberty to be denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions.

3. Repeal is not only not a certainty, it has virtually no chance of getting through the Senate.

Other than that though, nice opening sentence.

The Iowa Republican also declares that Obamacare was the “core issue” that ended Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats’ control of the House, predicts that the Senate will go along with the House and vote for repeal, and says if President Obama does not sign a repeal bill then Republicans will defund healthcare reform until Americans elect a president in 2012 who will support repeal.

Really?  You think that healthcare reform is what swept you into the majority? Not "the economy, stupid?" Not the fact that Pelosi and the progressives were prevented from accomplishing anything by obstructionists in the Senate? Not the "enthusiasm gap" caused by ginning up phony fear and outrage amongst the most gullible and stupid among us while Democratic voters got discouraged by the lack of progress? No, I'm sure you're right. Americans voted out the Dems because they can't stand the thought of parents being able to keep their kids on their health plan for a few extra years. That's probably it.

Ahead of Wednesday’s anticipated vote in the House on Obamacare repeal, Rep. King is presenting hundreds of thousands petitions [sic] from Americans demanding the repeal.

Okay, couple of things. First of all, hundreds of thousands of petitions is not the same thing as hundreds of thousands of people signing petitions. Try typing "Healthcare Petition" into Google. There are tons of different petitions to which to affix one's signature.

Second, hundreds of thousands is really not all that many in a nation of over three hundred million people.

King was asked what message he is hoping to send. “I want to make sure that members of Congress on the Hill here and across the country understand how deeply and how broadly Americans have rejected Obamacare,” says King, who introduced repeal legislation in March.

Hmm, funny you should say that on the day that new polling is out suggesting that the opposite is true.

But as the House prepares to vote on repeal this week, public support for that has flagged. Only about 1 in 4 respondents said they wanted to do away with the law completely. Even among Republicans, repeal draws markedly less support than it did a few weeks ago: 49%, compared with 61% after the November election.

 (LA Times)

Only 49% of Republicans want to repeal "Obamacare." Those are your guys. You don't even have a majority among your own guys.

Referring to a new poll showing that strong opposition to Obamacare has fallen to its lowest level in more than a year, King explains: “I see different polls with different results. When you break it down, I’m still very confident that the American people reject Obamacare.

I assume that you're referring to right-wing pollsters like Rasmussen who usually frame the question something like "Would you rather repeal Obamacare or have sex with a rabid wolverine?"

"Would you favor repealing Obamacare knowing that if you do, you will be given your own Blackhawk helicopter and be made king of Spain?"

"Do you support Obamacare and the beheading of kittens?"

But real polls are showing what the AP poll referenced above shows. But I'm sure if you "break it down," you can convince yourself that the people really mean yes when they answer no.

“One of the things is, should we require employers to provide certain benefits, and sometimes the answer is as high as 59 percent. But it’s job-destroying, and if you ask the question, if you knew your employer was going to have to lay off so many people or not open up a certain number of jobs, would you still want to impose this mandate on your employer, I think a lot of Americans would change their mind. I think we’ve already won the debate.”

Yeah, see that's what we were just talking about. Of course you can get the answer you want if you phrase the question dishonestly. You can do that with anything. You could go to Pittsburgh and ask "Would you want the Steelers to win the Superbowl if it meant that they would celebrate by having wild sex with your wife?" and most guys, actually that's a bad example. I think Steelers fans would probably still say yes. 

“And when it comes to something that is unconstitutional, that is a theft of the liberty of the American people, then [there is no] price tag we can put on it. It’s too valuable. Our liberty is priceless, and we cannot be the country that we shall become if we’re going to become the ever-expanded dependency class living in a nanny state. And that’s what Obamacare does to us.”

"We can not be the country that we shall become if we're going to become the . . ." huh? Dang, that is some top-notch semi-coherence in the service of lies. It takes a real pro like Steve King to pull that off.

It almost makes you not notice that he's full of shit about the Constitution, that there is absolutely nothing to his "dependency / nanny-state" claim, and that the whole liberty theft thing is pure nonsense. Only the great Steve King can give you this kind of bs/gibberish hybrid.

I Am So Sick Of This Argument

I don't know why I keep hearing this argument:

Health Care Is Not a Right

By Leonard Peikoff, Ph.D.

