Posts tagged ‘insurance’
by Downtowner, posted on Saturday, July 24th, 2010 at 7:34 am
I helped write a preservation ordinance once and discovered in my research that you really need to write a clause in there forbidding teardowns while the ordinance is being considered, otherwise there’s always some asshole who will invest a ton of money in destroying his building just to prove a point to the city council about what he thinks of the proposal of the measure.
So there may be many who will be surprised to discover insurers doing things like ceasing to write insurance policies on children in order to avoid a provision of the health insurance reform bill that will kick in later this year and force them to cover children who are already sick, and there may even be those, like the author of this AP piece, who call it an “unintended consequence,” but not me.
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Tags: health care, insurance, legislation, reform, sick jokes
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by John Laesch, posted on Saturday, April 3rd, 2010 at 7:59 am
My political career began on a cold evening in the dimly lit labor hall of Laborers Local 362 on Cabin Town Road, in Bloomington, IL. It was the monthly Democratic Party meeting and I had no intention of speaking. After representatives from other campaigns spoke, I felt the need to represent my 2004 presidential pick. The words fell out of my mouth with no cadence or inspiration and I’m confident that nothing I said was remembered by the 20-25 attendees who were being pressured by party leaders to send Rod Blagojevich another $500 contribution. But there it was: the 12 words that have somehow come to define my political activism: “The task of my generation is the separation of corporation and state.”
Perhaps the biggest abuse of taxpayer money to bail out a gang of undeserving corporations was the bank bailout. Like many people, I was outraged and nearly driven to put my name back on the ballot when the Democratic-controlled U.S. Congress passed a $700 billion bank bailout to help Bush put the finishing touches on his corporate-state presidency. But I sat back and waited, overlooking the first year of Obama’s presidency that featured the more bailouts, more blank-check spending on Bush’s wars for profit, a wholesale attack on public education, and now, a healthcare bill written by corporations for corporations.
And so, I have come full circle as my next political steps take me back to the beginning and those first 12 words. This piece on healthcare aims to show how the will of the people was replaced by the will of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) while support for Newt Gingrich’s Contract on America grows. Among those following the health care reform process, it is commonly known that AHIP, the voice of insurance companies on capital hill, has played a significant role in drafting the bill.
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Tags: health care, insurance, legislation, mandates, reform, separation of corporation and state
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by n0madic, posted on Friday, April 2nd, 2010 at 3:32 pm
To view in full screen mode, click on the little box with the four arrows in the lower right hand corner of the screen. To escape full screen mode, press your “Esc” button.
Everything about Billy Bragg
Tags: Billy Bragg, Found Objects for a Friday Afternoon, health care, insurance, legislation, music, reform
Posted in The Front Page | 3 Comments »
by Paul Street, posted on Friday, March 26th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Corporate health “reform” has gotten the
congressional votes it needed and the public relations spin is on. Now that the “deeply conservative” Barack Obama [1] and his fellow corporate Democrats have pushed their big business-friendly measure –- devoid of any public insurance option to counter the power of the insurance oligopoly –- through the House and Senate, the reigning bipartisan U.S. political-media culture is pushing two childish narratives: the “liberal” Democratic one of an “historic” people’s victory and the “conservative” Republican one of a dangerous and “socialist” “government takeover.”
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Tags: Barack Obama, health care, insurance, legislation, reform
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by Downtowner, posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 3:59 pm
I got a phone call about the importance of health care legislation from Organizing for America yesterday morning. Now, I’ve quite recently ranted about both phone calls from OFA and health care reform, so I was prepared to lambast the poor volunteer, as soon as she had finished with her request.
But then she did finish her request, which was, specifically: “Will you call your representative and speak to him about the importance of health care reform in whatever direction you think that should take from here?”
er.
So instead of tearing into her I said yes. Although, to be brutally blunt about it it my idea of where health care reform - in it’s present form - should go is some sunshine free area of someone or the other’s anatomy, I didn’t see anything in the volunteer from OFA’s request that would do anything but encourage me to express exactly that.
Which is exactly my point: Way to display clarity of message and leadership on an issue, guys. Although who “guys” are is also in question. Is this the administration? Or is this the DNC? Or is it all of the above?
This strikes me as a clear signal that the administration is taking charge by expanding it’s brialliantly executed circle jerk of a sort of vaguely expressed hopiness that we can somehow achieve real reform, without rocking any important contributor boats, all the way down to the rank and file.
But at least we have Obama’s Awesome On-Line Organizing Community to join the circle jerk, eh?
