Healthcare implies that your health will be cared for. Who better than you to ensure this happens! Not an employer, not the government, not an insurance company. YOU. Here's how it works:
1. ALL federal deductions for health insurance premiums by employers and self-employed workers are eliminated, gone, kaput.
2. Employers pay that equivalent amount to employees as earned income, which is taxed.
3. Employees take that extra pay and buy health insurance on the OPEN MARKET. Capitalism as it's shiny best. Insurance can be purchased from any insurance company, in any state, thru private/public co-ops, thru work, thru any organization that sets up to provide more customers for a lower rate per customer. Now, the user is the buyer, the customer is the consumer, no middle-man distortion. You just want major medical, fine. You want laser hair removal covered, fine. Buy what you want or can afford. Insurance companies will clamour for your business like they do for car or life or disability insurance, and they will provide simple, easy to understand policies or consumers will go buy from someone else who doesn't try to fuck them over.
3. Lower premiums are offered for healthier people. That's the way life insurance works. A break for normal blood pressure, cholesterol and BMI are offered. Provide FINANCIAL incentive for people to get off their fat asses and get healthier.
4. Tort reform put in place that states, simply, LOSER PAYS - LOSER PAYS - LOSER PAYS. You want to sue your doctor? Make sure you have an iron-clad case. The majority of doctors are good people who care about doing a good job, but they're not fucking perfect.
5. That extra dough the feds now have with the elimination of the medical premium deduction? This MUST be used to fund healthcare clinics for people unable to afford health insurance on the open market. Clinics are located in areas by population and they are administered and operated by cities, so you get down to a civic level of people who actually give a shit about their neighbors. Free annual exams, free birth control, free pre-natal, etc. It's cheaper to prevent health problems that to treat them!!! How to determine if someone is unable to afford private insurance? Simple! Every tax return with adjusted income below a certain dollar amount is eligible to receive a card with a fool-proof encryption like a fingerprint. You don't file taxes? You visit a clinic and register, but there is a standard waiting period to verify your past. Eliminates illegals, scammers, tax-dodgers, whatever. Also, these places are not the Mayo Clinic. They would be staffed by medical residents, bored retired doctors, maybe even compulsory for a year for new doctors in order to get a license in that state. They're adequate, clean, but not the first choice of someone with a job.
Now, I can't come up with every little damn detail, but that's the outline. And maybe it's not all that simple, but it banks on 2 things that Americans profess to be - capitalists and concerned citizens. Does it restrain soaring medical costs? Beats me as I've never heard or read anyone's reasons for the out-of-control escalation that made sense. Tort reform, taking more people out of hospital emergency rooms (they now go to clinics with runny noses), increasing preventative care - it seems to me all these changes would help. And, charging people higher premiums who clog our medical facilities with their larded up bodies is the first step toward making health insurance a level playing field for everyone. So get out there, get in the game and for Christ's sake take some responsibility for your health. Like I said, YOU need to to ensure your care, and quit expecting my healthy lifestyle to subsidize your sedentary, fast-food fueled, prescription overdosed, diabetic existence. I quit!!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Hypocrites & Healthcare
It turns out I wasn't through hammering the AZ state legislature in last weeks rant. This time, the hypocrisy of these wackos is too, too much. Out one corner of their collective mouths is proposed legislation to tell cities and counties how to run their finances. This has Phoenix, in particular, up in arms and rightly so. Then, out of the other corner it's talk of succeeding to show the Feds they can't tell these state lunatics what to do and how to to do it while they eagerly suck up every Fed stimulus, Medicaid, highway and whatever dollar possible to balance a budget they badly mangled. And it's not just Arizona. The same shit is going on in Utah. That legislature is rallying against a recent wilderness designation for federally owned land while at the same time a scumbag Repube representative wants to pass a law that allows the State to force city and county planning committees to accept development of privately owned land and screw their zoning and planning laws. The throat jammees become the throat jammers. No hypocrisy there.
