Health Care Nonsense

I was actually planning a nice little post here about the b___ s__t that Americans have been fed and largely believe about the US health care racket (errr... I mean "system"). 

But Wendell Potter (a former health insurance CEO) has done a much better job than I could and I won't plagiarize his work.  Please read it - it should disabuse you of almost everything that you thought "everybody knows" about American health care.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/12/01/16334/exploding-myths-about-american-health-care?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=watchdog&utm_medium=publici-email&goal=0_ffd1d0160d-ee2804a9ed-100121433&mc_cid=ee2804a9ed&mc_eid=14bacdf82a

The documentary he references:
http://remoteareamedicalmovie.com/screenings/

Wendell Potter's book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A16M7HC/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00A16M7HC&linkCode=as2&tag=thecenforpu0d-20

There is a Reason Why Missouri is 50th in Everything

...or very nearly so....but be careful - Idaho is catching up!

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/02/17/14249/missouri-lawmakers-renew-cynical-efforts-derail-obamacare-navigators

Affordable Care Act BS

There has been a lot of this thrown about over the last year -- all untrue but making for good-sounding popular "twits" (my name for particularly inane or unintelligent Tweets) and providing ammo to the uninformed (or just plain unintelligent).

But, it is interesting to note that TWO former CEOs -  one with a non-profit and one with a for-profit health care insurer (sometimes fondly referred to as "death panels" -- thank you Sarah Palin) have both come out rather strongly that the American health care system is extremely broken...on its good days.

ACA is a start in the right direction, but because the least intelligent among us (politicians) got involved, it still falls short of what other countries have been able to do -- this isn't even a conversation topic there.

First up is George Halvorson, former CEO and chairman of Kaiser Permanante - a not for-profit health plan who just wrote a book Don't Let Healthcare Bankrupt America which I plan on reading. (It is not widely available yet, though Amazon has it for Kindles).   



The other is a person I believe I have referred to before - Wendell Porter who is a former CIGNA executive (and probably not very well liked in his old stomping grounds right now).

We can do better folks --- and the ACA is just a first baby step fouled up by politicians!

Pay Attention to What the ACA is Really About!

There has been so much smoke and bile over the front-end application process for the Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA) that a lot of things have gotten completely lost:

This act really only affects people who did not have healthcare coverage before, or whose employers have recently dropped it.  Unfortunately the latter group has been growing by leaps and bounds over the last decade (pre-ACA) as the death panels (excuse me...health insurance companies) entrenched their abilities to buy new yachts and vacation homes every year through premium and deductible increases, while providing no real cost control to the market.

It got so bad that the US was the worst (the worst, bar none) of any 'first-world' or 'civilized' country in providing very basic healthcare to its citizens.  You could have moved to almost any one of 80 or so other countries (including some 'second world' countries and done better).

The other thing that has gotten lost aside from just availability is the advantages the ACA brings to the healthcare consumer.  Unfortunately it does not get rid of the death panel's influence and greed, only requiring that everyone be allowed to be gored by the political money-grabbing lobbyist and health care profit machine equally hard.   The right thing, of course would be a single-payer system like the rest of the civilized world enjoys, but that would put one of the largest money sources for Congressional reelection campaigns out of business (boo-hoo).

Still, it means that there is likely to be a much smaller percentage of completely uninsured citizens in the US, which should serve to drive down costs once hospitals start to realize that the majority of people walking into their emergency rooms are no longer largely made up those that cannot/are not going to pay.

This column from the Center For Public Integrity outlines just how much real information you may have missed by just watching cable news:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/12/23/14051/obamacare-yes-theres-plenty-it-you

This is Hard to Read

The Center for Public Integrity is at it again....this time it is only indirectly related to government misdeeds.  This time it is an almost unbelievably sad story of how the coal industry has not only set up the conditions for miners to die in pursuit of their profits, but then gone to great lengths to defend/excuse the practice. 

This is a very thorough CPI investigation, but you should read at least the background piece and the first installment. It is long but worth it - the world cannot always be reduced to 140 characters or a reality show where anybody gets to "vote".  

