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Bill Eisenhood

Last Updated: 11/23/2009

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Gender: Male
Status: Divorced
Age: 66
Sign: Cancer

City: ALBUQUERQUE
State: New Mexico
Country: US
Signup Date: 9/17/2005

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Saturday, September 05, 2009

Why the Health Care Bill will be a Boondoggle
Category: News and Politics

I hate even typing the above words. I caught Bill Moyers the other night and it was like getting hit in the gut with a sucker punch. When he got to the physician in Nashville, who described on a flow chart the hundreds of offshoot companies that have formed from the big three there, I realized we're sunk. The Middle Tennessee area is home to more than 300 health care companies operating on a multi-state, national, or international basis, with more than 250 professional service firms (e.g., accounting, architecture, banking, legal) with expertise in the health care industry. Nashville-based health care companies accounted for $46 billion in revenue in 2008 and 310,000 jobs globally.

The profit-driven system is so entrenched in this country that I'm afraid it's unbeatable. And the main reason it's unbeatable is that Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, and the President, are all on the take. That may not be a polite way to discuss the matter, but it's a fact. It's like the 'fox in the henhouse' in extremis. Already it's been announced that the pharmaceutical lobby PhRMA will spend with its coalition at least $150 million supporting the Obama-Pelosi-Reid health care legislation.

And on August 15 Bloomberg reported that one of the two advertising companies “selected” to handle the ads for this massive campaign is the one founded by top Obama Advisor David Axelrod, AKPD, and that that firm is set to pay Axelrod $2 million, even though he works for the White House, and employs his son. According to OpenSecrets.org these groups put up $484 million in lobbying money in 2008, getting ready for this legislation. Once the health insurance industry was given a seat at the table our goose was cooked. I'm not even sure why Mr. Obama is out there trying to sell it - sell WHAT!

If you saw Michael Moore's 'Sicko,' then you got to know Congressman Billy Tauzin. He was the Republicans' point man on getting the Medicare Prescription Drug scam on the books. Everyone was on the take in that one. Then, shortly after the bill was signed, Tauzin went to work for big pharma for $2 million a year. And it is Tauzin who has now made friends with the President, and has gotten his industry a seat at the table. This is the same guy whom Candidate Obama called a creep. He said we won't deal with him. Same guy who's now shaking Obama's hand. Now it turns out that there were secret negotiations between the White House and big pharma. Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House officials assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion. And one more thing: the President promised that all negotiations between the government and the health industry would be on C-SPAN. Not happening.

And probably the biggest obscenity about this mess is that medicine-for-profit has no interest in THE PATIENT. The only thing they care about, and are charged by law to try to achieve, is increasing profits and dividends for their stockholders. That's how all for-profit corporations operate. But here the poor patient often just gets in the way of that goal. That's when live-saving procedures get denied, or patients get dumped from their plans. It's all about the bottom line, nothing else. And they will spend whatever they need to spend to make sure that Congress, and the President, are in their hip pockets. The pharmaceutical industry is now so firmly in the president's camp, it's developing plans to spend up to $150 million dollars promoting it with TV ads. And that's exactly the opposite of what Candidate Obama said during the campaign. Have no doubt: if and when a bill is signed by the President, the health care industry stands to make more money than ever before. If you don't think so, then you have had your head in the sand for the last 40 years.

Oh, the public option. Remember a couple of weeks ago when some 60 Democratic House members stood up and said, "No public option, no health bill." Remember that. You never heard it again, did you? That's because Rom Emmanuel told them to sit down and shut the fuck up! And that was that. Why - because President Obama needs the healthcare industry's campaign donations to ensure his reelection.

The whole thing, and all the people involved, including the President, are revolting.

