MetaFilter posts tagged with healthcare

Health Care Has Passed

reenum — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:01:23 -0800

The House of Representatives just passed the health reform bill in a vote of 220-215.

This one's a keeper!

Taft — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:26:39 -0800

Representative Alan Grayson (Dem- Florida) has recently been supporting the Democrats health care plan. Well, 'support' is an understatement. His first speech on the subject outlined the Republicans plan: "Don't get sick. And if you do, die quickly." After mass outrage from the GOP, Grayson made an apology, but not to the GOP. Instead, he apologized to the 44,000 Americans who die each year due to lack of insurance. Yesterday, Grayson took the floor and named the number of people expected to die in each Republican representative district. This time, the Republicans tried to stop him.

Walkin' Tall

Taft — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:17:37 -0800

Health Care debate summarized via massive pig

Rip off.

gman — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:35:23 -0800

An insurance industry CEO explains why health care in the U.S. costs so much. Full set of charts here (1.29 mb pdf)

Sen. Lieberman (I - Aetna).

markkraft — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:28:11 -0800

Joe Lieberman... Deal or No Deal?! (SLYT) A campaign ad for Ned Lamont has suddenly become very relevant, considering Sen. Joe Lieberman's recent statement threatening to block any health care legislation with a public option. "I accused him of, after 20 years, dithering on that topic," said Ned Lamont yesterday. "As far as I can tell, a filibuster is one more dither."

google ron wyden

kliuless — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:42:28 -0800

Health care around the world
-Hawaii: The state has had success over 35 years of requiring employers to provide health care benefits.
-Singapore: Its health care is first class, cheap and market-driven.
-Taiwan: "more than 80 percent of the population is happy with the system"
-China: "300 million people have no coverage at all"
-Dutch: "America is going to go Dutch"
-US: "I just wanted to flag for colleagues that their bosses should be careful using the talking point that under the Dem bill, Americans who don't like the coverage they have, will be able to choose something else... more than 90 percent of Americans will remain barred from shopping for insurance in the exchange."

Do you want to die in jail?

ChurchHatesTucker — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:01:19 -0800

They were very resentful about people in prison for horrendous crimes getting better medical care than their families.

Your roots are showing

sloe — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:10:00 -0800

Rachel Maddow interviews Americans for Prosperity's Tim Phillips. Rachel Maddow questions the validity of Americans for Prosperity claim to be a grassroots organization - as well as the ethics of AFP president Tim Phillips. She is not the first to do so. Previous interview of Tim Phillips with Chris Matthews.

Health care plan clears major hurdle

reenum — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:34:23 -0800

The Senate Finance Committee has approved the plan proposed by Max Baucus.

The blue state Sarah Palin

IvoShandor — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:01:56 -0800

Michelle Cottle takes a look at the rise of Betsy "Death Panels" McCaughey - No Exit: The never-ending lunacy of Betsy McCaughey: Since her earliest days in the spotlight, McCaughey has presented herself as a just-the-facts-please, above-the-fray political outsider. In reality, she has proved devastatingly adept at manipulating charts and stats to suit her ideological (and personal) ambitions. No stranger to falsehoods Elizabeth "Betsy" McCaughey, played a pivotal role in the takedown of the Clinton health care reform plan in 1994, on the very same pages that Cottle's piece appeared on October 5. The assertions she made in that '94 piece were shown to have been heavily influenced by Big Tobacco in a recent Rolling Stone piece (excerpt only), and were debunked far too late by James Fallows. McCaughey responded to those accusations by attacking Rolling Stone for accepting tobacco advertisements. The RS journalist responded in kind, pointing out, among other items, a thank-you letter to The Tobacco Institute for their help in getting the Pataki/McCaughey ticket elected in New York's 1994 gubernatorial race. (Previously)

I could probably afford better insurance if I wasn't paying for theirs.

sio42 — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:53:52 -0800

What kind of health insurance would you have as a federal government employee? The Office of Personnel Management would like to help you decide among the gazillion plan choices you have. Perhaps you are a Congress member? Then head on down to the Attending Physician of the United States, "It's one of the, quote, benefits of being in Congress," Kagen said. "They have physicians and nurses that will see you on the spot, on the beck and call." (link to single page print version). from the article quoting Kagen...

