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Instead of giving John McCain a pass on the issues so they can talk rib rub recipes, how about the media gets off their collective duffs and takes some advice from Elizabeth Edwards?
My friend Tracy Russo -- formerly of the DNC and the Edwards campaign -- has just started blogging at "The Field," and her political insights (as always) are stellar. She points to some excellent questions that Elizabeth had for McCain about his non-health care plan that the public deserves some real answers to before November. From The Wonk Room:
1. Under your plan, Senator McCain, would any health insurer be required to sell you or me (or those like us with pre-existing conditions) a health insurance policy?
2. You say your plan is going to increase competition to the point that it actually lowers costs. Isn’t there competition today among insurance companies? Haven’t costs continued to go up despite that competition?
3. You say that under your plan everyone is going to pay less for health insurance. Nice words, I admit, but they are words we have heard before. You must know when American families calculate the actual cost of health care, they have to include those deductibles and co-pays and not just the cost of the insurance. Are you talking about cheaper overall or just a cheap policy that doesn’t kick in until after thousands of dollars of deductibles have been paid?
4. Isn’t the type of competition you are talking about really a rush to the bottom? As long as you allow insurers to underwrite and deny access, you encourage insurers to offer plans that may be cheap, but that get that way by avoiding people with cancer or other high-cost diseases or by limiting benefits and treatments, particularly if the treatment is expensive or might be needed for a long time. We all live in the real world; those of us lucky enough to have health insurance have seen how insurers cut coverage and up co-pays or deny particular treatments. The insurance company makes money when it doesn’t have to pay for our health care. (I suspect that if they could, they would write obstetrical-only policies for nuns.) Doesn’t your plan really encourage insurers plans to compete to avoid people with cancer or other high-cost diseases? Don’t you think that the kind of competition that starts with a decent level of required coverage, that doesn’t exclude the care we actually need, would be better?
McCain's aides had tried to play the "oh, poor dear, you don't understand health care, so go back to doing whatever it is your pretty little head ought to be doing" card with Elizabeth, and she let them have it with grace and charm...and a passle of facts. Good for her.
Because, frankly, after reviewing the "straight talk" about McCain's health care plan, here's what I come up with as an understanding of his views on health care: social Darwinism and a lot of luck. And it seems that Elizabeth reached the same conclusion:
...despite fuzzy language and feel-good lines in the Senator’s proposal, I do understand exactly how devastating it will be to people who have the health conditions with which the Senator and I are confronted (melanoma for him, breast cancer for me) but do not have the financial resources we have. In very unconfusing language: they are left outside the clinic doors.
As someone else with a pre-existing condition, I'd like some honest, straight talk instead of more campaign obfuscation on this as well. And that means that reporters need to stop repeating blast-fax McCain PR talking points and instead independently confirm or disprove the facts and the issues surrounding what the campaigns are saying to determine if their assertions actually hold up to scrutiny. And if they don't? That needs to be reported straight out as well. Research and skepticism, and basic calling of bullshit when the campaigns lie or try to snow you -- remember that?
Try using this reporting from the Boston Globe on the fact that McCain has no real plan other than mouthing the words "free enterprise" and hoping no one asks any more questions as a template for a good start -- real questions for a change, who'd a thunk it? Isn't it time the rest of the national press started asking the important questions instead of just asking for seconds on the ribs?
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there MUST be health care for everyone, plain and simple, the only way this can be done is through single payer
he
those that claim this is ’socialism” must be schooled, they can opt out of the system whenever they want, they can purchase additional coverage if what they are getting is not good enough for them
AND
the private add ons to health care will be LESS then if there were not single payer, simply because the industry will be forced to compete with a more efficient system for provision
McCain? Something usefull for the common man or woman on the street? Not likely.
Zedly Sunday AM… mornin’ Christy.
Fact is, St John has been a recipient of Publically financed health care since he was an infant. You’d think he’d have a bit better feel for how it works.
Ya, JoFish you are correct but he was/is entitled. We aren’t.
