I’m a little surprised this investigative story by STAT News, owned by the Boston Globe Media Group, isn’t getting more play, i.e. how insurance giant UnitedHealth’s “unrivaled leverage over physicians” is used to generate revenue for both its insurance arm and clinicians – “similar to how Standard Oil amassed power as both the buyer and seller in oil refining.” … Squeezed in the middle? Patients, of course. … Maybe this is one of those stories that has to sink in for a while before the rest of the media starts referring to it in future pieces about UnitedHealth. … Here is STAT’s own link to the story (sub req.)
Month: July 2024
-
UnitedHealth: The Standard Oil of health care?
-
‘She is showing it now’
The WSJ’s Peggy Noonan is impressed so far with Kamala Harris’s candidacy: “Ms. Harris has not, in five years on the national stage, shown competence. She is showing it now, and that is big news. Her rollout this week demonstrated talent and hinted she may be a real political athlete.”
One note of caution from Noonan: Harris has to “scramble toward the center and try to hold it every day” but “it isn’t at all clear that is her intention.”
Update – Andrew Sullivan is ripping into the Harris anointment, calling her the “weakest and most woke” candidate, and he points to past negative articles on Harris like this and this and this to make his point. … For now, I’m leaning in Noonan’s direction. Harris has impressed so far.
-
The Olympic sports I’d eliminate. And that includes you, bikini volleyball and flag football
Try as I might, I can’t get too excited about the upcoming Summer Olympics. I’m certainly happy Boston isn’t hosting the games, that’s for sure. But I long ago tuned out the Olympics in general for a variety reasons, including the God-awful television coverage in the U.S. that has emphasized the sentimental story lines of individual athletes over actual sporting events. My primary reason for tuning out the Olympics, though, is that they’ve gotten too big and gaudy, with too many silly sports that distract from what used to be the jewel in the crown of the Games, i.e. track and field (now lumped into the generic “athletic” category).
If the governing Olympics committee was ever wise enough to appoint me czar of the Summer Olympics, herewith are some of the sports I’d eliminate, pronto. Note: I’m getting rid of some the world’s most famous major sports because they have their own championship games that are valued far more by athletes than the Olympics, such as soccer’s World Cup, tennis’s Wimbledon and U.S. Open, golf’s Masters and British Open, rugby’s World Cup, etc. Then I’d go after other often dubious sports with the goal of narrowing the Olympics focus to core sports, especially track and field. Here goes with my elimination list:
Flag football (yes, it’s coming in 2028), football (i.e. soccer), Rugby Sevens, badminton, baseball/softball, basketball 3X3, beach volleyball (i.e. bikini volleyball, not to be confused with indoor volleyball), breaking, golf, skateboarding, short climbing, surfing, cricket, lacrosse, tennis, table tennis, trampoline, rhythmic gymnastics.
I’ve left a few major and silly sports off the list for old-fashioned tradition and ridicule’s sake.
-
How 2024 compares to 1968 and other tumultuous years. Hint: stop whining
Here’s an interesting piece comparing 2024 to other tumultuous years in U.S. history. As bad as we think things are today, it’s nothing compared to 1968. Nor 1940, for that matter, as war loomed for America and as democracies fell one after another in Europe. I’m not sure about including 1973, but it was indeed a crazy time. I’m a little puzzled why 1860, perhaps the most consequential election year in U.S. history, wasn’t included.
Btw – With all the talk these days of civil war, we’re living in comparatively tame times compared to 1970, when terrorist political bombings were out of control. They weren’t as lethal compared to later terrorist acts, but they were a destabilizing and unnerving constant in America.
-
Suburban offices: Popular again (somewhat)?
Another blow to the Boston office market: It seems companies are showing more interest in suburban offices these days, due to the lower rents and shorter employee commutes, as Steve Adams reports at B&T (sub.). … Remember when, not so long ago, suburban offices were so unhip, lacking the cool bricks-and-beam ambiance of urban offices and the live-work-play atmosphere of the city in general? Well, the hipsters are typical parents now, I guess. … To be clear: we’re still talking about a post-pandemic office market everywhere, urban and suburban offices alike, and overall demand is still off due to the rise of remote working
-
Healey’s pragmatism
Gov. Maura Healey continues to show her pragmatism-over-ideology side of governing, putting more limits on the state’s shelter program that’s now bursting at the seams due to the recent influx of migrants.
