Tag: Health Care

GOVERNACIDE: Massachusetts has Canada like waiting lists

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

https://jeffjacoby.com/27413/the-12th-day-of-the-12th-month

Waiting for health care in Canada
Jeff Jacoby

*** begin quote ***

Thanks to tax preferences dating back two generations, patients have come to expect most medical treatment and procedures — even routine prescriptions — to be covered by health insurance. Consequently, insurers wield far more economic clout than patients do. Providers — doctors, hospitals, urgent care facilities — are forced to accommodate the demands of insurance companies, since it is they who pay the tab. When patients think someone else is paying most of their health care costs, they feel little pressure to learn what those costs actually are — and providers feel little pressure to compete on price or value. Add to all that the plethora of coverage mandates imposed by state and federal governments, and it is no wonder that health care pressures have grown intolerable. Many medical practices won’t take new patients. Result: people can’t get the care they want, or can’t get it from the providers they prefer, or can’t get it without having to hunker down for a long wait.

*** end quote ***

Wonder how many people die while waiting or because of the wait?

—30—

HEALTHCARE: Fully Private, No-Insurance Hospitals are possible

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

https://mises.org/wire/how-fully-private-no-insurance-hospitals-help-common-man

How Fully Private, No-Insurance Hospitals Help the Common Man
04/14/2022 Daniel Diefenbach

*** begin quote ***

How does one make an economic decision when the price of a good is not evident? To any adherent of the Austrian school, this of course is impossible. There is no way to decide whether to purchase something if the only way of knowing the price is after committing. For example, who would fill up their car only to see what the price was at the end? No one. In no aspect of life would this make sense, yet it is the standard in the American healthcare system.

**

In June 2021, the Mises Institute held the Medical Freedom Summit in Salem, New Hampshire, and one of the speakers was Dr. G. Keith Smith of the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, an institution that is truly free market and receives no money from the federal government. He spoke of the successes of his business and of the simple model he and Dr. Steve Lantier established in 1997. Smith describes their first patient experience as follows:

*** and ***

He later told the story of a Georgia man who was quoted $40,000 for his surgery at home. The Surgery Center of Oklahoma quoted him $4,000. Upset at having lost a patient to them already, the man’s hometown surgeon decided to match the price. The patient told Dr. Smith that the Surgery Center of Oklahoma “had saved him $36,000 and … hadn’t even performed his surgery.”

*** end quote ***

Once again we learn that the Gooferment has really really messed up “health”, “health care”, “health care insurance”, or something else like our lives.

Just separate “health insurance” from employment by making health insurance premiums deductible from the top line, just as it is for businesses, and level the playing field.

After all you don’t lose your car insurance when you change jobs.  Why should health insurance be any different?

Argh!

—30—

INOVATION: No-frills micro hospitals emerge

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/02/no-frills-micro-hospitals-emerge-as-a-new-way-to-cut-health-care-costs.html

No-frills micro hospitals with as few as 8 rooms emerge as a new way to cut health-care costs

  • Micro hospitals are emerging in some suburban and urban markets as a backup to community facilities — or in regions where there is not enough demand for full-sized hospitals.
  • Also called neighborhood hospitals, these facilities can provide lower-cost care for patients compared with traditional community hospitals.

Berkeley Lovelace Jr. | @BerkeleyJr
Published 1:14 PM ET Fri, 2 March 2018  Updated 2:13 PM ET Fri, 2 March 2018

*** begin quote ***

Micro hospitals, also called neighborhood hospitals, have cropped up in states such as Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and Texas. Saint Luke’s Health System in Leawood, Kansas, recently opened its own 17,000-square-foot micro hospital, no bigger than an average CVS Health store.

Hennum at Dignity Health St. Rose-Dominican told CNBC these facilities are not meant to replace larger hospitals or emergency rooms but can provide a kinder, more personalized level of care.

Hennum said the micro facilities can treat things like gunshot wounds and high-risk pregnancies, adding patients usually wait no longer than 11 minutes, on average, from entering the door to seeing a doctor.

“We only transfer 5 percent, or sometimes in other locations, 4 percent of our patients,” Hennum told CNBC. “We treat or discharge the vast majority of patients we see. … And we brought additional jobs to our community. I’ve interviewed more than 250 people.”

Larger hospitals still have their place, however. Mega hospitals have the resources to perform intensive and complex procedures whereas micro hospitals tend to be less surgical, Zane told CNBC.

For example, a person experiencing a stroke or in need of certain cancer therapies will be treated by larger facilities or specialized centers, Zane said. Micro facilities can do routine surgical care like a knee replacement that would only require a doctor and an assistant, but nothing like a liver transplant, Zane explained.

*** end quote ***

Finally some “free market” innovation.

Want to bet that the Gooferment diktats interfere with this “trend”.

I’m sure that the SEIU (unions) will oppose these since they are cheaper and have self-described “no frills”.

And the use of digital services should be encouraged. Imagine the savings of not having to transport folks long distances for urgent care. Remember the “golden hour”?

Hope more are created; I think they will save lives.

# – # – # – # – #

GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Crony Capitalist Medicine?

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

https://www.ac2news.com/2018/01/do-we-have-a-free-market-medical-system/

Do We Have a Free-Market Medical System?
Posted on January 19, 2018 by Hunter Lewis

*** begin quote ***

Edward K. Glassman, my long ago Harvard classmate, author of Dow 36,000 (predicting Dow at that level by 2005), and current director of the George W. Bush Institute, extolls our free market medical system at FoxNews this week. The first reader to comment on the article agrees that we have a “ free market” system, but thinks that “profit based healthcare” should be “outlawed.” Another reader thinks that we actually have “socialized medicine.”

