Go now… do this… Your life depends on it…

Published
by
seanb
on 6 November 2009
in Congress, Democracy and Healthcare
. 0 Comments

If this request offends, I’m sorry. Please delete it and understand that I believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

This weekend, it appears that the United States House of Representatives is poised to pass broad legislation that will guarantee that nearly everyone in the United States be covered by health insurance. This is a boon to the health insurers, to be sure, but more than this, it is the centrist legislation that, through mainly private, market-based means, guarantees every United States citizen fair access to the health care that they need.

EVERY VOTE IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COUNTS, and EVERY VOICE THAT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES HEAR TODAY IMPLORING THEM TO VOTE YES for this measure is a VOICE that will COUNT to bring this change.

EVEN THOUGH my representative, the honorable representative Illeana Ros-Lehtinen, has stipulated that she will NOT vote for this, I am calling her as soon as I send this e-mail, and will IMPLORE her, as a taxpayer of this great nation, that I believe that this investment in our nation cannot be passed up any longer.

Without the competitive advantage brought about by guaranteeing EVERYONE coverage and access to the highest quality health care that we, as a country, know we can provide, we will continue to slip into economic decline. Every other industrialized nation on the face of this planet has recognized what we, somehow, have failed to see: a healthy, active, and robust populace is the ONLY thing standing between us and returning to the stature of once again becoming the strongest economic powerhouse.

I beg you to PLEASE CALL your representative today. Remember: even if they say they are voting “no,” your voice will have been heard. It’s not a wasted call.

Go now! Call. Be politically active this one time like your life depends on it. Some day, it may.

What did he do to deserve it?

Published
by
seanb
on 9 October 2009
in Obama, Political and Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Today, our president of the United States, was named the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. I was surprised to find this bit of news waiting for me in my e-mail this morning, as a news alert from the New York Times. I knew that several people were not going to be happy with this development.

I didn’t expect such a public firestorm.

I arrived at my office to my boss complaining, with the words of the title of this post emanating from his office. I’ve heard similar sentiments from others who might or might not be like minded, namely Rush Limbaugh and Michael Steele (both of whom should try to run for President some day – it would be great for comedy).

One of my staffers greeted me with: “Did you see what your ‘boy’ did today?”

Unfortunately, that’s just it: President Barack Obama didn’t do anything, except espouse the belief that America (and thus the world) would be better off if it were to use its power for peaceful purposes rather than running rough-shod over the world the way the previous administration did. As such, it’s my opinion (which is worth roughly $0.02 today) that the President is eminently qualified as a Nobel laureate.

As I alluded to in a comment about a previous news article attributed to Rush Limbaugh: We turned that corner on November 4, 2008, in this country, and, my friends, we would be wise to not look back (except, of course, to help fix the mess that you see in the rearview mirror).

The Miami Progressive visits DC…

Published
by
seanb
on 15 September 2009
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

So, I took my family to DC this week, and we’ve been seeing several different museums. My attendance at these museums is due to a training event that I was supposed to be enrolled in being cancelled, but my travel being booked and costing as much or more than the original tickets to change.

As I was walking down the National Mall today, from the National Museum of Natural History, all the way west to the Lincoln Memorial, I passed several different groups of people wearing the “Taxed Enough Already” shirts. One of these groups had a lady wearing one such shirt and she was talking about enjoying her trip to the museums, the monuments, etc.

So I got to thinking…

What’s so good about these museums? What’s so good about this National Mall? I mean, they are, after all, paid for with the tax dollars that the shirts imply these people were protesting.

Of course, I’m VERY well aware that these folk had a specific agenda: namely, they don’t want their tax dollars to be spent on HEALTHCARE for all. The same “all” who may, returned to health, help contribute more to the economy.

But in actuality, what IS the real difference?

I mean, you pay for one social program, and soon all the other ones come knockin’. You pay for healthcare, and pretty soon people are going to want the government to pay for education, or defense, or maintenance of a national highway system, or a national retirement system, right?

