Before the Affordable Care Act, estimates were that 45,000 people died every year for lack of adequate insurance. We’ll be there again very soon.
Death Panel
Category Archives: Health
Get ready for the angry white female
What a week! First Todd Akin steps into a hornets nest with the comment that circled the world (twice!):
I practically had a seizure when I read that. Okay, let’s break it down. First “legitimate rape”, what the hell does that mean?! Is there a legitimate reason to force a woman to have sex with you? Not in my world buddy. Second, “the female body has ways to shut that whole thing down”…wha? I mean seriously this guy knows NOTHING about females if he can say this with a straight face. And last, and in my humble opinion most egregious, “but the punishment ought to be of the rapist and not attacking the child”. So choosing not to give birth to your rapist’s child is “attacking” it? I loathe this idea that a child in utero is somehow more valuable and important than the fully grown woman carrying it. This entire thing is just reprehensible. It belittles us women.
So he apologized. He “mis-spoke” in his off the cuff remarks. Yeah you did. You revealed to all the world how little you value women. Akin won’t leave the Senate race because he’s gotten where he is now by standing by his morals. Your morals are repugnant sir. But I’m glad you stayed in the race. The GOP tried to talk you out, Ryan tried to talk you out, even the crackers in the Tea Party tried to talk you out, but you stayed. And now you are just the gift that keeps on giving.
On top of that this week Rick Perry, governor of Texas won a suit to defund Planned Parenthood. Yup, he’s removing them from the Women’s Health Initiative and, get this, calling it a “win for Texas women”. Again I’m flabbergasted. How is removing a low income health provider going to help women in a state with no income tax which is hostile to illegal immigrants and has a governor with his head up his ***?
Blue Shield has lost their damned mind
It was announced this week that Blue Shield of California is planning a 59% rate hike. 59% for health insurance, after Obamacare has passed?! They must think they’re Anthem Blue Cross who got reamed in 2010 for even suggesting a 39% hike. I guess insurers think that rate increases are like a game of poker you just keep upping the ante. To add insult to injury they said in a statement that their decision had:
almost nothing to do with the federal health reform law and that ultimately the law will help slow down health care costs.
Sounds to me like Blue Shield has just gone completely insane.
Killer croutons?
Just when you were about to start your New Year’s diet word comes from CBS that Al Qaeda is hatching a plot to poison your croutons. I swear it’s either a slow news day or they are seriously making this up. I think we’ve fallen into the paranoia abyss people. You really should be more worried about U.S. corporations poisoning your food “by accident” as they’ve done numerous times in the last few years. E. Coli, salmonella, and listeria have all been circulated by our Food Industrial Complex. While the Food Safety Bill passed the Senate vote this past weekend, we’ve still got a long way to go before we are truly safe. Besides, let’s face it if you’ve seen how fat Americans are becoming you already know we’re not eating salads.
Things that make you go, “Ewwww!”
First they were in hotels, then in retail stores, finally movie theaters. Now, bed bugs may in your office too. Yup, the little hitchikers have made it into the working world. They’re taking over the cubicles, break rooms and even the file drawers. They’ll move in anywhere they can find space. It’s just disgusting, they seem to be the lice of the modern age. Hardy, fast traveling and virtually impossible to eradicate. I don’t know about you, but this news just makes me feel itchy all over. Gotta go scratch!
Where’s the beef?
It’s been recalled. Again. Yup, 1 million pounds of prime grade A hamburger is going back to Valley Meat Co. of Modesto. You see it may have given people E. coli, again. Now I’ve watched Fast Food Nation and Food, Inc. and I find myself wondering if this means the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture is finally doing their job or not doing their job. How does this stuff get out into the public in such phenomenal amounts? 1 million pounds of beef, that’s crazy. We’re talking about recalls of meat in Arizona, Texas, Oregon, California and internationally. It’s insane. Valley Meats Co. said that customers:
…should discard possibly affected meat or return it to stores for a refund.
Um in this economy guys, I think they’re coming for that refund. No burgers on the grill this Summer I guess. And now I’m craving one. Damn it!
Local insurance company repays bailout funds
Hi, I’m Thurston Powell, president and CEO of Westmost Mutual Insurance, with some great news for western North Carolina.
I’m pleased to announce that we have repaid our one billion dollar federal loan early, plus interest.
This second chance guarantees the company’s future, and frees us to operate without our executive compensation plan having to be approved by the government’s special master.
For me, it means I will again be able to receive my 20 million annual bonus.
