PodCamp Pittsburgh 4 – The Social Media UnConference Returns

Health Care Reform – Managing the Real Cost of Living

(updated below)

Fifteen years ago, Harry and Louise sat at their kitchen table and worried about the possibility of a national health care plan. "They choose, and we lose," was the theme of their widely-viewed political advertisement. By 2008, the now middle-aged couple acknowledged that "Whoever the next president is, health care should be at the top of his agenda."

CEOs Urge Reform – Health Care Costs “A Significant Competitive Disadvantage in the Global Marketplace”

Reuters news service reported on a Business Roundtable study released this month:

U.S. business leaders urged lawmakers on Thursday to act quickly on healthcare reform, saying American companies were losing out to other countries with cheaper healthcare and healthier workers. […]

Ivan Seidenberg, chairman and chief executive of Verizon Communications, said an overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system 'should have been done yesterday'.

Quoting from the study summary (PDF):

According to the Business Roundtable Health Care Value Comparability Study, a new measure of the “value” (cost and performance) of the U.S. health care system relative to our competitors’ systems on a weighted scale, the workers and employers of the United States face a 23 percent “value gap” relative to five leading economic competitors – Canada, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and France (the “G-5 group”) – and a 46 percent “value gap” compared with emerging competitors Brazil, India and China (“the BIC group”).

Media Ignores Single-Payer Option

A study by the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) concluded that:

Major newspaper, broadcast and cable stories mentioning healthcare reform in the week leading up to President Barack Obama's March 5 healthcare summit rarely mentioned the idea of a single-payer national health insurance program … advocates of such a system – two of whom participated in yesterday's summit – were almost entirely shut out. (03-06-09)

What is Single-Payer?

The publicly funded organization Single Payer Central supplies a succinct definition:

Single payer health insurance is a system by which the health care expenditures of an entire population are paid for through one source.

Distinctly different from socialized medicine (where the government owns and operates health care facilities) a “single payer system” is simply a financing mechanism. The government collects and allocates money for health care but has little to no involvement in the actual delivery of services. Care is provided privately at hospitals and clinics but paid for publicly.

Who Wants It?

Recent polls have established that substantial health care reform is a high priority for the majority of Americans. When asked, most favor the single-payer option.

In June of 2008, the U.S. Conference of Mayors resolved to back single-payer health insurance.

An Indiana University School of Medicine's Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research survey found that a majority of American physicians support national health insurance. Roger Bybee explains why.

The cost of health care insurance administration is a significant portion of the fee paid for a doctor's office visit. A family practice physician recorded a typical day at his office to show the resources devoted to dealing with “an insidious bureaucratic monster, the health care insurance system."

Physicians For A National Health Program (PNHP) predicts that a single-payer system “would eliminate the wasteful spending and high administrative costs of private insurance, saving almost $400 billion annually."

Single-payer advocate Dr. Oliver Fein chronicled his first-hand experience at the White House Health Care Summit.

KDKA radio host Chris Moore interviewed Russell Mokhiber, an organizer of the activist group, Single Payer Action. Mr. Mokhiber talked about mobilizing support for H.R. 676, The United States National Health Insurance Act. You can listen to a podcast of their conversation.

Despite widespread support, single-payer faces formidable opposition from the health care insurance industry. According to Consumer Reports, “In 2006, the nation's six biggest private health insurers collectively earned almost $11 billion in profits." But, there are indications that health insurers might not have as many business allies as in 1993. John F. Wasik of Bloomberg News comments that there is "No Reason to Demonize U.S. Single-Payer."

Our confidence in American financial institutions has diminished. The only thing they've earned recently is outrage. The health insurance industry is in danger of catching the spillover of that anger. President Obama and Congress might want to consider that as they negotiate a solution to the real cost of living.


