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4/9/2008
I'm too stupid - you too.
Jack Lohman’s constant droning of Medicare-for-all received a hearing here Monday – with quite a comment string. It doesn’t hurt that Jack just sticks to the issue like March mud.
Jack waved the banner for Healthy Wisconsin and did his typical cut-the-insurance-company-sinners stuff. Ok, I’m used to that. I (as I always do) asked him how Healthy Wisconsin controlled the cost of health care (not health insurance).
So Jack gets into this thing of blaming not only the money-grubbing insurance executives but also money-grubbing and (apparently) dishonest docs.
Here’s John P., calling Lohman to task:
I find it funny, that in not one case, do you find any fault with the health care user? Blame the provider. I always find it amusing, that someone who is not a doctor or a nurse, thinks they know how to solve the problems with health care.
And Jane:
I'm (sick and) tired of funding other people's inability to take responsibility for their own life. I'm all for helping the indigent and unemployed in their time of need, but let's make it the exception instead of the rule.
So Jack says “the patient is not totally clean in this, but profit-making equipment is the bigger culprit” (again, those money-grubbing physicians).
So I described my son in the emergency room Sunday night.
Pete fell when unconscious and sustained a very large contusion on his forehead. We asked for an ice pack and got it. Then the P.A. (or R.N., I don't know his title) told us the attending physician might want to order a cat-scan. We'd already said no to an (VERY expensive) EEG, as one had been done recently. We said if the scan is really needed, ok, we of course would agree to it. But we want to hear from the M.D. before it's ordered - and want to thoroughly understand other options (like 24-hour observation, for example).
That's not because we don't care for our son's health - of course not. It's because we are very aware of medical costs, have relatively high medical costs year to year and work hard to be responsible consumers of health care.
So then Jack tells me I’m too stupid to help figure this out.
And why did you avoid this very expensive EEG? There could have been important changes that you now don't know about. You are very responsible consumers of health care. Why didn’t you price shop?
Jo, the point I’m making is that I don’t care how good you are or think you are, your questioning your doctor and keeping him gun shy because you're “watching over him,” may someday backfire and you or one of your loved ones will get hurt. I’d rather that we eliminate the financial conflicts of interest and let doctors be doctors.
What? Questioning a doctor makes him gun shy? Why didn’t I price shop? And just have the system do whatever, no matter the cost? No. No.
You've gone too far Jack. My husband and I constantly price shop. We also know (much better than you) that our son does NOT need an EEG every other second. Price shop? Ok, so I price shop. So an EEG costs $2,000 instead of $3,000. Do you want to pay for it?
So Jack proceeds to share all the pitfalls of price shopping in health care. Geez.
….Yes, Jo. I’m saying that 95% of the public are (sic) not educated enough in all fields of medicine to second-guess their physicians.
Here’s the point Jack. We are not too dumb to question and monitor our own health care. And not only are we not too dumb, we are absolutely smarter than the government.
Yes, doctors of course, are our medical experts. We could not do without them. (My daughter is one of them!). But doggone it, we all must do what it takes to become much more responsible health care consumers.
It's called the market. It's called personal responsibility. It's called one's checkbook. Not just the checkbook of some benevolent bill-payer in the sky. Contrary to Jack’s rants and raves, a ton of provider cost and quality information is being made available to all of us, slowly but surely. This, for example, from yesterday’s FoxPolitics News - Hospitals: 1st nat'l survey of patient satisfaction. The study is here.
Ok, quickly – a completely different subject. How about this for an admission? (More of Jack from yesterday…)
The Canadian “system” is superb, but it is underfunded. They spend half what we do “per patient,” 10% of GDP versus our 16% of GDP. Healthy Wisconsin is a similar structure with proper funding and no wait times.
Great. The Canadian system with lots more money. HW absolutely must be stopped.
COMMENTS
The high cost of health care in this country is not overuse. The system we have is not a system. It is a bloated mess. If it is to be examined as to where the money is, look at hospital costs, administrative costs etc. on down. That is where the big money and the waste is. Blaming the consumer is the same as blaming car accident victims done by the auto manufacturers in order to prevent mandated seatbelts. "if they didn't drive improperly then they wouldn't have died"....
