last word Archives - Where Is The Outrage?

Okay, I’m just gonna have to go all Doctor on you now – health care reform

I posted this article about three years ago in the heat of the health care reform debate. I thought that I would post it again. On the Last Word, they talked about how we got here.

This is what I wrote a couple of years ago (psst… we need a single-payer system):

I’ve talked about health care reform over and over again (I don’t see how Joan does it every day without going insane). I’ve talked about healthcare from an emotional standpoint and from an American legislative standpoint. I’ve talked about all the benefits of health care reform. Well, I’d like to take a different tactic. I would like to review the medical literature. I’ve picked several studies which I will describe over the next several days. The one thing that all of these studies have in common is that they point out that health insurance is a predictor of outcome. On Wednesday or Thursday, I’m going to review an article from the Journal of the American Medical Association which clearly states that having a unified health program has survival benefits. (We don’t have a coordinated, organized healthcare system in the United States.)

As a trauma surgeon, I don’t like to talk “shop” with people who are not in the medical profession. As soon as you start mentioning cytokines and mitochondria DNA, most people’s eyes glaze over. But, with watered-down legislation creeping through the Senate at a glacial pace, I thought it was important for me to go over some of this literature. The literature makes approximately the same point that Keith Olbermann made about a month go when he talked about having health insurance being life-and-death. (more…)

5 big statements of the week

I found this on Morningstar.com. I thought that it was worth commenting on.

I’d like to take a few moments and go over these five big statements of the week.

Let’s start with this report from Moody’s.com. This report attempts to analyze the unprecedented steps that were taken both by the Federal Reserve, Congress and the Bush/Obama administrations in order to stabilize the economy. They use a modeling technique in order to stimulate the economy. They estimate that 8.5 million jobs have been saved. They also estimate that the Gross Domestic Product would be approximately 11.5% lower without the intervention. Wow! Basically, they’re saying that government intervention worked to avoid the Great Depression 2.0. Now, I know that this will not be the last word on this. I find this paper very fascinating. For those who are interested in the economy, please read the whole paper.
Just as in the United States, Europe has performed their stress tests on their financial institutions and found that the vast majority of their financial institutions are fiscally sound. From a political standpoint, what else could they have found? Just for a moment, imagine that the European Union announced that the majority of their banks were unable to stand a significant stress. The panic that would ensue would cause distress and the banks will collapse. The purpose of the stress test is to calm the fears of investors.
There should be no surprise to anybody that the housing market remains depressed. In my opinion, the housing market has overbuilt and will take several years to alleviate that oversupply. In the meantime, there will not be much building. As I mentioned earlier, the economy has to find another fuel to drive economic engine. The housing sector just can’t do it anymore. This is why I have been pushing green energy.
The Democrats are unable to push through comprehensive climate change legislation. There’s almost no Republican support. The conservative Democrats have too much to lose by supporting such legislation. In my opinion, Democrats need to split up this legislation into small pieces. Small portions can pass.
British Petroleum has put Tony Hayward up on the shelf. They haven’t really fired him. With the amount of money he is getting, it’s hard to say that he’s really been demoted. He has just been removed from public view. To be honest, Tony Hayward is not the problem. The problem is a sense of entitlement that many of these executives have. The chairman of BP had the nerve to say that they look out for the “little people.” Really? Instead of feeling lucky or deep sense of humility for running a multibillion dollar corporation and taking home a multimillion dollar salary, they seem put out and upset that one of their wells has contaminated the Gulf of Mexico. It is not the person, but the culture that is the problem.