It's Hard To Be A Conservative: Part Really I Lost Count

You have to continuously complain that some companies might drop their health insurance plans in favor of that offered through the Affordable Care Act, or as the RWNJs like to call it, Obamacare.

Yet at the same time, you have to hope that you won't have to explain why you've been silent for years about the companies like Walmart, McDonald's and Aurora who haven't been offering health care coverage in favor of government-sponsored health care programs like BadgerCare.

Holy Cow! McIlheran Was Right After All!

When health care reform was the topic du jour around the nation, all of the usual suspects, but most noticeably Patrick McIlheran, warned the country that there would be death panels.

We on the left scoffed at this notion.

But damn if he and Sarah Palin weren't correct. Of course, the part they didn't tell us is that said death panels would be headed up by Republicans.

Assurant Insurance: Victim of HCR or Themselves?

A while ago, Assurant Health announced that they would be cutting 130 jobs as it "prepares for changes under federal health care reform."

Michelle Malkin jumped all over that and labeled HCR as one of "Obama's job-killing" actions.

Of course, the local squawkers and echo chamber, incapable of independent thought, never bothered to fact check it and they also did their best Chicken Little imitations.

Milwaukee News Buzz points to an article in The New Republic which points out what the real problem is for Assurant and companies like them:

The health law forces insurers to cover basic benefits. It restricts their ability to mistreat consumers. And it limits the money they can spend on administrative overhead or broker commissions. Once fully implemented, reform will also prevent these carriers from avoiding people with pre-existing conditions. Make no mistake: These are all good things. They mean insurance is becoming more accessible, more comprehensive and more efficient.

They then cite an example of this:

Alas, that may also be bad news for Assurant. If the company's name sounds familiar, that's because it was in the news early this year when a Colorado jury slapped it with a $37 million judgment for wrongly refusing to pay the bills of a woman in a car accident. (The company claimed the woman had hidden evidence of a pre-existing condition. The jury, obviously, disagreed.) And when the layoffs were announced, an article from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel noted that reform would "undercut one of Assurant's strengths -- determining which customers are the best risks." I have no idea whether Assurant can find other ways to survive as a business. But, if it can't, then we're better off relying on competitors that can.

Also, Assurant has had other problems, like when they were targeting minorities with HIV, because they wanted to "contain costs." Their amoral actions ended up costing the company $10 million dollars on just one case.

Perhaps it's time for Malkin to go back on patrol with the Fashion Police. I hear things are getting sloppy again at Dunkin Donuts.

If For No Other Reason...

Besides giving hundreds of thousands of Americans much-needed health care and helping the economy overall, there is one other overriding reason why President Obama and Congress need to get the health care reform done and done quickly. It would help clean up the country's air:

If Democrats didn't have all the incentive they needed to pass health care reform already, then conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh may have provided the final push they needed by vowing to flee the country if the reform bill is passed.

Responding to a caller who asked him where he would go for health care if Congress enacts reform, Limbaugh replied,

I don't know. I'll just tell you this, if this passes and it's five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented -- I am leaving the country. I'll go to Costa Rica.

The best part? Costa Rica also has nationalized health care.

Oh, and Rush, take Sarah Palin with you. She's an expert on using nationalized health care.

Coverage, Provision, What's the Difference?

Patrick McIlheran gets pretty smug when Newfoundland Premier Dan Williams chose to come to the United States to have a surgical procedure done:

But Williams didn’t go get his surgery in Montreal or Toronto. He didn’t see the best heart surgeon in Canada, one of the world’s most advanced economies and chock-full of smart, talented people.

He went somewhere in the United States, the health care system of which is regularly derided in polite Canadian circles as the Wild West. Investors Business Daily notes that other Canadian politicians, including Belinda Stronach, a cabinet member in the Liberal Party government in 2007, did so as well.

And no, of course those politicians didn't mean their trips as a knock on Canadian health care. Neither did the full 1% of the country’s population was sent abroad for care in just the past year alone meant it as an insult.

But it isn’t coincidence that, when Canadians need specialized care, they can't find it in their so fair but mediocre system.

For someone who wants to portray himself as being erudite, PaddyMac can come off looking quite the simpleton.

For most people with a command of the language and even rudimentary understanding of the health care system is able to differentiate between health care coverage and a health care provider.

No one on the left or right denies that the United States has some of the best medical providers or equipment in the world. But all of the best doctors and all of the best medical wonders does little good to someone who does not have the independent wealth or the adequate coverage to pay for it.

I would hardly expect that the USA tax payers were footing the bill. It was indubitably the Canadian health care system that allowed the Premier to come to the US by being the ones that actually paid for it.

But even has obtuse as Paddy was in his arrogance, he wasn't the worst offender. Kevin Binversie not only was unable to tell the difference between one who practices medicine and people that pay for said treatment, but also cannot tell the difference between a Premier and a Governor.

It must be all those French Canadians fault. It's like they have a different word for everything!

Shut Up He Explained

By Keith R. Schmitz

The above of course is part of the catch phrase comedy that Charlie Sykes employs on his program and blog which passes for wit, if wit was to pour out of widget factory. He has of course ripped this off from a real wit, Ring Lardner.

There seems to be a bit of common ground that liberals and conservatives could be occupying regarding the health care reform negotiations. That being the Barack Obama campaign promise to hold negotiations of major legislation on C-Span. Right now that isn't going to happen.

Sykes and almost everyone on the right including the corporate puppets at Americans for Prosperity are clamoring for an open process. Now. Operational word here.

Liberals are upset because this what the Obama administration is back peddling and providing worry of possible giveaways to come. Real adults aren't happy about it but they recognize that politicians do not deliver on every campaign promise when the cold hard light of governing hits them in the face. We of course hope for better but we know our hearts get broken every so often.

We would like to presume our conservatives friends believe the same thing, but they don't. While they want the Obama administration to be as transparent as Saran Wrap, their hero Dick Cheney was opaque as Reynold's Aluminum foil when it came to the totally secret energy deals, presidential papers, the White House visitors log and endless matters dealing with our government. In fact often we were damned lucky to find out anything, unlucky when we did.

Our government. Not Dick's government.

The only difference is liberals were for sunlight then, we are for sunlight now. As for the rad right, not so much then.

Kind of makes you wonder what they really believe in, or is it to use the title to this summer's Larry David/Woody Allen movie --- Whatever Works.