Health Care

Lockdown Thoughts

Mark Noonan40 Comments

Allergy season is in full swing in Las Vegas – and its a bad one; things are coated in pollen. This means I’ve got a headache, runny nose and a cough…so, every five minutes or so I’m worrying “am I sure this is allergies?”. Tiresome, to say the least.

But, I did check CDC for symptoms of Coronavirus – and if you haven’t, the primary symptoms are fever, coughing and shortness of breath. If you get real bad shortness of breath, confused or turn a bit blue, that’s when its time to go to a doctor. The word is that the oldsters are in the highest risk – especially over 65. I’m under 65 – and in pretty good health overall.

How are the lockdowns going with you? I’ll be heading to work from home as soon as I get this odd device which allows me to prove remotely that I work for my company…it was shipped out a while back ago, but it hasn’t arrived. I’ve noticed the mail isn’t exactly a thick packet any longer, either. I suspect that transport capacity has been commandeered for medical and food deliveries. Be that as it may, I’ll eventually be work from home and for a good while, too. And there’s nothing to do in Vegas as everything other than necessities are closed. So, we cleared a much larger vegetable garden this year than usual.

I still view this is an overreaction. But, that’s a horse well outside the barn: the reaction is what it is and it will have its effect. The primary effect, outside the virus, is the crushing of the economy. I expect 20% unemployment in a month or two. But I also expect us to roar back once this thing clears. The direct payments of money to people will be a great psychological help…and it will result in a fairly large pool of unused money once we’re allowed to go outside again. In the end, this pricking of the Dow price may be a blessing in disguise…everyone was wondering how long the market could keep surging like that. Well, that’s one less worry…it’ll probably drop a bit more before its over but when its time to go back to work, it’ll have no place to go but up. Do not look at your portfolio…and I’m thinking if you haven’t sold by now, don’t sell at all…wait for the rebound.

The stimulus is gigantic and will be larded up with pork – but it can’t be overestimated how good people will feel that in this time of crisis they’ve got the money for the necessities. This will have a political effect. Also having a political effect is how tin-eared the Democrats are on all this. They are still stuck on Orange Man Bad when Trump is out there leading doggedly in a time of national crisis. They could jump on board and prove to people that they are about something other than hating Trump…but they can’t manage that trick. I’ve heard unprompted praise of Trump from people you wouldn’t remotely think as prospective Trump voters…they are pleased he’s hammering the fear-mongering press and are waiting for their stimulus checks.

China is a lousy nation we should have nothing to do with – their lies (and the lies continue, I bet: I ain’t buying their story they’ve had no new cases) are what allowed a completely manageable problem to become a global crisis. And those EU-weenies begging for Chi-Com help are just morons, plain and simple. The Chinese can’t help – like all tyrannies, they only look splendid on the surface. Underneath it is a nation where most still live in grinding poverty and prisoners fill the camps. They’ve got a couple showplace cities to wow the rubes of the West while the rest of the country is garbage…and that is why this virus came from there: because they don’t know how to actually deal with something as simple as a flu.

The good news here is that, at last, people are coming around to the view I’ve been harping on for more than a decade: we have to make, mine and grow our own stuff. Having our supply chain outside our control is national suicide. Bring our factories back home…at least to the Americas, where we can keep an eye on them.

Hope you all are healthy and getting through this ok!

How You Taking the Zombie Apocalypse?

Mark Noonan4 Comments

MGM and Wynn shut down in Vegas – as it turns out, I work with a lady who has family working at MGM and the rumor was that only 8% of the rooms were booked for next week…so, closing down would make sense.

I’m guessing that after all is said and done, we’ll pretty much be on a national lockdown in a few days, even if it isn’t official. People are scared – heck, even I get a little flutter in the tummy; but I’m mostly worried about people doing stupid things resulting in injury and death.

As for the Coronavirus, itself: still no real clarity on it. Likely because the MSM isn’t being helpful here. If we could really nail down the mortality rate and the most at-risk populations, that would be tremendously helpful…but without such data, fears are able to run free. And running free, they are.

I think that Trump is doing all that can be done but, as we Conservatives know, there’s only so much the government can do. Liberals are going bonkers over it – and I mean seriously nuts: I’ve seen comments where they say that Trump is deliberately letting the disease spread so he can be dictator. I guess that is what comes from TDS…and it is being fueled by malignant actors out there. Seen more than one social media post where someone, who seems on the up and up, is spreading the most alarming news…only to be proven false when checked out. Meanwhile, though, tens of thousands of people repeat the falsehoods on social media and very few, I bet, ever check to see if the story was true, or not. This is the new normal: social media can be a tremendously useful and fun thing, but it is also ready-made for exploitation by con artists…and some of the con artists have networks news gigs.

