Obamacare making insurers pay $1.3 billion in rebates to customers

Sounds like socialism.

Where do I get some?

The return of mad cow in the US?

Let's hope this is an isolated incident and nothing more. Besides the obvious health impact, this is likely to have a negative impact on US beef exports not to mention a slow down in the US.

Clifford, the government's chief veterinary officer at the agriculture department, had quickly called his counterparts in Mexico and Canada, the first and second-largest buyers of U.S. beef, to tell them about a California cow found to have an "atypical" type of the brain-wasting disease. Having taken up his post in May 2004, just six months after the first U.S. case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy was discovered, he knows that sharing information quickly during the next 24 hours -- and in the weeks ahead -- will be vital for reassuring consumers, both domestic and foreign. "It's critically important for the trust and continuing of the trade between those countries," Clifford said in an interview, trying to pre-empt concerns about the nation's herd that could send the multi-billion U.S. industry into another tailspin.

Dems on Hill have "buyer's remorse" about health care reform

Not anything close to the buyer's remorse a lot of us have about them. First this excerpt from The Hill:

“I think we would all have been better off — President Obama politically, Democrats in Congress politically, and the nation would have been better off — if we had dealt first with the financial system and the other related economic issues and then come back to healthcare,” said Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), who is retiring at the end of this Congress.

Well, we did deal with the economic crisis first. That's what the stimulus was about. And had the administration sold the stimulus harder, and more wisely, to the public, both before and after it was passed, people would, in retrospective, have perceived the stimulus as worthy and effective, and thus would have perceived that the Congress DID in fact deal with economic issues first.

The second problem was the way they handled health care reform. The administration did a lousy job selling the legislation to the public, and an equally lousy job demonizing Republicans and insurance companies (and Big Pharma et. al.), both during and after the legislative battle. So we ended up with legislation that no one understands, that the administration has, at times, seemed almost embarrassed of mentioning, and that the Republicans have outright lied about, continually, and about which the public now believes many of the lies.

The fault, dear congressman, is not in our legislation, but in ourselves.

A lot of us predicted exactly how the health care reform battle, and every other battle, was going to go down if the Democrats continued to refuse to fight.  Yet refuse a lot of them did, especially the administration (and then when the administration backed away, Dems on the Hill were left hanging out to dry, making them less willing and able to fight).

Then there's Barney. Always ripe for an annoyingly certain opinion:

The most recent wave of misgivings from Democrats began with Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who told New York magazine that Democrats “paid a terrible price for healthcare.”

Frank said Obama had erred in pushing the legislation after GOP Sen. Scott Brown’s January 2010 victory in Massachusetts, which took away the Senate Democrats’ 60th vote.

Yes, how crazy of President Obama to actually push for something after one guy won an election against a really bad Democratic candidate, and a race in which the White House refused to help until the last week or two, when all was already lost.

Again, post hoc ergo propter hoc reasoning has its flaws. Maybe we didn't lose because we attempted to pass a particular piece of legislation. May we lost because we did it poorly.

Just try getting a doctor's appointment in America on the spur of the moment

We're number one, my ass.  Just try geting a doctor's appointment in this country on the spur of the moment when something goes wrong.  Just try.

An elderly family member has had some issues with their leg the past few weeks.  It started with extreme pain, anywhere between five-out-of-ten and the occasional nine-out-of-ten on the pain scale, and has been going on for a few weeks now.

Day 7, the relative figured the pain wasn't going away, so they made a doctor's appointment... for five days hence (that's all that was available).

Day 10, a Saturday, the pain increases to nine-out-of-ten non-stop (felt like a knife going into their leg), so they called a doctor friend of the family who said it could be a blood clot, call their regular doctor now.  So they called the doctor they were to see on Monday, told him another doctor feared it might be a blood clot.  He said to take some aspirin, elevate the leg and come in on Monday.

That night, the leg swelled, and a rash or bruising developed in an odd linear pattern.  So we went to the emergency room at 11 o'clock at night instead of going to Easter services at church. The doctor there said it looked like cellulitis, started an IV drip of antibiotics, and gave them antibiotic pills to start taking at home, and said if it gets any worse, come back immediately. Otherwise, see your regular doctor on Monday to see if the antibiotics were working, because sometimes they don't.

Understandably, the relative wasn't too thrilled to see the doctor who 1) gave them an appointment 5 days hence for a serious infection, and 2) told them to take some aspirin and wait two days, for a serious infection.  So they canceled the appointment with him and tried to make an appointment with another doctor.

Good luck.  No one was available.  Finally they were able to get one doctor to squeeze them in the following day, Tuesday.  On Tuesday, the doctor confirmed the infection, but also said other just as bad things might be at play, and there was a risk of a blood clot.  So, we wait another day, and on Wednesday we try to call a doctor friend of the family who specializes in infectious diseases.  They're not in, so we leave a message.  Twenty four hours later, no response.  We call that doctor again on Thursday and ask when the next appointment is available, we're told June 15.  Today is April 19.  That's two months from now.  The family member, appropriately, responded, "I'll be dead by June 15."

We're number one!

So, we're now trying to find another specialist who might be available sometime before mid-summer who can see whether this cellulitis is a) responding to the antibiotics, and b) not turning into a deadly blood clot.  I told the relative that if we don't get an appointment today, we're going back to the emergency room, to hell with the cost.  Their insurance is impeccable and will cover everything anyway.

And we wonder why the elderly routinely go to the emergency room for medical care.

We already have rationing in this country.  Either because you have no insurance and can't afford the treatment, or because you have insurance and still can't afford the copay, or because you have insurance and can't get a doctor to see you without weeks of wait.

In France, I've always been able to see a doctor within hours of calling.  And of course, in France the cost of the doctor's visit and/or emergency room visit is in the $30 to $40 range.

Yes, we have some of the greatest health care in the world in this country - so long as you don't actually need it.

Women are now wearing feeding tubes to lose weight

WTF?

While I'm not terribly thrilled with the notion that all fat is beautiful (because I'm not convinced that everyone who is overweight is overweight because they can't help it - some are, of course, but I've seen my share of obese people eating horrific food, and had an overweight friend whose idea of a diet was eating buttered popcorn for lunch), I'm also not sure I like this feeding tube idea either.  Inserting a feeding tube in a woman's nose to deliver 800 calories a day until she loses the desired weight. Yikes.

Is there no happy medium between anorexia and embracing obesity carte blanche?