The poet Juvenal wrote, “We Romans have forgotten our civic duties; the People who once approved everything, military command, high civic offices, legions, now hold back and anxiously hope for only two things: bread and circuses.”

This was written in the early 2nd century AD when Trajan was emperor. The Latin word circus means arena or amphitheater. The Circus Maximus in Rome was used primarily for chariot races (ludi circenses); it was also used for gladiator sports. The Circus Maximus, originally a wooden structure, burned many times, including in Nero’s famous 64 AD fire. Trajan enlarged and rebuilt the circus to its maximum capacity, probably over 200,000 spectators (Roman writers give various estimates). The Spanish-born Trajan discouraged Christian persecution and was supposedly baptized posthumously by Pope Gregory the Great 380 years later to save his soul or release it from Hell. Trajan was widely respected and often mentioned by Christian leaders as a “noble pagan”.

Americans beg for cheap gas and cheap medicine today.

Read what the Republicans Wish You Wouldn’t

I'm on the run today, but want to get the latest from the DNC research department out there. Today's Daily Flipper has the following stories:  
Sen. John McCain is all mixed up on his wars
He needs to go back to health care 101
McCain Gets White House Sign Off Before Criticizing White House
McCain Wants World To Look The Other Way On Shady Connections
How Much Does McCain Love Nuclear Power - Billions of Giga-Bunches
Giuliani Having Trouble Raising Money for McCain

Read the full report in the Daily Flipper.  Flip it good.

"Everything's fine," McCain told reporters during a news conference. "Like most Americans, I go see my doctor fairly frequently."

http://www.politico.com/...

Are you kidding me? "Like most Americans, I go see my doctor fairly frequently."

Update 1: In a comment, william shipley  noted that if McSame is on Medicare he may not be eligible for an HSA, this is a good point. Number one, does anyone know if McSame is on Medicare?  Number two, I'd assume Cindy, as a spouse and the eligible children are insured through the FEHBP.  Do Cindy and the children have this plan which is the FEHBP HSA High Deductible for residents of Arizona?

Update 2:

See this comment from jpspencer, which argues that McSame is not eligible for Medicare since he has not retired.

How To Reduce Health Care Spending With Or Without Help From The Government

Reform is coming to the health insurance industry.  If we’re not careful, the reforms may make matters worse instead of better.

The pressure for reform is building because the skyrocketing cost of providing health insurance for employees is becoming too much of a burden for businesses.  Large firms find themselves at a competitive disadvantage in the global economy.  Small businesses simply can’t afford the cost.  The percentage of workers with health insurance provided by employers is declining.  

The practice of providing health insurance as a fringe benefit began during World War II as a means of circumventing wage controls.  It has endured because it benefits everyone involved.  Employers can deduct the full cost of providing insurance as a business expense.  Workers pay less in taxes since they are not taxed on the value of the premiums paid on their behalf.  Insurance companies get more business than they otherwise would.  

(cross-posted at Cure This, an online health justice space)

Ah yes, another discussion of consumer-driven healthcare, written by someone from an insurance company (no conflict of interest there?):

A recent study by Fidelity Investments found that while 61 percent of employees considered their understanding of health insurance terminology to be very good, only 15 percent of workers had a very strong understanding of key terms. For instance, 56 percent did not know what an HSA is; a startling 13 percent did not know what a co-payment is.

Ok this is SCARY.  If more than 1/2 of Americans don't know what a Health Savings Account is, and 13% don't know what a co-payment is, how are Americans equipped to shop around for their healthcare? (more after the jump...)

Perhaps the greatest conceit of health care reform debates is the notion that free-market competition among private insurance companies will lower health costs. Instead of a free market, the insurance industry is increasingly a monopoly market, now dominated by three national firms – United Health, Wellpoint and Aetna. Indeed, the commercial insurances have not brought down premium costs. Inflationary premium rates have increased more than 70 percent in just the past six years. Corporatized health care continues to shift greater costs to taxpayers and consumers. Even as we pay more for coverage, we experience less access.

Abandoning the principle of shared risk, private insurers maximize shareholder profits by insuring the healthy and excluding everyone else as a ‘pre-existing condition’; by denial or delay of provider reimbursements; and by peddling high-deductible policies with Health Savings Accounts as tax shelters for the wealthy, and greater out-of-pocket expenses for individuals.

ABC's 20/20 co-host John Stossel, a former consumer advocate who turned into a cranky libertarian - much like Dennis Miller, presented only one side of the story about America's healthcare system during a recent show.

While he tried to sell how great our current health system is, he tried to also sell a load of crap about Health Saving Accounts (HSA). HSAs are a sham that will hurt people unless you educate yourself.

From the moment he entered the White House, President Bush proclaimed the "doctor-patient relationship" the centerpiece of his policies when it comes to Americans' health care.  Just not, as it turns out, for American women.  As the Supreme Court decision upholding the 2003 Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act shows, President Bush and his Republican allies don't care much at all about the doctor-patient relationship when it comes to women's reproductive health and safety.