I’m positively tingling with enthusiasm. And hopiness.
Tags: bullshit, health care, insurance, legislation, Organizing for America, reform
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by modestybl, posted on Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 7:13 pm
I don’t know why Nate and others keep emphasizing the low profit margins of the insurance companies.
Accounting tricks aside (e.g., counting increased perks as “costs”, etc.), the lavish compensations and bureacratic bloat are devices a “marquis class’ of individuals, who bring NOTHING of value to the system, use to extort “protection” money from vulnerable citizens. By the way, the bottom line is profit VOLUME, which is substantial.
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/12/insurance-stocks-rise-on-news-of-health.html
One function of government is to protect its citizens against persons or institutions that can do harm, such as predators in the “healthcare provider” business. Is it that hard for the apologists of the Democratic “healthcare” bill to understand how distressing this is to progressives, or any good government types?
Profit has NO PLACE in a system of basic health care. Let the marketplace work its wonders in cosmetic surgery. The fact that profit margins are now inextricably imbedded in this push for universal healthcare is going to explode this effort down the way, and not very far off.
We know how this is going to work. We’ll be forced to give them our money (and since I’m 50, I may be forced to pay 1/4 of my income to these criminals) right up front - with the government being the collection muscle. And there is nothing NOTHING to force these guys to behave. The sharks will walk off with their compensations, and we’ll be forced back to square zero, with a more impoverished society, and the problems not solved.
The people running these “healthcare” protection rackets have no care for the public, the system, or even their own companies. We’ve already seen CEOs walk off with over $1B in compensation… they don’t have to look back.
They shouldn’t exist. All of these guys in the privateering “healthcare” racket losing their jobs would be a small blip in the unemployment rate. I’d rather some of them use their actuarial skills toward optimizing high-speed rail systems or smart power grids.
Don’t. Not this, not to these thugs. No.
Tags: health care, insurance, legislation, mandates, Nate Silver, reform, U. S. Senate
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by Downtowner, posted on Sunday, December 20th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
In terms of why it’s bad strategy for progressives to fall into line on the health care fiasco vote, this kinda says it all. On the other hand, it leaves me wondering where the screaming and yelling and Liebermanesque holding-out is from elected Progressives.
Where are they?
Is Dean - not holding any office at all at the moment and hardly a model of a progressive - really the strongest voice we have to scream “kill the bill?”
That’s scary.
Tags: health care, insurance, legislation, progressives, reform, strategy and tactics
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by Downtowner, posted on Saturday, December 19th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Just got home from work and am wondering if you are all feeling festive yet?
No?
Well, if you are, say, male, and are feeling left out of the opportunity to contribute something (like the right to control your body) to the effort to funnel billions of dollars to corporate America, don’t despair: there’s something in here for you too.
If you are, like me, so uninsurable that the only policy you will be offered will be junk insurance at punitively high premiums, you’re in there: the penalty for paying to keep more of your money to pay for your health care out-of-pocket (because your “policy” won’t) is up - reputedly to offset the fact that it’s much more expensive to give away lots of cash to our insurance overlords without the public option. So they had to raise more cash to offset that.
Or, if you are a union member, you too get to contribute to the Giant Giveaway. Those good insurance policies you have, via trading wage increases to get them, are going to be taxed at a higher rate - also to help offset the more expensive non-public-option Giveaway.
Who knows how many other lovely opportunities there are for Americans of all descriptions to do their part to create a festive season for the insurance industry. You can go read the manager’s amendment here and see if you can find more.
Tags: health care, insurance, legislation, reform, U. S. Senate, uninsurable, unions
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by Downtowner, posted on Saturday, December 19th, 2009 at 11:01 am
More on the concessions to ensure Ben Nelson gets greater control over my body (at least if I live in a Red State) from NYT.
Under Mr. Reid’s proposal, health insurance plans are not required or forbidden to cover abortion services, but there is a major exemption that would give states power to prohibit abortion coverage in the insurance markets, or exchanges, where most health plans would be sold.
Oh, also, Reid was also apparently required to sweeten the deal by outright buying Nelson off:
Mr. Reid’s amendment also includes a substantial increase in federal contributions to Nebraska’s costs of providing Medicaid coverage to the poor.
Which, of course, does not extend to abortion coverage. Because, you know, they are poor.
Tags: Ben Nelson, Harry Reid, health care, insurance, legislation, reform, U. S. Senate
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by Downtowner, posted on Saturday, December 19th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Well, CNN is reporting that Ben Nelson is feeling a bit more in control of my body, so a happy camper overall.
