I sure hope Matt Taibbi is wrong…

Matt Taibbi, who has been one of the best writers out there writing about the crash of our economy and the resulting recession, has a pretty pessimistic post today about the health care reform situation.  And while I hope and pray that he is wrong, I fear that he is right… The monied interests entrenched against any serious reform have basically bought off all of the republicans and enough idiot democrats that I despair for any serious reform.

I wonder when we’ll really figure it out, and see that every other first world country achieves better health results for a fraction of the money we spend, and manage to cover EVERYONE.

America’s Health Insurance “System”

A great catch by Digby, who notices that we’ve become like Soviet Russia in one way… although we don’t have lines to buy bread, we have lines to get health care.

As those opposed to health care reform in this country say, at least we don’t ration care! *sigh* Of course, the truth of the matter is that in other, civilized, countries, they ration care by how sick you are.  In this country, we ration care by how much money you have.

Our Broken Health Care System… and Entrepreneurship

Two things caught my eye today, both related to our broken health care system.  The first is a absolutely FANTASTIC piece by Atul Gawande in the New Yorker about one of the biggest problems with our health care system that very few people talk about: that our current system rewards quantity without any control for quality.  That is, that doctors make more money for piling on tests and procedures, when there is evidence that shows that not only does that not help the patients get better, but can actually do more harm than good.  He examines a case of a small town in Texas that charges Medicare almost twice the national average per subscriber, and investigates why.  He makes the very valid point that for all the talk of insurance companies, and single-payer, and the public option, this contradiction at the heart of our current health care reimbursement system needs to be addressed for a real breakthrough in controlling costs.  Just a great piece, and one that needs to be read by everyone.

And now the second thing that caught my eye. Over at Think Progress, Matthew Yglesias has a great post about how our current health care system limits the amount of innovation and entrepreneurship in our current economy.  He writes:

The thinking is that our current system unduly punishes risk-taking. There are a lot of different aspects of this, but basically the American health care system both produces labor market rigidities (”job lock”) and makes jobs at small firms relatively unattractive.

He goes on to quote a study which codifies the negative impact that this system of employer-tied health care has on entrepreneurship.  Speaking personally, I know that my fear of being without health care has really dimmed any thoughts I might have had about changing fields or changing jobs, and it is even more of an issue now, when any of us might lose our jobs in an instant due to the current economic crisis (thanks, W.!).

Links Galore (or, catching up on the news from the past week)

Posts Galore today… missed a chance to post some stuff I thought was pretty important… gonna post it all now.

• One of the more pressing issues around right now… health-care, and making sure everyone is covered. Here's a post at dailykos.com explaining why single-payer health care is a good thing.

• Avian bird flu continues to spread… Is the US prepared, and are you?

• Ahh, those republicans… When one of your own is under indictment for money laundering and has been admonished for using the department of Homeland Security to track political enemies, why not put him on the House Appropriations committee? I mean, I'm sure he's learned his lesson, right?

• A retired top CIA official states that the "administration used intelligence not to inform decision-making, but to justify a decision already made."

• Now that Samuel Alito will be our next Supreme Court Justice, South Dakota moves to ban ALL abortions. I'm sure they don't know anything that Arlen Specter, Lincoln Chafee, or any of the other Republicans who vowed to reject anyone who wouldn't uphold Roe v. Wade doesn't know. In fact, I'm sure they don't know anything more than anyone who voted against Cloture on Alito knows, do they?

• Dick Cheney is called out on both his misstatements about the economy as well as his statements on the power of the executive. More on his having shot someone over the weekend in a later post.

• We also now know that Scooter Libby is saying that his superiors (remember, he worked for Dick Cheney; who might his superiors be?) "authorized" him to reveal classified information in order to discredit political opponents and prop up the case for invading Iraq.

• More nonsense from the preznit on the so-called "War on Terror". A key quote from the article (by Larry Johnson), something you'll never hear from dubya:
  

  The facts are indisputable. Since the U.S. invaded Iraq in March of 2003, international terrorist attacks in which people have been killed and injured have almost quadrupled. The number of countries hit by lethal attacks has also increased to unprecedented levels.

• Brownie Strikes Back! Former Fema chief Michael "Brownie" Brown lets the administration have it.

• One take on the Muslim Cartoon Controversy in Europe, and what it says about the acceptance of outsiders in Europe.

• A fantastic article about "scandal fatigue", and the failure of the opposition to hammer home any of the scandals that the current administration is party to.

HSAs… A great explanation

A great explanation of HSAs (at TPMCafe), and what they do, and why they are *not* right for most people, from someone who uses them to great benefit. Definitely worth reading.

D is for dastardly, dumb and disaster…

In 2003, the Republican controlled congress passed the so-called Medicare Modernization Act, which was supposed to bring prescription drug coverage into the Medicare system through Medicare part D. Two great posts at TPMCafe explain what is really going on. The first summarizes exactly what Medicare part D does and doesn't do (which should be enough to scare you), while the second examines how the bill benefits the people who wanted it passed, namely the pharmaceutical and insurance companies. If anything shows how much the Republican-controlled government is in the pockets of big business, it is this.

UPDATE: To keep up to date with what all the posts on Medicare part D, go here.

UPDATE 2: Even better, if you're eligible for Medicare and don't sign up for Part D, you have to pay a penalty for the rest of your life when you do want to join.

The Health Care Crisis…

Former Senator Tom Daschle has a great post over at ThinkProgress that highlights the most basic reasons why the health care system in this country is broken (this is also why it's ludicrous for our fearful leader to be advocating HSAs [Health Savings Accounts] at any time, let alone right now). I'll try to post other links regarding the issue of health care in this country later when I get a chance, but for most people outside the corrupt republican policy machine, this country has a pretty flawed health care system.