3
POPSBono sings the industry tune I really do wish "celebrities" would not assume their opinions matter more than those of others, but then, as long as they get paid for endorsements, (my opinion is that) we shouldn't expect more from them. :-)
3
POPSHealth bills could expand IRS role What a mess this should be. They are spending billions on this. Wouldn't it be more sensible to put the money directly into universal health care rather than spending it to "police" citizens? But I guess that would not be beneficial to the insurance providers
3
POPSDigg Screws Members | Goes rel "no follow" In a disturbing trend among many SB sites, Digg is apparently trying to keep all the link juice for itself, saying it will only allow links to go do follow if a certain number of user votes. The problem with that is we all know that vote rings make it possible for many undeserving links to get votes at Digg. So how can Digg vouch for Huffington Post, when the rumor is they have paid voters, etc.?
3
POPSPage 148 Of The Health Bill Will Allow Government To Determine The Care You Get ...... after this ridiculous bill has been passed, that will determine what is and what isn’t an acceptable health care choice for you, or your doctor. I’ve spoken about the other side of this before. Both the House and Senate versions of the health care bill create insurance exchanges that all Americans must by their health care through. The government controls what insurance plans are offered on those exchanges. Now, per this part of the bill, your insurance company can only pay out to health care providers who meet the government’s standards for providing care. Meaning, for instance, that if the government should decide to stop covering mammograms for women younger than 50 then you won’t be able to buy a plan which covers that, or go to a hospital which gives such screenings. The same goes for all sorts of treatments, drugs, medical devices, etc. If it isn’t government approved, you won’t get it.
6
POPSDeath Of The Internet: Censorship Bills In UK, Australia, U.S. Aim To Block "Undesirable" Websites Cutting off access altogether, massive fines and even jail time proposed for those who flout new laws.
3
POPSClause 11 ..WAKE UP PEOPLE! On December 16, it was reported by the Financial Times that China has imposed additional restrictions on the internet. People registering a domain name in China will have to present a company seal and a business license, the China Internet Network Information Center, a government-backed body, said in a statement on Monday. “Officials said the measure was part of a campaign to rein in pornographic content, but bloggers and internet activists interpreted it as a broader attempt to enforce internet censorship more heavily,” writes Kathrin Hille.
1
POPSNew HealthCare Quagmire: Dingy Just Rolled The Dice 1. By breeching the historic dividing line between private and public plans now at 65, it opens the door for an expansion of Medicare to become just the single payer we are trying to stop. 2. How can you expand Medicare, potentially to tens of millions more people while cutting it by $500 billion? 3. The cuts in doctor and hospital reimbursement rates written into this bill will force hundreds of thousands of medical providers to refuse to treat Medicare patients. By applying these low reimbursements to patients 55-64, now, you are driving doctors out of the profession and discouraging others from entering it. A permanent scarcity of doctors will be the inevitable result. 4. The expansion of Medicaid to 150% of the poverty level imposes huge new financial burdens on states. It will cost Texas $3 billion, Pennsylvania $2 billion, California $2 billion, and Florida $1.3 billion. It will cost Arkansas and Louisiana $500 million each.
2
POPSEssential Questions On Health Reform Americans Should Be Asking Now to start going bankrupt in 2017, it makes no fiscal sense to use the savings to pay for yet another new entitlement instead of shoring up the main program. These congressional prescriptions will only produce more deficit spending. If health reform does generate a surplus, will this money be used to pay down the debt " or fund new government spending? How will adding a new, government-run insurance program increase competition in private insurance markets? Investors.com Read full article at http://bit.ly/4KyM9X
1
POPSMONOPOLY AT WORK- DOES ANYBODY CARE More of the Manufactured Consent coming your way. Less Choice, Higher Prices, Let the Private Sector Reign Supreme. No Restrictions EVER. The Dumb Sheep will pay, because there is no other Way left. Watch it Happen Here, America, setting the Example for Mass Media Control. MMC. Control the Media, Control the Masses. Spending an average of 12 years in front of a Television should be tightly controlled for a PREDICTABLE OUTCOME. Congratulations CONCAST.
1
POPSThis Is Scary (Hi Google!) So in addition to storing my searches and my site traffic and my street address and my GPS location ...
6
POPSWill You Still Need Me, Will You Still Feed Me, When I’m Sixty-Four? …No!
Democrats today voted to cut nearly half a trillion dollars from Medicare. The AP reported: Casting its first votes on revamping the nation’s health care system, the Senate rejected a Republican bid Thursday to stave off Medicare cuts and approved safeguards for coverage of mammograms and other preventive tests for women. The first round of votes ended with a fragile Democratic coalition hanging together. Senators voted 58-42 to reject an amendment by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that would have stripped more than $400 billion in Medicare cuts from the nearly $1 trillion measure. It would have sent the entire 2,074-page bill back to the Senate Finance Committee for a redo. Republicans said the proposed cuts to health insurance plans and medical providers mean seniors in the popular Medicare Advantage program will lose benefits. And they predicted lawmakers will ultimately back away from the cuts, once seniors start feeling the brunt.
