Wednesday February 15, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

sailwind's past comments

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sailwindJan. 13, 2012 - 09:25PM JST

Agreed Taxes need to be extracted from the population to obtain our medical "free care" nirvana. I am thinking since America went that free market thinking thing regarding medical care and it had that horrible side effect of actually causing the medical profession to innovate and discover the best medicines and care darn make a profit also is just evil.

Posted in: Social tensions increasing in U.S. between rich,poor
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sailwindJan. 13, 2012 - 10:17AM JST

The vast majority of developed countries, whether uniformly homogenous in make up (South Korea and Japan) or multi-ethnic (UK, France and Germany) have free, or close to free healthcare, because its recognised as a fundamental human right. Only in America could a 'debate' over whether to make health care free in the 21st century would even have started to begin with. Absolutely insane.

Your premise is wrong. There is no "Free Healthcare" just as there is no free lunch. It has to be funded from somewhere and in most countries that burden falls on the taxpayers. Either through VAT taxes, payroll taxes, coporate taxes, property taxes etc. Governments in general spend a vast of amount of their budgets administrating Govt run health care programs and Government gets the cash from the hard work of their citizens through taxing them.

Posted in: Social tensions increasing in U.S. between rich,poor
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sailwindJan. 12, 2012 - 06:41PM JST

As Obama has said, true equality is equality of chance, not of outcome, and from that perspective, the US is less equal than it has been for a generation.

Actually a lot less equal in just two years under Obama not a generation.

2010 Reuters headline......Poverty Rate In U.S. Saw Record Increase In 2009: 1 In 7 Americans Are Poor.

2011 AP headline........... Under Obama US poverty rate swells to 1 in 6

Posted in: Social tensions increasing in U.S. between rich,poor
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sailwindJan. 12, 2012 - 05:38PM JST

No first lady has been smeared as much as this poor woman has had to endure.

I'll pass that on to Nancy Reagan

Mrs Reagan, once nicknamed 'Dragon Lady' because of her demanding ways with staff and fierce protection of her husband, was frequently ridiculed during her White House years from 1981 to 1989.

Posted in: Michelle Obama dismisses 'angry black woman' portrayal
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sailwindJan. 10, 2012 - 06:50PM JST

Fresh sanctions signed by President Obama at the end of last year targeting the country's central bank, has put both politicians and average citizens on edge about the stability of the economy.

Just for perspective as to why the Iranians are really doing this.

Posted in: Iranian judge sentences American to death for spying
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sailwindJan. 08, 2012 - 09:03PM JST

The blood is so bad between Iran and America that America still has no embassy in Iran.

Isn't that the place the Iranians held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days?

Posted in: Iran welcomes U.S. rescue of nationals from pirates
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sailwindJan. 07, 2012 - 08:32PM JST

I am more curious as to where the job growth is actually occurring I'm sure that it is uneven across the Nation. I would say its more than likely it's concentrated in the States that have low tax rates, business friendly with less stifling regulations and are on a fiscally sound footing with spending under control at the State Government level. Policies that really should be replicated and enacted at the Federal level to get America back to work in all of the country.

Posted in: Good news for Obama as U.S. adds 200,000 jobs in December
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sailwindJan. 07, 2012 - 07:22PM JST

About the question whether she should have warned the intruder before firing..........her own exact words on that.

Bear in mind, she’s 18 years old, her husband died of cancer just one week earlier, and she had not one but two lunatics attempting to break down her door and do who knows what. And yet: “I knew if I screamed I would give my position away in the house. And I wanted to see him first.”

This is one hell of a brave young woman.

Posted in: Oklahoma woman asks 911 operator for permission to shoot intruder
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sailwindJan. 06, 2012 - 10:13PM JST

Thank goodness she had a shotgun in the house and knew how to use it.

Posted in: Oklahoma woman asks 911 operator for permission to shoot intruder
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sailwindJan. 05, 2012 - 08:20PM JST

Lostrune2,

Agreed, Yes we can by that slick talking Obama sure got em out to vote then.

