Modern Civilization

Last night as I was getting home from work, I was thinking how much I disliked modern civilization. It's a long story that I won't get into now. Then I thought how MyBetterHalf was in the hospital getting ready to have surgery to remove her gall bladder, and how two and a half years ago I had surgery to remove a concerous tumor the size of an orange from my colon. If it hadn't been for modern civilization, we'd both probably have died a painful death. So yeah, I'm very thankful. I think that's the definition of ambivalence.

Healthcare Passes in the House

Healthcare reform has passed the House 219-210. Thirty four Democrats voted against the bill. Two Republicans voted against the bill, and NOT ONE voted for it, yet they blame the Democrats for the lack of bipartisanship. Damn hypocrites all! Not one Republican ever wanted to change the way things are - they are quite down with it. It's what makes them conservative and protectors of the status quo and the powers that be. Most of them owe a LOT of campaign funds to the health care industry. Most of them probably have health care stocks in their portfolios and they are making their profits and capital gains from it. How many will leave Congress and go on to lucrative jobs in the "private sector," getting their reward?

Coming Back

It's been six months since my last post. I've had to figure out just what kind of voice I would have. Not so sure. but I wanted to liveblog this so-called debate in the House regarding healthcare. The Republicans are shameless liars or cult members. They are bought and sold by their corporate overlords and yet posture themselves as if they are so patriotically righteous and concerned with the Republic. Maybe some of them truly believe what they are saying, but in that they are like cult members spouting platitudes from their faith. IMHO that cult is the cult of Mammon.

A Plea To My Neighbors

I'm composing this as a Letter to the Editor in my local paper. It's long so it will probably be several.

I've been listening to this so-called "debate" about health care and I have been appalled at the misinformation, disinformation, distortion, outright lies and manipulation going around. To be frank, most of the junk is coming from the Republican Party and conservative talk, but really, they are just acting as conduits for the health care industrial complex. Lord knows how much Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly and their ilk are being paid to spread the corporate word.

What we do know is that over the past ten years the so-called health care industry has spent over five billion dollars lobbying congress. That's five hundred million a year or more than a million dollars per congress critter per year. That's also five billion dollars they did not spend on health care for patients. Over that same time the CEO's of these companies have also walked away with billions, most infamously William McGuire from United Healthcare Group, who personally collected a cool one billion seven hundred million dollars in compensation when he retired, so he bought a 136 foot yacht and called it "The Golden Parachute". Exactly what did he produce to deserve those riches?

You see, to channel these fortunes into their own pockets these executives were telling their employees to to deny payment, delay care, and outright canceling or rescinding policies that people had paid on for years, using the excuse of so-called "pre-existing conditions" - like the woman whose policy was rescinded when she needed treatment for breast cancer because she was treated for acne when she was sixteen. Many people have experienced "Treatment Denied" or "Claim Denied" from insurance companies, or other techniques to not pay out. Employees are rated on how much they deny care and huge bonuses are paid to more senior managers. It is in everyone's financial interest in the insurance company to deny care. The phrase, "death by spreadsheet," was coined for a reason. Even when the health crisis doesn't result in death, it can result in bankruptcy. Sixty percent of bankruptcies are now caused by medical debt. Seventy five percent of those thought they had insurance until they needed to seriously use it.

The insurance company public relations firms are complaining about how awful it will be to have government bureaucrats between us and our doctors. But I'll take the government bureaucrat any day whose mission is to get me health care over the corporate bureaucrat whose job depends on denying it. As much as any serial killer, mafia, or gang of terrorists, these companies, executives and stockholders are directly responsible for the death and misery of countless thousands.

Above the five hundred million being spent as usual on lobbyists, there's still plenty of cash to hire an additional three hundred fifty former congress ritters and their staffs to draw on the personal connections these people have with present members of Congress. They're paying out something like one and a half million dollars a day extra for these people, an average of four thousand dollars per person per day. Pretty good pay in this economy. This figure does not include the "campaign contribution" bribes being made. Could there be any greater evidence that our government has become the wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America, and that our representatives are simply corrupt. Do you think these people are ever going to act in our interest?

