WikiLeaks and a fragile community - David Brooks NYT Opinion

Consider the effect computers have had on the insurance industry, and consequentially, on all of the risks (health, life, fire, accident, loss) funded by the insurance industry.  Prior to computers, the historical price for an insurance provider to cover a beneficiary was the product of static market conditions.  Insurance is a financial service product based on knowledge of risk, and the knowledge of various risks to beneficiaries had been stable for many years.  With the advent of computerization, beneficiaries and risk could be correlated in the machine so that insurers could now choose which beneficiaries were least likely to cost them benefits.  Computer correlation of beneficiary data fundamentally shifted the bargaining power between insurers and beneficiaries, and as we can see with health insurance, the consequences to this radical shift are still playing out in a myriad of market and government reactions. (more…)

I see where community organizers are fanning out into the inner cities, setting up offices and combing social networking sites like Facebook to enroll children in SCHIP and adults in MEDICAID before these citizens turn into federal criminals in 2014 for lack of health insurance.  Of course, doctors can’t afford to serve MEDICAID and SCHIP patients because reimbursement rates are low and claim denials are high, but the important thing is to keep those community organizers employed between election cycles.  One wonders just who are these people who can afford the time and means to engage in social networking while also meeting the means test for MEDICAID and SCHIP eligibility.

TIMES SQUARE ATTACK RESPONSE:  NONE DARE CALL IT THINKING

On May 1, 2010, when news of the Times Square terrorist attack first broke, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, on national television, as to who might have done it, “If I had to guess 25 cents, this would be exactly that, somebody who’s homegrown, maybe a mentally deranged person or someone with a political agenda that doesn’t like the health care bill or something . . . .”  Bloomberg was not alone.  U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano declared that there was no evidence that the attack was “anything other than a one-off,” a British expression for “one of a kind.”  At least the country was spared President Obama telling Americans that they should not “jump to conclusions,” as he did after the Fort Hood Massacre when the media reported that “Major Hasan . . . killed 13 and left 31 injured after he jumped on to a desk screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ - God is Great - and fired on defenseless colleagues.” (more…)

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