If You Want a Concrete Reason for the Shenanigans in DC

I know....what ISN'T shenanigans in Washington DC these days? 

I am talking specifically about the Repubs and their particular form of insanity.  (Insanity of course being defined as doing the same crazy or self-destructive thing over and over again and expecting a different result).  Their prolonged childish hissy-fit over the AHCA does have a dark side to it...one that I suspect has a great deal of truth in it, possibly even the primary reason for their insanity.  Keep in mind this analysis is written by a former executive at one of the nation's largest health insurers who finally decided he had seen enough:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/09/30/13474/beginning-end-major-health-insurers

Affordable Health Care Idiots

There are more than enough of those to go around...but come on everyone...all of this "I'm so confused" hand wringing and requiring legions of people to stand by the state exchanges and "explain" everything about AHCA is just nuts. 

The facts have been known and published for weeks about how things are going to work.  Just because the non-journalists that run cable news don't find it titillating enough to make their "breaking news" format or no celeb has made it a 'cause' for gossip sites to pick up on does not mean the information is not there! 

The clear explanations are everywhere on state and national web sites.  The public just needs to get their heads out of Twitter and their eyes away from Dancing With the Stars for five minutes, and I am sure that it will all become clear! 

Somehow everyone found ways to shop and compare and get the latest iPhone right?  This isn't any harder!  

Affordable Health Care Act Follies

If you are one of those who suspects that when it comes to the Affordable Health Care Act (called Obamacare by the knuckle-draggers), there is more than the normal amount of outright lies as well as a good deal of "I wish this was true...so I will spout it on the Internet and it will be" type of misinformation out there, you are right.  The non-partisan Center for Public Integrity has compiled a list of the nonsense skewered by one of their regular contributors (a former death-panel...err I mean health insurance company executive!).

(And yes, Ted Cruz is the biggest idiot of all...even fellow Repubs like John McCain are holding their noses.)

Nonsense Abounds

I think the Health Care Reform Act (the brain-dead media/Twitter crowd persists in calling it Obamacare) has easily generated the highest bullshit quotient since George invaded Iraq - somewhere in the 80% range.  (I sincerely doubt the Iraq BS ratio of nearly 100% will ever be surpassed).

Sarah Palin's "death panels" are alive and well, although as with everything else that comes out of her mouth she got it wrong -- they are really the health insurance companies who quite literally decide who gets to  live or die (and in the case of about 50% of the American population) who even gets to play in the lottery they run.  Buy them enough yachts and vacation homes...and they might just let you live. Refuse to play...and you are on your own, depending on "charity care" from medical providers which drives up costs for the insured, etc., etc.

Now our state has published rates for companies that will initially appear on its state-run insurance exchange.   Surprise, surprise...rates are at least marginally lower than before, many more people are covered, and the coverage is of a much higher and more consistent quality and breadth than before. 

Keep in mind one thing the media seems to have trouble understanding -- these insurance exchanges are not required of everybody -- if you have employer-sponsored coverage you will probably still do better there.  These exchanges  are for the majority of the population who does not have employer-sponsored coverage or that has no coverage at all.

How can making things better, more healthy for people be a bad thing?  How can remembering our dedication to "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" be a bad thing?  How can pulling the US out of the second-world mire it is in for health care up to the rest of the first-world countries be bad?


  

Medical Costs

One of the best TV programs for thinkers today is PBS's  Need To Know.  Extraordinarily even-handed analysis of some of the really hard issues in modern life tackled head-on -- unlike anyone in Washington DC. 

One of them was on the medical malpractice mess -- the report was partially underwritten by Common Good - another of my favorite sites when I need some 'thinking material'. 

Watch 1/25/2013: Do No Harm and Danish Medical Courts on PBS. See more from Need To Know.

One of the things I like about this program is that it doesn't come out with an "in your face" ardent recommendation.  Sometimes (like this episode) where the program has obviously proved that the current system is broken beyond repair, they make a mild suggestion -- but there is still plenty of room for thinking....how would such a system work here? ....what kind of adjustments would need to be made so that no one abuses it with our wide-open justice system?