HOW MANY TIMES I gotta LINK Sicko, anyway?
Related: Why You Are Getting National Health Care
"Mass. health model inspires key senator; Panel considers creating agency to ease insurance" by Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff | May 13, 2009
WASHINGTON - A key Senate leader appears to be leaning toward proposing a new tax on employer-provided insurance benefits and creating a new federal agency modeled on one in Massachusetts to make it easier for individuals and small groups to buy insurance.
See: What Your National Health Plan Will Look Like and related links.
The Senate Finance Committee's chairman, Senator Max Baucus of Montana, a Democrat, pointed to the tax exclusion, a rich source of cash. Senators will also consider other options, including "sin" taxes on soda and alcohol and limiting tax breaks for other health benefits, such as tax-preferred health accounts....
Limiting the tax exclusion is one of the few options that could provide large amounts of revenue to expand health coverage. Employer-provided insurance is considered part of workers' compensation, but unlike salaries, is not taxed as income.
It WILL BE NOW!
They CAN'T GET the TRILLIONS from the WAR-LOOTING and BANK-THIEVING ACCOUNTS?
The Finance Committee's options for expanding coverage include phasing in new regulations requiring all insurance products to cover basic medical services that the least expensive plans in some states don't cover currently, such as prescription drugs and mental health and substance abuse services. No annual or lifetime limits would be allowed. Insurers could vary premiums based on a few factors, such as age and geographic location, but could no longer refuse to cover someone.
The committee's policy options also explain the workings of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector, which helps Massachusetts individuals and small business employees compare and purchase insurance. Based on that model, the proposal calls for creating a national website that would offer one-stop shopping for individuals and small groups. Jon Kingsdale, executive director of the Commonwealth Connector, said policymakers have clearly taken note of the popularity of the Massachusetts website.
Yeah, then you can spend the day making phone calls to automated systems because I'VE USED the "connector" and IT SUCKS!!!!!!
The LIES NEVER STOP, do they, MSM?
"Healthcare overhaul emphasizes affordability; Momentum for legislation appears strong" by Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff | May 16, 2009
WASHINGTON - Political momentum for some form of healthcare legislation appears strong. Advocates, business leaders, and health industry executives are sensing what Ron Pollack, president of the consumer group Families USA, called an "aura of inevitability."
Yeah, to hell with how the American people feel!!
SINGLE PAYER or BUST!!!
"It has an impact on the various interest groups who feel they'd better get on the train, or the train may run them over," he said. The health industry is scrambling to forestall its worst fear - that Congress will create a Medicare-style public insurance option, which private insurers fear could put them out of business and hospitals worry would chop their revenue.
All FOOLEYS!!!
The drug, hospital, and insurance lobbies - which helped defeat the Clinton administration's health reform plan 16 years ago - promised to voluntarily reduce health expenditures by $2 trillion over the next decade....
Then WHY CAN'T THEY DO THAT NOW without the pressure?
You know the answer ($$$$) as well as I, readers!
The gesture underscored the industry's desire to be seen as cooperative. President Obama held three healthcare meetings at the White House this week, and House and Senate leaders solidified their commitment to holding floor votes before their August recess....
The fact that all the special interest are for this ,makes me all the more skeptical and suspicious, folks! I DON'T TRUST THEM anymore!!!! Gonna jam it down our throats over summer, too!
This compressed schedule means that interest groups will have a limited opportunity to influence votes - and mostly during the summer, when constituents are paying less attention to business in Washington.
And that is when we get the WORST LEGISLATION!
But both political parties are preparing for a media war; each side summoned political experts to Capitol Hill this week to advise them on how to spin their arguments....
How about TELLING the TRUTH for ONCE and DOING what is RIGHT?
The most divisive issue may be how to pay for the bill - the economy is a mess, the federal deficit is soaring, and Medicare and Social Security are nearing insolvency. Congress will probably try to cobble together a combination of taxes, including taxes on alcohol and soda, and taxing a portion of employer-provided health insurance plans - which are now tax-free....