We are grateful for the trust you have placed in us, and we are going to do right by the Westmost community and you, our valued policyholders.
So after fifty three years of insuring automobiles, homes and collateralized debt obligations, we are changing our name to MedHealthEx. We hope you will let us be Westmost’s neighborhood health insurance company.
MedHealthEx is going to be all about innovation. That’s why we are working with Nevada Senate candidate Sue Lowden to help make the dream of health insurance bartering a reality.
We’re calling it the Chicken Cooperative Plan — the Chicken Coop for short — and here’s how it will work.
Raising chickens is a lot of work, they take up room, and it’s a hassle to take them to your doctor’s office or hospital emergency room.
That’s where MedHealthEx comes in. With our partner Mount Pilot Farms we’re starting a fully-equipped chicken bank. Just leave your chickens with us.
Then when you go to a doctor who is in the Chicken Coop network, your doctor will submit a chicken claim to MedHealthEx. We will calculate the number of chickens and pay your doctor with chickens out of your account — less a number of chickens for our administrative costs, advertising, lobbying, and shareholder return.
We’re also going to have a catastrophic plan, where we only pay your doctor in eggs, and you make copayments of bacon.
MedHealthEx — charting the future of American health care. Because we need the eggs.
Ultraviolent Mexican drug cartel to close health insurance division
A ruthless and violent Mexican drug cartel has been driven out of the United States, a spokesman for the criminal organization said today.
In an exclusive phone interview with CNN, the spokesman, identifying himself only as “Caballero Uno,” announced the cartel known as La Organizacion has decided to cease operations of Meditrolex Insurance, a Connecticut company specializing in the individual health insurance market.
An estimated 2,500 Meditrolex bosses, underbosses, enforcers, and claims reviewers will lose their jobs.
Caballero Uno said the decision to shutter Meditrolex “is because of American socialism.”
“We decided to invest in America because we thought it was a good place to do business,” said Caballero Uno. “And we prospered. We lived the American dream, jacking up insurance rates 20, 30, even 39% in a year, then refusing to pay.”
“But now your Comrade Obama has ended free market capitalism. He is going to make us post our balance sheet online, and spend at least 85% on patient care instead of mistresses, yachts, firepower, and executive bonuses,” he said.
“Obamacare also interferes in the most fundamental nature of our business — telling us we can’t cut off people we think are bad risks. Well it’s just unacceptable, we’re pulling out and heading back to Mexico to focus on our core business,” Caballero Uno said.
Republicans seized on today’s news as proof the new national health overhaul is bad for the economy. “It’s a narco-jobs killer,” declared a visibly emotional Congressman John Boehner, the House minority leader.
Boehner said he plans to press La Organizacion to stay in the U.S., and intends to travel to Mexico for talks. “I hear they have excellent tanning there,” Boehner said.
Gingrich calls health care overhaul elitist – Doesn’t cover legal fees for cancer ward divorces
Former Congressman Newt Gingrich today blasted the nation’s health care overhaul legislation, calling it elitist.
The former House Speaker’s remarks came only minutes after President Obama signed the measure into law in a White House ceremony.
“I’m opposed to this elitist legislation, which does nothing to help with the crushing legal fees of the tens of thousands of assholes who would serve divorce papers on their wives who are in post-op recovering from cancer surgery,” Gingrich told Fawn Craven this morning on the Fox News program Craven Journalism.
“The reality today is that only rich assholes can afford to divorce sick wives, whether with cancer or some other disease. Insurers should be required to cover divorce expenses of poor assholes too — trading up to a trophy wife should not be based on income, not in my America,” Gingrich said
Gingrich said he would work to repeal health care reform, and seek to have it replaced with a more comprehensive reform that would include federal subsidization of alimony payments.
Don’t Mess With Texas
This is a telling little graphic. It shows the relative levels of industrial mercury emissions in the United States. Notice how the scale stops at 6,000 Lbs/year…with one exception: The Lone Star State—a state that needs a category all its own to cover the mind boggling 11,722 Lbs of mercury it dumps into the environment; an amount almost double that of the next highest polluter; per-capita, 178 times more mercury than California manages to produce.
One wonders if Texas’ prick of a Governor, Rick Perry, is proud of this little statistic. On more than one occasion, he has trumpeted Texas’ disregard for existing, and opposition to new, federal pollution control regulations.
So don’t mess with Texas, or state officials will come to your home and dump your share of toxic mercury right on your front lawn.