Saturday, December 7, 2013

Instead of Chargemaster Casino, How About Reference-Based Pricing?

Read this DailyBlague quote

http://www.dailyblague.com/blog/?p=10375

from this New Yorker article about California Reference-Based Pricing of hospital bills:

Controlling Healthcare Costs

instead of what we have now, Hospital Chargemaster Roulette, described in"Bitter Pill" Time Magazine article cited in Reader Supported News:

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/272-39/16241-time-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us

Couldn't resist this satiric New Yorker piece by Andy Borowitz that popped up during the search:

CRUZ: “THE DREAM OF KEEPING POOR PEOPLE FROM SEEING A DOCTOR MUST NEVER DIE”

Get the Facts About The Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare)

at this site:

http://obamacarefacts.com/

and this one:

http://www.factcheck.org/

and read this eye-opening article about the so-called safety net without insurance:

http://www.texasobserver.org/a-galveston-med-student-describes-life-and-death-in-the-safety-net/

Do we really want 7 million Americans -- the working poor -- to go without health insurance because governors in half the states won't accept the federally funded Medicaid expansion that is part of ObamaCare?

http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacares-medicaid-expansion.php

Health care discrimination is the cruelest form of bigotry.  In Texas it's known as The Other Death Penalty.



Saturday, November 30, 2013

Stumbled Onto This Quote

As millions of Americans at last see a path to affordable, lifesaving health care, despite imperfect bodies labelled as preexisting conditions or damaged goods like some dented car eyesore in a parking lot full of shiny new automobiles -- and the right wing busies itself penning vitriolic comments below any blog post or video that tries to light a candle to sharing or caring, I stumbled onto this quote:

"I believe in the writer as a witness to evil, as a reporter of injustice, as a chronicler of human compassion, even on occasion of greatness, as one whose skills illuminate the Truth with a capital T, without irony. I believe it is the job of the writer to put into words what is worst - and also what is best - about us. To light up our possibilities, discover the finest lives to which we can aspire, and to inspire our readers to greatness of soul and heart."

by this man who wrote this song

Under the Hatteras Light



and this essay

Under The Hatteras Light

and this book among others:

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Book-That-Makes-Difference/dp/1884910440



And it cast a ray of hope. Thank you Philip Gerard.