The Catholic Church in Michigan just made an important concession toward gay couples - The Washington Post

The Michigan Catholic Conference — which oversees health care for Catholic employees in the state — announced in a letter last week that it is modifying its coverage in a way that will make it possible for gay employees of the church to get health benefits for their partners and spouses.

 It does so in a way, however, that doesn’t affirm gay marriage, but simply redefines who qualifies for health coverage in a way that could include same-sex couples.
,,,

“The church’s teaching on marriage and human sexuality is not changing,” Maluchnik told The Washington Post. “Our health benefit plan is expanding its eligibility to include a legally domiciled adult and, as such, the benefit is not dependent upon the relationship. It’s dependent upon residency. As long as the qualifications are met, then the benefit can be extended.”

The Catholic Church in Michigan just made an important concession toward gay couples - The Washington Post

January 14, 2016::End of the day round-up

I have mixed feelings concerning whether Cruz is eligible to be President. On the one hand, I look at the "birther movement" against President Obama, and think tit-for-tat. On the other, it is for the legal eagles to figure out.

Ted Cruz produces mother’s birth certificate after both parents found on Canadian voter list

But most constitutional scholars argue that anyone with at least one parent who was a U.S. citizen at the time of birth automatically inherits that parent's citizenship. Cruz has said that because his mother was a U.S. citizen when he was born, he is a natural-born citizen.

But Grayson says there is disagreement over the issue, according to U.S. News & World Report. And because the courts have never ruled on the matter of presidential candidates who were born outside the U.S., a lawsuit could pose a serious problem for the Cruz campaign.

A curious case to say the least. Without full details - such as the employers policy concerning "lunch breaks" (ie paid versus unpaid), salaried vs hourly employment, and the like - it's hard to determine if a line was crossed by the employer.

Fired park employee sues over lunchtime baptism

A lawsuit has been filed by a former maintenance worker at Maritime National Historic Park in San Francisco for being fired after performing a baptism for a park visitor during his lunch break.

The case has been documented by Courthouse News, which said Roger Holly’s complaint against the Department of the Interior and his supervisors appeared this week in federal court.

Court documents say Holly, a Baptist minister, reported he baptized a park visitor in the ocean during his lunch break in November 2013. He reported he was out of uniform and simply “helped dunk the visitor into the ocean.”
“The religious ‘ceremony’ Holly performed did not include any outward, objective display of religion, such as reading sacred texts, public prayer, sermonizing or the like. It simply appeared that two persons were swimming in the ocean, much like other park visitors,” CN quoted from the complaint.

He then was interrogated by his supervisor, Robert Kier, who is named as defendant.

Holly reported he assured Kier he would not baptize someone while he was supposed to be working, or in his National Park Service uniform.

But he was terminated shortly after.

300,000 Low-Income Louisianians Gained Healthcare Today As Bobby Jindal Is Replaced By Democratic Governor

Acknowledging the huge problems facing the state of Louisiana, Edwards then laid out a progressive agenda to begin uplifting his citizens out of the rut that the Jindal administration had forced them to wallow in. One of his first actions will be to accept funding for the Medicaid expansion, giving healthcare to 300,000 of his citizens who desperately need it. He has promised to issue an executive order to begin expansion preparation within 24 hours, aiming to have the process complete by July 1st.

Kentucky bill looks to extend summer vacation to promote creationism

Kentucky senators have introduced a new bill, SB-50 that would “require schools to schedule the first student attendance day no earlier than the Monday closest to August 26, unless a school has adopted a year-round calendar.”

As I reported back in August of 2015, Kentucky Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, and Sen. Chris Girdler, R-Somerset had proposed such a bill to help extend the vacation season to bring more attention to the forthcoming Ark Encounter.

“Grant County is set to become a major tourist destination due to the presence of the Ark,” Thayer said. “But there won’t be many families from Kentucky visiting in August if we continue with the current calendar.”

A 2008 Tennessee study estimated that if summer was extended through Labor Day, an additional $189 million would be generated in tourist spending.

