eNewsletter

How To Choose A Health Care Plan: Finding the Right Plan

Three steps to Health Care Reform

By Jack E. Lohman

I’ve got it!

Step One: Refuse insurance coverage for 15% of our politicians, under-insure another 15%, and put the rest on a high-deductible health savings account.

Step Two: Ban all campaign contributions moving from the healthcare and insurance industries to the politicians.

Step Three: Actually, step three isn’t needed. Without health insurance or industry money, the politicians will fix the system virtually overnight. Even if we just eliminated the industry money, the politicians would do the right thing.

Sad, isn’t it? That the guys and gals that are paid by us actually work for them. But that’s the world we live in.

That’s the way it’s going to be until November and we throw out the old and bring in the new.

Yeah, some of the indestructible young bucks will be okay with the high deductible plans, at least until one of their kids is diagnosed with genetically contracted diabetes or something of the like. No amount of, what do they call it, personal responsibility and keeping fit, will protect them from this family tragedy.

Then they’ll want to convert to a standard policy, but it’ll be too late. It’s that “pre-existing disease” thingy we’ve been talking about.

It is what it is; live with it.

This just puzzles the hell out of me. We are all paying for everyone’s health care already. . . . in cost shifting, bankruptcy costs, and when businesses add their costs to the price of their product and we (even us old geezers) reimburse them at the cash register.

Why don’t we just pool everybody into one system and all share the costs in a forthright manner, and pay less dollars than we are paying today? And at the same time make our businesses more competitive with imports!

For the same amount of dollars we are spending on health care today, we could provide first class care to 100% of our population. We’d use the same private doctors, the same private hospitals and we’d have wait times no longer than we have today.

Under a single-payer universal healthcare system, no one would have to declare bankruptcy because of exhorbitant healthcare costs, where those costs are now borne by the rest of us.

Why are we spending more to avoid doing it the right way, than it would cost to do it right in the first place?

I know of no intelligent business leader that would design a system like today’s. But I do know of many politicians who would. What’s that tell you?

Hospitals Put Patients' Debt Up for Auction

Collection Agencies Bid Online For Right to Recoup Funds; Worries About Tougher Tactics

In a move that consumer groups say could increase pressure on people with unpaid medical bills, some hospitals are trying out a new tactic to recoup patients' debts: They're auctioning the debt online.

Hospitals have long relied on outside collection agencies to go after debtors. Under traditional arrangements, these agencies receive a percentage of any money they get from a debtor; the more they collect, the more they earn.

See the complete article HERE

Don'cha just love it? This is the next logical step of our free-market, high-deductible HSA plans.

Dr. Don McCann's response: "We continue to expand policies that make all of the numbers worse - more uninsured, more underinsured, more medical debt, greater impairment of access, greater administrative waste... while we continue to support the multitude of money-movers, trading off the health and financial security of patients."

How Wisconsin Legislators Voted on Ending Legalized Bribery

Let’s spotlight two cases where the U.S. Supreme Court legislated from the bench and violated common sense and our shared values. Next we’ll see what our state legislators have (or have not) done recently to arrest and restrain the government corruption that resulted. We’ll look at where the problem is most festering. And there is one important legislative step that is needed right now. Let’s get er done. And, by the way, there’s a scoop here, with news of a previously unannounced, surprise candidate for election to the state legislature, spoiling to unseat one of the very worst of the “Public Enemies” to be described below.

When big money oils politics, corruption of the democratic process and legalized bribery of elected representatives is certain. Bribery is the right name because no corporations, groups, or well-heeled “persons”, anywhere in the world, provide that kind of money to election campaigns and political parties without expecting, and getting, a nod, a wink, and a huge return on investment. Taxpayers must pay for that swindle. And it’s legalized in the USA by two strange Supreme Court rulings.

See the complete article HERE

Free Speech and a country in trouble

By Jack E. Lohman

Imagine that you’ve invested in a private company with a conflicted board of directors, where some are taking cash on the side from the area’s most expensive accounting service, ABC, and your CEO is in on the deal.

And they are giving contracts to ABC instead of the cheaper and better XYZ service, because ABC gives kickbacks and XYZ doesn’t. They are stealing from you and driving your company into bankruptcy, all while padding their own pockets. Nice.

And it’s not just ABC they’re in bed with, it’s every vendor your company deals with! Cash and profits going out and flowing back to the decision makers! And your company has to pay higher prices because some of the money must be kicked back to your leaders.

Wow!!! In the criminal world, that’s bribery, payola and theft. It’s corrupt and illegal. People actually go to jail for this kind of thing.

But this isn’t only happening in the criminal world, it’s also happening in your government. Your trusted politicians (directors), receive campaign contributions (payola and kickbacks), and give away taxpayer assets in return.

Think… “road contractors, travel contracts, and voting software contracts.” Politicians award taxpayer-funded contracts and policies and tie it into this thing called “freedom of speech.”

The U.S. Supreme Court did that for you, but as blogger Clyde Winter writes, money is not speech. It is a possession, like your house or car. You use cash to buy things and services and, sometimes, political favors. If you don’t have money, you are out of luck.

Politicians claim you can also buy speech, and if that’s all it bought and none went into their pockets, it wouldn’t be so bad. But the very politicians who serve as your state’s and your nation’s board of directors are taking this cash and giving away taxpayer assets in return. They are on the take, and getting away with it!

It began with Ronald Reagan, led to the 1994 Gingrich takeover of congress, and culminated with the election of George Bush. I voted for Reagan and both Bushes, but I’m a lot smarter today.

I ask conservatives repeatedly: How are you liking it so far? I never get an answer. These wiseacres started out to drown the government in the bathtub and hit the toilet instead, and now they are wallowing in the results.

Tax cuts for the wealthy turned our $300 billion surplus into a $600 billion deficit, trashed the dollar bill, drove housing prices down and fuel and food costs up, sent jobs overseas, and transferred our country’s assets to the Asians, Europeans and Middle Easterners.

I ask again, Are we having fun yet?

There is but one solution, and that’s to totally replace our government. Not incrementally, all at once. But the Republican party is still filled with the garbage that got us to where we are today. Let’s see if the Dems are willing to give us back our democracy. And if not, they will get ousted too.

In fairness, there’s a handful of decent politicians who don’t like the image of the corrupt system and deserve re-election. The voters know who they are.

Only a handful? See the nine best legislators: Democracy Defenders at WDC

Source: http://moneyedpoliticians.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/free-speech-and-a-country-in-trouble/