Pat Oliphant for July 15, 2009

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    deadheadzan  almost 15 years ago

    This is a strange one. Now I get it! It’s about that cemetary that moved all the bodies to sell the plots over again. That is rather ghastly.

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    Dtroutma  almost 15 years ago

    Nope deadheadzan, I thought so at first too, but it’s just about folks without insurance. Like my niece’s husband who had a stroke,lost his job,(and health insurance) then she lost hers. I let them know that as a veteran he might get help- he did apply, and though they pay copayments on drugs(based on income), he’s getting his desperately needed therapy again and meds they couldn’t afford any longer. It’s an example of just one case where a “government” program has saved a life, literally.

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    believecommonsense  almost 15 years ago

    i like punk’s understated comment

    Oliphant is in his own stratosphere as far as cartoonists

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    bjbutler777 Premium Member almost 15 years ago

    Watched an interview on PBS with Mr. oliphant the other day. Along with Non-Sequitor, he is in a class of his own.

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    SHAKENDOWN  almost 15 years ago

    I remember incidents of multiple burials in one grave to save lots of time, & make “killer” profits for many ghouls.

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    riley05  almost 15 years ago

    Made me think of how a few months ago several people here (were they the same ones who pooh-pooh global warming?) lambasted the press for devoting too much coverage to the H1N1 flu.

    Today we see this:

    The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that the H1N1 flu pandemic was the fastest-moving pandemic ever and that it was now pointless to count every case.

    “The 2009 influenza pandemic has spread internationally with unprecedented speed. In past pandemics, influenza viruses have needed more than six months to spread as widely as the new H1N1 virus has spread in less than six weeks,” it said in a statement on the new strain, commonly known as swine flu.

    http://tinyurl.com/ms5f7s

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    pbarnrob  almost 15 years ago

    Get used to being 30 minutes from any spot on this planet, maybe a few hours if you can’t take that many G’s. Yes, honey, we shrunk the world.

    If the flu takes a few days to incubate, you (as a busy world traveler) could be literally anywhere on the sphere before you show symptoms.

    That leads directly to proactive wellness care, preventive medicine, universal eligibility, for the whole population.

    The poor schlub who got ‘it’ and died could just as well have passed ‘it’ on (whatever ‘it’ is) to his rich boss and his whole family before dying.

    In the US, we’re closing hospitals and trauma centers because of money (the lack of). How long are the rich (in those strata just below where their doctors are on staff) going to stand for it?

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    Durak Premium Member almost 15 years ago

    If you want Universal Health care now is the time to push it. It’s the best chance we’ll ever see of getting it. If (when) the Republicans get back in power they’ll never bring it up. And if Obama can’t get it done with the Congress he has no one can do it.

    I’m lucky, as a vet I have Tri-Care. It makes me sick to go to my doctors office and see my neighbors have to worry about how they’re going to pay the doctor and for their perscriptions. It’s a crime that people in the US go without proper health care just because politicians can’t agree on how they’ll run the program.

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    nomad2112  almost 15 years ago

    Yeah, NOW’S the time to push it ‘cause we have SOOOO much money after the 700 billion bank bail out.

    http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/281590/Healthcare-Is-%22Not-a-Right%22-and-Obama%27s-Plan-Will-Cost-Way-Beyond-1T-Ron-Paul-Says?
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    Jason Allen  almost 15 years ago

    and even less money after the 700+ billion wasted on a invasion and occupation of a foreign country that was all based on lies and falsified intelligence. BTW, it was G W Bush who requested the $700 billion giveaway to the banks with no strings attached.

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    riley05  almost 15 years ago

    Maybe there WERE strings attached!

    Maybe Bush will retire as the richest president ever!

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    lindz.coop Premium Member almost 15 years ago

    Of course, we could stop the war anytime and then we could ut all that money towards healthcare – but that would never happen.

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    riley05  almost 15 years ago

    Better chance now than last year.

    But unfortunately, the problems that Bush W. bestowed upon our nation aren’t the type that can be cleaned up in a few months.

    That’s his legacy.

    Worst. President. Ever.

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    Copperdomebodhi  almost 15 years ago

    “Yeah, NOW’S the time to push it ‘cause we have SOOOO much money after the 700 billion bank bail out.”

    Republicans surrender again. Great Britain passed its’ national health care act in 1946. If they could offer universal health care while digging out from World War II, we can do it while we’re digging out from the Bush economy.

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    cdward  almost 15 years ago

    Had a talk yesterday with a doctor who is also a pastor, and he was depressed. He has no use for Obama’s plan but has equal contempt for the current system. Says the European and Canadian systems are falling apart, too.

    In short, he said nothing will work because the costs (mostly driven by pharmaceuticals and medical technology) have gone up so much more than our ability to pay (or the benefit they bring), but that nobody will stand for the spending in those areas to be curbed.

    Don’t know what to do with it other than ask for comment.

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    believecommonsense  almost 15 years ago

    dypak agree that now is the time … if it isn’t passed now, I’m afraid it will take some catastrophic event to make the leaders that be recognize the current system is a disservice to so many, and I don’t just mean the uninsured.

