Desperate Greek citizens are ‘intentionally infecting themselves with HIV’ to qualify for state benefits

(ht Henri) In Greece, HIV carriers are entitled to a state benefit of 700 Euros per month (picture posed by model)

Desperate Greek citizens are intentionally infecting themselves with the HIV, in a bid to qualify for benefits which are given to sufferers of the killer virus, a report has claimed.

A World Health Organization report has revealed what it calls a ‘significant rise’ in the number of sufferers between 2007 and 2009, when the European financial crisis brought the country’s economy to its knees.

The number of reported new infections then continued to soar, from 22 in 2010 to 245 in 2011, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Shockingly, the research said around half of new cases could be self-inflicted by drug addicts who want to cash in on welfare handouts.

In Greece, HIV carriers are entitled to a state benefit of 700 Euros per month as well as access to drug substitution programmes which can help battle the illness.

A European Union-funded injection site, the first of its kind in Greece, has also been opened in a run-down part of central Athens in October this year.

Addicts are paid small sums of money for visiting the facility and providing data for anonymous surveys, as well as returning to pick up their HIV test results.

The WHO report cited a piece of work by the country’s Mental Health Research Institute in 2011 which noted ‘the well-founded suspicion’ that some problem drug users ‘are intentionally infected with HIV, because of the benefit that are entitled to approximately 1,400 euros every two months.’

The claims show the shocking effect of the Greek fiscal meltdown which is filtering down from big business and banks to ordinary citizens
Austerity measures imposed by the Greece since their economic crisis have caused disturbances in country. But drug experts have urged the government not to impose cuts on drugs benefits, saying removing support networks could make matters worse

Thomas Kattau, a Council of Europe official said: ‘There are alarming figures in Greece. So I think it’s very important that vulnerable people are targeted for treatment.’

Kattau said program like the injection-zone had been regarded as successful in Germany, the Netherlands and other European countries, as well as Canada.

He added: ‘The experience in those countries shows they don’t use to the money to buy drugs, but things like hygiene products. So it puts them on a road to recovery.

‘In the end the goal is to stop the spread of HIV-Aids. Every euro invested into drug treatment is an investment to public health and public safety.

Arrest for “HIPAA Violation” Based on Citizen’s Recording of Encounter Between Police and Another Citizen

That’s what the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports:

Andrew Henderson watched as Ramsey County sheriff’s deputies frisked a bloody-faced man outside his Little Canada apartment building. Paramedics then loaded the man, a stranger to Henderson, into an ambulance.
Henderson, 28, took out his small handheld video camera and began recording.... [A] deputy, Jacqueline Muellner, approached him and snatched the camera from his hand, Henderson said. “We’ll just take this for evidence,” Muellner said. Their voices were recorded on Henderson’s cellphone as they spoke, and Henderson provided a copy of the audio file to the Pioneer Press. “If I end up on YouTube, I’m gonna be upset.” ...
Randy Gustafson, spokesman for the Ramsey County sheriff’s office ... said, “It is not our policy to take video cameras. It is everybody’s right to (record) ... What happens out in public happens out in public.”
One exception might be when a law enforcement officer decides that the recording is needed for evidence, he said. In that case, the officer would generally send the file to investigators and return the camera on the spot, Gustafson said....
A week later, Henderson was charged with obstruction of legal process and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors. He had been filming from about 30 feet away, he said....
The deputy wrote on the citation, “While handling a medical/check the welfare (call), (Henderson) was filming it. Data privacy HIPAA violation. Refused to identify self. Had to stop dealing with sit(uation) to deal w/Henderson.” ...
The allegation that his recording of the incident violated HIPAA, or the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is nonsense, said Jennifer Granick, a specialist on privacy issues at Stanford University Law School.
The rule deals with how health care providers handle consumers’ health information.
“There’s nothing in HIPAA that prevents someone who’s not subject to HIPAA from taking photographs on the public streets,” Granick said. “HIPAA has absolutely nothing to say about that.”

