"I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler." – Jon Stewart
Posted in Blog Post on May 4th, 2011
It’s becoming pretty clear how Republicans plan to defend their budget. They’re going to lie about it. via How Will Republicans Defend Medicare Cuts In The Ryan Budget? Lie About Them. Marco Rubio Shows How. | The New Republic. I’d like to be shocked and appalled by behavior like that, but it’s been the standard [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Oct 25th, 2010
Ezra Klein – A new idea on medical malpractice reform. I thought this might be a promising approach that lends itself to bipartisan support: I meant to write about this the other day, but Peter Orszag’s proposal for medical-malpractice reform is pretty clever. As I read it, in fact, it’s not primarily a malpractice-reform proposal [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Sep 8th, 2010
Economist’s View: “The Odd Logic of Tort Reform”. It’s a very nice review of actual data and econ journals on the effects of tort reform. To summarize: very, very little. It appears to be a politically motivated red-herring designed to punish a left leaning constituency. Nothing more, nothing less. Texas makes a lovely example, the [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Mar 27th, 2010
All the bitching, groaning and outright threats from the right are all too familiar: What has been really striking has been the eliminationist rhetoric of the G.O.P., coming not from some radical fringe but from the party’s leaders. John Boehner, the House minority leader, declared that the passage of health reform was “Armageddon.” The Republican [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Dec 31st, 2009
Solution to superbugs may be to stop prescribing antibiotics. To reduce it t a simple slogan “antibiotics are not cough medicine”. Most advanced nations overuse antibiotics to the point of bacteria developing resistance that kills tens of thousands. Norway has developed a common sense approach that works by changing the prescribing habits of doctors, banning [...]
Posted in Blog Post on May 11th, 2009
via Obama lauds industry offer to cut health costs. They must have checked the pockets of that other pair of pants they were wearing last week and found $2 billion (that belongs to us) it didn’t even remember having. Wow it’s like a miracle! Not to cast aspersions on divine intervention, but maybe it has [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Dec 29th, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist – Paul Krugman – Fifty Herbert Hoovers – NYTimes.com. Krugman is concerned that state level spending cuts will counteract federal level stimulus. But even as Washington tries to rescue the economy, the nation will be reeling from the actions of 50 Herbert Hoovers — state governors who are slashing spending in a time [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Apr 14th, 2008
Co-Payments for Expensive Drugs Soar – New York Times Perhaps this should be viewed as a good thing for the prospects of true systemic health reform, given of course you personally don’t die of cancer or become disabled by MS because you can’t afford the drugs to treat the illness. When the middle class begins [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Mar 31st, 2008
It certainly has its irony: McCain’s health plan fails her test – Los Angeles Times Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of former Democratic presidential contender John Edwards, said she and John McCain have one thing in common: “Neither one of us would be covered by his health policy.” Edwards lodged her criticism of the presumptive Republican [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jan 9th, 2008
Measuring the Health of Nations: Updating an Earlier Analysis Compared to other industrial nations the good old US of A ranks 19, out of 19, in preventable deaths. Way to show all those nasty socialist countries that we don’t need their stinking commie health care delivery systems!!!
Posted in Blog Post on Dec 1st, 2007
Mandates and Mudslinging – New York Times Krugman takes Obama to task for echoing GOP talking points in defending his health care plan against attacks by the Clinton and Edwards campaigns. Obama only mandates children have coverage in his plan, not adults. He sees this as a strength, inveighing against forcing people to buy coverage [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Oct 12th, 2007
Paul Krugman has a summary of the effort to slime a 12 year old and his family that dared to contradict the message of the right wing noise machine. Sliming Graeme Frost – New York Times All in all, the Graeme Frost case is a perfect illustration of the modern right-wing political machine at work, [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Oct 3rd, 2007
I for one fervently hope there’s a significant price to be paid by the GOP for sustaining this veto. This is simply wrong headed and politically stupid. Bush vetoes bill on children’s health care – Yahoo! News President George W. Bush on Wednesday vetoed a measure to expand a popular children’s health care program, launching [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Apr 6th, 2007
Children Versus Insurers – New York Times The Bush administration’s clear choice is insurers: As I said, it’s hard to see how anyone can, in good conscience, think that preserving subsidies to insurance companies is more important than providing health care for children. But that is, of course, exactly the position taken by the Bush [...]
Posted in Blog Post on Jan 24th, 2007
We could call it Bush Care, but perhaps Bush Doesn’t Care would be more accurate. It cuts at the underpinning of the current system without offering an effective alternative. It completely ignore the prevalence market failure in the market for health insurance. The only goal it serves is ideological. It pushes people into the individual [...]
Date: 04/17/2008