Update: On Tuesday, March 31, the PBS program FRONTLINE presents “Sick Around America,” a report on the failures of the American health care system. From the PBS Pressroom:

As President Obama launches his plan for reforming healthcare, Kaiser Family Foundation president Drew Altman tells FRONTLINE, “This is the first big opportunity for health reform since ... [the] early 1990s. And a question is again, pointedly, whether we will blow the opportunity again this time or [whether] we will actually get it all done or get something significant done.” Consultant Laszewski wonders if Americans have the will to make it happen. “Every doctor I meet says he’s underpaid. I’ve yet to meet a hospital executive who thinks he or she can operate on less. I have yet to meet a patient who is willing to sacrifice care. So we have this $2.2 trillion system, and I haven’t met anybody in any of the stakeholders that’s willing to take less. And until we’re willing to have that conversation, we’re just sort of nibbling around the edges.”

FRONTLINE airs from 9:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. EDT. View a preview of “Sick Around America.”

The AIG Bonuses – Outrage on Sale

Are you a righteous citizen upset about the $165 million in bonuses paid to employees of bailout recipient AIG? How dare they pass out your tax dollars to those unworthy scoundrels! Have you called the White House or petitioned your member of Congress?

Either way, you might want to note the $12 billion in shrink-wrapped $100 bills that vanished in Iraq, or better yet, the projected $3 trillion cost for the removal of Saddam Hussein. Don't sell your outrage cheap.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Tony Norman expressed his thoughts on the subject.

Edited 03-18-09 at 11:30 pm.

America's Day of Reckoning Has Arrived

“The State of Our Economy is a Concern that Rises Above All Others”

U.S. Presidents usually give a major speech before a joint session of Congress when they have served for a year. President Barack Obama could not wait that long. He spoke on Tuesday night because America needed a stopper. He accomplished that, and provided an outline for the future.

President Obama delivered a serious, ambitious speech. It was realistic, pointing out past mistakes and emphasizing responsibility and accountability. It was holistic, calling for new energy, health care and education initiatives to address our cultural and economic deficiencies and foster sustainable prosperity.

The President did what a new leader needs to do in a complex, deteriorating situation – he bought some time. He gave us the big picture; now we need the details. It is crucial that a solid plan for the banking system be forthcoming.

Republican Response Recycles Vaporware

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal gave the opposition party's response. It was, in a word, weak. Gov. Jindal offered little guidance and less vision, essentially saying to Americans: Folks, we'll lower your taxes and you're on your own. Evidently, the Republican plan is no plan.

Read the full text of President Obama's speech at the Washington Post.

Examining a Failure to Communicate

Dow Dives – Was Confidence Subverted by Cable News?

Last Thursday, Ron Morris, Director of Entrepreneurial Studies at Duquesne University, and founder of Pittsburgh Business Radio, interviewed professors Conway Lackman and Bill Carlson about the state of the mortgage industry, the economy, and the economic stimulus plan. It was an informative and entertaining conversation that ended too soon. For me, the most revealing comment was made off-air as the professors were leaving. How do I know that? Ron Morris believed it was interesting enough to delay his next guests while he told the story. Here are the highlights:

I've been teaching down there now for about eight years … I run into Bill or Conway and I have never not had a fascinating conversation with them. … I just want to tell you something they said on the way out the door. … I said Conway, why is it – cause the market just closed at the lowest point since October of 2002, and I said, Conway, why is that? And he said, Ron, somebody's not explaining this thing right, 'cause, he said, it's not a bad economic stimulus plan. He said it's pretty good. It must be in the communication because I think it's good. […]

Morris' faculty biography describes him as a "knowledge philanthropist." He speaks with a candor that engenders trust. Ron closed the story with a solid endorsement of the functional knowledge of his two colleagues:

Conway Lackman and Bill Carlson, over the 8 years I've been at Duquesne, have made me more money than any other individuals I've met in my entire life. … They tell me things, and I listen and then I do things based on one of the things they tell me.

