Buffalo Boy's Blog
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Surprise, Surprise, Misused Funds
The US 1996 tobbaco settlement netted the US $61.5 billion between 2000 and 2006, gee guess who controlled both houses (senate and congress) and the presidency in that span?
They misused that money that went to the states. One of those expenditures was on a golf course in Niagara County. Other misuse of the funds included a museum in Alaska of all places. Imagine if all that money had gone where it was supposed to go. To say, I don't know, HEALTHCARE. It was supposed to go to healthcare programs, anti smoking programs and other health related programs but instead only 30% found its true purpose. The other 70% was squandered by a republican controlled Washington. Why does this kind of thing not surprise me. That is something that has gone relatively unnoticed but should have been a warning sign before we gave George W. and Hank Paulson $700 billion to play with at their discretion. Another question is this, instead of settling with tobacco companies why are we not just putting them out of business. Why are we still legalizing smoking/chewing tobacco in this country or anywhere. Its already to the point where pretty much the only place you can smoke legally is in your own home or backyard and thats if you don't have kids, which lets face it, if you smoke around your kids in an enclosed setting you should pretty much go to jail in my book. This country is so backwards. We sue big tobacco for billions, then we don't use it for healthcare and the use it was intended for. We ban it everywhere but we don't make it totally illegal. We tax the living shit out of it yet its still legal. That $61.5 billion could have gone a long way towards paying medicaid and even setting up universal healthcare, instead, our politicians use every excuse to misuse it on bullshit. And the republicans wonder why they were voted out. Im not saying that its not a bipartisan problem but lets face it, 2000-2006, they were in control of everything. Just think of the savings this country would experience if we banned smoking altogether. Just ended all sales of ciggarettes and made them totally illegal. The cancer rates in this country would plummet.Category: Politics | healthcare | money
Top Priorities
This is a world map and the colors on it represent those countries that have some form of universal healthcare. The blue are countries that have some form of universal healthcare in place, notice every industrialized country has some form of universal healthcare: Great Britain, Austrailia, Brazil, Russia, China, Japan. and basically all of Europe and Canada.
The countries in green are those that are currently implementing universal healthcare. Among those are Mexico, South Africa, and Thailand.
These countries in the blue and green believe that healthcare is a right, not a privilege. They believe that all citizenss regardless of ability to pay or previous condition deserve healthcare.
The US however is in the grey, we have no universal healthcare, we have 47 million American citizens who do not have health insurance. This my friends needs to change. We also have people who despite having it, can't afford their medical bills because their current insurance won't cover them for some lousy reason.
The two countries in yellow, are Iraq and Afghanistan. They have universal healthcare. Guess how.....WE THE US ARE PAYING FOR IT THROUGH WAR FUNDING!!!!!!
That to quote Grampy, my friends, is not a democratic thing, its a George W. Bush administration thing. On Barack Obama's list of things to get done, is reforming healthcare. Now is the time for universal healthcare in the supposed wealthiest country on the planet.
Category: Politics | healthcare
Faith and Medicine
Here is another two that simply should never mix. Apparently there are pharmacies now that are pushing their religious beliefs on consumers. A pharmacy in Virginia known as the Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy is pushing their religious beliefs on those coming in with legitimate scripts for contraceptives and other drugs.
Basically, if they don't believe in the drug based on their religious beliefs, they will not fill it. Should that not be totally illegal? If I walk into a pharmacy for a drug from a doctor, be it a contraceptive or otherwise, that pharmacist by law should have to fill that prescription. God should have nothing to do with what drugs they dispense. Its a dangerous mix. More dangerous than religion and politics, this kind of thing can get someone killed. No medical facility should have religious beliefs affecting the decisions made by the medical practitioners. Nor should they affect whether or not the pharmacy provides the treatment prescribed. I hope they don't expect many customers because I think that those who believe the way they do are few and far inbetween. Whats next? Oh we are a pharmacy but we don't give out drugs, we give out prayers instead. Here is a prayer for your disease, good luck! Not the pharmacy people would want to attend I would think.Category: healthcare | religion
McCain's Crappy Idea of Healthcare
Anyone involved in healthcare, anyone who is eligible or receiving medicare benefits or anyone who is disabled and receiving medicaid benefits should read this. John McCain plans to pay for his healthcare plan by reducing medicare and medicaid by $1.3 trillion dollars. Thats a lot of Medicare, a program for the elderly that is needed by people after they retire. Medicaid a program that yes its abused, but is needed by those with developmental disabilities who can't work or those with life altering illnesses, conditions and injuries. His plan, gives you and me a $5000 TAX CREDIT to buy our own healthcare. The only problem is the average family plan costs $12,000 a year. How do you and I, the average citizens of this country cough up the other $7000? Chump change to a guy whose wifey wears $300,000 dresses and has nine homes I'm sure, but to average citizens of the middle class, we don't have $7000 floating around for healthcare. Cuts to medicare and medicaid of that size should worry a lot of people, especially those medical facilities whose income is primarily medicare and medicaid based.Category: News | Politics | healthcare
What Do Republicans Have Against Universal Health Care?
