12/7/09
11/20/09
10/25/09
Health Reform Lite or Value Meal?
For anyone fazed by healthcare reform histrionics, take heart. We’ve been here many times before. The real question is, for all the political, capitalistic, and social angst, what’s changed? According to medical economist J.D. Kleinke, who first arrived on the scene in 1989, only one big thing: now everybody gets to whine about the status quo on Facebook. He goes so far as to call the healthcare bills moving forward today “a violent endorsement of the status quo.” I can’t say I disagree with his logic, but two women just gave me hope for this go-round.
Kleinke points out that in 1989 we had a dysfunctional third-party payer insurance system based on fee-for-service. Some insurers, hospitals, doctors, drug companies, and even employers figured out how to game the system and make out like bandits. Medicare was forecasted to become insolvent, Medicaid programs were underfunded, and malpractice costs were supposedly bankrupting healthcare. Costs were skyrocketing along with the number of uninsured. Does all this sound familiar?
Yet in 20 years, he says, all we can come up with is to fit more insured patients into our current mess and make it harder for insurers to kick them out. Each time the smallest of reforms is proposed (like adding prescription benefits to Medicare) entrenched US stakeholders rally mass hysteria, and the result is government funding of more corporate services. That’s true, J.D., but times have changed; about that Facebook phenomenon …
In 1999, Rick Scott of Columbia HCA was finally exposed for defrauding the public throughout the decade. Total damage, $1.7 billion for Medicaid and Medicare overcharges. Today, Scott is exposed far more rapidly for defrauding the public in his “patients’ rights” campaign and the news speeds around social networks. Turns out he relies on insurance lobbyist Brian McManus, well known for his Astroturf front groups that promote efforts to increase insurer profits while defeating consumer protections. Apparently Scott supports robbing patients of their rights. As Christopher Hayes at The Nation says, “Having Scott lead the charge against healthcare reform is like tapping Bernie Madoff to campaign against tighter securities regulation.”
But on to those two women who give me hope. First, there’s Sarah Palin. On her Facebook page this weekend, she posted her “solution” to our healthcare mess, including taking away Medicare and forcing seniors to buy private insurance with vouchers. So after all that Republican rhetoric about Democratic reform taking away seniors’ Medicare, Palin promotes it? Oops. Throw them to the wolves, Sarah, that’s sure to enhance your anti-reform credibility. I guess she didn’t know that $0.86 of every $1.00 spent on private Medicare Advantage plans don’t benefit plan members? We know she 'reads all the papers' so apparently they didn't cover that.
Because of this private insurer-promoted idiocy, including the deceptive AHIP and BCBSA premium studies, public support for a public option increased this month. Yes, the majority of Americans (57%) now support it, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted last week, and 51% favor it over a bipartisan bill. Perhaps because of the insurance studies, 56% also now support an individual mandate.
Thankfully someone in Washington is listening to the majority. While all Harry Reid can say is "“We’re leaning towards talking about a public option," Nancy Pelosi has a plan to pass a public option, and it’s alarmingly straightforward. She’s asking the CBO to score the updated House bill (currently $871 billion and counting), which covers more people than its Senate sibling without any public option. So she can show a bill containing a public option costs less than one without it, and offers more coverage. In other words, it’s sound policy. Brilliant! We’ll see if it works in the city that defies logic. But spread the word – perhaps we’ll see a non-violent endorsement of actual progressive healthcare change.
10/22/09
10/18/09
10/4/09
James Carville: "I Think Glenn Beck Is Nuts"
"I think he's nuts... Just out and out nuts. And I also think that he's a blatant hypocrite. Here's somebody that sits on his show and weeping about how much he loves America... and then, he's absolutely giddy when his country doesn't get the Olympics."
"He wouldn't know the difference between a football bat and a hockey court," Carville adds.
