10 days that unexpectedly changed America

Filed in Economy | History | Science | Technology | USA politics

The excellent series on the History Channel, 10 Days that Unexpectedly Changed America, continues to be very educational and quite entertaining. Watching these 10 events, I feel compelled to add and question if perhaps other unexpected events would be in my top 10. Their events are:

  • Massacre at Mystic
  • Shays’ Rebellion: America’s First Civil War
  • Gold Rush
  • Antietam
  • The Homestead Strike
  • Murder at the Fair: The Assassination of President McKinley
  • Scopes: The Battle over America’s Soul
  • Einstein’s Letter
  • When America Was Rocked
  • Freedom Summer

After reading the list, I could not help notice the lack of inclusion of events drawing the US into a war. The sinking of the Lusitania, the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Gulf of Tonkin. While all of these lead to war and perhaps one could predict it, the total cost and impact to the country could not have been known by anyone.

Nothing on this list leads to the US declaring its independence from England. I’m not sure I can point to a single day that led the founding fathers to make that decision and the country to make the required sacrifice. The events that come to mind fill today’s elementary school books. The Shot Heard Round the World, seems to fit the bill. However, this was in volatile New England and may have meant little to a New Yorker or Georgian. Bunker Hill (Breed’s Hill) is another event following the Boston Massacre that could have set the country on a direction of succession.

Economic events include The Federal Reserve, going off the gold starndard and, my favorite, the invention of the semiconductor which has to rank very high in terms of impact to the US and the world.

Massachusetts’ Bold Healthcare Initiative

Filed in Economy | Healthcare | Management | USA politics

or overstepping the boundaries of government? Which of these best describes the recent “Healthcare for All” bill supported by an overwhelming majority of the Massachusetts Legislature (154 to 2 in the House and 37 to 0 in the Senate) and Govenor Mitt Romney? The plan’s objective is one shared by all concerned about the unisured, responsible quality healthcare for all. It differs from many other universal plans in several ways.

The bill requires individuals to provide personal coverage, just like the state’s laws on auto coverage. Massachusetts is the first state requiring individuals to have health insurance or prove they can self-insure.

In addition, the bill provides funds to make sure those eligible for Medicare and Medicaid are enrolled. It subsidies healthcare insurance for those who don’t qualify for government programs and can’t afford insurance. The state expects to pay for the subsidies out of a $1 billion fund set aside for providing healthcare for those who can’t afford it.

The bill currently requires employers to pay $295 per unisured employee. “That’s likely to be adjusted by me,” stated Governor Romney. Will he wield the line-item veto pen?

Joe Klein at Time Magazine describes the Romney Healthcare plan this way:

Massachusetts now spends about $1 billion a year to provide emergency health care for at least 500,000 uninsured citizens. About 200,000 of those are young people, predominantly male, who are making enough money to buy health insurance but figure they don’t need it. They would be required to buy a relatively inexpensive health insurance policy, with higher deductibles and co-pays—that’s where the “mandate” comes in. Another 100,000 are extremely poor people who are eligible for Medicaid; a concerted effort would be made to bring them into the system. The remaining 200,000 are the people who have been most neglected by the system in the past: the working poor, people who have low-end service jobs or work part time for employers who don’t offer health coverage.

According to USA Today, Mass. Gov. Romney’s health care plan says everyone pays , other healthcare proposals have focused on expanding government healtcare coverage for the poor and have largely failed. Romney put distance between his proposal and the Clinton plan, saying “we don’t need Hillary-care.”

In an article by The Washington Post, Mass. Bill Requires Health Coverage, the plan goes much farther than any other state but is by no means finalized. It leaves the task of determining exactly how much some low-income residents will pay for their new, more affordable policies to a new agency that would serve as a liaison between the government, policyholders and private insurance companies.

Because of that uncertainty, some still worry that the residents required to buy insurance would not be able to.

In any event, a creative approach which does not unduly burden employers or tax payers. As long as it does not place too great a burden on the poor, then it is a very good start.

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Top Venture Investor Goes Green – Los Angeles Times

Filed in Energy

Kleiner Perkins sets aside $100 million to invest in “Green Technologies”, Top Venture Investor Goes Green – Los Angeles Times.� Does this mean the tides will now turn in favor of investing in this critical area?� Oil at almost $69 a barrel today still does not by itself support most of the acclaimed alternative energy sources.� So does this predict oil prices continuing to rise or government stepping in to i) invest more in alternaive sources, ii) increase energy taxes or iii) mandate higher environmental regulations?

Myogen GlaxoSmithKline agree to joint investment up to $100 million

Filed in Biotechnology | Colorado

GlaxoSmithKline to invest in Myogen
Westminster-based Myogen Inc. said Monday it will receive as much as $100 million from GlaxoSmithKline, as the drugmakers work together on two medicines that treat a lung condition.

Both drugs target pulmonary arterial hypertension, which affects about 200,000 people and, when untreated, can lead to heart failure.

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