Why does the so called Christian, right wing republican party have such a distaste of universal healthcare? I can not get my arms around that no matter how often it comes up.
Jesus was the most altruistic person ever. If you were sick, he healed you. He didn't expect a co-payment or anything in return.
Republicans fear is more taxes. But there are several ways that we can come up with the money to fund such a system without increasing taxes one penny or very little, say only to the rich (which someone is rich according to John McCain if you make more than $5 million a year, I don't know about any of you, I would consider lots of amounts under that to be rich.)
End this wrong war and immediately we save billions of dollars per year that could go to domestic issues such as.....HEALTHCARE. The other is getting this country off oil. End our dependence on foreign oil which we are essentially borrowing from the Chinese to pay for oil and we save billions more. This could once again pay for other domestic issues.
Taxing the upper tier of income earners (not the average American) would also generate plenty of income to help establish universal healthcare amongst other things.
The other area we seriously need to look at taxing is churches. Its time. Their profound influence in the political system and the fact that we have a "Christian" right wing of our political system says that yes, its definitely time to tax churches. Not just Christian churches, all of them. Whats fair for one denomination is fair for all.
Donations to churches should no longer be tax deductible either. Its all bullshit anyway and those who claim it are probably lying about it most of the time anyway. Churches and those who donate to churches would be fine with that for the noble cause that those tax dollars would be going to.
The other thing we need to do is eliminate the waste in the healthcare system. Universal Healthcare would eliminate one thing, billing. The number of people to keep track of billing is astronomical, Watch Michael Moore's Sicko to get an idea of how simple it could become. You go for healthcare and instead of worrying about what they have to fill out for the insurance company, healthcare professionals can worry about getting the patient well. Instead of worrying about how many patients they see for productivity, they are rewarded for how many patients they get better.
Finally, healthcare under a universal system would be proactive instead of reactive. If you are proactive in treating a disease, the treatment is usually cheaper. If you wait till something hurts to the point that you have no choice but to go to the ER the costs all of a sudden rack themselves up. If you feel pain coming on and say gee maybe I better go just in case and it turns out to be something important they can catch it early without a hosptital stay.
I've posted this before and I am posting it again because its an issue that is going to come up again and again in the coming months. If you think about it, we are already half way there. Medicare and Medicaid already cover a large number of people. I think the biggest thing right now is the system needs to be streamlined and HMO's need to be eliminated. They are the ones driving up costs. Them and drug/medical suppy companies. Expand medicare and medicaid or combine them to all Americans. Whats wrong with that if the funding is secured.
We should really be looking to our neighbors to the north, Great Britain, France or any other nation that has a system in place. They have it and most of them would tell you that while its not a flawless system and it has its prolems from time to time but one thing they do not worry about is how high their medical bills will be.
The basic premise here is simple, Healthcare is not a privilege, its a human right. The sick should be cared for, just like we provide a free and public education to our kids and fire and police protection to all. What is wrong with having a society that cares for its people enough to provide free universal healthcare to its citizens?
Category: Politics | healthcare
Cut In Medicaire Payments to Physicians Necessary
A cut to Medicaire payments to physicians is a necessary step at this point. You can blame it on who ever you want but I blame it on the Bush administration.
Most of us, if not all of us will need Medicaire when we turn 65, we won't be in a position to afford our own health insurance when we reitre. So Medicaire is a form of universal (call it socialized if thats what you want to call it, because it is socialized health insurance for the elderly) heathcare for the elderly, that over the last 8 years the Bush administration has taken a step towards privatizing Medicaire by allowing a program called Medicaire Advantage. Medicaire Advantage allows seniors to choose to get their insurance through private insurers, which Medicaire then reimburses those insurers. The argument is that the Medicaire payments to those private insurers (who by the way are FOR PROFIT and profitting off the sick) are too high. I can totally see that being the case because as this president and his administration has always done is look out for the coorporate interests in this country, not for the little guy. So theres a 10% cut in Medicaire rates coming starting July 4th. Which why is that a bad thing. Look, first of all if we weren't in a money sucking wrong war in Iraq we could probably have universal healthcare in this country, second, privatizing of healthcare is the wrong thing to do and we have done that on many levels so far including drug companies which is costing the elderly and sick in this country a ton of money, doctors offices, medical equipment and hospitals have all been privatized in this country. There are very few not-for-profit entities left in the medical field. I don't feel sorry for anyone in the medical community and Im in the field as a physical therapist when this 10% cut goes into effect. Steam line services, be more efficient, do what ever you have to do but healthcare costs are out of control and a big reason is because of the privatization of those products and services. I honestly don't see doctors needing to get in line at the city mission for their next meal because of a 10% rate cut from Medicaire. In order to get universal coverage when the democrats take office there will have to be some cuts in payments, but as we all saw in the documentary SICKO, doctors in Great Britain, who has universal healthcare, were still making a pretty decent living on about $200,000 a year.Category: News | healthcare
Socializing Energy and Healthcare
Two things that should be socialized are Energy and Healthcare. Canada has done it successfully, Britain has done it successfully, France, Cuba, and last time I checked not all those countries are communist countries.
