THE REALITY OF HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA

“Sign the petition; let’s stop Obama care before it does irreparable damage to America”

That is what the ad says where Mikie Hucklebee is urging Americans to stop Obama care. It is ludicrous it is almost laughable. As if our health care system wasn’t fucked up enough already and what is there to save? The profits of the Insurance companies…that is what.

We look at other nations with far less resources than ours and they are surpassing us not only in the amounts they spend on healthcare but also on the quality. The U.S. has slipped to a number never seen when compared to other countries.

Here is an article from the Daily Koss by by Joan McCarter

Healthcare spending in US dwarfs the OECD

“Via Ezra Klein, why the nation has to get serious, and fast, about real healthcare reform (and that doesn't include Medicare vouchers or Medicaid block grants). The Kaiser Family Foundation has a new report comparing healthcare costs—and the growth of those costs—in the U.S. and selected OECD countries. The bottom line:

It is reasonably well known that the United States spends more per capita on health care than other countries. What may be less well known is that the United States still has one of the highest growth rates in health care spending. Health care spending around the world is generally rising faster than overall economic growth, so almost all countries have seen health care spending increase as a percentage of their gross domestic product (GDP) over time. In the United States, which has both a high level of health spending per capita and a relatively high rate of real growth in spending, the share of GDP devoted to health care spending grew from 9% of GDP in 1980 to 16% of GDP in 2008. This 7 percentage-point increase in health spending as a share of GDP is one of the largest across the OECD.

Ezra reiterates what exactly that means: "[U.S] spending has been growing much faster than everyone else’s, and is now so high that our government spends more on health care than the governments of countries with single-payer systems—and that’s true even though most of our health-care spending is private!" He pulls three graphs to illustrate.

Here’s what we spend vs. what everyone else spends:

And here’s the growth in that spending over time. Note that in the 1970s, we were approximately equal to the rest of the world. It’s really in the ’80s and ’90s that the gap between us and everyone else opened up:

...But perhaps the piece de resistance is this chart, showing the percentage of gross domestic product that countries spend on private and public health-care expenditures. The United States spends more through the government than — deep breath — Japan, Australia, Norway, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Canada or Switzerland:

In other words, we’re spending more on government-provided health care than most countries where government-provided health care is pretty much all there is.

And we all know that outcomes are not matching expenditures. In 2000, the World Health Organization ranked the U.S. 37th in the world. In 2006, "the United States was number 1 in terms of health care spending per capita but ranked 39th for infant mortality, 43rd for adult female mortality, 42nd for adult male mortality, and 36th for life expectancy."

That picture isn't improving, and won't if the only solution our lawmakers can come up with is slashing healthcare services to the most vulnerable populations”.

But you tell these Republican-Teahadists and it is like speaking to your kitchen table…they will not listen to reason, you show them the statistics, drown them with facts and charts and they will still cling to that idea that we have the best health care system in the world and that the insurance companies should continue to make a profit out of people’s misery.

Amazingly, with all the evidence that our health care system is bad enough, the Republican-Teahadists now want to make it even worse…they are hell-bent on eliminating Medicare and Medicaid…Do you know where America will then be in terms of health care as compared to the rest of the world? I don’t know and I don’t even want to think about it; but it will be right along very poor third world country…we bight be competing with Haiti and Somalia for the dubious last place.

SOURCE: http://www.dailykos.com/

THE REALITY OF HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA

“Sign the petition; let’s stop Obama care before it does irreparable damage to America”

That is what the ad says where Mikie Hucklebee is urging Americans to stop Obama care. It is ludicrous it is almost laughable. As if our health care system wasn’t fucked up enough already and what is there to save? The profits of the Insurance companies…that is what.

We look at other nations with far less resources than ours and they are surpassing us not only in the amounts they spend on healthcare but also on the quality. The U.S. has slipped to a number never seen when compared to other countries.

Here is an article from the Daily Koss by by Joan McCarter

Healthcare spending in US dwarfs the OECD

“Via Ezra Klein, why the nation has to get serious, and fast, about real healthcare reform (and that doesn't include Medicare vouchers or Medicaid block grants). The Kaiser Family Foundation has a new report comparing healthcare costs—and the growth of those costs—in the U.S. and selected OECD countries. The bottom line:

It is reasonably well known that the United States spends more per capita on health care than other countries. What may be less well known is that the United States still has one of the highest growth rates in health care spending. Health care spending around the world is generally rising faster than overall economic growth, so almost all countries have seen health care spending increase as a percentage of their gross domestic product (GDP) over time. In the United States, which has both a high level of health spending per capita and a relatively high rate of real growth in spending, the share of GDP devoted to health care spending grew from 9% of GDP in 1980 to 16% of GDP in 2008. This 7 percentage-point increase in health spending as a share of GDP is one of the largest across the OECD.

