Mar

14

No public option. We will be getting a bill that does not allow insurance companies to drop us people with pre-existing conditions. But, does this legislation dictate what the insurance companies can charge? No, it does not. Without a public option your premiums can still be raised to the point that you will not be able to afford them.

The facts remain that healthcare insurance is more about paying for normal care than it is about insurance.

This bill we are going to pass is better than doing nothing, but it pretty much sucks because it does not address the real problems.

The solution to healthcare is the following steps to take:

1) 

Make medicare available to everyone. Increase the medicare tax to cover premiums, not for normal care, rather for catastophic care (cancer, and the other big ticket items), and also for certain nornaml preventitive care (annual checkups, dental cleanings, mammograms, etc…)

2)

Expand upon medical savings accounts that private individuals fund, that rollover each year. Create tax incentives similar to 401k tax breaks. Allow these funds to be put into interest bearing accounts, or buy into treasury bond funds so that they also grow over time.

3)

Deal with our food supply chain that is currently controlled by chemical companies and is the main reason we have so many serious healthcare problems. Do this by imposing higher taxes on the these foods. This will level the playing field and allow more organic and healthier foods to gain market share and make their way into the supply chain.

4)

Allow insurance companies to sell insurnace policies and various products that would allow weathier Americans to have enhanced care if they so desire. This and item #1 is pretty much how the British system works.

 

 

 

Feb

16

I said this on Oct 12th and I am saying it again. The insurance companies want the Government to pass a healthcare bill. Why? They will be able to make more money.

Do you think these people are that stupid to announce rate increases up to 39% at this point in time?

 

 

Feb

12

Insurance companies reported 12.2 billion dollars in profits in fy 2009. They did this while dropping 2.7 million Americans from coverage. All done in a year that saw double digit unemployment and the worst economic climate since the Great Depression.

Democrats, get with the program. You are in the majority. Republicans used reconciliation five times during Bush’s tenure. Republicans are out of the picture. Success or failure is on your shoulders. We see that party is being obstructionist. But, you are in charge. Start being in charge or your tenure in charge will be short.

 

Feb

9

Medicare is clearly an entitlement program. It is also technically “socialized” medicine. We each pay 1.45% and your employer has to pay a matching amount. If you are earning $100,000 a year (close to 2 times the national average) you had a grand total of $3000.00 toward medicare. If you were 21 years old and tried to find a healthcare policy equivalent to medicare you cold not find one at 3 times that price. Try finding private insurance at age 65.

So here is my idea/offer.

I think the government should let anyone that is against socialized medicine opt out of medicare. They will rebate the 1.45% you have paid in back to you, but you are offically out of medicare and they are off the hook. I wonder how many of you tea party people would sign up for that deal.

Do you think Big Business, Rush Limbaugh, and other millionaires like Dick Armey are going to help you out? Think again. You are a nothing more than pawn in their game. And, oh how you are being played.

 

Dec

3

AP News

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33973665/ns/health-womens_health/

“A government task force said Monday that most women don’t need mammograms in their 40s and should get one every two years starting at 50″.

I have been listening to the discourse on both sides of this issue. I suspect that in some cases it might be okay to wait until fifty, but I do not know for sure.

I do know this.

My wife is 45 years old and just underwent a lumpectomy and is shortly going to start Chemo. She was badgered by our primary care provider we have had for close to twenty years. He told her at an exam months ago that if she did not schedule a mamogram she would need to find another doctor. She was diagnosed with stage one breast cancer. For those of you that are unfamiliar with breast cancer, there are five stages.

Five is the worst.

She has dense breast tissue so a self-exam may not have revealed anything. The mamogram only revealed that they needed to do further tests.

When it comes to the human body there is and likely will never be “one size fits all.”

I will let you draw you own conclusions as to your opinion on this matter. I suspect you already know mine.

Thanks Dr. Thompson for preemting what could have been the greatest tragedy in my life.

 

 

Nov

17

This is a question for forty million of you out there.

What would you do without medicare?

“Write those letters now. Call your friends, and tell them to write them. If you don’t, this program I promise you will pass just as surely as the sun will come up tomorrow. And behind it will come other federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country, until, one day…we will awake to find that we have socialism. And if you don’t do this, and if I don’t do it, one of these days, you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children’s children, what it once was like in America when men were free.”

Ronald Reagan spoke these words in 1961 for a public service ad against medicare.

Now this question is for 45 million of you…

What would your quality of life be without social security?

In 1935 Sen. Bennett Clark of Montana proposed an amendment that would have enabled employers to opt out of Social Security if they had pension plans offering more generous benefits than Social Security. By the way, Clark was a Democrat.

“The Clark Amendment was developed by a group of insurance lobbyists under the leadership of Walter Forster, of the insurance brokerage firm of Towers, Perrin, Forster and Crosby, and introduced by Senator Clark as an amendment to the Administration’s bill while it was under consideration in the Senate Finance Committee.”

(Source: http://www.socialsecurity.gov/history/clarkamend.html)

Seems some things never change. Sometimes smart people are wrong.

This is the for all us. Next time you are driving on an interstate imagine what American life would be like had Eisenhower not enacted the  “Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956.” Ike was a Republican.

As you look around at our crumbling national infrastructure, as you watch people oppose Obama’s ambitious plans to revitalize our energy grid, build up our infrastructure, and call him a socialist and compare him to Hitler think about what your lives would be like had our earlier leaders not had the foresight to create the SSA, Medicare, or our national interstate highways.

Think hard about these things.

Oct

25

Health care reform must involve healthy choices in our diet and a healthy lifestyle. Diet and exercise. These are choices we must make as individuals, and choices we must make for our children. I could spend pages extolling the need for reform in our food growth and supply chain. But, this is a waste of breath as the only thing that is going to change what is on the grocery shelves and served in food outlets is a change in consumer behavior.

This is capitalism plain and simple. Expect nothing less. The evolution and growth of organic foods and businesses like Whole Foods have happened because of demand in the marketplace. With more demand for healthy foods businesses will change their ways.

I recently watched “Super Size Me” which I have never seen. This movie needs to become ressurected as the rallying cry for a change in your behavior (and mine). The movie synopsis in short: A very healthy young man goes on a McDonalds-only diet for 30-days. Throughout this timeline he has blood work and vitals done. We watch him gain 25 pounds during this time. We see him go from a clincally healthy individual to becoming very sick, putting his life at risk.

This movie came out in 2004 and not much has changed since then. We have largely become a nation of obese and unhealthy people. Our national diet now consists of food high in fat and high in sugar and sodium. Diabetes and heart disease are two of the most prevalent diseases crippling us as a nation and taxing our health care system.

We fail to connect the food and beverages we put in our bodies with the state of our health. No group is guiltier than this than the medical community. If they don’t seem to care, or only pay lip service why should we care? After all, they have medical degree and are the professionals.

For such an advanced society, for such an educated nation, we certainly are a bunch of dumb-asses on this matter. Would you put anything other than gas in your car? 

NO! Why…

The engine would breakdown quickly. Unfortunately the engines in our bodies do not break down so quickly.

We have come to a point where we need to look in the national mirror and realize where we are at. But, the choice for a healthy lifestyle is not up to your Government or up to big business. It is up to you.

 

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