Put the genie back in the bottle, doctors say ahead of forum on supernatural healing | Malaysia | Malay Mail Online

“They can just wash their hands and call the witch doctors in to take over. It is the ‘god of the gaps’ equivalent of medical diagnoses. It can explain everything and thus, explain nothing,” Dr Kok Sen Wai
__
A supernatural approach involving djinns and black magic has no place in the modern healthcare system, local doctors have said ahead of a regional forum that aims to reconcile paranormal beliefs with medicine this month.

The doctors explained that modern healthcare bases itself on evidence-based medicine, and there must be a way to measure whether the supernatural approach actually works before it can even be considered.

“I understand and appreciate the efforts to introduce the concept of djinn, which is part of religious belief. However, I do not think that it is possible to have an evidence-based approach to djinn and black magic,” Dr Helmy Haja Mydin, an associate professor with University of Malaya Medical Centre, told Malay Mail Online.

“By definition, these are things that cannot be seen and cannot be measured. Without measurements, you cannot have data. How to measure belief?” he asked.

As with Dr Helmy’s views, Dr Krishna Kumar, the president of the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA), said evidence-based medicine required demonstrable causality in order to be effective.

“There must be something to show what causes the diseases or something that can cure it. Based on that, we treat them,” Dr Krishna said.

[,,,]
Dr Kok Sen Wai, a psychiatric medical officer based in Sarawak, said he has witnessed various illnesses — from seizures to schizophrenia — being treated as “djinn possession” or black magic by faith healers of different denominations, from Muslim imams, Taoist priests to Christian pastors.

“There are no codified and consistent signs and symptoms for possession or curses. The diagnosis seems to be made if the cleric ‘feels’ it is supernatural. Can you imagine if medicine is practised in the same way?” asked Dr Kok.

“Can an oncologist drop chemotherapy on you just because he has a ‘gut feeling’ it’s leukaemia? Or can a surgeon lop off half of your colon and have you defecate out of a colostomy bag for the rest of your life just because he ‘really, really thinks’ that you have colorectal carcinoma?”

Dr Kok insisted that should the rigorous standards that apply to conventional medicine be applied to the supernatural, the faith healings need to have documented, testable, and reproducible evidence that they do work.

Put the genie back in the bottle, doctors say ahead of forum on supernatural healing | Malaysia | Malay Mail Online

The Myth of Health Care's Free Market - Newsweek

This says it all, "Of the 34 modern economies, the U.S. has by far the costliest health care system. For each dollar per capita that the other 33 economies spend on health care the U.S. spends $2.64,,,"

We don't have a free market for health-care services. If we did, we would see a narrow range of prices for the same service. After all, a Ford F-150 pickup with the same options costs about the same in Washington, West Virginia, or Wyoming. Not so hospital and medical costs, a fact brought home in the 2012 Pricing Report of the International Federation of Health Plans, a trade association for health insurance companies.

While the average U.S. hospital stay is just under $4,300 per day, one in four patients are charged $1,514 or less and one in 20 pay $12,537 or more.

The total cost for an appendectomy ranges from $8,156 for a fourth of these procedures to more than $29,426 for the most expensive 5 percent. The average cost is $13,851.

Economists learn before they get their undergraduate degrees that such huge variations are signs of inefficient markets or even faux markets. Such wide price variations may even indicate collusion among some providers to jack up prices, which is generally illegal.

But even if we ignore these huge price variations, the trade industry report illustrates another problem: American health-care costs are completely out of line with the rest of the modern world.

[,,,]
Excessive health-care costs drain both the public purse and private purses, make manufacturing uncompetitive and force employers to divert attention from running their firms to dealing with health insurers.

Our universal single-payer health-care plan for older Americans, Medicare, has lower costs and lower overhead than the system serving those under age 65. If everyone in the U.S. was on Medicare, the savings would move the federal budget from deficit to surplus.

