Category — Health Care

Teenager among four fatal stabbings in London in 24 hours

• A teenager is among four victims of separate fatal stabbings which took place in London over the past day, as a fifth man fights for life.

• His death brings the number of teenagers killed in the capital this year to 20 and comes just days after the Metropolitan police announced that knife crime had usurped terrorism to become their top priority.

• In Walthamstow, north east London, a man in his 20s was fatally stabbed in an attack in St David’s Court yesterday evening.

• In Tottenham, north London, a murder inquiry was launched after a man was found stabbed to death at the rear of a disused pub in Tottenham High Road.

• Four people remain in custody today after a 20-year-old man was fatally stabbed in Leyton, east London.
  The man, named locally as Adnan Patel, died from a stab wound to the chest after crashing his Ford Focus in Downsell Road, Leyton.
  Detectives are investigating whether he was fleeing from the occupants of a van who stabbed him in an apparent road rage attack moments earlier.
  Paramedics were called as passers-by gave emergency first aid and tried to stem the bleeding but Mr Patel died at the scene.

• A fifth man is in a life-threatening condition after a knife attack in London Willesden, north west London at 4.20am this morning.

All of these individuals are were upstanding citizens, who avoided fighting back which breaks the law. Instead, they calmly left all this unpleasantness up to the police.

Police officer dies of heart attack after being diagnosed with indigestion

From NHS, we get news of this money saving treatment. Brits better hope this doesn’t become the new medical rage.

A policeman with a family history of coronary disease was sent home and told to take indigestion remedy when a hospital failed to recognise he was having a heart attack.

PC Brian Burnett, 49, a dog handler, was three months away from retiring when he was taken ill with severe chest pains.

He went to Lincoln County Hospital’s accident and emergency unit where he was examined by a doctor and given an electrocardiogram (ECG) test to check his heart.

But he was told to go home and take Gaviscon, over-the-counter treatment for heartburn and indigestion.

PC Burnett collapsed and died 34 hours later from an atherothrombosis, a condition which leads to arteries becoming blocked.

His widow Christine has now been awarded a six figure sum in compensation three years after his death, with United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust accepting negligence.

Of course, a tidy sum to be sure at first glance. Think of the tidy sums saved by not having the surgical costs on the NHS and savings on his pension.

National health care does save the system money.

Anna Temple, of United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust, said: “We offer our condolences to the family of Mr Burnett.

How wonderful and sensitive of them to care.

Universal health care for the elite

I suspect Ted Kennedy will be going to either England, Canada or Cuba for his health care treatment. He’s touted them as the best of all programs. According to him our system is a disaster.

OK, blowhard, put your beliefs up and hop that G-5 to…I’ll bet fat boy, Mike Moore, can get you in to a fine hospital in Cuba.

Be a leader, show us the way!

Hope and change are on the way so spend your way to wealth!

401(k) debit draws red flags

A new debit card that lets consumers use ATMs to withdraw money from their 401(k) plans is drawing a sharp reaction from financial planners.

The ReservePlus card is marketed by Reserve Solutions Inc., a New York financial firm that says it has 10,000 cardholders already. [snip]

“For every $10 you take out of the account, you only have $6 or $7 to spend, probably closer to $6, which means you’re giving up a third of your money,” said Stuart Ritter, certified financial planner for T. Rowe Price, a Baltimore asset-management company. “You’re also giving up money to spend in retirement, so you are by definition lowering your lifestyle in retirement.” [snip]

Employees always have been able to take out loans against their 401(k) accounts, but not with ATM cards. The ReservePlus program allows employees to transfer approved loans into online accounts that continue to earn interest. Employees then can withdraw cash from the account at ATMs, up to the maximum approved by their employers. They also can use their debit cards to buy goods and services. [snip]

“The need for individuals to save for retirement has grown over the year due to the uncertainty of Social Security, the shift away from pension plans and the increasing cost of health care,” said Jennifer Engle, spokeswoman for Fidelity Investments, a Boston money manager. [snip]

What’s with this uncertainty with Social Security? All the politicians, including the candidates for President say it is safe; otherwise, they would have fixed any inadequacies long ago. To complete the circle, we need Universal Health Care.

