“What about our shareholders Bob? Who’s looking out for them?” – The Incredibles You know me. I love insurance. I love it so much I bought a bunch of it. We’re like that ice cream place that brags about all the flavors they’ve got. It’s a good thing too, because it’s coming in handy after Cheryl’s accident. I know what you’re thinking, or I think I do. Well, maybe it’s just a hunch. Yeah, better call it a guess. I’ve been off my game lately. I’ll bet you’re a little suspicious, waiting for the switch to go with my bait. [...]
Health Care
Adding insult and injury to injury
Many of you know Cheryl was in a car accident a while back. A few of you know about the mess physical therapy made of her injuries. Only Cheryl and I know about our most recent adverures in the mysterious world of insurance, so I gatthered up all my frustration and this post was born.Way to grab you readers, eh?A month back Cheryl went for another opinion, seeking to avoid immediate surgery. This opinion not only said the first was a bit rash, but the physical therapy she’d been getting was a textbook example of what NOT to do in [...]
F…ing insurance
Warning! My potty mouth comes out of storage for this one. We got the official fuck-off letter from the other guy’s insurance company the other day. I can’t say I wasn’t expecting it, but it was still a bit maddening. The dude had the minimum amount of insurance required by law, which apparently dates back to when a dollar was still a lot of money… back when change wasn’t spare. If you know me at all, you know one of the issues I care about is healthcare. If you know my liberal leanings (my heart swoons for “social” medicine), then [...]
Already heard the ads
Newsvine / AP: Health care is returning as a campaign issue, with special interest and advocacy groups preparing to spend at least $60 million to push politicians to embrace universal access to medical coverage. I’d like to believe this will be an issue this fall, but I have to think it’s a distant third on most people’s list behind the economy and war. If I could choose, I’d rather have it discussed next spring (though both is o.k. too).
Have pity on your health insurance company
I mentioned a Republican representative from our state legislature the other day, the one I heard on the radio. I kind of suggested he might’ve said something that made me a little mad; “pissed off” may have been the words I used. Well, if you don’t want to read a rant on Florida politics, now is the time to bail. The Florida Legislature is in session for two months of every year, and has been in session for a little over a month now. That means I’ve been slowly grinding my teeth down to smooth, uniform stumps… for a little [...]
Why is S-CHIP an issue?
An op-ed in the NYT discusses the big argument against expanding S-CHIP: that parents will drop private coverage in favor of S-CHIP (or substitution). An Overblown Fear About S-Chip – New York Times: New York estimates that only about 3 percent of the children enrolled in the program came from families that dropped employer coverage to obtain S-chip. Mathematica Policy Research, in a report prepared for the federal government, looked at states across the country and pegged the typical substitution rate at less than 10 percent. … Some critics of S-chip like to cite substitution estimates that are much higher. [...]
The lonely consumer
One of the trends which troubles me a little in the U.S. health care debate is the push to foist “choice” on us. Giving individuals “choice” seems to be the new panacea for health care, as if we didn’t already have some choices – here in the land of the “free market.” If only individual consumers had more choice over the way their health care dollars are spent, or so the argument goes, the more prices for health care would come under control, and the better care we would receive. On the surface it seems reasonable enough. After all, who [...]
Mom
It’s been a while since I’ve written anything about my mother, but it hasn’t been because nothing’s happening. I just don’t know what to say, or if I want to say it. That makes it sound kind of bad, but it isn’t; not really anyway. The second sudden recovery came and went, but it was encouraging in that she didn’t lapse back quite as far as she had been. They haven’t needed to send her back to the hospital for fluids or medication, so that’s been good. However, they did have the Baker Act hearing for the involuntary six month [...]
Universal health care and democracy
From the book Sick, by Jonathan Cohn: To its critics on the political right, universal health care is an imposition on liberty that weakens individual initiative. But this is the classic bait-and-switch of modern conservatism – to make us forget that in a democracy, the government is merely an expression of our will and resources as a community. Universal health care is really about finding collective strength in our individual vulnerabilities – about helping a family member, a neighbor, or a fellow citizen because, next time, any one of us could be the person who needs help. It isn’t about [...]
Here I go again – lets talk about health care
Twice in two days! That’s how many times someone said (to me) some variation of: “don’t people who live in countries with universal health care have almost half of their pay taken in taxes, to pay for their health care?” If this was just one person who said it twice, or even one person who was relaying it from someone else, then I wouldn’t be writing this post. But no… I heard it from two people who didn’t know each other, were not involved in the same conversation, and would have no idea what the other said. Naturally, I’m going [...]
