Archive for the ‘insurance’ tag
Supreme Court rules mandate constitutional, JPMorgan trading loss may reach $9 Billion
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Supreme Court rules the individual mandate constitutional, Jamie and Allison dissect the ACA, the right freaks out, the largest city in the U.S. files for bankruptcy, Aaron Sorkin is a dick, and so is Jamie Dimon.
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Scalia horrifies court with SB1070 comments, debt collectors at hospitals
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Allison and Jamie discuss Justice Scalia’s horrifying comments during the SB1070 hearing, debt collectors at hospitals, Obama Justice and medical marijuana,CISPA, and Rupert Murdoch updates.
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Supreme Court circus, worker solidarity in Occupy Wall Street, cat talk
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Allison and Jamie discuss SCOTUS’ handling of the Affordable Care Act debate, worker solidarity in Occupy Wall Street, CAT TALK, and the creepy US policy of ordering UK carriers to extend no-fly list of Brits travelling to non-US destinations, even on flights that don’t pass through US airspace.
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The real anti-reform cost: Two women die every day giving birth in America
The Witch No. 3. Image from Wikipedia
In honor of the vote on healthcare reform, I think it’s a good idea to keep some perspective and remember what the Republican obstructionists and some of their lovely anti-choice Democrat friends will be voting against today.
I wrote about the blatant hypocrisy of the anti-choice crowd yesterday, and how — if they were truly serious about protecting the sanctity of life — they would be the first bloc voting for reform.
Millions of children are uninsured, or under-insured in this country. Additionally, many single women opt for abortions simply because the average price tag of delivering a baby (that is delivery only, and not adding in the cost of raising a child) is $25,000.
Now, a new report from Amnesty International notes that nearly two women die every day from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth, and sadly, many of these deaths could have been prevented.
David Brooks recaps health care reform, forgets everything, says nothing
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
David Brooks recites at length what went down during the health care reform debacle except he throws in a bunch of misleading statements, cites a firm that behaves as a front for an insurance company to bolster one of his claims, and then — why not? — fails to make a compelling statement or introduce any kind of noteworthy information.
In short, the column is representative of the very worst aspects of the health care debate: misleading half-truths that neither educate nor compel. If the Times is looking to boost revenues, it should rent out Brooks’s column space to an advertiser. At least they could then afford to fund more investigative journalism.
Much has gone wrong during the health care negotiations, so it’s downright odd Brooks willfully evades the fact that Obama met privately with the pharmaceutical companies, and agreed to oppose any congressional efforts to bargain for lower drug prices, import drugs from Canada, and not to pursue Medicare rebates or shift some drugs from Medicare Part B to Medicare Part D, which would cost Big Pharma billions in reduced reimbursements. That seems like a huge “uh-oh” moment to avoid if we’re making a list of Shit That Went Wrong during the reform process.
Would the Senate healthcare bill have helped Obama's mother?
Image via Wikipedia
Back in the day, Candidate Obama told a touching story about his mother’s struggle to pay her medical bills while battling cancer. Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, died of ovarian cancer at the age of 53, an event Obama said in part inspired him to tackle healthcare reform.
But what kind of coverage would Dunham receive today under the Senate bill as it stands right now?
In this experiment, Dunham is still 50-years-old (her age in 1992 when she received her Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii). She is the single mother of two grown children, so she no longer has dependents. In this model, she has just been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
She is employed as an anthropologist with USAID, the United States federal government organization responsible for most non-military foreign aid. In 1999, the federal government starting annual salaries for anthropologists were $37,744 for persons with a Ph.D., so for the sake of this experiment, I’m going to assume that she earns an annual salary of $37,744.
Politician introduces logical 'Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist' Act
Every once in a while, a politician does something logical and good for the country, and it’s amusing to watch Americans collectively furrow their brows as they gaze confused at an altruistic act. They stare at this do-gooder like he’s an alien, and when compared to the unproductive cash cows crowding the Congress, this Champion Of The People sort of is alien.
Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced the “Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act” last week. In just two pages, he outlined a simple way to prevent a repeat of last year’s massive taxpayer-funded bailouts.
