Colbert!

This is not surprising they would do this – GOP, oil and health care are all in bed with each other. They don’t care about the public, they care about their wallets.

Props to your mom Christy!

My mom’s actually going through her second surgery right now, she’s got something like six weeks of radiation to look forward to. And yeah, this was the fucking lucky outcome.

What a bunch of shameful money-grubbing crap.

why are our politicians trying to kill us?
will we allow this to happen?

Most of them are men…gooper men. Shame on them. Maybe we should write to their mothers.

On Monday, I attended a funeral for a coworker who died of cancer. The past year was hell on him and his family as he went through chemotherapy, that, after 10 months was proving ineffective. He was 48, leaving behind a wife and two children.

Screening can catch cancers in their early stages before it’s too late… Provided they are done.

Why is it that these “Pro-life” blowhards can’t get enough of saying that “They killed 3000 of us on 9/11″ when policies like this will kill many more than that each year?

Puttin on the Fitz.

I think there ought to be a price to pay for blogerama lands support for the motley crew of Dems we send into cleaning out the Augean stable’s.
That price will me a minimal withdrawal to the Murtha line of course but also a single payer national health scheme. This will be attacked as a big ticket ‘ tax and spend’ item but it can be packaged another way. At this point I remind readers that I’m not a representational trad democratic socialist – I’m an anarchist. As such it is against our ‘ religion’ to call for an increase in the size and power of the state. The workaround is obvious. We support a sensible and ergonomic and economic health plan that will increase national security so long as the overall size and power of the state decreases.
Cuts will be made to waste in the military and corporate welfare and taxes will be increased for the wealthy. The least worst tax ever – the so-called ‘ death tax’ will be re-instituted.
With this move the election winning meme of smaller government will be outflanked. Also the repugs can be outflanked on law and order with all the criminal acts they are guilty of.
Three strikes and you go to jail for life.
Watergate
Iran-contra
Yellowgate
Go directly to jail – do not pass go…do not collect 200$
Health is a top national security issue today – let’s keep it that way n’make the rich pay!
I’m professor rat and I approved this message.

Who the hell does the current health care insurance system help except the insurance companies themselves, and perhaps Wall Street, if the companies have cash that they invest. Other than themselves, the insurance companies do not provide a real service. More and more, horror stories abound. The politicians fiddle, while Rome burns.

Why oh why am I not suprised.

Preventive medicine in this country is sorely lacking already. Our system is built on illness, not wellness.

If health insurance companies don’t have to pay for screening, then more will be sicker and more advanced when they show up at the door seeking care at which time either something or nothing can be done, but your chances of survival are significantly reduced. It fits the model.

But hey, those 46 million without health insurance are making it without fancy screenings, why not everybody else too?

Except of course, the rich and priviledged whose lives are way too valuable to put at risk.

Y’see, here’s how it works; [1] private insurors will be allowed to save money by cutting or eliminating screening reimbursements, and then [2] will be allowed to save the really BIG money by denying coverage to those who develop acute life-threatening conditions that could have been prevented by the screenings, AND — even better, [3] we’ll change the BK laws so that people consequently who end up saddled with mountainous medical bills cannot discharge them through bankruptcy.

And, of course, laws and regulations enabling such profitable circumstances will be the work of legislators and a President would will continue to get comprehensive platimum-plate health care for the rest of their lives on the taxpayers’ dime.

Is this a beautiful country, or what?

zentastic!

you would think that early detection would help the bottom line of the insurers (short-sighted criminals though they are).

sigh.

There are two fundamental models for “insurance” — [1] actuarial, and [2] social. The BushCo explicit goal is to eliminate the latter. The commercial insurors’ goal is to make sure that the only “insurable” risk is the customer representing near-zero risk. They are colluding make this the reality.

WOW. Just when you think that the greed of our supposed business ‘leaders’ can’t get any higher they start pushing for shit like this.

How do they look in the mirror in the morning? How can their families stomach living in the same home?

Behaviour like this makes me nauseous. The fact that (supposed) elected representatives of the people would even debate such an issue truly highlights how corrupt and sickly the U.S. Congress really is. Pity they work only for the well heeled and connected elite.

November can’t come soon enough…hopefully the Dems can be shaken out of their cozy D.C. slumber in time to get actual policy proposals together that could do some real good for those lacking trust funds.

MURTHA for Pres in 2008!

I mean I’ve been thanking God for the last month that they caught this as early as they did, so I can sit here saying Jesus, my mom is going through cancer surgery, instead of Holy Jesus Fuck my mom is dying of cancer.

I don’t see another way to look at this, other than this is the insurance companies saying to me if we had our way, your fucking mother would die of cancer.

Its obscene that the Senate would even consider legislation that would cause women in my mother’s place to have to die of cancer.

Oh and this is the same senate and administration that gave our elders the awful Medicare D…

Beware, be very afraid.

sometimes I think *they* are trying to purge us.

Dan, the best of luck to your mom!

This is Senate Bill 1955 (aka the “Enzi Bill”)–to help your Senators know what you’re calling about. It would allow insurers to evade all state-based laws mandating coverage of various procedures. Not only state-mandated coverage for cancer treatments, but also, for instance, infertility treatment coverage in many states.