The Boston Globe article I linked is amusing, especially when you compare it to the reporting that’s been done on McCain’s lack of economic comprehension. Hmmmm…let’s see — doesn’t understand economics and leaving it to his advisers. Doesn’t understand health care and leaving it to his advisers. Feeling so much more confident about what he does comprehend — you guys? /s
Yes, my “annual” was my only health care cost last year. My insurance “premium” (I guess we know why they call it that) was $325/mo. So with all my out of pocket plus the insurance premium I guess that “annual” cost about $4050.
Oh, yes, the Premium is my hedge fund against catastrophe. Of course.
I want to point something out that the discussion misses;
the government has a positive return when it takes someone who is sick and returns them to society as a viable addition
there are more tax revenues, more production overall because the family has less to worry about and less anguish
in other words, for every dollar the government spends on health care there should be more then a dollar return when all is taken into account
or in other words again, the government has a vested interest in accepting health care claims
private industry however does not participate in tax revenue and they have a negative return when they spend money on a member
in other words, while government will be in the business of accepting claims, private industry must be in the business of denying claims
simple stuff there yet not addressed in these terms;
“positive economic return for government”
“negative economic return for industry”
Oh, and I forgot to add (they always to) the “increased premium” this year, I am now paying over $400/mo. Because I am a year older.
Great post Christy. Funny how McBush doesn’t let facts get in the way. He is very decisive, just like his daddy George.
Morning Christy!
hope your birds are chirpy, they sure are here — woke me up before dawn.
…now to read.
My sister was saying her health insurance policies - she’s also paying for a long-term care policy - take so much or her income that some month she has trouble making the rent. She had a (barely) six-figure income last year. (I’m voluntarily uninsured: I don’t like the choices I’m offered, and the cost would be a problem. Fortunately I’m also reasonably healthy - now.)
McCain doesn’t have a clue what it’s like for real people. He’s been insulated for decades.
btw, for those of you following the “we rescued a stray puppy” saga from Friday — he’s back here with us. The folks we thought might take him decided they couldn’t take him after all. And so, we most likely have a new addition to the family, sleeping in a tiny, furry heap at my feet at the moment.
We’ve decided to name him “Lucky.”
Christy - one of the great fallacies - right up there with “this won’t hurt a bit” and “the check is in the mail” is “competition will lower prices”. As someone who’s worked in both an electric/gas utility and in telecom, I can tell you that competition does not necessarily lower prices. As a matter of fact, in electric deregulation, I think we can all say without fear of contradiction that competition not only did not lower prices to the consumer - consumers now are paying much more for their energy than they did under regulation. And in the states that took a “wait and see” attitude or who tried to shield consumers but putting some sort of phased in deregulation, consumers are seeing absolutely huge increases. From what I’ve read, Virginia has thrown in the towel on the entire business. Energy was originally seen as a “public good” - that is why there was regulation. Healthcare should be seen the exact same way - it is good for the country, for the economy, for our future..to have healthcare available to everyone. period. The competition argument is smoke and mirrors.
yeah, and that’s the problem with most republicans who want to deny everything to everyone who is not a card-carrying John Bircher/”Federalist Society” member/NeoCon isn’t it? We’re just not entitled to much of anything, no matter how much we pay in taxes, how much we sacrifice for our families and country, no matter the cost to the Republic.
We just aren’t entitled to have a government that works, just one that can be drowned in a bathtub of debt.
Thank you Christy for addressing this topic…..
Last fall I was given that big scarlet letter “C” that Elizabeth Edwards and may of us cancer survivors carry. I am still paying off the over $5,000 medical expenses above the coverage of my employer based health insurance…. have it down to under $1000….
Terrified to loose my job, afraid to change employers and have any treatment for my cancer not covered. So…. I have crossed from a free agent employee to a slave …. (I love my job and my employer is fine but)…
Health care is an absolute horror in the US. In the old days there was a meme (before anyone knew what a meme was) that the big retail problem was the “middle man”. The idea was that commerce was better served if you could just cut out the “middle man”. People understood that this guy just took a cut of the action for nothing. HMO’s are the ultimate middle man. In the HMO world vast sums of money that the government ultimately pays pass through their hands and if they can refuse enough old losers health care then the good times roll.