He says:
“Anyone who is in the exchange who also gets a federal subsidy because they’re poor, if they choose a private insurance policy and want any kind of abortion coverage, they have to write that part of the premium from their own personal funds.”
Offhand I’d say that means most poor women getting subsidies will elect not to write that additional check for the coverage - can’t afford to, really, if you are poor.
No word on whether Nelson’s other demands, such as cutting the aforementioned subsidies, have also been met.
Tags: Ben Nelson, health care, insurance, legislation, reform, U. S. Senate
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by Downtowner, posted on Saturday, December 19th, 2009 at 8:43 am
Harry Reid has indicated that he anticipates a vote on the Senate’s Festive Giant Insurance Co. Giveaway on Christmas Eve, making that a really big day for celebration by Insurance Inc.
But today is a big day too; Harry Reid says he has his 60 votes and today will unveil the final version of the Festive Giant Giveaway.
Of course, neither we nor Harry can really know that it’s final until Lieberman and Nelson have issued their public responses to the “final” version Harry thinks they’ve agreed to. We will then learn what additional perks we will have to provide to Big Insurance in order to get our money on it’s way to them.
I plan on monitoring events throughout the course of the day and hope to be back with updates, comments, despair, panic, as the situation warrants.
Tags: Harry Reid, health care, insurance, legislation, reform, U. S. Senate
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by Downtowner, posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
I need health care. Which the Senate bill will neither provide, nor provide access to for uninsurable people like me.
Sorry to put the “Breaking” into the title, but this appears to be news to so many diarists and commenters that I thought it was justified.
Also, sorry to be repetitive, as I posted much of the same appeal here recently, but there seem to be so many people deluded by the belief that at least the Senate bill offers access to care for the uninsured that I can’t help thinking someone, possibly lots of people need to repeat this, in real terms, until we are debating reality.
This is a piece of junk legislation, that will lead to junk “coverage” and continued lack of care for people who are currently most damaged and most at risk because they have been uninsurable - in some cases for quite a long while. In short, for people like me, uninsurable people, it is worse than the status quo.
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Tags: health care, insurance, legislation, reform, uninsurable, uninsured
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by Downtowner, posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
My youngest daughter, Kate, is 31. She’s married with three children. She has Type I Diabetes and was medically bankrupt at the age of 20 when she fell into a coma and spent two weeks in intensive care while uninsured. She is the principal breadwinner for her family, and despite her health challenges and past financial hardships they are doing okay now. In fact, Kate is doing so well right now that the most pressing personal family problem on her mind is that her brother will be deployed to Afghanistan this spring. And that is weighing heavily on her mind, though I won’t here go into what Kate thinks of the Afghanistan escalation.
Up until the 2008 election there was no force on earth – including me - that could move Kate to so much as vote. Her take on it: there is no point, big business owns government, and nothing will change. But in 2007 Kate changed, radically, sharply, suddenly, changed her mind.
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Tags: 2008 elections, 2010 elections, Barack Obama, Democrats, early adapters, health care, insurance, legislation, public option, reform
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by Downtowner, posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
So it’s been a long few days. My company lost it’s biggest contract - the one I was assigned to for the balance of this year - last Wednesday. They are a governmental entity who shall remain nameless and their budget was cut by their state legislature. Bad news at casa Downtowner. Happened just as I was about to get on a plane to visit my daughter, son-in-law and 9 month old grand-daughter in Phoenix. So I went.
By the time I got there, one of my grand-daughters back here in Illinois was sick with the flu, and two days into the trip, my Mom (who lives in Florida, but was here in Illinois visiting my brother) was hospitalized with a wide array of symptoms, ranging from a blood infection to problems with her heart. So I’ll admit I was stressed already, but then I got the phone call…
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Tags: Bill Foster, health care, insurance, legislation, Organizing for America, public option, reform, single payer
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by John Laesch, posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
On the eve of Barack Obama’s healthcare speech on 9/9/09, residents from Illinois’ 14th District took to the streets to encourage the President of the United States to push for comprehensive healthcare reform, Medicare for all.
Thanks to Fox Valley Citizens for Peace and Justice and the Aurora Peace and Justice group, about 50 people showed up from all walks of life to show their support for the expansion of Medicare to all Americans. More people congregated as people got off of work and those that could not stop and join us used their horns to show their support.
The Beacon News covered the event here and an in-district blogger, Bill Baar, covered it here. More photos are available here.