There are examples all over the world about successful healthcare systems all of which cost less than ours. Do they have a manic culture of blaming the user? No. They look at the whole system top to bottom. The only area where the customer does have a huge choice/impact is end of life care where huge expenditures are made on patients whose prognosis is only marginally improved. I've seen this happen and the statistics show it. Why don't all those blame the consumer advocates make a pledge that when they're terminally ill they will never take expensive treatment unless it has a 75% change of cure or 2 year life extension?
dave allen (Wed Apr 09 07:37:36 2008)
Sounds like some out there are not aware that Canada is in the midst of doing away with their system. Their Parliament called it a civil rights violation and have now allowed private, for profit, clinics to spring up. New ones every day. Before that nearly a third of Canadians couldn't get a family doctor or had to wait months, even years for services of a doctor.
(At a huge cost to the taxpayers in Canada). I don't think we want to go that direction.
John Hyland (Wed Apr 09 09:03:45 2008)
Dave:
Your analogy regarding car accidents is not even close to being on point. I am not blaming just the user, all of hands in high health care costs.
I have worked in both the hospital setting and in doctors offices. Much of the waste that is happening can be blamed on all of the red tape involved, by insurance companies and the government. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen people overuse the system. They want this test done or that test done, etc. I am not saying doctors and hospitals are blameless, because they are not, but until you have actually worked in the trenches and see what goes on before you spout off things you may know nothing about.
People always want to compare the U.S to other countries regarding health care, fine, then compare apples to apples. What is the legal environment, public attitude toward healthiness, how is higher education paid for, what are the policies for extra ordinary measures in the beginning or end of life? It is very easy to look at statistics and intepret them the way you want.
Many doctors are sick of dealing with insurance companies and the government and are just taking cash. I think there are many problems with our healthcare systems and there is blame on all sides, but I am sick of hearing that 99.9% of the problem is the healthcare industry and not the people who use it. Because that is not true.
William (Wed Apr 09 10:29:53 2008)
You have a link for that assertion about Canada?
Keith Schmitz (Wed Apr 09 12:27:23 2008)
BTW Jo, luv that personal responsibility nonsense.
Try telling that to a kid born with birth defects. Tell that to someone who contacts cancer, to someone involved in a car crash. I am on the verge of diabetes which means if my wife changes jobs the preexisting condition means no insurance coverage at all.
The real problem of personal responsibility are the actors -- for profit hospitals pretending to by non-profit, drug companies and insurance companies -- who have their hand out every step of the way.
Smart is not supporting this current system or the fantasy of "consumer health care which has worked no where on a large scale except in some people's minds.
Keith Schmitz (Wed Apr 09 12:34:02 2008)
Here's a link Jack provided in his Canada comments quoted above (the original comments are here, near the bottom of the page).
The mention of personal responsibility applies across the board. A culture of personal responsibility doesn't mean nobody gets sick. It doesn't mean that when one is ill, it's brought about by one's life style. Not at all. It means that whatever level of health care is needed, one is knowledgeable about the options and considers costs and risks together. Does that mean when your son breaks two legs falling out of a tree or is in a serious auto accident, you sit on the phone getting price quotes? No, of course not.
But where there is more than one option that can be considered (which is very often the case), and/or where care is elective, it's important that we all make inquiries that will address tradeoffs and costs.
Jo E. (Wed Apr 09 14:26:16)
Mythbusting Canadian Healthcare – Part 1
Mythbusting Canadian Healthcare – Part II
Debunking The Free Marketers
But, again, Healthy Wisconsin is NOT a Canadian system as such. It is similar only because they both have eliminated the costly insurance bureaucracy. HW provides more extensive care and lets the patient opt into a healthcare network (like DeanCare). It spends more money and thus eliminates the wait times. But I suppose we could reduce spending below our current 16% of GDP and add wait times if that satisfies the opponents.
Jack Lohman (Wed Apr 09 14:43:12)
Jack:
I could link articles that debunk the system in canada. In fact there are a number of lawsuits in Canada to allow private insurers. Patients from Canada are coming here for care. The article you link to is from a liberal blog. Please post something from an independent group with no bias (if there is such a thing). The system we have now is not a free market system. I do not think we could have a total free market system in health care.
We need to provide incentives to decrease waste in health care and increase quality. Look at what is being done at ThedaCare in the Fox Valley and Mercy Health Care systems in Janesville. These are medical systems that are trying to improve the system, by eliminating waste and improve quality. They should be examples for the rest of the country.
As I side note I do not work for either system. I am very knowledgeable in health, having worked in it for 35 years.
ThedaCare's work addressing waste and system errors was featured last weekend in the Journal Sentinel - and included in FoxPolitics News.
ThedaCare: taking costs out of the system(3/31/2008)
ThedaCare finds and corrects waste - and risks (4/5/2008)
JE
William (Wed Apr 09 15:06:01 2008)
The health care crisis has many aspects and it is difficult to define and correct all of the problems at once. Not only that, it is unwise to try to do so. And it is impossible to succeed in properly correcting everything at once. Especially while the apparatus is in use 24 -7.
