35 Comments

• 1. OhioOrrin  |  May 6th, 2008 at 8:10 am

  go hill go

• 2. Danish Artist  |  May 6th, 2008 at 9:11 am

  Obama is campaigning that he will bring lower medical costs……or will he?

  Obama’s Health Care Record

  Laughing gas can be useful during complicated dental procedures, but should every health plan be required to cover it and should health insurance cost more because of it?

  Barack Obama thinks so. As a state senator in Illinois, he voted to require that dental anesthesia be covered by every health plan for difficult medical cases. Today, the requirement is one of 43 mandates imposed by Illinois on health insurance, according to the Illinois Division of Insurance. Other mandates require coverage of infertility treatments, drug rehab, “personal injuries” incurred while intoxicated, and other forms of care.

  By my count, during Mr. Obama’s tenure in the state Senate, 18 different laws came up for a vote and passed that imposed new mandates on private health insurance. Mr. Obama voted for all of them.

  As a presidential candidate, Mr. Obama says people lack health insurance because “they can’t afford it.” He’s right. But he is also partly responsible for why health insurance is too expensive. A long list of studies show that mandates like the ones Mr. Obama has championed drive up the cost of insurance for the very people priced out of coverage.

  A 2008 study by an insurance-industry supported research organization, the Council for Affordable Health Insurance (CAHI), estimates that mandates increase the cost of basic health coverage by 20% to 50%, depending on the state. Average policies in high-mandate New Jersey cost about $4,000 according to a 2004 insurance survey, much more than the $1,200 charged in low-mandate Wyoming.

  CAHI estimates that there are 1,961 state-mandated benefits across the country. It’s not just specific products and services that get mandated, but also whole categories of providers like chiropractors and psychologists. By one count, states have enacted about 500 laws mandating coverage for 25 different types of providers.

  States also mandate new categories of eligibility that force small businesses to cover additional dependents. One popular measure is the “slacker mandate,” which extends coverage to unmarried dependents under the age of 30.

  Not all mandates are equally expensive. Drug rehab, for example, increases a plan’s premiums by 9% on average, according to America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). Coverage for psychologists adds 12% to premiums. But in total, in some states mandates increase the cost of insurance from 10% to 20%, according to AHIP.

  These increased costs aren’t shared equally among all who have health insurance. People who are covered through self-insured employers (usually large corporations) are shielded from state mandates because of the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which prevents states from enacting controls on plans that cross state lines.

  The burden of paying for state mandates is usually borne by individuals who buy their own insurance, small employers and others not covered by ERISA. In total, about half of the people who have insurance bear the brunt of the cost of state mandates. And, as it turns out, individuals who do not work for large corporations are much more likely to be uninsured. AHIP calculates that between 20%-25% of uninsured Americans can’t afford coverage because of the increased cost of providing mandated care.

  It doesn’t have to be that way. If insurers were allowed to offer “bare-bones” plans – which would be cheaper because they would cover just essential care – many consumers who are priced out of health insurance now would likely buy these plans instead of living without insurance.

  State mandates even hurt those who have insurance because they prompt insurers to cut back on coverage for catastrophic illnesses. This undermines the purpose of insurance by turning policies into prepaid health care rather than security from the economic consequences of serious medical problems. And because many mandates define the duration and scope of specific benefits, they lock in treatment standards that grow outdated as knowledge advances. That can diminish incentives to find more effective ways of delivering medical care.

  Why, then, do we have mandates?

  For the simple reason that each mandate has a powerful constituency – be it chiropractors, dentists or other groups – who benefit when their services are included on the list of mandated care. These groups pressure lawmakers to expand the list of mandates and, over time, the list grows to be very long and expensive. Often the care that is being mandated is for minor medical problems because small, routine ailments are suffered by more people and therefore have broader political constituencies.

  One way to make insurance more affordable is to extend the benefits of the ERISA exemption to people who buy insurance on their own, putting them on a level playing field with those who get coverage through large employers by freeing them from expensive state insurance laws.

  Most insurance plans would still cover important health-care items such as prenatal HIV testing or routine colon cancer screening or bone density tests – three additional mandates Mr. Obama helped enact in Illinois. But without government mandates, plans would also have the flexibility to offer lower-priced insurance options.

