The Hackenblog

“Along with Molina, health department officials, physician and hospital trade groups and independent consultants all urged that the new hospital be built to hold 750 beds. Advocates said that capacity was needed to allow the county to provide life-saving care to anyone unable to afford it, as required by California law.”
, by Rong-Gong Lin II, LA Times, June 26, 2010 and additional comments

Oh, it’s worse than that. The original County hospital had about 900 beds and Womens and Childrens hospital down the street from it had about 650 and they’ve both been crammed into a 600 bed new LAC USC hospital. I am told there are only 19 pediatric beds in the whole building. Thanks Michael Antonovich, Yvonne B. Burke, Don Knabe and Zev Yaroslavsky, thanks a lot you westside class warrior idiots. Betcha no County patients are getting beds in Cedars Sinai Hospital. I mean, LAC USC is in Molina’s district, she might know what her own district needs more than anyone else. Geeze.

And before anyone says anything stupid: illegal immigration has nothing to do with this problem. Los Angeles has considerably more than 600 working poor U.S. citizens in need of medical care and no insurance, alas.

“Cindy Williams, 48, took several buses from her home in Twentynine Palms to secure her place, arriving well before dawn. William hopes to see a dentist. She lost her job as a sales clerk last year, then saw her state Denti-Cal insurance cut just as she was about to have her two front teeth extracted and replaced. A dentist told her it would cost $2,000.

“Megan Jones, 23, of Santa Clarita works part time for a real estate title company. A high school graduate, she lives with her parents but cannot afford health insurance. She said she needs to have all four wisdom teeth extracted and a root canal. She called USC, and they said it would cost at least $300 per tooth. She considered seeing a dentist in Mexico, but said she would need at least $1,000 cash. She does not have good enough credit for a loan.

“Waiting nearby was Kathleen Weaver, 52, of Tujunga, a part-time crossing guard. Weaver said she injured her top teeth in a bicycle accident last year and needs them pulled and replaced with dentures. One tooth hurt so bad, she said, she pulled it herself at home, numbing herself with a few shots of liquor.

“‘If they had more of these [free clinics], there would be less strain on the social services system,’ Weaver said.

“Anthony Jackson, 71, of Los Angeles is a retired mail clerk and nurse who is covered by Medicare. But his glasses have not been replaced in three years and, like Williams and about 3 million low-income Californians, he lost his Denti-Cal coverage as the state cut services due to a massive budget deficit. Jackson arrived in a wheelchair with his in-home health services aide, who also needed to see a dentist.

“‘It’s kind of hard to ignore when somebody waits all night outside to see a dentist,’ said Don Manelli, one of the organizers with the Knoxville, Tenn.-based Remote Area Medical, the nonprofit running its second clinic in Los Angeles. He said of the effort: ‘It’s not a cure, but it’s a big band aid and people are hemorrhaging.’”
Thousands line up to get appointments at free health clinic, by Molly Hennessy-Fiske, LA Times, April 25, 2010

Nor is it a luxury. It’s a necessity, like all healthcare, and this should be as much of a government priority as the military. Why, oh why, in God’s name, is this so hard for my fellow citizens to understand? Are they that cruel and hardhearted? Have they never had a toothache?

“Congressman Alan Grayson (FL-8) today introduced a bill (H.R. 4789) which would give the option to buy into Medicare to every citizen of the United States. The ‘Public Option Act,’ also known as the ‘Medicare You Can Buy Into Act,’ would open up the Medicare network to anyone who can pay for it.

“Congressman Grayson said, ‘Obviously, America wants and needs more competition in health coverage, and a public option offers that. But it’s just as important that we offer people not just another choice, but another kind of choice. A lot of people don’t want to be at the mercy of greedy insurance companies that will make money by denying them the care that they need to stay healthy, or to stay alive. We deserve to have a real alternative.’