McCain the subject of discussion on Snuffy’s Show this a.m. and whether Condi would make a good veep choice, she spoke at Grover’s Weds a.m. conservative claque recently, and Cokie noting if Dubya’d follwed her advice [a little tooooo cozy, Cokie?????] and put Condi on the ticket in ‘04, wouldn’t everything just be ducky now.
Talk about four more years of same-old, same-old….
We must clearly show not only the importance of policy issues such as healthcare in and of themselves, but how they fit into the overarching philosophy of governance each candidate will bring to the next four years.
Oh, and Cokie, your indulgent little chuckling in the background while Katrina is talking? Smarmy, tacky, and just plain rude.
You should have named him “Lake”, then he could have been “The Fire Dog” Lake. Heh.
Yay! The new puppy certainly is lucky to have a good home.
Well, we let The Peanut name him…and so “Lucky” he is. *G*
I’m going to have to brush back up on housebreaking techniques. It’s been ages since we had a puppy, and he’s not even close to being trained yet. The carpet steamer and I are going to be on very familiar terms for a while, I’m afraid…
yes, yes and again.
besides cost and profit and marketing rip by the for-profits in Health care (HC), the thorniest issue to deal with in hc is the pre-existing condition.
I read the small print in the COBRA coverage offered to me after being let go a month ago and I prolly have to take the coverage even though it is so costly. the reason: not being booted into a marketplace where I have to deal with pre-existing conditions for anyone in my family.
’cause then there will be no coverage.
the for-profits only want to cover the healthy. there is no money in cancer survivors, asthmatics, people with heart disease, polyps, etc.
Indeed, this is why the EU now leads the world in all areas of health care and envirmental regulation because when folks get sick or are sickened by toxics in the environment it’s the government that pays. The government thus has a vested interest in making sure toys don’t have lead in them and folks stay healthy.
Venal, corrupt legislators in America have for too long stood in the way of not-for-profit single-payer health care in this country.
John Edwards had the right idea: No Federal health care for Congress until the citizenry is provided for. Will Barrry the Clown, Sister Beezlebub or McSame meet Edward’s test?
Don’t hold your breathe.
Do make it your business to ask…to demand…to fund those who are working to fix this.
As one who suffers under this system as well, single payer has to be shoved down the throat of either Dem. candidate.
Mrs. Edwards point is brilliant in its simplicity and drives the point home.
It is simply nonsense to think meaningful health care reform is gonna happen without single payer.
Every time McCain talks health care, he should be forced to answer her point re: pre-existing conditions.
Yes, and now there are “middle men” for the “middle men.” Our perdiatrician’s office has billing specialists just to wrangle with the insurance companies to get them to pay their negotiated contract prices for basic childcare services. It’s insane.
Missed the Friday puppy saga, but the adventure of 2 dogs in the household is almost always good. Many happy puppy years to all the family.
Hi Christy,
Yeah been following the pups tale. Found a 2 yr. old siberian husky sleeping under my car in a snowstorm 23 yrs ago. She must’ve known which car to find shelter under. I was “Lucky” to find “Stormy”. Still miss her.
Always works out for the best when the kid gets to name the doggly… It makes then friends right off.. :) (not that that is usually an issue with a puppy).
Yay on you guys for adopting him!
Well, Peanut will have a dog to grow up with and that should be fun.
((((((((Christy!)))))))
Good Morning! More coffee?
Take Me To The River - Foghat
Of course all of us here commenting at the moment don’t need to deal with the cleaning that comes with the puppy.
Yep — the pre-existing conditions conundrum is a tough one under the current system and any proposed variants which don’t deal with it head on. As someone who is trying to conscientiously plan for retirement now, Mr. ReddHedd and I have been trying to come up with some way to deal with my pre-existing lupus issues. How much money is enough of a stop-gap if he retires early and I no longer have insurance coverage through his work? Will I need to consider getting a job with insurance long before then — and if so, how do I find one with a coverage policy that will cover me, even though I haven’t had all that many complications with my lupus at this point? (It can worsen as you age, but not always, so how in the hell do you plan for a maybe?)
