Quoting the Crisis

13/11/2009

“ The 50th percentile (the median) of hospitals charged 65 cents for an aspirin. The 75th percentile charged $2.62 for an aspirin. The 90th percentile charged $6.50 for an aspirin. And the 99th percentile charged $11.42 for an aspirin. One hospital out of the 421 we looked at charged $18.02 for an aspirin, but it’s so high we’re kind of wondering if it’s a mistake! „

Dr Tara Lagu, quoted by Chana Joffe-Walt in $18 For A Baby Aspirin - Planet Money Blog : NPR

Quote posted at 17:05

11/11/2009

“ The current economic crisis teaches insurance regulators several key lessons to prevent a wholesale health care meltdown in America. Much like the financial sector, the health insurance sector has made short-term gains its priority rather than the health and well-being of its customers. As a result, private insurance fails to meet the needs of Americans and is increasingly unaffordable and unsustainable. Insurers have driven up premiums and out-of-pocket costs, putting consumers at financial risk if they need costly health care services or forcing them to go without needed care. „

Wendell Potter (via azspot)

Quote posted at 19:56

04/11/2009

robot-heart-politics: Four graphs created by the International Federation of Health Plans that compare how much US residents and people in other countries pay for health care. As Jay Livingston of the Montclair SocioBlog says, “Our Lipitor must be four to ten times a good as the Lipitor that Canadians take.” (via Charts showing how much US residents pay for health care compared to people in other countries - Boing Boing) Click through to see larger versions of the graphs. Also read through the comments section. Thanks, Will!

robot-heart-politics:

Four graphs created by the International Federation of Health Plans that compare how much US residents and people in other countries pay for health care. As Jay Livingston of the Montclair SocioBlog says, “Our Lipitor must be four to ten times a good as the Lipitor that Canadians take.” (via Charts showing how much US residents pay for health care compared to people in other countries - Boing Boing)

Click through to see larger versions of the graphs. Also read through the comments section.

Thanks, Will!

Photo posted at 23:14

» Wal-Mart's stingy sick-leave policy may contribute to swine flu's spread

robot-heart-politics:

thesmarttart:

So concludes a new report from the National Labor Committee that finds that employees of the Arkansas-based retail giant — even its food handlers — feel they have no choice but to work when they’re sick. That’s because the company gives workers demerits and deducts pay for staying home when they’re sick or caring for sick children. The report found that the only time the company is removing sick workers from the food section is when they are coughing too loudly or violently — and then the person is merely transferred to another department rather than being sent home. Wal-Mart’s sick-leave policy conflicts with recommendations for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which calls on employers to advise workers to be alert for symptoms of flu-like illness and to stay home if they are ill. The CDC also asks employers to allow workers to stay home to care for sick family members
via Facing South

…because we all needed another reason to hate Wal-Mart.

Link posted at 21:14

» House takes another step on healthcare reform | Small Business | Reuters

continuum:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives unveiled a sweeping healthcare overhaul on Thursday that would transform the insurance market, create a government-run insurance plan and levy new taxes on the rich.

Link posted at 15:13

31/10/2009

“ Is this the best we can do? Forcing people to buy private health insurance, guaranteeing at least $50 billion in new business for the insurance companies? Is this the best we can do? Government negotiates rates which will drive up insurance costs, but the government won’t negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies which will drive up pharmaceutical costs. Is this the best we can do? Only 3% of Americans will go to a new public plan, while currently 33% of Americans are either uninsured or underinsured? Is this the best we can do? Eliminating the state single payer option, while forcing most people to buy private insurance. If this is the best we can do, then our best isn’t good enough and we have to ask some hard questions about our political system: such as Health Care or Insurance Care? Government of the people or a government of the corporations. „

Dennis Kucinich (via azspot)

Quote posted at 13:02

» Daily Kos: Another Stumble from the Insurance Industry

think4yourself:

A few weeks ago, AHIP shot themselves in the foot when they released the PWC report that was basically nothing more than a blackmail threat, you do this reform, we’ll raise premiums. That effort resulted in a real resurgence for the public option.

That stumble certainly isn’t going to stop the insurance industry from fighting back at every level. Hopefully, more of them will backfire as as much as PWC report, and as badly as this one:

RALEIGH, N.C. —Even Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina acknowledges that its timing on two recent mailings was unfortunate.

The News&Observer of Raleigh reported that customers first learned their rates will rise by an average of 11 percent next year.

Then they got a flier urging them to send an enclosed preprinted, postage-paid note to Sen. Kay Hagan denouncing what the company says is unfair competition that would be imposed by a government-backed insurance plan. Congress is likely to consider that public option as it debates the health care overhaul….

Indignant Blue Cross customers, complaining that their premium dollars are funding the campaign, have called Hagan’s office to voice support for a public option. They’ve marked through the Blue Cross message on their postcards and changed it to show they support the public option, then mailed the cards.

How emblematic of the whole crisis is this incident? The insurers will just keep on raising our premiums and using that money to further their own interests in making more profits. They sure as hell aren’t putting those profits into providing more or better coverage. And their customers know exactly what they’re doing. Which is precisely why the public option is so popular—everyone who got that premium increase notice knows that they are trapped in their policies. If they want insurance, they have to put up the increases in costs and decreases in coverage. What rational person wouldn’t think some competition and some options are called for?