Those who are against it are ultra republican, free market rules everything. Fine for you, we will privatize schools, police and fire. However, if we do this, we must warn you that before the police or fire can come to your home you will have to be able to pay up front.
Think about that, if police and fire protection were not socialized we would be paying for those too. We do pay for them in taxes, but I guarantee that its cheaper paying taxes to get those services than it would be paying out of pocket for a fire truck to pull up to your home. Who would want to live in a country where police and fire protection are not available 24/7 if needed.
The same can be said for energy. The government shouldn't necessarily be responsible for drilling and exploration but they should have some price controls in place.
Healthcare should be guaranteed to every citizen of the United States. Healthcare is not a privilege, its a right. plain and simple. It should be a single payer, government run system which would guarantee health coverage to every single solitary US citizen.
Category: Politics | healthcare | oil/gas
Our Health Insurance System Sucks
If this article doesn't tell you the crappy state of affairs amongst the health insurance industry, nothing does. I work in the healthcare field and I hate it. I hate the way we talk about it having to be profitable as opposed to doing what is right for the patient.
Healthcare shouldn't be about profit, it should be about caring for those who are ill no matter what they can or cannot afford. Insurers are now cutting back on what is called 4th tier drugs, ones that can treat and prolong the lives of those with multiple sclerosis, cancer and rheumatoid arthritis.
Some of these drugs cost more than some individuals make in a year. One if the individuals in this article thought he had good insurance and realistically it should have paid for his medicine for his leukemia and found out that for a 90 day supply it would cost him $4000 out of pocket.
Another woman in the article with MS had a federal insurance plan through her husband that never gave them a hard time, when she went to refill her prescription a drug that normally was paid for with a $20 copay now costs her $325 a mont for a 30 day supply.
I have a question: Why does it cost so much for the drugs here vs. say Canada, Britain, France or even Cuba? I have an answer, no where in the world, do drug companies market and commercialize and spend more on advertising themselves as they do here in the capitalistic society we are than in the United States.
Capitalism is good, a free market is good, in most areas except healthcare. In this country, we make a profit off people getting sick. Thats the sick part. Not the person who is sick, but the industry that profits off those who are.
I hope I don't get one of those diseases. Where does the average American get that kind of money to pay for a drug. Thats outrageous. Yet if he can' fork over the money, he doesn't get the treatment that could infact prolong his life or make them functional.
What do the doctors think? They prescribe the drug that could get their patient better, yet their patient can't afford it because the health insurance company can't pay for a treatment they just prescribed, because the drug company who was just in the doctors office giving them a free lunch charges that ridiculous price. Its a fucked up system by any stretch of the imagination.
Even the most Republican/conservative of you out there have to agree that people shouldn't be expected to pay that kind of money for a drug that is going to if not prolong their life, potentially make them a functioning member of society. Nice system we have here. Im moving to Canada where they at least have health care that covers you.
Category: healthcare
Prayers Do Not Replace Medical Science
Madeline Neumann of Weston, Wisconson was only 11 years old and with proper care for her diabetes would have lived a normal life. Instead her parents decided to ignore scientifc fact and medical care to pray for her health. Great choice. What did the prayers do? They killed her.
Her parents should be put on trial and serve jail time. This is a case of neglect and quite possibly murder. It should also be a case in point that maybe, just maybe there is no God. If there was, don't you think he would have answered these prayers? I wonder how much the parents believe in religion now?
This article helps prove that empirical and scientific evidence be it medical or any other field or profession that involves making informed decisions should always trump faith. The parents should have known better.
I realize these parents are in the minority religious nut jobs of the world but it is a dangerous and growing population of this country that thinks the way they do.
The daughter in this case, hadn't seen a doctor since 3 years old, she was 11 when she died. Faith can kill if put in the wrong place. The parents believe they did nothing wrong, well, look it up folks, because when you go to trial the jury will convict you of something called neglect and realistically, it should be murder. The parents, despite their intentions belong in jail and that my friends can not be argued.
Category: News | Science | healthcare | religion
Welcome to Our Infirmary
I just got home from work, its 10:17 and I left early because I feel like crap. I woke up thinking I could make it but as soon as I went out into the damp, cold everything kicked back into high gear, the cough, the stuffiness, the headaches, the pain in my sides from coughing continuously, hell when I cough my head hurts from the increase in pressure from coughing.
My wife is also on the mend. Yesterday she had Xrays for her back that she had been complaining about for the last two weeks and finally I told her to go to the doctor. Yesterday, she actually listened to me and went and they sent her for Xrays.No heavy lifting for her, only problem is, she works in a preschool....good luck avoiding lifting anything.
So our household includes one sicky and one physically impaired individual. Updates as we improve or worsen.....
Category: healthcare
