What Exactly are they fighting to Preserve?

Posted: July 25, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Health care reform | Tags: , , , | Comments Off on What Exactly are they fighting to Preserve?

Here’s an interesting link from Foreign Policy. We’ve joined China, Russia, and wait for it, wait for it … that bastion of global civilization …Turkmenistan on the list of the World’s Worst Health Care Reforms.

I understand why Republicans are fighting progress on Health Care Reform because they don’t like progress of any sort, but what about those democrats who want to reinvigorate health insurance industry profits? What exactly are they supporting? Continuation of failure?

System: Employer-based private coverage, with an under-regulated private insurance market, and

government-subsidized public plans for the poor, elderly, and disabled

Reform: The United States has the rare distinction of being both one of the world’s richest countries and having one of its least-functional health care systems.

Americans spend around one in every six dollars on healthcare. But, in aggregate, they’re not getting much bang for their buck. People in the United States are as likely to die from diseases like lung cancer as citizens in all OECD countries – which, on average, spend less than half as much per capita. Some 47 million lack any health insurance coverage. An estimated 600,000 people file for bankruptcy every year because they cannot pay their medical expenses. Indeed, the United States is the only rich country without universal coverage.

The U.S. government has repeatedly tried to create a more coherent plan and to make sure more Americans are insured. Reformers have scored piecemeal victories — such as the 1997 creation of the State Children’s Health Insurance Plan, or Massachusetts’ recent implementation of universal coverage.

But for the most part, the history of health reform in the United States has been a history of failure. The last attempt at comprehensive reform — the 1993 bill derided as “HillaryCare,” during the administration of Bill Clinton — floundered in Congress. Since then, costs and premiums have doubled, a lower percentage of employers offer coverage, and millions more are uninsured.

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News for those not Interested in Death and Sex Watches

Posted: June 26, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Environmental Protection, Health care reform, president teleprompter jesus, Team Obama, The DNC, The Media SUCKS, U.S. Economy | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

or When Will Journalists actually Report Real News?

pig3So for those that don’t want to see the People Magazine section on the front page of every news paper and as the lead in to every TV news item, let’s look at some real news.

Climate Change : The American Clean Energy and Security Act:

Should we be questioning the Climate Change Numbers? Surprise from the WSJ? Not. It’s still an interesting read in light of the Waxman-Markey attempt to push through cap and trade.

The Climate Change Climate Change: The number of skeptics is swelling everywhere.

Among the many reasons President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority are so intent on quickly jamming a cap-and-trade system through Congress is because the global warming tide is again shifting. It turns out Al Gore and the United Nations (with an assist from the media), did a little too vociferous a job smearing anyone who disagreed with them as “deniers.” The backlash has brought the scientific debate roaring back to life in Australia, Europe, Japan and even, if less reported, the U.S.

In April, the Polish Academy of Sciences published a document challenging man-made global warming. In the Czech Republic, where President Vaclav Klaus remains a leading skeptic, today only 11% of the population believes humans play a role. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to tap Claude Allegre to lead the country’s new ministry of industry and innovation. Twenty years ago Mr. Allegre was among the first to trill about man-made global warming, but the geochemist has since recanted. New Zealand last year elected a new government, which immediately suspended the country’s weeks-old cap-and-trade program.

Greenpeace opposes Waxman-Markey

“Since the Waxman-Markey bill left the Energy and Commerce committee, yet another fleet of industry lobbysists has weakened the bill even more, and further widened the gap between what Waxman-Markey does and what science demands. As a result, Greenpeace opposes this bill in its current form. We are calling upon Congress to vote against this bill unless substantial measures are taken to strengthen it. Despite President Obama’s assurance that he would enact strong, science-based legislation, we are now watching him put his full support behind a bill that chooses politics over science, elevates industry interests over national interest, and shows the significant limitations of what this Congress believes is possible. “As it comes to the floor, the Waxman-Markey bill sets emission reduction targets far lower than science demands, then undermines even those targets with massive offsets. The giveaways and preferences in the bill will actually spur a new generation of nuclear and coal-fired power plants to the detriment of real energy solutions. To support such a bill is to abandon the real leadership that is called for at this pivotal moment in history. We simply no longer have the time for legislation this weak.

I would hate to see this piece of legislation move through the House of Representatives with out media coverage and robust discussion. You’ll remember that I explained cap and trade earlier in case you want a review.

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