healthcare
mikethemadbiologist | October 22, 2009This is why private insurance companies should die--or, at the very least, no American should be forced to give these parasites his or her money:
Christina Turner feared that she might have been sexually assaulted after two men slipped her a knockout drug. She thought she was taking proper precautions when her doctor prescribed a month's worth of anti-AIDS medicine.
Only later did she learn that she had made herself all but uninsurable.
Turner had let the men buy her drinks at a bar in Fort Lauderdale. The next thing she knew, she said, she was lying on a roadside with cuts and bruises that…
gregladen | October 12, 2009He's too big.
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I did not let Amanda see this story. I just turned the TV off and said "Oh, I think the fuse blew, honey."
mikethemadbiologist | October 11, 2009A while ago, I discussed how 'fiscal conservatism'--that is, radical deficit reductionism--is an extremist ideology, not a moderate one, and that radical deficit reductionism has real-world consequences for people's lives. Steve Rhodes generalizes the problem by describing the discussion we are not allowed to have:
We are not allowed to discuss an economic structure that keeps those on the bottom at the bottom - on purpose.
When the unemployment rate, for example, gets "too low," the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to slow down the economy.
In other words, the Federal Reserve - at the…
gregladen | October 10, 2009A good friend of mine is. I know something about this particular issue, and my opinion as a doctor* is that she will be fine. Which I told her. But I know that means very little.
Please read this.
____________________
Footnotes
*Well, doctor of philosophy, but really, that's better anyway.
gregladen | October 8, 2009We are the angry left. Don't get us mad.
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mikethemadbiologist | October 7, 2009Matt Yglesias writes the following about strict regulation of private health insurers versus a public option (italics mine):
Another thing is that I've been pondering this and I actually think it's wrong, on "a wonk level," to conceive of effective regulation of private insurance as a second-best alternative to passing a public option. Unless you're going to totally marginalize private insurance with a Canadian- or British-style system, the first-best alternative is to effectively regulate private insurance as they do in the Netherlands. Trying to introduce a public option is a second-best…
ddobbs | October 5, 2009Never know what'll top the charts. Top post was a post I put up in January, "Pfizer takes $2.3 billion offl-label marketing fine." That post reported the news (via FiercePharma) that Pfizer had tucked away in its financial disclosure forms a $2.3 billion charge to end the federal investigation into allegations of off-label promotions of its Cox-2 painkillers, including Bextra. (Lot of money ... but it didn't quite wipe out the company's 2008 net income.) The company had set aside the money as part of a deal it was negotiating Justiice. Finalizing the deal, however, took until September. At…
gregladen | October 1, 2009Bachmann truly goes off the deep end. Even more than she was.
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gregladen | October 1, 2009There'll be no fighting in the War Room! Or the Congress!
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gregladen | September 29, 2009Rachel Maddow on yesterday's failures and successes in the Senate Committee.
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mikethemadbiologist | September 29, 2009Keep in mind as you read this news item, this takes place in a country that spends thousands of dollars more per person for healthcare than other countries, including those that have a comparable per person GDP and median income. From Diabetes Health:
For most young adults, May is a month of looking forward. The month of May heralds summer vacation, and for those graduating from high school or college, it offers a diploma with a stamp of independence.
But Nicole Daley, a 23-year-old type 1 in New York City, warily eyes this impending milestone. She'll be graduating from the Fashion Institute…
mikethemadbiologist | September 27, 2009...it takes a lot of money to buy his vote. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 million, give or take:
Arkansas Rep. Mike Ross -- a Blue Dog Democrat playing a key role in the health care debate -- sold a piece of commercial property in 2007 for substantially more than a county assessment and an independent appraisal say it was worth.
The buyer: an Arkansas-based pharmacy chain with a keen interest in how the debate plays out.
Ross sold Holly's Health Mart in Prescott, Ark., to USA Drug for $420,000 -- an eye-popping price for real estate in a tiny train and lumber town about 100 miles…
gregladen | September 24, 2009
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gregladen | September 23, 2009Because you are corrupt!!!! ... it turns out.
(Watch the whole thing ... Rachel gets really cute near the middle with a nice hat trick.)
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Here is the link to Ross's statement.
grrlscientist | September 23, 2009tags: healthcare, medical insurance, politics, satire, Will Ferrell, streaming video
It's a rotten job, but someone has got to do it: in this video ad, Will Ferrell stands up for the real victims in this health care debate: health insurance providers themselves!
Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell
gregladen | September 22, 2009Something terrible is happening. Pass it on.
Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell
mikethemadbiologist | September 17, 2009This might seem a ludicrous statement of the obvious, but defining aging as a risk from an insurance standpoint is absurd. First, this summary of the premiums for the Baucus plan:
Key relevant provisions of Baucus' bill [pdf] are called "Rating Rules for the Individual Market" (pages 1-2). These rules apply to people who would be required to purchase insurance in the exchange and define how much more the insurers could charge some individuals compared to others:
Issuers in the individual market could vary premiums
based only on the following characteristics: tobacco use, age, and family…
mikethemadbiologist | September 17, 2009Well done, Max:
People in Massaschusetts are by and large satisfied with the Connector. It's toughest on the fairly small number of families earning just over 300% of FPL (of which there aren't that many), and on the larger number of young individuals who make just over 300% of FPL (which is $32,320 for an individual, so there are a decent number of those folks). Working class families earning up to 200% of FPL have fairly low premiums. $90 per month is going to pinch, but for uninsured households, they'll get some real value out of that: Commonwealth Care plans include dental insurance,…
gregladen | September 15, 2009What does UnitedHealthcare CEO Stephen Hemsley have to lose if Congress passes real healthcare reform this year? Well, for starters, his nearly three quarters of a billion dollars in unexercised stock options might lose a few pennies on the dollar.
What does Isabella, a four year-old girl in Winsconsin who is physically incapable of eating and has had to be tube fed her entire life, have to gain from healthcare reform? The treatment she needs to live a normal life.
Brave New Films is launching a major new campaign to reveal the truth about the health insurance industry, and we need your help…