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Perspective: Insurance Company Profits Less Than 1% Of Health Care Costs
Posted by John Romano in Opinion, Politics on March 11, 2010
As Barack Obama, Kathleen Sibelius, and a tribe of angry Democrats prepare a round-the-clock-blame-all-health-care-ills-on-insurance-companies full court press, a little perspective is in order.
Barack Obama lashes out at the insurance indusrty.
In 2007, the United States spent a total of $2.2 trillion on health care. Of that $2.2 trillion, insurance company profits accounted for $13 billion. That amounts to less than 1% of total health care spending.
Real reform would deal with the issue of why health costs are rising. Clearly, from the figure above, it isn’t because of health insurance profits. Insurance rates are a reflection of the underlying costs of what is being insured. I guarantee if I approached Lloyd’s of London and wanted insurance against a Martian invasion the policy would be pretty cheap. Read the rest of this entry »
Sean Penn Calls For Reporters In Jail
Posted by John Romano in Politics, Sports and Entertainment on March 9, 2010
LOS ANGELES (YBH.ME) – Sean Penn’s controversial statement on Bill Maher’s HBO chat show:
“Every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it, and accept it. And this is mainstream media, who should — truly, there should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies.”
Look for a retraction or an expansion of Mr. Penn’s remarks in coming days. It would be hard to believe that Mr. Penn actually wants American journalists in jail for calling Hugo Chavez a dictator, but who knows? Read the rest of this entry »
Senate Warns Employees To Avoid The Drudge Report
Posted by John Romano in News and Analysis on March 9, 2010
From the Drudge Report
Just as the health care drama in the capitol reaches a grand finale, congressional officials are warning employees to avoid the DRUDGE REPORT!
The Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works issued an urgent email late Monday claiming the DRUDGE REPORT is ‘responsible for the many viruses popping up throughout the Senate.’
The committee ordered hill staff: ‘Try to avoid’ the DRUDGE REPORT ‘for now’. Read the rest of this entry »
Massa, and Serving the Statists
The Eric Massa story continues.
The story starts last week, when Massa, (D-NY) a freshman Congressman, was implicated in a potential sex scandal. It came to light that he may have made inappropriate advances towards a male staffer. A few days later, Massa came out with a statement saying that he would resign on the following Monday. That yes, he uses extremely foul language in his inner office, and that the blame lies with him about it.
But now, a new story. However, it’s a same old story. Massa is a “no” vote on Forced Universal Health Care. He has been in the past, and he continues to be now. The Obama Administration has already stated, in all sorts of language, that they will do whatever it takes to pass their Statist agenda. Now, Massa is saying that the administration is behind this story – that the supposed “inappropriate advance” is total nonsense, and that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) is guilty of leaking the story, and perpetuating the myth.
Massa claims that it is not a string of incidents, but rather an incident. One. At a wedding of a Massa staffer on New Years Eve, and (my words) of guys being goofs. Massa’s wife was not feeling well, and they both left the wedding to go back to the hotel room. Massa then comes back to the party to sing “Auld Lang Syne.” He dances with the bride, with a bridesmaid and then joins a table of staffers – all men, and all single (except for Massa.) One of the staffers turns to Massa, and jokes that Massa should make his move on the bridesmaid. Massa then, according to his account, “…grabbed the staff member sitting next to me and I said, ‘What I really ought to be doing is frakking you,’ and then tossled the guy’s hair and left, went to my room, because I knew the party was getting to a point where I shouldn’t be there.” Read the rest of this entry »
Mark Steyn: Obamacare worth the price to Democrats
Posted by Mark Steyn in Politics on March 6, 2010
By MARK STEYN From The OC Register
So they lose the 2010 election. They know that the governmentalization of health care is the fastest way to a permanent left-of-center political culture.
So there was President Obama, giving his bazillionth speech on health care, droning yet again that “now is the hour when we must seize the moment,” the same moment he’s been seizing every day of the week for the past year, only this time his genius photo-op guys thought it would look good to have him surrounded by men in white coats.
Why is he doing this? Why let “health” “care” “reform” stagger on like the rotting husk in a low-grade creature feature who refuses to stay dead no matter how many stakes you pound through his chest?
Because it’s worth it. Big time. I’ve been saying in this space for two years that the governmentalization of health care is the fastest way to a permanent left-of-center political culture. It redefines the relationship between the citizen and the state in fundamental ways that make limited government all but impossible. In most of the rest of the Western world, there are still nominally “conservative” parties, and they even win elections occasionally, but not to any great effect (Let’s not forget that Jacques Chirac was, in French terms, a “conservative”). Read the rest of this entry »