Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Midnight Columnist: Corporate Bought Attacks On Sicko
Fisher, who has excellent health care, and made $5,883,600 in salary last year should be very happy that there is excellent care for his daughter, and he is able to take the year off as an NBA player to focus on her health. How this story has anything to do with what 'Sicko' brought up is just beyond me though.
People with moderate incomes and nominal health insurance are getting devastated by medical bills. Does the fact that a wealthy NBA player is able to get his daughter care make us want to leave the system in place? At the bottom of the column it noted that Paul Howard works for the Manhattan Institute. That explained everything.
Many of you are aware of the Heritage Foundation, and AEI. The Manhattan Institute is their ugly cousin in New York. What they do is whore themselves out to the largest corporate donors they can find and write up "research papers" that "prove" that things like smoking are not so bad for us. No seriously.
Tobacco industry documents reveal relationships between the Manhattan Institute and tobacco companies. The Institute sought funding from tobacco companies, including Brown & Williamson.[3] The Institute has received funding from R.J. Reynolds.[4] In 1991, Lorillard Inc. budgeted a $4,000 contribution of the Manhattan Institute[5] and the same amount in 1996.[6] Philip Morris budgeted $25,000 for the Instutite in 1995.
A 1997 R.J. Reynolds memo reveals RJR's intent to use the Manhattan Institute as a third party to help the company reduce the public's perception of danger from exposure to secondhand smoke.
They also take money from Richard Mellon Scaife, Exxon-Mobil, Bristol Meyers Squibb, Chase Manhattan, Reliant Energy, the Lily Endowment amongst others according to Source Watch, to write papers for them.
The fact that the Washington Post published a red herring column against 'Sicko' is discouraging. Another article written by Howard, totally not influenced by the pharmaceutical companies who fund him, lashed out against Stanford for banning freebies for doctors. The pharma reps just want to have lunch with doctors because they are sexy, and Stanford was being really mean. The man works at an institute! He must have a point!
It's bad enough that the Post has enough columnists and editorial writers on staff who are horribly wrong on issues. The notion of putting in thinly disguised ads from the health care industry and calling it a column is many degrees worse in lowering the standard of journalism that this paper practices.
On an unrelated point, let me state that George Soros is the sexiest man alive and his brilliance is only exceeded by his animal magnetism, humor, compassion, and tender bedroom eyes.
Update:If you feel concerned about corporately funded think tanks being published as columns in the Washington Post, why don't you drop Deborah Howell the Ombudsman of the Post an email at ombudsman@washpost.com
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Universal Health Care? Meh
Michael Moore was bumped a few weeks back on Larry King for an exclusive interview with Paris Hilton. This was a sound business decision. Paris Hilton was bound to draw more viewers. With all the talk of "Sicko" in the news, the fact is that in 22 days it has earned about half of what Harry Potter earned on Friday. We often complain about a coursening culture, yet celebrity gossip and entertainment is more valuable to people than an education about health care in America. The numbers don't lie.
According to the latest figures, the average price for a movie ticket in America is $6.55. Sicko has earned $13,936,000 at the box office, which is splendid for a documentary, but a piddling compared to what other highly visible movies generate.
This works out to about 2,176,333 tickets sold. Some of these are repeat viewers, but for the sake of argument, let's count this as individuals who watched the movie. There are 301,139,947 people in the US. Approximately 47 million of them have no coverage, and others are being eaten up alive by the spiraling costs.
Here comes a documentary about an issue that is devastating people and more people will be watching an episode of wrestling than show up to this movie. This is how politicians know they don't have to take us that seriously. We scream about the uninsured, but don't take the two hours to watch a movie about it. Half of Republicans are for universal coverage, but they vote for candidates that are in the pocket of big pharma.
In our capitalistic culture, let me put the numbers of 'Sicko' in another perspective. The lobbying budget for the past ten years for the health care industry has been $2,200,000,000 dollars. Until we begin to show more passion than having 1 in 150 people show up to see a Michael Moore movie, the system is not going to be overhauled.
The politicians are indeed listening to those who are most interested, and it ain't us.
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Google's Ad Strategy Is Quite Sicko
Google is trying to drum up some ad revenue the old fashioned way. Google has a health advertising blog where they pitch to the people who want to prevent Americans from getting Universal Health Care. Google encourages them to spread their bullshit through their network.
