Sleepless in Midland

States' high risk insurance pools worked -- Obamacare extinguished them

I've written about this before. The Texas high risk insurance pool worked just fine to insure those who couldn't get medical insurance elsewhere. Those would be people with the infamous "pre-existing conditions."

Now comes an article penned by Ted Nickel, the insurance commissioner for the state of Wisconsin, to wit. I Ran Wisconsin's Successful High-Risk Pool Before Obamacare.. Excerpt:

Prior to the ACA, Wisconsin consumers could choose from over 20 individual insurance companies offering coverage in our state. These included for-profit and not-for-profit companies; HMO’s and PPOs; and local and national insurers. There were a variety of plan options to meet a range of coverage needs.

While these plans were underwritten, individuals denied coverage would receive coverage from Wisconsin’s high-risk pool known as the Health Insurance Risk Sharing Plan (HIRSP). HIRSP provided Wisconsin consumers with peace of mind by providing high quality, comprehensive coverage to over 20,000 of our friends and neighbors.

Unlike the current ACA market where most people must wait until open enrollment to purchase coverage, consumers could enroll in HIRSP at any time. There were no pre-existing condition limits for people signing up for coverage if they had prior coverage. If consumers had no prior coverage, they would receive coverage for most conditions, but had to wait six months for pre-existing conditions.

In contrast, with Obamacare you may have to wait up to 11 months for any coverage if you miss open enrollment.

Once enrolled in HIRSP, consumers chose from a variety of benefit plans including both high and low deductible plans. While Obamacare plans are criticized for having narrow networks, there were no network limitations for HIRSP; members were able to visit any medical provider in our state and receive coverage when traveling outside of Wisconsin. Subsidies were also available to offset premiums, deductibles and prescription drug out-of-pocket maximums for low-income members.

HIRSP benefit and administrative costs were funded by member premiums and contributions from insurers and providers. No state dollars were needed to support this program.

That program, as well as the other state programs worked. But they didn't fit the narrative for the Obamacare sales pitch.

Meanwhile, CBO says Senate bill would increase number of uninsured Americans by 22 million. Someone should conduct a serious study about how accurate those CBO predictions have been.  Here's a good start: CBO Gets ObamaCare Reform Estimates Wrong — Again.

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12:47 PM 6/27/2017

Republicans should probably not fret too much if Son of Obamacare doesn't pass

And then there were five -- Fifth Republican Jumps Ship On Healthcare Bill. According to this, Senators Dean Heller of Nevada, Mike Lee of Utah, Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin all say they won't vote for the Republican version of Obamacare as written. If the bill goes down, maybe they will take the heat off the other Republicans.

Failure of the Obamacare repeal effort isn't looking like such a bad thing. If Son of Obamacare passes with no Democrat votes the Republicans will own it.

With the MSM serving as a branch of the Democrat party, if the new law passes, the only news we'll get over the next few years will be about all the people who are suffering from it. Those suffering from Obamacare are currently in the shadows.

But you can bet your bottom dollar that if Republicans succeed in changing or repealing the law it will be presented as the worst thing to happen to people. Democrats are already proclaiming people will die. It will continue until Democrats take over the House, the Senate, the White House, or all three.

So put me in the camp of "leave it alone," and wait until enough people suffer that they will join conservatives in wanting the change.

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12:13 PM 6/25/2017

Bring back the state high risk pools for people with pre-existing conditions

As legislators bicker over Son of Obamacare, one of the bones of contention is insurance for people with pre-existing conditions, and of course, the expense of covering them. Obamacare had healthy people pay extra for their coverage so that the others would be covered, too. But there's another way, the old, pre-Obamacare way -- state sponsored high risk insurance pools. The cost was subsidized by taxpayers, not just the people who paid premiums for Obamacare insurance.

