Paging Dr Day STAT

From the San Fransico Chronicle

The Democratic-controlled Legislature is on the verge of sending Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a bill that would create a state-run universal health care system, testing him on an issue that voters rate as one of their top concerns in this election year.

On a largely party-line 43-30 vote, the Assembly approved a bill by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, that would eliminate private medical insurance plans and establish a statewide health insurance system that would provide coverage to all Californians. The state Senate has already approved the plan once and is expected this week to approve changes that the Assembly made to the bill.

Schwarzenegger has said he opposes a single-payer plan like the one Kuehl's bill would create, but the governor has not offered his own alternatives for fixing the state's health care system. As many as 7 million people are uninsured in the state, and spiraling costs have put pressure on business and consumers.

"We know the health care in place today is teetering on collapse," said Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles. "We need to do something to improve it, to reform it, and this is what we are bringing to the table."

Predictably the insurance companies are weighing in

But eliminating health care insurance plans would eradicate the groups that have the most experience with getting people insured and to doctors, said Chris Ohman, president and CEO of the California Association of Health Plans.

Ohman said other places that are trying universal health care -- such as Massachusetts and San Francisco -- are using health care plans to help facilitate the implementation. He said the insurance companies are in the best position to manage costs.

Yes they are doing such a great job of keeping costs down now.

When treating patients with real health problems, the managed care model is inherently inefficient and costly. The incentives discourage early diagnosis because gatekeepers are financially motivated to spend as little time with patients and as little money as possible. Once a significant condition is identified, specialist referrals are delayed. Yet specialist care is better, and more cost-effective, for seriously ill patients.

RICHARD AMERLING, M.D.

How forward thinking of Dr. Day and the rest of the privitization crowd to want to embrace a system shown to be inherently wrong for patients, more costly and less efficient.

Read the rest of this entry »

Protect the bigots!!

If there is anything society should have learned by now it is the of everyone bigots need the most protection. Have your human rights if you must but don't expect them to have to like or deal with it.
From the CBC

Alberta's opposition parties made good on a promise Monday to delay debate on a Tory private member's bill that would have allowed commissioners to refuse to perform same-sex marriages.

Speaker Ken Kowalski chastised opposition members for eating up the time allotted for debate with procedural matters, killing backbencher Ted Morton's controversial Bill 208.

"I know what's transpired today," Kowalski told the assembly.

"There's no hope in hell this afternoon that any private member's bill is coming up."

The bill sought to protect marriage commissioners who refused to conduct same-sex marriages because of their moral or religious beliefs, and would have made it necessary for parents to give permission before any aspect of same-sex relationships is discussed in the classroom.

Morton, MLA for Foothills-Rocky View said the bill was intended to protect freedom of speech for everybody, including those who publicly oppose same-sex marriage, from being sued or fired - something he said happens in other provinces.

Next on the agenda a private members bill that would allow shopkeepers to opt out of serving anyone who isn't white, married or a priest.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hosting, Or how I learned to stop worrying and embrance chaos

Internet hosts - the new snake oil salesmen. Trying to find a reasonably priced, reliable, good tech support host is like trying to find Shangra La.
Our first experience was with a host I knew from previous experience to be fairly reliable. Didn't do so well, however, it did turn out they had a server meltdown, so benefit of the doubt and all we're moving back there.
But our current host is bloody useless. Constant database errors, useless tech support. In fact the last issue I resolved myself but they were kind enough to send me an email telling me the issue was fixed now. REALLY!!!!!!!!! Damn glad you told me. Word to the wise NEVER pay for more than a month at a time. We are losing about 200 dollars over this which none of us is in a position to do. Who is really?And so now I have to take avantage of the extremely kind tech god Steve and have him go through all the ups and downs of file and database transfers. I feel fortunate to have such kind and understanding board members who are of course also friends.

Read the rest of this entry »

An Apple a Day

Keeps the doctor away.
Or as doctors are now singing Stay away if you can't pay.
Dr. Brian Day's election to the head of the Canadian Medical Association is a pretty clear message from doctors that profits come before all else.
You would think that part of the requirements for medicine would be a good grasp of math. Why then are doctors like Dr. Day so keen on privatization as a way to help with waiting times? Surely if there are not enough doctors now to care for everyone taking doctors out of the system will result in higher wait times.
Of course this isn't about wait times, nor is it about care. It is about money those who want to charge whatever the market will bear, and those who have money and a grand sense of entitlement to have their needs placed before those of others.
The Ontario Health Coalition has fought hard to keep health care public and accessible Natalie Mehra said;

“The choice of the delegates is an unfortunate one for the majority of patients in Canada,” said Natalie Mehra, director of the Ontario Health Coalition. “Brian Day has spent years advocating for the dismantling of the public health system through privatization and the de-listing of health services. These are not innovative ideas. They are old ones relentlessly pushed by the small but well-heeled group who have personal business interests in promoting privatization. We are deeply disappointed.”

It is a sad reflection on the type of society we have that medical care is seen as something that can be withheld based on one's ability to pay.

Read the rest of this entry »

McHummers

Do they hum because they don't know the words?
Words like environmentally friendly, energy efficient...
It isn't bad enough their food pollutes children's bodies, their "prizes" are models of vehicles that pollute the air the children breathe.
If you would like to send McDonalds a message and create your own sign click here

Read the rest of this entry »

Canada?

There can be no peace in the region until the militant group and Israel agree to uphold a lasting ceasefire with clear conditions, he told a packed special meeting of the Commons foreign affairs committee. "This has to be a lasting peace," he said. "It cannot be simply a temporary solution to allow for the rearmament of the terrorist body and simply begin the violence again."

Condi Rice? George Bush? Try Tory Peter MacKay.
In the lastest in the game of who can suck up more to Bush administration, the tories have shown once again there is no level to which they will not sink.
Witnesses had been invited to speak, though natuarally those chosen were the one's who showed support for the Harper administration;

"I came by myself. We didn't get invited," el-Akhras said of his attempt to speak at the committee before being led away from the table.

"He defended the act of Israel," el-Akhras said of MacKay's comments. "We want justice."

Others said witnesses chosen to speak to MPs about the evacuation were hand-picked by the Conservatives who head the committee.

Mazen Chouaib, executive director of the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations, called the process "a charade."

He and other national Arab representatives were excluded in favour of witnesses more likely to be favourable to the Conservatives, he suggested.

"To me this is dirty politics. It's something that troubles me a great deal in a Canadian democracy that we have . . . such tricks being played just to show that the prime minister has support."

One wonders how MacKay, Harper et all can see the news reports, watch the broken bodies, too many of them children, being carried out from the rubble and still sit there smug in their self-righteousness.
How nice that our country once known for mediation, peace keeping and neutrality can now be seen as part of the coaltion of the willing. Willing to do whatever the Bush admistration says, willing to put profit before lives, willing to pass off dictatorship as democracy.
The conservatives have made it clear that they have their own agenda and that the wishes of the Canadian public have no place in that agenda.Let us hope that when the next election rolls around Canadians give these Bush jrs a swift and decisive kick out of parliment.

Read the rest of this entry »