text:
Physicians enjoy a year-end rush
This show the failure of high deductibles.
Managed Care through the HMO model failed. High deductibles are failing too. This article shows how this wastes resources as well as how it punishes the sick and poor. This year end rush is like getting a government grant and doing a year end spending spree because of the use it or lose it way the grant works. Take the insurance company model out of health care and we can fix this mess. Create one single source of payment and provide universal access to health care without all the managing and blaming patients or docs for overuse and we can avoid all the waste in our system today - saving 30% which will allow universal access.
Lean Health
Hospitals ill from more bad debt, credit troubles - Yahoo! News
"Around the country, while some hospitals still are doing well, closings and bankruptcies seem to be picking up.
In New Jersey, where 47 percent of hospitals posted losses in 2007, five of the 79 acute-care hospitals closed this year, and a sixth may close soon. In Hawaii, nearly every hospital is in trouble, with two filing for bankruptcy and one nearly closing recently.
All over, hospitals are cutting costs by outsourcing services like housekeeping and security and trimming staff through layoffs, hiring freezes and attrition. Most are trying not to touch patient care jobs — nurses, pharmacists, therapists and X-ray technicians — as those already have staff shortages.
"The last thing we can do is skinny down our staffing right where we need it the most," said Mike Killian, marketing vice president for the three Beaumont Hospitals in suburban Detroit. "
We are all paying for this in getting sicker before we seek care and/or in higher cost for our medical bills and our insurance premiums. Closer to home we see dramatic increases in charity care. We are in need of a bail out and a nationalization of the health insurance industry.
RAM, the uninsured, and the underinsured
"Even though universal health insurance under a single-payer system would provide all Americans with medical, dental, eye care, and psychological treatment at a cost substantially lower than what we now pay for private insurance, we don't care. We have been brainwashed by conservatives in the Bush Administration and in Congress who claim it would be "socialized medicine."
Such thinking is shoddy and immoral. We have had Medicare for decades and it has not led us into socialism. On the contrary, the medical profession has thrived in under Medicare. Now it is time for Americans to start caring about one-another and provide Medicare for all of our people."
CJOnline Blogs - Roy: Prospects rising for better health care delivery
" Our problem isn't money, it's trying to deliver care through scores of money-making private health insurance companies."
This opinion piece is by a retired Kansas Congressman/Doctor.
Medicaid applicants grow as recession widens
AP : Winona Daily News
This is the Catch 22 that so many just don't get. Too many think that Welfare is used by lazy people who can make it on their own if forced to. Most expense is actually medical bills and most of that is for the elderly and disabled. Now more and more people need to turn to the government for medical help and this is the time that so many politicians turn first to the poor to cut. So coverage, eligibility and benifits are proposed to be cut at the same time as those in need increase. Guess it is OK to bail out the guys who come to meetings in their private jets but at the same time cut services to the laid off workers.
New fault line forms in health care fight - Chris Frates - Politico.com
This article outlines some of the issues between two parts of the health care reform movement.
Analysis of Choices for How to Cover the Uninsured
This Kaiser paper looks at options for how to cover the uninsured. It has some useful information. I continue to be disappointed with the many, many good intentioned people and groups, (like this one maybe), who write off single payer (Medicare for All) as not politically feasible. Bailing out banks, insurance companies and the auto industry is now politically feasible. Why not the health care mess. Nationalize the health insurance industry.
Remove the Middle Man!
Look very carefully at the role the insurance companies have played in our current healthcare crisis. Today's health insurance industry is BIG BUSINESS. The companies make huge profits and their CEOs make millions,while the rest of us, employers and workers alike, face skyrocketing healthcare costs, impossible bureaucracy, and life-diminishing insurance denials.
HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY PROFITS IN 2007:
1. UnitedHealth Group -- $ 4,654 BILLION. UnitedHealth Group owns Oxford,PacifiCare, IBA, AmeriChoice, Evercare, Ovations, MAMSI and Ingenix, ahealthcare data company
2. WellPoint -- $ 3,345 BILLION. Wellpoint owns BLUES across the US,including Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia,Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin, Empire HealthChoice Assurance, HealthyAlliance, and many others
3. Aetna Inc. -- $ 1,831 BILLION
4. CIGNA Corp -- $ 1,115 BILLION
5. Humana Inc. -- $ 834 million
6. Coventry Health Care -- $626 million. Coventry owns Altius, Carelink,Group Health Plan, HealthAmerica, OmniCare, WellPath, others
7. Health Net -- $ 194 million
The huge insurance company profits could provide healthcare for the entire U.S., and pay physicians adequately for their work.
Get the insurance companies OUT of healthcare. The solution is a non-profit, single-payer healthcare system – and the single payer should not be an insurance company or a group of insurance companies.
5 misconceptions about health care
A good article on the need to do something major now and not wait. They miss some things concerning the role insurance companies play in driving up cost and the red tape cost of multiple payer system not only in the insurance companies but in the providers business offices.
Recession afflicting metro-area hospitals
This is part of the crisis that can help motivate change. We need to make major changes in how hospitals are funded.
Making sense of health care becomes a new career
We know that of the three ways to finance health care - Managed Care, High Deductibles and Single Payer - we are now seeing all sorts of high deductibles being pushed by insurance companies, employers and polititicians. This article shows that there is even more money to be made in this high deductible -- health savings accounts mess -- it is so complex a consultant needs to be hired.
On the same day we see that the biggest insurance company is now selling insurnace insurance. They are making money by taking advantage of fear generated by the threat of losing insurance. The harder it is to get medical care paid for the more likely people who have some money will be to buy this crap.
Advice for Obama: Reinvent government as partner, not parent - TwinCities.com
Advice for Obama: Reinvent government as partner, not parent - TwinCities.com: "The big three health risks — smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise — occur outside the organized health care system. Care of the chronically ill is done mostly by families. What if we reboot our thinking about health care as primarily the work of individuals, families and communities, with health care professionals and institutions as partners, consultants and sometimes interveners in this important communal task?"
Drugmakers Push Free-Market System in Face of Obama's Health Care Reform
As the "first salvo in what likely will be a huge battle over health care reform during the Obama presidency," Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) is launching a multimillion-dollar campaign that advocates for a free-market system in order to "undercut an expected push by the Obama administration for price controls of prescription drugs," reports the Washington Times.
President-elect Barack Obama's plan to allow the federal government to negotiate the price of drugs under Medicare could cost drug manufacturers $10 billion to $30 billion in annual revenues, according to the Boston Consulting Group. "If you start to take a pretty big price decrease out of that large market, it has an enormous impact on drug companies and really their ability to generate their type of shareholder return that they have had in the past," said Peter Lawyer of Boston Consulting. As a result, drugmakers could charge more for drugs overall and could have less money to spend on research and development, according to Lawyer.
The Washington Times compares the PhRMA campaign to the "Harry and Louise" TV ads that attacked President Bill Clinton's health care reform plan in 1993. "The lobbying group Health Insurance Association of America, which ran the ads, spent $10 million on the campaign," which was "widely credited as playing a key role in killing the plan." But PhRMA, the nation's largest pharmaceutical lobbying group, claims that its campaign does not criticize Obama's proposals but rather is "designed to make people aware of the importance of preserving your free-market health care system," said Ken Johnson, senior vice president of PhRMA.
Up until now, drugmakers have taken a "wait-and-see approach to Mr. Obama's pending health care reforms." In fact, they gave more than $1.6 million to the Obama campaign, which is almost triple the amount given to the Republican contender, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). PhRMA also recognizes that "some reforms are needed in order to keep that system vibrant," according to Johnson. Still, the organization's expensive public relations campaign "indicates that the industry is leaving nothing to chance," reports the Times. (Lengell, Washington Times, 11/14/08)
Health Insurers Prime for New Business With Democratic Rule - WSJ.com
Not a surprise that the insurance industry is salivating at the chance to milk the public coffers even drier than they have all ready. They lose business every day to big employers who can't afford their prices and go the self insured route. They now make most of their profits off the public programs and all their millions in lobbying efforts are really paying off -- look at the subsidy they get for the Medicare Advantage Plans and for Part D.
AARP stops selling some UNH health insurance plans
I will not join AARP! They sell insurance and therefore can not give us good advice or fair representation politically. They are in the pocket and under the control of the second largest health insurance company in the nation -- UnitedHealth. That is the place that pays its exec well over 100 million to NOT provide health care -- to deny health care. That is the place that dumps poor people out of hospitals in LA still in their hospital gowns onto the doorsteps of the nearest homeless shelters. That is the place that WASTES 30% of every health care dollar you pay into the system. Message to AARP -- Please stop pretending you care about me -- you only care about the money the big corporations are giving you. Stop that and maybe I'll consider becoming a member. Right now you are an enemy of retired people. Look in the mirror -- you have become your own worst enemy.
Obama Does Support Single Payer!
Senator opens investigation into AARP insurance
These are some of the reasons why I think AARP should get out of the cozy relationship with UnitedHealth and get out of the business of selling insurance. How can we trust their opinions and trust them to represent us if all they are doing is pleasing the biggest and worst health insurance company in the country? They should be helping to get the insurance industry out of the system, not be part and parcel of the profit hording part of the system that leaves us patients at the end of the food chain.
Is health care a right or a privilege?
Joe Orso: Is health care a right or a privilege? : La Crosse Tribune#blogcomments#blogcomments#blogcomments
This links to a great article. The St. Clare Health Mission does wonderful work. But the message about the need to treat health care as a right is most important.
Posted by Craig at 4:21 AM 1 comment:
How Universal Health Care Changes Everything | OurFuture.org
How Universal Health Care Changes Everything OurFuture.org
Now is the time for all great citizens to come to the aid of their country and get this damn thing passed!
MPR: Expect higher health care costs this enrollment season
Higher costs mean more motivation for major change!
news: State universal health care to be advisory referendum question in county
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/305567
We should all be working on getting this kind of measure on ballots. Many have before but we need to do it again and again.
If you think HMOs were different, just you wait
If you think HMOs were different, just you wait:
"Pay now, please
Finally, get ready to pay upfront for care.
Ten percent of insured Minnesotans already are enrolled in a high-deductible plan. But because of the idiosyncrasies of the insurance system, many don't get asked to pay a cent until long after they've left the doctors' office.
Clinics and hospitals say they are seeing a rise in bad debt from these patients.
Now some doctors are looking at installing kiosks and other devices to swipe a credit card upfront -- just like at hotels and car rental companies. The card is charged only after a service has been performed and the insurer clarifies how much is owed. Minneapolis-based mPay Gateway already has 300 customers for its Web-based software that helps doctors estimate a bill and authorize that amount."
This is the logical result of high deductibles like HSAs. Can't get service unless you pre-pay. Again, forcing the patient to use the ER or go without care.
Minnesota poor suffer disparity in medical care, study confirms - TwinCities.com
Minnesota poor suffer disparity in medical care, study confirms - TwinCities.com: "While doctors might be providing preferential treatment to privately insured patients, several other factors likely contribute to the disparities. English language and transportation barriers can make it harder for publicly funded
patients to show up for screenings. Limited income makes it harder for them to afford healthy diets and to control their blood sugar and blood pressure. That penalizes clinics that are measured on the health of their diabetic patients."
Majority Favor Medicare For All
See slide 13 in the presentation.
Comments from Kip Sullivan:
The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) reported a poll recently which indicates 74% of Americans support adding the nonelderly to Medicare. The poll asked people if they "favor" any of six options, including "expanding Medicare to people under 65." Seventy-four percent said they favor this option. The poll was reported by KFF in Figure 13 in a February 2008 "tutorial" entitled "Public opinion: Health care and election '08" http://www.kaiseredu.org:80/tutorials/hcelection08/player.htmlIt is not clear from the slide whether the slide lists the actual questions or abbreviated forms of the questions. I can't tell from the small print on the slide who conducted the poll. It was probably KFF; they do a ton of polling. I have sent KFF an email asking them to send me the questions used in that poll. One of the other five options asked about was described simply as "national single-payer plan." Only 37% said they favor that option. That phrase probably means nothing to most people. "Expanding Medicare to people under 65" and the other four options (for example, "tax credits for business") were very clear. If we combine the results of this KFF poll with the results of the AP-Yahoo poll reported last January (conducted in the last week of 2007), we get a clear picture of how the wording of poll questions influences the outcomes. Here again are the AP-Yahoo questions and the results: "The United States should adopt a universal health insurance program in which everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that is run by the government and financed by taxpayers." 65% said yes.
"Do you consider yourself a supporter of a single-payer health care system, that is a national health plan financed by taxpayers in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan, or not?" 54% said yes, 44% said no. Conclusion: The clearer the question is, the greater the support for single-payer. To sum up: * if you just ask people if they support "a national single-payer plan," and you don't give them any details about what that means, 37% will say yes. * if you ask people if they support "a single-payer health care system," and you give them just a few rather abstract details, 54% say yes. * if you ask people if they support a Medicare-for-all system, and you say it will be "run by the government and financed by taxpayers," 65% say yes. * if you ask people if they support "expanding Medicare to people under 65," and you don't mention taxes and "government," 74% will say yes.
The Company Doc Makes a Comeback
Minnesota Medical Trends / Companies launching on-site health clinics - TwinCities.com
Might not be a bad idea. What do you think? Not much help if you don't have a job or work for a place too small to even consider this.
Blues' new health plan locks rate increases for 3 years
This article shows that the big managed care companies and insurance companies see the employer as their customer. They have been losing that business more and more since it costs so much. This shifting of the burden to the patient will hurt the sick and those least able to afford it. It creates a downward spiral and it will fail as the HMO experiment has failed. Single payer is the only solution we can afford.
Economists say Obama's health plan won't cut costs and McCain's won't lower ranks of uninsured
As far as I'm concerned this analysis just helps support the need for a universal single payer system in this country as the only affordable choice.
Governing: Electronic health records/September 2008
Governing: Electronic health records/September 2008: "In Minnesota, the Department of Finance and Employee Relations is seeking proposals that would put each of the state's 50,000 employees in a secure and portable online personal health portfolio. Once that's accomplished, Governor Tim Pawlenty wants to extend that program to all state residents by 2011."
Posted by Craig at 12:22 PM 1 comment:
Op-Ed Columnist - Can It Happen Here? - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com
"What's easy about guaranteed health care for all? For one thing, we know that it's economically feasible: every wealthy country except the United States already has some form of guaranteed health care. The hazards Americans treat as facts of life — the risk of losing your insurance, the risk that you won't be able to afford necessary care, the chance that you'll be financially ruined by medical costs — would be considered unthinkable in any other advanced nation.
The politics of guaranteed care are also easy, at least in one sense: if the Democrats do manage to establish a system of universal coverage, the nation will love it.
I know that's not what everyone says; some pundits claim that the United States has a uniquely individualistic culture, and that Americans won't accept any system that makes health care a collective responsibility. Those who say this, however, seem to forget that we already have a program — you may have heard of it — called Medicare. It's a program that collects money from every worker's paycheck and uses it to pay the medical bills of everyone 65 and older. And it's immensely popular."
Universal health makes 'cents' - Paradise Post
Universal health makes 'cents' - Paradise Post: "Reinhardt says, 'This is what some politicians cannot get through their heads. They talk about socialized medicine like it were something evil. These systems use socialized insurance to socialize the financial risk of getting sick - but the delivery system is private, often a for-profit mix. If you want to look at a purely socialized health care, you would have to go to the United States, where we have it. That's the system we reserve for our veterans.
So if I hear politicians run down socialized medicine - and I have done that before the Congress - I say, 'Do you hate your veterans? Why do you reserve purely socialized medicine - there's only the U.S. and Cuba that have that - for the veterans.' Americans keep telling me they hate government. I tell them: 'Man, I've got a country for you: Go to Afghanistan. They don't have one.'' Cheng adds, 'America is the only developed country that doesn't have universal health insurance. A country's health care system reflects its basic social values.'"
Miles Mogulescu: Is MoveOn.Org Ignoring Its Core Democratic Principles in Setting its Direction on Health Care Reform?
"However, when it comes to health care reform, MoveOn's leaders seem to be overlooking its core democratic principles. Without asking the opinion of its members, MoveOn's leaders have elected to join the steering committee of (and pledge at least $500,000 of its members' money to) a new health care coalition called Health Care For America Now, which excludes supporters of single payer health care, many of whom are MoveOn members. HCAN instead supports preserving and reforming the private health insurance system (while offering an expensive public alternative that individuals and employers can buy into with their own money)."
Massachusetts law spurs rise in health coverage
"More than 250 Massachusetts doctors signed a letter this year that said public funds for care of the poor that previously flowed directly to hospitals and clinics now flowed through insurers with higher administrative costs.
"While patients, the state and safety net providers struggle, private insurers have prospered under the new law, and the costs of bureaucracy have risen," said the letter."
Michigan Health Care Reform Panel Supports Universal Health Care | workforce.com
Michigan Health Care Reform Panel Supports Universal Health Care workforce.com
"Universal health insurance would eliminate the commercial health insurers that take 30 percent of every health care dollar in administration, profits and advertising, Conyers said. In comparison, Medicare spends about 7 percent of every dollar on administrative costs, he said."
MinnPost - Harry and Louise are back -- but this time they're ready for change
"Remember Harry and Louise, the couple whose ads are often credited with unraveling the Clinton administration's universal health-care proposal 15 years ago?They're baaack. And we're going to see a lot of them. Only this time around, the fictional Harry and Louise don't entirely dismiss the idea of government interference. In fact, Louise says at the end of one 30-second spot: "Whoever the next president is, health care should be at the top of his agenda.""
Geneva hearing tackles universal health care :: Geneva Sun :: News
"The bill proposes abolishing private health insurance in Illinois in favor of a single-payer system. According to Nicholas Skala, author of the bill, the question to ask is not "if," but "when."
"Chances are good of changing to (single-payer)," Skala said. "Our economy can't afford any other option for much longer."
Why Uncle Sam is Dr No of healthcare
