February 28, 2006
Great moments in overregulated health care

I just caught a bit of the House floor debate on TVW and heard Rep. Judy Clibborn (D-Mercer Island) speak in support of SB 6391 "Concerning the provision of services for nonresident individuals residing in long-term care settings", the essence of which is:

A [Continuing Care Retirement Community] may provide supportive services to a nonresident living in the independent senior housing setting in an effort to promote and prolong independence. The supportive services are enumerated within the bill and include: (1) blood pressure monitoring following a medication change; (2) blood glucose monitoring; and (3) assistance with compression stocking.
The bill sounds perfectly reasonable and it passed 97 - 0. I'm writing this only to marvel at the fact that health care is so microregulated that such a bill would be needed in the first place.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at February 28, 2006 03:29 PM | Email This
Comments
1. Stefan, Stefan....

This (slamming micromanagement) from the guy who personally wants to know when each and every poll worker wants to fart!

The differences in micromanagement in the health care industry versus the election industry is the actual need; the real abuses; and the better (and more fact-based) lobbyists.


I think you're just jealous of their success, and your miserable failures

Posted by: rossi too on February 28, 2006 03:58 PM
2. Did somebody just fart in here?

Posted by: huckleberry on February 28, 2006 05:20 PM
3. What politician in their right mind would ever want to vote against a proposal to help sick, old foreigners in this country?

What politician in their right mind would ever want to bring such a proposal to a vote?

Posted by: huckleberry on February 28, 2006 05:22 PM
4. a few years back a study of hospital costs estimated that around 35% of the fees are government and lawyer driven ... I'm sure it is higher now.

Posted by: Lew on February 28, 2006 05:27 PM
5. Canadians are finding out how wonderful health care is when it is run by the government.

Health care in Canada is in a quality free fall; will we be so stupid as to repeat their utter disaster here?

Dont answer that...........97-0 think WE are so much smarter that WE (ie Olympia) can accomplish what has never been accomplished in the history of the world: an efficiently run government social program.

Beyond idoits......

Posted by: THS on February 28, 2006 06:39 PM
6. Hey rossi too,

you're hot pockets are ready...off you go.

Posted by: Danny on February 28, 2006 07:36 PM
7. Yeh Rossi Too

How about you start a blog, and when you have your blog up and running, and you get a cause like Bush hating or Gregoire Loving or Ballot stuffing that you feel real passionate about, you let us know!

Until then PHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Posted by: GS on February 28, 2006 08:38 PM
8. Does that mean they hire a couple hundred more government employees to run this new program. More money into the democratic pockets via the unions.

Posted by: David Anfinrud on February 28, 2006 08:40 PM
9. The Uniform Medical Plan is so good we can't even use it for emergency room visits at St. Peters Hospital here in Olympia anymore. I guess we'll have to drive to Tacoma from Olympia if we have an emergency.

But the Queen just brokered the best deal for all of us. Oh I feel good, don't you all feel good?

Posted by: SP Fan on February 28, 2006 09:35 PM
10. This bill sounds silly, but in today's litigous environment very necessary. My question would be how many of these nonresidents are here illegally. I was at a hospital clinic downtown when a lady in a wheelchair was yelling at the doctor for sending her home instead of admiting her and that she was going to sue, etc, etc. After she paused to take a breath the doctor looked her square in the eye and told her since she had no insurance and was not a legal alien, she was only entitled to care that would stabilize her condition. The doctor went on to say if madam desired more treatment, then she had to either pay or go to Harborview. At this point security guards arrived to escort Ms. Entitlement out the door. I wouldn't be surprised if her next step was to find an attorney to sue the hospital clinic. I would be more impressed with the Demotards in Olympia if they did something to stop the cash flow into the attorneys' pockets. Oops, silly me!! We can't ask them to annoy one of their biggest donor groups now, can we?

Posted by: Burdabee on February 28, 2006 11:11 PM
11. Dad, there you go again!! I keep telling you to stay on the meds. And please get our name spelling right. I copied it from your original post. You have changed our name.