Which brings us to our esteemed congressman, Jack Kingston. I went to the congressman's website to see what his position was in all of this. Needless to say, he was against reform. Government take over of health care, he calls it. Yet he'll not tell you that the top three industries contributing to this cycle's campaign chest are Insurance, Lobbyists, and Health Professionals, or that his single largest campaign contributor is Aflac. You don't think this affects his stance in any way, do you?

Congressman Kingston, along with a number of other Republicans are touting a study by the "non-partisan" Lewin Group that says if a public option is included in the health care bill that one hundred fourteen million Americans are going to "lose their coverage." At least that's what the congressman claims in bold, red and underlined lettering. One wonders why he didn't go all the way to the hysteric ALL CAPITALS AND EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!!! So he want's you to think he's saying one hundred fourteen million will be without insurance – maybe you. When one actually reads the report one realizes that people are migrating from private plans to the public plan actually increasing the gross number insured. It's flat out deception on the part of the congressman.

Finally, who is the Lewin Group? About thirty seconds on the web and we find that the Lewin Group is a subsidiary of Ingenix, a company that produces software that's designed to limit insurance company payouts. It was so good that it was bought by United HealthCare Group. Early this year United Healthcare had to pay a four hundred million dollar settlement with the federal government for fraud related to that software. So this criminal company (that compensated a ceo one point seven billion dollars) has a subsidiary company putting out a report designed to make us fear a government run health insurance plan. What's amazing is that they're not even subtle about it.

The U.S. Government: Wholly owned subsidiary of Corporate America.

As if we needed any more proof that our present government is truly wholly bought and sold by the corporations and the wealthy, even with the election of Barak Obama, 350 former congresscritters and staffers have been hired by the healthcare industry to lobby 535 present day congresscritters regarding the healthcare reform legislation. They say they are spending $1.4 million a day for these new hires - really temps, but not bad pay in this economy. It works out to four thousand dollars per lobbyist per day. Of course this does not count how much moolah is being promised to the various congresscritters for said congresscritters next campaigns. They used to call them bribes and the politicians who took them corrupt. Now they call them campaign contributions and the politicians representatives and senators.

The last time they got into this sort of thing we got Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit that was a big kiss to the pharmaceutical industry by mandating that the government had to pay retail (as opposed to Canada which buys wholesale from the same companies.) It's also designed to go broke. Unless the legislation has a good public option, not one that is designed to fail to show how "government care" doesn't work, it won't be worth spit to us. Of course you already know my view. Why we're talking about anything other than Single Payer is because of the health insurance companies dominance of the media and congress. Polling shows that anywhere from 72 to 80% of Americans want at least a public option, if not outright single payer. There should not even be a question.

But that's not the situation we find ourselves in, is it? This is how it boils down to me: I can't get healthcare without going broke because somebody else wants to get rich. Sorry but I don't see anything good or right about that.

As has been said for so long, our government operates as of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations. This is not metaphor or hyperbole, but cold reality. It is no longer of the people, by the people and for the people. What was set up to be a democratic republic is now a corporatocracy. A silent coup has been executed and the very foundations of government have been altered.

\

Only Because Its Being Talked About - Healthcare Part I

We don't have much in the way of health care in the US. What we have mostly is sick care. Most of us only use the medical system because we need it because something has gone wrong. If it is health care, where is the care, the outgoing concern from health care providers, to keep us healthy?

I got really pissed at the doctor I was going to for a few years. It became obvious that he didn't give a damn about me, would come buzzing through checking the stats out and try to be out in five minutes, for which he charged my insurance a hundred sixty five dollars, or me sixty five when I lost the insurance. The practice actually dropped me when I was struggling financially. People have a hard time believing me when I say I got fired by my doctor.

There's something very wrong in making a fortune off of other people's misery and sickness. It's totally parasitic. I don't have a problem with a doctor making good money. It takes a lot of smarts and hard work to do it. But I do take issue with someone who is only in it for how much they can gouge out of you. The leaders in this category are the health insurance companies.

The health insurance companies are parasites. They produce nothing. They are leaches and vampires - maggots. They feed off of sickness and death. They are not in existence to provide health care. They exist to make money, and pay their CEOs huge amounts of compensation. We don't need them. All we need to do is turn the entire country and population into one large insurance pool administered by a federal agency that answers to the voters.