“The bill would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish enrollment periods, coverage guidelines, and premiums for the program. Because premiums would be equal to cost, the program would pay for itself.

“‘The government spent billions of dollars creating a Medicare network of providers that is only open to one-eighth of the population. That’s like saying, “Only people 65 and over can use federal highways.” It is a waste of a very valuable resource and it is not fair. This idea is simple, it makes sense, and it deserves an up-or-down vote,’ Congressman Grayson said.”
Grayson Bill Opens Up Medicare To Anyone Who Can Pay For It, Todd Jurkowski, Press Secretary, Rep Alan Grayson’s office, March 9, 2010

I like this idea, but it would be better and a better use of my taxpayer dollars if it was just FREE MEDICARE FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS/NEEDS IT. Oh, sorry , the capslock was on and I didn’t notice. Actually, this is a good idea, better than the mess the House is still working on.

Anyway, hurray for Alan Grayson!

The Los Angeles DWP keeps saying it’s safe, it just tastes bad. But what do they really mean? (via)

(via)

Yes.

Not all of us need the Public Option.

Blue Shield canceling policies illegally? The hell you say! But they do.

Burden of proof on the consumer not the insurer! Noooo! Yes.

Private insurance even fucks over conservatives, but only if they’re dying.

It’s so obvious, America, it hurts: just expand Medicare to cover anyone and everyone who asks for it. Are we really this stupid as a country and a people? Don’t answer that, okay?

“INGLEWOOD, California (Reuters) – Inside an aging sports arena, where rows of dental chairs and a hospital smell have replaced the former Los Angeles Lakers basketball court, thousands of Americans are seeking free healthcare.

“Hundreds were turned away just on Tuesday, the first day of a weeklong clinic run by the nonprofit Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corp as part of its mission to provide free health, dental and eye care in needy spots around the world.

“It marks the first time in RAM’s 25 years that it has gone to a major U.S. metropolitan area — a reminder that even in Los Angeles, with world-class doctors and hospitals, many do not have access to affordable healthcare.”
LA sports arena hosts health clinic of last resort, By Dan Whitcomb, Reuters, August 13, 2009

Does somebody want to tell me again why, in what should be one of the richest cities in the richest country in the world, this should be so and why we don’t need universal healthcare? Or, Christ, just give Medicare to anyone who applies for it. Is it really that difficult?

“People with HIV or AIDS and their providers rallied at the State Capitol today to oppose the governor’s proposed budget cuts to a variety or programs which literally keep people alive. During the public comment period of Conference Committee, people told us about the importance of these programs in their daily lives. The testimony below from a brave 24 year old woman born with HIV was especially poignant.”

The Human Cost of Cuts – Linnea’s Story, Budget Blog, June 10, 2009

There has to be a better way to “save” California than letting this young woman die. There just has to be a better way.

Arnold can’t do math:

“In the short-term, expenditure reductions in any of these programs (CalWORKS, etc.) have significant implications for the state economy. The multiplier effects for these programs are found to range between 1.05 and 1.44, meaning that output and employment resulting from human services program expenditures are greater than the expenditures alone would suggest.

“In particular, In-Home Supportive Services are found to provide in excess of a 40 percent boost to the local economy. The multipliers for CalWORKs and Food Stamps are also significant and comparable at 1.34 and 1.37, respectively. Other programs, those that provide primarily services and less in the way of cash benefits, are found to have a smaller multiplier effect. The importance of these services, however, should not be diminished by the smaller multipliers that were found. This report discusses the likelihood that service reductions in many of these programs may result in the following: a higher incidence of homelessness, poverty, malnutrition, substance abuse, violence, and negative health outcomes for toddlers and infants. Aside from the toll these harmful circumstances have on the individuals involved, a higher incidence of these maladies produces not only higher economic costs today, but in the future as well. This suggests another sort of multiplier that ought to be included in the analysis – the indirect effect of reducing the demand for services tomorrow by providing them today.