Regardless of the wisdom of waiting, the 401(k) withdrawal rate has been rising recently. [snip]

Besides, the government will protect you from yourself if something goes bump in the night. So feel safe to borrow for what you need/like/want/desire.

There were 12% fewer free care hospital visits last year, and the solons are ecstatic:

“This is another indicator that healthcare reform is succeeding,” said Sarah Iselin, commissioner of the state Division of Health Care Finance and Policy…

Did the state save any money? I bet that question would bring a frown to Ms. Iselin’s face. In reality, our mandatory health insurance law is just a shell game. Free care visits have been replaced by massive overruns in the Health Connector budget. That’s hardly reason to celebrate.

Mandated Change

“The way most goods and services become excellent — I mean really excellent — is through competition…How do you think we got from subsistence agriculture to super-cheap food? By mandates?”–Tyler Cowen

In November, the United States may take its strongest lurch to the left since 1933. The Republicans easily could lose 10 seats in the Senate.

The ramifications of this on the free market will be stultifying. The Democrats will not be able to raise taxes to produce more income; the AMT stands in the way of that. All tax increases on the richest 2% will go to covering the losses on the AMT.

They start with a deficit THEY say they can clean up. That means no new spending programs. Compounding their problem is Social Security, which they postulated was in great condition. When those increased obligations start cutting into their other favorite programs, the only choices are spending cuts or add regulations. You‘re aware which way that goes. Unless they chose Pigovian taxes, which must not be called taxes, call them encouragement for the masses.

A type of a Pigovian tax is a “sin tax”, which is a special tax on tobacco products and alcohol.
Such taxes have historically triggered rampant smuggling and flourishing black markets, especially if they create large differences in the price of popular products in neighboring jurisdictions. Critics of sin taxes argue they are regressive in nature and discriminate against the lower classes, since in many jurisdictions they are more likely to be consumers of alcohol and tobacco, more likely to consume a greater quantity of it, and thus are taxed a much greater proportion of their lower income.

Prepare for “instructions” on what light bulbs you may buy; how much health insurance to purchase and from which non-competitive companies with prix fixe premiums. Here is the auto fuel you will like at a price selected by the government.

[snip]
The business sector is going to be increasingly told what to sell and how to sell it. Particularly in health care and energy, firms are going to be accountable to bureaucrats, not to customers. Products and services will be designed in Washington, not by competition.
Regulations and mandates are an alternative to budgetary spending. For example, if politicians do not want to spend money on recruiting a volunteer army, they can institute a draft. Similarly if politicians do not have the resources on budget to pay for universal health insurance, they can pass a law making the purchase of health insurance mandatory. If such a law is effective, then the uninsured will be “drafted” into the army of the insured.

The Massachusetts Model

Consider the Massachusetts health insurance plan. Under the plan, individuals are required by law to purchase health insurance. The type of health insurance that they must by is defined by government regulations. As reported by the Massachusetts Medical Society,

“On March 8, the Commonwealth Connector Board approved seven insurance products for the Commonwealth Choice program, designed to cover uninsured residents who do not qualify for the Connector’s subsidized plans or Commonwealth Care. Below are links to spreadsheets containing the details about premiums, co-pays, and deductibles.”

If you live in Massachusetts and meet the eligibility parameters, you must purchase one of these seven policies. It is illegal for a health insurance company to compete for your business by offering a different policy, such as a policy with a higher deductible or a policy that excludes coverage for some medical procedures.

Private insurance companies still are allowed to conduct business and earn profits in Massachusetts. They are just not allowed to innovate or compete in terms of product offerings.

