Political Bloviation

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 advertising [...]

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 something [...]

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 of recession, [...]

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 to [...]

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 presidential nominee’s proposal [...]

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!!!

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 and [...]

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, and in [...]

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 the first [...]

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 administration, which [...]

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 [...]