I spell it “O-b-a-m-a.” (Alternate spellings include: R-e-i-d, and P-e-l-o-s-i, though the latter is dialect). The Democrats’ plan to use health care to extend goMvernment’s control over the lives of Americans is in trouble. So the President betakes himself to the White House PR room in which Charles Gibson works (code name ABC News) and he tells people, with a straight face, that if Congress does not pass health care legislation that will bring down costs, the federal government “will go bankrupt.”
Gosh. While you ponder what that might mean, absorb what follows: “If we don’t pass it,” quoth the leader of the formerly free world, “here’s the guarantee — your premiums will go up, your employers are going to load up more costs on you. Potentially they’re going to drop your coverage, because hey just can’t afford an increase of 25 percent, 30 percent in terms of the costs of providing health care to employees each and every year. ”
What’s missing from this story? Here’s a question to get you started: Why have insurance premiums been rising so rapidly? (Hint in the form of three additional questions: 1. Why can’t the 1300-plus health insurance companies compete nationwide to provide consumers with real choice? 2. Why do we allow states to insist that insurance companies cover bogus services (acupuncture, dietitians, pastoral counselors, hair prostheses, port wine stain elimination (!), etc. By the way, I minute no opinion about the worthiness of these activities — I could use a port wine stain eliminator from time to time myself. I only wonder whether providing insurance coverage for such activities is really a good idea.) 3. Tort reform — that is legislation that makes it more difficult for lawyers to exploit sick people by suing doctors who try to help them.) [UPDATE: as many comments point out, "port wine stain elimination" does not refer to the removal of stain left by a spilled beverage. So let's leave that useful service -- both of them: stain and birth-mark removal -- out of account and concentrate on the crazy mandates that some states require of insurance companies.]
The emperor has no clothes.
But he would have a whole lot less chutzpah if the democrat media wasnt holding up a giant-size bath towel for him.
This is more of his projection, plain and simple. He tells us if we don’t do what he wants us to do, the results will be X. But in truth, the results will be X if we do what he wants us to do. This has been his pattern all along: psychological projection. And mandacity — love that term! I used to just call it dishonesty or lying. But this sounds so much less like an attack. F
Port wine stains are a genetic abnormality that causes a dark red skin stain. Technically called a hemangioma, they result from growth of excess blood vessels under the skin, and these vessels can cause a variety of serious medical complications that can be life threatening.
It has nothing to do with wine, except the color. Treating them, especially for kids (so they don’t get harassed at school) is often medically necessary.
What’s with all the typo’s? Are you that outraged?
I agree and find Congressional behavior astoundingly bad. I have long been cynical, but I see that I have not been cynical enough.
That said, don’t ridicule port-wine stain elimination. I suspect they’re not talking about wine but about removing birth marks. I don’t know how successful such attempts might be and I can easily envision arguments whether coverage of it should be mandated. But assuming it’s possible to do, it’s not a bogus service.
Q: In the future, what will be the definition of a “Brand New Republican Voter” if the health care bill is signed into law?
A: A Democrat who has just had a close encounter with ObamaCare.
Wait … this can’t be the same guy who told Republicans to stop scaring the American people. Can it?
You know, when something I’m doing is unsustainable to the point it’s going to bankrupt my family, I either cut way back or stop doing it altogether. Do I lack imagination by not quadrupling those same expenditures that are driving my brood to insolvency?
A ‘port wine stain’ is often a severe facial deformity involving blood vessels just under the skin causing a rather large blotch of purple-red over someone’s face. It can be hard to live with and its coverage arose from insurance companies deeming it “cosmetic” plastic surgery when it is really a drastic anomaly. Demanding coverage is another issue, I agree, but it’s not a frivolous problem, just rare.
Obama is the old lawyer joke, made flesh:
Q: How can you tell when Obama is lying?
A: His lips are moving.
This is a sign of desperation on the president’s part. This is the kind of thing that causes one term presidents.
Obama, Stern, Pelosi and Reid have hit a dead end. The more they push the worse it will get.
The bill is dying a slow painful death and it is burning through a lot of political capital as well.
“Port wine stain” isn’t what it sounds like. It’s a kind of birth mark which can be extremely disfiguring.
Gorbachev has one on his head. Some people have them on their faces, and they can be really huge.
Medicine has reached the point where they can be removed, or at least made much less visible, by using lasers. For a person who has such a thing and is affected by it socially, such a treatment can be a life-changing miracle.
bogus services (acupuncture, dietitians, pastoral counselors, hair prostheses, port wine stain elimination (!)[...]I could use a port wine stain eliminator from time to time myself.
Let me just take a wild guess here that you have no idea what a port-wine stain is. (Clue: it does not involve actual wine.)
Certainly one can make a case that one ought to be able to legally buy insurance that doesn’t cover cosmetic repair of birth defects. But port-wine stains can be very disfiguring; the treatment to remove them and allow a child to have a normal facial appearance is hardly… what was it you said… oh, yes, “bogus”.
“I think it is the combination of earnestness, on the one hand, and patent mendacity on the other.”