Excellent health care can certainly be obtained in the USA. The health care apparatus here is working every day, and almost all of us depend upon it (whether we know it or use it right now, or not). So, like a critically important, dependable, working machine, that is needed every minute of every day, we dasn't shut it down and take all the pieces apart and try to get complete agreement from everybody about how to start over again and (this time) make a completely perfect machine. And we would be fools to try to correct human nature by tinkering with the health care system
There are problems with human nature. We are afflicted with varying degrees of laziness, lack of intelligence, poor judgment, loneliness, and lack of caring for others. There are problems with unbridled greed, fraud, and corruption. There are those of us who are our own worst enemies, who knowingly or carelessly bring on some of the very problems that afflict us.
We can't fix those things by "fixing" the health care system. Any more than we can fix those things, or eliminate those problems, by establishing municipal public safety (police and fire) departments. If lightning strikes, there they are, the cops and the firemen, whether or not you are a fine, upstanding, careful, intelligent, responsible, cost-conscious citizen, who "never" needs the police, and whose home "never" catches fire, and who has never suffered the foul and fickle hand of fate or an act of God.
When looked at closely, some of the problems afflicting the US health care system are quite serious, and some are relatively very small. There is no sense in replacing a slightly leaking valve cover gasket while ignoring the hole in the bottom of the crankcase. It's a tragedy to search for and treat an allergy while ignoring the evidence of a potentially metastasizing cancer. Someone who knows better, but who continually talks only about the relatively small causes of the problem, and never talks about, or denies the great big cause, is trying to distract us with a red herring. That would be political, legislative, or journalistic malpractice.
One example is the problem of people seeking and overusing health care services they don't need because they don't have to pay much out of pocket for them. Careful studies have shown that such cost is dwarfed by the cost to all of us of people not getting preventive health care, and people waiting to seek help until a condition gets much worse, because of the initial out of pocket cost.
An example provided in a previous comment described a family suspecting something was a little off, and getting an appointment to check whether the prescribed medications were correct. If the patient or family had postponed asking that question of the physician because of the anticipated cost of asking, and the medications had not been changed, and the condition worsened, then much higher costs and/or consequences may have resulted.
The consensus is that, by far, the greatest problem with health care in the USA is cost and availability.
Cost is a big problem because health care costs in the USA are much higher per capita than in any other of the 44 other countries in the world that have better measurable health care outcomes than we do. And those health care costs, administered by the private insurance industry, and paid by employers, have been making American industry unable to compete in international free-trade if they hire American workers.
Availability is a big problem because the apparatus administered and controlled by the private insurance industry has too many loopholes and exclusions and fine print, and close to 50 million people with no insurance at all, and at least another 50 million with entirely inadequate policies. Pre-existing conditions, loss of employment, change of mind about insurance benefits by current employer, excluded medical care and exempted conditions, ya da ya da. The US health care administrative apparatus is like playing Russian roulette for many American working families.
The biggest cause (not the only one, but the biggest one, by far) of both of these problems, is the private insurance industry control and administration of the health care apparatus.
All people need health care to achieve, maintain, and (if necessary) restore health.
We in the USA have been conditioned to mistakenly equate health insurance with health care. They're two different things.
The problems with our health care system (cost, administration, denial of needed care, and focus on restoring health) started with, and cannot be corrected with, our health insurance apparatus.
The primary competitive incentive of each corporation in the health insurance industry is to cut costs and increase profits by restricting and denying health care to those that need it.
We don’t need, and can no longer afford, private health insurance corporations controlling our health care.
It’s about values - marketplace values and the value of certain stocks and investments, versus human values, family values and the value of life and health. Which side are YOU on?
The reality is that insisting on a health care apparatus that provides or denies health care depending on the current state of one's ability to pay, costs the U.S. MORE than it would cost to have a health care system that provides comprehensive health care to all. More, in terms of the total dollars spent. More in terms of the percentage of GDP. More dollars per capita. Lots more. Not to mention more ill health , more untreated and worsening conditions, more unnecessary death and disability. Why would anyone want America to pay more for that? But that is exactly what we are doing, and it is only getting much worse until we fix the one biggest problem we face with regards to health care in the USA. That problem is the stranglehold of the insurance industry on our health care.
