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WSJ - Health Reform Passes the Cost Test
Submitted by Kevin © on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 1:26pm.Many people are worried that the health-care reform proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats will fail to bend the "cost curve." A number of commentators are urging no votes because of this, and Republicans have asked the president to start health reform over, focusing squarely on the issue of cost reduction.
These calls overlook the actual legislation. Over the past year of debate, 10 broad ideas have been offered for bending the health-care cost curve. The Democrats' proposed legislation incorporates virtually every one of them. Here they are:
• Form insurance exchanges. These would help curb underwriting and inefficient marketing practices that raise costs in the small-group and individual insurance markets. This is addressed in all the House and Senate bills, and the president's proposal. Grade: Full credit.
• Reduce excessive prices, including those of supplemental plans enrolling Medicare beneficiaries. The president's proposal reduces these Medicare Advantage overpayments and others to different providers, even in the face of Republican claims that reducing such overpayments is tantamount to rationing care for seniors. Grade: Full credit.
• Moving to value-based payment in Medicare. Both Democrats and Republicans have called for moving from a system where volume drives reimbursement to one where value drives reimbursement. The president's proposal includes virtually every idea offered for doing this. Grade: Full credit.
• Tax generous insurance plans. Health-insurance benefits are excluded from income taxation, providing incentives for excessively generous insurance. Many economists have proposed capping the tax exclusion to reduce these incentives. The president's proposal taxes some of the most generous policies, though it has deferred the date by which these taxes take effect. Grade: Partial credit.
• Empower an independent Medicare advisory board. Interest-group politics intrudes too deeply within the mechanics of Medicare policy, raising program costs and hindering efforts to improve care. Despite powerful opposition, the president proposes this independent board and a process for fast-tracking such recommendations through Congress. Grade: Full credit.
• Combat Medicare fraud and abuse. The administration has started an active task force to combat these problems. Other ideas to reduce fraud and abuse were presented at the recent health-care summit, and were incorporated in the president's proposal. Grade: Full credit.
• Malpractice reform. Defensive medicine is a small but important driver of medical spending. The reform proposal makes some headway, encouraging states to experiment with alternative mechanisms to reduce malpractice burdens. More could be done—for example, specialized malpractice courts and a safe harbor for physicians practicing evidence-based medicine—but the president's proposal makes a start. Grade: Partial credit.
• Invest in information technology. Many studies suggest savings in the tens of billions of dollars from IT investment. The stimulus bill passed a year ago contains funds to wire the medical system over the next few years, and the administration is supplementing this with significant funds to analyze the comparative effectiveness of different treatments—even in the face of "death panel" claims. Grade: Full credit.
• Prevention. The president's proposal includes significant public-health investments, provides new incentives for physicians to focus on preventive and chronic care, and opens Medicare to finding new ways of supporting prevention. The only area of weakness is the lack of a junk food tax or tax on sugar sweetened beverages. Grade: Partial credit.
• Create a public option. A public insurance option would provide competition for insurers in areas that are nearly a monopoly and provide a path for reforms in Medicare to expand readily in the under-65 population. The public option was eliminated because of Republican opposition, however. Grade: No credit.
So reform gets full credit on six of the 10 ideas, partial credit on three others, and no credit on one. The area of no credit (a public option) is because Republicans opposed the idea. One area receives only partial credit because of Democratic opposition (malpractice reform) and two other areas reflect general hesitancy to increase taxes (taxing Cadillac plans and taxing drivers of obesity).
Why is reform viewed so negatively? In part, it may reflect the perfect being the enemy of the good. If the only passing grade is 10 out of 10, then reform clearly fails. But given where the Republican Party is on a public option, no reform will get a passing grade. If both parties were willing to raise taxes and Republicans negotiated malpractice reform for their overall support, we could probably get a nine out of 10.
Reform is also viewed negatively because official scorekeepers do not believe anything on this list other than reducing prices will save much money. The Congressional Budget Office has consistently estimated that policies built around changing incentives and thus encouraging more efficient care will not have any effect on cost trends. My own calculations, mirrored by other observers and a host of business and provider groups, suggest that the reforms will save nearly $600 billion over the next decade and even more in the subsequent one.
Of course, no one knows precisely how much medical spending increases will moderate. But one cannot doubt the commitment to try. What is on the table is the most significant action on medical spending ever proposed in the United States. Should we really walk away from that?
Mr. Cutler is a professor of economics at Harvard University.
Save Democracy
Submitted by Kevin © on Fri, 01/22/2010 - 1:16am.The Supreme Court stabbed Democracy this morning. I was there; I saw it happen. I brought our petition with me -- your signatures -- and presented them to the Court. Now it's time to act.
We have filed six bills to reverse this assault, the "Save Our Democracy" package. Sign this petition today, and show your support for saving our democracy. Together, we will move these bills forward and prevent the sale of our government to the highest bidder.