"There is also no question of trying to exclude people with pre-existing illnesses from insurance, nor of charging some people and small businesses cripplingly high premiums because a family member or employee has had a disease. These activities keep US insurance companies busy and cost money. All other advanced countries shun them, designing their health systems to help people who need it, not to exclude them. In the US, insurance firms also compete to sell their health plans to employers and employees, running up marketing expenses that, of course, contribute nothing to preventing or curing any patient's illness.The insurance companies have created, among other things, a claims paperwork nightmare for patients, doctors, labs and hospitals that simply does not exist in a single-payer, universal health care system. In a typical doctor's office in the US there seem to be more clerks than nurses."
Disputations: Is Single-Payer Health Care The Best Option?
"Superficially, the model seems to be a workable compromise between those who believe that markets should provide health care coverage through competing private health plans, giving more control to the individual, and those who believe that a government insurance program would be more efficient and effective in ensuring that everyone has adequate health care coverage. Those on the right can support the private plans, and those on the left can purchase the competing public, Medicare-like program. Those in the middle can decide which model would become more prevalent, so goes the theory.
Anyone who really believes in this model understands that the private insurance plans would have to be very tightly regulated to reduce the profound deficiencies in our current insurance markets. The current private insurance business model depends on selling the insurers' products to the large numbers of us who are healthy, especially the healthy workforce and their healthy families, while avoiding the need to contribute to the risk pools that cover those who have greater health care needs. Those costs are largely passed on to taxpayers through government programs.
Other nations that use private plans require effective pooling between plans through various regulatory mechanisms, reducing the problem of adverse selection and ensuring that premiums or taxes are adequate to pay for the care for those with greater needs. Even if the pools are nominally segregated, they function more like a universal risk pool through mechanisms such as risk adjustment and post-claims inter-insurance transfers.
The United States has a unique problem that would make it much more difficult to require private insurers to participate in a quasi-universal risk pool. On a per capita basis, we pay far more for health care than do other nations. Average-income individuals in other nations that use private plans can still afford premiums (or their tax equivalents). In those countries, only low-income individuals require some form of government subsidy for their care.
Compare that with the United States. For healthy risk pools, such as those of employer-sponsored plans, premiums are no longer affordable for average-income individuals and families, whether paid directly by the insured, or nominally by the employer. Imagine a tightly regulated insurance market that ended adverse selection and required benefits at a level that would prevent financial hardship for those with health care needs. The private insurers would find it absolutely impossible to provide us with compliant products that had affordable premiums."
California - Harris: SB 840 saves local governments millions
Lake County News California - Harris: SB 840 saves local governments millions
"Around the state of California, these studies are being requested of local jurisdictions, by citizens who are interested in a cost-effective and fair implementation of health care delivery.
For example, the Sonoma County Office of Education calculated a savings of $1.35 million, the city of Rohnert Park calculated a cost savings of $1.4 million, the county of Sonoma calculated a cost savings of $20 million, the City of Newport Beach calculated a cost savings of $6 million. The Grey Panthers of California have made similar calculations for other jurisdictions. Of the only 15 government entities in California that have been calculated, the savings to taxpayers range from $230 to $435 million.
The Lewin Group, an independent, nationally respected health care research organization, analyzed SB 840 and California's current broken health care system. They reported that around $20 billion in premiums paid to the health insurance industry in California each year never reaches health care providers. It disappears into competing advertising and other overhead expenses, and multimillion dollar bonuses to health care industry CEOs.
The Lewin Report says that California could save around $8 billion in health care costs in the first year after SB 840's enactment. (Reference site: www.healthcareforall.org.)
Here's how to calculate savings in four simple steps:
Step One: Multiply $7,000 (the exemption per employee) by the number of insured employees. The result is the amount of the total payroll that is exempt from SB 840 taxes.
Step Two: Subtract the result in step one from the total annual payroll of those same employees. The result is the SB 840 taxable payroll.
Step Three: Multiply the result in step two by 0.0817 (the SB 840 factor of 8.17 percent, as shown in the Lake County memo). The result is the new annual health care cost under SB 840.
Step Four: Subtract the result in step three from the current annual health care cost (include retirees' cost). The result is the potential annual cost reduction.
Taxpayers would be well advised to contact their local school boards, water boards, and city and county governments and ask those jurisdictions to calculate the savings under a single-payer health care plan.Around the state of California, these studies are being requested of local jurisdictions, by citizens who are interested in a cost-effective and fair implementation of health care delivery.
Taxpayers would be well advised to contact their local school boards, water boards, and city and county governments and ask those jurisdictions to calculate the savings under a single-payer health care plan."
written by Elizabeth Larson & Written by Wanda Harris
The Pueblo Chieftain Online :: Medicare anniversary brings calls for health care reform
The Pueblo Chieftain Online :: Medicare anniversary brings calls for health care reform: "It's been 40 years since President Lyndon Johnson signed the legislation creating the Medicare health insurance program for senior citizens - an anniversary noted by several Pueblo doctors on Thursday by calling on Congress to establish a single-payer health insurance program for all U.S. residents.
'This country spends 16 percent of its total income on health care and we leave millions uninsured,' said Dr. David Zehring, of La Veta. 'Our European allies spend about 11 percent of their income on health care and cover everyone, while Canada spends about 9 percent for universal coverage. I'm confident we will get universal coverage here some day.'It's been 40 years since President Lyndon Johnson signed the legislation creating the Medicare health insurance program for senior citizens - an anniversary noted by several Pueblo doctors on Thursday by calling on Congress to establish a single-payer health insurance program for all U.S. residents.
'This country spends 16 percent of its total income on health care and we leave millions uninsured,' said Dr. David Zehring, of La Veta. 'Our European allies spend about 11 percent of their income on health care and cover everyone, while Canada spends about 9 percent for universal coverage. I'm confident we will get universal coverage here some day.'"
Seeking a Health Care for All Platform - Yahoo! News
Seeking a Health Care for All Platform - Yahoo! News: "Progressive Democrats of America continues its campaign to add a firm commitment to universal health care to the 2008 Democratic platform. PDA activists were at the platform committee's gathering in Cleveland last weekend, and they plan a major presence at the key pre-convention session this coming weekend in Pittsburgh.
Getting language as strong as PDA seeks will be difficult. Illinois Senator Barack Obama, whose campaign controls the platform-writing process, has been cautious about committing too firmly to the mandates that would be required to insure universal coverage."
Stewart Shaw: Our health -- A community parable : Winona Daily News
Stewart Shaw: Our health -- A community parable : Winona Daily News: "Now Jesus used parables in his teaching. He told stories about things that were easy to understand in order to help his disciples see things that were difficult to comprehend and accept. He explained some of the parables, with statements of the form, "This is like that."
In this parable, fire insurance is like health insurance; the linkage between fire insurance companies and fire fighting departments is like the connection between health insurance companies and "in network" care providers. The fire coverage available to employees of the big corporation is like employer-based group health insurance. And the reluctance of the father to seek professional fire fighting help is like the unwillingness of people to seek professional treatment before emergency care is required."
Unions Back Plan that Could Kill Off Real Health Care Reform | Labor Notes
Unions Back Plan that Could Kill Off Real Health Care Reform Labor Notes: "If Barack Obama wins the fall election, he will be under more pressure to establish universal health insurance than any president in U.S. history. This will be due not only to public disgust with the current health care system, but to the hard work of organizations dedicated to universal health insurance.
But the most powerful of these groups, including the AFL-CIO and Service Employees (the major Change to Win health care union) are promoting a solution that won't fix the problem."
How Medicare Payments Discourage Doctor-Patient Time
Op-Ed Contributor - How Medicare Payments Discourage Doctor-Patient - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com: "In contrast, the doctor-patient visit, which involves no expensive equipment, offers no significant profit opportunity. So the best way for a doctor to make money in his practice is not to spend time with patients but to use equipment as much as possible. That means moving the maximum number of patients through the practice, and spending the minimum amount of time with each one."
Health Care and the Economy in Two Swing States: A Look at Ohio and Florida - Kaiser Family Foundation
Health Care and the Economy in Two Swing States: A Look at Ohio and Florida - Kaiser Family Foundation: "Two new surveys by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health examine the pocketbook problems facing people in Ohio and Florida -- two presidential swing states -- including their struggles with gas prices, getting and keeing a well-paying job and affording health care. The surveys, Health Care and the Economy in Two Swing States: A Look at Ohio and Florida, also take an in-depth look at the impact of medical bills on family finances and health care, and provide insights into the way health care costs affect people's daily life decisions. The polls were conducted jointly by NPR and public opinion researchers at Kaiser and Harvard."
Paying More, Getting Less | Dollars & Sense
Paying More, Getting Less Dollars & Sense: "By now the high overall cost of health care in the United States is broadly recognized. And many Americans are acutely aware of how much they pay for their own care. Those without health insurance face sky-high doctor and hospital bills and ever more aggressive collection tactics—when they receive care at all. Those who are fortunate enough to have insurance experience steep annual premium hikes along with rising deductibles and co-pays, and, all too often, a well-founded fear of losing their coverage should they lose a job or have a serious illness in the family."
This is a great article on the REAL cost of health care. Families are paying about $22,000 per year.
House Clears Medicare Package - WSJ.com
Seems like more effort to funnel money to the insurance companies. No one knows if any of this is doing any good but they want to keep it up anyway. Getting money to insurance companies takes priority over cost effectiveness and quality. Too Bad!
Posted by Craig at 10:38 AM 1 comment:
Health Care for Minnesota.Org
A new health care site. Not sure who all is behind it. Got it from this message from a Minneapolis State Rep.
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Paul Thissen
To: Paul Thissen
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2008 2:29:12 PM
Subject: Update from Rep. Thissen
Families USA released today another important report on the state of health care and health coverage in Minnesota. You can find the report, Failing Grades: State Consumer Protections in the Individual Health Insurance Market, at http://familiesusa.org/resources/publications/reports/failing-grades.html.
Among other items, the report documents that Minnesota is in the bottom half of states in denying coverage for preexisting health conditions. The report also criticizes Minnesota rules that allow insurance companies to revoke coverage after an individual contracts a serious illness.
The report will also be posted at www.healthcareformn.org, a new website focused on health care reform in Minnesota.
Posted by Craig at 4:31 PM 2 comments:
Don't expect health reform any time soon
The Buffalo News: City & Region: Rod Watson: Don't expect health reform any time soon:
"The stories of unnecessary suffering and infant death in Sunday's paper should be enough to spark outrage and the overthrow of a mercenary health care system.
But those stories will be repeated four years from now, no matter which of the three candidates becomes president. You can count on it.
As long as we have a system built around private insurers, we will suffer the results as insurance companies do what they do best: take your money and try to keep it. Or, if you have a pre-existing condition, refuse to take your money because they might have to pay too much of it back.
The richest and smartest nation in the world has the dumbest health care system, one that leaves out 47 million people while spending far more than any other nation.
It's a system in which costly emergency rooms get overused because too many people don't have access to routine care. Here, for instance, 88 percent of kids' emergency room visits could have been avoided by regular care, according to a survey by the Community Health Foundation of Western and Central New York.
It's a system in which those on Medicaid — like a father who lost his 4-month-old daughter — get shunned or wonder if they're getting substandard treatment.
It's a system other advanced nations would never tolerate.
"The kind of coverage we don't provide for children, they would be shocked at," said Dr. Ida Hellander, executive director of Physicians for a National Health Program. "Children in other countries don't go through periods of uninsurance like our children do."
Yet you won't hear Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton or John McCain talking about the obvious solution: a national, single-payer system that could preserve private doctors and hospitals, yet stop wasting money on health insurers who give no shots and perform no surgeries.
It's a simplified system that could save enough to insure every American and improve care in a country whose health system ranked 37th in a World Health Organization analysis in 2000 and hasn't gotten any better since.
The problems nationally are reflected here. In its survey released this year, the Community Health Foundation found a "fragmented" and "fragile" safety net in Western New York, according to President Ann F. Monroe.
Such findings are why a medical journal survey last month found that 59 percent of those who know our system best — doctors — now favor single-payer.
Opponents conjure up bogeymen about waiting times, rationed care and "socialized medicine." But we already wait to see a doctor, care is rationed by income, and the epitome of socialized medicine — Medicare — is treasured.
Such opposition is all a crock to keep feeding the special interests that leech off the system — a system that fails those like Terrence Gaiter.
Gaiter lost his daughter, Leilani, when an emergency room intern misdiagnosed her infection. He said that no supervising doctor ever looked at the girl, and he suspects he would have gotten better treatment if he hadn't been on Medicaid.
"Maybe it was the insurance we had is why the doctor never bothered coming into the room," Gaiter said.
No father should have to live with that.
Single-payer is not a panacea. Monroe cautioned that it would have to be structured with the right incentives.
But other industrialized nations make it work, at far less cost and with far better health outcomes.
But maybe they're just smarter than we are — or smarter than our politicians think we are."
Chellie Pingree: My brother Bob
Please take a look at this article from Maine in the link above. Our local State efforts need to continue as we also work for national change. The voice of the people needs to be heard loud and clear in order to overcome the money power of the drug companies and insurance companies. Now is the time that change will be possible.
Ultimately, who's going to get stuck with the bill?
Hospitals should be put on a budget and stop all itemized billings.
More underinsured as economy sinks
More underinsured as economy sinks: "In a recent survey by Deloitte's health research center, only 7 percent of people said they felt financially prepared for their future health care needs.
Experts say that too often for the underinsured, coverage can seem like health insurance in name only -- adequate only as long as they have no medical problems."
Pushing the Single-Payer Solution | Turn the Wind
Pushing the Single-Payer Solution | Health and Wellness | AlterNet
This article shares the views of a conservative doctor who now supports single payer universal access to care.
It mentions an updated book on the subject:
Health Care Meltdown: Confronting the Myths and Fixing Our Failing System
And, I love the quote from the rural CO doc:
"I think that our current presidential candidates understand that ideally single-payer would be the best, but they don't have the political will to move that forward. Their job is to feel which way the wind is blowing. Our job is to turn that wind."
JS Online: Get serious about health care reform
Medical Tourism -- you gotta love it!
California Lessons
Lives at stake in health-care reform
Article Launched: 04/20/2008 07:43:05 PM PDT
IF you want to know why health care will continue to be a big issue in November, ask Beth Glover of Glendora.
During a Christmas party at her house last December, Glover, a registered nurse at an area hospital, describes what happened when one of her co-workers, who has a severe peanut allergy, inadvertently tasted a broccoli salad that apparently had been exposed to peanuts and experienced a serious reaction.
It was decided that someone would drive her home, but within minutes she was in grave distress, "turning black in the face, grunting as her airway closed up, and fell unconscious with no respirations.
"We called 9-1-1, pulled her out of the car onto the cold asphalt driveway, and began CPR." Soon, she was taken to a nearby emergency room, intubated and put on a ventilator.
"Within 48 hours, she was weaned off the ventilator, and discharged to home, but because of injuries suffered during the trauma, was out of work for almost two months. She also was having a hard time getting her allergies and asthma under control. One of our allergists gave her a whole lot of `sample' allergy medications because she can't afford all of her prescriptions. Her son also has allergies, so they `share medications.' The allergist told us that the medication that she should be on costs tens of thousands per year. So she is not on it.
"Blue Cross is denying her claim for hospitalization and emergency care, because she was `out of network.'
Apparently they believe she should have risen from the dead and driven to a network provider. My friend is appealing her claim, seeking legal assistance, and of course a boatload of angry, politically astute RNs are pulling for her. Blue Cross will probably regret that they harassed this particular single mom who works in a non-profit hospital caring for children with cancer."
This story illustrates what we need to remind the presidential candidates - "having" insurance can provide little protection when you actually have to use it.
Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both propose comprehensive health-care plans with an array of subsidies and some requirements on insurer. Their primary difference is on who should be required to buy private insurance.
But selling insurance is not "universal health care." Especially when insurers are permitted to continue to charge as much as they want and have no limits on the all too routine practice of denying needed medical treatment because they don't want to spend the money.
Sen. John McCain's plan is the most troublesome, offering little beyond the dismal status quo. McCain proposes tax credits to encourage the uninsured to buy insurance. But once-a-year tax credits are of little help to those already facing financial distress in an imploding economy.
His advocacy of high deductible health savings accounts as an alternative to expanded coverage will make it harder for the sicker, less wealthy among us, and retirees, to get health care. And his plan to promote the selling of insurance policies "across state lines" - code talk for more deregulation - could eradicate hard-won minimum standards we've placed on insurance carriers in California.
Ultimately, we will all have to recognize that reliance on the insurance industry will not end our health care nightmare. Insurance companies' priority is to guarantee a high rate of return to their shareholders, not making sure you get the care you need.
America's nurses know there is another approach, a single-payer system, sort of an expanded and improved Medicare for all, as in a bill still before the California Legislature, SB 840.
It guarantees everyone has quality health-care coverage and eliminates the waste and bureaucracy reflected in administrative costs of up to 30 percent for private insurers compared to just 3percent for Medicare.
Perhaps most importantly, it takes decisions about your health out of the hands of insurance companies and their built-in economic incentive to deny care.
It's a system essentially in place in every other Western country, and it works. A January 2008 study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, for example, found the U.S. ranked worst among 19 industrial nations in preventable deaths.
Surely that's the real reform all Americans deserve.
Geri Jenkins, RN is a member of the Council of Presidents of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.
Governor, legislators haggle over health care system changes