Keep safe; get yourself two-three weeks worth of supplies laid in and pray for a swift end to this disease.

Trump to Talk

Mark Noonan38 Comments

9 pm, Eastern, and all about Coronavirus, I gather.

We have a confirmed case here in Vegas of a lady who attended a conference…so, we’ve likely got a good dose of it here in town. OTOH, we locals rarely go to the Strip, so maybe it’ll just stay there.

The Official Word of the Super Smart Experts is that Trump is doomed in November…some of them are even asserting a landslide win for Biden. The key seems to be the belief that suburban moderates are going to flock to Biden out of disgust for Trump. Yes, that is exactly what they said about Hillary in 2020…but this time, they assure us, it’ll be true because everyone loves Biden. Which is what they also said about Hillary…

My view: Biden has a 1% chance of winning – only if 10,000 die from Coronavirus or unemployment is skyrocketing over the Summer does Biden get a real chance at it…and, even then, he’s Biden: a senile, old bully who lies all the time and can’t remember where he is. Nothing will make Trump’s defeat certain – he might lose, but only if the Democrats put up a first-rate campaign talking about issues the American people care about.

Hint: the American people don’t care about the Green New Deal; fracking bans; banning AR-15’s; having Drag Queen Story Time; health care for illegals; fighting Russia; kowtowing to China; re-imposing the Paris Climate Deal; re-imposing the Iran Deal…

Bernie is staying in, at least for now – he should: Biden could implode next week.

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Coronavirus?

Mark Noonan21 Comments

Not me. Several reasons.

1. It’s a flu. I know, I know – people say it isn’t like other flu viruses…but, it’s a flu. We don’t even really know how deadly it is – 0.5% to 2%…which means, no one has a clue. It seems slightly more deadly than regular flu, but the deaths seem to be heavily concentrated in people with underlying health problems. The bottom line is that if you’re healthy, you’ll probably get through it after a miserable couple weeks. Any one of us is highly unlikely to die.

2. We have much better sanitary conditions and health care than China – or, it would seem, Italy or Iran. We’re not as densely packed into cities; our pollution levels are much lower; the free market provides vast amounts of medical services at short notice.

3. The MSM is lying. A lot. They are hyping this up as the End of Days in order to harm Trump. Have you heard that the disease has already peaked and started to recede in China? Of course not – that wouldn’t fit the Narrative. Whatever they’re telling you is designed to scare you.

4. President Trump is a great President – he’s doing a good job; I’m confident he’ll be up to meeting whatever this throws at him.

It must be kept in mind that everything you’re going to see from now until Election Day in the MSM is designed to harm Trump and/or help the Democrats. Trust nothing of what they say. Look around. Seek alternate sources. Use your own common sense.

In the other bad news: stock market flop. Partially Coronavirus, partially oil price war – not sure if the Saudis are trying to blow up our oil industry or kill Iran…could be a little of both. But the underlying economy is strong and the Saudis can’t long sustain low oil prices…equilibrium will eventually prevail…but we might get a shot at really cheap gas over the Summer, and that will help the economy as much as the oil disruption harms.

Another Blow to the ACA

Cluster12 Comments

A federal appeals court delivered another body blow to the ACA today declaring that the subsidies handed out on the federal exchanges violate Section 36B of the ACA which explicitly states that subsidies are available only through the State run exchanges. You would think that this would give Democrats reason to pause, and reflect on how the bill was written and hastily passed on purely partisan votes, but true to form the message from the White House is:

“it was obvious” that Congress intended subsidies, or tax credits, to be issued to Obamacare enrollees regardless of what kind of exchange they used to buy insurance.

“Obvious” means nothing in legislation and “law professors” should know better. To date there have been 41 unilateral changes to the poorly written, poorly implemented ACA that has resulted in my personal premium increasing by 70%+, and the cancellation of millions of other policies despite the “promises” by the POTUS. You would think that the way the bill was crafted, the rise in premiums and the cancellation of policies would have been “obvious” as well, but somehow that observation escaped them.

