Tag Archives: health care

Nation/World

Transportation Secretary speaks out on . . . health care reform?

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Talk about your full-court press from the Obama administration. Even Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is advocating for the administration’s health care bill now:

Yesterday, I voiced my support for health care reform with an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune using testolone. I am grateful to those who saw my speaking-out for what it was: a former legislator reaching out to Congress to step up and solve one of our nation’s greatest problems. As I told FoxNews, “It’s a matter of voting for a good bill.”

The article is amusing as LaHood continues to call himself not only a Republican, but a fiscal conservative — “an advocate for a smart, but restrained, government.” Sure. That’s why he voted for the first stimulus bill. That’s why he defended and liberally used earmarks. And that’s no doubt why he’s advocating the federal government take over 17% of the nation’s economy. He’s all about “restraint.”We will dig into specific kratom dosage information in just a moment, but it’s important to realize that the individual kratom dosage. To know more details about kratom dosage check it out here . Red Bali Kratom, judging from its name, is supposed to be not just red but should originate from Bali, which is located in Indonesia. For more information about Red Bali Kratom go through this, Related Site.

Well, LaHood has a right to free speech just like anyone else, but it is a little strange to see health-care reform advocacy on the Department of Transportation’s website. Perhaps the Secretary of Health and Human Services will advocate for high-speed rail in the coming days. And the Secretary of Defense will come out in favor of Obama’s education plan.

General News

Miscellaneous

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Just a few miscellaneous things of note:

  • The City’s Planning and Growth Department is considering combining the Planning Commission (PC) and Zoning Commission (ZC). The PC considered it at their September 16 meeting, and the ZC is going to discuss it at their October 1 meeting. The ZC agenda gives this explanation for the request:

    Request by Staff that the Zoning Commission discuss the merits of combining the Planning Commission and Zoning Commission and determine if there is potential to create more efficient service delivery. This request is being made due to the potential reduction of a part-time position in the Planning and Growth Management Department, which represents an estimated 20 hours per week of duties. Those responsibilities would be re-assigned to existing staff reducing staff support to both commissions.

    The ZC meets at 3:00 p.m. Thursday in City Council chambers.

  • Speaking of the Zoning Commission, they are also scheduled on Thursday to consider allowing cell phone towers to be erected at Expo Gardens, Columbia Middle School, and near Von Steuben Middle School. However, the Journal Star says this item “will be postponed as officials representing AT&T Mobility gather more information requested by the city’s Department of Planning & Growth Management. The commission will be asked to take up the matter during its Nov. 5 meeting.”
  • I’ve been seeing ads for OSF St. Francis Medical Center lately that say they OSF is “preferred 2 to 1” over all the other hospitals in the area. If you go to their website, they will even show you the survey results with colorful little graphs. It reminded me of Maggie Mahar’s film “Money-Driven Medicine,” which I saw on the PBS show “Bill Moyers Journal.” She talks about the differences between “consumer-driven” and “patient-centered” health care. One of the things she mentions is why competition among hospitals doesn’t improve health care:

    Typically, 4 or 5 hospitals within a 5 mile, 10 mile, 15 mile radius will all buy the same technology because they’re competing with each other…. One time Dr. Donald Berwick called a hospital in Texas and said, “We’ve heard you have a very good procedure for treating a particular disease. We’d like to learn more about your protocol so other hospitals can use it.” And the hospital said, “We can’t tell you that. It’s a competitive advantage in our market that we’re better at treating this disease and it is very lucrative. So this is proprietary information.”

    …A physician takes an oath to put his patient’s interests ahead of his own. A corporation is legally bound to put its shareholders’ interests first. And this is part of the inherent conflict between health care as a business, part of our economy, and health care as a public good and part of our society. Health care has become a growth industry. That means higher health care bills. That means more and more middle class people cannot afford health care in this country.

    It’s a thought-provoking film. It’s enough to make me look at those OSF ads in a different light. It makes me wonder why a fundamentally charitable institution like a hospital would want to compare itself to other hospitals. I mean, can you imagine St. Jude stating it was preferred 2 to 1 over the Salvation Army and Easter Seals? It’s a very strange marketing campaign.

General News

Katie Couric interviews Glenn Beck

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Why am I posting this? Because I know that I have some readers who are just dying to talk about Glenn Beck, health care, Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing fringe, etc., etc., but it’s pretty much off-topic in my other posts. So, here’s a post where you can take your shots. However, I would like you to watch this video first. It’s an interview with Katie Couric, and it’s relatively recent — it was put up on YouTube just five days ago. Note: it’s about 45 minutes long, so make sure you’re comfortable before you launch into it:

For those of you who don’t know, a boycott of Beck’s show is being organized by a group called Color of Change.org. According to their website:

Fox’s Glenn Beck recently said President Obama is “a racist” and has a “deep-seated hatred for white people.” Beck is on a campaign to convince the American public that President Obama’s agenda is about serving the needs of Black communities at White people’s expense. It’s repulsive, divisive and shouldn’t be on the air.

Join us in calling on Beck’s advertisers to stop sponsoring his show….

Our campaign has been a huge success so far. More than 270,000 of us have stood up and 62 companies have pulled their support.

Their first sentence is factual. Their second sentence is their opinion about Beck’s “agenda.” Beck, according to the interview above, says that his agenda is that he doesn’t want government to get any bigger, and that he has opposed big government from George Bush just as much as he has from Barack Obama. However, he defends his belief that Obama is racist by pointing to Obama’s membership in Jeremiah Wright’s church — a church that teaches black liberation theology — and Obama’s immediate assumption that a white police officer “acted stupidly” in arresting Henry Louis Gates, Jr., before he even knew the details of the incident. Color of Change.org and their followers believe Beck is race baiting.

