Health Care Payment Defaults are a "Growth Business"

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Wednesday January 03, 2007 · 8:46 PM PST

2007/01/03 · 20:46

Conservatives' favorite health-care solution--high-deductible insurance plans supplemented by health savings accounts--is turning out to be a little more wrinkly than they might hope it to be:

The sharp increase in high-deductible health insurance plans is creating a headache for hospitals and other health care providers who are finding it increasingly difficult to collect the portion of bills due from individuals. [. . .] Recent changes in federal law allowing quicker funding of health savings accounts also might help individuals to pay, officials say.

The problem, however, is real for area medical providers. For example, in the first nine months of last year, the proportion of accounts receivable due from individuals using Advanced Healthcare grew from 22% to 29%. Advanced is a large physician practice based in Germantown. Other area providers report similar increases.

folkbum

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Friday November 10, 2006 · 7:29 AM PST

2006/11/10 · 07:29

This is an extra special plea to all of my cheesehead friends and neighbors: Come on out to "Download 2006" tomorrow! The full press release is below the fold, but here's the skinny:

The progressive group One Wisconsin Now has teamed with popular conservative blog Boots and Sabers to bring together bloggers of all flavors in an event that will showcase our expertise and experience, as opposed to the media bloviation we've been hearing all week. Everyone is invited, whether you blog a lot or not!

This free event will be held at the Waukesha County Technical College, on the western end of Waukesha County, making it easily accessible to anyone from Madison or Milwaukee or anywhere else in the state with freeway access. I hope to see you there, and pass this on to everyone you know! Click through for full details . . . Read More

Wisconsin Dems take the State Senate--UPDATE!

folkbum

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Tuesday November 07, 2006 · 11:13 PM PST

2006/11/07 · 23:13

I don't know who all is up this late, but since I am, I'll post it: Wisconsin's Dems have taken control of the State Senate! With Governor Doyle staying in place, that gives us control of the agenda, finally.

Details below the fold! Update! We definitely did it! We won four seats, giving us a comfortable 18-15 majority! Read More

WI-Gov: Doyle (D) Finally Breaks 50% in a Poll

folkbum

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Thursday October 19, 2006 · 4:18 AM PDT

2006/10/19 · 04:18

x-posted

Via the UW Dems, I see that the last pre-election poll from WPR/St. Norbert College is out, and Jim Doyle looks good in the head-to-head:

The poll was conducted by Wisconsin Public Radio and the St. Norbert College Survey Center and showed that 51% of respondents said they would likely vote for Doyle, compared with 38% who favored Green. Green Party candidate Nelson Eisman was the choice of 1% of respondents, 4% favored another candidate and the rest weren't sure.
The telephone poll surveyed 400 likely Wisconsin voters from Oct. 9 to 16 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. [. . .] The random sample also included more Democrats than Republicans, [poll director Wendy] Scattergood said.

folkbum

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Friday October 13, 2006 · 5:48 AM PDT

2006/10/13 · 05:48

Cross-posted

I don't remember when the last time F. Jim Sensenbrenner faced a credible opponent. He may not, either, for that matter. But consider the facts: Read More

Wisconsin Connections to the Foley Scandal

folkbum

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Sunday October 01, 2006 · 2:06 PM PDT

2006/10/01 · 14:06

In the spirit of all politics being local, I thought I'd make sure that all of my fellow Wisconsinites had the full skinny on the various Mark Foley connections to be made. For those keeping score, we can slightly ding Mark Green (who is currently running for Governor), bother F. Jim Sensnenbrenner (running for re-election in the WI-05), and nail John Gard (running to replace Green in the WI-08). The connections and links to the good guys are all below the fold.

If you need to know more about the actual Foley scandal itself, well, where have you been, under a rock? Check the front page, why don't ya!

(This is condensed and edited from two posts done earlier today at my Milwaukee-based blog.) Read More

WI-05: Some folks mortgage their houses . . .

folkbum

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Monday September 18, 2006 · 6:09 PM PDT

2006/09/18 · 18:09

. . . and some folks pay themselves a salary:

[R]ecords show that [Congressional Candidate Bryan] Kennedy paid himself a salary of $4,100 in July and again in August from his campaign [. . .]. Kennedy, a long-shot Democrat running against House Judiciary Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, confirmed Friday that he made another $4,100 payment to himself from his campaign fund on Sept. 1 and will continue to do so each month through December. Total projected campaign dollars he plans to pocket: $24,600.
Federal Election Commission spokesman Bob Biersack said that in 2002 his agency made it kosher for candidates to dip into their campaign funds. But the vast majority has avoided the practice out of fear of giving opponents ammunition. "It's not typical by any stretch," Biersack said. "It's relatively unusual." [. . .]

folkbum

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Friday September 15, 2006 · 4:22 AM PDT

2006/09/15 · 04:22

Hey, did you hear the one about the bill in the Senate that Hillary Clinton (or, as the stable among us call her, Shrillary) voted for, the one that would make it harder for big cities like New York to track criminals and criminal activity? Yeah, Michael Bloomberg, the Republican NYC mayor, was in utter disbelief that Hillary would vote to tie the hands of his police force like that. Did you hear what Hillary called him?