That’s two pages. That’s it. Anyone can read them over here (PDF). As Rachel Maddow pointed out, that’s two pages — in really big font! The language is simple to understand — clear even! — and provides a solution to a major flaw in the US economy.
Veteran healthcare journalist grades Obama's speech and the media
President Obama edits his speech aboard Marine One on September 9 (Pete Souza/White House)
“My job is to point out where the holes are,” Trudy Lieberman explains to me during our phone interview. I called Lieberman to get her opinion of President Obama’s health reform speech, and I also asked her to grade the media’s performance in explaining the issue of reform to the American people.
A veteran journalist, who has reported on health care and consumer issues for over thirty years, Lieberman is a contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review, has taught in the Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program at New York University and the journalism program at Columbia University, received numerous honors and awards, and is the author of five books, including the Consumer Reports Guide to Health Services For Seniors, which was named one of the best consumer health books for 2000 by Library Journal.
With over three decades experience covering health care, Lieberman has amassed a wealth of knowledge with which she hopes to arm average citizens. Her job is to “point out where the holes are” when politicians talk about health reform, and Lieberman spotted several holes in Obama’s speech last night.
For months, CJR and Lieberman has been “hammering away at [Obama] to be a little more articulate about what this whole reform effort is about,” says Lieberman. Last night, in her opinion, Obama came closer to defining his message when he said his plan would meet three basic goals: provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance, provide insurance to those who don’t have it, and slow the growth of health care costs.
Obama's solution is to pay the enemy
President Obama, with Vice President Biden and Speaker Pelosi behind him, delivers a joint address to Congress on September 9 (Alex Wong/Getty)
During his speech before a joint session of Congress, President Obama called for the creation of insurance exchanges, a system designed to allow consumers to see varying prices and programs so they can comparison shop. Obama only mentioned the P-word once, and even then the public option name drop was immediately followed by the caveats “We should remain open to other ideas that accomplish our ultimate goal,” and the public option is only a “means to an end.” Read: It’s a nice idea, but drop it.
Elsewhere, Obama recycled the usual reasons for why single-payer healthcare, the Progressives’ other favored solution, just isn’t possible right now (at the mere mention of single-payer sporadic cheers broke out in the audience.) “I believe it makes more sense to build on what works and fix what doesn’t, rather than try to build an entirely new system from scratch,” said the president. This dismisses Marcia Angell’s idea of a gradual expansion of Medicare, a slow transition that wouldn’t have violently jolted our beloved system of privatized healthcare.
But nevermind. Back to the insurance exchange idea. Obama means citizens will be required by law to purchase their coverage from private insurers. Similarly, Max Baucus’s disastrous recent proposal calls for mandates that will literally force individuals and families to purchase insurance from the enemy — and one of the great culprits of the entire reform debate — Big Insurers. Without a serious public option (and not the “I’m humoring them, have they shut up yet?” approach Obama seems to be suggesting,) the insurance industry has a captive market, the American people, who will be held hostage in a for-profit health insurance scheme.
Meet the real death panels
Members of the California Nurses Association Image by aflcio2008 via Flickr
In anticipation of President Obama’s speech tonight before a joint session of Congress, Sarah Palin has resurrected the “death panels” myth. Writing in the Wall Street Journal (one of the last forums willing to spread her misinformed hate other than Facebook,) Palin asks, “is it any wonder that many of the sick and elderly are concerned that the Democrats’ proposals will ultimately lead to rationing of their healthcare by—dare I say it—death panels? Establishment voices dismissed that phrase, but it rang true for many Americans.”
Here, Palin confuses “rang true” for “rang the bell of terrified dread.” Though it’s a blatant lie, hearing the term “death panels” is scary enough to concern Republicans, especially old Republicans.
There has been much speculation over what Obama will say tonight in his speech, or what he should say, or what he definitely should not say. Many want him to fight for the public option by clearly defining what it means, and finally squashing the rumors of “death panels” for all time.
I would suggest Obama not run from the term “death panels” because it has, unfortunately, firmly joined the popular vernacular. Instead, I hope he does talk about death panels, namely what the nation’s largest group of nurses calls California’s “real death panels” where private insurers deny 21% of filed claims.