For more information, and for sources and references you can check, please go to my blog, and click on the category on the right side of the page, "Health care crisis-health source info."
clyde winter (Wed Apr 09 16:44:04 2008)
Jo, you absolutely must get off of this kick that the “government” is going to be treating patients, which you don’t say outright but you imply. That is not true with Medicare and it will not be true with Healthy Wisconsin. Neither is it true with the Canadian system. It is plain false reporting.
I could go on to justify why 95% of Canadians prefer their system to ours. I could provide links to doctor groups and patient groups that support their system over ours.
But what’s the use? The proposed Healthy Wisconsin is NOT Canada’s, it is better because it provides more care and it does so without their wait times. And it does it without your beloved insurance bureaucracy draining 31% of healthcare resources. (My earlier article provided the resources to those numbers, but you can see a list HERE and HERE.)
You say that I blame the big, bad doctors, and 20% I do. See this article from a doctor that agrees with me, and read the books by other doctors who also support my claim.
But even the 20% of wasteful doctors are nowhere near being the major drain. It is the “system” and of profits and deregulation our politicians have been complicit in perpetuating.
And John, it wasn’t Parliament it was their Supreme Court, fueled by right wing front groups that were funded by the insurance industry that have dollar signs in their eyes. In the cases where Canadians couldn’t get a family doctor there were no family doctors! They lived in no-man’s land.
But again, HW is NOT a Canadian system! It is a different way of paying for the same health care we’ve always gotten.
And this “huge cost to the taxpayers in Canada” is HALF the cost Americans pay! I could tolerate that.
Jack Lohman (wed Apr 09 10:30:30)
Jack:
Give me a break. If someone does not agree with you, or points out something, they are part of a right-wing front group. I am so sick of hearing this and it makes you sound like a wacko. It is funny that the people who are touting HW are leftwing front groups. Your links are to progressive (liberal blogs). Sometimes I think you are getting paid by the Senate Democrats. When the Government controls the money, as they will under HW, they will be in control of health care, just as you say the insurance companies are now. In fact, it will be worse, since the government is the only game in town. Call me a right-winger I do not care. You might think that is better, but I do not. I do not trust the Government and their political agendas, both on the right and the left.
William (Wed Apr 09 17:12:41 2008)
Jeez, I leave you kids alone for two days and you're at each other's throats.
Good, you didn't need me to make the points. This is one of the best threads going. And it shows that Fox Politics doesn't have to be just a sounding board for the extreme right wing agenda.
Tailgunner Jo takes them all on. That's right, a reference to our homeboy McCarthy. I think the day is dawning where there will be a true alternative voice heard around here and that the debate won't be so one-sided.
What is clear is that 30 or so years ago the insurance companies said they could do it cheaper the privatized way. That was a lie then as it is now.
Also in the old days, avarice was considered a vice not a virtue. The holders of securities in their 401k's are just as guilty as the CEO's in profiting from peoples misery.
Lon Ponschock (Wed Apr 09 22:24:39 2008)
Your doctor recommended the EEG or catscan because our current system pushes him to do so.
Consider this: (1) if he doesn't recommend it and later something is found wrong, he'll get his medical pants sued off; (2) if you say yes, he makes more money; and (3) you're probably not paying for it, so what do you care anyway.
In your case, the 'system' worked perfectly. You said 'I care' because I am paying for it, so thank you, but based on the remote probability of the test revealing anything (per Dr. X), we'll pass. In doing so, you just relieved the good Dr. X from liability.
Tort reform would lessen medical costs significantly because the current system pushes doctors to excessively examine (CYA testing).
Brian Murray (Thu Apr 10 11:13:18 2008)
Jo, why don’t we get off this kick of Canada? Let’s talk about Healthy Wisconsin. They are two different issues.
I applaud Theda Clark for cutting costs, and if those savings are passed on to the patient, even better. The Bulton articles confirmed what I have on my blog, that 50% of health care costs are waste.
Maybe if we save enough we’ll be able to avoid sending patients to India, as John Torinus points to.
I’m surprised to hear that you had 35 years in health care. Administration or nursing? One of your other bloggers has a spouse that is a physician, so I’m surprised s/he opposes HW. 59% of physicians support it.
Jack Lohman (Wed Apr 09 17:49:23)
Jack, I think it was "William" not Jo, who asserted he had "worked in it (health care) for 35 years".
I made a careful comment on this subject today, but mistakenly posted it to the end of the comments on the article Jack wrote on April 7, asking what the proposed smoking ban and Healthy Wisconsin have in common. I think I succeeded in poking a couple-three holes in the crankcase of the arguments made there.
Who says we're stupid?
