I have a short table this week, friends, and I’m keeping the WTF?? down to a minimum, for reasons that will become clear soon enough.
WTF?? #1. Medicaid enrollment surges In the year ending June 2009, 3 million joined, most for the first time. At that time, 46.8 million were enrolled, and the enrollments didn’t slow down in the 2nd half of 2009. Not one bit.
The analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health policy and research organization, found that in three-fifths of the jurisdictions, including Maryland and the District, people rushed into the safety net for health coverage at more than twice the rate as the year before.
With jobs lost, benefits a distant memory, and private healthcare insurance completely out of reach of most “average americans,” Medicaid, food stamps and other government assistance are the last resort for a strapped economy.
WTF?? #2. States Cutting Medicaid Why? Because they’re f-ing broke, that’s why. Here in Virginia, our new republican Governor McDonnell will do anything rather than raise taxes, because that’s what republicans do. If they need to raise taxes, they would rather gut every single social/educational program in the state, rather than oh, let’s see, release prisoners from State jails whose crimes are minor drug infractions, which could probably save us a big old bunch of cash, because that would look “weak on crime.” So what does he cut? Medicaid, education, etc. etc. ad nauseum. The Nevada governor, in order to close his state’s budget gap, wants end Medicaid coverage of adult day care, eyeglasses, hearing aids and dentures, and, for a savings of $829,304, to reduce the number of diapers provided monthly to incontinent adults (to 186 from 300). To save less than 1mm a year, while facing a state budget gap of nearly a trillion, he wants to make sure that poor seniors in adult facilities in the state of Nevada don’t get their diapers changed 10 times a day, but 6. I call that torture. Many states are looking to cut payments to doctors and hospitals, which is leading to a shortage of doctors who will treat Medicaid patients at all.
What do the 2 above stories boil down to? The Medicaid system in an atrocious economic downturn is unsustainable. When it was passed in 1965, the population of the US was less than 200 million. Today, it is more than 300 million. In 1965, the poverty rate was running at around 34 million. In 2008, the estimate was around 38 million and growing. A difference of probably 5 million, from when Medicaid was first conceived in 1965 to today, 45 years later. The main difference today, though, is that healthcare is about 1,000 times more expensive than it was in 1965. What the two stories above boil down to is this: The only reasonable alternative is a single-payer system. Unfortunately, I do not believe that will happen in my lifetime, because I believe that every political arm of this country is too owned and beholden to large corporate interests, and the healthcare industry is chock full of large corporate interests. In short, the suffering of those at the bottom of the ladder will only get worse, and there will only be more at the bottom of that ladder as time goes on and Congress and White House and the country fritter away any opportunities at substantive improvements in the interests of partisan squabbling, of which I accuse myself to some degree, but accuse the republicans of even more.
Let’s move on to some Strikes My Fancy, shall we?
SMF #1. Not All Corporations are Bad. Bob Moore, founder of Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods turned 81 this past week. He had a big party. At the party, he announced to his 209 employees that he was turning his company over to them. The company, despite numerous buy-out offers, will now be owned by employees with 3 years tenure. Stock will be held in an ESOP, in which stock is not sold, but is held in the vested retirement plan for the future benefit of the employees. In 2004, company revenues were estimated to be around $24 million. Since then, the company has seen growth of 20 – 30% per year. How did Bob manage to grow his company as such an astounding rate? Loyalty to one’s employees fosters loyalty from those employees. Bob treated them well, and it paid off for everyone involved. Happy Birthday, Bob.
SMF #2. This Guy Is The Real Hero. Teabaggers might call the guy who flew his plane into a Texas Federal Building a hero , but I call him a big fat suicidal bomber yellow-dog cowardly murderer. Robin de Haven, on the other hand, is a real hero in that terrible story. Mr. De Haven is a 28 year old Iraq war vet. When he saw the smoke, he jumped into action. He pulled his extension ladder off of his work truck and helped rescue people from the building. In the words of most true heros, De Haven said: I don’t feel like a hero. I was just trying to help. Huzzah, Mr. De Haven!
SMF #3. What A Great Kid! Warning, you might experience a bit of eye leakage when you see what this 3 year old did:
If you ever wonder where I find the above SMF’s, I get it the easy way. I subscribe to the Good News Network. It is a subscription fee service, but it has been worth every penny over the past year. When the you-know-what gets deep, I run to Good News for a bit, and find something to make me remember that the world is not all pain and suffering and that there are good people out there. Non-disclaimer: I have no affiliation with the site – I am just a subscriber.
That’s it for this Sunday Potluck, folks. I hope the WTF??’s made your toes curl, and the SMF’s straightened them back out again. Until later in the week, I’ll leave you with the words of Jerry Reed: Keep your foot hard on the peddle…son, never mind them brakes let it all hang out cause we’ve got a run to make.
Tags: Bob's Red Mill, ESOP, haiti, Kaiser Family Foundation, McDonnell, Medicaid, Nevada, prosthetic limbs, Robin De Haven, State budget shortfalls, Virginia
There are ways besides single-payer that would substantially slow the growth of costs, two ideas being cooperatives and health insurance exchanges that include a public option. I suspect that one or the other will be a part of the final healthcare reform law, although I also suspect that it will have to be retooled as time goes on. As Churchill once said, this isn’t the beginning of the end, but it does appear to be the end of the beginning.
Ahnuld is doing the same thing in California Bee. There have been two attempts this far to get universal type health care here and both times he has vetoed them. Hopefully we will have a dem in charge after his term and then it will get done. I heard about Bob Moore during the week and was way happy. I buy their steel cut oats and some other things, so this will just make me keep buying them. Indeed huzzah to the real hero of the day. That little girl is so cute and what a way to make a difference. It only takes that one person and the world can change, she proves it.