“Finally, many of these programs are funded by federal in addition to state expenditures. These federal dollars are often only available as matching funds to state expenditures. The effect of matching funds was found to raise the multiplier for some state spending as high as 7.35. With matching funds, $1 in state spending translates into between roughly $3 and $5 in total spending on most of these programs. The effect on output and employment, and on the economic stimulus effect of state spending on these programs, is thus significantly magnified.”
SPENDING ON COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES PROGRAMS IN CALIFORNIA: AN EVALUATION OF ECONOMIC IMPACTS (pdf), By Jon Haveman, Ph.D., Beacon Economics, Eric O’N. Fisher, Ph. D., California Polytechnic State University, Fannie Tseng, Ph.D., Berkeley Policy Associates, Presented to Child and Family Policy Institute of California, March 17, 2009 (via, which has more links and is a faster read)

$1 CA dollar can, with matching funds, turn into up to $5 spent in grocery stores, doctors, public transit, etc. in California. I’m not very good at math either, so bear with me:

$1M = $5M, so $500K = $2.5M, $0.50 = $2.50, but $0 = $0, which is what I think the heartless bastard rightwingnuts in California ultimately want. Don’t any of those people have businesses, homes or investments in California? Or, y’know, humanity? Because sinking the whole State to gratify some sick fear and loathing of children, disease and poverty seems pretty crazy to me.

So, really, the only reason Arnold is going after these programs is because they have no powerful advocates. And he’s a heartless bastard placating heartless bastards.

And at a church, no less.

“KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – A Kansas doctor who was a controversial provider of so-called ‘late-term’ abortions was shot and killed at his church on Sunday, local media reported.

“The Wichita Eagle newspaper reported that 67-year-old George Tiller, a longtime target of anti-abortion activists, was shot to death as he walked into services at Reformation Lutheran Church.

“Police are searching for a white male who fled the scene after shooting Tiller with a handgun, local media reported.”

~snip~

“Tiller’s clinic in Wichita has been the site of mass protests by anti-abortion groups and was bombed in 1985. Tiller was shot and wounded by an abortion opponent in 1993.”
Kansas abortion doctor shot dead at church: report, Reporting by Cynthia Osterman, editing by Anthony Boadle, Reuters, May 31, 2009 (also of note)

Don’t like somebody? Shoot ‘em! It’s the way we live now!

Fuck California:

“Consider this partial list of the governor’s proposed cuts to health and humans services:

· Elimination of the CalWORKs program;
· Elimination of the Healthy Families Program;
· Eliminating certain Medi-Cal state-only programs;
· Elimination of community based services programs at the Department of Aging;
· Eliminate State funding for Community Care Licensing;
· Elimination of remaining General Fund for Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health;
· Elimination of funding for community clinic programs, such as Rural Health Services and the Seasonal and Agricultural and Migratory work programs;
· Elimination of funding for drug treatment programs established by the voters through Proposition 36;
· Reducing in-home supportive services eligibility and care provider pay;
· Reducing funding for foster care rates; and
· Reducing SSI/SSP monthly payments benefiting the aged and disabled to the minimum allowed under federal law.

“All of us know someone who will be affected by these cuts. This is not just a matter of balancing the state’s books. For some Californians, it is a matter of life and death.

“A society in crisis should not throw women, children, and seniors overboard first.”
Impact of Governor’s Proposed Health and Human Services Cuts, Budget Blog, by Assemblymember Noreen Evans, May 27, 2009 (also see Noreen Explains the Budget Crisis)

I think what you mean, Assemblymember Evans, is that a civilized society in crisis should not throw women, children, and seniors-who-didn’t-buy-their-home-in-the-1950-70s overboard first. We’re talking about California, not, y’know, something civilized.

By the way, when you run for higher office, Noreen, I’m sending you some money.

Ten things you didn’t know about orgasm

I think it would be highly entertaining to be her library assistant.