When Henderson tried to get back the camera, another deputy refused to release it, and said (Henderson also recorded this), “I think that what (the deputies) felt was you were interfering with someone’s privacy that was having a medical mental health breakdown. They felt like you were being a ‘buttinski’ by getting that camera in there and partially recording what was going on in a situation that you were not directly involved in.” Somehow the recording on the camera also vanished, though there’s a dispute over how that happened.
It seems to me that there’s no legal basis for this prosecution, or for the seizure of the camera — Minnesota apparently doesn’t have any ban on such recordings, and in any event it seems likely that there’s a First Amendment right to record such police-citizen interactions in public places. (See Glik v. Cunniffe and ACLU v. Alvarez for cases recognizing such a right, in closely related contexts.) Nor can the police step in and punish the photographers in the name of protecting people’s privacy, just as the government may not stop TV stations from recording news footage in public place in the name of protecting people’s privacy.
Thanks to Christopher Rohrbacher for the pointer.

via volokh.com

renowned socialist & opponent of private health care Gerry Adams flies to USA for operation in top private clinic.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has been accused of being "incredibly hypocritical" for choosing private medical care in the US, despite criticising private healthcare in the Republic and Northern Ireland.

72 year old Man dies after doc takes lunch break during kidney op // Swedish Socialist Medicine: What Obama wants for us

  Swede

I'm thankful that my father who voted for Obama and has said at times that there is nothing wrong with Socialism, also lives in America. The problem is that he is a very knowledgeable teacher, but his knowledge is limited to things he knows about and he is arrogant. He thinks he understands economics. He doesn't. I can't find work with Obama in office and he attacks me for it. He blames the Republicans. I kept on telling him not to drive. He took it as a personal attack. My mother told him not to drive. He took that as a personal attack. Then one day he rented FIAT (a company allowed to buy Chrystler by the Obama admin) and it's modern dashboard and he got into a terrible auto accident. He thinks the accident could of happened to anyone, but like usual he just doesn't want to admit that his knowledge is limited to Shakespeare and Theatre. Sometimes very smart people... like say the Linguist Noam Chomsky for example, Think their expertise gives them wisdom beyond their knowledge. The doctor who operated on my father said he was difficult. I'm not surprised. I love my father, but when it comes to economics, jobs and being a doctor... he doesn't know a thing. Thank G-d they put him to sleep in America and not in Sweden where he thinks he'd get taken care of better.

(news@thelocal.se)(thelocal.se )(h/t @CapFlowWatch) A 72-year-old man having a tumour removed from his kidney died after the chief anesthetist and nurse took a lunch break in the middle of the surgery. The incident, which took place at the Lidköping hospital, has prompted stinging criticism from Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen).
The 72-year-old went under anesthetic at 10.45am on the day of the operation, which took place in January 2011.
At noon sharp, the head anesthetist left the operating room to go for lunch. Fifteen minutes later, the head nurse anesthetist also left the patient and went for lunch.
No other anesthetist was called in to take over responsibility for the doctor who was on his lunch break.
And while another nurse was brought in to cover for the nurse anesthetist, the nurse who arrived came from the orthopedic ward and wasn't familiar with the respirator to which the 72-year-old was attached.
Suddenly, the patient started hemorrhaging and his blood pressure started to drop, sparking a "chaotic" situation.
As the patient's condition became critical shortly before 1pm, the substitute nurse tried desperately to reach the lunching anesthetist, but to no avail.
When the doctor and the primary nurse anesthetist returned to the operating room, they discovered that the patient's respirator had been turned off, leaving him without oxygen for approximately eight minutes.
Despite immediately starting resuscitation efforts, doctors were unable to revive the man, who had suffered irreparable brain damage and died several weeks later.
The man's daughter subsequently reported the incident to the health board, which on Tuesday issued a harsh critique of the hospital's procedures.
"The operational planning, which allowed for the responsible doctor and nurse to take lunch breaks at the same time without any other doctor taking responsibility for the patient, entails taking an unacceptable risk," the agency wrote in its findings.
The agency also found fault with the fact that the doctor wasn't reachable by phone, as well as with the decision to hand responsibility for a high-risk patient with a single nurse who lacked sufficient knowledge of the equipment in use during the operation.
"The National Board of Health and Welfare finds, however, that the operation's lack of organization as well as the chaotic situation which occurred was the underlying causes behind the misjudgments and insufficient care," the agency wrote.

