Single-payer health care

If you are interested in a single payer health care plan take a look at HR676.org, Inc. A small investment of $10.95 could save you or your business a fortune this year. Employer provided insurance for a small business is experiencing an expected 23% increase in premiums this year. Single payer health care is the only thing that makes any sense. Make a contribution. You may not get another chance for 10 years.

Costs of having a poor health care delivery system

If was always curious as why if we spend more on medical treatment, yet have lower statistics for things like infant mortality and life expectency than some third world countries. The answer must be that these poor standings in the commonly used benchmarks for quality of health care are created by the our people who do not receive medical treatment. I don't think our doctors, nurses and hospitals are worst than Cuba. Untreated medical conditions cause a a variety of other medical conditions. They also cause a serious loss in time from work, reduced productivity on the job and shorten life expectancy. There the economic consequences of failing to have a medical care system that provides treatment to all the people. It is not a matter of "do goodism". It is just good business. The economic losses of the uneven distribution of our medical care it cause more economic damage than the current business crisis.
In addition to causing loss of productivity our current system by forcing our uninsured into emergency rooms without full compensation to the hospitals for the cost increases the insurance cost to the insured. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Assuming the uninsured could afford insurance, but chose not to and gambling that they would not get sick, passes the losing side of that bet to the prudent ones who secured health insurance. If you are wondering why your health premiums are going up, paying for the health care to the uninsured is a major reason. This is insane. Once we make the decision that we are not going to let the uninsured die in the street, then we must decide what is the most effectively provide treatment and how to pay for it. Emergency rooms are not a cost effective way to provide medical care except in an emergency. Forcing the insured to pay for treatment of the uninsured does not strike me as fair. For responsible businesses to pay for treatment of the uninsured causes our industries to be at a competitive disadvantage to industries in other countries who are not saddled with this costs.

Medicaid Subrogation

I may be a little late to the party, but this is an important case concerning Medicaid subrogation. Surprisingly, it allows the parties to a settlement to frame the amount that Medicaid will receive on their lien. Perhaps someone more versed than me can explain by the Cornell Law site uses the eighth circuit cite in the heading. ARKANSAS DEPT. OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVS. v.AHLBORN, 547 U.S. 268 (2006).The parties by agreement reduced the Medicaid lien by 5/6. The Court in upholding the allocation against an argument that the settlement was tainted stated:

"In any event, the aspersions cast upon Ahlborn are entirely unsupported; all the record reveals is that ADHS neither asked to be nor was involved in the settlement negotiations. Whatever the bounds of the duty to cooperate, there is no evidence that it was breached here. Although more colorable, the alternative argument that a rule of full reimbursement is needed generally to avoid the risk of settlement manipulation also fails. The risk that parties to a tort suit will allocate away the State’s interest can be avoided either by obtaining the State’s advance agreement to an allocation or, if necessary, by submitting the matter to a court for decision. Pp. 17–19."

Daylite ? Time

YglesiasYglesias makes the point that according to recent research not only daylight savings time not save any energy, but that it may even increase energy consumption. Has anyone studied whether by interrupting sleep patterns it may to a small extent make us less efficient until we had adapted to it? Also, how many appointments are missed; how much time is lost changing clocks; and how much energy is used conforming programs to meet these time changes?

Tip pooling doesn't meet minimum wage.

U.S. District Court in Texas rules class certified for bartender 'tip pooling' claims Article from: Lawyers USA Lawyers USA Article date: April 7, 2008 April 7, 2008

A bartender is entitled to proceed with a class action claiming the "tip pool" at various bars where he worked violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, a U.S. District Court in Texas has ruled in granting a motion for conditional class certification.

The bartender alleged that the bars where he worked implemented policies requiring bartenders to contribute 5 percent of their tips to their manager, despite paying bartenders only $2.13 per hour and taking a "tip credit" against their minimum wage obligations available under the Act. They were also required to pay cash to cleaning crews.

He claimed that the Act only permits tip sharing for distribution to "customarily tipped employees," which excludes managers and cleaning crews.

The bars argued that the plaintiff class should not be certified because there was more than one defendant and the other proposed plaintiffs were not "similarly situated."

But the court disagreed.

"The language of the statute is clear. An employer is obliged to comply with the prerequisites of announcing its intention to take the tip credit and allowing employees to keep all tips they earn except what is pooled for the benefit of customarily tipped employees. 'These prerequisites are strictly construed,' ...

"In the present case, [the bartender] contends that [the bars] did not comply with one of these prerequisites. Being that the prerequisites are strictly construed, [the bartender's] pleadings are sufficient to allege a violation of the [Act]," the court reasoned.

Further, "[d]efendants' argument that certification is inappropriate because they are separate entities [is] unconvincing. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure allow joinder of defendants when a cause arises out of the same series of transactions and 'any question of law or fact common to all defendants will arise in the action.' The court concludes that joinder of [d]efendants is proper and does not preclude conditional certification of the class."

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Bernal v. Vankar Enterprises, Inc., No. SA-07-CA-695. March 24, 2008. Lawyers USA No. 9939548.

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Current unemployment figures

Brad Delong (http://delong.typepad.com/) has a current chart on the unemployment in various recessions that shows the current unemployment figures are worse that previous recessions. He doesn't think it looks good, but is easier to read than a similar one in the New York Times.

Apartment house fires

A Dallas county jury returned a verdict for the death of a mother and two children in an apartment house fire. Tex. Prop. Code Ann. § 92.259(a)absolves the owner from liability for failure to provide smoke alarms unless the tenant specifically requests an alarm unless the property did not have a smoke alarm at the time initial occupancy. The case involved the application of the National Fire Code and HUD regulations as they apply to persons who are deaf and the proper placement of the alarms. The statute does not require visual alarms in the case of deaf tenants although they are required by the National Fire Code and HUD regulations. The proper placement of smoke alarms is critical for the deaf since they must be within the line of sight.

"Message to Regulators: Bank Fix Needed Quickly": reminds me of the Yogi Berra quote: "If you don't know where you are going, you should be careful cause you may not know whether you get there."