  Better still, Congress could pass legislation that has long languished in the House allowing people to purchase health plans across state lines. People could choose which state regulations to buy into, creating a market for the insurance mandates. This would give states more incentives to fix local problems that have helped make health insurance expensive in the first place. It’s a fair bet that there would be an exodus of policyholders from higher-cost, higher-mandate states like New Jersey and even Illinois (which has more expensive mandates than about half of the other states).

  Mr. Obama says people need more options to purchase insurance outside the workplace. He also says he can draw on his experience as a state legislator to lead a reform of the kinds of special interests that pursue these mandated benefits. Right now Mr. Obama’s health-care proposal, like Hillary Clinton’s plan, does the opposite by adding federal regulations on top of state laws.

  “My plan emphasizes lowering costs,” Mr. Obama says. If that is really what he wants to do, he can start by freeing consumers from forced subsidization of the pricey state mandates. Given a choice between the lower costs he promises and subsidized dental anesthesia he has delivered, some would opt for the affordable health insurance and make do with some extra Novocain.

  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120995014765166523.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

  Liberals are once again a cause to a problem.

• 3. Danish Artist  |  May 6th, 2008 at 9:17 am

  Man made global warming a continued hoax!

  Their models have not predicted the present climate we are experiencing. They are also leaving out vital information, such as the supposed ice cover of only 3 million sq km, which is endangering polar bears, etc. etc. But what they do not tell you now, is that it has recovered to 14 million sq km. Whoops!

  They are now scrambling in full damage control mode!

  But read about it for yourself.

  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/05/04/do0405.xml

• 4. Gabrielle Deroscheres  |  May 6th, 2008 at 11:06 am

  As I pointed out to neocon in another thread you cannot snapshot the US economy for political reasons because that sort of reasoning always comes back to haunt you. The DJIA is now below 13 000, the dolllar is slipping toward 72 on the DOXY and financials are laying off people on Wall Street by the thousands.

  Now does this mean to the right wing that the economy is tanking then since the opposite for two days meant strength? You partisan guys should stick to what you know like break ins and plugging “leaks.”

• 5. bagni  |  May 6th, 2008 at 11:38 am

  marklongday:
  the planetary pollsters?
  doesn’t matter who gets elected
  $200 a barrel?
  will make for a one term presidency
  whether mccain, obama or hillary

• 6. OhioOrrin  |  May 6th, 2008 at 11:57 am

  interesting article in BusinessWeek that ever higher gas prices will mean (cue the drums)….

  the DEATH OF THE BURBS !

  yeaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!! good riddance racist fat slob parasites.

  read the comments.

  http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_18/b4082056979063.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_dialogue+with+readers

• 7. Capitalist Infidel  |  May 6th, 2008 at 12:18 pm

  Well, I just did my part here in North Carolina for Operation Chaos. Even though I had to hold my nose, had my hand seize up, and began sweating profusely I voted for the Hildabeast.

• 8. Sunny  |  May 6th, 2008 at 12:31 pm

  Wow, what a man you are Capitalist Infidel!

• 9. OhioOrrin  |  May 6th, 2008 at 12:42 pm

  good job capitalist - I did the same here in ohio.

• 10. Some Assembly Required  |  May 6th, 2008 at 12:50 pm

  Party before Country, I’m impressed by your patriotism.

• 11. Danish Artist  |  May 6th, 2008 at 1:34 pm

  “Party before Country”

  SAR just ACCURATELY described the entire Democrat party.

  Well done!

• 12. Just Another Taxpayer  |  May 6th, 2008 at 1:38 pm

  To the editors,

  Hope everyone is ok. Got 4 kids, and enough relatives close enough to keep things interesting.
  Family crises, been there, done that.

• 13. Gabrielle Deroscheres  |  May 6th, 2008 at 1:40 pm

  This from my good friend Diane T. for Danish Artist

  “Nope SAR described the GOP for sure because there is a clear disease that allows conservatives to be easily indoctrinated into thinking the beliefs of their elite are even attainable by someone living in a trailer in the South. At least a poor white person in the South gets heard on helath care aby the so called limousine liberals. What exactly is the Right Wing going to offer? Join the Army and see Iraq? Go to church more and name it and claim it? Have more kids even though you can’t afford to feed them because we need your votes and the country is getting darker.