Around the time of Archie Bunker's "the big one" (World War II), wages were frozen by the federal government as part of the war effort. Employers were still competing for workers but could obviously not offer increased wages to get them. So, the War Labor Board declared fringe benefits nontaxable and employer sponsored health insurance was born. Like nearly every other dumb-ass idea that has come to roost in this country, the situation was temporary and the measures temporary. But when the war ended and wages started to climb, it was too late. Unions demanded that employers continue to provide tax-free health care and employers figured out a way to make it a profit center (for a while anyway). The U.S. is the only country in the world to do this. Why? Because it doesn't make any sense! The consumer of the product cannot be taken out of the fucking equation for obtaining the product. If my employer is paying, and the federal government is subsidizing it, I don't give a shit what it costs - especially for something as personal as healthcare. Duhhhh!! This has been, in my humble estimation, the overriding reason for healthcare cost escalation over the decades. It was the primary reason for the bankruptcy of General Motors, who had become one of the largest health insurance companies in the world. The only problem was, oh yeah, they make fucking cars! During the entire healthcare debate, not a single politician (that I'm aware of - could be wrong) brought this boondoggle up. Well, in the next rant installment, this Frog will present the cure for this healthcare mess, and it's so simple it hurts - and it hurts right here doc.
Around the time of Archie Bunker's "the big one" (World War II), wages were frozen by the federal government as part of the war effort. Employers were still competing for workers but could obviously not offer increased wages to get them. So, the War Labor Board declared fringe benefits nontaxable and employer sponsored health insurance was born. Like nearly every other dumb-ass idea that has come to roost in this country, the situation was temporary and the measures temporary. But when the war ended and wages started to climb, it was too late. Unions demanded that employers continue to provide tax-free health care and employers figured out a way to make it a profit center (for a while anyway). The U.S. is the only country in the world to do this. Why? Because it doesn't make any sense! The consumer of the product cannot be taken out of the fucking equation for obtaining the product. If my employer is paying, and the federal government is subsidizing it, I don't give a shit what it costs - especially for something as personal as healthcare. Duhhhh!! This has been, in my humble estimation, the overriding reason for healthcare cost escalation over the decades. It was the primary reason for the bankruptcy of General Motors, who had become one of the largest health insurance companies in the world. The only problem was, oh yeah, they make fucking cars! During the entire healthcare debate, not a single politician (that I'm aware of - could be wrong) brought this boondoggle up. Well, in the next rant installment, this Frog will present the cure for this healthcare mess, and it's so simple it hurts - and it hurts right here doc.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
With apologies to Eric Burdon for borrowing his song title, it's never been more applicable than today for any Arizona resident with half a brain. Let's see, after a brutal, senseless killing spree down Tucson way, the Repubes of the state legislature want to LOOSEN gun control laws. Because, you know, everyone would jump at the chance to be carrying a loaded weapon to the supermarket on a Saturday morning and someone could have been in the parking lot at exactly the moment the shots started and ended it right on the spot. Oh, Gabrielle was hit with the first bullet fired. Well I guess no one can draw that quickly, except maybe Rooster Cogburn or some other fantasy hero that always arrives at the right moment in the movies. And how many people would then get hit with errant lead fired by an insecure, big-buckled and little-dicked NRA member who has zero training and zero experience handling a firearm in such a situation where, for a few moments, you can't actually believe what your eyes are seeing. Fucking idiots.
And there's talk of succession!!! A proposed law would create a panel of state legislature folks (old, white guys) who would meet to determine if a federal law will actually be recognized by the state. If the Feds try to enforce it, the armed citizens of this state will have something to say about it, by God! Anarchy rules!!
And there's no money to save a small group of people's lives who need organ transplants. But there's not one cent being cut from the prison budget. If a dude on death row needs medical treatment, no problem.
And there's more: squash the 14th amendment birth rights, make fireworks legal in the state while the City's still prohibit them and, of course, the breathing while brown bill HB1070. Start packing.
But wait, there is a glimmer of hope!!! Two separate recall movements to get rid of Russell Pearce are picking up steam. One is spearheaded by a Repube no less. That's how embarrassing this racist moron is. Even the Mormon church has officially come out against his 14th amendment shit and bill 1070. Good people of Mesa, I implore you to sign this petition and send this creature back under the rock from whence he came. You elected him so stand up, admit your folly and get 'er done. Your church is watching....
And there's talk of succession!!! A proposed law would create a panel of state legislature folks (old, white guys) who would meet to determine if a federal law will actually be recognized by the state. If the Feds try to enforce it, the armed citizens of this state will have something to say about it, by God! Anarchy rules!!
And there's no money to save a small group of people's lives who need organ transplants. But there's not one cent being cut from the prison budget. If a dude on death row needs medical treatment, no problem.
