Health
The Senate Health Reform Bill - Summary
Dec 13, 2009 13:48
mcJoan of the Daily Kos has a good summary of the current Senate health reform bill.
The Senate bill is a pig in a poke compared to what it ought to be, and it will unjustly swell the coffers of the insurance companies and pharmaceutical corporations at taxpayer expense. But it looks very much like something will ultimately pass and be enacted into law. Whatever passes will require much improvement over the next few years, but at least there will be something to improve.
The Republicans know this, so expect them to oppose unanimously any health care reform bill, no matter how bipartisan the drafting process has been. When every single Senate Republican votes against the final bill, the Democrats will be finally and fully justified in telling the Republicans to go to Hell and using the reconciliation process to enact important legislation. It’s clear that (1) the Republican “constituency” is Wall Street, big business, and the extremely wealthy—but not the rest of us; and, (2) they will not negotiate in good faith when the interests of their true constituents are affected.
As for Mississippi....
If there were ever a state that desperately needs affordable health care, it would be Mississippi. Yet our senators and representatives have—with only one exception—demonstrated over and over that their loyalties lie elsewhere. If Mississippi were a sovereign nation, they would be guilty of treason.
And a large percentage of voters in this benighted state are too blinded by right-wing bullshit to figure that out, even as they drive their uninsured asses to the local emergency room because they can’t afford a regular doctor.
Exactly what does it take to wake people to reality?
The Senate bill is a pig in a poke compared to what it ought to be, and it will unjustly swell the coffers of the insurance companies and pharmaceutical corporations at taxpayer expense. But it looks very much like something will ultimately pass and be enacted into law. Whatever passes will require much improvement over the next few years, but at least there will be something to improve.
The Republicans know this, so expect them to oppose unanimously any health care reform bill, no matter how bipartisan the drafting process has been. When every single Senate Republican votes against the final bill, the Democrats will be finally and fully justified in telling the Republicans to go to Hell and using the reconciliation process to enact important legislation. It’s clear that (1) the Republican “constituency” is Wall Street, big business, and the extremely wealthy—but not the rest of us; and, (2) they will not negotiate in good faith when the interests of their true constituents are affected.
As for Mississippi....
If there were ever a state that desperately needs affordable health care, it would be Mississippi. Yet our senators and representatives have—with only one exception—demonstrated over and over that their loyalties lie elsewhere. If Mississippi were a sovereign nation, they would be guilty of treason.
And a large percentage of voters in this benighted state are too blinded by right-wing bullshit to figure that out, even as they drive their uninsured asses to the local emergency room because they can’t afford a regular doctor.
Exactly what does it take to wake people to reality?
Comments
The Sorry State of the U.S. Senate
Aug 26, 2009 19:03
Hunter, a regular contributor to the Daily Kos, delivers a bitter diatribe on the U.S. Senate. I fear that he is dead on.
Read and weep.
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/NA8IIey8saA/-No-More-Faith:-The-Senate-Topples-Into-Incompetence
Read and weep.
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/NA8IIey8saA/-No-More-Faith:-The-Senate-Topples-Into-Incompetence
The Near-Impossibility of Establishing a Fair and Universal Health System
Aug 06, 2009 22:14
Right now, I would say that the chances of a decent health plan are slim to none. In fact, those chances are about the same as the chances for serious reform of our financial system. Big Pharma and the banks have become so wealthy and powerful since 1981 (the beginning of Reagan’s presidency and the beginning of the end of the regulatory regime enacted during the 1930s and designed to prevent the kind of financial meltdown we recently experienced), that they can probably sink any efforts at real reform.
Obama apparently did not appreciate the utter ferocity and ruthlessness of which the rich and powerful are capable when their power and wealth are threatened. That is what we are seeing now: mobs organized by right-wing groups in the pay of the drug companies infiltrating and disrupting town meetings with representatives with the clear intent to intimidate supporters of a national health plan.
Obama made two big mistakes, in my opinion. First, he aimed too low by taking the singer-payor option off the table before he even started. A single payor insurance system is by far the best method of efficiently delivering medical care to everyone. A single payor system would, of course, put the medical insurance industry out of business, and they will do anything to prevent that from happening. Why would Obama trade away the nuclear option before the game even started? It appears that he did it in an attempt to bring the industry to the table. He also promised that he would block any measure that would cost the pharmaceutical industry more than 80 billion dollars. I suppose that he is expecting reciprocity; that is a pipe-dream.