Yes, it’s been a while.

I have PTSD. I take medications for anxiety and depression. I refilled my anxiety medication prescription on April 15th. I noticed that the pills were a different color, called the pharmacy, and found out that the brand I’d been taking for more than two years has been recalled. Oh. Okay. All of my medications are generic. No big deal.

Within a week, I noticed constant, building background anxiety. Then irritability, unwillingness to exert myself, anticipatory anxiety, sleep difficulties, all slowly building towards a very bad place I don’t want to revisit.

Fortunately a tiny bit of my brain suggested I research this. What I found was bad.

About half the people who take the brand of anxiolytic I had on hand liked it. Half said it did nothing. This is pretty consistent through all psychiatric drugs; nothing works for everybody.

But I found information on what’s called the 80/20 rule. The FDA’s regulations on generic drugs allow for as much as 20% more active ingredient and as little as 80% of the brand name – a 40% spread.

http://www.fda.gov/cder/ob/docs/preface/ecpreface.htm

People are suffering because of it.

http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/archives/generic_drug_problems/report_generic_drug_problem.php

It appears to be a problem across the spectrum of medication. All kinds of doctors and patients, physical and psychiatric problems, complain of variable effectiveness.

I was able to call my doctor and get a prescription for the brand-name anxiolytic. It’s going to cost me money (it’s not on the Formulary, of course), but I can afford it. I hope it works. What if you can’t afford it? What if you don’t have insurance?

What if one of the medications I take for problems that don’t have immediate perceivable changes – cholesterol, blood pressure, glaucoma – isn’t working?

UCLA ERGONOMICS POSTURAL STRENGTHENING EXERCISES

UCLA ERGONOMICS FLEXIBILITY/STRETCHING EXERCISES

Not a cure for blogger back, but might help a little.

“In an interview on Tuesday evening with the German television program ‘Frontal 21,’ on channel ZDF Professor Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Rapporteur responsible for torture, stated that with George W. Bush’s head of state immunity now terminated, the new government of Barack Obama was obligated by international law to commence a criminal investigation into Bush’s torture practices.”
UN Rapporteur: Initiate criminal proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld now, by Scott Horton, Harpers, January 21, 2009 (via)

This is what the world has been waiting for. Let’s do it.

Of course the prison guard unions would hate it, but the libertarians would love it. They’ve been saying this for years.

“I’ve been using my trial membership in Netflix to watch the Showtime series Weed, about a suburban housewife who starts dealing pot to keep her household afloat. As the economy tanks, this has caused me to wonder if changing our approach to marijuana could free up enough money to help offset our state budget shortfalls.

“A study done in June of 2005 by Jeffrey Miron, a Visiting Professor of Economics at Harvard, investigated just this question. He concluded that the annual cost of enforcing current weed prohibition was around $7.7 billion, split about 2/3 to the states and 1/3 to the federal government. (The Office of National Drug Control Policy does not agree with Miron’s conclusions.)

“Miron further concluded that, if the drug were legalized, it could yield an annual tax revenue of $2.4 billion if the tax matched prevailing sales taxes, and $6.2 billion if it were taxed at the rate of alcohol or tobacco. I suspect that many farmers would also appreciate having another cash crop to bolster their income.

“Adding the two figures together, Miron conjectures legalization could improve our nation’s balance sheet by $14 billion annually.”
State budget crisis – time to kick the potheads out of prison? by Tom Barlow, WalletPop, December 22, 2008

$14B is nothing to cough at. And it would bail out Philip Morris or Altira or whatever it calls itself now and their tobacco farmers in a big way. They could just switch to hemp production – smoke some, make paper and whatnot out of some – and hopefully not put too many chemicals in the final product. Yes, I know pot will never be legalized and mass produced, but a girl can dream, can’t I?

