Healthcare
Sometimes a conclusion seems actively to grapple with the reasoning that precedes it. Such is the case with Michael Fine’s Friday op-ed in the Providence Journal. Having complained of the rampant malpractice suits that current law allows, having lamented the “3 zillion government oversight agencies, having observed that “money distorts the public process of reform,”…
Among the greatest benefits of blogging is the speed with which one often receives reminders against lazy thinking, and there was certainly a taint of laziness to one of the shorthand quips that I made while simultaneously liveblogging and videotaping the second Whitehouse & Reed healthcare community dinner: A 75-year-old from German is testifying that…
There are warnings related to healthcare to observe in the experience of our neighbor to the north, but we should also turn our eyes westward: You may have seen the headlines last summer, when Barbara Wagner, a 64-year-old Oregon great-grandmother with advanced lung cancer, got an unsigned letter saying that the Oregon Health Plan (OHP)…
Complete video of Wednesday’s community dinner with Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed is available in the extended entry. On a behind-the-scenes note, the tripod and new software have definitely helped. In fact, they helped so much that I was able to liveblog the meeting while filming it, which explains why it periodically takes a…
As I catch up with my Projo reading, an article describing a Web chat with Senator Reed reinforces my impression that he’s spectacularly unimpressive. I see no intellectual interest in the man, only talking-point recitation: When readers mentioned two proposals that Republicans tend to embrace, Reed pointed out what he views as their limitations. When…
At a short press conference prior to last night’s community dinner in Johnston, I asked Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed if there was any support amongst Democrats in Congress for making the changes to the Federal tax-code that would help undo the biases against individual purchasers currently present in the health insurance market. The…
When Monique brought up our liveblogging from the healthcare community dinner hosted by Senators Whitehouse and Reed, on the Matt Allen Show, the conversation drifted toward the oddity of the Senators tackling this issue, locally as a team. Matt’s thesis is that Reed doesn’t care about the issue, while Whitehouse has all the background, yet…
Rhode Island roads are designed for people who already know where they’re going. That’s why I barely made it to Johnston in time to set up for the community dinner hosted b y Senators Reed and Whitehouse. And what do I find when I arrive: Andrew sneaking up on Pat Crowley! We’re a violent mob…
On WPRO radio’s (630 AM) John DePetro show this morning, Senators Jack Reed and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse advanced their position that “the public option” portion of healthcare reform, i.e. a government owned and operated insurance company, would be simply one additional insurance company added to the market, on equal footing with the already existing players.…
An understandably frustrated Karin commented to a recent post: Does it really matter who yells and screams. They have no intention of changing the way they vote. The yelling is out of pure frustration that we have zero control over these guys. One needn’t read Sunday’s Providence Journal article about our delegation’s backing off the…