We’re trying to be responsible and spin out all the worst-case scenarios to know what is best for us to do, but it’s nearly impossible to plan when the ability to pick up insurance gets harder and harder. They are in a for-profit business that makes money when they do NOT pay claims — so it’s hard to convince them to take you when you know you will actually need coverage. And how far down the list of pre-existing issues is that eventually going to reach — people who have had more than one sinus infection in three years? People who once had a hangnail? Seriously, at some point no one will be able to reasonably get coverage unless they solicit it from birth, and even then there will be provisos.
OT
Please take care of yourself, bloggers!
I caught snippets of that little bullshit-fest as well.
Cokie and whose army — meant literally — would’ve dragged Darth out of office?
And Kindasleazy would’ve change things how?
Hey Christy:
Is there a link in there to the McCain response to Edwards?
Anybody remember SCHIP? The heatrh care bill with bi partisan support that Fucktard vetoed and the veto was almost overridden? The one that even Hatch and other Republicans suppoeted? Don’t think Sen. McCain is Sen More-of-the-Same?
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, told CNN Wednesday he agrees with President Bush’s veto of legislation expanding a children’s health insurance program, saying the bill provided a “phony smoke and mirrors way of paying for it.”
“Right call by the president,” the Republican White House hopeful told CNN’s John King.
rock on beautiful Elizabeth Edwards. a beautiful grouchy mother bear. I hadn’t known that Truman tried to get universal health care for us and that the republicans killed it with their red Scare movement. That story made me feel so sad.
OMG!! Listening to the Sunday news show on ABC and there is an ad for a program called the Big Give!! The rich repug types give the “poor deserving” folks what they need. I felt like worms were crawling up my spine. we are being played by these fucks.
Ooops — sorry — meant to add that link and must have forgotten to pop it into the post — here you go.
Isn’t that show an Oprah production?
Something from the last thread, I was wondering how much Tim Russert made. I found this 2004 article in the WaPo
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....May18.html
that estimated he made more than $5 million a year. Current salary information is not easy to find. This brings up two or possibly three issues. First, there is the lack of transparency in a profession that ostensibly at least demands it in others. Second, how do these mega-salaries affect how and what these “journalists” cover? Third, what do the corporations think they are getting for these salaries? We talk about this at various times in various ways but what we need to keep in mind always is that everytime we see a group of “top” newspeople or pundits together what we are really seeing is a group of multi-millionaires whose lives have virtually nothing to do with 95% of the country.
Yeah St.John, as opposed to the War you are in love with financed with Asian loans our great grandchildren will be paying off provided by then the US has not defaulted and become part of the Greater Chinese Co-Prosperity Sphere?
For someone who knows nothing about economics, he sure goes out of his way to prove it. Oh, and we really don’t need another C+ Augustus in charge. McCain graduated Fifth (5th) from the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy. Good thing daddy was an admiral.
“a group of multi-millionaires whose lives have virtually nothing to do with 95% of the country” well said, Hugh, and Instant Millionaires Bill and Hillary are at the top of that list..
Thanks. I’m sure it’ll get me pretty perturbesd.
Good Sunday morning everyone! Thanks for this post, Christy. It absoloutely makes me crazy to hear the “socialized medicine” line trotted out again and again by the GOP. Fact is, most Americans are but one serious illness away from ruin, no matter if they are insured or not. Of course, this matters not at all to the haves. They got theirs so tough luck for the rest of us. We (family of 4) are insured through hubby’s job, and his out-of-pocket goes up every year, while what we get for the money goes down. Thankfully we are healthy, and the kids are beyond the constant doctor visits of babyhood.
Congrats on the new puppy! May I recommend crate training? It gives the little guy a “happy place” to call his own and really helps with the housebreaking part of puppyhood. Our dog joined us when the little guy was 7 months old, they’ve grown up together and are bestest buds.
its amazing that very wealthy people have access to excellent health care yet fail to realize that most of us do not and its our fault of course……. we’ve been priced out of the market and hope nothing catastrophic hits us health-wise… and i’m referring to working people!!
There’s more here as well from The Nation.
And even more from the AFL-CIO blog.
Yeah, I’d second the crate training suggestion. It may seem like “dog jail” but you’d be surprised how much they come to depend on their own space. Not to mention sometimes it’s handy to tell them to “go to your office” and they do. :)
“I know you’ll kiss me till my lips are sore…”
McCain’s Ballad for Bush:
Slackjaw Jezebel - Government Mule
There is no truth to the rumour that any health care proposed by McCain will be called “McHealthcare”. That would be wrong.