I would also include Barack Obama’s pathetically mediocre education. This is a guy who never really had to earn much of anything in his entire life. He was supposedly entitled because of the color of his skin. Guilt tripped whites gave him a lot of stuff on a silver platter to pay for the alleged sins of their past. Obama is not going to “grow into his job.” We are already seeing the likely best he has to offer. It goes all downhill after this. Affirmative action policies may initially seem benevolent. In the long run, though, the overall society is damaged along with the individual who received the unearned grades.
Obama will most assuredly soon declare war on the American public. We have failed him—and must be punished. The narcissistic Obama is a very dangerous man.
I’m not sure you understand what port wine stains are. They are vascular birthmarks that can be highly disfiguring, and can lead to complications such as glaucoma or spontaneous bleeding in later life.
You mention pastoral counselors twice and, despite Gorbachev, “port wine stain” might not be known as an actual medical condition, so when people find out, despite the validity of your other statements, your entire article is going to sound silly.
Mr. Kimball: just one small correction: port wine stain is a birthmark, reddish in color, thus its name.
Let’s be fair, Roger. A port wine stain is a type of disfiguring birthmark that can produce a deformity in adulthood if not treated during infancy. It can be the sign of systemic disease, and it’s as appropriate for insurance to cover as any other birth defect. Treatment usually involves laser surgery, and there should be no comparison with acupuncture.
Roger,
I’m not 100% sure if you were kidding, but here goes anyway. “Port Wine Stain” is a type of birthmark that can be very disfiguring. I’m not very much in favor of any state mandates at all but I just wanted you to know that port wine stain elimination is more akin to reconstructive surgery than it is to using carpet cleaner.
oops..forgot the link: http://dermnetnz.org/vascular/vascular-malformation.html
Wasn’t it just a few months ago when the POTUS was telling us that the government was out of money? Isn’t being out of money and continuing to run up debt in fact being bankrupt? What’s this guy talking about? Does he and his so-called ivy league cabinet have a grasp on reality when it comes to economics? I don’t think so. Furthermore, it was a short time ago that the POTUS gave us a lecture on how those mean Republicans were always trying to scare the voter. Seems to me it’s pretty clear that it’s the other way around.
Hyperbolic mendacity is not Obama’s invention, it comes with the Leftist territory. Each day that we don’t have the brain dead federal bureaucracy messing up health care, another thousand children die in the streets of our cities while millions of single mothers commit suicide due to inability to obtain abortions. Each day that we don’t let the likes of Waxman and Gore tax our carbon dioxide emissions, hundreds of polar bears die as the increasing heat of the sun sets fire to their fur. Or something like that. Yada, yada, yada. Get a life already. I’d say “get a job” but Obama and Pelosi have just about made that impossible.
Roger, I advise you to remove your disdainful reference to port wine stain elimination. I’m undecided on whether insurance companies should be forced to cover this treatment, because it’s expensive and often ineffective, and because as birth defects go this is a relatively mild one. But for those who suffer from them they can be devastating, and I daresay that if you had one, or you had a child born with one, and your insurance company refused to pay for removing it, you’d be upset.
Your flub reminds me of a piece I saw many years ago complaining that not enough government money was going to AIDS research; the writer reported disdainfully that some huge amount, maybe 5 times what was going to AIDS, was going to research into hypertension! (italics and exclamation mark in the original). The writer could not wrap his head around the fact that hypertension is a serious medical issue, that kills far more people a year than AIDS ever will. He obviously thought it just meant people being very tense, and perhaps needing an extra cigarette or drink.
Not disagreeing with your essay and I get point about questionable practices that are covered, but port wine stain is a real dermatological problem. Just a nitpick.
This is just another vile, racist attack on our new Leader.
Like it or not, Barack Obama rules this country now and He will lead us into a new world of justice and peace.
It is time for you racist white male oppressors to shut up, pay your reparations, and just go away. It is no longer your country.
Roger,
It is not clear that you understand that “port wine stain” is the common name for a hideous birthmark that looks like a wine stain but has nothing to do with the alcoholic beverage. When it appears on a child’s face the victim is shunned by everyone because it looks like the poor child has a terrible disease that might be catching. Removing a port wine stain from a child’s face is one of the purely cosmetic surgeries that actually prevent severe psychological impairment and as such should not be mocked as you have done. It makes you look totally without compassion, whether or not you consider it worthy of insurance coverage.
“Port wine stain” is actually a kind of birth defect; a purely cosmetic one, usually, but sometimes quite dramatic in appearance. It’s not crazy to have it in a list of things covered by health insurance.
“Port wine stain” is a birth defect where areas of skin are discolored, often including the neck and face. It really isn’t something to mock.
Sir, you might want to retract the jibe about “port wine stain elimination.” The condition isn’t caused by a beverage, it’s a birth defect that often is quite disfiguring and sometimes has serious complications.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_wine_stain
“In the absence of successful treatment, hypertrophy (increased tissue mass) of the stains may produce deformity, loss of function (especially near the eye or mouth), bleeding, and increasing disfigurement. These complications are usually seen later in life. If the PWS is on the face or other highly visible part of the body, the presence of PWS can also cause emotional and social problems for the affected person because of their cosmetic appearance.”
