Health care myths + Alien prequel

Today:

– The AP looks at the myths and misconceptions being spread about health care and tackles them straightforwardly.
– News about Ridley Scott and the potential for a new Alien movie.

I guess, for the time-being, Phil the Pill is mainly a blog tracking the status of health care.

Here is the latest AP fact-check.

CLAIM: The House bill “may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia,” House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said July 23.

Former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey said in a July 17 article: “One troubling provision of the House bill compels seniors to submit to a counseling session every five years … about alternatives for end-of-life care.”

"I'll die when I'm damn well ready!"

THE FACTS: The bill would require Medicare to pay for advance directive consultations with health care professionals. But it would not require anyone to use the benefit.

Advance directives lay out a patient’s wishes for life-extending measures under various scenarios involving terminal illness, severe brain damage and situations. Patients and their families would consult with health professionals, not government agents, if they used the proposed benefit.

New health czar?

So, the right wing is relying on outright horror stories that have no basis in the bill and would require the Grim Reaper himself to be working in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Someone explain to me why the government would seriously be seeking ways to kill the elderly? So they can pay for less? I thought the right-wing rhetoric was that government spends too much. Government HAS no profit incentive and thus has less reason to see old people die than good ol’ Cigna. But, hey, you’ve probably given private health insurers a great idea to keep themselves profitable.

Even if I were to turn on the cynicism, the main problem I would see in a money incentive for health professionals to discuss this with patients would be overly pushy doctors who are trying to make a buck trying to consult people who don’t want to be consulted. It’d be an annoyance. But, if we do a better job of getting doctors proper rates, then they’d have less reason to try to pursue the “death consultation reward,” wouldn’t they?

Bottom line: No one is going to force you to plan your death and they sure as hell aren’t going to force you to die.

"Have you heard about our special end-of-life deals? Make sure you die the American way - with dignity!"

CLAIM: Health care revisions would lead to government-funded abortions.

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council says in a video, “Unless Congress states otherwise, under a government takeover of health care, taxpayers will be forced to fund abortions for the first time in over three decades.”

THE FACTS: The proposed bills would not undo the Hyde Amendment, which bars paying for abortions through Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor. But a health care overhaul could create a government-run insurance program, or insurance “exchanges,” that would not involve Medicaid and whose abortion guidelines are not yet clear.

Obama recently told CBS that the nation should continue a tradition of “not financing abortions as part of government-funded health care.”

The House Energy and Commerce Committee amended the House bill Thursday to state that health insurance plans have the option of covering abortion, but no public money can be used to fund abortions. The bill says health plans in a new purchasing exchange would not be required to cover abortion but that each region of the country should have at least one plan that does.

Congressional action this fall will determine whether such language is in the final bill.

What I’m hearing: the government will not provide public money for abortions. So if you’re using the public option, your abortion will not be covered. Good thing? I say, for the most part, yes. The abortion debate is far from over in this country and as long as most of the population feels that it could be murder to some degree, we can’t justify our government having a hand in it.

You see this baby? This is the baby Obama wants to KILL.

That said, can you see where some abortions are not simply a selfish, macabre method of birth control, but a medical necessity for a mother and a merciful option for a child born into disease or poverty? I wouldn’t be opposed to the government funding abortions to save the life of a mother.

As for private abortions, remember that states’ rights argument that conservatives like to throw around so much?

CLAIM: Americans won’t have to change doctors or insurance companies.

“If you like your plan and you like your doctor, you won’t have to do a thing,” Obama said on June 23. “You keep your plan; you keep your doctor.”

THE FACTS: The proposed legislation would not require people to drop their doctor or insurer. But some tax provisions, depending on how they are written, might make it cheaper for some employers to pay a fee to end their health coverage. Their workers presumably would move to a public insurance plan that might not include their current doctors.

There seems little argument against the idea that this would result in de facto booting from some insurance providers. It’s one of the most troubling results of the plan. But this is more problematic if the public option proves to be worse than the employer-provided health insurance. You weigh in, readers. What is the likelihood that your employer will stop offering private insurance? Is there an option for employers to insure you under the public plan? Would you be upset if you had to switch to another provider?

CLAIM: The Democrats’ plans will lead to rationing, or the government determining which medical procedures a patient can have.

“Expanding government health programs will hasten the day that government rations medical care to seniors,” conservative writer Michael Cannon said in the Washington Times.

THE FACTS: Millions of Americans already face rationing, as insurance companies rule on procedures they will cover.