So what do we have? I think the most apt description would be “crony capitalist” medicine, one in which powerful special interests conspire with government officials to create legally mandated monopolies, with the specific goal of thwarting free market competition.

Here is how it actually works:

[Excerpts follow … …]

  • Most people wonder why there are no visible prices in medicine.
  • These monopolies are further sweetened for doctors by legally barring nurses, 
  • drug companies claim a legal monopoly when they patent a drug. The drug research may have been done by the government or by a university using government money 
  • the FDA approval process eliminates any competition 
  • FDA enforcement

No, this is not a free market system nor anything remotely close to one. 

*** end quote ***

It’s obvious that Obama/SCOTUS/Trump care merely seeks to perpetuate and extend this corrupt cronyism.

The obvious solution is to withdraw consent as much as possible.

Seek to avoid the “medical establishment” as much as possible.

Take all their diktats as recommendations. Take responsibility for your self. Take issue with the powers that be at every opportunity.

# – # – # – # – #

 

POLITICAL: Obamacare death spiral?

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/mar/26/susan-parnell-the-obamacare-death-spiral-may-have-/

*** begin quote ***

According to the Manhattan Institute, premiums climbed by 41 percent on average from 2013 to 2014, and premiums are likely to rise sharply again after two insurance company bailout programs included in Obamacare expire in 2017.
 
The other sign health insurance markets are in the early stages of a death spiral is the age mix of those buying policies through Obamacare. Originally it was estimated that around 40 percent of enrollees had to be in the relatively healthy 18 to 34-year-old age segment, so their premiums could be used to pay for the health expenses of older, less-healthy enrollees. So far it appears only some 28 percent of enrollees are in that coveted age group, which also comprises around half of the uninsured.
All of this means insurers are getting a risk pool that is less healthy than expected, and more premium hikes are around the corner. While subsidies hide some from the full impact, others in the middle class will not be shielded.
 
It will undoubtedly take a few years to know for sure, but for anybody concerned about setting off a death spiral or thinking Congress surely didn’t intend to do so, don’t worry. It looks like it’s already here, whether Congress intended it or not. 
 
*** end quote ***
 
Like Social Security, it’s fiscally unsound — in addition to being immoral, ineffective, and inefficient.
 
Why Statists — on both the left and right — think that they can ignore the “Laws of Economics” is a mystery to me. Like the time the Louisiana Legislature voted to repeal the “Law of Gravity”! Just because the “laws” of Economics are a little more subtle, doesn’t mean they exist. 
 
In this case, the invisible hand of the free market is going to slap the politicians and bureaucrats upside the head and say “fools”!
 
Where insurance is virtually unregulated — life insurance for example — it’s cheap, easy to get, and simple. (You die; you get paid!) Across the spectrum of “insurance”, the more regulation, the more expensive. Until you get to “health”, “health care”, “health care insurance”, or something else whatever this is. Most regulated; impossible.
 
And, this fluff about “pre-existing” conditions, is like being able to buy “fire insurance” after the fire!
 
Also, the routine heath care tests? That’s like “insuring” your cars oil changes. Makes no sense. Go to Jiffy lube for 30$ (but don’t buy the air filters); “insure” it and the paperwork alone will make it $100 at least.
 
Argh!
 
So, because there were some without “insurance”, the liberals decided to fool us into a USSR style system. Argh! 
 
Anyone figure out if “we” just took all the money spent on Obamacare, we could have give every uninsured a Congressional style plan.
 
But, then they wouldn’t have their power over a seventh of the economy.
 
Anyone think this is going to work out well?
 
# – # – # – # – # 
 

HEALTH: The Gooferment should get out the “heath” business completely

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.newser.com/story/177742/big-problem-with-last-weeks-big-cholesterol-news.html

Big Problem With Last Week’s Big Cholesterol News
THE ONLINE RISK CALCULATOR MAY SIGNIFICANTLY INFLATE RISK
By Kate Seamons, Newser Staff
Posted Nov 18, 2013 7:27 AM CST

*** begin quote ***

The changes to the way doctors prescribe cholesterol-lowering statins were described last week as “tectonic” and “profound”; today, the New York Times uses the phrase “major embarrassment.” The issue: the online risk calculator introduced by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology to flag candidates for statins may overestimate risk—hugely. The issue was apparently identified a year ago by two Harvard Medical School professors who had reviewed a draft version; their input never made it to those developing the calculator, and the professors noticed the same errors in the final calculator when it was revealed publicly on Tuesday.

*** end quote ***

And, there was the announcement by the Gooferment that dietary cholesterol doesn’t impact blood cholesterol numbers.

Disputing decades of “settled science”.

Then, into my email box drops this gem.

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/optimal-cholesterol-level/

Transcript: Optimal Cholesterol Level

*** begin quote ***

The optimal cholesterol level, the optimal “bad cholesterol” LDL level, Is 50 to 70. Accumulating data from multiple lines of evidence consistently demonstrate that that’s where a physiologically normal LDL level would be. That appears to be the threshold above which atherosclerosis and heart attacks develop.

