Tête-à-Tête-Tête » healthcare

On the other hand

smijer — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:22:14 +0000

Maybe the Healthcare ummmm… readjustment… bill is less bad than I thought. I don’t know. I’m certainly not excited about it, in any case. I guess we’ll see if it becomes a third rail of politics or if it gets repealed next time the GOP gets a 51 vote majority. And then we still won’t really know, because American voters are no judge of reality. Maybe we can ask the dudes from Doctors without Borders.

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Worst possible outcome

smijer — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:41:24 +0000

I haven’t followed the HRC debate very closely… but I have kept a peek with one eye.

From what I can tell I’m with Howard Dean – kill this bill. Industry is the only big winner. While on paper it may lead to more people being insured, it looks like it will also lead to a greater financial burden on the insured – such that complying with whatever mandates are included will have a similar effect on many as having to do without insurance does now: create financial ruin. At least treatment may be had before the bank comes to hook the house up to a tow truck. I guess that’s a silver lining. Anyway, to my mind, nothing is a much better option than this steaming pile of legislation.

If it can’t be fixed before it goes to a vote, I say let’s keep what we got, and when the rest of the world starts noticing how third-world we are getting over here, maybe they’ll send us Doctors Without Borders to prop up our free-market, freedom loving butts.

For once, I can count on Alexander and Corker to vote my way on the final bill.

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Don’t Ration Me

smijer — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:00:53 +0000

I think we should have some kind of grassroots uprising to speak out against healthcare rationing. The spontaneouser the better!

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Waiting…

smijer — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:08:09 +0000

I think one reason that the notion that you’ll spend your life on a waiting list under universal health care in the U.S. is that it appeals to experience we have all had. Not all of us. From adulthood until I was about 30, I never had any interaction with the health-care industry at all. In the past 10 years, I’ve spent more time in doctor’s offices, hospitals and pharmacies than I care to think about. I’m guessing I’ve logged 1000 hours or more in a health-related setting. And, I’m guessing about 10 of those hours I or the person I was with was actually being treated. That’s not to mention the waits I or the person I was with had to deal with in scheduling primary care appointments to begin with. So “waiting lists” are something we can relate to – and none of us care to spend more time on.

I guess it doesn’t help that the two major English speaking universal health care systems are rumored to be worse than the U.S. in this regard (sometimes accurately, other times – not so much).

It’s unfortunate that the proposed system will not likely emulate the best working systems in the world. And it is good to guard against any potential increase in waiting times on essential care, should they begin to crop up as an unintended consequence of a new system.

But it’s wrong to slap a label of “slow” on anything universal. Our own system is slow compared to the best universal systems.

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Good Questions. No, Really…

smijer — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:00:23 +0000

LGF has decided to bring some sanity to the health care debate… By composing (and hopefully eventually asking) good questions on the issue. Better questions than the one you’ll see from me in a few hours (stay tuned)… I almost hate to see this, because I fear our politicians are not prepared to actually answer good questions on the health care debate. On the other hand, if you ask and they dodge, then it’s time to give them a dose of outrage all their own. It’s refreshing to see some sophisticated and intellectual opposition out there.

I mean… not all of them. Some of them are a little knee jerk…

The defenders of the health-care bill claim that it’s going to lead to all sorts of savings, not by actually cutting any services or denying care, but just by finding “inefficiencies” that will save money. Do you think this is remotely plausible? When has anybody ever said, “This project has to be lean and efficient—let’s get the government do it”?

… the answer to that could go on for hours but suffice it to say that the “free market” way creates all kind of institutional pressure to ~~waste money~~ unfairly compensate some types of providers… institutional pressure that can only be relieved by constraining the “free market” to force better practices. Mainly in ending “per visit” compensation in favor of “per treatment”, ending unnecessary referrals and multiple visits for simple needs.

A few others are similarly derived from conservative/libertarian talking points and don’t reflect any deep thinking about the issues. But by and large these folks should be congratulated for taking the discussion seriously and for leaving out the crazy.

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Is there anything in this bill that can maybe keep me from dying?

smijer — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:48:44 +0000

That was the line that cracked me up… via Cole, who deserves an Amen and Hallelujah chorus for his assessment that this is how you do things in civil society (my words, his thoughts).

Virginia-5 – my hat is off to you.

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Crazy Pool Winner

smijer — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 19:00:09 +0000

Alright – every one that bet on “It’s already happened, you idiot”, come collect your prize. You can also have the 2:1 payout on the Not Michelle Bachman… as far as I know the only nationally elected official to advance the euthanasia trope in July was Virginia Foxx of NC:

So Kudos to Rep. Fox for heading up the crazy train….

Weirdly, Sarah Palin wasn’t far behind, and Michelle Bachman appears to be just itching to work in a “Death Panel” reference of her own.

More.
And, more.

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Posted in: Culture, Media, Politics, R's
Post tags: Euthanasia Meme, healthcare, Sarah Palin, Virginia Foxx

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Vicious New Talking Point

smijer — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:18:35 +0000

The short form of the new, revoltingly vituperous talking point, and a response to it is here. However, this is just a small part of appears to be a large scale coordinated message campaign.

Fred Thompson hosted a much longer session of … what do you call it when distortion follows insinuation follows distortion, and every bit of it is accusations of unimaginable wickedness? Anyway, whatever you call it, the AARP has responded. Unfortunately, Mark Twain was very correct in his observation that a lie will make it halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes. I expect large numbers of gullible Americans to be outraged at the Democrats’ plans to kill the elderly… and no amount of fact-checking will cure it. That’s the sad thing.

Update: Yes, it’s a coordinated campaign.

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Posted in: Media, Politics
Post tags: Betsy McCaughey, Fred Thompson, healthcare, Obama

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Blue Dogs & Healthcare

smijer — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:31:41 +0000

Jlue points us to an e-mail address that (I assume) will reach the members of the “blue dog” caucus of congressional democrats: BlueDog@mail.house.gov.

I’m assuming that Mike Ross is included on the list that will receive communications through this address.

So, if you are interested in the healthcare debate, and hope to influence a caucus that may prove to be the deciding faction, you can use this address to contact them. I sent them the following note:

I am a resident of Chattanooga, TN and write to you concerning the upcoming House negotiations on a healthcare package. I understand that your votes on the final package, collectively, may have a deciding impact on the outcome.

I understand from news reports that several of you have indicated that you will not support a package that increases the federal debt. I appreciate and applaud that stance. This is not a time when our nation can afford to take on more debt. However, I’m also cognizant of the fact that any meaningful reform will be complex and will be very costly, and will require new sources of revenue to balance. I’m also cognizant of the fact that the final product will likely cost more than any estimates made during deliberations.

Nevertheless, I hope that you each recognize that our nation is in a healthcare crisis. As a working middle class man with a family of four, I find my costs going up each year. Insurance premiums increase steadily and benefits decrease. Costs to me and my family are out of control – we can no longer truly afford them. Others, who change jobs or who lose their jobs because of our struggling economy may find themselves unable to obtain needed treatment at all. In short, the situation is dire.

So, I write not to ask for you to support or oppose any specific provision, or even to vote affirmatively on the house package as it comes to the floor. I ask only for your commitment to do the best you can to create a sustainable, effective and affordable health system in a country where we spend more on healthcare than most other developed nations and suffer among the highest infant mortality rates, and score poorly on many other measures of quality of care.

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