Commentary By Ron Beasley
Here in my State of Oregon it was announced this week that health insurance premiums will be going up 16 percent in 2010. Some employers will increase the amount of the employees share while some small and medium sized businesses will be priced out and have to [...]
CNSNews.com asked Merkley: “Specifically where in the Constitution does Congress get its authority to mandate that individuals purchase health care?”
Merkley said: “The very first enumerated power gives the power to provide for the common defense and the general welfare. So it’s right on, right on the front end.”
Obviously, Merkley isn't' [...]
Two stories from the same edition, yesterday's New York Times. The first outlines the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's botched negotiations with later rescued insurance giant, AIG:
The Fed “refused to use its considerable leverage,” Neil M. Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
As our current health care system collapses people will suffer but so will the health care industry and the insurance companies as fewer and fewer people can afford their services. It's already happening:
A weak economy has reduced the insurer's customer base
Regence BlueCross BlueShield, Oregon's largest [...]
The Federal Housing Administration, the government agency whose loan-insurance programs have become a crucial source of support for the housing market, said on Thursday that its cash reserves had dwindled significantly in the last year as more borrowers defaulted on their mortgages.
“Scotty, we need more money!”
“I’m sorry Captain, [...]
By John Ballard
Posted without comment.Today my little brother Bill would have turned 51.
Which means he's been dead almost 9 years. Can't quite understand that.
He was waiting for health insurance to kick in at his new job: We'd watched how medical costs had starved our family when we' [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
I have have said that a bad health care bill is worse than no bill at all. Dr Marcia Angell agrees:
Conservative rhetoric notwithstanding, the House bill is not a "government takeover." I wish it were. Instead, it enshrines and subsidizes the "takeover" by the investor-owned insurance industry [...]
Ridiculous.
The health care reform bill passed by the House last weekend doesn't allow an abortion to be part of a benefit package bought by anyone who gets a government tax credit to help pay for the insurance.
Put another way:
Abortion would not be paid for in plans offered [...]
For the first time in American history, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve a universal health insurance program. (TPM has an excellent description of what's actually in the bill.)
The vote was 220 in favor and 215 against (roll call). One Republican, Anh Cao (R-LA), joined 219 [...]
by Nancie Koerber of Central Point. Koerber started her career in sales more than 30 years ago. She has owned and operated a successful insurance agency, real estate brokerage and currently runs Champions Realtime Training in Central Point.
I've just returned from a three day trip to Washington DC with 134' [...]
By John Ballard
Pay for what works. What a concept!
Oddly, no one seems to have thought about it before.
...Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare (the health insurance system for people connected to the military), the federal employees’ health benefit system, and private insurers have spent tens of millions of dollars on non-medical services, [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
So, the Republicans have a health care reform plan - sorta. Like the Democratic plans it really doesn't reform anything but it does allow the insurance companies to act even more outrageously. Ezra Klein explains:
"A House Republican health-care bill wouldn't seek to prevent health-insurance companies from denying" [...]
That's how The Wall Street Journal describes the 1,990-page "health bill" that Nanny Pelosi unveiled last week. If anything, WSJ sugar-coated it. Among the many "features" of the bill are some which are likely unconstitutional, such as the requirement that individuals purchase health insurance or face heavy penalties.
Republican' [...]
By John Ballard
Have you ever looked at the details of an EOB (Explanation of Benefits -- the verdict rendered by an insurance company indicating how the amount of your benefits were determined) and come across a note that said insurance was not gonna pay the full bill because the amount [...]
Joe Lieberman has announced that he will not vote to stop the filibuster of any for a health care bill that contains the public option. He justifies this position by saying that a government-run health insurance option will cost taxpayers and increase the National Debt even though the Congressional Budget [...]
Exactly one week ago today I wrote about the Senate's or, more specifically, Senate Republicans lack of urgency to pass an extension to federal unemployment benefits.
Seven thousand Americans per day are losing their unemployment benefits. Four hundred thousand lost their benefits in September and some [...]
Big, huge, MAJOR news from the Senate:
The public option lives.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Monday that the bill he will bring to the Senate floor will include a public health insurance option that individual states could decline to participate in.
"The public option, with an opt-out, is the" [...]
Ripped from today's headlines: The scary figure representing a criminal empire whose ambition is to enslave the world . . . and Frau Farbissina.
