Review- Banff Film Festival

Do you get an adrenaline rush from watching Mountain Dew ads? Then this is the show for you!!!
I attended the Banff Film Festival (Wyoming is presumable the last stop on tour) over the weekend, and walked away with an uncomfortable feeling. This could have resulted from watching the following: the endless montage of base jumpers plummeting from cliffs, Dean Potter climbing up the Delicate Arch with no ropes(pictured here), and a 24 hour bike race in which the lead rider destroys his leg muscles due to refusal to leave "the zone". Though touted as a festival in which conservation and cultural connection are leading themes, I mostly experienced an MTV-like barrage of dudes doing tricks with awesome gear. On a bright note, the climbing film "Aerialist", the skiing film “Wings on your Feet” (Le ali ai piedi), and the cartoon "Badgered" provided a little more substance to the lineup. If the festival is coming to your town, it is well worth going to see these three selections! Warning: viewers may experience need to purchase kayak and/or make plans for unrealistic outdoor adventure.

These guys probably owe you money...

Election Checkup Part One
or
One Long First Post













One issue I feel that is overlooked when discussing the healthcare crisis is understanding who actually pays for your healthcare. A lot of people don't realize that in total the US Government pays for 60% of the health expenditures in our country (according to a Harvard study). A large part of this goes to subsidizing the private insurance people receive through work and is the reason health insurance is so heavily tied to employment.

Another aspect which the government pays for are the so called "Plus" of "Advantage" managed care programs. These plans basically take government money earmarked either for Medicaid or Medicare, then repackage it to provide those eligible for Medicaid/Medicare with different options. They advertise things like lower co-pays and the like, but these are for-profit companies and aren't looking to do their subscribers any favors. Generally they take their cut by denying services or setting caps so that for very large medical bills the patient is left holding the check. The other way is through the what is known as "overpaying." The government pays a certain amount per enrollee. If that is unspent, a large portion is supposed to be returned to the government. However through creative book keeping and write offs such as administrative costs, they end up keeping a very substantial percent. This number is debatable, but thought to be around 50 percent. Thus the government overpays. Needless to say (yet I will) Medicare Advantage programs, which were reworked in 2003, are doing very very well right now.

One of these plus plans, a Medicaid plan based in St. Louis, recently sold for $95 million. Mercy CarePlus, which is known around the hospital as "Merciless Plus," has a reputation for automatically denying routine and essential studies. Their hitman, the physician who, in his ultimate wisdom, deems other physicians' requests unnecessary and overrules them with a rubber stamp, has lost his license in two states. When the company sold, its top 3 executives (pictured above) split $10 million dollars.

Basically these companies are taking money earmarked either for Medicare (65 and over crowd) or Medicaid (children, plus the poor and disabled), and are turning huge profits on it mostly through denying services keeping the left overs.

I wonder how those three sleep at night knowing that each basically took $3.3 million of taxpayer money earmarked for poor children Probably on some sort of ultra-luxurious custom sleep number bed with a layer and a half of Swedish memory foam. I mean look at that picture. I have never seen three guys so pleased with themselves. "Thanks kiddos, we finally did it! We did the unthinkable and turned a huge profit on Medicaid! Feels like a Viagra night to me! High five"

This is the double standard of private/public health care that I believe is eroding our health care system. On one end the people in charge cry foul anytime government interference with health care is mentioned, yet they continue to prop up private companies with public funds. The US taxpayer's dollar basically ends up in some CEO's pocket.

So how do the major candidates weigh in on this issue?
McCain - Does not oppose federal subsidies for Medicare Advantage plans
Clinton - No stance as of 11/07 (I couldn't find anything to suggest otherwise)
Obama - Opposes federal subsidies for Medicare Advantage plans.
Huckabee - The Lord shall provideth.

Sorry for the epic post.
Cliff Notes
Government already paying 60% of total healthcare expenditures.
This includes the 'Advantage' or 'Plus' plans.
These are stupid.

Baby Names

I currently have four(4) pregnant friends which will yield five (5) babies (twins!). I am collecting baby names whether they like it or not, see side bar. Please comment here if you have some to add. If we collect enough, I can put up a poll so we can vote.

Lao Sze Chuan

**Zizzle Zazzle**

This is the best Chinese food I have ever had or at least in recent memory. It's actually Szechuan and surprisingly spicy. When I say spicy, I mean covered in hot pepper flakes! The Chengdu dumplings (pictured) were spicy, soft, and intricate ($4.45 for 6 pieces). They contained meat which I gave to my neighbor at the table L. Nonetheless, amazing. I also enjoyed a glistening eggplant dish. The skin had the perfect crispiness, soft but not gaggy inside.

I was invited to this LTH event by my friend R from my college days. This restaurant is a favorite of the LTH Forum and you can read an extensive posting about it with many photos here.

Cine

Some movies suggestions I got at a Super Tuesday party last night:

After The Wedding (Denmark)
To save the failing orphanage he runs in India, Danish transplant Jacob Petersen (Mads Mikkelsen) returns to his homeland to meet a self-indulgent businessman named Jørgen who's offered a generous donation -- and who represents everything the noble-minded Jacob abhors. Complicating matters further are the unusual strings Jørgen has attached to his so-called gift. Rolf Lassgård co-stars in this Oscar-nominated emotional powerhouse of a drama.

Climates (Turkey)
Isa is a college professor in a stormy relationship with television producer Bahar. They've been together for years, but on a seaside vacation with friends, tensions rise, and Bahar ends their romance and returns to Istanbul alone. Ambivalence haunts the separated lovers as they decide whether to reconcile. Nuri Bilge Ceylan is writer, director and star of the torrid romance, while his real-life wife, Ebru Ceylan, portrays Bahar.

Distant (Turkey)
Mahmut (Muzzafer Özdemir), a divorced, hermit-like photographer, lets his dopey cousin Yusuf (Mehmet Emin Toprak) live with him for a while in Istanbul while Yusuf looks for a job so he can support his family in their native Turkish village. The distance -- and silence -- between the two lonely, depressed men soon grows to intolerance, on Mahmut's part, of the chaos Yusuf has brought into his life. Nuri Bilge Ceylan (also directed Climates, see above) directs this intimate drama.

I will review these here after I watch them. Please comment if you have seen these films or would like to contribute other reviews. Best film I've seen recently: Ratatouille!