It’s galling that the simple measures that would in fact improve health care costs (primarily competition and flexibility – with tort reform as a close third) are the very measures that are missing from the mammoth bill. Perhaps incomprehensible is the better word. Like seeing someone collapse and everyone is doing everything they can to make the person comfortable, except for giving CPR. The absence of actual improving measures leads to the perception that the real motivation among some cannier participants (including the president)is not really the improvement of health care accessibility and cost, but rather the substitution of governmental power for individual and free-market autonomy.
Why the snark about the “port wine stain” eliminator? Agree or disagree that it should be covered, but a child with a possibly life alternating birth condition is not a joking matter in my opinion. It detracts from an otherwise reasonable point.
Why do you think that “port wine stain elimination” is such a “bogus” medical service, that it requires an exclamation point?
Just so you know – “port wine stain elimination” refers to the removal of a particularly dark birthmark. My baby girl had one right between her eyes when she was born. They never fade, as do many other types of birthmarks. If it were your baby girl, or granddaughter with a enormous patch of dark red in the middle of her face, you might want “port wine stain elimination” to be covered as well. (By the way, I support your general position on healthcare reform — and pretty much everything else too). Thanks.
A port wine stain, in this context, is a rather unsightly red blotch that comes from a malformation of blood vessels near the skin surface. It’s quite ugly and, I imagine, quite unpleasant to have. So it’s removal is a cosmetic surgery, rather than a dry cleaning procedure (at least in this context).
You need to expand your definition of chutzpah to include fraud, con man, huckster, liar, BS artist, flim-flam man.
This guy is like some sleezy used car salesman or even more accurate, a phoney televangelist trying to get his hands on your wallet, for your own ”salvation” of course. Snake oil, anyone?
Leaving aside questions about how one spells Hutzpá, this piece needs some serious editorial work and re-reading. I’m not talking about changing its intent or ideas. I’m talking about missing words, misspelled words.
Example: Something else that needs to be stressed is that medical is not a right.
Medical what? Medical care? Medical service? Medical floozies dancing in their underwear?
Mr. Kimball, speaking as a professional editor, please go over this piece.
You do know that when they refer to “port wine stain” they’re not talking about the results of spilling your drink, right? (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port-wine_stain)
Blazing Saddles flashback
“You said pastoral counselors twice”
“I like pastoral counselors”
Have you ever considered hiring a proofreader?
Uh, do you think you need the port wine stain thing explained yet another time? I doubt so, as every genius who has posted here seems to have failed to read the comments and continues to parrot the explanation, gleaned, not doubt, through a search of Wikitikidiki. Indeed, the great port wine stain fiasco seems to have obscured the central idea of your post. Which is…well, I forget now, having been distracted by this weird red blotch on my forehead….
Roger was kidding about port wine stains. Maybe it wasn’t the best joke in the world, but it didn’t need to be pointed out and corrected 43 times. Lighten up.
Mr. Kimball,
I’ll take this thin opportunity, because it’s on my mind, to tell you about style and the harm it’s doing to the message you happen to be dispensing today.
“Colloqies”, “mendacity”, all that seems like normal post-degree journalistic gymnastics to you, and I appreciate this sort of thing for what it is. It’s kind of fun.
Problem is, you’re diluting your message in the name of verbosity, an exercise neither moral nor immoral in itself but which manifests itself in the form of wasted communication opportunities, and does so far too regularly for my liking.
If we could all speak a LITTLE MORE CLEARLY when we speak publicly, perhaps more people would come to fully understand.
Obama is earnest and PHONY, FAKING concern over phony issues. His impassioned speeches are LIES, and he is a ‘menteur’ as the French say, a LIAR.
Even the best of us speak past our issues a lot of the time. Speak RIGHT AT THEM for a change.
Okay, I feel better.
1 factor driving up health care costs on which I haven’t seen any discussion is the expansion of government’s share of health costs. Beginning with Medicare and Medicaid in the late 60′s, the share of medical spending borne by the government (primarily federal) has been increasing. Now, knowing how their low reimbursement rates get covered, am I supposed to think that it’s simply a coincidence that medical costs are rising as well?
Chutzpah, indeed.
“Does he and his so-called ivy league cabinet have a grasp on reality when it comes to economics?”
These people possess high IQs. The problem is that they are blinded by ambition and an overwhelming drive to run everything. They consider themselves somewhat altruistic and very bright. The common folk should therefore gladly turn over all the major decisions to them. The economy should almost be completely under their control. And any current problems will be eventually worked out. After all, aren’t they the best and the brightest? These arrogant fools are very dangerous. Keynesian style economic theories are right up their alley. They essentially support, with some half-baked intellectual sounding rhetoric, their desire to become our benevolent dictators.
Charles Schumer apparently passed the SAT with an incredibly high score. But he still is a relatively stupid guy. His intellectual pride hinders his ability to think and follow a logical argument. It’s all about him. Schumer is a narcissistic jerk.
I will be so glad when this current President is out of office. He really would be so much happier living in a socialist country and now that he snubbed the King of Norway, that one’s off the list.
Although I enjoyed the retelling of the lawyer joke above, when isn’t Obama lying? Perhaps only when he looks in the mirror and says, “I love you, I love you”.
Want to save the countrys medical care system. Empower the people to care for themselves.