Illegal immigrants in Spain to lose right to government-subsidized public healthcare

(Eye) No freebies for illegals.

(Guardian) About 150,000 immigrants living in Spain will lose their right to public health services on Saturday as the recession-hit country tries to save money. But doctors warn that excluding immigrants from the health system will have a wider impact on ordinary Spaniards' health.
The move by Mariano Rajoy's conservative People's party government has provoked anger among doctors and some regional governments that deliver public health to Spaniards.
Amnesty International and other NGOs have accused the government of breaking international agreements by excluding a significant section of the population – immigrants without proper residence permits – from public healthcare.
More...

go figure

Here's The Clearest Proof Yet That Young People Are Getting Screwed In This Economy

...Only those Age 65 or older
did not see decreases in the percentage share of employed in the change
from November 2006 to November 2011,
which is interesting because that age cohort mainly covers the so-called "Silent Generation" -
the generation that immediately preceded the Baby Boomers.

...Second chart shows the difference between

November 2006 and

November 2011's

employment to population ratio

for each age grouping:

(Business Insider) The next most affected in the U.S. job market are those between Age 30 and Age 55, which includes roughly half of the Baby Boom generation. These individuals have primarily been hurt by the loss of jobs during the recession, with many of these jobs being lost from the Manufacturing and Trade and Transportation sectors of the U.S. economy during the large-scale automotive industry failures of late 2008 and early 2009. But the age groups that have been the least affected are those over the age of 55. Here, the older half of the Baby Boom generation has seen little impact on their overall employment representation within their generation, while the older Silent Generation, which includes those over Age 65 in 2011, has actually seen their percentage of employed members in the U.S. workforce increase. Clearly, something has caused employers to strongly favor these individuals over all younger individuals in the five years from November 2006 to November 2011... When that kind of distortion exists, you can almost bank money that a perverse incentive for employers is at work - one where there are real world rewards and penalties driving the decisions for a very large number of employers. And because it would seem that a very large number of employers would appear to have acted the same way, you can almost be certain that the federal government is ultimately behind the observed distortion, which in this case, would seem to involve some very pronounced age discrimination... We find then that the young are indeed being discriminated against in the U.S. job market and that the federal government is indeed behind the perverse incentives promoting this kind of age discrimination, as the members of the Silent Generation and the older Baby Boomers are indeed being strongly favored by U.S. employers, most likely because of the economic distortions it is creating within the U.S. job market through its Medicare health insurance program. The only problem for the younger workers being hurt in this situation is that because it is the federal government that has created the incentive to discriminate against them, only it can act to end the bias that it has succeeded in institutionalizing. Unfortunately for us all, the leaders of that government currently have no intention of ending this kind of age-based job discrimination anytime soon! (MORE)

...Of course the LIBERAL response will be Universal Healthcare, but socialism suffers from prejudices against the young who would be perceived as less worthy... not to mention there would be poor quality healthcare to begin with. The only fair system would be to deny free healthcare to everyone and let a competitive market keep rates down.

CBO report says Obamacare to cost $1.76 trillion over 10 years, not $940 billion

(EYE)(Hypnogoria: HYPNOBOBS 57 - Twice The Price!)

The bill would not have passed if the numbers were not juggled to keep it under the trillion mark. It's fraud. Blatant deception on the cost in order to get the votes.
They also just disclosed that at least 6 million people will lose their employer provided health coverage... and not the "1 million" claimed when all this was in the works.
But that's not important. Rush Limbaugh called some woman a slut.

