Healthcare Reform in a Nutshell

This is a must-see for anyone who wants to learn more about the implications (benefits and costs, etc.) of the Healthcare Reform Bill passed earlier this year. I like myself how it explains and it is recommended by Ezra Klein, who has shown time after time that he knows what he's talking about on this issue....

Healthy at Last

Many friends of mine and I rejoiced today because a semblance of the medical protections and assurances that our industrialized peers have had for decades is now available to Americans.

In the face of the misinformation out there, here is Rachel Maddow, redoubtable as ever, listing the benefits that a great number of us will now enjoy, but that Republicans are already moving to repeal.

Of Fear

Fear has become the motivating force behind Republican talking points and, to my chagrin, it is quite effective. People are more prone to succumbing to fear-driven rhetoric than any other and of course it's going to work!

Paul Krugman puts it into the context of the calvary that was the passing of this healthcare reform bill.

Harry Reid Grows a Pair

Let's hope he uses that pair to plant a good seed....

Healthcare Cost & Longevity

'But we have the best health care in the world,' you say?

Not if you're spending more than everybody else and not doing anything close to our peers in terms of keeping people alive for longer.

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Healthcare Reform Faltering

Keith Olbermann's plea voices my concerns if the healthcare reform bill, as it currently stands, passes both houses of Congress. Don't do it!

Obama will lose my next vote if this passes and he signs it.

I Guess I'm a Desperate Actor

I saw this a couple of days, but didn't want to make it more public than it already is. Now, I find myself wanting to present it as the waste of youtube space and broadcast time it is.

It's the most ridiculous anti-health reform ad I've seen in a while....

History of Sorts...

Welcome to today's United States of America, where 'history' is simply voting to debate—not pass, but merely debate—a life-saving measure that fulfills, in part, government's duty to that measure vis-à-vis its citizens.

Let's hope true history is made soon....

Money! Money! Money!

Q: Why are insurance companies so worried about the passing of healthcare reform?

A: Their pocket change depends on it... obviously!

Healthcare Quality Across the Nation

An article from the Associated Press has a ranking of healthcare quality and access for the fifty states in the Union. The ranking was performed by the Commonwealth Fund, who reported it on October 8.

Here are the top qualifiers:

1. Vermont

2. Hawaii

3. Iowa

4. Minnesota

5. Maine

Massachusetts places in the 7th place, though it must be said that it ranks first in access to health care. The keyword here: Location! Location! Location! Oh... and what the rest of the country calls 'socialism,' 'communism,' 'socialized medicine,' or any of those very nice-sounding words....

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A Special Special Comment

Keith Olbermann gets to the smallest and most important unit concerned with healthcare in this country: the people.

New York Times On 50 + 1 majority

The New York Times had an editorial a couple of weeks ago highlighting the ins and outs of the so-called budget reconciliation method of voting in the Senate, as opposed to a filibuster-proof majority. The latter seems to be sought by every democrat who is for healthcare reform, even though the probability of sixty votes for a strong healthcare reform bill is out of reach. With this in mind, the former is the more viable option, albeit imperfect.

Healthcare Reform Questions Answered

Via The Daily Dish, eight frequently asked questions answered on The Washington Post.

Media Matters, as always, doing a good job of debunking right-wing lies and exposing their fraudulent claims in a Q & A rubric.

Questions about the public option answered concisely and precisely by Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under president Clinton.

Sensible O'Reilly?!

Is it by genuine changes in him, or by sheer contrast with greater species of loons like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh that he is making sense?

First, he admits that Fox News is 'center-right,' which flies right in the face of the 'fair and balanced' network they always shove in people's faces.

Then, he comes out for public option... no, not just in a heated moment; he's calm and composed as he describes the public option he wants for the American people.

Has he gone full circle and become, by his own efforts and ever-growing insanity, a voice of sanity in the network? Or has he merely been displaced by Beck?

Vox Clamantis in Insanity

The title says it all.

(Source: BuzzFeed)

Dartmouth in the News

Dartmouth's 17th president, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, appeared on the Bill Moyers Journal tonight. Dr. Kim spoke about his life, Dartmouth, and, most importantly, health problems and challenges around the world, as a foremost expert on the issue, given his work in Partners in Health, which provides healthcare for the neediest around the world and in the United States.

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Congress and Lobbyists

Ever wonder why there are Democrats (assuming it makes sense that Republicans act this way) that so staunchly oppose healthcare reform? Look no further. They are fattened up by money from health insurance corporations and seem intent on voting against reform, despite support for it among their constituents, and, if you ask me, not because of ideology.

Here are the shares they get from the healthcare industry:

And why would health insurance companies do this, you ask? Because without any limits on premiums and conditions for their coverage, they can do this: increase premiums by 29% just like that.

On more positive related news, lobbyists are feeling the pinch of the economy on their derrières and no longer have the clout to which they had been accustomed until now (via Huffington Post). Nevertheless, lobbyists have been unleashed on congressmen and congresswomen and are pulling strings left and right to influence their votes.

Meanwhile, Rep. Henry Waxman of California is tightening the purse strings for money going to drug companies in trying to cut a deal with the industry in question, which aims to save billions of dollars in the future.

In remembrance of Sen. Ted Kennedy and his incorruptible struggle for healthcare reform:

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My Fellow Americans

A dose of truth about healthcare, supported by a strong backbone of a speech... though still weak on the importance of a public option, if you ask me:

Monsieur le Président

Bill Moyers sends an open video-letter to the president, urging him to pass healthcare reform, calling it a step into greater democracy, a second 'American Revolution.' I second his call for a tough guy instead of Mr. Nice-Guy.

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Healthcare & Immigrants

There has been much ado and speculation about the proposed healthcare reform bill and how it addresses the issue of coverage for immigrants of different statuses. The New York Times has written an article describing the scenarios covered under the proposed bill. The article shows that, despite the widespread right-wing propaganda stating the contrary, the bill does not intend to cover illegal immigrants, and that there is a lot of talk among congressmen and women as well as between them and their constituents on the question of immigrants and healthcare. A great number of them are seeking citizenship status as a qualification for state-subsidized health insurance or enrollment in a public health insurance option.

As this article states, however, procedures verifying citizenship for applicants end up costing disproportionately more when considering the number of people they end up disqualifying. Furthermore, I must add that excluding legal, tax-paying, non-citizen residents from the possibility of state-subsidized or public healthcare is not a fair option and should not be entertained by any congressmen or women. In addition, there is something to be said even about illegal immigrants (or, for that matter, tourists or visitors) being turned away at hospitals' doors simply because they do not pay taxes. As an American, I would not like to see that happen. Emergency care—which is all that would reasonably be required by illegal immigrants/visitors/tourists before immigration and deportation agencies move in to act—is, by definition, a question of life or death, and I would not like to see anybody turned away or die because of our xenophobic attitude on healthcare.

As far as the U.S. being turned into a haven for foreigners seeking good healthcare, one must simply consider the current and possible future cost of healthcare and medication in this country. Even if those costs were halved, they would still be unaffordable to our neighbors in the south (because, let's face it, we only think of them when we say 'immigrants').

What we need to do is look at the example of other countries who have been dealing successfully with healthcare for decades and have, indubitably, dealt with measures for immigrants. Or, lest we start spreading fears of following the example of 'socialist' countries, we could look further than the example of Massachusetts, which has just limited certain covered services for recent, legal immigrants, and learn from its mistakes about how to avoid such limiting measures on the national level.