Oh wait…

Basic Health Care for Everyone… (Yes, including seniors…)

Published
by
seanb
on 29 July 2009
in Healthcare
. 0 Comments

As I stated earlier, we live in the most prosperous country on Earth. Yet 13% of our fellow citizens hold no insurance coverage of any kind (including 10,000,000 children), and another 7% are underinsured. What this means, fundamentally, is that 72,000,000 of your friends, relatives, neighbors, perhaps even you, lack the ability to access basic preventive and emergency health services when needed.

Why?

Some can’t afford it. Some choose to not buy it. Some feel they’re invincible. Some believe that they’ll be taken care of just fine if something happens. And then there are people like Robin Beaton from Texas, who had health insurance from Blue Cross Blue Shield, yet, when she needed a double mastectomy, her policy was rescinded. It was rescinded because she had left out a “material fact” from her application. Namely that she had acne as a young adult, and had sought treatment from a dermatologist.

The process of rescission, put simply, is defined as the setting aside of a contract. It’s a legal maneuver used by insurance companies to cancel the policies of individuals who have “left out material information” from their insurance applications. The spirit of the law of states allowing the practice of rescission (it is allowed in 50 of 50 states of the union) is to allow insurance companies to protect themselves against being defrauded by people (like me) who have expensive conditions, yet fail to disclose this on their applications for insurance. Having worked in the industry, and being trustworthy, I don’t believe in hiding this

In practice, this process is used much more routinely to take policies out of force, for example as in the aforementioned case of Ms. Beaton. Double mastectomies are not cheap. In cases such as Ms. Beaton’s, files get “red-flagged,” for review of any preexisting condition that might allow the insurance company to merely tell the policyholder that their policy was never in force because of the lack of disclosure, so that the insurance company does not have to pay. Insurance companies will rescind the policy with the hope that the person whose claim is being denied doesn’t come back and appeal the denial – or worse, get their congressperson involved.

I know this both because of the Congressional record… and because I used to work for an insurance company and routinely typed letters rescinding policies and returning policy fees because policyholders “failed to disclose prior medical conditions”. It made me ill to have to type these letters denying claims for $5,000 or so dollars for life insurance because of the lack of some disclosure. Sometimes it was obvious that the client was at fault. Sometimes the company’s claim was dubious.

But I write this asking a simple question… in a case like this, who would you rather be dealing with? An insurance company whose primary responsibility is to the shareholders of the company to ensure the largest possible profit? Or would you rather trust the decision to a government bureaucrat?

I understand that government doesn’t generally fix things… but I’d rather someone who’s disinterested being in charge of approving my claim, and not someone looking out for their bottom line.

Contact your Representative and Senator and demand this reform. We need this if we’re ever to get on an equal footing with other industrialized nations.

The race to replace Mel Martinez heats up…

Published
by
seanb
on 28 July 2009
in Congress, Martinez, Meek and Political
. 0 Comments

Steve Schale, former (and quite successful I might add) head of the Florida for Obama campaign committee will endorse Kendrick Meek as Democratic candidate for US Senate in the upcoming 2010 race to replace retiring senator Mel Martinez. Schale will announce this in a press conference today.

This is great news, since most of the mainstream media buzz surrounding the race appears to focus solely on the single-term republican governor Charlie Crist versus Marco Rubio race as though those two are the only ones running.

With the race for healthcare reform stuck in the doldrums, and Bill Nelson on the fence about a public-run option, we need to help elect a candidate who embraces the liberal progressive agenda.

I think the race just got kicked up a notch with this hugely important endorsement.

Teabagging… again…

Published
by
seanb
on 2 July 2009
in Healthcare and Society
. 0 Comments

The teabaggers were out at the corner of Le Jeune Road and Coral Way in Coral Gables tonight, protesting “Obama’s Health Plan,” decrying universal health care as being “too expensive”.