Politics as usual. Unfucking believable. As usual. And in the smoke-filled rooms……….I’ll trade you one mammogram vote for one ANWR vote. Or something……

My earlier rant to the paper on this general topic of paying for health care:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sun…..html?gladd

Please don’t bother placing any hope in people. I was an exeplary employee for Cargill for 5 years and was fired 3 month’s after returning from successful lung cancer surgery at the age of 50. I took my case to the EEOC, but of course they don’t do anything but grant you the right to sue. I attempted legal recourse, but of course Cargill then appealled my right to unemployment. I was unemployed for 9 months. My attorney dropped me for questioning her billing practices. The American Cancer Society is sueing me because I called to see if I was going to be kicked out of their Relay for Life, to which I was invited for the third straight year. The American Cancer Society is as bad as the Bush Government. They own more real estate than any other “charity”. They value fund raising, and of course corporate sponsers over survivors. I’ll soon be broke and homeless, so it probably would have been better not to have been diagnosed with lung cancer during my annual physical. The government is probably doing us a favor. Dieing from cancer is tough. Living after it is tougher.

Peace, back by popular demand!

Must be funded by Big Pharma primarily, with backup from insurers. Big Pharma makes TONS of money on chemotherapy and very little on preventative medicine. Overall, insurers don’t provide a fraction of the total coverage needed for cancer treatment yet patients will pay anything and everything to be treated (classic example of a vertical demand curve); they make money on the fear of cancer, not on preventative measures.

All the more reason to completely revamp campaign financing; no corporate entity with a vested financial interest should receive more in rights and benefits from our representative democracy than the human constituents within it.

Be sure to call your Dem senators, too; they also get money from Big Pharma and insurers, even though it’s not at the same level as Repugs.

Members of Congress have insurance and personal fortunes to cover cancer treatments for themselves and family members. They have their risks taken care of. Who in their right mind expects them to worry about treatment received by common folk? Are you insane? Don’t you get it, they’re the American aristocracy. Everybody’s stress level would be greatly reduced if they’d rid themselves of this ridiculous delusion their elected representatives have the welfare of constituents paramount. The welfare of their chief campaign contributors is all that counts. Everyone else can eat sh*t and die.

The ACS website doesn’t identify the Congress people sponsoring this legislation and has no information on what corporate money is behind the proposed legislation.

Why not?

Sending messages to your representatives is just one way of expressing your opinion, but when your representatives had nothing to do with the legislation and most likely would not support it anyway, how much good does this do?

Wouldn’t contacting sponsors, lobbyists and corporations behind objectionable legislation make a bigger impact?

Thanks Christy, I was sputtering when I read it and flashed through to put it up. In my comment I referred to a different program which I will research. I know it still exists where I ran it, but I don’t know to what extent it has been cut or whether it is threatened. The source was NIH funding which went to states via grants which were then supplemented by state dollars. My VNA was funded in 1994 and received additional funding to expand over the 5 years I was involved. I’ll let you know about that later.

In some ways, this is worse because it means we could pay the same inflated prices for our benefits (if we are lucky enough to be insured) while they are decreased to the barest minimum with out of sight deductibles. It is a chipping away of something that, in the past, has been honorably considered a fundamental
American priority. But it has become a greedy game with less than nothing to do with what is best for the patient. It just breaks my heart.

My husband went thru his first cancer infusions to the accompaniment of shock-and-awe beginning on CNN. The war played on thru the loss of his leg to a totally different chronic disease. We deal monthly with insurance companies and will for the rest of his hopefully long life.

Screenings matter; preventive care, proactive care matters. The bitter irony is incalculable that a president who lost a sister to leukemia that could very likely be treated, if not cured, today could be at the forefront of a cabal bent on tearing down our medical advancements.

Surely there must be a special place reserved in hell for these bastards.

This kind of thing makes me mad enough to spit nails. It seems like the only “health†the insurance companies are concerned about is the health of their bottom line. Maybe they should be called “wealth†insurance companies, since their wealth, and the wealth of their stockholders, seems to be the only thing they are insuring.

It’s despicable, and I do not know how these people can sleep at night. A look at health statistics will show that, despite the US having the “finest health care in the world,†this is not a healthy country, and there simply is no excuse for it.

It’s just so wrong-headed. I don’t know the specifics, but I do know that common sense says that dollars spent on screening save more dollars in the long run. And when people do not get screenings because they cannot afford them, the eventual cost of their care ends up being passed on in the form of higher premiums, and the amounts that hospitals have to write off gets passed on to the states- which eventually gets passed on to the taxpayers; it’s like a gang-rape, and it pisses me off.

I hope the female contingent in the Senate reads the nimrods the riot act, and I hope we can make a campaign issue out of this for every Senator who thinks it’s a good idea.

What family in America hasn’t been hit by cancer or some other disease in which early diagnosis makes all the difference? If the Democrats aren’t all over this immediately they should be ashamed of themselves.

The goddamned insurance companies really are destroying America’s health. It’s time to get them out of the health care business.

I understand this one was sponsored by Enzi.

Add to the woes: there have been stories recently about people who had their insurance coverage while being treated by Blue Cross/Wellpoint, which is claiming the victims patients had pre-existing conditions they didn’t reveal or otherwise misrepresented their medical history. (There doesn’t seem to be evidence for that, and the people were paying premiums right up to the cancellations.)