And there's more: squash the 14th amendment birth rights, make fireworks legal in the state while the City's still prohibit them and, of course, the breathing while brown bill HB1070. Start packing.
But wait, there is a glimmer of hope!!! Two separate recall movements to get rid of Russell Pearce are picking up steam. One is spearheaded by a Repube no less. That's how embarrassing this racist moron is. Even the Mormon church has officially come out against his 14th amendment shit and bill 1070. Good people of Mesa, I implore you to sign this petition and send this creature back under the rock from whence he came. You elected him so stand up, admit your folly and get 'er done. Your church is watching....
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
The Commie Pot
No, I'm not talking about marijuana grown on the steppes of Russia. Actually it's a stolen line from Bill Maher's New Rules last Friday, the last rule actually, and it is fucking brilliant. Bill's final rule was a comparison of the haves to the have-nots, using Major League Baseball (haves) and the NFL. In MLB, each team sucks up all the money possible from TV contract, ticket sales, merchandising, etc. In the NFL, this money is mostly put into a large "commie pot" and in a share-the-wealth, socialistic move the booty is divided up between ALL the teams. Guess which sport is on the up slope and which is on the down slope? Guess which sport has, for the most part, the same old tired teams in the playoffs each year? The New York Yankees have a payroll of 200+ million. The Pittsburgh Pirates, a payroll of 60 million. They will NEVER be playing each other in the World Series. However, the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers are in the Super Bowl - and playing a team from a mid-size Wisconsin town called Green Bay! The New York Jets didn't make it. Parity exists in the NFL. In MLB, it's every team for itself and fuck the rest of you. Sound familiar have-nots?
There are, no doubt, millions of super pro-capitalistic, anti-socialistic men that would tell you thew NFL IS the best sport. It's certainly the most watched. What would they have to say about this sharing the wealth situation?
The new Republican House majority will soon get a lesson in the haves versus the have-nots. How interesting it will be to watch as they decide which federal programs, subsidies and agencies to cut to fix the government's spending problem. Which senior assistance hand-outs will be slashed, thereby enraging the tea-party demographic of retired old white people driving around in their medicare purchased scooters? Which farm subsidy cut will put a bunch more poor farmers out to pasture? With the extension of the existing tax rates, the cuts MUST be enormous to get even close to taming the yearly deficit. It's gonna get ugly, and when the masses of the ever shrinking middle-class wake up to the fact that the deficit is going to be tamed by cutting their programs/entitlements, not the defense contractors, big oil and bankers (hey, the House is under Republican control), ugly might not be an adequate description. Of course, it's just as likely very little will be cut as the Repubes will find they don't have the spine to do it. And down the road the deficit can will roll, again.
There are, no doubt, millions of super pro-capitalistic, anti-socialistic men that would tell you thew NFL IS the best sport. It's certainly the most watched. What would they have to say about this sharing the wealth situation?
The new Republican House majority will soon get a lesson in the haves versus the have-nots. How interesting it will be to watch as they decide which federal programs, subsidies and agencies to cut to fix the government's spending problem. Which senior assistance hand-outs will be slashed, thereby enraging the tea-party demographic of retired old white people driving around in their medicare purchased scooters? Which farm subsidy cut will put a bunch more poor farmers out to pasture? With the extension of the existing tax rates, the cuts MUST be enormous to get even close to taming the yearly deficit. It's gonna get ugly, and when the masses of the ever shrinking middle-class wake up to the fact that the deficit is going to be tamed by cutting their programs/entitlements, not the defense contractors, big oil and bankers (hey, the House is under Republican control), ugly might not be an adequate description. Of course, it's just as likely very little will be cut as the Repubes will find they don't have the spine to do it. And down the road the deficit can will roll, again.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Tuscon - The New Mis-Spelled Word For Senseless Violence
Quite the title! It was the Tucson Tragedy. Now the nightly news anchors just say T-U-C-S-O-N and an ugly image is portrayed of gun-slingin' nut-jobs that somewhere along the way quit being human. There is also the constant showing of throngs of good people doing their best to show Tucson is a great town, and, since I live about 2 hours from the un-safest Safeway in the country, I can say that Tucson is a great town. Not Phoenix in scope and breadth, but a nice town. What ain't nice, however, is the number of Tucsonians who are unemployed, under-employed, bankrupt, uneducated, dying from lack of insurance, homeless, or all of the above. The cameras aren't showing that underbelly of this ravaged place where.......wait a minute, I could be talking about Phoenix, or Las Vegas, or Florida, or 4/5 of California or Michigan or Louisiana or ...... just about anywhere you look USA!
