Is it just me, or does the Tea Party people think that they own the country? Last time I checked, they didn't. They don't even coordinate. I am sure they don't think things through.
Ben Stein said that the Tea Party guys are way off base for demanding deeper cuts. I agree with Ben Stein. If we were to cut off spending the way some of the Tea Partiers envision, we would be putting too many people out of work. People who would vote against the Tea Party candidates. People who would have loads of time on their hands to vote down a Tea Party candidate.
Look down to see the comments. Over half of them think it is easy to cut. What they don't realize, most of the budget is on entitlements like social security, pensions, medicare, medicaid, welfare and the like. Direct payments to people.
This pie chart shows just what the budget spends. Now, if we do cut out a good portion of this by slashing everything, there better be a full two years before a new election. Otherwise there is going to be a huge group of people pissed off. Most of them will vote TEA partiers out in a second.
Right now, we have the elected Democrats in a precarious position. They have made too many changes. They have been too restrictive towards all businesses except their select few. They have been arrogant and unresponsive. And they have threatened the businesses who haven't left with more regs and taxes.
This has demoralized their base and destroyed most of the good will they have accumulated over the years. Now, we have the Tea Partiers and the recipients of government largess. If the recipients of government largess get in their minds that voting against Tea Party Candidates keeps their goodies coming (and so far they haven't), they will make sure that the ones that promise the goodies stay in charge.
The Tea Partiers still don't have a chance in hell if the people who usually stay at home and don't vote but get most of the money decide that it is time to flex their muscle. The bad economy and the poor employment rate and the stupid things said by the Democrats have combined to create the notion that the Democrats shouldn't be running this country. That can change overnight.
The Tea Party is the largest winner so far, but in truth it has been long PR campaign. Forcing the US to default is not too bright just a year and four months out. It give the Democrats time and room to portray the Tea Party People as loons. A fantastic beautiful uprising will have been wasted because these people can't restrain themselves.
Cross posted at Commentarama in the comment section of Time to Talk About Jobs Agenda.
ReplyDeleteSame Rant different day....XOXOX
ReplyDeleteJoel,
There is a major problem that I am not sure many people know about...even though it is obvious to me. I have worked in health care and gained some knowledge of the complex Medicare billing process. I know only a small amount in comparison to what is actually there. This information is generalized information based on years of exposure to the grunt work involved and I am sure there is more than this.
This is generalized basic algorithm taking a geriatric person from Acute Care, Short Term Rehab/Swing, Long Term Rehab/Swing, discharge home with Home Health/Physical Therapy, or possible Extended Care Placement. Weekly medicare meeting are held in which a member of all departments working with the patient will discuss how much improvement has been made and how to extend their stay. So the max number of days can be used.
3 days hospital day required - Maybe have to have IV antibiotics or fluids while in hospital.
6, 14 or 20 day: Rehab/Swing stay (this changes but stays in this range.) Pre-approved by Medicare
26th Rehab Stay: Approx. 5-6 days before this 26th day mark. Any reason to keep them in the facility longer. Physical Therapy probably will still have stairs to work on, but they will hold on to that as long as possible. Nursing maybe doing a wound change that is covered. Occupational Therapy will have something they can get covered.
30-60 day: The number of varies a lot here it depends on the patient, how good the staff is at coming up with a treatment plan that will get covered and how well the nurses chart.
60-100th day: As far as I know 100th day is it...Medicare will not pay any more after that...the kicker...that was for the diagnosis they had when admitted to the hospital. Remember the 3 day stay way back when. If they get a new diagnosis and anther 3 day hospital stay they can more days in a facility paid by Medicare.
*********They don't get as many days...I don't think but still when the average pay out per day (the 1st 20 days then it goes down from there) is $1000-$2000 per DAY, well you do the math.
This is pretty good it gives good simple explanations....I don't agree with some of the things it says though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_%28United_States%29
New Guideline: http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/171580155.html
All I got to say is the nurses better do one hell of an initial Head to Toe Assessment noting every skin blemish.
Yeah....after that Ranting. I'm feeling my recent decision was right on the money. ;)
~~Karen
~~You already have a Job Incentive.....it called a paycheck~~
So, Karen, you had on average 7 patients which if extended for twenty days at the low end ($1,000) gives you approximately $140,000. Now, if you change that a bit, like increase the numbers of filled beds. You had told me once you had 16. If we assume you had ten patients on average for a whole year.....that makes 10 patients, 365 days, at 1000 per day. That gives out $3,650,000 just to rehab the patients. That is not really doing anything special like removing a gall bladder.
ReplyDeleteThe numbers will only go up from there.
Yeah ok, not exactly what I was thinking but it'll do.
ReplyDeleteYou have to keep this in mind though...I liked my paycheck and annal raise. For 5 years we never got an annal raise because the budget wasn't met....not sure why...hmmm
Why does things cost so much in a healthcare facility. I'll tell you one reason. We all know medication is expencive right? (which really isn't if you have any type insurence that covers meds, but I'm not getting into that)
Pill X cost you $5 at your local pharmancy, when you get your hospital bill the same Pill X cost you $10 (about double).
Do you know why this is? It because the hospital has to pay about twice as many people as the pharmacy to get you that same pill.
...ranting lucky readers didn't have to hear...
......whatever...I'm going to play video games...kiss kiss