Governor, legislators haggle over health care system changes: I know the MN Gov does not want real reform in health care but his recent interest does show the power of the people to get even his attention. One quote from the article - "He said Minnesota still has 'what is arguably the most generous human services system in the country.'" - needs to be addressed. Under his leadership MN has been slipping in national rankings in most stats that relate to services for citizens - education and health/human services most notably. One I heard recently from a state wide child care advocacy group is that MN had been in the top 5 for financial support for child care assistance to low income working families and now is ranked 42nd among the states. That is what is really happening under his leadership.
MPR: Pawlenty to host health care meeting for legislators
What the public is not hearing is how the major proposals from the MN Legislature and the Governor are still protecting the insurance / managed care big boys and their wonderful campaign contributions. The only way to truly save money and achieve universal coverage is to remove the middleman from the equation -- not to protect them and guarantee their premium payments.
California Health Insurers Must Reinstate Policies - On Health and Money (usnews.com)
"The 26 cases represent the most egregious examples of insurers wrongly "rescinding" policies, typically for inadvertent errors. "
Just more examples of the need for change and the power of the individual to fight the wrongs of the current system.
U.S. deserves responsible health care -- Page 1 -- Times Union - Albany NY
U.S. deserves responsible health care -- Page 1 -- Times Union - Albany NY:
Docs support Universal Care.
"Health care is increasingly seen as a right of citizenship in an industrial country. It should not be a privilege based on socioeconomic status. This survey adds to the convincing data showing that a majority of patients and doctors now believe that comprehensive, universally available health care for all our citizens regardless of race, creed and socioeconomic status is essential to our collective and personal security."
MinnPost - State health reform runs into dose of reality
This is a pretty good summary of where the MN health reform effort is at in the political process. This is not the single payer plan and this plan has many serious problems. The single payer bill got through one committee. This proposal might even get to the Governor's desk. It is so hard to be critical of any health care reform measures. Is getting your foot in the door worth the compromises? Not sure.
Free? Yes, we are free to take care of one another!
A good op-ed on the need for single payer.
Families USA: The Voice for Health Care Consumers
Check out the Dying for Coverage links. Shows estimates of numbers who die per year per state because they do not have adequate coverage to access health care.
Hoping to get healthy through HSAs
More and more of these will be cropping up to take our money and call it medical care.
Sound Bite That Has Some Teeth - New York Times
I have no intention to campaign here for one candidate or another. What I am sharing is a look at the story and video concerning how important health care reform is in this election.
Universal health care or universal nightmare? : Indybay
Universal health care or universal nightmare? : Indybay: "The deepest problem is confusing universal health insurance with universal access to comprehensive medical care. Clearly, in both cases universal means "everybody", but a "universal" social health insurance, such as single payer health care reform, and a "universal" health insurance mandate, based on liability insurance, differ in fundamental ways, and the implications of this difference for health reform are enormous."
Look North - Stategic Lessons Learned
Article | The American Prospect: "Building upon the public's highly negative experiences with insurance company's and hospital administrators, the campaign needs to use public 'street heat' to intensify the level of public anger, focus it relentlessly on insurance, drug, and hospital decision-makers, and pressure specific 'swing' Republican legislators.
'We're going to have to spark a public backlash against the culprits blocking health care reform,' says Kraig. 'We need to get people indignant about particular actors and to call for government to be their watchdog in the health economy.'"
The Next Failure of Health Reform
Vincent Navarro: The Next Failure of Health Reform
"Why does this situation persist in the U.S.?
For any society, medicine is a mirror of the power relations in that society. And nowhere is the lack of human rights more evident than in the house of medicine. In the U.S., insensitivity toward human needs goes hand-in-hand with enormous profits made from that suffering. The root of the problem, as noted earlier, is not lack of money but the channels through which that money is managed and spent. The problem is the privatization of the funding of medicine that allows profits to boom. The insurance and pharmaceutical industries enjoy the highest rates of profit in the U.S. Just last year, insurance industry profits reached $12 billion, and pharmaceutical industry profits $49 billion, the highest in the U.S. and in the world. According to Fortune Magazine, health-related industries are among the most profitable industries in the country. A lot of money is being made from people's suffering. "
Check out the rest of the commentary about reform proposals being bandied about right now.
Physicians criticize Massachusetts health insurance plan
People's Weekly World - Physicians criticize Massachusetts health insurance plan: "Over 250 Massachusetts doctors have signed an open letter to the country warning that the health reform model enacted by Massachusetts is failing and that a single payer program is the only alternative.
An Open Letter to the Nation from Massachusetts Physicians: Early Outcomes from Massachusetts' Health Care Reform
We write to alert colleagues and the nation to the disturbing early outcomes of Massachusetts' widely-heralded approach to health care reform. Although we wish that the current reform could secure health insurance for all, its failings reinforce our conviction that only a single payer program can assure patients the care they need."
Blue Cross letter brings outrage - San Jose Mercury News
"It came in response to a letter Blue Cross wrote last week asking doctors to rat out their patients with undisclosed prior medical conditions so the insurer can dump them from its rolls.
The move comes just months after Blue Cross was fined $1 million by the state for unfairly revoking coverage to scores of its policy holders."
NEJM -- Market-Based Failure -- A Second Opinion on U.S. Health Care Costs
NEJM -- Market-Based Failure -- A Second Opinion on U.S. Health Care Costs: "Changing demographics and medical technology pose a cost challenge for every nation's system, but ours is the outlier. The extreme failure of the United States to contain medical costs results primarily from our unique, pervasive commercialization. The dominance of for-profit insurance and pharmaceutical companies, a new wave of investor-owned specialty hospitals, and profit-maximizing behavior even by nonprofit players raise costs and distort resource allocation. Profits, billing, marketing, and the gratuitous costs of private bureaucracies siphon off $400 billion to $500 billion of the $2.1 trillion spent, but the more serious and less appreciated syndrome is the set of perverse incentives produced by commercial dominance of the system."
UnitedHealth accused of shortchanging patients
"AMA weighs in
There is a profit motive for keeping reimbursements low, said Dr. Nancy Nielson, president-elect of the American Medical Association. She also complained that there is no oversight of the data provided by Ingenix.
"It's shocking and unacceptable for an insurance company to hide behind a shroud of secrecy," Nielson said. "Its another example of United Health playing by its own rules.""
I know United Health hides it's for profit business in MN where HMOs must be non-profit. However, it is involved in selling service to those same HMOs. I wonder if it is behind the scenes in WI as well. Does anyone know?
MN Single Payer Bill Introduced at Winona Town Hall Meeting
Winona Daily News - 6.0
A great presentation happened Saturday Feb. 9th.
Rep. Madore was especially riveting. Her story is even more clearly stated in a Mpls. Trib. article.
The proposed law can be reviewed at the Minnesota Health Plan web site.
Health Care Forum
Healthy State
Legislators Tour State, Unveil Health Care Solutions
Duluth • Hibbing • Bemidji • Brainerd • Mankato • Winona • Northfield
YOU'RE INVITED TO A
HEALTH CARE TOWN HALL MEETING
Saturday February 9th at 9:30 am
Great Hall, Watkins Manor
175 E Wabasha (7th) St. Winona MN 55987
FFI: Craig Brooks • 507-457-6255 •Craig.brooks@gmail.com
Host: Rep. Ken Tschumper
With co-signers of the Minnesota Health Care Act, Minnesota State Legislators Senator John Marty & Representatives Ken Tschumper, David Bly, Carolyn Laine & Shelley Madore. Local officials invited.
Minnesotans Have Spoken
We have heard from you: our health care system is broken. Even with insurance, many have trouble affording necessary care. Losing insurance coverage is a very real concern. And for those who are without health insurance, the stories get even worse.
Legislators Must Act
We have proven solutions to our health care mess in hand. Come join us in the town hall meeting. We will tell you about the Minnesota Health Care Act that would provide quality, affordable, comprehensive health care to all Minnesotans through all stages of life.
CARE REFORM
Serious health care reform means:
• All Minnesotans covered
• Pre-existing conditions covered
• Deductibles, co-pays eliminated
• Choice of doctors, hospitals, clinics
• Guaranteed for life
SOLVING OUR HEALTH CARE CRIS WASTE, MORE VALUE & BETTER HEALTH
*For general questions or additional meeting locations call Rep. David Bly 651-296-7065 or see www.mnhealthplan.org
Tempering Health-Care Goals - WSJ.com
This Wall Street Journal article outlines the politics of this debate. A recent poll (seems to be a solid scientific one) one says :
Is there a doctor in the house?
Sixty-five percent of those polled said the United States should adopt universal health insurance that covers everyone under a program such as Medicare that is run by the government and financed by taxpayers. Fifty-four percent went where politicians dare not tread, saying they supported a "single-payer" health system whereby all Americans would get their health coverage from a single government plan financed by taxpayers.
The Associated Press-Yahoo News survey of 1,821 adults was conducted from Dec. 14-20, and had an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. Included were interviews with 847 Democrats, for whom the margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.4 points, and 655 Republicans, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.8 points. The poll was conducted on the Internet by Knowledge Networks.
The survey question:
Which comes closest to your view?
The United States should continue the current health insurance
system in which most people get their health insurance from
private employers, but some people have no insurance 34%
The United States should adopt a universal health insurance
program in which everyone is covered under a program like
Medicare that is run by the government and financed by
Taxpayers 65%
Refused / Not Answered 2%
Do you consider yourself a supporter of a single-payer health care system, that is a national health plan financed by taxpayers in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan, or not?
Yes 54%
No 44%
The Lessons of '94 | The American Prospect
Interesting article on lessons from the Clinton era reform efforts.
WSJ Interactive Map on Health Care Proposals
This link on the Wall Street Journal site shows the national opinion polls supporting change and shows some statisics for the states. It also specifically mentions some state proposals including Doyle's recent one for WI.
Minnesota - Two panels will propose big shifts in state health care
Two panels will propose big shifts in state health care
The link is to the story (mentions WI proposal) and here's a summary of what again is a proposal to give insurance to all -- much of the suggestions are unproven and not likely to save money unless the red tape of screening applicants and processing insurance bills is dealt with.
CHANGING MINNESOTA'S HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
Key proposals emerging from Gov. Tim Pawlenty's Health Care Task Force and the Legislature's Health Care Access Commission:
• Spreading insurance to all Minnesotans by 2011.
• Designating a "medical home" for people with chronic conditions such as diabetes to coordinate care and promote prevention to improve care and drive down costs.
• Paying providers to prevent illness, rather than by office visit, test or procedure.
• Creating programs to reduce smoking, obesity, alcohol abuse and drug addiction to drive down costs from associated health problems.
• Requiring providers to set a single fee that individuals would pay for the same service, no longer negotiating different prices with different insurance companies.
• Giving patients ways to easily compare costs and quality of competing providers.
• Ensuring that patients could stay with their chosen health providers, even if they change jobs or health insurers, and could move their health insurance from job to job.
Our Fear of Socialized Medicine
This pretty well summarizes the uphill battle we have ahead of us. But, the hill is getting easier to climb!
Brattleboro Reformer - Worried sick
Vermont has a single payer bill and this article shows much of the good arguments for why it is needed.
ABX1 1: Universal health insurance without health care : Indybay
Comments on why mandatory insurance for California will not work.
Massachusetts Program Does Not Work
Doctors Give Massachusetts Health Reform a Failing Grade
Written by PHNP
Poor Early Outcomes Raise Red Flags, Only Private Insurers Profit
Over 250 Massachusetts doctors have signed an open letter to the country warning that the health reform model enacted by Massachusetts is failing and that a single payer program is the only alternative.
"It is urgent that the rest of the country know that Massachusetts is a living laboratory for the health care reforms being pushed in California and by the Obama/Clinton/Edwards campaigns. Right now the Gov. Romney/Massachusetts' plan gets a failing grade on the ground," said Dr.Rachel Nardin, Assistant Professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.
We write to alert colleagues and the nation to the disturbing early outcomes of Massachusetts' widely-heralded approach to health care reform. Although we wish that the current reform could secure health insurance for all, its failings reinforce our conviction that only a single payer program can assure patients the care they need.
In 2006, our state enacted a law designed to extend health coverage to virtually all state residents. Political leaders in other states as well as several Democratic presidential candidates have embraced this model.
Massachusetts' law mandates that uninsured individuals must purchase private insurance or pay a fine. The law established a new state agency to ensure that affordable plans were available; offered low income residents subsidies to help them buy coverage; and expanded Medicaid coverage for the very poor. (Immigrants are mostly excluded from these subsidized programs.) Moneys that previously funded free care for the uninsured were shifted to the new insurance program, along with revenues from new fines on employers who fail to offer health benefits to their workers. In addition, the federal government provided extra funds for the program's first two years.
Starting January 1, 2008 Massachusetts residents face fines if they cannot offer proof of insurance. Yet as of December 1, 2007 only 37% of the 657,000 uninsured had gained coverage under the new program. These individuals often feel well served by the reform in that they now have health insurance. However, 79% of these newly insured individuals are very poor people enrolled in Medicaid or similar free plans. Virtually all of them were previously eligible for completely free care funded by the state, but face co-payments under the new plan. In effect, public funds for care of the poor that previously flowed directly to hospitals and clinics now flow through insurers with their higher administrative costs.
Among the near poor uninsured (who are eligible for partial premium subsidies) only 16% had enrolled in the new coverage. And barely 7% of the uninsured individuals with incomes too high to qualify for subsidies had enrolled according to the official state figures. Few can afford premiums for even the skimpiest coverage; the lowest cost plan offered for a couple in their fifties costs $8,200 annually, and carries a $2,000 per person deductible.
Moreover, the state's cost for subsidies is running $147 million over the $472 million budgeted for fiscal year 2007. Meanwhile, collections from fines on employers who fail to provide coverage are 80% below the original projections. The funding gap will widen in future years as health care costs escalate and insurers raise premiums. Already, state officials speak of making up the shortfall by forcing patients to pay sharply higher co-pays and deductibles, and by slashing funds promised to safety net hospitals.
While patients, the state and safety net providers struggle, private insurers have prospered under the new law, and the costs of bureaucracy have risen. Blue Cross, the state's largest insurer, is reaping a surplus of more than $1 million each day, and awarded its chairman a $16.4 million retirement bonus even as he continues to draw a $3 million salary. All of the major insurers in our state continue to charge overhead costs five times higher than Medicare and eleven-fold higher than Canada's single payer system. Moreover, the new state agency that brokers private coverage adds its own surcharge of 4.5% to each policy it sells.
A single payer program could save Massachusetts more than $9 billion annually on health care bureaucracy, making universal coverage affordable. But because the 2006 law deepened our dependence on private insurance, it can only add coverage by adding costs. Though politically feasible, this approach is already proving fiscally unsustainable. The next economic downturn will push up the number of uninsured just as the tax revenues needed to fund subsidies fall.
The lesson from Massachusetts is that we still need real health care reform: single payer, non-profit national health insurance.
No Patient Left Behind
Kip Sullivan: Report cards won't improve health care
Kip does a great job of comparing Health Report Cards to No Child Left Behind.
Hospitals ill from more bad debt, credit troubles ...
CJOnline Blogs - Roy: Prospects rising for better ...
New fault line forms in health care fight - Chris ...
Analysis of Choices for How to Cover the Uninsured...
Advice for Obama: Reinvent government as partner, ...
Drugmakers Push Free-Market System in Face of Obam...
Health Insurers Prime for New Business With Democr...
AARP stops selling some UNH health insurance plans...
How Universal Health Care Changes Everything | Our...
MPR: Expect higher health care costs this enrollme...
news: State universal health care to be advisory r...
Minnesota poor suffer disparity in medical care, s...
Blues' new health plan locks rate increases for 3 ...
Economists say Obama's health plan won't cut costs...
Governing: Electronic health records/September 200...
Miles Mogulescu: Is MoveOn.Org Ignoring Its Core D...
Michigan Health Care Reform Panel Supports Univers...
MinnPost - Harry and Louise are back -- but this t...
Geneva hearing tackles universal health care :: Ge...
Disputations: Is Single-Payer Health Care The Best...
California - Harris: SB 840 saves local government...
The Pueblo Chieftain Online :: Medicare anniversar...
Seeking a Health Care for All Platform - Yahoo! Ne...
Stewart Shaw: Our health -- A community parable : ...
Unions Back Plan that Could Kill Off Real Health C...
How Medicare Payments Discourage Doctor-Patient Ti...
Health Care and the Economy in Two Swing States: A...
Ultimately, who's going to get stuck with the bill...
Pushing the Single-Payer Solution | Turn the Wind...
Governor, legislators haggle over health care syst...
MPR: Pawlenty to host health care meeting for legi...
California Health Insurers Must Reinstate Policies...
U.S. deserves responsible health care -- Page 1 --...
MinnPost - State health reform runs into dose of r...
Free? Yes, we are free to take care of one another...
Universal health care or universal nightmare? : In...
Physicians criticize Massachusetts health insuranc...
Blue Cross letter brings outrage - San Jose Mercur...
NEJM -- Market-Based Failure -- A Second Opinion o...
MN Single Payer Bill Introduced at Winona Town Hal...
Minnesota - Two panels will propose big shifts in ...
ABX1 1: Universal health insurance without health ...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
CS4ALL Computer Science For All Of Us
Scratch Resources
CS4ALL
Recommended: Elementary school and up Scratch is a visual programming language designed to be accessible for people of all ages! It's designed for younger kids to help build creativity, problem solving, and collaboration skills. Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. It is provided free of charge.
Scratch Website
Our Scratch Resources
reccomended: Middle school and up. Processing is an incredibly powerful programming language that remains accessible for all skill levels. Processing uses traditional code making it a great starting point for older kids. Processing also has more than enough capability to maintain the interest of advanced programmers. Processing also has a tool that allows you to program in your browser! This is a fantastic option if you are unable to install processing but still want to learn.
Our Processing Resources
reccomended: High School and up. Java is a fully fledged programming language that's popular in industry and with amateurs. It's open source with a plethora of libraries and tutorials. Java has online editors and compilers, but because it is a much larger language these will want to be avoided.
Our Java Resources
Mitch Resnick: Let's teach kids to code
How Girls Who Code Is Bridging The Gender Gap In Tech
What Most Schools Don't Teach
Thomas Suarez: A 12-year-old app developer
Philip Sweany: What APCS Principles Means To Me
Introducing AP Computer Science Principles
The Beauty and Joy of Computing
Online textbook from Harvey Mudd College
Shall We Learn Scratch by Jessica Chiang
AP Computer Science Resources
A collection of resources for starting and creating a computer science curriculum for your own school.
AP Computer Science Principles Course and Exam
AP CS Educator Community
How to start an AP course.
Thriving in Our Digital World
There's a lot of options for students to get involved with computer science. There is a wide variety in options from events designed around competition to exploration.
Michigan Tech Summer Youth Programs
Girls Make Games
NCWIT Aspirations
American Computer Science League
BonsAI Brawl
USA Computing Olympiad
Generation Google Scholarship
http://www.computerscienceonline.org/cs-programs-for-women/


