Shoutout to Blair Underwood and AHF Pharmacies

Blair Underwood has spearheaded the cause of HIV testing, prevention, and treatment through the AHF. This past week he opened a clinic on K Street in Washington D.C. It's a free clinic. Attached to it is a non-profit pharmacy in which 96 cents of every dollar goes toward the care and treatment of people with HIV or AIDS.

These clinic/pharmacies are also available in the greater Los Angeles area and in most of the major cities in Florida like Pensacola, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Miami.

For those of you who live in Texas and would like to help those who need HIV or AIDS treatment but have no insurance or no money for treatment, you can help through the UNITED WAY affiliate SAN ANTONIO AIDS FOUNDATION, and their website http://www.txsaaf.org

Kanye West is a jackass

Kanye West is a jackass. Great rapper. Love some of his rhymes. But he's a jackass.

Message to Kanye West: On stage during an acceptance speech is NOT the time to state your opinion of the worthiness of someone's award. What you did was rude and impolite. I'm glad you apologized to her family, as you should, being that you were such an assclown. You could have EASILY waited for the end of the night to get on your website, or your myspace page and stated your opinion in a respectful manner.

Oh, and another thing: Yes, George Bush doesn't care about black people. George Bush also doesn't care about white people, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, Arab-Americans, Jews, Native Americans, INdians, Pakistanis. George Bush and the New World Order Elite of which he is a part do not care about anybody but themselves and their grip of power over the world. George Bush is a member of the Skull and Bones/Bohemian grove cult of death/cult of eugenics. He just pretends to be a moral Christian.

Medicaid failures

A few minutes ago I was listening to the Richard Land radio show, and he had a guest on the show who is a doctor and worked as a consultant for the Houston hospital system because it had a problem with the emergency room losses from uninsured people.

Anyways, he ended up discussing the difference between Medicare and Medicaid, and how the two are different. I already knew Medicare pays less than private insurance and that's why some doctors don't take Medicare patients, but he said specifically Medicare pays 20 to 30% less than private insurance. When he got to Medicaid, he stated that Medicaid pays even less, something like 69 or 7o% of what Medicare pays. And therefore, Medicaid patients are very limited in care options.

Further, Medicaid and Medicare are both about to bankrupt our government.

So let's solve part of the problem: Medicaid. Instead of a blanket program to give a free insurance to the poor, why not do what Switzerland does, and instead, let the poor go out and get a policy and reimburse them on their premiums. This would reduce government bureacracy and save money.

On this day 8 years ago.....

On this day, 3000 people lost their lives in Washington D.C., New York City, and Shanksville, PA.

One thing to note: Many politicians and commentators like to say that "3000 Americans died" on this day. It was not 3000 Americans. It was 3000 people who were citizens of multiple nations including Britain, Israel, Pakistan, just to name a few. And no, there was no master list of all the Jewish people who worked there and the Mossad got them all out ahead of time and told them to stay home from work. How many Jewish families do you need to see on tv who lost loved ones on that day before you realize that that's not true?

Anyway, as the media tries to sweep us up into a fury at the terrorists and evil-doers and to support the War On Terror/Overseas Contingency Operations, call it what you will, ask yourself a few questions:

-- Why did NORAD stand down on that day? They knew this kind of thing could happen. De-classified documents reported on by ABC state that NORAD as early as November 2000 was doing training drills for exactly this kind of attack on those targets.

-- Why is there no video footage of an actual plane, even in slow motion, striking the Pentagon? Every video I've ever seen just shows an emanating light in the air, followed by a break in the motion sequence, and then an exposion on the outer wall of the Pentagon. And why did the FBI confiscate that motel owners video of the Pentagon attack?

-- How is it possible that not one, not two, but three buildings (towers 1, 2, and 7) would all fall that perfectly to the ground? And yes, though the jet fuel was not hot enough to melt the steel, the temperature would have weakened its structural integrity by up to 50%. Ok. Fine. But if the integrity was weakened, wouldn't the steel frame have bent and fallen to the side? How many buildings have been on fire for hours on end, including the First Interstate Bank building that was on fire 18 hours, and yet didn't melt the frame or fall to the ground? Why was there pools of molten metal liquid found weeks after the attack? Why was thermite found there? Why were there so many perfect clean breaks in the steel frame remnants? Why was the scrap all sent out immediately to China?