That’s what we start out at birth with, that’s what fellow primates have, that’s the level seen in populations free of the heart disease epidemic, but we can also look at all the big randomized controlled cholesterol lowering trials. This is graphing the progression of atherosclerosis versus LDL cholesterol. More cholesterol, more atherosclerosis, but if you draw a line down through the points, you can estimate that the LDL level at which there is zero progression is down around 70. 

*** and ***

Atherosclerosis is endemic in our population in part because the average person’s LDL level is up around 130, approximately twice the normal physiologic level. The reason the federal government doesn’t recommend everyone doesn’t shoot for even just under 100, is that despite the lower risk accompanying more optimal cholesterol levels, the intensity of clinical intervention required to achieve such levels for everyone in the population would financially overload the health care system. Drug usage would rise enormously. But they’re just assuming drugs are the only way to get our LDL that low, but those eating really plant based diets may hit the optimal cholesterol target without even trying. Just naturally nailing under 70.

*** end quote ***

As regular readers know, I’m changing my diet from mostly meat based to mostly plant based.

In part, because of these “scary videos”.

It’s amazing that “We, The Sheeple” have never heard this simple way of avoiding some really nasty health consequences.

I’m sure my maternal Grandmother would have never fed her family “things that would kill them”.

She died of Colon Cancer. If she’d known, maybe she’d have lived to a ripe old age.

So once again, we have the Gooferment mis-informing us either due to stupidity or laziness, or is there a bunch of Crony Capitalists in the woodpile somewhere.

Drugs are expensive and profitable. A vegan diet not so much so. 

I remember one nutritionist on the boob tube pleading that “if your food comes in a box, then you would be better off eating the box!”. 

I laughed at the time, but many a true word is carried in a joke!

# – # – # – # – # 

RANT: Obamacare should be rolled back

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

“Stupid.”

That’s what the architect of ObamaCare called you, the American voter.

He said they wrote the law specifically to confuse voters, to conceal what the law was about.

But now ObamaCare is going to face a day of reckoning.

# – # – # – # – #   

Argh! “health”, “health care”, “health care insurance”, or something else

But, I think we should thank these bozos for getting “health insurance” disconnected from “employment”.

Like “car insurance”, it should have ZERO connection to your employer.

</EXTREME RANT>

All due to the wage and price controls of WW2.

Aggravated by the Crony Capitalist tax code that allows business to deduct “health insurance expense” but employees can not!

<EXTREME RANT/>

I hope that the R’s will correct this aspect.

If I was an R, I’d be passing bills like a machine gun. Then BHO44 can veto or sign. “We, The Sheeple” can make judgments from there.

# – # – # – # – #   

GOVERNACIDE: An “Obamacare” death

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

2014-Jul-08

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/woman-class-action-lawsuit-against-xerox-dies

Posted July 1, 2014 – 11:41am Updated July 1, 2014 – 4:42pm
Woman in class-action lawsuit against Xerox dies
By JENNIFER ROBISON
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

*** begin quote ***

Time ran out for Linda Rolain.

The Las Vegas woman died Monday, less than two weeks after her family went public with details of how enrollment trouble through the Nevada Health Link insurance exchange kept her from getting treatment in January for an aggressive brain tumor.

Rolain was one of about 150 Nevadans suing Nevada Health Link contractor Xerox for enrollment mixups that left them without the health insurance they paid for.

Rolain is the first to die of complications from an illness that her family said went untreated for lack of coverage. But observers close to her case say she may not be the last, because others are in similarly urgent situations.

*** end quote ***

Now no one is saying that without the screw up she would have survived, …

… BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), …

… … … it couldn’t have helped and may well have shortened her time.

The hubris of Gooferment politicians and bureaucrats is stunning.

Remembering that the whole “benefits” issue is the direct result of Gooferment meddling.

  •  WW2 Wage and Price controls forced companies to offer “benefits” as non-cash compensation
     
  • The Tax Code gave corporations breaks on “benefits” that individuals didn’t get (A corporation can deduct healthcare insurance costs, but an individual tax payer can’t!)
     
  • The Gooferment created Medicare and forced the old into a Gooferment “reservation”. (Medicare works as well as the VA healthcare and Indian healthcare.)
     
  • Obamacare

The Gooferment is immoral, ineffective, and inefficient!

This is the first death; there will be more.

# – # – # – # – #   

POLITICAL: WW2 wage and price controls cause today’s problems

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2014/07/time-to-cut-employers-out-of-healthcare.html

Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Time to cut employers out of the healthcare loop
Daniel Froomkin asks one of the right questions in the wake of yesterday’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby case: “Why should employers have anything to do with people’s health insurance anyway?”

# – # – # – # – #  

I, for once, agree.

I would say why should Gooferment or its corporations be in charge of “health”, “health care”, “health care insurance”, or something else?

Look at “life insurance”. “Cheap”, easily available, and virtually unregulated.

Even “car insurance” is relatively the same when compared to “health insurance”.

When you think about it, the current “system” comes from the WW2 wage and price controls. There, the Gooferment, created the problem and “they” keep “rescuing” us from the problem they created.

Could we at least consider an alternative?

If the problem was “uninsured”, (which I dispute), then could “we” NOT bought every uninsured person a policy and avoided the financial and systematic débâcle that was Obamacare?

I think that you liberals think that only the Gooferment can solve “problems”. When in actuality, it causes the problem it seek to proclaim it’s solving.

