Health Medicine Update

Baseball is my game.  There is nothing finer than the World Series.  The NBA finals are second.

Football holds less interest as I age.  So it is with some amount of disinterest and idle  curiosity that I decided to watch the Super Bowl yesterday.   I was rooting for the Saints.

This was a perfect game.  It had everything.  A storybook Cinderella team representing a broken city hoping for a symbol of resurrection.  And a great quarterback from the opposing team who had everything.

I have always maintained that a truly great team is defined by this Trinity: a great owner, a great coach, and a great quarterback.   For one afternoon, the Saints found this.

Championship games are defined not only by the greatness, courage and persistence of the players but by the genius and wiliness of the coach.   Great plays are called by the coach.  Bill Walsh used to call the first 16 plays of each game, according to his playbook.  So the third quarter onside kick will be remembered for years.   Genius.   And courage.

This had the requisite suspense, back-and-forth momentum.  It was never a blowout.  The outcome was in doubt until the very end.

Baltimore suffered from a rookie coach.  Only one rookie coach has ever won the Super Bowl– George Seifert — with the help of Joe Montana.

New Orleans had not only heart but genius.   A storybook ending.   A great game.

My take on why we saw the thrilla in … Massachusetts:

From Inside Washington, Nina Totenberg encapsulated it best.   The economy and job prospects dwarf all other issues.

If we had 5 percent unemployment, he probably would have gotten the plan through.  But you can’t refocus people’s attention on an aspirational goal for a society — I think it’s very difficult to do that — when people are hurting so much in the immediate sense and businesses are going down the tubes, small business on a daily basis.  You just look in any mall, places you’ve gone for years, they’re gone now.  People in every level of life are struggling to even have a job or they’re working part time.  Kids coming out of school can’t find jobs.  This is a very dire situation and he has – I can’t say he’s ignored it, but he hasn’t focused on it in a way he probably should have.

From the Chris Matthews Show, David Brooks always seems to have to most cogent social insights:

Mr. BROOKS: Yeah, if I had to generalize, it used to be in this country people of high school degrees lived the same kind of lives as people with college degrees. That’s no longer true. Divorce rates, attitudes towards society, attitudes towards government, it’s very different. College degree, non college degree.  …  And they look at the people who are running them, most of them are college degrees, Harvard law, on both sides.   …  And they say, `That’s not me. That’s not my life.’   …  `And they’re not listening to me.’

And so the President shifts focus in his annual State of the Union address.  It’s about jobs and the economy.  Then education … our future.

Last night health care reform died.   What went wrong?   A plethora of explanations from all the usual suspects to follow.   You will hear some rumblings of dissent — press on.

The simple answer:  everything was wrong.   This never was about health care reform.  This was always an attempt at health insurance reform.  And in that regard it was a miserable failure.  The bill, as passed by the Senate, was a cruel proposition.  The ultimate lay away plan: pay me now and you might be able to enjoy your coerced purchase in four years.  Do you know how much can change in four years?  Everything.

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Looking for broad public support?  Not looking favorable according to the latest Quinnipiac poll.   NBC/WJS and others are just as unfavorable.

ObamaCare

Half a loaf?  No, worse.  Here is your pre-Christmas present — a big lump of coal.   Let me simplify and make clear my assertion.  You are ill, in need of medical care.   You want the best.   Whose wise counsel and help do you seek?   You want someone who is sympathetic, skilled and competent.

Dr. Howard Dean

Political HealthCare

This debate has never been about Health.   Certainly not your health.  For the last six months I have steadfastly maintained the large insurance racketeers will not lose this one.   They have thrown all their money into the ring.  It has paid off handsomely. Their paid surrogates have performed well.  Like their Wall Street kin, the pirates have won again.   Robert Reich pulls no punches:

In other words, the private insurers are winning and the public is losing.

Pharmaceutical companies are winning as well.

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Confused about Health Care reform?  Dismayed?  Here is the front and center issue and why a year’s worth of debate was a strategic mistake.  Jobs, the economy and education in America top the polls.

They missed the golden opportunity … financial banking reform.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Keith Olbermann, always impassioned, penetrating and reflective. The chorus rises: this bill with it’s mandated participation in the insurance protection scheme cannot be supported.

A bad and corrupt bill is worse than no bill at all. The President’s high stakes gamble is overtaken by the raging storm of job insecurity and … the economy.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Howard Dean at his most articulate and unambiguous self.   The time has finally come.    There is nothing left to support.   It’s now face saving time.   It is not about Joe Lieberman.   He’s just become the Mannie Ramirez of the Senate.

“It’s not health care reform … and it’s too bad it’s come this.”

“You are going to be forced to pay, on average, 27% of your money to pay CEOs $20 million a year…”

[starts at about 4:08 into this clip]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This just in from Robert Reich.  Many of you have received this.

Hi. I’m Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under President Clinton and currently a professor at the University of California.

You’ve probably heard about a possible “deal” in the Senate to do away with the public option.

I’m here to tell you that this is no deal: it’s a gift to Big Insurance, plain and simple.

To which Captain Renault of Casablanca would have retorted:

“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”

We have repeated the same so many times:  the insurance racqueteers ultimately will not lose this great battle of wills.   And the gang of 5 who are now trying to finalize your Christmas present … are not much better.