Health Care Cost

I just came from a meeting about health care costs and how the state (Missouri in this case) can’t continue to pick up the tab for uninsured or underinsured individuals. I’ll admit right up front that medical care no matter who picks up the tab is outrageously expensive. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that it costs substantially more than it needs to and more than is justifiable. Yes, more than is justifiable. There are a lot of reasons why it cost more than it should with blame at every level in the medical hierarchy. From the doctor to the hospital, from the manufacturers to the distributors of medical supplies, from the insurance companies to the malpractice attorneys there is plenty of blame to share. The tragedy in all this blame-sharing is that there is one reason common to all levels of the medical care pyramid, greed.
The doctor carries part of the blame because he/she is of the belief that the simple fact that they chose to go to medical school, an admittedly long and arduous process, means they deserve to live in a $250,000 house and drive a $50,000 Mercedes. They don’t. I do not deny that they go through much to get to the point where they can practice medicine; however, it was their choice. No one put a gun to their head, no one blackmailed them into becoming a doctor. They must realize that their obligation to their patients supersedes any right they falsely think they have to a certain monetary reward.
The hospital must realize that they do not have a right to charge a patient for expenses that have nothing to do with direct patient care. When they order medical supplies at a specific price they do not have the right to charge the patient five times that amount for the item claiming that the extra is going for “administrative” costs a one dollar box of bandages should not return the hospital $400 dollars. I have actually seen hospitals charge five dollars for a bandage that can be bought for one dollar for a box of 30 by the average consumer. At the very least this is mismanagement; and at worst price gouging. Whichever way you view it, it is still wrong and must stop.
Manufacturers of medical supplies have no right to charge ten dollars for their widget because it is being sold to a medical supply company, while selling the same item to an office supply store for two dollars. That medical supply company has no right to charge the hospital or clinic fifty dollars for that widget they bought for ten dollars because they must keep track of which widget went to which buyer. It just simply does not cost that much to type a tracking number into a computer database and even less with today’s scanning devices. The only reason both practices continue is because people assume that medical care must be expensive to be good. This belief is a lie perpetrated by the people and the greed of which we are speaking. Medical care must be proper, must be appropriate, must be individualized, but not expensive to be good.
Insurance companies, those that supply medical coverage for individuals or groups and are staffed with actuaries, accountants and countless individuals with a MBA, have no right to tell a doctor which test or treatment he can order for his patient. They have no right to say you can be in the hospital for this many days but no longer, or you can have this medication but not that one. This practice is dictated by the desire to keep cost down because that keeps their profits up and that is their only concern. Since medical insurance companies are making record profits it is easy to see why they wish to continue their dictatorial practices. Their refusal to pay more than their own preset amount (and this is also true for Medicare, Medicaid, MediCal, etc.) causes the health care providers to charge others the amount they feel they are being shorted and driving up cost across the board.
Attorneys have no right to take and pursue “malpractice” cases for no more reason than they know they can force the hospital or doctor’s insurance company to settle out of court and earn them a nice 33% of the settlement for a few hours work on the phone. Medical personnel do make mistakes, they can be careless or unskilled in the task at hand, but not even ten percent as often as what the lawyers would have you believe. The money these lawyers extort from medical facilities and personnel at all levels is no more than a monument to their greed, a greed that is comparable to, and no different than, the blood lust of a psychopathic killer.
As you can see, when the politicians start the song and dance about only so much money available and something must be cut they are cutting from the wrong place. Until all other problems are addressed they have no right to demand that their budget be balanced on the backs of the uninsured individuals. They have no right to tell you that you don’t deserve the same quality of care as does the lawyer that gave five thousand dollars to their campaign. They have no right to tell you that your life is less valuable than that of the insurance agent that never questions their “hail damage” claim. They have no right to decide that you will die at a younger age because of lack of preventive care than does the doctor that makes sure that their Xanax prescription stays current.
Matt Blunt, the governor of Missouri believes that some are less entitled to medical care than others. Ed Emory, the state congressman for my district agrees with him. Their salaries haven’t changed, their per diem accounts are as large as ever, their staff is as large as before and yet people are being turned out of health care facilities and dropped from health care plans to help balance a state budget that carries enough pork to feed all of Europe. These men are not only not representing their constituents properly, they are betraying them. They are no better than the greedy manufacturers charging more because they are selling to a medical supply company. No better than the lawyers who don’t care about the law but only about what they can extort from a hospital or doctor because it’s easier than going to court. No more qualified to decide who is or isn’t worth giving medical care than the leaders of insurance companies making decisions about medical matters of which they have no knowledge or experience.
Next year Mr. Ed Emory State Representative is up for a job evaluation. It’s called an election. With luck and enough persons listening to the facts he will get a failing grade on that evaluation.