That's YOU, American worker!!
Hey, I'd be all for it if this government used the money properly and set up a proper system; however, we are nowhere near that in modern day Babylon, 'er, AmeriKa!
"Drug firm Wyeth accused of defrauding Medicaid" by Devlin Barrett, Associated Press | May 19, 2009
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department accused Wyeth, one of the nation's biggest drug makers, yesterday of cheating Medicaid programs out of hundreds of millions of dollars by overcharging for a stomach acid drug....
But they are looking out for you and your health, not the bottom line!
Btw, OBAMA LIED TO YOU, voters!!! Whadda ya mean, again?
"One Obama healthcare goal elusive; Few see chance of premium cuts in near future" by Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff | May 21, 2009
WASHINGTON - In the final debate of the presidential campaign, while banks collapsed and layoffs mounted, Barack Obama turned to the camera to speak directly to the 56 million Americans watching at home. His healthcare plan, he said, would save families big money on insurance.
"We estimate we can cut the average family's premium by about $2,500 per year," he said, repeating a promise he had made in the previous debate, and in stump speeches and television ads for the better part of a year.
But now?
As Congress prepares for a four-month sprint to pass a sweeping healthcare bill, though, it is hard to find anybody serious about health policy who believes premiums will actually drop anytime soon. Getting healthcare costs to grow at the pace of inflation, instead of two or more times that rate, would be "a tremendous stretch," said John Sheils, senior vice president of the Lewin Group, a health policy consulting firm.
What a LOOTING OPERATION they have going, huh?
Indeed, even the Senate Democrats writing the healthcare bill acknowledge that it could, initially, cost some families more in higher taxes to underwrite the cost of insuring the uninsured.
Why don't you GET THAT MONEY from the WAR-LOOTERS and BANK BAILOUT FUNDS, dammit!
Also see: KBR won bonuses after US soldier died
Need I even say it, 'murkn?
Democrats in Congress are talking about things like taxes on sugary drinks and alcohol, and about taxing a portion of employee health benefits of those individuals with the biggest salaries and most generous health plans.
No, it is EVERYONE, lying MSM!!!!
But the president has continued to repeat his promise to save $2,500 per family....
Translation; Obama CONTINUES to LIE! Some change, huh, America?
The White House, for its part, says the president's pledge has always been about slowing the growth of health costs, not actually reducing premiums....
Bush never left, did he? We get the same shit equivocations and lies!
Tapering the rate of aggregate growth over the course of a decade was not exactly what one voter, Stephanie Webster-Sesay, a 55-year-old microbiologist and Obama supporter interviewed outside the grocery store in Woodbridge, Va., last week, said she had in mind when she heard Obama's $2,500 promise during the campaign.
"No, no," she said as she finished loading groceries into the back of her car. "I was talking about some kind of immediate relief, or relief not that far down the road."
SHE AIN'T ALONE!!!!!
There is, actually, a way Obama and Democratic leaders could chop premium costs very quickly: They could create a public insurance plan that would force doctors and hospitals to accept far less than they get now from private insurers. A Lewin Group study found that a public insurance plan that forces providers to accept Medicare rates could drive premiums down by about $2,500 a year for the average family, Sheils said.
Or they could GO SINGLE PAYER altogether!!!
But the will among Democrats in Congress to take such an extreme step appears low. It would mean engaging in a full-on war with doctors, hospitals and health insurers, who say such a plan would drive them out of business, after months of talk from the White House about working together. Republicans, and perhaps more importantly many Democrats, will not go there....
And thus, is the American political system broken.
One reason health costs are so untamable is the proliferation of technology that promises to do a better job in detecting and treating disease. Every year, health consumers spend billions on new tests, drugs, and procedures that weren't available the year before.
First of all, IGNORE the WYETH and ENDLESS OTHER RIP-OFFS!!
Then blame it on the TECHNOLOGY that is supposed to IMPROVE THINGS!
Then tout all the UNNECESSARY PROCEDURES we are being put through!