Now of course the Democrats will appeal this ruling and hope that the next court will rule on the wishes of the party rather than the rule of law. If that does happen, then this country will slip yet another notch into the “banana republic” territory, and give more emphasis to the Congressional lawsuit against the POTUS. The language in the law is very explicit in where and when subsidies can be administered, so if the Democrats are concerned with the rule of law, something of which they like to lead people into believing, then a rewrite of the legislation would be required. However considering that the favorability of the law that was sold on lies is very poor, passage of a rewritten version is not very likely, hence the Democrats need to continue to push this through the courts until they find one that is favorable to their “intentions”.

As it stands now, this ruling and the many other unilateral delays and exemptions have done much more to gut this bill and portend it’s failure than anything the Republicans have done.

 

Finished? I Don’t Think So.

Leo Pusateri5 Comments

As Rush Limbaugh asserted on his radio show Wednesday, the Obama presidency is far from over.

The events to which we are witness presently– world unrest, trampling on personal property rights and State sovereignty, assault on affordable energy–continuous assaults on our ability to grow our economy– is all part of Obama’s original campaign promise to “..fundamentally transform the United States of America.”

I know I’ve said this before, but it’s an important phrase to ponder. “FUNDAMENTALLY” TRANSFORM THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.” Think about that. Let that short, simple, yet all-encompassing phrase sink in. First focus on the word “TRANSFORM” and then the root word of “FUNDAMENTALLY.”

To “transform” something, by definition, is to make something evolve into something radically different from what it has traditionally been. “Fundamental” by definition is a defining, basic characteristic. A building block–something foundational to its being.

Now, to “FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORM” means to radically transform the United States from what it has traditionally been– the “shining city on a hill”- the land of opportunity–based on the premise of individual liberty and the affordance of self-determination–yes–to transform that– into something *fundamentally different* and thus diametrically opposed to that foundation.

The Third World Despots, the Kruschevs, the Fidel Castros, the Kim Jong Ils and Uns of the world, have given hours-long speeches about their hopes for the destruction of the Free World, but never have they been able to put it so succinctly and eloquently as has Obama in that one simple, yet profound phrase. “..We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”

Many people chalked that phrase to meaningless boilerplate rhetoric, as so much rhetorical fluff. But of all the promises Obama made that were broken, whether it was closing Guantanamo Bay, allowing people to ‘keep their doctors or their health plans–period,” or to decrease health insurance costs by $2500 per year, this– this seminal promise–(along with bankrupting the coal industry)–was the one he meant from the bottom of his joyless, cavernous heart.

No people. The Presidency of Barack Hussein Obama is not ended. He still has a lot of ‘fundamental transformations’ to perform.

Barack Obama’s “scorched earth” policy against America and its people has only just begun.

The Joys Of Obamacare

Cluster7 Comments

I just received the fabulous news that my premium has gone up another 31% on top of the 22% increase last year. When I called my provider, to inquire about the increase, I was told that due to mandates of the ACA this increase was necessary, and that I may actually lose my plan at the end of this year because my plan is not 100% ACA compliant. That is of course provided the President doesn’t change his mind again and make more unilateral changes as he is known to do.

Many of you may remember our President’s 2008 campaign promise:

“I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family’s premium by up to $2,500 a year.”

Well I can tell you from a personal experience, I am paying now more than $3,000 per year for my healthcare insurance. Not surprising, a recent poll indicated that:

Almost 9 in 10 respondents said Obamacare would be “important” in determining their vote, and 60 percent said debate on the health care law should not be over.

We need to get rid of this law, we need to get rid of this President, we need to electorally wipe out progressives, and we need bring back that “shining city on the hill”! So I don’t know, or care who the GOP candidate is in your district – vote for him or her, because any Democrat in any district in any state, only becomes a tool for the progressive agenda. It’s that simple.

I will also make one more obvious observation – the VA IS single payer Government Healthcare, so the problems we are seeing with that, is what we all have in store if we don’t shed ourselves of this cancer. No pun intended – well ok pun intended.

 

That Second Hand Smoke Thing? Yeah, it Was BS

Mark Noonan19 Comments

From Reason:

Several years ago I was talking to an epidemiologist who is skeptical of the idea that smokers pose a mortal threat to people in their vicinity. Although he supported workplace smoking bans, he was frustrated by the willingness of so many anti-tobacco activists and public health officials to overlook or minimize the weakness of the scientific case that secondhand smoke causes fatal illnesses such as lung cancer and heart disease. He wondered when it would be possible to have a calm, rational discussion of the issue, one in which skeptics would not be automatically dismissed as tools of the tobacco industry. I suggested that such a conversation might take place once smoking bans became ubiquitous, at which point the political stakes would be lower. Judging from a recent article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, headlined “No Clear Link Between Passive Smoking and Lung Cancer,” that conversation may have begun.

