And by that I mean that I cannot believe that they are worried about Snowe, sheesh. I really hae to wonder if the dems understand that the reps will never ever be bipartisan.
I have been crusing around just reading what is going on in congress.All I can say right now is that the political leadersip of this country is failing the American people.I’m not sure when this failing started,I’m going to have to think about it. Right off the bat I want to say it started with the Iraq War but I just haven’t completely thought it through. Maybe it was 9/11 that threw this country out of kilter. Right now it’s everyman for himself and the people be damned. We need a French Revolution.
OT FYI
“The body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and occasional teacher, was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky. The Census has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, pending the outcome of the investigation.
Investigators are still trying to determine whether the death was a killing or a suicide, and if a killing, whether the motive was related to his government job or to anti-government sentiment.”
Hi LL, and they are just fine. I’m also part of that site. But it’s just something really that Geo started because he wanted to have something to enjoy. He has said that anyone can come and see it. Here is the link if you are interested.
http://the44diaries.wordpress.com/ It isn’t a site meant to compete with any other site and there are lots of different things that are posted there.
Anyway, I agree with you completely. I just don’t understand what is going on in this country. The dems are in control, but no one wants to take the bull by the horns and do what the American people want them to do. It’s really sickening.
Is it because Bush screwed this country up so badly that it’s going to be difficult to get it back to where it was before he was elected. Meaning Bush. I just don’t know.
My husband just bought a book called “The Healing of America” written by T.R. Reid. A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care.
Betsy I saw T.R. Reid on c-span. I think your husband will be very interested.He investigated five(I think) different systems.He spent time professionally in the UK so he is familar with their system persoanally.He did extensive travel and investigation.
I was just hearing that in the Baucus bill they are cutting 1/2 trillion out of Medicare and will be eliminating some seniors ability to have Medicare Advantage.
Well if it’s true I don’t know how they can spin this one. Pissed off seniors is not something helpful to this effort. Particularly after the President has stated over and over again that seniors will not see their benefits cut, etc.
I absolutely agree with you Betsy about the Baucus bill. I am so discouraged about the whole health care thing. I don’t know if you have been lurking much, but if you have you know how I feel. Don’t need to repeat it all.
Nope, and I’ve been pretty depressed about it too. But I did read what Obama wants, and I also fear they will ignore him. He darn well better get tough with them. I’m really sick of the blue dogs.
Well, have to start dinner. Son and grandkids are coming over for our son’s birthday dinner.
And as far as the lynched census worker with FED scrawled across his chest, I guess we can hang another scalp on O Rielly, Limbaugh, Hannity,Beck and the repugnantklan polititions who have been pushing the hate propaganda about Obama and his radical/socia;ist/communist/facist Federal Government. Hey, but don’t blame THEM, they didn’t kill anybody right?
The health care bill proposed by Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and the committee chairman, seeks to cut $123 billion in payments to private insurance plans that administer health benefits for roughly 10 million Medicare beneficiaries.
By JESSICA GRESKO (AP) – 8 hours ago
On Tuesday, Congress’ chief budget analyst, Douglas Elmendorf, contradicted the White House, saying seniors in Medicare’s managed care plans could see reduced benefits under a bill in the Senate Finance Committee.
btw lux has just written an update in huffpo-aides he knows in wh and others in dc are saying wh not pushing trigger. lux says he got nervous and jumped the gun with his story and has retracted it
I can’t recall the specifics, but in Obama’s interview this weekend with George Steph. …. George specifically asked about the Medicare Advantage cuts and Obama certainly did not deny it… he presented the cuts as cost savings … too much money going to private insurers with Medicare Advantage… he implied that whatever cuts would happen to M Advantage would be made up for with more medicare services… was kind of confusing.
I’m going to jump in here on Medicare Advantage (I’ve been following the comments the last few days and will write more about my own situation). I thought that this is important to understand about Medicare Advantage and reference Maggie Mahar:
The Public Option and the Hope of Health Care Reform
That isn’t to say a public option is just a modified single-payer system. It would be one option among many for individuals and businesses, and would leave the private insurance system in place (you can read more on the benefits of the public option here). But it does crack the door open for expanding the number of Americans who get their health insurance through the government. And this is what terrifies the insurance companies and conservatives. Their fear is that it will actually work. If the program operates well, more and more people will make the rational decision to choose it over private insurance (what we’re supposed to do in a market, after all) and the insurance companies will lose customers.
For all their paeans to the power of private enterprise, we know that private insurers simply can’t compete with the government, because they offer an inferior service at higher prices. We know this because of the example of Medicare, which operates more efficiently than private insurance (Medicare spends only around 2 percent of its costs on overhead, a fraction of what private plans do) and gets higher satisfaction ratings. We also know this because the government set up a program to allow private companies to compete directly with Medicare.
It’s called Medicare Advantage, and the “advantage” was supposed to be that by allowing private companies to handle insurance for Medicare enrollees, costs could be reduced. Using their free-market mojo, the private firms would naturally bring in the coverage at a lower cost than having the big, bureaucratic government do it.