1) Empower physicians assistants and nurse practitioners to do GP, geriatric, standard pediatric care, and some orthopedic services – including writing prescriptions. Physicians can supervise a hoard of the new, cheaper professionals.
2) Save bedpan care for the indigent who do not have families. Let parents and children perform bedside care services that are paid for now. This is a little third-world, but will cut in-hospital costs dramatically.
3) Enable competition and Wait! Dont do anything! Insurance companies will run into resistance and lose clients if competition is empowered.
4) Limit government insurance to catastrophic care and regular insurance companies to non-catastrophic care. Subsidize catastrophic care, but not non-catastrophic care. Permit a wide range of insurance product for non-catastrophic care, so people can choose the services they wish to pay for. Those who cannot or will not pay for any non-catastrophic insurance can attend emergency rooms that might be expanded at government expense to handle the overflow. Payment at these emergency rooms should be fee-base on a sliding scale, as well as subsidized by government. This is the cheapest way to handle the non-insured population. Even a five-dollar copay will ensure having some skin in the game.
Roger, if only someone in the Republican causus in either house had clearly said that we should try these simple ideas first. How long would it have taken to draft that bill? Instead they just accepted the party of no tag.
I think the port-wine protesters miss an important point. Although you back-tracked to say that I minute no opinion about the worthiness of these activites (sic), you originally asked Why do we allow states to insist that insurance companies cover bbogus/b services (acupuncture, dieticians, pastoral counselors, hair prostheses, port wine stain elimination (!), etc. (emphasis my own)
I absolutely agree that states should not have the authority to insist on insurance companies covering anything. But that doesnt make your list of services bogus.
In fact, forward thinking insurance companies are seeing the benefit of covering visits to Registered Dietitians (RDs) for certain diseases that are best managed through a combination of medical treatment and medical nutrition therapy. Paying for patients to see an RD for diabetes or renal disease treatment often saves money in the end by helping to prevent costly complications of disease.
Youd be doing yourself a favor to stick to your point: that neither federal nor state governments have any right to determine what independent insurance companies do or do not cover. Dissing treatments you dont fully understand is only going to distract readers–as evidenced by the multiple comments about port-wine stain removal, and this one comment from a slightly disgruntled conservative RD.
Acupuncture! Ah ha! Thanks god somebody has finally identified the reason my premiums have doubled in the last 7 years. Its the goddamn Chinese again. OK, weve identified their evil complicity, now, what about the Swedes?
Heres the only thing that matters, and this applies to EVERYTHING youre upset with – the only reason you complain is because youre not in power. Your silence during the Bush debacle made it undeniably clear that lying, stealing, invasion of privacy, usurping of power, profligate spending, demonizing dissent, ignoring the will of the people, demanding up or down votes on justice appointments, co-opting defense bills to ram through domestic agenda items, all of it was fine and dandy because you were the ones doing it. Now that somebody else has the power, you whine like a bunch of spoiled rotten five year olds.
No principles. No honesty. No commitment to American ideals. Nothing but free-floating victimhood egged on by serial misinformers at fox News.
Grow up, ya bunch of pansies.
Seems I remember Howard Dean saying, in a frustrated tone, this past summer that a)Medicare/medicaid are going bankrupt and b)the democrats won’t take on the Lawyer Lobby. So the only other answer was to increase the base of this pyramid scheme; public option/medicare buy-in. (Dean didn’t call it a pyramid scheme, but that is what it is)
Whatever happened to the idea of raising the age for Medicare (and Social Security) and indexing the payout to the user’s income? Oh I forgot, “we’re all socialists now” with “change we can believe in”. Last decade thinking.
“Chutzpah” is also spelled in many of Barack’s exaggerated, even false, claims about the medical profession, to wit, a diatribe about a poor guy who got dropped by insurer and died, who didn’t get dropped by insurer and didn’t die, at least for many months. Or Barack accusing doctors of yanking tonsils and amputating feet for fun and profit, telling a woman whose aged mom had a procedure for arrhythmia that she might have been better off forgoing the procedure and taking a pain pill ! (you know, some of these older folks just aren’t worth preserving, too costly)
Michelle & Barack both used a scare story with one of their daughters, only they told it with different sets of facts.
The thing Barack said yesterday about “healthcare” is in the spirit of growing the government by scaring the crap out of people.
Also, it is in the ether, this story that someone from the White House (imagine Rahm Emanuel, the Enforcer, here) actually threatened Ben Nelson (Nebraska senator, not liking provisions of “healthcare” bill) with closure of big SAC base in Nebraska, Moffett, if he doesn’t toe the line.
Now that’s chutzpah, not to mention treasonous.
“……medical care is not a right. It is a service. When your toilet breaks, you call a plumber. He comes and fixes it. Then he gives you a bill. Why should it be different when you break your arm?…”
Describing medical care as a “service” is like describing potable water as a “luxury”
or providing mortician and burial services as an “extravagance.”
After all, one could – and people have – just throw the rotting corpses out onto the streets and have the buzzards and nature take care of business. No one has to be paid ! Talk about cost-effectiveness!
Medical care, like so many other endeavors, cannot be classified as either a right or a service. It is a NECESSITY.