Read my Health labels, readers, because I'm tired of the MSM lying and obfuscations!
"It's kind of hard to imagine we can have all these miracles of modern medicine and at the same time pay less for it," Sheils said.
Actually, no, no it's not!
There is also a staggering amount of waste and unnecessary disease, which is what Obama and congressional leaders are now targeting to try to save money.
Unnecessary disease? So the government is letting bugs loose, 'eh?
But making the nation's vast and fragmented healthcare system more efficient, and its population healthier, is practically and politically challenging and will take years to accomplish.
As if they actually cared about us.
Bill Carrick, a Democratic strategist from California, said he does not think Obama's $2,500 promise is a political liability, because most Americans are cynical about healthcare and will not take Obama's promise literally.
Shows you how out-of-touch Democrats are!
Also see: Obama Is Said to Consider Preventive Detention Plan
Whadda ya know, we have a one-termer on our hands-- unless the election is rigged as usual.
"Most voters out there, they're going to say, 'Well, he's trying to do the right thing and reduce costs, he's focused on what it means to the average family,' " he said. "I don't think they're going to sit around with a calculator," he said, and determine whether Obama has made good on his word.
We DON'T NEE ONE!!
He's just a BETTER LOOKING LIAR than BUSH!!!!
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"Mass. insurers post losses for quarter; Declines cited in investments" by Casey Ross, Globe Staff | May 16, 2009
The state's largest health insurers reported steep first-quarter losses yesterday, reflecting a decline in income from investments that had previously served as a financial cushion for the medical plans.
See: The Business of Health Care
WTF are HOSPITALS and INSURANCE COMPANIES doing dabbling in the STOCK MARKET!
It's ALL CONNECTED, isn't it? The LOOTING OPERATION!
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the state's largest health insurer with about 3 million members, recorded a combined net loss of $36.6 million for its health plans during the first three months of the year. That compares with a $2.2 million loss in the first quarter of last year.
On an operating basis, Blue Cross-Blue Shield lost $49 million, which is not unusual for the first quarter, when health plans see increased costs due to high claim volumes. But the insurer also experienced a 70 percent drop, to $13.7 million from $46.4 million, in investment income, leaving it much less money to blunt the operating loss.
Yup, a HEALTH CARE HOUSE of CARDS that is to be the MODEL for National Health Insurance!
BEND OVER, America!!!
The state's other health insurers reported similar numbers yesterday, with Tufts Health Plan taking a $13.1 million net loss and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care losing $3 million. "We, like countless other investors, experienced a reduction in investment income but we expect improved financial performance throughout the remainder of the year," said James DuCharme, chief financial officer of Harvard Pilgrim.
Harvard Pilgrim also lost about 9,000 members since the first quarter of last year due to declines in employment across the region....
"Research costs batter Beth Israel's budget; Pricey lease, gap in funding force cuts, consolidation" by Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | May 21, 2009
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which laid off about 70 workers last month and made other cuts to regain its financial footing, is now taking other steps to stem a projected $28 million loss this year in its biomedical research operations.
The expected deficit is forcing the Harvard-affiliated Boston teaching hospital to give up lab space in two buildings and consolidate its research - focusing on cancer, molecular imaging, and vascular biology - at a single site.
Hospital officials blame the projected loss on lower-than-expected funding from the National Institutes of Health and a costly lease arrangement it made about five years ago at a new research building in the Longwood medical area.
Yeah, YOU DIDN'T GIVE 'EM enough $$$$, taxpayers!
In an e-mail to employees, Paul Levy, the chief executive, noted that "research funding has also fallen short by several million dollars."
Eric Buehrens, the hospital's chief financial officer, said; "Growth in NIH-funded research has not kept pace with our hopes and aspirations when we signed the lease."
NIH grants to research hospitals and universities nationwide climbed steadily during the 1990s and earlier this decade, with double-digit percentage gains some years, before leveling off more recently. Beth Israel Deaconess research funding has been flat for several years, totaling about $225 million last year. It is projected to fall in the current fiscal year, said Randall Mason, the hospital's vice president for research administration.
