BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: Emma B
Date: 01 Oct 07 - 05:43 AM

A final post (on this thread) from me to return to the original post -

"The White House has announced that Mr. Bush will veto a bipartisan plan that would extend health insurance, and with it such essentials as regular checkups and preventive medical care, to an estimated 4.1 million currently uninsured children. After all, it's not as if those kids really need insurance — they can just go to emergency rooms, right?

O.K., it's not news that Mr. Bush has no empathy for people less fortunate than himself. But his willful ignorance here is part of a larger picture: by and large, opponents of universal health care paint a glowing portrait of the American system that bears as little resemblance to reality as the scare stories they tell about health care in France, Britain, and Canada."

read more......
Paul Krugman writing in the New York Times

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 01 Oct 07 - 01:40 PM

interesting to note that in private health insurance 15% of income is for administrative purposes, whereas with the US Medicare and Veterans Admin. it is only 2%

also interesting to note that large US corporations are starting to push for some kind of govt. medical care - since its much more difficult to compete with foreign companies that dont have to contribute to health insurance costs for their workers..

for instance it costs CHrysler something like a $1000 less per car
to produce the same vehicle in Canada than the US.

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 01 Oct 07 - 02:25 PM

Careful Don, you'll develop a conscience and vote Lib-Dem!

I had for a moment forgotten that you were somewhere to the political right of Ghengis Kahn. Surely in that case it is right for the weaklings to die so that the survivors form a stronger conquering race? Or do I misjudge you?

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 02 Oct 07 - 08:28 PM

Unworthy of you Richard.

You well know that I have always been at the far left of conservative thinking, notwithstanding that I do accept as fact that Maggie Thatcher did certain things that were right. I am also prepared to applaud anything that a Labour PM does right (if there is ever a labour PM - haven't seen one since 1979).

What a pity that the same willingness to give credit where due doesn't enter the political conciousness of most socialists.

I have a very well developed conscience, and am on record on this forum having stood up for the weak and vulnerable.

But vote Lib-Dem?......Now you are being really silly.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: gnu
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 03:52 PM

Huh?

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 04:12 PM

Gnu, I take it that huh? was about my comment re voting Lib - Dem.

To set your mind at rest, I was referring to our UK Liberal Democrats who are very different than the US Democratic Party.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: Bobert
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 04:18 PM

What is absolutely unbelievable is one of Bush's stated reasons for vetoin' this legislation and that being that he thinks it is excessive federal "spending"... Spnding???

Here's aguy who has signed every Republican pork ladened bill that has ever been sent to him... Pork for just about every nonsensicle thing after another... And all during war time... Yeah, since when did Bush start caring about federal spending, fir gosh sakes???

He's jus' p.o.'d because the bill has come from the Dems... Had the Repubs put the same bill on his desk, he'd sign it...

Yeah, I know a good number of Repubs have voted for it but it is essentially a Dem bill...

I hope we never get another president as mule headed and obstinate as this current asse...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: Don Firth
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 04:55 PM

"Excessive federal spending."

Coming from him, that's ree-frickin'-diculous! Have you priced a needless war recently?

Also, he complained that he felt it might be a step toward "socialism." My goodness gracious, what a horrible thought!

I can't figure out if he's working from some arcane ideology (like, say, Social Darwinism) or if he's just a mean-spirited little weasel.

Maybe some of both.

Don Firth

P. S. In the interests of political correctness, my apologies to all weasels everywhere.

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: curmudgeon
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 05:11 PM

He also is loathe to deprive any of his friendly insurance company executives of any of their ill gotten gains - Tom

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: gnu
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 05:25 PM

Don W.... um, no. Why do people assume to know what I am thinking and saying? I just decided not to post on another thread because of that. I may not post on any thread again that has anything to do with anything other than tunes or REAL bullshit. Geeeeeeezzzzeeee.

It was a simple comment which I thought was germain to this thread... as in, WTF???? As in, I could not believe it would actually happen until it did. Disgusting!

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: Bobert
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 05:26 PM

Not to mention the $26B, yes billion, of our tax dollars he gave the airlines after 9/11... That little gift alone would nearly finance the entire difference between what he wants and what Congress wants...