So does it work? Only if by “work,” you mean “do the opposite of what it’s supposed to.” In fact, the government pays insurance companies more to provide a service it is providing to other enrollees for less. According to this recent report by the Commonwealth Fund, in 2008 the government paid Medicare Advantage plans 12.4 percent more per enrollee than it expended to administer traditional Medicare benefits (see this lengthy post by Maggie Mahar that lists the myriad ways Medicare Advantage amounts to an insurance company scam). It’s no accident that the program in its current form was enacted as part of the abomination that was the Republicans’ 2003 Medicare drug bill, a giveaway to insurance and drug companies so lurid it will stand as an eternal monument to legalized corruption. (The bill’s chief architect, Louisiana Congressman Billy Tauzin, left Congress upon its passage to become the president of PhRMA, the lobbying arm of the pharmaceutical industry. Tauzin’s starting salary was reported to be $2 million a year, a well-deserved reward for services rendered.)
So JA – Presumably those on Medicare Advantage would get regular Medicare instead? Advantage is not a supplement to the already existing Medicare (meaning one either has Medicare or Medicare Advantage but not both)? What determines whether someone has Advantage or traditional Medicare?
When I retired I was offered one or the other. I couldn’t figure out why I would want Medicare Advantage. My dad who was still alive at the time told me to stick with Medicare; he thought MA was a total scam based on the stories he heard from his friends who had it. I’m totally happy with Medicare. In addition to Medicare I also opted to keep my government insurance as secondary. Remember Medicare doesn’t cover lab costs. My secondary takes care of that.Check the link out at the WPost. It’s a simple little piece.
I sure as hell hope this isn’t true.
And by that I mean that I cannot believe that they are worried about Snowe, sheesh. I really hae to wonder if the dems understand that the reps will never ever be bipartisan.
I have been crusing around just reading what is going on in congress.All I can say right now is that the political leadersip of this country is failing the American people.I’m not sure when this failing started,I’m going to have to think about it. Right off the bat I want to say it started with the Iraq War but I just haven’t completely thought it through. Maybe it was 9/11 that threw this country out of kilter. Right now it’s everyman for himself and the people be damned. We need a French Revolution.
Hi Betsy:)
How’s Geo? I just learned through another thread that he and audgrl and some others started their own site.
OT FYI
“The body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and occasional teacher, was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky. The Census has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, pending the outcome of the investigation.
Investigators are still trying to determine whether the death was a killing or a suicide, and if a killing, whether the motive was related to his government job or to anti-government sentiment.”
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/23/census-worker-hanged-with_n_297114.html
I just read that djjl, just awful.
Hi LL, and they are just fine. I’m also part of that site. But it’s just something really that Geo started because he wanted to have something to enjoy. He has said that anyone can come and see it. Here is the link if you are interested.
http://the44diaries.wordpress.com/ It isn’t a site meant to compete with any other site and there are lots of different things that are posted there.
Anyway, I agree with you completely. I just don’t understand what is going on in this country. The dems are in control, but no one wants to take the bull by the horns and do what the American people want them to do. It’s really sickening.
Is it because Bush screwed this country up so badly that it’s going to be difficult to get it back to where it was before he was elected. Meaning Bush. I just don’t know.
My husband just bought a book called “The Healing of America” written by T.R. Reid. A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care.
Betsy I saw T.R. Reid on c-span. I think your husband will be very interested.He investigated five(I think) different systems.He spent time professionally in the UK so he is familar with their system persoanally.He did extensive travel and investigation.
Hey folks, look at this – CREW has asked for DOJ investigation of MIKE ROSS – big blue dog:
http://citizensforethics.org/node/42495
Hey djjl -
I was just hearing that in the Baucus bill they are cutting 1/2 trillion out of Medicare and will be eliminating some seniors ability to have Medicare Advantage.
Can you confirm any of that?
kris
I haven’t heard that but I’ll look.
Well if it’s true I don’t know how they can spin this one. Pissed off seniors is not something helpful to this effort. Particularly after the President has stated over and over again that seniors will not see their benefits cut, etc.
That Baucus bill is absolutely horrible.
LL, I probably will swipe it from him to read. But I just got Teddy Kennedy’s memoirs and I do want to read that first.
I absolutely agree with you Betsy about the Baucus bill. I am so discouraged about the whole health care thing. I don’t know if you have been lurking much, but if you have you know how I feel. Don’t need to repeat it all.
Nope, and I’ve been pretty depressed about it too. But I did read what Obama wants, and I also fear they will ignore him. He darn well better get tough with them. I’m really sick of the blue dogs.
Well, have to start dinner. Son and grandkids are coming over for our son’s birthday dinner.
kris
Thats what Forbes and the WSJ. That’s what the insurance companies have been sending out in mailers to medicare/Advantage subscribers. Try this:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_09/020071.php
Kris says: “Well if it’s true I don’t know how they can spin this one.”