    The profiteering in healthcare is so entrenched if we can’t reform it now, it may never happen until a plague of some sort sweeps the country.

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    believecommonsense  almost 15 years ago

    church, ain’t nobody but fear-mongering bloggers talking about nationalized healthcare. Ain’t nobody but bloggers and Faux News talking about socialized medicine. Ain’t nobody but bloggers and rightwingers talking about it all being free to everyone without insurance today. Ain’t nobody but y’all sticking your heads in the sand and pretending your health insurer ain’t deciding where, when, how and from whom you can get medical care.

    Sheesh.

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    4uk4ata  almost 15 years ago

    Actually, a universal healthcare - public or private - will of course be more effective against epidemics than one only covering part of the population. The more people have not been vaccinated, the more dangerous epidemics are.

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    slcochran  almost 15 years ago

    This is time to go to Single Payer Universal Health Care. The GAO (remember the non-partisan government agency?) has run the numbers: spending what we do today, with SPHC we can cover every American with no deductible or copay and cover drug cost, and save an estimated $400M to boot. That’s how much the insurance companies are sucking out of the system currently. We just plain don’t need them.

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    nomad2112  almost 15 years ago

    Copperdomebodhi - right now I know of a man in Great Britain who is still waiting to have his broken leg looked at. Since he doesn’t need his leg to continue working he was put on a waiting list 6 weeks ago.

    So if you think they have such great health care over in G. B. I suggest that you live there for a year or two.

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    riley05  almost 15 years ago

    Nomad, I had a case where a woman’s health insurance approved her to have a hysterectomy on Tuesday, for uterine fibroids.

    On the preceding Saturday, she presented to the emergency room for uterine bleeding.

    The insurance company refused to allow her hysterectomy to be done on Saturday, as it had already been approved for Tuesday.

    So instead, on Saturday we took her into the operating room, and under general anesthesia, scraped out the bleeding tissue from her uterus, as this procedure was also approved by her insurance.

    The same uterus that was removed 3 days later, when we again took her to the operating room.

    She risked two general anesthetics, and two surgeries, when one would have sufficed.

    My point? Anecdotal evidence can be used to point out the flaws in every health care system.

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    Jason Allen  almost 15 years ago

    I have to wonder about nomad2112’s example, however it is true that the UK’s NHS is horribly run. It’s a shining example of how a nationalized health care system can go very wrong.

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    Copperdomebodhi  almost 15 years ago

    Hi Nomad,

    I have lived in Great Britain, thanks. Health care was terrific, food wasn’t. You know OF a man who’s is waiting six weeks for a broken leg? How do you know of him? Is this your wife’s cousin? Or is this just a nameless ‘example’ you heard ranted about on the radio?

    Current wait time in the United States for any health care beyond an E.R. patchup is the rest of your life - if you don’t have health insurance.

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    nomad2112  almost 15 years ago

    Copperdomebodhi - no I didn’t hear it ranted on the radio. The radio is for music. This story was relayed to me by a coworker who just returned from G.B.

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    believecommonsense  almost 15 years ago

    Anthony, excellent example of the inefficiency, and sometimes inhumanity of the bean-counting philosophy of private health insurers. Penny-wise, pound foolish.

    I know a case of a woman who had a procedure for clogged arteries in her neck, and many months later began feeling the numbness in her face again.

    Her primo-private health insurer authorized a scan, which showed she was 4 percentage points shy of their authorized level of clogging — her arteries were 86% clogged on one side 75% clogged on the other.

    The insurer denied surgery because their protocols called for one side to be 90% clogged before surgery was authorized. They said she could have another scan in three months.

    One month later, she had a minor stroke, went to the ER, and while in the ER, had a second, more severe stroke.

    I know of this woman because she’s my sister. She was 58 and she can never work again.

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    rekam Premium Member almost 15 years ago

    believecommonsense,

    As long as we have either corporate bean counters (private, for-profit insurers) or government bean counters getting between doctor and patient, we’ll continue to have problems. My condolences about your sister. My father was leveled by a massive stroke some years ago (before the new drugs) and 18 months later was taken by a second one. My mother, after 80, had an ongoing series of small strokes that one by one, did her in. My brother had a TIA (mini-stroke) but is OK. With that family history I asked my doctor about getting a carotid artery scan. He felt it was a good idea given the family stroke history. His request was denied as “not medically necessary”(!). Fortunately two weeks later a local mobile ultrasound company had a session at a nearby senior center and I went and got a carotid artery scan for $40. When I called my insurance company to tell them, in a way, “Nyah, Nyah,” their reply was, “Oh, just send us the bill and we’ll reimburse you”(!). Does this make sense? We need non-profit or coop insurers where return to the investors is not the prime function.

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    riley05  almost 15 years ago

    Heartbreaking, BCS.

    If the radiologist knew of the criteria, he should have fudged it to 90%.