Ditto with the armed forces, the post office, foreign affairs and the many other “services” that only the resources of a government can bring to bear.
“Rights” and “Services” has nothing to do with it.
I will admit that philosophically, I believe medical care should be kept in the private domain with very little government interference.
But the reality is that for the last 20 years or so, I’ve had to put that philosophy aside.
Why? I’ll tellya why.
To take the writer’s broken arm example: up to about 20 years ago, if you broke your arm, you might be talking about a cost to a family of around $200 or so…something that was affordable.
Today? Don’t make me laugh.
A “broken arm” could easily cost you $1000 just to have the doctor put the arm in a cast. Lab work, X-rays and so on could easily run another $500.
If you get cancer, you may as well just let the disease take its course. To have it treated without insurance would cost you tens of thousands of dollars.
Instant financial ruin, bankruptcy and so on for the vast majority of Americans.
If your toilet breaks (which means clogged up), you can actually live with it. You can get used to the smell…..you can go to a neighbor’s to do your thing, you could use your back yard (you know, like a pet), you could visit your local zoo or enter the lobby of a large hotel and pretend you are “looking” for someone and just have to use the loo.
There are all kinds of remedies at your disposal. You could even try to fix the toilet yourself. !
But you can’t do that with a broken arm. The consequences of not getting it fixed medically are quite significant.
And we’re only talking about a broken arm. What if the ailment is something much worse, like internal bleeding, a C-section birth or the onset of a rabid leprosy? What then?
Medical costs are now so high that only a government and realistically afford to insure the public.
Anyone who thinks otherwise is simply avoiding the facts.
Having watching our man-child president for several months now, I’ve become convinced that he can’t really be called a liar. Clinton was a liar. Clinton would go in front of cameras and wag his finger and say things that he knew weren’t true. Obama on the other hand is delusional. He thinks that the mere fact that he has opened his pie hole to say something automatically makes that thing true! However you want to describe this, mendacious doesn’t seem to be the adjective of choice. It seems to me that to be mendacious, you actually have to know what the truth is and consciously choose to gainsay it. Obama doesn’t deny the truth. He actually thinks that he can change what is true merely by speaking.
Right wingers are the port wine stain of the country . . .
Maybe that’s why they don’t want it covered by health insurance companies . . .
All this talk of the ‘port wine stain’.
Hey, a Seinfeld episode had a woman who had a torrid love affair with ‘The Mahatma’.. she had a huge goiter from her neck.
Kids, port wine stains can be ‘sexy’, like insulating your home with updated, environmentally friendly materials. Right Obama?
For the record – kidding. I’m sure Mr. Kimball gets the gist with the myriad of comments on the stain.
“What is it about Obama that makes these little colloquies so objectionable? I think it is the combination of earnestness, on the one hand, and patent mendacity on the other.”
You might well be right, Roger. Still, the President’s character often appears to be a combination of an insufferable arrogance and a schmaltzy narcissism.
#23 Comment. I loved this line: Get a life already. I’d say “get a job” but Obama and Pelosi have just about made that impossible.
Now and Then, please listen to the above advice.
Roger was kidding about port wine stains. Maybe it wasn’t the best joke in the world, but it didn’t need to be pointed out and corrected 43 times. Lighten up.
jWarrior, when I made my comment it wasa held for moderation — there were no other comments.
Given that our comments were all approved by a moderator, I don’t understand why the snarky and rather obnoxious comment is still there. As others have observed, it obscures the message of rest of his piece. It’s rather like finding a joke from “Amos ‘n’ Andy” gratuitously inserted into the middle of an essay on Condi Rice.
“#23 Comment. I loved this line: Get a life already. I’d say “get a job” but Obama and Pelosi have just about made that impossible.
Now and Then, please listen to the above advice.”
Now and Then may already have a very good paying job. The odds are minimally 50/50 that this individual is being paid by Media Matters or another Soros funded group to post comments on Pajamas Media. Media Matters apparently employs seventy radical activists! What in heck do these people do all day? Common sense dictates that a number of them are likely posting comments on influential center-right blogs.
O.K so the port wine stain might be a condition, but it should be an insurance option and not a mandate. Why would you want something that you do not have to be covered in an insurance policy.
If this is a birthmark then it would be noticed in infancy and could be corrected possibly without coverage or Leslie Nielsen could rub it off like he tried to in one of his movies where he was giving Gorbachev a fantastic nuggy trying to wife the thing of his head.
I don’t want to beat a dead horse, in fact, maybe I’m coming belatedly to the defense of a dead horse…
A port wine stain removal is a perfect example of what no sane insurer would insure. Insurance is surety for sale. The insured pay the insurer to give them surety–to spread out risk into easily managed, regular payments.
Port wine stains are birth marks. They are already sure things. Their existence is known. The cost of removal is known. If they cost $X to remove, only a fool would “insure” their removal for less than $X, plus administrative costs. Requiring insurers to cover these without allowing an increase in premiums is subjugating the other insured, or the insurers, to slavery.
By way of declaring a conflict of interest, I should mention that 100% of the people I’ve met with port wine stains on their faces (1 of 1) were jerks. That may have colored my analysis.
