waywuwei's Blog

waywuwei Commented on Why is Obama spending more time on healthcare instead of job creation by MiddleClassBill

2009-11-15T00:44:15Z

Fred here's a quote from "Physicians for a National Health Program" citing a New England Journal of Medicine Study claiming the 30% figure. I wonder what your source was for the 15-18 percent figure. I suspect that the 30 % figure includes the health care provider administrative costs to deal with the insurance industry. A much fairer measure in my opinion since administrative costs do not result in actual care for patients.

The estimate that total administrative costs consume 31% of U.S. health spending is from research by Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler and published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2003. The figure would undoubtedly be higher today. Insurance overhead accounts for a minority of the overhead. Much more occurs in physicians’ offices, hospitals, and nursing homes - driven by our current fragmented payment system.

waywuwei Commented on Why is Obama spending more time on healthcare instead of job creation by MiddleClassBill

2009-11-14T23:52:27Z

Fred, what percentage of the health care money taken in by the insurance industry actually goes to provide real health care?

waywuwei Commented on The Birther Argument: Does it make any sense? by waywuwei

2009-11-14T21:34:48Z

Opps, they have used that one, but not the way I interpreted it. I missed the fact that the last phrase refers to the "citizen of the US clause and not the preceding clause: "Natural born citizen". It's the Natural Born citizen clause that the birthers have been touting claiming that anyone born outside the US is not a natural born citizen and therefore ineligible. So according to this we did not have an eligible candidate in the last Presidential election. File this under: "beating a dead horse".

waywuwei Commented on The Birther Argument: Does it make any sense? by waywuwei

2009-11-14T21:25:42Z

Most interesting was the quote from the Constitution:

"No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President;..."

I'm not a lawyer, but I can't figure out how to read that except that no one now alive is eligible to be President of the United States. I wonder why the birthers haven't jumped on that one. ;-)

waywuwei Commented on Why is Obama spending more time on healthcare instead of job creation by MiddleClassBill

2009-11-14T17:03:14Z

My read of things goes this way: Back in the post WWII period, the government convinced industry to cover health care costs for their employees. This was done through the private insurance industry. Currently, the insurance industry eats up 33 cents out of every health care dollar purely for administration. This is only the tip of the iceberg, because the policies of the last 30 years by the insurance industry has forced doctors and hospitals to increase their administrative staff to deal with the increased paperwork and the need to fight back against the insurance industry to get paid. All of this is pure waste. The current WHO ratings of health care around the world rate US health care as 37th in the world. However it is number one in one respect and that is we spend more on health per capita than any other country. The highest rated health care systems in the world are all government run health care systems which cover all of their citizens.

But here is the real issue, one which is never discussed: In most of the health care systems that we are competing against in the world, the onus of paying for it is not so heavily placed on industry. This means that US industry is at a significant competitive disadvantage because of the higher health care costs in the US. This pushes industry to relocate in other countries that have lower health care costs for employees and makes industries operating in the US less competitive in the world markets.

Now, the current bills coming out of congress and the senate will probably not address the core issue here and that is the very large leech that is sucking the lifeblood out of our health care system: the insurance industry. The level of corruption in both parties will make sure that the insurance industry makes even more money and sucks more out of the system. It will be billed as a great victory.

Real health care reform will create more jobs and make US industry more competitive but we won't get it until we deal with the egregious corruption in our representative form of government.

Your real question should have been: why could the US government find the political will to funnel trillions into the bank bail out but not find the money to create jobs on Main St? One answer: corruption.

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waywuwei Commented on The Birther Argument: Does it make any sense? by waywuwei

2009-11-14T16:11:42Z

Thanks Bruce for that interesting pointer. I couldn't wade through all of the comments but it makes clear that there is an issue there which seems to have been a function of his mother's age at the time of giving birth and the non-retroactive nature of the 1986 revision of the law. A tempest in a tea pot to be sure but interesting.

waywuwei Commented on The Birther Argument: Does it make any sense? by waywuwei

2009-11-14T15:27:46Z

MCB: Could you just answer my question? Saying that people are doing this because Obama has no experience in a number of areas does not explain why when Bush was President and had no experience in a number of areas, especially foreign policy, these same people had no problem and weren't running around looking for his birth certificate. What's the difference and why do they think that proving he was born in Kenya has any bearing on whether he is a US citizen(my original question)?

waywuwei Commented on Pfizer leaves New London in the lurch by Donal

2009-11-14T01:18:15Z

One simple solution: send them a bill for back taxes, the taxes that were not assessed as part of the agreement with the the town that was broken by the company.

In the end, this will cause the movement to squash these kinds government/corporate liaisons in which the real losers are the citizens to be seriously strengthened.

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2009-11-14T00:18:19Z

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waywuwei Commented on ACORN Suing U.S. Over "Unconstitutional" Defunding Bill by Zachary Roth

2009-11-12T21:26:53Z

GO ACORN! Too bad they can't impeach Republicans who pass unconstitutional laws.

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waywuwei Commented on Reyes Takes Shot At GOPer Over Criticism Of Obama On Fort Hood by Justin Elliott

2009-11-10T15:26:37Z

Wing nut alert!

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waywuwei Commented on Obama: AARP's Support On Health Care Is 'No Small Endorsement' by Jillian Rayfield

2009-11-05T20:29:29Z

When the big guys get on board you know who is going to get screwed....

waywuwei Commented on Pelosi: Republican Health Care Proposal 'Scandalous' by Brian Beutler

2009-11-05T20:16:43Z

It's hard to believe that there is this disgusting species of human beings called Republicans. Morally, spiritually and ethically bankrupt, it would take a great novelist to dream this species up.

waywuwei Commented on Obama Adopts Bush's State Secrets Position -- And Exact Language -- In NSA Spying Case by Justin Elliott

2009-11-03T22:53:45Z

There is one presupposition here that bears deep examining and that is the statement: "The President of the United States and the Executive branch run the country". We have 3 public branches of government and numerous covert branches of government who are not accountable to anyone. The least accountable are even more covert that the NSA (No Such Agency). So until we know who is running the country, our only beef can be with those who follow orders because to fail to follow orders results in termination...

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waywuwei Commented on Party Of No? It Would Appear So! by Brian Beutler

2009-10-24T16:42:36Z

If the Republican party is the party of "no" then the Democratic Party is the party of "Humm, well, maybe...."

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