Posted in: Romney snags key McCain backing; Bachmann quits race
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sailwindJan. 05, 2012 - 07:38AM JST

sailwind,

Indeed, the internet HAS spoken. Google Medicare success About 27,500,000 results (0.17 seconds)

Your are being less than truthful.

Google Medicare success stories as you did for HMO success stories........ 3,380,000 results (.08 seconds)

Posted in: Republicans make final effort before Iowa vote
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sailwindJan. 04, 2012 - 11:26AM JST

The internet has spoken in a rather one-sided fashion on the subject.

It certaintly has..........Google Medicare Nightmares.........11,000,000 results .24 seconds

Posted in: Republicans make final effort before Iowa vote
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sailwindJan. 03, 2012 - 10:12PM JST
Laguna,

In answer to your questions....... how much is lost to HMO fraud? I've been doing due diligence trying to find some credible figure or answer and could not find much of anything at all for HMO's. As a matter of fact most of what I have found are HMO's have strict State and Federal oversight and are pretty tightly regulated by State and Federal authorities. I also found most HMO's that accept Medicare and Medicaid have their own fraud investigative units (whether this is a requirement by the Fed's or not before they would submit payments to an HMO I'm not sure but I would hazard a guess that it a stipulation somewhere in the federal code or state codes) My answer would be I have to say not unheard of but very uncommon at all and a pittance as far a dollar amounts go.

And, considering that the majority of HMO profitability is due to management of government programs, particularly Medicaid, how much of Medicare fraud due to HMO management?

I believe I've answered that above already but again HMO's management is under strict federal ans sate regulator oversight.

Why is the taxpayer liable for investigating and prosecuting HMO fraud?

It's taxpayer money being used for medical care payment and in the few cases that I could find where an HMO was prosecuted for fraud and the fraud was stopped and those that abused the system were fined and went to jail, I'd say that is tax dollars well spent along with healthy fines that replenished the taxpayer money after the fact.

> Why do HMOs maintain multi-million dollar lobbying organizations to support the status quo?

Obama's Health care reform mandates that everyone will have medical insurance or face penalties if they don't purchase it. HMO's not only take Medicare but also private insurance plans, the status quo is about to get a heck of lot bigger without having to go through that annoying hassle of actually having to compete for a patients business because he or she already has insurance, what's not to love if your in the health care insurance business and people have to and are forced to buy your product.....sweet deal if you ask me from an insurers point of view.

Fraud in Medicare is made public, unlike that in private companies, and yet Medicare still manages to provide medical care to a greater number of people than almost any HMO. How could that be?

Again found very few instances of Fraud it at all. Of the few cases that I did find they were all quite public......Best example I could find was in 1998.......Mutual of Omaha to illustrate the oversight legitimate companies are under.

In 1998, a Mutual of Omaha subsidiary, Exclusive Healthcare Inc. signed an agreement with the OIG to settle allegations that one of EHI's sales managers instructed his sales staff to screen potential Medicare enrollees in EHI's Medical managed care plan. The manager is alleged to have stated:
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If a person is ill and is seeing more [than] one specialist, maybe this is not the plan they should be in.4
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As part of the settlement allowing it to resume marketing to prospective Medicare HMO members, EHI paid a $50,000 civil monetary penalty, and agreed to enhance its corporate integrity program to include a formal training program, for every officer and employee, of at least two hours per year reviewing federal and state requirements with respect to contracting, marketing, enrollment, disenrollment, provider contracting, provider relations, grievances, appeals and claims payments.

Again HMO's are tightly regulated.

Lastly, Medicare fraud last year of 48 billion and is equivalent to the entire GDP of Vietnam to get your mind around how large the sum is.
Posted in: Republicans make final effort before Iowa vote
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sailwindJan. 03, 2012 - 04:37PM JST

Certainly, such nefarious behavior would never be directed towards private companies! Google "HMO scandal" and you'll find - well, quite a lot worse - and much of it emanating not from bogus claims but from the management itself.