And for you others, Dad has a blog, but of course, he doesn't want you to know about it.

Posted by: roosi trey on March 1, 2006 09:21 AM
12. Wow, which is more amazing, how wrong Mr. Sharansky was in his initial post or how quickly the right here becomes xenophobic and racist. This bill has nothing to do with micromanagement nor does it have anything to do with non-citizens of any kind.

Nonresident in this bill means you are not a resident of a community care facility (i.e. assisted living facility, old folks home, call it what you will). See Sec. 1 (10).

What the bill does is allow community care facilities to use state money to go out to seniors who are still independent but need very basic level of medical care. Before you would only be able to use the state money for this if the person moved in to the retirement home.

In other words, we are allowing state money to be used while allowing seniors to stay independent. This has nothing to do with micromanagement; it is simply broadening how funds can be used.

As is usual, Mr. Sharansky has proved he doesn’t know anything about the law, and can not read a bill or a statute (or the constitution for that matter, see his discussion of eminent domain). And then people here piled on without even trying to read the legislation.

Once again, if Mr Sharansky is so wrong on this topic and anything else concerning the law, makes you wonder what else he is so clearly wrong about.

Posted by: JDB on March 1, 2006 09:31 AM
13. JDB,

If Stefan is wrong on this topic, I'm sure he'll admit it. If you're so knowledgeable about THE LAW, where's your outrage over the numerous times that Dean Logan and his band of happy voters have been proven ignoring THE LAW and the constitution?

I guess you're only interested in seeing things YOUR
way. What else can you be wrong about?

Posted by: dan on March 1, 2006 10:02 AM
14. There is a crisis in the long term care system- too many regulations and jacked up prices because of it.

The legislature would rather spend money on sports stadiums than address just the traditional level of spending.

Posted by: swatter on March 1, 2006 10:37 AM
15. Dan:

Well, if Mr. Sharansky cared about the truth, you would think he would, but check out this thread:

http://www.soundpolitics.com/archives/005756.html#005756

Nope, no retraction, even though he was clearly wrong.

But that is because Mr. Sharansky cares more about propaganda than the truth.

And these are just two examples. Go look at most of his coverage of the re-count and the elections trial and you will find tons more. Mr. Sharansky does not know the law, does not care about it, and

Posted by: JDB on March 1, 2006 11:41 AM
16. (continued)

almost always wrong when he writes about it. But he sure makes pretty political points.

Just makes you wonder how many other things he is wrong about, doesn't it.

Posted by: JDB on March 1, 2006 11:44 AM
17. No.

Posted by: dan on March 1, 2006 11:56 AM
18. JDB - I don't see why you are so upset with Stefan about this particular topic. He specifically stated, "The bill sounds perfectly reasonable and it passed 97 - 0. I'm writing this only to marvel at the fact that health care is so microregulated that such a bill would be needed in the first place.

It's true, the engrossed substitute bill is less specific (probably meaning that more services could be provided than the original bill) about the services allowed to be performed for "boarding home non-residents", but Stefan never claimed to read the bill, he said he watched some of the debate. The debate is where he formed his statement of microregulation.

Healthcare IS microregulated. This microregulation requires acres and acres of trees and administrators which is an overhead cost that does not produce improved healthcare, it only takes dollars away from the actual care.

In the bill, it wasn't clear to me how the non-residents additional assistance was to be paid. Are they already on a State program?

You stated, "What the bill does is allow community care facilities to use state money to go out to seniors who are still independent but need very basic level of medical care. Before you would only be able to use the state money for this if the person moved in to the retirement home.". The fiscal note on the bill says there is no fiscal impact. If these centers can use "state dollars", are they taking it away from "residents"?

Posted by: SouthernRoots on March 1, 2006 01:51 PM
19. JDB,

Your attempts to "embarrass" Stefan are self conscious and silly.
Go ride a bus.

Posted by: Amused by liberals on March 3, 2006 02:04 PM