. . . Now our only rights, the American viewpoint continues, are the rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. That's all. According to the Founding Fathers, we are not born with a right to a trip to Disneyland, or a meal at Mcdonald's, or a kidney dialysis (nor with the 18th-century equivalent of these things).

(This particular example is from a paper given in opposition to the Clinton Healthcare plan in 1993 Interesting that he added the right to "property" which was actually edited out of the final Declaration of Independence because the Founding Fathers knew it would make them look kinda like greedy dicks, and the Declaration was nothing if not a PR move. But I digress)

Health Care is not a right

By: Iain Murray and Roger Abbott
Washington Examiner
11/17/09 5:10 PM EST

Health Care is NOT a Right
By Jake Towne

Jake Towne is running for U.S. Congress in eastern Pennsylvania's 15th district in 2010.

Anyway, you get the point. I keep hearing people say "healthcare is not a right, and blah,blah,blah. . ." and it's driving me crazy.

First off, who says it's not a right? I think that's probably a point on which reasonable people might be able to disagree, but if you have the right to LIFE, why not health? How much life are you going to have if you can't get to a doctor when you're sick? How much pursuing of happiness are you going to be able to do?

But, for the sake of argument, let's say that healthcare isn't a right. Who fucking cares? Do you think there's a Constitutional right to paved roads? No, but no one objects to the government providing paved roads (except maybe the nihilist wankers at the Ayn Rand Institute)
Is there any guarantee of the right to public libraries? Or mail delivery? Why don't the teabaggers decry the Postal Service as an at6tack on our basic liberties? Why isn't the library being picketed by rednecks in tri-corner hats shouting about Communazis and death camps? I think it's because once people get used to a government-supplied service, they realize that they like it. It may even occur to them that paving roads is a good use of their tax dollars and not something which they could really pull off themselves.
What the "not a right" freaks either don't understand, or ignore, is that in a Democratic system, the job of the government is to do whatever we decide we fucking want it to do. Libertarian types like to prattle on about how the job of the government is to provide police and an army and maybe a couple of other things, but anything they don't like is "not the job of the government." Bullshit! The government works for us, we can tell it to do whatever we want (within Constitutional limits, but even the Constitution can be amended.) If the majority of Americans want the government to give out ice cream cones and puppies to all the good little boys and girls, then that, by God, becomes the job of the government. And if a majority want the government to stop paving roads and delivering the mail, then those services would no longer be the government's job. I know, it's a little more complicated than that, because we're a republic, not a democracy, but that's basically how it works. And all the screaming, wailing and teabagging in the world won't change that.

Maybe the Dumbest Argument Ever

I thought that the Thomas Sowell column of a couple days ago might have contained the dumbest argument ever when he posited the claim that if healthcare were made affordable, people would go to the doctor at the drop of a hat:

Back when the "single payer" was the patient, people were more selective in what they spent their own money on. You went to a doctor when you had a broken leg but not necessarily every time you had the sniffles or a skin rash. But, when someone else is paying, that is when medical care gets over-used. . . Both waiting lines and waiting lists grow longer when people with sniffles and minor skin rashes take up the time of doctors, while people with cancer are waiting.

Because, sure, once people have decent insurance, they will just take every opportunity to take time off of work, drive to the doctor's office, fill out paperwork, sit for 45 minutes reading year-old Golf Digests, then wait another 30 minutes half-naked in an examining room to be poked and prodded by nurses and technicians before the doctor finally comes in an tells you take Tylenol and get plenty of rest. People just LOVE going to the doctor. I know I can't wait to turn my head and cough!

But, no. This, I think is even dumber.
From the New York Daily News.com:

Cupp">

Can the Smoker in Chief really lead America in health care reform?

S.E. Cupp

Wednesday, March 10th 2010, 4:00 AM

With President Obama making his final push for health care reform, I ask you to consider the following "If, Then" theorem: If our health is the President's business, then the President's health should be our business.

Okay, couple things. First, the President is not claiming that our health is his business. He's just trying to find a way to make it possible for more people to be able to see adoctor when they need one. (so far, not doing a great job, but. . .)

Second, even if your premise were true, that doesn't mean that the inverse would be. That's like saying, since the president is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, shouldn't the Armed Forces be commander in chief of the president?

(I don't know why everything is getting underlined, and I don't know how to make it stop)

The recent revelation that Obama still sneaks a cigarette now and then, contributing to an industry that costs us more than $167 billion a year in lost productivity and health care, and gambling with a substance that kills more Americans every year than anything else, means that the issue deserves a healthy debate (pun intended).

