In a development I'm sure has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that a health insurance corporation CEO just got murdered, health insurance corporation Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield has reversed a plan to deny anesthesia claims that exceeded time limits. Were I feeling generous, and I feel less so with approximately each passing moment, I'd suppose that folks who push such policies think surgeries – and patients – are just numbers on a screen and not, you know, people, with experiences. But I think the doctor who called it all a "cynical exercise in figuring out a way to reject more claims initially" is more likely correct. Never underestimate the power of greed and selfishness, particularly among those who have never faced any accountability for it. Until lately!
Missouri voters just amended their state constitution to protect abortion rights, and Missouri legislators can't wait to defy them, including new constitutional amendments that would roll abortion rights back and (perhaps incongruously) an initiative that would make such amendments harder to pass. All I can say is: did they not just see a health care CEO get shot to death? And do they think anti-abortion policies don't create desperate people? No, wait, I can also say this: don't buck the express will of the voters unless you want them to think you hate them.
In a peripherally-related note, a study from scientists at Duke and Florida State find that leaded gasoline emissions caused over 150 million cases of mental illness, including hyperactivity, anxiety, depression, and (even!) schizophrenia. The heyday of leaded gasoline already correlates with higher crime rates (and not just in America); now we find it also correlates with mental illness. At least we haven't used lead in gasoline since 1996, though we still use lead pipes to move water (and TFG's Administration will surely stop changing over those pipes because REGULASHUNZ BADZ!!!!!!! Heckuva job, American voters!).
NPR suggests the "bond vigilantes" might curb our President-elect's plans to enact massive tariffs and cut taxes for the rich and for corporations again, and bond prices have fallen since his re-election, but bond investors generally also have other investments, and therefore other priorities. And seriously, what rich person cares about tax cuts increasing debt? All they care about is having more money, and one of the things they do when they have more money is buy bonds. So this all sounds like wishful thinking to me, not that I'm too mad at NPR for that.
Dinesh D'Souza issues an "apology" for all the hot and steaming lies he passed on in his movie 2000 Mules, but his whole apology hinges on "information provided to me," and doesn't address his responsibility to insure the "information provided to me" was worth providing to anyone else. For right-wingers, there really is no such thing as accountability, even when they're appearing to be accountable (and I'm sure Mr. D'Souza would never have issued an apology if it weren't part of a legal settlement).
Finally, the incomparable Matt Stoller writes about the Brian Thompson murder in an article entitled "An Assassin Showed Just How Angry America Is." Read the whole thing; he makes too many great points for me to summarize here. But I wonder how our President-elect's voters are responding ha ha ha I couldn't give one rat's hind-quarter what they think about a Goddamn thing.
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