[,,,]
One important distinction between other modern countries and the United States is that they all provide universal health care, while 48 million Americans had no health insurance in 2012 and another 30 million had coverage for only part of the year. Millions have coverage riddled with loopholes and exceptions, not paying for such vital services as an ambulance, even when the patient is unconscious. And all private health insurers try to avoid paying claims in various ways, from requiring onerous paperwork to denying a procedure was necessary.

On top of all this are restraints on trade in American medicine, like limiting the supply of doctors and nurses. The American Medical Association has acknowledged that it worked to hold down the number of physicians to push up income for doctors. Under state licensing rules, many of even the best-trained foreign doctors cannot practice here.

The Myth of Health Care's Free Market - Newsweek

Women In Michigan Will Now Have To Decide If They Might Be Raped When Buying Health Insurance | The New Civil Rights Movement

Is it just me or did this little tidbit get swept under the rug,,,

Republicans in the Michigan House and Senate just passed a bill that will force women to decide whether or not they think they might be raped when buying health insurance. The so-called “rape insurance” legislation prohibits all public and most private insurance plans from paying for any abortions, unless the woman has previously and specifically before becoming pregnant bought additional coverage, known as a “rider.”

The law becomes effective 90 days after the legislative session ends, and was crafted as a “citizens initiative” to not require the governor’s signature, after he vetoed similar legislation last year. “I don’t believe it is appropriate to tell a woman who becomes pregnant due to a rape that she needed to select elective insurance coverage, and, as a practical matter, I believe this type of policy is an overreach of government into the private market,” conservative Republican governor Rick Snyder had said last year upon announcing his veto.

Women In Michigan Will Now Have To Decide If They Might Be Raped When Buying Health Insurance | The New Civil Rights Movement

I Watched My Patients Die of Treatable Diseases Because They Were Poor | Alternet

An sad narrative on the state of the sick and dying in America. This is not just a Texas problem but one that plagues the whole country, the poor are basically given a death sentence because of their poverty. The powers that be, whether left right or middle need to understand how their actions and policies are killing the poor. One cannot pursue "life, liberty or happiness" if they are dead (or dying); the right to life extends beyond the womb.

The first patient who called me “doctor” died a few winters ago. I met him at the St. Vincent’s Student-Run Free Clinic on Galveston Island. I was a first-year medical student then, and the disease in his body baffled me. His belly was swollen, his eyes were yellow and his blood tests were all awry. It hurt when he swallowed and his urine stank.

I saw him every Thursday afternoon. I would do a physical exam, talk to him, and consult with the doctor. We ran blood counts and wrote a prescription for an antacid—not the best medication, but one you can get for $4 a month. His disease seemed serious, but we couldn’t diagnose him at the free clinic because the tests needed to do so—a CT scan, a biopsy of the liver, a test to look for cancer cells in the fluid in his belly—are beyond our financial reach.

He started calling me “Dr. Rachel.” When his pain got so bad that he couldn’t eat, we decided to send him to the emergency room. It was not an easy decision.

There’s a popular myth that the uninsured—in Texas, that’s 25 percent of us—can always get medical care through emergency rooms. Ted Cruz has argued that it is “much cheaper to provide emergency care than it is to expand Medicaid,” and Rick Perry has claimed that Texans prefer the ER system. The myth is based on a 1986 federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which states that hospitals with emergency rooms have to accept and stabilize patients who are in labor or who have an acute medical condition that threatens life or limb. That word “stabilize” is key: Hospital ERs don’t have to treat you. They just have to patch you up to the point where you’re not actively dying. Also, hospitals charge for ER care, and usually send patients to collections when they cannot pay.

My patient went to the ER, but didn’t get treatment. Although he was obviously sick, it wasn’t an emergency that threatened life or limb. He came back to St. Vincent’s, where I went through my routine: conversation, vital signs, physical exam. We laughed a lot, even though we both knew it was a bad situation.

[,,,]
The shame has stuck with me through my medical training—not only from my first patient, but from many more. I am now a director of the free clinic. It’s a volunteer position. I love my patients, and I love being able to help many who need primary care: blood pressure control, pap smears, diabetes management. We even do some specialty care. But the free clinic is also where some people learn that there is no hope for the chemotherapy or surgery that they need but can’t afford. When UTMB refuses to treat them, it falls to us to tell them that they will die of diseases that are, in fact, treatable.

