“Quote of the Day”

Via: Huffington Post

“People Don’t Die In Their Apartment Because They Don’t Have Insurance”

Willard ‘but who else’ Romney

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Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who has pledged to repeal Obamacare, says that people without health insurance don’t have to worry about dying as a result.

“We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance,” Romney said in an interview with the Columbus Dispatch’s editorial board on Wednesday.

While it’s difficult to tell how many people die each year from lack of health insurance, one study, from a health care advocacy group, puts the number at 26,000 deaths per year.

“We don’t have a setting across this country where if you don’t have insurance, we just say to you, ‘Tough luck, you’re going to die when you have your heart attack,'” he added in the interview. “No, you go to the hospital, you get treated, you get care, and it’s paid for, either by charity, the government or by the hospital.”

Read more, HERE:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/11/mitt-romney-health-insurance_n_1957419.html?utm_hp_ref=business

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personal thought:

1. It’s true, in most places, we have very good EMS and emergency rooms where you can be treated for heart attacks. But what if you need a daily dose of blood thinner of cholesterol lowing medicine; can you call 911?

Oh, HELL NO!

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2. “People don’t die in their Apartment . . .”.

Presumably the arrogant dick is referring to the 47%, again.

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3. Re-Elect Obama/Biden!

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Oliphant – “Fear Not”

Bastards!

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We’re getting Screwed! – No, make that, ‘You’re getting screwed’!

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I live in Chiang Mai. Thailand, and the Single Room charge at Chiang Mai Ram Hospital is 900 baht per day ($28 USD).

http://www.ramhospital.com/Chiangmairooms.htm

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Q: Yeah, but it’s a shitty 3rd world hospital, right?

A: Actually, it’s a VERY GOOD hospital.

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CBO Report: Unchanged Tax, Health Policies To Balloon U.S. Debt

Via: Reuters

U.S. public debt would balloon to twice the size of its economy in 25 years if current tax and spending policies are extended, Congress’ budget referee said on Tuesday, delivering fresh fodder for a year-end budget brawl.

The Congressional Budget Office said in a new report that if tax cuts enacted under George W. Bush (SEE PHOTO) are allowed to expire as scheduled on Dec. 31, along with some other tax and spending policies, U.S. public debt would shrink significantly, falling to 53 percent of gross docmestic product by 2037 from 73 percent this year.

By comparison, Greece, debilitated by a crushing debt crisis that may force it to leave the euro, is forecast to have a debt load topping 160 percent of its GDP this year.

The long-term CBO forecasts will help bolster election-year arguments from both Democrats and Republicans in favor of their party’s form of U.S. deficit reduction as the year-end deadline for the tax cuts, automatic spending cuts, and other fiscal decisions draw near.

President Barack Obama’s Democrats have argued that leaving the Bush tax cuts in place, as Republicans have proposed, is fiscally irresponsible, and new revenues are needed by restoring higher tax rates on the wealthy.

Republicans, including presidential candidate MITT ROMNEY, argue that tax rates can be lowered if Congress makes significant cuts in entitlement programs such as the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs for the ELDERLY and POOR.

The CBO report finds, as it has in past years, that the biggest source of growth in federal spending will come from those health care programs. By 2037, if NO HEALTH CARE CHANGES are enacted, federal health care spending would double to around 10 percent of gross domestic product compared to around 5 percent in 2010, it said.

“The aging of the U.S. population and the rising costs for health care mean that the combination of budget policies that worked in the past cannot be maintained in the future,” the CBO said in the report.

Read more, HERE:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/05/cbo-report-unchanged-tax-_n_1571009.html

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personal thought:

Again, we are talking about letting the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthy EXPIRE; not new taxes.

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Oklahoma Doctor Refuses to Provide Emergency Contraceptive to RAPE VICTIM on Basis of Religious Conscience

Via: The Raw Story

An Oklahoma mother brought her daughter to a local hospital after she was raped only to be turned away and refused help by a doctor, purportedly because the hospital lacked the staff to properly process the victim’s claims and injuries. Welcome to the reality of processing sexual assault crimes in GOP-land.

The woman and her daughter were reportedly turned away because the hospital did not have any nurses who conduct rape exams on staff. Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) are specially trained professionals who deal only with the delicate process of conducting rape exams. The SANE program is coordinated through the YWCA and is a collaboration with local law enforcement, the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office and public health officials. The collaborative effort is designed to ensure evidence is properly collected and stored without re-traumatizing the victim and ensuring the most effective prosecution of the perpetrator possible

In this case the doctor involved refused to conduct any exam, nor would he dispense any emergency contraception. The hospital issued a statement grounding those decisions in the need to coordinate through the SANE program. It could also be that this doctor had a moral objection to treating rape victims and dispensing emergency contraception, and thanks to abusive expanses of the conscience-clause by the right, simply refused to deal with her. Either way it’s a lose-lose for rape victims who now face the prospect of looking for treatment after an assault only to be turned away because of a lack of resources or because of religious objections.

The young woman asked the doctor whether or not emergency contraceptives were available and whether the doctor was simply refusing to provide them. The nurse told her “I will not give you emergency contraceptives because it goes against my belief.” The doctor refused to help her, even though she had just been raped, and refused to find another doctor to help her. [Here’s a link to the video on News 9 in Oklahoma. I can’t seem to embed it.  ::shakes fist at Internet::]

Read the rest of the story, HERE:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/30/oklahoma-doctor-refuses-to-provide-emergency-contraceptive-to-rape-victim-on-basis-of-religious-conscience/

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The ‘War on Women’ is real, Re-Elect Obama/Biden!