We've all read or heard horror stories of folks with terrible diseases and no insurance.  And we all know the plight of the working poor - those who slave in dead-end jobs with no health benefits.
But I think even today, many of us in the "middle class" think something like this: "Boy what a sad story, we really should do better.  Single payer is the right way to go.  I'm sure glad I have safe insurance"
But the fact is folks, in today's world of corporate cost cutting and free market health care - nobody is safe - not you, not me, not anybody.  For my personal story to illustrate this, follow on...

Conservatives' favorite health-care solution--high-deductible insurance plans supplemented by health savings accounts--is turning out to be a little more wrinkly than they might hope it to be:

The sharp increase in high-deductible health insurance plans is creating a headache for hospitals and other health care providers who are finding it increasingly difficult to collect the portion of bills due from individuals. [. . .] Recent changes in federal law allowing quicker funding of health savings accounts also might help individuals to pay, officials say.

The problem, however, is real for area medical providers.  For example, in the first nine months of last year, the proportion of accounts receivable due from individuals using Advanced Healthcare grew from 22% to 29%. Advanced is a large physician practice based in Germantown.  Other area providers report similar increases.

A new survey finds the Bush-backed consumer-directed health plan scheme can, indeed, cut spending on health care. And scare half the enrollees into wanting to bail out.

Health Savings Accounts are the for-profit Insurance industry's favorite fake solution to the health insurance problem in the U.S., and of course are therefor the favorite of thte Repugs. As the study in "moresville" shows, all they do is skim of the health and wealthy from the general insurance population pool, leaving the poor or unhealthy behind. In the end these folks either do not get care or often do not get care early enough but cost all of us more via emergency rooms, longer hospital stays paid for indirectly.  The only real solution is one that puts all Americans in one insurance pool... some for of universal national coverage. Some form of this is what all other industrialized nations have, though how they do it differs. Many ways to achieve it. Only the U.S. does not.

See:
http://www.pnhp.org
http://www.kff.org/

More...

I'm a commissioner on a local board and we've been discussing Health Savings Accounts and other alternatives to traditional employee insurance plans to offer as benefits for the district's employees.

Any Kossack experts out there who can tell me about pros and cons for things like:
- HSA's
- FSA's
- low-premium, high-deductible insurance
- self-insuring
- trends in these areas
- health insurance industry in general

This is not my area of expertise.... TIA.

Who are we to believe?

Mr. Bush, who has gone around the country blaming trial lawyers and Americans who he believes consume healthcare like crazed junkies or the Government Accountability Office, the GAO.

Here, from Mr. Bush's own mouth in April, at a "townhall" meeting in Connecticut, blaming lawyers, diverting attention from the real causes of our healthcare meltdown and the plight of the 48 million uninsured.

The GAO is out with a new report which vanquishes Mr. Bush's bandaid solution to our healthcare meltdown.

Previously, I described the little noticed Congressional actions which lay a foundation for the privatization of Medicare.  Today I will describe the major components of that foundation:  a variety of health plans run primarily by insurance companies, but also by some other health industry entities.    

Access to basic health care is not a right of citizenship in America.

During the bleak six years of the Bush regime, the number of Americans without health insurance has increased by 6.2 million, while health care premiums have increased by 73 percent. Workers, families and businesses have struggled to cope with rising premiums and diminishing benefits.

With healthcare costs soaring, more Americans are losing their coverage. We hear from Kossacks every single day who descibe "doing without".

I couldn't get this comment from Kossack Nina Katarina, out of my mind.

Since we lost our health coverage, it's been 'do without' for me.  Which I know is going to bite me in the long run.  My teeth are telling me that fairly constantly.  Ouch.  

But my husband's diabetes medications cost just a little less than health coverage copays would cost us, so we roll those dice every day, and hope to last until my contract turns into permanent work.  If it ever does.

Health insurance is essentially unaffordable and it's increasingly a luxury only the most affluent Americans can afford.

Last night, I got a call from (it said on my Caller ID) a "Private Caller."  I answered to discover that
the caller was soliciting for some breast cancer research organization.  

First of all, I won't give money over to a "Private Caller."  It may very well be, that the "Private Caller" is a scam artist phoning incognito.  Solicitors for charities should identify themselves properly.  So, if the charity isn't going to at least try to gain my trust by being open on the Caller Id, then they should expect a flat rejection.  

We just received our medical bill for transplanted kidney monitoring labs.  The total bill was $855.00.  If a person was uninsured, that is the price that they would have to pay.  This does not include anything else for the medical visit...the doctor fees and the clinic fees.  This lab bill has inflated 100% in the last two years.  The bill used to be about $400 a couple of years ago.  

Well, we fortunately (?) have insurance, if you could call it that.  We do not have to pay that whole outrageous $855 like really poor people do.  (continue in extended body box:)))