HorsesAss.Org

At the always excellent TPMMuckraker, Zachary Roth points out the lack of competition in health care.

But the notion that most American consumers enjoy anything like a competitive marketplace for health care is flatly false. And a study issued last month by a pro-reform group makes that strikingly clear.

The report, released by Health Care for America Now (HCAN), uses data compiled by the American Medical Association to show that 94 percent of the country’s insurance markets are defined as “highly concentrated,” according to Justice Department guidelines. Predictably, that’s led to skyrocketing costs for patients, and monster profits for the big health insurers. Premiums have gone up over the past six years by more than 87 percent, on average, while profits at ten of the largest publicly traded health insurance companies rose 428 percent from 2000 to 2007.

Far from healthy market competition, HCAN describes the situation as “a market failure where a small number of large companies use their concentrated power to control premium levels, benefit packages, and provider payments in the markets they dominate.”

Most Americans are not going to find this surprising, but as opponents of the public option blather on about the “free market,” it’s definitely worth keeping in mind that the health care market is about as free as the west coast electricity market was during the Enron era.

Just once I would like to see advocates of “market solutions” admit that oligopolies are a distortion in the system that have to be addressed, or things break down. But then, none of this is ever actually about “free markets,” it’s about lining the pockets of whatever industry is paying for astro-turf groups to sing the praises of “free markets.” Just substitute the words “coal” or “banking” in their arguments and it’s always the same baloney. Actual competition is the one thing they fear most.

A couple weeks ago I challenged Rep. Dave Reichert to prove me wrong about my cynicism over his self-proclaimed moderation, by taking the lead on climate change legislation:

Indeed, not only does Reichert have the chance to cast one of the only Republican votes for this legislation, he has the unparalleled opportunity to be the lone Republican getting out in front of this bill and leading the way. He and his handlers must know that climate change legislation has overwhelming support in his district—a pro-environment, hydro-powered district less economically dependent on fossil fuels than nearly any in the nation—so if he really wants to prove his moderation and independence (not to mention his legislative competence), now’s the time to show a little leadership and help shepherd this important piece of legislation through Congress.

But I’m not holding my breath.

Well, Reichert never took the lead on this legislation, but he was one of only 8 Republicans crossing the aisle to vote for it, so credit where credit is due, I guess. Still, he followed his usual pattern of voting with his party on procedural votes (here, here and here) before flipping sides on final passage, and as CQ points out, this vote on its on own doesn’t much qualify as a profile in courage:

Most of the 52 House members who didn’t side with their party on Friday’s climate change vote represent congressional districts that backed the presidential nominee of the opposite party in last year’s election.

A lot of these members will face competitive races in 2010, and no doubt they will be brandishing this against-the-grain vote as evidence of their political independence.

He certainly will. But whether Reichert’s independence is driven by conscience or expedience remains to be seen.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrnVNZpnvRI[/youtube]

The real animals, not the ones from Red Dawn.

A remote camera has captured images of a creature not seen in Washington’s southern Cascades in at least a generation: a wolverine.

The Cascade Carnivore Project recorded the images late this spring on a motion-activated camera established on Mount Adams, confirming reported sightings by hikers and another image captured on the Yakama Indian Reservation in 2005.

Sorry, didn’t mean to get the nativists all excited there. There are no commies attacking Texas this morning.

Still, kind of cool.

Down here in Vancouver, the community is responding to last weekend’s racist graffiti. For instance:

Other community leaders have publicly denounced the incident. Clark County Sheriff Garry Lucas issued a statement this week saying, “these recent criminal acts are reprehensible and this sort of conduct should not be tolerated.”

Still not sure why efforts to do something positive about this rotten little graffiti attack seem to make some folks so upset. No, it won’t change the entire universe forever, but it might let the 16 year old kid (and many of her neighbors who were also victimized) who had her name and vile epithets and swastikas sprayed on the street know that folks care what happened and will do what they can.

Evil and good men doing nothing and all that sort of business, you know?

UPDATE—Courtesy of the rabbit in comments, it seems there has been a similar incident in Everett.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Rebecca Hover says at least five vehicles were found early Friday with painted messages; several were painted with racial slurs.

At least two vehicle owners are minorities.

Sanford Sings.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFsqcgX29xU[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPVR3TcrZeU[/youtube]

(There are some 60 other media clips from the past week in politics now posted at Hominid Views.)

In the end, most of our delegation voted for Waxman-Markley, including Dave Reichert and Brian Baird. (Props to Northwest Progressive Institute.)

Hopefully overall a start.

Wow. The Seattle Times editorial board really sticks it to Jan Drago this morning. I wonder what this telegraphs?

Few Seattleites doubt Nickels deserves a stiff challenge for a third term. Fewer dispute the idea that politicians take credit for a variety of things they didn’t do.

But Drago’s pitch that she will improve relations with state government is diminished when she hypes her own impact.

Good communication relies on offering accurate descriptions. Take credit for what you really accomplished and don’t pretend your role was larger than it was.

Huh. I guess Drago shouldn’t count on getting the Times’ endorsement.

Kinda funny though to see candidates fighting over who deserves more credit for pushing through an unpopular and expensive tunnel.

Over on Publicola, Josh bashes his head against a poll:

A new survey USA poll has some surprising results: The bag fee isn’t a lost cause. In fact, it’s slightly ahead.