-mcjoan

Link posted at 11:01

27/10/2009

“ America’s healthcare system is indeed hemorrhaging billions of dollars, and the opportunities to slow the fiscal bleeding are substantial. The bad news is that an estimated $700 billion is wasted annually. That’s one-third of the nation’s healthcare bill. The good news is that by attacking waste we can reduce healthcare costs without adversely affecting the quality of care or access to care. „

Robert Kelley, vice president of healthcare analytics at Thomson Reuters, quoted by Maggie Fox in Healthcare system wastes up to $800 billion a year | U.S. | Reuters

Quote posted at 17:07

“ So according to The Washington Post, dropping bombs on, controlling and occupying Afghanistan — all while simultaneously ensuring “effective governance, economic development, education, the elimination of corruption, the protection of women’s rights” to Afghan citizens in Afghanistan — is an absolutely vital necessity that must be done no matter the cost. But providing basic services (such as health care) to American citizens, in the U.S., is a secondary priority at best, something totally unnecessary that should wait for a few years or a couple decades until we can afford it and until our various wars are finished, if that ever happens. “U.S. interests in South Asia” are paramount; U.S. interests in the welfare of those in American cities, suburbs and rural areas are an afterthought. As demented as that sounds, isn’t that exactly the priority scheme we’ve adopted as a country? We’re a nation that couldn’t even manage to get clean drinking water to our own citizens who were dying in the middle of New Orleans. We have tens of thousands of people dying every year because they lack basic health care coverage. The rich-poor gap continues to expand to third-world levels. And The Post claims that war and “nation-building” in Afghanistan are crucial while health care for Americans is not because “wars, unlike entitlement programs, eventually come to an end. „

“America’s Priorities,” by the Beltway elite - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com (via apsies) (via robot-heart-politics)

Quote posted at 15:07

26/10/2009

“ The best case study is Massachusetts, which instituted a health insurance mandate three years ago that has succeeded in bringing coverage levels from 91 percent of state residents to more than 97 percent. The state made it easy to sign up — people who qualified for subsidized coverage got help filling out forms at safety-net hospitals and clinics, while others could use a Web site to determine whether they qualified for subsidies or call a new agency, the Health Connector, for assistance. „

Alec MacGillis in If you build a coverage mandate, will they come? - washingtonpost.com

Quote posted at 19:08

24/10/2009

robot-heart-politics:

jayparkinsonmd:soupsoup:bringmethathorizon:

Sen. Al Franken: How many bankruptcies because of medical crises were there last year in Switzerland?

Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Diana Furchtgott-Roth: I don’t have that number in front of me but I can find out and get back to you.

Sen. Al Franken: It’s zero.

[silence]

Sen. Al Franken: Do you know how many medical bankruptcies there were last year in France?

Diana Furchtgott-Roth: I don’t have that number but I can get back to you if you’d like.

Sen. Al Franken: Yeah, the number is zero.

[silence]

Sen. Al Franken: Do you know how many were in Germany?

Diana Furchtgott-Roth: From the trend of your questions, I’m assuming the answer is zero, but I don’t know the precise amount.

Sen. Al Franken: Oh, you’re very good, very fast.

Video posted at 19:02

axinomancy: Universal Health Care World Map (click to enlarge)

axinomancy:

Universal Health Care World Map (click to enlarge)

Photo posted at 17:02

23/10/2009

“ 

Friction between the business community and the Obama administration was on display in the third quarter, as the US Chamber of Commerce spent a record $34.7m (£20.9m) lobbying against a raft of legislation that it said will be bad for business.

The breakdown of spending, revealed in a quarterly filing, shows that the debate on health insurance reform occupied the largest chunk of the organisation’s time and money, but the group has also been battling Barack Obama’s plans to create a new regulatory agency to cover consumer financial products and to introduce a carbon cap-and-trade scheme to tackle global warming.

 „

Stephen Foley in US business lobby spent $35m fighting Obama plans - Business News, Business - The Independent

Quote posted at 15:02

22/10/2009

“ Because a disability has to be verified by a doctor and updated over time, the patient’s only  way of maintaining the coverage is to use it.  This happens all the time.  Patients will come once a month for visits, fill the Zyprexa prescription and then throw them out— all to maintain their benefits. ¶ Before you get angry, understand that this isn’t a loophole, it is the point of Medicaid.  For a myriad of reasons we do not have universal (not single payer, but universal) coverage, which would have the (seemingly) paradoxical result of reducing healthcare costs.  But, surprisingly, we have a lot of poor people in the country.  The government has found a way to transfer to them just enough money and services to keep them from rioting, without calling it a transfer, without calling it socialism.  Simultaneously, it manages to pay doctors, hospitals, employers (through tax breaks), etc. „

The Last Psychiatrist: How Am I Going To Get Paid If It Isn’t Autism? (via nonolet)

Quote posted at 21:05

21/10/2009

“ Serious students of health care have known for a long time that the magic of the marketplace doesn’t work in health care; the United States has the most privatized health-care system in the advanced world, and also the least efficient. The pale reflection of this reality in the current discussion is that reform with a strong public option is cheaper than reform without — which means that as we get closer to really doing something, rhetoric about socialism fades out, and that $100 billion or so in projected savings starts to look awfully attractive. „

The facts have a liberal health-care bias - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com (via fuckyeahpaulkrugman) (via ataxiwardance)

Quote posted at 23:45

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