The junior Senator from Mass. describes his obligations to the American people: “F*** you!”

My resolution was to blog less this year – so far, so good – but this new guy makes me angry:
[Senator-elect Scott] Brown has not disavowed his support for the state’s law, which retains majority backing in Massachusetts.
Instead, he argued on the campaign trail that Massachusetts had taken care of its own uninsured, and it [...]

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Thu, January 21 2010 » Uncategorized » No Comments

What does Crohn’s feel like?

It feels like an alien is about to pop out of your guts. You think I’m exaggerating? You have no idea.
Before I get to that, I want to clear my tabs in this last post of the year. First, you should read Bob Herbert’s op-ed about the Senate’s plan to fund health care by [...]

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Thu, December 31 2009 » Uncategorized » 3 Comments

The Road to Reform

I haven’t posted about health care reform in a while – partly because I’ve been distracted, partly because I’ve been waiting to see how things shake out in the Senate. Now that I am not so distracted, I discover things have been not so good.
For starters, the Senate bill never had a strong public option. [...]

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Thu, December 17 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments

The Other Health Reform

Last Tuesday, Deputy Secretary of Labor Seth Harris went to Capitol Hill to testify about health reform. No – not that health reform. The other one:
The Healthy Families Act offers an important opportunity to provide workers with economic security by assuring that they have the ability to stay home if they are sick without fear [...]

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Sat, November 14 2009 » Uncategorized » 4 Comments

Armistice Day

Several members of my family are or were in the military, so Veteran’s Day ought to mean a great deal to me. Yet the only meaningful November 11th I can recall was spent in the United Kingdom, where they call it “Armistice Day”. It marks the end of the First World War – 11/11/18 – [...]

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Wed, November 11 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments

John Goodman Wants It Both Ways

John Goodman calls the House health reform bill “The Worst Bill Ever”. Actually, that’s what the Wall Street Journal called it. Goodman is parroting.
It’s telling that the people opposed to health care reform are reduced to histrionics. You see, it’s not just that they don’t like the bill:  it’s the Worst Bill Ever. Worse than [...]

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Tue, November 10 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments

One step closer to history

I have been getting a ton of spam comments lately, almost all of which have been caught by my spam filter (Akismet). The only problem is I am not able to check whether the spam filter is also catching legit comments. If you think I missed a comment, drop me an email.
A few things I [...]

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Mon, November 9 2009 » Uncategorized » 1 Comment

Call Congress TODAY

The House health care reform bill will go to a vote tomorrow – yes, Saturday. The House has put forward a good bill – not perfect, but still pretty good – and the vote might be close.
Your Representative needs to hear from you today. Even if you have never called before – especially – today [...]

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Fri, November 6 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments

Tort Reform

I write a lot of posts critical of “tort reform”, because it’s often a bad idea. In fact, it’s often the same bad idea, over and over again: damages caps, which don’t help doctors and punish patients. That said, I will be the first to admit that our approach to malpractice needs serious reform. If [...]

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Fri, October 23 2009 » Uncategorized » 1 Comment

An article from TIME that everyone’s linking to

You know the one: “How Drug-Industry Lobbyists Got Their Way On Health Care“, by Karen Tumulty and Michael Scherer. It’s worth reading if you’re not familiar with the issue, but there are a couple of aspects important to patients that the authors don’t quite spell out. First, this bit:
But there’s a dilemma: policymakers want to [...]

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Thu, October 22 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments