Saturday, September 16, 2017

Senator Elizabeth Warren holds health insurance executive's feet to the fire, while also making argument for single payer.

This from the You Tube site: 

Elizabeth Warren is shocked to find out that the health insurance giant, Anthem, gets roughly half their quarterly earnings from the federal government, and still has the audacity to pull out of the Affordable Care Act marketplace--thus sowing more instability for millions of the poorest Americans--because their demands aren't being met. 

I have to say that if I were somebody involved in some shady shit and I knew I was about to be grilled by Elizabeth Warren I would be pooping my pants.

She is unbelievably good at this stuff and simply does not tolerate bullshit.

And she is right, this kid of greed in the health insurance market is exactly why we need to seriously consider moving to a single payer, government controlled, health care system.

(H/T to Democratic Underground.)

33 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:39 PM

    BEWARE, Alaska!

    Trump administration working toward renewed drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

    The Trump administration is quietly moving to allow energy exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for the first time in more than 30 years, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post, with a draft rule that would lay the groundwork for drilling.

    Congress has sole authority to determine whether oil and gas drilling can take place within the refuge’s 19.6 million acres. But seismic studies represent a necessary first step, and Interior Department officials are modifying a 1980s regulation to permit them.

    The effort represents a twist in a political fight that has raged for decades. The remote and vast habitat, which serves as the main calving ground for one of North America’s last large caribou herds and a stop for migrating birds from six continents, has served as a rallying cry for environmentalists and some of Alaska’s native tribes. But state politicians and many Republicans in Washington have pressed to extract the billions of barrels of oil lying beneath the refuge’s coastal plain.

    Democrats have managed to block them through votes in the Senate and, in one instance in 1995, by a presidential veto.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-administration-working-toward-renewed-drilling-in-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge/2017/09/15/bfa5765e-97ea-11e7-87fc-c3f7ee4035c9_story.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll bet they're getting ready to re-sell those driling and mining leases near the Grand Canyon too. You know. The ones that Obama blocked.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous5:46 PM

    Pro-Trump ‘Mother Of All Rallies’ On D.C.’s National Mall Sees Laughable Turnout

    http://www.politicususa.com/2017/09/16/pro-trump-mother-rallies-d-c-s-national-mall-sees-laughable-turnout.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I saw this on the news last night at my parents' house. They reported over a thousand. This was not Fox. It was CBS local. I was tempted to say "Then there were probably only about 300 people" but I restrained myself.

      I figured about a 400% overestimate would be about right.

      Turns out I was way off.

      1000%? Really?

      You can imagine what Trump is *really* worth if he is exaggerating his wealth by 1000%.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous6:17 PM

    Exactly.

    http://theweek.com/cartoons/724902/political-cartoon-gop-universal-single-payer-health-care

    GeorgiaPeach

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous6:47 PM

      I luv GeorgiaPeaches

      Delete
  4. CorningNY6:23 PM

    I hope I don't come across as creepy when I say I love Elizabeth Warren. I wish I were in a position where I could publicly diss people for their wrongdoings.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous7:01 PM

    Wow!

    Trump Administration Seeks to Avoid Withdrawal From Paris Climate Accord, International Climate Officials Say

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-wont-withdraw-from-paris-climate-deal-1505593922?tesla=y&mod=e2tw

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous7:33 PM

    California passes bill forcing presidential candidates to release tax returns

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/california-tax-returns-presidential-candidates-bill-legislature-passes-a7949816.html

    Go Cali!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous7:44 PM

    Something has to give. My brother lives in California, he has medicare and a supplemental health insurance policy, he took a three block ride in an ambulance and was charged 18,00 dollars for the ride, so far 4 thousand was covered but he is hoping Medicare was not submitted yet.

    People die every day due to lack of funds. He is a PHD and had his own practice for years. Meanwhile my Daughter In Laws parents get a free ride because he is unemployed and so is she and they are Trump supporters, they bitch about free rides while they take one, she had to have a pacemaker and it was free.meanwhile they had money in the bank, not a lot mind you but enough to pay for it.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Anonymous12:03 AM

      I know people who purposely keep themselves poor enough to qualify for Medicaid and then have the temerity to brag about all the free shit they get.

      My retort recently has been to remind them that there's a good chance that the Medicaid expansion is going away and they are going to have to experience true poverty in order to qualify in the future. It's rather generous right now, at least in AK single person can make nearly 22 grand annually and still qualify for Medicaid.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous8:56 AM

      7:44 I'm assuming you meant to write $18,000? Well I won't complain when they charged my husband's Ins $900 for transferring from one part of the hospital to the other. ER fee was $50 now it's $150, I truly believe the price skyrocketed because they wouldn't allow the CEO of this Health Care Ins to merge with another Health Care Company, mean while the rest of us can just die...um I mean go to hell

      Delete
  8. Anonymous7:53 PM

    "In the first hundred pages of What Happened, Hillary Clinton writes that she decided to run for office during a vacation with the designer Oscar de la Renta and that when she lost she received an invitation from George W. Bush to get burgers. These bookends are an early sign that there is something amiss in this much-anticipated tell-all of the 2016 campaign, which attempts—and fails—to offer a diagnosis of how Clinton lost an election to the most unqualified and most loathed presidential candidate in modern history. These anecdotes suggest a fatal lack of awareness, an inability to see that she and her party may have grown out of touch. To the contrary, she says. She was the victim of forces beyond her control. Journalists, Russia, Bernie Sanders: These are a few of her least favorite things."

    I can agree that journalists will more than likely continue to be anti-female candidate for years to come. For whatever reason, even democrats just cannot except that women have every right to pursue a career like men have since the beginning. I know Hillary is the opposite of a homemaker because she basically hates kids, but NO woman deserves . judgment or ridicule for having a job and kids. The way disgusting people went after Palin, despite her having a good, well-raised family, is abominable. We don't ask male candidates how they balance home and work life.