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‘Affordable Care Act’ May Be Helping Improve Insurers’ Notoriously Poor Customer Service

Via: the notorious socialist rag, FORBES

Though the health care overhaul faces an uncertain fate next month before the U.S. Supreme Court, preparations for the massive rollout of its medical care coverage might already be leaving a legacy of improved customer service.

The health insurance industry, often at or near the bottom of a consumer’s customer service experience when compared to other industries, is paying more attention and spending more money on improving how health plans interface with patients on the other end of the telephone, a web site or, lately, though an app.

Several big-name companies, including UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Cigna (CI) and Health Care Service Corp. are seeing gains in customer service ratings. Though health insurance companies still rank at or near the bottom of customer service experiences of most consumers, the Affordable Care Act may be spurring them to get better.

WHY?

Insurance companies are taking steps to build their relationship with customers as health plans prepare to COMPETE between each other on exchanges where benefit packages will be offered.

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Read more, HERE:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2012/05/29/obamacare-may-be-helping-improve-insurers-notoriously-poor-customer-service/

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Do the right thing, Re-ELECT Obama/Biden!

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We Are the 99 Percent

We are the 99 Percent.

We are getting kicked out of our homes.

We are forced to choose between groceries and rent.

We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution.

We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we’re working at all.

We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything.

We are the 99 percent.

Brought to you by the people who occupy wall street.

Why will YOU occupy?

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Please visit their website, and tell YOUR story.

http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

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Appendicitis Treatment Can Cost Up To $183,000 In California: Study

Via: Huffington Post

If you need to have your appendix removed in California, it could cost you as little as $1,529 or as much as $182,955. What’s worse, there’s practically no way to predict the size of the hospital bill, a new study shows.

The researchers determined that the median price for appendicitis treatment was $33,611 but that costs varied wildly depending on a number of factors, such whether the hospital is for-profit, nonprofit, or county-owned, and whether the patient was covered by private health insurance, Medicaid or was uninsured.

Almost one-third of the variation in price couldn’t be explained for any reason, according to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine this week.

The high cost of an appendicitis treatment highlights the country’s rising health case costs, of which the biggest expense is hospital care, according a recent study. With the ranks of the uninsured approaching 50 million Americans and greater numbers of people being pushed into health insurance plans with deductibles of $1,000 or HIGHER, knowing the actual prices for medical services is more important than ever. The problem is that knowing the answers beforehand isn’t easy.

“Our findings suggest that there are inherent limitations of market theory within the health care system, and much work remains to be done to allow consumers to fulfill the role of a true consumer in the health care marketplace,” Renee Hsia of UCSF and her colleagues wrote. “These data should alarm those making decisions about our society’s ability to obtain medical care without financial catastrophe.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/24/health-care-costs-for-app_n_1448950.html?ref=business

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personal story:

I retired early at age 56.

I knew I could not risk going without medical insurance, and I knew I could not pay COBRA of +$700 without working.

So I moved to Thailand where I have FULL COVERAGE (physcian, hospital, meds – with NO deductibles) for LESS than my co-payment was in 2000.

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photo (the red x):

And YES, I would pay $182,995 to have these four chuckleheads removed. Gladly.

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yeah, and Dr Ross can be your doctor!

Via: Huffington Post

Speaking to the Boston Globe, the governor dismissed the idea that Mississippi would benefit from an infusion of federal resources to help expand Medicaid access, even with nearly 18 PERCENT of the state’s population (half a million residents) lacking primary care.

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“There’s NOBODY in MISSISSIPPI who does NOT have access to health care,’’ Barbour said. “One of the great problems in the conversation is the misimpression that if you don’t have insurance, you don’t get health care.”

– Governor Haley Barbour

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A later clarification from an aide:

In an email to the Huffington Post, a Barbour aide clarified that the governor was referring to “emergency room procedures” when talking about universal access.

“The Governor is imminently aware the status quo is not optimal for Mississippians, as it’s neither cost effective nor does it address his preventative care concerns,” the aide added.

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In summary:

1. 18% of his (Barbour) states population do NOT have ‘primary care’.

2. The care they do recieve is NEITHER ‘cost effective’, NOR does it address ‘preventative care concerns’.

3.  Governor Barbour (R) is a disingenuous bastard!

How soon will you go bankrupt under the new GOP budget?

via: Richard Eskow – Huffington Post

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Here’s the bottom line:

Within 10 years of the new Republican Medicare budget taking effect, most Americans would be spending all of their Social Security income just to pay for their health care or go without coverage.

How quickly would that happen? According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), seniors entering the program in 2030 can expect to pay $20,000 out of their own pocket for health care.

If Social Security payments continue to be adjusted at the same rate they were over the last decade, the average person on Social Security will receive a little over $21,000 that year.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/how-fast-will-you-go-bank_b_845685.html

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photo: titled  ‘damn mexicans’ from a 2009 teabagger gathering to protest ‘Obama Care’

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“$ 1,000 – el estúpido de puta es jodido, eh? “- su ex jardinero