[,,,]
Perry’s refusal is catastrophic health policy. For patients, it means that seeking medical care will still require risking bankruptcy, and may lead nowhere. For doctors, the message was not only that our patients’ lives don’t matter, but also that medicine—our old profession, so full of people who genuinely want to help others—will continue to be part of the economic machine that entrenches poverty. When the poor seek our help, they often wind up with crippling debt.

[,,,]
Among those consequences are the deaths of the poor. As Howard Brody, director of the Institute for the Medical Humanities, has shown, 9,000 Texans per year will die needlessly as a result of our failure to expand Medicaid. However, because dying patients are often too sick, exhausted and wracked with pain to protest, UTMB and states like Texas aren’t forced to reckon with the consequences of their policy decisions.

Because the very sick and the dying may not be able to speak about these issues, health-care providers—particularly the providers of the so-called “safety net”—must do so. It is in our clinics, in the bodies of our patients, where the consequences get played out.

I Watched My Patients Die of Treatable Diseases Because They Were Poor | Alternet

Nevada Being Sued Over Practice Of 'Dumping' Mentally Ill Patients In Cities Where They Know No One -

Very disconcerting but not surprising, especially in light of recent happenings in DC where by all apparent reason the individual responsible didn't just slip through the crack in our metal health care system, but may have been shoved out the gaps.

I know when I was hospitalized in Kansas in 2010, within 24 hrs they were making arrangements to "ship" me back to PA even though I told them I had no where to live once back. A 52 hr bus ride, with 4 bags of luggage, 16 stitches in my arm, double ear infection and running a 102 degree fever. Off to the bus station I went after the 72 hour hold was up. I also had a GI infection and a mouth full of cold sores/fever blisters along with an unstable sugar count. Their idea of "food" was 2 apples and a few packets of crackers as I had no money for food. I had no health insurance and the hospital made no attempt to rectify that, ie having a social worker visit and fill out paperwork for Medicaid. By the time I got back to PA I was so sick physically, that it took 6 months before I could return to work.


Nevada has apparently come up with a new way of controlling the cost of caring for the institutionalized mentally ill: put them on buses and send them to other states.

That is the basis for a lawsuit that has been filed by the city of San Francisco against the state of Nevada, which claims that it has cost the city over $500,000 to house and care for homeless mental patients who had previously been living at Nevada’s state-run Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas. San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in a statement:

>>> Homeless, psychiatric patients are especially vulnerable to the kind of practices Nevada engaged in, and the lawsuit I’ve filed today is about more than just compensation. It’s about accountability.<<< Reuters reports that the suit has been filed as a class action, but has not yet been certified by the court. The lawsuit stems from a Sacramento Bee report published last April, which found that starting in 2008 Rawson-Neal had sent more than 1,500 patients to cities around the country, sending at least one to every state. The paper discovered this information after reviewing bus receipts provided by the Nevada mental health division. According to The Bee: >>>In recent years, as Nevada has slashed funding for mental health services, the number of mentally ill patients being bused out of southern Nevada has steadily risen, growing 66 percent from 2009 to 2012. During that same period, the hospital has dispersed those patients to an ever-increasing number of states.

By last year, Rawson-Neal bused out patients at a pace of well over one per day, shipping nearly 400 patients to a total of 176 cities and 45 states across the nation.<<< For their part, Nevada mental health officials admit to making mistakes in Brown’s case, but have overall defended the practice of busing patients out-of-state. Nevada’s state health officer, Dr. Tracey Green, said that Las Vegas is an “international destination” and that patients who become ill while visiting have a right to return home. Nevada’s Health and Human Services Director Michael Willden told state legislators that there was “no pattern of misconduct.”

