Birthday time again, and this time, for Cosette. The sweetest, most beautiful, most perfect little fluff on Earth.

How ObamaCare Will Affect Your Doctor

Is that really a word, Obamacare? I guess so. Anyway, this is the headline of an article in the Wall Street Journal, and it is interesting.  It is written by Scott Gottlieb, who used to work at the FDA, for Medicare and now is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a practicing internist. He’s also partner to a firm that invests in health-care companies, so keep all this in mind as you read his take on healthcare.

That said, I do agree with what he is saying, about a need to fix the reimbursement for physicians and other practitioners, particularly at the primary care level.

From WSJ:

At the heart of President Barack Obama’s health-care plan is an insurance program funded by taxpayers, administered by Washington, and open to everyone. Modeled on Medicare, this “public option” will soon become the single dominant health plan, which is its political purpose. It will restructure the practice of medicine in the process.

Chad Crowe

Republicans and Democrats agree that the government’s Medicare scheme for compensating doctors is deeply flawed. Yet Mr. Obama’s plan for a centrally managed government insurance program exacerbates Medicare’s problems by redistributing even more income away from lower-paid primary care providers and misaligning doctors’ financial incentives.

Right now, Medicare pays docs 20-30% less than private plans, and the new public option will control spending by using its purchasing clout and political leverage to dictate low prices to doctors. The intention is to help the uninsured, but may lead to something more–and the result, like now with Medicare and Medicaid, is for doctors to refuse patients covered by these policies.

There are other ways to lower costs, than cutting into reimbursement. For starters, we should make it less expensive to become a physician–most graduate about $150,00 in debt. And then there’s the cost of malpractice, running an office, paying staff, and so on. Let’s start at the very beginning…

I almost forgot to mention that today is Valentine’s Day, and I wish everyone a happy and loving V day.

And here are my two favorite Valentine’s:

/>

The two most spoiled faces ever to roam planet Earth!

Today is the little Nish’s birthday. Is that face the most gorgeous on earth or what?

Now is that the most beautiful face on earth or what? And today’s her birthday. And for dinner she’s getting organic chicken thigh…yum!

Here’s another picture of the birthday baby. This one was taken today. Isn’t she sweet. Look at that smug face. Is that the look of spoiled beyond spoiled or what?

Happy birthday to the most wonderful, perfect, beautiful, precious, and lovable kitty in the world. Thank you for being part of my life, and I hope we celebrate many more birthdays together!

On the lighter side of things, and having nothing to do with health, nurses, nursing shortages, or deadly microbes…if you love cats, take a look at this site.

Stuff on my cat.com

Basically, these are photos of what people have piled on top of unsuspecting sleeping/drowsy kitties. I can’t imagine mine ever sitting still and allowing me to put a plate full of scrambled eggs on top of them, or all of the cash in my wallet, or anything for that matter. Either these are extraordinarily good natures and docile felines, or this website is a masterpiece of Photoshop.

But the kitties sure are cute!

Eponine has agreed to allow her picture to be posted. I am so sleepy after a long day at the Convention Center, learning everything there is to know about transplanted organs and then some. I am too tired to blog anything coherent, so I hope this cute little face will do for now.

When in doubt, post a cute face. I am super busy, plus my left hand is getting sore from so much typing. I hope to get some posts up today–I really have a lot more to say about the dilemma with our oh-so-holy pharmacists who are starting to crawl out of the woodwork and demand their right to deny care–but that will have to wait. Sigh, I’ve got to do some “paying work” so I can support my blog.

There are fluff living on Mars. Check out Kaslog and you’ll see what I mean. Very cute fluff, with green whiskers and purple paws. I just know that when Eponine and Cosette see that picture, they’re going to start nagging me for their own set of purple socks.

This face is too cute. My question is; what is she planning to do? They don’t get this cute unless they’ve got something up their sleeve and are planning an all out attack.

Or could it be that she knows that I am about to leave for Whole Foods, the epicenter of juicy antibiotic/hormone free turkey legs, pristine pure filet mignon, and organic Rosie chickens? And homemade salmon treats?