  Come one Danish Artist can you go toe to toe with someone who’ll show you that America will prosper under Liberal guidance and wither and die under the Lie of Conservatism?”

  Ouch!

• 14. Gabrielle Deroscheres  |  May 6th, 2008 at 1:41 pm

  Diane also passes on to Mark,

  “I hope everything gets better soon with the family.”

• 15. OhioOrrin  |  May 6th, 2008 at 1:51 pm

  gabrielle (a fav name of mine) - in following the thread back from ur post…all GOP vote 4 hill !

  it totally contributed to her wins in TX, OH, PA.

  and get this SAR - the Dem Gov of PA publicly (or is it pubicly?) asked the GOP 2 vote 4 hill !

• 16. Zach  |  May 6th, 2008 at 2:10 pm

  I’ll be doing my part here in Indiana; trying to help eliminate the bigger liberal of the two…

• 17. OhioOrrin  |  May 6th, 2008 at 2:13 pm

  Indiana chaos update -

  “The two precincts at Broad Ripple Family Center selected Republican Jon Elrod over Democrat Andre Carson in March’s special election for U.S. Congress. But by 9 a.m., just 21 voters in one of those precincts had requested Republican ballots — out of 168 cast.

  Amid heavy turnout, Republicans appeared to be crossing over in droves today in Marion County and suburban counties, where fewer Republican voters might impact down-ticket primary races.”

  http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/NEWS0502/805060396

• 18. Capitalist Infidel  |  May 6th, 2008 at 2:46 pm

  I bet SAR had nothing to say when the democrats did the exact same thing in New Hampshire and Michigan. The intellectual dishonesty on the left is truly stunning!

• 19. Some Assembly Required  |  May 6th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

  11. Danish Artist | May 6th, 2008 at 1:34 pm

  You sir/ma’m are party blind. I’m also willing to bet you would argue that liberals want to control aspects of your personal life by telling you what to do, but conservatives will not. Regardless, what I said still stands. Voting for someone you do not like in an attempt to help your party win an election is placing your party before the country. Hate to break it to you my friend.

  18. Capitalist Infidel | May 6th, 2008 at 2:46 pm

  There you go again assuming I’m a lefty. The truth of the matter is I’m Liberal on some issues, conservative on others. I’m completely open to alternative things and hold more stock in what a solutions can be offered as opposed to which side offers them.

  I was just as disquested with what the dems did in New Hampshire and Michigan. I opposed it then and I oppose it now. I don’t expect you to understand this however. What I’ve noticed is you wingnuts don’t seem to mind if your party does something controversial, but will be the first to jump on ‘lefties’ if theres does.

• 20. Capitalist Infidel  |  May 6th, 2008 at 3:17 pm

  Please refer to your previous comments condemning the New Hampshire and Michigan primaries. If you can’t I’ll just figure you’re nothing more than a lying far left wing fanatical nut job

• 21. Danish Artist  |  May 6th, 2008 at 5:05 pm

  “Come one Danish Artist can you go toe to toe with someone who’ll show you that America will prosper under Liberal guidance and wither and die under the Lie of Conservatism?””

  Still waiting for a worthy opponent. Liberalism has been proven a massive failure - creating a dependent society that can’t think or act for itself.

  Liberal guidance? HA! This liberal controlled Congress and the last president shows that there are no leaders in the Liberal party. The party that follows mob rule rather than take a leadership position.

  Gabby and Diane are cut from the same cloth, (a ragged moth eaten one at that). They are both members of the Daily Pitch Fork a website that is equally to the Flat Earthers and those that believe earth is still the center of the universe.

• 22. FmrMarine  |  May 6th, 2008 at 8:18 pm

  hells kitchen-porno site gabrielle;
  >>>even attainable by someone living in a trailer in the South. At least a poor white person in the South gets heard on helath care aby the so called limousine liberals. What exactly is the Right Wing going to offer? Join the Army and see Iraq?<<<

  NO!
  The pubbies offer LESS GOVT.
  MORE personal freedom-responsibility.
  NOT the WORLD WIDE - FAILED socialist big brother form of govt you marxists so desire.
  Why do you think health care cost so much?
  Trial lawyers lobbying govt. for “tougher laws”
  ya de ya.
  Every time govt gets involved the higher the cost, and the less service you get.