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    believecommonsense  almost 15 years ago

    rekam, I’m with you on that. Healthcare shouldn’t be just another commodity to be traded on Wall St. Hope your scan was good and your story shows how illogical private insurers and their attorney-written protocols can be.

    Anthony, thanks. I know you will get a kick out of another piece of this story. My nephew was out in Calif. visiting and recounted some of the experience of his mother, my sister. At the end, he said “We’ve got to get the government out of health care!!!”

    But, Duane, I said, there was NO government involvement in any of this She has private insurance. This was their regulations.

    it was like talking to a wall. The truth didn’t fit his very conservative Republican preconceptions. it was easier to blame the govt. than acknowledge the truth. Kind of like some folks here, huh, Anthony?

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    riley05  almost 15 years ago

    For some reason, reading your post made me think of Nandy.

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    nomad2112  almost 15 years ago

    I think the bottom line is checks and balances. The current system is business with government oversight. Under Obamacare it will be more government with government oversight. I prefer the former which I feel is the lesser of the two evils.

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    riley05  almost 15 years ago

    I don’t recall any government oversight on the anecdote I related.

    I just recall taking a woman to the operating room to operate on an organ that was going to be removed in 3 days, instead of just removing it immediately.

    The only good part of the story was that the insurance company had to shell out for two surgeries instead of one, due to their own incompetence.

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    believecommonsense  almost 15 years ago

    nomad, as with Anthony’s story, there was no government oversight of my sister’s case. The private insurance co. had t he first and last word.

    And I neglected to mention that my sister’s physician, who has treated her for more than 20 years, argued vehemently for my sister to have the neck surgery to open the clogging.

    Insurance co. overruled him. Period.

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    Gladius  almost 15 years ago

    I doubt anyone will like it but I posted a link on an earlier toon that raises some serious issues. If you go to the NYtimes and search for Singer you’ll find it. It concerns the price of life.

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    riley05  almost 15 years ago

    Singer brings up an important issue, but most people don’t want to consider, and it is in fact very hard to address.

    Say you want to figure out how much saving a right arm is worth.

    First you have to make a relative scale comparing it to other body parts.

    Then you have to consider an almost endless list of qualifiers. Should a baby’s arm be worth the same as a twenty year old, or a 70 year old? How do you compare the arm of someone serving life in prison to that of surgeon or concert pianist?

    All sorts of very difficult questions and judgments.

    Here’s the link: http://tinyurl.com/m9vf39

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    nomad2112  almost 15 years ago

    Tony & BCS, I’m fairly sure that there are regulations for insurance companies. Enforcement now, may be another topic all together.

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    riley05  almost 15 years ago

    Probably true, Nomad.

    But we still did two surgeries on that woman when one would have sufficed.

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    believecommonsense  almost 15 years ago

    nomad, I want to SCREAM at you. Anthony and I relate two factual stories of which we have first-hand knowledge that reveal the heavy-handedness and inefficiency of private insurers’ and their protocols.

    and you respond that you’re fairly sure there must be regulations! that’s just denial!

    In Anthony’s story, the insurance co. chose a course that inefficient, inconvenient and more dangerous to the patient and MUCH more costly.

    In my story, my sister’s stroke may never have happened if the insurance co. had abided by her doctor’s recommendation.

    so next time you see some ad warning about the govt. coming between you and your doctor, remember these stories. Today, the bean-counters and attorneys at your insurance co. already ARE between patients and their doctors.!

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    cartwrights  almost 15 years ago

    I lived in England in 1984-85 and used the NHS a couple times when I didn’t feel good. Same day, short wait, very low cost, all-around good experience. Just one example in an ocean-full of examples, but it convinced me.

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    nomad2112  almost 15 years ago

    BCS my intent was not to anger you but, to point out that there should be legal consequences for any company that abuses patients as you described.

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    4uk4ata  almost 15 years ago

    Of course. The best laws mean nothing as long as they go unenforced. As you mentioned, that might be a bit of a problem. Usuallly the issue starts with poor supervision, however. I do not doubt there is “some” regulation, but it seems to be rather, shall we say, neutered.

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    believecommonsense  almost 15 years ago

    nomad, here’s the point though, nomad. When stories like the two Anthony and I relate are brought home to people, their response will be probably much like yours: it shouldn’t happen. But it does when insurers’ are left to their own devices and I’m quite sure there are millions of similar stories.

    Soi if it shouldn’t happen, then insurer’s must be subject to some regulations, right? (If not, a patient and their family’s only other option is to sue, thus there will be lots of “law suits are the real problem” comments most likely.

    But when the idea of govt. regulating private insurers brings up the charges of “socialized medicine,” “government getting between you and your doctor,” etc.

    It goes in circles ad nauseam and the only real winner of the status quo is the health insurance industry. Frustrating

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    deadheadzan  almost 15 years ago

    The bottom line is we need health care reform now. We have been waiting decades for affordable health care for all Americans. I am sick of the “creeping socialism” label used by conservatives to frighten people into accepting the status quo. Injustice to patients has time and time again been due to those wanting to make money for a company and not by government regulation.

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