Modern Healthcare, Corporate Greed or Human Needs?

A presentation by Mauricio Rosas to a United Unitarian Humanist Church, Plant City, FL
Why even discuss this topic at this meeting of humanist?  Easy.  Not only are we philosophical thinkers we are also humanitarians; we need more independent analysis and scrutiny as to the reasons as to how we deliver healthcare in the 21^st century.

But first we need to go back to the times of Leonardo da Vinci.  Not only was he a great thinker he  was not afraid to delve into the human body and dissect it to see how it was composed and structured.  Unlike his predecessors of ancient Greece, who used deduction and thought as opposed to the scientific method to practice medicine. Da Vinci went far beyond what was the norm at that time and secretly explored cadavers that were stolen from morgues nearby his home. Fortunately, Da Vinci did not face the harsh criticism and ridicule that Galileo faced simply because he was outspoken and challenged the Roman Catholic church to its theory of the earth being at the center of the universe.  Of course we all know that I am at the center of the Universe. Thankfully, Da Vinci left very good details of his findings that allowed us to move forward into modern medicine and the scientific method: 

• Observation and description of phenomena; Formulation of an hypothesis, Use of the hypothesis to predict the existence of other phenomena, or to predict quantitatively the results of new observations;  Performance of experimental tests of the predictions by several independent experimenters and properly performed experiments.

Somewhere….. way above the rainbow, many have lost site as to the purpose of medicine.  Medicine’s primary purpose is not to become wealthy but to make sick people well.  There was a time when there was very little difference between East and West.  The biggest difference was that the East, in particular the Chinese, had a well-developed infrastructure of medical knowledge and practice.  The West unfortunately had to face a dark period that caused it to lose much of the knowledge discovered by the Greeks, like Archimedes.  Even the lost teaching of Egyptians physicians was a great loss to Western civilization. 
Frances Bacon the great apologist for scientific inquiry relates the story of the Sphinx. He says, “The fable of the @Sphinx is an elegant and wise one, invented apparently in allusion to Science; especially in its application to practical life. Science, being the wonder of the ignorant and unskillful, may be absurdly called a monster… Again Sphinx proposes to men a variety of hard questions and riddles which she received from the Muses… when it  passes from Muse to Sphinx, that is from contemplation to practice, whereby there necessity for present action, choice and decision, then they begin to be painful and cruel….  The question posed to by the Muses to the Sphinx shows the passage of science from the contemplative to the practice but he is not interested in identifying the current knowledge of the scientific method.  Instead he is trying to conform and explain that the Sphinx is real and exists and represents the menacing side of science.  The Sphinx human head is conjoined with the lion’s body cannot be separated and that graft constitutes a monstrous creature." 

The same could be said of a corporate conglomerate Sphinx. It's head is of its greedy CEO whose salary has increased by 726% over the past decades.The head of this corporate conglomerate Sphinx also includes its investors. The body is of the soulless corporate conglomerate exploiting its workers. These are conjoined and cannot be separated because of its duty to report a profit to its investors, at the expense of its workers whose average pay increased from 2000 - 2011 a mere 32%  This creates a monstrous abomination. They claim their interest is to improve our quality of life but are they?  No! The corporate influence in all its facets of healthcare is to its investors, not the recipients of the modern healthcare model. We are strung along by a litany of medicines, unnecessary procedures all in the name of progress. Meanwhile, our incomes and savings are depleted by the abomination of “Greed.” @Greed has become the corporate system of excesses in the delivery of health services. Due to its abuse of power corporate greed is forcing doctors to perform unnecessary procedures to avoid @malpractice lawsuits, increasing the cost of healthcare.  Ask yourself.  If I had a broken leg do I need a CAT Scan or MRI?  No! A common broken leg requires nothing more than simple x-ray. I think it’s enough. Do you?
 
To avoid some of the trappings of large healthcare conglomerates, I prefer to get my healthcare from local providers and pharmacies. Just as Mr. Rodgers (Yes PBS) taught me with his song, “Who are the people in your neighborhood.” To this day I believe in his motto and my health is better due to the personal relationships I have developed with my local healthcare providers.

Dedicated to my medical team

Dr. Muqtadir – Hand Surgeon in Tampa
Dr. Ubillos –   Infectious Diseases
Dr. Leonard – Chiropractor
Kathy, Nicole, Rose and Yuolly – Pharmaceutical Team

Source:  

"Apologist: Maximum Truth In Minimum Time," by Rick Cornish

"Formal and Material Causality in Science - School of Philosophy," by Robert Sokolowski
"National Average Wage Index," www.ssa.gov
"CEO pay and the top 1%How executive compensation and financial-sector pay have fueled income inequality," by Lawrence Mishel and Natalie Sabadish | May 2, 2012, www.epi.org

The Cheesecake Factory Spins a Healthcare Tale

While the CEO of The Cheesecake Factory is complaining of the new Obamacare's (ACA) premiums etc… Saying, in this video, the cost may be passed down to their customers.  The truth is on their investor and store websites. Both illustrate how they may cheat their hourly employees from healthcare insurance.

Cheesecake Factory Hourly Restaurant Staff Benefits

"Generally, to initially qualify for our hourly staff member level Group Health Plan, you must meet the average hours per week as required by that location/restaurant/concept through the initial eligibility period which varies by concept. If you meet these requirements, you and your eligible dependents may apply for Medical, Dental, Life and AD&D coverage, effective the first of the month following the initial eligibility period. To maintain eligibility, you must continue to work the average required hours at your location/restaurant/concept."

Something in their statement is missing.  An explanation of eligibility.  To be eligible, an hourly employee must work a minimum of 25 hours or more weekly.  It's more generous than most companies but it could also encourage restaurant managers to cut hourly employees to less than 25 hours a week, in turn denying the healthcare insurance benefit. With the new laws, all Cheesecake Factory employees will be eligible for healthcare insurance regardless of how many hours they work.

The top five officials don't worry about their health insurance coverage. All together they earn a combined salary of $8,447,314 a long with health insurance. They're not suddenly going broke. In fact they're quite successful.  Their "sales have more than tripled from $540 million to approx. $1.8 billion over the last ten years."  They plan new store openings and continued growth. Their bottom line may be affected by the new law but if their fiscal trend continues, I don't see prices going-up.

Why all the fuss?

The negative news networks need an audience in order to sell advertising spots. What's the best way to keep those ads running?  Fear mongering. Fear creates stress. Stress creates illness. Illness necessitates health insurance. Health insurance buy ads. Ads create jobs and all Americans will have health insurance.

The CEO stops complaining and it's a win-win for everyone.

Will Faceook be required to provide health insurance to both its users and employees?

Will Facebook be the first cyber-revolution, creating the first Cyber-Nation-State or a simple corporation which will crumble when its users no longer use or buy Facebook?

Alcatraz, San Francisco, California

Background:
Facebook recently requested feedback on its proposed changes to its site governance process.

by Mauricio Rosas, 12/22/12

Facebook is an evolutionary anomaly that may be replacing the definition of a Nation-State to a "Cyber-Corporate-Nation-State." It has no territorial boundaries. It transcends Tribal, Republics, Totalitarian, Commonwealth, Communist or any type of government we know of today. FB is a Corporation where its users have no rights. FB need only be responsible to its stockholders. They have the right to vote. The user does not!  FB is not a Democracy! It's not Communist! It's a Corporation!! It's also the natural evolution of a mass convergence of people with a sense of self-importance or purpose or used to connect to friends, family, employees, stockholders.... FB has also become an outlet for the oppressed to fight for their FREEDOM! No one could have predicted the power of social media to affect political and economic change. 

It's marvelous!!

Yet, somehow, we the users want independence, suffrage and rights.  How can a corporation become a viable living organism where its users want similar status as a citizen ? In the United States, the Supreme Court has given corporations life in its ruling, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. But there is a persistent question.  What is Facebook? Is it a corporation whose interest is to its investors? Is it a public domain?  Wikipedia provides a fair interpretation of the spirit of the law. 