Nevada Being Sued Over Practice Of 'Dumping' Mentally Ill Patients In Cities Where They Know No One -

So everyone is bitching about Obamacare but when asked for an alternative all I hear is

• Nothing 
• Leave healthcare alone it's fine the way it is 
• Get a job/better job so you can get your own, or 
• Anything is better than what HE is proposing, damn ______ (commie, Marxist, socialist, fascist, Nazi, Muslim or any other "derogatory" word you can think of but I won't print) 

 Lets look at these in order.

The "I hear Nothing,,," 
People in this category either are clueless or just don't care, they vote straight party line and are one issue voters. It's either anti-equality (specifically LGBT), anti-immigration or anti-abortion. No other issue(s) matter and how a candidate votes in regards to infrastructure, jobs, veteran issues, domestic and foreign policy is moot as long as the candidate vows to eliminate protections for one (or all of) the aforementioned issues. They will ignore their economic well-being to prove a point. This group tends to be in the a pro-Israel camp which can mis-align their views. They may vote for a pro-Israel candidate who is considered weak in support for other concerns.

As for alternatives they offer none as they have no opinion since it doesn't affect them. Either they have insurance or are a strong supporter of the Bush Jr. mindset from 2007:

"The immediate goal is to make sure there are more people on private insurance plans. I mean, people have access to health care in America," he said. "After all, you just go to an emergency room."

If one remembers this is also "the plan" that Romney called being a form of socialism in 2007:


"Leave healthcare alone it's fine the way it is,,,"
This group is similar to the first group but realizes that there is a problem in regards to healthcare. Though not clueless per se they just don't have a full understanding of the issues as it has never affected them. In their mind universal healthcare was passed in 1986 with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) which requires hospitals to provide care to anyone needing emergency healthcare treatment regardless of citizenship, legal status or ability to pay. There are no reimbursement provisions. Participating hospitals may only transfer or discharge patients needing emergency treatment under their own informed consent, after stabilization, or when their condition requires transfer to a hospital better equipped to administer the treatment.

This mindset is superbly echoed by Rick Perry in 2011:

,,,everyone in the state of Texas has access to health care, everyone in America has access to health care,,, from the stand point of all people in this country, our government requires that everyone is covered.

What is at issue with this line of thinking, the ER does not provide preventive medicine, individuals (have to) wait until their illness, injury or sickness puts them in a life threatening situation. Instead of a $25 co-pay doctor's visit and a $10 prescription becomes a $5000+ emergency room bill and bankruptcy. Author and novelist Upton Sinclair sums this group up best, "It is difficult to get a politician to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

"Get a job/better job so you can get your own,,,"
I have a job, one that I like (for the most part). Actually I have two jobs and neither pays a "liveable" wage, hence why I also receive SNAP; I work 45-55 hours per week sometimes more. So even with the offer of health insurance from my primary employer, I can't afford it and the deductible is too high. I also qualify for Medical Assistance for Workers with Disabilities (MAWD), a health insurance program for working individuals with a disability. But again due to my low wages, paying my premium is difficult, why I had to return to my second job as I can no longer go without insurance. (This getting old shit is for the birds!)

Now some would say, "get a better job that pays more." Well considering that the "better paying jobs" where I live are manufacturing jobs, I run into the issue of my disability. I can no longer physically handle working in a factory. Also please define "better paying," as most of the peon line jobs pay $10-$12 per hour with starting pay at around $8.50. Losing 3 years seniority, schedule flexibility, and $30 a week in wages to start would be foolhardy. Also these "better paying jobs" are victim to lay-off; on average 3-4 months out of the year.

"Well move!" Uhm, need money to move, and given our economy jobs are not easy to come by despite the 3.9 million openings Republican Representative Dave Joyce asserts are available. I also live in a decent area in regards to cost of living. The $400 a month rent I pay for my apartment would not even rent me a room in Boston.
Why should I have to move away from "family" and friends to a place lacking in a proper support system., not only on a personal level but also in regards to my health. Changing medical providers is not an easy task. I do not drive, can't afford to, so would have to "hire" someone. So this "well move" solution is not a solution at all.

