Recently in Health care Category

So now the health care reform plan that passed in the House on Saturday goes to the Senate. How painful will that process be? Hmmmmm....

The folks on the news desk forwarded me an e-mail today from a local resident. He raises a pretty interesting point.

I recently interviewed local Congressman Todd Platts, who told me he disapproves of the people shouting about proposed health care changes at public meetings, and he believes differences of opinion on the issue should be voiced in a "mannerly, respectful way."

Yet Platts, like his fellow Republicans, voted against a House resolution rebuking U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson for his now famous (infamous?) shout of "You lie!" during President Obama's address on health care.

Yeah, you could argue that it's contradictory. But I'm willing to cut Platts some slack on this one.

To use an analogy, I could honestly say that I disapprove of a colleague's snide comment to another co-worker during an office meeting. Yet I could still believe the colleague who made the comment doesn't deserve an official letter of reprimand from the boss -- particularly if he already apologized, as Wilson has done repeatedly.

So what do you think? Am I being too lenient? Feel free to weigh in with comments.

Journalistic smartasses like my colleagues and me have been having a lot of fun with a recent editorial in the Investors Business Daily to the effect that Obama's health care plan would create a big system of state-run eugenics.

It uses the United Kingdom's health care system as a cautionary example, statiing:
"People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless."

The joke, of course, is that Hawking is a lifelong resident of the U.K.

When discussing this with colleagues, I speculated that the editorial writer might react to that news by saying "What? But he doesn't have an accent!"

Man, I crack myself up!

OK, let's see if this works.

For a long time, I've wanted to post brief interviews with area lawmakers on here. This is one with state Rep. Eugene DePasquale from earlier today. It concerns some health insurance legislation that looks like it's about to be become law, and could have a big impact on younger people without insurance.