sltest.harness.rebuild(harnessOwner,harnessName) rebuilds the test harness harnessName based on the main model containing harnessOwner. The function transfers the configuration set and workspace entries associated with harnessOwner to the test harness harnessName. The function also rebuilds conversion subsystems in the test harness.
Rebuild the harness controller_harness, which is associated with the Controller subsystem in the f14 model.


ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's stock exchange rose 0.13 percent, or 128.63 points, to open at 100,427.37 points on Friday.
On the last transaction day of the week, the banking sector index rose 0.48 percent, while holding sector index fell 0.05 percent.
Among all sector indices, the BIST leasing factoring index was the best performer, gaining 1.14 percent and the BIST wholesale retail trade index performed the worst, down 0.20 percent.
On Thursday, Borsa Istanbul's BIST 100 closed at 100,298.73 — the highest close over the past four months — while gaining 1.16 percent, or 1,149.88 points.
The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate fell to 5.9890 as of 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) on Friday, compared to 5.9950 at the previous close.
The euro/lira rate dropped to 6.9710 by market open, versus 7.0250 at the previous close, while one British pound traded for 7.8460 Turkish liras — from 7.8920 on Thursday's close.
The price of Brent oil stood at $81.57 per barrel as of 10.00 a.m. local time (0700GMT) Friday, compared to $81.14 on Thursday.
Since the beginning of 2018, Brent oil price has risen from $66 a barrel.