I think every media talking head, anchorperson or reporter should receive a violent electrical shock every time they utter the word “Maverick” in reference to John McCain. Then and only then, they would stop.
Great planning, Christy. You are so wise to do that. David and I are a full generation (two, maybe) older and we grew up steeped in the arcane belief that health insurance and then Medicare would actually ensure health care.
Elizabeth Edwards wrote:
As we deal with David’s cancer, the good news is that we have easy access to the Mayo Clinic (logistically speaking). The bad news is that there is a cap on insurance. So if he is fortunate enough to survive the disease, he may max out his coverage. And it’s a great, big pre-existing condition issue for him when anything new comes down the pike.
Oh, wait. This is the same administration that has essentially decreed that people devastated by the mortgage crisis had it coming for making bad choices. Well, damn that David for choosing cancer, dontcha know?!
I’m stealing that line and I encourage everyone to use it too!!
Right the fuck On!
Thought this might happen!
Plus I knew your little one would bond with the puppy in about 5 minutes.
And, she rates Hillary Clinton’s plan for health care as better than Barack Obamas.
OT, but I think we have to brace ourselves for the flood of patriotic NRA bullshit re Heston’s check-out..
christopher hitchins andrew sullivan on msnbc with russert-calling the show road to the white house-just talking health care, very very sad.
truly the definition of the word ‘bloviate’
There is a significant problem as you get older. Most Americans, even if they are fortunate enough to want to leave a regular job with benefits early, cant afford to do it because of the cost and lack of availability of health insurance.
it is a real trap for the older earner. If you want to stop work short of 65 (when medicare kicks in), you must begin to think of getting out earlier and earlier, cause by the time you are 62 no one will insure you; but almost no one can afford to retire in their early 50s. Catch 22.
Edwards was right on so many things (including how to force Congress to act) and his wife, with cancer, makes a superior spokesperson on this issue.
Oh, Barbara, you’re singin’ my song! How dare these family members develop these chronic diseases and cancers, indeed….
socialized medicine? Healthcare for the common good of families and the national economy.
Interesting piece on CBC’s Sunday Edition.
Some of you might be interested in this woman’s book.
Great line.
The automakers would become immediately more competitive with single payer universal health care.
It’s about time that someone begins attacking some of the key assumptions of Gooper logic….
The free unregulated market does NOT solve all problems- it creates MASSIVE problems and allows the rich and powerful to become MORE rich and powerful….Will is on this topic today- claiming that the free market will correct all the problems we have in the mortgage and housing markets by punishing fools and rewarding the wise…
It was a bunch of bloody fools in the White House who created this fuckin mess by failing to act when it was becoming common knowledge that this market was about to blow up due to a lack of appropriate regulation…
Make yer blood boil? Well I should say- so come let me tell ya what I mean!
Well, then, let’s frame single-payer healthcare as an economic stimulus!
Lucky sounds very much so.
Hope your other doggy heals quickly.
And thanks for this great post.
On Monday I’ll send in the paperwork to COBRA the high deductible ($3500) health ins from my former job.
Hey - and it will only cost me $666 per month.
America’s insurance corporations: The Great Beast
Old statistic, and admittedly not the only factor, but significant nonetheless when dealing with perceptions:
I recall a study a few years back where the average american thought that the average radiologist was overpaid at $80k. The average radiologist income that year was $200k.
The average this year is $354k.
http://www.studentdoc.com/radiology-salary.html
No, I am not begrudging economic success to people who demonstrate excellence in a challenging field, for example surgeons, oncologists, even internal and family medicine specialists who make decisions with life or death consequences on a regular basis; but radiologists?
My wife and are are both now laid off, me for 13 months, she for 5. That’s about what we’re paying for COBRA. Takes about half of her unemployment check each month. Then, if we need to go for any services we’ll have the additional deductibles and co-pays.