Your story of the week is the SMF 1. That’s the way capitalism should work, love and respect your employees and they will love you right back. Bob Moore has probably made a lot of money through his company and he is doing the right thing by the people who helped him get rich. Bravo Bob.
This whole twisted mentality of cutting social services and infrastructure funding instead of raising taxes — it’s everywhere, even in a liberal state like Washington. Washington has no state income tax (sales taxes are through the roof) and the state is billions of dollars in debt. There was a referendum that passed several years ago that requires a 2/3 majority in order for the state legislature to raise taxes. The legislature has voted to “suspend” that referendum temporarily so they can raise taxes if they need to. And the local teabirthers are screaming so loudly you can probably hear them in Virginia.
I’d guess there are a lot of small to medium-sized companies like Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods, companies that are actually interested in making a good product and treat their employees like real people. It’s when a company gets too big and/or gets bought out by a larger conglomerate that the trouble starts.
Jolly It’s looking like it is indeed the end of the beginning. I could live with public option and cooperatives, but I doubt those will end up in the final bill. Heck, I’m not even convinced there will be a final bill at all. SUCK!!!
Jess: That little one might just grow up to be an awesome adult, if the crazies in this world don’t get their claws into her.
Holte: Yep, I thought Bob Moore was a pretty good guy, all in all. He did say they might own the company, but he’ll still be the boss, at 81 years old, lol.
Tom Harper: I guess after decades of the republicans telling us all that there is never a need to raise taxes, even though basic services can’t be paid for anymore, all that garbage sunk in and stuck, like a dead fly to the sticky paper.
SMF 3, crying.Choked up, crying again.What a wonderful little girl.
Unsustainable Medicaid is undoubtedly a goal of Friedmanist economists and politicians. That way they have an excuse for doing away with it.
What a sweet little girl. With all the crappy news of late it’s nice to have some “feel good news.”
Great items, Bee, every one of them.
WTFs 1 and 2: I’m becoming increasingly convinced a big reason Bush & Co. embarked on an insane binge of cutting taxes, borrowing and-spending wildly, including putting the two wars on credit, was to get the federal government so broke that it would have to drastically cut or eliminate programs people depend on for help. That, in turn, discredits the federal government in the eyes of all the people, so they won’t trust or rely on it for important things in the future, or so neocons expect.
I’m sure conservative Republican and libertarian SOB’s read about Medicaid being flooded with new clients at the same time more doctors are refusing Medicaid patients and states are cutting Medicaid participation, and cheer at the top of their lungs.
There is no pit in hell deep enough or hot enough for such fiendish people. Not this country, but somewhere they should get to create the Dickensian/Ayn Randian paradise they want — and then have to live in it as have nots. That would be proper hell for them.
Bob Moore reminds me of Aaron Feuerstein, CEO of Malden Mills in Lawrence, Mass. Fifteen years ago, the mill burned down. Rather than dump his workers and collect the insurance, this CEO told them, “This isn’t the end.” Then, he did a remarkable thing . . . .
Successful business people don’t get more decent and noteworthy than Feuerstein and, now, Bob Moore.
BTW, that quote is from a fine article on Feuerstein here.
FYI, Krugman talks about how Repubs want to starve Medicare, Medicaid and more so they can kill the programs, but don’t have the guts to cut the programs.
Second-last sentence is interesting: “So now the de facto strategy is to oppose any responsible action until we are in the midst of a fiscal catastrophe.”
Can you say “disaster capitalism”?
Oso: She was a sweetheart, wasn’t she?
Stimpson: I figure you’re right – they’ve been gunning for Medicaid, Medicare & Soc. Sec. since their inception. Wonder what the face of this country would really look like without those programs? Disaster capitalism pretty well sums it all up.
SW: I agree with both you and Stimpson that it just might be a means for the repubes/libertarians to kill off the social programs – and I think that island would be 3 parts Survivor on Meth and 2 parts Dante’s inferno. Feurerstein sounds like a decent fellow (and you know that’s a big compliment from me, haha). The conscientious businessmen/women do exist – we just won’t find them on Wall Street.
Leslie: I’m glad you liked that part – that one softened my old heart, too
Thought-provoking WTFs…Medicaid is a big problem. The “use fewer diapers” thing is unconscionable. But at the same time Medicaid does not cover full home care for elderly people who want to stay in their own home, which would have to be less expensive than including the overhead needed in nursing home care. The system is really not working but no one has the courage to fix it.
WTF’s wrong with these evil people… hubby and I live on a fixed income and are willing to pay our fair share of taxes.
Imagine what a wonderful world this could be if all humans had the ? of this precious little girl.
Imagine.
p.s. Excellent potluck.
Again.
Whoa!
The HEART symbol didn’t work in the above comment.
The question mark is supposed to be a HEART.
Mrs. Bee you continue to outdo yourself. Beautiful piece. Secondly, please send me your email address. I am setting up a group forum and I can’t locate your address. Thanks!
Maui I totally agree that it needs to be fixed. I heard on NPR here in VA (where Pat Robertson’s shill Gov McDonnell is trying to cancel non-existant state funding to planned parenthood) that a lot of Medicaid patients have to use Planned Parenthood as their primary care provider, so PP treats nearly everything. That isn’t the purpose of PP, but that’s what they’ve had to do to serve the poor people here. Something’s gotta give.
Karen: We’re salaried here, and we’re also willing to pay our share in taxes. Them’s thats got more, though, they don’t see why they should have to pay their “hard earned money” to taxes…even though the rest of us do, and some of us “have nots” work harder than the “haves” do.
Hill: A kid to be proud of, isn’t she?
Mike: thankya, darlin’, the forum sounds like fun…You can get me at
beekeepersapprentice (at) comcast (dot) net