"But while [Rep Steve] Kagen touted in campaign advertisements and news interviews that he had no insurance coverage, he openly admitted he used OAP services. In January, for example, he paid more than $4,000 out of pocket for outpatient arthroscopic knee surgery. After the procedure, he said, he used the attending physician's office and staff to assist him with physical therapy."

Wikipedia on the Office of Attending Physician A NYT editorial on why we can't all have the same health care as Congress - and how we could possibly all have better care.

Congress’s health plan pays for routine expenses like office visits and vaccinations, for example, which is like auto insurance covering oil changes or new windshield wipers. As a result, the premiums are steep — upwards of $13,000 a year for a family (69 percent of which is paid by the government). To provide the 50 million Americans who are now uninsured with such a plan would require scary tax increases.

Sick money

twoleftfeet — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 04:40:52 -0800

The same billionaires for Bush are baaaaack, and now they want to profit from health care.

insurance companies need our support

philip-random — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:14:14 -0800

something terrible is happening

Whoops

shakespeherian — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:53:06 -0800

How my factual error found its way into Obama's health care speech.

The Endless National Health-Care Discussion

Hypnotic Chick — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:26:44 -0800

Senate Finance Chair Max Baucus has released the "chairman's mark" (his draft) of health-care legislation, America's Healthy Future Act. Candidate John Edwards laid out the foundations of the health-care reform debate during the 2008 Presidential Campaign. These ideas were debated throughout the primaries and general election. After the election, key ideas were selected and organized by the Obama administration into a number of guiding principals which were presented to the legislature as direction regarding the kind of reform he'd be interested in passing. The House of Representatives tasked three committees to draft and pass the detailed language by which the principals would be made into a program (Energy/Commerce, Ways/Means, Education/Labor). Working together, all three committees basically agreed on the same language earlier this summer...HR3200 (aka America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009). On the Senate side, two committees were tasked with drafting and passing the relevant language. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions had drafted and passed their own version of health care reform. Four committees wrote, debated and passed health-care reform language. Today, the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee released its first draft. This document will be debated by the Finance Committee, changed (if needed), then voted upon by the whole committee. Then the party begins. Each house will need to debate the legislation passed by their respective committees. 23 Democrats in the House have voiced some opposition to the House bills. A few Democratic Senators have expressed doubts about certain aspects of reform as well, most notably the so-called public option. If/when both houses pass their versions of the legislation, the bills would be debated by a select group of Senators and Representatives in conference committee, who would then need to re-write (probably) and pass the final bill to be signed by the President (or not). This Youtube clip is an informative take on the back-and-forth that successful legislative efforts must undergo. The current health-care reform effort is at about 1:10 on the timer.

"I've got two kidneys, and he needs one..."

albrecht — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:44:33 -0800

Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) is a genetic disorder affecting 600,000 Americans and 12.5 million people worldwide. Large cysts grow on the kidneys causing urinary problems, elevated blood pressure, and eventually renal failure. Although there is no cure for PKD, patients are generally good candidates for kidney transplants. For patients on Medicare, the transplants are covered, but the needed anti-rejection medication is not after 3 years. The health care bill [pdf] currently in the House contains a provision to change that. The PKD Foundation is also in the running to receive $50k worth of "co-branded advertisement" through Intel's Vote for a Cause promotion on Facebook. Surviving PKD is one man's story of living with PKD from diagnosis to transplant.

Heathcare News: Public option hangs in the balance, Is reform without it even a good idea?

delmoi — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:12:13 -0800

"Employer Requirement in Baucus Health Package Would Have Unintended Effect of Discouraging Hiring of Low-Income and Minority Workers." Robert Reich channels his inner Don Draper to sell the public option, while Josh Marshall wonders if the current plans are even a good idea. Rep. Raul Grijalva claims that progressives in the house arn't Prepared to Surrender on the public option, and Obama's Speech before congress is tomorrow. Grijalva is one of the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who wrote to the president claiming that that they wouldn't support a bill without a public option on September 3rd (after the whitehouse started signaling that they wanted to drop the public option) On September 4th, Pelosi said that without a public option wouldn't pass the house, but today she moderated that somewhat, saying that the public option was the best option "For the moment". and People are talking a lot about so-called "triggers". Also, a lot of people are pointing out that the "Baccus Plan" from the senate finance committee would yield a health-care system Much like Switzerland's system but in fact, while Switzerland has no public option, it also has no private health insurance companies participating in the mandatory market (and it's still one of the most expensive)

He's good enough, he's smart enough, and doggone it, people like him.

jbickers — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:11:29 -0800

Al Franken shows a revolutionary way to deal with an upset crowd - talk to them like adults.

