Recently in Health Reform Category

Kevin Drum

He recounted all the grief he and his family went through while work on their kitchen renovation dragged on and on and on. "During that time, I had blood lust against my contractor," Inslee said. "Six months went by, and he was still arguing with the plumber. Eight months went by, and there were still wires hanging down everywhere, and he was having trouble with the building inspector."

But eventually, the job got done. "And now I love that kitchen," Inslee recalls saying. "I bake bread in that kitchen. My wife cooks great meals in that kitchen. The contractor's now a buddy of mine, and I've had beers with him in that kitchen."

Inslee looked at his colleagues and declared: "We've got to finish the kitchen." His point was that Americans won't experience any of the benefits of health-care reform until Congress puts a new system in place.

I called Inslee about his kitchen oration after Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.) told me it was one of the turning points in calming Democrats' nerves. "Now," Wu says, "people run into him in the hallway, smile and say, 'Finish the kitchen.' "

I have to admit, this makes me feel hopeful. Why? I do not know. Still, it does do a fine job of pointing out how the emotions of the moment do not necessarily define the outcome of the moment.

Hot Dish Politics

Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann stopped by the state Capitol on Monday to pitch some proposed ground rules for the national debate over health care reform.

 

At a news conference, Bachmann unveiled the "Declaration of Health Care Independence," which will be formally released Wednesday.

 

"We are rejecting politics as usual in Washington D.C. in dealing with this health care issue," said Bachmann, a Republican.

Proposing ground rules at this point in health care reform is like the refs showing up for the game after the clock has run out.

Sometimes there's crazy, which makes sense in a headline grabbing sort of way. Then there is the above move by Bachmann, which is just plain stupid. Dumb ass stupid.

Okay, you managed along most of your bills through congress. However, what you did not do is lead. The President Of The United States needs to lead, not manage. You have safely guided your various agenda bills through the house and senate. At no time did you show courage by taking a risk.

Now, as your closest advisers tell you to move towards the center; as they tell you to become even more dedicated to bi-partisanship; as they whisper to you to be cautious: tell them all to go to helI.

It is time for you to do a 180. They did not like health care reform as negotiated? Then throw the whole damn thing out and demand pure universal health care. Not universal health insurance, or single payer, but national health care.

Stop playing their God damned game, sir. Go out, take charge, set the tone. You have been led. Hell, you allowed yourself to be led. Now, cowboy up. Throw caution to the wind. Push for what you deem to be impossible, take the ridicule and derision and lead this country, Damn It.

Once again, congress has shown it's inability to recognize failure. Any compromise -- despite assurances from many intelligent and educated progressive bloggers -- that eliminates a public option will only drag out the suffering and death our current health care system allows.

I understand there are times for the long view. But when peoples lives are at stake, it is time to pull your head out of the future and deal with the immediacy that exists today.

Of how big a jack ass Pawlenty really is.

(Star-Tribune) Facing a big loss of state health-care funds, Hennepin County Medical Center plans to stop seeing uninsured, non-emergency patients from outside the county, cut 150 to 200 jobs and close two small clinics on its campus.

And this is just one of many hospitals and clinics that will have to cut jobs. At a time when unemployment is having the most impact on the economy, to cut funding, causing more job loses is equivalent to old fashion mid-evil medical blood letting.

It is the one character flaw that has dogged me my whole life. In many ways it is part of the addiction I have worked hard to overcome. Basically, I have always wanted what I wanted, when I wanted it, and I want it right damn now.

The battle for Health Care Reform has exposed this same underlying character flaw in the United States. While some cooler heads in congress have patiently, and diligently, worked the political currents of Washington, most of the nation outside the beltway have been screeching and howling about not having single payer universal health insurance as of last decade. One of the reasons I have done very little blogging about health care reform -- other than noting some articles --  is because I recognize this is a long-term change for the country. It is a battle of inches, not yards.

