![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
What value is added?
Sep. 18th, 2009 12:12 amIn conversation today with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sarah_ovenall and Mr. Mondomundo, I described progressives' dissatisfaction with Obama by saying that some of us are deeply disappointed that he isn't more directly tackling the health insurance companies, say by beheading them and tossing their corpses from the top of the Capitol dome. Heck, I'd buy the swords.
Two examples why:
Domestic violence is a "pre-existing condition"?
(via sarah)
and
Doctors slash vaccines due to rising costs
(viasupergee)
Oh, and of course this:
'Norma Rae' Dead at 68 After Struggle With Her Insurance Company to Get Chemo
(via Crooks and Liars)
Back in 1999, New York City police arrested actor Alton Fitzgerald White in his own apartment building because the police were looking for a group of four not-black Hispanic men and White was in a group of four black men. At the time, White was starring in the stage musical of Ragtime. A corporation killing Norma Rae through bureaucracy might actually be more disgustingly ironic than arresting Coalhouse Walker on suspicion of being black.
Doctors hate them. Patients hate them. They obstruct treatment and waste 20-30% of US health care dollars--3.5% of the total US GDP--on administrative friction and pocket the difference. Why shouldn't we be tossing their corpses off the Capitol?
sarah_ovenall and Mr. Mondomundo, I described progressives' dissatisfaction with Obama by saying that some of us are deeply disappointed that he isn't more directly tackling the health insurance companies, say by beheading them and tossing their corpses from the top of the Capitol dome. Heck, I'd buy the swords. Two examples why:
Domestic violence is a "pre-existing condition"?
Insurance companies have used the excuse of "pre-existing conditions" to deny coverage to countless Americans. . . .
But, in DC and eight other states, including Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming, insurance companies have gone too far, claiming that "domestic violence victim" is also a pre-existing condition.
(via sarah)
and
Doctors slash vaccines due to rising costs
"It doesn't do me any good. I am losing money on [them]," [Dr. McIntosh] said. The chicken pox vaccine runs about $115, but insurers only cover between $68 to $83 of that. . . .
It's not clear exactly how widespread vaccine cutbacks are, but in a recent industry survey, 5% of pediatricians and 11% of physicians indicated that they're seriously considering no longer offering immunizations. . . .
"These are fantastically alarming numbers," said Dr. Richard Lander, a Livingston N.J.-based pediatrician who chairs a committee on administration and practices at the American Academy of Pediatricians. (AAP)
"It's an example of how health care is being driven by managed care in the United States," Lander said.
(via
supergee)Oh, and of course this:
'Norma Rae' Dead at 68 After Struggle With Her Insurance Company to Get Chemo
The woman whose life inspired the 1979 film Norma Rae has died of cancer after struggling with her health insurance company, which had delayed her treatment.
Crystal Lee Sutton was 68. She had struggled for several years with meningioma, a form of brain cancer. . . .
[Sutton] went two months without possible life-saving medications because her insurance wouldn’t cover it, another example of abusing the working poor, she said.
(via Crooks and Liars)
Back in 1999, New York City police arrested actor Alton Fitzgerald White in his own apartment building because the police were looking for a group of four not-black Hispanic men and White was in a group of four black men. At the time, White was starring in the stage musical of Ragtime. A corporation killing Norma Rae through bureaucracy might actually be more disgustingly ironic than arresting Coalhouse Walker on suspicion of being black.
Doctors hate them. Patients hate them. They obstruct treatment and waste 20-30% of US health care dollars--3.5% of the total US GDP--on administrative friction and pocket the difference. Why shouldn't we be tossing their corpses off the Capitol?
