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Argue Pros and Cons of Healthcare Legislation Here

Argue Pros and Cons of Healthcare Legislation Here

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The actual dialogue that we should be having has been eclipsed by the pathologies of the American public.

This post is for arguing the pros and cons of the actual bill, ok?

Civil dialogue, only, please. Stick to topic and argue the actual bill!

Ready Jonathan? Ready Phil? Ready Michael? Anyone else that wants to join in?

Here is your forum. Make your case. See if you can be fair and adhere to the rules of civil dialogue. Maybe then some points could arise that are actually important to everyone.

Here’s how this specific conversation started on Facebook:

I posted this link:

Swastika painted at Georgia congressman’s office – Yahoo! News – Someone spray-painted a large swastika on a sign outside the office of a Georgia congressman who was involved in a contentious argument over health care at a recent community meeting.

And this comment:

“So, this is Georgia and I’m confused. Is this an accusation or a proclamation?”

Feedback from Friends

Michael: Atrocities of WWII aside, that really can’t ever be put aside… EVER.. I’m actually kinda’ impressed that they have both the direction and the tilt correct.. given the usual pool of suspects, anyway. Unlike the one who painted it onto the Plymouth Rock backward… and was caught..

Heidi:
There’s a disconnect for me though. Rush, Limbaugh, etc. have been comparing Obama/Democrats to the Nazis all week, without being aware of the resurgence of the KKK and those sorts of attitudes among their base? Unlikely. Maybe it’s just especially weird here, this week.

Michael:
meh… he’s a clown who’s paid to fill a time slot.. you’d think by now people would wise up against per-minute ideology.

Phil: Typical. The sub-moronic trailer trash who are being goaded and funded to trash the nigg… I mean, that esteemed gentleman of color who happens to be president, praise Jesus and may the man die slowly… lack any apparent form of irony, rationality, intellect or historical knowledge. They DO, however, appear to know how to use spray paint. I guess all those opposable thumbs aren’t totally going to waste!

Phil: PS: Just in case my meaning was not totally clear, I am NOT referring to Obama by any form of racial slur. I am reflecting a sad truth about those who are so vehemently opposed to anything and everything the man does. At heart, they’re just terrified of a colored president, and will believe – or do – anything to counter that apparently terrifying reality.

Jonathan: I’m one of those who dislike the President’s policy decisions. I couldn’t care less what color he is. His policies scare me. Most frightening is the clear difference between his public words, and his actions. In other realms, that would be called lying.

Phil: *sighs*

The “lying” here, Jonathan, is being done by Obama’s opponents. Thanks for being one more American taken in by the high-stakes con-game being run to keep us shackled to the insurance companies! You are buying the lies wholesale, and we’re all paying the bill. If you want to know the truth, READ THE DAMNED PLAN, not the utter fabrications about the plan being spread by Sarah Palin’s lackeys and masters. It’s called “lying,” all right, but Obama isn’t the one doing it.

Phil: And as for “frightened,” be frightened by the people who are starting riots and inciting hatred at town hall meetings. This was done before, Jonathan, using exactly the same playbook. Germany, 1933. Look it up, and see who’s REALLY playing Hitler now.

Jonathan:
Wow. Do you have your tinfoil hat on to block the mind control impulses from the evil republican-neo-cons? We do have that vast right-wing conspiracy including insurance companies…

On a serious note, I’ve only seen/read excerpts from the bill, and those sections are disturbing. How about I post some links to those sections which clearly contradict the Obama rhetoric about the bill? I won’t have time until tomorrow night though. Gotta do laundry.

Phil: Who needs tinfoil hats? All you need is half a brain. As for the “mind control,” it’s quite simple, really: lies, lies, and more lies, backed up by utter fabricated hysteria from Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and FOX News. Utter. Complete. Fabrications. No evil conspiracies necessary. Just the old Vladimir Lenin truism: “A lie told often enough … Read Morebecomes the truth.”

Regarding the insurance companies, please watch the interview with former Sigma executive Wendell Potter; in it, he tells Bill Moyers exactly what they do, why they do it, and how they get away with it… including a mention of the “third-party dirty work” that would be employed to stop health care reform attempts. See http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch2.html

As for the proposed bill, see: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc111/h3200_ih.xml

Start from here – or start from your own concerns.