(Washington Examiner) President Obama's national health care law will cost $1.76 trillion over a decade, according to a new projection released today by the Congressional Budget Office, rather than the $940 billion forecast when it was signed into law.
Democrats employed many accounting tricks when they were pushing through the national health care legislation, the most egregious of which was to delay full implementation of the law until 2014, so it would appear cheaper under the CBO's standard ten-year budget window and, at least on paper, meet Obama's pledge that the legislation would cost "around $900 billion over 10 years." When the final CBO score came out before passage, critics noted that the true 10 year cost would be far higher than advertised once projections accounted for full implementation.
Today, the CBO released new projections from 2013 extending through 2022, and the results are as critics expected: the ten-year cost of the law's core provisions to expand health insurance coverage has now ballooned to $1.76 trillion. That's because we now have estimates for Obamacare's first nine years of full implementation, rather than the mere six when it was signed into law. Only next year will we get a true ten-year cost estimate, if the law isn't overturned by the Supreme Court or repealed by then. Given that in 2022, the last year available, the gross cost of the coverage expansions are $265 billion, we're likely looking at about $2 trillion over the first decade, or more than double what Obama advertised.

that's twice the price and one tenth of the operating budget of our government

4th Circuit dismisses Virginia anti-Obamacare suit

(PhilipAKlein) A three-judge Fourth Circuit panel comprised of two juges appointed by President Obama and one named by President Clinton, has dismissed a Virginia-based lawsuit challenging the constiutionality of the national health care law's individual mandate, saying the state lacked standing to sue. The court did not get to the merits of the challenge by the state of Virginia. But it disagreed with the state's contention that it was an injured party because it passed a law protecting its citizens from the mandate. The court also ruled, in a separate two to one decision, against another challenge to the mandate by Liberty University. The court said it lacked jurisdiction to rule under a statute called the Tax Anti-Injunction Act, which bars courts from interferring with the collection of taxes. It is the first court to accept the Obama administration's taxing power argument, as even courts that have previously upheld the suit on Commerce Clause grounds have rejected the tax argument.
In fact, judge Andre M. Davis dissented from the majority opinion in the Liberty case, rejecting the taxing argument, though he did agree that the mandate was still constitutional under the Commerce Clause.
The fourth circuit ruling, which comes as no surprise given the liberal composition of the panel, marks a continuing split among the appeals courts on the issue. The Sixth Circuit also sided with the administration, while the 11th Circuit struck down the mandate in a case brought by 26 states led by Florida and the National Federation of Independent Business. This increases the odds that ultimately, the issue will have to be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The FDA’s Disturbing Propaganda

...I_heard_about_this... this morning and I was afraid to look. I should of, I bet I get a lot of hits for these fucking puke disgusting images. Really... I'm a smoker and it is disturbing. Right now I'm on those free nicotine patches from...
New York Smoke Free. That is if you are in N.Y.State. It is pretty good because I save a lot of money. I mean... who can turn down free Nicotine... Shit! h/t Conservative Compendium

Please do not ask your Dutch nurse for sex

Dutch government funding for
Electronic Intifada...

A_union representing Dutch nurses
launched a national campaign
against demands for sexual services
by patients who claim it should
be part of their standard care.

The union, NU'91, is calling the campaign "I Draw The Line Here," with an advert that features a young woman covering her face with crossed hands.
The union said in a statement Thursday that the campaign follows a complaint it had received in the last week from a 24-year-old woman who said a 42-year-old disabled man asked her to provide sexual services as part of his care at home.
The young woman witnessed some of the man's other nurses offering him sexual gratification, the union said. When she refused to do the same, he tried to dismiss her on the grounds that she was unfit to provide care.
"This type of action is not part of the job responsibilities of carers and nurses," NU'91 said.
The case has been reported to police, the union added.