Anyway, after all the noise, hair-pulling, and general all-around shrilling is done, there will be a new direction for health care in this country. At this time, I have to accept I am without health care. I also will have to accept it may be possible I never receive the level of coverage I was accustomed to back 5 to 10 years ago. However, I do believe that future generations after me will eventually receive a level of coverage that I never experienced. I am okay with that.

Yes, the selfish part of me desires universal single payer coverage as of October 5th, 1961, but it is not going to happen. But at least I can rest easy in knowing a change is occurring. It is just that it is not occurring at the pace I selfishly desire.

Now, get the hell off my lawn.....

Err, scratch that. I live in an apartment.

Sigh. Slow news day. Nothing stands out as meme changing, or even meme misdirecting. Just the usual pointing out how insanely the current crop of Republicans continue to act, the pointing out of lies by the corporate arm of the conservative movement over health care reform, and the usual past time of comparing the size of a gnat's ass with a conservative's brain.

I do believe the gnat wins.

Never underestimate the power of denial.

(The Washington Monthly) Reading this, it reminded me just how challenging the right's sales pitch was going into the debate over reform. In some ways, conservatives couldn't possibly win the argument -- the status quo is ridiculous. We spend too much and get too little. Tens of millions of Americans go without coverage, and thousands die as a result of not having insurance. The existing private system screws over consumers, is a drag on the economy, and undercuts wage growth. The two groups of Americans best served by the status quo are seniors (in a Canadian-style, socialized system) and veterans (in a British-style, government-run system). Everyone else is in, at best, a precarious position.

[...]

They've pulled it off, so far, by telling almost comically-ridiculous lies, and managing to get scared, gullible people to believe them. It's no small feat. Indeed, it's almost impressive. Conservatives have managed to create a debate out of nothing but partisanship, paranoia, and greed.

Steve misses the most important reason the Conservatives have managed this feat; the ability of people to ignore even the most obvious of facts. Denial makes blind people of us all when we are not diligent of our thinking.

I am sick and tired of listening to people who have good coverage, who make good money, and are not threatened with the loss either, spew ignorance and false facts about health care reform. These people are content with their coverage because they don't need it to begin with.

Health care reform is about making the system work for people who need health care. But as long as health insurance is strictly a for profit system, people will be refused treatment. The insurance companies are set up to make a profit, which means NOT spending money on providing health care. So, you're procedure no longer costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, and is a reasonable thousands of dollars, big woo. The insurance companies still work at NOT paying for treatment, because it cuts into their profit. And if you are in the lower middle class to lower class, even thousands of dollars is not reasonable.

Cutting health care costs will not rehabilitate the health insurance system. It is run with a simple purpose, to make money off human suffering and death. There has been more then enough examples of the inhumane actions of this industry over the years. That they are willing to spend billions to prevent reform ought be a clue as to the depth of their callousness and inhumanity.

They already ration health care treatment. They already have made decisions that have resulted in the death of countless people. The original intent of HMOs were to contain cost. Instead, since their inception we have witnessed an escalation of health care costs.

Damn, I am in a foul mood.

The White House has put out a video debunking the Republican lies about health care reform.

 

Froomkin's first post from Huffington. And, as per usual, he criticizes the President.

The other possibility -- well, I call that one the Obama-as-pushover scenario. In this one, Obama will come out of it having given away the store -- having neither significantly improved the health-care system nor lowered its costs, but rather having created a new entitlement that primarily benefits the health insurance, pharmaceutical and hospital industries.

So far, the glimpses we've seen from behind all those closed doors suggest the latter scenario. Most significantly, late last week, first the Los Angeles Times and then the New York Times broke the news that Obama had secretly made a sweetheart deal with former arch-nemesis Billy Tauzin, head of Big PhRMA. The same man who during his presidential campaign so ardently pledged to let Medicare negotiate prescription-drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, has now apparently agreed to block any Congressional efforts to do that -- or anything else that would rein in the industry's obscene profits, for that matter -- all in return for $80 billion in promised cost savings over 10 years and, it turns out, an $150 million ad campaign in support of "reform" efforts.