Yeah, screw bothering to find out if it’s true or not. Just start repeating those talking points verbatim
And as far as the lynched census worker with FED scrawled across his chest, I guess we can hang another scalp on O Rielly, Limbaugh, Hannity,Beck and the repugnantklan polititions who have been pushing the hate propaganda about Obama and his radical/socia;ist/communist/facist Federal Government. Hey, but don’t blame THEM, they didn’t kill anybody right?
By the way, I heard that the Gov told them to knock off lying about medicare. One of the companies was I think Humana.
From the lying New York Times
The health care bill proposed by Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and the committee chairman, seeks to cut $123 billion in payments to private insurance plans that administer health benefits for roughly 10 million Medicare beneficiaries.
The private insurance plans, known as Medicare Advantage, were originally intended to save money, and the government initially paid them 95 percent of the projected cost of enrollees in traditional Medicare.
http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/medicare-advantage-suddenly-a-battle-with-three-fronts/
From the lying CBO chief budget analyst
By JESSICA GRESKO (AP) – 8 hours ago
On Tuesday, Congress’ chief budget analyst, Douglas Elmendorf, contradicted the White House, saying seniors in Medicare’s managed care plans could see reduced benefits under a bill in the Senate Finance Committee.
btw lux has just written an update in huffpo-aides he knows in wh and others in dc are saying wh not pushing trigger. lux says he got nervous and jumped the gun with his story and has retracted it
Thanks JimK. I heard a little discussion of it on CNN yesterday. Kind of on the fly, so I appreciate the information from those lying sources.
I can’t recall the specifics, but in Obama’s interview this weekend with George Steph. …. George specifically asked about the Medicare Advantage cuts and Obama certainly did not deny it… he presented the cuts as cost savings … too much money going to private insurers with Medicare Advantage… he implied that whatever cuts would happen to M Advantage would be made up for with more medicare services… was kind of confusing.
Here’s the link to Obama’s discussion of Medicare Advantage:
http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/
I’m going to jump in here on Medicare Advantage (I’ve been following the comments the last few days and will write more about my own situation). I thought that this is important to understand about Medicare Advantage and reference Maggie Mahar:
Here’s the link. You can also find this under Moyers Journal, I think.
http://tinyurl.com/8eom3p
The Public Option and the Hope of Health Care Reform
That isn’t to say a public option is just a modified single-payer system. It would be one option among many for individuals and businesses, and would leave the private insurance system in place (you can read more on the benefits of the public option here). But it does crack the door open for expanding the number of Americans who get their health insurance through the government. And this is what terrifies the insurance companies and conservatives. Their fear is that it will actually work. If the program operates well, more and more people will make the rational decision to choose it over private insurance (what we’re supposed to do in a market, after all) and the insurance companies will lose customers.
For all their paeans to the power of private enterprise, we know that private insurers simply can’t compete with the government, because they offer an inferior service at higher prices. We know this because of the example of Medicare, which operates more efficiently than private insurance (Medicare spends only around 2 percent of its costs on overhead, a fraction of what private plans do) and gets higher satisfaction ratings. We also know this because the government set up a program to allow private companies to compete directly with Medicare.
It’s called Medicare Advantage, and the “advantage” was supposed to be that by allowing private companies to handle insurance for Medicare enrollees, costs could be reduced. Using their free-market mojo, the private firms would naturally bring in the coverage at a lower cost than having the big, bureaucratic government do it.
So does it work? Only if by “work,” you mean “do the opposite of what it’s supposed to.” In fact, the government pays insurance companies more to provide a service it is providing to other enrollees for less. According to this recent report by the Commonwealth Fund, in 2008 the government paid Medicare Advantage plans 12.4 percent more per enrollee than it expended to administer traditional Medicare benefits (see this lengthy post by Maggie Mahar that lists the myriad ways Medicare Advantage amounts to an insurance company scam). It’s no accident that the program in its current form was enacted as part of the abomination that was the Republicans’ 2003 Medicare drug bill, a giveaway to insurance and drug companies so lurid it will stand as an eternal monument to legalized corruption. (The bill’s chief architect, Louisiana Congressman Billy Tauzin, left Congress upon its passage to become the president of PhRMA, the lobbying arm of the pharmaceutical industry. Tauzin’s starting salary was reported to be $2 million a year, a well-deserved reward for services rendered.)
So JA – Presumably those on Medicare Advantage would get regular Medicare instead? Advantage is not a supplement to the already existing Medicare (meaning one either has Medicare or Medicare Advantage but not both)? What determines whether someone has Advantage or traditional Medicare?
whitepaw says:
24 September 2009 at 1:35 pm
When I retired I was offered one or the other. I couldn’t figure out why I would want Medicare Advantage. My dad who was still alive at the time told me to stick with Medicare; he thought MA was a total scam based on the stories he heard from his friends who had it. I’m totally happy with Medicare. In addition to Medicare I also opted to keep my government insurance as secondary. Remember Medicare doesn’t cover lab costs. My secondary takes care of that.Check the link out at the WPost. It’s a simple little piece.
http://tinyurl.com/ybslxhz