Cuppacafe

So, here is something fun in today's news. Apparently several members of Congress just learned that, in the health care bill that they signed into legislation, they may be required to give up their own Government-sponsored health care package (which is way better than ours, the folks who voted them into office), and be "forced" to use the health care plan that we use.

In a new report, the Congressional Research Service says the law may have significant unintended consequences for the “personal health insurance coverage” of senators, representatives and their staff members.

For example, it says, the law may “remove members of Congress and Congressional staff” from their current coverage, in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, before any alternatives are available.

The confusion raises the inevitable question: If they did not know exactly what they were doing to themselves, did lawmakers who wrote and passed the bill fully grasp the details of how it would influence the lives of other Americans?

Who says that folks don't get what they deserve?

The Perfessor

If you were to (only) listen to Fox News (or the propaganda that spews forth from the Republican party) you would believe that...

“The reason that the public option is so controversial is, it's a government-run health option. So if you can't get health care anywhere else, this is the idea, that you could get it from this government-offered plan, which of course would be paid for by the taxpayers.”

However, that may not quite be the entire truth (if it is even remotely true at all). Apparently the reality of it all is that the public option would be available, as just one option among several other private options, to people who are shopping for health insurance coverage, and apparently any of those 30-or-so million consumers could buy into it. exception of the fact that it will be:

a). not for profit, and b). accountable to the government (as opposed to to shareholders), the public option will have to behave exactly like a private insurance company--financed and stabilized by consumer premiums, without any subsidy from the federal government.

Still, you would think that if something that has the support of 70% of the public how could it be considered controversial? The answer, of course, is that it’s probably because a minority of elected officials have charged that it's the seed for a single payer system.

The Perfessor

Glenn Beck's body has rebelled, once again trying to kill him.

Jon Stewart believes this is a conspiracy, and I'm starting to believe him.

Channeling a ranting Glenn Beck, Jon Stewart attempts to explain the huge conspiracy behind Beck's innards.

Here's eight minutes of Stewart successfully pointing out the insane appeal of the insane Glenn Beck:

I have to tell you that this silliness about getting Health Care Reform passed has officially transgressed over into the surreal. What makes me say this? What makes me say this, first there is this clip from The Daily Show:

By itself, while it is entertaining, it isn’t the whole story, what really kicks it off is this story that I read today, about a two-year-old that was (yep, you guessed it) too skinny to receive health care:

Aislin Bates weighed 6 pounds, 6 ounces at birth. She now tips the scale at 22 pounds.

"She's perfectly healthy, yet she has become a statistic," said Aislin's mother, Rachel Bates. "There's no reason for her to be a statistic as a non-insured person."

When Aislin's father, Rob, worked for another company, Aislin was covered under the company’s group health insurance plan.

Now that Rob is working on his own, he's had to get new insurance. The company, United Healthcard's Golden Rule, sent the family a letter, which says, in part, "We are unable to provide coverage for Aislin because her height and weight do not meet our company standards."

Now it may just be me, but shouldn’t health care be for the people who actually need it (you know, the sick!)? I mean, really if you are health you don’t need Health care BECAUSE YOU ARE HEALTHY! I have to tell you that it soon looks like that only those who don't need health care will be able to receive it, and anybody who is sick will be refused to get any BECAUSE THEY ARE ALREADY SICK!

I recently saw a taped interview with filmmaker Michael Moore who was talking about his research for his film on health care, Sicko. In the clip he told of how an Insurance adjuster was told to deny the claim of a woman who had been raped and was seeking psychological health care (to which by her policy she was entitled to receive) because of a “preexisting condition.” Apparently the preexisting condition was that she had been raped.

That’s some catch that Catch 22.

The Perfessor

I need to finish watching this

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/33217642#33217642

It's not about health care.

It's about death.

According to an up-coming article in Rolling Stone the person credited with inventing the “death panels” claim about health care reform once worked with the tobacco giant Phillip Morris to railroad health care reform during the Clinton administration. Yep, that’s right, In an article that is slated to appear in the magazine’s October 1 issue (which is not yet available online) writer Tim Dickinson reveals that Phillip Morris “worked off-the-record with … writer Betsy McCaughey as part of the input to the three-part expose in The New Republic on what the Clinton plan means.”

Part of the article in Rolling Stone reads:

“[W]hat has not been reported until now is that McCaughey’s writing was influenced by Phillip Morris, the world’s largest tobacco company, as part of a secret campaign to scuttle Clinton’s health care reform. (The measure would have been funded by a huge increase in tobacco taxes.) In an internal company memo from March 1994, the tobacco giant detailed its strategy to derail Hillarycare through an alliance with conservative think tanks, front groups and media outlets. Integral to the company’s strategy, the memo observed, was an effort to “work on the development of favorable pieces” with “friendly contacts in the media.” The memo, prepared by a Phillip Morris executive, mentions only one author by name:

“Worked off-the-record with Manhattan [Editor's note: At the time, McCaughey was a fellow at the Manhattan Institute] and writer Betsy McCaughey as part of the input to the three-part expose in The New Republic on what the Clinton plan means to you. The first part detailed specifics of the plan.”

The article goes on to say that McCaughey (who had served as the lieutenant governor of New York from 1995 to 1998 under Republican Governor George Pataki) recently resigned from the board of directors of Cantel Medical Corporation. At the time of her resignation McCaughey claimed that she didn’t want her involvement with the firm to color her credibility on the health care reform debate, however many observers say that her resignation was actually done as a reaction to her unfavorable appearance on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.

The Perfessor