I am not sure I agree with this particular claim. The New York Times noted the White House appeared to backed off the deal. So, well, I guess we will have to wait and see.

Then listen to the son, and co-founder, of the man who helped build the modern conservative christian movement.

Ian Walsh believes President Obama is just about done being proactive. I agree.

The Republican/conservative brightness before the burn out I keep thinking is happening, only gets brighter and brighter, and not in a good way. As the Birthers, Tea baggers, and generally just mad at the world types, descend upon the town hall meetings, I realize that my imagining of their behavior falls quantitatively short of their capabilities.

Then, Ian had this to say:

They took the lesson of the Clinton administration to be "don't enflame (sic) the fanatics on the right--avoid social issues, and don't slash the military".  They were, of course, wrong: the radical right (and there is hardly a non-radical right left) will oppose Obama no matter what he does and if Obama is unwilling to use to the full might of the administrative apparatus against them, they will simply take advantage of his weakness to escalate.  Tactics which are seen to work, will not be abandoned, to the contrary, they will be used more and more.

don't enflame (sic) the fanatics on the right--avoid social issues

Suddenly, my imagination made a quantum jump that pictured a radical increase in the use of deadly force, with a resultant increase in dead minorities (including gay, lesbian, and transgenders).

Now, I am not about to believe one way or another that President Obama understood this possible scenario. Still, to pick health care as his first major policy push might have been for other reasons besides the time was right. Regardless of whether he recognized it was a policy that could result in the least amount of insanity and violence, in the end, it is what happened.

Ask yourself this; had President Obama picked an African American jurist for the Supreme Court, just what kind of push back do you think would have happened? Unlike health care, an African American nominee to the Supreme Court is a racial element that would have inflamed the radical right even more then the current push for health reform. I don't know about you, but my imagination in this situation includes some serious killings, maybe even a lynching or three.

What? You think that's too far? If there are calls by influential leaders of the radical right for people to bring guns to town hall meetings, my suggestion of lynchings had President Obama attempted to place an African American on the Supreme Court is going to far? Considering how easy it is for the radical right followers to kill gays, lesbians, and transgenders during less politically decisive times, any push to end DADT, or otherwise legislate equal rights for sexual orientation, would suddenly result in a decrease of killings? We are talking about a section of the electorate that thinks it is funny to print out liberal hunting licenses.

So, for whatever reason, President Obama went the path of least resistance. But, Ian is right. No matter what policy the President pursues, the radical right will fight back. And they will use any action they perceive to have already been effective. If the push for health reform does stall, and no bill is forthcoming this year, I too believe the President is dead in the water. He will achieve no further legislative goals. And even if he does pass health care reform, I still believe he's dead in the water, simply because the radical right, already inflamed and instilled with an Armageddon mindset, will simply believe the end is nigh and make a homicidal/suicidal push. They are going to take as many with them as possible.

In my opinion, any further legislative attempts by the President and violence is assured. It is already occurring. If President Obama manages to shove a version of health reform through congress, he's going to be faced with one angry, pissed off radical right. He will pretty much be unable to overcome any further resistance because civil unrest is only going to continue. Chances are, it will take up most of his administration's attention.

So, once he's done with as much of the legislative work he can realistically achieve, I suggest he turn his attention to judicial/legal house cleaning. Unleash the Justice Department and force a searching and fearless constitutional inventory of our government. There is a world of hurt in it, with much latent corruption and incompetence set to cause further decades of pain and suffering, thereby weakening our country. If he truly wants to be seen as an agent of change, the more important task he faces is exposure of the past administration's eight years of malfeasance and criminality. Hell, cleaning up the last 30 years of modern conservative governance is one damn fine legacy, if you ask me.