Crybaby! She called him a crybaby!

And of course the right is screaming bloody murder. How, they wonder, can reasonable Democrats anywhere possibly support such a moonbatty, shrill, vile, and immature excuse for a Senator? The demands for an apology--if not her resignation--have been relentless from talk radio, the newspapers, and, of course, FOXNews. My friends tell me it's been hard to be a Democrat in New York these last couple of days, with the embarrassing and childish crybaby hanging over you.

You haven't heard? Really? Oh, right--that's because I think I reversed a fact or two here. Read More

Suckers

folkbum

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Wednesday August 30, 2006 · 5:30 AM PDT

2006/08/30 · 05:30

x-posted.

Barbara O'Brien once explained that her blogging M.O. was to read conservative blogs every morning until something made her mad enough to want to write about it. It's not a bad way to go. I often do that with the daily paper--I disagree, for example, with both of this week's Democratic primary edorsements. But I have lower-hanging fruit to fry this morning: Conservative Wisconsin Bloggers.

Today's lesson in conservative bloggers making me mad starts at Fred's place:

I got this from my friend Tony in Rockford, [Fred writes]. Makes ya think...
There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq in January. In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the month of January. That's just one American city, about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq.

folkbum

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Wednesday August 23, 2006 · 7:15 AM PDT

2006/08/23 · 07:15

I'm not sure why, but Tom McBride, a professor of English from my alma mater, showed up in a dream of mine last night. It may or may not have been his way of telling me that his new Beloit College Mindest List is now out.

For those of you who don't remember my diary on this from last year, I'll remind you that the Mindset List is something Beloit prepares for its professors to let them know what to expect of the new students, to help them cross the generational divide, so to speak. I remember the early efforts at the list, back in the early-to-mid-90s when I was there (I'm so old!), and they've been releasing it publicly since 1998.

Anyway, it's time to take a look at what the college's incoming class knows or doesn't know. Come below the fold for some of my favorities! Read More

WI-05: Bryan Kennedy and Project 90: The 50-State Strategy in Action

folkbum

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Tuesday August 22, 2006 · 1:54 PM PDT

2006/08/22 · 13:54

Cross-posted.

So I had lunch today with about a dozen very nice and very influential people here in the greater Milwaukee area. Several of them are in the picture there on the right: In the background, you can see Bill Elliot, who is running for the open Wisconsin 23rd Assembly District. The woman up front is Bonnie Joseph, among the area's biggest Dem fundraisers. And the very happy guy in blue--of course!--is Bryan Kennedy. Not pictured is the reason we were all there at lunch, a guy named Walter Ludwig.

Ludwig, you may know, is a former member of Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign, as well as the head of a PAC known as Project 90. (He tells me their website should be back up by next week, but for now, there's no link.) What is Project 90, you might ask? Good question. Read More

Feingold's small-donor strength

folkbum

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Sunday July 30, 2006 · 10:16 PM PDT

2006/07/30 · 22:16

A new analysis out today of Russ Feingold's Progressive Patriots Fund--and the leadership PACs of eight other potential 2008 Democratic candidates--shows that Russ is appealing to the same kind of small-dollar donors that a lot of us remember (and a lot of us were) from Howard Dean's quixotic 2004 run. No one else even comes close to the kind of success Russ is having in that regard.

Craig Gilbert's got the story in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

As he explores a 2008 presidential bid, Sen. Russ Feingold has raised a little more than $2 million this year, putting him ahead of some potential Democratic rivals and well behind others. But in one respect, Feingold's fund raising sets him apart. Unlike any other '08 prospect in his party, his early money is coming mostly from small donors.
In the first half of 2006, the Wisconsin senator raised 62% of his funds from people giving $200 or less, a much higher share than any other potential candidate. His total of roughly $1.3 million in small donations is topped only by Hillary Clinton, by far the dominant Democratic fund-raiser. [. . .]

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Health Care Payment Defaults are a "Growth Business"

Wisconsinites: Download 2006 Tomorrow!

Wisconsin Dems take the State Senate--UPDATE!

WI-Gov: Doyle (D) Finally Breaks 50% in a Poll

WI-05: F. Jim's running scared, with lapdog help

Wisconsin Connections to the Foley Scandal

WI-05: Some folks mortgage their houses . . .

Crybaby

Suckers

It's Mindset List Time Again

WI-05: Bryan Kennedy and Project 90: The 50-State Strategy in Action

Feingold's small-donor strength