We didn’t get to watch Comment on Kentucky on Friday night. What’d we miss, folks? Did we get a sweet mention or two? Anything funny? Dedication of the Lincoln Memorial was on our mind and we forgot ot record it.
You know, it’s tough to support Democratic candidates when they headline fundraisers and campaign events with people like the former KDP chair, a woman who caused more division and drama at the Kentucky Democratic Party than anyone in decades. Will you be giving them $50 for upcoming events? We would, but by aligning oneself with the former KDP chair, we’re automatically turned off and have to fight the urge not to work against them – candidates we otherwise like a great deal. [Campaign Shenanigans]
Hey, WYMT, that’s not the only reason Steve Henry is in “hot water.” Nice journalism. [WYMT]
All three of Heather’s wonderful posts about Southern Belles: Louisville are hilarious and pee-worthy! For real. Go read them all. But consider yourself warned. Beverage/pee alert, ladies. [heather wherever]
Are there only 40 Democrats in the House who support gambling? [Pat Crowley]
And what’s the future hold for Ellis Park? Is the end nigh? [The Henderson Gleaner]
People really are hung up on Jim Bunning. And they’re not happy about Mitch McConnell’s involvement in the Republican U.S. Senate primary in Kentucky. [David Adams]
Ralph Dunlop has a great six-page feature on the ongoing saga of public corruption in Clay County. Definitely give it a read. It’s like an episode of Weeds. [C-J]
It’s pretty awesome that health insurers own tobacco stocks worth nearly $4.5 billion. [Consumerist]
The state’s checkbook doesn’t balance and everyone’s is about to gouge their own eyes out. This is what happens when the “bi-partisan” good old boy system runs Frankfort. This is Kentucky, so, you know, things will never change. [Bluegrass Politics]
Rather than listen to ignorant spin from people like David Adams, take a listen to what someone like Bill Moyers has to say about Single Payer Health Care. [Crooks & Liars]
10 responses so far ↓
1 Ed Marksberry // Jun 8, 2009 at 8:34 am
You should link the Physicians for National Health Program web site. This is a group of Doctors that realize single payer health care is the best answer to save our health care system. They have a great informational page on what is single payer.
http://www.pnhp.org/facts/what_is_single_payer.php
2 David Adams // Jun 8, 2009 at 9:11 am
“Someone like Bill Moyers!”
Thanks for a good Monday morning laugh, Jake.
3 jake // Jun 8, 2009 at 9:29 am
Well, David, did you watch the segment?
Or read the PNHP link Marksberry published above?
Have you done any research?
4 jaded dude // Jun 8, 2009 at 9:38 am
Ron Geary, owner of Ellis Park, has been crying in the Henderson Gleaner and Evansville Courier-Press for the last six months now. I find it impossible to feel sorry for this guy, flying around in his Cessna Citation! He made a business decision to buy Ellis Park thinking he would make hundreds of millions of dollars when Kentucky expanded gambling. Now that expanded gambling doesn’t seem like such a sure thing, he regularly makes threats to close down the track. Like most members of the horse racing industry who stand to benefit from expanded gambling, Geary has no sense of humility just a “do this or else” attitude that turns people off. The guy should just lay low and let his lobbyists do the work because judging by the negative letters to the editor published in the Courier-Press, some written by former betting clerks who’ve been laid-off, he’s doing a lousy selling job!!
5 Ray Re // Jun 8, 2009 at 10:16 am
The last time I was at Ellis a cat jumped on the track, made up a furlong, and won the sixth race .
6 NotMarkNickolas // Jun 8, 2009 at 10:22 am
Here’s the key problem with the single-payer plan:
“Doctors’ incomes would change little, though the disparity in income between specialties would shrink.”
Specialists require longer and more expensive schooling and pay much higher medical malpractice insurance (i noticed the plan linked mentined nothing about med-mal insurance. convienent). If I’m an aspiring doctor, why would I pay more and shorten my earning period by spending more time in school to become a neurosurgeon than a collegue who prcatices general medicne only to earn the same, pay more in med-mal insurance, and leave myself open to much higher settlements in lawsuits. If you look at the groups supporting the plan, there’s not a single specialists organization on the list.
Beyond that, why would I strive to make myself a better doctor or pioneer new procedures if there is no potential financial windfall for my efforts. While we would like to say they’d do it to help people, that would be ignoring human nature (which plans of this nature so often do).
I think the easiest arguement to this is to look towards the US-Canada border, or even our own border with Indiana. Canada, through single-payer and Kentucky with its refusal to reform med-mal insurance can look across a river and see little cities of specialist hospitals. Looking for an OBG-YN in Henderson and can’t find one? That’s because they’re in Evansville. Looking for a great heart surgeon in Louisville, well, he’s building his own place in Jeffersonville. Canada suffers from the same problems.
Single-payer is a great system if your going in for a check up or you broke your leg. The problem arises when you have serious ailments that require special skills to treat. Then there’s an issue.
What we need to do is create a system that encourages prevention of problems rather than the treatment of symptoms. Kentucky’s state budget is crippled because of the rate of chronic disease in this state. If we can just cut our preventable cancer, diabetes, emphazema, and heart disease rates by a third, even a quarter, then we can begin to have a conversation about how to extend coverage to those who can’t afford it, both because we’ll have more money and because the cost of coverage will go down. If we can reform med-mal to encourage specialists to stay in Kentucky, all the better.
Single-payer, while well intentioned, is a pie-in-the-sky, kee jerk reaction to a complex problem that ignores human nature and, much like our current health care system, treats a symptom, not the problem.
7 David Adams // Jun 8, 2009 at 11:12 am
No.
No.
Yes.
8 jake // Jun 8, 2009 at 11:13 am
Watching one of Frank Simon’s fisting videos that screams about “socialized medicine” doesn’t count as doing research.
9 David Adams // Jun 8, 2009 at 11:24 am
Then I guess I have some work to do!
10 Ray Re // Jun 8, 2009 at 11:30 am
In a single payer system would the government just pay every submitted bill, or would the government negotiate and establish pay schedules, thus placing themselves in the middle of disputes such as Norton/Anthem? If they pay every submitted bill Mercedes dealers are going to LOVE it.
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