Now, I do not believe President Obama wants that for a legacy. But most people do not get to choose their destiny, it chooses them.

I always believed the cell phone companies used the extended voice mail instructions to take even more money from me. Now, David Pague has an article up verifying my belief.

In 2007, I spoke at an international cellular conference in Italy. The big buzzword was ARPU--Average Revenue Per User. The seminars all had titles like, "Maximizing ARPU In a Digital Age." And yes, several attendees (cell executives) admitted to me, point-blank, that the voicemail instructions exist primarily to make you use up airtime, thereby maximizing ARPU.

What the hell happened to customer service in this country? It use to be, at least it seemed to me, that ripping off customers was a good way to lose business. I guess when you are able to spend the money to buy a few politicians, you can rig the system to be able to overtly rip off consumers and still make a profit. The above is one example of corporations knowingly ripping off costumers.

Then there is the health insurance industry, which has taken it even farther, buy not only ripping off their customers, but by dumping them, thereby increasing their profits. Not exactly a sustainable business model. Eventually, no one is going to buy their service. Then were do they get the money? Oh, duh, I forgot, mandatory laws forcing people to buy their crappy health insurance coverage.

Bastards.

Now, this is the way to reform health insurance: Bill of Consumer Health Insurance Rights.

• No discrimination for preexisting conditions.
• No exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays.
• No cost-sharing for preventive care.
• No dropping of coverage for the seriously ill.
• No gender discrimination.
• No annual or lifetime caps on coverage.
• Extended coverage for young adults.
• Guaranteed insurance renewal.

Although, leave it to a Legacy paper to still make it a mouth full. Seriously, Insurance Consumers' Bill of Rights is much easier to say.

Okay, now for a piece of evil: Hat Tip Kevin Drum.

Yes, it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Well, if it don't beat all, now I have to give Atrios a Hat Tip for a link to the White House page displaying Health Insurance Consumer Protections.

I still like Insurance Consumers' Bill of Rights.

Atrios simply called him a wanker. That's too kind. Evan Bayh is Jack Ass of the Day. What it boils down to; he doesn't want to have to vote on a bill and show his loyalties to the insurance industry.

I'm working on getting my medical bills caught up. With Medica Insurance being one of the worse to have, my bills were not immediately paid. For some reason, I had to do some extra paperwork, the exact same paperwork I originally filled out when applying for coverage to begin with. So, now that that log jam finally cleared, I am now facing secondary co-payments.

You see, I made the standard $35.00 co-pays for every visit, only to discover additionally co-pays after the fact. It's those damn deductibles, I guess. But it's in the fine print. You know, the same ones that they are allowed to change without immediate notice. Anyway, I've still got a ways to go. But, I managed to pay a large chunk of my bills and now have a bit of a monthly payment to make.

In case anyone is wondering, I believe that should hell really, honestly exist, the deepest, darkest level is to be reserved for insurance company executives, board members, and bond holders. Because making an obscene profit off of my, and all other people, illnesses is the worse behavior in which a human can engage.

Look, I understand the need for putting food on the table, and a roof over the heads of family. But when people start requiring a profit level of such magnitude that I can not put a roof over my family, or food on the table, there is something fundamentally wrong with the system. That rich bastards believe they are entitled to obscene profits at the expense of hard working, middle class people...... well, fuck them.

Oh, and one last thing: don't even bother calling them health insurance companies. If they were truly about a persons health, they would not be about profits at all, but simply about helping people to get healthy. Do that, and they'd naturally see a profit. Honestly. Sell a good product and word of mouth alone would bring you business. Isn't that the of the free market place? Of course, the whole thing about the market place is there's no room for free. Free market place is an oxymoron.

I've not much to add to the debate about Obama's efforts at bipartisanship. Better bloggers than I have made hay over that subject.