"Anything is better than what HE is proposing,,,"
This group IMHO is the funniest of them all and is currently being led by Heritage president and former South Carolina senator Jim DeMint:

DeMint said opponents don't have much time to try to make changes to the law before a March 2014 deadline for people to enroll. Benefits will kick in Jan. 1 for those who enroll earlier.
"This might be that last off-ramp to stop Obamacare before it becomes more enmeshed in our culture," he said.
"This is not about getting better health care." DeMint said uninsured Americans "will get better health care just going to the emergency room."

Yet again the alternative to the Affordable Care Act is the emergency room of your local hospital, the so-called “free” care provided by (EMTALA). So if you have a chronic condition (diabetes, asthma, dialysis, cancer) with a need for medication or treatment, guess what your shit out of luck. Also, if your lacking in private insurance, good luck if you suffer a traumatic injury, a 2009 study shows that not all emergency room patients have equal outcomes. That's reassuring, NOT!!

What makes this such an oxymoron, the Heritage Foundation is now lambasting a plan they once advocated for and supported.

I believe that we have a responsibility to our fellow man and that we should help when and where we can: "We are all one. When one is harmed, all are harmed. When one is helped, all are healed." Healthcare is not a privilege for a wealthy few, but a basic right for all citizens. But according to the Reich only the top 1% deserve a chance at "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," for the rest of us it's a crap shoot at the ER . I know I would be willing to pay and extra fourteen cents for a pizza or sixty-eight cents for a BigMac, what about you?

8 Ways Privatization Has Brought Pain and Misery to American Life | Alternet

Some of America's leading news analysts are beginning to recognize the fallacy of the "free market." Said Ted Koppel, "We are privatizing ourselves into one disaster after another." Fareed Zakaria admitted, "I am a big fan of the free market...But precisely because it is so powerful, in places where it doesn't work well, it can cause huge distortions." They're right. A little analysis reveals that privatization doesn't seem to work in any of the areas vital to the American public.

[,,,]
Free-market health care has been taking care of the CEOs. Ronald DePinho, president of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, made $1,845,000 in 2012. That's over ten times as much as the $170,000 made by the federal Medicare Administrator in 2010. Stephen J. Hemsley, the CEO of United Health Group, made three hundred times as much, with most of his $48 million coming from stock gains.

[,,,]
A Citigroup economist gushed, "Water as an asset class will, in my view, become eventually the single most important physical-commodity based asset class, dwarfing oil, copper, agricultural commodities and precious metals."

[,,,]
Bloomberg [not the mayor] notes that deregulators in the 1990s anticipated a market-based decline in phone and cable bills, an "invisible hand" that would steer competing companies to lower prices for all of us. Verizon and AT&T and Comcast and Time-Warner haven't let it happen.

[,,,]
As Republicans continue to deride public transportation as 'socialist' and 'Soviet-style,' China surges ahead with a plan to create the world's most advanced high-speed rail transport network. Government-run high-speed rail systems have been successful in numerous other countries, and England and Brazil both lament industry privatization.

[,,,]
Matt Taibbi explained to us how financial malfeasance led to the bubbles in dot-com stocks and housing and oil prices and commodities that extract trillions of dollars away from society.

[,,,]
One would think it a worthy goal to rehabilitate prisoners and gradually empty the jails. But business is too good. With each prisoner generating up to $40,000 a year in revenue, it has apparently made economic sense to put over two million people behind bars.

and more,,,




8 Ways Privatization Has Brought Pain and Misery to American Life | Alternet

Health Insurers Threaten To Increase Premiums, Even As Profits Soar | ThinkProgress

Some of the nation’s largest health insurance companies are warning investors that they’ll raise insurance premiums by as much as 116 percent next year, as the coverage expansion provisions in the Affordable Care Act go into effect and millions of uninsured Americans begin purchasing coverage.

The threats of premium increases come as the industry is experiencing record profits and are part of a well-coordinated publicity campaign to alarm Americans about the cost of coverage, while downplaying mechanisms in the law that will cushion them from rate shock. The effort comes as insurers seek more favorable regulatory changes that would, in part, allow companies to charge older people more for coverage.