Fact Check

Fact Check

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FactCheck.org has a great analysis of the debate last night.

Here’s just the Summary for a quick perusal – but you really have to read the analysis:

  • Obama said McCain adviser Henry Kissinger backs talks with Iran “without preconditions,” but McCain disputed that. In fact, Kissinger did recently call for “high level” talks with Iran starting at the secretary of state level and said, “I do not believe that we can make conditions.” After the debate the McCain campaign issued a statement quoting Kissinger as saying he didn’t favor presidential talks with Iran.
  • Obama denied voting for a bill that called for increased taxes on “people” making as little as $42,000 a year, as McCain accused him of doing. McCain was right, though only for single taxpayers. A married couple would have had to make $83,000 to be affected by the vote, and anyway no such increase is in Obama’s tax plan.
  • McCain and Obama contradicted each other on what Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen said about troop withdrawals. Mullen said a time line for withdrawal could be “very dangerous” but was not talking specifically about “Obama’s plan,” as McCain maintained.
  • McCain tripped up on one of his signature issues – special appropriation “earmarks.” He said they had “tripled in the last five years,” when in fact they have decreased sharply.
  • Obama claimed Iraq “has” a $79 billion surplus. It once was projected to be as high as that. It’s now down to less than $60 billion.
  • McCain repeated his overstated claim that the U.S. pays $700 billion a year for oil to hostile nations. Imports are running at about $536 billion this year, and a third of it comes from Canada, Mexico and the U.K.
  • Obama said 95 percent of “the American people” would see a tax cut under his proposal. The actual figure is 81 percent of households.
  • Obama mischaracterized an aspect of McCain’s health care plan, saying “employers” would be taxed on the value of health benefits provided to workers. Employers wouldn’t, but the workers would. McCain also would grant workers up to a $5,000 tax credit per family to cover health insurance.
  • McCain misrepresented Obama’s plan by claiming he’d be “handing the health care system over to the federal government.” Obama would expand some government programs but would allow people to keep their current plans or chose from private ones, as well.
  • McCain claimed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had drafted a letter of resignation from the Army to be sent in case the 1944 D-Day landing at Normandy turned out to be a failure. Ike prepared a letter taking responsibility, but he didn’t mention resigning.

Here’s just one example:

Boeing Boasts

McCain was went too far when he said, "I saved the taxpayers $6.8 billion by fighting a contract that was negotiated between Boeing and DOD that was completely wrong. And we fixed it and we killed it."

McCain certainly did lead a fight to kill the contract, and the effort ended in prison sentences for defense contractors. But the contract isn’t exactly "fixed" yet. In fact, questions have been raised about the role McCain has played in helping a Boeing rival secure the new contract.

After the original Boeing contract to supply refueling airliners was nixed in 2003, the bidding process was reopened. And in early 2007, Boeing rival EADS/Airbus won the bid the second time around. But Boeing filed a protest about the way the bids were processed, and the Government Accountability Office released a report that found in Boeing’s favor. In the summary of GAO’s investigation, the organization said there were "significant errors" with the bid process and that the directions given to Boeing were "misleading."

Further, the New York Times reported that "McCain’s top advisers, including a cochairman of his presidential campaign, were lobbyists for EADS. And Mr. McCain had written to the Defense Department, urging it to ignore a trade dispute between the United States and Europe over whether Airbus received improper subsidies." A liberal campaign finance group ran an ad hitting McCain on the connections back in July and our colleagues at PolitiFact found their attacks to be true, saying: "Center for Responsive Politics prepared a report for PolitiFact that backs [the charge] up. U.S. employees of EADS/Airbus have contributed $15,700 in this election cycle to McCain’s campaign."

MedFICO: New Healthcare Profiling in the Works

MedFICO: New Healthcare Profiling in the Works

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I am complete agreement with Jolly Roger’s post Uninsured? Insured, But Poor? DIE, Deadbeat at Reconstitution 2.0, in which he speculates about the ultimate purpose of MedFICO. MedFICO is a new Healthcare Analytics product that assesses healthcare payment risk.