Thank you, Jo, for presenting this forum. I guess most readers think that the health care controversy is more important than smoking in public places.
clyde winter (Wed Apr 09 20:13:34 2008)
When people can be KICKED OUT OF ER's for coming there with trivial complaints--the way they can be in the UK--then I'll believe that the "users" are not at least partly to blame.
Thanks to EMTALA, we have to see every jerk that shows up. Like the one that came for a tax-payer-funded pregnancy test, even though she was told she could get a free one at the public health dept., because "she didn't feel like going to the public health". Or the one who came to ER at 10:30 PM, for a shoulder injury...that happened TWO YEARS AGO. I could go on.
If I could wave a magic wand, and have it my way, there would be no insurance companies--except for catastrophic. There would be no outrageous malpractice suits, so MDs wouldn't order tests "because of the invisible lawyer" looking over their shoulders. There would be no wasters in ER, because we could turn them away. Doctors could advertise fees, and patients would pay them directly, much as you pay a plumber.
In fact, I'd turn the clock back to the early 1900s, before Congress made such a mess of things. If the state and US budgets are running in the red, why should I trust them to manage health care costs?
emily matthews (Fri Apr 11 17:32:45 2008)
I love it Emily.
Jo E. (Fri Apr 11 17:37:36)
Emily, you are absolutely correct that frivolous ER visits must be eliminated, with or without Healthy Wisconsin. HW will do that by providing patients with a family doctor that they now cannot afford.
Going back to the early 1900s when life expectancy was near 50 seems not to be the right answer, though I understand your frustration. And as a nurse you can easily see what the for-profit health care system has done as CEOs have cut the nurse-to-patient ratios, which has the positive of increasing profits (and CEO salaries), and the negatives of driving nurses out of the profession.
HW would be administered by a nonpartisan health care board rather that the CEO method of running medicine. I’d also point out that nursing associations around the country (including Wisconsin’s) support HW-like systems.
The problem with catastrophic-only insurance is that people will stay away from doctors until their diseases are more costly to treat or become untreatable. Jim K has described HW in more detail HERE (last comment) and it is an excellent alternative to the mish-mash we now have. For the same amount of dollars we are spending today we could provide first class care to 100% of the people with appropriate co-pays and deductibles.
And you are also correct in criticizing the malpractice system; it should be replaced by a three-person medical court.
Jack Lohman (Sat Apr 12 05:35:38 2008)
William, the right wing front groups I speak of are The Pacific Research Institute and Fraser Institute, both of whom receive funds from the insurance industry and "work" the system in Canada to open it to private medicine to circumvent their Medicare system. That, in opposition to the 85% of Canadians that prefer their system to ours. Forces are even attempting to further underfund the system to drive public opinion against it, but they have failed to alter its support.
Here’s a list of the left wing groups, and you’d have to admit that their motives are a bit different.
Canadian Doctors for Medicare
Canadian Health Coalition
Canadian "Mythbusters"
Canadian Health Services Research Foundation
The Lefties in the states are:
Physicians for a National Health Program
American Medical Student Association
And hundreds of nursing associations across the nation.
And Clyde, you are right. This says it all:
“It’s about values - marketplace values and the value of certain stocks and investments, versus human values, family values and the value of life and health. Which side are YOU on?”
Jack Lohman (Thu Apr 10 1:35:35)
Emily, you, and your thoughts, are great.
Jo E. (Sat Apr 12 22:16:15)
Ah, the Beveridge fallacy resurrected! Back when the MP Beveridge was pushing for Britain's National Health Service, he claimed the same as you, Jack...that "if only folks had better access to primary care, they wouldn't end up needing more expensive care later on". The fallacy is now famously named after him, as the Brits know only too well.
Re "they can't afford a dr"--everyone on welfare has access to a family dr (FMD) for free--I know first hand, as was on welfare for 5 months some time ago. The problem is, they often (usually) "don't feel like going" (exact words) to their FMD. Even some insured people do this. There is the perception that "I don't have to pay so I don't care".
Farmers are those who are truly under-insured. Yet every time we've had a farmer as a patient (usually for an amputation or fracture) their concern has not been cost, but "who's going to do the chores?" I have never heard them whining about cost, but some of those with insurance have complained re their co-pay!
Re health care as it is, "driving RNs out of the profession...we are retiring, not quitting. The AVERAGE age for RNs is 49-50. The problem is lack of work ethic. Too many younger people "don't want to work weekends".
