Politics

Exchange Tackles Rising Health Costs

October 10, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

“Rising health costs are the single biggest problem we face,” the Menomonie non-profit administrator told me. She saw double digit inflation in health insurance costs for years. “We are having a serious talk with our employees about options. None are good.”

“With the drop in milk prices,” the Tomah dairy farmer told me. “Health premiums now take up a quarter of our milk check.” Insurance premiums for the farmer and his brother add up to over $900 a month. “What can you do to help?” he asked.

This week I unveiled a bill to create affordable health insurance exchanges for small businesses and individuals. An exchange is a competitive marketplace where health insurance companies compete for business.

For small businesses, farmers and others who buy insurance on their own, a well run exchange does two things. First, exchanges give small groups big buying power. No longer are you on your own buying insurance for just yourself or your business.

Second, the exchange provides information not now available to small businesses and people who buy insurance on their own. Consumers can clearly compare plans.

Protests Grow Nationally, Locally

October 9, 2011 by Blue Oklahoma

The ongoing Occupy Wall Street protest in New York and its spinoffs, such as Occupy OKC, are part of a broader movement expressing general frustration and even outrage with growing wealth disparity and a lack of economic justice in this country.

The movement's strength, of course, is just what the establishment pundits and media claim is its weakness, which is a decentralized, inclusive and local focus. It seems messy and without a precise frame but any movement that can really challenge the status quo will be diametrically opposite in shape and tone to what it challenges.

Its historical roots are protests in late nineteenth-century Gilded Age, which came after similar, growing wealth disparity between the wealthy and the middle-class, and protests in the 1930s in the Great Depression era, which led to worker protections and Social Security.

US DOJ Declares War on Pot

October 7, 2011 by Calitics

by Brian Leubitz

Remember when Eric Holder said that the US Department of Justice wasn't going to spend a lot of time investigating medical marijuana, but that they would spend time on distributors? Turns out the later overrules the former:

Federal prosecutors in California announced a series of actions Friday targeting what they characterized as the "large, for-profit marijuana industry" that has developed since the state legalized medical marijuana for select patients 15 years ago.

Four U.S. attorneys -- Benjamin Wanger, Andre Birotte Jr., Laura Duffy and Melinda Haag -- detailed in a joint press release steps they had taken in conjunction with federal law enforcement and local officials in California. (CNN)

I honestly don't understand why the Administration would make this a priority? Does somebody thing this will win any votes? Will some vast amount of lives be saved? Sure, there probably is a bit of corruption in the industry, but nothing a formal recognition of the industry couldn't solve.  It's time to give up this ridiculous war on marijuana and move on to focus on that war on poverty we never really won.

I can't really say it any better than Asm.