Yeah, I know, there’s a tea party at the Capitol, and a tragic mass shooting at Fort Hood, but still, you’d think the House healthcare reform bill being endorsed by the AMA of all organizations, not to mention the AARP, would be much bigger news.
Whoooo, pretty radical groups there. The Blue Dogs better be careful deciding whether or not they want to join forces with such questionable allies on an idea as unpopular as healthcare reform. Seriously, check out all the fringe groups supporting the bill. Seriously, those wacky pediatricians on on there, and the American Medical Colleges, hotbeds of radical politics that they are. And you know that the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons are communist cells. Don’t even get me started on the Consumers Union or Easter Seals.
I mean, this is the AMA for chrisakes, the organization, historically, that is probably as responsible as any other for killing past healthcare reform efforts. You know, those same doctors who are being asked to deal with all those goddamn government bureaucrats.
But, well, Republicans won gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, so I guess healthcare reform is dead.
What’s even funnier is the RGA ads touting winning two governorships like they just won every seat in every legislature in America. Blind arrogance and stupidity lead only to doom.
Not to mention Goldy getting paid, right?
Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of physicians aren’t too thrilled about being caught in the middle of insurance vs. pharmaceutical industry profit-making battles that dictate and micromanage how medicine is practiced.
And while the $12.4 million median salary enjoyed by CEOs of big health care companies amounts to ~50X the median salary of an anesthesiologist (according to salary.com), the median anesthesiologist makes only about 8X the salary of a 1st-year licensed practical nurse.
The oligarchy that is comprised of insurance industry CEOs and big pharma sucks the marginal profit from those who actually practice the medical arts and sciences.
That the AMA endorses the bill is not surprising at all.
Rasmussen nailed these elections.
Read this Goldy and perhaps you will begin to understand..
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Many Anti-Abortion Dems in House are beginning to boldly come forward and demand abortion funding slick wording be removed or it’s a NO vote.
BTW–
Why won’t Pelosi post the Bill on-line for Citizens to read???
Pelosi is a coward….and will be the posterchild whipping gal for Republicans in 2010 and 2012
The AMA is getting a 1/4 TRILLION+ Payoff for their support dumbass.
Thousands of doctors have left the AMA and they represent a tiny % of doctors.
Bad try Goldy==No Sale
Couldn’t have said it better myself, Cynical. Plus, Goldy squeals “look, the AARP endorsed this bill”. That’s akin to the Republican party saying “look, the NRA supported this bill”. The AARP is purging members and hasn’t been an advocate for retired people for 25 years.
The AARP gave their “Man of the Year” award to Harry Belafonte. Whom said, “Bin Laden didn’t come from the abstract. He came from somewhere, and if you look where. you’ll see America’s hand of villainy.” He called both Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, “slaves with the privilege of living in the house of the master. exactly the way the master intended to have you serve him.”
Yeah, with such an unamerican organization like the AARP and their “‘man’ of the year’s” support, it certainly mirrors the feelings of the Democrat party, but hardly the values and ideals of most Americans- especially seniors.
Oh, and what happened to transparency? Did you klowns forget about that or does lying just come naturally for you? My guess is that latter.
Your title is “Mr. Cynical”? LOL. Dude, if the AMA or AARP came out AGAINST this bill you’d be waving your hands like a hyper 5 year old and screaming how this proves the bill really attacks Medicare (which Republicans didn’t want and tried to kill to begin with, until it became popular, now they’re kiss-asses who support it). Give me a break. You guys are jokes. No actual beliefs or standards. You just hate “the other guy”. It’s just a team sport. You like your side and don’t like the other side. Boring.
The stock market slide since Obama won the nomination….proving he’s a bad President. The stock market went UP 65% since he’s BEEN President….proving he’s a bad President (giving too much to Wall Street). It’s raining today, that proves Obama is a bad President! It’s sunny today, that proves Obama is a bad President! The logic is perfect!
Obama could rescue a puppy from a tree, and the wingnuts would just accuse him of hating the troops for taking time out to rescue the puppy while we’re at war.
By the way, Mr. Cynical and Empty Suite…you’re traitors. Ann Coulter told me so. We’re at war (two of them) and you’re attacking our troops…via attacking their Commander. Sad. ;-)
Dumbass–
What Kommander??
He’s MISSING IN ACTION and pandering to the enemy.
The CBO just scored the Republican’s alternative health care bill. The cost? over 61 Billion. The result? I would actually INCREASE the number of uninsured Americans.
Maybe I should stop complaining about the Republicans having no plan of their own, and G.W. Bush taking off 1/3 of his presidency for vacation time. At least when they aren’t doing anything, they aren’t making things any worse. When they try to do something, it’s like giving a two-year old an expensive toy – he’s just going to break it.
Doctors’ group supports House health care bill
The American Medical Association says it supports the House Democratic health care bill, but it can’t give a full endorsement yet.
