Author: Robert Moran
2009-11-26 11.38.37
The lines of people at the Dinner-in-the-Park
2009-11-26 13.45.03
The serving tables at the Dinner-in-the-Park.
2009-11-26 12.23.01
2009-11-26 11.48.53
Matt and me at Thanksgiving Dinner-in-the-Park
Healthcare Solutions
People wait to get coverage because they can’t afford the premiums…not because they are denied coverage. As a matter of fact many conditions which are congenital are included in the pre-existing condition coverage denial conditions such as autism, spina bifida and juvenile diabetes. So if you are not born into a family where your parents can afford to pay for health insurance premiums they are forced to go on Medicaid because they would not qualify for health insurance otherwise The real problem is not who has what condition but how much the doctors charge for their services and how high insurance premiums are. The only way to bring the premiums down while making sure everyone has coverage is by heavily regulating the industry. Literally laws on the books mandating certain charges for medical procedures and mandating a cap on insurance premiums. Employers offered group insurance which people with pre-existing conditions could get but because of the high insurance premiums many employers have stopped offering coverage. They only solution to the problem is through regulation because if competition was going to keep prices down it would have done so already.
The House of Cards
Last night the House voted to pass what Democrats claim was a change that the country needed, but what I saw last night was both parties obfuscating the truth for their own political gains. The Democrats are not the only assholes in Congress. Republicans in my view are just as bad and just as dangerous for the country as the Democrats. I think its time for a third party…because the Republicans and the Democrats represent the people. The government since WWII has been following a system of expansionist policies…some good some not good. What should have been done as Bill O’Reilly suggested was a bill that mandated insurance companies cover everyone and eliminate pre-existing condition coverage denial..let private companies operate the insurance under heavy government regulation including price control and no government run insurance program thereby letting people have a choice as to what insurance they have. but neither the Democrats nor the Republicans will do such a thing because let’s face it ALL politicians are in bed with the lobbyists. Let’s face it we got circled jerked a long time ago. No one in government has the gonads to do such a thing. Not Obama and the Democrats and not the Republicans. The bill that passed last night basically mandated that if people did not get insurance coverage they would have to pay a tax. While I am all for people paying their taxes let’s just call it what it is a fine. People must pay this fine if they opt not to buy insurance. If they don’t pay the fine they can be punished by paying $250,000 and/or prison. This sounds more like Soviet style gulag socialism. Also the insurance should you choose to get it and avoid jail time cannot be used to pay for abortion which makes pro life groups very happy. Basically if you decide you value your individual liberty and your right to choose you will go to jail.
The GOP plan is not much better. While allowing for group plans which traditionally add to competition, which makes the insurance industry happy. People can buy insurance across state lines which could make a huge legal mess. If people buy insurance across state lines thay insurance is governed by the laws of THAT state not the state in which the you live. Meaning you may not get the same coverage and may have to pay a different premium than your neighbor who bought insurance from another state as well. Also by buying out of state insurance you would be under the liability laws of that state, which may be fairly limited compared to the one you live in. While that may seem like a good thing because malpractice lawsuits do bring up health insurance costs it may also mean you are not as well covered as a patient in case of malpractice. The idea will make for a giant legal headache like how to regulate out of state insurances in a state like say California and how such coverage can be applied and so on an so forth.
The vote last night was basically along party lines, but were any of the politicians actually listening to what their constituents actually have to say? No.
Neither Republicans nor Democrats understand the anger that is brewing in the American people because neither party is listening to their constituents. How can they when the only voices they heard are the voices of Dollar Bill as hes being put in their wallets by the lobbies which care less about the people than they do about maintaining their own power and by their own greed. As long as the Democrats and the Republicans don’t have the will to take on the lobbies and actually do what is best for the country even if that means crossing party lines change will not happen. I laugh when politicians on both the left and the right talk about real Americans and their values and what real Americans want because the real America they talk about no longer exists. They let it die. They let it be strangled to death by their greed and corruption. Democrats AND Republicans are bad for this country. Its time to get rid of them all and knock over this House of Cards.
absence
Apparently I have been remiss in writing for my blog for sometime because for lack of a better excuse I have been extremely busy with my internship at Fox News.
The internship has now come to an end and I now find myself in Indianapolis at the Society of Professional Journalists Conference after having spent the past week in Chicago visiting my friend Cristina which was fun. Cristina is an awesome person and it seems that she has so much drive and determination that it seems impossible to fit in her relatively small frame. Still there is much to be said about the value of hard work. Now having spent a week in Chicago I loved that city very much. it was clean and beautiful and the buildings teemed with history like the old Marshall Fields department store which was the first department store ever. It seems that as much as New York was about taking chances and seeking better opportunities Chicago was about innovation.
A New York State of Mind
I am beginning to feel less like an Out-of-Towner and more like a New Yorker. Perhaps I should explain. Am I using expletives and foul language at any given opportunity? No. Do I like the Yankees? Definitely not. Am I beginning to feel more settled and accustomed to the vibe of this city, a vibe that never seems to end and finds new life after the night has settled in? Yes.
Even when I was home in California I did not feel like I belonged there. I felt like a New Yorker. I felt like this was the city I was destined to live and work in. My friends from school who are interning here are finding that they want to go back home, to what is comfortable and most familiar to them. Partly because the have been unable to find work and partly because they miss the state that is their world. Californians have this arrogance because it’s engrained in their heads from early on that the world revolves around California and the miles of coastline. Upon moving here, I learned that the world doesn’t care about beaches. It doesn’t care at all. My friends think California is the center of the world. They don’t realize New York is the capitol of the world.
New Yorkers have this sort of me first attitude which to my friends from California seems pushy but to me it seems to be more about survival. There is a reason the city is called the Jungle. It’s survival of the fittest. For Californians who are laid back and not used to competition the city can seem scary. For me, not so much. I understand the need to compete and in fact thrive in an environment which can be as cutthroat as card sharks circling around the weakest player at the table. In order to survive in this city a certain measure of risk must be taken perhaps more than what many of my friends from California are ready to take. One never gains anything if they are not willing to risk everything for the promise of a big payoff. Given the history of this city and the throngs of immigrants who came here risking everything to build as better life I am beginning to acknowledge that taking a gamble at life is what makes a New Yorker.
Loss
I have been dealing with a lot the past week or so and it seems as if the world has ripped right out from under my feet. And as I fall what used to give me security is no longer there. Such is the way things go when someone you care about deeply is tragically ripped from your life. All you can do is try to pick up the pieces and hope for some semblance of normality at a time when what made things normal is no longer there.
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