He’s napping in his crate right now. It’s taken me two days to get him coaxed in there and comfy, but he’s flopped down on the towel surrounded by a rawhide bone and a chewy rope toy, just sleeping away at the moment. Took the little scamp out a bit ago for a squirt and he marched right back in the house and had a poop. SIGH I’d forgotten about the ups and downs of puppy training…and I forsee a professional carpet shampooing in our future in a couple of months. But he sure is a cutie — I should get a pix of him and put it up for you guys at some point…
Those are chump stats next to what the average “health plan” brass make.
Goopers can’t do this:
Surfing With The Alien - Joe Satriani
I realize this is an hour late, but this is exactly why health insurance should be independent from a job.
Yikes! And I thought the occasional cat pee “surprise” was a bummer.
Elizabeth nailed the problem. And one comment
Is dead-on. Literally
One of the transplant nurse coordinators I worked with left the world of transplant to work with a major national health insurer in LA County.
She worked with the component that managed “travel insurance” - the sort of insurance you buy to ensure access to healthcare (and air evac for same) in parts of the world without health care delivery.
And when a policyholder fell ill in Russia, the major insurance company calculated it would be more profitable to leave the policyholder in Russia - to die - and pay the trivial damages they’d face if the case ever made through court.
Much more profitable than air evacing the policyholder out for what promised to be very expensive treatment.
Of course, in a “free” market, we’d all have access to this sort of info, and could choose our health insurers accordigly. Just as we’d all have the inside scoop on which local transplant services and cardiac surgeons where great - and which were awful.
And of course, outside of a handful of docs and nurses at major teaching hospitals, none of us do.
Thanks again for the great post - and my condolences to the carpet…..
Can’t wait to see the pic.
The pleas to the MSM to report the real news will never be heard or heeded by these guys. These rich talking heads have tasted the piviledged life. They now want ALL the money.
Won’t happen Christy, I’m sorry to say that.
Lucky is a good name, the Peanut chose well.
Yep — in the business of not paying claims. There isn’t much profit in the paying of them, but even stalling payment carries with it some interest on the kept fundage from premiums for so long as you hold onto it in an interest-bearing account, eh?
I understand the urge to make a profit — I liked doing it myself when I was running my own business — but there is a level of integrity in providing the services you advertise to the best of your ability to provide them for your clients that ought to be factored into the mix. And I haven’t necessarily seen that commitment to service as a part of the healthcare bargain in far too many instances over the past few years. It’s enough to make a person cynical and skeptical of motives, isn’t it?
Whatever McCain is talking about (or getting his “advisors” to “work on”) isn’t a health CARE plan, it’s a health insurance “plan”. Unfortunately, neither of our candidates are talking about health CARE either. We need to stop giving them even a smidge of illusory/semantic credit by referring to their proposals as if CARE was on the table.
Yes, well, preventative medicine seems like a lost art on so many fronts these days it’s almost impossible to know where to start with that. Sad to say…
Tracey Russo, Elizabeth Edwards and Christy together for the first time, results in one more myth-shatering post at FDL.
Thanks for the insight and the opinions. I think you have put together a great challenge here, that demands real answers from “The Republican Candidate” (who needs Manchurians when we got Republicans…). but I would guess we will never get those answers because the hypocrisy will be so transparent.
It is ironic that, regardless of how long it may have taken them to treat him, Mccain got more health care as a prisoner of war than Americans with pre-existing conditions or no insurance due to low income, get from our “world class health care system.”
I posed a starting point one time in a health-care thread here, long ago. First, consider the run-around every patient gets during the diagnosis of their ailments; the labwork and clinics can be endless and frustratingly futile. I am sure Elizabeth wouod agree, and anyone else who has gone months waiting for definitive diagnosis.
This first step in the healing process, (actually identifying the disease or condition,) is second only to ballistic drug costs in contributing to the astronomical rise in health-care costs as a whole.
Federal diagnostic clinics wqould eliminate a big part of this cost. It would provide primary health providers with IMMEDIATE diagnosis tools, and then it would be up to them how to treat it.
This would limit liability insurance costs drastically, especially to the federal medical doctors, because their only job would be to discover, not treat the patient.
It isn’t the whole-answer those of us who envy Canada and France would prefer, but it would be a very good start in the right direction, and would take one of the most hypocritical and critical profit motives out of the CEO’s managed-health-care loop.
