Author: coastcontact

I am a somewhat cranky but mostly optimistic 65 plus who refuses to give up on this maddening world. The purpose of this BLOG is to express my feelings, thoughts.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy

Reading the Associated Press version of Ted Kennedy’s life is like reading a soapbox novel.  It’s hard to believe that people like the Senator actually exist in real life.  Maybe that is because my life has been very quiet in comparison.

It appears that Ted Kennedy finally did grow up.  He really did realize his youth was too foolish.  There is no doubt that he did take advantage of his family’s influence and power in Massachusetts.  The Massachusetts State Attorney General, Edward J. McCormack, running against Kennedy for U.S. Senator in 1962 said, “If your name was simply Edward Moore, your candidacy would be a joke.”  That was an accurate assessment of Ted Kennedy back then.  In at least the 18 years of his life, after his marriage to Washington lawyer Victoria Reggie, he finally became a significant force in his family and in the U.S. Senate. According to ABC News Kennedy authored 2,500 pieces of legislation. 300 of those bills were passed into law.

Ted Kennedy will be missed.

Going Postal on Health Care

I almost forgot that Tom Purcell is supposed to be writing humorous columns. Today’s piece was definitely was not one of those. It is a very serious column that has at least one significant flaw. Healthcare insurance has been in the hands of private enterprise since insurance was invented. The postal service was included in our Constitution. Fed Ex is a recent development. So why hasn’t private enterprise done a better job? Could the answer be greed? The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not provide its citizens with universal health care. That isn’t funny.

Bill George’s column in BusinessWeek does a very good job of highlighting some areas that need attention now. Mr. George is correct in saying that “Obama has surrendered policy to politics.” His proposal for health-care reform is worthwhile considering. Trying to get our senators and congressmen to listen to our ideas is nearly impossible. Many of those representatives are receiving donations from health industry companies for their re-election. It’s unlikely they will be listening to the voting public.

Military Politics

The Military Industrial Complex Lives

Let’s be honest.  There is a big link between the Military and the industries that supply military equipment.  This is not news.  President Eisenhower warned of this issue in a 1961 speech.  In case you have forgotten, he was the supreme commander of our European army in WWII.

Some of us would like to deny that military is not a necessity.  There are people and nations in this world who would like to see the United States fail.  The problem is that many Americans love military things.  They love the fight.  They love the equipment that helps the military carry out its assignments.

Military equipment needs evolve as the world changes.  Some of that old reliable equipment is not necessary or appropriate in the year 2009 and beyond.  That is obviously the result of new items that are technologically superior to those old reliable things.  The most obvious item I have seen in news reports is the drone aircraft.  Those drones are controlled from points thousands of miles away from the field of battle.  60 Minutes’ Lara Logan provided a report telling how the control of the “unmanned aerial vehicles” is accomplished in Nevada.  This equipment really does make many of our manned aircraft obsolete.

The Boeing Company launched its own attack on public opinion by advertising the need for the C-17 cargo plane.  A full page ad appeared in the Los Angeles Times.  The Times reported that similar ads appeared in major newspapers around the nation. The same article provided interviews with people who are calling the continued manufacture of this plane as corporate welfare.  There is a UAW union that of course contends that there is a need for this plane but they are interested in protecting the jobs of its members.  The coast will be $275 million each.

I do not know how many other old reliable pieces of equipment are still on the “buy” list.  Shouldn’t these decisions be made by the Secretary of Defense?  It appears that politics and a need to provide welfare for various companies is taking priority over the nation’s real needs.  Those 14,000 people that will be effected by closing down the Long Beach aircraft factory could be utilized manufacturing high speed trains, wind turbines for power generation or other needed products.

Stimulus Money Well Spent

I have ridden on the subways in D.C., New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Toronto.  All of them provide a marvelous means of transportation.  Here in Los Angeles we really only have one subway line.  It stretches from Downtown to North Hollywood for 17.4 miles.  The usage proves that the city needs a subway system.  Seats are difficult to find at mid-day.

Angelenoes love their cars.  I have grown up in this city and have driven through some of the worst traffic nightmares.  They were on the 101, 405, and 5 freeways.  Some traffic has made a 30 minute drive into a 3 hour nightmare.  A trip from my home to LAX (using the 101 and the 405) is 30 miles but you should allow 1½ hours and that is the time without serious accidents.    