Asked: “Would you vote ‘Yes’ to add a .20 fee on disposable shopping bags?” 47 percent said they would. It’s almost a dead heat. 46 percent said ‘No.’

Um, hate to dis Josh on this one (well, actually it’s fun to dis Josh), but those are terrible numbers for the Yes camp. Measures like this tend to break toward the No side. Indeed, if I were running the Yes campaign I wouldn’t feel comfortable with anything less than a fifteen point margin at this point in the process… you know, before the chemical industry floods the airwaves and stuffs our mailboxes with their propaganda.

So actually, if these numbers can be trusted, the bag fee is starting to look like a lost cause.

To his credit, in his most recent column Ted Van Dyk doesn’t mention Lyndon Johnson once. You gotta appreciate such self-restraint. But dissing Sound Transit’s light rail by pointing to Phoenix’s problems in financing their own… I mean… WTF?

I thought the reason light rail would never work here is because Seattle is different than everywhere else. And now Van Dyk is insisting that it can’t work here because we’re too much like Phoenix? Really?

It is hard to question the environmental credentials of Mike McGinn and Mike O’Brien, both having served as strong, vocal leaders in the Cascade Chapter of the Sierra Club. So why are these two passionately green candidates having so much trouble picking up sole endorsements from the broader environmental community in their respective races for mayor and city council?

Well it could have something to do with the Sierra Club’s well-earned reputation under the two Mikes’ leadership, for not working and playing well with others.

Talk to folks active with other environmental organizations and you’ll find that there’s still a lot of residual bitterness left over from the way the Sierra Club broke rank (and promises) during 2007’s failed Roads & Transit ballot measure campaign. And Sierra Club only rubbed salt in these festering wounds with their early endorsement of Dow Constantine in the King County Executive race, just a week before next Tuesday’s heavily promoted Green Choice Debate at Town Hall, sparking a flood of angry emails within the coalition of environmental organizations sponsoring the event.

“This was supposed to be an impartial forum,” one environmental leader complained to me. “Now, thanks to Sierra Club, Dow gets to come in there with the upper hand.”

Apparently, Sierra Club never promised to hold off on their endorsement until after the forum, which is why they’re not listed as part of the sponsoring coalition, but still… they couldn’t wait one week? No, that’s just not their style.

Now, after years of snubbing their noses at the broader environmental coalition, McGinn and O’Brien are asking these same organizations to hold their noses and endorse their respective candidacies. Yeah, well, good luck with that.

The fairly extensive racist graffiti attack last weekend in Vancouver has prompted Aneurin to put up the PayPal button for donations to the account originally set up last year when the car of two Obama supporters was similarly defaced. The account is intended to help victims defray some of the costs of repairs and cleanup, although equally important is that the community send a message that this sort of stuff will not be met with silence.

It was heartening last year that several generous donations came from the Seattle area, that was greatly appreciated.

The Obama supporters’ car was repainted with some help from a very kind local body shop. It’s kind of hard to say how much can be done financially with the current incident, as it was far more widespread, involving multiple vehicles, homes and other property. Maybe some folks insurance deductibles could be met or something. Like it’s not hard enough in the economy right now, having some racist idiots spray painting stuff is maddening.

A 16 year old high school student who seemed to be one of the main targets of last weekend’s incident turns out to be a highly regarded basketball star at Fort Vancouver High School. She spoke to a Portland television station about the graffiti.

I’m optimistic that community leaders here in Clark County are concerned about this kind of stuff and are going to speak out about it. Placing plastic pelicans in someone’s lawn is a prank, spraying swastikas and hate messages, not so much.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjW1iq4IO2k[/youtube]

It’s one of those refrains we hear from candidates all the time, especially candidates coming from the private sector with little or no government experience, that they want to make government operate more like a business.

Really? You mean businesses like GM? Like Chrysler? Like Countrywide Financial, Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual? Like Bernie Madoff? You mean even profitable, industry dominant businesses like Boeing?

The words “much delayed” are beginning to attach themselves to the Boeing 787 as if they are part of the brand name. On Tuesday came perhaps the most stunning delay of all: postponement of a first flight intended to show the world that the much-delayed Dreamliner was finally ready for prime time.

Yet it’s not.

The latest bungle has badly damaged Boeing’s already-dented credibility. It raises questions about its reliability compared with Airbus. And it sets the company up for a much tougher financial climb.

I can accept the argument that some aspects of government might work better if their operations were modeled more on some aspects of some businesses, but it is silly to assert that a candidate whose professional experience comes entirely from the private sector is more qualified to run a government than a candidate whose experience is mostly in the public. A) We don’t necessarily want to replicate in government, say, the project management prowess of a Boeing or the customer service practices of a Comcast, and B) private sector experience is not always relevant to the unique demands of public office.

For example, T-Mobile exec and Seattle mayoral wannabe Joe Mallahan likes to tout his business experience, but he won’t be able wring efficiency out of city government by outsourcing jobs to the Philippines or by attempting to bust powerful public employee unions. I’m not saying his business experience isn’t valuable, it’s just not automatically applicable on its own.

So enough of this “running government like a business” meme; it’s a crappy metaphor. Government is not a business (for example, it has no profit motive), and there are plenty of businesses, even profitable ones, just riddled with waste, fraud and abuse. What I want in a mayor or executive is somebody capable of efficiently running government as a government, as opposed to somebody intent on trying to turn government into something it is not.