Are we in a recession, and if we are, does anybody care? Read Barbara Ehrenreich's opinion here. And why is Barbara talking about economic stimulation in a whole new way? Read more...
The Jobless Jihad What are the characteristics of recent terrorists? "Desperation...Occupational opportunities are extremely limited...Come from upper and middle-class families...Have some college education...either professional or semi-professionals...solidly anchored in family responsibilities...married and...have children." Does this sound like today's long-term unemployed or desperately underemployed white collar professionals? This phenomenon has been studied, and some of those studies are a dry read, but they're enlightening. Read more...
Is AARP on Our Side? or, With Friends Like These, Do We Really Need Enemies? What exactly is AARP's stand on universal healthcare? If you sell insurance, can you be an advocate for reform, or are you suffering from a pre-existing condition called conflict of interest? Trude Diamond, UP board member, persistent researcher and champion for justice, recently put together this in-depth collection of articles regarding AARP. Here's a sample:
"AARP is not a league of the elderly, but a marketing agency with a shady past."
"AARP...is teaming up with California Governor Schwarzenegger's campaign to cover the uninsured by forcing them to buy private health insurance."
"AARP, which earned $379 million in royalties in 2005, mostly from health insurance sales..."
" [in 2008] AARP will be the largest provider of private insurance to Medicare recipients."
Why is it that people forget that AARP began as a seller of insurance? They have not strayed from their roots; they merely morphed into an identity that broadens their customer base.
by
M. Davis (43 articles, 2 quicklinks, 14 diaries, 152 comments)
on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 12:06:55 PM
AARP CEO Bill Novelli is all about corporatism. Mr. Novelli is a "free market" capitalist who argues that putting industry first will magically make our lives better.
Novelli wrote the forward to a book by Newt Gingrich entitled: "Saving Lives & Saving Money." The title itself tells you all you need to know. It's the Nixonian model for HMO's. The core belief is to cut costs, i.e. provide LESS HEALTHCARE, to make more money. That's not health care; it's greed.
Here's an excerpt of what Mr. Novelli, the AARP CEO, wrote:
"Gingrich is proposing nothing less than dramatically changing one of the largest segments of our economy. His ideas for transforming the system are not academic theories. They are based on real-life examples of entrepreneurial changes people are making across the healthcare system throughout the country, and he offers specific examples to back up his claims and allow people to find out more."
by
welshTerrier2 (7 articles, 3 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 105 comments)
on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 12:25:00 PM
Anyone who thinks the folks selling you something are looking out for your best interests pretty much has their head up and locked, based on my particular life experience. More than likely your life experience brings you to the same conclusion....
Veteran '66-68
by
Roger (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 359 comments)
on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 2:09:17 PM
. . . to join AARP when I turned 50! But, for the most part, AARP members are already living under socialized medicine, the Medicare system. It is not in their interest to extend socialized medicine to the rest of the population, because going to such a system will necessarily mean higher taxes -- and the last thing that the elderly want are higher taxes.
The current system is one in which most Americans are covered through private insurance through their employers; the employers pay a chunk and the employees pay some. If we ever went to a nationwide single-payer plan -- which, despite me being an evil right-winger, I support -- it would all come from taxes, taxes which would have to increase. Employers and employees in the current system would, in effect, be getting higher taxes, somewhat offset by losing the necessity to pay insurance premiums. The elderly on Medicare don't pay those premiums -- though some buy supplemental insurance, because Medicare really sucks -- and the elderly who currently have no insurance costs to lose would still get socked with higher taxes.
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Dana Pico (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 142 comments)
on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 6:11:36 PM
AARP is an insurance company, they operate as one and then they slap the slick advertising and misrepresent themselves as a senior service organization. They should have their charter revoked and be dissolved.
But corporations continue to have super protections - more than human beings.
AARP has no interest in Universal Single Payer Health Care. And neither to the other insurance monsters. Wellpoint, Inc and United Health Care come to mind.
Health care companies are encouraged to form monopolies (guess who wrote the laws). They wrote Medicare Part D (so guess who profits).
Health care companies organize at the local, state and federal levels and pummel our legislatures 24/7/365.
Look up Wellpoint, Inc. and United Health Care both in the fortune 50, revenues in the 100's of billions.
No, Universal Single Payer not for profit Health Care is not coming anytime soon. And AARP is right up there. It's and insurance company. They are all in the business of collecting premiums and denying claims. And 18,000 people have died this year, and the last, and the year before that.
47 million uninsured people. 50 million underinsured people.
They should all go quietly away while we build a real health care system, but they won't, too much money. It means they get to buy the army.
by
August Adams (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 442 comments)
on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 7:05:53 PM
Isn't medical marijuana and the care taking private healthcare? Most these folks are doing alternative medicines that healthcare doesn't cover, and I don't see Universal Healthcare accepting cannabis or a number of alternative methods and herbs. I see Universal Healthcare as BIG BROTHER telling me what when why how when and where to eat and drink. I can't understand how anyone looking at Walter Reed, the tens of thousands of accidential deaths in hospitals, the poor quality of healthcare in Medicade and Medicare, and 9-11, Katrina..how can you see all this and say, I want Uncle Sam to be MY care provider. Geesh.
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Jeanette Doney (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 304 comments)
on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 8:40:13 PM
I lived for 28 years in Canada, with one of the best health care systems in the world -- single payer, of course. I was never told who I could see or how often; I never had to wait to see a physician or to receive services. Some "alternative" services were covered as well. Taxes were higher, of course -- but I never had to pay a premium or a co-pay.
A MUCH better system -- it was a tremendous shock coming to the US and having to deal with an out-of-control private "health care" system.
by
Lynn Hirshman (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 24 comments)
on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 at 10:01:06 AM
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