via news.yahoo.com

Dutch nurses' union NU'91 is making it clear, once and for all, that sexual services are not part of standard medical care. They shouldn't have to, but such is life. As we speak, they're preparing a national ad campaign called "I Draw The Line Here," which you can see above in its native Dutch. The catalyst was a complaint the union received from a 24-year-old nurse whose patient demanded "sexual services (from her) as part of his care at home." His behavior, though disgusting and unacceptable, apparently wasn't as random or rare as it sounds. The complainant said the man's other nurses were game for it, and she almost got fired when she wouldn't heed their example. This certainly puts our health care debate into fresh perspective.

via adweek.blogs.com

here is an example of what we have in store for us in America

Universal Healthcare in Action: Swedish Man Guilty of Sewing Up His Own Leg in Emergency Room

Oh, by the way, Gaddafi tried to rape a female reporter

Gaddafi’s Favorite Ukrainian Nurse:  I GO HOME NOW

even bad Jews like Muammar al-Gaddafi have good taste in women... DAMN ASSHOLE IS GETTING ASS!

Here’s hoping she makes it.

Embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is set to be deserted by another close ally after his Ukrainian nurse said she was heading home.

A vignette in a Benny Morris article:

Which reminds me of a story a fine, young journalist once told me about her experiences in Tripoli. It was in the 1980s, I think. She had come to interview Qaddafi. She was ushered into the famous tent. Qaddafi sent his aides away and the two of them shared lunch. And then Qaddafi tried to caress her. Flustered, she got up to leave. He then chased her around the table, bent on rape. She was brave and apparently fit; she outran him, at least long enough for his aides to rush in at the sound of her screams. Rape averted.

And then he makes this astute observation:

It is a shame journalists did not usually publish their impressions of and experiences with Qaddafi. This no doubt facilitated Western and Arab acceptance of cooperation with this almost unique, base specimen of humanity.

Unfortunately, this is still happening today. Only after the people start revolting does the Western media wake up and say, "Oh, I knew about how evil that despot was for years!"

Of course, they never reported it at the time.

And usually they still refuse to. It is an insidious game where the reporters know much more than they are willing to report, because they want to push certain narratives more than they want to contradict them.

(h/t Silke)

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com

Galyna Kolotnytska, described in a diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks as a “voluptuous blond” who “travel[s] everywhere” with Col. Gadhafi, called her family in Kiev on Friday to say she intends to return to Ukraine, her daughter told daily Segodnya.
“Mom got in touch yesterday. She said she was now in Tripoli,” Tetyana Kolotnytska said. “She spoke in a calm voice, asked us not to worry and said she’d soon be home.”
According to the cable from September 2009, contacts in Tripoli told U.S. diplomats that Col. Gadhafi “relies heavily” on Ms. Kolotnytska, then 38, as “she alone ‘knows his routine.’”
The cable also reported claims from unnamed sources that the eccentric Libyan leader and the nurse, part of a retinue of four Ukrainians, “have a romantic relationship.”
Ms. Kolotnytska’s daughter said her mother had been in Libya for nine years, originally employed in a hospital before starting work for Col. Gadhafi.
“Other Ukrainian women also work for him as nurses. Mom is one of them,” she said. “For some reason, he doesn’t trust Libyan women with this matter.”

via weaselzippers.us

;^)

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

h/t islamizationwatch.blogspot.com

 

The recent release of classified documents, from the Wikileaks US Embassy Cables, reveals that Galyna Kolotnytska is identified as a “voluptuous” blonde nurse who is the constant companion of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qadhafi.

Apparently, Colonel Gaddafi states that he cannot travel without Galyna Kolotnytska, as she alone “knows his routine.” Well, from these photos of her, I can certainly see why that might be although I'm not too keen on finding out anymore details about Gaddafi's "routine".

images via zimbio.com

via (WSJ)

of Boobies And Death Panels. oh noes... they were real?

The first battle in the death panel wars is underway and the winner will be declared on December 17.  On that day, the Food and Drug Administration will determine whether insurance and Medicare should provide breast cancer patients and their doctors the option of using Avastin -- a late-stage cancer drug that has been proven to extend life.  Should the FDA deny coverage for the drug because of its cost, it will be apparent that Krugman and his ilk are winning to battle to ration care in America.  Rest assured we are watching the outcome.

boobies via midgetquest.blogspot.com
via americanthinker.