The healthcare industry is no stranger to negative press. A drug may be a blockbuster one day and tolled as a public health concern the next. News reporters may focus on Pharma’s annual sales and its executives’ salaries while failing to share R&D costs. Or, as is often common, the media may use an isolated, heartbreaking, or sensationalist story to paint a picture of healthcare as a whole. With all the coverage, it’s a shame no one focuses on the industry’s numerous prescription programs, charity services, and philanthropy efforts.
Many of our clients face these issues; companies come to us hoping we can help them better manage their reputations through “Get the Facts” or issue management campaigns. Your brand or corporate site may already have these informational assets, but can users easily find them?
We can place text ads, video ads, and rich media ads in paid search results or in relevant websites within our ever-expanding content network. Whatever the problem, Google can act as a platform for educating the public and promoting your message. We help you connect your company’s assets while helping users find the information they seek.
There is a substantial difference between accepting ads from all comers, hopefully after vetting them for a modicum of accuracy, and the effort Google is making here to profit off disinformation by seeking out that crucial let's pretend people in Canada have to wait 15 months for a pregnancy delivery target group.
This is just business as usual. An editor from Harpers recently went undercover pretending he was trying to get some PR for the repressive regime in Turkmenistan, and PR companies fell over backwards trying to win the contract to make a police state warm and fuzzy looking. The sad truth is that journalism critics were upset that this Harper's journalist deceived the ad companies.
I have removed google ads from this page in response to this way they do business. Let your conscience guide you. I am a free speech kind of fellow, but Google is crossing my boundaries when they actively seek out revenue from keeping Americans uninsured rather than just accepting these ads as they come in as a good business decision.
Sicko huh?
Monday, June 18, 2007
Health Care Is Very Sick
This past week, a doctor diagnosed a large lump in my mother's throat as likely being a cyst. A scan was done, and no fluid was found, so it is a solid growth. Another growth on her thyroid was discovered. The lab is backed up, so Friday she goes in for a biopsy, and next week Thursday she will get the results. We are praying for the best, and will do our best to plan for the worst.
This should be a very happy time in my mother's life. She has finally paid off massive debts this month she has been paying for 5 years. She accumulated the debts paying for assisted living care, and in home nursing for my grandmother who passed a few years back. At over $4,000 a month, you can soon be swimming in debt. Her other option was placing her own mother in a room in a giant facility with eight people with workers who were paid minimum wage, and often gave minimum wage effort.
This year, we had the good fortune to have applied for medicaid just in case for my wife, as we moved up to a new area without work yet. She had a complicated pregnancy, punctuated by two months of hospitalization. If I had waited, gotten a job, then had to wait for insurance to kick in, it would have been too late and insurance wouldn't have kicked in and paid for it, but our income would have made us unqualified for assistance. Our timing was indeed fortuitous. We would be swimming in debt right now.
When we had our last child, I paid out about $700 a month for insurance that entitled me to $50 co-pay for medicine and doctor's visits, and a $500 deductible for a child birth. Our insurance company kept not paying the part they owed, and what should have been a completely joyful time in our life, was marred a bit by dealing with the hospital, their collection agency, and our insurance company.
These are just some examples of how the health care situation in this country has affected my family. As Sicko is released this week-end, no matter what you may think of Michael Moore, at least we are going to discuss it. John Edwards' hair style, Rudy Giuliani's marriages, Hillary Clinton's pantsuits, Fred Thompson's bedroom eyes are fun. I engage in gossip about these things myself.
My family is not alone though. People are being devastated by the state of our health care system. Even when you have insurance, it can be denied, you can be kicked off your policy, you have to jump through too many hoops, yet there will be another white woman missing this week. Paris Hilton will leave prison. In a way, focusing on these fluffy stories is cathartic, but it can't be the chief focus in our lives.
As Sicko comes out this week-end, many of us will be waiting for test results, arguing with insurance claim specialists, wondering what plastic card can cover the bill in an emergency, then watching the news and learning a celebrity's diet secrets. Too much circus, not enough bread.
How Sicko.
Update:A wingnut in comments railed against the evils of the Canadian system and it reminded me to look up this study from Harvard. 50% of all bankruptcies in the U.S. are caused by health care crises. More than 75% of people who filed for bankruptcy were actually insured at the start of the illness. Taking care of a sick one often means leaving the job, which means losing your health care if you can't afford the COBRA coverage on no income. What a choice. Leave your loved one home alone, so you can keep coverage, or get financially ruined. I will wave the Maple Leaf flag on this. Our system is broken. Patching a gunshot wound with a band-aid really isn't going to work.