"The INSTANT COLLECTION, in its day, was probably the best Monty Python album available. Unlike much previous Python fare, this one rips most of its cuts from movies and other previous recordings. Sound quality is unusually high, and sketches are often at their most polished. Unlike so many Python albums of the seventies, INSTANT COLLECTION largely ignores often inferior "live" recordings of the sketches they took on the road. (An unfortunate exception is "Nudge, Nudge", which, though probably the best live recording available, is still not as crisply-timed as the studio version.)Still, despite its high quality, INSTANT COLLECTION has been eclipsed by THE FINAL RIP OFF, which has much of what's here plus a good deal more. Most people would be better served by getting that two-CD collection than this one.(It might be important to note for some that this album is similar in name only to the import INSTANT COLLECTION.)"
"In 1994 Monty Python had a 25th anniversary release of a boxed set (6 CD) of everything they'd done (except Live from the Hollywood Bowl, which is essentially no different from Live at Drury Lane, which *is* included). This CD is a one-CD boiled down version of this.
There is no substitute for the boxed set, not even "The Final Rip-Off." Monty Python material is like classical music... you can't break apart the pieces and expect no leakage. Go find the boxed set in the secondary market."
What can I say? It's hilarious!
"Every caught yourself having to stop your car because you were laughing so much that you couldn't drive? Want to feel it? Buy this!"


