Episodes
Saturday Mar 29, 2014
Alternative Visions - US Health Care Costs Again Rising--Not Slowing - 3/29/14
Saturday Mar 29, 2014
Saturday Mar 29, 2014
Dr Jack Rasmus welcomes as his guest, Tom Moore, a nationally known expert on health care costs with 30 years experience in medical cost analysis in government and as a consultant, to discuss rising health insurance premiums and costs today in the US. Jack and Tom discuss why health care premiums and deductibles are again on the rise, and projected to escalate at double digit annual rates further in 2015 under Obamacare. Dr. Rasmus notes the sharp contradiction between national consumer polls and surveys that show health care insurance premiums and deductibles rising again at double digit levels vs. government and Obama administration reports that claim total healthcare spending in the US is slowing. So what is it? Are personal out of pocket costs rising and about to escalate even more—or are the government reports of total healthcare spending slowing correct? Are health insurance companies, that have become big finance companies expanding worldwide, about to rip off the US public again with double digit further premium and deductible hikes once Obamacare is implemented? What can you expect in coming months. Jack and Tom discuss the details and the real data.’
Guest Tom Moore, Jr. is the co-founder of Community Campaigns for Quality Care and serves as its Board Chair and Chief Financial Officer. He brings over 30 years’ experience in health policy and program management, having held major federal and state government positions including the Director of California Department of Social Welfare, Director of the Office of Legislation for the U.S. Public Health Service, and Deputy Director of the California Department of Health Services for the Prepaid Health Plan program in Medi-Cal. Tom was also a Senior Health Policy and Program Consultant to the California Health Care Coalition, where he represented CHCC members on the board of the California Hospital Assessment and Reporting Task Force (CHART), recognized as a national model for health care quality measurement and reporting. He has consulted with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the California State Council of the Service Employees International Union on health benefits, including serving as SEIU’s liaison to CalPERS. Working with his CCQC partner, Sally Covington, he has participated in development of projects to identify and improve questionable variations in utilization of clinical services in Montana, Oregon, and California and currently supports delivery system improvement projects with IBEW L1245 (Northern California).
Saturday Mar 22, 2014
Saturday Mar 22, 2014
Dr. Jack Rasmus provides an update of the economic crisis in the Ukraine, predicting the future IMF deal next week, and surveying the positive and economic impacts on the Russia and European economies as sanctions and IMF details emerge. Why the USA has ‘most to gain’ and least to lose from an ongoing crisis in the Ukraine? And why the Ukrainian people stand to lose the most, as the economic crisis deepens. (read Dr. Rasmus’s Counterpunch blog article on ‘Who Benefits, Who Loses’? posted on the PRN website and on is own blog, jackrasmus.com, for details). Dr. Rasmus then turns to an analysis of the Japan economy today and explains why Japan’s ‘Abenomics’ policies (named after Japan’s prime minister, Abe) of the past year are an echo of US policies since 2008 that have failed to produce a sustained economic recovery except for investors, bankers, corporations, and the wealthiest 1%. As in the US, Europe and elsewhere, the preferred policy of global capitalism is monetary—QE, zero rates, and bank bailouts—while fiscal policy is token in content, and form and then quickly withdrawn with little positive economic effect, or is ‘austere’ (austerity) to make the populace pay for the crisis and bank bailouts. Rasmus concludes with the notion that Capitalism’s major crisis in the 21st century is the inability to sustain real investment that creates jobs, incomes, middle class consumption and thus recovery. The ‘new normal’ long term is what we see emerging everywhere—slowing investment and global growth.
Saturday Mar 15, 2014
Saturday Mar 15, 2014
“Dr. Jack Rasmus and guest, Steve Lendman, revisit the latest in the Ukrainian crisis, discussing its political and economic dimensions. In the first half hour, Dr. Rasmus raises ’10 Unanswered Questions’ about the political coup of February 22: Who were the snipers, why is no investigation underway, what is the composition of the neo-fascist parties on the street (Svoboda, Right Sector, UPA, etc.), what official positions have they assumed in the new interim Ukrainian government, why did US undersecretary of State, Virginia Nuland, admit to $5 billion spent by the US on Ukrainian politics, what are Nuland’s ‘Neocon’ credentials, and is there a ‘deep government’ in the US driving US foreign policy? Dr. Rasmus also raises the question of what are the ‘crony capitalist’ connections in the Ukraine with US business sectors? Rasmus identifies the key neo-fascist and crony capitalists and their current roles. Steve Lendman then gives his view of the Crimea referendum and perspective on the Ukrainian crisis, which he calls the worst and most dangerous since the 1962 Berlin crisis. In the second half of the show, Dr. Rasmus discusses economic issues, focusing on “who benefits” and “who pays” from the current economic crisis, including western Europe, the USA, Russia and the Ukraine itself. (Listeners more interested in the latter topic should go directly to the ‘station break’ at the 30 minute point of the show, and listen to the second half of the h our that discusses economic crises in the Ukraine and other regions affected by it. Rasmus warns the Ukrainian crisis may be the critical development that sends the European economy into its third ‘dip’ recession in 2014-15.
Saturday Mar 01, 2014
Saturday Mar 01, 2014
“Dr. Rasmus takes a deep look into China’s economy, asking if it is heading for a ‘hard landing’? Will its growing financial bubbles soon burst? Rasmus discusses reasons why China’s economy is slowing, and its potential impacts on emerging markets, Europe, and the rest of the global economy. China’s growing financial instability is also explored, including the role of global shadow banks and the 200,000 richest ‘Ultra High Net Worth Individuals’ (aka biggest global finance capitalists and their primary financial institutions) stoking the financial bubbles and instability in China. How are they together driving China’s currency and real estate bubbles? What’s China trying to do to slow speculation in its currency, local housing, and local investment markets? Why is China total debt is now well above crisis levels? Are they driving China toward a ‘Lehman Moment’ financial crisis? Rasmus concludes with discussion of China’s recent shift to lower the value of its Yuan to ‘reign in’ the shadow banks and global speculators, and what that could mean if it loses control not only for China’s economic hard landing but for the world economy as well”.