Yeah, sure. The president's personal habits are so super totally relevant to the debate over healthcare. And I can tell that the pun was intended because of your earlier attempt at humor, which I was just going to ignore, but, now...

Alas, I chose to commune with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of the art history department instead - Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael.

There's an outside chance that that joke might have come off as slightly clever if it wasn't common knowledge that the turle characters were named after Rennaissance artists.
But even then, it's pretty weak.

So let's consider the following arguments:

* The President's push for health care is disingenuous.

In June 2009, he called the sweeping tobacco legislation that he passed "a victory for health care reform" and "a step that will save lives and dollars." Whether Obama's main interest in passing health care reform in America is to save lives or save dollars - and it has been both over the past year - one could argue that a President who smokes isn't really doing much of either.

Really? Let's say that he actually outlawed tobacco. But he kept his own private stash of cigarettes for extra-stressful days. Now Joe Smoker can't get cigarettes and has to quit, so he ends up avoiding lung cancer. And so do a bunch of other Joe and Jane smokers. Would the president's occasional smoke break diminish that? Would you really say, lung cancer is down 90% in the US, but since the president still has a puff now and then, it doesn't count? Well, you probably would, but would a sane person?

* But the President has rights, too, and smoking isn't illegal.

Libertarians and some conservatives will argue that the President should be able to do what he wants in private, as long as he doesn't break any laws. Whether he refuses to buckle up in the back of his limo, throws back his body weight in bourbon every night or wolfs down three Big Macs a day, how he treats his body is arguably his business.

Arguably? Would you really have to be a crazy libertarian to think that the president can eat whatever he fucking wants? He's an adult for God's sake. What he puts in his body is no one's business but his.

* Well, sure. But his body isn't just any body.

Even far-right Republicans like me are still patriots, and want the President to live a long, healthy life, especially while serving our country. His continued health, therefore, is important, and maintaining it should be one of Obama's priorities. In fact, he owes it to us to take care of himself. He isn't a private citizen anymore.

Oh, my God, your concern is so touching. Yeah, let's pretend that far-right Republicans haven't been upfront about praying for Obama to die. (really) (no, really) (seriously) Even if you're not one of those extreme assholes, do you really expect anyone to believe that you give a flying ratfuck about Obama's health?

* Obama's habit makes the health care bill hypocritical.

"The time for talk is over," as he said, all jacketless and fiery, at a speech this week. He wants an up-or-down vote on the Democrats' bill, which promises to change your life, whether you like it or not. From potential violations of privacy to ethical concerns over abortion funding and constitutional questions about penalizing Americans who don't buy insurance, the President is inviting the government into your private life in unprecedented ways. So maybe we should invite ourselves into his.

Change your life!!! By maybe making it somewhat easier to afford medical insurance? Oh, the heavy yoke of tyranny! And what potential violations of privacy are you talking about? Can you back up that claim at all? Give one example? No? Anything? Yeah, I didn't think so. But even if you could, what the fuck would that have to do with the President smoking?

The debate doesn't bring much in the way of closure. I for one see compelling threads of truth in every point. The only thing I know for sure is that we need health care reform, but this isn't the answer.

So this whole column was just to fill up space until you got the requisite number of words and then end with the current agreed-upon talking point for anti-healthcare folks wasn't it? You people have given up on the whole "we have the best system in the world, don't change a thing" theme, right? And now you're all conceding that, "well, we do need some sort of change, but not this particular one, because, um, Look Out! Nazis!"
Pathetic!

Can't We Just Put Alan Grayson in Charge of Stuff?

Alan Grayson is my favorite member of Congress.

Congratulations, Massachusetts!

Excellent Work, Massachusetts!

You've managed to replace the Lion of the Senate, Ted Kennedy, with this guy:


New US Senator Scott Brown, seen here giving the "thumbs up" to a
blank computer screen.

Wow! Nice choice. Brown is the kind of guy that one would normally refer to as an "empty suit" except, um. . . . You know. . .



So, kind of the opposite, I guess.

And not only are there sorta-nekkid photos of Scott Brown, apparently half-nekkidness runs in the family.

Yep, those are his daughters.

Now I'm sure a lot of fellas out there are wondering if these two lovely ladies might be available? Well, let's ask the man himself!