State regulation leads to bigger insurance bills: Every lobbying group in a state gets together to entice legislators to increase the required coverage for policies in that state. In Florida, it cost the chairopractors (SP?) about 5 years and untold millions to get the right to have policies in Florida required to pay for their services. Bet they made it back in a year or less. Now the mental health providers want more than 30 days of coverage and we won’t even talk about homeopathic medicine. These are not coverages a person in Florida can refuse – they are required to be in the policy and you are required to pay for them.
Uh, Yes we did……
Racist? I little exercise in projection perhaps. Good luck cashing that check.
“Given that our comments were all approved by a moderator, I don’t understand why the snarky and rather obnoxious comment is still there.”–Mike G in Corvallis.
Perhaps the author and moderator accept criticism without necessarily agreeing with it, or attempting to hide the original error. Occaisionally you still meet people like that. It helps with the concept of a “forum.”
Or it could be that they’ve both committed hari kari out of shame and are thus unable to blot out their mistake.
The port wine stain discussion shows that PJM readers are willing to correct false impressions and have respect for the facts. I find it a good sign. It sure beats elevating Roger to the level of Messiah.
Charlie {Lefty} Gibson lobbed another lefty,Barack Obama,softballs last night. In spite of this,Obama never made it to first base. He was hitting with the emperor’s new bat.
What happens when the Left, Right, & Center wants ObamaCare DEAD, yet the One does not hear them?:
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/12/17/axelrod-left-insane-for-wanting-to-kill-the-bill/
Enter David Aexlrod, Obama’s teleprompter. The Democrats are at war with themselves–including their precious unions–while the ObamaCare bill is on the verge of a collapse. What am I missing? Yes, that’s Obama’s chutzpah & arrogance.
Port wine stain controversy aside Roger’s points are right on the money. Obamacare, which I thought was destined to pass in some form just 3 days ago, is in deep trouble. Senator Nelson has not only stated that the compromise abortion language is unacceptable, but that even if that seemingly insurmountable problem is fixed he is not inclined to vote for the Senate legislation Reid is keeping under wraps. Snowe and Collins are so far holding firm. Sanders and other socialist ideolgues are backing away as is the SEIU and other external supporters.
The President’s popularity is in freefall, his fecklessness bared for all to see.I notice that troll support traffic has slowed to a swollen prostate pee stream trickle.
The worst is yet to come for this sorry bunch of Democrats who have hitched their wagon to a falling star. The economy will continue to sputter and unemployment is likely to go up, not down. President Obama’s blame shifting is already wearing thin with independents. He has the lowest approval ratings of any President in post Depression history at this point in a term. Soon he will be tested by a foriegn power, and his jelly spine is unlikely to help him weather the crisis. His chutzpa won’t aid him when he has to deal with a bully.
Alot of Americans who blindly bought into the media narative about this marxist 13 months ago are beginning to realize that they should have done the research that some of the rest of us took the time to perform. Nothing he has done has surprised me, with the exception of retaining Gates in his cabinet. The rest has been chillingly predictable.
1. RK, although I agree with you, I haven’t moved from agreement to activism.
Afaic what’s missing is evidence that the GOP is committed to governing in a principled and competent manner if they are entrusted with power again. (At this time I am unwilling to support replacing the Republican Party because of the associated social upheaval.)
2. The style of this piece is more accessible to me than some of your prior efforts were. You can’t please everyone, but I credit you for standing in for your lumps as you reach toward a wider audience than The New Criterion’s. “Wer immer strebend sich bemueht, Den koennen wir erloesen.”
Another point on chutzpa.
I laugh at how the Marxists are now hiding themselves behind the misnomer “progressive”. What a pathetic state of misrepresentation that is!
Most of us who blog here are proud to identify ourselves as conservatives. People like Obama and Krugman hide behind a misrepresentation to describe themselves and their ideals. They can’t bring themselves to accurately describe their true ideology which is demonstrably Marxist in most ways. And they think they are fooling people.
Now that’s chutzpa. There is nothing progressive about Marxism. Just ask Hitler’s, Mao’s, Stalin’s and Pol Pot’s surviving victims. Ask the people in England and Canada how “progressive” the medical system is when they can’t obtain surgeries or drugs readily available in the US due to the “one size fits all” healthcare system each country has. There’s some “progresive” compassion for you. And Obama and Krugman want what they have for the rest of us here in the US.
No wonder the people aren’t buying it.
If you think paying for other people to get alternative therapies is fun, just wait until the activist lawsuits pour in demanding free government sex change surgery!
I am a 53 yo executive with a port wine stain on my left cheek. In the last 10 years there have been amazing laser surgery techniques developed for young people to have these vascular impediments removed and the benefits are amazing not only from a cosmetic standpoint, but also a purely pragmatic medical intervention of future problems. I am sure that the author was trying to infuse humor in his writing, unfortunately it comes across as misinformed and a bit childish – think bully on the playground or drunk at a party.
vivo -
“Maybe that’s why they don’t want it covered by health insurance companies . . .”
Strawman alert……
Uh, no vivo. You are mis-representing Kimball’s point. Insurance companies should have the OPTION to write policies which either do or don’t cover certain procedures rather than having the states mandate which procedures SHALL be covered. And the consumer (that would be us) should then have the OPTION to chose those policies which best fill their needs and/or desires.