"A conceptual definition comes from Lange, who focused on what the public domain should be: "it should be a place of sanctuary for individual creative expression, a sanctuary conferring affirmative protection against the forces of private appropriation that threatened such expression. Patterson and Lindberg described the public domain not as a "territory", but rather as a concept: "There are certain materials - the air we breathe, sunlight, rain, space, life, creations, thoughts, feelings, ideas, words, numbers - not subject to private ownership. The materials that compose our cultural heritage must be free for all to use no less than matter necessary for biological survival." 

The question remains unanswered.

If it's a corporation, users agree to their terms with no authority to suffrage unless it's a stockholder. If users don't like the product then, don't buy it.  If their employees no longer want or need to work at FB then, the company collapses.  It happened to Eastern Airlines? The question is, how can we work together to put FB in the public domain or negotiate to create an Industrial Democracy?  Do we create a Declaration of Independence?  Create a Constitution?  Draft a Bill of Rights? Begin a cyber corporate revolution?

Will we marvel at the first Cyber-Nation-State?

Will it be required to provide health insurance to both its users and employees?

Kaiser Family Medicaid Quiz

Medicaid Quiz

Medicaid, the nation’s publicly funded health coverage program for low-income Americans, is a primary source of coverage, access, & health care financing, as well as a key component of the expansion of coverage in the Affordable Care Act. How much do you know about Medicaid, the role it plays in the lives of many Americans, how program dollars are spent and how Medicaid eligibility will change under health reform?

The Federal Coordinating Council was ended by the Affordable Care Act

NOTICE: The Federal Coordinating Council was ended by the Affordable Care Act.

Continue to read but the council was terminated by the ACA. 

The 15 member Council, named today in accordance with a Congressionally-mandate timeline, will assist the agencies of the Federal government, including HHS and the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense, as well as others, to coordinate comparative effectiveness and related health services research. The Recovery Act authorized $300 million for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, $400 million for the National Institutes of Health, and $400 million for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to support comparative effectiveness research.

Continue to read but the council was terminated by the ACA. 

The Council will not recommend clinical guidelines for payment, coverage or treatment. The Council will consider the needs of populations served by federal programs and opportunities to build and expand on current investments and priorities. It will also provide input on priorities for the $400 million fund in the Recovery Act that the Secretary will allocate to advance this type of research. Council members represent a diverse set of individuals and agencies; most of its members are clinicians. Representatives on the Council will address the impact on subpopulations.

NOTICE: The Federal Coordinating Council was ended by the Affordable Care Act.


Source: hhs.gov/recovery/programs/os/cerbios.html

$716 Billion Cut to Medicare meant to reduce Profits

As the Medicare political battle continues it's Seniors and People with Disabilities who are the pawns. Paul Ryan maintained that the changes [by ObamaCare] will force one of every six hospitals and nursing homes to go out of business and end Medicare Advantage — an option that allows the elderly to buy coverage from private insurers — for 4 million seniors.

The biggest and most contentious Medicare cuts total $415 billion. They come in the form of smaller annual increases in federal payments to hospitals, skilled nursing services and others providing goods and services to Medicare’s 50 million beneficiaries.

It's meant to keep private insurance from making excessive profits from Federal monies. Experts are divided on what difference the cuts will make, in part because they will only slowly be phased in over the next decade. It’s also just hard to know when the government is paying providers too much, said Joe Antos, a health-care economist at the American Enterprise Institute. “If we’re paying somebody too much, they don’t tell us,” Antos said. “I know, shocking.”

We need a system to determine the average cost of a particular procedure.  Today we have no idea.  Here in Tampa, FL, if you ask the local hospitals the price for an appendicitis each hospital gives you a different price range.  None are willing to disclose their fees.  This has to end!

Source:
canadafreepress.com
hhs.gov/recovery/programs/os/cerbios.html
go.bloomberg.com/p

Repealing of ObamaCare will accelerate insolvency of Part A - Medicare

Repealing the Affordable Care Act:

Implications for Medicare Spending and Beneficiaries

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) contains many changes to the Medicare program, including both savings and benefit improvements. Some policymakers, including the Republican presidential nominee Governor Mitt Romney, have proposed repealing the ACA. This data note describes key Medicare provisions in the ACA and explores the implications of repealing the law for Medicare program spending and beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket costs.