Before Obamacare became the law of the land the state of Texas had such a pool. Here's a passage from the Texas Health Pool About page:

The Texas Health Insurance Pool was created by the Texas Legislature to provide health insurance to eligible Texas residents who, due to medical conditions, are unable to obtain coverage from individual commercial insurers.  The Pool also served as the Texas alternative mechanism for individual health insurance coverage, guaranteeing portability of coverage to qualified individuals who lost coverage under an employer group plan, church plan or state plan, as mandated by the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

The Program served the State of Texas as an important "safety net" for individuals who had been denied health insurance coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

So when we hear Jimmy Kimmel's heart wrenching tale about the anguish he felt about his newborn son's health, we are expected to get angry at Republicans because they are tinkering with Obamacare. Sorry. While I may be sympathetic, I'm not persuaded by the partisan politics on display there.

I don't know whether Kimmel lives in New York or California, but surely two of the blueist states had some form of insurance pool prior to Obamacare which Kimmel could have used prior to Obamacare. And he'll have something similar after Obamacare. Hearing a celebrity blame Republicans for every thing that did or could go wrong is getting tiresome. But Kimmel knows his audience and apparently doesn't mind alienating people who aren't in it.

Betsy McCaughey sums it up nicely:

There is a consensus that people with pre-existing conditions should be able to get insurance. The issue is who pays the hefty price tag. ObamaCare forced healthy buyers in the individual market to foot the entire bill. That's why their premiums have doubled since the law went into effect.

The new House bill sets up a fairer way: a $130 billion pot of money, federally funded, to pay for people with pre-existing conditions. The entire nation chips in, not just people stuck in the individual market.

Yes, it would work. But the biggest stumbling block is that it doesn't fit the narrative.

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11:08 AM 5/3/2017

Put them on Medicaid -- not

Just about everyone has an opinion about the Obamacare reforms put forth by Republicans. And it's difficult for most of us to decide what will be the best outcome, especially since Democrats will attempt to beat Republicans about the head with whatever they come up with.

But apparently, some people think Medicaid is a solution. Jim Geraghty eviscerates that suggestion in The Unmentioned Problems in ‘Medicaid for All’. It's good that someone is finally mentioning it. Here it is:

The “Medicaid for all” crowd also usually hand-waves away the fact that a lot of doctors don’t take Medicaid. As of 2015, only 67 percent of doctors take Medicaid, and only 45 percent of doctors take new patients on Medicaid.

Anyone who has ever tried to find a doctor for someone on Medicaid has seen this up close. Then there's this:

There’s also the inconvenient fact that the best study we have shows that Medicaid doesn’t actually improve people’s health. It makes them feel better by self-reported measures, and less financially stressed.  But it also had “no statistically significant effects on blood pressure, cholesterol, or cardiovascular risk” and “found no evidence that Medicaid caused new enrollees to substitute office visits for [emergency room] visits; if anything, Medicaid made them more likely to use both.”

Obamacare was constructed with the goal of making unraveling it too tedious and complicated to attempt. Republicans have been presented with an opportunity to demonstrate they are as smart as Jonathan Gruber.

blood letting -- is that really a medical cure?

So I was making a deposit at the local blood bank yesterday and saw a notice saying that therapeutic phlebotomy would cost the recipient of that process $250. I had to look it up. The Wikipedia page goes to blood letting.

Turns out it actually is a procedure sometimes prescribed for certain conditions where high levels of red blood cells are present. Huh. I learn something every day.

But between you and me, if I had to go through that I think I would learn how to do it to myself to avoid paying that $250. I'm that cheap.

4:40 PM 2/9/2017

Free markets work -- generic Epipen now available 2 for $100

Who can forget the screaming from the media when Mylan Labs raised the price of a two pack EpiPen to around $600? The anguish was enough to tempt a person to invest in funeral homes.

But the free market actually does work. And while the heavily regulated pharmaceutical industry isn't really a symbol of free markets, in this case a generic version of the EpiPen had already been approved. It took the big Mylan price hike to unleash it. According to USAToday, CVS targets EpiPen with cheaper, generic version:

CVS Health Thursday that it would start selling the generic version of a competitor to pharmaceutical giant Mylan's EpiPen, an injection for people having severe allergy reactions. The move comes amid public consternation over multiple price increases that left the brand-name allergic-reaction treatment EpiPen with a list price of more than $600, up from about $100 in 2009.

