Subject: Health Care Issues

• Miami Family Health Care Costs Highest in the Nation

  You better get a free lollypop for that price. According to the Millman Index, the average total medical costs for a family of four rose 7.4% in the past year to $16,771. Miami has the heaviest costs in the entire country, with an average of $20,280. That costs includes employer contributions, deductibles, and co-pays. Americans pay about 15.2% of the GDP on health care annually, the highest rate of any nation in the world except for the Marshall Islands. Some predict that rate to climb to 19.5%

  May 18, 2009

• Protestors Agitate Outside Rubio's Empty Office

  April 20, 2007

• Homestead Teacher on Staph-Infected Student: Too Little, Too Late

  October 23, 2007

• 10th Annual Medicinal Marijuana Benefit

  January 21, 2008

• Hipster Grannies For Obama

  October 4, 2008

• Local Conservatives Think Conservatives Weren't Conservative Enough

  November 6, 2008

• State Looking to Make Cuts in Medicaid

  So the brain trust up in Tallahassee has found itself with a $2 billion hole in the budget (yeah, yeah, financial crisis; more like yeah, yeah overzealous tax cuts), and one of the areas they're looking to make cuts in is Medicaid, which provides healthcare to the state's poorest citizens, according to The Ledger. While it's not certain they'll take that route, they have about $1.2 billion in cuts to the program lined up. So the basic healthcare of the disadvantaged might pay for the poor planni

  December 17, 2008

• Death and Profits

  June 16, 1993

• They're Gonna Live Forever

  June 8, 1994

• Smokin' Near the Boys' Room

  August 24, 1994

• Miami HIV Scammers Guilty of $5.3 Million Medicare Fraud

  A federal jury this week convicted two doctors and two assistants of bilking Medicare for millions of dollars by setting up a bogus HIV clinic in Miami, the State Attorney's office tells Riptide, the latest conviction in a racket that's quickly become the Magic City's seamiest new claim to crooked fame.As detailed by Jay Weaver in an excellent Miami Herald series, South Florida is in the midst of a massive HIV fraud epidemic centered on an outdated procedure called "infusion treatment." Medicare

  March 18, 2009

• Carnival of Fraud

  June 1, 1995

• Miami Bass Express

  Today The Herald is reporting on the epidemic of prescription drugs from South Florida invading the Appalachian states. If you've ever seen the ad section of the Broward Palm Beach New Times you know what a big business prescription drugs are, and apparently Broward county is one of the easiest places to get em in the United States. What does that have to do with the Maggotron Crushing Crew and their song Miami Bass Express? Plenty, kind of. Some people call crack "base." Pills might as well

  April 6, 2009

• Smoke Weed Every Day

  January 22, 2009

• Global Warming Can Be Glamorous

  All this and more at the Yacht and Brokerage Show.

  February 14, 2008

• Puff, Puff, or Perish

  For some, ganja is nothing to giggle about.

  January 17, 2008

• The Tokin' Few

  January 19, 2006

• It’s Medicinally Delicious

  April 19, 2007

• Puff Piece

  April 13, 2006

• Letters from the Issue of June 10, 2004

  June 10, 2004

• BEST NIGHTLIFE TREND

  May 13, 2004

• Cavity Depravity

  March 11, 2004

• Smoke for Life

  January 22, 2004

• BEST TV NEWS REPORTER

  May 15, 2003

• BEST POLITICAL MISCALCULATION

  May 15, 2003

• Healthy Puff

  January 23, 2003

• Waiting to Inhale

  February 28, 2002

• New Italian Eatery, Take Twenty

  June 7, 2001

• Best Politician Convicted In The Past Twelve Months

  May 11, 2000

• The New Dealers

  October 21, 1999

• Bum Voyage

  August 5, 1999

• Best Neighbors

  May 13, 1999

• Night & Day

  December 10, 1998

• Johnny on the Spot

  July 16, 1998

• Smoke Gets in Your Eats

  January 29, 1998

• The Sound of Mutilation

  August 14, 1997

• Reefer Science

  August 7, 1997

• Letters

  July 24, 1997

• Let the Sunshine In

  June 6, 1996

• 20,000 Geezers Under the Sea?