  As for Iraq, you can bet your A$$ your homosexual, porno website would be shut down and all of you beheaded under islam.
  Make no mistake about we choose our battles and we have taken it to our self proclaimed enemy….which will prove to have been a masterful course of action.

• 23. Danish Artist  |  May 6th, 2008 at 9:33 pm

  Liberal Guidance……

  1) Haven’t built a refinery in 30 years…….higher gasoline prices.
  2) Can’t drill for oil domestically……higher oil prices.
  3) Gov’t mandates of special fuel blends with limited refining capacity……extremely higher gas prices.
  4) Wind farm restrictions……higher energy prices, increase dependence on coal and gas fired electrical generation and brownouts during high demand.
  5) Arbitrary CAFE standards, force automaker to make cars lighter to comply….increased accident fatalities.
  6) Gov’t mandated airbags when technology still too new…..increased deaths of small adults and teens to impact caused by airbags.
  7) No nuclear power generation, despite navy use and high use in Europe that proves it can work…..increased energy costs and brown outs.
  8) welfare state that breaks up families in order to receive benefits, creates a dependent class with no programs to get them off of welfare.
  9) caving to special interests, namely trial lawyers, cause of higher medical and insurance costs due to frivolous lawsuits, frivolous and extreme lawsuits, class action suits in order to “MAKE THEM PAY” but the only winners are the lawyers - victims receive a pittance compared to the extreme high profits made by their misfortune.
  10) resistance to any type of reform where gov’t waste has been proven just increase budgets…..tax increases.
  11) PORK!
  12) the lists go on and on, but I grow bored with liberal guidance……..

  I can see why you pitchfork whackos are proud of your liberal guidance.

• 24. Lord Just Mandier  |  May 6th, 2008 at 10:51 pm

  23. Danish Artist | May 6th, 2008 at 9:33 pm

  1) You had the Congress and the presidency for six years with a working majority. How many refineries did you build between 2001 and 2007?

  2) Show me where drilling for more petroleum would offset the globally traded cost? After you drill in ANWR and offshore and the price still goes up because demand will follow supply then what will be your excuse for ignorance in these matters?

  3) Fine take the catalytic converters off go back to leaded gas and no complaints about asthma in little children. Burn it up it’s all the same to me.

  4) Sounds like an infrastructure issue to me. Take it up McCain after his first term. He needs to invade Iran first you know.

  5) Actually based on National Highway Transportation Safety Administration 2006 data fatal accidents are down both in number, number of fatalities and fatalities per 100 MM miles driven.

  6) According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety,”Since 1990, deaths attributable to airbag inflation in low-speed crashes numbered more than 270 according to NHTSA. Approximately 67 percent of motorists killed by airbags have been passengers, and more than 90 percent of the passenger airbag fatalities have been children and infants, most of whom were unbelted or in rear-facing restraints that placed their heads close to the deploying airbag. Among the adult driver and passenger deaths, about three-quarters were women. More than 80 percent of those killed were unbelted or improperly restrained, and nearly 90 percent of deaths occurred in vehicles manufactured before 1998.”

  7) There are several dozen nuclear power plants operating efficiently in the US including twp within an hours driving distance of our Embassy residence in Hampton Roads called Surrey Units 1 & 2.

  8—President Clinton ended AFDC what the right wing has always called “welfare” in 1996. The Bill was written by Republicans as a part of the Contract with America.

  9) Caving to religious interests like Dr James Dobson, Ted Haggard, Jerry Falwell, John Hagee and Rod Parsley? The trial lawyers are the only group keeping America from sinking into Dominionist Theocracy. Do you have something inherently against free market capitalism?

  10) You mean like the constantly increasing costs of the Iraq War?

  11) Like the Bridge to Nowhere that Stevens inserted instead of working to build refineries or push for more drilling in Alaska in say ANWR?

  And everyday your dollar buys less and less. I hope this summer you can make soup out of all that hubris young man.