But how quickly the Bushites forget things like the $26B... I haven't...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 06:46 PM

My apologies Gnu. I did not intend to upset you. With posts not always relating to their immediate predecessor, it's sometimes easy to mistake meaning.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 12:25 AM

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
John F. Kennedy

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 11:14 AM

After 729 days of serving in the Minnisota National Guard stationed in Iraq there are 2,168 soldiers that fell 6 hours short of the 730 day limit (BY US MILITARY CONTRACT) that would have made them eligible for the tuition assitence GI bill that they were hoping to get since signing up.

Sorry Charlie, if you think you have it tough there are 16 million poor kids in the USA who will not get health insurance since it costs about 3 weeks of the money spent waging war in Iraq per year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jon Anderson a Lt. in the MN Nat. Guard says the snafu to deny his troops the GI bill was intentional. How on earth can he know that?
Well Jon you can't have a war and eat it too. Maybe he is one of those phoney soldiers Rush talks about. The S chip is now shit since W vetoed it yesterday. sorry kids.

which leads us to
Congressman Murtha who was contacted by the Rush Limbaugh people about punishing people who misquote Rush. Murtha asked " Are you supporting my War Tax bill?" They said "NO". He said that they should if they are in favor of keeping this war going and fully funded. The War Tax bill would pay for the war now instead of borrowing the money from China and quadrupling the cost that is being passed down for the next 2 generations.

Bernenke is going to give the economy another shot of morphine to steady the market in the form of lowering interest rates and weakening the dollar to historic lows. Bush is giving Prozac to the market by waging war with a deficit beyond all absurd historic precedents. NO WONDER RUSH LIMBAUGH IS ON OXYCONTIN!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: DougR
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 08:05 PM

Bush is not opposed to renewing this program he simply opposes this Democratic boondogle that cost too much money because it covers not only kids but also adults. Also, he opposes the income level that would be eligible for support. The bill he vetoed would have allowed children in homes with a annual income of $60,000 to be eligible for the program.

Bush, and other like-minded Republicans want to renew the program at a more modest level and restrict participation to the kids it originally was designed to protect. Poor kids, no adults.

The Democrats are merely using the Bill as a political tool to try to distort Bush's position. If you don't believe that, see what happens when additional legislation is introduced designed by Republicans to bring about a compromise. If the Democrats are willing to compromise, then I am wrong. If they merely send the president the same bill again (as Senator Schumber has suggested they will do), it's all politics.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: DougR
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 08:26 PM

Er ...Schumer not Schumber.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 08:42 PM

Doug R Right ON!

Both Orin Hatch and Grassly support the child health care bill whole heartedly and we all know how they love to bash and distort Bush.

Use the CBC numbers and not just the Democratic or Republican spin.


The bill is basicly a block grant to the states who will then set what is a minimum standard of income for their area.

There is nothing in the bill that says the federal goverment has any say as to what kind of treatment is to be prescribed.

The war costs over 500 million a week, every week.

The child health care law would have cost 500 million 3 times a year.

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: DougR
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 01:06 AM

I could be wrong ( I was in 1941) but I think both Grassley and Hatch are up for election in the next go-'round. That could explain their lack of support for the Administration. There isn't an elected politician in Washington that would take an unfavorabel position on a Bill if they thought it would cost them their seat. Democrat AND Republican.

I stand by my post. If the Democrats are REALLY serious about wanting to extend the healthcare program for poor children, they will agree to a compromise. If the continue to simply send Bush the same old Bill that he vetoed, it's politics.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 11:40 PM

There was some discussion, earlier, about folks not trusting our gov. to get it right if we did go with universal health care. I think we would get it right, eventually, but the following sure gives one pause:

By ROBERT PEAR
Published: October 7, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 — Tens of thousands of Medicare recipients have been victims of deceptive sales tactics and had claims improperly denied by private insurers that run the system's huge new drug benefit program and offer other private insurance options encouraged by the Bush administration, a review of scores of federal audits has found.

Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, says the Medicare drug benefit is saving people money.

The problems, described in 91 audit reports reviewed by The New York Times, include the improper termination of coverage for people with H.I.V. and AIDS, huge backlogs of claims and complaints, and a failure to answer telephone calls from consumers, doctors and drugstores.

Medicare officials have required insurance companies of all sizes to fix the violations by adopting "corrective action plans." Since March, Medicare has imposed fines of more than $770,000 on 11 companies for marketing violations and failure to provide timely notice to beneficiaries about changes in costs and benefits.

The companies include three of the largest participants in the Medicare market, UnitedHealth, Humana and WellPoint.

The audits document widespread violations of patients' rights and consumer protection standards. Some violations could directly affect the health of patients — for example, by delaying access to urgently needed medications.

In July, Medicare terminated its contract with a private plan in Florida after finding that it posed an "imminent and serious threat" to its 11,000 members.

In other cases, where auditors criticized a company's "policies and procedures," the effects on patients were not clear.

The audits show the growing pains that Medicare has experienced as it introduced the popular new drug benefit and shifted more responsibility to private health plans.

For years, Democrats have complained about efforts to "privatize Medicare," and they are likely to cite the findings as evidence that private insurers cannot be trusted to care for the sickest, most vulnerable Medicare recipients.

But federal officials point with pride to their efforts to police the Medicare market, and they say that competition among private plans has been a boon to beneficiaries, offering more choices at lower cost than anyone expected.

"The Medicare drug benefit is saving seniors an average of $1,200 a year," said Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services.

Medicare officials said the audits also showed that insurers would be held accountable.

"The start-up period is over," said Kerry N. Weems, the new acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "I am simply not going to tolerate marketing abuses."

The same insurance companies that offer stand-alone drug plans also sell Medicare Advantage plans, which provide a full range of benefits including coverage of doctor's visits and hospital care. Enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans has grown rapidly, to more than 8 million, from 4.7 million in 2003. Federal auditors found the same types of violations in both parts of the program.

Of the audits conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services, 39 focused on drug benefits, 44 focused on managed care plans and 8 examined other types of private plans.

Medicare officials said that compliance problems occurred most often in two areas: marketing, and the handling of appeals and grievances related to the quality of care.

Many of the marketing abuses occurred in sales of the fastest-growing type of Medicare Advantage product, known as private fee-for-service plans. In June, the government announced that seven of the leading companies in this market, including UnitedHealth, Humana and Coventry, had agreed to suspend marketing of these plans. Medicare recently allowed them to resume marketing after they took steps to monitor their sales agents more closely.

Each Medicare plan has a list of preferred drugs, known as a formulary. Under federal law, patients can request coverage of other drugs that may be medically necessary. But many insurers do not have procedures to handle such requests, auditors said.

John H. Wells, the compliance officer at Bravo Health, defended the company's record, but he said: "The appeals and grievance process is very complex. It is very difficult for any plan to be fully compliant. In many cases, the government's guidance is unclear, so it's impossible for a business to know what to do."

These findings were typical of the deficiencies described in Medicare audit reports:

¶UnitedHealth, which serves more than six million Medicare beneficiaries, did not have an "effective program" to supervise its marketing representatives, agents and brokers. In some cases, United improperly denied claims without giving any explanation to beneficiaries. Peter L. Ashkenaz, a company spokesman, said, "We terminated a few agents and brokers for misrepresenting our products."

¶WellPoint, one of the nation's largest insurers, had "a backlog of approximately 354,000 claims" at certain Medicare plans offered through its UniCare subsidiary. The company's call center took an average of 27 minutes to answer phone calls from its members and 16 minutes to answer calls from health care providers. More than half the callers hung up before speaking to a company representative. Karen Brown, a spokeswoman for WellPoint, had no immediate comment.

¶In March, Sierra Health Services ended drug coverage for more than 2,300 Medicare beneficiaries with H.I.V./AIDS, saying they had not paid their premiums. In many cases, the premiums had been paid, and beneficiaries had canceled checks to prove it. Sierra initially refused to reinstate them, but eventually agreed to do so after repeated requests from federal officials. Peter O'Neill, a vice president of Sierra, said this particular drug plan, which attracted people with very high drug costs, would not be offered in 2008.