A Day Without Ceiling Cat Watching, Without Keyboard Cat Playing You Off

wendell — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:54:51 -0800

A Day Without Cats on the Internet Because why should all the fun on 09/09/09 be for Beatles fans, Apple geeks, 99-cent-store customers and post-apocalyptic steampunk ragdolls. Oh, and also President Obama. Is there anybody NOT doing something special on 09/09/09? Maybe... Satan? (long boring talk by nutcase about Large Hadron Collider and Nostrdamus) Just for giggles, here's Yahoo Answers on the significance of the date. (OMG TERRISTS!!! )

DeathPanels.org: The Disturbing Details Behind Health Care Reform!!1!!

tylerfulltilt — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 22:25:40 -0800

People are starting to get a little worn out on Healthcare coverage, or at least, a little worn out on the way it's been covered. Thank god our own grrarrgh00 isn't listening. Because someone has to spread the truth about Obama's nazi socialist communist granny killing satanist witchcraft healthcare reform.

1. It's all socialized out there!

blue_beetle — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:17:34 -0800

5 Myths About Health Care Around the World by T.R. Reid (Washington Post)

Healthcare on 4 Napkins.

lunit — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:55:16 -0800

The healthcare debate explained on the back of 4 napkins. Napkin 1: The health care equation. Napkin 2: It's not about health care. Napkin 3: The plans on the table. Napkin 4: What's it mean to me?

Goodbye, Teddy

ocherdraco — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:40:58 -0800

Edward M. Kennedy, Senator from Massachusetts, has died at age 77. After a rocky youth (including scandals of cheating and reckless driving), Kennedy followed his brothers into politics, making health care his cause, and eventually went on to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Anticipating his own death, he had been trying to create a quick transition for his replacement as a vote on health care reform rapidly approached.

With whom it starts

Blazecock Pileon — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:43:09 -0800

Healthcare reform has agitated right-wing extremists and moneyed interests in the United States for some time — during the presidencies of FDR and Truman as well as Clinton and Obama, most recently — but where do the objections originate from, and particularly those which are known to be based on complete untruths? Some of these lies start with or are repeated by well-known right-wing media personalities, but there are other people who get the ball rolling, who are perhaps less well-known. Elizabeth "Betsy" McCaughey originated one of the current myths more commonly known as "death panels", but despite her attempts to market herself as a folksy voice fighting for the well-being of senior citizens, she has been an effective advocate for the interests of private health insurance companies since the early 1990s. In The Atlantic's fascinating overview Triumph of Misinformation, award-winning journalist James Fallows follows the Clinton administration's failed attempt to pass healthcare reform, during which McCaughey spread a false claim about the Clinton proposal actively preventing patients from going outside the government system for treatment. Her fictitious story was quickly picked up and amplified by the mainstream media, with devastating effect. Her own version was entitled No Exit: What The Clinton Plan Will Do For You and was printed in The New Republic. Despite its publication, it contained so many inaccuracies that the magazine's former editors have all since disowned the piece (though Andrew Sullivan still lauded it up until two years ago). In an essay published on Bloomberg.com in February (and in several essays and letters since), she attempted to promulgate another lie in which hospitals and doctors under an Obama-led plan would be penalized for failing to contribute patient data to a federal health database, eliminating patient privacy and enforcing uniformity in treatment. This falsehood did not appear to gain as much traction as her subsequent "death panel" myth. After scrutiny following a critical two-part interview (full, extended version part 1 and part 2) (Flash req'd) with Jon Stewart this past Thursday, McCaughey resigned today from a vaguely described position with Cantel Medical, a private heathcare product corporation.

He says every patient is a golden trout. We need to go get those trout.

parudox — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:53:57 -0800

The Deadly Cost of Swooping In to Save a Life (single-page version): Deregulation and America's health care system combine to make medical helicopters increasingly dangerous.