So I started out thinking it would be a nice bloggy exercise to write out predictions for 2014, but I look ahead to 2014 with too much uncertainty.  So here’s what I’m thinking are my “areas of concern and/or hope” for 2014: Healthcare: Yes, I’ve said repeatedly that ObamaCare isn’t going to implode.  It’ll limp along for the foreseeable future, with the Obama administration waiving and deferring and executively ordering as much as needed to keep it going without changing the... Read more

That’s the next ObamaCare metric. Or rather, that’s the next meaningful ObamaCare metric and checkpoint: what will the final numbers look like at that point, and will the administration try to extend open enrollment even further? With respect to the Individual Mandate, somewhere along the way I read a blog post which linked to a form that showed that one could opt out by claiming, rather than a listed hardship such as an unaffordable plan, the broad category of “other... Read more

In which I try to make sense of a couple items in the news: First, the tonsillectomy brain-death girl.  You probably know the story:  the girl went in for routine surgery, and due to complications suffered cardiac arrest and was declared brain dead.  The parents objected to the hospital’s determination, and a second doctor confirmed the diagnosis.  They’re now fighting to force the hospital to insert a breathing tube and feeding tube to be able to move her to a... Read more

So the Tribune is reporting today that the extended unemployment benefits are expiring, though I couldn’t find a link to their article on the topic. (For reference, here’s a piece from the Christian Science Monitor.) I suspect that you, my readers, have been following this in the news and don’t need any further details from me, but I’m going to write this one out as an exercise in reasoning this through and writing coherently. There are two lines of argumentation:... Read more

Every now and again, I take a look at the “Legal Insurrection” blog by William Jacobson.  Yesterday he linked to a Washington Post story on electronic health records, a story whose basic outlines I’d heard before, that electronic records are making things worse for small providers who don’t have the capital to upgrade their systems, and are, generally speaking, handicapping healthcare providers in general, who spend more time filling out the electronic forms than seeing patients, with endless checkboxes and fairly “dumb” systems... Read more

We’re finally past the early-childhood years for all of our children, which means that this was the first year at which none of our children expected Santa to bring the presents.  Which is good, because I never liked the Santa Claus game in the first place — I didn’t object to Santa in principle, but I never felt comfortable with the elaborate, fictional stories.  My kids learned about Santa from their classmates, and I didn’t contradict the stories they told,... Read more

So, unlike many towns, our little suburb had escaped nativity scene battles for many years because the main Christmas light display was in a downtown park with a church across the street, so that church put up a nativity set that was adjacent to the display and no one really felt the need to do any more than that. Until last year, when a group, not even from our town, sought permission, and the village created a “free speech zone.” ... Read more

So here’s something fun:  last week,  Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced the appallingly named Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act, which they’ve declared to be abbreviated as the FAMILY Act.  Can I start by saying that this really takes the cake as far as acronyms?  There isn’t a “Y” to be found, and the subject of the bill is a Family and Medical Leave Insurance program, but they’ve flipped “Leave” and “Insurance” to spell FAMIL(y).But in any case, I wouldn’t object... Read more