5
POPS Google Limits Free Access To News Articles Murdoch is wrong if he thinks any but a small number of people will pay for his websites. I visit the TImes regularly and would miss particularly access to the Sunday Times. Not enough however to pay for the privilege, the reality is the same stories will appear for free elsewhere, and on the rare occasions News International does have a genuine scoop, it's a matter of minutes before the same story appears - especially via twitter, or RSS. All this will do is drive clicks to other providers who do not charge. It remains possible however Murdoch was overplaying his hand in order to obtain this concession from google, and his pay for view plan will include free access to a limited number of pages each day - however this bait approach will fall on the same basis, as users will just find the same content elsewhere.
4
POPSSick Around the World One secret to Japan's success? By law, everyone must buy health insurance -- either through an employer or a community plan -- and, unlike in the U.S., insurers cannot turn down a patient for a pre-existing illness, nor are they allowed to make a profit. Reid's journey then takes him to Germany, the country that invented the concept of a national health care system. For its 80 million people, Germany offers universal health care, including medical, dental, mental health, homeopathy and spa treatment. Professor Karl Lauterbach, a member of the German parliament, describes it as "a system where the rich pay for the poor and where the ill are covered by the healthy." As they do in Japan, medical providers must charge standard prices. This keeps costs down, but it also means physicians in Germany earn between half and two-thirds as much as their U.S. counterparts.
8
POPSThe Bill Is Enough To Make You Sick "Instead, it's a snapshot of a healthcare system gone mad, in which doctors are discouraged, hospitals go out of business and costs are inflated in a shell game between health insurance companies and medical service providers, while the patients who pay their bills get shafted."
4
POPSFacts About US Energy How long are we going to allow our government to prohibit us from accessing our OWN ENERGY? Heck all this talk about the economy and yet we let billions and billions of dollars sit in the ground while we ship our money to other countries to buy their resources that they are more than happy to sell. WAKE UP AMERICA before we are all living in the DARK LITERALLY!
3
POPSThe Root of Much of What Ails Our Health-Care System ~ “Third-Party-Payer Problem” to create impenetrable bureaucratic barriers between you and their money. There’s a reason why claims forms are so complicated.... There is much to lament about that system, and real reform is needed. A meaningful body of reforms would do three things: 1) establish a real market for health-care services and health insurance, one that is fiercely competitive and driven by consumers who are not beholden to their employers, the government, or any concern other than their own needs; 2) take intelligent steps to reduce the expense of health care and health insurance, and the bureaucracy attached to them; 3) offer intelligently designed support for the poor, the sick, and other vulnerable participants in the market. Here are ten things that would go a long way toward getting that done: 1) Insurance Choice. 2) Real Competition: A National Market for Health Insurance. 3) Price Transparency. 4) High Ceilings for HSAs (and No Taxes). 5) Insurance on Your Insuran
4
POPSSEIU Needs Socialized Medicine To Stoke Its Underfunded Pensions and union employees at the expense of the rank-and-file. To regain some semblance of fiscal stability, the SEIU has wagered heavily on forcing other employees to help fund its drying pension reserves. That was the motivation behind the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) ("Card Check"), a major Democrat initiative for 2009, and one on which the SEIU spent tens of millions of its members' money. Since Card Check is in serious trouble with lawmakers, state-run health care would be a suitable alternative. • The public option could force hospital and other health care workers into underfunded pensions, putting their retirements at risk • The average union pension has resources to cover only 62% of what is owed to participants • Less than one in every 160 union-represented workers is covered by a union pension with required assets • The PBGC already supports upwards of 30,000 pension plans • Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), the governmental pension insurer,
3
POPSPelosi Health Care Bill Blows a Kiss to Trial Lawyers While there is debate over the details, it is clear that medical malpractive lawsuits have some impact on driving health care costs higher. There are likely a number of procedures that are done simply as a defense against future possible litigation. Recall this from the Washington Post: “Lawmakers could save as much as $54 billion over the next decade by imposing an array of new limits on medical malpractice lawsuits, congressional budget analysts said today " a substantial sum that could help cover the cost of President Obama’s overhaul of the nation’s health system. New research shows that legal reforms would not only lower malpractice insurance premiums for medical providers, but would also spur providers to save money by ordering fewer tests and procedures aimed primarily at defending their decisions in court, Douglas Elmendorf, director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, wrote in a letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).”
1
Pops
Newest Clips
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Print
Save
Turn on live update