Ugh!
So good job, Massachusetts! You've managed to put your state into the same national embarrassment category as Minnesota









and Oklahoma


But more than that, you gave the weak-ass cowardly Democrats on Capitol Hill the cover they needed to continue to do nothing of substance. Now when they either fail to pass ahealthcare bill at all or, more likely, pass a watered-down industry-friendly turd of a bill, they can blame it on the brilliant voters of Massachusetts, who cost them their filibuster-proof majority. Without you, when they passed the kidney stone of a bill that is likely to come out of the Senate, they would have had no excuse. Now they can wring their hands and cry "well, gosh folks, we tried our best. Those darn Republicans just stopped us." instead of facing up to their own failures and maybe seeing some primary challenges from Democrats who are a little less beholden to insurance industry money and maybe aren't afraid of their own fucking shadows.

Nice work, Massachusetts!

Click Here

Click here to let Harry Reid know how you feel about the public option:

http://pol.moveon.org/healthcare/reid/o.pl?id=18145-3755587-XROL.5x&t=4

Sweet Hammer of Thor, I fucking Hate Joe Lieberman!

With friends like Joe, who needs enemies?

(from UPI)

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, Ind-Conn., threw cold water onto Democrats' healthcare reform effort, saying he'll help filibuster unless the public option is yanked.

God Damn it, Joe! See, this is why everyone hates you. Why would you possibly oppose a public option?

I think a lot of people may think that the public option is free. (source)

No. No one thinks that. That is a straw man argument that the opponenets of reform have constructed. Everyone knows it will cost money. The difference is that instead of money coming out of your paycheck to go to Aetna, money will come out of your paycheck to go to a publicly-run plan. A plan that will not have a profit-motive to screw you out of coverage. Everyone knows this. You're either stupid, or you're lying.

If the public option, the government run health insurance company, negotitates hard to lower the reimbursement, the money it's paying to hospitals, doctors, they're gonna have to get that money somewhere, and where they're gonna get it is from the 200 million Americans who today have private health insurance. Premiums will go up. It's exactly what's happened with Medicare and Medicaid.

So the problem is that the public option will cost too little?

My hospitals in Connecticut told me a while ago that they get 70 percent of the average cost of patient care from Medicaid, about 90 percent from Medicare. If that was it they'd go out of business. So they charge the private health insurance companies 130 percent of the average cost, and that's what would happen with this new entitlement, new government run health care program. It's just not worth the risk.

Really? Really? The private health insurers hire such shitty negotiators that they end up paying 130% of the cost? Really? Have you ever looked at a health insurance statement?
I'm looking at one right now. Column 1 reads: Piedmont Hospital, X-Ray or Lab Services. Amount submitted, $358.00 Column 2 reads: Amount Negotiated or allowed, $70.91

For the mathematically impaired, that means that Aetna negotiated a payment of 19.8% of the amount the hospital was billing. Where the hell do you get 130%? Joe, "your" hospitals in Connecticut are lying to you. Well, probably not lying, exactly. The hospitals may be billing private insurers 130% of the cost, but the insurers sure the fuck aren't paying it!
So, you know what? He wants to filibuster, call his bluff! Somebody lend Harry Reid a pair and tell him that if Joe wants to filibuster, make him do it for real. Make him go all Jimmy Stewart and keep talking for days on end. Let the public see just how hard Joe is willing to work to make sure that they don't have access to a public healthcare plan. A plan which polls continue to show is popular with the public.

Make sure everyone in America has a chance to turn on C-SPAN and see how hard Joe Lieberman is willing to work to protect insurance industry profits. Then everyone can join me in shouting "Sweet Hammer Of Thor, I Fucking Hate Joe Lieberman!"

You Can't Reason with Unreasonable People.

An open letter to President Obama and the Democrats in both houses.

Dear Democrats,

It's nice that you want to play bipartisanism, it really is. But the people you are trying to play with, they are never going to play with you. These are not your father's conservatives. These are not reasonable people. Ever since Newt Gingrich led his gang of yahoos into Washington, the right wing of the Republican Party (and the right wing is pretty much all that is left of the party in DC) sees every issue as a take-no-prisoners, winner-take-all deathmatch. They will never compromise with you.