# – # – # – # – #    

INSPIRATIONAL: “health”, “health care”, “health care insurance”, or something else

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.impactlab.net/2014/05/24/3-predictions-by-vinod-khosla-for-the-future-of-health/

May 24th, 2014 at 8:25 am
3 predictions by Vinod Khosla for the future of health

*** begin quote ***

According to a newly released report, he predicts:

1. 80 percent of what doctors do, diagnostics, will be replaced by machines

2. Medicine will become tailor-made for each patient

3. Consumer-driven tech will create better incentives to keep people healthy

*** end quote ***

Amazing predictions.

But the economic engineer will have to drastically change.

Will people be “smart” enough to manage their own health?

Not coming out of Gooferment Skrules!

They can’t balance a checkbook or other simple tasks.

But they are good test takers.

Argh!

# – # – # – # – #   

POLITICAL: OBAMACARE nukes incentives

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304680904579367143880532248

The Economist Who Exposed ObamaCare
The Chicago professor examined the law’s incentives for the poor not to get a job or work harder, and this week Beltway budgeteers agreed.
By JOSEPH RAGO CONNECT
Feb. 7, 2014 6:30 p.m. ET

*** begin quote ***

Another way of putting it is that taking away benefits has the same effect as a direct tax, so lower-income workers are discouraged from climbing the income ladder by working harder, logging extra hours, taking a promotion or investing in their future earnings through job training or education.

*** end quote ***

The bad news just keeps rolling in.

# – # – # – # – #   

POLITICAL: Tim Kaine opposes repealing the ACA

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment
January 15, 2014

Mr. Ferdinand Reinke 
1641 International Dr Unit 414
McLean, VA  22102-4831

Dear Mr. Reinke:

Thank you for contacting me about the health care reform law, known as the Affordable Care Act.  I appreciate your taking the time to share your views.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010.  I support the ACA as an important first step towards putting patients in charge of their own health care decisions and slowing the growth of health care costs.  Health care cost increases have bankrupted hundreds of thousands of people and imposed real financial burdens on businesses.  I find it intolerable that the wealthiest nation in the world spends more on health care than any other nation yet we receive second-rate results for our money.  ACA curbs the worst insurance company practices and increases access to affordable and quality health care to the tens of millions of Americans who are uninsured. 

Because of the ACA, millions of children can remain on their family’s health insurance until they are 26 years old and insurance companies are prohibited from denying care to those with pre-existing conditions.  Seniors can receive free preventive care that will help reduce the cost and incidence of chronic diseases and purchase more affordable prescription drugs.  Forty-seven million American women now have access to preventive health services.  Small businesses are eligible for tax credits to help defray the costs of purchasing insurance for their employees.  And insurance companies are required to rebate excess premiums to their customers.  These measures represent just some of the positive effects of ACA. 

I oppose repealing the ACA and the benefits described above.  I acknowledge we have more to do to lower health care costs while improving the quality of care.  Other nations have shown it can be done through promoting preventive care, effectively using technology, paying our health care providers by patient outcomes, and finding ways to reduce defensive medicine and lower malpractice premiums without taking rights away from patients. 

Controlling the cost of health care is essential to reducing the deficit and our national debt.  I am ready to work with anyone interested in finding smart savings in health care, especially in Medicare.  Inaction is not a solution to our problems.  There are many good ideas for improving our health care system and through common ground and compromise, we can find credible solutions.

I will continue to work on improving ACA and reducing the cost of health care for Americans.  For more information about ACA, including how it will affect you, details about every feature of the law, and to read the text of the law itself, please visit www.healthcare.gov.

Thank you again for contacting me. 

Sincerely,

Signature

Tim Kaine

# – # – #  

Not very responsive to my “stop it” request.

# – # – # – # – #   

 

 

 

 

 

January 15, 2014

Mr. Ferdinand Reinke 
1641 International Dr Unit 414
McLean, VA  22102-4831

Dear Mr. Reinke:

Thank you for contacting me about the health care reform law, known as the Affordable Care Act.  I appreciate your taking the time to share your views.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010.  I support the ACA as an important first step towards putting patients in charge of their own health care decisions and slowing the growth of health care costs.  Health care cost increases have bankrupted hundreds of thousands of people and imposed real financial burdens on businesses.  I find it intolerable that the wealthiest nation in the world spends more on health care than any other nation yet we receive second-rate results for our money.  ACA curbs the worst insurance company practices and increases access to affordable and quality health care to the tens of millions of Americans who are uninsured. 

Because of the ACA, millions of children can remain on their family’s health insurance until they are 26 years old and insurance companies are prohibited from denying care to those with pre-existing conditions.  Seniors can receive free preventive care that will help reduce the cost and incidence of chronic diseases and purchase more affordable prescription drugs.  Forty-seven million American women now have access to preventive health services.  Small businesses are eligible for tax credits to help defray the costs of purchasing insurance for their employees.  And insurance companies are required to rebate excess premiums to their customers.  These measures represent just some of the positive effects of ACA. 

I oppose repealing the ACA and the benefits described above.  I acknowledge we have more to do to lower health care costs while improving the quality of care.  Other nations have shown it can be done through promoting preventive care, effectively using technology, paying our health care providers by patient outcomes, and finding ways to reduce defensive medicine and lower malpractice premiums without taking rights away from patients. 