Ezra reiterates what exactly that means: "[U.S] spending has been growing much faster than everyone else’s, and is now so high that our government spends more on health care than the governments of countries with single-payer systems—and that’s true even though most of our health-care spending is private!" He pulls three graphs to illustrate.

Here’s what we spend vs. what everyone else spends:

And here’s the growth in that spending over time. Note that in the 1970s, we were approximately equal to the rest of the world. It’s really in the ’80s and ’90s that the gap between us and everyone else opened up:

...But perhaps the piece de resistance is this chart, showing the percentage of gross domestic product that countries spend on private and public health-care expenditures. The United States spends more through the government than — deep breath — Japan, Australia, Norway, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Canada or Switzerland:

In other words, we’re spending more on government-provided health care than most countries where government-provided health care is pretty much all there is.

And we all know that outcomes are not matching expenditures. In 2000, the World Health Organization ranked the U.S. 37th in the world. In 2006, "the United States was number 1 in terms of health care spending per capita but ranked 39th for infant mortality, 43rd for adult female mortality, 42nd for adult male mortality, and 36th for life expectancy."

That picture isn't improving, and won't if the only solution our lawmakers can come up with is slashing healthcare services to the most vulnerable populations”.

But you tell these Republican-Teahadists and it is like speaking to your kitchen table…they will not listen to reason, you show them the statistics, drown them with facts and charts and they will still cling to that idea that we have the best health care system in the world and that the insurance companies should continue to make a profit out of people’s misery.

Amazingly, with all the evidence that our health care system is bad enough, the Republican-Teahadists now want to make it even worse…they are hell-bent on eliminating Medicare and Medicaid…Do you know where America will then be in terms of health care as compared to the rest of the world? I don’t know and I don’t even want to think about it; but it will be right along very poor third world country…we bight be competing with Haiti and Somalia for the dubious last place.

SOURCE: http://www.dailykos.com/

GOProud is Disgusting!!! Scumbags Of The Day...

What would make a Black join the KKK; or a Jew the Nazi party or a gay person become a Republican?

GOProud is an almost insignificant blog that represents a very far out segment of the gay population as well as a very limited one. They may be insignificant in numbers but what they are not in numbers they are in the very contradiction of their existence.

It seems to me that these people have not thought about it all the way through; it is clear that they have a definite disconnect with reality and that of the Republican-Teahadist ideology. Perhaps it is a hatred of blacks or even an illusion that someday these middle classers are going to join the rank of the rich.

I for one, know who my enemies are; as an elderly, gay Latino man I would never put my vote in the Republican column simply because they are against seniors, Hispanics and obviously gays. For these people to even exist presents a ticklish paradox.

GOProud is in a desperate fight to defeat Obama with a republican in 2012, it is their number one goal. Now for those of you who do not know who they are, GOProud is a gay republican Conservative group. Can you imagine? What a joke. President Jimmy LaSalvia in his statement below, claims that Obama has been nothing of a "disaster for gays and lesbians"...Yeah, you know it, I'm getting started. Clearly LaSalvia has not been living in the same country as the rest of us gays because if he were, he would know the following

FACTS of what Obama has done for the gays:

1. Repeal of DADT

2. Every hospital that excepts medicare & Medicaid (which is virtually every hospital) must allow gays and lesbians to have non-family visitors and to grant their partners medical power of attorney.

3. Obama Administration has hired more OPENLY gay & lesbian staffers than any other president in history. More then Clinton and Bush combined.

4. Denounced DOMA, calling it unconstitutional and refusing to defend it in court.

5.Signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the first federal civil rights law to protect gays and lesbians.

6.Instructed federal agencies to extend benefits where possible to same-sex partners of civilian federal employees.
7.Ordered the release of data on legally married gay couples from the 2010 census, conferring legitimacy on same-sex relationships.
8.Ended a ban on HIV-positive immigrants and foreign visitors.
9.Announced new regulations that recognize LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) families for federal housing programs and prohibit discrimination in getting federally insured mortgage loans.
10.Appointed more than 100 openly gay people in his administration, including the government's top personnel official and the head of the Council for Environmental Quality.
11.Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to gay icons Harvey Milk and Billie Jean King.
12.Hosted a White House summit on bullying and recorded a video message to gay youths telling them that "It Gets Better."

13. INVITED LGBT Families to the white house easter eggroll.

14. Has dinners at the white house for the LGBT community.

15. Signs U.N. declaration that calls for the decriminalization of homosexuality. Which dumbass Bush refused to sign during his entire joke of a presidency...

Shall i go on, or is that enough LaSalvia? What have you done for the gay community that even comes close to this list? Besides embarrass yourselves. Obama has done more in his 3 years than any other president has done in history. And certainly no Republican would EVER do any of the above. So you want to talk about disaster? That would have been any Republican you idiots support.

GOProud in my opinion, are nothing more than a but a bunch of self loathing gays who can not except their homosexuality fully and resigned themselves to believe that they are second class citizens. Which is sad in this day and age. So my advice to LaSalvia and the rest of GOProud, is to get some self respect, be truly PROUD of who you are and stand up and support the people who are really fighting for your rights...

Gay conservative group GOProud has one mission between now and November, 2012 —defeating Barack Obama.

“Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House has been an unmitigated disaster for all Americans, including gay and lesbian Americans,” GOProud president Jimmy LaSalvia said in a statement. “Defeating Barack Obama and putting a conservative in the White House should be the number one goal of every single person in the conservative movement."

The group is looking ahead toward the Iowa Straw Poll in August as the kickoff for the effort. The Ames Straw Poll will begin on August 11th with a Republican Presidential debate and conclude on August 13th with the actual straw poll itself.

“This Republican presidential field is shaping up to be an incredibly strong one,” La Salvia said. We look forward to hearing each of the candidates make his or her case about why they would be the best nominee to beat Barack Obama.” deets here

SOURCE: http://www.izzoiz.com/

PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/04/29/GOProuds_Mission_Take_Down_Obama/

ON THE KILLING OF BIN LADEN

ON THE KILLING OF BIN LADEN

Osama bin Laden's lair in Abbottabad on Monday after the raid

I now distrust the Pakistani Government

Tell me if I am wrong, but even in America where we have McMansions, huge compounds where rich folks hide from the likes of you and me; in our country, the good old U.S.of A. there are thousands, not just hundreds of well-to-do folks living in the lap of luxury in gated communities or their own estates. Yet, for all the abundance of rich abodes, municipal, state and federal governments know exactly who owns these structures and who lives in them.

I took a look at Google Satellite map and I wrote: Abbottabad and it wasn’t even difficult to spot the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed…for crying out loud, the fricking thing was ten times bigger than any property around it…now, are you going to tell me the Pakistanis didn’t know who lived there or even who owned it? I think not.

I think that the government of Pakistan has been playing us like a violin…the suckers that we are…we give them tens of millions of dollars and expect some kind of cooperation and yet, they knew all along where this asshole was but would not tell us…why? Because as long as Bin Laden is hiding, they can keep milking the American people of money.

Also, it is not unthinkable that even some very high officials within the Pakistani government knew exactly where Bin Laden was but they were aiding and abetting him, keeping him safe because they themselves are sympathizers of the Al-Qaida organization.

Maybe in my old age I have become jaded and mistrusting…that is true…I don’t imagine conspiracy theories at every turn like some of our Republican countrymen do…but I do throw a bit of caution to the wind because humans are corruptible and capable of doing horrible things.

Abbottabad isn’t that big place, surely neighbors and the city officials should and would have known who that compound belonged to unless of course they were on the take as may also be the case with some of Pakistan’s government officials.

You can’t blame President Obama for having kept this a secret even from the Pakistanis…the temptation would have been there for some yahoo in the government to warn Bin Laden and he would have escaped once more.

Kudos to those who conducted the raid…they are true heroes and Kudos to our President.

PHOTO SOURCE:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/05/look-inside-osama-bin-ladens-abbottabad-compound.html

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Osama-Bin-Laden-Terror-Chief-Tracked-Down-In-Pakistan-By-CIA-And-Killed-By-Crack-US-Troops/Article/200910115983664?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_15983664_Osama_Bin_Laden%3A_Terror_Chief_Tracked_Down_In_Pakistan_By_CIA_And_Killed_By_Crack_US_Troops

THE TIME TO TAKE ACTION IS NOW

Don’t bitch later that the Republican Teahadists destroyed your benefits

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