You see, they have convinced themselves that they are on the side of good, and anyone who disagrees with them is neccessarilly on the side of evil. And there is no in-between. See, conservatives in general tend to see everything in stark black and white, good and evil, us-vs-them terms. And these extreme right wingers naturally take that to the extreme. So if you put forth a bill that included free blow jobs for all Republican Senators, they would still vote against it. They would rather lose the vote then be seen as accommodating or compromising with the forces of evil.

Let me give you an example. Are you familiar with Dede Scozzafava? She is a Republican running for Congress from New York State. According to her local paper, "Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava has introduced a number of bills to the State Assembly that would enact harsher penalties for criminals, fill holes in the justice system, and help keep repeat offenders off the streets." So, she's a good ol' fashioned tough-on-crime Republican, right? But apparently on some social issues she differs with the hard right, like she doesn't really hate the gay people. Now, according to Politico.com, "many conservative groups are rallying behind Doug Hoffman, a third-party candidate running on the Conservative Party line, even though their support for him might pave the way for a Democratic takeover of the seat recently vacated by GOP Rep. John McHugh."

That's right, they would rather lose the seat to the democrats than support a Republican who is less than ideologically pure. “She’s not even a moderate. She is a radical, ultraleftist who has an ‘R’ next to her name,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, chairwoman of Susan B. Anthony List, an organization that backs female candidates who oppose abortion and has endorsed Hoffman.

Okay, so if they think that a fellow Republican is a "radical ultra-leftist" because she disagrees on a few issues, that should tell you a bit about where these nuts are coming from.

The good news is, you don't need them. Democrats have the majority in both houses, including a filibuster-proof super-majority in the Senate, along with a Democratic president. You can pass whatever you want. You could pass a law making it illegal for kittens to be adorable, and there's nothing they could do (although you'd have a hard time enforcing that one!) So pass a fucking health care bill. And make a strong public option the centerpiece of the legislation. They're going to scream and wail and call it communism and fascism and socialism and Satanism and everything else under the sun, but you know what? They're going to do that anyway, no matter what you do. And they don't matter.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28071.html#ixzz0TOTqyB5r

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28071.html#ixzz0TO7b7PUZ

NOW?

Today in the Atlanta Journal constitution I see this:

FACT CHECK: Some Obama health care stories flawed

By CALVIN WOODWARD

The Associated Press

One of President Barack Obama's health care "horror stories" is about a woman who, he says, lost her health insurance on the verge of breast cancer surgery because she didn't disclose a case of acne to the insurer. That's not what happened. . . .

. . . Beaton did not lose her insurance because she failed to own up to a skin problem in her past. She lost it because, when enrolling in the plan, she had not reported a previous heart condition and did not list her weight accurately.

So where the hell was the "fact check" the last eight years? " Sadam has weapons of mass destruction," nope no need to verify that!

"We do not torture" hmm, that sounds probably true.

"We aren't wiretapping everyone's phone," well, that fact certainly doesn't need any checking!

But NOW? Hey, the president might have one part of this story incorrect! God Damn it, get me a fact checker! If the President thinks he can just go around citing the wrong pre-existing condition, well he sure didn't count on the ever-vigilant press!

Pathetic!

Hey, Max Baucus!

Hey, Max Baucus. How far up your ass is the insurance industry's cock?




EEEWWW!!! That's digusting! You're disgusting, Max Baucus! Not because of the sexual imagery, it's just disgusting how you're willing to put insurance companies' profits ahead of the needs of the people you are supposed to represent. You're disgusting!

Little-Known Facts!

Amaze Your Friends!

Impress The Ladies!

Bore Your Co-Workers!

With Your Knowledge of

Little-Known Facts!

Did you know that the President of the United States is a US Citizen?

It's true. He was born in Hawaii, which is one of the states referred to in the name "United States!" Sounds crazy, but it's 100% TRUE!


Did you know that Medicare is a program run by the Federal Government?

Well, it's true! Medicare and the Veteran's administration are both healthcare programs run successfully by the United States Government!

Did you know that "czars" in the US Government are not actually Czars at all?

It's true! "czar" is just a nickname. The "drug czar" or the "energy czar" are actually NOT dynastic Russian dictators at all! Just like Elvis Presley had no ruling authority as the "King" of Rock & Roll, czars in the US government can not actually tax the peasantry to build the Hermitage.

And did you know that the position of "drug czar" dates back to the Reagan Administration?

Strange as it sounds, that is also true!

