election 2008: health care

i chose an issue near and dear to my heart to be the first in my election 2008 series. despite being in the trenches of the health care battlefield, i'm by no means an expert in health care policy. my attitudes towards socialized medicine sometimes change by the day, depending on the kind of day that i'm having. when i see a system struggling to keep afloat, and grow more skeptical by the day that anything can save it, it's hard for me to align with any philosophy on reform.

bookkeeping item: all information in this series about the candidates' plans and positions will come from their websites or links that they themselves provide. a few additional links may be placed just for fun or clarification. additionally, since i'm now finding these will be long posts, i'll going to do one candidate's position at a time, alternating who goes first. today, it's mccain.

mccain gives a somewhat brief outline on his health care policy, expanded upon in this speech from april. his plan to help uninsured americans involves a direct tax credit for those who either opt out of their employer's health plan or who are self-employed. he claims there will be no repercussions for those with pre-existing conditions, yet his policy abides by the HIPAA rule stating, as mccain puts it, that "if you remain employed and insured you will build protection against the cost of treating any pre-existing condition." many americans who will be using his plan will have a period where they will be either unemployed or uninsured, thus exposing them to cost liability.

he also proposes a "guaranteed access plan" for those who are the worst of the worst- people with illness who can't get coverage. it establishes a guideline system for states to provide the services with some federal support- basically, a "best of" medicaid system, taking advice and policies from states where things are working well.

to cut health care costs, he and obama both propose supporting disease management programs, with mccain pledging research dollars towards primary care, and they both pledge support of electronic medical record systems. sounds nice. mccain also plans to support "walk-in clinics in retail outlets". (ouch- that's hitting below the belt for a primary care guy like me.) lastly, he supports tort reform for medical malpractice, specifically pledging to eliminate suits against doctors who follow guidelines and "best practice" plans. how he'll do that, he doesn't say.

overall, nothing truly groundbreaking. mostly status quo, with the republican carrot of tax credits dangled as the bait for his plan. the plan moves almost all responsibility away from the federal government (a point mccain seems to celebrate in the speech above), either delegating to the states, the individuals, or the private sector. good? i'm not sure. but leaves him as president with little to blame if things don't go well.

tomorrow, obama, and my overall assessment of the issue.

21st century digital boy

everyone's favorite futurist, uncle googs, has decided to go back to the future and take blogging to another level. his eponymously titled endeavor can be found at googs.tumblr.com (and of course now on the finkipedia faves list to the right).

tumblogs are the next generation of blogs, evolving from traditional blogs and sites like twitter. consider it a place for quick anecdotes, links to the news of the day and to sites that all the cool kids are checking out. sorry, despite his title- no lottery numbers.

back in the saddle again

just returned from my quick trip out to seattle. met up with the rest of the clan for a short but fun-filled trip. kids were waiting for me at the airport, which was exciting for them and me both.

did the usual seattle fun things like walking around the market, riding ferries, going to REI. mostly enjoyed just reuniting with the kids and erin again.

miserable travel experience coming home- flew from seattle to philly via chicago, but storms in the east wed night caused my chicago-philly flight to be cancelled (along with many other east-bound flights). wound up spending the night with friends (which worked out great- watched fireworks from the top of the hancock!), then battled with united reps on the phone to try and get out of chicago at a reasonable hour on thurs. wound up getting back to philly via richmond, and finally home late yesterday.

pics and more stories soon.

my 3 songs, this day in history edition

some day i'll get the muxtape version up, but for now, it's the old fashioned way. this one requires a little lyrical knowledge, or just take the wikipedia shortcut...

• dada, "dizz knee land"
• billy joel, "we didn't start the fire"
• sly fox, "let's go all the way"
  

new look

finally got around to making some changes. layout and background color were the things most suggested for change. had a hard time trying to change the layout, so to make the posts stand out more from each other, i tried to darken the headers a little bit. i think the gray scale is easier on the eye, don't you? added the picture at the top to provide a little color- it's from our trip to yosemite in the spring of 2000. someday, i may try to learn some html code and customize the site even more.

you also notice a new link on the right under the heading "dj phyngck" (get it?). muxtape.com is a site to which mp3's can be uploaded to create your own mix tape to share, just like back in high school. most of my digital music is mp4 and m4p, which are currently not supported by muxtape. so, finkipedia.muxtape.com is the best i could do with the limited selection i had in mp3 format. i think it turned out pretty good. (hopefully, if muxtape is able to support other formats in the future, i'll be able to use it to set up muxtapes to provide audio support to my "my 3 songs" posts. that'll make things a lot more fun for you and me both.)

hey chicago, what do you say?

finally recovered from a weekend jaunt to chicago, highlighted by a trip to one of baseball's most hallowed grounds, wrigley field. as a baseball fan, it was a pilgrimage that needed to be made, and no better time than this year when the cubs are hot. what an event. sat in the bleachers, which was practically like going to a frat party with a baseball game in the background. cubs scored early and often, gave up the lead, then won in extra innings. electric atmosphere. after the game, we drifted on over to one of the many local establishments right outside of the stadium, then made our way around the city on what turned out to be a beautiful night weatherwise.
(photo above is from my cell- if you've got good eyes and a good monitor, you may be able to make out the name on the readerboard at the bottom, one of chicago's favorite sons who threw out the first pitch and was the official leader of "take me out to the ballgame")

took forever to get home on sunday thanks to weather delays in the philly region (actually had to land in pittsburgh to refuel because we were circling philly for so long). dragged thru most of yesterday, but am finally back up to full steam. good thing, because only a few more days until i'm off again, this time to seattle to reconnect with my long lost family!

alone again, naturally

i'm now 2 weeks into the bachelor summer, and i'm getting nowhere near the productivity i thought i would out of the alone time. part of that is because my holiday weekend was much busier than i thought (i was on call and spent long days at the hospital each day). but it's also because a quiet house just breeds laziness.

i've never lived alone for this long- with the exception of a few month-long stints in a hotel room while doing military stuff, i've lived either with family or roommates my entire life. i can see now how most bachelors keep simple (and frequently messy) living spaces. there's just no motivation to do anything when you're by yourself.

i'm going to have to some how find my way out of the black hole that my couch has become and get on with the list of things i'd like to get done. the noisy house will return before i know it, and while it may not breed laziness, it breeds disinterest in tasks so as to enjoy the noise.