Afghan Medical Mission Ends in Death for 10

The bullet-riddled bodies — including three women — were found Friday near three four-wheeled drive vehicles in a wooded area just off the main road that snakes through a narrow valley in the Kuran Wa Munjan district of Badakhshan, provincial police chief Gen. Agha Noor Kemtuz told The Associated Press.

One of the dead Americans had spent about 30 years in Afghanistan, rearing three daughters and surviving both the Soviet invasion and bloody civil war of the 1990s that destroyed much of Kabul.

ABC News article

Dr. Stevens Part 2

On the dawn of this televised circus, I thought I would share an excerpt from part 2 of Dr. David Steven’s (of the CMDA) common-sense (and informed) perspective to health care.

* Funny Money – These bills start collecting added taxes and reducing Medicare benefits in the first year, but expenses do not start until after the third year when the programs activate (also after the next presidential election). That makes the cost artificially low at $1.1 trillion dollars. They also excluded $240 billion dollars in cost for increasing doctor’s reimbursement. The actual cost is closer to $2 trillion dollars for the first ten years.

* Taxes, Taxes Everywhere – $729.5 billion dollars in new taxes on small businesses, individuals and other employers. These are job killers.

* The Bureaucracy Bear – This bill expands or creates 43 new entitlement programs and 111 new offices, bureaus, commissions and programs. Remember last month I told you we already spend one out of four healthcare dollars on bureaucracy. Now we will spend more.

* Accessibility – Accessibility means getting the healthcare you need when you need it and getting the right level of care for your need. You do not need a high cost emergency room visit to take care of a routine immunization or a common cold and you do not want your acute myocardial infarction taken care of in a primary care office. read more

an idiot’s guide to fixing healthcare

Now that the leaders of our executive and legislative branches are, thanks to the freshman Senator from Mass., being forced to actually turn to their constituents on the health care issue I thought I would add my two cents…okay, maybe I’m up to 4 or 6.

If you have been following this blog, you know I am opposed to the current House and Senate Health Care plans. I think positive reform (which is what we are going for, not complete reconstruction) can be made with relatively little maneuvering and with far less money required from the tax-payer.

While I am not suggesting there is a ’silver bullet’, I think one thing could go a great distance in fixing what ails our country’s broken, but still envious health care system. (I am sure you noticed that as health care got closer to being changed, more and more people said ‘just leave it alone!’ That is because, when it gets down to it, most American’s health care is not nearly as bad as everyone is telling them it is). So what is this idiot’s key to drastically improving our nation’s health care? read more

McConnell on Health Care

(excerpts of Sen. McConnell’s statement from Senate floor re: health care.)

Americans were told the purpose of reform was to reduce the cost of health care…Instead, Democrat leaders produced a $2.5 trillion, 2,074-page monstrosity that vastly expands government, raises taxes, raises premiums, and wrecks Medicare…and they want to rush this bill through by Christmas — one of the most significant, far-reaching pieces of legislation in U.S. history. They want to rush it…And here’s the most outrageous part: at the end of this rush, they want us to vote on a bill that no one outside the Majority Leader’s conference room has even seen. That’s right. The final bill we’ll vote on isn’t even the one we’ve had on the floor. It’s the deal Democrat leaders have been trying to work out in private. read more

peeps per doc

This chart is great. It gives a visual description of the problem.

A close up of East Africa would be more informative regarding our situation. The  figure for Sudan (4,500:1) is because of the North. The figure for S. Sudan is much worse. Kenya’s figure (7,100:1) is because of the concentration of docs here in Nairobi. Northern Kenya has red numbers.

the Senate bill

Here are 2 important numbers from the Senate attempt at health care “reform”.

- $848 billion – price tag (estimated).  Might I remind you that our lawmakers NEVER underestimate!

- 11% – the increase in the percentage of the US population that will be insured as a result of this bill. (The CBO says 94% of Americans, not including undocumented Americans, will end up being insured. Currently, without this bill, the CBO says 83% of documented Americans are insured.)

Also to note, the Senate is touting this bill as a deficit-reducer. As Obama says, “Let me be clear”…if this bill does reduce the deficit it is obviously NOT by decreased spending. There are a handful of new taxes that fund this bill…with a little extra (again, only if the cost doesn’t rise, which it will).