Peej, thank you for telling us that story and I am so very sorry for your losses. I would like to know more about the ACS suit. I am not naive and understand about ACS overhead. That’s why I linked this, which simply offers information and an outline letter. As you know, the brand talks.

But anyone can just lift the information and copy, paste into the Senate e-mail system, or print and snail mail, which is what I do.
This is the letter they have written:

ACS letter which is a .pdf. It can be used as a basis for a quick personal letter, or printed and sent, as per your preference.

What I would say to peej, if you are still here, is that writing letters to legislators or calling their offices does make a difference on issues, and I encourage you to do it today. You can contace your senators here:

http://www.senate.gov/index.htm

Thanks for letting me run on like this.

My dad’s in the hospital right now, he just finished his chemo. He has a great insurance plan (1 million dollars), but it’ll probably run out judging by how long he’s staying there. Congress toying with issues like this isn’t cool at all–people need help with their insurance when they have cancer.

I just hope they put their money politics behind them when making their decision.

kind of related — wapo has a story on the american taliban’s preference for abstinence over informed contraceptive use and the utterly predictable results:

Unintentional Pregancies of Poor Women on the Rise

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 4, 2006; 11:51 AM

Poor women are getting pregnant unintentionally at considerably higher rates now than in the mid-1990s, and they are giving birth to many more unplanned children and having more abortions.

In contrast, the rate of unplanned pregnancies and resulting abortions for more affluent women declined substantially during the same eight-year period, according to a new study by researchers at the Guttmacher Institute who analyzed federal data.

As a result, the study found, women living in poverty are almost four times more likely to become pregnant unintentionally than women of greater means. …

Asked what was driving the trends, the authors noted that some state and federal reproductive health programs have been cut and made more restrictive in recent years, and the decline in contraceptive use could be a result of those changes. Both have increasingly focused on abstinence rather than contraception, and some have argued that switch is also leading to reduced contraceptive use and more unintended pregnancies. Many social conservatives argue, however, that contraceptives all have limitations and that the only way a woman can ensure she will not have an unintended pregnancy is to refrain from sexual intercourse until she is ready to have a child.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..20_pf.html

It isn’t just the insurance companies, it’s the hospitals too. I went for my annual mammogram in February, they found something and called me back for another mammogram, then since that one didn’t look so good either, they did another mammogram and an ultrasound. Since none of them were looking too good I then went for an MRI which found another lump in my other breast. So then I had an ultrasound on that one and finally a needle biopsy on the first lump. It’s all good, turns out to be benign. My point is that by the time they told me I needed the needle biopsy I was so angry and frustrated I was crying. I had told them after the second mammogram to go straight to the biopsy but nooooooo they gave me all kinds of excuses why this or that test would be better to eliminate the possibility of cancer, then on to the next test, and the next. I think I was used as a cash cow for the hospital. If they had gone straight to the biopsy like I asked they wouldn’t have gotten their fees for the other tests from my insurance company, but I would have known and had peace of mind much sooner, or would have begun treatment for cancer much sooner.

I’ve always known that doctors and hospitals overcharge the patients with good insurance to cover those with less or without, but now I wonder if they also overtreat the ones with good insurance too. I’m no medical professional but a biopsy gives definite results compared to the other tests and I should have insisted on it and not let them b.s. me into going in for the others.

I’m curious about a tangential question: how did she bring it to your attention? I somehow can’t find the email addresses on this site for you or for any of the other contributors.

Anne #27
This has to become a campaign issue as you suggested.
Once again, the poor, the people on fixed incomes,those already ill, will have to make choices on their health care and you can bet the farm that if the insurance companies get this break, the choice will be to skip the mammograms and other preventative measures because they cannot afford it.
Nov. cannot come soon enough.
That room in hell will have to be expanded to accommodate all of these non-caring bastards.
Christy consider your phone calls “done,” but my two Senators are democrats and they better not be voting for any of this nonsense.

Here’s the link to the bill, the sponsors are enough to stop your heart, including Roberts and Burns. I have to go to the doc for part of the afternoon, but am very grateful for everyone’s attention about this and for sharing thier difficult stories. As some of you know, I am a hospice nurse and work with many, many cancer patients. We have been seeing more and more women in thier 30’s and 40’s with advanced, metastatic lung cancer and a number with lung cancer as well. But all patients and people deserve to be protected from this which as we have found out today is not on any radar much of anywhere.

Thanks again

S1955

Leisureguy — we’re working on bio posts for the new website right now — if you need to e-mail me it’s ReddHedd at AOL dot com.

But zennurse posted a note in the comments of the previous thread on this particular issue. I linked her comment above. HTH!

mammograms – $5 billion
pap smears – $4.5 billion
colonoscopies – $4 billion
prostate cancer screenings – $3 billion
financial underwriting of Israel’s socialized medicine – $3 billion
endless war on terror – $2 trillion
idiocy of the American congress – priceless

This legislation would destroy more than a decade of work to help people with diabetes. Almost 6 million people with diabetes in 46 states and the District of Columbia are guaranteed diabetes health coverage because of state regulations of insurance coverage. If it passes, insurers will be able to circumvent state regulations and offer a low-cost health plan to employers that could exclude diabetes coverage.

