He’s the Daily Show‘s “Senior Black Correspondent.”
Category: Healthcare
Stephen Colbert is a F%$#ing Genius Too
Here he interviews and Jon Cohn on healthcare reform:
Best Snark Evah!!!!
Don’t Make Me Get Out of this Chair!Columnist and deputy editorial page editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Jay Bookman notes a contradiction in the arguments of the “Obama will engage in Nazi-style euthanasia™“.
It appears that one of the widely circulated canards is that if Obama gets his way, he will kill the sick and infirm, and Mr. Bookman, being on the mailing list for retarded libertarian magazine Human Events,* received this missive titled Grandmas and Unborn Babies Face Extermination by Obama’s “Health” Care Plan, which cited an editorial in Investors Business Daily, which claimed that:
People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.†
The problem here, as Mr. Bookman so ably notes, is that Stephen Hawking lives in the UK, and has lived there his entire life, and furthermore, he has, since the age of 6½, had his medical care covered by that very same National Health Service that is allegedly chomping at the bit to kill him.
The folks writing about this are stupid and evil beyond belief.
That being said, while Jay Bookman is an engaging writer, this is not the “Best Snark Evah!!!!“, that distinction is left to the comments on his blog post, specifically the first comment, from one Brad Steel:
Hawking can talk the talk, but he can’t walk the walk.
I think that I broke something laughing.
*Thankfully, I have avoided this fate.
†You won’t find it there any more, though there is a note there noting the “correction“.
1000 Words on the ‘Phant Rent-A-Thugs
On the Other Hand, Jounalism from Rachael is No Surprise…
Rachael Maddow, that is:
Note, towards the end, where Maddow nails him on running anti-semitic ads against Eric Cantor (R-VA) in the Congressional primary and Enron.
This is wonderful, but it would be more wonderful if it were not so rare.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!?!?!?!? Journalism on CNN!?!?!?!?
CNN Anchor Rick Sanchez interviews medical tea-bagger* in chief Rick Scott, currently director of Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, and went Mr. Sanchez actually did his homework:
- He notes that Scott was fired as CEO of Columbia HCA for the largest case of Medicare fraud uncovered ever , with fines and restitution in excess of $1.7 billion.
- He called Scott a “poster child for everything that is wrong with the greed that has hurt our healthcare system”.
- Calls out Scott on his argument that that “everyone was doing it,” which argues for a public option.
- Did his homework: When Scott claimed that the fines paid were after his tenure at Columbia HCA, Sanchez notes that the fines were for when Scott ran the firm.
- Noted his history of shutting down hospitals in the area.
When TV media folks do their homework this way, they are either Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, or Journalists.
Somehow, it appears that CNN allowed a journalist to infiltrate their network. My congratulations to Rick Sanchez.
H/T Talking Points Memo.
*I mean that in the political sense, not the sexual act sense, and no offense toward people who engage in the sex act is intended.
You Do Not Have Health Insurance
So says James Kwak, and he is completely correct:
…That’s not insurance; that’s employer-subsidized health care for the duration of your employment.
…
In addition, there is the problem that even if you are nominally covered when you do get sick, your insurer could rescind your policy, or you may find out, as Karen Tumulty’s brother did, that your insurance doesn’t cover the treatment you need.
Just read the whole thing.
Cowards …. Pantywaists …. Yellow Belies ….
I just can’t seem to come up with a word for this.
You see, the Democratic National committee (DNC) is doing its level best to make sure that everyone knows that the rent-a-riots at town hall meetings are AstroTurf that have been bought and paid for by the Republican National Committee (RNC) and His Evil Minions™.
What’s more, the DNC actually put out an ad about it (below), in which they suggest that people call the RNC to tell them to stop, but the RNC added a voice mail option to include this, which routes the calls to the DNC switchboard.
These are dangerous times, and the Republicans can’t deal with snippy callers….How can we expect them to keep us safe from Osama bin Laden?