Tags: Aurora Peace and Justice, Fox Valley Citizens for Peace and Justice, health care, Illinois, insurance, Kane County, legislation, public option, reform, single payer, St Charles IL
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by Downtowner, posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
If you’ve been following the local press in IL-14, you know that Ethan Hastert is currently seeking the Repub nomination to fill his Daddy Denny’s former seat, currently held by Bill Foster, and you’d also be aware that this seat is high on the Repubs wish list for recapture in 2010.
If you’ve been following the local press for the last week, you’d be able to discern that, what with their “name” candidate, and their itch to take revenge for the lost of such a high profile seat, this area has become somewhat of a priority for targeting by the opponents of meaningful healthcare reform as well.
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Tags: Bill Foster, Ethan Hastert, health care, IL-14, Illinois, insurance, legislation, reform
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by Downtowner, posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Couple of days ago I got an e-mail from my right-wing-nut sister. Well a lot of people got it; she’d broadcasted it to her entire address book. It was supposed to be a joke about the top ten things we can all expect under Obamacare. It wasn’t funny, so I didn’t laugh.
But I did lose my temper and responded “to all” with what can only be called a rant. The rant included lots of facts and figures and some helpful links, since I assume my sister is not likely to happen upon many of those fact-thingies while watching Faux News and listening to Rush. But it also included a thorough rundown of my own uninsurable and dubious state of health, along with a request that if my sister wished to helped Big Insurance execute me for sake of the conservative cause, she at least display enough shame to leave me off her e-mail list.
uh-oh
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Tags: Barack Obama, Blue Dogs, Democrats, health care, insurance, legislation, reform
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by John Laesch, posted on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 9:51 am
I am a middle-class worker who has decent health insurance (an 80-20 plan) and recognizes that my recently elevated private insurance premiums are paying for those who don’t have health insurance. In addition to paying for the uninsured, I calculated that I am also paying an extra $4,000-7,000 per year into the pocketbooks of Wall Street profiteers.
Maybe my story about a $110/month increase in health insurance premiums is not significant compared to the many stories of those who lose their homes, businesses and dignity because we continue to embrace the status quo, broken, for-profit healthcare system, but it still needs to be told.
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Tags: carpenters, health care, insurance, John Laesch, legislation, public option, reform, single payer, unions
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by n0madic, posted on Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Last Thursday was probably the hottest and most humid day of the summer so far in Washington, DC, and yet several hundred health care reform activists, brought together by the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care, stuck it out in the heat to rally and lobby for single-payer. It was the 44th anniversary of the
passage of Medicare and the day began with the delivery of Medicare birthday cupcakes and cards to congressional offices. Later in the day activists met with their representatives to lobby for single-payer. And in between a rally was held in Upper Senate Park, just across the street from the Capitol. The remarks of several of the speakers and photos from the rally follow.
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Tags: Bernie Sanders, Code Pink, Donna Smith, Dr. David Scheiner, Dr. Margaret Flowers, Dr. Sidney Wolfe, Frankie Hughes, H. R. 3200, H. R. 676, health care, insurance, John Conyers, Jonathan Tasani, Jos Williams, Katie Robbins, Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care, legislation, Mark Dudzic, Medea Benjamin, Medicare, reform, single payer, Tim Carpenter, Washington DC
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by n0madic, posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 12:07 am
Last Wednesday, July 8th, Rep. John Conyers’ office brought Eve Gittelson, aka “nyceve,” a leading blogger on health care issues at Daily Kos, and Jane Hamsher, founder of the blog FireDogLake, to Capitol Hill to present a briefing on health care to congressional staff.
More specifically, as Conyers legislative assistant Joel Segal put it, Eve was there to “talk about her perspective as a blogger. What she hears day in, day out, from people about what they want to see in a
national health insurance program. What are their concerns, what are their problems?” And Jane was there to discuss organizing strategies, what she thinks the American people want, and what the role of congressional staff and Members of Congress is in putting a good bill through. She was also there to talk about a project she’s engaged in, seeking to get forty members of Congress to go on record on video saying that if there’s no public plan like Medicare, then there will be no health care reform this year.
Rep. Conyers himself joined the briefing as well, leading a Q&A session that turned into an initial planning session for a prospective hearing on the health care crisis, perhaps to be held on Capitol Hill during in August recess.
Eve and Jane’s remarks, as well as more on the Q&A session, after the jump.
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Tags: Eve Gittelson, health care, insurance, Jane Hamsher, John Conyers, legislation, nyceve, reform, U. S. House
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