So, You Wanna Vote Republican?

So, you’re worried about your job and money worries keep you up at night? Why, then, do you want to vote Republican? Never mind that working folks voting for Republicans is like mice voting for traps because of the cheese.

The GOP budget would more appropriately be called “wealth care” because the benefits of that budget fall, chiefly, to the wealthiest Americans. Nearly 62% of the cuts under the GOP budget would fall on programs designed to help low income individuals and families…SNAP, Pell Grants, AFDC, Head Start, Medicare, Medicaid, and the list goes on (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities [CBPP], 2012). All this, while 40% of the benefits of the budget go to those earning $1 million a year or more, a staggeringly tiny fraction of the total number of American citizens…less than 1%.

As for jobs, well, much as the GOP has touted the miraculous benefits tax cuts have for economic and job growth, after more than ten years of Bush Era tax cuts we have yet to see any of these ballyhooed benefits. In fact, the US economy was hemorrhaging more than 700,000 jobs each month by the end of the Bush administration. It wasn’t until President Obama pushed through an anemic economic stimulus package, heavier on tax cuts than stimulus money, that we began to see the picture reverse itself. More than 4 million private sector jobs were added as economic stimulus money began to percolate through the economy. The proposed GOP budget, if enacted, will create a drag on job growth to such an extent that nearly 4.1 million jobs will be lost by the end of 2014 (MediaMatters, 2012). This would very nearly eliminate the jobs gains under the Obama administration.

If you work for a living, live paycheck-to-paycheck or are unemployed, if you think the GOP has your back, you’re wrong. The current vision the GOP has for the budget is simply the trickle-down economics of Ronald Reagan and, later, George W. Bush taken to their logical extremes. Trickle-down economics is nothing more than the GOP and the insanely wealthy few backing them collectively pissing on our backs and telling us the warm feeling trickling down between our shoulder blades is “prosperity”.

References

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (2012). Ryan Roundup: Everything You Need to Know About Chairman Ryan’s Budget. Retrieved 08/22/2012, from http://www.offthechartsblog.org/ryan-2/

MediaMatters. (2012). No Matter How Right-Wing Media Spin It, Millions Would Feel “Sharp Effects” Of GOP Budget. Retrieved 08/22/2012, from http://mediamatters.org/research/2012/05/02/no-matter-how-right-wing-media-spin-it-millions/184992

Adventures with Aetna or, "Why Aetna Sucks"

I have been taking Benicar for nearly eight years, with excellent control of my blood pressure. It was covered by Aetna last year. Now, however, I find that it is not covered under this miserable excuse for an insurance plan. Denied for no better reason than I have not tried two other approved medications, losartan and diovan, before being prescribed Benicar, never mind that I had been taking Benicar for years
I was told...by an Aetna representative...that all I needed was for my physician to send in a pre-certification stating I have been taking this medication for years and the prescription for Benicar would...be...approved. I was assured...by an Aetna representative...that the prescription would be approved. Today (February 16th), I found out that the prescription was denied. I was not informed of this by any party, either my physician's office or Aetna.
In the phone calls to Aetna following this revelation, I was told by and Aetna representative that my physician need only submit a pre-certification to Aetna, which his office did…twice. Furthermore I was told, explicitly, by the Aetna representative that the prescription would be approved. In the phone calls that followed, the customer service supervisor denied all culpability on the part of Aetna for the misleading statements to the effect that the medication would be approved with no further ado. Secondly, Aetna, nor any other insurer for that matter, has any business questioning or inserting itself in the decisions regarding treatment options as discussed between a physician and a patient.
I have been taking Benicar for years with no side effects and effective control of my hypertension. Changing medications at this point is unwarranted from a medical standpoint and would require a period of dosage adjustment and titration to effect which could have consequences for my health and well being. But my health and well being are, apparently, of no importance. Aetna’s policy in this matter poses unnecessary burdens on physicians in that Aetna representative state the matter can be resolved by a fifteen minute phone call to Aetna’s pre-certification department. As you may well know, given the volume of patients primary care physicians see on a daily basis and the added burden of meeting the documentation requirements of multiple insurers, this is completely unrealistic. The process seems designed to serve as an impediment to patients seeking redress for these unjustified denials of coverage than to address the patient’s needs.