How going green may make you mean

...those that have presumptions of morality are more likely guilty in general. still a good idea to recycle.  Just because the left abused the environment does not give you a card to pollute. A consumer of 'ethical' products such as organic food might be more inclined to cheat and steal, the study found. Captain America by Mike Joos h/t Comics Aliance andvia guardian.co.uk h/t Sultan Knish

The Jews are telling you something you probably didn't want to know....

Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable. The horrible are the cancer patients and the terminal cases... the miserable is everyone else. So, be thankful that you're miserable. -Woody Allen 

Now the miserable will know why they are miserable. Israeli Tech will tell them if they have cancer or not... which I'm not sure the world will appreciate.

Researchers at the Technion in Haifa have developed a simple blood test that screens for cancer.

An innovative, simple blood test that can diagnose a variety of diseases, including cancer, has been developed by researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and was just reported in a central article in the Proceedings of the [US] National Academy of Sciences.

The Technion has registered a patent on the development.
Prof. Aryeh Admon of the biology faculty claims that the test will provide doctors with a rich variety of information that until now has not been available and is suited to the trend of “personalized medicine,” in which treatment is suited to the genetic and other characteristics of the patient. The development was part of the doctoral work of Dr. Miochal Bassani- Sternberg and will help suit medication to the patient.
As opposed to current blood tests for cancer which merely note whether cancerous cells are still in the blood stream, the new test will be able to differentiate between different kinds of cancers and tumors as well as other dise

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

oy... saving the world with the nerd stuff.

noahdavidsimon's posterous

Ed Koch: We see the faces of those who many hold responsible for the economic debacle

Why did the President and Congress insist on reinventing the wheel when it came to health care coverage? Weren’t there prototypes in Europe and elsewhere developed and used for more than 50 years with proven track records that could have been used as models? Did the President and Congress have to terrify people who had insurance coverage in order to provide coverage for the additional 32 million Americans covered under the new law? Couldn’t those without insurance have been attached in some way to the Medicaid rolls? Why did the President and Congress sell out to the prescription drug companies and strip Medicare of the right to negotiate volume discount purchases that could have saved U.S. taxpayers more than a trillion dollars over ten years? What rankles most for many, including me, is why have there been so few criminal prosecutions of those who are responsible for having brought the U.S. economy to its knees, destroyed the nation’s prosperity and caused millions of Americans to lose their homes, their jobs and a substantial portion of their retirement savings? Why when looking at Obama’s cabinet and advisers, do we see the faces of those who many hold responsible for the economic debacle?
I predict a Republican victory of tsunami proportions on November 2nd.

via theyeshivaworld.com

We told you so Ed. You were one of the people who supported Obama

noahdavidsimon's posterous

Soylent Green

Obama Attacking The Happy Meal

...Ronald McDonald Under Fire....

McDonald's Corp. has warned federal regulators that it could drop its health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 hourly restaurant workers unless regulators waive a new requirement of the U.S. health overhaul.The move is one of the clearest indications that new rules may disrupt workers' health plans as the law ripples through the real world.
Trade groups representing restaurants and retailers say low-wage employers might halt their coverage if the government doesn't loosen a requirement for "mini-med" plans, which offer limited benefits to some 1.4 million Americans.
The requirement concerns the percentage of premiums that must be spent on benefits.

via visiontoamerica.org

loving it?
via themadjewess.wordpress.com

noahdavidsimon's posterous

Universal Healthcare in Action: Swedish Man Guilty of Sewing Up His Own Leg in Emergency Room

here is an example of what we have in store for us in America

From the Local in Sweden: 

A 32-year-old took the needle into his hands when he tired of the wait at Sundsvall hospital in northern Sweden and sewed up the cut in his leg himself. The man was later reported to the police for his impromptu handiwork.