10/1/09
9/16/09
9/10/09
Before you criticize
. . . President Obama
Gentle readers,
Before you begin to criticize our newest President just think about the words of Christ "What you have done to the least of these, you have done unto me" . I watched with mixed amusement and consternation as people waved tea bags around with abandon as we as the Governor from Texas claiming that secession is an option "We are spending too much of taxpayer money...spending our children's inheritance (Note: Texas took taxpayer money for floods, firestorms etc. could this just be political posturing?) Sure things look bad but I believe that one person can change the course of a nation (that's why I write) and as always I believe in Grace! read on about one teacher that made a difference.
Jean Thompson stood in front of her fifth-grade class on the very first day of school in the fall and told the children a lie.
Like most teachers, she looked at her pupils and said that she loved them all the same, that she would treat them all alike. And that was impossible because there in front of her, slumped in his seat on the third row, was a boy named Teddy Stoddard.
Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed he didn't play well with the other children, that his clothes were unkempt and that he constantly needed a bath.
And Teddy was unpleasant. It got to the point during the first few months that she would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's and then marking the F at the top of the paper biggest of all. Because Teddy was a sullen little boy, no one else seemed to enjoy him, either.
At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child's records and put Teddy's off until last. When she opened his file, she was in for a surprise. His first-grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is a bright, inquisitive child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners...he is a joy to be around."
His second-grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an excellent student, well-liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle."
His third-grade teacher wrote, "Teddy continues to work hard but his mother's death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best but his father doesn't show much interest and his home life will soon
affect him if some steps aren't taken."
Teddy's fourth-grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest in school. He doesn't have many friends and sometimes sleeps in class. He is tardy and could become a problem."
By now Mrs. Thompson realized the problem but Christmas was coming fast. It was all she could do, with the school play and all, until the day before the holidays began and she was suddenly forced to focus on Teddy Stoddard.
Her children brought her presents, all in gay ribbon and bright paper, except for Teddy's, which was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper of a scissored grocery bag. Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents. Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was one-quarter full of cologne. She stifled the children's laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume behind the other wrist.
Teddy Stoddard stayed behind just long enough to say, "Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my mom used to." After the children left she cried for at least an hour. On that very day, she quit teaching reading, and writing, and speaking. Instead, she began to teach children. Jean Thompson paid particular attention to one they all called "Teddy". As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. On days there would be an important test, Mrs. Thompson would remember that cologne.
By the end of the year he had become one of the smartest children in the class and...well, he had also become the "pet" of the teacher who had once vowed to love all of her children exactly the same.
A year later she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her that of all the teachers he'd had in elementary school, she was his favourite. Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy.
He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still his favourite teacher of all time. Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he'd stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would graduate from college with the highest of honours. He assured Mrs. Thompson she was still his favourite teacher.
Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his bachelor's degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still his favourite teacher but that now his name was a little longer. The letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, M.D.
The story doesn't end there. You see, there was yet another letter that Spring. Teddy said he'd met this girl and was to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering...well, if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit in the pew usually reserved for the mother of the groom. You'll have to decide yourself whether or not she wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. But, I bet on that special day, Jean Thompson smelled just like...well, just like she smelled many years before, on that last day of school, before the Christmas Holiday began.
You never can tell what type of impact you may make on another's life by your actions or lack of action. Sometimes just a smile on the street to a passing stranger can make a difference we could never imagine. Would it be nice if we all could have this impact on people? And where are the Christians in this country?
I'm just saying...
Love,
Denis
9/9/09
9/6/09
Wher do you get information?
Can we trust Beck when he is off his meds?
8/31/09
3/25/09
Democracy: facts you need to think about
thoughts about Democracy
At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new
constitution, in the year 1787, Alexander Tyler (a Scottish
history professor at The University of Edinborough) had this
to say about "The Fall of The Athenian Republic" some 2,000
years prior.
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot
exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will
continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that
they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public
treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for
the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public
treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally
collapse due to loose fiscal policy, (which is) always
followed by a dictatorship."
"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from
the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During
those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following
sequence:
From Bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage."
Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law
believes the U.S. is now somewhere between the "apathy"
and "complacency" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of
democracy; with some 40 percent of the nation's population
already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.