Already, payment history is being gathered from hospitals around the country in order to develop records that will predict “how likely patients will be to pay future medical bills.”

Don’t tell me that this isn’t some kind of a screening process to allow for the disposal of the inconveniently ill among us. Once they die off, why those health insurance CEOs can enjoy pay and bonuses that will make rock stars look like paupers in comparison. Isn’t it way past time to force these heartless, greedy, useless motherf**kers OUT OF an arena that absolutely should NOT be run like a business?

See: The Doctor Will See Your Credit Now:

“If you had a poor score, you could be denied a hospital stay, for example,” she said.

Linda Foley, who runs the Identity Theft Resource Center, also said any kind of medical risk scoring would run into a thicket of federal laws designed to protect consumers. It’s not clear if such a score would be covered by the Fair Credit Reporting Act and other credit-related laws that grant consumers the right to see their own credit reports and scores. The information may also be covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which restricts the use of patients’ private information.

The problem we see is: Who is regulating this?” she said. “How do we know it will never be used before treatment?”

Short answer: We don’t, and it will.

9.4 Million Uninsured Children in America

9.4 Million Uninsured Children in America

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The number of uninsured children from birth through age 18 rose for the second year in a row, according to new data released earlier this week by the U.S. Census Bureau.

In the last year alone, another 707,000 children have been added to bring the total to more than 9.4 million uninsured children in America.

This increase is more than double the jump from 2004 to 2005.

This alarming jump demonstrates that our children need a strong national safety net so that every child has access to the health coverage needed to survive and thrive. It is shameful that despite overwhelming public support and passage of bipartisan bills in both houses of Congress that would provide health coverage to millions more uninsured children, the President appears to be doing everything in his power to prevent children from getting the critical health coverage they need. Not only has President Bush threatened to veto these bills, more recently, the Bush administration issued harsh new rules for those trying to enroll in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) — rules that will substantially increase the number of uninsured children.

Help your Members of Congress stand up to the President as children’s health legislation comes up for a final vote in September — contact them today and let them know that every child matters and comprehensive health insurance for all children is important to you.

(From the Children’s Defense Fund)

Support the Female Troops

Support the Female Troops

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Our government should provide the highest standard of care to women who have volunteered to serve our country. Federal law, however, does little to protect the reproductive rights of servicewomen. Why are servicewomen being denied birth control?

Not only are the 350,000 women (almost 15 percent of all active-duty personnel) banned from accessing abortion care at military medical facilities, but some cannot even obtain emergency contraception, which can prevent unintended pregnancy if taken soon after sex, at their base pharmacy.

Given both the restrictions on abortion care in the military and the growing number of reported sexual-assault cases among servicewomen, Congress bears the responsibility, at a minimum, to make sure that this important and time-sensitive method of contraception is available to women at all military health-care facilities.

In 2002 health officials at the Defense Department agreed, and approved Plan B® to be stocked at military medical facilities. However, weeks later, President Bush’s political appointees overruled the decision without discussion or explanation.

This week, Congress has an opportunity to improve health care for women in the military with a bill sponsored by lawmakers in both parties and on both sides of the choice issue. The Compassionate Care for Servicewomen Act simply adds Plan B® to the list of medications that must be stocked at every military health-care facility.

Please urge Congress to ensure that emergency contraception is stocked at every military health-care facility.

Check out NARAL’s list of the top five myths about Plan B®, and the real facts.

Urgent Care Issues at the Clinic

Urgent Care Issues at the Clinic

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Perhaps it was the dancing at the wedding. Perhaps it was the new shoes. Or maybe it was just an extension of that slight crick I had in my neck when I woke up Sunday.

Whatever the cause, I’ve been experiencing some pretty serious back pain for the last couple of days. Somewhere between the bottom of my neck and the blades of my shoulders, something is terribly wrong.

I went to the University clinic yesterday to find out what. Information helps me to navigate pain. Since the pain was getting worse instead of better, I thought I’d better take the opportunity to do so, while I could still drive. I relied more heavily than usual on my car mirrors. Gosh! Objects are closer than they appear.

I got there at 9:30 a.m. A nurse interviewed me out in the waiting room. I was told that my doctor had patients, but that they would try to work me in. I let her know that I would see any doctor that could be made available. Then I sat. For a really long time.