I did exactly that and found..... well, not really that much except maybe the Kaiser Kidney Transplant Scandal dated 21 May 2008 that looked pretty bad. Nothing at all about 48 billion being flushed down the toilet by the Government in improper Medicare payments last year. Which is actually sugar coating it. That's 48 billion in just one year. Good grief, if that has been the average the past three years that is darn near a 150 billion dollars!!! Heck, that kind of loot might even make a spendaholic Democrat think that maybe the Medicare program could use a "little work" on how good the Govt is running the program and on how the Govt runs health care and why the public wasn't so keen on Obama's health care reform plan in the first place.

Posted in: Republicans make final effort before Iowa vote
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sailwindJan. 03, 2012 - 01:14PM JST

Medicare, for example, provides much more bang for the buck than does in HMO. The federal government should expand such programs to welcome all Americans and then use its clout to rein in costs.

I'd rather have the Government prove that it can actually manage the program and get organized crime and fraud out of Medicare first. Crooks are getting a good healthy 10% "bang for the buck " cut at all our expense before I'd even think about expanding it or foisting this on anyone else.

MSNBC Reuters Investigative article 12/21/2011

Last year, "improper payments" resulted in $48 billion in losses to the Medicare program, nearly 10 percent of the $526 billion in payments the program made, according to a Government Accountability Office report last March. Exactly how much of those payments moved through shell companies remains unclear. That's because neither Medicare nor law enforcement agencies systematically track how often such companies are used in the frauds.

Good Taxpayer pickings also if you were with part of an Armenian crime racket.

In one of the largest cases of Medicare fraud ever charged, the operation was enabled by shell companies. In October 2010, federal prosecutors indicted 44 members of an Armenian organized crime ring. Their network, which stretched from Los Angeles to Savannah, Ga., used 118 shell companies in 25 states to pose as Medicare providers, billing more than $100 million, according to federal indictments in three states.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45754719/ns/usnews-crimeand_courts/

Posted in: Republicans make final effort before Iowa vote
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sailwindJan. 03, 2012 - 10:42AM JST

But those Iowans who might consider themselves conservatives, and who refuse or neglect to register as Republicans, are not allowed to vote in the Republican caucus, even though they are eligible voters in all other respects.

That's why they are called "Independents"............

Posted in: Romney makes big push in Iowa
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sailwindJan. 03, 2012 - 09:55AM JST

The Republicans want to make VoterID laws binding on Democratic voters, but they won't employ them for themselves when they've got every opportunity to do so.

Kindly explain if Iowa does not have a Voter I.D law on the books at the present time and to participate in the Republican caucuses and be able to cast a ballot one's only requirement is to be a previously duly and legally Iowa registered Republican voter in the caucus precinct. That if the Republicans did in fact request it and if a person failed to provide it that they could legally deny that person his or right to vote after they had already been duly registered by the State as an eligible voter.

Posted in: Romney makes big push in Iowa
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sailwindJan. 03, 2012 - 07:34AM JST

Your claim/implication that the Republican Party would be in violation of privacy laws if they required voters at a Republican caucus to furnish a photoID is totally wrong.

Then kindly explain why there has to be a Voter I.D law passed in the first place and on the books before voters are LEGALLY required to furnish a photo I.D.

Posted in: Romney makes big push in Iowa
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sailwindJan. 01, 2012 - 11:07AM JST

It is your claim that a Republican party board that wants to enact rules for its own intra-party elections that included the requirement of a photoID as being in violation of Iowa law that is totally wrong.

Apparently you have never heard of Individual Privacy act laws.

Posted in: Romney makes big push in Iowa
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sailwindJan. 01, 2012 - 01:08AM JST

In fact, Iowa state law requires that the party chairperson and secretary certify the eligibility of each caucus voter -- but does not specify the method for doing so.

Garbage......Iowa state law requires that a person casting a ballot be legally to registered to vote and can only vote in the precent they have registered in. That is the certification process already completed. It is specified by Iowa law.

Since only eligible voters by Iowa's definition as having already registered with the State can cast a legal ballot without having to show further proof shows there is a SPECIFIC method for doing it.

The Republican party is following Iowa law and you are totally wrong on this.

Posted in: Romney makes big push in Iowa