5:23 AM

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Monday, March 02, 2009

The Disgrace that is our Healthcare System
Category: News and Politics

I just caught Sicko on cable. That was the 2007 Michael
Moore documentary on the state of our healthcare system. I hadn't seen
it for a few years, but the outrage I felt then came screaming back to
me. The way our HMOs try so very hard to either deny treatment or to
refuse to allow new patients based on preexisting conditions. I watched
how, during the early days of the Clinton administration, Hillary
fought and lost when the drug companies and the HMOs bombarded Congress
with a broadside that brought it all down. Then, years later, when she
ran for the Senate SHE took almost eight hundred grand from those very
interests. I watched patients getting dumped in skid row with hospital
gowns and no shoes when they couldn't pay their hospital bills. I
watched denials of treatment that resulted in death on two occasions -
one a sweet toddler with a throat infection and a man with kidney
cancer. Both of these could have been saved with timely treatment. And,
in these two examples, the people HAD health insurance. A kidney
transplant, even though the family had found a perfect match, was
deemed 'experimental' and denied, along with many of the drug
treatments recommended by their doctor. In the case of the toddler, her
mother had no car and called an ambulence which took them to the
nearest emergency room. But she had coverage at another hospital which
refused to pay for her treatment at a different facility. The emergency
room where she was waiting refused treatment without up front payment;
she was told to drive the baby to her hospital, all of which was
impossible. She tried desperately but could find no one to give her a
ride until it was too late.
I listened to former HMO workers
whose jobs required them to go over a person's health history with a
fine-toothed comb, to find anything, anything at all, so they could be
kicked out of the plan altogether. When a surgery was indicated, in the
case of a woman with cervical cancer, her records were sent to a
special unit which did the fine-toothed-comb thing, and denied the
surgery because they discovered on her application that she had had a
yeast infection once, years ago, that was cured easily. By now I was
completely pissed, and was so engrossed that I was wondering out loud
just how many more of these atrocities Moore could unearth.

Then there were the trips to Canada, the UK and France, where
healthcare is free - no copays, no insurance, no proof of anything. In
england the 'cashier' hands OUT money to patients who've been treated
to make sure they get home safely. I listened to the right-wing in the
US warning us about the horrors of socialized medicine: how you can't
choose a doctor, you have to wait months to be seen, how the clinics
are dingy and dirty and the care is abysmal. None of it was true. Their
treatment seemed to be superior to ours in every way, including life
span and infant mortality. One worker in an English emergency room
laughed when Moore asked him how much they charge for treatment. No one
had ever asked him that before. In France there are doctors driving all
over Paris every night making housecalls forchristsakes.
In the
lead-up to the passage of the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan, the
story of how our Congress was bought and paid for by HMOs and the drug
companies was so appalling that I can't believe there wasn't a huge
public outcry resulting in trials, impeachments and convictions. The
celebrations after President Bush signed the bill were enough to make
you puke. In case you've forgotten, Medicare is forbidden, by the plan,
to negotiate with the drug companies for lower prices. In other words,
those lovely drug companies can charge patients ANYTHING THEY WISH.
Wasn't that a lovely gift from the government of the United States to
the drug companies and their brokers, the HMOs!
Our healthcare
system in the United States is a crime. I don't know what the answer
is, because our government is really in the back pockets of some 35,000
lobbyists. Just listen today to those goddamned Repulicans scream and
cry about the pitfalls of socialized medicine. Our government has the
most vulnerable of us too frightened, poor and demoralized to do
anything but accept the status quo. No one seems capable of doing
anything to change it. Why aren't there massive protests and cries for
the heads of all those who profit so appallingly at the expense of the
sick, old and dying? When asked if he thought something like the French
system would ever exist in the U.S. a middle aged French physician's
answer was a curt "no!" and he walked off, barely able to contain his
disgust for the American system. I agree.
The last part of the
movie went off the rails when Moore did a lot of grandstanding,
especially with the Cuba trip. But there was enough truth in much of
that documentary to make me feel sick to my stomach. I think I'll treat
my nausea at home with a little diet Coke rather than hit an emergency
room. It would cost me $250 and I'd likely have to wait seven or eight
hours.