At a conference, Bill Gates mourned that people weren't willing to die 3 months earlier, in order to keep public school teachers employed. But why draw the line at only 3 months, NHS certainly hasn't. Think of how much you could save by not treating terminally ill patients at all. And what about babies born with birth defects. And the mentally retarded. Just imagine how many more union employees could featherbed to their heart's content, if only we killed every mentally retarded baby at birth. Forget eugenics in the name of genetic superiority, when we can have eugenics in the name of public sector unions. Because when there are no jobs someone has to pay, even if they're struggling for breath on a ventilator at the time.

via sultanknish.blogspot.com

"It took such a long time," the man told the local Sundsvall Tidning daily.
The man incurred the deep cut when he sliced his leg on the sharp edge of a kitchen stove while he was renovating at home.

"I first went to the health clinic, but it was closed. So I rang the medical help line and they told me that it shouldn't be closed, so I went to emergency and sat there," the man named only as Jonas told the newspaper.

After an hour-long wait in a treatment room, he lost patience and proceeded to sew up his own wound.

"They had set out a needle and thread and so I decided to take the matter into my hands," he said.

But hospital staff were not as impressed by his initiative and have reported the man on suspicion of criminal dispossession (egenmäktigt förfarande) for having used hospital equipment without authorization.

While Jonas admitted to the newspaper that he has no prior experience of sewing up himself he sought to play down the fuss that his handiwork has caused, arguing that "through the ages people have always sewn themselves up".

Israeli Healthcare

Despite widespread misconceptions, the country’s health care system is not a socialized, single-payer system. Israelis generally accept as almost axiomatic that there should be universal health coverage, with a significant acceptance of government involvement in regulating health care for the sake of redistribution, accountability, and preventing competition from leading to uncontrollable cost overruns. At the same time, there is also recognition of the benefits of keeping a strong measure of competition in the system. This has led to what Glazer describes as “regulated competition”: universal state-financed insurance coverage is provided through four competing health-maintenance organizations.
The HMOs are independent and non-governmental, but highly regulated. Although membership in one of the funds is compulsory – no permanent resident can voluntarily opt out of the system – residents have free choice of which fund they wish to belong to (a change is allowed once every six months), making the HMOs compete for members. HMO members are typically directed by their HMO to a doctor or clinic associated with that HMO, but it is increasingly likely that any private clinic chosen arbitrarily will accept insurance payments from all four HMOs.

via jpost.com

As a Jew I have heard many times that I was hypocritical for not supporting healthcare, but actually the Israeli system works in a different set of axioms. First of all Israel does not have the litigious tradition of lawsuits that adds to the cost of health.

The government instituted universal health coverage in 1995. Prior to that time, there was one health fund that was operated by the country's monolithic labor union (best described as a combination of the AFL-CIO, the Mafia and the Teamsters), and there were three private health funds that were in considerably better financial shape. Now, all four funds are shaky financially but they are managing. 

So obviously it is a tough business to have Universal Healthcare, but Israel is a small society where it is easier to contain mistakes made by a big government.  One of the accusations I have heard is that Israel can have healthcare because they spend American tax dollars.  This isn't true.  All the money that America pays goes towards the military... which is sad, but a realty. 

Posted via web from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Student Loans part of Healthcare bill

I'm looking over the Student Loans part of Healthcare bill... and while I (unlike Fannie Mae) am not concerned about the loss of jobs due to this (it is worth losing some jobs if they can resolve the price of tuition), I am very concerned that this will actually increase the prices of schools. (and the Obama admin has confirmed my fears at the bottom of the article). Historically when you have government grants the price of school goes up because the schools are still trying to make a buck. The truth is that school loans are very profitable. This is the reason that Obama wants the government into this business. The people will fall for it thinking there isn't any alternative to them being able to afford an education, but the denied correlative is now the price of tuition will go up and if the price of college is regulated then I suspect the colleges will move profitable campuses offshore to hostile Anti-Semitic nations that I can't even go to... similar to what is happening in Qatar with my Alma Mater Carnegie Mellon and similar colleges like Cornell University.