AMA President Dr. James Rohack said Thursday that the bill is not perfect, but it meets enough of the organization’s goals to deserve support, and said the legislation should move forward. But Rohack said it’s also critical for Congress to fix a Medicare payment formula that if left unchanged would lead to a 20 percent cut in fees to doctors next year.
House Democratic leaders are moving a separate measure dealing with the payment problem, alongside the health overhaul bill. But the cost of the fix – about $240 billion over 10 years – has been giving many lawmakers second thoughts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....02976.html
@10 The CBO just scored the Republican’s alternative health care bill. The cost? over 61 Billion. The result? I would actually INCREASE the number of uninsured Americans.
No. CBO estimates it would reduce deficits over 2010-2019 by that amount.
http://cboblog.cbo.gov/?p=414
@11
And the point of @11, Goldy, is these groups provide support depending on what’s best for their members, not health care reform. The AMA will provide their endorsement of the legislation when the Medicare fix is in.
Dave @ 2: Yep, the medical professionals have finally realized that the insurance companies have been playing them like a piano for decades. When the stock market falls and their earnings on their investments drops, they increase malpractice premiums by astronomic amounts, and then when the doctors complaing they blame it on the lawyers.
Then the insurance companies use the doctors as their smoke screen for their own P.R. campaign. They settle a handfull of cases for large sums, then plant news stories which distort the facts of the cases and claim the victims “won a huge settlement” – ignoring the fact that it takes two to settle a claim. They also plant news stories about well-liked doctors “forced to leave the profession” rather than pay the outragious premiums. Then they launch their campaign for “malpractice reform”, using any scheme possible to make sure that victims of medical malpractice will never make it into a courtroom to have their case heard by a jury.
Funny thing is, even where the insurance companies succeed in “malpractice reform”, it doesn’t affect medical malpractice insurance rates. The companies just continue to charge outragious sums, blame the lawyers, and rake in huge profits.
Now doctors realize that the insurance companies have been using them. They are tired of being caught in the middle, unable to give the kind of care their patient needs because the insurance companies hold veto power over the level of care. They want reform.
“These groups provide support depending on what’s best for their members”.
OMG!! Preposterous! Scandalous! What next?
Lost in the idiocy of the right wing nut jobs’ opposition, as well as the wing nuts here on this blog,is that the death panels are being dealt by the insurance industry and the current broken system every single day. But they don’t care about Americans dying and going broke and losing homes and retirement dream because they or a loved one gets seriously sick or injured. And of course, they believe it can’t happen to them until it does.
The right wing has become the party of American haters, unless you believe only in what they believe in- and even then, they will continue their occasional Soviet style purity purges.
That the 70 million member AARP lost about 50,000 wingnuts this year is touted by wingnuts while their net membership keeps growing. And if doctors are looking at whats best for their members, what are the insurers looking out for? And who do you think is closer to a common good?
Oh, thats right, you guys don’t believe in a common good. My bad.
@2 That’s roughly equal to the 10X spread between Bush’s private mercenaries ($150,000 a year) and soldiers ($15,000 a year), which tells you all you need to know about how little respect Bush had for our soldiers.
@4 What the hell does “abortion funding” have to do with private health insurance?
Oh wait, I see now why you sheepfuckers are against public option. Even though it will be wholly funded with premiums paid by public option insureds, you don’t want this “public” money to pay for abortions.
You would rather let 50 million Americans remain uninsured, driving up your own insurance premiums and medical costs, than pay for a single abortion with “public” money …
@5 That’s chickenfeed compared to the payoff that insurance companies get under the current system.
@8 “(which Republicans didn’t want and tried to kill to begin with, until it became popular, now they’re kiss-asses who support it)”
… until they figure out a stealthy way to dismantle it when no one is looking like they tried to do with Social Security.
Never trust a Republican anywhere near your bank account, Medicare, or Social Security! Honestly, why would anyone vote for these people?
@17 That’s roughly equal to the 10X spread between Bush’s private mercenaries ($150,000 a year) and soldiers ($15,000 a year), which tells you all you need to know about how little respect Bush had for our soldiers.
Can you provide the data for this?
@14 “When the stock market falls and their earnings on their investments drops, they increase malpractice premiums by astronomic amounts, and then when the doctors complaing they blame it on the lawyers.”
PRECISELY!!! Many people think insurance is an arcane and deeply complicated business that only actuaries and accountants understand. Not so! The financial structure of the insurance business is stunningly simple:
There are only two ways insurance companies get money: Premiums paid by policyholders, and investment returns on these premium dollars. When investment returns are good, competition drives down premiums. When they’re not, the companies raise premiums.
The correlation between claims and fluctuations in premiums, if any, is minor because claims tend to average out over time.
It’s that simple.
@16 “The right wing has become the party of American haters”
They hate themselves above all others, because they keep voting for politicians who send their jobs overseas, raise their taxes to give tax breaks to millionaires, support insurance companies that deny their medical claims, and refuse to regulate predatory businesses that rip them off.
