A Database To Compare Health Care Costs At Colorado Hospitals | Colorado Health Insurance Insider

A Database To Compare Health Care Costs At Colorado Hospitals | Colorado Health Insurance Insider: "State Representative John Kefalas (D – Fort Collins) is�planning to introduce a bill next month that would create a website where Colorado residents could research the price of various medical procedures at hospitals across the state. �If passed, his bill would set up a committee that would spend 18 months determining what procedures should be included in the price comparison database."

This isn't a bad idea but it's already been tried. Look up Colorado Health Data Commission. A nice idea scuttled by insurance and HMO interests.

But the fundamental flaw is the assumption that the consumer cares about cost. Healthcare coverage insulates the consumer from financial considerations. I'd always buy a Beamer if a 3rd party picked up most of the costs.

Larimer legislators seek to balance bills, budget

Larimer legislators seek to balance bills, budget: "Lundberg also will make another run at a bill offering greater flexibility for those requiring medical care or living assistance under the Medicaid program.

Currently, he said, such services can be provided only in Medicaid-approved facilities by approved providers. With a federal waiver, Lundberg said, his bill would allow such services to be performed by family caregivers or smaller care facilities at a greatly reduced cost."

It's hard to think of any other single step that would do so much to increase fraud and abuse.There are reasons certification of providers as a condition of participation in public funds is mandatory.

Jack of the Woods - Asheville NC

Hanging at Jack of the Wood for the Kevin Kinney acoustic jam. Nice place with decent acoustics, coffee and Jameson whiskey. The lack of brown sugar is more than adequately compensated for by not being out in the cold.

On stage - Jennie Arnau & her band. Another new name. "Chasing Giants" is the next new CD, due in March. Very sweet vocals and an especially nice pedal steel player.

Woody Wood- introduced by local DJ as an Asheville Legend. I can hear why. Nice rough voice with a clean acoustic guitar. 1st murder ballad of the day, too, which is always a pleasure for me.

Oh, an epic moment for me - Ray Sisk is on the stage! Please Please let me hear "Glory Road"

The Pathology of Losing

It seems we can't go a day without some fringe element repeating long-discredited slurs against the current occupant of the White House. G. W. Bush polarized and energized the center and left of the political spectrum. Now Barack Obama has the same effect on the members of the right, the further right the more effective.

The latest arises from a now-defunct Facebook page created by the mayor of Arlington, Tennessee. According to Greg Mitchell's reporting, Russell Wiseman promoted the idea that President Obama, a secret Muslim, scheduled his speech from West Point in a deliberate move tp preempt the annual broadcast of "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Apparently, there's something in the Q'uran about beagles, footballs, and security blankets being signs of the infidel.

This latest is a symptom, I think, of the far right's inability to accept the outcome of the elections. After enjoying the reins of political power for years, they became convinced of the inevitability of their point of view. When God and Government are on your side, the only way you can lose power is by subterfuge, some malign scheme by evildoers who, once having toppled the anointed, then move on to sacred cultural icons, like Charlie Brown.

Democrats should not be too quick to dismiss these paranoid ideologues. They exists in a fever of humiliation, one that very well might power them to the polls on 2010. Midterm losses are expected, but a pissed off base could change the balance of power even more than usual.

Google Sidewiki entry by Dean

Nice, concise list of tools & techniques to slim down that signal-to-noise ratio.

in reference to: Screening The News (view on Google Sidewiki)

Pushing the Limits

The government, restrained by the 1st Amendment, may not restrain citizen speech, with certain exceptions. You can't slander anyone, you can't lie under oath, you can't commit fraud against others, and you can't threaten the President.

This may be legal - it is certainly reprehensible.

Polls on Facebook The obama Poll.png by deanbarnett on Aviary

We Need a New Noun - Twitterbation?

Watching Colorado state Senator Dave "If You're a Slut Your Baby Should Die of AIDS" Schultheis' Twitter stream is a revolting amusement; revolting because of his insanely limited intelligence but amusing because of the apparently  sincere followers he allows. (For the record, I have been officially blocked from this elected official's Twitter stream, a prior restraint activity that begs an ACLU intervention.)

Typically, Schultheis' stream consists of retweets, so much so that original contributions by the Senator are so rare as to provoke questions of his ability to compose a sentence. But on occasion a couple of his acolytes produce  bewildering repetitious tweets, like these:
Twitter - Search - Sen_Schultheis.png by deanbarnett on Aviary

So I wonder - should we coin a noun to describe the endless, self-satisfying  repetition of tweets between followers in a Twitter stream? I'm thinking "Twitterbation" might be appropriate (and I DO NOT want to expand this to describe Twitterbation between members of the same gender, as seen above).

Suggestions?