Nobamacare

US President and legitimate businessman Donald J Trump ordered the government to stop paying for your health insurance:

the federal government will cease crucial federal payments to health insurers that provide coverage to low-income Americans. Illinois on Friday joined more than a dozen states that have filed a lawsuit to block the payment cuts. Trump's order is the latest salvo in Republicans' effort to topple the law commonly known as Obamacare
Suburban Chicago Republican congressmen back Trump health care move as Democrats go on attack

The move did not escape the attention of Peter Roskam, Lake County's vestigial Congressman. Roskam, a personal-injury attorney, issued a carefully worded statement:

"The Administration's actions today reinforces our system of government as laid out in the Constitution that gives Congress the ultimate authority to determine how these funds are used," Republican U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam of Wheaton said in a statement.
Suburban Chicago Republican congressmen back Trump health care move as Democrats go on attack

Translation:

It's All Legal

In related news, the Lake County 911 Emergency Dispatch Task Force says a consolidation of 911 centers would realize nearly $3 million in cost reductions. A Task Force report proposes a two-step process where ...

The first phase would result in about $400,000 in annual savings and the second phase would result in savings of about $2.3 million, according to the report.
'Turf wars' challenge effort to consolidate Lake County's 911 dispatch services

One 911 dispatcher told your LakeCountyEye: "When all those uninsured people start calling 911, we're going to need that $3 million!"

The Lifestyle of the Party

Note to Ops: unless your lifestyle approaches the lifestyle of the rich and famous be prepared to lose your health insurance. Lake County Congressmen Peter Roskam and Randy Hultgren both voted to repeal your Obamacare. And you're to blame. That's because it's your unhealthy lifestyle that is driving up everyone else's insurance premiums.

Haha, the GOP figured out they can keep their premiums low by excluding from Trumpcare those who make poor life choices. And since your LakeCountyEye has never met an Operative who did not maintain the lifestyle of a college sophomore, they mean you!

Despair not, however. Trumpcare is all about choices. You may choose to pay a lot of money for a junk policy. Either that or you can make some existential choices, live healthy, and forgo health insurance entirely. Either way and whether you like it or not, the GOP will make you adopt a healthy lifestyle.

Despair not, however. Your LakeCountyEye has surveyed the best healthy-living clickbait the Internet has to offer. Not only is a healthy life within reach, but you can get there in 10 easy steps:

Ten Lifestyle Mistakes to Avoid in Lake County
	Don't Try Any of This ...	... Unless You're Ready for Some of This!
1.	Living Near the Route 53 Extension	Lung Disease, Heart Attack, Stroke
2.	Living Near an Exploding Oil Train Track	Exploding Oil Trains
3.	Living Too Far from Cook County	Muffin Tops, Bat Wings, Turkey Wattles and Tax-Free Soda
4.	Living Too Close to McHenry County	You May be a Redneck
5.	Jogging in a LCFPD	Ebola Transmitting Mosquitoes
6.	Driving Your Car	Lake County Sinkholes
7.	Getting Out of Your Car	Ticks!
8.	Fourth of July	See: Exploding Oil Trains
9.	Substitute Beer for Sunblock	SPF Zero
10.	Blow Off the Boss's Rubber Pizza Re-Election Fundraiser	Unemployment Insurance

Look for your LakeCountyEye living it up near you.

For I was Sick and You Did Not Vista Me

Your LakeCountyEye is under the weather.  As readers of this blog are uneasily aware ...

Boom Goes the Dynamite

while fireworks are -- technically speaking -- illegal in Illinois, legal technicalities have never gotten between your LakeCountyEye and a good ol' fashioned 4th of July.  Note, however, to operatives: third degree burns, internal injuries and multiple fractures will get between your LakeCountyEye and a good ol' fashioned 4th of July. So don't be like your LakeCountyEye and sustain your Fourth of July injuries while on Blarney Island or some other place that is not immediately accessible to a convenient treatment center.

The region of Lake County around Lindenhurst would be an example of an area where a convenient treatment center seems to be needed.  And while one major health-care provider wants to build a hospital there, their proposal was recently axed.  According to Crain's Chicago Business ...

A state board has dealt a final blow to Vista Health System's latest plan to build a new hospital in north suburban Lindenhurst. The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board voted 5-2 against the $131 million project
State board quashes Vista Lindenhurst plan

Why was this Lindenhurst hospital killed? Was it because it would be built too-close-for-comfort to a rival health-care provider? According to the Daily Herald:

Opponents included Advocate Health Care, which argued a new Lindenhurst hospital was unnecessary. "We commend the board for sticking up for Lake County patients and recognizing that a new, for-profit hospital would do more harm than good," Dr. Bruce Hyman, medical staff president at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, said in a statement.
Good Shepherd expansion OK'd
But Lindenhurst proposal nixed again

The informed sources explained to your LakeCountyEye that, while "you can never be too rich or too thin, you can be served by too many hospitals!"