  February 16, 1995

• On Day 99, Obama Hires HIV Czar

  A quick followup of sorts to our post Monday highlighting the Obama administration's inaction on HIV/AIDS during his first 100 days in office. Yesterday it was announced the president has chosen Dr. Eric Goosby to head PEPFAR. Goosby served in the Clinton administration as deputy director of the National AIDS Policy Office and director of HIV/AIDS Policy in the Department of Health and Human Services. [VOA News: Obama Choice of PEPFAR HIV/AIDS Coordinator Draws Praise from Advocacy Groups]

  April 29, 2009

• Two More Arrested In Miami's Hottest New Racket, Medicare Fraud

  Sure, it's not as sexy as running coke in cigarette boats over the Florida Straits or bootlegging moonshine for northern gangsters on the lam. But damn if Medicare fraud isn't lucrative -- which is probably why it's shaping up as one of the defining crimes of modern Miami.As Jay Weaver's great coverage at the Herald makes it clear, Miami is ground zero for all that is medical and shady these days. On Monday, the feds busted up another massive ring -- a $21 million, five-state Medicare fraud run

  May 12, 2009

• Sparked By Sucess in Miami, Feds Widen Health Care Fraud Force

  The string of headlines involving several local busts of fraudulent HIV/AIDS treatment facilities milking medicare for money was no coincidence. Two years ago the justice department begin specifically targeting medicare fraud in the city. After success in Miami and then Los Angeles, today Attorney General Eric Holder and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced they will expand Justice Department health-care strike forces to other cities, like Detroit and Houston. According to The Washington Po

  May 20, 2009

• Miami's Medicare Racket: Eight More Indicted in $100 Million Fraud

  Let's go ahead and just christen it the cocaine trade of the Double-Aughts: Medicare fraud may be a lot less sexy, but it sure is keeping federal prosecutors in Miami busy.One month after busting up a $21 million, three-state ring, the feds expanded that investigation and charged eight Miami residents -- including the two ringleaders named in the earlier case -- with building a five-state, $100 million scheme. Here's how it worked, according to prosecutors: The defendants set up six fake me

  June 24, 2009

• Victoria Jackson: Obama Is Hitler Jr. and Wants to Kill Your Grandma

  So apparently Victoria Jackson's heartfelt column about breaking into tears over Year One's sheep-fucking jokes was the first in what we can only hope is a long line of columns for (former Drudge collaborator) Andrew Breitbart's conservative site Big Hollywood.Unfortunately, the SNL alum and Miami native's screeds seem to have gotten only more ridiculous. It doesn't help that we can't seem to read anything she writes without her high-pitched trademark screech echoing in our head.In the late

  July 8, 2009

• Kendrick Meek Opposes Using Federal Funds to Pay for Abortions

  Rep. Kendrick Meek has joined a small group of house Democrats asking that any health-care reforms not lead to federal funding of abortion, according to the Washington Post. The possibility of taxpayer money being used to pay for abortions is becoming a hot-button issue in the health-care reform debate -- one that Republicans might use to completely derail the purpose. Meek joined four other centrist Democrats who sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying they are "increasingly conc

  July 22, 2009

• Floridians Sure Have Some Funny Ideas About Health Care Reform

  via A R B O's flickr​According to a new Quinnipiac poll, 58% of Floridians support creating a government health insurance plan, while only 36% oppose it. So it should be good news for supporters of the so-called "public option" that voters in a notoriously moderate swing state seem to be down with government health insurance. Yet, 62% oppose the idea that Democrats in Congress should "use their majorities to push through a health care overhaul even if it only gets Democrati

  August 20, 2009

• Top Ten Thursdays: Top Ten Songs for Obama Haters

  via rpof.orgJim Greer thinks censorship is very American.​All summer long I have gone shit-house-rat-crazy observing the likes of Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Karl Rove and the rest of The Right's evil elite dispense fear-mongering falsehoods in a desperate attempt to stop some much needed health care reform.Death Panels. Euthanasia. Subsidized Abortions. Health care for non-U.S. Citizens and illegals. Every time I hear a GOP politician or pundit issue one of these malevolent fabric

  September 10, 2009

• Dick Armey Sending Army of Dicks After Bill Nelson over Health Care

  ​Dick Armey, the former Republican House majorty leader who's not currently making an ass out of himself on Dancing with the Stars, was in Palm Beach Gardens today speaking to teabaggers, um, Tea Party activists. According to the Palm Beach Post, Armey told the crowd of conservative activists to keep up the fight against health care and then begin preparing for a showdown on cap-and-trade legislation. "We've got the bad guys on the run," Armey said. Yes, people who want to

  October 6, 2009

• News Roundup

  Mayoral candidate Tomas Regalado may be accused of not being able to deal with his personal finances (he claims to only be worth $5000 year after year, and once had his wages garnished for not paying taxes), but his campaign manager is doing a good job with his war chest. He's consistently out-raising challenger Joe Sanchez. [Herald]The Bacardi buildings have won historic designation, despite not being technically old enough. No surprise really though. In this town we love our rum and we love ou

  October 7, 2009