Denying coverage for certain procedures might increase under proposals to have a government-appointed agency identify medicines and procedures best suited for various conditions.

Obama says the goal is to identify the most effective and efficient medical practices, and to steer patients and providers to them. He recently told a forum: “We don’t want to ration by dictating to somebody, ‘OK, you know what? We don’t think that this senior should get a hip replacement.’ What we do want to be able to do is to provide information to that senior and to her doctor about, you know, this is the thing that is going to be most helpful to you in dealing with your condition.”

It’s pretty clear. Private insurers ration. Heard of the term “experimental treatment?” It’s a common reason for a private insurer to screw you. And the fact is that the government can’t write a blank check to anything you ask. This is where private insurance may still have a place in today’s society. If you’ve made it to the point where you can pay a premium to a company that can grant you more than what the government grants you, switch over. I still believe that the public option will leave more people alive and have a better reason for denial. Plus, if this feared health czar truly starts to ration in an inhumane way, at least there’s more accountability to citizens.

Nyet. Your cosmetic breast enhancement surgery coupons are insufficent. Consider yourself rationed. *evil laughter*

CLAIM: Overhauling health care will not expand the federal deficit over the long term.

Obama has pledged that “health insurance reform will not add to our deficit over the next decade, and I mean it.”

THE FACTS: Obama’s pledge does not apply to proposed spending of about $245 billion over the next decade to increase Medicare fees for doctors. The White House says the extra payment, designed to prevent a scheduled cut of about 21 percent in doctor fees, already was part of the administration’s policy.

Beyond that, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the House bill lacks mechanisms to bring health care costs under control. In response, the White House and Democratic lawmakers are talking about creating a powerful new board to root out waste in government health programs. But it’s unclear how that would work.

Budget experts also warn of accounting gimmicks that can mask true burdens on the deficit. The bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says they include back-loading the heaviest costs at the end of the 10-year period and beyond.

Government waste is an issue that not only applies to health programs, but to federal civil programs, government bureaucracy, and especailly defense spending. If you cut out a few contracts to Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumann, you pay toward the health programs. If you start taxing the citizens who can afford it (i.e. most of us) and spend less on pork, you start turning budget surpluses. Priorities, people.

So, in sum, there are some big discussions to be discussed here, mainly: how to make sure people have the maximum amount of choice in their insurance decisions, how to crack down on bureaucratic waste, and how to make sure the “health czar” (I f***ing hate that term…why are we calling people czars?) answers to the public. Keep debating America, but stop perpetuating the lies. Be informed. Do your research. And never, ever listen to anything Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, or Sean Hannity have to say about a public health insurance option. They are, undeniably, liars.
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In other news, Ridley Scott is going to return to the Alien franchise to make a prequel, presumably exploring where the Xenomorphs came from?

Perhaps also a candidate for the new health czar?

Purists will insist this was the best choice, because Ridley Scott was TEH ORIGINAL and thus TEH BEST. Anyone with a modicum of competence knows that James Cameron made the best movie and would make an awesome next installment, but I will respect Scott’s expertise and “haunted house in space” direction which many remember so fondly.

But why do I feel like the studio is going to meddle?

My prediction: They find a way to make Ellen Ripley Clone 54 go back in time and give birth to a Predator/Ripley hybrid which creates the Xenomorphs, thus creating an ironic loop and providing for more ALIEN VS PREDATOR “awesome.”

Eh. I’ll watch it.
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And now for today’s edition of:

Hey! I saw that on the Internet too! Laugh Out Loud!

Quote of the Day

“The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best — and therefore never scrutinize or question.” – Stephen Jay Gould

Healthcare Bill – Eat this or pay up

The Botom Line: This supposed healthcare bill that was supposed to lead to socialized healthcare is just the government creating another crappy, bureaucratic provider of swill while taxing those who aren’t content with any of the providers out there.
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It’s 10:43 at night and I just spent hours discussing the merits of using force against a tyrannical government, perceived or actual, among other things. I’ve also played with the new kitten (pictures forthcoming?)

This afternoon I received a story assignment on the weighty issue of concealed carry permit reciprocity, a.k.a. should states honor other states’ standards for concealed carriers when it comes to non-residents and ignore their own? Knowing I’d get no response, I decided to leave messages with Mark Warner, Jim Webb, and the sponsor of the bill, South Dakotan senator John Thune.

I also helped moderate a game of Bingo for high school journalism students current attending J-Camp at Virginia Tech.

But what I wanted to blog about all day, with Michael Steele and Obama going at it in the national media over this issue, is healthcare.