If he doesn’t WANT a policy which covers acupuncture, dietitians, pastoral counselors, hair prostheses, or even port wine stain elimination, then the consumer (that would be us) should have that OPTION.
Personally, I’m all for insurance companies writing policies to cover port stain treatment. I’m all for insurance companies writing policies to cover drug rehab, homeopathic treatments, or even sexual reorientation surgery. And if YOU want to buy a policy that covers port stain treatment or any of the others then do it. Just don’t make it mandatory and then piss and moan about the high cost of insurance.
“The Democrats’ plan to use health care to extend goMvernment’s control over the lives of Americans….”
Yes, just like the Dem’s plans to shackle older Americans to Social Security and Medicare. Oh, if only the right could have stopped them!
And this federal HC monstrosity will be unionized by SEIU and staffed by ACORN. Apparently, a family with a gross income of $88,000 a year will be forced to buy insurance costing over $15,000. Here in CT, a couple earning $100,000 a year together, who own a house or condo, pay about 50% in taxes as it is. This confiscatory premium; new taxes; usage fees; intentional fuel, food, and power shortages driving up prices; all this and more is in store for the middle-class morons who voted for Obama as well.
72. Samizdat:
“I laugh at how the Marxists are now hiding themselves behind the misnomer “progressive”.
Yeah, and what about those fascists hiding behind the misnomer “conservatives”
vivo : and liberals are the hemmorroids. . . . is that the best you trolls can do now?The “o” is in trouble-his own troops aren’t obeying . . .his every wish is not being granted. . .how will he and meeeeshelll make back in Chicago in 2012?
Now and Then at 77,
You reveal an ignorance of historical fact when you imply that conservatives are fascists. Fascism is a left wing movement and an offshoot of Marxist theory.
Conservatives believe in the Constitutional process, free enterprise and capitalism. There is nothing Marxist about that. Marxism and conservatism are exact political opposites.
It would help the discussion tremendously if you had your facts straight before you offered your point of view.
78. RickGreenvilleSC:
SC? Is that where all the loony right-wingers live? You-lie-boy? Red-stained faces? Drunkards and illiterates? No wonder you sound so pissed . . .
Due to the questionable nature of a preponderance of your actions as President, you, Barack Obama, in the opinion of the people, have willfully and knowingly demonstrated a reluctance to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States, a document you’ve sworn to uphold.
Further, you, Barack Obama, are reasonably suspected of a gross and serious offense, be it reckless endangerment of this nation (which assumes scienter) or intentional subjugation of the codes and laws of the United States of America. These are two of a number of possible charges.
In this unusual but constitutional process, you, Barack Obama, are to be judged by a convergence of your peers in a court of law because your actions and behavior in office strongly suggest conduct that may even rise to the level of representing a clear and present danger to this grand Republic.
Notwithstanding that, you, Barack Obama, as a result of behavior unbecoming a commander in chief are hereby put on notice by the people of the United States that a formal research and possible redress of your actions, including but not limited to phone calls, memos, letters, written communication of any and every kind and form, decisions, verbal and written; statements made and promises given, a complete and comprehensive investigation of all questionable conduct will be conducted; results to be handed over not only to appropriate civilian authorities, but also appropriate military ones also. Should the military be determined to be in the position best to expedite the width and breath of your alleged Nonfeasances and Misfeasances in the most timely manner, they will naturally take full and complete jurisdiction of your case.
Barack Obama was not elected to fundamentally transform this nation into a socialist/marxist state, one that takes away basic rights such as the right to be born without the legal duty to, at a date certain, purchase medical coverage from a private company. Barack Obama was elected to abide by the constitution, a charge he could be guilty of turning to a blind eye.
As a result, Mr. Obama, in the considered opinion of a significant number of the electorate, as the alleged committer of serious actions that place him above the law, is to forthwith be served with legally binding papers requiring an answer within a reasonable time, not to exceed sixty days.
The force of the people of the United States has determined Barack Obama unfit to continue in office. This basic charge, if adjudicated by a military tribunal with a guilty verdict is, of course, appealable through a process intended to protect all rights that the defendant is entitled.
This public notice is intended to be simply one of many means that informs the general public of these incipient, albeit, unusual proceedings.
80. Samizdat:
It should be clear by now that I don’t agree with your interpretation of the word “fascist.” It’s not ignorance I exhibit, it’s informed dissent.
Mr. Kimball, If you’d just stick to Chardonnais or Gewurtztraminer, you wouldn’t have these problems.
Apropos of nothing, we have not one but two excellent examples of the Left-Liberal Argumentarium with us today. Take note, and remember:
Now and Then at 83,
You can choose to believe any nonsense you wish, but it might help you to understand terminology if you know that the primary economic tenant of fascism is centralized government control or regimentation of industry under a dictator. This was demonstrable as primary elements of Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s fascist Italy.
Despite the obvious difference with the republican system of government described in the Constitution, you continue to assert that we are living in a fascist state when a conservative is in power. This is an obviously false premise as we have no dictator and the government is not controling the means of production.
