Category: Health Care

A really simple diary.  Search or not search.  Do what you will and I do know and am aware that some of my sources might be considered as “righttard” oriented.  In a proactive answer to that did you get the “change” promised after Barry Soetoro was selected?  I know it’s nasty and highly un-Orange like but just look around and take in what is going on.  It is indeed going to “change”.  Before it does though the plan is to spend yet another spiritual cleansing session deep in the woods of Maine.

Welcome to the 17th installment of “Considered Forthwith.”

This weekly series looks at the various committees in the House and the Senate. Committees are the workshops of our democracy. This is where bills are considered, revised, and occasionally advance for consideration by the House and Senate. Most committees also have the authority to exercise oversight of related executive branch agencies.

This week I’m examining the House Committee on Small Business and the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. These are not the most glamorous committee assignments, but anyone who owns, plans to own, or works for a small business should pay attention.  

‘The Cause of My Life’

Inside the fight for universal health care.

By Edward M. Kennedy | NEWSWEEK

In 1964, I was flying with several companions to the Massachusetts Democratic Convention when our small plane crashed and burned short of the runway. My friend and colleague in the Senate, Birch Bayh, risked his life to pull me from the wreckage. Our pilot, Edwin Zimny, and my administrative assistant, Ed Moss, didn’t survive. With crushed vertebrae, broken ribs, and a collapsed lung, I spent months in New England Baptist Hospital in Boston. To prevent paralysis, I was strapped into a special bed that immobilizes a patient between two canvas slings. Nurses would regularly turn me over so my lungs didn’t fill with fluid. I knew the care was expensive, but I didn’t have to worry about that. I needed the care and I got it……….

There is a bit of a Cold War of sorts, raging between Private Insurance “providers” and your neighborhood Health Care professionals (and it’s NOT the Govt getting in between the two.)

It’s the battle over Claim Denials. It’s an “arms race” that just keeps escalating …

DMI: Denial Management, Inc — The Claims Solution People

The Problem:

One in seven claims are denied by insurance companies. This can cost your clinic or practice thousands of dollars every year.

http://www.claimsmgt.com/produ…

That’s about 15% of Claims, Insurers choose NOT to pay. So, Doctors need all the help they can get, to stay focused on Healing, NOT Bill Collecting!

Denial Management Services

Problem: Most Health Systems lose between 3% and 5% of net revenues as a result of payment denials.

Solution: Outsource your denied claims to DMI, the foremost industry leader in capturing additional revenue.

http://www.claimsmgt.com/compa…

One of the most pernicious frames the Republican Party and Grover Norquist have ever placed on our nation is this idea that the rich should not be taxed at much higher levels than the rest of the nation. This frame is so well placed it has become nearly and article of faith for the nation if we some how put a significant amount of tax on those who can most afford it this punishes the whole nation. The Dog thinks this is flatly insane.

“Originally posted at Squarestate.net”

UPDATE:

So who says we are shouting down a whole or only talking to ourselves? Today the Dog got an e-mail from the Neil Cavuto show on Fox “Going out of” Business Network asking if he would like to be on the show to talk about raising taxes on the rich. After thinking it through the Dog has turned them down, why be a chump they can treat like a punching bag? If this were one of the Dog’s signature issues it would have been different, but since this was a one off essay, it is not worth outing the hound to look like a putz. Still we are getting attention on our humble blogs, so as Buhdy says “SHOUT LOUDER!”  

mediamatters

This is insane. Glen Beck is fucking psychotic. Sick, demented, paranoid and insane.

Straight jacket material.

The way he goes from spitting and howling to normal in .5 seconds, disturbing.

May I please ask WHY we allow this piece of shit to stay on air?

Really, WTF?

It’s simply amazing, how Obstructionists operate

Step Right Up!

This magic elixir, will solve everything —

It’s called “More of the Same”

(aka “Private Insurance knows best.”)

It’s simply amazing what Paid Shills will say

to keep their Wealthy Patrons rolling in clover.

A Day In The Life Of A Georgia Lobbyist

Her phone rings. It is another board member, and he is at the Capitol.  We are off to the third floor and a day that accelerates from 0 to 60 very quickly.  Among the sea of suits, we find her guest and connect him with Rep. Stephens, who will escort him onto the floor of the House for a visit.