Federal diagnostic clinics should be the first step towards universal healthcare. Because, if I may be trite, after prevention, diagnosis is where healthcare begins.
I been sayin’ this at every turn. The phrase “universal coverage” is a sop to the insurance industry. They all intend to keep the no-value-added middlemen in the game.
When the wingnuts start throwing out the Socialized Medicine line…..
I ask them a few questions…..
“Define socialized medicine”
“So you want to abolish the military medical system?”
“Would you call the VA healthcare system socialized medicine?”
THE two socialized medicine systems in America are and have been for the military and Vets….. Rummy nearly killed the stateside military healthcare delivery system but still it exists in military initializations around the world
Sure did the trick for me ;)
How is it so confusing to Americans that social responsibility is good for America. It’s not just a question having a healthy workforce and decreased risk of contagions….a people not concerned with their brethren are morally bankrupt. A system akin to this is doomed.
So you’re cool for 18 months. Obtaining SSD and the concomitant Medicare benefits within that 18 period is a formidable challenge, apply w/o delay. Hiring an able professional to do all that work is a good investment and raises the odds of success. By law they can only charge a set amount, so you don’t give away too much.
In response to Christi-way back there yes that telvision show is an Oprah production and she and her millionaire/billionaire friends give to the “deserving” destitute. Can’t remember when I was so insulted. OOH! and only the “deserving” poor.does that make everyone else doing the right thing with no money undeserving?
I heard Russert just shaking with outrage over the Clinton riches. I know that he makes big bucks too and I bet he has never paid his fair share.
I have problems with the Clinton’s but no butt licking pundit is going to be able to trash Hillary and come away clean. What scum.
It’s time we stopped using the insurance companies’ framing of “pre-existing condition.” It’s just a condition — it’s only “pre-existing” in reference to insurance coverage. I’ve got AIDS, have had it for two-plus decades. Ever try keeping “continuity of care” (another insurance frame) for that long in this country? With decent “universal” coverage, none of our conditions would be considered in relation to insurance, just in relation to our lives, dammit. Then we could call them for what they are: “disease”, “illness”, “life-changing event”. Down with “pre-existing”!
I didn’t get in a comment on Ian Welch’s last beautiful (yes beautiful) post on economics and why we’re sinkin’ fast, despite being more productive. So, …
Essentially we have a system where corporations and rich individuals have taken over and they’re simply forcing more and more wealth into their hands and away from the underlying system. This is causing stresses which will eventually push us into a deep dark hole.
We’re seeing it in increasing costs in health care, increasing oil & gasoline prices, increasing tax breaks for the rich, a housing sector disaster, a derivatives market problem (over leveraging) and so on.
Politically there are 3 active groups in America: the Republicans (Conservatives) who think everything is fine and we should speed up our race to the cliff’s edge; Conservative Democrats who hedge everything and seem to know there’s a problem, but don’t have the backbone to gen up a real lasting solution and fight to get it in place and Liberal Democrats who know there’s a problem and want to solve it, but who have been in a minority and can’t do it by themselves.
Then, there’s the problem of leadership. Edwards offered great ideas and energy to do a lot of positive things. Characterized as dangerously Liberal he was muted and pushed aside. He also had less name recognition and didn’t get the public funding support needed. His precise policies could’ve been called Conservative or Liberal Dem, but he was out to solve problems Progressively, a la Teddy Roosevelt. At least he helped set the agenda and gave us many ideas to work with. Clinton is only a leader when pushed to it by political forces. Obama is still a bit of a cipher. He talks a good game, but there’s a newness which leaves me wondering whether he can really get anything done. Still, he’s our only hope for clean good government and perhaps responsiveness to an eager Liberal electorate.
Without Edwards the big question for Liberals is what the plan is. What’s the big picture? What’s the architectural blueprint? What will Senate and an Obama presidency produce? Will it be hodgepodge or something coherent and forceful and to the point.
We need to focus on people, the system, transparency and fixing the big problems which everyone agrees are sinking our ship.
Maybe Ian or someone else would care to write about this new economic time and how government should behave to fix our problems.