Obama’s Health Care for the Insurance Companies

 

In March 2009, new President Obama held a ‘Health Summit‘ at the White House to ‘kick start his Health Care Plan’.  At the time, the stock prices of the 2 largest Health Insurance Companies were:

Wellpoint, Inc.  $31.01/share

United Health Group Inc. $16.57/share

By June 2009, hatred and distrust of Health Insurance Companies were still high.  Polls showed public support for a public health plan by 72% to 20% and were significantly higher than support of private industry, even among Republicans.

By September 2009, support for a public health plan was even higher, but evidence that the Obama administration had already made a deal with the Health Industry were openly discussed.

In March 2010, Obama signed the Health Care Bill into Law, without the public option.  What was the state of the Health Insurance Industry, hated by the public for bad service and high costs, while people suffered around the country?

At the time the Bill was signed in March 2010, the stock prices of the 2 largest Health Insurance Companies were:

Wellpoint, Inc.  $66.33/share

United Health Group Inc. $35.16/share

Yes, their worth more than doubled. The Obama Health Care Bill is a large financial gift to the Health Industry.

I understand why people continue to support the Obama administration, even if I don’t agree with it.  Here are a few reasons they do:

1. There are only 2 options, Democrats and The Republicans and other right wingers (so called tea party and libertarians): crazy, hateful, ignorant, thieves who constantly get attention, scaring us into believing anything else must be good.

2. Current and past racism in America is so disgusting and vile that instinctively, criticism of the first Black president feels wrong.  This feeling is reenforced by racist criticism coming through from Republicans and Tea Baggers.   Get over it – the Obama administration has made it worse for Black Americans.  Prison rate, poverty, employment, health – everything has gotten much worse since Obama took over.   It is actually more harmful to African Americans to continually support politicians and other governors (Judge Clarence Thomas) based on the color of their skin, rather than looking at their policies.

3. Obama is very convincing.  I can’t listen to him anymore because I know he is lying, but he could convince me to sell my neighbors’ internal organs for donation money.

4. Confirmation bias.  The emotion of support for Obama’s candidacy, as he ran against George W. Bush, the least popular president since  Harry S Truman, convinced everyone that he was the right choice.  This is hard to drop.

5.  Supporting a ‘third party’ that supports the people, rather than the large governing corporations is a long term difficult and sometimes abstract process.  Picking the seemingly best candidate put forth by the same large governing corporations is much easier, although self destructive.

we found the tumor

Comic from HealthCare Now!

Obama already paying off for the Oil Industry: appointing anti-environmentalist to head Interior Dept

Barack Obama and Ken Salazar the Cowboys

President-elect Barack Obama has appointed Ken Salazar, a strong oil industry supporter and anti-environmentalist, to lead the Interior Department.  The New York Times reports that Oil and mining industry executives “praised Mr. Salazar’s record as a state official and as a senator”.  Why do Exxon Mobil and other anti-environmentalists adore Obama’s choice?  Here are some possible reasons (all having to do with Salazar putting money in their pockets):

Ken Salazar, the Cowboy:

Protected Oil companies from paying taxes: voted against a Bill repealing gigantic tax breaks for oil companies.  George W. Bush said he wouldn’t sign the Bill anyway, in case Salazar and his buddies didn’t protect Exxon Mobil themselves.

Expanded Oil companies drilling reach despite environmentalists complaints: voted for expanding off-shore drilling by oil companies.

Hates air fresh of carcinogens: Salazar voted against increasing fuel-efficiency standards (CAFE) for cars and trucks.  Cancer prevention starts with the reduction of toxic emissions into the air and water.

Hates clean water and clean environment: voted against a bill that would require the US Army Corps of Engineers to consider global warming when planning water projects

Hates endangered animals: actively opposed increasing the protected endangered species listings.

Is the enemy of environmentalists: Salazar…”often favors industry and big agricultural interests in battles over global warming, fuel efficiency and endangered species,” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, which tracks endangered species and habitat issues.