A SPECIAL BONUS

The Presbyterian Church USA recently advised several companies in which they own considerable amounts of stock that either they quit selling items and technology to Israel that can be used against the Palestinians or else the church would divest itself of their stock. Theoretically this will scare the companies into doing what the church demands although why one investor selling out would concern a major corporation is difficult to comprehend. This is what the Presbyterians call their way of staying “neutral” in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. I’m not sure but I don’t think that the Presbyterians have thought this through completely.
God is not One Who likes neutrality. Careful reading of the scriptures (which I assume the Presbyterian leadership has done at some point) will reveal that He is always firmly placed on the side of right. Now, when you consider the fact that the Hebrews, the nation of Israel, or the Jews, whatever your preferred term is, are God’s chosen people, His nation, then being neutral is not exactly the wisest move one can make. No matter what you say, no matter how loud the protestations, people are always on one side or the other. There is no neutrality within the human body. It may be by a small margin, say by only .1% over the middle point of fifty, but still there is a leaning more to one side than the other. By trying, in no matter how small a way to keep Israel from having those things it needs to defend itself, the Presbyterian Church USA has sided with the Palestinian reactionaries, and blatantly against the nation of Israel.
One church body, even one as large as the Presbyterian Church USA can’t really make that big a difference in this conflict so why bring it up? Well, it’s not that this event will turn the tide in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian immigrants. It could however, make a big difference in the lives of those in the Presbyterian Church leadership. God doesn’t look favorably on those that are against His chosen people. Let’s take a look at the 30th chapter of Jeremiah:
18Thus says the Lord:
Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the
tents of Jacob
and have compassion on his
dwellings;
the city shall be rebuilt on its mound,
and the palace shall stand where it
used to be.
19Out of them shall come songs of
Thanksgiving
and the voices of those who celebrate
I will multiply them, and they shall not
be few
I will make them honored, and they
shall not be small
20Their children shall be as they were of
old
and their congregation shall be
established before me,
and I will punish all who oppress
them
21Their prince shall be one of themselves;
their ruler shall come out from their
midst;
I will make him draw near, and he shall
approach me
for who would dare of himself to
approach me?
declares the Lord
22And you shall be my people,
and I will be your God.
Jeremiah 30: 18 – 22 ESV

I have included the entire passage to avoid the “taken out of context” argument but I have highlighted the verse that tells the fate of those that go against the nation of Israel. Those who oppress, or go against Israel will be punished. God makes no bones about it. The Presbyterian Church however seems to think that paying more attention to being “politically correct” than it does to the Word of God is an acceptable practice. God’s word, says quite the opposite.
I am not saying that the Presbyterian Church USA is not a Christian organization or to the sincerity or depth of faith of any of its leaders or members. I am pointing out though that their understanding of the Old Testement and its appliqability to our current time is deficient. Obviously, the church leadership needs to pay more attention to God and less attention to the latest public opinion polls.