After about twenty minutes, I was told that I could see my doctor at noon.

I went in the bathroom to cry.

Then I came back out, and read most of a book. Then, when I couldn’t read, I went outside and cried again.

I approached the desk:

“Um… I’m here for an urgent pain situation. Don’t you have an on-call doctor specifically for walk-ins?”

The two women at the desk semi-glared at me. Ok, my tone was a little ugly. I admit that.

However, this time there was someone behind the big desk who seemed to care. He asked me how long I had been waiting, and what was going on. After I told him, he explained that I really would just have to wait, but that he would check me in and get me into a room so that I could lie down while I was waiting. I was very grateful for that. It made a huge difference, and it let me get through the experience without bursting into tears again.

By the way, I tend to be a bit of a stoic. I don’t cry that often. It really, truly hurt, and my frustration level intensified the situation.

Well, I finally saw my doctor. She didn’t order an x-ray. She felt that it was a muscle issue, not a skeletal one. Yes, the vertebrae were all messed up, but with the deep muscle spasms that were by this time affecting much of my back (and radiating to my shoulders and arms, and not allowing me to turn my head very far to the left) had to be calmed down before an x-ray would make any sense anyway.

There was an amusing moment when she asked me how I would rate the pain from 1-10. I hate that question. Pain is so subjective, and I always have the tendency to under-rate it (stoic, see?). I said that if I hadn’t experienced a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, I would put it at a 10. She smiled at me. She got it. That was a whole different kind of scale – at that point, I’m not sure it’s even pain anymore, but we don’t really have another word to describe it.

This back pain is the worst muscle pain I’ve ever felt, though.

Evidently, using the hot tub was the wrong thing to do. She said I could try that later, when the muscles were healing. As it was, it probably disturbed the muscles even further.

She prescribed me a muscle relaxant so I could sleep at night, and told me to take ibuprofen during the day. She also advised ice packs. “Cold, not hot.”

Ahhh, the ice feels really, really good. It seems to be doing more than the medicine.

On the way out, I went back to the desk to thank the man who had cared enough to take what action he could to make things easier for me. He said that he thought I had a point, and asked me if I wanted to make any suggestions for the clinic. I bit back my immediate response. However, I did say that some sort of back-up was clearly needed for the urgent care situations that didn’t necessarily require a visit to the emergency room. I said that I would be glad to make myself available to talk to any decision-makers about the issues involved.

Then I went to fill the prescription, but evidently my coverage had changed and I had the wrong card. Sigh. So I drove back – just in time to pick up Ben from school – extricated the necessary information from J, and went back. That wait was only 20 minutes. By the time I was able to rest, I felt like I’d been run over by an 18-wheeler.

Well, guess what? I got a call today. The clinic is in the process of rethinking some of the procedures, so it was good timing. Perhaps they could have a doctor on-call who wouldn’t make appointments for the time – if there wasn’t an immediate need, such a doctor could still use the time to catch up on patient case records and follow-up. I mentioned the model of the pediatrician’s office, with well-waiting, sick-waiting, and so on. That might make sense for infection control too. She thanked me and said that my feedback would be taken into account. I hope so.

I have the feeling that medical groups like this are dumping patients on emergency rooms more than ever. I think it’s unethical – it doesn’t make economic sense and it certainly doesn’t give the best care to the patient. Moreover, I’ll bet that most emergency rooms are kept very busy with real emergencies. I’ve seen studies about their lack of preparedness for community-level emergency situations. Wouldn’t managed care facilities then be called upon as well?

There have been times when I didn’t seek medical help because I was too sick to face the daunting prospect of sitting there waiting for hours, and I didn’t want to infect anyone else. I had a really bad flu a few years ago, and I actually felt that I would be a danger to others if I left the house. With flu, you can do that, but the doctor needed to see me for this kind of situation.

Today, since I haven’t had to sit in an uncomfortable waiting room chair for hours, my back is not punching me with the excruciating level of pain that it was yesterday. It’s still a bit intense, but the ice packs and medication are starting to have some effect. I still can’t move my head, but the pain is more localized. I know exactly where it’s coming from now.

So that’s progress.