We told Obama that we want change, but we appear to be getting 4 more years of George W. Bush.  If we want change, we need to work for it – by pushing the Democrats who have been responsive to gigantic corporate interests, and by pushing for third party candidates that will benefit the other 99% of the world.  We can no longer sit back and wait with faith as our health, economy, and rights are destroyed.    It has been more than 5 months since Obama voted to expand Bush’s illegal warrantless wiretapping of innocent American citizens and he has tried to appear like George W. Bush ever since.

Ken Salazar introduces his buddy Alberto Gonzalez for Attorney General

Pics via picasaweb and jamd.  Most facts can be found at wikipedia.

Yo Mama is so fat, she didn’t get the job for which she was over-qualified

Massachusetts has a bill to make it illegal to discriminate against people based on height or weight.  If this bill passes to law, I plan to go to Massachusetts immediately – to apply for a job as fat lady in a circus, for which I am fully qualified, except for weight.

Clearly, obese people have had to face severe discrimination in America.   There is an inverse correlation between obesity and income – the fatter you are, the less you earn.  Only a few states currently have specific laws regarding discrimination in this area, so as of now you can legally lose a job based solely on your weight.

The 2 main arguments against passing this law are: 1) it would “be a ‘green light’ to be fat”; and 2) it will cost the public more for insurance.  These are, of course, poor arguments, but let’s look closer.

1) news reports that say this would be a bad law, because it is a “green light for being fat”.  Not true, it is in fact a bill to reduce discrimination.  This argument is actually stating that discrimination based on appearance or health is needed to avoid those issues.  No, surprisingly there are ways to solve problems without hurting people.  Starting social clubs around hikes and physical activity is one way.

2) Insurance prices are too high.  Obese people should not be the target of these claims.  Insurance costs have skyrocketed because those insurance companies have been making higher profits.  Everybody engages in risky activity, from driving cars to scuba diving to smoking and eating cake.  Our taxes should be paying for social causes like health, education, elderly and children, weak and disabled.  Instead that money goes to large rich corporations at the expense of health care and social programs. Even the bloated Military budget includes money to cake makers like Sara Lee.  If you care about health costs, tell your government representatives to stop giving that money to insurance and military companies.

There is less healthy food in America because unhealthy food is cheaper to produce. Stop blaming fat women and start blaming fat cats.

Idiocracy, fact or fiction: baseball bans water

In Idiocracy, a film parody of today’s American consumer corporate culture, future civilization cannot sustain vegetation due to the replacement of all water with a Gatorade like substance.  Apparently Bud Selig, MLB, and Gatorade are taking a major step in that direction, according to a news report. The New Jersey Star Ledger is reporting that Major League Baseball has banned all bottled water from the dugout, and threatened to extend the ban to the clubhouse if there is any violation.  Gatorade has neither sugar-free nor any ‘natural’ product.

When asked for a comment, baseball’s commissioner Bud Selig said, ‘uh it’s got like electrolytes or something.  Hey!  Whycome you no got tattoo?’

United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF) poster to bring awareness of the bad water urgency

United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF) poster to bring awareness of the bad water urgency.  “Bad water kills more children than war”.

Federal Appeals Court rejects class-action light cigarette suit

A class action lawsuit alleging fraud by the cigarette companies was thrown out by a federal appeals court.  Recently, U.S. federal and supreme courts have made radically absurd judgments to protect large corporations from repaying the public for damages made, but this is NOT one of those absurd judgements.  This lawsuit had no merit.

The lawsuit basically alleges that cigarette companies produced and sold cigarettes they called ‘light’ even though they conclusively knew that they were no safer than regular cigarettes.  Smokers would compensate for the lost ‘lighter’ smoke by inhaling for longer breaths and buying more cigarettes.  For this reason, the lawsuit alleges ‘fraud’.

No, that is not fraud.  The cigarettes in fact did exactly what they were advertised to do, produce less smoke.  When I started smoking, and someone gave me a light cigarette, I knew to put tape around the filter to close the holes that reduced the smoke intake and make it a ‘regular’.  Even if you did not know that, you still had a cigarette that produced less smoke due to the holes in the filter (drew air to mix with smoke).