States would no longer be able to govern health plans and determine what health care coverage their residents should be able to receive. It allows health insurance premiums for many small employers to increase substantially simply because the business employs someone with diabetes or another serious illness.

In short, yet another piece of junk disguised as a reform.

after the discussion of ailing pupsters and kitties last night, it would appear–would it not–that FDL-ers care more about the health of their animal companions than senators do about the health of their constituents? Give me a lab over a Republican any day…

Given that I’ve been just been called back to “redo” a mammogram and they want me to have an ultrasound as well, I’m particularly sensitive to this topic right now.

I can afford to do this, but I’m damn lucky and know there are millions of women who cannot. Thanks Zennurse and Christy. Will be delivering my letters tomorrow morning.

that’s lab as in Labrador retriever not the other meth/chemical thingy

And I arrived for my first day of chemo the day after the NOvember ‘04 election. It was UC San Francisco and the place was in shock. THe nurses were trying to be perky but everybody was devastated – 24 hours before we thought Kerry would win. My first round of infusion didn’t go well due to technical difficulties and when the nurse apologized profusely, I told her – not to worry – I’ll always remember this day for the election, not the chemo. But it sucked.

I am beyond anger at the insurance companies – 500 million in stock options to an insurance CEO? THey are criminals, and if justice doesn’t get done in this lifetime, let’s hope karma pays them back in the next.

Single payer now.

let me tell you what’s going on;

the administration is determined to undermine every single program that roosevelt put into place

that is a fact, and that is what’s going on, since they couldn’t just rescind the programs they make them unworkable and then say “see?..we have to disband it”

Have faxed both my Ohio Senators, Voinovich and DeWine. As both a cancer survivor — so far — and a skeptic, I have to ask whether such insurance exemptions aren’t part of a global strategy to reduce the population through all means possible while concentrating wealth in the hands of privileged few.

I wish there was a way to go on the offense against offensive legislation.

After writing letters to my representatives, urging them to vote against Enzi’s assaualt on what’s left of our health care system, I find this act is so defensive, it’s frustrating.

I would send an email to Senator Enzi of Wyoming for sponsoring this piece of corporate thievery in Congress but his website won’t accept a message from a non resident.

Enzi’s bill is a moral and ethical crime.

If we could catch corporate stooge Enzi red handed, taking a bribe from the “health care” industry we could kill the bill, maybe.

But there must be some effective way to direct public ridicule and shame to Senators and Congressmen, Corporations and lobbyists who thieve and poach off the Common Good.

Stephen Colbert?

Pachacutec?

Some perspective on screening. In 1997, at the age of 29, I was sent to a schmuck male doctor to consult on the 1 cm lump in my breast. He managed to insult every woman involved that day (me, my primary care physician, his nurse). But eventually, he told me my primary care doc didn’t know what she was talking about when she said it should be ultrasounded. Instead, we just followed the lump.

Five years later and no noticeable growth in the lump (the problem with young breast cancer patients is you can’t really track these things effectively, without the proper screening tools), a new doctor finally sent me for a mammogram, only to find my 1 cm lump was now 4 cm malignant lump.

Had I been treated when I first tried to get treatment, it would have probably involved surgery, maybe 4 rounds of standard chemo–I’m guessing $20,000 of care. 5 years later, it involved 6 rounds of experimental chemo requiring 6 rounds of $2800/6 mg shots of neulasta, surgery, and radiation. To the tune of at least $75,000.

I will, hopefully, get my 3 year clean bill of health today, so I’m optimistic but not yet out of the risky woods. The refusal to do standard of care screening hopefully didn’t cost me my life. But think what society could do with that $55,000 instead of spending it on toxic chemicals.

OT but health related — when I mentioned my arthritis issues a few weeks ago, several readers talked about an anti-inflammatory diet. I’ve done some research (there is a lot out there, some of which seems marginally researched) and I’m wondering if folks have found particular resources on this more solid than others. If there is a particular book or website you’ve found useful on this, I’d love an e-mail: ReddHedd at aol dot com. Thanks in advance!

emptywheel -

It’s crazy. And, given that politicians who avail themselves of life-long comprehensive health care and retirement paid for by us collude with the “wealth insurance” companies to screw the rest of us, it’s infuriating.

Again, the BushCo goal is utter elimination of all “social insurance” and the total rigging of the “actuarial” insurance game to the benefit of their contributors and cronies.

CoSpoonsors

Sen Allard, Wayne [CO] – 4/26/2006
Sen Burns, Conrad R. [MT] – 11/2/2005
Sen Burr, Richard [NC] – 3/7/2006
Sen Cornyn, John [TX] – 4/27/2006
Sen Craig, Larry E. [ID] – 4/5/2006
Sen Nelson, E. Benjamin [NE] – 11/2/2005
Sen Roberts, Pat [KS] – 3/27/2006

These guys might deserve a little attention.

Peej– I am so sorry, but maybe just maybe, things will get better for you– miracles do happen and you are alive after all… you obviously care, or you would not be here!

emptywheel– the best thoughts going your way on this day.

It is really so sad that patients have to insist on more aggressive follow-up and lots of people still wholly trust the man/woman in white when they pull the old wait and see. Docs, et al are often not as curious and empathic as they should be. Patients and families have to advocate for themselves and are often not supported for doing so. For many, an educated consumer is a bother and not to be encouraged.