Did you know that ACORN is a small, poorly-funded group of misguided do-gooders, and not the all-powerful boogeyman controlling Washington, DC from behind the scenes?

Also true! An actual acorn has about as much power and influence as the ACORN organization! It's actually the Freemasons pulling the strings from behind the curtain!*



*Note: that's a joke. I do not subscribe to that particular brand of lunacy. Everyone knows it's the Shriners who control the world!

You Know What? Fuck You, Bob Dole!

This is what greeted me this morning when I opened the Op-Ed section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Bob Dole: Start anew

on health care reform

By Bob Dole

You know what, Bob? No.

First of all, why should we take any advice on healthcare from someone who not only opposed the creation of Medicare, but was still bragging about it in the 1990's?

And secondly, No.

No do-overs, no takie-backies, no starting anew. No. You guys had your chance. President Obama and the Democrats were dead set on making this a bi-partisan project. You guys had plenty of opportunity to put in your two cents, and God knows the Dem's were more accommodating than you had any right to expect. You could have participated in good faith, but you chose to shit all over the process, then asked for a delay so you could gin up phony controversies and disrupt town hall meetings so that the facts were shrouded in a haze of death panels and euthanasia and Nazis, and now you want to say that it's too confusing and we need to start over?

Health care reform is the No. 1 domestic priority. With all the charges and countercharges, those who will be affected, the American people, are understandably confused. Many are angry.

Whose fault is that? No one was confused until you (and I don't mean you personally, I mean the right in general) started making shit up. People are confused and angry because a bunch of fucking liars started yelling about tyranny and killing Baby Palin and Hitler and on and on. And it's only a small number of people who are confused and scared, they just happen to be the loudest. Polls still show that around 70% of Americans want a public option.

So no, Bob! We don't need to start over, you guys just need to get out of the way and let the grownups handle this. You had your chance.

Oh, My God! They Exploited Kenny! (You Bastards!)

A young man named Kenneth Gladney is being held up as a martyr by the anti-healthcare folks because he was supposedly "beaten and kicked by union thugs" at a town hall meeting.

Stomping and kicking black conservatives–

Although he was too weak to speak after his beating on Thursday, black conservative Kenneth Gladney attended the SEIU rally. Kenneth was beaten, kicked and called racist names by Russ Carnahan’s SEIU supporters after a town hall meeting on Thursday.

This would be a really sad story if it were, um you know, what's the word, um, TRUE!

Here, via Sadly, No! is video of the incident. You can see Kenny fall down, get back up, and confront someone about "Why did you hit my hand?" He's obviously fine in the video, but now he's being paraded around in a wheelchair. Pathetic!




But that's not the funny part.

A bunch of teabagger idiots showed up to protest at the local SEIU offices. The offices were closed. They protested anyway.

On Saturday, Gladney sat in a wheelchair, his knee bandaged, holding a flag that read: “Don’t Tread on Me.” Others who gathered at the union offices held signs with a slightly different version of the message: “Don’t Tread on Kenny.”

The union offices weren’t open, and the union didn’t send members to attend. The Associated Press

But that's not the funny part.

Here's the funny part:

[Gladney's lawyer] Brown finished by telling the crowd that Gladney is accepting donations toward his medical expenses. Gladney told reporters he was recently laid off and has no health insurance.

That's right, even if your injuries are totally fake, you still get a bill from the Emergency Room where you went to give your fake injuries the veneer of non-fakeness. And the new poster boy for leaving corrupt, greedy insurance companies in charge of our health care? H doesn't have insurance, and is reduced to BEGGING STRANGERS for money to pay his medical bills!
















See, this would never happen in Canada, Or England, or France, or Germany, or Japan, or Sweden, or The Netherlands, or pretty much any civilized country but the good old U.S. of A. Uh-oh. I think I just made it not funny anymore!

Mike Enzi has got Some Freakin' Balls!

When I first saw a headline with his name in it, I thought "Who the fuck is Mike Enzi?"

Well, as it turns out, he is one of three Republican senators working on bipartisan health-care legislation. So why is he suddenly so important?

Well, according to Bloomberg:

[Enzi] said he won’t agree to a plan before the Senate adjourns next week, setting back the measure’s progress even as it advanced in the House.

“The bill is not ready for prime time, so I don’t know of any way it can be completed today or next week or before the August break,” Senator Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican and member of the finance committee, told reporters after leaving a meeting of Republicans. “There’s a train wreck that’s going to happen” if Democrats keep pushing for faster results," he said.