Was the shooter any of these situations? A couple - couldn't stay in comm college, couldn't get a job, not homeless but still living with Ma and Pa. Did this drive him insane? Probably not. But what about the millions, no literally tens of millions in this country that are in many of these situations. How come they're not pissed? How come they're not half deranged and gunning for somebody that took their job, their home, their life savings or their fucking liver transplant. Are they just saying, "Schucks, that's alright, I'll survive somehow. Thanks anyway!" Somehow, I don't think so.
The gun law debate is interesting. The right thinks we need every kind of gun made in case the "government" tries to take over the country. The constitution framers said as much in the 2nd amendment. Of course, they're experience had been pretty much with tyrannical kings and such. But, how do we, the citizens, defeat the military when that day comes? With a fucking Glock? We need bazookas, tanks, cannon, shit - we need a nuke! So how utterly stupid this gun-rights argument is. The left would just like to nibble a little at the edge with bringing back the Brady Bill and playing nice. Maybe limit each family to one Uzi. But what happens as the economy continues the current trajectory of haves and have-nots? Only a fool would think this isn't happening, and as we move that direction, only a fool would think the probability of fucked over people losing it will somehow not increase. The jobs ain't coming back, and apathy will only go so far, even in this country. Then the right, the traditional holders of the guns and the wealth, will find: A) Sheez, I got nothing left (holders of the guns) or B) I got everything and it's MINE (holders of the wealth).
The wealthy ranchers will be fine, even in Tucson.
Was the shooter any of these situations? A couple - couldn't stay in comm college, couldn't get a job, not homeless but still living with Ma and Pa. Did this drive him insane? Probably not. But what about the millions, no literally tens of millions in this country that are in many of these situations. How come they're not pissed? How come they're not half deranged and gunning for somebody that took their job, their home, their life savings or their fucking liver transplant. Are they just saying, "Schucks, that's alright, I'll survive somehow. Thanks anyway!" Somehow, I don't think so.
The gun law debate is interesting. The right thinks we need every kind of gun made in case the "government" tries to take over the country. The constitution framers said as much in the 2nd amendment. Of course, they're experience had been pretty much with tyrannical kings and such. But, how do we, the citizens, defeat the military when that day comes? With a fucking Glock? We need bazookas, tanks, cannon, shit - we need a nuke! So how utterly stupid this gun-rights argument is. The left would just like to nibble a little at the edge with bringing back the Brady Bill and playing nice. Maybe limit each family to one Uzi. But what happens as the economy continues the current trajectory of haves and have-nots? Only a fool would think this isn't happening, and as we move that direction, only a fool would think the probability of fucked over people losing it will somehow not increase. The jobs ain't coming back, and apathy will only go so far, even in this country. Then the right, the traditional holders of the guns and the wealth, will find: A) Sheez, I got nothing left (holders of the guns) or B) I got everything and it's MINE (holders of the wealth).
The wealthy ranchers will be fine, even in Tucson.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Boomers, Etc.
Yeah, My Generation has fucked things up good. But let's consider why. As the rant went last week, I was zeroing in on the apparent lack of discussion anywhere, by anyone, of this obvious fact. Sure, you hear how our children will be the first generation to possibly have it less good than the previous, but again, why? Three things, the first covered in today's rant. Wasting Away Of Empathy. We got to stretch norms to the limit (and often beyond) so all things considered proper (mutual respect, topics of discussion, clothes, hairstyles, sex, etc.) were targets for our fun. Shit, now you can't outrage anyone on anything as it's already been done. The race to the most outrageous was a great time for my generation. I don't believe this has necessarily lead to less prosperous economic times, but it has contributed to a change in social attitudes that in turn has resulted in less honesty, shame, morality and, of course, empathy.