• 25. Pain  |  May 6th, 2008 at 10:55 pm

  22. FmrMarine | May 6th, 2008 at 8:18 pm

  While you were wasting your time trying to keep people who love each other from marrying and saying it was a great threat to America, Muslims with resolve so great they would commit the heinous sin of suicide flew planes into your tallest buildings murdering thousands and leaving you gasping in horror.

  Now correct Us please who is the Fool here?

• 26. Danish Artist  |  May 7th, 2008 at 7:05 am

  Lord Just Asdense….

  Uh, a little extreme and ignorant in your response. Your “reasoning” is so off the wall it defies even the least logical argument. Did it hurt to reach that far? Also, some of your responses reenforced my points!

  Liberal guidance is a joke and some of your responses show the faults of some “Republicans” that acted like liberals.

  Funny, you mention Bill Clinton’s “endind AFDC”. He did not end it. It is still in existence, but with time limits. Liberal guidance had nothing to do with it. Clinton only passed it because it was his only ticket to reelection. He acted conservative because his liberal guidance was getting him nowhere.

  Your fantasy does not meet reality. Liberal guidance has gotten us nowhere and until you can actually use logic in your arguments don’t bother posting here you’re like a one-legged man at an ass kicking contest.

• 27. Danish Fartist  |  May 7th, 2008 at 10:57 am

  Your “reasoning” is so off the wall it defies even the least logical argument.

  And what reasoning was included in your list artist? Hate to break it to you, but ……. doesn’t count as reasoning. You didn’t even try to show the logic behind any of your points, merely trying to correlate two events. I would like to assume you know the difference between correlation and causation, but maybe you could explain it to make me feel better.

• 28. Danish Artist  |  May 7th, 2008 at 2:29 pm

  Lord Dumbass,

  Logic in my points?

  My points are facts of history. You use extreme circumstances in your so called “points”. For example, who said to remove catalytic converters? No one but your sorry ass.

  You use unrealistic situations to make your points. Your “well republicans controlled the White House, Senate and House…..” talking point is getting old and pathetic. In the House and Senate there were simple majorities and in both cases they were not resistant to veto or filibuster. Unrealistic.

  Go back to you useless daily pitchfork website, Lord Dumbass, and celebrate in your twisted fantasies while we deal with reality.

  Liberal Guidance - if stupidiy were people, Liberal Guidance would be China.

• 29. InDaVa  |  May 7th, 2008 at 3:34 pm

  “1) You had the Congress and the presidency for six years with a working majority. How many refineries did you build between 2001 and 2007?”

• 30. Danish Artist  |  May 7th, 2008 at 7:27 pm

  InDaVA,

  that talking point has already been covered. It a weak one at best.

  Try to keep up.

• 31. Insideout  |  May 7th, 2008 at 9:13 pm

  What ever the RNC is doing keep it up, the Democratic Party applauds their efforts.

  Republicans Lose in Louisiana Stronghold
  By SUSAN DAVIS
  May 5, 2008;

  Republicans lost a long-held House seat Saturday after trying to bring down the Democratic candidate by aligning him with Barack Obama.

  Don Cazayoux defeated Woody Jenkins to represent Louisiana’s Sixth District, a seat held by Republicans for decades, boosting Democrats’ optimism heading in to the fall elections.

• 32. Danish Artist  |  May 8th, 2008 at 9:56 am

  insideout,

  Don’t party too soon. That district was held by Democrats for 100 years before 1975.

  Plus, Woody Jenkins is hardly a worthy opponent. That district has received many people who have relocated from New Orleans after Katrina. Most of those individuals are die hard Democrats.

  So the “traditional Republican” district is not the same as it used to be.

  Desperate for victory, aren’t you? Liberal fantasy vs. Reality.

• 33. Health Insurance Florida &hellip  |  June 6th, 2008 at 10:08 am

  Health Insurance Florida Individual Health Insurance Patient Safety

  I didn’t agree with you first, but last paragraph makes sense for me

• 34. Infertility Procedures&hellip  |  June 6th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

  Infertility Procedures

  Thanks for creating this blog. I thought it was a very interesting read. It is so interesting reading other peoples personal take on a subject.

• 35. porno scope&hellip  |  June 18th, 2008 at 7:07 pm

  porno scope

  Both problems are mild and fleeting. Endoscopy can also refer to using a borescope in technical situations where direct line-of-sight