[,,,]
Insurers, meanwhile, are already seeing impressive profits. UnitedHealth, for instance, “had a particularly strong past year, with net income of $5.1 billion, up by 11% from the previous year” and Aetna is similarly beating revenue expectations. A July 2010 report from PricewaterhouseCoopers concluded that the law’s state-based health care exchanges provide private insurers with a lucrative new market in which they stand to gain up to $200 billion in revenue by 2019.

Health Insurers Threaten To Increase Premiums, Even As Profits Soar | ThinkProgress

Daily Kos: Paul Ryan: 'We're not going to give up on destroying the health care system'

That didn't sound like a Freudian slip to me, it flowed right out of his mouth with no hesitation,,,BUT I would like to see the whole clip as well ,,,

Daily Kos: Paul Ryan: 'We're not going to give up on destroying the health care system'

U.S. manages disease, not health - CNN.com

The federal response was the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Better known as "Obamacare," it is a complex mix of insurance changes and tax credits. When the act takes effect on January 1, 2014, it will provide access to insurance to about 30 million people who currently don't have it.

Unfortunately, that was the wrong question. So the looming "answer" is wrong as well.

Here's the right question: How can we improve medical care so that it's worth extending it to more people? In other words, how can we create a health care system that helps people become and stay healthy?

I have argued for years that we do not have a health care system in America. We have a disease-management system -- one that depends on ruinously expensive drugs and surgeries that treat health conditions after they manifest rather than giving our citizens simple diet, lifestyle and therapeutic tools to keep them healthy.

The brutal fact is that we spend more on health care than any other country -- an estimated $9,348 per capita in 2013 -- and get shockingly little for our money.

The U.S. "currently ranks lowest on a variety of health measures," concludes a new report from an expert panel commissioned by the National Institutes of Health. Specifically, Americans have more obesity, more sexually transmitted diseases, shorter life expectancies and higher infant mortality than the inhabitants of nearly all of the 16 developed "peer" countries studied.

Why? A major culprit is a medical system based on maximizing profits rather than fostering good health.

U.S. manages disease, not health - CNN.com

No Olympic Horse

This is my response to a friend of mine who posted on my facebook wall her concern regarding RobmeRyan and health care ("Romney Health Care Plan May Come With Consequences For You" www.huffingtonpost.com),  "With these 2 in office I will loose most of my coverage, I couldn't afford my meds, just to stay alive."

<Saying this with much acid dripping sarcasm I can muster> Well miss, we have a plan for that, it's called the ER.  You see now little lady, an amblance will come pick ya up when you is not feelin well.  It will plop ya into the nearest hospital.  Where the fine, scientifically uneducated doctors, (who went to the Akin's school of medicine BTW) will bring your little ole fever down so you can return home and subserviently cater to your husband's every need.  All the while pooping out young spiritual warriors for our grand cause!!

And BTW, unlike Mrs. Robme,  my friend can not afford an Olympic horse for therapy for her MS!!

Bush-Appointed Judge Upholds Obama Administration's Birth Control Coverage Rules | ThinkProgress

A major victory not just for the ACA but separation issues as well,,,

[Federal religious freedom law] is a shield, not a sword. It protects individuals from substantial burdens on religious exercise that occur when the government coerces action one’s religion forbids, or forbids action one’s religion requires; it is not a means to force one’s religious practices upon others.