If you're willing to accept that the economic stimulus plan is "pretty good," but it's not being explained right – well, how can that be? President Obama has clearly demonstrated his ability to communicate. Think Progress might have the answer. They calculated that in a sample period during the stimulus debate, Republicans appeared on cable news shows nearly twice as often as Democrats. Only five percent of the guests were economists.

The full 43 minute interview with Lackman and Carlson is available as an MP3. You can hear the quoted remarks in the first three minutes of the next hour's program.

House Committee Grills Bankers

As the House and Senate agreed to a $789 billion stimulus package on Wednesday, the CEOs of 8 major banks were testifying before the House Financial Services Committee. Addressing the bankers, and it seems, everyone else in the room, Chairman Barney Frank said, "There's a lot of anger in the country, much of it justified."

Committee members questioned, castigated and berated the bank executives. Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA) made it clear that "America doesn't trust you anymore."


Thanks to TPMtv

Nor do Americans trust Congress to right the economy. A Rasmussen poll released Wednesday says that 67 percent of voters "have more confidence in their own judgment than they do in the average member of Congress." Fifty-eight percent agreed that "no matter how bad things are, Congress can always find a way to make them worse."

One hundred percent of them better hope that they are wrong.

Pennsylvania Democrats Double Registration Edge

Republicans Repulsed by Bush Policy Extremes

On Saturday, James O'Toole reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Democrats have more than doubled their registration edge over Republicans in Pennsylvania over the last 2 years. The Democratic Party lead jumped from 550,00 registered voters in 2006 to 1.2 million in November of 2008.

Mr. O'Toole cites a survey by Muhlenberg College's Institute of Public Opinion for an explanation of the massive move. A long-term “reaction against Republican policies" was a major factor. Quoting from the Post-Gazette:

They also were more likely to characterize their decision to leave the GOP as the result of changes in the party's positions, rather than changes in their own political views -- 37 percent to 21 percent. By a wide margin, 67 percent, the respondents cited former President Bush as a "very important" catalyst for their decision to leave the party. Fifty-four percent cited the Iraq war. When asked to agree or disagree with a series of statements about the GOP, 53 percent said the party had "become too extreme in its positions."

With Gov. Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh as the titular leaders of the Republican faithful, I expect many of those defectors will not return to the GOP in the foreseeable future.

The complete Muhlenberg College survey is available for download as a PDF or DOC.

Harry Markopolos – American Antidote

Madoff Scheme Could Have Been Stopped Much Earlier

Viewers of the peerless television series, The Wire, saw a complex, multi-layered, dramatic chronicle of the failures of American institutions. David Simon and his fellow writers dissected drug law enforcement, the blue-collar middle class, political reform, public education and the news business. I don't know if Harry Markopolos is a fan of The Wire, but his dissection, actually, his evisceration of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at a U.S. House Subcommittee hearing Wednesday was as riveting as reality television gets. Thanks to Harry, you can add the SEC to the growing list of failed government institutions.

Markopolos, a former investment manager turned independent financial fraud investigator and analyst, spent nearly nine years trying to convince the SEC that Bernard Madoff was using a Ponzi scheme to steal money from investors. Madoff has allegedly admitted to what Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA), Chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, called "the largest known instance of securities fraud."

According to Mr. Markopolos, the SEC lacked the auditing skills to comprehend the evidence he repeatedly presented to them. It took Markopolos less than five minutes with Madoff's numbers to become suspicious, and a few hours for him to confirm that Bernard Madoff was a bad boy. That was nearly a decade ago, long before investor's losses reached $50 billion. Here is a portion of his opening statement:



A few of the points Harry Markopolos made in his testimony:

• Money from illegal operations makes up 5% of worldwide currency. Based on conversations with overseas investors, 20% of the investments in Madoff's funds were organized crime, Russian mob, and Latin American drug money.
• FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) is corrupt – it protects corporations.
• NASD (National Association of Securities Dealers) is RICO (Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act).
• Ethics is a higher standard than the law.
• Individual investors had no way to understand what Madoff was doing with their money, but the feeder funds that channeled capital to him were too greedy to acknowledge obvious red flags.
• Eliminate the SEC – zero them out of the budget and instead, provide lucrative incentives for whistle blowers who report financial misconduct.