CVS says the generic based off Impax Laboratories’ Adrenaclick treatment will sell for $109.99 per two-pack before potential discounts, or about one-third the initial $300 list price of the generic version of the EpiPen that Mylan announced after criticism about pricing.

If you bought stock in funeral homes, hold on, there will be other scares. There always are.

Republicans, don't fall for that 3 year trap on Obamacare repeal and replace

It's a trap! It's a trap!

Prominent lawmakers proclaim that three years is a suitable time for replacing Obamacare. One would think it would be Democrats who are trying to stretch it out to three years, but no, it's Republicans. See It could take 3 years for Republicans to replace Obamacare. Excerpt:

“We’re talking about a three-year transition now that we actually have a president who is likely to sign the repeal into law,” Cornyn told reporters Wednesday, according to Politico. “People are being, understandably cautious, to make sure nobody’s dropped through the cracks.”

Chuck Schumer is egging them on. To wit:

"They know they can't just repeal it, so they say we'll do it three years from now," the New York Democrat said. "They have nothing to put in its place, and believe me, just repealing Obamacare -- even though they have nothing to put in its place and saying they'll do it sometime down the road -- will cause huge calamity from one end of American to the other."

For the next two years Democrats and the main stream media will be drumming into the public consciousness how crazy Trump is and how mean Republicans are in general. Trump hysteria started during the campaign, and in the month since the election it has metastasized into full blown Trump derangement syndrome. There's obviously an audience for this. And it will get worse.

By 2018 voters will be suitably brainwashed and ready for change. And Democrats will win control of the House or the Senate. Then any chance for a repeal-and-replace will vanish.

Republicans, do it now! There's a window of opportunity that will eventually close. Democrats are counting on Republicans missing it.

Dreaming of single payer healthcare? The VA is your worst nightmare.

Mark Steyn tells what happens from time to time in Britain. A story will make the media rounds about some horrible thing that happened to a patient in a government run hospital, and the public is appropriately appalled. Then a few weeks later there will be a story highlighting some individual expressing gratitude to the service for saving his life. So it balances out, and nothing is done, and everything goes on as if the first incident didn't happen.

Part one of that scenario is happening at the Department of Veterans Affairs, our version of government healthcare. Two recent headlines:

VA dentist resigns after possibly infecting 600 veterans with HIV and hepatitis, and

4 quit after Oklahoma veteran with maggots in wound dies.

Unfortunately for the VA, there didn't seem to be anyone coming along later with a heartwarming story about how they saved his life. They didn't even try to claim the maggots were part of the healing regimen.

Godspeed to those who want to reform the department. Oh, and the same to those who want to repeal and replace Obamacare, too.

Good observation from Ira Stoll -- Republicans will be held responsible for next hike in health insurance premiums

Ira Stoll continues to amaze with his brilliant observations. His latest at NYSun.com, Jonathan Gruber Discovers ‘Stupidity’ Is Wrong Word For American Voters, reminds us how Gruber disparaged ordinary Americans when he called them too stupid to understand the complicated Rube Goldberg contraption he designed called Obamacare.

As Donald Trump and Republicans commence dismantling and replacing the bill, Mr. Stoll makes this astute observation:

If voters are going to start blaming politicians for their health insurance and medical bills, the anger in the next election could be directed at the Republicans who now hold control of the White House and both houses of Congress.

Yeah. They'd better get it right, and in a hurry. Democrats lost the House of Representatives two years after Obama was elected president. Republicans have a window of opportunity. If they're smart, they'll do what they need to do while they have the power.

Paging Dr. Gruber -- Bill Clinton needs a lie we can believe

The Hill tells us about it in Bill Clinton goes way off message on ObamaCare. He sets the trap:

“You’ve got this crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have healthcare and then the people that are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half,” Clinton said. “It’s the craziest thing in the world.”

Then he springs the trap:

He then called for more a government-driven system in which people could buy into Medicare and Medicaid. Without that option, Clinton said, the law “doesn’t make any sense” and “the insurance model doesn’t work here.”