Re "life expectancy"--I am shocked that people still don't seem to realize that high infant mortality pulls down life expectancy. What about the people who outlived their first five years? Da Vinci died at age 67 in the early 1500s! And I think you know what I meant re the early 1900s: I'd like the politics to be as non-invasive as back then.
Re "nursing associations"--they are heavily populated with "academia nuts" and political pollies, not rank-and-file RNs. I informally polled my coworkers, and NONE of us is in the WNA.
Re "nonpartisans" running a hospital, given the state of the US and WI budget, why should I trust that idea? They'd make it worse! If you think our RN to pt ratio is bad, try what it was in the UK when I lived there...1 to 20 or 30!
EMILY MATTHEWS (Sat Apr 12 23:05:15 2008)
I don't believe you understood what I said in previous posts. I don't especially like the status quo, but the thought of govt having even more to do w-health care, is even worse. if insurance co's waste 31%, how much more would govt? I don't see them balancing the books on Medicare/aid any time soon!
I agree that the insurance co's are a problem, which is why I'd like to go back to patients paying dr's DIRECTLY. The trouble is, when people say "the free market doesn't work", they are referring to the current US system--WHICH IS MOST CERTAINLY NOT A FREE MARKET. If the middlemen were cut out, whether they be insurance companies or politicians, and people had to pay DIRECTLY, there would be true improvement.
Re infant mortality, the US has a higher percentage of premature births, and more early births are actually counted as infants. Eg, a 30-week infant would be counted as a preemie here, whereas in the UK, a baby born at that gestation is a "miscarriage". We also have a higher population of those with multiples; again, earlier births. And, whether you like it or not, some people just aren't going to be responsible...like our former downstairs neighbors, who preferred drugs to health care. All her kids were born early, at taxpayer expense. In other words, if you don't turn up to your appointment, I guess you "don't have health care".
Where do you get this stuff? As I said, I HAD Medicaid for 5 months, and NEVER had trouble getting appointments! I can tell you MANY people who come to ER, already had an appt and admitted as such, but "didn't feel like going". Or we make one FOR THEM, then they turn up the next day in ER again, saying they "didn't make it" to the appt.
What makes you think we're NOT "operated by politicians"? EMTALA was cooked up by politicians. It forces us to see, at taxpayer expense, every Bozo that turns up (like someone who chewed their fentanytl patches, became comatose, and spent quite a bit of time and of OUR money, in ER and ICU).
Medicare/aid was a politicians' idea. They tell us how long we may keep pt's, and after that they get kicked out even if not well. They tell us how much we get paid. (not much; if all pt's were Medicare/aid, we'd go out of business--our costs wouldn't be covered, and we are a not-for-profit nun-run hospital!)
My mother-in-law is currently dying in the UK, because nobody would see her for months. She kept getting weaker and falling, but my bro-in-law was tols "she's just getting old". Finally he got her into a hospital, where they discovered she has a tumor in the esophagus, preventing her from eating or drinking. And then they discharged her. She's on a waiting list to have a procedure TO ALLOW HER TO EAT... She'll likely be passed away before that, starved to death.
As to farmers, I'm glad you wish "there were more" of us. But you cannot blame "free market" when agribusiness gets government to legislate the small guys out of business! We aren't even supposed to butcher out own animals anymore, just for ourselves! Both parties are involved in this wickedness. If you want something to REALLY worry about, check out "Big Sugar", "America:Freedom to Fascism", and "The Future of Food", all online. And check out "The Untold Story of Milk" from your library.
emily matthews (Mon Apr 14 14:29:23 2008)
Yes, true farmers are very responsible and independent. I have great respect for them and wish there were more of them, but they are being driven out by corporate farmers that receive massive taxpayer subsidies. Free market, don’cha know. Perhaps another subject for another day, but how are you liking the food prices that have resulted from the farm takeovers?
But farmers are not the only people without insurance.
Medicaid patients go to the ER because the ER is immediate and most doctors delay appointments for Medicaid patients, if they take them at all. ER’s should not be required to take non-emergency cases (I didn’t think they did, and that all they had to do was stabilize patients, not even treat them. But if you say differently…)
The problem is that many people are making too much money to be on Medicaid and too little to afford insurance, or they have high deductibles or pre-existing diseases that they must pay for out of pocket, and can’t because they have to put food on the table.