I’m not quite sure what “too expensive” is. Of course, on that note, I’m not quite sure what “universal health care” is.

In some fashion, we already provide universal health care in the United States. If you’re dying and walk into Jackson Memorial Hospital, or Celebration Hospital (for that matter) in Celebration, Florida, the hospital is duty-bound and morally obligated to do its level best to deliver their best care to keep you alive.

Who gets to pay for that care? If you can’t, we all do in some way. Either the hospital’s charity picks up the tab, or they get a write-off on their taxes because you can’t pay it.

I don’t sit here contending that we should be paying for everyone’s non-reconstructive cosmetic surgery, Lasik procedures, or peoples’ Sildenafil citrate (google it if you need to…) But as a country, just based on principle, we should be willing to ensure that everyone has the same crack at a liver that Steve Jobs had a month ago, and that crack at that liver shouldn’t be based on one’s net worth.

If we can throw billions after billions at AIG, Bank of America, and their ilk, we can’t afford not to embrace this.

Obama changes tactic on Iran…

Published
by
seanb
on 24 June 2009
in Elections, Obama, Political and Voting
. 0 Comments

… only he really didn’t.

And if he did, show me because I can’t see it.

From the Monday following the elections, to yesterday’s comments in his news conference, President Obama has railed against the vicious treatment protesters in Iran have received at the hands of the Basiji.

He has stopped short of calling the results of the elections illegitimate; however, is that really the place of our President? The last one to say something he wasn’t absolutely sure about ended up getting us involved in two wars, tanking our economy, and generally ransacking our international prestige in the process, so much so that Obama is still working hard to right the ship.

Barack Obama spoke initially in measured tones on the issue. Yesterday he was a bit more forceful in his rhetoric…

Perhaps that change in timbre is what is meant by a “change in tactic.”

But I still don’t see it.

Oh no… Obama wants to socialize our healthcare system!!!

Published
by
seanb
on 22 June 2009
in Elections, News, Obama and Voting
. 0 Comments

One of the fundamental economic issues facing our republic in today’s world is the “problem” of healthcare costs spiraling out of control.

In most Western economies, healthcare is provided by a national health system paid for by everyone through various taxing schemes (income, value added, etc.). In this regard, most Western economies do provide healthcare “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs,” if Karl Marx will please excuse my profane use of his oft-cited quotation. It is argued by many on the right that were the United States to move in the direction of such a nationally-provided healthcare system, our quality of care would suffer and stagnate because of added layers of bureaucracy that would be added.

Even President Obama in his desire to pass some form of healthcare reform has declared such a single-payer system to be “off the table” for the purposes of this year’s attempts at passing this, yet many on the right continue to rail against Obama’s plans as a potential “back door” to allow single-payer healthcare at a later time.

What I’d like to know is: what makes our congressional leaders (in both houses) so much better than us that they can obtain health insurance for themselves AND their spouses for roughly $290 per month? On top of this, they have access to physicians at their place of work, and have access to the Naval medical centers so prevalent around DC. If they happen to need prescriptions (with the mean age of them approaching 60, who of them could POSSIBLY need that), they have a great prescription drug plan.

We already pay these people $175,000+ per year, which is slightly more than four-times what the average Joe the Plumber makes… add to that the health benefits, and these are some pretty cushy jobs that you and me pay for.

So what I’d like to see happen for healthcare is either you and me get the option of choosing the healthcare plan of our senators and/or representative, or this same congress cobbles together a plan, like Medicare, that is made optional for those of us who have no health insurance, or who think we can get a better deal on the national plan.

Chances are I’d stick with my employer-provided option, because I’m quite happy with the HMO that I have been enrolled in.

But the time has come to level the playing field between us and our worldwide competitors when it comes to getting EVERYONE access to the best healthcare we ALL can afford.