Thanks so much for posting this info, Christy. I understand only too well, since a recent colonoscopy screening saved my life.

Cancer cure (I kid you not) is:

1-2 cups cottage cheese mixed with 2-3 TBS cold-pressed, refrigerated flaxseed oil. Do not buy unrefrigerated flaxseed oil, it is worthless.

AVOID ALL SUGAR AND PRESERVED MEATS.

Sugar is the worst — it feeds the cancer.

This is not a joke. It actually works tho a doc will never tell you this. It was invented by a german biochemist Dr. Johanna Budwig who studied diet and cancer. She treated and cured many “uncurable” cases of cancer. You can get her books on Amazon.

Dr. Max Gerson also followed up on this, cured people, wrote about it. He notes that American medicine wants to treat but not cure anything.

For more info, google “budwig diet.”

http://www.google.com/search?h…..udwig+diet

Thanks, jayackroyd,

And, no surprise to find out they’re all Republican corporate stooges.

What would be the most effective method of focusing public ridicule and shame on these ethically and morally challenged politicians?

Will this bill also apply to the insurance programs of elected officials? I’d like to see them actually feel our pain for a change, corrupt lying SOBs that most of them seem to be.

These are the sections of the bill that it appears may be the cause for alarm. I confess to having only skimmed the bill, with an eye out for the section or sections that may allow insurers to limit coverage.

It seems to be addressing only small businesses, and seems to be an effort to encourage small businesses to provide insurance, but to give them the flexibility to design both basic and enhanced plans that will contain the employers’ costs.

The scary part is the flexibility to ignore the state-mandated coverages. On the one hand, I can see the benefit of providing “basic†coverage, which would be better than no coverage, but things like mammograms and colonoscopies would seem to fall into the “basic†category, rather than being viewed as “extras.â€

Sorry I didn’t take the time to note the section numbers…

From the bill:
*******************************************

PURPOSES.—It is the purpose of this Act to—(1) make more affordable health insurance options available to small businesses, working families, and all Americans;
-snip-
create a more efficient and affordable health insurance marketplace through collaborative development of uniform regulatory standards.

-snip-

‘‘(b) ABILITY OF SMALL BUSINESS HEALTH PLANS TO7 DESIGN BENEFIT OPTIONS.—Nothing in this part or any provision of State law (as defined in section 514(c)(1)) shall be construed to preclude a small business health plan or a health insurance issuer offering health insurance coverage in connection with a small business health plan from exercising its sole discretion in selecting the specific benefits and services consisting of medical care to be included as benefits under such plan or coverage, except that such benefits and services must meet the terms and specifications of part II of subtitle A of title XXIX of the Public Health Service Act (relating to lower cost plans), as added by title II of the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act of 2006.

-snip-

‘‘(2) BASIC OPTIONS.—The Benefit Choice Standards shall provide that a health insurance issuer in a State, may offer a coverage plan or plan in the small group market, individual market, large group market, or through a small business health plan, that does not comply with one or more mandates regarding covered benefits, services, or category of provider as may be in effect in such State with respect to such market or markets (either prior to or following the date of enactment of this title), if such issuer also offers in such market or markets an enhanced option as provided for in paragraph (3).

-snip-

‘‘(a) SUPERCEDING OF STATE LAW.— ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—This part shall supersede any and all State laws insofar as such laws relate to mandates relating to covered benefits, services, or categories of provider in the health insurance market as applied to an eligible insurer, or health insurance coverage issued by an eligible insurer, including with respect to coverage issued to a small business health plan, in a nonadopting State.
*******************************************

redd: this cancer cure, flaxseed oil and cottage cheese, works really good on inflammation and arthritis. My mom in law’s arthrities went away when she was on it.

an inflammation cure is good oils like fish oil but flaxseed is one of them as well so this makes sense. I’ve also read DHA works.

I know it sounds crazy but it’s just food, not bad too eat, especially if you mix unsweatened apple sauce in it.

Just wanted to agree with Anne #27. The question is whose healthcare is being referred to when you hear the American “healthcare system”, yours or that of the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, HMOs. Yesterday I said that the government’s bird flu plan was basically “bend over and kiss your ass goodbye”. It seems that this is becoming their general approach to your healthcare.

WRT DonnaM and some others, mammograms are a screening device. For these, you prefer false positives (eventual benign findings) to false negatives (missing the disease). I can see an ultrasound as a reasonable followup for some kinds of dubious findings. An ultrasound could tell you, for example, if a lump had a cystic structure and was therefore more likely benign. And it would avoid the invasive procedure of a biopsy. OTOH I agree that gold plated insurance can often be seen as a blank check for expensive and unnecessary tests. After the ultrasound, if there was a question, that question had to be addressed in a definite way and you are right that should have meant a biopsy.

I wanted to return for a moment to the idea of a screen. A screen is a first tentative step. If you have ever looked at a mammogram film, it’s a mess. In younger women with more fibrous tissue, it is essentially unreadable. Even in older women, in the absence of something that sticks out like a sore thumb, most mammograms are equivocal. You get your best information comparing a new mammogram to previous ones but even here there can be a lot of guesswork.