Second, he needed a villain, and by cozying up to the health industry and the Republicans in Congress in an effort to be “bipartisan,” he eliminated two potential villains that would have more than adequately served his purposes. Without a populace charged up with a passion, either for healthcare reform or against Big Pharma or their water-carriers, the congressional Republicans and the Blue-Dogs, little is going to be accomplished.
And if nothing is accomplished, we will continue to spend 16% of our GDP on healthcare, more than twice what other industrial nations spend, and we will remain far less healthier than our counterparts.
You are going to hear much propaganda over the next few months about how the U.S. has the finest healthcare system in the world. Don’t believe it. We don’t.
Here are the rankings by the World Health Organization. Read and heed.
One simply hopes that Obama knows what he is doing. As I wrote before, he is a strategist and takes the long-term view. But things don’t look good right now.
Obama apparently did not appreciate the utter ferocity and ruthlessness of which the rich and powerful are capable when their power and wealth are threatened. That is what we are seeing now: mobs organized by right-wing groups in the pay of the drug companies infiltrating and disrupting town meetings with representatives with the clear intent to intimidate supporters of a national health plan.
Obama made two big mistakes, in my opinion. First, he aimed too low by taking the singer-payor option off the table before he even started. A single payor insurance system is by far the best method of efficiently delivering medical care to everyone. A single payor system would, of course, put the medical insurance industry out of business, and they will do anything to prevent that from happening. Why would Obama trade away the nuclear option before the game even started? It appears that he did it in an attempt to bring the industry to the table. He also promised that he would block any measure that would cost the pharmaceutical industry more than 80 billion dollars. I suppose that he is expecting reciprocity; that is a pipe-dream.
Second, he needed a villain, and by cozying up to the health industry and the Republicans in Congress in an effort to be “bipartisan,” he eliminated two potential villains that would have more than adequately served his purposes. Without a populace charged up with a passion, either for healthcare reform or against Big Pharma or their water-carriers, the congressional Republicans and the Blue-Dogs, little is going to be accomplished.
And if nothing is accomplished, we will continue to spend 16% of our GDP on healthcare, more than twice what other industrial nations spend, and we will remain far less healthier than our counterparts.
You are going to hear much propaganda over the next few months about how the U.S. has the finest healthcare system in the world. Don’t believe it. We don’t.
Here are the rankings by the World Health Organization. Read and heed.
One simply hopes that Obama knows what he is doing. As I wrote before, he is a strategist and takes the long-term view. But things don’t look good right now.
The CDC Starts Recovering
Mar 15, 2009 09:27
I ran into Sam (not his real name) the other day who was in town on personal business. He has worked for the CDC as long as I can remember, and he was unusually chipper when we met.
According to Sam, things started improving at the CDC on January 20, 2009, and have been getting better ever since, as more and more political/religious hacks depart the agency to crawl back under whatever rocks they came from when they were first appointed by the Bush administration.
“For the past eight years,” Sam said, “management would give us their policy decision and tell us to get the science to support it. Now they are once again asking us to get the science so they can use it as a basis for a rational decision.”
Since the CDC is charged with assessing health threats, including the likelihood of epidemics, politicization is a serious matter. It is good to know that the agency is back in responsible hands.
According to Sam, things started improving at the CDC on January 20, 2009, and have been getting better ever since, as more and more political/religious hacks depart the agency to crawl back under whatever rocks they came from when they were first appointed by the Bush administration.
“For the past eight years,” Sam said, “management would give us their policy decision and tell us to get the science to support it. Now they are once again asking us to get the science so they can use it as a basis for a rational decision.”
Since the CDC is charged with assessing health threats, including the likelihood of epidemics, politicization is a serious matter. It is good to know that the agency is back in responsible hands.
Social Security: The Real Issue
Sep 22, 2008 18:40
Social Security is a moral issue, not an exclusively economic or financial one.
Read the article. PDF version.
Read the article. PDF version.
Medical Tourism
Aug 14, 2008 20:49
Via Dean Baker, The Economist notes that an increasing number of Americans are travelling abroad for expensive medical procedures and discovering that they receive equal or better care in places like Singapore or India than here, often for less than the deductables and copayments that their domestic healthcare insurance requires.
Real competition can have some good effects. I wonder how the increase in air fares will affect medical tourism? Perhaps someone will convert a cruise ship into a first-class hospital. Recuperate while sailing to France — or back home. There are many opportunities to capture American medical dollars.
The Economist: Operating profit
Real competition can have some good effects. I wonder how the increase in air fares will affect medical tourism? Perhaps someone will convert a cruise ship into a first-class hospital. Recuperate while sailing to France — or back home. There are many opportunities to capture American medical dollars.
The Economist: Operating profit