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Saturday, November 6
Hey, Let's Outsource Health Care to India!
by
Linda Thieman
on Sat 06 Nov 2004 10:32 AM CST
 Hey, Let's Outsource Health Care to India!
by Susan Dentzer, Health Correspondent for "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" on PBS
The Washington Post
October 31, 2004
It's the Taj Mahal of Health Insurance Schemes
By Susan Dentzer
(Following
are excerpts from Susan Dentzer's response to a Washington Post news
story of an uninsured carpenter from Durham, N.C. who outsourced his
own heart surgery to India, at a cost of $10,000, including
transportation. He could not afford the $200,000 his surgery would have
cost in this country.)
Good
grief, why didn't someone think of this earlier! Forty-five million
Americans lack health insurance, and covering every one of them would
be costly. Why not outsource them all to India?
Opponents
will immediately say this idea is impractical. I say, don't be health
coverage girlie men! First, not all the uninsured would have to travel
to India to get health care. For example, when an uninsured person
first got the sniffles, he or she could pick up the phone and talk with
someone at a call center in, say, Bangalore. An Indian nurse making $10
a day would listen (sympathetically, of course) and offer advice.
For
those uninsured in need of hands-on medical care, here's an idea: What
if some of those failing U.S. airlines converted to running medical air
shuttle services between, say, New York and New Delhi, or Boston and
Bombay? Uncle Sam could hire them as private contractors, then pay them
to ferry the uninsured back and forth.
The more
I think about this idea, the better I like it. Just imagine all the
problems it would solve: No more overcrowded emergency rooms choked
with uninsured patients. No more worries about a nursing shortage; by
transferring our patients to India, we'd outsource nursing care there,
too. Hospitals and doctors here would be freed up to do what makes most
sense for them economically: treat well-insured patients at steep
prices - even to the point of giving them care that they probably don't
need! Perform the most lucrative elective surgeries on relatively
healthy patients, rather than giving high-cost care to the sickest loss
leaders!
We all
know the uninsured are a terrible problem, an embarrassment, really,
for such a rich country as ours. Every other major industrialized
nation has figured out how to provide health coverage to most, if not
all, of its citizens. At last, here's a twist on globalization that
could really work for everybody. So let's get started. Who says
Americans can't take care of their own?
Friday, November 5
Michael Moore: 17 Reasons Not To Slit Your Wrists
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 05 Nov 2004 03:31 PM CST
 17 Reasons Not To Slit Your Wrists
by Michael Moore
11/5/04
Dear Friends,
Ok, it
sucks. Really sucks. But before you go and cash it all in, let's, in
the words of Monty Python, 'always look on the bright side of life!'
There IS some good news from Tuesday's election.
Here are 17 reasons not to slit your wrists:
1. It is against the law for George W. Bush to run for president again.
2. Bush's "victory" was the NARROWEST win for a sitting president since Woodrow Wilson in 1916.
3. The
only age group in which the majority voted for Kerry was young adults
(Kerry: 54%, Bush: 44%), proving once again that your parents are
always wrong and you should never listen to them.
4. In
spite of Bush's win, the majority of Americans still think the country
is headed in the wrong direction (56%), think the war wasn't worth
fighting (51%), and don't approve of the job George W. Bush is doing
(52%). (Note to foreigners: Don't try to figure this one out.
It's an American thing, like Pop Tarts.)
5. The
Republicans will not have a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the
Senate. If the Democrats do their job, Bush won't be able to pack the
Supreme Court with right-wing ideologues. Did I say "if the Democrats
do their job?" Um, maybe better to scratch this one.
6.
Michigan voted for Kerry! So did the entire Northeast, the birthplace
of our democracy. So did 6 of the 8 Great Lakes States. And the whole
West Coast! Plus Hawaii. Ok, that's a start. We've got most of the
fresh water, all of Broadway, and Mt. St. Helens. We can dehydrate them
or bury them in lava. And no more show tunes!
7. Once
again we are reminded that the buckeye is a nut, and not just any old
nut - a poisonous nut. A great nation was felled by a poisonous nut.
May Ohio State pay dearly this Saturday when it faces Michigan.
8. 88%
of Bush's support came from white voters. In 50 years, America will no
longer have a white majority. Hey, 50 years isn't such a long time! If
you're ten years old and reading this, your golden years will be truly
golden and you will be well cared for in your old age.
9. Gays,
thanks to the ballot measures passed on Tuesday, cannot get married in
11 new states. Just think of all those wedding gifts we won't
have to buy now.
10. Five
more African Americans were elected as members of Congress, including
the return of Cynthia McKinney of Georgia. It's always good to have
more blacks in there fighting for us and doing the job our candidates
can't.
11. The CEO of Coors was defeated for Senate in Colorado. Drink up!
12. Admit it: We like the Bush twins and we don't want them to go away.
13. At
the state legislative level, Democrats picked up a net of at least 3
chambers in Tuesday's elections. Of the 98 partisan-controlled state
legislative chambers (house/assembly and senate), Democrats went into
the 2004 elections in control of 44 chambers, Republicans controlled 53
chambers, and 1 chamber was tied. After Tuesday, Democrats now control
47 chambers, Republicans control 49 chambers, 1 chamber is tied and 1
chamber (Montana House) is still undecided.