Seriously, this is so chicken sh&% that it leaves me at a loss for words.
Jon Stewart is a F%$#ing Genius, Schooling Nepotism Baby William Kristol
Damn, Stewart is the best interviewer n TV.
1000 Words On Socialized Medicine
Massachusetts Looks to Revamp its Healthcare
They are looking to move from a fee for service to a flat fee per patient.
I do not expect this to work. I think that the individual mandate is flawed, but it is the only thing that states are allowed to do under ERISA, so that is everyone’s solution.
Just eliminating the preemption clause from ERISA would go a long way toward solving the problem, because states would compete on the quality and cost effectiveness of their health care for businesses, as opposed to competing on tax giveaways.
Liberal Advocacy Groups Tell Barack Obam to Go Cheney Himself
A number of groups, most notably Moveon®, have been targeting pro-insurance industry members of Congress, most notably Mary Landrieu, for her opposition to the public option in the health care plan.
Well, Barack Obama, who I think is more motivated to have a health plan pass Congress than he is about getting a good health plan though Congress, because the risks for the latter is higher, has now told these groups to sit down and shut up:
President Obama, strategizing yesterday with congressional leaders about health-care reform, complained that liberal advocacy groups ought to drop their attacks on Democratic lawmakers and devote their energy to promoting passage of comprehensive legislation.
Well, it appears that at least some of the groups out here have realized that Barack Obama can be wrong just like the rest of us mere mortals:
A spokesperson for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, one of the groups Obama reportedly complained about, confirms to me that the group is upping its buy with a new round of ads attacking moderate Dem Senators like Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu this coming week. “If congressional staffers are complaining to the White House, that shows they are nervous and what we’re doing is working,” PCCC’s Stephanie Taylor says. “So we should just keep doing what we’re doing.”
Meanwhile, a second group, Change Congress, has not dropped plans for a coming campaign of ads attacking the Senators for taking contributions from health care special interests, Change Congress spokesperson Adam Green confirms. He urged the White House to consider a “good cop, bad cop approach,” suggesting Obama could hold positive rallies in the home states of moderate Dem Senators while Change Congress goes ahead with its ads.
This is a refreshing return to sanity.
Barack Obama has been running against the left to prove his “non-partisan” props for a while now, and it’s time to realize that he is at best an incrementalist, and by the standards of industrialized nations, a right of center incrementalist at that.
Why Americans Favor the Public Option
Monty Python Explains:
H/T Fighting Liberals for the vid.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Wal-Mart!?!
Yes, Wal-Mart has come out in favor of an employer mandate on insurance.
This is real end of the world stuff, cats sleeping with dogs and the marshmallow guy appearing in city streets:
Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, joined hands with a major labor union Tuesday to endorse the idea of requiring large companies to provide health insurance to their workers, a move that gives a boost to President Obama as he is pushing for health legislation on Capitol Hill.
“Not every business can make the same contribution, but everyone must make some contribution,” Wal-Mart’s chief executive, Michael T. Duke, wrote in a letter to White House and Congressional officials, adding that he favored “an employer mandate which is fair and broad in its coverage.”
There are, of course, caveats, there are always are, and Wal-Mart’s top lobbyist is saying that there have to be some sort of strict cost controls.
My guess is that the company has two goals here:
- To make sure that it’s not required to offer better insurance than it does now, which is at relatively high cost to the employee and has relatively high deductibles.
- An attempt to forestall unionization efforts at its stores, which are gaining steam.
But I’m a cynic.
Interview With a Vampire
Actually, it’s an interview with Wendell Potter, a former head of corporate communications for medical insurer CIGNA, but both positions involve causing death and sucking blood.
His interview shows a window to a very nasty place.
Why I’ve Not Been Posting on Healthcare Legislation
I think that it’s important, and it’s something of direct interest to me, I get my insurance, and pay a lot for it, through MHIP, but I simply do not believe that a meaningful plan is on the way, and so I find it to depressing to write about.
