“It would also let the government sell insurance in competition with private companies and make insurers offer cover to those with pre-existing conditions.”

I still think that a government run option may raise the prices of private insurers.

Want something better than the government plan? It’ll cost you.

Want coverage for pre-existing conditions? Sure, we’ll offer it — for a price.

Does the government option require too many forms, too many “approvals” for treatment, and selective approvals at that? Well, if you have the cash, you can have a better plan. Otherwise, too bad.

Also:

Constitutionally, insurance is a matter that belongs to each state. Is the Federal government crossing a line by requiring that citizens acquire health insurance?

Why don’t states cooperate to allow private insurance companies to compete across state lines? To start, surely this could be accomplished regionally.

I wonder if any states are considering not working with the government plan, calling on the Constitution to assert authority over their rightful domain.

“Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that between 1.8 million and 5.7 million Americans were infected from mid-April through July 23. The figures are the CDC’s most specific calculation to date.”

I don’t know who is to blame: the CDC for their wacky figures, or Associated Press for trying to make this news.

To come up with the numbers, the scientists assumed that most people infected with swine had only mild illnesses and did not get medical care or get tested. For every confirmed case, they estimated that probably 80 others occurred. And for every confirmed hospitalization, there were probably three others.

Rates of testing and hospitalization have dropped since the pandemic began, so the same calculation couldn’t be done for cases since late July.

For that reason, CDC officials are saying simply that “many millions” of Americans have been infected to date, the CDC’s Dr. Anne Schuchat said at a press conference Thursday in Atlanta.

Found this article via Yahoo News, so if they make updates, the original will be lost. Not worth the effort to link it.

On a fun note, the cat tree in the above photo is the same one my kitty has… except that my kitty takes up that top shelf all by himself.

From Fox News:

QUEENS, N.Y. —  In just a month since its official launch, a new Web site MadeInUSA has signed up more than 350,000 U.S.-based companies looking to encourage consumers to “be American and buy American.”Creators of the site hope to ensure that as many jobs as possible stay in the U.S. rather than be outsourced overseas.

For 50 years now, Mountain and Sackett, a tie manufacturer with a plant in Long Island City, N.Y., has made ties mostly by hand. Some 50 employees, some who have been with the company for decades, stitch meticulously for 40 hours a week. They get health care benefits too.

With a growing number of Americans opting to buy cheaper garments that are imported from outside the country — Mountain and Sackett has had to be creative in its approach to generating sales, all while trying to keep its workforce employed and the family atmosphere of the company in tact.

It takes an hour and a half to make a tie by hand at Mountain and Sacketts. Nick Sackett, the president of the company, says if he replaced some of the workforce with equipment, the ties could be made in a minute and a half. But many Americans value the hand-sewn product made right here in the U.S. So Sackett and his partner, John Mountain, logged onto MadeInUSA and registered their business for free, trying to get the word out.

MadeInUSA is based on the principle that “patriotic spending” keeps hard-earned dollars, made on American jobs, in America.

The Web site can help you find furniture, pet supplies, apparel and wine, to name a few, all at the click of a mouse.

Click here for more on MadeInUSA.com.