Some people argue that the law should apply what the ‘average person’ should know.  And others argue that the stupidest of people should be protected.  Either way, this case was justifyably thrown out.

To get away from the bias of ‘evil’ cigarette companies, we have a good parallel example: milk.  Milk contains fat, of which in excess can cause horrible diseases and early death.   Not only does ‘2% milk’ not have 2% the fat of regular milk (it has over 50%) but we psychologically compensate for the lost taste and color (in coffee and chocolate milk) by adding more ‘light’ milk.  When I use skim milk in my coffee, I keep going until it overflows – we all subconsciously go by color when we add milk to coffee, thus offsetting the fat reduction.  Should the milk industry be liable for fraud?

Class action lawsuits are very important in our culture, helping to prevent high level crimes and reimbursement for being wronged.  Business and press have been using this case to argue that class action lawsuits are too frequently used in our society, and they are completely wrong and just trying to protect large industry.  This case was correctly thrown out because it failed on merit.

How to Quit Smoking

About a year ago, I quit smoking, shocking all people that knew me. After many years, this was my first attempt at quitting, and it was successful. The reason I was successful was the technique I used to stop. I know smokers do not think that they can quit smoking for various reasons, and every one of those reasons applied to me. If you think you cannot successfully quit smoking, read on to see how I did it.

Here are some reasons people feel they cannot quit smoking, and how they applied to me.

1) I have smoked for too long to stop. I smoked for 20 years, most of my life, before I quit.

2) I smoke too much. When I quit smoking, I was smoking over 2.5 packs per day (over 50 cigarettes). My cigarette of choice was always a heavy (high tar/nicotine) one: Marlboro Reds, or Camels. I always smoked down to the end of the cigarette. Oh, I was the best smoker around!

3) I need to smoke at certain times. I would smoke all the time. At the computer I would smoke. While driving, I would have a cigarette. After a meal, oh yes – that’s the best time. Oh, in the bathroom. I can’t sit on the toilet without a cigarette! I used to smoke all the time, inside and outside – in every room of the home.

4) I do not want to gain weight. Well, I have lost weight since I quit smoking. I was shocked to find I didn’t gain weight after quitting, since I relied on smoking to suppress my appetite.

5) I do not really want to quit, even though I should. Hey, I love to smoke. Smoking was a big part of my personality. I felt pride to be a smoker and would gladly have done commercials for cigarette companies. I just wanted to see if I could quit.

6) I am genetically predisposed to smoking. My Dad smoked all his adult life.  We tried to keep the pets away from the habit.

7) Now is too stressful a time for me to quit. Nah, I quit during a very stressful time, including a family member death.

As you can see, I was the last smoker anyone expected to quit, yet I did. How did I do it? The technique was given to me by a friend, who successfully quit. Even though she did it, I was skeptical that the method would work for me.

Why do we smoke? Simple question

Human are animals who respond to reenforcement. Smokers are conditioned to crave nicotine (the positive reenforcement – addictive agent) by self administrating nicotine during certain times (trigger). As an example. every time I stopped at a red light in my car – I lit a cigarette, which trained me to desire a cigarette the next time I stopped at a red light. To break this conditioning, the link to nicotine needs to be removed, according to this theory.

Initially, I did not believe this method would work. For 20 years I put a stick in my mouth, used my hands to manipulate the stick, and ran smoke through my skull. How could that oral and manual fixation be removed without replacement? I did not plan to replace the other forms of nicotine (patches or gum), nor did I plan to replace it with food or nicotineless sticks.

In order to get myself off of nicotine, I titrated (reduced nicotine incrementally) down, until I was smoking nicotine free cigarettes. Nicotine withdrawal can be very unpleasant, so these steps should be done slowly to minimize the withdrawal.

In general, that is the method for quitting smoking.   For more details, please email me at SkeptiSys@gmail.com

I would be happy to answer all questions to help you quit smoking.  We are all in this together.