It's beginning to look like little, if anything, is going to be accomplished on health insurance policy.  The only thing in the plan that makes any sense - creating a government program to complete with the private insurance industry - is going to get fucked, because it might put all sorts of shitty private plans and brokers out of business.  Good for the national health, bad for the people donating money to congress.

The worst part is that they might start taxing insurance benefits for those of us that do have them, in order to pay for the shitty, subpar private plans they want poor people to get.  I honestly wouldn't mind paying taxes for a single payer system.  I hate the idea of paying taxes that are going to amount to a subsidy for some broker peddling cheap Aetna plans with high deductibles to poor people. 

What model are they wanting to base the new sys on ?

I don't remember the specifics - it's basically leaving the current system in tact, but the government is going to make insurance "more affordable" for people who aren't covered through their employers.  The initial plan called for a government plan akin to Medicare to compete in the insurance market, but that's what congress is busy shooting down at the moment.

It works to a degree over here. No where near perfect ( no sys can be ). I dont think it would work for the USA due to your health care being so fucked up right now. I can't see a way using a sys like Aus and Canada to fix a sys in the current state yours is in.

Oh, I agree.  We can't just jump to a system like Canada's.  It's going to take much more than insurance reform to fix our medical system. 

I wish there was a way to just reboot the whole US.  Even if people have good intentions, there's so much money influencing the decisions of politicians and so much bureaucratic inertia resisting change in our system that we will never be offered satisfactory solutions.

The head of the lobby AGAINST universal health care is the former chairman of Kaiser Permanente or one of the other super HMOs. He's made a bunch of mini-documentaries about how socialized medicine has created an incredible strain on the economies of Canada, the UK and Italy and is using them as adverts to mobilize people to call their congressperson and tell them to oppose whatever comes down the pipe.

Of course I'm sure he left whatever HMO he ran for years with a nice fat stock portfolio...

Somewhat related:  http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090622/greider

That article runs completely counter to the good, solid, American political ideal of putting a band-aid on a compound fracture.

How dare you sir!

Why not just put a cap on what you can be medically liable for in a lawsuit?

That IDEA runs completely counter to the good, solid, American political ideal of putting a band-aid on a compound fracture.

How dare you sir!

There are also other things they could do that would impact future healthcare costs, like a nationwide ban on vending machines in schools and re-emphasizing the importance of and providing more funding for gym programs.

There's plenty that could be done with food labeling (among tons of other things) that would impact future healthcare costs by directing people towards healthier choices now.  For example, I'd like food to be labeled A, B, C, D, or F (and maybe +/-) in addition to the current nutrition label.  100 calorie packs, low fat, and dozens of other labels all sound like they're good for you, but don't reflect things like nutrient density.  0 g of transfat?  Must be good!  Oh, wait, there's 500 g of saturated fat.  Only 100 calories per serving?  Wait, there's 30% of your recommended sodium intake.  Not so good for you now, is it?  I think by making things more explicit and intuitive, you would drive people towards making better choices.

Also, stop subsidizing corn.  People would grow less( because the only way they turn a profit now is because of the government subsidies) and the cost of junk food would increase without artificially low corn syrup prices.

not sure what it is with the US reliance on corn. It took me 4 months of wondering why US dairy products taste like ass before I found out the cows are forced to eat corn.

http://www.sustainabletable.org/features/articles/kingcorn/

Every day I become more and more convinced that the only way to change Washington is to hold politicians accountable every time they sell us out.

My greatest fantasy involves the bloods and the crips uniting to storm the capital building and slaughter everyone in it. Maybe then the next batch of used car salesmen would remember who they're working for.

Realisticly though, a small group of people assasinating wayward politicians and releasing press statements after each kill would probably be able to influence a good ammount of change after a few years.

Seriously folks, lawyering, demonstrations, and magazine articles aren't going to change shit. It's never worked that way and it never will, the only thing that changes the status quo when it comes to Govt is bloody revolution.

I suggest not releasing the statements would work better.