People calling for more enrollees in Medicare and Medicaid are misleading their listeners. Many doctors won't take new Medicare patients. And even more refuse Medicaid patients. It isn't just because of the increased paper work. It's because the government price controls are so stingy with money that a doctor simply can't afford those patients.

Tough luck, progressives may say. Doctors should learn to do with less money. No one would dare point to the Veterans Affairs as an example of how it might work. But they might point to the government health care in Britain. So maybe this is what we might look forward to: Junior doctors go on strike AGAIN forcing another 5,000 operations to be cancelled during the 48-hour walk out.

Progressives might say "it couldn't happen here." Well, they've been wrong on just about everything about Obamacare, and if history repeats, they'll be wrong about this.

But if the Clintons tell their fans a lie they can believe, then we may be in the thick of it before we know what hit us.

Epipen had a government conferred monopoly -- can the government correct what caused it?

"We need to look at what the government is doing to create the environment that is leading to some of these instances." That was Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla) on "Mornings with Maria" Wednesday morning. (Video link below.)

It's common knowledge now that the drug administered by the Epipen wasn't the issue. The issue was that there is no competition for the dispensing device. Drug companies spend big bucks lobbying the FDA to protect their own products against any possible competition. And if this instance of Mylan Labs and Epipen is any indication, it was money well spent. They had a monopoly which was aided and abetted by the FDA.

DeSantis wants to try to get Congress to reduce the regulations that led to this result. Reduction of regulations has been the goal of conservatives for years. Boy, it sure has taken a long time. And only when it gets in the headlines is there any effort put into it. But assuming Republicans in government are serious, it will still take time.

For more immediate relief DeSantis plans to get the FDA in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The FDA contends that it doesn't involve itself in product pricing, but the hope is that shining some light on these problems will help them understand the impact they are having and motivate them to move a little faster.

Watch the interview at this Youtube link. It's encouraging to hear a politician propose solutions that might get a government agency like the FDA to serve the people a little better than they have.

The value of the expensive Epipen is convenience -- patients just need to learn to give themselves the shot

Most of us had not heard of the Epipen until the news readers proclaimed that a greedy drug company began charging a small fortune for it. The horrors of the free market!

Turns out that all Epipen is is a delivery device that dispenses a single dose of a hormone called Epinephrine which turns out to be non-patentable. Thomas Lifson explains something important in EpiPen too expensive? You can get the same dose for ten bucks.

Simply buy the Epinephrine and a syringe, learn how to use it, and save hundreds of dollars. Do-it-your-selfers will jump on this. Others -- those who lean toward the cradle to grave nanny state -- will insist on a government regulation mandating a cheap price for the Epipen.

When I was a kid my mom gave me allergy shots once a week. Tuesdays, as I recall. She would boil the needle and the syringe -- yeah we used the same one over and over. Then I would get a shot in the arm. Of course I hated it. But I lived to tell about.

And I got more than a temporary immunity to rag weed. I'm immune to the whining from those people complaining about having to pay for the convenience of the Epipen because they're too wimpy to get a real shot.

Mix Sharia law with national healthcare and Sharia comes out on top

Carol Brown has an eyeopening article at Americanthinker.com. See Creeping Sharia in Health Care. Opening paragraph:

Islamic supremacy is arriving in medical settings using stealth means, or what is often referred to as creeping sharia. Common themes include Muslim health care workers refusing to uphold infection control protocols, Muslim medical students refusing to study topics they deem forbidden according to Islamic law, Muslim visitors in hospitals ignoring hygiene guidelines to protect patients, and hospitals bending over backwards (or is it forwards?) to accommodate Muslim demands above and beyond anything done for members of any other religious or demographic group. Also covered are outright acts of violence perpetrated by Muslim men who attack hospital personnel.

And when they don't get their way, they sue.

They've had an easy time in Canada, Britain, and Europe with a welcoming government which happens to be in charge of healthcare. But it's creeping up on us here in the U.S.A. where millions of Muslim immigrants have settled in communities that are barely distinguishable from the communities they left behind.