However, I do have an opinion. I also go to the bathroom a lot. Anyway, when it comes to Obama's efforts, I am willing to allow him his timing. I figure, at some point, he is going to discontinue the following efforts:

Time

When Barack Obama informed congressional Republicans last month that he would support a controversial parliamentary move to protect health-care reform from a filibuster in the Senate, they were furious. That meant the bill could pass with a simple majority of 51 votes, eliminating the need for any GOP support. Where, they demanded, was the bipartisanship the President had promised? So, right there in the Cabinet Room, the President put a proposal on the table, according to two people who were present. Obama said he was willing to curb malpractice awards, a move long sought by Republicans that is certain to bring strong opposition from the trial lawyers who fund the Democratic Party.

What, he wanted to know, did the Republicans have to offer in return?

Nothing, it turned out. Republicans were unprepared to make any concessions, if they had any to make. But the encounter did make some Democrats wish they could see more of that kind of presidential engagement on the issue that Obama says is his top legislative priority. "I want the White House involved, maybe to be at the table," says Senator Chris Dodd, the second-ranking Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. "It's very important." (See five truths about health care in America.)

Look, Obama has shown good judgment, patience, and an innate sense of timing. It was on display during the election. Now, though, people are reacting to the current political situation as if he's lost that particular set of skills. I suspect he will know when to stop giving the GOP an opportunity to participate in the crafting of bills and just work with the Democratic caucuses in the congress.

I voted for the man because I believed he would be able to do the job as he saw fit, not as I saw fit. So far, he's managed to achieve a semblance of what I see fit. Not a perfect fit, but I'm not one to truly judge. Now, don't get me wrong; I do judge. But I also go to the bathroom a lot.

I don't care what others might think; that this manager is one lone person and not an indictment of the corporation for whom he works - shit runs down hill:

Star Tribune

MADISON, Wis. -- A Dean Health System nurse was called out of surgery so a manager could tell her she was being laid off.

Dean Health said the surgery was minor and the patient wasn't affected, but the manager who summoned the nurse from surgery violated medical protocol.

If there is one action that defines the residual effects of the Bush Era, this is it.

In health care, you always keep the interest of the patient foremost in your mind. That this manager believed it was perfectly okay to pull a nurse from surgery speaks volumes to the attitude and mindset of the corporate structure at the Dean Health System. Obviously the bottom line is much more important than the health of their patients.

If Dean Health Systems wants their reputation restored, they best fire the manager. After reading this simple article, Lord knows I'd not want to find myself under their care.

This is good news.

CNN

Federal regulators have cleared the way for the first human trials of human embryonic stem-cell research, authorizing researchers to test whether the cells are safe to use in spinal injury patients, the company behind the trials announced Friday.

[snip]

The primary purpose of the trial will be to see whether injecting these cells into patients is safe, but Okarma said researchers will also look for any signs of recovery. Scientists will monitor the patients for a year after the injections to see if they are regaining any function below the injured point.

I hope they are able to find their hypothesis to be sound, and the results not only promising, but successful. Right now, my mother is suffering from damage to her spine. She has lost the use of her right diaphragm, and reports daily pain in her back and abdomen. I can't help but wonder if any new discoveries may help ease her discomfort and restore to her a quality of life she currently does not enjoy.

Well, there has been a medical issue developing slowly with my mother over the last 3 months. First, they suspected she had Emphysema. That was eventually ruled out. Finally, they discovered her right diaphragm was paralyzed. They figured it happened all the way back in 2001. At least, the nerve was pinched back then, and the diaphragm finally stopped working about a year ago.

Well, now she's having other problems. Over Thanksgiving, her ankles swelled up to the size of her knees. Finally, Saturday morning, she was confused and bordering on hallucinating. Dad took her into the hospital at 9:00 PM that night. I went to see her yesterday at the Burnett County Medical Center in Grantsburg, WI. She was doing better.