La mejora Sotomayor…

Published
by
seanb
on 29 May 2009
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve written here; however, someone walked up to me in conference yesterday and asked if I write this blog. That has given me some renewed vigor in terms of writing this blog. I also hadn’t known that the only progressive talk radio station in town has changed format – again. So, I think for this post, I’ll take on Barack Obama’s pick to replace Justice David Souter, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a judge on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Second District.

Judge Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1976, and received her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1979. Like her nominator, President Barack Obama, Sotomayor has not only practiced law, but has also taught law at New York University School of Law and at Columbia Law School. Raised primarily by her mother, she is of Pureto Rican descent, having grown up in The Bronx borough of New York City. However, her intellect has been called into question by “leading” Republican politicos, while she has been denounced as a racist by some others. Let’s address first the claim that Sotomayor is a racist.

The claim that Judge Sotomayor is a racist has been made by several high-profile members of the Republican Party, including Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich. This is based on the fact that Sotomayor has indicated in the past that it would be difficult to separate her upbringing from the day-to-day task of ruling on cases which she faces as a jurist. Similar statements have been made by other, more conservative-leaning nominees, to the highest court in the land. For example, Justice Samuel Alito has said pretty much the same thing. My opinion on this is simply that we all grow up in different communities, each of which shape our own backgrounds. It is difficult, if not impossible, to separate one’s shaping from one’s actions in life.

Insofar as Judge Sotomayor’s intellect is concerned, Karl Rove seems to have some questions about the intellect of someone who graduated with highest honors from Princeton, who graduated Yale Law and sat on their Law Review. Makes me wonder what he truly thought of his former boss… who also went to prestigious schools, but who obviously didn’t graduate with similar praise.

Your thoughts, as always, are welcome…

Accept it… embrace it… learn it… let’s move on!

Published
by
seanb
on 24 March 2009
in News, Newspapers and Society
. 0 Comments

In reading this article from the New York Times, about four Michigan daily newspapers that will either cease publication or will move to an on-line format, I find myself asking: “Why all the hubbub about the death of the daily newspaper?”

For sure, dailies nationwide have been the source of much important journalism, shining a disinfectant spotlight on corrupt politicians, standing up for the common man, and, in general, writing about the local. But just because newspapers are moving away from the environmentally-unsustainability that is the paper and ink with which they have been printed, this does not necessarily need to be the maudlin affair most newspapers have cast it in.

Of course, this is me writing: someone who has sworn off paper anything and, who for the last couple months has been able, by and large, to practice what I preach when it comes to being paperless. “There are those out there who don’t read the news online, and who won’t be able to get riled up by looking at a web page with the news on it,” may be the response.

My question to them is: “why not?” For years, the quarter you’ve paid the newsstand vendor has never really ever paid for the content of the paper. It’s gone to pay for the distribution of the content – namely the delivery boy, or that newsstand vendor I just mentioned. Papers have, for years, existed off of their advertising revenue, and have, for years, relied on this revenue to pay their reporters, editors, and clerical staff to run their huge organizations.

My response to this is: “Grow up.” The Internet has come of age. Stop trying to control content, and embrace it. We still need good journalism to keep that spotlight shone on those corrupt politicians. Find a way to work with your advertisers to move your ads to the Internet. Google has been able to do this on a worldwide scale, you locals should be able to do this for that which is local.

To those who refuse to get their news via the Internet, I also say “Grow up.” Get used to the digital. Sure, paper can be recycled, and that does help reduce the amount of energy put into its production; but, really, do you absolutely have to hold that newspaper in your hands, getting that toxic ink all over the place, in order to be satisfied that you’re getting the best news from anywhere?

Realize this: the PAPER portion of the NewsPAPER industry is dead. There is absolutely no way it can be sustained – economically or environmentally. Those NEWS organizations that realize this will understand this. They will Accept it… They will embrace it… they will learn it…

Let’s move on.