Call me old fashioned, but the way of life in American is just fine without huge chunks of people believing that their religion is supreme when it bumps up against the Constitution, the rule of law, and common sense healthcare guidelines.

Sex roulette game with HIV positives

This has got to be a hoax. See Sex roulette parties where one person is secretly HIV+ and nobody is allowed to use condoms are on the rise, warn doctors.

There was a time when a diagnosis of HIV positive was tantamount to a death sentence. And indeed, many people died from it. But introduce some anti-viral drugs and the life extending medicines available to positives, and you get gay men more willing to take risks.

But this comes from Spain, a country with single payer heath insurance which NPR calls one of the best in the world.

Would these men be taking such chances if they knew they had to pay for the medicine out of their own pockets? It's one thing to deal with a positive HIV test. It's another thing to face poverty to pay for the meds. Score another one the dreamland that is socialism.

That aside, this still seems like a hoax. Skydiving and rock climbing can provide an adrenaline rush. And for some, asphyxiation sex seems to provide some sort of pleasure combining sex with a near death experience. The HIV roulette, however, seems too weird to be true. But it's a big world out there, most of which this country boy hasn't seen, so what do I know?

How long before hackers get into the vote counting software

The other day we were treated with news of a hospital in Los Angeles that paid ransom to hackers who hijacked the hospital's computer system. Seems that hardly a week goes by that we don't hear about some newsworthy hack. It's only a matter of time when we don't consider it newsworthy any more, just routine. See The hacked Hollywood hospital is not alone — schools and clinics across the country are increasingly being hacked for ransom and Hospital Hack Spotlights How Medical Devices and Systems Are at Risk.

As the big league bloggers say, it's a feature not a bug.

Anyway, most local election commissioners went to electronic voting very loudly and proudly several years ago. It was fool proof, they said. But honestly, is it really? If some of the most secure government systems are capable of being hacked, then if it hasn't already happened, votes can disappear, appear, or change, and we may not learn about it until long after the wrong person has been sworn into office. That's progress.

Donated blood -- what the phlebotomist said

I gave blood today, and in the departure briefing, the phlebotomist cautioned against certain activities: heavy lifting, exertion, and things like that.

While listing all the bad things she remarked that if I consumed alcohol it would go straight to my head. Wait a minute. That's a bad thing? Who says there's no benefit to giving blood?

So anyway, I've got that going for me.

Update. False alarm. Apparently there's a window of opportunity for that alcohol-straight-to-the-head result, and I waited too late. Don't make the same mistake. Seize the day before it seizes you.

Gay male blood donors -- please abstain from sex for a year

The incidents of HIV transmission through blood transfusions were evident through anecdotal evidence in the past, but now the number is supposed to be 1 in 1.47 million.  That seems low, but considering that donated blood is supposed to be tested prior to being pumped into another human, somehow that one got through.

In any event, gay men have been banned from giving blood for 30 years, until yesterday. That's when the FDA announced they've lifted the ban provided that the donor has not had sex with another man within a year. Excerpt:

As part of today’s finalized blood donor deferral guidance, the FDA is changing its recommendation that  men who have sex with men (MSM) be indefinitely deferred – a policy that has been in place for approximately 30 years – to 12 months since the last sexual contact with another man. These updated recommendations better align the deferral period for MSM with the deferral period for other men and women at increased risk for HIV infection – such as those who had a recent blood transfusion or those who have been accidentally exposed to the blood of another individual.

One has to speculate that a lot of political pressure was placed on the FDA to make this change. The Red Cross' Eligibility Criteria doesn't reflect the FDA's revisions, at least as of a few minutes ago. But they'll probably go along, and if they are getting government money, they will definitely go along.

Mr. President and Congress, Please replace Obamacare with Scott Walker's plan

Scott Walker laid out his health care insurance plan that would replace Obamacare should congress and a president decide to repeal Obamacare. It appears to be a good, easy to understand, plan. Jonathan Gruber, eat your heart out.

