facts on the healthcare reform

Proposed Changes in the Final Health Care Bill
“A look at key provisions of the Senate bill and the changes proposed in the reconciliation bill passed by the House Sunday.”

How the Health Care Overhaul Could Affect You
“Some of the main ways the overhaul might affect those who currently have health insurance and those who do not.”

What’s in the bill
“Here’s a look at what is in the Senate health-care bill and how that compares with the House reconciliation package”

What does the health care bill mean to me? **Calculator
“The health-care overhaul will change the way millions of Americans get health insurance and require nearly everyone to have health insurance or face penalties. A number of factors - including income, age, location and family size - will determine how it specifically impacts your life. This tool looks at what it could mean for your health coverage and taxes based on your income, family size and current insurance status.”

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Tagged as: healthcare March 23, 2010 @ 11:41 pm

healthcare: we have a winner!

honestly, i’d feel much more victorious about last night’s passage of the healthcare bill if we’d just passed a single payer healthcare plan; however, certain provisions of this bill are nothing to thumb our noses at…

From: Factbox: Details of final healthcare bill:

The legislation would require substantial insurance market reforms that would bar insurers from excluding people for pre-existing medical conditions and prevent them from arbitrarily dropping policy holders.

Insurance exchanges would be created in which small businesses and individuals without employer-sponsored coverage would be able to shop for coverage. Plans offered on the exchange would have to meet minimum benefit requirements.

The proposed changes would allow dependent children to remain on their parents’ health policies until age 26.

as it stands, i don’t expect to see much change for myself, but for people in the above circumstances, this is a windfall.  i’ve known people dropped by their insurance companies after major surgeries, then they’re barred by other insurance companies for having “pre-existing conditions”.  (friend of mine had open heart surgery in his 40s.  his insurance company then dropped him.  the only insurance that he was able to obtain was for his medications.  10 years later, needing open heart surgery again, he was forced to put his house and business up as collateral in order to have the surgery done.  had he not had either of those - and not all of us do - he’d have been given heart pills and sent back home.)

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Tagged as: healthcare March 22, 2010 @ 11:55 am

news that caught my eye

i’ve not been posting much, cuz i’ve suddenly been *swamped* with things to do.  (more on that in a bit).

these were things that caught mah eye over the past month:

Profit found in jailing immigrants for feds

SAN ANTONIO — As federal officials begin an overhaul of the widely criticized system used to incarcerate immigrants awaiting hearings and deportation, their challenge includes a deep inconsistency in the amount paid to a hastily assembled network of private prisons and local jails that hold thousands of such detainees.

Contracts obtained by the Associated Press illustrate the problem in paper-heavy detail, and not all of the discrepancies can be explained by geography or differences in the cost of living. For example, a suburban Atlanta county is paid less than $43 per day to house an illegal immigrant, while a rural New Mexico county gets $97 a day — just a few dollars shy of the amount paid for a bed in Los Angeles.

Some county jails charge only the actual cost of housing an immigrant, while others acknowledge partnering with private prison companies to profit from the system.

Last week, the Obama administration announced a series of “major reforms” in the detention of illegal immigrants, including placing federal employees inside the largest facilities to monitor detainee treatment. In doing so, John Morton, the new director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, acknowledged the current system is both inconsistent and lacks oversight.

“There isn’t a uniform rhyme or reason to it,” he said.

there’s no real uniform rhyme or reason to our immigration policy as a whole.  why should detention be any different?  society seems geared towards profiting off of other people’s misery, so maybe that’s the “consistency”.

$3 billion buys not-so-green vehicles

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the nation’s top car salesman in recent weeks, has cited the Obama administration’s best-seller list of mostly smaller, fuel-saving cars like the Ford Focus to describe the success of the Cash for Clunkers rebate program.

But what LaHood and other administration officials usually don’t mention is that some trucks and sport-utility vehicles that get less than 20 miles per gallon, like the Ford F-150 truck and one version of the Cadillac SRX Crossover, also are being purchased with the new government subsidies. Both are bulky vehicles weighing more than 6,000 pounds when loaded that boast at least 248 horsepower.

Just how many consumers used the federal rebates to buy these larger, not-so-green vehicles is unclear. The Obama administration has declined so far to release detailed records of purchases under the program being compiled by the Transportation Department, listing every clunker deal requesting rebates. The Associated Press requested the data July 31.

The Transportation Department distributes regular summaries of sales from the clunkers program and has used the electronic sales information from dealers to bolster arguments that Americans are dumping gas guzzlers for gas savers. But its failure to release detailed records means the public can’t verify those claims.

ahhh.  it’s so nice to have transparency back in the federal gov’t….................................................oh.  nvm.

Expert blasts fire investigation that led to execution

Key testimony that sent a Corsicana auto mechanic to the execution chamber for setting a house fire that killed three young children was based on faulty investigations that ignored eyewitness reports and failed to follow accepted scientific procedures, an expert review of the case concludes.

While the 51-page report by nationally known fire scientist Craig Beyler stops short of charging that Cameron Willingham wrongfully was sent to his death, it dismisses as slipshod the investigations by Deputy State Fire Marshal Manuel Vasquez and Corsicana Assistant Fire Chief Douglas Fogg. Willingham maintained his innocence until his execution in 2004.

“The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man — convicted of a crime I did not commit,” Willingham said from the death house gurney.

The men’s investigations into the December 1991 blaze at Willingham’s residence failed to meet current standards of the National Fire Prevention Association or even standards that were in place at the time of the fire, Beyler wrote.