(Yes, I know there are problems with pot smoking, mainly that it’s illegal, but if you swap lung damage for liver damage, pot’s about the same damage as liquor, which is legal. Full disclose: I am not a canibis expert by a longshot.)

But here they are:

“* In 20 minutes your blood pressure will drop back down to normal.
* In 8 hours the carbon monoxide (a toxic gas) levels in your blood stream will drop by half, and oxygen levels will return to normal.
* In 48 hours your chance of having a heart attack will have decreased. All nicotine will have left your body. Your sense of taste and smell will return to a normal level.
* In 72 hours your bronchial tubes will relax, and your energy levels will increase.
* In 2 weeks your circulation will increase, and it will continue to improve for the next 10 weeks.
* In three to nine months coughs, wheezing and breathing problems will dissipate as your lung capacity improves by 10%.
* In 1 year your risk of having a heart attack will have dropped by half.
* In 5 years your risk of having a stroke returns to that of a non-smoker.
* In 10 years your risk of lung cancer will have returned to that of a non-smoker.
* In 15 years your risk of heart attack will have returned to that of a non-smoker.”
What Happens to Your body if you stop smoking Right now?, Healthbolt, July 19, 2006

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. suicide rates appear to be on the rise, driven mostly by middle-aged white women, researchers reported on Tuesday.

“They found a disturbing increase in suicides between 1999 and 2005 and said the pattern had changed in an unmistakable way — although the reasons behind the change are not clear.

“The overall suicide rate rose 0.7 percent during this time, but the rate for white men aged 40 to 64 rose 2.7 percent and for middle-aged women 3.9 percent, the team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found.

“‘The biggest increase that we have seen between 1999 and 2005 was the increase in poisoning suicide in women — that went up by 57 percent,’ said Susan Baker, a professor in injury prevention with a special expertise in suicide.”
Middle-aged women drive rise in U.S. suicides: study, By Maggie Fox, Reuters, October 21, 2008

Shit. According to this article, suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S. WTF? I’d put a Bertolt Brecht reference here, but even I think that would be in bad taste.

“I was listening to an interview with Stanford neurologist Robert Sapolsky on NPR a few weeks back and it really struck me. Sapolsky who studies the relation between the neurological and the social in primates told a fascinating story in discussing his latest book, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers.

“He pointed to the well-known relation between wealth and health. The usual explanation, that more money means more access to health care and higher quality health care, he argued, is belied by the fact that we see the same thing in European countries with socialized health care systems. Everyone has the same access to the same health care, yet it still holds true that the better off financially, the better off physically. Why?”
Stress and Health, by Steve Gimbel, October 20, 2008

Well, yeah, who wouldn’t be stressed to the max trying to live in this Bertolt Brecht play that passes for society. Read Steve’s post, espceically the part about the gorrillas. You’ll be glad you did!

“Some voters saw authenticity in Palin’s life. They said the fact that Palin had a pregnant teenaged daughter showed the family was normal.”

This is normal now? Could someone please tell that to all the demonized pregnant teens whose last names are not Palin. Thank you.

“This is happening all over the United States. I think people will identify with her. People want to vote for people who are like them,” said Pat Lynch, 42, a Republican and a commodities trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

“The teenage birth rate in the United States is among the highest in the developed world. Sex education and the availability of contraception varies state to state.”

Yeah, well, if they handed out condoms with instructions on the street corners, Bristol Palin might’ve finished adolescence before she got baby-jacked into adulthood.

“Kansas Republican Jacqueline McMahon said Palin’s children — newborn or pregnant — should not be an issue.”

Expect that not being able to keep her own daughter pure as the driven snow, or whatever that weird expression is, highlights in a big way the failure of abstinence education, which Palin tries to shove down America’s throat, which is really wishful thinking education, or at least not very effective education, and this proves it yet again.

“‘If she is qualified to do the job … (the rest) is totally none of our business,” said McMahon, a 39-year-old mother of two and business owner. She added: ‘Barack Obama’s mother … had him when she was 18. I think it is a nonissue.’”