PETITION TEXT
I support the "Save Our Democracy" Package:
We cannot have a government that is bought and paid for by huge multinational corporations. We need a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Friday's Sex News 01-01-10
Submitted by Kevin © on Sat, 01/02/2010 - 12:30am.- Porn week vacations
Aimed mainly at single men, Porn Week is an opportunity for people to participate in a porn shoot - Naked people at work advert
British snack company Walker crisps, has produced a TV advert featuring a naked gardner, postman and mechanic. - The 2009 year of sex
"America Unzipped" author Brian Alexander looks back at sex in 2009, from furries to kinky political scandals to the sex enhancer of the year - How mating influences shopping
"Our goal was to see how thinking about mating influences people's decisions about spending and giving" [more] - The best sex toy of 2009
Liz Langley awards the Ramsey Rabbit with her choice of the year's best sex toy
- The Top 10 sex scandals of the year
Freya Petersen reminds us of the people who have made the headlines for the wrong reasons. - The best and worst sex of 2009
Sex educator Dr Petra Boynton summarises some of the sex stories in the news in 2009 - The big O moments of the last 10 years
Kasmin Fernandes sums up moments that each year of the last decade climaxed on - Vaginal corona makes 2009 word list
The Swedish Language Council has added slidkrans (vaginal corona) to its list of official Swedish words [more] - Sex tapes of the decade
From Paris Hilton to Colin Farrell to Gene Simmons are just some of the celebrities who performed for us with nothing to hide
- Is Canadian sex creepy?
How the Canadians portray sex in their movies may provide an insight into how the people view sex - The porn star of the year
The winner of the 2009 Sexaminer Award for Porn Star of the Year, is Sasha Grey - Happy Birthday Kasadie
Congratulations to Kasadie, the web site for swingers, who celebrate their first anniversary - Spending Xmas with a female robot
Inventor Le Trung spent Xmas with his personal robot lover, built for $50,000 - A third of seniors sexually active
A third of senior citizens aged over 65, have sex at least one a month
- Why orchids use sexual trickery
New research suggests that orchid plants which produce flowers that look like female insects, leads to a more efficient pollinating system - The year's top 10 sex scandals
From Tiger Woods to David Letterman - How and why men fake orgasm
Men fake orgasm too. Here's why, and how - Would you swap partners?
A survey has found that 62% of Americas have never considered swapping partners, and of those that have, two-thirds said it was because they wanted to try something naughty - There are 6 types of cheater
Dr. Doug Weiss, the president of the American Association for Sex Addiction Therapy, describes the six kinds of cheaters
- Naked sushi anyone?
Some consider eating sushi from the body of a naked woman, more artsy than erotic - My mother's 80-year-old boyfriend
Advice is given to a family whose 78-year-old widowed mother's new boyfriend suddenly appeared in the kitchen in his dressing gown - Young adults foggy over sex
Young adults between 18 and 21, while aware of contraceptions, are slightly foggy over its use - Top 10 Republican sex scandals of the decade
From anti-gay politicians caught with men, to family-values crusader bragging about their sexual conquests
Top Ten Videos of 2009: Nat Geo News's Most Watched
Submitted by Kevin © on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 3:50am.With the exception of an eclipse and volcano "spiders," the stars of National Geographic News's most popular video presentations were a decidedly deep lot—hopping fish, countertop "sea monsters," underwater eruptions, and more.
Santana - Corazon Espinado
Submitted by Kevin © on Sun, 11/08/2009 - 8:51pm.Santana - Corazon Espinado
Conservative Re-write the Bible Project - Bible is too liberal
Submitted by Kevin © on Tue, 10/06/2009 - 11:12am.
Liberal bias has become the single biggest distortion in modern Bible translations. There are three sources of errors in conveying biblical meaning:
- lack of precision in the original language, such as terms underdeveloped to convey new concepts introduced by Christ
- lack of precision in modern language
- translation bias in converting the original language to the modern one.
Of these three sources of errors, the last introduces the largest error, and the biggest component of that error is liberal bias. Large reductions in this error can be attained simply by retranslating the KJV into modern English.[1]
As of 2009, there is no fully conservative translation of the Bible which satisfies the following ten guidelines:
[2]
-
- Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias
- Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, "gender inclusive" language, and other modern emasculation of Christianity
- Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level
[3] - Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms as they develop;
[4] defective translations use the word "comrade" three times as often as "volunteer"; similarly, updating words which have a change in meaning, such as "word", "peace", and "miracle". - Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction by using modern terms for it, such as "gamble" rather than "cast lots";
[5] using modern political terms, such as "register" rather than "enroll" for the census - Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.
- Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning
- Exclude Later-Inserted Liberal Passages: excluding the later-inserted liberal passages that are not authentic, such as the adulteress story
- Credit Open-Mindedness of Disciples: crediting open-mindedness, often found in youngsters like the eyewitnesses Mark and John, the authors of two of the Gospels
- Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word "Lord" rather than "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" or "Lord God."
Thus, a project has begun among members of Conservapedia to translate the Bible in accordance with these principles. The translated Bible can be found here.
Fucktasticaljustificationofbeinginzen
Submitted by Kevin © on Sat, 09/26/2009 - 4:47pm.Led Zeppelin Rock n Roll 1973
Polar Bear - I come in peace....Unbelievable redux 8-)
Submitted by Kevin © on Fri, 09/25/2009 - 12:16am. Polar Bear: I come in peace....Unbelievable
Polar Bear: I come in Peace
Norbert Rosing's striking images of a wild polar bear coming upon
tethered sled dogs in the wilds of Canada's "Hudson Bay"
The photographer was sure that he was going to see the end of his dogs when polar bear wandered in.
It's hard to believe that this polar bear only needed to hug someone!
The Polar Bear
returned every night that week to play with the dogs.
May you
always have love to share,
Health to spare,
And friends that care