Immediately thereafter, we meet up with the lobbyist for the Department of Economic Development, which houses the tourism budget and serves as the state’s marketing apparatus for the industry. They discuss the House budget cuts, pending legislation and chart strategy.  During that conversation she is approached by another lobbyist from the Association County Commissioners of Georgia who relays concerns over a hotel tax bill introduced a day earlier.  Joy assures her the bill is a temporary bill and that a substitute is coming.  […]

Not much later, the lobbyist for the Georgia Municipal Association approaches Joy expressing similar concerns.  Joy again explains a substitute is coming.

Shhhh! it’s a secret!

Crossposted at daily kos

    “That is exactly what’s going on in Canada and Great Britian today, they don’t have the appreciation of life as we do in our society, apparently”

    “this program of ‘government option’ is being touted as being the panacea, the savior of allowing people to have quality health care at an affordable price is gonna kill people”

thinkprogress.com

   Take ten paces, turn and mock at will.

As she so often does, digby makes a great catch. The health care debate is being partially highjacked by a major right wing donor, who also just happens to be a former health care industry executive. And the corporate media are helping him along.

The article comes from Mother Jones:

You’ve probably seen the ads. Ominous voice-overs warn you about how health care reform “could put a bureaucrat in charge of your medical decisions, not you.” A massive bulldozer with “government-run insurance plan” written on the side crushes your health care “choices.” Canadians and Britons relay horror stories of their experiences dealing with health care in those nightmarish socialist dystopias.

The ads are the product of a multimillion-dollar ad campaign designed to derail health care reform-especially what’s been dubbed the “public option,” which would set up a government-run plan to compete with private insurers. The man behind this ad blitz is the person who might be Public Option Enemy No. 1: one-time hospital executive and longtime Republican donor Richard Scott.

Back in March, Scott spent $5 million of his own money to set up a nonprofit called Conservatives for Patients’ Rights. The group aims to be the command center for the right’s fight against Democratic reform efforts. With the major interest groups-including hospital companies, pharmaceutical companies, and doctors-that have opposed reform in the past holding their fire this year in order to have a seat at the legislative table, Scott’s group has filled the anti-reform void. According to an estimate reported by the Associated Press, around $15 million has already been spent on ads favoring the Democrats’ plan, and  $4 million has been spent to oppose it. Much of that $4 million has come from Scott and CPR, and he’s claimed his group will spend as much as $20 million.

Of course, as the article points out, and as is true “Harry and Louise” style, Scott’s group doesn’t say it opposes health care reform. Of course not. It does want reform, it’s just a matter of the details. Of course, when you get into the details of the details, it’s really about derailing real reform. And the ad is, according to Media Matters, simple based on lies.

We learned last week from LA Times reporting, and from Congressional Hearings, that Insurance companies routinely try to drop your Insurance policy, if you happen to get one of their “Hot List” illnesses.

Getting any of these illnesses, can Trigger the Insurance Company’s “Cancellation Police”, into action.

Denial Specialists scour your medical history, and cross-check that against your application, looking for any reason to Cancel, or rescind, your Insurance policy, thus saving the Insurance Company untold thousands in future payments for your expected Care. Denial Specialists, of course, earn bonuses for each Policy they cancel. What a system!

Those 4 illnesses (out of the 1000+ such Triggers) previously disclosed are:

breast cancer, high blood pressure, lymphoma and pregnancy

Well thanks to the tough questioning of the Oversight and Investigations Sub Committee, at least 2 more Triggering Illnesses have been disclosed, as indicated in the video and transcript of the Hearing:

The 2 other newly disclosed “Drop List” illnesses, include:

ovarian cancer, and brain cancer

crossposted on Daily Kos

White House Open to Deal on Public Health Plan

By LAURA MECKLER and JANET ADAMY – JULY 7, 2009 – WSJ

WASHINGTON — It is more important that health-care legislation inject stiff competition among insurance plans than it is for Congress to create a pure government-run option, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Monday.

[…]

One of the most contentious issues is whether to create a public health-insurance plan to compete with private companies.

Mr. Emanuel said one of several ways to meet President Barack Obama’s goals is a mechanism under which a public plan is introduced only if the marketplace fails to provide sufficient competition on its own. He noted that congressional Republicans crafted a similar trigger mechanism when they created a prescription-drug benefit for Medicare in 2003. In that case, private competition has been judged sufficient and the public option has never gone into effect.

Mr. Obama has pushed hard for a vigorous public option. But he has also said he won’t draw a “line in the sand” over this point.

http://online.wsj.com/article/…

OH NO! Not that stupid Trigger Option again!

Enough Already!