Now that takes some balls, being in the minority party, to think you're going to dictate the timeline for legislation being pushed by the majority. But wait, it gets better!
This is from the senator's own web page:

“I will need to see complete language and a final estimate from the Congressional Budget Office before I can agree to any health care reform bill,” said Enzi

How is this little putz in any position to be making demands?

“I also need commitments from Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi, as well as the Administration, that the bipartisan agreements reached in the Finance Committee will survive in a final bill that goes to the President.”

So not only are you going to try to dictate terms to the Senate majority leader, you're also going to strong-arm the speaker of the House and the Frickin' President? Where do you get the balls?
No way is the majiority leader going to let you push. . .oh, wait. It's Harry Reid. Yeah, you'll probably get everything you want. Never mind.

Would someone please explain to Harry Reid that he has the majority? He doesn't have to give the Republicans ANYTHING. It's nice to try and be "bi-partisan" and all, but I don't think Harry Reid has any idea what that means. Someone Please explain to him that bi-partisan means you have the other side in the room, listen to their suggestions, and if any of them seem good, you can even adopt one or two, but you don't just give them everything! Were you guys in the minority so long that you just roll over on everything out of force of habit?

Now I'm hearing that there may not even be a public option in the final bill. What a disgrace! Health care is one of the reasons the American electorate chose to put Democrats in the majority. So now we won't even get that? At least when republicans were running everything we had some hope of "someday, the other guys will win and they'll make things better." Now we don't even have that. Would someone please talk to Harry Reid? I can't talk to the guy. I can't even stand to look at him.

Michele Bachmann Continues to be the Stupidest member of Either House

Michele Bachmann (R-Insanistan) is trying to scare people away from a National health care plan, and this is what she comes up with:

we taxpayers will subsidize that government option, and that government option will be 30%-40% cheaper than any private plan out there. It will probably offer equal or better benefits than any plan, but cheaper.

Here's the audio:




Michele Bachmann is so freakin stupid she makes my head hurt. I can not believe that the people of Minnesota actually thought that she was someone who should represent them in Congress. She actually gives a pretty good argument FOR a national health care plan while thinking that she is arguing against it. Then she warns that the government plan will put private insurers out of business, as if that should horrify us. Oh, God no! Not poor little Aetna! Not Health Net! Oh, the humanity!
Anyone who has has to deal with a health insurance company already wishes the SOB's would go out of business and their Executives should die broke, alone and unloved.

Then, because she is Michele Bachmann and there's only so long she can go without spouting loony conspiracy theories, she claims that once a person reaches 55 years of age, they will be forced to go to their doctor for euthanasia. Looks like someone thinks that "Logan's Run" was a documentary.

People of Minnesota: You need to rid yourself of this fatuous, slow-witted, deranged sideshow of a representative. Vote for anyone else in 2010. You're making Oklahoma look good and that's hard to pull off.

Things that boggle my mind

1. "Friends" was a hit TV show and continues to be successful in syndication. Has there ever been a less-funny show than "Friends?" (Yes, "Small Wonder," but other than that) And what an obnoxious cast!
Hey, I'm Matt Perry. I have a lame sarcastic wisecrack that isn't funny for every situation.
I'm David Schwimmer. I whine. Seriously, that's all I do is whine like an adenoidal middle-schooler and they actually pay me! A lot!
Hi, I'm Lisa Kudrow. I pretend to be impossibly stupid. Yeah, I know we already have Matt LeBlanc to act semi-retarded, but I guess we needed two people to act like the kind of slow-witted dullard that could never survive in the real world (outside of the Alaska Statehouse).
I'm Courtney Cox. I'm completely non-descript in every way. One time, I danced with Bruce Springsteen. And I used to be on Family Ties, I think. Or maybe growing pains? No, Family Ties. Yeah. So there's that.
I'm one of the writers here on the show. My job is to make sure that every punchline can be seen coming a mile away. Down Main Street. In a cab. There won't be anything remotely amusing, I guess is what I'm getting at. Hey, Perry--say something using the word "so" inappropriately, and emphasize the word "so."

Um, Ok, Hey writer, you are so not getting your contract renewed!

And cue laugh track!

Look how kooky we are!