But wasn’t Obama’s mama married and ready to have a kid? I think there’s a really big difference there. I’m not a huge fan of marriage, but when people get married, someone, somewhere, at some time has told both parties that sex leads to kids. Y’know?
Sarah Palin controversy stokes Mommy War, by Andrea Hopkins, Reuters, September 2, 2008

Man, the Sarah Palin jokes are just writing themselves.

I loathe American irony, but I found this apt:

Voter Registration in all 50 States. Ginger doesn’t want to hear you didn’t know how to register to vote. She knows baby is muuuuuch smarter than that.

“Shaking a virus to death is not a new idea. Arizona State University physicist Kong-Thon Tsen, who pioneered the practice, conducted eight peer-reviewed studies in 2006 and 2007 demonstrating that vibrations can deactivate a number of viruses. But Tsen’s latest work may have found a way to destroy HIV, just by hitting the right note.

I”n much the same way that opera singers use sound waves to shatter glass, laser light has shown considerable potential for killing viruses such as the tobacco necrosis virus and M13 bacteriophages. Like a wineglass, a virus’s outer shell—known as a capsid—has an intrinsic frequency of vibration. Tsen uses a near-infrared laser to excite the target’s outer shell and spur vibrations powerful enough to rupture the capsid.

“In March 2008, preliminary testing revealed that Tsen’s lasers were able to destroy HIV in test tubes. For people with AIDS, Tsen’s antiviral attack could be more effective and safer than the current drug cocktails, which have a slew of side effects. In the next two or three years, Tsen hopes to test the technology’s effects on HIV in monkeys, zapping blood outside the body.”
Zapping HIV With Lasers. Lasers set to the right frequency may effectively knock out the virus, by Orli Van Mourik, Discover, June 10, 2008

So there IS something to look forward to!

“SAN FRANCISCO – California’s highest court Wednesday refused to stay its decision legalizing same-sex marriage in the state, clearing the final hurdle for gay couples to start tying the knot this month.

“Conservative religious and legal groups had asked the California Supreme Court to stop its May 15 order requiring state and local officials to sanction same-sex unions from becoming effective until voters have the chance to consider the issue in November. The justices’ decisions typically become final after 30 days.

“An initiative to ban gay marriage has qualified for the Nov. 4 ballot. Its passage would overrule the court’s decision by amending the state constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman.”
Calif. court refuses to stay gay marriage ruling, by Lisa Leff, Associated Press Writer, June 4, 2008

Seriously Californians, get registered, get with it and vote this gay hatin’ constitutional amendment down in November. Prop 22 slipped in because no one thought anyone would be crazy enough to vote for it. Hey, as Scotty said to Chekov on the bridge of the Enterprise, “Fool me once…” etc.

“1. Sense of humor. There is not one guy I know of that doesn’t appreciate a who girl laughs at his dumb jokes simply out of a sensitive humorous bone.When a woman laughs, there is always a beam of light that comes across a guy’s face, and if the laughter is, say from a woman across the room, it has the power to make a man jealous, wanting that laughter to be for him. Humor is child-like energy and is like a billboard mounted to a woman’s forehead that says “Open Heart!” Men feel it on a gut level, it’s in the nature of polarity to men and women. I’m not talking about faking a sense of humor, because that kind of inauthenticity will throw red flags. You can always tell a person who is trying to laugh to gain some sort of approval. I’m saying a woman sensitive to humor is a great find for a man.”
12 Things a Woman Does That Men Find Irresistible, Yintegrity, March 29, 2008

I really should get out more.

Do other cities do this?

“They are the homeless of the domestic animal world — colonies of feral cats that roam residential neighborhoods and lurk around office buildings and commercial garages, scavenging for food.

