Obama admits US can’t insure all Americans without single payer

Tiergartenstraße 4

Ahem,....want some real facts?

~ Assorted claims about our present, but threatened, private-health system bombard us. Scholars at the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) examined several of these common, but usually flimsy, current arguments.
- - As examples:
~ Claim: “By stimulating competition and delivery system changes aimed at providing more effective and efficient care, (proposed Obama) policies could yield higher value and substantial savings for families, businesses, and the public sector.” A rosy description of health reform in a Feb. 19 report by the Commonwealth Fund. The fund is formally charged with the limitless mandate to “do something for the welfare of mankind.”
~ Truth: The current House bill on health reform fills 1,018 pages and threatens a cost of $1.6 trillion in taxpayer dollars. It would create or expand 33 entitlement programs and set up 53 additional offices, bureaus, commissions, programs and bureaucracies. It would result in huge job losses, based on a model developed by Council of Economic Advisors Chair Christina Romer, and cause 114 million individuals to lose their current health coverage, according to the actuaries at the Lewin Group. The word “shall” appears 1,683 times, representing new duties for bureaucrats and mandates on individuals, employers and states. Hardly something “for the welfare of mankind.”
~ Claim: Thousands of Americans die every year because they aren’t insured. The Urban Institute blatantly declared that--based on its interpretation of the Institute of Medicine’s methodology and Census Bureau estimates of health insurance coverage--22,000 people in 2006 died “because they were uninsured.” Families USA upped the death figure to 26,260 and called death by being uninsured the third leading cause of fatalities in our country.
~ Truth: These reports are extrapolated from an estimate made in a 15-year old study, using 37-year-old data and employing questionable methodology, the NCPA pointed out. “Families USA purports to show how many people” die in each state and then tallies up “all this carnage with such pinpoint precision,” when claims are based on a 15-year cascade of studies—each repeating the errors and misinterpreting or mis-characterizing the findings of the previous one and ultimately relying on data that is 37 years old.”
- - Want more real facts?... click on the following link;
http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=35716

Rockstar you're confusing plans and getting your facts all mixed up. The $1 trillion cost estimate is for the democrats' plan that spans a ten-year period ($100 Billion per year), leaves the health insurance industry in charge (BIG mistake) and won't cover everyone.

The $400 Billion potential savings per year* would be under united strength health coverage (AKA single payer) legislation such as HR-676, which would cover everyone, and is a whole different thing.

*This would be $4 Trillion savings over ten years, for a $5 Trillion total (4 + 1) difference in savings, minimum (over ten years).

The estimated additional cost of keepin' on doing what we're doing now (i.e. continuing with no cost controls what-so-ever)...is a minimum four trillion MORE ($8 Trillion higher cost over ten years than if we initiated united strength single payer protection tomorrow)...plus hundreds of millions of senselessly devastated American lives.

Our uniquely American private health insurance is the most expensive, inefficient, heartless, divided-and-conquered non-system known to Man. Our uniquely American Medcare system is the least expensive, most efficient, compassionate and humane. American seniors would be toast without it. Most Americans under 65 are toast without it too, but they just don't know it yet.

P.S. If anyone thinks we're not paying for all of our uninsured now, only paying far more than we should be, in large part because they're ending up far sicker than by any rights they should be...that would be wrong.

In addition to the $400 Billion per year we could/should be saving in bureaucratic overhead alone, it is estimated we would/could save an additional $50 Billion per year simply by treating diabetes before eyesight, limbs and kidneys are lost.

Sheesh. We may or may not still be the richest country, but at least as far as health coverage is concerned, we must be the stupidest.

Private insurers divert 31% of what we spend on health care before those dollars can even begin to deliver care. Traditional Medicare has a 40-year proven history of operating on 2-3% overhead. Bush's new privatized Medicare plans cost an average of 14% more than traditional Medicare, and are failing to deliver on promises made (no surprise there).

That gives us the potential for saving 28% off the top in wasted health care dollars immediately (unless we're too stupid to see it).

NO business that expects to remain viable would allow an unnecessary, greedy, immoral middleman to cream 31% off the top before any goods or services could begin to be delivered, and "We the People's" business must put an end to it too...if we expect to remain viable.

Do your homework.

All the president said was that without socialized healthcare, no one can guarantee 100% coverage.

A public supported option on the other hand could logically lower prices by giving everyone the choice to stay out of the matrix. It could bring us the freedom to choose NOT to contribute to the status quo machine, to choose NOT to be sold only one small group’s controlled idea of “the best.”

Maybe then we could slow down the flow of our dollars in such a limited direction, and use some of those dollars to pass on the Kung-Fu-Panda-like “secret” of the best through teaching and nurturing. Without the misguided belief in self-important Super Specialists, we just might discover many, many more masters in the making.

Fellow Americans stop being so narrow minded and really take a long hard look at what the single payer system has done for many countries. Don't let fear and ignorance prevent you from seeing the benefit of universal health care. Have an open mind and really do the research. Speak to anyone from France, Canada, England or even Cuba and they will tell you, from first hand experience, don't take the word of people who have never benefited from a single payer system . The sad thing is many people who oppose it would probably benefit.

