Showing posts with label ObamaCare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ObamaCare. Show all posts
Healthcare Passes!
Monday, March 22, 2010
In watching the coverage of the passage of this bill, I was struck by a few things. Pelosi is a terrible public speaker or maybe she was excited/drunk/tired. I heard her stumble over word after word and it was painful to watch. More importantly, I saw how unprecedented this was. Voting by party is not all that uncommon, but most bills of this stature have some degree of support from the other party. When Medicare was passed under the Johnson administration, there was bipartisan support. This bill was not bipartisan at all. This was 100% Obama and most of the Democrats.
If this legislation is successful and achieves what it is supposed to achieve, then the Democrats can take all of the credit. If it fails, then they will have a difficult time. If this does well, Republicans will not have much to say since many were vocal critics and had nothing but doom and gloom predictions. Personally, I am cautiously optimistic. The bill doesn't have everything I would have wanted, but it is mostly good. While I think we have a good system right now, I think we are close to having one that is not good. Healthcare and insurance costs are going up much faster than people's wages and I don't see how we can sustain a system like this for very long.
Video Fun - Get Some Balls!
Friday, January 22, 2010
Timely, political, funny and related to beer.
What more could you ask for in a video?
Does Obama Get It?
Thursday, January 21, 2010
A small amount of hope that Obama understands the path to victory?
Read this ABC News interview with the President following Tuesdays election.
It’s a good read and a little reassuring.
(H/T Balloon Juice.)
Deal on Health Care Imminent
Friday, January 15, 2010
Well-placed sources in Washington have informed this blogger that a deal on health care will be announced tonight.
The deal will then be scored by the CBO and voted on in two weeks.
Check your local news station to determine if my source is any good.
Why Don't I Always Read 538 First?
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Once again Nate Silver is a genius. In this post, he answers all the questions I had about the health care process, including reconciliation, and more.
Read it.
What's their motivation?
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Liberals, and likely many normal conservatives, don’t understand the freak show that showed up at the Hundred Hypocrite Huddle in D.C. last week. The so-called “TEA” movement never made an appearance when the Bush administration, passed TARP, created the Medicare 
pharma benefit and otherwise spent money like a rock star, yet all of a sudden our country is in peril when Obama shows up? Heck, we aren’t even spending under an Obama budget yet and the main thing he has spent money on was a simulus bill, 42% of which was tax cuts. The teabagger hypocrisy cannot be explained by most normal folk, so I ask:
What motivates them?
In the everyday American’s mind it leaves a few options:
- They are driven my pure partisanship. (Possible)
- They are a coalition of single issue voters who together call themselves a movement.
(Possible) - They are driven by religious opposition to Obama’s religion or his social polices. (Possible)
- They are freaked out that Obama is a black guy now that he is in charge. (Possible)
- All of the above. (Possible)
While I am not yet convinced that Jimmy Carter did anyone a favor by calling these people racist, I am not convinced that race isn’t part of what drives part of this group.
What do you think?
I never thought about it this way...
Monday, September 14, 2009
Guest blogger Alabama Moderate, over at The Gun Toting Liberal (one of my top 10 favorite blogs) has this to say about the Joe Wilson outburst. From the article:
His outburst has created a discussion on the true status of illegal immigrants in regard to H.R. 3200. And what appears to be getting through is the truth, for once. I wonder if that discussion would have taken place had Wilson kept his mouth shut.
I will admit that I did more research after I heard the comment and didn't really know prior to the controversy. I agree with AM, for the most part. Obama's position, while not 100%, is more correct than Wilson's and I think that the President certainly had a good faith basis to say what he did and that it was not a lie. Read more...
Oh, Canada!
Monday, August 10, 2009
NPR had a nice spot this morning that shed some light on the reality of the much-maligned Canadian health care system. All in all, they have many of the same problems we do with a couple of key differences.
Give it a listen. It's only about 7 and a half minutes long.
I did my best to paraphrase some of the key points.
A lot of U.S. ads being run against the ObamaCare plan make claims about the Canadian system and how "horrible" it is. Part of the dishonesty in those ads is that neither chamber of Congress is debating a plan that looks anything like the Canadian plan. I am not surprised that the opposition would run a dishonest ad. I just wish that NBC, CNN or another national news org would run this NPR story too. Among the claims listed about Canada's horrifying system are that care is rationed (like the Brit system), there are miles/years-long waiting lists/lines, and that some "bureaucrat" makes ultimate decisions about your health care and what you can receive.
"Nonsense," say Canadian health care professionals. "We are not a 3rd world country." If you need access to services, you get them. Are there cases where people have had to wait for care? Sure. JUST LIKE ANYWHERE. [I had to wait 5 months to see a specialist I needed once, but it wasn't for anything life-threatening].
In response to some well-publicized "waits" for services [we all know that good news isn't news, and that even Canadian news agencies report the worst of the worst] the Canadian government added billions to their health plan to reduce wait times for cancer, cardiac and joint replacement services. It's not a like a cancer patient is waiting the duration of their illness for services, but if you have cancer, you'd like to see someone pretty frigging quickly.
Some provinces pay for Canadians to go to the U.S. for care in some specialty fields like high-risk neonatal care. But that's because there are a shortage of neonatal docs and because, well, we have some really damn good clinics for that.
Half of canadians would like to option to buy some private insurance.
Canadian health ministers, just like the US, have anxiety over paying for aging boomers; Canada, like the U.S., has shortage of primary care physicians; and Canada (again like the U.S.) has a chronic problem with the overuse of ERs.
That said, the article ends with the statement that Canadians do not have to worry about losing their health insurance or going bankrupt because of an injury or an illness. Ad that means a lot.
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