Controlling the cost of health care is essential to reducing the deficit and our national debt.  I am ready to work with anyone interested in finding smart savings in health care, especially in Medicare.  Inaction is not a solution to our problems.  There are many good ideas for improving our health care system and through common ground and compromise, we can find credible solutions.

I will continue to work on improving ACA and reducing the cost of health care for Americans.  For more information about ACA, including how it will affect you, details about every feature of the law, and to read the text of the law itself, please visit www.healthcare.gov.

Thank you again for contacting me. 

Sincerely,

Signature

Tim Kaine

POLITICAL: Obamacare makes fraud legal

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.strike-the-root.com/has-government-legalized-fraud

Has Government Legalized Fraud?
Column by Lawrence Samuels, posted on December 12, 2013
in Statism Health Care Fraud/Waste/Abuse
Column by L.K. Samuels.

Exclusive to STR

*** begin quote ***

The federal government must have made fraud a legal practice. What else could one conclude in light of Obamacare?

When President Obama, his administration and his Democratic cohorts promoted the Affordable Health Care Act, they advertised it with a slew of silver-tongued falsehoods, eloquent misstatements and outright lies. In other words, Obamacare was passed by Congress under clearly fraudulent statements of epic proportions. Almost every promise devised to sell Obamacare to the public and Congress was untrue. Millions of people have lost their coverage, although President Obama stated in 30 to 40 versions that, “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.” There were no caveats, no exceptions, period.

And yet Obama and his staff knew for years that millions of health care plans had to be cancelled because they would be considered substandard by the new law. Lisa Myers at NBC News revealed this shame. She said that the Obama administration had known since the summer of 2010 that millions of Americans could lose their insurance under the law, where “50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a ‘cancellation’ letter . . . . ” As more information keeps coming out, it turns out that Obama’s polished statements had been carefully vetted by his staff, but coldly calculated to deceive the buying public.

Any salesman employing such deceitful business practices would be prosecuted in a New York second. But nobody has brought a class action suit against Obama or his administration for massive and unmitigated fraud. No attorney general from any one of the 50 states has filed charges. The conclusion one would have to reach is that the government has the right to commit fraud.

*** end quote ***

It would certain appear that “political lies” have reached a new level of audacity.

“I wouldn’t believe you, if your tongue came notarized.” … attributed to Judge Marilyn Milian, but may have an earlier history.

Clearly, anything that the Gooferment, politicians, or bureaucrats say or publish can not be trusted.

Wonder when the revolution will start?

# – # – # – # – #   

RANT: Obamacare ain’t “insurance”!

Published on by reinkefj1 Comment

http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/21/who-said-it-president-obama-or-an-infomercial/

# – # – #  

What a joke?

Billy Mays was more believable.

Consider the CONCEPT of insurance.

A bunch of people, who face the same risk, buy a “policy” that will pay if that event happens.

How is pre-existing coverage “insurance”?

I read somewhere that it’s like buying fire insurance after your house burns down!

Not even the Gooferment can refute economics!

# – # – # – # – #   

POLITICS: Obamaccare affects coverage

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL News Alert
IBM to Move Retirees Off Health Plan

*** begin quote ***

International Business Machines plans to move about 110,000 retirees off its company-sponsored health plan and instead give them a payment to buy coverage on a health-insurance exchange, in a sign that even big, well-capitalized employers aren’t likely to keep providing the once-common benefits as medical costs continue to rise.

The move, which will affect all IBM retirees once they become eligible for Medicare, will relieve the technology company of the responsibility of managing retirement health-care benefits.

*** end quote ***

This is just another of the dropping shoes!

I foresee litigation.

Unless the politicians and bureaucrats give the Crony Capitalists a “free pass” because it is a big boost to their plan for “single payer socialized medicine”. 

In any event, the “Age of the Golden Watch” when paternalistic companies could be trusted with the best interest of valuable employees. Foolish meme at its heart. But, if I was an IBM employee, or potential IBM retiree, the hand writing is on the wall.

Yes, the new employment meme should be “Every person for themselves!”.

Cause NO ONE — not your employer, not the folks you buy from, not the politicians — NOBODY is looking out for YOU, but YOU!

Forget that at your own peril.

# – # – # – # – #   

RANT: ObamaCare “death panels”

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2013/07/31/Howard-Dean-Admits-Palin-Was-Right-About-Death-Panels

HANNITY: HOWARD DEAN ADMITTED PALIN WAS RIGHT ABOUT DEATH PANELS

*** begin quote ***

FOX NEWS INSIDER – There is more proof that the ObamaCare “death panels” are alive and well. The former head of the Democratic Party, who also happens to be a medical doctor, is sounding the alarm. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Howard Dean calls out a “major problem” with the health care law, known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board. Sarah Palin, who warned against death panels in 2010, reacted on Tuesday night’s Hannity.

Sean Hannity broke down why this is important. First, a high-profile Democrat and one-time medical doctor is admitting that this board is a “health care rationing body.” Second, he pointed out that Dean is acknowledging that IPAB has the authority to “stop certain treatments.”

Finally, Hannity said it serves as another frightening reminder that the American people were misled by the president and other Democrats, including Dean, about ObamaCare. President Obama stated in 2009, “Every credible person who has looked into it has said there are no so-called death panels – an offensive notion to me and to the American people. These are phony claims meant to divide us.”

*** end quote ***

Of course, when “rationing”, there’s a financial incentive to “thin the heard”. Stop paying Medicare, Social Security, and collect the various “death taxes”.