Between the belief that the plan needs some Republican votes, even though meaningful healthcare reform will cut their own throats politically, and the power of the insurance, the AMA, and medical lobbies, I just don’t see anything meaningful happening.
So, I read, and I get depressed, and how often can I call someone like Bayh, or Baucus, or Conrad pig felching rat bastards?
It adds very little to the understanding of the situation.
Tom Daschle Would Suck Off a Corpse for a Cheeseburger
To quote great Matt Taibbi, and there is no better evidence of this than his eagerness hook up with Viagra pitchman Bob Dole to kill the public option in healthcare reform, because, after all, his job is to lobby for, among other unsavory paracites, health insurance companies:
“While I feel very strongly that consumers should have the choice of a national, Medicare-like plan, my colleagues do not. . . But we were concerned that the ongoing health reform debate is beginning to show signs of fracture on the public plan issue, so in order to advance the process of developing bipartisan legislation and to move it forward, it’s time to find consensus here,” Daschle said.
So, Daschle’s solution is to have no real healthcare reform, but tho throw billions (trillions?) at his clients in the insurance industry and placing a mandate on the rest of the country.
Tom Daschle makes me happy that Harry Reid is now Senate Majority Leader….I can’t believe that I just said that.
The Shrill One on Health Care Reform
I agree with Paul Krugman completely as to the first two rules of health care reform:
- Don’t trust the insurance industry.
- Don’t trust the insurance industry.
Makes sense to me.
Obama Comes Out for Public Plan
This is significant, because he explicitly states that a public
Here is his letter Senators Kennedy and Baucus:
TEXT OF A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT TO SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY AND SENATOR MAX BAUCUSJune 2, 2009
The Honorable Edward M. Kennedy
The Honorable Max Baucus
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510Dear Senator Kennedy and Senator Baucus:
The meeting that we held today was very productive and I want to commend you for your leadership — and the hard work your Committees are doing on health care reform, one of the most urgent and important challenges confronting us as a Nation.
In 2009, health care reform is not a luxury. It’s a necessity we cannot defer. Soaring health care costs make our current course unsustainable. It is unsustainable for our families, whose spiraling premiums and out-of-pocket expenses are pushing them into bankruptcy and forcing them to go without the checkups and prescriptions they need. It is unsustainable for businesses, forcing more and more of them to choose between keeping their doors open or covering their workers. And the ever-increasing cost of Medicare and Medicaid are among the main drivers of enormous budget deficits that are threatening our economic future.
In short, the status quo is broken, and pouring money into a broken system only perpetuates its inefficiencies. Doing nothing would only put our entire health care system at risk. Without meaningful reform, one fifth of our economy is projected to be tied up in our health care system in 10 years; millions more Americans are expected to go without insurance; and outside of what they are receiving for health care, workers are projected to see their take-home pay actually fall over time.
We simply cannot afford to postpone health care reform any longer. This recognition has led an unprecedented coalition to emerge on behalf of reform — hospitals, physicians, and health insurers, labor and business, Democrats and Republicans. These groups, adversaries in past efforts, are now standing as partners on the same side of this debate.
At this historic juncture, we share the goal of quality, affordable health care for all Americans. But I want to stress that reform cannot mean focusing on expanded coverage alone. Indeed, without a serious, sustained effort to reduce the growth rate of health care costs, affordable health care coverage will remain out of reach. So we must attack the root causes of the inflation in health care. That means promoting the best practices, not simply the most expensive. We should ask why places like the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, and other institutions can offer the highest quality care at costs well below the national norm. We need to learn from their successes and replicate those best practices across our country. That’s how we can achieve reform that preserves and strengthens what’s best about our health care system, while fixing what is broken.
