It's pretty scary that Kansas legislators are enthusiastically turning the care of our most vulnerable citizens over to these vultures.

Wendell Potter is a former Cigna VP and is now coming out to expose and oppose the unethical policies of insurance companies that are counter-productive to good health care and designed to line pockets.

See him speak tonight at the Kansas City Public Library: http://www.kclibrary.org/event/wendell-potter-deadly-spin

I do not condone the twisted treatment of human beings that happens in KS. This place is way behind the curve, and to my mind the true disabled are the obviously less than sharp people who train up their kids to participate in aggressive street harassment against those perceived to have physical limitations. Treating people like they are disabled is illegal , but when a whole culture behaves this way as a matter of upbringing, you really need to get the Americans with Disability Education people in here for some mass training. It's very unpleasant and makes dealing with the public an ordeal when one knows the chances of having his boundaries violated and being insulted during every shopping errand run close to %100.

Assuming that someone with even a minor a physical limitation is so needy they will welcome a backwoods dummy right off the street to approach them and commandeer their person and belongings is unhealthy and creates a hostile public space. It makes people feel unsafe. Let's take our camera phones out and start sending pictures of these criminals to law enforcement. It illustrates the kiss-to-kill, self-serving form of offensive and patronizing charity to tee. It's nothing less than an aggressive form of discrimination and bigotry. It forms a concrete example of the medical model gone wrong the letter writer is critiquing. It amounts to viewing and treating people as physical objects--in terms of a perceived flaw even if they have the highest intelligence scores of their entering graduate school class and are way more sensitive and aware than the hick with a fat ego who deludes themselves they can actually help a stranger. In the great state of KS such otherwise capable people become fodder to be abused and trashed.

Dummy Kansans use their twisted definition of "helping" as a crude form of status-seeking. Helping people means treating them like anyone else and equally--supporting their ability to develop their potential. May the many anonymous haters who have harassed me in Lawrence and especially the incompetent and dishonest KU officials who brutalized me and abused their police power simply for wanting them to follow due process and civil right laws fry in their own stinkingly bad karma juices.

Brownback and corporate welfare are in bed together always 24/7. We all know the most reliable source of fraud is private industry.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Health insurers have forced consumers to pay billions of dollars in medical bills that the insurers themselves should have paid, according to a report released yesterday by the staff of the Senate Commerce Committee.

At a committee hearing yesterday, three health-care specialists testified that insurers go to great lengths to avoid responsibility for sick people, use deliberately incomprehensible documents to mislead consumers about their benefits, and sell "junk" policies that do not cover needed care. Rockefeller said he was exploring "why consumers get such a raw deal from their insurance companies."

The star witness at the hearing was a former public relations executive for major health insurers whose testimony boiled down to this: Don't trust the insurers.

"The industry and its backers are using fear tactics, as they did in 1994, to tar a transparent and accountable -- publicly accountable -- health-care option," said Wendell Potter, who until early last year was vice president for corporate communications at the big insurer Cigna.

Insurers make paperwork confusing because "they realize that people will just simply give up and not pursue it" if they think they have been shortchanged, Potter said.

More on this story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/24/AR2009062401636.html

Here is the logical reform:

Improved Medicare Single Payer Insurance for All is one substantial part of the solution.

• Easy to Implement: Medicare has been in existence since 1966, it provides healthcare to those 65 and older, and satisfaction levels are high. The structure is already in place and can be easily expanded to cover everyone.

• Simple: One entity – established by the government – would handle billing and payment at a cost significantly lower than private insurance companies. Private insurance companies spend about 31% of every healthcare dollar on administration. Medicare now spends about 3%.

• Real Choice: An expanded and improved Medicare for All would provide personal choice of doctors and other healthcare providers. While financing would be public, providers would remain private. As with Medicare, you choose your doctor, your hospital, and other healthcare providers.

• State and Local Tax Relief: Medicare for All would assume the costs of healthcare delivery, thus relieving the states and local governments of the cost of healthcare, including Medicaid, and as a result reduce State and local tax burdens.

• Expanded coverage: Would cover all medically necessary healthcare services – no more rationing by private insurance companies. There would be no limits on coverage, no co-pays or deductibles, and services would include not only primary and specialized care but also prescription drugs, dental, vision, mental health services, and long-term care.

• Everyone In, Nobody Out: Everyone would be eligible and covered. No longer would doctors ask what insurance you have before they treat you.

• No More Overpriced Private Health Insurance: Medicare for All would eliminate the need for private health insurance companies who put profit before healthcare, unfairly limit choice, restrict who gets coverage, and force people into bankruptcy.

• Lower Costs: Most people will pay significantly less for healthcare. Savings will be achieved in reduced administrative costs and in negotiated prices for prescription drugs.

http://www.healthcare-now.org/

When too damn many politicians constantly badger we taxpayers with the word reform we best grab our wallets. More often than not reform means to them funneling more of our tax dollars to private industry..... the ones that finance their political campaigns.

We might be surprised what names have been investing in health insurance and health care.

Beware!

To think that a country bumpkin could be of use to the complete strangers they aggressively approach and terrorize on the sidewalks of Lawrence, Topeka, and elsewhere in this backward state is to pretend ants can understand eagles. Definitions of "help," are way dumb here too. Opening a door hardly counts as a form of assistance, and since you often cause distress instead of eliciting gratitude when you do so, it would decent to stop.

One definition of good manners involves taking care not to cause distress for others. Chivalry is sexist and demeaning and asserts a relationship of inequality. It also involves standing way too close to strangers unless you happen to be going through the same door and that is the best way to avoid stampeding someone. It's a patronizing act you should not aggressively impose on strangers. It reeks of Southern political incorrectness.The first rule of helping involves not doing harm, but Kansans are mostly too thick and lacking in good judgment and insight to meet that bar.