Featured Quote

In 1913, Henry Ford wrote the following as the directors had been reaping the rewards of profits - "The wages we pay are too small in comparison with our profits. I think we should raise our minimum pay rate".

Friday, January 21, 2011

Gotta Read These

Les Leopold : Financial Socialism
Adam Lynch : Reading the Tea Leaves
Inc. Magazine, Max Chafkin - Startups say Ja to Socialism
Its funny because its true! Tea Party
Health Reform Repeal Histronics!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Health Insurance Across State Lines

Okay, so the Repugnant bastards in the House of Supposed Representatives have voted to Repeal the Affordable Care Act as a "Job Killer".  They have a replacement - which refers to a 2009 bill - with most of the same things.
While stating that it does not want to implement a "Government Takeover" - in:
TITLE III—EXPANDING CHOICES BY ALLOWING AMERICANS TO BUY HEALTH CARE COVERAGE ACROSS STATE LINES
The "Common Sense" bill does exactly what it states that it wishes to avoid - creates a federal government takeover of Health Insurance.

Here is the thing - There are only Thirty Seven health insurance companies nationwide.  Most are subsidiaries of even fewer companies.  They all have 'branches' in each state that operate by that state's Health Insurance regulations.  Each state branch is essentially it's own company, with it's own employees.  What do you think will happen when the federal government strips the states' right to regulate it's own Health Insurance industry? (you know, allowing state residents to buy from where-ever)  Think of credit card companies - they are almost all based in Delaware.  If this "Stupid Sense" law gets passed by the corporate profit-above-health loving repugnant  party of no, all insurance companies are going to consolidate - probably to Delaware - and you are going to have fewer companies, offering fewer benefits for more money.  In addition, they are going to close all their state offices as unnecessary - killing hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Where is the "common sense" in that?

So much for the "Undo everything and increase the deficit republican congress"

(and a link to the stupid article that helped inspire this post.  As well as some unrelated good medical news for those of us who are unmarried and rely more on good friends than family while in the hospital)

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

What? New Jobs being Created?

"companies are responding with a host of new products that can make care less costly and more effective. It's a trend that's been gaining momentum for several years, but it's been helped along by the health-care law enacted last year."

Read more: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/01/18/1821786/high-tech-health-care-reform.html#ixzz1BOj0jfMT
Reducing costs, more effective care, new products being manufactured in the United States - all 'helped along' by the new health-insurance law enacted last year.  That is what Republicans are trying to kill.  New jobs, efficiency, U.S. based jobs - all so they can lower taxes on their Big Business buddies who ship jobs overseas (and pay them awesome bribes donate lots to their campaigns).

As I have mentioned before, right now, the hospitals and doctors have a vested interest in keeping you sick and keeping you coming back over and over again.  Big Pharmaceuticals and others also help push this 'returning profit' model of keeping you in need of health care.  Republicans like this, naturally - its just good business to keep you in ill health (probably why they support fluoride in the water).  Ever wonder why you have to get so many procedures done?  You really think it is only the doc covering himself in case of  a lawsuit?  Okay, yeah, some of it probably is, but another, larger, contributor to the issue is profit.  The more procedures and prescriptions and return visits that they can get from you, the higher their profit.  So, turn your head a cough.

While the Repugnants... er.. Congressional affiliates of Fox Misinfotainment* will only say bad things about the bill with tag lines (because they have no substance), the people trying to explain what all is actually in the bill and how it benefits the public and health care providers have a much harder time.  The Truth takes more than a tag-line.  It appears that most of the U.S. public is so attention-span deficient that they can not handle the list of benefits, so resort to believing the short tag-lines - no matter how untrue and absurd.

* I refuse to use the lie of "Fox News" as that lends them some degree of credibility that they have consistently failed to live up to.  Fox is Misinformation in the form of Entertainment - Fox Misinfotainment.