I sense a connection, don’t you?

You can never go wrong by posting a fluff face. I’ve got a few deadlines, but don’t want to totally ignore my blog. Plus, I need a reprieve from all of this dreadful news….

This is old news. I know, I’ll never be an ace reporter. But this story appeared about the time of the tsunami, and so got pushed aside.

The big news is that some woman in Texas paid $50,000 to get her cat cloned. She banked the DNA of her beloved little kitty named Nicky, who died at age 17. And now, she has a gold-plated duplicate. Or so she thinks.

I just can’t express how nauseating I find this. I loved one of my cats more than anything on earth, and when she passed away at age 20, I was devastated. I would have given anything to have her back. But unlike this Texas woman, who believes that cats (and probably all mammals including humans) are just a mass of DNA, I believe that there is much more to having a loved one return.

Yes, you can clone DNA, but all you get is a shell. A body. The essence is the soul, and I believe that the soul leaves the body and remains very much alive. Not in this realm, but somewhere. Sort of the standard die-and-go-to-heaven sort of thing. In order to have your loved one back, be it your child, cat, godfather, goldfish, or golden retriever, the soul has to return as well.

He is identical. His personality is the same,” the woman told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she said she fears being targeted by groups opposed to cloning.

What is particularly despicable about this story is that we do not need cloned housepets. There are millions of dogs and cats killed each year (yes, killed–sorry, but I’m not going to use the nice words like “euthanized” or “put down”) because of oversupply. Millions of wonderful, loving creatures killed because they are surplus. And here this bitch goes and spends $50,000 to get a clone. Does she have any idea how her $50,000 could have helped feed thousands of homeless pets? Paid for spaying/neutering? Provided medical care? Provided homes for thousands of strays?

This isn’t a woman who loves animals, this is a woman who wants trophy. She claims that the personality of the two cats is identical, but that is impossible. Even identical twins, raised in an identical environment, are often radically different from one another. And environment and biological variables make is impossible to exactly duplicate animals–or even humans–for that matter. The the first cat cloned in 2001 even had a different coat from its genetic donor.

And the science itself is cruel. It takes many attempts (and some horrendous failures) to come out with a good clone. Between 15 and 45% of cloned cats born alive die within the first 30 days. And cloned animals suffer from far more health problems than their “normal” counterparts.

The only good I see out of cloning is that it may help endangered species. That’s it. Trying to develop an industry for cloning deceased pets is criminal, and just outright despicable. Don’t people have anything better to do with their money? If you can’t think of any better way to spend $50,000, then please give me a call. I will help you out.

The company making the clones, Genetic Savings and Clone, hopes to clone at least 50 cats by the end of this year. They have yet to turn a profit, and if they plan on continuing to clone housepets, then I truly hope that they go bankrupt.

What’s next? Clone your deceased child?

In one of her rare still moments, we have captured Eponine on digital camera. Normally she spends most of the day buzzing around like a bumblebee, and is impossible to photograph. But here she is, obviously either exhauste or drunk. Or stoned on too much catnip.

I got busy with other stuff today and horror of horrors, realized that I had not posted on my blog. I am sort of tired of typing, so when in doubt, there’s nothing like cute fluff pictures. And here they are, two together on the tree.

After writing all of these depressing health stories, I thought my blog needed a bit of cheer. So what better way to lighten the mood that with a picture of Cosette.

Christmas at our house, and every other day for that matter, centers around the fluff (aka cats). So as you can see, Cosette is enjoying getting stoned on her catnip candy cane.

On the other hand, Eponine prefers a bag of liver treats. Yum! Much better than gingerbread and chocolate Santas.

After posting all of these depressing stories about workplace abuse, I thought I really needed to return to the Christmas spirit. As you can see, Pixie is still the only one who will wear her Santa hat. The other two are such Scrooges!

Pixie is the only one we can get to wear her Santa hat. Cosette looks absolutely stunning in hers, for the 10 seconds that it stays on her head.