For two years I worked on Wilshire Boulevard.  It always amazed me that conventional buses would travel down that street in group of three to accommodate the extraordinary need for public transportation.  That was happening at lunch time not at rush hour times.  If you missed a group of three there will be another group in 5 minutes.  In spite of the obvious need for a subway under that boulevard it has been resisted by many people.  The NIMBYs have succeeded and in the process have hurt the city’s poorest people and caused major traffic congestion.  Who cares about the poorest among us?  The have no political voice and so they are ignored.

In the mid 1980s NIMBYs successfully had a federal law passed prohibiting the construction of a subway under Wilshire Boulevard.  Now that the congestion has become overwhelming, that law has been reversed.  The mayor wants to see this project completed in less than ten years.  Building that $6.1 billion subway would employ many thousands people and the resulting mass transit would be eco-friendly.  This would be a worthwhile project for stimulus money.      

Update on Health Insurance Company Profits

This information was obtained from Yahoo’s financial reports site (http://finance.yahoo.com).  This is Operating Income.  You could argue that their income per share is low.  I would argue that the job they fulfill in our society requires that their profits remain even lower given their purpose.    

Quarter ending   6-30-09: Aetna $2.475 billion
  Coventry Health Care $619 million
  CIGNA $378 million
  Humana $1.073 billion
  UnitedHealth $859 million
  WellPoint (Blue Cross/Blue Shield) $3.592 billion

Barack Obama Brings No Change

The very wealthy people of the United States have convinced the rest of us that we are all part of the “middle class.”  The poorest of us are part of the “lower middle class.”  There are very few “poor people” in America.  You see the very wealthy hired some very brilliant marketing experts to sell the rest of us on the idea of a “middle class.”  In other countries we would be called “the peasants”.  After all which sounds nicer 1) middle class or 2) peasants?

The average family income in the U.S.A. is $70,000.  The median White family income in 2003 was $48,000.  Read William Domhoff’s “Who Rules America?” and you realize the enormous disparities in wealth in America.

Now we have a new CEO for AIG.  That is a company that received loans from the U.S. government totaling $85 billion.  The loans have not been repaid.  Newly-appointed CEO Robert Benmosche will receive an annual salary of $7 million and is eligible for a performance-related bonus of $3.5 million. 

And you thought that things would be different with Barack Obama as president.

A Real Need for Health Care in America

There really is a need for no cost or low cost medical care in the United States.  Remote Area Medical (RAM), an organization that provides health care in third world countries came to Los Angeles, California.  Stan Brock, the founder of this organization was named “person of the week” on ABC World News.

About 1,500 (revised to 6,000) people were provided with dental, optical and other care.  Hundreds are being turned away.  One man interviewed on local television drove 80 miles for dental care.  He is employed and does have medical coverage from his employer.  He has no dental coverage and the cost of a root canal and bridge of $5,000 was more than he could afford.  The local newspaper had an item asking for more volunteer doctors.

NPR and the Los Angeles Times both had articles on the event.  It’s obvious America does have a health care problem.

Obama Wants to Limit Health Care

Seniors and the poor are the president’s targets.  In his July 22, 2009 press conference the transcript reads, “And it’s about the fact that the biggest driving force behind our federal deficit is the skyrocketing cost of Medicare and Medicaid.”  Today CNN quotes the President saying, “…must get control of Medicaid/Medicare spending.”  The problem is Mr. Obama never talks about the ways to control costs.  Will there be limits on the payments to doctors and hospitals, limits on payments for drugs, or limits on payments to insurance companies?  Ignoring the discussion on cost control, I believe, is intentional.

Once again it’s the rich and powerful versus the rest of us.  Insurance companies, large medical care businesses, and pharmaceutical companies are permitted to charge what ever they want.  There are no incentives to lower the costs.  The middle class senior relies on Medicare for health insurance.  The poor and disabled rely on Medicaid.  If it’s the middle class and poor versus the rich and powerful it doesn’t take a terribly smart person to realize who will win that confrontation.

In California the poorest among us have been impacted most by the budget cuts.  Medicaid and in home health care services were cut in the face of a rising budget deficit.  The influential and high ranking members of government were not significantly impacted. 

“If only the elderly would die without making a fuss the Medicare system will be able to handle its costs.  Why must you old people be so uncooperative?”  They won’t say the words exactly like that but everything points to those thoughts.  Of course the president denies this idea.  Unless he proposes other cost savings ideas this can be the only conclusion that can be reached.  This is disgusting.