There was that thing, that one thing. It was the impetus for the radical transformation of the health care system as it existed. It was the unavailability of medical insurance for people with preexisting conditions. The state of Texas and other states had health insurance pools for those people. But that option went away once Obamacare came into being. The problem would have been a simple one to fix. Instead we got an unpopular law crammed down our throats by a power hungry administration bent on making as many people as possible dependent on government.

Walker's plan, described at nationalreview.com, would retain employer based coverage. But for those without employer insurance it would provide tax credits to buy insurance on the open market.

What about that one thing, preexisting conditions? Walker says this:

No individual should fear being denied coverage, or face huge premium spikes when they get sick and then try to change jobs or insurance plans. My plan would address these concerns. It would make additional reforms to insurance coverage laws to ensure individuals with pre-existing conditions would be protected, not only when moving from employer-based plans to the individual market, but also when switching between plans. This would make insurance coverage more portable, permitting individuals to own their coverage, regardless of how or where they purchase it. Provided individuals maintain continuous, creditable coverage, no one would see their premiums jump because of a health issue or be shut out of access to affordable health insurance because of a new diagnosis or a pre-existing medical condition. Newborns, as well as young adults leaving their parents’ insurance plans and buying their own, would have these same protections.

So simple. If only Democrats had focused on solving the problem instead of trying to fundamentally transform America.

Viagra for our fighting men

As someone who honors veterans and revers active duty service men and women, I find this headline a little depressing. To wit: Pentagon has spent $1.2 MILLION on erectile dysfunction pills for the troops, including $504,000 on Viagra last year alone.

The way the drugs are advertised it would seem safe to assume that erectile dysfunction is an old guy problem. Apparently not. If the hard bodies of the U.S. military need the drug then the problem may be more wide spread.

However, it's probably safe to assume that the misfits who fill the ranks of ISIS and al Qaeda don't get the drug. Hmm. Maybe their own limp d**ks are why they are drawn to some artificial system of inflated importance anyway.

Oh, it's just a light case of HIV

In regions where HIV has been around for a long time the disease seems to have mutated into a less lethal form.

The virus gets into a person who has an especially efficient immune system, and either the virus gets wiped out or it adapts. The adaptation changes it into a milder form. Then if the person spreads it to someone else, the recipient gets the milder version. That's the theory explained in HIV evolving 'into milder form'. Excerpt:

The team showed this process happening in Africa by comparing Botswana, which has had an HIV problem for a long time, and South Africa where HIV arrived a decade later.

Prof Goulder told the BBC News website: "It is quite striking. You can see the ability to replicate is 10% lower in Botswana than South Africa and that's quite exciting.

"We are observing evolution happening in front of us and it is surprising how quickly the process is happening.

"The virus is slowing down in its ability to cause disease and that will help contribute to elimination."

Fascinating, if true.

If no efforts had been made to slow the disease then presumably those humans with built in immunity would survive, their offspring would also carry that immunity, and in the evolutionary process the world would eventually be inhabited with people with that immunity. But here we are told that the virus itself is adapting and evolving. It's a constant war between humans and the things that want to kill them.

Bowling for Ebola

Dr. Craig Spencer is the Ebola carrying doctor who returned to the U.S. and went bowling. Here's what dailymail.co.uk reported:

New York's Ebola-stricken doctor was told by the charity that he worked for that he did not have to self-quarantine after returning from an Ebola-ravaged country

Dr Craig Spencer returned to the U.S. on October 17 from Ebola 'hot zone' Guinea where he was treating patients with non-profit group, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Not such good advice.

Meanwhile, the CDC had the job of warning people about Ebola without inspiring panic. So what did they do? Here's Alex Berezow of USAToday.com:

Likely aware of this, the CDC chose the worst possible action: In an effort to keep the public calm, the CDC pretended to know more about Ebola than it actually does.

Way to diminish your credibility, CDC. You're right up there with the IRS, the ATF, the VA and Obamacare. The pattern of government agency competence seems to be that they perform adequately until they're tested or tempted.

By the way, Doctors Without Borders, in spite of the bad advice given to Dr. Spencer, has provided a good lesson. Nations need borders.