You should watch this 60 minutes video and then consider volunteering. I am trying to duplicate this in SE WI (through my Rotary Club) for a weekend of free healthcare and will be needing nurse volunteers (even you and friends, Jo, as we’ll need non medical personnel as well). The really sad part is that this is even needed in the US. Infant mortality? Yup, ours is 35% higher than Canada’s and lags behind virtually every other country in the world that has universal health care. Because in those countries mothers receive better pre-natal care than in the US. We should not be proud of this. Obviously you’d rather see the “system” and hospitals run by CEOs whose salaries and bonuses are determined by how much savings can be had by cutting nurses and services. Run by the bottom line, not patient care. When they can, even denying care to patients that pay their premiums on time, like the 17 year old that was denied a transplant by Cigna even when her doctors recommended it.
Jo apparently agrees, so you’re in good company. I’d rather see health care overseen by an independent health care committee appointed by elected politicians whose families are under the same plan. With 35 years in the health care field I’ve not seen the profit motive benefit patient care. It is well known that non-profit care has better outcomes.
Note that Healthy Wisconsin changes the payor. It changes where hospitals and doctors send the bill. It eliminates the insurance bureaucracy that is consuming 31% of health care costs that never get to patient care. It spends those dollars on doctors and nurses and technology instead, and extends care to 100% of the people. Hospitals and clinics remain independent and are not operated by politicians. 59% of physicians support that kind of system, 64% in MN, and as the MBAs and shareholders gain more control of the system those numbers will surely rise.
Jack Lohman (Sun Apr 13 10:36:07 2008)
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September
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August
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July
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June
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May
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April
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March
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February
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January
• Solberg: Healing After an Abortion
• Basketball fans eyeing extension of Miller Park sales tax
• Nanny sex-ed bill goes to Doyle
• A first. Village limits pension contribution for employees
• Nanny State update: Toothbrushing mandated
• Obama pushes education inflation
• WI Investment Board votes to borrow to juice up returns
• So Republicans have brought nothing to the table?
• You have got to be kidding me
• Nygren: Governor Continues Terms of Failure in State of the State
• Sen. Fitzgerald: Governor down the wrong track at high speed
• Phosphorus is the new CO2. $Billions in Wisconsin
• More Obama giveaways
• A reprimand? Would you keep him on the job?
• Burri: Sarah Palin for Prez troubles me
• Quote of the Day – Obama after the pie-eating contest
• Populism, abused and trampled
• Fitzgerald: Senate Republicans Propose Real Job Creation Agenda
• Stripped down health insurance – it’s about time
• Ok GOP, scrap the Party of NO; time to lead
• No way Feingold is a Coakley. Is Wall a Brown?
• Burri: Conservatives off the chart for a RINO?
• Paltry quid pro quo?
• Doyle says ARRA has ‘created or retained’ 44,000 WI jobs
• Does most of the public fall for this stuff?
• When you get signatures, always get a couple extra
• Blame it on the outmoded computers
• Scott Brown victory does not scuttle health bill
• 8th Congressional Candidate Forum, Jan. 25
• Scott Walker Meet-and-greet, Monday, Jan. 18
• Aren’t consumers taxpayers too?
• MORE taxes on investment income - dreadful and wrong
• Join the blaze orange army and say ‘Enough is Enough’
• The future of government-run health care
• Tax on banks is a really bad idea
• Roth, Savard on the stump, grassroots style
• Savard speaking in Appleton, 8 PM, Wed., Jan. 13.
• Rahmlow: Savard, Bies frontrunners for State Senate
• Burri: Failing Political Correctness 101
• School contracts and Race to the Top
• Senator Feingold worrisome and big red flags
• Psephological?
• This is really important. Contact Rep. Kagen. Now. Please.
• This is exactly what we need from Governor Doyle
• This guy is my hero
• Why am I not surprised?
• Talk health reform with Feingold (Th), Petri (today)
• Give the Mayor power over MPS - if he can break contracts
• Burri: Yup, Dems really are going to bypass a conference
• The $2.7 billion Wisconsin deficit no one told you about
• Walker launches county accountability website
• Rahmlow: Why is Van Hollen dodging the Nebraska deal?
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| 2009 |
December
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November
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October
• The Lawton-Bader files
• Yup, it’s the TAX LEVY, not the tax RATE
• Ellis: costly automobile insurance laws must be rolled back
• If not Barrett, who?
• The subsidy game
• Burri: Bailouts, Banks, Health Care, and the Mob
• Attend Appleton Schools budget meeting tonight
• A public option WON’T increase costs? That’s delusional!
• Appleton Schools budget meeting Monday
• Wisconsin should be screaming for accountability
• Burri: If anything, we need more obstructionism around here
• WI on the leading edge - in the wrong direction
• Rep. Montgomery: Utility Customers Join State’s Crime-Fighting Efforts
• Public Conservation and Recreation Lands Total 16.5% of State
• In the crow's nest of the Titanic, shouting 'Iceberg!'