We Need Health Care Reform

There is no health care crisis in the United States.  85% of all Americans have health care insurance.  No one is turned away from a hospital.  Most areas offer no cost medical care to low income families.  Even Kern County California, a small town and farming area, provides similar services.

President Obama is in the wrong fight.  His focus should be solely on lowering the cost of health care.  That is an issue facing everyone in America.  Health care for every American is a wonderful idea but the time has not come to make this a reality.  Lower costs will probably help to add more families to the insured rolls. 

President George W. Bush tried to revise Social Security and he failed.  The reason that these changes fail is that the public basically likes and is comfortable with the existing systems.  There is no obvious reason to change either of these programs.  It’s the American idea, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it (spoken) also if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”

I skim read H.R. 3200 ‘‘America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.’’  This is not a law.  It is a proposed law or bill.  Why didn’t I read every single word?  There was too much legal jargon that only a lawyer could understand and he would have to be familiar with U.S. Code (USC).  That is the codification of the general and permanent laws of the United States.  This proposed law is 1,017 pages long.  References to advance care planning and advance directives in the bill only aid those opposing a new health plan.  Most people already know about medical power of attorney and advanced health directives.  Including help in preparing those documents in the proposed law only supports the fear that the government will try to reduce health care costs by encouraging the elderly to sign documents that will deny them medical care.

Medicare recipients are rightfully concerned about the loss of Medicare benefits.  There is too much language in this bill about changes to existing Medicare plans.  This is an alert to seniors and the AARP that savings in a new national health plan will come at a cost to seniors.  After all it is senior citizens that do receive the most health care services.  The AARP has not endorsed this plan or any plan.

 The Administration is correct in identifying serious flaws in our health care system.  Those flaws should be addressed.  Throwing out the entire system because there are a few problems is the wrong approach.  After all, most parts of health care do operate fairly well.  Cost of medical care is the number one issue according to the president.  That is the challenge that should be addressed.  I am sure there are other issues but here is my list.   Mr. President just address these issues:

  1. All medical facilities must implement on line medical records.  The benefit is the sharing of information between doctors and easy access by the doctor of a patient’s history.  Kaiser Permanente Southern California has that program in place.  The two doctor office caring for my mother still uses had written records as does my dentist.
  2. Insurance companies must be prohibited from denying health care coverage based on a patient’s medical history.  There should be no criteria for premiums.  Everyone should be pay the same rate based upon geographic area.
  3. Eliminate lifetime caps on the amount of coverage set by insurance companies.
  4. Regulations must deny insurance companies the right to cancel insurance.
  5. Insurance companies must be allowed to sell their plans in any state thus increasing competition.
  6. Generics drug manufacturers should have the right to produce copies of brand name drugs after five years rather than the current rule of no limits on Biotech drugs and standard limits on other drugs of 17 years.
  7. Develop improved Medicaid programs for those not covered by existing plans due to their cost.  The plans must be limited to those currently eligible for Medicaid.
  8. Impose excess profits tax on all health care providers (i.e. insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, hospital associations, health care provider associations, etc.).
  9. Tax breaks for individuals similar to businesses who have no employer provided insurance.
  10. Portability and of coverage and reduced costs of coverage for those who have lost their employment.
  11. Tort reform that will reduce the cost of a doctor’s business insurance.

Just these improvements will lower the cost of medical care for everyone.  These are enhancements that both Democrats and Republicans will be willing to support.

An Ominous Day In History

On this date in 1945 the United States exploded a nuclear device over Nagasaki, Japan, instantly killing an estimated 39,000 people. The explosion came three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.  That second bomb quickly brought an end to WWII.  Those two bombs brought the world into a frightening nuclear age that may yet see the destruction of the world.

The unfortunate reality is that Germany was working on the development of the atomic bomb too.  How would the world be today if they had developed and dropped the bomb before the United States?

The fear that another mad man might obtain and detonate a bomb today is real.  The United States and its allies must take every measure to prevent Iran and North Korea from obtaining the ability to have bombs.  Intimidation by the threat of a nuclear attack on their neighbors and the United States cannot be permitted.  Nations near Iran and North Korea have every right to take all necessary action to prevent those countries from acquiring nuclear capabilities.