American Health Care at its best?

I was talking with a buddy the other day.  He lives and works in Denver, Colorado. He has developed at strange lump on his nether region and sought the advice of his local doctor. He is one of the lucky Americans because he has health care coverage through an HMO paid for in part by his company. For those who do not know, an HMO is the American equivalent to a combined group practice and membership-only clinic.

HMOs general work pretty well as long as you don't have a really difficult case because many HMO also subscribe to a regime called managed practice. One example of managed practice is as follows; if you have condition A, you can be treated for condition A. But is you have condition A and then develop condition B, you may have to wait for condition A to be cured before condition B is treated because, and here is the real rub, the insurance companies that fund the health care coverage will not pay for the second condition. Why not? There is a caveat in many US health care policies that talk about pre-existing conditions. Condition B may or may not be related to condition A but the pre-existing condition clause make the insurance company the arbiter of the condition... not the doctor.

In my buddy's case he had a hernia about 10 years ago - before he went to work for his current company. His insurance company decided that his current suspected condition was the consequence of that hernia. It is a totally stupid assertion but try to fight the insurance company over it.  The company will not pay for his treatment.  Maybe he should come to Canada for treatment.  Or maybe go to Mexico or even... Cuba.

With all its warts and blemishes the Canadian health insurance system does better than my buddy's private one. Just remember that when the Cons come knocking on your door trying to sell you a private plan.

Upsetting the Rabid Right

Whatever you do in life, the one thing that you do not want to do is upset the Rabid Right.

The Rabid Right has always labeled liberal as a dirty word. Tax and Spend Liberals. Soft on Crime Liberals. Masters of Entitlements Liberals.

You never hear the Rabid Right mention that liberals brought us our health care system, instituted OAS and CPP, fought off the depression of the 30's, authored Peace Keeping, or any of the hundreds of positive things that Canadians take for granted that were implemented by liberals.

Where, oh where, does the Rabid Right get the moralistic chutzpa to suggest, ney... pontificate, that their crap don't stink. The In and Out Scandal that the Cons are trying to block is just the tip of the iceberg when looking at dirty tricks. Seems that the diminutive Gary Lunn, PC,MP is up to his eyeballs (about 4 foot three at last measurement) in advertising scandals out in BC. Seems that in the last election four or five "third party" groups took out ads that supported the re-election of the Mighty Midget. That should be within the rules except that the third party groups shared another thing in common. There was only one official agent and he was also on the executive of the conservative riding association that supported Lunn. Coincidence? I wonder.

But the Rabid Right in Canada cannot hold a candle to their US siblings. The gloves are off in the land of the free. In the past week or so First Lady Michelle Obama has been publicly called a Bitch; Obama, himself, has been described as a dimwit; the Obama administration has been called ineffective (this after 60 days in office); and it goes on and on.

Maybe it is time for a wake-up call in the camps of the Rabid Right. Maybe they should grow up!

McCain should stick to curly fries

I almost felt sorry for John McCain, the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party, in a televised debate on Sunday night. Asked about useless government spending he decided to pop a blood vessel over a $3 million expenditure to determine the DNA of black bears. Scientists say that this research will aid in the preservation of the species, while John says that it's just pork-barrel.

Funny that. The US spends over $200 million PER DAY in IRAQ. But McCain criticizes $3 million on a project that he says is in Alaska... but is actually in Montana.

Maybe the solution is to send the bears to IRAQ, then the military could do the research as a blackbear-op... and no one would be the wiser. It may be cruel to the bears but... hey... it's better optics.