Health Care

Health Care: It's What Ails Us
by Doug Pibel and Sarah van Gelder

For Joel Segal, it was the day he was kicked out of George Washington Hospital, still on an IV after knee surgery, without insurance, and with $100,000 in medical debt. For Kiki Peppard, it was having to postpone needed surgery until she could find a job with insurance -- it took her two years. People all over the United States are waking up to the fact that our system of providing health care is a disaster.

An estimated 50 million Americans lack medical insurance, and a similar and rapidly growing number are underinsured. The uninsured are excluded from services, charged more for services, and die when medical care could save them—an estimated 18,000 die each year because they lack medical coverage.

But it’s not only the uninsured who suffer. Of the more than 1.5 million bankruptcies filed in the U.S. each year, about half are a result of medical bills; of those, three-quarters of filers had health insurance.

This is a Must-Read article HERE:

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Has Canada Got the Cure?
by Holly Dressel

Publicly funded health care has its problems, as any Canadian or Briton knows. But like democracy, it’s the best answer we’ve come up with so far.

Should the United States implement a more inclusive, publicly funded health care system? That's a big debate throughout the country. But even as it rages, most Americans are unaware that the United States is the only country in the developed world that doesn't already have a fundamentally public--that is, tax-supported--health care system.

That means that the United States has been the unwitting control subject in a 30-year, worldwide experiment comparing the merits of private versus public health care funding. For the people living in the United States, the results of this experiment with privately funded health care have been grim. The United States now has the most expensive health care system on earth and, despite remarkable technology, the general health of the U.S. population is lower than in most industrialized countries. Worse, Americans' mortality rates--both general and infant--are shockingly high.

This is a Must-Read article HERE:

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HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS UNLIKELY TO SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE HEALTH CARE SPENDING Click HERE

A bibliography of papers debunking the HSA myths

For a list of good reports on Medicare waste click HERE or Google Medicare +Miami +Minneapolis +cost

From PoliticalMoneyLine.com

 

More Lobby Reports for the First Six Months of 2006 (Note the gigantic imbalance between Labor and Business! Guess who's winning.)

8/30/2006

Wal-Mart reported spending $1,300,000 during the first six months of 2006. Their report details individual bills, topics of interest, and names of lobbyists. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee reported spending $1,049,549 during the first six months of 2006. Their report lists, lobbyists, bills, and areas of interest. The American Medical Assn reported spending $8,940,000. The American Council of Life Insurers reported spending $5,224,378 (up from $3,995,682). General Motors Corp. reported spending $4,700,000 (up from $3,700,000). Amgen reported spending $4,600,000 (up from $3,320,000). Firms lobbying for the Asbestos Study Group reported receiving $3,460,000. The United Services Automobile Assn reported spending $3,456,568 (up from $2,510,328). View a ranking of organization spending that is updated as reports are tabulated. Major oil companies reported their lobbying expenditures for the first six months of 2006. Exxon Mobil $6,320,000 (up from $3,560,000) Chevron Corp $4,500,000 (down from $5,350,000) Occidental $2,958,626 (up from $999,369) Marathon $1,820,000 BP $1,600,000 Shell $1,169,348 ConocoPhillips $530,078 (down from $2,089,872) Ashland $442,000 Sunoco $280,000 Anadarko $150,000 Major pharmaceutical companies reported their lobbying expenditures. Hoffman-LaRoche $3,354,590 (up from $1,976,831) Johnson & Johnson $3,300,000 Bristol-Meyers $2,760,000 Novartis $2,346,285 Merck $2,070,000 Sanofi-aventis $2,006,189 Major communications companies reported their lobbying. US Telecom Assn. $15,280,000 (up from $5,340,000) Nat. Cable and Telecommunications Assn. $6,540,000 (up from $3,740,000) AT&T $5,515,269 (down from $10,360,000) Microsoft $4,840,000 Cingular Wireless $4,740,000 (up from $3,640,000) Verizon $4,600,000 Verizon Wireless $1,760,000 BellSouth $3,294,777 (down from $4,297,049) Motorola $3,220,000 (down from $4,280,000) Comcast $2,780,000 CTIA- The Wireless Assn $2,340,000 Time Warner $1,960,000 Sprint Nextel Corp $1,682,434 Major labor organizations reported for the first six months of 2006. American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees $940,000 (down from $1,950,000) UAW $829,331 AFL-CIO $820,000 National Education Assn $780,000 Intl Assn of Machinists $720,000 Transportation Trades Dept $700,000 American Fedn of Govt Employees $680,000 Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $580,000 American Fedn of Teachers $495,150 Service Employees $120,000

State Road Builders:
Please don't ask; just send money!

