No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for July 16th, 2009

If Microsoft did this…

by @ 20:15. Filed under Business.

Yesterday, Apple broke the ability of Palm’s Pre smartphone to sync with iTunes. It would be as if Google had somehow figured out how to fully-implement MSHTML in Google Chrome, and then Microsoft shut that off in Chrome to protect the elements of MSHTML that are only available in Internet Explorer.

Of course, the Apple fanboys, the same ones that would be the loudest whiners (yes, even louder than the Google fanboys) if Microsoft did that, are happier than pigs in wet shit that their company is making the mistake it did with MacOS – namely, shutting out any and all third-party developers. I hope they’re happy with a 10% market share for iTunes/iPhone in 5 years.

Someone Didn’t Get The Memo!

by @ 16:13. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Senator Barbara Boxer attempted to use the traditional Democrat tactic of identity politics on Black Chamber of Commerce CEO, Harry Alford.  Unfortunately for Babs, Harry hadn’t gotten the memo that said that all US Citizens of African heritage must think alike and that all US Citizens of African heritage must support all policies posited by the first President with African heritage.  Fortunately, Mr. Alford called Babs on her racist remarks.  Unfortunately, she’s either too dense

Enjoy!

Soon, at a Medical Provider Near You!

Massachusetts is the state whose health care model that is being used for much of the Democrat’s plan.  When Massachusetts plan was proposed, it was supposed to cost the State a few hundred thousand dollars each year.  It is now costing more than twice what it was proposed to cost.

From the NY Times:

BOSTON — A hospital that serves thousands of indigent Massachusetts residents sued the state on Wednesday, charging that its costly universal health care law is forcing the hospital to cover too much of the expense of caring for the poor.

The central charge in the suit is that the state has siphoned money away from Boston Medical to help pay the considerable cost of insuring all but a small percentage of residents. Three years after the law’s passage, Massachusetts has the country’s lowest percentage of uninsured residents: 2.6 percent, compared with a national average of 15 percent.

Sound Familiar?

One of the state’s reimbursement rates to Boston Medical, dropped from $12, 476 in 2008 to $9,323 by 2009, the suit says.

Folks, this is one way that government rations.  By reducing their payments to providers, for no reason other than they can, providers begin reducing the number of patients they will see or reduce the care the patients get.  Is it lost on the D.C. crowd how many providers no longer accept Medicaid patients?

State officials have suggested that Boston Medical could reduce costs by operating more efficiently. The state has also pointed out that the hospital has reserves of about $190 million, but Tom Traylor, the hospital’s vice president of federal and state programs, said the reserves could only sustain the hospital for about a year.

Translation:  You have money, therefore you can afford to get paid less or pay more to be a part of the program.

If the State is so good at identifying where cost reductions can be attained, why is it that they have a budget shortfall of $5 Billion?  Can’t they state turn their own folks inward to find the waste and inefficiency in the State’s budget?

Deja Vu All Over Again

by @ 5:34. Filed under Economy, Health, Politics - National.

President Obama along with many Democrats, are trying to push a health care overhaul before the August recess. Amidst arguments of the cost ($1.6 Trillion to over $4 trillion), how to pay for it (taxes, taxes, taxes) and who it would provide political payback for (planned parenthood amongst others), most folks, including those in Congress, have no idea how this plan (at 3,000 pages) would actually work.  To help show the complexity of what is being proposed the Republicans have released a chart that shows all of the bureaucratic snarling that would occur if the proposed plan is passed.  Can you make sense of it?

Dem med

It’s hard to believe that this mess can possibly provide better health care than what we have today. The funny thing is that I seem to remember seeing a similar plan to this as a kid. As a kid I remember seeing a plan that had fewer bureaucratic involvement yet had the same exact end result.

While almost 40 years old, I believe this chart would have just as much success as the one the Democrats are proposing:

Mouse_Trap_Board_and_Boxjpg

Either way, we end up trapped at the end!

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