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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (63319)	5/4/2008 11:56:16 AM
From: JohnM	Respond to of 542210

Here's a short NYTimes story on the Dem win in Louisiana. Looks to me as if part of the story is a deeply flawed Rep candidate. ------------ The New York Times May 4, 2008 Louisiana Democrat Takes House Seat By ADAM NOSSITER NEW ORLEANS — A Democrat took an open Congressional seat long held by Republicans in the conservative district around Baton Rouge in a special election Saturday, giving the party an early boost in its quest for an increased majority in the House of Representatives. Don Cazayoux, a state representative, defeated Woody Jenkins, a small-newspaper publisher and former legislator long associated with religious-right causes in Louisiana, by 49 percent to 46 percent, in a tight race for a seat left open by the retirement of Richard Baker, a Republican. Mr. Cazayoux portrayed himself as little different from Mr. Jenkins on social issues, overcoming the Republicans’ depiction of him as a “liberal” in lock step with figures like the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and Senator Barack Obama, who shared billing with him in a barrage of Republican attack advertisements. The two parties saw the Louisiana race as an important test for the fall, given how safe the district has been for Republicans for more than three decades. Democrats viewed a potential victory as a measure of Republican vulnerability; Republicans saw it as an indication of how difficult it might be to defend more than two dozen open seats in play in November. Mr. Cazayoux, a low-key member of the State House and a former prosecutor, fit the conservative model Democrats deployed successfully in the 2006 elections when they took seats from Republicans. He was close to Mr. Jenkins on social issues like abortion and guns; he spoke approvingly of Senator John McCain; he rarely if ever mentioned the Democratic presidential candidates; and he suggested he would buck his party if the district’s interests seemed to call for it. Mr. Jenkins and the Republicans, on the other hand, sought to tie Mr. Cazayoux to his party’s national standard-bearers at every opportunity, especially Ms. Pelosi. Television advertisements paired Mr. Cazayoux with Mr. Obama, and called him a “liberal” — a description that fit uneasily with Mr. Cazayoux’s voting record in the State House of Representatives. He raised nearly twice as much money as his Republican rival, his fund-raising bolstered by Congressional Democrats eager to take the seat. For two decades, Mr. Jenkins has been one of the state’s best-known — and most polarizing — political figures. He led an effort in the Louisiana Legislature 18 years ago to enact the nation’s toughest anti-abortion laws, which tore the state’s politics apart. He was the Legislature’s most outspoken across-the-board opponent of taxes and government spending. nytimes.com

To: JohnM who wrote (63319)	5/4/2008 4:13:41 PM
From: quehubo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542210

McCain is certainly out of touch on health care. I find most Americans are out of touch with reality as well with respect to health care. Too many think health care is something that the government should be paying for or that their employer should cover so that they dont have to make any changes in their lifestyle. Do you have cable TV? Cell phones, dinner out quite a bit? My older son graduated college and we went over this quite carefully. Whats the difference between health insurance and a medical plan. I For $55 a month he has a $5,000 deductible and a $1,000,000 maximum coverage. He still cant appreciate that he has to pay for any visit more or less until he has over $5K in expenses. But what about a care wreck? Fall off of a bicycle? Appendicitis. So now when the government steps in with universal health care you get the same problem, people dont even expect to have to pay the first few grand a year for basic coverage. If you give zero deductible you wont get an appointment for a year, no doubt. People need to learn that smoking and being fat is going to lower your standard of living. I vote for a big "sin tax" on cigarettes, fast food and snack foods.

To: JohnM who wrote (63319)	5/4/2008 9:32:18 PM
From: Cogito	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 542210

>>Even the Insured Feel the Strain of Health Costs<< John - Good article. I can attest to the truth of that headline. I have been getting some very nasty medical bills. One particularly nasty one just came in a month ago, for radiation therapy I received during my first bout with cancer, in the fall of 2006. Don't ask me why they waited so long to send it to me. The bill was for almost $10,000. I contacted the medical group in question, and told them that the bill should have been submitted to the insurance company I was covered by at the time. They went ahead and submitted it. On Friday, I got a statement showing that my insurance company had paid a bit less than 3/4 of the bill, leaving me on the hook for about $2,600. I called the insurance company and pointed out that I had met my out-of-pocket maximums for that year. They said, yes, but the amount billed in this case was above the "customary" amount that they allow for such services, so the balance was still mine to pay. Kind of a nasty shock at this point. And it turns out that a lot of the bills that are coming in for my current and recent treatments are above the allowed amounts, so I'm going to be expected to pay those excess amounts, too, even though I've already met my out-of-pocket max for this year. I will negotiate with the providers and see what I can work out. If I'm lucky, I will not be forced to declare bankruptcy this year. - Allen