You can believe as you wish, but your evidence supporting conservatives as fascists is nonexistant.
75. Curtis M:
“And the consumer (that would be us) should then have the OPTION to chose those policies which best fill their needs and/or desires.”
The problem is that you buy health insurance thinking it will protect you and the you get a problem that you never thought you were going to get, and you are helpless! What a shame.
Insurers want healthy people who never get sick so they can pump all the money without spending anything. Highway robbery.
The twists and turns in Modern Liberal TurkeyLand.
51. Now and Then:
“Heres the only thing that matters, and this applies to EVERYTHING youre upset with – the only reason you complain is because youre not in power.”
Tut, Tut you Powerful Handsome Mixed European – American EVERYTHING Turkey With a Touch of Black, it doesn’t look good getting upset and making accusations about all the “Yous” out there allegedly being upset. Sorta kinda like Mr. President being upset about the scarecrow on his front lawn talking back to him in the middle of the night. It doesn’t look good in front of all your friends either. What will Kevin Jennings think? Well, a loaded baster does rate over a clenched fist.
“Your silence during the Bush debacle made it undeniably clear…”
This may come as a surprise to a Modern Liberal Turkey, but not everyone can be Moses.
“…that lying, stealing, invasion of privacy, usurping of power, profligate spending, demonizing dissent, ignoring the will of the people, demanding up or down votes on justice appointments, co-opting defense bills to ram through domestic agenda items, all of it was fine and dandy because you were the ones doing it”.
Demonizing, dissent, demanding, down, defense, domestic, dandy, doing! Enough alliteration to melt that Golden Liberal Turkey down into coin. Maybe that could pay off the deficit. Maybe. But people would have to bad for a very long time, because many, many, Golden Liberal Turkeys would be needed.
Moving along, Maynard G. Turkey breaks out into some Truther rap in 5/4. Notice the climax, “egged on”. This is a subliminal message to all to bring to light that the Powerful Handsome Mixed European – American EVERYTHING Turkey With a Touch of Black is upset about being left in the lurch by Mr. President’s Pseudo Healthy Turkey Program.
And an Anvil “Amen Brother” to the “serial misinformers at fox News” Is Megan prettier that Sarah?
“No principles. No honesty. No commitment to American ideals. Nothing but free-floating victimhood egged on by serial misinformers at fox News ”
Ending with a white faced “free-floating” Liberal Turkey screaming at the Universe because it is not in line with Modern Liberal Semi-Principles. I guess is if a pansy grows up it is still a pansy?
“Now that somebody else has the power, you whine like a bunch of spoiled rotten five year olds.”
“Grow up, ya bunch of pansies.”
“Blistering in its simplicity. Hilarious in its cadence and rhythm. Keep up the good work.”
Now and Then Dec 7, 2009 – 7:45 pm
More.
83. Now and Then.
This solves all contradictions, The Infinitely Flexible Universe That Applies Only to Modern Liberal Turkeys. Right on Bro!
“It should be clear by now that I don’t agree with your interpretation of the word “fascist.” It’s not ignorance I exhibit, it’s informed dissent.”
Ya ya ya ya tick tic tic Oh thou Handsome Mixed European – American Turkey With a Touch of Black With Cool Black Genes, what would Anvil Johnson say?
Hey, you might get the Hendrix Karaoke machine for Christmas. Or the chopping block. Good luck! “…such a frustrating mess…”
Merry Christmas.
Gobble gobble Goebbles.
Vivo at 86,
Having survived a major heart operation where my insurer picked up the entire tab except the deductible, to the tune of over $200,OOO., I find your attack an unconvincing, tired canard.
If insurers violate the law we have bad faith litigation and declaratory judgement actions permiting the collection of attorneys fees, and enforcement of statute by attorney generals to police insurers.
You don’t throw away a system that 80% of the population is satisfied with to replace it with lower quality care, higher cost and greater burden on tax payers. You don’t, that is, unless you would like to experience permanent 12% unemployment, or worse.
Your Marixism provides unconvincing solutions to national challenges. I can think of no example where it has provided more quality, greater freedom and less cost. Most of the rest of us are not willing to join you in a fellowship of the miserable.
Have a nice Kwanza. Merry Christmas too.
vivo -
“The problem is that you buy health insurance thinking it will protect you and the you get a problem that you never thought you were going to get, and you are helpless! What a shame.”
Port Wine removal? Kinda doubt I’m going to wake up in the morning needing THAT on my health insurance. And given the fact that I’m a 47 year old hetero male, I don’t see needing insurance to pay for breast implants anytime soon either….
On a serious note: Yes. What a shame. But, as a rational human being, I must understand that insurance which covers ALL FEASIBLE MEDICAL NEEDS just might result in (gasp) higher premiums.
You’re still missing my point (perhaps intentionally): If you, vivo DESIRE to buy medical insurance to cover EVERYTHING (so that you don’t ever find yourself ‘helpless’; what a shame) then FINE. Be….my…guest. Why insist on FORCING everyone else to do the same?
The Republican amendment that was never made: That whatever plan was ultimately voted into law, it would replace the plan(s) currently used by our elected representatives…..and everyone else in government service..except the military ( who have special needs ).
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