Note to ops: If anyone knows of a health-care provider that is equipped to treat uninsured bloggers, please contact this blog immediately. Until then, look for your LakeCountyEye, on the puny list.

Miracle Cure

Huzzah, universal healthcare is now a reality! Your LakeCountyEye will not have to sell a kidney after all to cover some pesky medical expenses. (Experts say that this is a trick that can't be counted on to work more than twice.) Soon your LakeCountyEye can start seeing a real MD. And totally free of charge.

Checking the Congressional record, there were few surprises in yesterday's Health Care Reform vote. No one seriously thought Obama-Mama Melissa Bean would oppose her poker buddy, Rahm. Voting in the Noes column was shapeshifting Mark Kirk, who has metamorphosed from a North Shore liberal to a downstate teabagger.

The bill, HR 3590, is bigger than Social Security plus Medicare plus the Repeal of Prohibition. Combined and times one hundred. Of course no one, including any of our reps, can say for certian what exactly is in the bill. Exclusive video of demonstrators at Melissa Bean's office last week has the 411 on the 911:

YouTube

Did you spot your LakeCountyEye? Look for the Testey's Tea furry.

So before hailing an EMS vehicle for an all-expense-paid ride to the ER, your LakeCountyEye decided to look up just what is covered by the Healthcare Bill. You may be as surprised as your LakeCountyEye. Here are the ten most significant provisions in the Healthcare Bill, HR 3590. How these will affect you is anyone's guess.

The 10 Most Important Features of the Healthcare Bill

1) Rockin' pneumonia: Covered     Boogie Woogie flu: Not Covered 2) Medicare can now bargain with pharmaceutical makers for cheaper placebos. 3) Dr Kevorkian to be named Death-Panel Czar. 4) Owners can now keep pets on their policies until they are 26. (Dog years: 182) 5) Ambulance Chasing to be named newest Olympic Trial Sport. 6) Torte Reform provision eliminates the prescription drug doughnut-hole. 7) So-called Cadillac Tax also to be levied on owners of unsafe Toyotas. 8) Vaccine now available for blue-flu. 9) Entire package to be paid for by reinstating the death tax. 10) Health insurance companies now required to actually pay some claims.

Does anyone have the phone number to Michael Jackson's doctor?

Eye Spy Melissa Bean's Health Care Townhall

Red Tail has been a bit busy this week getting ready for Labor Day festivities, but we wanted to report on the Melissa Bean's Chamber of Commerce Townhall in Kildeer, which we attended.

It was preceded by a lot of media attention. Michelle Malkin's blog noted the event. (Malkin predictably focused on the Lake Zurich Chamber's standard $25 door fee.) About 50 pro and anti health care reform activists were on hand. If you were delayed in the resulting traffic jam -- US 12 & Quentin Rd -- thank Michelle Malkin. Her e-mail address is writemalkin@gmail.com.

The Daily Herald was on hand, providing excellent coverage. And a bonus video of the event.

The event began at 7:30am. Unsurprisingly absent at that early hour were the bussed in agitators seen at other recent local health care forums. LakeCountyEye can report the turnout was comparatively meager.

While the crowd outside may have been lacking in numbers they made up for it with enthusiasm and commitment. Here is the audio of an exchange between two activists at the protest, on opposite sides of the debate, one of whom has lost his health insurance coverage due to a pre-existing condition:

Inside, Lake Zurich Chamber members politely listened to Congresswoman Bean speak on many issues before Congress, including ten minutes on health care reform. While she refused to call health insurance a "right," she seemed surprisingly open to what Congress might come up with (out of the five or so bills now circulating) in terms of making it available to all -- whether you lose your job or not.

In fact, it is hard for us to understand here at Lake County Eye how people can yell about keeping government out of health insurance when most of them are only a "you're fired" away from not being covered at all. In fact, who among us knows when we might come down with a serious disease that our insurance company will then, uncerimoniously, decide was a pre-existing condition. Then, goodbye, house. Goodbye, credit rating. Hello, bankruptcy.

Congresswoman Bean promises to read in full any bill on health insurance accessibility that comes before her, which is what she has done with most bills, she says. Personally, Lake County Eye wishes she would have had a town hall, too, simply for the potential high comedy factor. This thing in Lake Zurich was way too polite for the Eye's taste in slap-stick.