14. Bush
is now a lame duck pResident. He will have no greater moment than the
one he's having this week. It's all downhill for him from here on out -
and, more significantly, he's just not going to want to do all the hard
work that will be expected of him. It'll be like everyone's last month
in 12th grade - you've already made it, so it's party time! Perhaps
he'll treat the next four years like a permanent Friday, spending even
more time at the ranch or in Kennebunkport. And why shouldn't he? He's
already proved his point, avenged his father and kicked our ass.
15.
Should Bush decide to show up to work and take this country down a very
dark road, it is also just as likely that either of the following two
scenarios will happen: a) Now that he doesn't ever need to pander to
the Christian conservatives again to get elected, someone may whisper
in his ear that he should spend these last four years building "a
legacy" so that history will render a kinder verdict on him and thus he
will not push for too aggressive a right-wing agenda; or b) He will
become so cocky and arrogant - and thus, reckless - that he will commit
a blunder of such major proportions that even his own party will have
to remove him from office.
16.
There are nearly 300 million Americans - 200 million of them of voting
age. We only lost by three and a half million! That's not a landslide -
it means we're almost there. Imagine losing by 20 million. If you had
58 yards to go before you reached the goal line and then you barreled
down 55 of those yards, would you stop on the three yard line, pick up
the ball and go home crying - especially when you get to start the next
down on the three yard line? Of course not! Buck up! Have hope! More
sports analogies are coming!!!
17.
Finally and most importantly, over 55 million Americans voted for the
candidate dubbed "The #1 Liberal in the Senate." That's more than the
total number of voters who voted for either Reagan, Bush I, Clinton or
Gore. Again, more people voted for Kerry than Reagan. If the media are
looking for a trend it should be this - that so many Americans were,
for the first time since Kennedy, willing to vote for an out-and-out
liberal. The country has always been filled with evangelicals - that is
not news. What IS news is that so many people have shifted toward a
Massachusetts liberal. In fact, that's BIG news. Which means, don't
expect the mainstream media, the ones who brought you the Iraq War, to
ever report the real truth about November 2, 2004. In fact, it's better
that they don't. We'll need the element of surprise in 2008.
Feeling
better? I hope so. As my friend Mort wrote me yesterday, "My Romanian
grandfather used to say to me, 'Remember, Morton, this is such a
wonderful country - it doesn't even need a president!'"
But it needs us. Rest up.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com
Tuesday, November 2
Something for Everyone: Polls and Humor
by
Linda Thieman
on Tue 02 Nov 2004 12:16 AM CST
 Something for Everyone: Polls and Humor
by Linda Thieman
Here at Blog for Iowa, we try to take into account differences in
coping styles and temperament. To that end, I'm offering up a
couple of link suggestions to help you deal with the nervous energy
that no doubt is plaguing many of us before Tuesday's big election.
But first, let me update you on my absentee ballot status.
First thing this morning, I made a polite phone call to the Buena Vista County Auditor.
"Hello," I said, "Is this the Department of Losing My Absentee Ballot?"
The lady at the other end of the line was very kind.
She replied, "No, honey, I think that's next door. You need the
Department of Lost, Misplaced, and Democratic Absentee Ballots.
I'll transfer you over."
I thanked her most sincerely.
Long story short, our absentee ballots had arrived, one day after we
mailed them. So, we're good to go and I heard later in the day
that the website that the Dems use to track absentee ballots has now
been updated by the county, not to mention post-dated.
So, another crisis averted.
To The Links
Suggestion One: If you are the kind of person who wants some kind
of reassurance, I might suggest you pour over the final poll numbers and the
interpretations provided at The Emerging Democratic Majority
website. You can always get the straight scoop from Ruy Teixeira,
void of the usual disinformation provided by the GOP cable news
networks. And it's looking pretty good for Kerry, too.
Suggestion Two: Everyone knows that I just love the Woodbury
County Dems' website. I mean, come on, how can you NOT love a
website whose motto is:
The Woodbury County Democratic Party...
We're as Fair and Balanced as Fox "News."
They distort... You Decide!
Rick updated his Late Night Humor page on October 29th, so if you're in
the mood for a good laugh and don't want to get overly analytical with
polling data and such, I might suggest you give the Woodbury County
Dems' website a try.
OK, just one joke for good measure:
“Earlier today, John Kerry went hunting for geese in Ohio, but Bush
says Kerry only did it for the photo op. The weird part is that Bush
said this while wearing a flight suit and standing on the deck of an
aircraft carrier.”
--Conan O’Brien
Rest up if you can - tomorrow's a big day!
Mwah!
Monday, November 1
Watch Bush Give The "One-finger Victory Salute" (Actual footage)
by
Linda Thieman
on Mon 01 Nov 2004 10:25 AM CST
|
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Watch Bush Give The "One-finger Victory Salute" (Actual footage)