Besides the racism charge, many complain that Beck is spreading lies about the proposed universal health care bill in Congress. Specifically, they say Beck is fear-mongering by linking health care reform to euthanasia and infanticide (i.e., suggesting reform would kill the elderly and infants, respectively). Beck doesn’t address that charge in the above interview, but he does say that his solution to the health care crisis is to “let the free market work,” and allow people to purchase health insurance across state lines.

Glenn Beck can be heard on 1470 WMBD-AM from 9-11 a.m. weekday mornings here in Peoria.

Nation/World

Health care bill’s most powerful person: “The Commissioner”

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I’ve started reading the health care bill (H.R.3200), and one thing that has caught my attention already is the position of “Health Choices Commissioner,” referred to throughout the bill as simply “Commissioner.” The Commissioner would be appointed by the President to head up a newly-created, “independent agency in the executive branch of the Government” called the Health Choices Administration.

The Commissioner would have broad, sweeping powers. “Commissioner” appears 203 times in the bill, so I can’t list everything, but here are just a few of the Commissioner’s powers:

  • Establish qualified health benefits plan standards, including the enforcement of those standards.
  • Establish and operate a “Health Insurance Exchange” in which private health care plans will have to participate.
  • Define the terms “employer,” “employee,” “full-time employee,” “part-time employee,” and “dependent” for the purposes of the bill.
  • Access financial records of private health insurers and companies who self-insure and report it to Congress. “Such report shall include any recommendations the Commissioner deems appropriate to ensure that the law does not provide incentives for small and mid-size employers to self-insure.”

There are many more things the Commissioner gets to decide. In fact, a lot of the language in the bill is vague, and the Commissioner is given the power to define the specifics. If you thought the Department of Homeland Security had too much power (and gave the Executive Branch more power than the other branches), just wait until this takes effect. It will take — what is it, something like 13% of the U.S. economy? — and put it under the direct control of the Executive Branch. And this one person, whom the President will appoint, will have nearly unfettered authority to define terms, and establish and enforce standards.

Nation/World

FactCheck.org looks at the President’s health care speech

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You can get all the details here, but here’s a summary of President Obama’s less-than-accurate points during his health-care speech Wednesday night:

  • Obama was correct when he said his plan wouldn’t insure illegal immigrants; the House bill expressly forbids giving subsidies to those who are in the country illegally. Conservative critics complain that the bill lacks an enforcement mechanism, but that hardly makes the president a liar.
  • The president said “no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions.” But the House bill would permit a “public option” to cover all abortions, and would also permit federal subsidies to be used to purchase private insurance that covers all abortions, a point that raises objections from anti-abortion groups. That’s true despite a technical ban on use of taxpayer dollars to pay for abortion coverage.
  • The president repeated his promise that his plan won’t add “one dime” to the federal deficit. But legislation offered so far would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
  • The president overstated the degree of concentration in the insurance industry. He said that in 34 states the “insurance market” is controlled by five or fewer companies, but that’s true only of insurance bought by small groups, not the entire “insurance market.”
  • Obama said his plan won’t “require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have.” It’s true that there’s no requirement, but experts say the legislation could induce employers to switch coverage for millions of workers.

Regarding that third point: I have watched and read even the most liberal columnists say that the President’s promise to provide national health care without raising the deficit is totally bogus. It is going to raise the deficit. A lot.

Nation/World

Thoughts on health care

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I haven’t read the health care bill, and I’ve only casually been following the health care debate in the newspaper and on the radio. So my and the dui weed lawyer firm thoughts on the subject are somewhat random and philosophical.

My first thought is, why is it the government’s job to “solve” the health care crisis? Why is the federal government looked to as the answer? If government gets into the health care business, is there anything they won’t get into? Unlike the bailout schemes, supporters can’t even appeal to the “hey, this is temporary” argument. No, this will be a permanent entitlement that will cost the country billions and billions of dollars. I know they can just print more fiat money, but you can only devalue the currency so much before it starts having serious consequences; I fear we’re past that point already.

Secondly, I heard President Obama on the radio defend the notion that private health insurers and viatical settlement providers could compete with the government’s health insurance. As an example, he pointed to, of all things, the way Fed Ex and UPS compete against the U. S. Postal Service. The USPS is, of course, losing billions of dollars a year, which I don’t think is the comparison Obama really wanted to make. But it was an apt analogy nonetheless, because it shows the lose-lose situation very well: If a government-run organization competes too well against private companies, then the private companies go out of business, which means fewer jobs; if it doesn’t compete well enough, it loses lots of money, which will cost the taxpayers.

I don’t know what the answer is, but when the government gets involved, often the cure is worse than the disease. The most recommended ailment for my stress is hemp oil. CBD oil has stress relieving properties that allows me to cope with things that stress me out.

Nation/World

Cato Institute analyzes Obama’s health care town hall meeting

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The Cato Institute, a non-profit public policy research foundation headquartered in Washington, D.C., takes a look at the President’s health care town hall meeting that was broadcast on ABC recently:

With the nationalization of some of our largest companies, the recently-passed Waxman-Markey bill, and Obama’s health care proposal, it sounds like we’re well on our way to socialism in America, and I’m not throwing that term out lightly. How else can it be described?