Healthcare reform

[jasonxctf]

both her and Romney. Whomever runs will be hit with the flip-flop alligations, (aka Kerry)

[HuskyCaucasian]

both her and Romney. Whomever runs will be hit with the flip-flop alligations, (aka Kerry)

The DNC must have been PISSED when Romney wasnt picked. They had to have had entire servers worth of video, pictures, and news articles ready to rollout.

[RockRaines]

Yeah, I recall the bill when my son had surgery on his shoulder. A doc would come in and chat for 5 minutes, tops, and we got billed $500 for a 'consult'. Pain reliever (Tylenol!) was $10 a pill. They charged $42 for a 'shaving kit' to shave the hair off his shoulder area before surgery. The kit consisted of a tiny can of Edge Gel, a Bic disposable razor and an alcohol pad.

So I have a deviated septum and went into a doctor to get a consult on possible having a procedure. 500 dollars for him to look up my nose for 2 min, then tell the nurse to schedule me sometime in the next 6 months.

 

I need to bill people like that.

 

 

And this may not be the right forum, but I had a really funny conversation with a bartender this weekend who was telling me how much he would hate to pay for "other people's medical bills." He then proceeded to tell me how much money he wants to raise for Haiti because we have so much and they have so little. Seemed very ironic.

Edited March 8, 2010 by RockRaines

[Balta1701]

The DNC must have been PISSED when Romney wasnt picked.

For about what, 30 seconds?

[Balta1701]

So I have a deviated septum and went into a doctor to get a consult on possible having a procedure. 500 dollars for him to look up my nose for 2 min, then tell the nurse to schedule me sometime in the next 6 months.

 

I need to bill people like that.

Are you uninsured? No one pays that but the uninsured. Health insurers get vastly lower rates through negotiated contracts.

[RockRaines]

Are you uninsured? No one pays that but the uninsured. Health insurers get vastly lower rates through negotiated contracts.

I am insured completely. I didnt pay that amount, but thats what was billed.

[Balta1701]

I am insured completely. I didnt pay that amount, but thats what was billed.

The insurer itself probably won't pay that amount either.

[HuskyCaucasian]

For about what, 30 seconds?

I actually think the DNC was really worried by Palin because I bet they had little to nothing on her. Remember, Plain hurt herself more than the DNC hurt her.

[Soxy]

Not usually one to talk about Sarah Palin very often. But I thought this was interesting. She gave a speech in Calgary recently, and she admitted that her family would border hop into Canada to take advantage of their health care system.

 

 

 

http://www.medicinehatnews.com/node/186723

Best part of this story? Wasilla is about 15 hours from Canada.

[KipWellsFan]

Best part of this story? Wasilla is about 15 hours from Canada.

 

Yah, and the only major population center of note, Whitehorse, is even further away. So who knows what she's talking about.

 

And to add, after I saw that standup routine by Palin, I'm beginning to think her presidential prospects are close til nill. I don't even know if she wants it. She's totally missed the boat on "presidential."

[Balta1701]

Today's Wall Street Journal editorial page has one of those sentences that make the Wall Street Journal editorial page such a daily delight: "Last week President Obama sanctioned 'reconciliation,' a complex tactic that would jam ObamaCare into law on sheer power politics." The beautiful thing about this sentence is that it has no argument (nor is there any support for the argument in the sentences that surround it.) It's sheer hand-waving, an attempt to muster every adjective in the writer's power to make the process of voting sound frightening and sinister.

 

Likewise, I could write, "This morning, controversial foreign billionaire media boss Rupert Murdoch gave his cronies the go-ahead to chop down and mutilate hundreds of trees, pulverize the carcasses until they were rendered unrecognizable, and then order their underlings to fill the pages with propaganda for the business class, with any refusal to comply punished by the forfeiture of wages and access to health care." But that would be a fairly slanted way to describe the process of publishing a newspaper.

Link. Heh.

[lostfan]

There's nothing complex about reconciliation for f***'s sake.

[kapkomet]

There's nothing complex about reconciliation for f***'s sake.

 

 

There is in a way when it's being used for unprecedented purposes. But I'm sure this is business as usual for the Democrats.

[Texsox]

There is in a way when it's being used for unprecedented purposes. But I'm sure this is business as usual for the Democrats.

 

Exactly what the GOP has been saying, almost word for word.

[BigSqwert]

There is in a way when it's being used for unprecedented purposes. But I'm sure this is business as usual for the Democrats.

You type that with a straight face?

[Texsox]

You type that with a straight face?

He has to be straight to be in the GOP

[jasonxctf]

I actually think the DNC was really worried by Palin because I bet they had little to nothing on her. Remember, Plain hurt herself more than the DNC hurt her.

 

on a side note, read the book Game Change. Awesome insight into the 2008 election. Including some crazy stories about Palin.

[Rex Kickass]

There is in a way when it's being used for unprecedented purposes. But I'm sure this is business as usual for the Democrats.

 

 

Unprecedented uses of reconciliation.

1999 - The Republican congress passed the Taxpayer Refund and Relief Act of 1999.

2000 - The Marriage Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2000.

Those were the first acts to be passed by reconciliation that would specifically increase federal government deficits.

 

The current health care bill, as scored by the CBO, will reduce the deficit over the next ten years - which fits into the definition of the kind of reconciliation that is allowed by the Senate rules.

 

The 1982 Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation of 1982 (signed into law by Ronald Reagan, despite Reconciliation being "unprecedented" in 2010) changed the rules for employer offered health insurance - requiring employers to offer their employees continued coverage in order to maintain their tax deduction for offering health insurance. It also dealt with a number of other things like adminstration of the railroads, private pensions and tobacco price supports.

 

What's really unprecedented is using the cloture rule to require every single piece of the nation's business to require a supermajority before anything can be done.

 

 

[bmags]

also, once again. The entire bill is not being passed thru reconciliation. The senate bill passed with 60 votes, and now the house may pass the senate bill. Then, changes to that bill will be made through reconciliation. Also, acting like passing a bill through majority rule is somehow crazay is just really odd.

[lostfan]

There is in a way when it's being used for unprecedented purposes. But I'm sure this is business as usual for the Democrats.

That is the partisan hack version in its purest form, the one where objective reality flips seamlessly and immediately when the parties switch roles. See how the parties act on things like recess appointments or meetings in secret and then how their response is different when the other side does it. Shame on anybody that falls for it and thinks it's actually sincere (double shame on anyone who manufactures a "Constitution" claim out of whole cloth in the process), although the fact that news organizations cover the process and not the substance doesn't help.

Edited March 9, 2010 by lostfan

[Texsox]

What passes for political debate today is the equivalent of Cubs Suck! Sox Rulz! or Less Filling - Tastes Great. We treat Dems and Reps as teams or products to root for and against. We're one step away from tailgating and face painting.

[southsider2k5]

There is in a way when it's being used for unprecedented purposes. But I'm sure this is business as usual for the Democrats.

 

Well to be fair, they used to be against it, until they needed it...

[Texsox]

Well to be fair, they used to be against it, until they needed it...

 

 

Exactly. And now the Dems need it, so they are using it. At least the Dems have learned a thing or two from the Grand Old Party™.

[Balta1701]

Well to be fair, they used to be against it, until they needed it...

And you used to hate the filibuster.

[Cknolls]

An honest question here. Does anyone here actually think this bill will lower the deficit? If we can cut the 80-100 billion in Medicare waste now, why haven't we already started? How will we pay for the SEPARATE doc fix? And on a completely different subject can someone explain why, if FNM and SLM are in conservatorship, their 1.4 trillion in debt is not counted in the Federal debt numbers? Carry on.