Coming in the future: Patients Without Borders -- organization with the goal of moving infectious disease ridden people from third world countries to more prosperous countries where they would presumably get better treatment. Past achievements include importing thousands of undocumented minors from Central America to the U.S. where they've been welcomed and injected into local school systems. Many of them were disease free.

Instead of complaining about the Redskins' name, fix the Indian Health Service

This whole business about the Redskins' name is a good lesson in political correctness. Rather than addressing a real problem, someone perceives a disrespect where there was none intended, and a major portion of the main stream media piles on to punish someone. Meanwhile, real problems are ignored.

There's a government health care program in place that is supposed to provide medical care to Native Americans. It's called the Indian Health Service. And judging by available accounts, it serves its clients about as well as the Veterans Administration does.

See Not Just the VA -- Another example of government failure in healthcare:

The IHS has problems with long waits, inferior care, rationing, and lack of access—just as with the VA and with nationalized healthcare systems abroad. And, like the VA, when healthcare is under government control, it becomes inefficient and ineffective. Just ask Littlewolf.

In 2004, a report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights unsurprisingly blamed the substandard care in the IHS on the usual culprits: lack of funding, hiring the wrong people, retention and recruiting of qualified healthcare providers, and maintenance of aging facilities. As usual, the report didn’t point to the real problem: the program itself.

The mob clamoring for the Redskins' owner's scalp would prefer not to address another failed government medical care program.

Obamacare proponents are hoping they can do as well as the Veterans Administration

The VA was once held up as an example of what government provided healthcare could be. And it probably is a good example. So Obamacare proponents are probably going to double down on fixing the VA problems, although the doctor shortage will be a little bit harder to cure than a shortage of gurneys. (Psst. Ask a Medicare patient about doctor shortages.)

Mark Steyn made the prediction years ago that under a U.S. government healthcare plan citizens would fare no better than they do under the British healthcare plan. The BBC would report on some outrageous outcome directly attributable to accidental or deliberate neglect. The people would react appropriately. But the furor would subside, and then the BBC would provide news reports featuring people who had favorable outcomes and very flattering things to say about the healthcare system. And the underlying problems aren't fixed.  Mr. Steyn said we in the U.S. should anticipate that same thing here.

If he's right, expect to see the msm reporting in the near future about instances in which the VA did an absolutely fantastic job on a patient. We will be expected to judge them by what they did right, not by what they did wrong.

Meanwhile, one of the lessons Obamacare proponents have learned from the VA affair is that they need to be careful about hiding unfavorable numbers. But they already knew that.

Related: Daniel J. Mitchell says some similar things only better at Unofficial Death Panels at the VA Show Where Obamacare Will Lead.

IRS got taken for billions in fraudulent refund claims -- and they're going to be involved in Obamacare?

First the good news: The IRS paid out $1.6 billion less in fraudulent refunds in 2012 than in 2011. The bad news is that in 2012 it was still $3.6 billion. For purposes of this blog post, "fraudulent refunds" refers to tax refunds to people using stolen social security numbers.

(I had my own experience with this when I tried to file my 2011 return online only to find out someone else had already filed one seeking a refund to me in another city. I have a sneaking suspicion that they paid it even though I reported it in plenty of time to stop it.)

It appears to be quite easy for thieves to buy someone's most personal information. Now that each of our medical histories is going into some healthcare provider's database which will be shared with who knows whom, it won't be long before it's all available for purchase.

So far Obamacare has been a miserable failure, and only the most loyal Obamaphile would try to deny that. Maybe it will get better. Or maybe Republicans can repeal it.

But the IRS is a troubled agency. They've used their power to thwart political opposition to Obama. And they've paid out way too much money to ID thieves. And now they are requiring businesses to swear Obamacare doesn't affect their staffing decisions. If we didn't know it before, we certainly know now that getting them into the business of our medical insurance was a very bad idea.

Obamacare may be Obama's own version of the Knockout Game

Could it be that Barack Obama is playing the presidential version of the Knockout Game? Obamacare certainly is knocking citizens for a loop. One has to wonder if it really is incompetence or if he is deliberately trying to hurt the American people.

