Candidate Diaries: What I Learned; Why I Quit

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Thursday February 14, 2008 · 1:31 PM PST

2008/02/14 · 13:31

What I say below is based only on an examination of my own psychology, motivations and reactions. Nothing I say below is meant to characterize anybody else.

About a week ago, this former Edwards supporter finally, and after long thought, became a Clinton supporter. At about the same time, I read a candidate diary that was excoriating her. Until then I had mostly avoided those diaries and never expessed support for a candidate other than Edwards on the few I did read. This time, I reacted to what seemed to me unsupported and insulting discourse by posting a message saying that the discussion had pushed me to support of Clinton. That was not strictly true. It had driven me to a declaration of support for her. That declaration prompted several unpleasant comments, including one calling me a liar.

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Friday January 11, 2008 · 3:21 PM PST

2008/01/11 · 15:21

Following up on my argument yesterday that all Democratic candidate health care reform plans offer no more than partly government subsidized private insurance, similar to Medicare Advantage:

I am absolutely sick of hearing about the wonderful "Congressional Health Plan". We are told again and again how generous it is. And we are told even more often that all that is needed for a perfect universal health care plan is to "open the Congressional Health Plan" to the entire population. Unfortunately, achieving affordable universal care is not this simple.

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Thursday January 10, 2008 · 11:18 AM PST

2008/01/10 · 11:18

The healthcare reform plans of the leading Democratic Presidential candidates are similar. They all entrust the organization of healthcare delivery to private insurance companies. They all require community rating, prohibiting insurance plans from rejecting applicants or charging different premiums based on factors such as medical condition, age and occupation. And they all call for some form of government agency to negotiate prices and benefits with insurance companies and to supervise the sale of the plans. Apparently, benefits can vary among plans, but their actuarial value at each level of coverage must be equivalent. That is, a plan may offer different combinations of benefits, premiums and co-pays, but the total value of the package must be equal. Edwards and Clinton propose a public plan to compete with the private plans.

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Wednesday December 12, 2007 · 6:45 PM PST

2007/12/12 · 18:45

Not satisfied by denying millions of children access to medical care by vetoing the SCHIP bill, the Bush administration is doing its best to deny disabled people the benefits to which they are already entitled through the Social Security Program. Recently, The New York Times published an article describing the disastrous administrative condition of the Social Security Disability program.

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Friday November 23, 2007 · 3:46 PM PST

2007/11/23 · 15:46

Recently, Paul Krugman took issue with the Obama campaign's stated position that Social Security is in a crisis meriting immediate rectification. He quotes the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director,

The long-term fiscal condition of the United States has been largely misdiagnosed. Despite all the attention paid to demographic challenges, such as the coming retirement of the baby-boom generation, our country’s financial health will in fact be determined primarily by the growth rate of per capita health care costs.

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Wednesday November 14, 2007 · 4:42 PM PST

2007/11/14 · 16:42

On November 9, MedPac, the non-partisan commission that advises Congress on Medicare Policy, held a meeting (PDF, pp.313+) during which it examined several measures (PDF) of the quality and effectiveness of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, those run by private insurance companies and paid by the Medicare Program to provide all medical services to Medicare beneficiaries. As most readers of this diary know, these plans were created by the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA). A high point of the Republican Congress' privatization agenda, the MA program was touted as a triumph for "the free market" that would create competition with the public program and among private plans. This competition would, in turn, reduce costs of the Medicare program and improve its quality.

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Tuesday October 30, 2007 · 3:48 PM PDT

2007/10/30 · 15:48

US medicine is exorbitantly expensive and since 1970, that cost has grown 2.4 percentage points faster than the GDP It is extremely difficult to imagine this rate of growth continuing. In 1970, health costs amounted to 7.2% of GDP. In 2005, they amounted to 16% of GDP. They are projected to amount to 19.6% of GDP in 2016 if nothing is done to control them. If health care costs continue to increase faster than does the GDP, health care will become the only thing we produce and consume in this nation. That is not possible. The ever increasing costs must be controlled.

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Sunday October 28, 2007 · 4:26 PM PDT

2007/10/28 · 16:26

The United Nations has raised a key question about the use of biofuels as substitutes for petroleum products. In August, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, the official responsible for informing the UN Human Rights Commission about existing and emerging problems with the world's food supply, warned that

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Saturday October 20, 2007 · 3:58 PM PDT

2007/10/20 · 15:58

At the beginning of the second day of the Mukasey confirmation hearing, Senator Leahy asked Judge Mukasey (on C-SPAN Archive, AM Session, Day 2, first question)if he would allow a US Attorney to prosecute a Congressional Contempt proceeding. Mukasey indicated that he would not allow such a prosecution by the Justice Department.

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Friday September 28, 2007 · 7:05 PM PDT

2007/09/28 · 19:05

In Portland, Oregon a citywide electronic medical records project financially supported in part by the business community cannot be implemented because one of the primary savings it would facilitate, a major reduction in duplicate medical tests, is a significant source of hospital income. Hospitals do not want to lose the income they collect from performing those tests.

Throughout the nation private equity groups, not traded on stock exchanges and therefore not subject to mandatory public reporting of their activities, are buying nursing homes. Two consequences often result from such consolidations: The new owners cut costs, largely staff costs, with an almost inevitable decline in quality of care; they also organize themselves into such complex structures that it becomes almost impossible to identify and hold accountable the entities responsible for the injuries and deaths that often result from such cost-cutting, whether through regulation or litigation.

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Monday September 17, 2007 · 4:35 PM PDT

2007/09/17 · 16:35

The Administration’s concerted effort to thwart effective consumer protection and to remove the incentive to improve safety beyond the minimum standards set by regulatory agencies reminds me of its politicizing of the Justice Department. Just as we have witnessed improper political considerations undermine our federal law enforcement agency for partisan gain, we are now witnessing agency rulemaking turned into a mechanism to immunize powerful corporations at the expense of ordinary Americans. Rather than issuing regulations based on facts and science to benefit the American people, the process has apparently been hijacked. The intended result of this politically-motivated version of rulemaking not only slams the local courthouse door shut on injured victims but it prevents State law, State regulators and State courts from protecting their citizens.

So said Senator Patrick Leahy at a Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on September 12.

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Wednesday September 05, 2007 · 4:46 PM PDT

2007/09/05 · 16:46

Except for Conyer's HB676 Medicare for All bill, all Democratic Health Care reform proposals. Edwards (PDF), Richardson and Wyden, ignore Medicare. For the most part, they interfere very little with other government financed programs in their plans. They establish two systems that will operate simultaneously; Medicare and other government health care programs, and a separate system built on existing private insurance supported to some degree by government subsidies for all others.

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Candidate Diaries: What I Learned; Why I Quit

"Congressional Health Plan" Not Special; Just Group Private Insurance

If You Like Medicare Advantage, You'll Love Universal Private Insurance

Bush's War On Disabled People

It's not Social Security, Folks; It's Health Care Costs

After Two Years, Private Medicare Plans "Going Backwards"

Health Care Costs: Somebody Pay Attention; They Will Kill Health Reform I

UN: Biofuels Will Increase Hunger

Mukasey Will not Prosecute Contempt of Congress

NO Health Care Reform Yet Presented Will End the Crisis in Care

Leahy: Reminds Me of Politicizing of Justice Dept.

Government Already Pays 45% of Health Costs; Reforms Must Recognize This