Regulatory Cost Control

Health care is going to be a tar-baby for government. The more that government grabs, the more it is going to find itself stuck with problems.[snip]

Energy Regulation

Businesses that affect the consumption of energy will also be managed by regulators. We can expect utility de-regulation to be halted and reversed. Alternative fuel mandates and emission controls will be gleefully enacted. [snip]

Labor Regulation

Another objective of the Left is to reduce income inequality. [snip]
…, we can expect to see a raft of new requirements placed on businesses requiring them to offer employees subsidized day care, longer vacations, higher minimum wages, and so forth. [snip]

Read about Germany’s unemployment debacle and the EU situation in general.

Backlash?

Many Americans will welcome the regulatory state. Many others will accomodate it. Only a minority of us will oppose it. Somewhere down the road, as people see the indignity of the many intrusions and the adversity of the consequences, I hope that there will be a backlash. Otherwise, if the era of mandates emerges as I fear it will, then the engine of capitalism in America may run out of the fuel of competition.

All these solutions when applied worked so well. See: Sweden, Soviet Union, Germany, France, Denmark et alia for such successful models.

There is a surge here in the Green Mt, rivaling that of Iraq, to beat the Feds to a health care fix. Of course, single payer is the only horse in the field, making it a sure er winner.

Fixing your quality of life

“If we don’t do something, it [rising health care costs] will just go on and on,” he said. “And the people of Vermont can’t afford it anymore.”

–Representative Francis McFaun, comments in the Rutland Herald, on his introduction of a bill to make hospital care free for all Vermonters.

Since Vermonters cannot pay for health care, according to McFaun, we need the government to pay the freight. Is he talking about the same of, by, and for the people, government? Are these the same folks who individually couldn’t afford health care before, now collectively can pay?

If you e-mail him at this address FMcFaun@leg.state.vt.us perhaps he can enlighten you on this manipulation of logic, producing this embarrassing legislation. It is far beyond my poor skills.

Maybe he’s a flatlander, that’s a viable explanation for this idiocy. We never grew natives this stupid up here in the past.

Crossing the pecuniary border and descending into the swamp of liberal economics, shows how the government, unlike businesses and individuals, can afford insurance. The governments in their fiscal ways developed a method of saving money. They don’t pay for the full cost of services, because they don’t have to; they’re the government. This decodes the cost problem for them, not for us. Providers cover the this shortfall by the “cost shift” which sends private insurance rates sky high. This problem occurred by government fiat; it should be to your dismay that the resolution will arrive the same way, which means no fix!

Affordable health care isn’t worth it, if it’s not available.

BENNINGTON — In order to avoid a $3.2 million deficit, Southwestern Vermont Medical Center plans to cut about $640,000 in salary expenses, which is expected to mean some job losses at the hospital, the largest private employer in Bennington County.

In a letter to employees sent on Friday and signed by members of the hospital’s budget variance committee and executive management team, officials said expenses at the hospital are so high they threaten the financial bottom line.

When the wonderful “quality of life” topic arises, the assumption is there are professionals and facilities around to treat you when you are sick or need an operation.

Using the British National Health Service as a model triggers some hesitation with this:

New Idea In Health Care …

Another way to cut health care costs
The Vermont legislature favors single payer health care systems like the British NHS. Unfortunately, “first do no harm,” that Platonic ideal, is in the morgue. Their triage is a bit harsh; you will get over it, or else.

As predicted here, the “fabulous” MA Health Connector is already exceeding its original cost projections:

The Massachusetts plan might not have achieved universal coverage, but it has cost taxpayers a great deal of money. It was originally projected to cost $1.8 billion in 2008, but it is now expected to exceed those estimates by $150 million to $400 million. Over the next decade, projections suggest that RomneyCare will cost $2-$4 billion more than was budgeted.

Anybody with a rudimentary understanding of economics could have foreseen this debacle. I’m also willing to bet the $2-$4 billion long-term shortfall is low too. Hold on to your wallets MA taxpayers because there’s turbulence ahead as this white elephant continues to spiral out of control.