So people should just be left to puzzle out why they were killed? Nah, they're too dumb. Press releases would have to explicitly state the killing was done because of the politician selling out the American people and that the killings will continue as long as private interests are put before the publics's.

http://www.sustainabletable.org/features/articles/kingcorn/

Every day I become more and more convinced that the only way to change Washington is to hold politicians accountable every time they sell us out.

My greatest fantasy involves the bloods and the crips uniting to storm the capital building and slaughter everyone in it. Maybe then the next batch of used car salesmen would remember who they're working for.

Realisticly though, a small group of people assasinating wayward politicians and releasing press statements after each kill would probably be able to influence a good ammount of change after a few years.

Seriously folks, lawyering, demonstrations, and magazine articles aren't going to change shit. It's never worked that way and it never will, the only thing that changes the status quo when it comes to Govt is bloody revolution.

I agree with this 100%. 

I believe that the US is a plutocracy and will continue to decay towards being little more than a retread of one of Mussolini's corpo-fascist wet dreams, unless civil unrest gets in the way. 

I remember when I was temping and I got sick every month with either strep throat, or some weird cold, I would just come into work sick.  I would get everyone sick, but if I took a day off I would get talked to about how I was missing too many days.  I didn't have health insurance.  My temp agency claimed in its employee booklet that it supplied insurance to temp workers who had clocked a certain amount of time.  When I clocked that amount of time I called the human resources department of the temp agency and said, "Yes, I am ready to know what steps I need to take in order to get onto the company health plan."  They said, "uh, what health plan, temps aren't allowed on it."  I then quoted from the book I was given and then was told, "yeah, that book is old."  That was the end of the conversation, because the HR girl got annoyed with me, put me on hold and then it just hung up on me.

I don't think the US healthcare system will get any better.  Employers don't want to insure because it costs too much.

Also, look at these future predictions... they are INSANE.  We already have a deficit.  Where are we going to get the money?  To quote S. Colbert, "China, would you like a slightly used Oregon?"

I'm pretty sure it's to do with what legal claims and protection costs are necessary. Also, the costs of getting drugs approved are high and the copyright runs out too soon. People bitch about the cost of drugs, but the window for a drug company to even get it's R&D costs back before that drug can be legally copied is usually smaller than the time it took to get it approved for sale.

I'm tellin ya, when the H1N1 comes back this fall, all mutated and shit, there are gonna be a lot less people, then we'll need a lot less insurance.

I'm tellin ya, when the H1N1 comes back this fall, all mutated and shit, there are gonna be a lot less people, then we'll need a lot less insurance.

and then you'll rise triumphant from your palace under the hills and retake Baltimore!

Dude, nobody in Baltimore is going to die from that shit. They've got Superman's immune system or they'd be dead already.

Seriously folks, lawyering, demonstrations, and magazine articles aren't going to change shit. It's never worked that way and it never will, the only thing that changes the status quo when it comes to Govt is bloody revolution.

The police commissioner was on the radio this morning complaining about the Wire and how it presented Baltimore as a grimy place, while cop shows based in NYC, Miami, etc. are much brighter and feature beautiful people and the like.

I'm not sure the police commissioner has ever been to Baltimore.  You can build over-priced high rises that are ugly knock-offs of NYC architecture on the harbor, but that really isn't going to change the rest of the city.  And you can redeploy the police to the harbor to cut down on summer pick pockets and muggings...but that only reduces crimes committed against rich tourists.  Baltimore is a grimy city.  And most people I know agree that the Wire captures quite a bit of the heart of the city.

Bealefield is a fucking tool.

Retake Baltimore??? How about YOU take Baltimore. I'll be far enough away and high enough up that I won't have to worry about tsunamis or rising oceans or shifting poles for my lifetime.

It's almost 2012, you know.

Dude, what's the naked fire jumping for? If it's not to stave off 2012 then what good is it???

that's all about pleasure

Fertility, which I am totally AGAINST 364 other days of the year.

Well start doing the Anti-Nibiru dance then.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/03/09/85-the-wire/

This:


was the only reason why I watched The Wire.  He is so hot, it melts my face.