“Unlike other strays that might rub up against a leg hoping for a crumb or a head rub, these felines are so unaccustomed to human contact that they dart away when people approach. Feral cats cannot be turned into house pets. When they end up in municipal shelters, they have little hope of coming out alive.

“But one animal welfare group has figured out a way to save their lives and put them to work in Los Angeles. The Working Cats program of Voice for the Animals, a Los Angeles-based animal advocacy and rescue group, has placed feral cats in a handful of police stations with rodent problems, just as the group placed cats in the rat-plagued downtown flower district several years ago — to great effect.

“Six feral cats were recently installed as ratters in the parking lot of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Southeast Division, and another group will be housed at the Central Division early in the new year.

“Their reputation as furtive and successful exterminators grew after feral cats were introduced to the parking lot of the Wilshire Division nearly six years ago. Rats had been burrowing into the equipment bags that bicycle officers stored in outside cages; inside the facility, mice were sometimes scurrying across people’s desks.

“‘Once we got the cats, problem solved,’ said Cmdr. Kirk Albanese, a captain at the Wilshire station at the time. ‘I was almost an immediate believer.’”

~snip~

“For more information on ‘working’ feral cats, go to http://www.vftafoundation.org/workingcats.htm.”

LAPD enlists feral cats for rat patrol. The felines have been introduced, to great effect, at several stations with rodent problems. Parker Center may get them too. By Carla Hall, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, December 29, 2007

God bless people who think up brilliant stuff like this. They make me think better of our own species. Why can’t there be more solutions like this? I ask you. Why?

(If the LAT article is behind the registration or paywall, you can click on this: Feral Cats Mousing for a Living in LA [pdf]. Sorry, LAT, this story is too cool not to be read and you can send me a C&D if you think different. Oh, so, while I’m at it, here’s something else Los Angeles, the county this time, is getting right: Los Angeles Outdoor Gyms in Molinia’s district [pdf]. Yay!)

“Each one of those cases is a person who had insurance and got sick. They filed for payments authorized by their coverage and Blue Shield said no and attempted to cancel their policies. These sick people then had to fight tooth and nail to get the payment to their doctors so they would not be liable for the bill. In over 200 of those cases they lost and the companies dropped them completely from coverage. Of course that means that they then have a pre-existing condition and thus would have a next to impossible time getting coverage from another company.

“It is a disgusting practice that is all about trying to squeeze out a few more dollars in profits. It is illegal and I am glad to see the state launching the investigation and moving to fine them. It sure would be nice if that dissuaded the companies from trying this in the first place, but I don’t hold out that much hope that it will.”
Blue Shield Illegally Canceling Policies, Working Californians, December 13, 2007

Journal of Bloglandia (ISSN1950-7645)

Journal of Women on Comics (ISSN1940-7637)

Please cross-post, thanks!

“Many lower back problems are caused by the very athleticism that modern sports demand. ‘The forces involved in sports nowadays are enormous,’ Higgins says. ‘What you see in some of these sports are very powerful athletes creating high levels of extension and compression of the spine.’”
Twist and Ouch, by Gretchen Reynolds, NYT, October 28, 2007 (via)

Hm, I managed to get a herniated disc in my lower back without being a sports nut. At least my doc spotted the symptoms and got me x-rayed so I know it’s a herniated disc and not just my own personal failing of being fat and sedentary. Some good exercises in this article, the same ones I got in physical therapy, which helped me learn to live in my permanently damaged body. Permanent damage = true age. Sigh. Oh well, beats being dead.

“We need organizations who aren’t afraid of what is politically possible and talk about was is morally right. Today the CNA placed a full-page ad in 10 Iowa papers arguing strongly for not-for-profit health care, Medicare for All, taking the example of Dick Cheney’s multiple heart problems, and noting that if he wasn’t receiving the finest in government-run health care, he’d be dead by now.”
Give It Up For The California Nurses Association, by David Dayen, Calitics, December 10, 2007

Whee! California Nurses rule so hard!