Healthcare

The prevailing assumption throughout the healthcare debate was that Republicans were a monolith — all of them rich, well-to-do whites who themselves, of course, couldn’t possibly have known anyone who lacked health insurance — not even anyone from the huge swath of poor whites who lack it — and that their opposition to running a healthcare system for more than 300 million people out of Washington couldn’t have stemmed from a different understanding of economics or public policy, but instead necessarily had to have been motivated by the drive to keep minorities out of their hospitals.

Over the years, we’ve seen a lot of hypocrites in Congress, but freshman Rep. Andy Harris may win the all-time prize.

Like a lot of other newly elected Republicans, Andy Harris, from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, campaigned against healthcare reform: derided it as “ObamaCare,” denounced it as “socialized medicine” and vowed to work with fellow Republicans to repeal it.

One of the most interesting effects of last week’s election was the closing of the gender gap. Since researchers began tracking male and female voting patterns in the early 1980s, women have consistently — and strongly — favored Democrats over Republicans. In fact, in the 2008 presidential election, women voted for Barack Obama over John McCain 56-43, a 13-point advantage.

But last week, all this changed. Women continued to vote in higher numbers than men, but support was evenly divided between the two parties. According to CNN’s National House Exit Poll, women favored Republicans, 49-48. Read more...

While Sarah Palin is largely responsible for setting the welcome example that encouraged so many Republican women to run for political office this year, there is a downside to her role in the midterm elections, too.

The role she played in Christine O'Donnell defeating Mike Castle in Delaware for the GOP Senate nomination, and similarly with Sharron Angle in Nevada (and the possible/likely residual effect in Colorado and perhaps Washington state), will make it difficult, perhaps even impossible, for Republicans to repeal ObamaCare.

“Star Wars” is one of my favorite movies of all time, in the top five, no doubt.

It has action, adventure, romance, laser guns and, of course, Darth Vader. What is not to like?

The premise of the movie, as everyone knows, is that the Federation is doing battle with the Empire. The Empire has built this whole huge Death Star, a mobile planet dedicated to destroying rebel planets.

I hate Halloween.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for costumes, parties and tricking; it’s the treating part I hate. Why, when a huge percent of this country is morbidly obese, when heart disease is the leading cause of death, when diabetes is epidemic, when we know that fat-filled, sugarcoated crap is killing us — why do we go gaga for gluttony? Or allow our kids to?

Based on anecdotal evidence from business owners, insurance brokers and the media, insurance premiums on policies renewed for 2010 and 2011 are increasing 20 percent to 40 percent. These rising premiums are driven by mandated coverage that includes free or low-cost preventive care, non-exclusion of children with pre-existing medical conditions, required coverage for children up to age 26 and the elimination of lifetime medical reimbursement limits.

Americans may recall that Mr. Obama promised, "If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep your healthcare plan." While this mandated coverage in the healthcare reform legislation may be desired by some people who are willing to pay the cost, there are certainly other medical insurance consumers who would rather have their current lower-cost coverage. However, under the legislation, contrary to the president's assurance, they are not permitted to keep their preferred lower-cost healthcare plans.

Health and Human Services is the federal department that plays an increasing role in our lives regarding better and better healthcare.

They're a large organization, over 68,000 people, a lot like any big company, needing to change their culture, the way they work. The theme is that the rank and file knows what's going on and how to work better, and now we have the technology to get all that and make it real.

Gene Cranick, the man whose home recently burned down in Tennessee, is now the center of a chilling controversy. As his home smoldered to the ground, local firefighters stood idly by without lifting a finger to save it — apparently because he didn’t pay the annual $75 protection fee required by the local government.

Liberals such as Keith Olbermann argue a similar episode of a la carte government could happen if the Tea Party had its way. I won't begin to touch the stupidity of that logic (somebody get the guy a copy of the 10th Amendment, please). But what is frightening are the potential parallels to healthcare and requirements for all Americans to buy the government's form of insurance. Read more...