-- Larry Silverstein was the lease-holder on the WTC. He had an insurance policy worth $7 billion on the whole place. He was up for $1.4 BILLION in asbestos removal obligations. Silverstein HIMSELF SAID on a PBS documentary that on tower 7, the firefighters called him and told him they would just pull it and it was un-savable. The insurance company paid out 3.5 billion. He then went to court and the judge awarded him all $7 Billion. Coincidence?

-- We've been bombing and invading and sanctioning Iraq since 1990, and during Kennedy administration, we even did a CIA coup on Abdel Karim Kaseb and replaced him with the Arif brothers. Iraq is the second most oil-rich country on Earth. But there was a dictator who wouldn't make favorable deals to our oil companies but would with French and Russian and German oil companies. If 9/11 hadn't happened, there wouldn't have been much public support to invade Iraq just out of the blue. And even the week before the Iraq war began in 2003, a major poll showed that only 56% of Americans favored military action in Iraq. And that was within 18 months of 9/11. Imagine if 9/11 had never happened. Halliburton, which Dick Cheney used to run, is an oil services company. Condoleeza Rice, who was also in the administration at the time, was on Chevron's board of directors from 1991 to 2000, and there was even an oil tanker called the Condoleeza Rice. Bush was in the oil business. His daddy was in the oil business. Coincidence?

-- AFGHANISTAN is a country that would serve as a pipeline route for oil from the Caspian Sea (i.e. the Caspian coasts of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan), and Hamid Karzai, the current president, in a former oil company executive. The Taliban responded negatively to both Clinton and Bush administration overtures to them to work on the pipeline. One Bush administration official even told a Taliban official in July 2001, "You either accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or you'll get a carpet of bombs." And oh yeah, the hijackers were based in Afghanistan. Oh wait, that's the same country. And so was their spiritual leader Bin Laden (formerly Tim Osman, CIA operative). Coincidence?

Corporations like United Defense, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing make a killing in times of war. Coincidence?

International bankers make money in a time of war too. Coincidence?

Since 9/11, Bush, Vicente Fox, and Paul Martin began discussions on the "Security and Prosperity Partnership" which is one step closer to a North American Union, and a small step closer to one world government. Coincidence?

My Solution for the Great State of Texas

I am a native of the Lone Star State. I have lived here all my 26-and-eleven-twelfths years.

Those who really know me know that I am a Libertarian at the Federal Level, a near purist, but at the state level, I'm center left. I voted for Kinky Friedman for governor in 2006. He has some socialistic views. And that's fine. I like it. I also am a strong capitalist.

I think for a Texas health system, it could go something like this:

-- We have a mandate at the state level that everyone be insured for catastrophic loss. In Texas, car insurance is mandatory, as it is in most states. What's more important? Car related affairs or people's health? In some ways the two intertwine cuz car insurance involves a "medical payments to others" portion. So I think it's a good thing to mandate that people have at least catastrophic insurance. It's the right thing to do. It helps the hospitals for one thing. They won't take so many losses from treating people with no coverage. And it will save patients from crushingly heavy medical bills of $200K, $300K, even $900K in some cases. It's a damn shame that anybody in Texas has ever gone bankrupt over medical bills, yet I was watching a PBS documentary in which a Houston man who'd worked in Info Tech but lost his job and then had a heart attack and was left with $900,000 in medical bills. The hospital treated him even though he had no insurance, but he declared bankruptcy after the fact. That's unacceptable. That's gotta change.

-- People need to have their own individual health insurance policy, not through their job. Having said that, we need to have a program, in following Germany's model, wherein if you lose your job, your coverage remains. I think that this can be done first and foremost in the private sector, and in the insurance companies. When I used to be a Primerica agent, our life insurance policies had a provision for people under 56 called "Waiver of Premium." It wasn't much more to add it on per month, and if you became disabled and couldn't work, Primerica would pay your premiums while you were disabled. I think the health insurance companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield and Humana should offer a waiver of premium for unemployment. It could be the kind of thing where, you pay, say, an extra 5% of your premiums and then if you became involuntarily unemployed, you could keep your coverage for up to 6 months of no work. If the insurance companies are for any reason unwilling to do this (and I don't see why they wouldn't), then the state of Texas can create such a fund through fast food or tobacco tax or something like that.

-- We need to have a program where the state of Texas provides assistance to low income people who have trouble paying their premiums. You could even put this in place of Medicaid eventually. If your income is less than 3-and-a-half times the poverty rate, Texas will help you with your premiums. Same with people in the risk pools.