The plans you are discussing embody my core belief that Americans should have better choices for health insurance, building on the principle that if they like the coverage they have now, they can keep it, while seeing their costs lowered as our reforms take hold. But for those who don’t have such options, I agree that we should create a health insurance exchange — a market where Americans can one-stop shop for a health care plan, compare benefits and prices, and choose the plan that’s best for them, in the same way that Members of Congress and their families can. None of these plans should deny coverage on the basis of a preexisting condition, and all of these plans should include an affordable basic benefit package that includes prevention, and protection against catastrophic costs. I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans. This will give them a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest.
I understand the Committees are moving towards a principle of shared responsibility — making every American responsible for having health insurance coverage, and asking that employers share in the cost. I share the goal of ending lapses and gaps in coverage that make us less healthy and drive up everyone’s costs, and I am open to your ideas on shared responsibility. But I believe if we are going to make people responsible for owning health insurance, we must make health care affordable. If we do end up with a system where people are responsible for their own insurance, we need to provide a hardship waiver to exempt Americans who cannot afford it. In addition, while I believe that employers have a responsibility to support health insurance for their employees, small businesses face a number of special challenges in affording health benefits and should be exempted.
Health care reform must not add to our deficits over the next 10 years — it must be at least deficit neutral and put America on a path to reducing its deficit over time. To fulfill this promise, I have set aside $635 billion in a health reserve fund as a down payment on reform. This reserve fund includes a number of proposals to cut spending by $309 billion over 10 years –reducing overpayments to Medicare Advantage private insurers; strengthening Medicare and Medicaid payment accuracy by cutting waste, fraud and abuse; improving care for Medicare patients after hospitalizations; and encouraging physicians to form “accountable care organizations” to improve the quality of care for Medicare patients. The reserve fund also includes a proposal to limit the tax rate at which high-income taxpayers can take itemized deductions to 28 percent, which, together with other steps to close loopholes, would raise $326 billion over 10 years.
I am committed to working with the Congress to fully offset the cost of health care reform by reducing Medicare and Medicaid spending by another $200 to $300 billion over the next 10 years, and by enacting appropriate proposals to generate additional revenues. These savings will come not only by adopting new technologies and addressing the vastly different costs of care, but from going after the key drivers of skyrocketing health care costs, including unmanaged chronic diseases, duplicated tests, and unnecessary hospital readmissions.
To identify and achieve additional savings, I am also open to your ideas about giving special consideration to the recommendations of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), a commission created by a Republican Congress. Under this approach, MedPAC’s recommendations on cost reductions would be adopted unless opposed by a joint resolution of the Congress. This is similar to a process that has been used effectively by a commission charged with closing military bases, and could be a valuable tool to help achieve health care reform in a fiscally responsible way.
These are some of the issues I look forward to discussing with you in greater detail in the weeks and months ahead. But this year, we must do more than discuss. We must act. The American people and America’s future demand it.I know that you have reached out to Republican colleagues, as I have, and that you have worked hard to reach a bipartisan consensus about many of these issues. I remain hopeful that many Republicans will join us in enacting this historic legislation that will lower health care costs for families, businesses, and governments, and improve the lives of millions of Americans. So, I appreciate your efforts, and look forward to working with you so that the Congress can complete health care reform by October.
Sincerely,BARACK OBAMA
# # #
(emphasis mine)
Wanker of the Day
Senator Wyden who is leading the charge to strip the public option out of health care, because he has set his heart on, “Finding a legislative solution that can win at least 70 votes in the Senate.”
Dude, if you come up with a solution that works, it condemns the Republicans to at least 40 years in the wilderness, so the only thing that they will support will be something that doesn’t work.
Both ideologically and tactically, it is against their interests to pass comprehensive health care reform.
The stimulus package passed with 3 Republican votes in the entire congress, Social Security passed without a single Republican vote, and you think that somehow getting 12 Republicans to vote you way is going to happen with any proposal with real merit.
You sir, are an idiot.