The real money quote came near the end. Responding to a query from Rep. Kanjorski, Mr. Markopolos said: "I'm suggesting that, if you flew the entire SEC staff to Boston, sat them in Fenway Park for an afternoon, that they would not be able to find first base."

SEC Panel Strikes Out

The next panel to testify was made up of department heads from the SEC and FINRA. If anyone expected them to vigorously defend themselves, or shed some light on what went wrong, they were mistaken. The department heads were evasive, hiding behind ongoing investigations, and filling committee member's 5 minute question period with redundant ramblings. Committee Vice Chair Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), whose district was hit hard by Madoff's scheme, expressed outrage:



It's encouraging to see the House of Representatives attempting to take its role seriously after sleeping through the warning signs of the financial collapse. Time will tell if they are up to the task. The SEC, regardless of its level of competence, analyzes, investigates and enforces regulations and laws enacted by Congress.

Harry Markopolos is scheduled to meet with SEC Inspector General David Kotz on Thursday. Markopolos is expected to turn over evidence of other fraudulent dealings.

Video of the Wednesday hearing is available on C-Span's site.

Less Views For Fox News?

Shortly after the presidential election, I noted that "In recent months, acquaintances my age, many of whom rarely spoke about politics, were saying that they hadn't contributed to a candidate before, but … , or they never volunteered for a campaign before, but … . One qualifier was a version of the same perception; the country is headed in the wrong direction, or worse – because of Bush, America is headed into decline."

If that outlook motivated people who had no history of political involvement, what would you expect of someone who has been aware and active for years? Take, for example, the tale of someone who goes by the pseudonym blue collar doc.


I Know It When I See It

Last week, blue collar doc objected to seeing Fox News playing on the television in his dentist's waiting room. In polite society, such an offense might generate a snicker, or a shrug of resignation. In this case, politeness met commitment. The result unfolds in an open letter to the dentist:

I have been utilizing your services for the past four years, and have been completely satisfied. Unfortunately, when I came in for a cleaning yesterday, I was quite distressed to be subjected to political propaganda. The Fox Propaganda Network was on the TV in your waiting room. In my opinion, there is no place for this type of programming in a place of business; frankly, pornography would not have any more objectionable.

[ … ]

This network validates the most destructive xenophobic instincts in our society, and for me to overlook transgressions of this type would be a violation of my most basic principles. In addition, businesses who subject their patrons to this trash must be informed that not all approve. While I hold no personal animosity toward you or your staff, I have no choice but to seek dental services elsewhere.

That's the end of the letter, but is it the end of the story? Many trusted news outlets shirked their responsibility by being compliant with the Bush administration. Fox News slithered past compliance and embraced advocacy. Their pretense of “Fair and Balanced" was dismantled by Al Franken (and his 14 Harvard Kennedy School of Government graduate-assistants) in the book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Franken's graphic representation of a Fox News former evening program is a concise distillation of the truth about the network. The show pitted a demagogic neoconservative ideologue against a tepid liberal. Its name was typeset as Hannity & colmes.


Who Do You Trust?

Fact-checking on the web and in newspapers was prominent in the 2008 presidential election, but a recent Pew poll found that 70% of people rely on television for national and international news. A Zogby poll taken since the election identified Fox News as the most trusted television news source, topping CNN and MSNBC combined. However, the most significant finding is that the web, with access to news sources all over the world, beats every other medium for trustworthiness.

If you value trust and good judgment as much as I (and our protagonist) do, a dentist's preference for Fox News is a valid reason to move on, but as veteran Democratic Party campaign strategist Joe Trippi said in October of 2008, Barack Obama marks the end of the television presidency.

Images of the Inauguration

The inauguration of President Barack Obama was prominent on the front page of newspapers from Anchorage, Alaska to the South China Sea. Ben Wikler's montage celebrates the event.