A Good Looking Player

When Harry Caray was calling the Cub games he would see someone on the field he liked and would say, there goes "a good looking player." Well if Harry was with us today he'd no doubt be blogging on Illinois politics. And after Mark Kirk's Monday townhall in Arlington Heights, he'd no doubt be saying about Kirk -- there's a good looking player. Because fortune or fate or someone, maybe Harry himself, was smiling down on Kirk.

Kirk's townhall was about health care and though poorly publicized, drew a substantial crowd. Large enough to attract the broadcast media. Locally, pols have been avoiding these townhalls. The economy has made affordable health care the issue of the moment and there is always a chance a public forum dedicated to that issue could turn into a foodfight. Which no doubt is what the media was hoping for in Arlington Heights. They must have been disappointed though -- both tea-baggers and HCAN showed up but apparently neither was scrapping for a brawl.

Kirk is the beneficiary of the media's misapprehension. An overflow crowd of relatively well-behaved people show up on short notice to see what Mark Kirk has to say about health care. What will the media think? There goes a good looking player.

Bean Baggers

Tea Baggers staged a health care protest this weekend outside Congresswoman Melissa Bean's Schaumburg office. Bean has gotten some recent national attention courtesy Michelle Malkin. The protest was organized by FreedomWorks and LaRouchePAC. The crowd was large enough to distract motorists causing a nearby crash. The Daily Herald sent a reporter to cover the event, while observing: Melissa Bean "has not yet decided whether she supports Obama's plan." The Herald fails to mention that President Obama has never actually proposed a specific plan that could either be supported or rejected by legislators. Nor is there a Bill as of yet in Congress. Tis the silly season.

For the true scoop, your LakeCountyEye's special operative worked the crowd of tea baggers and reports a good time was had by all. Ten things overheard:

1) One lump or two?

2) I don't want the government anywhere near my Medicare.

3) Me neither, Mr. Crane.

4) Is this where the line starts to the meth panel?

5) Hello, my name is Pat Brady. Have you ever considered a run for Congress? Excellent health benefits.

6) I am Rowan Atkinson's #1 fan!

7) Have you signed this Melissa Bean nominating petition yet?

8) McSweeney and Greenberg need rides. Anyone?

9) My insurance company won't cover cognitive dissonance.

10) You can give me affordable government health insurance when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.

Q the Eye/07.18.09

Dear LakeCountyEye,

I'm the long time mayor of a small town. So small, my municipal paycheck barely covers my bar tab. Last year I got sacked from my day-job. My COBRA benefits just ran out, I have a 2 pack-a-day habit, and I don't have any health insurance. I'm dying for some advice!

Need Some Reinsurances

Dear Needsome,

Your LakeCountyEye admires your lifestyle. Among the industrialized nations, Americans have the poorest habits when it comes to living healthy, and as a result most of us tend to be walking-ambulance-rides waiting to happen. Combine that with statistics showing that Americans are among the worst insured and that translates into a sure prescription for a medical calamity.

Still, keep your chins up because Park City Mayor Steve Pannell found himself in a similar pickle but managed to score some free insurance anyways. Pannell simply added himself and his wife to his municipal employee's health plan. The News-Sun has the details:

He admitted to placing himself on the city's employee Blue Cross health insurance plan in 2007 when he became unemployed because of his deteriorating health. He said he was aware of the city's policy to provide health benefits only to those who were full-time employees.

Indeed as Mayor he wasn't eligible to be on the plan, which resulted in the misappropriation of some $19,000. But this shouldn't stop you from following Pannell's lead. After all it was more than two years before anyone in sleepy old Park City noticed the scam.

Now I'm sure you're thinking to yourself ... that's great advice, LakeCountyEye, but isn't that illegal? I understand you also get free medical attention in the County lockup, but that strikes me as an extreme solution to my problem.

Your LakeCountyEye agrees, but forgot to mention that you also need to get in tight with the local Republican Party establishment. Everyone in Lake County knows that Republican office-holders never get prosecuted for anything. And don't take it on your LakeCountyEye's sayso. According to the News-Sun:

an investigation by the Lake County State's Attorney's Office indicated the intent was not criminal.

In other words if you do get caught, all you say is oopsie I didn't really mean to do it!

Now I'm sure you're thinking to yourself ... isn't this the same Republican Party that fought tooth & nail for years against universal health coverage, and is the reason I'm uninsured today?

Again your LakeCountyEye agrees. They don't need no stinkin' socialized medicine because the Republican Party knows how to take care of their own. And if you listen to your LakeCountyEye they will take care of your family as well.

If you are an elected official, or a previously elected official, or just a private citizen under indictment, send your political questions to Q the Eye c/o ... LakeCountyEye@gMail.com