Bush-Appointed Judge Upholds Obama Administration's Birth Control Coverage Rules | ThinkProgress

Daily Kos: Families USA: Romney health plan would leave millions more uninsured, higher premiums

Two important articles concerning Romney's idea of what health care should be,,,it ain't pretty,,,

Daily Kos: Families USA: Romney health plan would leave millions more uninsured, higher premiums

Mitt Romney Health Care Plan Would Make Consumers Pay For Basic Services

Healthcare sharing ministries: The greatest loophole ever sold

First reaction to this article,,,WTH is a healthcare sharing ministry?? After reading,,,Houston we may have a BIG problem.  What ever your religious affiliation, that is not the issue,,,this article is highlighting possibly one of the biggest and most dangerous scams perpetrated against the most vulnerable,,,those in need of genuine healthcare,,,
tread very carefully and research,,,

Medi-share, Christian Healthcare Ministries, and Samaritan Ministries. These are the Exempt Three with the golden ticket, the exemption from both state health insurance regulation and the federal health insurance mandate. The secret ingredient that gets them out of regulation in most states is a little statement in their marketing materials that “This is not insurance,” and other fine print that makes clear the lack of hard promises in what they offer. They also use cutesy terminology. Instead of a “late fee,” for example, they have an “Extra Blessings” payment.

[,,,]
Are the people who run these funds con artists making themselves rich, or honest and selfless Christians? It’s impossible to say, because the exemption from regulation exempts their finances from public scrutiny. The federal law does require them to have an annual audit, but that can be conducted by any friendly Christian CPA of their own choosing. Moreover, audits aren’t designed to measure how rich the owners and executives are getting, but simply to assess the financial strength of the entity. And when an enterprise has lots of real assets and essentially no real obligations it is required to pay, how can it be anything but flush?

[,,,]
A subtle hint that obeying earthly law isn’t high on their priority list surfaced just last week. Although there is legislation in most states exempting them from insurance laws, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, not often thought of as a bastion of secularism, doesn’t happen to be one of them. The Kentucky insurance commission did its job by cracking down on Medi-share, and the Supreme Court of Kentucky quite properly ruled that fine print notwithstanding, Medi-share was illegally selling sham insurance. An injunction was issued to stop them, and that was the end of that.

Except it wasn’t. Medi-share kept right on rolling in Kentucky, continually advertising on Christian radio, with a sleight-of-hand change in the way customers pay for their non-insurance that, if anything, exposed them to even greater risk. On Thursday, Medi-share was hauled back in front of Franklin County Circuit Court on a contempt charge. The judge expressed surprise at seeing them again, saying “I thought this thing was over with.” If I were the judge, the phrase “and throw away the key” would work its way into my ruling somewhere. But never fear, Christians; Kentucky legislators under Tea Party lobbying are busily grandstanding to add a statutory exemption like other states have, to end this Nero-like persecution of the godly,,,

Healthcare sharing ministries: The greatest loophole ever sold

Mitch McConnell Tells Americans with No Healthcare, 'You Aren't an Issue'

WALLACE: I just want to ask, what specifically are you going to do to provide universal coverage to the 30 million people who are uninsured?

MCCONNELL: That is not the issue. The question is, how can you go step by step to improve the American health care system.

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The one common denominator in all the Republican solutions is that they will do nothing to insure more people.

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Sen. McConnell frankly admitted that the Republican Party doesn’t care getting more Americans access to healthcare. The uninsured aren’t an issue. They don’t matter. In order to defend his position that the uninsured don’t really need healthcare, McConnell claimed several things that flat out weren’t true. McConnell claimed Obamacare kills jobs when in reality, it creates them. He stated that America has the best healthcare system in the world, when in reality the U.S. healthcare system is one of the worst in developed world. The U.S. system is 37th in the world. If this is what Republicans consider the best, then we now know what they mean by “American exceptionalism.”

Mitch McConnell Tells Americans with No Healthcare, 'You Aren't an Issue'

Evangelicals Fight Over Therapy To 'Cure' Gays : NPR

I'll believe it when I see it,,,

Evangelicals Fight Over Therapy To 'Cure' Gays : NPR

Romney Confirms He Will Deny Insurance To Millions With Pre-Existing Conditions If Obamacare Is Struck Down | ThinkProgress

While the Affordable Care Act would prevent insurers from denying coverage to anyone with a pre-existing condition beginning in 2014, Romney’s provision is far more limited — and would only protect Americans who already have coverage.

Romney Confirms He Will Deny Insurance To Millions With Pre-Existing Conditions If Obamacare Is Struck Down | ThinkProgress