If you want to see more than the television networks' pool video of the historic day, I recommend the Boston Globe's Big Picture page, and the amazing 1,474 megapixel gigapan image captured by David Bergman. For the best viewing experience, click on his full screen link.

Wikler's page and the Big Picture will take a while to load if you don't have a broadband connection.

Update, 1-24-09 at 2:05 AM: AXcess News reports that London-based IHS Jane's has analyzed satellite imagery of the inauguration and estimates that between 1.031 million and 1.411 million people were present.

They Were Careless People

My attempts to characterize the expansive damage left by the Bush administration have yielded either painfully long lists or profane rants. In either case, the results were too tedious to post. The inauguration is just hours away, and I can't sleep until I declare something to close this era of arrogant failures. I found an appropriate metaphor at the Booman Tribune, quoting from F. Scott Fitzgerald:

I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. . . .

I shook hands with him; it seemed silly not to, for I felt suddenly as though I were talking to a child. Then he went into the jewelry store to buy a pearl necklace—or perhaps only a pair of cuff buttons—rid of my provincial squeamishness forever.

– Nick Carraway, referring to Tom and Daisy Buchanan at the end of The Great Gatsby

Of course, Tom and Daisy would be George and Dick, or Don, or Karl, or Alberto, or many others. Thank you, Booman.
Edited 1-20-09 at 9:45 am

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

It’s been a long
A long time coming, but I know oh-oo-oh
A change is gonna come
Oh yes it will.

A Change is Gonna Come – Sam Cooke

Credit: Brandan313 on Dailymotion, Thanks to Ta-Nehisi Coates

Waterboarding is Torture

Waterboarding is Torture. The Power of a Simple Declarative Sentence

Attorney General nominee Eric Holder was questioned by the Senate Judiciary Committee at his confirmation hearing on Thursday. Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy asked Holder if he agreed that waterboarding was torture and illegal. The Attorney General-designate replied:

If you look at the history of the use of that technique, used by the Khmer Rouge, used in the Inquisition, used by the Japanese and prosecuted by us as war crimes. We prosecuted our own soldiers for using it in Vietnam. I agree with you, Mr. Chairman, waterboarding is torture.

This past Sunday, President-elect Barack Obama stated his view on waterboarding in this answer to a question from George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week:

For example, Vice President Cheney, I think, continues to defend what he calls extraordinary measures or procedures when it comes to interrogations, and from my view waterboarding is torture. I have said that under my administration we will not torture.

Alberto Gonzales, Michael Mukasey:
May I Have Your Attention?

(Thanks to Think Progress)

An Open Note to Mr. Gonzales, Mr. Mukasey, and Everyone Who Supported or Enabled Them:

President-elect Obama and Attorney General-designate Holder are not promulgating a new legal precedent classifying waterboarding as torture. Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Mukasey, you were wrong; your circumstantial legal relativism contradicts the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. Constitution. The rule of law is not to be interpreted at your personal or political convenience.

Mr. Gonzales, your tenure as Attorney General was a failure and a disgrace. Mr. Mukasey, your choice to look the other way is reprehensible.


Torture – Ending The Ugly Reality Will Require Accountability

For nearly 8 years, propaganda, guile, and self-serving amnesia obscured an ugly reality. Most of Congress suspended critical thought and ignored its oversight responsibilities until 2006. Even then, the Democratic leadership tempered accountability with political expediency. The damage done won't repair itself. It will take a lawful reckoning to restore the rule of law and move us forward. Recently, on the presidential transition website, Change.gov, the question submitted most often was, “Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor (ideally Patrick Fitzgerald) to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?"

A George W. Bush for President 2000 campaign brochure opens with these words:

I’m running for President because I want to help usher in the responsibility era, where people understand they are responsible for the choice they make and are held accountable for their actions.

It would be fitting and just that his administration ends with nothing less.

Edited 1-16-09 at 11:00 pm