Prepare to enter the ****storm.
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The way I understand it there are two things going on here. One is the familiar debate of who should we trust to provide healthcare. The private, profit-seeking system? Or a public option with all the flaws and benefits of a tax-supported bureaucracy? The second thing that is happening is the actual legislation that is on the table. And I don’t really hear much about that from the mainstream media. So…let’s look into that.

What seems to be the problem?…Can you fill that out in triplicate?

Here is the bill that is currently going through the House of Represenatatives on OpenCongress.

Here’s some of what’s in it:

• The bill seems to allow existing coverage to stand so long as: a) people don’t enroll in this type of coverage after the bill was passed, b) the insurer doesn’t change the conditions, and c) insurer doesn’t target a specific group for premium increases
• It gives companies a “grace period,” looks like 5 years to pick plans that meet the standards.
• The bill outright says a “qualified health plan” (managed care program from a self-insured employer) may not impose pre-existing conidtions. It also limits the variance of premium rates (a.k.a. makes it harder to jack them up).
• Minimum services to be covered under qualified health plan: hospitalization, outpatient care, physician services, prescription drugs, rehabilitative and habilitative services, mental health and substance use disorder services, preventive services, maternity care, well baby, well child care, oral health, vision, hearing services to “children” under 21 years of age.
• Creation of a Health Benefits Advisory Committee and a Health Choices Administrator run by a Health Choices commisioner to enforce the above regulations as well as state regulations
• Has a subtitle for consumer protections in quality health benefits plans including fair marketing practices, grievance and appeals mechanisms, information transparency, timely payment of claims.
• Sets up a “health insurance exchange” to facilitate acceess to a variety of choices, including the public health option.
• There is currently a public option listed in the bill a.k.a. government-sponsored healthcare. It is only available through the Health Insurance Exchange (does this mean you need existing insurance before you can get it?) and must comply with the same standards as the other Exchange plans. It can offer basic, enhancd, premium and premium-plus plans (it sounds like they’re selling you a credit card).
• The Secretary of Health and Human Services sets the premiums and the bill calls for initial funding of $2 billion (which is paid back by the department of HHS). The premiums will be set at Medicare rates (I didn’t realize you paid premiums for Medicare?)
• If you make less than $43,000/yr as an individual or $88,000/yr for a family of four, the government will subsidize your premiums for the public option. Though, I think you have to get Medicaid if you’re eligible for it.
• Some reforms start in 2010, but it seems most of it doesn’t go into effect into 2013 (conveniently timed, no?)
• If you don’t have coverage (and you are deemed by the IRS as someone who can afford it), you pay a tax of 2.5% your adjusted gross income without exceeding the national premium. Sort of like the uninsured motorist fee, I suppose, except now we’re not just trying to charge you for potentially stiffing me on car repairs. We’re trying to charge you for not taking care of yourself. Shame on you, taxpayer. Shame on you. Get healthcare. *rolls eyes*

While I have no sympathy for the douchebag with the scarf paying 50% taxes, I feel sad that the cute chick on the bottom has to pay a “no health care tax” (also, that her birth control isn’t covered).

• Emloyers are obliged to provide healthcare or provide funds for healthcare, but small business get a tax credit that exempts them from this.
• The rich will pay this in healthcare taxes: 1% gross adjusted income for people making between $350K and $500K. 1.5% for those making between $500K and $1 million. And 5.4% from those making $1 million or more.
• The program expands Medicaid eligibility levels and supposedly improves Medicare and Medicaid (wow! how can it get any better??)
• Undocumented aliens receive no coverage.

So….that’s the big fixing of U.S. healthcare? This…

This sucks.

Someone somewhere (maybe some hobo on the street) led me to believe that voting for Obama meant someday I could look forward to breaking my groin bone and rolling into any hospital, waiting in excruciating pain for hours, getting treated like shit by a state-paid doctor and then leaving with a bandage on my groin without having paid a cent. I would prefer that to this.

While it doesn’t sound like the bill is particularly kind to health insurers, it doesn’t seem to provide any sort of strong competition that would make them really buck up. I support all the rules about not denying customers based on pre-existings and providing a minimum of things to cover, but…why does my public option look suspiciously like standard health insurance? Where is my magical, mediocore but free care that I need to have to go back to a doctor and let him feel my balls? Where is that?

Premiums? What? Why not just tax me? Isn’t that how the government is supposed to make money?