11:47 AM

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Saturday, February 14, 2009

Give the Goddamn Money to the People - Part 2
Category: News and Politics

January 28:
In my last post I blathered on about how the Feds should give the
'people' the handouts rather than unload it on the very institutions
which had a large roll in getting us into this mess in the first place.
This lay theory was explained to me over lunch with Jon, who makes his
living in the world of real estate, and I did not hesitate to further
it to my son. Charlie's a sophomore Econ student at NYU, and he's a
damn sight smarter than I am, thanks to the genetic input from his
mother's side of the family. He tried to explain to me how I was full
of shit, but come on, he's just a sophomore. Then he sent me this
article
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jan2009/db20090123_308231_page_2.htm
from Business Week, and now I think I'm convinced. When I ran this past Jon he responded with the following: Interesting
article that is quoting a whole bunch of knuckleheads – er.. excuse me
economists from academia (like they spend any time in the real fucking
world). I
guess I just may be stupid but if people pay their debts to lenders
(instead of buying a new pair of Levi’s) I don’t see how that is not
capitalizing the banking industry in the same way that a big fat TARP
check from treasury does – only without “bad debts?” Kind of Like a
Recycling Program? Shit even if fuckers like you and me “saved” the
money for a rainy day, unless we put under the mattress, it still winds
up in the bank and is capital (yes with an interest cost) that can be
lent to people and businesses. And as I said at lunch the other – those
that choose not to pay their debt, or don’t’ have any can and most
likely will just “blow it” on fun and exciting things…. and I guess
that’s bad too. I'm still as confused as ever. And
when the politicians get through with it, complete with huge injections
of their own political dogmatism, I'm not so sure Jon's all that far
off the mark. I guess all we can do is wait and see.

6:51 AM

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Saturday, February 14, 2009

Give the Goddamn Money to the People

January 25: So I'm having lunch with a friend who used to frequent my craps
table and the Ultimate Texas Holdem tables. He a real estate investor,
and about a year ago I was seriously considering investing a large
chunk of my retirement money with him. It would have helped finance a
housing development and shopping center in a town where uranium mining
was making a big comeback, helped along by ever-increasing oil prices.
He got hammered pretty good by the recent crash, and, though he wasn't
wiped out, he's been 'treading water' for some time now. So our
conversation naturally turned to the economy. I started ranting about
the Merrill Lynch chief who'd been fired the day before for, among
other things, losing $15 billion, and, at the same time, handing out
around $4 billion in bonuses to his top ranked lieutenants. Jon stopped
me short. I'm not sure I find that much fault with that, he said. After
all, he was taking care of his employees, guys who may have been
guaranteed big payments for some time. Maybe not. But then Jon got all
wound up: Why not give all that bailout money to the PEOPLE - you and
me! Here's why. Let's say Joe owes a bank $10,000 and you're
behind in your payments and behind on your mortgage to boot. Now if you
give the bailout money to the bank they may or may not feel ok about
loaning it out again. Meanwhile, Joe still owes the money and he's
still behind on his mortgage. If Joe gets foreclosed and/or defaults on
his ten grand loan, his credit is ruined, the bank eats the paper and
now owns a house they didn't want. Two years from now Joe still can't
borrow any money because he's such a shitty credit risk. But,
Jon says, if you give Joe the money, let's say it's $10,000 per
household, then he fends off foreclosure and keeps making payments on
his note. The bank ends up getting the money anyway and Joe's credit is
preserved - everybody wins. I had to hand it to Jon, his argument made
a lot of sense to me, who knows little about economics. So I call my
son Charlie in New York, where he's majoring in economics at NYU. He
says no, experts agree (Hah!) that you get the most 'bang for your
buck' if you give the bailout money to the financial institutions - the guys who fucked the whole thing up in the first place.
So who's right, Jon the speculator or my kid the student? I gotta tell
you, Jon's argument makes more sense every day. I'm coming to believe
that the conventional wisdom is a very large load of horseshit! Time to write my congressman. Oh wait - he's full of shit too!