STEVEN VINCENT AND THE BASRA POLICE

I just read the opinion piece that Steven Vincent wrote for the New York Times and which ended up getting him killed. In the piece he pointed out that the Basra police force the majority of officers are Shiite loyalist and more committed to a radical ayatollah than their positions as law enforcement officers. In fact, one of the officers he spoke to before writing this piece called cleric Moktada al-Sadr, a known anti-American radical Shiite “a great man.” Another officer on the Basra police force, a lieutenant, spoke of a “death car.” It is a white Toyota Mark II that carries off duty police officers to their next assassination assignment. Another officer told Vincent that up to 75% of the officers on the force are loyal to people and systems outside of the department.
The British, who are in charge of security and training in this part of Iraq seem either not to notice the corruption or not care. They do nothing to instruct the officer trainees in the concept of loyalty to the national government, human rights, democracy, or that a policeman’s personal feelings or beliefs must remain his own and not become part of how he decides who should or should not be arrested or detained or how matters should be settled.
Without doubt the British have been and are our most valuable ally in the war in Iraq. However, how can we continue to allow them to do only part of the job when we know that their failures will cost American lives? Do we have the right to tell them how to do the job they have been given? Or, is it our duty to tell them that they must make changes in how they are caring out their duties? These questions at best are difficult to answer, but nonetheless, they must be answered and answered soon. The fact that this article cost Steven Vincent his life serves only to verify the charges he leveled at the Basran Police Department and the dangers that our people will face because of British failures.
One last piece of information that might be of interest. Remember that white Toyota with off duty police officers? Vincent was seen being abducted by five police officers in a white Toyota police car.

SUPREME COURT NOMINEE JOHN G. ROBERTS JR.

The liberal media has always been zealous when trying to dig up dirt on people that don’t fit their liberal mold. Of course the New York Times is one of the biggest conservative haters in the country and they have climbed to new heights on the disgusting practices scale. This time they have gone so far into the distasteful realm that even a politician is upset. Texas senator Kay Baily-Hutchison says that reporters digging around for information on the judge’s adopted children is way over the line.
According to a spokesman for the Times says such an inquiry is just a routine part of an investigation into the background of person appointed to a high office. Routine? Just how stupid do the Times people think the American public is. They are looking for dirt anywhere they can find it and the only reason they are looking at the adoptions of the judges children is because they can’t find anything in any other part of his life. They are so used to dealing with people like the Clinton’s that they can’t believe someone has nothing to hide, nothing they have done to be ashamed of. I guess it’s to be expected though. When you lie down with the dogs you’re going to get up with fleas.

IRAQI CAR BOMBING

A suicide car bomber drove into a crowd outside an Iraqi police station and killed five civilians and wounded fifteen or more. This really isn’t big news since these types of bombings, outside of police and army posts or recruiting stations have been happening since the liberation. What amazes me is the fact that as many of these homicide bombings there have been, people are still wanting to sign up to be police officers or serve in the army. This says a lot for the average Iraqi citizen.
These people want to be able to defend themselves, to have an army that can protect their nation from foreign enemies and that they can be proud to serve in. They want to be able to police themselves, to live in neighborhoods where their families are safe, to be able to enforce the laws they as a people have chosen to put in place. Before you say so? lots of people want to be police officers or in the army. Maybe so but how many of them would stand in line outside of a place they new had a high possibility of being bombed? How many would risk dying just because they want to join the army or police force?
The average Iraqi wants to live in a country that they can have a free and productive life. Where they can raise their kids to be good people, people with a the opportunity to become whatever their abilities allow them to be, not what some religious psychopath tells them to be. The least we can do is protect them, teach them, and guide them into the future they deserve and are willing to die for.