    WHY the fuck do we ask females this question? Hillary did it. Sarah did it. While I don't know exactly how involved at home HIllary was with her daughter, we know for fact that Sarah rarely missed a sporting event, picked up kids from school, went to conferences, took annual vacations, and enjoyed family time with the immediates and extended regularly. Those things are not up for debate because it's proven just from familial events.

    So, because no one is any different from that, why are we still asking women who run for office, "but how will you balance everything?"

    Geraldine Ferraro once said, "if I made it home late, my husband was there, ____ was there."

    Chelsea's longtime nanny moved into the White House. Michelle's mother lived in the White House. (Yet the tabloids still bullied Obama's kids over partying like they bullied everyone else for being normal)

    So, we are getting a bit closer, but in a good, healthy political world, no candidate should be asked anything related to how they manage their personal lives. No stalking of that in-law with a vice. No victimization of any private people.

    Why is this country disgusting?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:06 PM

      Hillary does not hate kids. Sarah Palin is and was a terrible person and terrible mother. Gryphen allows bullshit like the above post but don't dare criticize Tripp's father.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:21 PM

      Sarah's children told the world that they basically raised themselves. There's a difference between being a responsible, even if absent, parent and allowing your feral children to fend for themselves.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous3:14 AM

      Do you ever take a break? You fucking weirdo.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous4:15 AM

      "No woman deserves judgement...Hillary basically hates kids..." Are you too dense to see what you did there?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous4:17 AM

      Yes, Sarah was so diligent with the carpool. Diligent at finding ways to get out of it.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous5:28 AM

      Running on a Hockey Mom meme identity is not something a man would do. No man ran for office as a Boy Scout or Football dad as his major credential for the first or second highest office.

      I can understand the appeal of family's importance with Palin to many. It was not a credential that outweighed basic command of knoweledge to run.

      You could benefit to Google Hillary Climton's career.

      Delete
    7. "Sarah did it"?

      "...we know for fact that Sarah rarely missed a sporting event, picked up kids from school, went to conferences, took annual vacations, and enjoyed family time with the immediates and extended regularly. Those things are not up for debate because it's proven just from familial events."

      Sorry. You just undermined everything you were trying to say.

      Blindly biased and a stupid that can't be fixed.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous10:34 PM

    Mueller just obtained a warrant that could change the entire nature of the Russia investigation

    ..."This is big news — and potentially bad news for the Russian election interference 'deniers,'" said Asha Rangappa, a former FBI counterintelligence agent.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/mueller-obtains-warrant-for-russia-linked-facebook-ads-and-accounts-2017-9

    ReplyDelete
  10. WA Skeptic10:44 PM

    Do you remember high school and elections for Sr Class President? The candidates were always th BMOC (football hero, etc, etc.) and the straight-A class Nerd, always a girl, (musical, educated, head of her class in every academic field).

    You know how it ALWAYS ended: the BMOC took it.

    Hillary vs. the Class Clown: you knew it would wind up that way.

    If she'd won we wouldn't be fighting the KKK and North Korea and fake voter commissions (who are taking our registration info and god only knows where THAT will end up), or questioning everything good that has happened in our country for the past 70 years.

    ITMFA--save our country.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous5:03 AM

      WA Skeptic, if she had won, we'd be fighting massive misogyny and the GOP would stand in her way at least as much as they did with Obama. There would be endless scandle investigations that would span her entire presidential term. Nothing would get done.

      We should have nominated Bernie.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous5:39 AM

      Bernie's not a Democrat and he was never going to win. He was in it for himself. Get over it.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous6:44 AM

      And he's still in it. Where's Hillary?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous6:46 AM

      And as far as I am concerned, Bernie is more of a democrat than Hillary is.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous7:07 AM

      "As far as you're concerned" doesn't count for shit. He's not a Democrat and never will be a Democrat. Where's Hilary? Have you been unconscious the past week? She's promoting the book she wrote. Who knows what she will pursue next, that's her business. Shes devoted her life to bettering the lives of others. God forbid she take a few months off. She served as a senator and moved on to Secretary of State. It's not like she the job was waiting for her when the election ended. If she were still a senator, perhaps she'd continue there. Bernie didn't quit the Senate because he had no real intention of being President.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous7:09 AM

      Still in it for himself? I agree

      Delete
    7. Oh, I am sure Bernie would have taken the job had the DNC not rigged the game against him.

      Delete
    8. All elections, even at the national level, are basically popularity contests.

      So are the primaries.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous4:16 AM

    While most civilized nations provide single payer care for their citizens, the United States of America lags far behind, terrified of being seen as, heaven forbid, a Socialist country.

    I realize that, historically, the mindset of the American people has always been for individual independence at all cost, but while other countries are advancing, embracing change and instituting progressive social benefits, the supposedly number one nation in the world is mired in the backward policies of a Trump administration.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Trump said he "loved" the healthcare Australia has.

      Anything presented to Trump as a fix or replacement to Obamacare should be presented as "the same thing Australia has." Australia has single payer. They could gain support for expanded Medicare using this method.

      What they shouldn't do is present it as a REPLACEMENT for health insurance and require everyone to sing on to it. Which is exactly what the Democrats are doing. And why it will FAIL. (again.)

      Start with expanding Medicare for all and let people keep their private insurance if they so choose. Let businesses decide to provide private insurance or Medicare for all.

      Then watch private insurance slowly die.

      That's how it *should* be done. (Which is why the Democrats aren't doing it that way.)

      Delete

Don't feed the trolls!
It just goes directly to their thighs.