Senator Edward M. Kennedy was witness to and participant in some of America’s greatest triumphs and tragedies over the last half century and more, but perhaps the greatest irony is the timing of his final illness and death. His absence during this year’s August recess has been critical. He represented one of the last members [...]
Posts Tagged ‘health care’
The dream must not die
Posted in Current Events, Politics, Uncategorized, tagged health care, health care as a fundamental right, health care reform, Senator Kennedy, Ted Kennedy on August 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Cognitive dissonance
Posted in Politics, tagged government-run health care, health care, health care reform, public option on August 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
A number of news stories caught my eye in the last day or two.
Despite the fact that there are some 1300 health insurance companies in the US, Blue Cross Blue Shield is the behemoth, cornering more than 50% of the market in at least 16 states. The past decade has seen massive consolidation of health [...]
Health care — the view from inside
Posted in Current Events, Ideas, Politics, tagged health care, health care quality, health care reform, health insurance, health insurance reform, results-based health care on August 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
We spent about 8 hours in the ER of our local privately-owned hospital overnight. Arriving shortly after 3 a.m., we were ushered in quickly. An irregular heartbeat with atrial fibrillation tends to get people’s attention. Spouse has employer-based health care and we’ve made use of it in the past, what with a valve replacement and [...]
Misplaced rage?
Posted in Current Events, Politics, tagged change, fear of change, government-run health care, health care, health care debate, health care reform, Medicare, protests, single-payer, town hall meetings on August 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Watching the increasingly irrational arguments being shouted out at town hall meetings, I can’t help but wonder how the protesters can be so very detached from facts. Their anger seems to go far beyond the health care issue, and they are clearly not swayed by reason. I think there is another source of the rage, [...]
What would Jesus think?
Posted in Current Events, Politics, Uncategorized, tagged health care, health care reform, private insurance, public option on July 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
A small alteration to the question that purports to guide the thought and actions of Christians, and by extension Republicans… the question, “What would Jesus do?” I’ve chaffed for some years at the seeming inability of Republican leaders to walk the talk — unless applying it to someone else, preferably Democrats. This morning Joe Scarborough [...]
Aging, loss, and lessons learned — UPDATED
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged aging, health care on June 22, 2009 | 2 Comments »
The morning of June 7 as we were preparing to go to a wedding, we got a panicked phone call from my elderly and frail mother-in-law’s neighbor. She had fallen while reaching down for a hose to fill a bird bath, gotten a nasty gash on the head and spent the previous night outside, unable [...]
Whose conscience? Whose rights?
Posted in Current Events, Ideas, Politics, tagged abortion, antibiotics, artificial insemination, birth control, clinic, conscience, fertility treatment, health care, health care facility, health care insurance, hospital, in vitro fertilization, medical rights, patient rights, pharmacy, reproductive health, reproductive rights, stem cell research, women's health on December 19, 2008 | 7 Comments »
The new regulation has an appropriately Orwellian name — “right of conscience,” but the name apparently doesn’t apply to the rights or conscience of those who might seek certain legal, medically approved services. Not surprisingly, the people who will be most affected are women, and especially women who live in rural areas. The Bush Administration [...]