Students pinched by birth control pill costs

Federal legislation has forced Cal Poly’s clinic to triple its prices; two senators hope to help

By Nick Wilson

Cal Poly’s Health and Counseling Services has seen the cost of contraceptives triple in recent months, according to center Director Martin Bragg.

The higher cost, he said, is the result of 2005 federal legislation that barred university health clinics from access to lower-priced drugs.
[snip]

With the cost of college, plus or minus campus residence, meal plans and books running from $8,000 at a state school to over $40,000, for a 10 month year, that breaks down to $800 to $4,000 per month. Her cost is 0.03125 to 0.00628 percent of the monthly hit. Five beers in a FB emporium pays for the pills. So does one less lid.

Paying for the pill with a modest shrinkage in drink and dope purchases, sleeping in her own bed alone every other weekend and maybe even studying has a salutatory on the wallet as well as health costs.

One also has a low to no cost option for pregnancy protection called abstention; additionally, this has no failure rate.

Bragg said “thousands” of Cal Poly students seek birth control from the university’s health services center. He said he didn’t have specific numbers, but he estimates a month’s supply of birth control pills now costs Cal Poly students about $25.

That amount isn’t as much as the monthly supply of $40 to $50 for pills in other parts of the country, but it’s more than the $5 to $10 per month that once was standard.

“Students are feeling the increased costs,” he said.
[snip]

More of the samo-samo noise from the tykes, I want—you pay. If the ancillary costs of education are so severe, a lifestyle change is in order. Would 10 years of honest labor help pay for the privilege of education? A couple of hitches in the service alleviate the urge to merge promiscuously while kicking the infantile gimmes.

“When you look at the data of the termination of pregnancies, this is money well spent,” he said. “The cost of terminating pregnancies or the cost of an unwanted child to society is much higher.”

Not having the brains to avoid the problem of pregnancy, suggests two conclusions. One is the inordinate waste of money on sex education in the elementary and high schools. The other one drawn is that these individuals are too stupid to be educated and should be sold into some Middle East harem.

I guess the UK NHS has a problem to solve about issuing fiats.

‘Patients to lose weight before NHS treatment’

Patients could be required to stop smoking, take exercise or lose weight before they can be treated on the National Health Service, Gordon Brown has suggested.

In a New Year message to NHS staff, the Prime Minister indicates people may have to fulfil new “responsibilities” in order to establish their entitlement to care.

Size zero epidemic as hospitals face huge rise in patients with eating disorders

The number of patients needing hospital treatment for eating disorders has soared, it has emerged.

The findings are sure to renew concerns about the effect “size zero” models and celebrities are having on the body image of many youngsters.

I don’t know whether to eat tofu or a bag of high fructose sugar solids, while watching this all play out.

Via JustOneMinute:

Let me see if I understand this - John Edwards and the Krugman Democrats want to negotiate with the Iranians and North Koreans but not the drug companies or health insurers.

Well, as long as we are clear who the bad guys are.

Speaking of Iran, it looks like they almost got more than they bargained for when provoking US Navy warships this weekend (HT: Gateway Pundit):

In what U.S. officials called a serious provocation, Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats harassed and provoked three U.S. Navy ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, threatening to explode the American vessels.

U.S. forces were on the verge of firing on the Iranian boats in the early Sunday incident, when the boats turned and moved away, a Pentagon official said. “It is the most serious provocation of this sort that we’ve seen yet,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said: “We urge the Iranians to refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future.”

…There were no injuries but the official said there could have been, because the Iranian boats turned away “literally at the very moment that U.S. forces were preparing to open fire” in self defense.

The official said he didn’t have the precise transcript of communications that passed between the two forces, but said the Iranians radioed something like “we’re coming at you and you’ll explode in a couple minutes.”

We should have given them an express ticket to meet Allah.