How does the ACA affect the Medicare program? Medicare provisions in the ACA include the following:

• Savings provisions. Some provisions of the ACA reduce the growth in Medicare spending. This is achieved mainly by phasing down payments to Medicare Advantage plans, reducing updates in payment levels to hospitals and other providers, and increasing premiums to be paid by higher-income beneficiaries.1

Benefit improvements. 

• The ACA also contains provisions that improve benefits, providing free coveragefor some preventive benefits, and closing the coverage gap in the Part D prescription drug “doughnut hole” by 2020. The law also includes higher payments for primary care physicians.

Delivery system reform.

• Some provisions are designed to reduce costs and improve the quality of patient care for elderly and disabled beneficiaries; this includes incentives to reduce preventable hospital readmissions and establish accountable care organizations (ACOs).

New revenues. 

• The ACA establishes new sources of revenue dedicated to the Medicare program,including an additional payroll tax on earnings of higher-income workers and a fee on the manufacturers  and importers of branded drugs.

Originally, the Medicare provisions of the ACA were estimated to reduce net Medicare spending by $428 billion between 2010 and 2019.2 More recently, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the Medicare provisions would reduce Medicare spending by $716 billion from 2013 to 2022. The increase reflects a new ten-year budget window and changes in the CBO baseline.3


 How would repealing the ACA affect Medicare spending and the program’s fiscal outlook?

If the ACA were repealed, the law’s savings and revenue provisions would be reversed, as would its benefit improvements. Repeal would increase Part A and B spending by restoring payment rates to private insurers (Medicare Advantage plans) and health care providers to their pre-ACA levels, among other changes. Repeal would also produce offsetting savings by eliminating coverage in the Part D “doughnut hole” and reinstating cost-sharing for preventive services. Because the ACA is expected to reduce net spending over ten years, repealing the ACA would increase net Medicare spending by $716 billion over ten years relative to the current baseline.

Repealing the ACA would also accelerate the projected year of insolvency for the Part A Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund by eight years, from 2024 (current projection) to 2016 (if the ACA is repealed). This is because spending for services under Part A would increase, and revenues dedicated to Part A would decrease. As a result, within four years, Medicare would not be able to fulfill its obligation to pay for all Part A covered services.

Solvency projections of the Part A trust fund:

Current Law             12 years from now                            2024     

ACA Repeal      4  years from now   2016  

Source: Part A solvency projection for current law from 2012 Annual Report of the Boards of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance and Federal
Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds; solvency projection with ACA repeal from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Press
Release, “Medicare Stable, but Requires Strengthening,” released April 23, 2012.

Texas Budget Cutting Causes Closure Of 50 Clinics Offering Family Planning Services

Cuts to Texas' budget have caused more than 50 clinics that provide family planning services to close, a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine reports.

The Texas Tribune: Report: Family Planning Cuts Caused 53 Clinics To Close
More than 50 clinics that provide family planning services have closed as a result of state budget cuts, according to a report published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine. State lawmakers cut funding for family planning services by two-thirds in the last legislative session, dropping the two-year family planning budget from $111 million to $37.9 million for the 2012-13 biennium (Aaronson, 9/26).

Politico Pro: The Impact Of Cutting Family Planning Funding In Texas
What happens when states say goodbye to federal family-planning funding? A new analysis in The New England Journal of Medicine, focusing on Texas, finds it leads to decreased access to preventive services, clinics turning away women who can't pay and far fewer resources in impoverished areas. "We are witnessing the dismantling of a safety net that took decades to build and could not easily be recreated even if funding were restored soon," authors Kari White, Daniel Grossman, Kristine Hopkins and Joseph E. Potter write (Smith, 9/26).