6:47 AM

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Saturday, February 14, 2009

Sudden Death
Category: Life

January 13: I'm in San Francisco. Here's why: I'd just come out of the
gym with Charlie after meeting with Kim, a personal trainer and climbed
into the car, when my cell phone went off. It was my nephew David in
San Francisco, in tears, blurting out that his dad was dead. Steve was
my old college roommate whom I introduced to my little sister many
years ago. I guess I never really forgave him when he started dating
her, not until after they were married, had a couple of kids, and
settled in bucolic Tiburon, California. Anyway, Joan was driving him to
the doctor's office after he'd been complaining about a numb arm and
indigestion and chest pain for some time. Joan dropped him at the door
because he looked awful and she had to park fairly far away When
she got herself into the waiting room he was in the throes of a massive
coronary, 911 was called, two doctors were doing CPR when the ambulence
arrived, and all were off to a local hospital. Steve never regained
conciousness and was pronounced a little while later. Everyone was in
shock and that's when the call came to me. Now we're waiting
for Tuesday when we'll have a gathering of friends and family at a
local restaurant to share memories and say good-bye. It's been a very long three days for all.

6:43 AM

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Monday, January 05, 2009

New Year’s Resolutions
Category: Life

Alright! It's time! Tomorrow I hit the gym and begin to seriously watch my diet. Ferchrissakes I'm 30 pounds overweight and I'm sick of it. I look like crap, feel like crap, and I can't get into most of my clothes. It's disgusting. Tonight I sent away for some berry milkshake diet suppressant stuff that's free for two weeks. If I'm not happy I send it back and pay only shipping. I know, I know, another diet scam. I'm sure it's not the answer, but if it helps, even a little, at quashing my late-night appetite for things fatty then it'll be worth it. Things like peanut butter, ice cream, cereal with half & half, fried ham sandwiches, poached eggs on toast with lots of butter. Why the hell do these cravings only hit me late at night? All day long I'm fine, but after 10 I'm a fucking disaster! There must be some scientific reason, because it's like clockwork. So anyway I'm going to chronicle my progress, or lack thereof, right here. Wish me luck.

10:46 AM

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Friday, December 19, 2008

A Winter Stroll
Category: Life

I took a walk this evening, just a short stroll around the block. It
was getting dusky and though it was overcast there was some clearing
along the western horizon. Red-orange sunlight shown up from below,
illuminating the underside of the clouds. The air was still, the
temperature fortyish, and with the fading red light it was lovely. I
got about 100 yards when a couple of mockingbirds started chattering at
each other, or me, or both. Normally I find these creatures annoying,
but tonight I tuned in and listened. They seemed to be imitating each
other, which they like to do, and when I made some silly squeeky noises
they seemed to try to imitate me too, or at least I thought they did. I
understand the really noisy ones are males who haven't found mates yet,
so who could blame them. They flew back and forth between three
evergreens along the street, dropping the occasional bomb, which I was
lucky to avoid. So I moved on and left the birds to their frustrations.
Now the mountains off to the east glowed a pale pink, reflecting the
western glow. I turned away and headed straight into the now vanished
sun. At the end of the block was a busy street with everyone in a big
hurry to get home. They were going like a bat out of hell right next to
me, too close it seemed. The mood was dead, the moment gone. I rounded
the corner and headed back to my house.

9:39 AM

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Thursday, December 18, 2008

So we had this snowstorm
Category: Life

The snow began mid-morning and it fell steadily until after eight that night. Couple of inches at my house with more in spots around town. I get a call from my ex, can I get up with Thomas and take him to school since he's such a fledging driver - he's had his license for a month. So I tell him to get me up, and we go off to bed. At nine I wake up with heavy bass coming from his room and I accurately guess that school was closed because of the storm. By ten most of the snow was gone and by two it was completely gone. I wonder how many red faces there were at Albuquerque Public Schools by mid-morning. I know that we're a sunbelt city and not supposed to handle snow well, but sheesh, we ARE a mile high here! I know that it's tough for school buses at seven a.m. when the streets are icy, but hey, how about a two-hour delay? Really, did they really have to close the schools for the whole day? What are we afraid of? One of my pet sayings about our "snow problem" here is: you've got to get out there and shovel it quick -- before it melts! There's another storm approaching for tomorrow that looks a lot like the last one. I can hardly wait to see what happens.

6:17 AM

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