Healthcare headlines

The new healthcare law has more or less fallen of the radar screen lately. Here are two stories that give me a warm fuzzy feeling about it. First from Politico, health care is going to cost more than previously thought: Congressional Budget Office estimates released Tuesday predict the health care overhaul will likely cost about $115 billion more in discretionary spending over ten years than … Continue reading Healthcare headlines

Mother’s Day: Survival of the Fittest Edition

There’s a feature this a.m. in the Life & Arts section about “bad mother moments” where moms wrote in to confess their failures.  For the most part, these true confessions were all very far behind the front line of battle between “tough love” and “I left my toddler in the house over the weekend with an open box of cereal and the TV on at the Cartoon Channel.  I needed some ‘me’ time.” Overall it was pretty wimpy stuff, although I admire the woman who stuffed her kid’s toy recorder with foam, telling her that it would “filter” the sound.  Some of it didn’t even register as “bad,” just the kind of stuff unimaginative types think qualifies as a major lapse of nurturing: mother of 4 month old FORGETS TO PACK EXTRA CHANGE OF CLOTHES IN DIAPER BAG.  When the kid needs changing, he doesn’t have a replacement pair of pants (diaper leak- oops.) So he has to endure the humiliation of only wearing his shirt, clean diapers, and his mom’s jacket at a dinner with family.  At the Salt Lick, mind you, not the Four Seasons.  I remember never dressing my daughter in anything more than a “onesie” until she was old enough to complain.  And now, three years later, she’s graduating from high school.  Time flies! Continue reading “Mother’s Day: Survival of the Fittest Edition”

Can’t afford the iPad? There’s hope and change in the O-Pad.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air has linked to a video that has to be seen. Its a nice reflection on the iPad and healthcare legistlation.  Here is the video as well … A great commentary, and I hesitate to improve on it, just let it sink in. (Especially the fake O-Pad display in black and white. Har har har.) Continue reading Can’t afford the iPad? There’s hope and change in the O-Pad.

OK, I Have Sob Story for Real

Several years ago, a woman I know contracted breast cancer.  She was either uninsured or under-insured so she had to go to a public facility to get treatment.  Her payments, if any, were based on her ability to pay.  She got her treatments and she’s completely cured.  A couple years after this ordeal, Barack Obama was elected.  She was overheard expressing deep relief at the … Continue reading OK, I Have Sob Story for Real

K-Lo’s My Homie

For whatever reason, my personal brand of self-expression seems to tickle Kathryn. What can I say?  After 6 minutes of actuarial foreplay, with a climax of “If you think that [the American people] want a government takeover of health care, I respectfully submit, you aren’t listening to them,” my conservative bodice is officially ripped.   What isn’t shown in the video is the sputtering, rambling, shambling, … Continue reading K-Lo’s My Homie

Health Care Equality

Robert Samuelson reports (HT: Greg Mankiw): t is widely assumed that health care, like most aspects of American life, shamefully shortchanges the poor. This is less true than it seems. Economist Gary Burtless of the Brookings Institution recently discovered this astonishing data: on average, annual health spending per person — from all private and government sources — is equal for the poorest and the richest … Continue reading Health Care Equality