In the meantime, Missouri has fined Aetna $1.5 million for failing to allow employers to opt-out of contraception coverage in their plans, and Virginia's Attorney General approves new regulations on abortion clinics --

St. Louis Beacon: State Department Of Insurance Fines Insurer For Offering Contraceptive Coverage
The Missouri Department of Insurance has announced that it has levied its largest fine in state history -- $1.5 million -- against an insurer who failed to comply with state law regarding coverage, or lack of, for autism treatment, contraception and elective abortions. Among other things, Aetna Life Insurance Co. "provided coverage for contraceptives without allowing employers to opt out of this coverage," the department says. A department spokesman noted that the provisions in question were in an 11-year-old state law, and not part of the new state law regarding abortion, contraceptive and sterilization coverage put in place following the General Assembly's action earlier this month to override Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto (Mannies, 9/26).

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Cuccinelli Approves Abortion Clinic Regulations
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's office Wednesday gave its stamp of approval to new abortion clinic regulations that will compel existing clinics to retrofit their facilities to meet standards for new hospital construction. Cuccinelli's certification of the regulations, approved by the state Board of Health Sept. 14, advances them to Gov. Bob McDonnell for further review. If McDonnell approves the regulations, they will be subject to a 60-day public comment period before returning to the Board of Health for final consideration, which is expected next year. The Board of Health voted 13-2 on Sept. 14 to adopt regulations that require existing abortion clinics in Virginia to be regulated like new hospitals (Nolan, 9/27).

The Drug War is killing U.S.

Brutal Riots for Freedom - Religous Intolarance - Have we learned anything?

As we watch the Middle East fall apart. We should remember the brutality we've caused to so many of our citizens in fighting for freedom.
Peter, a man who was enslaved in Baton Rouge Louisiana, whose scars are a result of a whipping by his
overseer, who was subsequently discharged by Peter's owner.
(Photo on file with U.S. National Archives and Records) A favorite form of dealing with Negroes was public lynching. The practice of

killing people by extrajudicial mob action, occurred in the United States chiefly from the late 18th century through the 1960s. Lynchings took place most frequently in the Southern United States from 1890 to the 1920s, with a peak in the annual toll in 1892. 

Riots destroying black civilian home similar to the riots in Egypt and the rest of the Muslim Middle East.Birmingham, Alabama, would see some of the worst violence.

Just before launching to a group of his closest aids: "I have to tell you that in my judgment, some people sitting in this room today will not come back alive from this campaign."Thousands of school children took part in the marches and demonstrations in this bastion of white supremacy. But the state police showed little mercy. "So long as I'm po-leece commissioner in Birmingham, the niggers and the white folks ain't gon' segregate together in this man's town" declared police chief, Bull Conner.
America's True History of Religious Tolerance
The idea that the United States has always been a bastion of religious freedom is reassuring—and utterly at odds with the historical record. From the earliest arrival of Europeans on

America’s shores, religion has often been a cudgel, used to discriminate, suppress and even kill the foreign, the “heretic” and the “unbeliever”—including the “heathen” natives already here. Moreover, while it is true that the vast majority of early-generation Americans were Christian, the pitched battles between various Protestant sects and, more explosively, between Protestants and Catholics, present an unavoidable contradiction to the widely held notion that America is a “Christian nation.”

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Americas-True-History-of-Religious-Tolerance.html#ixzz26c07BTHs
 
It took us 236-years to get to where we are today and we're still fighting, The Middle East is just now discovering Democracy. No one told them it was messy and bloody. 

Are we cured from bigotry and religious discord?  No, but we must continue to work towards a "More Perfect Union."

Rick Scott is a threat to Children and Seniors

Late last night I received a phone call from my Aunt.  She was crying and in a panic. It took her a few minutes but she did compose herself.  She then began reading a letter she received from Medicaid.

Dear Medicaid Recipient:

The 2012 Florida Legislature made some changes in the law impacting Medicaid.  Starting August 1, 2012....

• Home health visits will be changing from four visits per day to no more than three  day....
• Office visits for some services will be limited to two per month.  This limitation is for general visits to your physician....the type of visit that will be limited id for primary care visits.
• Hospital emergency room visits will be limited to six per fiscal year.........

