Impeding changes to our Health Care system

[classicman]

Specifically, Slaughter said, the Senate bill would charge seniors higher premiums, would fail to nix health insurers' antitrust exemption and would not go far enough in extending coverage to people in the U.S.

"Supporters of the weak Senate bill say 'just pass it — any bill is better than no bill,' " Slaughter wrote. "I strongly disagree — a conference report is unlikely to sufficiently bridge the gap between these two very different bills."

The New York Democrat also sounded a note similar to what Republicans have said (though for different reasons): Scrap the current healthcare bill, and start over.

"It's time that we draw the line on this weak bill and ask the Senate to go back to the drawing board," she said. "The American people deserve at least that."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid mistakenly voted no before changing his vote to yes, which got a laugh in the chamber, especially from Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

After the vote, Reid joked, "I spent a very restless night last night trying to figure out how I could show some bipartisanship and I think I was able to accomplish that for a few minutes."

[classicman]

he Congressional Budget Office challenged claims by health-care overhaul proponents that Medicare savings in Senate legislation would help finance expanded coverage and postpone the bankruptcy of the medical program for the elderly.

The nonpartisan agency said the $246 billion it projected the legislation would save Medicare can’t both finance new programs and help pay future expenses for elderly covered under the federal program.

Nor could those savings be used to extend the solvency of Medicare, set to run out of money in 2017, the budget office said in a letter to Senate Republicans.

“What we’ve seen is a colossal manipulation” by Democrats “of the accounting scores of CBO” and the independent actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, said Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, the Republican who requested the analysis from CBO. He called the letter “a potential game-changer.”

The estimated Medicare savings in the legislation overstate “the improvement in the government’s fiscal position,” the CBO said in the letter.

“The true increase in the ability to pay for future Medicare benefits or other programs would be a good deal smaller,” the budget office said.

[SamIam]

There is an excellent article on health care in the September issue of Atlantic Monthly, "How healthcare killed my father." Check it out: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200909/health-care

[classicman]

Tonight, Sherrod Brown (D-RI) was sent out in front of the cameras to Keith Olbermann's show to try and sell "Countdown's" liberal audience on how all of their hard work has produced a terrific healthcare bill, which will remain terrific even without a public insurance option to compete with the private ensurers who will now have 30 million Americans commanded by buy their products, and now, without a Medicare buy-in for those over 55. Brown didn't look like he quite believed what he was saying. Talking Points Memo, meanwhile, reports that perfunctory White House denials notwithstanding, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel did indeed press Harry Reid to cut a healthcare deal with Joe Lieberman, and to give him whatever he wants:

An aide briefed on discussions with the White House says that there would be no story if Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel hadn't interceded. The aide confirmed an account, reported by Huffington Post, that Emanuel visited Reid personally, telling him to cut a deal with Lieberman.

Then the aide provided more detail. Emanuel didn't just leave it to Reid to find a solution. Emanuel specifically suggested Reid give Lieberman the concessions he seeks on issues like the Medicare buy-in and triggers. "It was all about 'do what you've got to do to get it done. Drop whatever you've got to drop to get it done," the aide said. All of Emanuel's prescriptions, the source said, were aimed at appeasing Lieberman--not twisting his arm. This is the second Senate aide to provide nearly identical accounts of the White House's intervention. It seems very much as if officials there desperately want the Senate to pass a bill, at all costs.

Link

[Shawnee123]

Tonight, Sherrod Brown (D-RI)

Where'd you get that link, because, um...Sherrod Brown is an Ohio senator.

http://brown.senate.gov/

[classicman]

Thanks Sam -

After the needless death of his father, the author, a business executive, began a personal exploration of a health-care industry that for years has delivered poor service and irregular quality at astonishingly high cost. It is a system, he argues, that is not worth preserving in anything like its current form. And the health-care reform now being contemplated will not fix it. Here’s a radical solution to an agonizing problem.

Link
An article with some great insight which mirrors my personal experiences with "the system" as well.

[Shawnee123]

Oh, there you added the link for post 1489.

FAIL link!

[classicman]

Link works for me. I noticed that MSNBC got that wrong initially and it wasn't corrected by salon either. Guess thats the excellence in our media shining through . . . again.

[SamIam]

It worked for me.

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by classicman

Link works for me. I noticed that MSNBC got that wrong initially and it wasn't corrected by salon either. Guess thats the excellence in our media shining through . . . again.

No, the link worked, I just find such a glaring error in the first sentence to be a big fail as far as making me say "egads! Say it isn't so!"

I am unable to find a corresponding MSNBC article.

[SamIam]

Anyhow, I liked the point made in Atlantic Monthly that in our current system, health care providers are not really accountable to the consumer. Its either private insurance or Medicare/Medicaid that pays the bill and hospitals cater to Medicare's will rather than concentrating on providing quality service to the patient.

Implicit in this article is that the author's father contracted an infection due to poor hygene practices on the part of ICU personnel. This is an outrage and appears to be true when you read the author's documentation. Our health care service is a mess, and it doesn't sound to me that the reforms being contemplated really address the pertinent issues.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

I am unable to find a corresponding MSNBC article.

Thats because it wasn't in an article, it was on live TV - Keith Olbermans show.

[Shawnee123]

Anyhow, the link and the article are bogus.

Sorry to point out the error: I thought we was all about the correctin'

Guess that is the excellence in discerning readers shining through, again.

[Shawnee123]

Keith Olberman's show incorrectly introduced him as a Democrat from Rhode Island? Link?

[classicman]

Mersa was contracted in the ICU when a family member was there. Within 24 hrs there were 8 other patients in the same ward testing positive for the virus.