-- Speaking of risk pools, Texas is one of 30 states that has one. And the provider therein is Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas. The rates are by Texas law, required to be 200% higher than standard health rates. I think bringing other insurance companies into the risk pool would create rate competition. How? Because whoever has the best standard health rates will have the best risk pool rates too. Then the people in the risk pool win. Competition in the market place lowers prices and improves the product. Look at the cell phone. Look at the television. The computer. The car. Etc, etc, etc.

-- People need to be given an education about health insurance and HSAs and how it all works. I know what I know cuz I'm into the topic, but for Joe Blow who's not like me and knows little, he needs to be provided an education and insight into it.

-- S-Chip is a great program, and I personally know mothers who are on it, and I'm happy that single moms who have 3 kids have coverage for their kids that they can afford. But $50 a year?! That's absurd. That's $4.17 a month for all your kids. It should be $50 a year for one child and then an extra $15 per child. So a mom with 4 kids would pay $95 a year. That's still dirt cheap. $95 a year is only $7.92 a month! For 4 kids! That's less than $2 per month PER CHILD!

Letter To the Powers That Be

To whom it may concern,

The Elite, the banking cartels, the international financiers, the military industrial complex, the corporate CEO's, members of the Bohemian Grove, and the Bilderberg Group, the leadership of the two parties, and major industries such as big oil:

You have created and continue to create the problems of the world. And through the use of major media moguls such as Rupert Murdoch and others, you perpetuate the world's ills. All while in secret societies and secret meetings which are never mentioned in the "mainstream media."

You have created many false dichotomies and false conflicts such as liberal and conservative, Republicans and Democrats, Arabs vs. Jews, Muslims vs. Non-muslims, white vs black, Americans vs Mexicans/Latin Americans, and Democracy vs Dictatorship just to name a few.

You who have created a false division of pro-life and pro-choice where one never existed until you decided to advance your agenda of eugenics.

You who infected all kinds of minority groups with all kinds of diseases and illnesses.

You who start wars that ruin lives, tear families apart, and kill innocent civilians and kill young soldiers who had their whole lives ahead of them, while most of you were too cowardly to serve when it was your time.

You who rob people of their life savings. You who hold down other sources of energy and deliberately withhold oil resources.

You who ruin the economy for the purpose of advancing your own power, while destroying the livelihoods of the middle class and lower middle class.

You who assassinate world leaders and overthrow governments who wish to do the right thing and benefit their own nation, rather than your world order.

You who sponsor far more terrorism than the "rogue" nations you point your finger at while three fingers point right back at you.

You who pretend to be upright practitioners of various faiths publicly, yet behind closed doors wear druid outfits and kneel before owl statues.

We, the good people of the world, of every race, ethnicity, nationality, creed, religion, and philosophy of life, will defeat you. Even though you control the money, the banks, the energy, and the media, there's one thing you can't control, and that is us. We are not your slaves or your property. And we will prevail. And if we don't, God's justice will.

So what do we do?

So since I've been making criticisms of government healthcare proposals, you ask, "Well what's your plan then, Nemeis of the Powers That Be? What do YOU think we should do?"

#1 -- Stop Relying on Your Employer For Insurance: People, beginning with people in normal health gradually over a period of time stop getting their insurance from their work. Eventually, employers will never again offer health insurance and if they wish to compensate their employees healthwise, they could do so by (A) matching contributions on Health Savings Accounts, or (B) Do like WHOLE FOODS has done which is to tell their employees to go out and find their own policy, and we'll reimburse you your monthly premiums. If you rely on your employer for insurance, then when you lose your job, you're out of coverage, unless you wanna be bankrupted for COBRA premiums.
Imagine: If it was our responsiblity to go looking around for the best price on a policy, and the best reputation of an insurance company, rather than just going along with what our employer gives us, can you imagine how hot the competition would get between HUMANA, United, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Assurant, etc etc?? There'd be price wars like Time Warner and AT&T. And that would drive down the cost quite a bit.

