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Does NOT start with insurance reform. Every time I hear a discussion about the cost of health care the only thing I’m really hearing is people talking about the cost of health insurance and the cap on insurance benefits. These insurance problems are not the cause of exaggerated health care costs, they are the result.

Excessive health care costs start with the hospital corporations and pharmaceutical companies. Numerous Americans are unaware that their local hospital is a corporation first and a institution for medical care second. If they could generate a higher return for shareholders by selling donuts instead of bypasses they would not hesitate for one second to put a deep fryer in the ER. With a child on the way and limited child birth benefits I have examined the cost of child birth in depth. The average cost is over 10.5 thousand dollars. The hospital bed for one night is over $450. These absurd dollar figures are what I’m talking about when I debate about the cost of health care.

But you never hear the media or public at large cast blame on the hospitals, doctors and rarely pharmaceutical companies (except the AARP). Most people are too blinded by the notion that the hospitals and doctors are our friends and saviors there to help in our time of need. And most of us would pay anything for medical attention when we’ve got a nail through our foot or a dislocated shoulder. Can you think of another service or purchase you would sign a contract to pay for in advance of that service being rendered and without a cost estimate provided up front? Every time you go to an ER in one of America’s private hospitals that’s exactly what you are required to do – or else. Or else what? Or else you suffer while you’re transferred to a public hospital, still for profit, to receive a reduced level of care. People have been known to die in ambulances during these transfers. If you make it you’ll receive care, get billed an excessive amount, and when you can’t pay in six months your credit will be destroyed.

As long as the majority of American hospitals are run by for profit, public corporations the cost of medical care must increase. The insurance companies will struggle to negotiate the best rates while those without insurance will face the highest bills and be forced into personal bankruptcy. The hospitals will never see the money from the bills insurance doesn’t cover and this in turn will add fuel to the fire. If a pandemic ever did actually hit this country it’s not the population that would die, it’s the economy.

So what do we do about it? The Neocon’s will love this answer: More government price regulation.

What dare say you!? Damn your words socialist pig! Regulate prices in a free market economy? Yep. Price caps. A single syringe that costs a hospital $2.75 should no longer be invoiced to patients as a line item for $52.00. We don’t want our government wasting money on $200 toilet plungers, why should consumers pay 500 to 1000 percent markup on hospital supplies and pharmaceuticals?

I’m certain no change will happen without a serious change in political leadership. The corporate lobbies in Washington are the only real interest of our legislators. The current Administration and Congress will fill the media with international conflict, self-made wars of convenience, and Congressional porn scandals long enough to distract you from their investments in corporations they pass laws in support of. Two of their favorites? Hospital Corporation of America and Glaxo Smith Kline. Just look and the recent Medicare “Reform” Act. “A big wet kiss for the Pharma Industry”. The rich get richer and the poor get sick and go bankrupt. And by the way you still owe them for the enema.

Comments are the most frustrating thing about WordPress.  I clicked on an option a while back labled “Block comments from unsecure proxies” and forgot about it.  So I sat around wondering why I haven’t received any comments since working with some new themes.  What?  Nobody likes the new look?  I hate not knowing if someone had something to say!

Logged in as the administrator to the site I could post comments just fine.  It was only when I logged out to try commenting as a normal user that I saw the problem first hand.  Simply cutting off the block unsecure proxy option fixed it.

http://independentsources.com/2006/07/12/worst-company-urls/

Let’s face it, most of the time when a lot of popular actors are thrown together in a film by a renown director it’s an attempt to achieve greatness and the media hype that’s initially generated is quickly replaced by bad reviews. I thought this might be the case for The Departed when I saw the first commercial for it. But I still wanted to see it. Not because of Nicholson but because of my favorite actors of my generation: Damon, Wahlberg and DeCaprio. Then I saw the reviews after it’s opening weekend. I was floored. You mean it’s actually a good movie too, I thought?

So I mortgaged my house, put Amy in the truck and went to pay my ransom at the North Hills theater last night. Man, I’d have paid $100. I was getting worried. The best movie I’ve seen in the last two years was unexpectedly “Unite 93”. I was beginning to lose hope in Cinema ever being creative or original again. Martin Scorcese could die tomorrow and he’d never have to worry if he made his best movie possible. This story and the acting are incredible. Now, if you’re one of these people eagerly entertained by low-ball Sci-Fi garbage, the likes of Tim Burton’s weirdo crap, or “dark” comic movies like Batman Forever (which wasn’t bad) you won’t gush over the highly intense dialog in a Scorsese film. But if your down with Goodfella’s, buckle your seat belt.

The most surprising role and acting in the movie came from Wahlberg. I knew he’s been coming into his own as a great actor. Now he’s freakin’ A list. Cruise and Hanks are old news now. If you thought of DeCaprio and Walhberg as over-rated fantasies of mid-80’s boy band worshipers, times up. They will set records for demand in Hollywood after this. I mean hell, in this movie they shove in your face the fact they can act. Damon rocks too, but of course he’s a little more established than Wahlberg and believable than Decaprio in hard-core leads (until now). Still he does not disappoint for a minute.

I’ve often said the one thing that makes acting great is when you forget the actor. You don’t recognize Decaprio but instead only know Billy Costigan, the under cover cop in over his head. These guys are bringing back acting skills not seen in decades for this film. They had to use actual drama in this incredible dialog to pull this film off. This is not a movie about pretty faces and action scenes (queue Tom Cruise). Martin Sheen is even impressive. The only thing that negatively effects the film is Nicholson. He can’t check his ego at the door. But at least he seemed crazy enough for me to buy him as a homicidal gang leader.

I can’t just leave it at recommending this movie. If you’re a gangster movie fan at all it’s your responsibility to see it. And someone’s going to have to pull of one hell of a film to beat it come Oscar time. Apparently I’m not alone in this opinion with back to back record weekends at the box office.