Villain Of The Day

(see dick. see dick embezzle. embezzle dick, embezzle.)

What is WRONG with people?? And what is wrong with health care in our country? These 2 questions might be related. Let's see ...

First, let me introduce my Villain Of The Day. His name is Richard Scrushy. Never heard of him? Me neither. Till I saw a story about him on news.yahoo.com.

Richard is the former CEO of HealthSouth, a rehabilitation chain which proudly proclaims on its website that it is "one of the nation's largest healthcare services providers." The company's mission statement includes many lofty ideals including "providing high-quality health care in an innovative, yet cost-effective manner, managing our resources wisely."

Richard was recently ordered by a judge to pay HealthSouth shareholders $2.8 billion dollars because while he was CEO, he found all sorts of innovative ways to "manage" the company's resources. According to the article, his shenanigans "nearly sent the company into bankruptcy."

Here is just one example of Richard's exploits:
HealthSouth purchased 19 acres of land next to Scrushy's suburban Birmingham estate for $1.9 million. Three years later the company gave the land to Richard. Lucky him! Scrushy said he got the land instead of a bonus.

When questioned about his talent for "earning" mucho money for himself while apparently ignoring his company's mission statement altogether, Scrushy replied, "That's the way it works in America."

Ok, first of all, I would love to disagree with Scrushy's statement. But unfortunately, he is right. Just look at the health insurance CEO salaries I listed a few days ago. There is big, big money to be made in health care. So why shouldn't every CEO take his fair share? That's the way it works.

Second of all, we may all agree that corporate profits are the "American way." But holy cow - how much extra cash did this company have lying around, if $2.8 billion worth of scheming NEARLY sends them into bankruptcy??? What the heck would it take to actually HURT their bottom line? Is it possible that perhaps, maybe, somewhere along the line someone is paying too much for their services?

Just asking.

Richard, I am glad the judge is making you pay. And I am delighted to name you my first official Villain Of The Day. Congratulations. You earned it.

~~~

Health Care Reform ... Truth or Consequences

(hmmm ... who should we kill today?)

As you may have noticed, health care reform is my 'hot button' issue. I'm not really a worrier, but for most of my adult life I have worried about my health insurance.

- When I have health insurance, I worry about losing it.

- If I am paying my own premiums, I worry about the ridiculous price increases every year.

- Right now I am worried about my husband losing his job - mostly because it would mean we would lose our health insurance.

Even when I'm worried about a health issue such as, say, hypothetically, high blood pressure, my REAL worry is "Will my health insurance company find out?" This is why my primary care physician at the moment is the self-serve blood pressure machine at WalMart.

I have been trying to follow the health care debate in Congress. I have even been trying to be impartial. It's not easy to uncover the facts.

Of course, Congress is trying to be helpful. Just recently:

• The Democrats in the Senate released a proposed bill. It is 615 pages long.
• Fortunately, they also provided a summary.
• Ditto for the House.
• The Republicans came out with an outline of their own.

I will give you a few minutes to peruse these links. I'll just be over here, eating some potato chips - er, I mean low-sodium Triscuits.

All done?

Ok. Now here's what has me ranting today:

John Boehner, the House Republican Leader, published a list on his website entitled Top 10 Facts About House Democrats' Health Care "Reform" Legislation. Most of his Top 10 Facts are highly debatable. Let's look at the first three. My ranting will follow each point, in red.

(From http://republicanleader.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=131578)

1. A Government Takeover of Health Care. The House Democrats’ plan will create a new government-run program, will make health care more expensive, limit treatments and ration care, and put bureaucrats in charge of medical decisions rather than patients and doctors. Translation: higher costs, lower quality, and fewer choices for patients.

The boogey-man is here! Government participation is bad, bad, bad. Let's keep the control in the hands of the insurance companies, where it belongs.

2. Forcing More than 100 Million Out of their Health Care. The House Democrats’ plan will force more than 100 million Americans out of their current health care plan and onto the government rolls. A Lewin Group study confirms that under a new government-run health plan millions will lose their current health care coverage.

The link does not take you to the study. It takes you to another Boehner page. If you follow the bouncing links long enough, you will find that the study says that millions of Americans will lose their coverage because the government plan will put the insurance companies out of business.

Now, think about this -
1. The Republicans say the government is big and clumsy and cannot be trusted to set up a workable program.
2. But on the other hand, the government's program will be so attractive and wonderful, millions will flock to it and the poor little insurance companies will be unable to compete.
3. Hmm

3. Rationing Health Care Treatments. The House Democrats’ plan establishes an “advisory committee” that will put bureaucrats and politicians in charge of deciding patient treatments and cures. Translation: The government will make health care treatment decisions rather than doctors and patients.

Ok, this is the one that really made me mad. I searched all bazillion pages of proposals for information on this "advisory committee" that supposedly will tell your dying grandmother she is too old for dialysis and the kidney transplant is going to a young Democrat instead.

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but the way I read it, the advisory committee will simply establish a baseline of essential services that every health insurance policy will be required to cover.

A board of government-appointed evil scientists (or, even worse, bureaucrats!) eager to ration our health care and make life or death decisions ... it's a frightening thought. It's a great scare tactic. The only problem is - it's simply not true.

~~~

Hellooooo out there

A few days ago, I discovered a blog on my congressman's website. He is a doctor, and he is involved in Republican healthcare reform, which is in my opinion an oxymoron.

Anyway - I was browsing his website looking for details on what, exactly, Republican healthcare reform would look like. I didn't have much luck, but I did find a Congressional Health Care Caucus blog.

Perfect!

Maybe I could find a link to their plan. (nope)
Or read some comments from other interested persons. (nope)
Or post a comment and get a response. (nope)

So far I have posted two comments. Neither one has been published on the blog. Neither one has been answered. I'm thinking I will post a comment every day until I finally get a response. Or my email is blocked by the CIA. Either one.

I'll let you know.

~~~

Health care reform

(done! that was easy!)

I've been self-employed for years, so I saw the health care crisis coming long before it hit the headlines. My friends who worked for Ford and GM and other companies that were still companies at the time had no idea why the mention of health insurance in casual conversation caused me to sweat, breathe rapidly, and stutter.

Now they understand.

But, good news! The crisis will soon be solved. The insurance companies have apparently come to their senses. They are now on our side.

On May 6th, the big health insurers voluntarily offered to reduce rates for women. Wasn't that nice of them?

And then, just yesterday, a big group of big insurers, drug companies, hospitals and unions pledged to cut the growth of health care costs by 1.5% a year, which could amount to a savings of $2 trillion over the next decade. What amazingly lucky timing! They suddenly discovered that they could save $2 trillion, just before a serious debate on health care begins. Wow.

I just have one word of advice for President Obama:
- Don't turn your back on these guys.

And one word of advice for anyone like me, who has health insurance that costs a fortune, covers practically nothing and could disappear at any moment:
- Don't get sick.

~~~