Cool Sunday Morning

It is definitely a coool Sunday morning, 28 degrees on my back porch, but that's a heat wave compared to last week.  Getting ready for the "Pineapple Express," that stream of warm and unceasing rain sent to us with Aloha from the Pacific Isles.

Listened to Roger Hedgecock on KXL last night while on a mad dash to Freddie's/Kroger's because "we forgot to get (fill in the blank)?"

In 1994, during the, ahem, historic Clinton administration, Medicare and Medicaid would reimburse hospitals and providers (docs, therapists, etc.) at a rate of 104%.  Meaning a doctor or hospital would get repaid by these two systems for the actual cost of service, plus 4%.  That's called profit, and Congress abhors profits by anyone other than themselves, so laws limiting repayment were enacted.

Currently, M&M (how sweet, but they're having a meltdown) pay only 81% of actual costs, 9 months or so after billing.   This means your doctor loses 19% of his actual cost to treat Medicare patients, plus the cost of "carrying" the debt interest-free, and your local hospital loses 19% for treating the various illegals whom they are forced by law to treat, plus the same interest loss as your doctor.  Gee, I wonder who will have to cover that 19%? 

Hospitals and providers recover that 19% by upcharging the private insurance companies for services.  That means your premiums go up, your deductible goes up, and your co-pay goes up and the general "healthcare costs" go up because Congress mandated it!!   That's right, boys and girls, Congress helped "break" our current healthcare system by their inept tinkering, of which there is no equal, and now they blame "private insurance" for the mess they themselves created!!  I am shocked, I tell you, shocked that politicians would lie to us just so they can control more and more of our lives.  Of course I love Big Brother!  Don't you?

Guy Fawkes Day is Nov. 5, just in case you'd like to celebrate somehow.  I'm open to suggestions.