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New York, 1:19 PM
Wed Dec 9
47 posts in the last 24 hours
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12:59 PM
Makes for MUCH more efficient launching of sordid-sex scandals when they inevitably erupt.
I guess the #2 guys DO try harder!
12:50 PM
Medicare for EVERYONE. That's the simplest and most sensible option. It's a public option that has already been proven to work and if it is also used to insure healthy young people it will make it possible for the govt. to up it's reimbursement schedule so that it actually covers the docs and hospitals expenses and they will stop their kevetching about how they aren't getting reimbursed enough to stay in business.
Wow, did I do that in one sentence?
It will be interesting to see how the House responds.
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12:26 PM
I focus on the financing because that is a huge factor in the whole process. Not to keep harping on CHIP, but the program was in threat of going bankrupt before Obama approved its expansion and refinancing back in February. If that had happened, even more children would be uninsured. We have to consider that these bills, once implemented, will require future reauthorization for their continuation. If there is any hope of a Republican run government continuing the measures taken by this government in the future, a show of financial success and health will help the cause.
Filling in the cracks so that the truly needy and worthy don't slip through and addressing the needs of even greater segments of our population is an admirable goal and hopefully the next step. I'm not advocating for throwing more money at failing programs, or for ignoring the truly disenfranchised. But I'm also not for reinventing the wheel when something that has been tested over time has endured.
I've personally watched as laws meant to help revise entire benefit systems end up crippling them in the name of serving the public good. This is too important an issue to have that happen.
12:56 PM
A big reason the Senate Democrats want to include the 55-64 age group into Medicare is to get their foot in the door to eventually cover everyone with Medicare.
The second reason is that lots of people 55-64 are getting laid off in this recession and are unable to find new employment - and when/if they do they have difficulty getting insured because of "pre-existing conditions." Obviously when you've been alive 55+ years you've had ample opportunity to gain some "conditions." Also, some employers discriminate against older people because they are fearful their health insurance will cost them more than younger people's insurance.
Putting the 55-64 age group on Medicare will encourage employers to hire them and will help those who are unable to find full-time employment with health insurance.
Also, it will probably allow many in that group who'd like to retire from full-time employment but couldn't afford health insurance to do so - and this will free up jobs for young people.
I see this as a win-win for the older vs. younger worker.
12:57 PM
I'm not talking about the government costs. I'm talking about the actual premium cost to the individual.
01:01 PM
When Medicare was first passed, it was expected to be expanded to cover everybody. How many decades has it now been? I have absolutely no faith that covering age 55-64 under Medicare would be a first step to covering everybody under Medicare.
01:03 PM
11:05 AM
--Medicare expansion 55-64
--Public option with a trigger ("Insurance companies will have the option of creating nationally-based non-profit insurance plans that would offered on the exchanges in every state." If the insurance don't offer such plans it will trigger a national public option.)
--Health care exchanges
--Extend a verson of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan to all (what Congress has)
--Program that would create several national insurance policies administered by private companies but negotiated by the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees health policies for federal workers
--Medicaid expansion to 133% of poverty (insuring about 18 million people who DON'T have insurance now)
--Private insurance companies required to spend at least 90 cents of every dollar they collect in premiums on medical services for their customers.
--Subsidies for middle class and lower class families to pay for insurance."
11:11 AM
How the hell did they get that? It seemed not long ago that JD Rockefeller was struggling to get 85%. If they can enforce this one, I'll be a happy camper.
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12:25 PM
I vote that they'll go with the second option.
01:09 PM
12/08/09
"Just Plain Folks" don't get pelted by produce: the overly privileged divorced from the lives of the everyday do.
THAT is why it strikes such a chord: it resonates the truth.
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12/08/09
[www.rferl.org]
So don't dignify the idiot by throwing food at her.
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12/08/09
And right to the face from two stories above, right Adrian?
Right.
Out of curiosity: since the tomato hit a police officer, and, say, that police officer, thinking he was being attacked, I don't know, then drew his weapon and then, oh bother, fired his gun into the crowd, would it still be funny then?