Pre-Existing Condition

Is Our Healthcare Be Learning?

Is there anyone out there that thinks healthcare in this country is working properly? Please take a look at this and then tell me why you would think that:

"There Are Countries Where a Single-Payer System Works Pretty Well"

So are even the newspapers so in the thrall of the gigantic insurance and healthcare industry that they won't even report when the President says something good about single payer health care? Apparently so:

(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama told the American Medical Association yesterday that he believes single-payer health care systems have worked "pretty well" in some countries, but no major U.S. newspaper available in the Nexis database reported the president's comment in their news stories about the speech...

(Harper's) - ... However, three of the nation’s most prestigious newspapers—the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times— did publish quotes from the president’s speech that artfully took language from both immediately before and after the president’s statement that single-payer systems work. “I’ll be honest,” Obama said in his speech to the AMA, “there are countries where a single-payer system works pretty well.” A search of the the terms “Obama,” “single-payer,” and “pretty well” in the “Major Newspapers” file of Nexis turned up no hits as of 3:00 PM on Tuesday, June 16.

How Our Healthcare "System" "Works"

Ted Rall on Why We Hate the Bailout(s)

Ted Rall is an essayist and cartoonist.

I'm a calm person. Yet my most recent bank statement featured three items that brought my blood to a fast boil. One was a $10 "income wire transfer fee." A newspaper that publishes this column paid for it by wiring the money to my account. The bank charged me ten bucks--for depositing money! Money that, by the way, they invest in what the banking industry calls "the overnight call float."...

...Then there's what my bank calls AN IMPORTANT CHANGE CONCERNING THE PROCESSING OF YOUR CHECKS EFFECTIVE MARCH 20, 2009: "As checks you have written are presented to us for payment during the course of a business day," they explain, "we will place a hold on available funds in your account of those checks, resulting in a reduction in your available account balance throughout that day." This is Bankese for: "You will pay bounce fees even when you have enough money in your account for checks to clear."

I won't even mention the time they hit me with a $120 fine in a single month--twelve separate fees at $10 a pop--for being stupid enough to use the line of credit they once begged me to take.

I hate my bank. My bank is Citibank. Citibank sucks. ...

If Citibank wasn't an evil, customer-hating band of fee vultures, I might not be quite so annoyed at the fact that its parent company, Citigroup, had just received $20 billion in direct investment plus $306 billion in loan guarantees from the U.S. government (i.e. us), of which I am a subsidiary. That's $1,100 per American citizen, plus compound interest paid to Chinese investors who buy U.S. Treasury obligations. The fact that Citigroup "didn't produce" has nothing to do with it. I would rather set $1,100 on fire than hand it over to Citigroup. ...

...I have a suggestion for Mr. Samuelson and the high-flying captains of industry he champions: If banks and insurance companies want taxpayers to save their steak-fattened butts, let them accept some changes that will make Americans like them better. For banks, no more fees on checking or savings accounts. Period. For credit card companies, reset all interest rates at one percent over prime. Give customers a full month to pay their bills. No more unilateral changes in rates. For insurance companies, the presumption should be that all claims are legitimate unless proven otherwise. If a doctor approves it, pay out without being asked twice.

Oh, and one more thing: Get rid of phone trees. Fire the half-a-world-away call centers. Ban voice recognition systems--"say yes or no--I'm sorry, I didn't get that." Hire actual people to answer the phone. Make them pick it up on the first ring and transfer calls to the proper department.

I'd pay $1,100 for that.

[complete article here]

"That One"

So last night's debate wasn't anything special. If you've been paying attention to the Presidential race at all you learned nothing new. At different points (and sometimes on the same question) the candidates did not answer the question asked, surprise surprise. I was most disappointed with Obama's lack of an answer to the question whether or not health insurance should be treated as a commodity. I personally think we should have a national health care system that takes care of everyone. The current system only takes care of those that can afford it and those that can afford it are becoming a smaller and smaller percentage of the population. Obama did mention several times that health care is bankrupting many of us but did not go on to explain how these bankruptcies are destroying the legacy of the middle class (and any chance of the poor passing on anything to their children) while enriching the wealthy.

Do you think McCain referring to Obama as "that one" might be a cleverly masked racist comment (by using a pronoun meant for non-humans)? Another way to paint hims as "the other?"