Wake up, Sheeple!

# – # – # – # – #   

POLITICAL: Obamacare and the fiscal implications

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/133198.html

March 3, 2013

The Early Stages of ObamaCare

Posted by Karen De Coster on March 3, 2013 04:06 PM

Here is a great talk given at The 21 Convention in 2012, by Doug McGuff, MD, a prominent member of the ancestral health (paleo-primal) community: “Fitness, Health, and Liberty.” Doug, an emergency room physician, is well known for his ‘Body By Science’ program, a high-intensity interval training program.

This is an important presentation because Doug presents the historical picture on how the physician-patient relationship went from a fiduciary relationship between provider and consumer to a 3rd party morass of collectivized medicine that sacrificed individual services to the needs of the masses in general in order to conform to the rules outlined by the medical establishment-insurance industry alliance.

*****

Yes, if the “golden rule” is the driver — he who has the gold makes the rules — then the patient can no longer trust the objectivity of the doctor or the medical establishment.

–30–

 

interesting: Obamacare is NOT about h, hc, or hci; it’s about control

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://personalliberty.com/2012/11/19/obamacares-real-costs/

Obamacare’s Real Costs

November 19, 2012 by Bob Livingston

*** begin quote ***

“The Obama Care Health Care Reform Plan or Health Care For America Plan will cost the average American around $70.”–obamacarefacts.com

First of all, allow me to disabuse you of the notion that Obamacare has anything to do with “health” care. Obamacare is not about health. It’s not about lowering the cost of health insurance. And it’s not about ensuring that everyone is insured.

It is about locking more Americans into the clutches of the Big Pharma/Medical Industrial complex, providing more customers for Big Insurance and confiscating more wealth from individuals and businesses.

The American healthcare system should properly be called “sickcare.” It’s a subtle and esoteric system of population control with prescription drugs issued at the public expense by the drug cartel — the conglomerate of pharmaceutical houses.

They commit population control under the pretense of “healthcare” and make people pay for it. And this medical cartel has no legal liability. It is forced — or at least deceptive — medication. And most doctors don’t have a clue. They write prescriptions based on falsified data and kickbacks — from speaker fees and ghostwriting glowing medical reviews — without regard to whether their patients will benefit.

*** end quote ***

I too am very disillusioned with this whole discussion.

It’s NOT about “Health”, “Healthcare”, or “Healthcare Insurance”. It’s all about “control”.

“Death Panels” was a good two word summary of the Gooferment’s objective.

When we think of the drag that seniors represent in socsec, medicare, and the taxes that they don’t pay, no wonder cigarettes are legal!

The exemplar for this is the (American) Indian Healthcare, wwhere the rule is ‘don’t need anything expensive after June’. Or maybe the VA, “die”!  (Some old vets firmly believe that VA wants to kill them. And, not with kindness.)

If it was about health insurance, then it wouldn’t be tied to your employment.

Argh!

–30–

INTERESTING: Hollywood will carry the Obamacare “flag”; propaganda?

Published on by reinkefj2 Comments

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/121282.html

September 19, 2012
Yet Another Reason To Torch the TV
Posted by Becky Akers on September 19, 2012 08:10 AM

*** begin quote ***

“Officials in California want prime-time TV shows to help promote President Obama’s healthcare law. … ‘A number of popular television programs and personalities such as Grey’s Anatomy, Modern Family, the Biggest Loser, Dr. Oz and others will be approached and pitched to incorporate story lines or mentions of health care reform that would reinforce campaign messages,’” according to the “marketing plan” from “California’s insurance exchange — a new marketplace [sic], created by” Obummercare.

Apparently, the idea that propaganda should be subtle and hidden has waned as Our Rulers’ contempt for us waxes.

*** end quote ***

I’ve debated that Obamacare muddles “health”, “health care”, “health care insurance”, and / or something else.

Now we find out that the Gooferment is using / expect Hollywood to brainwash us.

Sorry, but if any of my favorite comedies pick up this theme. They are toast!

They can join Jane Fonda in my dog house!

# – # – # – # – #   

GOVERNACIDE: Shouldn’t we examine the system that enabled this to happen?

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.8newsnow.com/story/14422802/breaking-news-woman-dead-after-undergoing-butt-enhancement

Arrest Report: Woman Died After Undergoing Buttocks Enhancement
POSTED: APR 11, 2011 12:58 PM
UPDATED: APR 11, 2011 6:55 PM
By Melissa Duran, Reporter – email

*** begin quote ***

LAS VEGAS — A woman died Saturday night after undergoing a medical procedure from two people who are now facing murder charges.

Police say the incident took place at a small office near east Charleston Boulevard and Palm Street. The victim, 42-year-old Elena Caro, arrived Saturday for a buttocks enhancement, but was pronounced dead at a hospital hours later.

*** end quote ***

So much for the vaunted Gooferment protection.

All the regulations, all the inspectors, and all the laws couldn’t save this poor woman from her own bad decision.

Now, I am sure, that everyone will “blame the victim”.

And, there is some blame for her in this incident.

But, shouldn’t we examine the system that enabled it to happen?

The Gooferment controlled by the AMA, Big Insurance, and Big Pharma, keeps prices high by restricting supply. So what are poor people, without insurance, without money, supposed to do?

Go to the “shade tree mechanics”. The back alley doctors. The con artists.

Could she have been fooled by the illusion of respectability?

