Physics and you
November 20th, 2009 | 
Author: What bothers me so much about the senate bill is that it mandates we buy in, with penalty if we don’t, but the public option has been so diluted that it will only cover three to four million Americans.
This really chaps my ass.
The entire impetus of a public option all along has been to supply much needed competition for the Goliath, thereby forcing the whole clusterfuck bureaucracy into some modicum of accountability in terms of quality and affordability. Well, do the math. They bray at lung top that 98% will be covered, yet that number is egregiously misleading when it’s laid bare that it will be accomplished by forcing the majority to buy into the hopelessly corrupt monolith that has been selling death and discrimination to us for decades. These numbers come not even close to establishing meaningful competition. Four million of 350 million living breathing Americans.
I beseech you, do the math.
Various Senators and representatives, including Anthony Weiner have come forward to say that it’s not perfect but a giant leap forward. I like that guy, but the numbers are leaving my dick in the dirt. Here’s another number: The most important components of this bill, like the weak ass public option, are not due to manifest efficacy until 2013 or 2014. Thus, the giant has five fucking years to mitigate, obfuscate, lobby with a million bucks a day to spend, to ensure that all protections and rights afforded us in the original legislation are stillborn.
This shit is fucked up from hell to breakfast. Even if this legislation is passed intact, the fight will merely be in it’s infancy. We get nothing for five long years and at the end of that road, we will be forced to buy insurance and our options might just suck more than they do now. Forced to buy their product. Forced.
Why is no one talking about that?
The great unwashed rail and stomp about a government usurping of free enterprise and democracy. Fuck them in the neck. Fools. Why behave in public if you’re living on a playground?
The government takeover of health care will most assuredly be complete because the government is a plutocracy. Not for, of and by the people but for, of and by the corporations.
I understand that the progressives and liberals are optimistic for momentum. They are gleeful for potential. They seek, against impossible odds to set the ball rolling toward the the pins of avarice and corruption. Hoping that inertia befriends them. Once in motion it stays in motion and they can coax or accelerate it’s velocity despite it’s initial mass. I fear that that the ball has a balsa center, it’s being released far too slowly and by the time it reaches those pins, they will be obelisks bolted down.
And thus the idea of public funded health care or even *gasp* single payer health care dies an ugly, painful and protracted death.
There are significant merits in this bill, such as the language that prevents cancellation upon actually becoming ill or the rendering obsolete of denying care for a pre-existing conditions. Yet realistically, they are euphoric sentimentality in the face of a mandate that we all buy in to whatever is available. I’m calling bullshit on the whole thing. We are required to carry auto insurance but it’s barely regulated, so those that can afford it get ripped off while a third go without in some states.
I can’t see how the exact same scenario is avoidable in this instance. It’s a prescription if you will, pun intended, for the status qou. With the exception being that the insurance companies bathe deeper in filthy lucre as the fines imposed on those who can’t or won’t participate go directly into their coffers. That’s right, did you know that? What kind of shit is that?
Now of course, the procedural vote for cloture, so the bill can actually be debated without filibuster, has yet to even take place. Word is that it’s scheduled for Saturday night at 5 p.m. West Coast time. At that point, amendments will be proposed, hard ass Republicans will wail and whine and the outcome is anyone’s guess. The way I understand this procedure, after cloture is achieved, it tooth pulling time. The proposed legislation, if it survives, will emerge with less teeth than it entered the arena with.
Picture a Roman Coliseum.
I’m no legal eagle, but I’m no dummy either. At the same time, I’m not an expert when it comes to Senatorial procedural logistics, but it’s worth pointing out that a lot of these guys are obstinate dicks. I can only imagine that the future of this bill and health care will not be scrambling for sunglasses in anticipation of a bright future and there’s a chance there will be a rush for fresh dirt for the coffin.
Somebody talk me down.
Drinks for my friends
Posted in Anthony Weiner, cloture, Democracy, Filibuster, Health Care, insurance industry, Liberals, public option, Republicans, Senate, Uncategorized
And all the while the best doctors will be haeding for the exits. College kids taking the Lawyering road instead.
Wall Street Journal ran a story about the potential shortage of talent in the medical profession that could be heading our way about the time all of this is said and done.
The potential shortage of talent has been a long time coming. Yet another artifact of a flawed system. The WSJ is always a little suspect in my personal jurisdiction.
Bring us some facts Dow.
right on Dow…. I know several dr.s that will be making an exit or have decided on other careers BECAUSE OF THIS … the leftists claim that many people are dying because they don’t have healthcare insurance….. people will be dying under what the lefts are trying to enact due to poor quality, shortages etc….. this inevitably will occur to a greater extent. something’s gotta give somewhere…
Good Lord Douglass. I’ve got a wife, two kids, a dog, three cars, a house, two offices and a client base that is inching nearer to the edge of forclosure in the commercial real estate markets.
And my taxes will most defintiely be going up. I don’t know that I have time to do much research on the matter. I do know that we know easily 5 doctors all under the age of 50 in our area that look pretty scared lately.
Talk to Kevin Ransom…he seems to have all the answers !!
I’ll see what I can dig up…
Crapanacious Dow, I understand you got commitments but you’re still easy on the eyes and I’d do ya if you pulled up in that Porsche again.
Seriously, all my research points to physicians being very much in favor of comprehensive reform, so I’m asking you about what you know and how you know it because it flies in the face of what I know. Feel me?
Have a nice whiskey and pet the goddamn dog.
@kit
You too gotta come with some evidence. People ARE dying, 144 a day, as a result of of a broken system and profits are through the roof.
