Health Care

Health Care Delivery and Payment System Reform

Much is being said but I am not certain those with the highest volume are speaking for their constituencies or for the donor interests possibly aiming at short term profits for themselves at the expense of the actual constituency. If this proves to be the case, then a reevaluation of qualifications is in order.

Individual choice is glibly paid homage to by saying these are the allowed possibilities and you have your freedom to choose by choosing among these. This is not freedom. True freedom would allow for all the choices the individual could imagine or research for the spending of hard earned cash. Being told to buy something created by others for their own profit and using their definition of greater good for all is not freedom.

Money is earned and taxes are paid and insurance is another mandated tax? Or should that insurance money be in the hands of the earner for discretionary spending in healthcare? Discretionary money is the key to competition. Competition eliminated by mandatory insurance and subsequent price fixing has resulted in high prices for the services and huge administrative costs while rates rise and rise, like ticks. Who benefits?

The series of siphons on this insurance money is supporting an edifice of personnel who want to keep their control over the insurance premium money. These people are hiring lobbyists and donating to campaigns. How about health care paid for in cash by people on a discretionary basis? That means cash and competition, which lowers prices. The issue is availability of health care, which I translate as the cost of health care. If the cost for routine care is low, people can afford health care. Sell insurance at a high deductable for catastrophes and if somebody does not buy it and needs specialization, they are referred to social services. Catastrophic insurance should be freely chosen and of low cost.

Tort reform is another need. How about individuals carrying their own insurance against malpractice on a discretionary basis per procedure? Individuals would then only pay for the actual instance involving them, rather than subsidizing high insurance rates. Doctors would be relieved of the burden of malpractice insurance, since the patient would have personal insurance. We should have the right to choose discretionary spending on health care at a reasonable price over mandatory insurance programs with ever rising costs.

Stimulus money could be used to establish clinics in neighborhoods, which would employ people and provide health care at a reasonable cost. Don’t forget that health care is not synonymous with health insurance. We need affordable health care.

Kindle

Musings on the Kindle


Wonderful feature is the instant download of emergency book supplies and the readable format. I can read faster on the Kindle and find it light and easy to handle.

A download containing charts and graphs had good text quality but the figures were unreadable. This book is formatted for print media. An alternative would be to autoformat the charts into a larger font size. Formatting for Kindle would contain the chart or graph on one frame along with the caption, in a readable font size.

Learning from experience formatting for the Kindle, I came up with the following formula to produce a readable product:

For e-mail or Kindle format

Set line spacing at 1.5

Under Format:
Paragraph Paragraph spacing set at Before=12 or 6, check sample
Set line spacing at 1.5
General Alignment Left, Outline level Body Text

This will produce a readable copy for Kindle, with 1.5 line spacing and more than that between unindented paragraphs

Ask For an FBI/CIA Investigation

A criminal investigation into the ascendency of certain brokerage/bank institutions is merited by the emerging knowledge that the housing economic bubble was based on wholesale fraud made possible by well intentioned individuals who thought the poor should have a chance at home ownership.

If somebody cannot pay for a debt incurred then that individual should not be loaned money. Seems logical but the optimal outcome for this housing loan activity was only to be able to market the debt at an instant profit for the broker, not to ensure eventual repayment of the loan. Nobody gave a shit if the loans were repaid. These kinds of loans were then bundled together and sold as AAA rated ‘securities’ to investors looking for safe investments. Two more frauds added to the original appraisal fraud, liars at the loan company, loans with inconsistent payments, inflated housing prices, a triumvirate of developer, broker and lender all cooperating to drive housing prices up and sell more housing by enabling incompetent buyers. Who cashed out?

Yet the USA taxpayer is bailing out all these people who perpetuated and made money on this fraud. Why not just give the towns and states and retirement funds and private accounts their principals back? This would stimulate the economy by aiding distressed states. Stop the AIG, CITI etc. payouts. Let them sue for the money. Did they think the insurance on the debt they bought should bail them out of a bad investment? Or was the insurance on the CDOs (collateralized debt obligations) known to pay off due to the poor quality of the mortgages all this was based on? You and me been had. Why would the SEC allow mortgage derivatives they did not understand?

It’s time for an investigation and indictments in the private and public sector…..this public/private partnership did not benefit the taxpayers, who worry about medical costs while these frauds receive billions and more.

Why are all these contracts and ‘securities’ legally binding when it was all based on fraud? Who made the decision to cover this free enterprise bilking by going through the lenders and brokers doing the bilking? The people being bilked, the bilkees should have first shot at the bailout money, not the moneylenders. Let these institutions built up too big to fail on fraudulent schemes based on subprime loans go under. Work with the investors and forget propping up these people who caused the problem. This will get actual money in circulation instead of tying it up. Local lenders who also service the loans can loan to locals to buy homes. No more mortgage derivatives. Mortgage derivatives are like an exported disease and bailout money proves that it isn’t free enterprise either. Let’s separate the housing/loan market from the debt export scene. The purpose of housing is housing, not to be used as a gambling chip.

Free enterprise when profitable but socialized when taking bailout money. Private profit and bailout for losses. Good odds for somebody while the rest of us pay and pay and pay. This horseshit began under President Bush and is happily continuing under President Obama.

MANDATORY INSURANCE RIPOFF!

The rush to insurance during this healthcare summit seems to make many presumptions, such as that price fixing is good for one industry but not good for another. I am sure that the lobbyists are leading the charge to mandatory insurance for individuals and businesses, letting Congress take control of providing customers for these private businesses through mandates that take civil rights away from the taxpayers.

Being forced to buy anything is not freedom. Price fixing with a guaranteed ever increasing percent of income in perpetuity for insurance companies will not bring health care costs down. Allowing government and insurance companies an automatic draw on paychecks will not bring health care costs down. Freedom of choice and cash in hand will bring health care costs down.

Oh, but the debt load on the medical profession is huge and there is all that malpractice insurance to pay for and these payments must continue….Perhaps more structured bankrupt medical debtors this time, instead of just auto manufacturers. Where is the debt load? Who are the creditors? Should foreign companies be able to own our insurance pools?

Establish low cost clinics in neighborhoods for routine medical visits covered or not by insurance. Reasonable, available low cost health care, payment in cash or card or insurance, but always at a low cost, payment now or jump through social services hoops.

Facilities for these clinics exist in many cities in the form of unused commercial space, empty government buildings, repossessed homes and unused school space.

Insurance companies are tying up huge sums and then using these sums to get tax money to pay off their gambling losses. Now they want to mandate the continuance of this forced obligation so they can take even more money out of the system. Let government, and private enterprise offer non-mandatory insurance choices and allow the individual to seek out low cost heath care on the open market. Use stimulus money to establish the clinics and man them. Give the people the right to buy or not to buy.

Figure it out! A small clinic operating 24 hours a day would see a patient every half hour average @ $10 a visit, $4800 would be generated or $9,600 @ $20 a visit. Enough money to pay a small staff and what a boon to the neighborhood it would be.

Give the people a real chance to choose healthcare, not a series of predesigned choices that enrich others. This is far more important than more roads.