My bottom line is this. Mammograms are very imperfect but that said they are still useful. They do catch cancers and that’s important. I agree they should be supported by insurance companies. I agree more that they with Pap smears should be made available to all women. This said, I would just like to add that monthly self exams (along with mammos)are at least as important a part of any comprehensive screening program.

Blathering stops here.

Earlier poster upthread mentioned that Bush and the neocon congress are trying to undo everything FDR put into place.

Jonathan Alter in his new book on FDR notes that in the ’30s “dictator” was not a dirty word and there was public appeal for FDR to be a “dictator” [the tonal proximity to “decider” is downright creepy].

What Bush and Co are trying to do is not just to undo the programs of FDR but his wise and unselfish decision not to be dictator.

Insurance companies don’t make money on people who fight for every dollar of coverage; they make money on those who have neither the time, energy or information to keep fighting. They count on a certain percentage of people to just give up, go away and leave them alone – which means more money in their pockets. Your actual health is probably the least of their concerns.

Thanks, Christy. And congratulations, emptywheel and others, and heartfelt sympathies to everyone else who has suffered from this disease. I have my six year clean date in June of this year (I’ve had breast cancer twice). As someone with a genetic predisposition towards cancer, my life depends on those tests and I’m sure Blue Cross would start denying them in a heartbeat if they could.

OT – from thinkprogress:

“Senate Speaks: No Permanent Bases In Iraq
Yesterday, the Senate unanimously passed an amendment to the Iraq supplemental spending bill proposed by Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) that would require the Bush administration not to use any appropriated funds for the construction of permanent bases in Iraq. The amendment also called for the U.S. not exercise control over Iraqi oil. Biden’s amendment reads as follows:

To provide that no funds made available by title I of this Act may be made available to establish permanent United States military bases in Iraq or to exercise control by the United States over the oil infrastructure or oil resources of Iraq.”

********************************
The unanimity is what struck me. Veto on the horizon? Can’t wait for that explanation…

Zennurse, the lawsuit against me by the ACS is because I was disappointed with their services. I stopped in their offices a few months after I was fired by Cargill looking for support because I was becoming extremely depressed. The woman in the office told me they had no support groups and all they did at their local office is give out bras and wigs. I didn’t think that would help my depression so I left. I complained about my treatment to the national office, and kept getting tired of form letter replies like you get from your government representatives.

To make a long story short, I attended my first Relay for Life representing my employer a month after my lobectomy. It was fantastic, really fun, and great to meet other survivors, but of course I haven’t met any other lung cancer survivors yet. After being fired by Cargill a couple months later, their attorney placed a restraining order against me so I could’t talk to any of my friends. The next year I was invited to attend, started to take a lap and look at the camps, when 4 of the event organizers came up to me and said I had to leave because Cargill had a camp there. I told them I would stay 500 feet away, but they didn’t want me there.

The next year I was invited again, and because the restraining order was dismissed after 14 months. I attended, but was immediately approached by one of the organizers. He asked me if there was going to be any trouble, and I told him no, there was no restraining order and I was letting the courts decide my fate. I told him I was rather offended he would question me because of what Cargill had said about me. They let me sit through the opening speeches, but when it was time to take the honorary first lap, a policeman came up to me and escorted me off the property saying they didn’t want me there. I tried to protest, but he said he would arrest me if I didn’t leave. I left in tears and humiliation. I informed the national ACS I did not want any contact with them anymore due to their hypocrisy.

A couple months ago, I again received an invitation to the honorary dinner, but didn’t attend. A few weeks later I received an invitation to this year’s Relay for Life in honor of my 3rd year as a survivor. This tormented me so that they would heartlessly send out these invitations still and I couldn’t sleep and at 3:00 AM I called the local office and left voice mail asking if I could attend and if I couldn’t why do they keep tormenting me. In closing, I stated if I couldn’t come for the director to have a “great fuckin’ life”. I was summoned 3 weeks later for criminal charges of “harassing telephone calls”. I was also being sued in civil court for the same charges, and $15,000 damages.

That’s where it stands now. I go to court next week without an attorney because I can’t afford or trust one. I’ll probably get a year in jail if I lose, but at least I’ll be able to eat for a year, and maybe some of this stress will die down. Thanks for caring. Oh, and I do write and call Senator Bill Nelson on a weekly basis on issues for the last 3 years. I receive the same form letters back. I tried Mel Martinez, but he’s one of Bush’s lap dogs so he doesn’t count.

Peace, back by popular demand.

Jane– the best of wishes for your continued health.

OT– ooh new video of Zarqawi played over and over again on CNN– discovered by troops last month in Iraq.

Kyra said “we just can’t enough of it around here”. In one clip of the video, she says, he picks up his gun by the barrel and burns himself. “So this great warrior can’t even handle a weapon (headshake, rolling eyeballs, dismissive tone)”

There you have it.

The Moral Hazard Myth:

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/…..829fa_fact

Hoover Institute types who whine about “moral hazard” and “overutilization” do so from the generous comfort of their own cushy health care coverage, no doubt.

OT – I know The Note has peeved some with it’s weekly GJ alarm, but you all have to read the leaked Tony Snow memo they have posted there; HuffPo has the link.

Not exactly a great way to start the job, Tony. *g*

The “leaked Tony Snow memo” is a bit of attempted satire that the Note put up. T’ain’t the real McCoy.