2. The hipster douchebags of the ATL manage to choke down this foul-tasting, repugnant swill and pretend to enjoy it "ironically"Oh, um,Atlanta hipster douchebags, FYI, the sanFrancisco hipster douchebags were doing the PBR / trucker hat faux-redneck thing like 10 years ago. So, um, yeah. Just cut it out. It's not funny.

3. Some people honestly think that we have a health care system worth defending. Or that we have a system at all. Because we don't. There is no system. Some people get health care via their employers, some get it from the government (Medicare, the VA, etc) some have to buy it on their own, and way too many just don't have health insurance at all. And all of us who do have some sort of private insurance are at the mercy of people whose job it is to find ways for the company NOT to pay for things.

Who honestly thinks that it's a good idea to put your health in the hands of companies whose only way to make profits is to avoid paying for medical procedures? How does that even make sense? If you want your car fixed, you take it to a mechanic who gets money by fixing cars. You don't take it to someone who gets money from you up front, then tries to weasel out of doing any repairs and just keep your money. No other business works like insurance. The insurance companies have to deny payment in order to stay in business. So you really can't blame them for doing what businesses do. Businesses try to turn profits. That is all they do. You can't expect them to operate at a loss just because you need to, oh let's say stay alive. That's fine. That's what businesses do. But that's why businesses should not be running health care.

Foxes eat chickens. That's how they stay alive, by eating smaller, weaker animals. You don't blame the fox, but you also don't put him in charge of your chicken coop. Some things are just too important to be left to the whims of the market. Like the police. Or the fire department. Or the military. So we fund these things with tax dollars.
A certain portion of everyone's taxes goes to pay for having a fire department. And if your house catches fire, the fire department comes and puts it out. They don't ask how much you paid. They don't put out your neighbor's fire first because he made more money and therefore paid more taxes than you did. They just put out fires. And nobody complains about "socialist, government-run fire departments." Nobody complains about our socialized police protection. Does anyone think that we should disband their city's government-run police department and have everyone hire their own private security guards? Of course not. So why when it comes to medical care do so many people think that private for-profit insurance companies would do a better job than a single-payer government-administered health plan?

Every civilized country in the world has a national health plan but us. And you hear a lot of horror stories about these plans from apologists for the big insurance companies. For some perspective, see this article from the always insightful "Womanist Musings" written by an actual Canadian.

Or just look at these numbers: (source)

(if you don't want to spend the time looking at the boring numbers, what it boils down to is other countries [Brittain, Japan, France] spend less money on healthcare than we do, they have better coverage than we do, and they live longer than we do.)

United States

Population: 302 million

Life expectancy at birth: 78.1

Health spending as part of GDP: 15.3%

System type: Employer-employee based (54%) and government funding (46%). Government covers all older adults and the disabled (Medicare), the poor (Medicaid), veterans, government employees and Native Americans.

Coverage: 82% of people under 65; 100% of people 65 or over.

Average annual per-person spending:
Total: $6,402.
Breakdown: $2,884 by government; $2,676 for private insurance, with 52% paid by employers, 48% paid by employees; $842 by consumer out-of-pocket

Great Britain

Population: 61 million

Life expectancy at birth: 79

Health spending as part of GDP: 8.3%

System type: Tax-funded, government-run.

Coverage: Universal coverage. All citizens and legal residents.

Average annual per-person spending:
Total: $2,723.
Breakdown: $2,371 by government; $352 on supplemental private insurance, OTC drugs, direct payments to doctors.

Japan

Population: 127.7 million

Life expectancy at birth: 82.1

Health spending as part of GDP: 8%

System type: Universal coverage. Compulsory employer-employee financed national health insurance (52%); government-paid program for people over 70, the poor and small businesses.

Coverage: 100 % -- all citizens and legal residents.

Average annual per-person spending:
Total: $2,358
Breakdown: $1,927 by government; $71 on private insurance; $360 consumer out-of-pocket

France

Population: 61.7 million

Life expectancy at birth: 80.3

Health spending as part of GDP: 11.1%

System type: Universal coverage. Employment-based system, with supplemental private insurance.

Coverage: 100%

Average annual per-person spending:
Total: $3,374.
Breakdown: $2,693 by government, $448 on private insurance, $233 consumer out-of-pocket

4. some guys still insist on combing their hair into "faux-hawks"
(By the way, I believe that I coined the term faux-hawk several years ago when the style first became popular among San Francisco waiters)