The new law, part of a package that also includes fixes to the health-care overhaul, makes government the primary issuer of student loans.

It eliminates fees paid to private banks to act as intermediaries in providing student loans and will use much of the projected $68 billion in savings over 11 years to expand Pell Grants for low-income students and make it easier for students to repay loans after graduating.

The size of Pell Grants will increase along with inflation, and by 2017 should raise the maximum grant to $5,975 from $5,550, according to the White House.

The law will also provide 820,000 more grants by 2020.

Students who have low incomes or meet certain other eligibility requirements and who borrow money after July 1, 2014, will be allowed to cap their repayments at 10 percent of their income above basic living requirements, instead of 15 percent.

If they keep up their payments, they will have any remaining debt forgiven after 20 years instead of 25 years - or after 10 years if they are in a public service, such as teaching, nursing, or serving in the military.

Some of the money will address shortfalls in the Pell Grant program that have developed because students are qualifying for more and larger grants. More than six million students received such grants in the 2008-09 academic year, an increase of about 50 percent from a decade earlier, according to the College Board.

$2 billion will be invested in community colleges - which enroll six million students and are growing fast - over the next four years to provide education and career training programs to workers eligible for Trade Adjustment aid.

Institutions that serve mostly minority student bodies will share $2.55 billion in additional funding over the next decade.

Speaking to a cheering crowd at a community college in Washington's Virgina suburbs, Obama yesterday portrayed the overhaul of the student-loan program as a triumph over an "army of lobbyists."

He singled out Sallie Mae - the Reston, Va.-based lender SLM Corp. - which he said spent $3 million to try to stop the changes.

"For almost two decades, we've been trying to fix a sweetheart deal in federal law that essentially gave billions of dollars to banks," he said. He said the money "was spent padding student lenders' pockets."

Including money from last year's stimulus program and regular budget increases, the White House said the Obama administration has now doubled spending on Pell Grants.

But the law has detractors:

Sallie Mae said it will end up costing jobs. The loan company said it may have to eliminate a third of its 8,500 jobs nationwide.

A number of lawmakers opposed the health-care reconciliation bill in part because of the student-loan provisions.

Sen. Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, who voted in favor of the health-care legislation in December, voted against the reconciliation bill. Nelnet, one of the nation's largest private student lenders, is headquartered in Nelson's home state.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee and a former education secretary, also spoke out angrily against the plan to end the subsidies to private banks.

Tennessee, too, is home to some big players in the private student-lending industry. In a statement yesterday, he lamented that the government was getting more deeply and directly into the student-loan business.

"The Obama administration's motto is turning out to be: 'If we can find it in the Yellow Pages, the government ought to try to do it,' " Alexander said.

if we can find it in the Yellow Pages, the government ought to try to do it? so then farms that provide food for possible hungry people should be part of government according to that logic. Are they go to socialize food as well?

He said that 31,000 private sector workers would be out of jobs and students would be forced to rely on four federal call centers instead of more than 2,000 community and nonprofit lenders.

The health-care portion of the bill Obama signed yesterday eliminates provisions in the Senate version of legislation that benefited specific states and other special-interest items.

The House passed that version on March 21 with the understanding that the companion measure making changes to it would become law.

Republicans say they will move to repeal the overhaul package and replace it with a less ambitious program.

Private lenders can still make student loans that are not backed by the government, and they will continue to have contracts to service some federal loans. But the new law represents a significant change in what has been a multibillion-dollar business for the banking industry.

Under the new law, all colleges and universities must switch to the direct lending program by July 1.

Will the changes bring down college costs?

Sorry, no. Obama acknowledged as much before signing the bill when he urged colleges and universities to "do their part" to hold down costs.

via philly.com

...as I was saying. This is just a grab for power. the only benefit to these programs will be special interests. the price of school will be more expensive.