See the complete MJS article HERE.

Of course, I'm told that this has nothing to do with the millions of dollars of campaign contributions that have flowed from the road builders to the state's political leaders (wink, wink!). Yes, we need roads and road repairs, but the current budget should be enough to handle repair and growth, especially after they increased it by an additional $70 million two years ago.

From WDC: Road builders and associated unions - $1.9 million in campaign contributions to mostly Republican candidates for statewide office and the Legislature from 1993 through Oct. 21, 2002. Source

Committee Members: (And their contributions from road builders)

Co-Chairman:	Senator Dan Kapanke - (R-La Crosse), Co-Chair ($18,800 from Road Contractors) Source
Co-Chairman:	Representative Mark Gottlieb (R-Port Washington), Co-Chair ($700 from Road Contractors) Source
Senate Members:	Assembly Members:
Glenn Grothman - $13,450 (R)	Jeff Stone - $5,800 (R)
Roger Breske - $13,325 (D)	Dean Kaufert - $5,175 (R)
Scott Fitzgerald -$11,410 (R)	Donald Friske - $2,750 (R)
Russ Decker - $10,100 (D)	Mike Sheridan - $1,100 (D)
Dave Zien - $9,725 (R)	Josh Zepnick - $275 (D)

Notes:

1. These contributions DO NOT include those made to the political parties, which can influence leadership to push members to pass legislation for favored industries.
   

2. Wouldn't it be nice to know that, when these spending bills were passed, zero money changed hands between the industry and the politicians sitting on the committee.  

I sent this newspaper account to my representative and she challenged it as follows.

According to the Gottlieb office: the Milwaukee Journal article got it WRONG. Phase one - just completed - did NOT recommend increasing spending on road building by $750 million. What it said was: there is a gap in funding between projects that are scheduled, and the monies available to do them. That gap is $750 million. Phase TWO now begins, in which the committee will consider alternatives. Finally, will come Phase Three, in which the committee will discuss funding alternatives. That COULD be a radical change to move toward registration fees, or it could be status quo. It certainly will involve trying to find ways to stop raids on the transportation fund.

So I sent the challenge to the reporter, Patrick Marley, and he replied:

Tidbits

Isthmus Gets it Right:  Madison's popular weekly newspaper ran an excellent article on the exclusion of Nelson Eisman from the public debates. But I'd ask Kathy Bissen and the other debate committee members: What good does it do to trust a poll that didn't have the benefit of a debate? People need to hear the candidate before they select him in a poll, rather than making a decision without all of the facts in front of them. Excluding Eisman would be a great disservice to the public, and I hope the debate committee considers the traction he has gained in the last month.

Wealth inequality is vast and growing - Inequality in the United States is on the rise, whether measured in terms of wages, family incomes, or wealth and is much higher than that of other advanced countries. This week's Snapshot looks at the rising inequality of wealth and is a preview of the advance edition of The State of Working America 2006/2007, to be released on Labor Day weekend. For more information, including previews of findings featured in EPI's online Snapshots and the early release of specific chapters, visit the new State of Working America Web site. Click HERE for the complete chart.

Campaign 2006 and Bringing Instant Runoff Voting to the Tipping Point - Pierce County, Oakland and Minneapolis Vote to Eliminate Primaries and Adopt IRV - See this summary thanks to Rob Richie at www.FairVote.org

I prefer calling IRV "preferential voting" because it lets you vote for your 1st choice, then 2nd and 3rd choices, without throwing your vote away. That way you could vote first for Eisman, then Doyle followed by Green (or whatever you allegiance). If Eisman doesn't win, your vote is transferred to Doyle. It makes total sense, but maybe that's its downfall in a political system that makes no sense at all. This lets voters vote their conscious.