The article describes a large prospective study that “confirmed a strong association between cigarette smoking and lung cancer but found no link between the disease and secondhand smoke.” The study tracked more than 76,000 women, 901 of whom eventually developed lung cancer. Although “the incidence of lung cancer was 13 times higher in current smokers and four times higher in former smokers than in never-smokers,” says the JNCI article, there was no statistically significant association between reported exposure to secondhand smoke and subsequent development of lung cancer…

This is what I knew from the get-go: it was always nonsense to think that second hand smoke was a huge killer – or even a risk, at all.  Certainly no more of a risk than going outside on a smoggy day in Los Angeles and just breathing.  The amount of tobacco smoke a person would inhale via second hand smoke – even if they lived with a smoker – would be so tiny as to be inconsequential as a health risk. Remember, even for very heavy smokers, not all of them get lung cancer – smoking increases the risk of cancer, but it isn’t a 1 for 1 thing.  If you smoke, it doesn’t mean that smoking will kill you.

Hopefully this will open up a debate – and get us away from the idiot idea that smoking is some sort of massively hideous thing which needs to be banned.  Smoking is just a thing you can do – like eating cheeseburgers or having a coke.  Not the healthiest choice.  Not something any doctor would recommend, but it is something to do – for pleasure.  You know, to enjoy life.  Probably be better if all of us smokers ditched the cigarettes and switched over to pipes as we’d probably end up smoking far less (and mostly smoking much higher quality tobacco), but its still just one of the pleasures of life that someone may engage in.  And like all things in life, there is a risk involved.  Of course, the rule is, “eat right, exercise, die anyway”.  Main thing to remember about life is that no one gets out of it alive.  At some point certain, in a more or less painful manner, we will all exit this world.  And if before I go I can have a smoke, that’ll make it more pleasant than going, as I must, without a smoke.

Obama’s Obamacare Mandate Delay

Matt Margolis18 Comments

So, let’s momentarily forget the fact Obama’s “fix” for Obamacare is essentially exempting folks from it for a year, I’d like to point out a tweet from Senator Harry Reid:

According to Harry Reid, this move by Obama (the legality of which is questionable) is “working to fix and improve” Obamacare.

Really? Last month, when Republicans offered the exact same proposal as a compromise to end the shutdown, Obama and Reid refused, and chose not to negotiate.

Change in Our Health Plans… We Won’t Forget

Matt Margolis9 Comments

“If you like your plan, you can keep it,” Obama said, oh, so many times. You know, it never ceases to amaze me how someone so deceitful can get away with it so many time, and yet so many (including, I’m sure, the liberals who read this blog) just make excuses for him, as if turning a blind eye makes it any better.

So, there have been a few numbers thrown out there regarding how many people are not going to be able to keep the insurance plans they liked. One analysis (via the liberal news outlet McClatchy) suggests the number is as high as 52 million.

It seems like this is the moment where the liberal media is less able to spin the truth. Because, let’s face it, no matter what the spin, if you lose your insurance because of Obamacare, that’s a very real way Obama has not only lied to you, but also negatively impacted your life in a direct, measurable way.

A few weeks ago, my health insurance provider released their Obamacare-approved plans—Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum—and the cheapest one they have is not only $2000+/year more than my current plan, but the coverage is worse. An even higher deductible and higher out-of-pocket maximum. So, it’s not even like I lost my current plan and got something better. I lost my current plan and got royally screwed.

There are many others who are having similar experiences. So, it’s hardly a shock that Obama’s approval ratings are sliding. The reality of Obamacare just isn’t the same bundle of wonderful that was pitched to the public. Granted, many of us knew Obamacare was going to be a disaster, but we didn’t vote for Obama anyway.

I’m hopeful that those who voted for Obama, and, let’s be honest, the Democratic Party, will remember this betrayal of trust next November and again in 2016. Even though people forget a lot of things by the time they vote (see 150 Reasons Why Barack Obama is the Worst President in History for a rather thorough list of things Obama voters forgot about when they voted) but it will hard to forget the higher premiums they’ll be paying because of Obama’s crowning achievement.