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POPSWhy Not "Universal Food Coverage, Too"? who only want to insure against the possibility that they'll be hit by a truck. So politicians at both the state and federal level keep passing boatloads of insurance mandates requiring that all insurance plans cover a raft of non-emergency conditions that are expensive to treat -- but whose practitioners have high-priced lobbyists. Insurance plans that force everyone in the plan to pay for everyone else's Viagra and anti-anxiety pills are already completely unfair to people who rarely go to the doctor. It's like being forced to share gas bills with a long-haul trucker or a restaurant bill with Michael Moore. On the other hand, it's a great deal for any lonely hypochondriacs in the plan. Now the Democrats want to force us all into one gigantic national health insurance plan that will cover every real and mythical ailment that has a powerful lobby.
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POPSThe Joker Doesn’t Seem To Understand Competition, So He Will Prohibit It In place of the variety of products that competition would generate, we would be forced “choose” among virtually identical insurance plans. Government would define these plans down to the last detail. Every one would have at least the same “basic” coverage, including physical exams, maternity benefits, well-baby care, alcoholism treatment, and mental-health services. Consumers could not buy a cheap, high-deductible catastrophic policy. Every insurance company would have to use an identical government-designed pricing structure. Prices would be the same for sick and healthy. In this respect, it wouldn’t matter whether or not Congress created a “public option,” a government insurance plan. In either case, bureaucrats would dictate virtually every aspect of the health-insurance business. What Obama says in favor of a public option " as of today, at least " tells us how little he understands competition.
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POPSCEO John Mackey's Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare & The Lefty Bloggers' Backlash
Brian Beutler of TPM noted the inclusion of a diet endorsement in the op-ed, and offered a translation of Mackey's manifesto: ""Whole Foods is the solution to all of America's health care woes." Other attackers had less time for mockery, and demanded a boycott: I Will Never, Ever Shop at Your Stores Again Users at the Daily Kos screamed their outrage, other bloggers linking to their hot-blooded denunciations. "Mr. Mackey," wrote one user named DarkSyde, "your extremist views on employee benefits and unionization have Mackey's Response: The WSJ Put Words in My Mouth Three days after the initial op-ed, John Mackey stated on the Whole Foods CEO's Blog that "Whole Foods Market as a company has no official position on the issue." Saying that he had written the editorial under the simple title of "Health Care Reform," Not Off the Hook , declared The Reality-Based Community's Mark Kleiman, referring to Mackey's response: "The title is the least . . .
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POPSSensible and free health care reform that the left can't stand John Mackey is the CEO of Whole Foods. After this article Obamacare supporters started a boycott of Whole Foods. Many on the left like to say the right is opposed to health care reform and would rather do nothing, but it seems to me more like those on the left want a government run system or nothing. They say the right is stonewalling reform, but they seem to be the one's unwilling to give any ground.
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POPSFive Endangered Freedoms In short, the Obama platform would mandate extremely full, expensive, and highly subsidized coverage -- including a lot of benefits people would never pay for with their own money -- but deliver it through a highly restrictive, HMO-style plan that will determine what care and tests you can and can't have. It's a revolution, all right, but in the wrong direction.
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POPSMy Response to Sen. D. Stabenow (D-MI)
For the most part, my insurance coverage is catastrophic only. My portion of the premiums if I were to cover eligible members of my family would cost nearly 1/4 of my bi-weekly take home pay. Obviously, if a mortgage is only supposed to by 1/3 of your monthly salary, then insurance premiums are nearly the price of a good-sized house. Adding to the 'ranks of the uninsured' is the fact of a 14.2% unemployment rate - of which my husband is one. He doesn't qualify for unemployment insurance so he isn't even counted. So, why are my premiums so high? First, because malpractice insurance for my physicians is totally out of control due to frivolous law suits, huge legal fees and the costs associated with trying even a small case. The judge, clerks, bailiffs, secretaries, etc...all have to be paid - by me, the taxpayer. Because of the need to cover themselves, doctors are forced to order complicated, often if not always expensive and sometimes unnecessary tests and procedures. Ev
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POPSWhy we must ration healthcare More: we should remind ourselves that the U.S. system also results in people going without life-saving treatment — it just does so less visibly. Pharmaceutical manufacturers often charge much more for drugs in the United States than they charge for the same drugs in Britain, where they know that a higher price would put the drug outside the cost-effectiveness limits set by NICE. American patients, even if they are covered by Medicare or Medicaid, often cannot afford the copayments for drugs. That’s rationing too, by ability to pay. Dr. Art Kellermann, associate dean…at Emory School of Medicine…wrote of a woman who came into his emergency room in critical condition because a blood vessel had burst in her brain. She was uninsured and had chosen to buy food for her children instead of spending money on her blood-pressure medicine. In the emergency room, she received excellent high-tech medical care, but by the time she got there, it was too late to save her.
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POPSA.I.G. Sues U.S. for Return of $306 Million in Tax Overpayments In part, A.I.G. says it overpaid its federal income taxes after a 2004 accounting scandal that caused it to restate its financial records. A.I.G. says in part that it is entitled to a refund of $33 million that SICO paid in 1997 as compensation to employees, which it now says should be characterized as a deductible expense. A.I.G.’s lawyers in the case, at Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, referred calls to the company. Asked about the lawsuit, Mark Herr, an A.I.G. spokesman, said Thursday that “A.I.G. is taking this action to ensure that it is not required to pay more than its fair share of taxes.”
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POPSGender can cost you in individual health insurance "Perhaps this is partly because women are more likely to seek preventive care, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. But this should make them better insurance risks. After all, they're proactively working to stay healthy. And isn't that exactly what insurers encourage people to do? "It doesn't make any sense," said Alice Wolfson of United Policyholders, a San Francisco-based advocacy group. "The insurers aren't assessing risk. They're assessing how much healthcare is used, even when it's preventive treatment." A spokesman for the California Department of Insurance said there were no regulations preventing gender-based pricing for individual policies."
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POPSBush Health Plan: Who Benefits? This plan may be great for people who already can afford health insurance, but it will not level the playing field for those who are currently having difficulties getting affordable health benefits. Regular premium costs is what keeps many from buying into insurance, increased deductibles will keep them from buying into the Bush plan. It's about the money. On the list of priorities in life, health benefits fall at the bottom. When I was a single mom and actually had a job that offered health benefits (10 years ago), I had to pass because my paycheck barely covered my life expenses, I couldn't afford for my boss to take another $150/mo out of my check for the so-called benefit. I don't imagine that many families, today, can afford that benefit, even with a future tax deduction attached. So millions of Americans will continue to live without health insurance and will risk paying way more when there is an emergency.
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