text:
Home › Entertainment › Music › Darius Rucker Announces a Dozen Intimate Theater Shows for 2022
Darius Rucker Announces a Dozen Intimate Theater Shows for 2022
by Chase Thomas November 1, 2021
written by Chase Thomas November 1, 2021 9:15 am
(Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for iHeartMedia )
Darius Rucker might be coming to a theater near you in 2022. Yes, the country music legend announced a dozen new shows at intimate theater venues across the country at the beginning of next year.
The tour begins February 17 at The Met in Philadelphia. It runs through April 1.
The news is not completely a shocker, as the three-time GRAMMY award winner has been teasing a new album for some time on social media. He's not just releasing a new studio album, folks, he's hitting the road, too. Venues will include legendary spots like The Met in Philadelphia, the Beacon Theater in New York City and so many others.
What About Darius Rucker Live?
The tour will reportedly be called "Darius Rucker Live." An album name is yet to be revealed.
Here is what Rucker said about the 2022 tour. "It's been a dream of mine for a while to bring our show to these beautiful theaters," he says. "Some of my favorite venue memories over the years are at places like the Apollo in New York or the Royal Albert Hall in London, as it's just a different experience when you're that close. With Hootie, we went straight from playing dive bars to arenas, so there are still a lot of theatres I've never had the opportunity to play. I'll just say that this tour will have a lot of firsts, even for me."
It's interesting that Rucker notes his old group Hootie and the Blowfish never got to experience intimate theaters like The Met. Now being a solo act, things have clearly changed. Rucker wants to have a different fan experience on this 2022 tour. He wants to try new things. Branch out. With these venues, it will certainly be a different type of venue for fans.
Darius Rucker learning the piano?
Rucker continued, "One of the most common questions I got asked last year was if I had picked up a new hobby during quarantine."
"I always answered that I was trying to learn piano, and someone asked if I was any good yet. J.T. Harding heard my response in that interview – 'I can't play piano like Ray Charles' – and knew we had to write a song around that line."
Rucker fans getting treated with a new forthcoming studio album that will include "My Masterpiece." However, it sounds like these upcoming shows will feature Rucker playing a bit of piano as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etr7UtnUflM&ab_channel=DariusRuckerVEVO
Video can't be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Darius Rucker – Alright (Official Video) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etr7UtnUflM&ab_channel=DariusRuckerVEVO)
Rucker is a big-time football fan. This tour will start before the NFL season comes to a close. How will that affect his football-watching? We shall see. Get excited, Rucker fans. Tickets go on sale on December 17. So, an early Christmas gift is an option.