What's ironic about Obama and the Knockout Game -- the sport where black youths attempt to knock unconscious some unsuspecting white person -- is that it wasn't too long ago that President Obama and the reverends of the grievance industry were lecturing white people that they should let down their guards when approached by hooded black youths. After watching the knockout videos a white person would have to be an idiot to do that. Thanks for nothing, Obama.

Editor's note: Maybe Trayvon Martin was trying to play the Knockout Game without knowing his target was armed. Robo-ed.

Has the Obamacare cover girl gone into hiding?

If you go to Healthcare.gov, the Obamacare enrollment site, an attractive lady graces the front page as if to say, "Come on in. You'll waste a lot of time here, but what else do you have to do, play video games? Work at some crumby temporary job?"

Who is that model? The background image is at this URL which carries the name Adriana.jpg. So maybe Adriana is her real name.

Both BuzzFeed and Who Is That Hot Ad Girl are searching.

She may not have to go under cover, but that gig sure won't look good on her resume.

Editor's remark:  Maybe she's not a real person at all but a composite, like Obamas' girlfriends from his autobiography.  -- Robo-ed.  |  Good point, Robo.  Note also that it's a solo woman with no man in the picture which may be designed to reach single women, one of Obama's constituent groups.  -- Sleepless.

Universal truths updated -- Doctor's Law

Old: Doctors’ Law – If you don’t feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor, by the time you get there you’ll feel better. Don’t make an appointment and you’ll stay sick.
Via 16 Undeniable Universal Laws.

New: Doctor's Law -- If you are young and healthy you'll *avoid enrolling in Obamacare insurance and try to avoid the fine. If you are sick or need expensive care you'll grab it like a life preserver.

*When there aren't enough people paying the insurance premium to cover their health care costs, that's called "adverse selection," or to use a synonymous phrase more appropriate for Obamacare, death spiral.

 

Bill Clinton says GOP has duty to help fix ObamaCare 'glitches' -- nope, better to repeal and start over

The original reasons given for Obamacare were to get medical insurance for the uninsured, get insurance companies to insure people with pre-existing conditions, and to prevent insurance companies from canceling policies so easily.

In other words, to get some sort of medical insurance reform. Yes, it would cost some money. What we got instead was a complete restructuring of the health care industry which will cost tons and tons of money.

So instead of taking Clinton's advice and fixing what he calls "glitches," what's needed is canceling Obamacare and replacing it with simple medical insurance reform.

George W Bush's heart

When George W. Bush was in the White House he jogged and road a bicycle and did who knows what else to stay in shape. At one point we were told that his heart rate was about 52 beats per minute, which is pretty low.

So I wonder how many others besides me were surprised by the news that he was diagnosed with an artery blockage and underwent a stent installation. It's almost enough to make one thing that all that cardio exercise doesn't really make a difference.

Anyway, here's hoping the problem has been taken care of. Meanwhile, Argus Hamilton was able to pull some humor from the situation with a jab at MSNBC:

George W. Bush is fine after having a stent put in his artery to relieve a heart blockage Tuesday. Everyone in the media was nice to him. Fox News sent a get-well bouquet to his hospital room and MSNBC sent him two chili dogs with extra cheese and steak fries.

Mmmm. Extra cheese!

Survey: One in five Californians are crazy

Put another way, four out of five Californians are NOT crazy. Here's the actual headline: One in five Californians say they need mental health care. Excerpt:

Almost 5 million California adults say they could use help with a mental or emotional problem, according to a survey released Wednesday by researchers at UCLA. About 1 million of them meet the criteria for "serious psychological distress."

However, only one in three people who perceive a need for mental health services or are in serious distress have seen a professional for treatment, the survey found.

Via Newmarksdoor.com.

The article addressed a 2005 study and was published in July of 2010. Since that survey Obamacare became the law of the land, and that could have cured a lot of anxiety. But let's take it a face value. If this data were accurate in 2005, we can only assume from the state of the economy in California, the election results there, along with the highly publicized emigration from that once glorious state that the ratio of the remaining crazies to rationals is much higher today.