Talk to me dude. Bring it.
And by the way, did anyone clock that I’m pissing on the current legislation?
the majority of physicians are not in favor and remember, the AMA make up only a small % of drs…. i’m not saying that changes don’t need to be made, but at a price tag of a trillion +, for something that will probably fail needs to be reconsidered….
Even the the non partisan CBO says that the plan is beyond budget neutral, it’s actually going to reduce the deficit by some 650 billion over twenty years.
And could someone enlighten me as to why doctors are against it?
You do have a way with words my old friend! Never fails to bring me a hearty chuckle…the personal comments that is.
Please remember that I am one of those maddening people that thinks pretty much everything is part of a big side-show cosmic circus. I can’t help but think that the number might go up from 144 each day to 300 no matter which way the system goes.
As a doc I know (see below) told me once after coming home after a 30 hour stint at the hospital…that after Medicare pays his group for the services rendered throughout the night…it would most likely be less than $25.
He claims that all Medicare/caid is paid like that. This doc missed his son’s baseball game that day be cause he was too tired to go. I think that many docs may be against radical reform because the payoff just won’t be big enough to justify the gig. And after 10-15 years of their lives are spent in Med school it might scare ’em a bit.
I think that we need to invite you and our young doctor friends…a cardiac specialist, his wife the brain surgeon, an anasthesia guy, a dermatologist and a doctor of family medicine/UNR professor to come hang out with the best booze we can muster and get their take first hand. They all seem to think that this could go way wrong. They are all transplants from major cities I might add.
I know this may be lame information from a guy that is way too underinformed to be playing with you big boys at this point…but it’s all I’ve got for today.
some reason why they oppose:
-governmental control. example: limits on the amount of testing that can be done on patients despite the necessity for the tests. imagine being that patient and not being supplied with every option necessary for recovery. also, having to wait for necessary procedures such as a knee replacement etc…. i played golf with a gentleman from Canada who limped about as he told about how anxious he was to get the surgery, 2 years into it, and still waiting….
-no tort reform
-cost
-overall diminished quality
@Dow: Believe it or not, I’m one of those maddening people too.
I’ve only really been aware of how more or less happy folks are with medicare/caid who receive it. Never paid much attention to the providers. My bad. I knew it was flawed but…..
It’s just that there’s so goddamn much money that this thing must be solvable. And you’re right, that much time and money spent on education should earn the right to make a nice living.
I would welcome an evening with your doctor friends and fine booze. But to assemble them for merely my edification seems a bit much.
You have piqued my curiosity though, so I’ll look into it further.
Don’t go underestimating yourself by the way, you’re smarter than most folks I know.
Kiss your lovely wife and admonish the kids for something they may have or will do.
@kit: First of all, thanks for wading in.
The limits on tests and treatment that you cite are already a reality under the current system that we the people pay way too much for. I hear these sorts of arguments all the time and they are are an absolute reality today.
Tort reform is a Republican pinata. One third of one percent of all medical costs can be attributed to medical litigation. The scam is malpractice insurance fees and what they’re really seeking is immunity from law suits for really fucking up. From shit rolling uphill.
And lastly, we pay more than any other country for less quality already. What do we have to lose?
Seriously.
less quality??? we have people coming here daily from other countries for treatment. we have some of the best technology and dr.s in the world. yes, there are always a few corrupt people and mistakes in every profession, but most drs. should be commended for all the good they do and not criticized. For instance the dr. who does unnecessary toncillectomies on people in order to make a buck told by Obama was appalling to me. Nice thanks to the many dr.s who go to school for several years and save the lives of so many.
WHAT DO WE HAVE TO LOSE? 1 trillion +, quality, & failure… I say focus on those tax paying citizens who need help, and leave me the hell alone!!!
Happy Thanksgiving!
also, medicare fraud is OUT OF CONTROL. Something that other administrations should have focussed on, but didn’t and that is frustrating.
I agree on the quality thing.
My parents know someone over in Napa Valley that came back from England because she was going to have to wait seemingly forever for what over here would be a fairly minor hip surgery. Expensive here, but still less of a fiasco. She gave up wating on ‘Ole Blighty to do it for her.
I will now go knock my kids down in your honor MD!
@kit: We have people traveling daily to India for excellent quality and way more affordable treatment by doctors trained here. Out of everything I’ve ever had to say on this issue, I’ve never criticized doctors.
You keep tossing around the one trillion number when the the non partisan CBO puts it at 850 billion and beyond deficit neutral. Why keep ignoring that? Even if it’s not entirely accurate it won’t be anything close to what you insist on clinging to.
And part of the package is that they do intend to focus on both fraud and waste.
Try not to forget that I’m not happy with this bill as it is anyway.
Happy T-Day to you to.
Honestly DOW, have you seen “Sicko”? It’s not the definitive end all, but the impugning of social medicine in other free and even communist countries is as much GOP fear mongering as anything else.
With those kids, remember you’re a grown man and the back of the hand is just as effective.
Maybe so MD…maybe so.
I’ve been meaning to check out the film…just haven’t been able to schedule it in around Harry Potter and other tween based movies. That, and the fact that all this political stuff gives me a headache.
I do however applaud that it means enough to you that you provide a forum to keep people wrestling about the issues!
Don’t forget to keep us in the loop when you get up to these parts…for the holidays and all. I quite obviously need to get out more often.
So much self-pity and no coping skills. Why not drown or smoke your sorrows away?
What? Can you be more specific? If not, I’ll be happy to take your advice.