So there we have it Floridians!  Cuts to Medicaid! Gov. Rick Scott will leave no stoned unturned to prove the evils of government sponsored healthcare.  This did not have to happen!

Governor Rick Scott (R-FL) was the first governor to announce that he would not accept approximately $1.9 billion dollars in Medicaid funds allocated to Florida by the Affordable Care Act.  He's acted against the safety and well-being of the people of Florida at the expense of more-of-the same politics. 

Not to throw more gas to a fire but to make matters worse, there's the looming sequester (over the cliff) at the beginning of 2013.  "If this were to happen physicians would see a 2% cut in reimbursements," said Jared Bernstein, former chief economist & economic adviser to Vice President, Joe Biden. What we need is "enough grownups in the room to avoid a self-inflected wound.."   The same self-inflicted wound Scott could prevent instead he says, "The real problem with health care is that costs continue to rise."  Yes, healthcare costs are rising but so are defense cost. "It has doubled from 2001-2009," said Bernstein.

Apparently defense spending or increased fees to military retirees are a non-issue for Scott.  Why?  Those increases are paid by the Fed.  So when military retirees face increased fees to their Tri-Care healthcare insurance, Scott smiles because it's "hidden" fed dollars.

Scott doesn't know how to govern he has become a threat to the lives of millions of children, seniors and the medically needy.


by Mauricio Rosas

source:
http://www.policymic.com
Wilson Center, National Press Conference 9/10/12

Is our Electorate Sick?

I wonder. If Election Day was a holiday would more people cast a ballot? I'm not sure but in some states, including Delaware, Hawaii, Kentucky, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia Election Day is a civic holiday. Some other states require that workers be permitted to take time off from employment without loss of pay. California Elections Code Section 14000 provides that employees otherwise unable to vote must be allowed two hours off with pay, at the beginning or end of a shift.

Southern states on the other hand, do everything conceivable to keep "certain type of people" from voting.  Florida has become the leader in voter suppression, resulting in a unhealthy and sickly electorate.  How is it possible to diagnose a sickly electorate?  It doesn't require much. The first to be hardest hit are former felons.  These men and women having served their time, imprisoned and now released, are left out of the democratic process. In essence they are taxed without representation.  They're denied the right to vote; access to proper healthcare; workforce reintegration, leaving them to decay in a society which thinks of them as vermin. This creates a higher rate of recidivism. Leaving this sector of the population vulnerable to disease, despair and all to often, hunger.

Since Gore vs. Bush,  Florida is beholden to no one.  Its Governors are using the guise of purging "non-citizens" from voter rosters to suppress the "Latino" vote who generally vote for Democrats.  Florida's Republican government portray Latinos as leaches to our healthcare system and other social services.  That is simply a blatant lie! A scare tactic to keep Latinos "in there place," by using healthcare as an agent of fear to keep them from registering to vote. 

These tactics have become the norm for Florida.  Suffrage for Latinos, Women,  Former-Felons.... is an ideal setting for a political battle jeopardizing the health of the State, its inhabitants and Constitution.

source: 
www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2008/10/election_day_should_be_a_holiday.html

Mitt says, "No Change to Medicare." Not True

A recent poll conducted by Kaiser Family Foundation and The Washington Post as the GOP

prepares for its national convention, finds that the Affordable Care Act is not the top health care priority among Republicans.

When it comes to Medicare it finds that among Republicans a majority (55%) prefer the idea of keeping Medicare as it is rather than changing to a system in which seniors are guaranteed a fixed amount of money that could be used to purchase coverage "either from traditional Medicare or from a list of private plans." Both Romney and Ryan have proposed converting Medicare into a premium support program, with the House Republican budget plan spearheaded by Ryan calling for such a change to begin in 2023.

Romney has not spelled out full details of his Medicare plan. But if it is based upon Ryan's, the budget office says it would rein in Medicare spending more forcefully than Obama has.*

So if using Ryann's plan, will wheelchair scooters still be paid by Medicare? 

Mauricio 
Source:
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: August 2012
*http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/16