When I’m in a hospital room, I usually have a
hard time telling which way the blood is flowing.

I feel sorry for Barack Obama. Not only will history likely blame him for the long tail of the bank failures and bailouts for which the Bush administration was actually responsible, it will also likely blame him (because of the passage of the health care bill that has divided the country recently) for the continued malignancy that is our decrepit, bloated, and corrupt “health care system”. I put that phrase in quotes because I believe that – as the late Walter Cronkite once said – “America’s health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system“. While a bunch of Democratic congressmen who have nothing to worry about regarding their health care plans sit around patting themselves on the back for passing a health care bill that has supposedly been the dream of generations of Democratic politicians, the fact is that things won’t change for many, and we’ll still be left saddled with the most expensive and least effective health care in the developed world. The bill does NOTHING to fix what any intelligent person sees as the fundamental problem; it might in fact worsen it. Whether you describe the problem as being a result of government meddling and insurance, or as patient overuse of treatment because insurance will pay for it, or as a result of doctors requiring malpractice insurance, you will notice the word “insurance” keeps popping up. The fact is that the mind-boggling arrangements for billing and payment that exist today would be IMPOSSIBLE without the insurance industry supporting its piece of what really is an incredibly elaborate and blatant ponzi scheme being pulled off by an industry and a profession that operates under the ultimate smokescreen: an illusion of benevolence which implies that they are only here to help you, and perhaps save your very life. And what price can be put on that, right? Well, when you can float enough paper, a pretty high one, apparently. How about seven bags of saline solution for $1,757? Or $12 for a “mucus recovery system”, i.e., a box of tissues that retails for about two dollars? Or $57 for a “fog elimination device”, which is a 2×2 piece of gauze used to wipe down surgical equipment? This kind of billing is so rampant that there is another industry that feeds off the system; “medical billing advocates”. These are companies that will take your insane hospital bill, itemize and contest the bloat that typically contributes to a significant portion of the total, and then bill you for the service of correcting the amount with the health care provider. The entire health system is rife with over-billing, whether because of intentional fraud or the errors inherent in the complexity of how the billing is distributed amongst insurance providers, which all negotiate different deals. Apparently 8 out of 10 hospital statements contain multiple mistakes, overcharging consumers an estimated $10 billion a year. With a system built entirely on such a foundation, how could I possibly care if I have insurance? Someone will pay for it. Maybe me, maybe the government, or – if I receive care as shoddy as what I’ve seen family and friends receive over the past few years – maybe a lawsuit. Below is a quick list of some of the more absurd charges found in routine hospital billing. Have any stories of your own you’d care to share?

$90 charged for a 70¢ I.V.
$129 for a “mucous recovery system”, i.e.: a box of Kleenex
$251 for a bag of saline
$57 for a “fog elimination device”, i.e.: a 2×2 piece of gauze used to wipe down surgical equipment
$1,082 for two bags of intravenous electrolytes, each available online for $5
$1,269 for nine doses of the pain medication Demerol, a markup of 14 times above retail

It’s rather poignant somehow that it was Barack Obama who said that on the campaign trail. The statement implies a kind of positive hopefulness that is one of the key reasons I voted for the man. I struggle with a certain cynicism about the current administration though; I wonder on occasion if I’ve been duped again by a clever campaign, and I wonder, as I’ve said before, if President Obama is doomed to a Carter-like presidency; a fairly decent man, swimming in the shark tank that is Washington. However, the confidence and clarity of his health care speech last night (full text, single page here ) reinvigorated some of my flailing hope for change in the capitol. I’m almost ashamed that his remark that “I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last” made me think of Clinton, who would’ve prided himself on the ambiguity of the statement, in that he’s not claiming to fix the problem, he might just be the last president to try. I’m not fundamentelly cynical, but I think that to not be cynical about politics is naïve. And although on an individual basis with humans I’m one of the most hopeful people you’ll meet, the ongoing “Brady Bunch Dividing Line” that some American citizens have drawn between themselves seems irreversible, and completely immune to rational thought and discourse. Especially when we have a desperately struggling, profit-driven news media fanning these attitudes at every turn. So a speech like President Obama’s speech last night keeps me going, even if one of the most inspiring lines in the speech was written by Ted Kennedy: “What we face is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.” If we can remember as a country that our real, deeper American values are those regarding a certain character based on decency and reason, we’ll be alright. And I thank the president for reminding us of that. What do you think?

It’s idiots like Representative & Heckler
Joe Wilson that help keep me cynical:

Read the whole speech here if you missed it.

Speaking of cynical, here’s a way to keep you on the site for an hour.
Watch the speech, and while you’re here, click on a few ads, will ya?

The answer to that will probably remain open to speculation. If you don’t believe in Jesus, you’ll probably say “Nothing. He’s dead, if he ever existed“. If you do believe in Jesus though, I’d hazard to guess that you’d agree that he’d say something like “Let’s stop all these wars and heal some sick people with the money we save“, unlike the Christian Right (Why do they call them that anyway? They never are.) which continues to believe in torture and war while attacking the idea of saving lives. On a more personal and practical level though, I’d like to address this Obama fellow, and his handling of the continued irrational ranting of the far right. Hey White House staff! Did you learn NOTHING from the last eight years? Somebody let me at that Napoleonic twit Rahm Emanuel. I’ll kick his midget ass six ways to Sunday and start a new media blitz where the White House DOESN’T moronically defend itself from the psychotic ramblings of a bunch of health and insurance industry funded astroturfers. FRAME THE DEBATE Mr. Obama. Don’t even directly address the idiocy that extreme conservatives and the health/insurance industries spew. Keep talking about change, and MAKE IT HAPPEN. If you keep up the ignorant and ineffective tendency to chomp on every piece of insane spin-bait they throw your way, your agenda remains doomed. Which I wouldn’t mind, except I thought when I voted you guys in that your agenda had something to do with our agenda. I also thought you were smarter than this. Is it too late to take my vote back? Unfortunately, this is not a battle over principles, it’s a battle over the media, and the current administration is losing. Routinely. C’mon you guys, you’re smarter than this. President Obama has more intelligence in his pinky than a county full of red state values voters. Let it show.

We also have all the money. This map shows aggregate income by county, blue being the highest:

But perhaps most important of all, we’re consistent. The map below shows party swings from 1960-2004. Note that while all the fickle hick flyovers are voting like drunken sorority girls for 44 years, the areas that stay consistently blue are – you guessed it – major metropolitan areas.

Bring it on, ya dumb hillbillies.