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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) thnidu | |
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catsittingstill says: Okay, This Is Interesting..., and I agree: Bill Moyers interviews Wendell Potter (who was, until recently, a major executive of the health insurance company Cigna. The transcript is here. [...] However, the part I thought was most interesting was this: BILL MOYERS: Why is public insurance, a public option, so fiercely opposed by the industry?
WENDELL POTTER: The industry doesn't want to have any competitor. In fact, over the course of the last few years, has been shrinking the number of competitors through a lot of acquisitions and mergers. So first of all, they don't want any more competition period. They certainly don't want it from a government plan that might be operating more efficiently than they are, that they operate. The Medicare program that we have here is a government-run program that has administrative expenses that are like three percent or so. BILL MOYERS: Compared to the industry's-- WENDELL POTTER: They spend about 20 cents of every premium dollar on overhead, which is administrative expense or profit. So they don't want to compete against a more efficient competitor. Yes, you read it (t)here first folks: The health insurance industry is afraid that a government-run health insurance plan might be more efficient than they are.
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copperbadge | |
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*tadaa gesture* The first round of fics for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) writerinadrawer is up, so you should go and read and vote! WIAD is a Torchwood-centric writing competition/festival. Writers are given a prompt and submit their fics, which are then posted anonymously. Voters leave anonymous votes for their favourites and least-favourites. Those with the most negative votes are "drawered" and are out of the running for the next round. It's a nice way for people to get honest anonymous feedback, especially since all votes must be justified. Before you vote, check the rules to make sure your vote will count and remember to base your reasoning on quality of writing, not ship or theme. Have fun! This time it's all drabbles, so it's fast reading and a ton of good quality fic. Check out part one here, part two here, and vote here. Looking over the entries I'm definitely middle of the pack in this one -- even if I could have voted for myself, there were several that were just plain better. TIME TO STEP UP MY GAME.
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cflute | |
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It's now just over one week, and the third hair washing, since I got my new perm. The perm is settling in nicely, and I like the shorter overall hair length (between chin and shoulder). I've packed seven or eight boxes so far today, mostly of media room stuff. Still looks pretty disorganized in there but much of that is CDs. Packing those last, of course, so I can "rock out" while I'm packing. The baby blanket I started last week got re-started last night; the first attempt Just Did Not Work and got frogged (rip-it, rip-it), but the new design is shaping up nicely. The blanket will have some patterning but nothing crazy-complex, which is much better for my sanity. It feels good to have a project on the knitting needles that is something that I actually want to work on and not just a placeholder. pocketnaomi has been taking very good care of me emotionally; we've been doing much better in general at providing such for each other, recently. Today she negotiated for and got something that I considered absolutely vital, and as a result I've recovered some of my Get Things Done momentum (see above re boxes). Today's lunch was both healthy, gluten-free, and genuinely satisfying/filling. Despite a sharply reduced caffeine intake (maybe 1/4 of yesterday's), I don't have a raging headache, or mood swings, or other nasty signs of withdrawal. Nor do I have yesterday's nausea and jitters. Yay! We may have figured out a way to get back to Oregon to see friends next month, at the beginning of the month, just after the house goes on the market. Tags: self, what i did
Tone of babble:  okay
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ffutures | |
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I discovered on Monday evening that Murphy, my female corn snake, was missing. Her vivarium is a converted cupboard, with glass sliding panels that move in tracks glued to the wood. The glue that held the lower track in place had come unstuck at one end, which meant that it could pivot just a little at the bottom, just enough to create a very small gap for her to get out. Must have taken a lot of strength, and it must have been a very tight fit, since the gap can't have been more than a quarter inch or so.
There wasn't much I could do apart from setting out a bowl of water and keeping the door of that room closed and hoping that she'd turn up - which she did tonight, in the flat below mine - in fact two floors below mine. Had a worried phone call about ten o'clock, they could see her hiding under their TV stand. I have no idea how she got down there, but apparently one of the cats had been acting strangely all day, so she'd been there a while. It's actually the second time an escapee has made it down there, so presumably there is some sort of direct route - probably where one of the central heating pipes goes through the floor or something. I shall have to investigate.
Anyway, it all seems to have ended well - I got her out fairly easily, and she appears to be unharmed by her adventure. I'll let her settle down tonight and feed her tomorrow.
And buy a potted plant or something for downstairs...
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mroblivious | |
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Day 57. We slept well and got up relatively early to check out and hit the road. We started off looking around a little more until it started raining heavily, then we headed over to New Orleans East to get the cheapest gas around. Then back onto I-10 westbound out of town. Some distance west of New Orleans we ran into stopped traffic for no detectable reason. After that cleared and things got moving again, the drivers were really bad -- I could see the frustration coming out. So we left I-10 and went over to US-61, heading north on that into the south end of Baton Rouge. After wandering around a little we finally located where the convention was going to be, which is on the campus of LSU and is in an exceptionally beautiful setting. The rain was still coming down, so we were trying to figure out what to do next. Sleeping in the car didn't look too doable. I struck on the idea of calling the hotel to see if they had room and if so what the rate would be. This netted us a third night at the con rate, which is about twice what a night at the Motel 6 would have been. Since this would mean not having to unpack and repack, and would allow us another night in this great hotel, we decided to do it. It's worth it. This place is just as nice on the inside, and the people who work here are very nice. They gave us the closest room to the elevators, which helped with Kathy's ankle. They also have onsite laundry facilities, so I could get done some of the stuff we wanted to be able to wear this weekend. After we got in and settled and laundered, we went to dinner. We wandered around looking for suitable restaurants without finding such for a while, but we did see some wonderful examples of the local architecture. They have some great, huge houses here. At last we found a place called TJ Ribs, which had wonderful food. Then back here to watch tv and crash. Distance traveled: About 100 miles Tags: summer2009
Source of babble:: Baton Rouge, LA
Tone of babble:  content
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Last babble 
sore
aggravated
cheerful
surprised