Some of the testimony Vasquez offered to support his claim that the fire was set to kill Willingham’s 1-year-old twins and 2-year-old stepdaughter, Beyler contended, was “hardly consistent with a scientific mind-set and is more characteristic of mystics or psychics.”

the wheels of justice don’t just move slowly, they get bogged down and go entirely flat all too often.

also, see:

Books That Counter Our “Training” To Make War By John Pilger

great list of books.  i’ve to add a couple ot my “must reads” list.

Blue Cross and Blue Dog Democrats: Reflections on “Health Reform” Under “The Unelected Dictatorship of Money” by Paul Street

democrats can kvetch about republicans blocking healthcare reform all they like, but seriously, get a grip.  republicans are going to try to block healthcare reform.  if for no other reason than because democrats support it.  the *real* problem, lies not with the other party who were going to balk ~anyway~, but with those within your own party that are balking and fighting against meaningful reform.

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Tagged as: war,news,obama,healthcare,injusticesystem,otherpeoplesexpense August 26, 2009 @ 11:28 am

healthcare reform brought to you by the people who’ve caused the problem

Lobbyists the silver lining in health care storm?

WASHINGTON — Stormy weather in Congress is threatening President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, but some see a silver lining: the lobbyists are still mostly on board.

The drug industry, the American Medical Association, hospital groups and the insurance lobby are saying Congress must make major changes this year. Disagreements — chiefly between liberal and conservative Democrats — brought Congress to a standstill this week. But television ads paid for by drug companies and insurers continued to emphasize the benefits of a health care overhaul — not the groups’ objections to some of the proposals.

oh goodie.  the drug and insurance companies now want healthcare reform… and they’re lobbying heavily to get it.  this does not bode well.

It’s all got to do with shifts in the economy. Even before the recession hit, employer-sponsored health coverage had been steadily shrinking, and many people couldn’t afford the premiums for individual policies. Meanwhile, government programs have been expanding — and they’ve gotten increasingly friendly to private insurance companies. Insurers now play major roles as middlemen in Medicare, Medicaid and the children’s insurance program.

And if the government requires everybody to get coverage — just what the overhaul legislation calls for — it could guarantee a steady stream of customers subsidized by taxpayers not only for insurers, but for all medical providers.

profits profits profits.  insurance companies aren’t going to back a plan that cuts into their profit margin.  the sick and poor be damned, this is all about the money.

The industry groups have invested heavily to make sure their views get taken into account. The health care sector gave $167 million in campaign contributions to congressional candidates in the 2008 election cycle, according to the watchdog group OpenSecrets.org. Health care companies poured $484 million into lobbying efforts in 2008, and are on pace to exceed that this year.

Separately, the drug companies have offered up $80 billion over 10 years to reduce prescription costs of seniors if a deal goes through, while major hospital groups agreed to a $155-billion reduction in Medicare and Medicaid payments to free up funds that would help subsidize coverage for the uninsured.

aww, they offered that up did they?  which means they expect their profits to rise enough to cover the loss.

One of the liberals’ main objectives is to include a strong government-sponsored insurance plan in the legislation, to compete against private insurance. Stopping or weakening the government plan is a top priority for the insurance industry. Other health care interest groups are also leery because the public plan could put a dent in their budgets.

well, yes.  a government-sponsored insurance plan, with purchasing power, would wield a ton of power.  can’t be having that.  they might be able to demand prices at levels people could *afford*. 

it’s the same story over and over again.  deregulating college tuitions was going to save texans millions… ‘cept tuition costs jumped 23% in the first year alone.  tort reform was going to cut healthcare costs for texans… ‘cept it didn’t.  prices increased.  energy deregulation, same thing.

“just be patient”.  “it’s progress”.  ‘cept it never really is.  they don’t put plans into action and then look at ways to improve those plans for the lowest on the scale.  they put plans into action and then look at ways to dismantle them over the years.  see: medicare, medicaid, social security.

this time, i hope the liberals prevail, i’m just not going to count on it.

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Tagged as: politics,news,healthcare,manbehindthecurtain August 02, 2009 @ 05:29 am

in which i vote republican

judge ed emmett earned my vote during hurricane ike, due to his efforts in getting help to people.  (he worked around the clock to get the massive distribution of water and food organized and out to people.)  i feel even further justified in my vote after reading Emmett urges regional approach to indigent health care:

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett called for a more regional approach to indigent health care with greater cooperation between public entities like the Harris County Hospital District and private health care providers in his annual State of the County address Thursday.

Emmett later said he wants top regional experts to consider sweeping changes in the way health care is provided to the poor in Southeast Texas, possibly by asking the Legislature to create a health care district that encompasses multiple counties and relies on sharing bed space among public and private hospitals.

“With all the medical resources we have available in this community, we should really be the nation’s model for how to provide health care,” Emmett said.

Emmett opened his speech with an assurance that Harris County’s finances remain strong despite the economic slowdown. But he said the county cannot do things the way they always have been done as the population grows, diversifies and shifts, with lower-income residents moving into once-affluent suburbs and inner-city neighborhoods experiencing rapid revitalization.

Harris County will need to cooperate with other counties, cities and Metro on projects, such as light rail lines and the construction of the Grand Parkway, to accommodate the region’s burgeoning transportation needs. And cities, municipal utility districts and other groups will need to work with the county to deal with the increased pressure on the region’s water supply, air quality, trash disposal and other issues stemming from rapid population growth, he added.

“Duplication of effort is a waste, and failure to act is unacceptable,” Emmett said. “We must identify the problems and solve them, period.”

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Tagged as: texas,politics,houston,healthcare February 28, 2009 @ 11:48 am