Maybe we will have to cut out spreading democracy all over the world to afford healthcare. Would that be a bad thing? I don't think so.

What do you mean by "this"? I mean HR-676 (see link supplied above).

Arnold vetoed single payer (AKA "cut out unnecessary middlemen and utilize efficiencies of scale") legislation that had passed both houses of the California legislature (twice). The numbers had been crunched, and had he not vetoed it, the state would have saved at least $14 Billion per year. This legislation alone would have saved the state from the financial crises it is in now, but Arnold "chose" instead to sell out everyone to the health insurance industry. History will judge him harshly. Everyone who has done their homework, as well as every other civilized nation on Earth (but ours) knows what obviously needs to happen.

Do your homework.

"I have yet to see proof that just because people have health insurance, they will be going more often. I have excellent health insurance and I don't go to the doctor unless I have to and for a yearly check up."

Then you haven't been looking in the right place. Take Britain for instance. Patients abuse the system by going to the Dr unnecessarily which keep the govt in the red

"be less efficient since everyone would be going more often and longer waiting times"

I have yet to see proof that just because people have health insurance, they will be going more often. I have excellent health insurance and I don't go to the doctor unless I have to and for a yearly check up. So I'd say I go to the doctor honestly about 2 or 3 times a year. I'm not saying I speak for everyone; I just need some evidence that covering people will cause some kind of uncontrollable jump in going to the hospital/doctor.

Nothing could be further from the truth. This plan will COST $24 trillion, be less efficient since everyone would be going more often and longer waiting times and more expensive on the back end. It's certainly more immoral than the government subsidized system we have in place. On the contrary, a privatized system that competes would drive prices down coupled with a health savings account, you stupid git! haha

Good, this should fail. We don't want more taxes and higher prices from this plan.

No, I didn't watch it. I'm old enough to know who he is and what he's about. You might want to check him out a little.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_LaRouche

You win. I can almost guarantee Obama is not for anything Lyndon Larouche came up with.

Would you trade what you think is good insurance for insurance that is far better and way cheaper?

Yep, he said that during his press conference on Wednesday, that barely most Americans watched. Yeah, don't most singles pay on a single payer system, if their job don't provide health insurance.

HR-676 also would save hundreds of billions of currently wasted health care dollars, and more than a few innocent lives.

south and gfletcher

Anyone who owns or runs a small business knows that the health insurance industry already invades our privacy and if we or any member of our (or any of our employees') family becomes sick, more often than not they also will then rob whoever becomes sick of personal freedom. They contol something called the "MIB" (Medical Information Bureau). It is run for their benefit at our expense. The MIB is used to discriminate against sick people in America, and deny them any and all opportunity to find affordable health coverage. Only those who work for the largest (or government) employers have any protection. If your name is on their list then you are actuarial and therefore human toast.

Bill Clinton pushed for and signed some but not enough privacy protections. It used to be that if you developed cancer (for example), your health insurer would call your employer and tell them who was going to ruin everyone else's rates, and why. Now they can only tell your employer who, but not why.

As an employer, I know the scare tactics they use to try and get us to dump the "losers" from the "plan" (which is to make as much money for the insurers as possible)....are incredible. Of course no loser can know what actually happens behind their backs, because employers (unlike insurers) are not legally allowed to disciminate based on health status. Still, it happens all the time.

Just wait until you get sick, and wonder why you've been laid off. Then try to prove it.

If the government refuses to offer Americans a reliable option, then members of small groups have only two "choices": A. Totally unreliable; and B. None.

Think about what this fact of life (only in America) is doing to our entrepreneurial spirit. Right now the bigger the business, the greater the advantage in matters that are literally life or death. This is hurting our people and economy in ways that not enough people seem to comprehend.

For here and now, the rule if you don't work for the gov't or a large-enough corporation is "don't get sick".

This is the Single Payer Healthcare plan we need. If someone wants private insurance they can buy it, just like people do in the countries that have universal healthcare.

HR 676 would institute a single payer health care system by expanding a
greatly improved Medicare system to everyone residing in the U. S.

HR 676 would cover every person for all necessary medical care including
prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary and
preventive care, emergency services, dental, mental health, home health,
physical therapy, rehabilitation (including for substance abuse), vision
care, hearing services including hearing aids, chiropractic, durable
medical equipment, palliative care, and long term care.

HR 676 ends deductibles and co-payments. HR 676 would save hundreds of
billions annually by eliminating the high overhead and profits of the
private health insurance industry and HMOs.

furthermore

We live in a SOCIETY remember that we live and die together, its a fact you can't hide from even if you choose to be ignorant of it. If we don't maintain it then it turns on you, the kids you don't help will grow up to take wealth one way or another maybe rob you on the simplest way. Buy as many guns as you want they'll come up with a way to get to you. If you don't pay for roads, then you drive on old ones. If you don't educate children then the country will be a 2 tier system of idiots and those who can afford to be educated.If you pollute the water you end up drinking polluted water, if you poison the air and well you get the point. Try to think of the conditions that led to the french revolution and thats what happens when selfish people runs a society

I lived under socialism and its healthcare system. It was great, so far I have no healthcare bill, I don't even have any credit and I'm in my 20's. I freaking love it. I didn't pay taxes back then cuz I was a kid but society paid for my treatments as my parents did for someone else they didn't know. Why because again society was doing it for them. Oh yes and the cost of treatment is much cheaper, the government even spends money to prevent problems like obesity, diabetes lung cancer, etc. Guess where my folks are retiring to after all those years living here...