Kovács' vision is deductive and expansive, using the logic of János Bolyai's geometry as the great Renaissance masters like Piero della Francesca and Leon Battista Alberti did with the postulates of Euclid. His art was inspired by Bolyai's thoughts, which emancipated mathematics from the description of nature, saying mathematics and the mathematics of visual space can also be autonomous.
Between 1964 and 1970 Attila Kovács created a unique artistic language he named "Frame of Reference" or "Transmuting Plasticity", where he built his own system of non-Euclidean sequential geometric abstraction along mathematical coordinates delineated by the three spatial axes x, y and z, and the time axis t (spacetime) His works are usually two-dimensional, other times they start out in one plane then they build up following the mathematically fixed rhythm of sequential movement and spring into 3D, forming a kind of geometric frieze on the wall.
Attila Kovács was born in 1938, in Budapest and emigrated to West Germany in 1964. He graduated from the Department of Art at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenen Künste in 1970. Kovács had many international solo and group shows including a retrospective exhibition at the Kunsthalle Budapest in 1995.


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Q: More Elegant way to return json array to ASP.NET MVC {Sorry new to JSON}
I need to build up an array of resources (Users) and pass it in to my view, might be a better way than what ive done below? (Demo)
My model is simply
public class ScheduleUsers
    {
        public string Resource{ get; set; }
}