However, I received word today she was transferred to Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. It's part of the Allina System, a former employer of mine back in 2006. Anyway, tests are going to be run on her heart, to see what is going on. Like my problems earlier this year, it seems to be taking much longer than ought be necessary to discover the source of her discomfort and ill health.

I know that diagnosing illness is as much an art as it is a science, but right now I can not help but think the delay in finding my mother's problem is as much fear of running tests because of insurance interference then just not knowing. To be honest, I would rather see expensive tests run with a quick discovery of the cause, then to err to the side of monetary conservatism. Somehow, personal suffering for the sake of medical cost efficiency just does not seem right. But then, I never did understand conservative compassion.

Shakopee Valley News

Zyprexa, as well as the other atypical antipsychotics, are being prescribed for children, even though this is an unapproved, off-label use. Eli Lilly has been charged in allegedly pushing the drug for children in more than one state.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG!

This is nothing more than lazy parents and teachers looking for the easier, softer way to deal with children.

Children are naturally hyper. Children are naturally loud. Children have a tendency to be mean and cruel to each other. Name calling, anger, temper; it is all par for the course with children. They become overwhelmed with their own growing energy. They have short attention spans. They do not need medication.

An ADHD diagnosis should not be made by a primary physician at the local clinic. Nor a child put on any type of antipsychotics, or any mood-altering chemicals, unless they have been thoroughly evaluated by competent, trained and experienced psychiatrists.

All any child really needs is patience, tolerance, and love; with firm, consistent, and continuous boundaries (which requires constant effort by parents to think about more than themselves) that will teach them proper social behavior. And finally, parental realization that they will not see instantaneous results.

I swear, some days it seems our society is one big addict; always wanting what it wants when it wants it and wanting it Right-God-Damn-Now!

startribune.com

DULUTH, MINN. - Administrators at SMDC Health System saw them as virulent, insidious and cause for an all-out eradication campaign in its four hospitals and 17 clinics throughout northern Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Germs?

No, pens and note pads.

Nexavar pens. Combivir note pads. Vioxx mouse pads. Advair and Levitra clipboards A disembodied stuffed nose from Allegra that exclaims, "That's snot funny!"

As part of a new policy that experts say is one of the toughest in the nation blocking pharmaceutical companies from influencing doctors, the Duluth-based health system recently got rid of nearly every freebie with a drug company name on it.

'Bout damn time. I hope this moves into television, radio, internet, and print advertising as well. Since the ban on advertising drugs has been lifted, drug prices have gone up, not down, as was first promised.

Alternet

The gutting of public mental health services began with Reagan, first in California where he closed state-funded mental health facilities. As president he cut aid for federally-funded community-run mental health programs. The result: thousands of more homeless people in California and nationwide and a spike in the prison population. The New York Times recently reported that despite a rapid rise in the suicide rate in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the city has half of its psychiatrists, social workers and mental health care workers.

I remember when the policies of Ronald Reagan began impacting Minnesota. I had just sobered up during the final stages of shuttering the Minnesota State Hospital system. The people I knew who worked in government jobs, mainly social workers, and the counselors in the addiction field, complained loudly that the services for the people they helped were suddenly, and unceremoniously, cut.

Throughout my career as a chemical dependency counselor I have watched helplessly as people were thrown in jail and prison for behaviors associated with their mental illness and addiction. These people were not criminals. If they were treated for their mental illness, or their addictions, they would not commit the crimes that put them in jail. And usually, the amount of services, and time spent in the facilities now closed down, were shorter, and of less cost then the time, and costs, of jail.

Today, instead of the reduced costs of treatment and housing in the State Hospital systems, they are housed, and not treated, in a far more expensive prison system. So, after being "rehabilitated" in prison, they are released into a society they are not capable of navigating, resort to their old behaviors, and are returned to jail or prison. As a result, they are a more costly economic strain on society.

The Morning in America, described as bright and prosperous by Reagan in 1984 has become a dismal afternoon for the poor and powerless.