Anne -

Yeah, that was funny. I had to wonder ‘is this a spoof?’ Almost sounded like parody.

Clem 67, well, there ya go…

Not that Tony Snow isn’t an utter poozer, mind you. Just that he didn’t write that specific bit of uber-poozery. ;^)

Anne– apparently it is a satirical piece.

>>>>>>

Earlier today, RAW STORY linked to a story by ABC News which purported to be a memo from the new White House press secretary Tony Snow. ABC News has confirmed the memo was intended as satire, though no indication was made on the story.

An ABC spokesman confirmed the memo was satire in a response to an email query.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2….._0504.html

I mean, what insane world is this we’re living in?

Our goddamn elected representatives should be working out how to improve health care for all of us, and instead their sitting around debating whether it’s too much of a strain on the bottom line to not let people die!

And meanwhile goddamn Tom Tancredo is sitting there saying it’s some fuckin’ Mexican working double-shifts at Popeye’s Chicken who’s to blame for everyone’s problems!

This is sick. This is just plain sick!

Sorry, guys – it was very well done satire, for sure, although I’m a little red-faced for having fallen for it.

We’ve become the cruelest, stupidest, ratfuck nation on the face of the earth. I honestly don’t know why there isn’t blood in the streets over things like this.

I just had a hernia operation, no insurance. Killed Blue Cross two years ago, couldn’t afford it (my wife and I are self-employed). Total cost of the surgery is roughly $7,000. But get this: if I hadn’t cancelled the insurance, I would have paid over ten grand over the last two years just for the idiotic $2,000 deductible 80/20 policy, which means my operation would have cost me $14,000 (premiums + deductible + my 20 percent). That’s twice as much WITH the insurance. Ratfuck Nation, folks. And I hear that what we’re spending on Iraq alone would pay for universal coverage for all.

The evil can’t be exaggerated. America is broken, and that’s a fact.

Anne #62

I think it hinges on the word “permanent”. It strikes me that permanent bases could only come about if the host country agreed to this term and probably few would. So bases in a country might be there for 5, 10, 50 years with terms negotiated at specified intervals and still not be considered permanent. Like most things Biden does there is more air here than substance.

John -

Yep. I speculate that perhaps only ~20% of what we nominally label “heath care expenditures” actually go directly to or are necessary for providing care. Lotta people are jut fine with that; every mis-spent dollar is part of someone’s paycheck or profit, but, let’s not kid ourselves into calling it “health care.”

My first cousin finished her breast cancer treatment several weeks ago. She was one of the “lucky” ones–mammogram found a lump, the (excellent) radiologist insisted on a follow-up screening, then she had the biopsy. Another lump was found in her other breast, but it was not yet malignant. But she had no lymph node involvement, and was able to have a lumpectomy followed by radiation, w/no chemo.

None of which would have happened if she hadn’t had insurance that covered the initial procedure. Thanks, Christy, for bringing this hideous bill to our attention.

I gotta love the latest fashionable Gooper health care canard: health care is too expensive, and its cost is rising, because we are OVERINSURED! The way to constrain, costs, consequently, is to force people to become “smarter consumers” always on the hunt for the “best deal.”

I wouldn’t go to the doctor if it was “FREE” if I didn’t need to.

What fucking crap.

When did the GOP give up on “States’ Rights”?

“Requires the Secretary to establish the Commission on Health Insurance Standards Harmonization to develop recommendations that harmonize inconsistent state health insurance laws in accordance with the laws adopted in a plurality of the states. Provides that any harmonized standards adopted by the Secretary will supersede state laws related to the areas covered by the harmonized standards.”

Anne says:
May 4th, 2006 at 11:05 am

You weren’t the only one who fell for it; some media outlets also fell for it, according to Raw Story.

Yay Froomkin–Christy Hardin Smith doesn’t miss a thing! (direct Froomkin quote tra-la) even though corporate media outlets have. Way to go, CHS!!!

Gooper models for damned near everything are corporate incentives..

They believe in “incentive-ising” the behavior that they feel is appropriate.

They have long felt that if the first $2,500 of medical expenses comes right out of your pocket- you will think twice about going to the doctor for something marginal.

As far as I know, they have NO actual research to base this on- and if you look at “large deductible” medical plans- the insurance companies don’t offer big discounts for em- so either there ARE no big savings- or the insurance companies are pocketing the difference.

from the spouse of Chicago Tom:

1) the entire cancer business is all about money. Its designed to sell billions in pharmaceutical drugs, surgery and chemo.

2) traditional cancer treatment by the medical establishment is based on the premise of “killing” a disease

3) however diseases can be cured by using a different approach, as the German biochemist Johanna Budwig, PhD did. She was studying the blood of cancer patients, comparing it to the blood of healthy patients. What she learned was that cancer patients are missing two long-chain fatty acids.

4) Budwig then experimented with various dietary remedies so patients could produce those two missing long-chain fatty acids simply by changing their diets. Her cure was combining refrigerated organic flaxsesed oil with cottage cheese (which is sulfuric), can be doctored up with fruit and unsweetened applesauce. No sugar, because sugar feeds cancer. Google “Johanna Budwig, PhD and read all about it.