No one gives a shit what someone else thinks of them, mostly because they can't begin to put themselves in their shoes. Why bother? Doing so could somehow curtail my pursuit of MY needs. So, you lose empathy and you lose a cornerstone of humanity. This affects our economic well-being in so many ways. One consequence, I believe, is there are fewer top notch sales people. My parents generation had traveling anvil salesmen for hell's sake. Now sales is generally relegated to mass marketing and sending e-mails. Has this contributed to the decline of manufacturing in this country as we were getting out-sold by more empathatic and less self-centered outsiders? I think so. Remember the 70's terms - the ugly American! Not even servers in restaurants understand fundamental sales techniques. They rarely zero in on the individual at the table who will determining their tip. That's just dumb, but it doesn't occurr to someone naturally if their feelings for their fellow humans has been numbed.
One final comment. How awful to read this morning about the killings in Tucson. More later.....
No one gives a shit what someone else thinks of them, mostly because they can't begin to put themselves in their shoes. Why bother? Doing so could somehow curtail my pursuit of MY needs. So, you lose empathy and you lose a cornerstone of humanity. This affects our economic well-being in so many ways. One consequence, I believe, is there are fewer top notch sales people. My parents generation had traveling anvil salesmen for hell's sake. Now sales is generally relegated to mass marketing and sending e-mails. Has this contributed to the decline of manufacturing in this country as we were getting out-sold by more empathatic and less self-centered outsiders? I think so. Remember the 70's terms - the ugly American! Not even servers in restaurants understand fundamental sales techniques. They rarely zero in on the individual at the table who will determining their tip. That's just dumb, but it doesn't occurr to someone naturally if their feelings for their fellow humans has been numbed.
One final comment. How awful to read this morning about the killings in Tucson. More later.....
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Fuss About Nothing
I'm stealing this line from my current musical hero - Ian Hunter. This song, written in early 2007, tells the story of trusting Wall Street, which had not yet completely pulverized the world economy.. This guy saw it coming -
I got a bridge I can sell ya
I got a pyramid
I got a time share in Florida
How'd ya like a piece of it?
You're making a fuss about nothin'
Everything's under control
That bee in your bonnet's got liberal on it
Sit back and relax, watch it all unfold
Never forget: I got a direct line
I'm a man you can trust in
If it's left to the left
There won't be nothing left
You're making a fuss about nothin'
To me, it's extraordinary to find a musician singing about an impending event that the great business minds of the world couldn't call - and defining it in clever political terms as in the line "if it's left to the left there won't be anything left" - brilliant! Remember, in early 2007 things were still humming along-
This world is a ball with a map on
We conquer we buy and we sell
This world is a tank with a tap on
Business as usual
Now I'm just protecting your interests
I'm just defending your faith
These guys that were caught with their hands in the till
Nothing to do with me, mate, nothing to do with me
Nothing to do with me mate! It's the other assholes that wrecked things.
The one item Ian leaves out is the fact that most of these greedy bastards are his and my generation - the Boomers. Suffice to say the Boomers have been a colossal disappointment. Where's the disgust? People (not necessarily Boomers) keep writing about the Boomers as if we are somehow still in a position to demand and receive whatever we want. We fucking blew it! Someone with a bullhorn should be pointing out how fucked up we have made these times. It's fair to do that!!
May I borrow your bullhorn?
I got a bridge I can sell ya
I got a pyramid
I got a time share in Florida
How'd ya like a piece of it?
You're making a fuss about nothin'
Everything's under control
That bee in your bonnet's got liberal on it
Sit back and relax, watch it all unfold
Never forget: I got a direct line
I'm a man you can trust in
If it's left to the left
There won't be nothing left
You're making a fuss about nothin'
To me, it's extraordinary to find a musician singing about an impending event that the great business minds of the world couldn't call - and defining it in clever political terms as in the line "if it's left to the left there won't be anything left" - brilliant! Remember, in early 2007 things were still humming along-
This world is a ball with a map on
We conquer we buy and we sell
This world is a tank with a tap on
Business as usual
Now I'm just protecting your interests
I'm just defending your faith
These guys that were caught with their hands in the till
Nothing to do with me, mate, nothing to do with me
Nothing to do with me mate! It's the other assholes that wrecked things.
The one item Ian leaves out is the fact that most of these greedy bastards are his and my generation - the Boomers. Suffice to say the Boomers have been a colossal disappointment. Where's the disgust? People (not necessarily Boomers) keep writing about the Boomers as if we are somehow still in a position to demand and receive whatever we want. We fucking blew it! Someone with a bullhorn should be pointing out how fucked up we have made these times. It's fair to do that!!
May I borrow your bullhorn?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)