US Senator Grassley is to hold hearings on excessive CEO pay and options backdating: Click HERE. 

Cities Weigh In on Public Finance (from www.ctj.org): The National League of Cities has just put out a new report, Taxing Problems: Municipalities and America's Flawed System of Public Finance. This report serves as a primer on the tax challenges facing municipal governments across the nation, and describes guiding principles for municipal tax reform. Interested readers should also check out ITEP's Guide to Fair State and Local Tax Policy. For a free copy of the Guide, email us at ctj@ctj.org or call (202) 299-1066 x 25 -- Also, if you missed it before, don't miss Wisconsin Taxes Hit Poor & Middle Class Far Harder than the Wealthy

Give me a Break!

Now, I remember some wild nights, but never like this. 

Try you hand at Analytical Problems and Puzzles click HERE

Interested in the relative size of the world? Click HERE

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Buying a Camcorder? I share this with you because I went through the process and wasted money:

DVD recorders allow going directly to a 3 inch DVD and when done simply insert a clean DVD to carry on with your recording. They can be immediately played back in your DVD player or TV set, and they have excellent editing and DVD (re)burning software. The one irritation is that your must go through a "finish" process to close out the DVD recording. That can be done immediately after filling up the DVD or in a batch after you get time at home. But they will not play back until that has been done. If I had it to do over, this is the only camera I would have bought. The DVD takes less space and also serves as a good backup. 

MiniDV and other tape-based cameras can be played into your computer and usually your home entertainment system but require a conversion process to edit the storage media and write to a DVD. That can usually be done by downloading the camera directly to your computer and then using conversion software to edit and dub it onto a DVD. At a lower cost, the recording medium usually serves as a good backup. While tapes do not require "finishing," they can jam.

Digital hard drives: I bought a 30 GB hard drive model. As futuristic as these are, they require that you either buy multiple hard drives (at $400 each) or carry with you a laptop so you can dump the data while away from home. They are not cheap, and I would not buy one again. 

Other features to look for:

A good low-light sensitivity determines whether you can take movies indoors without a strobe light. My JVC was poor in this area.

Automatic image stabilization is a nice feature.

Don't go with an off brand unless it is highly rated. Panasonic, Sony, and Canon are the safest buys. 

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While attending a Marriage Seminar dealing with communication, Tom and his wife Grace listened to the instructor; "It is essential that husbands and wives know each other's likes and dislikes."

He addressed the man, "Can you name your wife's favorite flower?"

Tom leaned over, touched his wife's arm gently and whispered, "It's Pillsbury, isn't it?"

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A lady was picking through the frozen turkeys at the grocery store, but couldn't find one big enough for her family. She asked a stock boy, "Do these turkeys get any bigger?" The stock boy replied, "No ma'am, they're dead."

Book Recommendations

See other reviews on Amazon.com

The Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman (Paperback)
by Peter Rost (ISBN: 193336839X)

Book Description

A number of books critical of the pharmaceutical industry have recently been published, but none has been an exposé written by a senior executive of one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. The Whistleblower is at once an unmasking of how corporations take care of malcontents and a gripping story of one man's fight to maintain his family and his sanity. Starting in 2003, the book details the illegal, even criminal business practices the author witnessed at his corporation, as well as his crusade to legalize the reimportation of drugs. It also explains how in this post-Enron world whistle-blowers can't simply be fired, and what the author's corporation did to coerce and silence him. A story of a battle that continues today, one which any American who takes or will take prescription drugs has a stake in, The Whistleblower is a powerful testimony.

I have not read this book because it was just released and is enroute. But I have followed and have great respect for the author, Peter Rost. He was a VP at Pfizer, until he came out publicly in support of the reimportation of drugs. Then, suddenly, he no longer had a job. (Funny how those things work, isn't it?)

This is going to be a MUST READ. Order it on Amazon, or call your local book store, but read it!