One can debate whether the shelter law was ever intended to provide housing for migrants in the first place (I happen to think it wasn’t). But there should be no debate about these two assertions by Healey: 1.) “We simply cannot afford the current size of this system” and 2.) “With Congress continuing to fail to act on immigration reform, we need to make more changes.”
Update – Joan Vennochi thinks Kamala Harris should look to Massachusetts to see where the immigration issue is headed. And it’s not headed left.
-
Jack Connors, RIP
He deserves every accolade he gets – and more. Jack Connors was an old-fashioned civic and business leader, a true Mr. Boston. I like Larry Edelman’s piece on a key source of Connors’s philanthropic influence: his vast network of connections.
-
Boston’s growing ‘shadow’ vacancy problem
Insurance giant John Hancock is jettisoning additional office space in Boston, putting another 160,000 square feet of space on the sublease market. It’s making an already bad office market even worse in Boston. How bad? Colliers recently reported the city’s office vacancy rate at about 23 percent. But that’s the official rate. The unofficial vacancy rate includes what’s called the “shadow” market, i.e. space that’s technically leased to a tenant but isn’t fully occupied due to remote work, etc. Some think the actual vacancy rate, when “shadow” space is included, is around 40 percent.
-
Damn the risks, it’s full-speed ahead with Harris
There are still a few people and institutions telling Dems to slow down when it comes to backing Kamala Harris, warning there are risks ahead by going with the VP. But resistance is futile. Most Dem delegates are jumping on the Harris bandwagon, including (no surprise) Massachusetts Democrats and the usually cautious Gov. Maura Healey.
Again, I wish Dems had taken it slower and looked at other candidates. But I don’t see how they can effectively vet other prez candidates with so little time available. For all her flaws (and she’s displayed many flaws over the years), Harris is probably the best candidate Dems can back at this point. And she’s not a bad candidate at all. She’s just not a great candidate.
-
The Harris fait accompli process … and other thoughts
So much for the open and transparent process that would generate lots of attention and excitement for Democrats in Chicago. Instead, Democratic leaders have opted for a fait accompli coronation of Kamala Harris, one in which they’ll allow others to technically contend for the nomination but make it almost impossible for others to mount a serious challenge to Harris. …
Just to be clear: The Harris positives
… Though I don’t like the idea of an anointment, I think a Harris nomination would clearly be a net plus for Dems compared to the alternative of Biden staying in the race. Harris has slightly stronger poll numbers than Biden. She will energize black and female voters. At least for now, she’ll stop the hemorrhaging of support Dem Congressional candidates have been seeing of late. She’ll probably have a boatload of money available for a new campaign. And she can mount a serious campaign right away, rather than wait till next month’s party convention. …
... Lacking the luxury of time …
But is Harris the strongest Dem candidate to beat Donald Trump? Probably not. So can Dems do better? On paper, yes. In reality, probably not. They simply don’t have the luxury of time to fully vet other candidates. That’s why I’m sort of accepting the fait accompli process as a fait accompli, even though I’d prefer a more open process. …
Those giddy progressives …
… Notice how progressives such as Rachel Maddow and Elizabeth Warren are pumped by a Harris candidacy? They should be. Harris is a progressive, even though the NYT describes Harris as a “moderate,” or at least she’s “center-left by California standards.” By California standards? Is she running for president of California?
... Give the Times credit
But give the NYT credit for throwing a little cold water on the rush to anoint Harris, with stories like “If Harris Is the Nominee, It Still Won’t Be Easy to Beat Trump” or “Some Black Voters Say They Wonder if a Black Woman Can Win” and “The Promise, and Risks, in Turning to Kamala Harris.” … Can you imagine Fox News running similar stories about Trump? No you can’t. …
… The VP sweepstakes: It’s begun …
… Don’t you get the impression that both Mark Kelly of Arizona and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, both of whom have been mentioned as possible vice presidential candidates, are angling for a VP spot on a Harris ticket by endorsing her so quickly? … Both would help Harris. White moderate males in key swing states etc. etc. …
Remembering Ted Kennedy’s awful campaign
… Getting back to the topic of Dems not having enough time to vet other candidates : I was talking to someone yesterday about how you need to be careful what you wish for in politics. And I recalled how, many moons ago, I was pumped at the prospect of Ted Kennedy running for president, only to see him fall flat on his face when he finally did so. He was not only a functionally awful campaigner, he was also a divisive campaigner. So the moral of my story: I may prefer someone like Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer as the Dem party nominee. But I really don’t know if Gretchen Whitmer would be a good campaigner. And so …
Hub Blog 