¶Humana, which covers more than 4.5 million people on Medicare, promised to investigate every complaint about its marketing practices, but it received so many complaints that it could not keep up. Many beneficiaries said they had received incorrect information from Humana agents. Medicare officials said some agents had not been adequately trained or supervised. Thomas T. Noland Jr., a senior vice president of Humana, said the company had taken "corrective action to improve the situation."

¶Humana did not always tell beneficiaries about changes in its list of covered drugs. In some cases, Humana did not explain its reasons for denying claims and did not inform beneficiaries of their appeal rights.

¶The Sterling Life Insurance Company, a subsidiary of the Aon Corporation, did not pay claims correctly or handle appeals in a timely way. The company has "a demonstrated pattern of failure" to meet Medicare performance standards. Problems were compounded by a rapid growth in enrollment. Sterling said it had taken steps to improve compliance.

¶Two sponsors of popular Medicare drug plans, MemberHealth and Bravo Health, did not act on requests for coverage of specific drugs within 72 hours, as required by the government. Bravo did not comply with federal rules requiring doctors to review all claims denied for a "lack of medical necessity."

D. Alan Scantland, senior vice president of MemberHealth, a subsidiary of the Universal American Financial Corporation, said, "We don't believe that we were compromising any beneficiaries' health because of what we were doing or not doing."

Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he had "verified countless stories of deceptive sales practices by insurance agents who prey upon the elderly and disabled to sell them expensive and inappropriate private Medicare plans."

Kathleen Healey, a lawyer at the Alabama Department of Senior Services, said: "Despite the prohibition of door-to-door marketing, agents arrive on residents' doorsteps stating that the president sent them, or that they represent Medicare. Some telemarketers insist they are calling from Medicare, and they tell beneficiaries that they will lose their Medicare if they do not sign up for the telemarketer's plan."

Medicare has taken "vigorous action" to halt marketing violations, said Abby L. Block, a Medicare official.

But David A. Lipschutz, a lawyer at California Health Advocates, a nonprofit group, said that Medicare's generous payments to private plans still encouraged predatory sales practices.

"Every enrollee in a private Medicare plan is a potential source of substantial profits," Mr. Lipschutz said.

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: artbrooks
Date: 07 Oct 07 - 09:30 AM

DougR: Bush is not opposed to renewing this program he simply opposes this Democratic boondogle... So the Democrats are only going to be allowed to submit bills (even if they have substantial bipartisan support) without them being vetoed if they continue Bush/Republican policies without change? That would allow the Republicans to say during Campaign 2008 that the Democrats were in power for two years and didn't manage to accomplish a single thing. Clever, eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Shrub begins new war- on sick children
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Oct 07 - 04:11 PM

Here's more on our *wonderful* health care system:

According to a new study released Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, children across the country — even those covered by health insurance — receive less than half of the health care measures that pediatricians recommend.

Study authors said that while they expected to find deficiencies, they were surprised at the extent of the problem.

"Before this study was done, most people thought kids were getting reasonably good care," said lead author Dr. Rita Mangione-Smith, associate professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine. "I have to say that, as a pediatrician, I was surprised that things were as bad as they were."

Mangione-Smith and researchers at the RAND Corp. created a set of 175 quality indicators based on national guidelines and the opinions of an expert panel of pediatricians.

The indicators cover such common childhood health care needs as preventive care, acute medical care and care for chronic medical conditions.

They then examined medical records from 1,536 children, randomly selected from 12 major metropolitan areas across the country, looking at all types of outpatient pediatric care, received from 1996 to 2000.

What they found was that children received only 46.5 percent of recommended care measures overall.

When examined by category, children received only 67.6 percent of indicated care for acute illnesses, which includes measures such as hospitalization for a severe fever.

Care for chronic medical conditions — scheduling follow-up visits after changes in asthma medication — was delivered only 53.4 percent of the time.

Three more pages about it, HERE.