Insurer Cigna to shed 1,100 employees

Cigna Corp., a Philadelphia-based health insurer, has announced plans to lay off 1,100 employees — approximately 4% of its total work force.

Denial of care is a failing business model, let's put them out of their misery before they kill anyone else.

In Sicko "fact check," CNN's Gupta falsely claimed his source's "only affiliation is with Vanderbilt University" Read more…

Obama Wants Journalist Gupta for Surgeon General

By Howard Kurtz
President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the neurosurgeon and correspondent for CNN and CBS, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.

Gupta has told administration officials that he wants the job, and the final vetting process is under way. He has asked for a few days to figure out the financial and logistical details of moving his family from Atlanta to Washington but is expected to accept the offer. Read more…

Senate staffers predict major health care reforms in 2009
Once President-elect Barack Obama, HHS Secretary-designate Tom Daschle and a Democrat-led Congress take office in 2009, broad scale health care reforms are likely to occur, predicted Senate staffers who spoke at a recent Alliance for Health Reform and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation forum in Washington, D.C. ... Read more…

Ya THINK?
I'm so mad I can't even write about this coherently. For YEARS doctors have declared that women who were "overweight" had a poorer chance of surviving breast and cervical cancer.
Turns out the sonsofbitches were dosing women on chemotherapy for the "ideal weight" of the woman instead of the actual, physical body present in the room. MORONS. Blaming the victims for dying when it's the jackass worthless goddamned imbecilic arrogant bastard asshole brainless overpaid useless incompetent lying good-for-nothing motherfucking deliberate malpractice that's at fault.
The anti-"overweight" culture in this country is so absolutely ingrained it's ridiculous. Since the "weight tables" are based on a 1915-1920 study by an INSURANCE COMPANY, Read more…

Quote of the Day (Political Wire)
"Obama's team are the best linguists I've ever seen. Republicans aren't in his league right now." -- Frank Luntz, author of Words that Work, in an interview with Politico.
Frank Luntz is the man who espouses the juxtaposition of phrases that don’t belong together, to make people believe that they belong together, without telling outright lies. He’s responsible, for example, for Republicans saying “Saddam Hussein” and “9/11” in the same sentence, to make Americans think Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11, when he clearly was not.—Caro

The Radical Fringe

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Sounds great, so why not before?

President-elect Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan won't include money for politicians' pet projects and will include provisions aimed at ensuring his administration is open and accountable to taxpayers and Congress, a transition official said Tuesday.

As part of the package likely to cost as much as $775 billion, Obama plans to establish an oversight body to meet publicly and issue reports to Congress on how the money is being spent. The president-elect also plans to create a user-friendly Internet site to allow people to track the flow of dollars.

The official who disclosed the details spoke on the condition of anonymity because Obama planned to make the official announcement during a meeting later with his economic advisers.

So, when Obama was working the phones for the Bush + Reid + Pelosi + Obama + Paulson bailout, why wasn't he pushing for accountability then? It's not lilke he, and the Democrats, didn't have leverage, since the bill had to be passed NOW NOW NOW NOW, right? Read more…

Linda Bergthold: Happy Health Care Reform New Year

Will the single payer advocates support a more gradual roll-out of the elements of health reform if the result is not Medicare for All?

Single payer advocates will accept any compromise that preserves the right of the states to enact their own single payer plans..

KevinMD Read more…

Below, I quote the principles for which the United States government is supposed to stand.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Article I

Section 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. Read more…

Lovely.

NOTE Via The Confluence.

Stoller. Read more…

The Obama presidency may, indeed, be 2% less evil. Hooray! Read more…

CopyBlog:

Mass media is a historical aberration. For a short 70-odd years of human history, a relatively small group of people told us what to think and what to buy, and we were expected to passively accept it.

That’s not how things worked for thousands of years before, and that’s not how it’s going to work in the future. Clinging to the precepts of a brief period of weirdness may not be the best model to guide us, you think?

Before mass media, people marketed their wares directly to one another in a social context. Some people were considered honest and trustworthy, and some people were considered shills and charlatans. Others were revealed to be criminals and con men.  Read more…

Can you believe this? From the Times:

Quality of Cancer Care
Should doctors be obliged to inform their patients if better care is available elsewhere?

Why are we even asking the question?!?!?!?! Read more…

If the embed isn't working for you, try this link.

I've got so much to do today, so I hope you can forgive me for my laziness; blogging with pics is a boatload of work. Anyway, here's a new set of photos at my other place, to go along with this one of the gates of Buckinham Palace. Which, as far as palaces go, isn't very impressive.  Read more…

"Senate officials closed Norm Coleman's office Monday morning, two days after the Minnesota Republican's term expired."

And then, as always, there's the meta: Read more…

Health care woes cannot continue

The system is, if not completely broken, severely damaged. If you pay for your own health insurance, you know exactly what I am talking about. The average single American pays around $500 to 600 a month for coverage and usually with a high deductible. Insurance and healthcare costs have sky-rocketed in the past few years. If we, the American public, want change, we must be the change.

I urge everyone to contact their representatives of both the House and Senate and voice their support for H.R. 676.

Have you written a letter to the editor?

So, in addition to being an untrustworthy but highly attractive fox, I'm also a bitchy princess who is a tease. So, you only get 10 for tonight. Heh, I could write a whole blog on what I experienced in London. I won't bore you with that, but rather show you what post Empire is really about. That is: bragging rights! If you can kill it, steal it, imitate it, coerce it, and be snobby about all that...you could be a Citizen of the Empire! Just kidding, blokes. Seriously:I loved your nation (what I saw of it) and I want to live there. Any Brit Dykes in need of a footrubbing, politically active, art-loving gardener and cook? I'm available for an EU contract. Standard warning, plenty of pics to follow.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you...The Rosetta Stone:

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So, up here in 5b land, it's dark, bleak, and cold. A lot. The moon is shining and making pretty play on the snow just now here in MI, but of course that never lasts. Like many, I fill my winter 'downtime' with indoor hobbying and crafting. Last year, as you may remember, it was tiling. I plan on doing more this season, but I like to try to learn new things every season. This year, I have to confess: I'd scheduled learning to sew "for real," but coming back from London and all the museums, I'm more inclined to...paint. I just love "modern" art! It's probably pathetic, but I don't care.

Given that I've rebuilt my house over the last few years, room by room, floor by floor, etc., I've got a lot, and I do mean a lot, of 'spare' paint lying around. And some brushes, and not a few flat, white-ish papery surfaces to mar. So I think I will! What about you? I know we're officially the knitting-home construction-tiling-gardening political blog these days, what are you adding to that list? I promise I won't torture you with pics unless I'm really high. Read more…

Linda Mulka wites for the Rocky Mountain News Read more…

The NewsHour interviews couple who pay $800/month for insurances, yet even after co-pays have hundreds of dollars a month in expenses. Doctor explains how patients can't afford medicine.