YOU’RE DEMOCRATS. TAX ME. TAX ME!! And tax those damn suburbanites too, not just those making over $350,000. But don’t offer me more damn premium insurance plans with varying degrees of ball-busting. Give me a nation of free clinics. Do it! Do it!

The reason I’m out of the capacity for reasoned argument is because it’s 3 in the morning. I just spend hours looking at that damn bill and it’s stupid. It doesn’t do enough and I’m not sure if it even provides tangible benefits. Though it does say that if I’m still not satisfied with any insurer that I get to pay a fee.

Fuck you, government. Seriously, eat a dick. That’s all I can say at this hour.

Oh, but here’s a guy who liked it. I’m jealous. I wish I could be content with a sack of poop wrapped in an elephant’s foreskin.

Picture unrelated?

What do you think?

Is this an improvement to the current healthcare system? Will we ever see the day when you can walk into a hospital and never get charged for it?

YouTube Video Volunteers + PtP readers discuss healthcare, financial industry

On a personal note…

I find it a tough time to be blogging.

Chaos seems rampant. I guess I don’t know what I was expecting out of Iran, but the fact that the death of an innocent woman is serving as a unifier unsettles me. On the one hand, it’s encouraging and inspiring to see a people that won’t back down. On the other hand, it just seems like things will get more violent before they get settled. And I find that aspect of human nature unfortunate.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world is snarling, bickering, fear, and sobering problems. Is it just that I wasn’t paying attention before? Has my hobby heightened my awareness of the world’s problems? And what’s my responsibility in all of this? I’m no expert on wars, economics, or social issues. I have access to what everyone else has access to. So what can I offer?

North Korea threatens Hawaii with a missile. Expensive legislation after expensive legislation keeps getting proposed and passed, which makes it difficult to assuage fiscally conservative friends. News in general is just…a bummer.

Maybe it’s just a troublesome couple of weeks in the world. Maybe this week will end on a better note.
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Comments from the PtP community

Speaking of better notes, Obama says an agreement with the pharmaceutical industry will make prescription drugs for people on Medicare more affordable. The drug companies’ investment supposedly covers some of the cost of the proposed health plan.

In that vein, I recently polled readers to get different opinions on topics as complex as healthcare. Here is an excerpt from a response by my old friend “Regina Mancard”, as posted on Phil the Pill’s Facebook fan page.

As a lifelong user of the military plan I’m in favor of adopting that model to the country. You may recognize this plan under it’s more common name of “Socialized Health Care”. The majority of the bill is footed by the government, with dental and other specialized care treated in system, or by civilian specialists with a low co-pay.
The website is: http://www.tricare.mil/

I’ve been on this system my whole life as a military dependent, and it’s worked very well. I can often get same day appointments, or short-notice appointments when I need care immediately, and the system for bigger issues is reasonably efficient. Certainly as good as any other HMO plan. Of course, I also live in the DC-Metropolitan area, so when my local Fairfax clinic is unable to solve my medical issue of the moment (i.e. allergies, mysterious pains from an unknown injury, cancer) I have access to Walter Reed Army Hospital, Bethesda Naval Hospital, or any other facility in the DeWitt system. It’s been a great help on overseas travel to countries with bases (Italy, Germany) if only for the peace of mind….

….To me, insurance is primarily for those regular check-ups, inoculations, and minor illness or injury moments. Everyone does need emergency coverage of some kind, but those routine checks are the biggest thing to worry about at the moment. People can talk all they want about not getting in car accidents never being mauled by a jungle cat, but ignoring those annual/biennial/triennial check ups (woman’s wellness, prostate, even a physical) is what will lead to the surprise cancer or other crisis.

…As for the soundbites about “socialist” health care, the kind they use in those awful countries like the UK and France– I don’t see the complaints coming from out there. It’s not a perfect system by any means; there can be long lines, paperwork and miscommunications, but those happen in all hospitals. Yes, it will cost trillions, and some years before the system is set up and functioning, but consider then the cost that taxpayers aren’t paying annually or monthly to employers or insurance companies.

You want to argue that the average tax payer shouldn’t have to pay for others? Fine, play the selfish tax payer card. Except that this is your health care too.

I think she raises several good points, even if the situation is unbearably complex.

I just want a situation where I can have access to a doctor without paying out the nose for being a certain demographic or for my genetics being a certain way. It’s not that private industry is hopeless. But I believe assuming that private industry by itself will offer that is naïve.

I also asked about these latest financial regulation proposals. The man I trust the most on this topic is Peirce and he gave a great response on a post that was mostly about Keyboard Cat.