On my controller
var users = new JsonArray(
               new JsonObject(
                new KeyValuePair<string,JsonValue>("id","1"),
                new KeyValuePair<string,JsonValue>("name","User1")),
                new JsonObject(
                new KeyValuePair<string, JsonValue>("id", "2"),
                new KeyValuePair<string, JsonValue>("name", "User2"))
                  );
            model.Resources = users.ToString();

A: I did this and this works
    JavaScriptSerializer js = new JavaScriptSerializer();
                StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
                //Serialize
                js.Serialize(GetResources(), sb);

 public List<ScheduledResource> GetResources()
        {
            var res = new List<ScheduledResource>()
                {
                    new ScheduledResource()
                        {
                            id = "1",
                            color = "blue",
                            name = "User 1"
                        },
                    new ScheduledResource()
                        {
                            id = "2",
                            color = "black",
                            name = "User 2"
                        },

                };

            return res;
        }

A: Why don't you just return a list of entities as a JSON result, like:
public class CarsController : Controller
{
    public JsonResult GetCars()
    {
        List<Car> cars = new List<Car>();
        // add cars to the cars collection
        return this.Json(cars, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
    }
}

It will be converted to JSON automatically.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Last week in this 'green and pleasant land,' and with a single stroke of the pen [as it were], all but 13 extraordinarily courageous members of The Commons surrendered any hope for a Parliament following their own Act in holding themselves subject to a five-year, fixed term of office, with the Conservatives calling a snap election ostensibly in order to bolster their chances for a Brexit with nearly 30 other members of the EU within a two-year period of time [but more likely than not, intended to white-wash their political chicanery in roughly 20 seats, last June], and with the Labour and Liberal Democratic Parties and others losing the courage to oppose that decision under the pretext of picking up (perhaps) a few seats and discarding any semblance of implementing a social and a just agenda [but with the particular and adverse consequences for the continuation of the NHS in its present form and the freedom of movement guaranteed for both EU citizens and non-EU citizens alike in this country and throughout the rest of Europe to live and work where they choose to do so].
In doing so, the major parties have risked wide-scale unemployment (as companies and their employees move elsewhere); the major parties have risked the shrinking of the United Kingdom through the loss of Scotland and elsewhere; as a result, it is about time that the major parties recognise the need for a written Constitution to prevent the loss of hope and courage from ever occurring in the future; but most importantly than any of the above, the major parties have failed to protect the rights and the liberties of the people on all sides of the political spectrum to whom those rights and liberties have been entrusted, only to be cast away without so much as any meaningful debate in The Commons on the efficacy of such snap elections [let alone, their legality], and at the whim of both the majority in power who meet in closed-door meetings and the silent majority of all those who quite frankly have been left out of the political process.
For those reasons, a pox on all their houses, and the undersigned would welcome a Citizens' Assembly and alliances with other groups of similar-minded Citizens for the purpose of enshrining into positive law the fundamental rights and privileges enjoyed by the people in other EU countries under their own written Constitutions. That is, after all, the quintessence of democracy and why so many populist movements have sprung up both here in this 'green and pleasant land,' and elsewhere throughout Europe.


The internet is filled with heart healthy food recipes, and we love that because they inspire all of us to eat well, which helps us to stay energized and creates a lifetime of good food habits and choices! Yay for the superfoods!
And while eating a healthy diet is extremely important and something we cannot encourage enough, we decided to go a little bit different route with our recipes - we'd like to share some life recipes for living a heart healthy, active and fun-filled life. As we know all too well, our kids are spending more and more time in front of a screen (especially in the winter months) and less time in front of a tree, trail, river or on their bikes having outdoor adventures. We at Spindaroos would like to feature ideas that include a balance between technology and nature.
Here are a few cooler weather recipes for a healthy lifestyle we'd like to share.
These are some recipes that you're whole family is guaranteed to eat up! So, get yourself and your kids out there and enjoy a healthy, fun, active life! Pepper in some technology here and there, but make the most vivid flavors of your lives be the memories you're making by savoring life together.


Today we represent the third of the five virtual tours of wonderful place of Italy — Cinque Terre. During this week we will publish a new tour every day. On Friday 27th of March all 5 towns of "Five Lands" will be available on our website.


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Wrexham AFC makes surprise appearance on Mythic Quest comedy show
16 Apr 2021 2 minute read
Rob McElhenney holds Wrexham AFC shield in the Apple TV+ show Mythic Quest. Screenshot taken by @DanWrexham
Wrexham AFC has made a surprise appearance on the Mythic Quest comedy show.
The football team's club badge was featured on the programme on a shield carried by none other than its co-owner Rob McElhenney.
McElhenney, who owns the club alongside Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds, is the Apple TV+ show's co-creator, showrunner and actor.
It follows the story of a video game studio that produces the popular Mythic Quest game, and McElhenney plays the character of its creator Ian Grimm.
In the multiplayer role play game, players often inhabit a science fiction or fantasy world.
The Wrexham AFC club badge features in the standalone episode "Mythic Quest: Everlight", where the characters ended up in a "magical forest".
It debuted three weeks ahead of the nine-episode second season, and includes narration from Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins.
On working with Hopkins, he told Variety: "Craig Mazin [producer and guest star] said, 'Oh I know Anthony Hopkins' lawyer, let's just call him up.' And within 20 minutes I'm talking to Anthony Hopkins.
"He sent me four takes and every one was perfect and that was it. The irony of it was that when we got him on the phone, I said, 'What time is it over there?' But he was in Los Angeles. And he said his street and I'm not exaggerating, he lives a block and a half away from me."
McElhenney said a lot of people thought it "was a show about video games", but he says the team's intention from the beginning was to make "a show about people working together in an office and they just happened to work in the video game industry."


For months I've been saying we are watching the implosion of the Republican Party at the national level due to Trump, and last night we saw the detonation. Ted Cruz gets booed. Think about all of this. Donald Trump -- Donald Trump -- is the official nominee at the same convention where Ted Cruz is booed. Ted. Cruz. Booed. What a cluster.
But I have a new found respect for Ted Cruz. He realizes the obvious: Trump is a fraud, and Trump can't win. And Cruz was not going to sell his soul like Perry, Abbott and Patrick. He will be proven correct and may very well be back in 2020 as the Republican nominee when the rest of the party wakes up.
Then again, Cruz sucked up to Trump to no end at the beginning of the campaign expecting Trump to fold and then planning on taking his supporters. So I may need to re-think my new found respect.
Trump was surprised that Cruz wouldn't endorse him? You call someone "Lyin' Ted" for months and then give that person the floor at your convention?
"Trump's dead, baby. Trump's dead."
Hot sports prediction: The Ranger's won't win the AL West. The Rangers won't make the wild card. The Rangers finish third in their division.
The always conservative Fifth Circuit struck down (kind of) the Texas' Voter ID law yesterday and hardly anyone noticed.
"We promise that this is a temporary thing and that it will in no way affect the quality of opinion writing we publish." The Dallas Morning News' "disclaimer" about blog posts appearing under the "Opinions" section of its website. I certainly do hope "that this" "thing" doesn't impact that quality writing. Side note: Couldn't a 10 year old kid fix this website problem in about two minutes?
We have a leader in the clubhouse for Worst Comedic Performance in 2016: Mark Cuban last night. This is so bad that it must be watched. No wonder free agents distance themselves.
Oh, come on. We're havin' fun here, no?
I don't know much about the Russian track team being banned from the Olympics but when I heard the country's appeal was rejected by the "Court of Arbitration for Sport" my head almost exploded.