• Is Rep. Nelson a political hack?
• Health care: The road ahead will be brutal
• Kagen's pandering again
• Birthers - good stuff for you
• How much do we bend over backward for seniors?
• The trouble with health care is paying for it
• Two-parent families: The Gold Standard
• Burri: Kids... the joys and blessings
• Very, very worried about health care
• Rep. Huebsch: Wisconsin is proof government health care isn’t the answer
• School district contracts push up tax levy
• What? Obama, the Peace Prize?
• TODAY - hearing on Campaign Finance Reform
• Appleton School District tax levy up way too much
• CBO report is out - and the bill isn't even written yet?
• So, how much do YOU budget for health care?
• Burri: Copenhagen trip was amateurish
• “Sotomayor, you have blood on your hands...”
• Cap and Trade. Always follow the money
• Rep. Kagen gets (almost) free health services
• I actually agree with Rep. Kagen
• Future Wisconsin Conference for Conservatives, October 10, Wauwatosa
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September
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August
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July
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June
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May
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April
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March
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February
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January
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| 2008 |
December
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November
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October
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September
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August
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July
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June
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May
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April
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March
• Important votes Tuesday, including Appleton Common Council
• Democrats are becoming supply siders??
• Further debunking Hillary myths
• WEAC has created an unsustainable monopoly
• From Mark Gundrum: One of the greatest honors an American can experience
• 'Operation Chaos' working?
• Joe Martin the best candidate in Appleton's 8th
• State programs to cut? - Volume II
• Oh the naivete of youth
• Not just disingenuous - flat wrong
• Steve - you will be missed
• Make cuts only AFTER you're elected....
• Getting serious: What programs can we cut?
• Rep. Steve Kagen joining me on Jerry Bader Show today
• Rep. Van Roy: Dental Care Pilot Program
• Has Dave Obey turned the corner on earmarks?
• Speaker Huebsch: Governor turns down Federal Aid?
• Mark Rahmlow: "We're Broke."
• As taxpayers, how do we know if it's a Chevy or a Lexus?
• This is trash talk - about a veteran
• Frank Lasee: Take time to get the Compact right
• 'The Gableman Ad' - is it racist?
• Roth thankful, Kagen shaking money tree
• Gov. Doyle's office not enamored with Freedom of Information
• Governor Doyle will never do it
• Leadership on smoking ban? Not Hanna
• Rep. Van Roy speaks out about smear ads
• You're threatening me about potholes?
• Losing the Hastert seat is NOT a trend and NOT curtians for the GOP
• First suggestion for 'slashing' programs
• Big money-saver for municipalities
• More one time fixes. Nuts.
• Any chances???
• I'm doing the Jerry Bader Show, today, the 11th
• Representative Frank Lasee: Final Waltz of the Season
• Guest Blog: It's not the county's business to be in the nursing home business
• Yup, Hillary won Texas and Ohio
• Gableman/Butler race featured - and it isn't pretty
• Lies from Planned Parenthood and NARAL
• He who sacrifices liberty.....
• Duh.
• The Troha sentencing, Doyle and that $200K
• Guns, passion and "originality"
• How hard is it anyway, to shut down a government program?
• Voting is a PRIVILEGE. And so are property taxes....
• Guest Blog: Governor Doyle, cancel your Ireland trip
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February
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January
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| 2007 |
December
|
November
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October
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September
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August
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July
|
June
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May
|
April
|
March
|
February
|
January
• Lots of ideas. No money.
• The Cigarette Tax - "Poor Policy Instrument?"
• School budget Lite?
• Frankenstein - not in the library, but in the legislature
• A librarian, a legislator, a president
• $1.25/pack - NO, NO, NO, and NO
• Kagen and Reagan in the same breath?
• Menasha: behind the 8-ball, but not biting the dust
• Any way you slice it, Wisconsin government wants (further) in on health care
• The World is Flat...what about health care?
• The PAC - too precious to fail. Day 3
• News follow-ups: Appleton West, Kagen at the White House
• Fox Cities PAC - too precious to fail - Day 2
• Fox Cities PAC - too precious to fail
• New Transit Tax coming your way
• Rep. Petri has his finger in the dike - I guess
• AASD Retirement Costs Burdensome
• Health care, health care, health care, health care
• Water rate increase was no slam dunk
• Education for all is just a bad dream
• New Year's resolutions from a parade snob
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| 2006 |
December
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November
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October
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September
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| 2000 |
May
|
|
