Whats up folks! Hope you all are ready for the extra long weekend, as we slide into Labor Day! In the last few days, California has been usually hot, due to wildfires raging close to Los Angeles, which helped whip up a suffocatingly hot weekend as temperatures rose to blistering heights. In the midst of that, music icon Michael Jackson’s funeral took place
As if that weren’t enough, one Californian rose the bar in public protesting by upping Bush’s shoe thrower and took a bite out of the health care debate. With this much news hitting the wire in one week, I think we all are very happy to take an extra day off. Here’s a quick rundown of some the news, links, and other assorted goodness! Have a great Labor Day Weekend!
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The health care debates continue and I am still a bit lost! If you are like me and need a little help reading through the lines and separating the hype from the real issues, then take a look at the links below. Feel free to leave a respectable comment on Health Care Reform below!

The Five Biggest Hurdles to Health-Care Reform-Time.com
By Jay Newton-Small / Washington Monday, Jul. 27, 2009

“There are other thorny issues. The House, for example, envisions giving insurance to about 10 million currently uninsured by broadening the guidelines of Medicaid, the state/federal program for the poor. The problem is that many governors of already cash-strapped states are voicing their opposition to this proposal; while the current bill says Washington would foot the bill for these new Medicaid enrollees, states that are having a hard enough time as it is paying their share of the program are wary of what might happen several years from now.”

How Health Care Reform Would Impact You -GE Miller from Mint Life Blog

Who stands to benefit the most from Obama’s health care reform?

It’s unclear how the bill will benefit the majority of Americans who already have employer sponsored health care plans at this point. In theory, premiums should be decreased because the insured are no longer footing the bill for the uninsured. The reform aims to immediately help:

1. Those without any insurance.
2. Those who have paid for expensive individual policies on their own.
3. Employees of small businesses that have trouble affording the cost of joining a group plan.
4. Low income Medicare participants who are left paying for whatever is not covered by Medicare for their medical bills and prescriptions.

Whether intended or not, the legislation could also mean more profits for insurance companies by making it a requirement for all Americans to purchase an insurance policy, be it by subsidy or out-of-pocket.

Bachmann: We should ‘make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers’ against health care reform.

Controversial Congresswoman Michele Bachmann suggest a unusual alliance!

“This [health care reform] cannot pass…What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn’t pass…Right now, we are looking at reaching down the throat and ripping the guts out of freedom. And we may never be able to restore it if we don’t man up and take this one on.”

Some doctors say enough is enough. One way to help bring the cost of health insurance down is for us to take personal responsibility of our health!
Health reform idea: Put down the doughnut
Critics say consequences of individual choice missing from reform debate
But Spady is part of a growing chorus of medical professionals, researchers and ordinary citizens who contend that the touchy topic of individual responsibility has been all but ignored in the debate about how to reform the nation’s health care system — and how to pay for it.

“Seldom does anyone suggest how — or if — the individual’s role should be reformed,” argued Lisa Herrington, 46, a former health industry administrator who launched a discussion of the topic in May on the blog “Thoughts that Make You Think.”

“Having health insurance coverage doesn’t make a person healthy. It’s what you do with that coverage and your personal choices that make the difference,” she added.

Pelosi Says Health Care Bill WILL NOT Pass The House!
“In a recent statement, Pelosi made the following claim: “A bill without a strong public option will not pass the House.” “Any real change requires the inclusion of a strong public option to promote competition and bring down costs. If a vigorous public option is not included, it would be a major victory for the health insurance industry.”

FACTBOX: Health care reform provides political risks, awards
Here’s a look at some of most important lawmakers as they return from a monthlong recess — and look ahead to the 2010 election when the entire 435-member House of Representatives is up for re-election, along with 38 of the 100 senators.

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A/V Room
Health Care Reform Debate

Here’s a video of Al Franken talking with debators at a health care reform debate. Thankfully, everyone walked out of this one with all their digits in tact!


Health Care Reform: Then and Now – New York Times Video
Though its approach to overhauling health care is different than that of its predecessors, the Obama administration hasn’t been able to avoid all of the political and public relations problems that earlier health care efforts confronted.

BILL MOYERS JOURNAL | Bill Moyers on Health Care | PBS