And, what did the Gooferment do to prevent this from happening? I bet there were all sorts of tell taale warning signs. I bet various agencies have “inspectors” on the payroll “vigorously” “Inspecting”.

Deregulate healthcare and train the Sheeple to do their own “inspecting”!

It’ll be cheaper and we’ll all be better off.

Gooferment is truly the meme that kills.

# # # # #

POLITICAL: Obamacare will make us worse off

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/articles/2010/12/24/beth_israel_deaconess_admits_mishandling_three_spine_operations/

Beth Israel erred in 3 spinal operations

Vertebrae mix-ups spur new procedures

By Liz Kowalczyk

Globe Staff / December 24, 2010

*** begin quote ***

Surgeons at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center operated on the wrong location on three patients who underwent spine surgery since September, despite taking recommended steps to prevent such errors, prompting federal and state health inspectors to cite the hospital for problems in its surgical service.

In all three cases, the surgeons apparently miscounted the patient’s vertebrae and operated on a vertebra directly above or below the diseased segment, said Dr. Kenneth Sands, senior vice president of health care quality at the Boston hospital.

*** end quote ***

Surprising. But mistakes do happen. While they didn’t kill anyone, clearly they “harmed” the patients involved.

I wonder with Obamacare: (1) How many good docs will stop working leaving us worse off. (2) I’d expect medical “blunders” to increase as the profit motive shifts. (3) And, now that the Gooferment is “in the game”, who will keep “honest stats”?

“We, The Sheeple” have been fooled again.

# # # # #

POLITICAL: End “benefits” now

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/08/one_payoff_to_pass_obamacare_n.html

August 29, 2010
One payoff to pass Obamacare not paying off
Ed Lasky

*** begin quote ***

We know about the backroom deals made to get Congressmen to vote for ObamaCare but there were also favors cut out for unions, drug makers, and even small business to get them to support the program.

Guess what? The “credit” offered to small business to help them pay for the increased health care costs-due to ObamaCare mandates- turns out to be not much help at all.

*** end quote ***

Make a deal with the devil and don’t be surprised when you get cheated.

Not much to say, but dealing with the Gooferment for “special favors” isn’t what business is supposed to be all about.

Remember this whole benefits mess was created by FDR’s wage and price control in WW2. And, generations later we are still screwed by it.

Time to take some bitter medicine.

Phase out “benefits”.

Businesses should pay their workers their full wage. Allow people to buy “health insurance” like car insurance. THen it would be “portable”.

Perhaps then credit unions to offer group insurance to its members?

Argh!

# # # # #

RANT: Client satisfaction calls

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

Day before yesterday, I received two phone calls. Both wanting to speak to Frau, who was sleeping. Caught them on the first ring. And told them BOTH to call back tomorrow between 4 and 6 PM.

(On Saturday? You expect us to work on Saturday. Yeah, if this is so important. Otherwise don’t bother us. You have the need for this dumb call; not us.)

Yesterday morning, Frau was sleeping on the couch. She’s had a rough few weeks so it was good. Sure enough, the insurance called to “follow up on her care”.

Woke her up!

<Expletive Deleted>

Told the lady: “Thanks for waking her up and disturbing her. Some Customer Satisfaction.”

Frau took the call. Answered a few dumb questions. Like her birthdate, and when she got out of the hospital.

I’m “with out urine”. Polite way of saying <Expletive Deleted> <Expletive Deleted> off!

Can’t wait until Monday, when I plan to call the insurance company, and try to chat with the honcho in charge of follow up!

The hospital satisfaction surveyor never called back; fine with me.

Argh!

Who designs this nonsense?

(Glad you’re reading this spleen venting.)

# # # # #

RANT: The fall out from Obamacare begins

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Some-insurers-stop-writing-apf-1129458619.html?x=0&.v=1

Some insurers stop writing new coverage for kids
Ahead of requirement to cover kids with medical problems, some insurers drop out
Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press Writer, On Friday July 23, 2010, 8:03 pm EDT

*** begin quote ***

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida issues about 9,000 to 10,000 new policies a year that only cover children. Vice president Randy Kammer said the company’s experts calculated that guaranteeing coverage for children could raise premiums for other individual policy holders by as much as 20 percent.

“We believe that the majority of people who would buy this policy were going to use it immediately, probably for high cost claims,” said Kammer. “Guaranteed issue means you could technically buy it on the way to the hospital.”

*** end quote ***

Romney care, Obama care, any kind of care … politicians and bureaucrats always make the same mistake — static analysis.

As a fat old white guy injineer, one of the first classes I took was “Static Analysis”. OK tough enough. Immediately followed by “Dynamic Analysis”. Now we let things move. Way way way more difficult.

So to in economics, people react to what is done, or not done, or even what is threatened to be done, and begin to act in their own self-interest. As any reasonable person would do!

That’s why, after the politicians raised the millionaires’ tax in Maryland, suddenly the next year there are a lot less millionaires in Maryland.

Do these politicians and bureaucrats think that they are the only ones who can read the tea eaves, make a plan, and carry it out?

Every beginning hunter learns quickly to lead the target.