TERRORISM DOT COM

The man writing the biography of Osama bin Laden says he watched the al Qaeda people leave their caves and head off to exile or hiding carry two things with them. A Kalashnikov rifle and a laptop computer. It seems that the terrorist having been deprived of their sanctuary and training facilities in Afghanistan have turned to the Internet.
They like to use free e-mail servers to pass messages and instructions to other terrorists. It usually goes like this. Abu bin Dimwit signs up for a free e-mail server such as Juno or Hotmail. He then types a message and saves it as a draft. Then, in some innocent chat room or bulletin board he passes the account info along to his cohort including the password. The recipient then can open the account, down load the draft and get whatever information or instructions it contains. Since no actual e-mail was sent there is nothing to trace or intercept by any security agency.
Another method is for Osama al Swineface to hack into an innocent unsuspecting business web site and upload whatever they choose. Then those in the know can log on, get their info and be back out without problems. The business eventually catches on and fixes things but of all the hits on the site which one is legit and which one is terrorist related?
The internet also contains hundreds of videos that anyone can view on subjects such as navigating across a desert by using the stars, shooting an American soldier, how to mix ricin poison, making a bomb out of commercially available chemicals, and how to sneak into Iraq from Syria by disguising yourself as a fisherman, among many, many others. Gabriel Weimann a professor at the University of Haifa has been tracking terrorist web sites for eight years. When he started he found 12, now he keeps track of 4,500.
Knowing that permanent sites can be traced and hacked the terrorist have a habit of using rapidly proliferating bulletin boards that allow them to quickly upload and store information temporarily before moving on to a new site. With the number of servers available it is virtually impossible to keep track of them all and this allows them a lot of freedom to communicate with each other undetected. Another new development is “cyber cells.” Rather than have an organized cell with a regular meeting place or places, terrorist meet and get to know each other on line and once they are comfortable with each other and have developed a mutual trust they can meet and carry out an operation in the field.
Just for fun I typed “How to Make A Bomb” into Google and got 8390 hits. I typed “Make A Bomb” into Ask Jeeves and got 17,900 hits and with the same inquiry on Google I got 38,400 hits. Granted a number of these were sites about other sites and I even saw lyrics to a song dealing with making a bomb but it still doesn’t make for a restful nights sleep. Tomorrow I will try a search for “Jihad” and see what happens. I’ve got a feeling it won’t be pretty.

The Cancer of Rome

ROMAN CULTISM
August 7, 2005

I’ll skip the usual recap and witty comments on the days events and move straight to a matter of great importance, the Roman Catholic Cult and their continued flaunting of God and the law.
Last year Father James Chevedden said the 11 A. M mass and then headed off for jury duty. When the jury was dismissed for the day he left the court house and went to the buildings parking garage. Then he jumped to his death. Paramedics found him face up in a patch of dirt at 4:48 P/ M. It was his 56th birthday.
Tragic but what has this to do with anybody outside his church and family? Well, like so many times there is much more to the story.
In 1995, after a series of rambling phone calls to his family and Jesuit leaders he was recalled from his missionary post in Taiwan and committed for psychiatric care at St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco as a “danger to self.” The following year, disillusioned with the Jesuits he began looking for a teaching position outside of the church in Los Angeles. That effort failed however so he returned to the order and took a position in the bay area. He developed a solid and loyal following in the Chinese catholic community.
Apparently, he was still suffering from psychological difficulties which his co-workers and superiors failed to notice. On August 19, 1998 he climbed to the top of some window washing scaffolding on the Sacred Heart grounds and jumped. He suffered two broken feet that required extensive surgeries. He was at Sacred Heart Monastery to recuperate and one of the officials there, Father Thomas H. Smolich said of Chevedden that he had “a paranoid psychotic break” and was not intending to kill himself. What was he doing? Testing a new theory of aeronautic drag coefficients?
While still recovering from his jump, whatever his intentions, he said that one Father Conner sexually molested him and physically abused him. These accusations were made to his Jesuit superiors and are also recorded in the notes of his counseling sessions as well as in private e-mails to his family. At first these accusations could easily be attributed to the obvious fact that the priest was having psychological difficulties, but again, there is more to the story.
What Chevedden didn’t know at the time but leaders of the California Province of the Jesuit order did know is that Connor had sexual abuse complaints going back at least to 1995. Apparently at that time Connor sexually abused a MENTALLY HANDICAPPED dishwasher at the Sacred Heart facility. At the insistence of local authorities Connor was transferred away from his victim at Sacred Heart.
In 2001 Connor was convicted of a felony sex crime and ordered to serve six months of home detention, register as a life time sex offender and refrain from any contact with any mentally disabled adults or minors. The Jesuits also worked most of that summer negotiating a $7.5 million settlement with the family of the dishwasher. The entire purpose of these negotiations was to for the Jesuits to do a little damage control before word got out about what their priest had been doing.
Chevedden’s psychiatrist, who states unequivocally that damage control was more important than caring for Chevedden, also dismisses their innuendos that Chevedden may have imagined it all. The psychiatrist is convinced that Chevedden is telling the truth and relating real, not imagined events. As tragic as this story is, it is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to sexual perversion within the Roman Catholic Cult. Since 1990 55 people that had been abused by representatives of the pope have committed suicide.
The Roman Catholic Cult is an evil and vile cancer on our society and should be excised without delay. The leaders of this organization are no more than a band of self serving perverts seeking no more than their own pleasure and the stuffing of their coffers with as much loot as possible. In the name of helping people and the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ these creatures spread pain and suffering everywhere they go. When they are called on their many atrocities their first instinct is not to offer the comfort of God but to buy the persons silence so they may continue with their wickedness. At least the Muslims tell you up front they hate you, unlike the pope’s minions who offer a hand of supposed friendship before stealing your money, your soul and your life.