Under its economic stimulus plan, the Obama administration will increase NIH funds nationwide by $10 billion over the next two years. Beth Israel Deaconess has applied for multiple new research grants, Buehrens said, but it is unclear how much extra funding it will receive. Even if the hospital gets a stimulus slice roughly equal to its current share of annual NIH research dollars, that would add only $6 million to $8 million, he said, not enough to close the budget gap.
I'm just wondering when the STIMULUS FUNDS are going to be used for any JOBS! Was it really meant ot CLOSE BUDGET GAPS of HOSPITALS?
Heck, the national health plan is going to HURT my state(?!):
"Healthcare overhaul could add financial burdens to state; Could limit tax benefits for employees" by Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff | May 19, 2009
WASHINGTON - The Senate committee in charge of financing the upcoming healthcare overhaul is considering changes that could place new financial burdens on Massachusetts institutions and employees, including limiting the tax exclusion for employer-provided health coverage, a major benefit to employees in states like Massachusetts, where insurance is expensive and plans tend to be generous....
They are making my single-payer argument for me.
The document also proposed new tax rules that could affect major Massachusetts institutions, including requiring nonprofit hospitals - Boston has some of the nation's best-known - to meet minimal charitable obligations to keep their tax-exempt status, and reducing or eliminating major tax deductions for nonprofit Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans.
The most dramatic plan - and the one that could yield an enormous amount of money - is taxing some portion of healthcare benefits employees and their employers now purchase tax-free through work. Critics of the current system say the benefit goes disproportionately to the wealthiest employees and encourages overuse of healthcare services, since those with the most expensive and generous insurance plans get the most benefit.
And if we HAD SICKO-STYLE NO ONE NEED WORRY!!
Because Massachusetts residents typically earn more money and have better insurance than most Americans, limitations on that tax exclusion could disproportionately hurt them. Workers at companies with older employees, whose insurance is therefore more expensive, could also be at a disadvantage.
Yeah, thanks for the years of service; now BEND OVER!
But Jonathan Gruber, a health economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the limitations could be structured to adjust for those factors. "These are not insurmountable problems, they're just problems that require a more sophisticated policy approach," he said.
Democratic leaders say they hope to find as much money as they can by eliminating wasteful spending, primarily in Medicare....
I'll believe it when hell freezes over.
Another goal is to trim spending by reducing regional variations in the cost of healthcare. Studies have found the cost of care varies greatly across the United States for reasons that cannot be attributed only to obvious reasons such as differences in the cost of living or quality of care. In Massachusetts, possibly because it has a substantial number of top specialists, the cost of care is far higher than in states like Minnesota or New Mexico.
Yeah, WTF is up with the PRICE-GOUGING, 'eh?
The Senate Finance Committee is examining reductions in Medicare reimbursement rates in Massachusetts and other states where the cost of healthcare is disproportionately high, in hopes of evening out those geographical variations.
The committee is also looking at a few other tax changes that do not involve Medicare or tax benefits, including new taxes on alcohol, soda, and other sugary drinks. Senate policy writers call these "lifestyle tax proposals" because they contribute to obesity. (Beacon Hill is also considering taxes on unhealthy beverages as a revenue source.)
I'm SICK of the FLOGGING of the AGENDA and GLAD AS HELL I DON'T DRINK that s***!
"We think it makes sense to both improve public health and raise these revenues," said Brian Rosman of Health Care for All in Boston. But taxing those items will be a political challenge because of the powerful food and drink industry lobbies behind them.
Yeah, right, like they have some sort of power!
Also see: Boston Globe Bullies
Yeah, I AM TIRED of the LYING AGENDA-PUSHING GARBAGE!!!!!
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Know where the $$$ is going, Bay-Stater?
Pigs at the State Trough
A Slow Saturday Special: Statehouse Slush Fund
Hollywood S***s on Massachusetts
Biotech Giveaway Was Borrowed Money
How many times I gotta put 'em up?