The effectiveness or the ineptitude of the new financial regulation proposed under Obama depends entirely on the details. Many of the proposals such as requiring hedge fund managers to register with the SEC or marrying economic interests between lenders and borrowers can fall in the range of constructive to dangerous.

For example, President Obama suggested regulating lenders so that they must hold on to all or part of the loans and mortgages they distribute. While its true that this will contain one of the catalysts for the recent financial collapse, reckless lending, it will on the other hand limit a company’s lending abilities to size of the its capital giving an astronomical advantage to large banks over smaller regional banks. This trend could create more companies “too big to fail” with time at the cost of permanently stabilizing the asset-backed financial industry.

In summary, the effectiveness of Obama’s new regulation is limited to the wisdom and foresight in the regulatory bodies’ overseers. Overall, Obama was mature in his description of the financial collapse and where responsibilities lie – refreshingly uncharacteristic of politicians and media of late.

Well said, but this idea of the industry retracting into a few major banks is the stuff of dystopian nightmares. I hope the regulation does not result in concentrated resources in a few hands, but in a healthy market with several competitors. Here’s a few bullets on the Obama plan from the WSJ article linked above:

• –Creates a new bank agency, the National Bank Supervisor, and kills the Office of Thrift Supervision. The new agency will look over national banks, including federal branches and agencies of foreign banks.
• –Requires hedge funds, private-equity funds and venture-capital funds to register with the SEC, allowing the agency to collect data from the firms.
• –Subjects hedge funds to new requirements in areas such as record keeping, disclosure and reporting. The oversight would include assets under management, borrowings, off-balance sheet exposures.
• –Brings the markets for over-the-counter derivatives and asset-backed securities into a regulatory framework, strengthens regulation of derivatives dealers and forces trades to be executed through public counterparties, such as exchanges.
• –Toughens the regulatory regime, including more conservative capital requirements and tougher rules on counterparty credit exposure.
• –Creates Financial Services Oversight Council, which would coordinate activities among regulators, replacing the President’s Working Group.
• –Ensures that any financial firm big enough to pose a risk to the financial system would be heavily regulated by the Federal Reserve, including regular stress tests.

• –Creates a new agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, with broad authority over consumer-oriented financial products, such as mortgages and credit cards. The new agency would work with state regulators.
• –Gives the new agency power to write rules and levy fines based on a wide range of existing statutes.
• –Strengthens SEC’s framework for investor protection by expanding the agency’s powers to beef up disclosures to investors, establish a fiduciary duty for broker-dealers who offer advice and expand protection for whistleblowers, including a fund that would pay for certain information.
• –Creates a mechanism that allows the government to take over and unwind large, failing financial institutions.
• –Creates a formal process for deciding when to invoke this power, which could be initiated by the Treasury, Fed, FDIC or SEC.
• –Gives authority to make the final decision to the Treasury, with the backing of other regulators.
• –Gives the Treasury the authority to decide how to fix such a failing firm, whether through a conservatorship, receivership or some other method.
• –Taps the FDIC to act as conservator or receiver, except in the case of broker dealers or securities firms, in which case the SEC would take over.
• –Recommends that various international bodies implement the Group of 20 recommendations, including requiring banks to hold more capital.
• –Urges that national authorities standardize oversight of credit derivatives and markets.
• –Urges other countries to follow the U.S. lead and: subject systemically significant companies to stricter oversights

Keep the comments coming, guys. Best points get props in the posts.
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Magnanimous Monday

YouTube is launching an initiative called YouTube volunteers, which, in theory, could get Tay Zonday and Dramatic Chipmunk to join forces and make videos to help NPOs and good causes. Here’s the intro video starring the vlogbrothers:

Pretty cool. I’d do it myself, but [Excuse 1] and [Excuse 2], etc. Basically, I’m not 100% confident in my video editing abilities and I’m in such dire straits, if I’m not getting paid, I’d be practically a charity case myself.

But if YOU’VE got the time and ability to help out, it seems like a really good opportunity. Hey, tell you what, comment with a link to a video you made for Video Volunteers and I will shout it out in a post.
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Results of the Bee-in-the-Urinal Poll

What do you do with a bee sticker on a urinal?

Aim for it 64% (9 votes)

Avoid it 7% (1 votes)
Find another urinal 14% (2 votes)
Other: 14% (2 votes)
Picture (Thumbnail?) of the Day

Quote of the Day
“The World Sucks. Help it suck less.” – vlogbrothers