MORE CATCHING UP

August 5, 2005

A lead British medical ethicist wants U. S. medical groups to take a stand against psychologists and psychiatrist working with the military interrogators at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. He seems to think that mental health professionals working in such a way is a disgrace. He’s not sure they can do their jobs and maintain proper ethics at the same time. They may resort to exploiting fears and break the prisoners. Such techniques he claims are designed to damage, not heal, people’s minds. However, those involved in the interrogations at these locations assure us that the techniques used are specifically designed not to harm anyone.
I think the gentleman is a little peeved because these people are making a real contribution in the war on terror while he is relegated to doing no more than treating Brits with depression and an abnormal fear of fog. Fortunately no one is paying attention to him so he should fade into the background again shortly. The only thing the people working at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib have earned is our respect and sincere thanks.

Judge Rehnquist was back in the hospital for a little while due to a fever. Doctors assure us that he is doing fine and that this is typical of someone with this type of cancer. Maybe so but when will he catch on to the fact he has stayed past his own deadline. He said he would remain on the bench as long as his health permitted. Hospitalized twice in a month with infections due to cancer treatment is interfering with his abilities. He is spending more time worrying about his health (which is fully understandable) more than cases before the court. The time to step down has come. Resign Mr. Chief Justice.

Rumsfeld was picking on the leaders of Syria today for backing the “insurgents” (criminals) in Iraq and told them it would come back to haunt them. Well, I’m not sure what he meant by that but he is right in pointing out how wrong their actions are. They are harboring some of the criminals that served in the Sadam Hussein regime and not returning Iraqi monies over to Iraq’s citizens. On top of this they are funding some of the insurgents. This has all got to stop. I wonder how they would like to see an embargo much like the one we currently have in place against Iran? I say let’s find out how they react!

Some of the countries in Europe want to allow Iran to have nuclear power plants and the U. S. is in agreement with the details of the plan. They would be closely supervised and all spent and waste radio active material would be turned over to another country. Yeah, this is a great idea. We have a rogue nation lead by a radical religious leader of a religion founded on hatred war and bloodshed but let’s give them nuclear power. Why not blow up the world ourselves and save the middleman?

A high school teacher/coach in Bend Oregon has been publicly reprimanded and put on two years probation by the school board. It seems he had licked blood off a couple of his students wounds. Yes, licked the blood off of them. The students involved said he was just “joking around.” Apparently no harm was done and the matter will end here as long as he doesn’t have anymore pre-lunch snack breaks.
There is one thing missing in this story. No one took the time or the interest to ask him why. You’d think that would be the one question they would demand be answered.

Billy Goldberg a physician has just published his first book. It’s a non-fiction work that he believes answers many questions that have plagued people for years. At least according to the “study” he undertook while at cocktail parties and other such social events. The book is titled “Why do Men Have Nipples?: Hundreds of Questions You’d Only Ask A Doctor After Your Third Martini.” He claims men have nipples because we start off unisex and by the time testosterone floods the womb the nipples have already formed.
Here’s one more tid bit from the book before you head off to the office Monday morning. The average office desk has 400 times more infectious bacteria than does the average toilet seat. Now, don’t you feel better?