5) This dietary remedy turns the body chemistry from acidic (which facilitates cancer) to alkaline (which makes it impossible for cancer to exist).

wondering says:
May 4th, 2006 at 11:44 am

Picking up where we left off yesterday, I think that it would be a good idea for us to communicate via e-mail (with some help from Jane and/or Christy) about Quaker genealogical resources. One resource I found nearly two years ago still works. If you’ve moved over to the new thread, I will repost this.

OT, but related to the racism threads of recent days.

I read an interesting article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer this morning. Entitled “Bias crimes found in all areas of city”, the title pretty much says it all. A city employee, on his own time, compiled statistics of all the hate crimes committed in Seattle over the last five years. As the title suggests, they occur everywhere, and for all sorts of reasons. The cases he compiled were from reported crimes, presumably many such crimes go unreported.

Seattle is a city rightly known for the civility of its inhabitants. If such things can happen there I think it’s safe to assume they can happen in any large city. One of the most striking incidents was the taunting of Asians in the International District. This area is one of the more popular places for Asians to settle and work. That they would be treated that way there tells me that there are some seriously stupid and hateful people around here.

The report is available here:
http://tinyurl.com/plj72

Sorry if this is a repeat, but I scanned for what seemed like appropriate keywords in all of today’s threads before posting.

America’s health care system is infested with a network of predatory corporations, all focused on optimizing each of their individual profit centers at the inconvenience of their customers.

By subsidizing the system the US Government has become complicit with corporate predation on American citizens.

Our taxes are being used to feed a system that preys on us.

Another example of repubs and libertarians using bogus theories of privatization and deregulation to feed on the enormous public flow of cash.

This is thievery of the highest order!

Are there no laws?

My favorite part of this bill is that it completely flouts state’s rights, by nullifying efforts at the state level to mandate standards for health coverage. Wasn’t state’s rights supposed to be a conservative value? Apparently not as great as corporate values. This will probably be marketed as necessary for small business to be able to compete with the big guys by paying for ultra-crappy coverage. The real playing field leveler would of course be single-payer health care.

Here’s more information about S.1955:

Think Medicare Pt. D is bad? Brace Yourself for the Enzi Bill

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. It is truly outrageous.

Apparently the sponsors of this bill think there are too many people surviving breast and colon cancer, and too many diabetics leading otherwise healthy and productive lives. As a two-time cancer survivor, I have some very visceral reactions to the human suffering they intend to cause.

I can’t begin to say how angry this made me. I followed the link and added the below to the top of the message sent to Congress and I’ll be calling my Legislators tomorrow. I think you will understand my anger:

I lost my mother to Breast Cancer in 1983 and if it had been caught in time, she might still be with me. The idea that these greedy, self serving corporations could get away with this makes me furious! Who ever signs on to this bill, Republican or Democrat, will earn my opposition, for the remainder of the time they are in office!!!!! I don’t care if you are a liberal or a red neck–it won’t matter to me!!!!!

Christy,

I’ve already posted once, after following your link to speak out about this. I can’t believe that Health Insurance Companies are this greedy and focused on short term profits. Every dollar spent on Diagnostic testing saves many more dollars on treatment, surgery and other associted costs–let alone the loss of life.

But this is just one more nail in the coffin of for profit insurance. After folks begin dying because they could afford the tests that would have prevented so much misery, folks will be screaming even more for Nationalized Health Care. It’s absurd that we let these insurance companies get away with Cherry Picking and the underwriting tactics that I once saw while working for Blue Shield. The exclusions, the coordination of benefits (as in trouble getting bills paid when you have TWO health care policies), to the utter failure to communicate to subscribers what benefits your plan doesn’t cover! Worse yet are some of the bogus insurance policies being sold today, that only cover 20% of what costs folks may endure. Stop loss, deductables, UCR (Usual, Customary and Reasonable) where the insurance company defines what they will pay! Then you have experimental techniques that although proven to work, can be denied on a technicality. Then there is the “Lifetime Maximum”, where you get cut off, even if the illness is generally covered under your health plan.

I now work in the Public Sector of Health Care and have alot easier a time sleeping at night, then I did when I was reviewing claims for BS (yes, that’s what I called them when I worked there).

Diagnostic Treatment should be a right, not some kind of exclusion designed to maximize profits at the expense of life!

I looked that the Senate version of the bill and the sponsors all appear to be “Pro-Life”er’s. GOP Hypocrisy is truly stunning.

Jackrod (#47) had the list–as well as the Congressional website another commenter provided.

Why can’t we get some of our opposite numbers on the Right Wing to oppose this? After all, I’m certain that many of them have lost a family member to Cancer too.

Also, thanks to George Bush–the level of cancer in this once great country can only increase.

Christy,

Best to your mom. Mine didn’t make it. She died in 1994 after a 20 year fight.

We’ve been without healthcare for 6 months now, due to premiums rising past ridiculousness – 600/month for a family of 3(no healthcare through work). All doctor visits are now on our dime and less frequent.

Here’s a little ditty I sing when I get my boobs squished, to the tune of Thanks for the Memories (Bob Hope version):

Thanks for the mammogram.
The left one and the right
You squeezed them really tight.
But now I know that I’m OK
And I can sleep at night.
So, thanks for the mammogram.

I agree. Thank you for doing this and spreading knowledge and awareness.