I don’t mind these fools shooting their own balls off, but I don’t want them dragging me along on their suicidal roller-coaster ride to financial and perhaps physical oblivion.*
* Don’t forget these are the offspring of the like-minded damn fools who wanted to launch a preemptive nuclear strike against the Soviets in the ’50s to see if we could get all their missiles before they could retaliate.
@21 That wouldn’t be necessary if you’d read a fucking newspaper once in a while.
In 2003, when Bush invaded Iraq, an E-3 with less than 2 years of service earned basic pay of $1356.90 a month or $16,282.80 a year. This doesn’t count special allowances like overseas pay or combat pay, but remember, Bush tried to end combat pay for soldiers serving in Iraq in the fall of 2003.
http://www.militarypay.com/mil.....y-pay.html
Basic pay for the same individual is a little under $20,000 a year as of 2009. Btw, in Vietnam, an E-3 made about $200 a month with extra allowances.
Compensation figures for “private security contractors” were widely reported in the news media as being in the neighborhood of $150,000 a year. That’s what the individual “contractors” were paid; the companies they worked for (e.g., Blackwater) obviously got more, and took their substantial cut off the top. They were paid with taxpayer money (there was nowhere else for it to come from).
According to various sources, including the Washington Post, Blackwater’s “security contractors” in Iraq were paid $1,000 a day. These sources also say Blackwater guards dispatched to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina were paid $600 a day and Blackwater billed the government $815 a day for their services, which included a “discount.” According to sources, Blackwater’s standard charge for “security” personnel appeared to be $1,000 per staff day at that time.
http://answers.google.com/answ.....?id=730781
re 8: In an editorial today, Froma Harrop called knuckleheads like Cynical ‘tea party nihilists’. They have no real core beliefs — only hatred of their fellow citizens.
8 More People Shot Today
The Associated Press posted a report 5 minutes ago that police have surrounded an office building in Orlando, Florida after 8 people were shot there this morning.
@24 According to various sources, including the Washington Post, Blackwater’s “security contractors” in Iraq were paid $1,000 a day.
—-
But you still have provided those newspaper sources – google answer? – and anecdotal data doesn’t provide an overall analysis of what private contractors in general make.
You also selected one bracket of military compensation, and here’s a better source that shows the spread:
http://www.army.com/money/payr.....d_a09.html
You also ignored housing, health care, enlistment bonuses, and educational benefits that make your original 15K claim inane:
http://www.goarmy.com/benefits.....021-SM6vpa
And FYI, private contractors are more numerous than ever in Afghanistan, so not much has changed under the current administration.
If the administration thinks there’s a basic inequity here, they’re not doing much about it themselves.
@25 Speaking of constitutional interpretation, it doesn’t take a legal scholar to figure out that arresting an American citizen on American soil for allegedly plotting to commit a crime in an American city and then detaining him indefinitely without charges or trial, denying him access to a lawyer, using physical coercion to make him answer questions, and so on, is … um … unconstitutional.
I’m not saying Jose Padilla is a pillar of the community, or doesn’t deserve to be in jail. What I am saying is we have no more rights than he does; that if the government can do it to him, the government can do it to you; that guilt or innocence has nothing to do with it, because the government that our righty friends distrust is perfectly capable of arresting the innocent along with the guilty. But all of this is too deep for shallow-minded wingers to comprehend, so they should leave the business of protecting our constitutional rights to lawyers, federal judges, and others who know what the hell they’re talking about.
@12: Yes – the CBO estimates cost reductions – but the republican “plan” will also cause more people to be uninsured and will cause peopel with pre-existing conditions to be priced out of the market…some reform!
I could save billions too, by reducing Meidcare and S-chip – like this completely flawed bill does.
What a joke – there is no cost containment either…..a complete republicvan FAIL on health care.
4. Mr. Cynical spews:
@5 Mr C
I better talk with my local to see howsit I ain’t gett9in my share?
@7 ESO .. the echo
I suggest you ask your family doctor what his or her plans are if the Obama / Pelosi Helath care plan is signed into law. Are they part of the 45% listed in this survey?
http://www.investors.com/NewsA.....?id=506199
@29
None of the plans go far enough. The significant changes that are necessary have been opposed tooth and nail by lobby groups (including the ones Goldy extols).
Health bills too timid on cutting costs, experts say
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....03804.html
Costs Surge for Medical Devices, but Benefits Are Opaque
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11.....ce.html?em
How a Tax Can Cut Health Costs
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09.....hardt.html
The AARP endorsing a left-wing measure…I am truly shocked!
@ John 31:
According to Nate Silver,
IBD/TIPP Doctors Poll Is Not Trustworthy:
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com.....orthy.html
My doc opposes it because it doesn’t establish a single-payer. The paperwork involved with multiple insurers having different reporting templates, codes, rules, and reimbursement regimes means I pay more for his accounting department than I do for his medical services.