# # # # #

MONEY: The Gooferment’s Long Term Care Insurance in Obamacare

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.ricedelman.com/cs/pressroom/pressroom_detail?pressrelease.id=1432

*** begin quote ***

Comparing CLASS to private sector LTC coverage. We’re pleased that the government is attempting to offer long-term care insurance, but CLASS doesn’t eliminate the need for you to buy a policy from private health insurers. First, CLASS’s daily benefit of $50 or $75 is woefully insufficient, considering that the average daily cost of a nursing home is $206, according to the 2010 Genworth Cost of Care survey, and that licensed in-home health aides today cost an average of $19/hour. Making these figures even worse is the fact that they are projected to be $268 and $21, respectively, when CLASS benefits become available in 2016. And unlike long-term care insurance you purchase, the government’s program is not a contract; benefits and costs can change.

*** and ***

In the meantime, do not let the notion of the CLASS program cause you to delay getting your own LTC insurance if your planner has recommended it for you. It’s unlikely that CLASS will meet all your LTC insurance needs, but even if it does, you should buy LTC insurance today to get the protection you need; you can always cancel the policy later, after you sign up for CLASS.

*** end quote ***

IMHO, getting old sucks. Pattie wiped out her little bit of lifetime savings in under a year. My Mom was forking out 10k$/month for “help” as she struggled to stay in her apartment. Anyone listening should have sufficient appropriate insurance.

It’s a funny peculiar calculation. If you have nothing, you need nothing; you get Medicaid. If you have 10M$, you need nothing; you’ll self-insure. Anything in the middle, you HAVE to have insurance. Where the middle starts and ends is arts not science. Argh!  

# # # # #

RANT: It’s always about the “something else”

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/106887-health-law-risks-turning-away-sick

Health law risks turning away sick
By Julian Pecquet – 07/01/10 07:13 PM ET

*** begin quote ***

The Obama administration has not ruled out turning sick people away from an insurance program created by the new healthcare law to provide coverage for the uninsured.

Critics of the $5 billion high-risk pool program insist it will run out of money before Jan. 1, 2014. That’s when the program sunsets and health plans can no longer discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions.

*** and ***

“Along with that, we can work with the states to adjust their benefit structure, the deductibles, the co-pays, the overall plan structure to address some of those cost drivers, again to help the plan make it to 2014, when it will no longer be needed.”

In addition, Popper said, many people won’t be able to afford to participate in the program since premiums will range between about $140 and $900 a month, depending on applicants’ age and where they live. HHS estimates that at least 200,000 people will be in the program at any one time. To be eligible, applicants have to be citizens or nationals of the United States or be lawfully present; have a pre-existing medical condition; and have been uninsured for at least six months before applying for the high-risk pool plan.

*** and ***

If it looks like too many people are signing up — states will get monthly updates on how many people they can cover with the money they have left — there’s always the option of turning people down.

The bill “does give the secretary authority to limit enrollment in the plan … nationally or on a state-by-state basis,” Popper said. “So that is present, but at this point, we’re starting with no one in the plan as of today … so we don’t see that happening anytime soon.”

*** end quote ***

One giant criticism of BHO44 and his Obamacare is that it had muddled objectives. Was it about “health”, “health care”, “health care insurance”, or something else. Us, tin foil hats, believe it’s the “something else”.

By not being specific about their objectives, they don’t have to be specific about their results. We, The People have allowed our elected representatives to get away with this muddled thinking. And, as such, we once again find ourselves faced with a confused mess. Argh!

I believe this is all about “control”. By centralizing one seventh of the economy, the politicians and bureaucrats are in control of our lives. By controlling “health care” and “health care insurance”, they control us.

Remember the three “laws” of political motivation: (1) reward your friends; (2) punish your enemies; and (3) feather your own nest. Clearly, this wins on all three fronts.

By controlling “health care” and “health care insurance”, they create a voting block. Look what Social Security and Medicare has done to create a “senior citizen” voting block for the Democratic Party. Look at Florida. Created by Social Security. That’s the power to reward yor friends — the incumbent politicians. Never mind the endless opportunities for graft, corruption and outright theft for the .

By controlling “health care” and “health care insurance”, they have won a war with the Catholic Church and Right To Life groups over abortion. The “sacrament” of the modern liberal feminist, enshrined by Roe v Wade, will now be fully funded to the abhorrence of Right To Life taxpaying advocates. That’s punishing your enemy — the Religious Right.

By controlling “health care” and “health care insurance”, they have created endless bureaucratic positions. Of course, to be filled by “them”, their friends ‘n’ family, and their supporters. And, created countless opportunities for lobbyists to fill their pockets as they create loopholes, exceptions, and prohibitions. That’s feathering, with some pretty comfortable feathers.

Silly Taxpayer, you didn’t think this was about anything as trivial as helping sick people now did you?

By pulling the Sheeple’s own wool over the Sheeple’s eyes, they are able to sheer the Sheeple some more.

See if the objective was “health”, “health care”, or “health care insurance”, then it would be relatively easy and cheap to address the issue. For “health”, address the root cause of poor health — we have to make it a national priority to find out what that was. (I’d say “gooferment skrules”, but that’s another story.) If it was “health care”, then perhaps better records, uniform forms, or — shocked hush — eliminating medical licensing. If it is was “health care insurance” slash cost, then we could change the tax law to make everyone their own subchapter S copr and make cost of earning a living deductible to all. If it is was “health care insurance” slash cost, then the gooferment could just buy poor people health insurance as part of the federal health insurance system. (Whoopi Goldberg had it right: “What the hell! I just want what you <Congressmen> got. <for health insurance>. Way to nail the issue, Whoopster!)

See it’s always about something else!

# # # # #