Now is the time to put all your efforts into insuring we don't end up with some half assed plan or nothing at all. Sign the petitions, donate, volunteer!

Democracy For America
"If Barack Obama's healthcare plan gets changed to exclude a public option like Medicare, then it is not healthcare reform. Legislation rises and falls on whether the American public is allowed to choose a universally available public option or not. If they are allowed to choose Medicare as an option, this bill will be real healthcare reform. If they're not, we could be back fighting about it for another 20 years before anybody tries again."

http://democracyforamerica.com/

Sign the petition
"Give America a choice. We support healthcare reform that allows individual Americans to choose either a universally available public healthcare option like Medicare or for-profit private insurance. A public option is the only way to guarantee healthcare for all Americans and its inclusion is non- negotiable.

Any legislation without the choice of a public option is only insurance reform and not the healthcare reform America needs."

http://standwithdrdean.com/

So he was lying after all when he said he wanted a health plan where you could choose to keep your insurance coverage. Come on people! Do you really want the government having that much control over you? Think about your privacy. Think about your peronal freedom.

I have already phoned my rep. and instructed him NOT to vote for this abortion.
Let us hope after the laughable and embarrassing performance given by 0 the other night this mule can be taken out out behind the barn and put down.
If you want health care, nothing prevents you from going to an emergency room for care.
If you need care, find a doctor, don't wait for an emergency, who will bill you.
We pay on time for a house, college education, a car and anything else we can charge.
Why is paying on time for health care services such an abhorrent prospect?
Why is it palatable to task the government with stealing money from your neighbors for YOUR doctor visit?
Is this the "new era of responsibility" which 0bama lectured us about?

i was reading as much of the mainstream american press just to see what everyone is being told about the Obama plan. Well so far nothing, they all just keep talking about the delays and challenges to getting this plan passed as if thats all we need to have done. At best it just repeat rhetoric and informs nothing. Go figure

Soo keep in mind americans are getting the media blitz to basically unknowingly support this plan because they don't even know what the hell it is.
Time to hit the streets.

What Obama failed to mention was not only that united strength (AKA "single payer" but I think the term "single payer" uses the worst frame for the best picture) health coverage is the only way to cover everyone, but also that it would save us hundreds of billions of dollars per year, and uncounted, untold and needlessly devastated lives.

If our government refuses to protect us, then we will continue to be at the mercy of a non-system that has NO mercy.

State Your Support for Health Care reform at www.healthreform.gov..

It will only take about 2 mins and makes a vast difference....

..... Let Democracy Flourish!!

http://current.com/items/90515890_state-your-support-for-health-care-reform-at-w...

http://www.healthreform.gov/support.html

97-98 percent is better than 1/3..

The phone #s makes it so easy , thanks !

There is still strong hope that single payer will succeed in getting passed. Rep. Anthony Wiener (D. New York) has proposed a single payer amendment to the current plan (http://current.com/items/90496737_congressman-anthony-weiner-rips-insurance-comp....

Congress is supposed to vote on Weiner's amendment today, Friday, July 24, 2009. You can influence this vote by calling and faxing Congressmen to pass this amendment. Go here to do so for free: http://www.1payer.net/faxapp/senders/add/cid:22

Call these Blue Dogs and fence sitters:
Six Democrats on the Committee are leaning toward voting yes, and a call from you could nudge them firmly into the "yes" column:

Diana DeGette CO01 202-225-4431
Jane Harman CA36 202-225-8220
Christopher Murphy CT05 202-225-4476
Frank Pallone NJ06 202-225-4671
Bobby Rush IL01 202-225-4372
Peter Welch VT00 202-225-4115

Fifteen Democrats won't commit either way, or they say that there aren't enough votes for the amendment to pass. But if they vote yes, it will pass. Do what you can to convince them:

Rick Boucher VA09 202-225-3861
Bruce Braley IA01 202-225-2911
G.K. Butterfield NC01 202-225-3101
Lois Capps CA23 202-225-3601
Kathy Castor FL11 202-225-3376
John Dingell MI15 202-225-4071
Charles Gonzalez TX20 202-225-3236
Gene Green TX29 202-225-1688
Jay Inslee WA01 202-225-6311
Doris Matsui CA05 202-225-7163
Jerry McNerney CA11 202-225-1947
John Sarbanes MD03 202-225-4016
Bart Stupak MI01 202-225-4735
Betty Sutton OH13 202-225-3401
Henry Waxman (Chair) CA30 202-225-3976

It's your country and your government. Go do something about it

Does he support Single Payer or not?

Will he sign a bill that mandates we buy private insurance? Or veto?