#2 -- Stop Relying on Your Insurance Card for every doctor visit: Your health insurance card tells you that your doctor's office visit is, let's say, $30. How much would it be to see your primary care physician without insurance? $60? $70? $80? $90?? $100?? Most of you have no idea. My insurance doesn't have office visit co-pays. I pay out of pocket for a doctors visit. I'm currently shopping around for a primary care physician. One of them charges $75 for a basic visit, and all the way up to $200 for a more complex visit. Not terrible. But my optometrist referred me to someone who charges $60 for a basic all the way up to $200, and he gives favorable treatment to HSA payers as opposed to insurance users. By shopping around I am finding the best deal. And don't tell me, "Well if you don't have all the money you won't get treated." Nonsense. There are plenty of doctors out there who will allow payment plans. One example where this happened to me: In July 2008 I went to the dentist. I ended up having to have an extra procedure done. The dental plan I had at the time was a "progressive benefit" wherein the longer I had it, year-by-year the benefit payout would increase. So it paid out a whopping $25. And my bill was $260. So my dentist whom I've used since childhood took the $25, I paid another $60 on my HSA Master Card, and then paid them the rest over a period of 6 months. Every month I called Dr. Branch's secretary and maid a $30 payment over the phone, using my Health savings account mastercard.
Guess who loves people who don't use insurance on their visit and pay out of pocket?? DOCTORS. That's right, doctors have to spend less money on secretaries and dealing with insurance companies to pay them what they're owed, and are paid sooner when patients pay out of pocket. There's even a doctor in TENNESSEE who won't take insurance. And his prices are listed on his brochure for every procedure, and they're cheap.
What's the one medical procedure that's gone DOWN in price in the last 10 years? Laser Eye Surgery. Why? Cuz insurance doesn't pay for it. So when people actually know what things cost and then have to go looking around for the best price, every doctor in town's gonna get into a price war to gain your business, and that's exactly what's happened with laser eye surgery. Here in San Antonio, we've got a doctor who'll do it for $299 an eye.

#3 -- Put money into your Health Savings Account: I cannot stress this enought. You put money in your 401k. You get a tax break for doing it. Put money in your HSA. You get a tax break for it too. Your employer offers you a "Flexible Spending Account?" TAKE IT. Use it when you see the doctor. Use it for blood work. I walked into a place called "HEALTH CHECK USA" last week to get tested for a few things. I walked in and out. No waiting. The whole process was less than 15 minutes. Easy. They don't allow insurance. You have to pay cash, so I pulled out my HSA MasterCard once again. $240 for three tests. I still have $300 on the card. And if you put money into one of these, you'll have funds to pay your deductible on your insurance if something happens. If your work doesn't offer one, look online. I have one with my job AND one with my Credit Union. The one at the credit union is better because the money is always and forever mine. The one at my job, the money is yours until January 1st. You don't use it you lose it.

#4 -- We need pure catastrophic insurance: Plain and simple. People of all healths and ages need to be able to purchase a plan with NO deductible that covers you in case something catastrophic and expensive happens to you, like diabetes, heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, or major surgery after a car accident or work-related incident. If I have to get back surgery due to something that happened while lifting equipment at my construction job (I'm not a construction worker, but if I was) I would like to think that that could be immediately covered and taken care of. If I get t-boned at an intersection, and I live, but need all kinds of ICU treatment at the hospital, I'd like to think I'd have an insurance that would pay without me having to fork out $3500 plus co-insurance. But that's not the way the system is now. I have a supplemental policy that will write me a check for $47 K if I get heart attack, stroke, cancer, or kidney failure, but if I get t-boned on De Zavala and I-10, then I have to hit up Blue Cross Blue Shield, and pay $3500 plus co-insurance. That needs to improve. Don't get me wrong. I'll take what I have now any day of the week, twice on sunday to the Canadian system, but that doesn't mean we can't do better. I mean, for goodness sakes, I have a $250,000 life insurance policy with American General. My mom has no deductible to pay if I die. She just files the claim, American General mails out a $250,000 check, and she uses $10,000 of it for my funeral, burial, casket, flowers, funeral programs, etc. No deductible, no co-insurance. What we have now is not insurance. What we have now is a pre-paid/managed care plan. The little stuff (i.e. -- the stuff below 10 grand should be paid for by us). The big stuff, like a $300,000 hospital bill for cancer treatment, is insurance's job. And I cannot stress enough the greatness of supplementals. In 2001, 50% of the 1,458,000 bankruptcies were related to medical bills, of which 38% had insurance at the time of illness. If you get a critical illness and have to go on paid medical leave, you have NO income coming in, and that's where supplementals like AFLAC and UTAIC come in.