82% of Americans think healthcare needs a major overhaul

The 18% of naysayers all have enormous incomes or are hopped up on drugs.

Something needed to be done before yesterday, this is a decade overdue.

im a grown up now and worrying about this sucks. im more worried about being sick and getting screwed by the providers than the illness itselfff.

If our nation has billions to fight a war that most of us agree should never have been fought then why do we not have the money to insure everyone and provide good quality health-care at a reasonable price? It is beyond insane it is criminal.

Why should health insurance companies run our country instead of our government?

I have insurance through my employer although I am temporarily medically retired. For my husband and myself I pay nearly $1000.00 a month for this "privilege."

This year I was told I needed a critical surgery on my cervical/spine area or I would be in a wheel chair as a quadriplegic for the rest of my life. I checked with my insurance company and was told the surgery was covered and approved. My hospital and doctor checked and they were told the surgery approved. The surgery was done (with a good outcome).

The hospital submitted a bill for $90,000.00 to the insurance and sent me a copy. Yet because of a contract the insurance company has with the hospital the insurance only had to pay around $40,000.00 of the cost an uninsured person would pay. The insurance paid it and sent me a copy. Read on it gets better.

A few weeks later I received a letter from insurance company stating the insurance company has determined they are not responsible for the bill and that I owe the insurance company $90,000.

Now the hospital has written me twice asking me to "talk" to my insurance company to get them to pay as agreed.

My story is no different than countless others who either go bankrupt, die, or live with a debilitating injury.

Our son, who is 23 and uninsured, fell and had a severe fracture and splitting in his wrist. Fast surgery was the only way to repair his wrist which needed a cage large enough for ten screws to hold the bone together. The hospital told him he would get a charity break since he was uninsured so he went ahead with the surgery. The surgery was $60,000, for one night stay. The "charity" amount? $40,000.00 if paid in 30 days.

How many of us have an extra $90,000.00 to pay a hospital bill? I work at a therapist for a public agency and my income for a year was much less than this hospital bill.

Since I have worked all of my life since age 17 and for the last 20 as a public servant (who worked damned hard) I find our health insurance industry a national disgrace.

One last word. I know I was lucky. I can walk, type, and fight for change.

Yes, I have read several articles where docs are giving up practicing medicine and going into other professions, real estate, vineyards etc because they are sick of the hassle with insurance companies.

Allowing a private company to tell a doctor how long to see each patient, and also restrict or demand prices for certain procedures can only cause problems. The main issue with universal healthcare is: how do we do it on a federal level. The answer is WE DONT. Federal government does not have the authority to mandate such things, and not to mention the issues we already have with federal control over many aspects of our lives. Every state has the right to provide healthcare for its residents, and it would also run smoother to localize these efforts.

I agree that something needs to be done drastically, but i'm not crazy about the feds in charge of it. It could (believe it or not) get worse. I've had Canadian friends tell me horror stories of their health care, in spite of what Michael Moore says. But the current system doesn't work for 80 some % of us. It would need to include lawsuit protection for health care providers, and a limit on the $100 of thousands that doctors make, but when you look at their insurance rates and medical school bills, that's not fair either. I don't pretend to know the answer, wish i did.

More than 18,000 Americans die each year because they can't afford to see a doctor.
The only presidential candidate who is proposing a single-payer health care system is Ralph Nader.
Make your voice be heard! The more publicity Nader gets, the more the corporate politicians will have to focus on the real issues and needs of the American people.
Vote Nader 2008!
http://www.votenader.org/issues/single-payer/

Physicians for a National Health Program is a non-profit research and education organization of 15,000 physicians, medical students and health professionals who support single-payer national health insurance.

HR 676 Resolution Campaign
Begining in Novmember 2006, PNHP launched a national campaign to seek endorsements for the Conyers/Kucinich US National Health Insurance Act (HR 676). This is improved expanded Medicare.


http://www.pnhp.org/

http://www.pnhp.org/resolution/

I went to the doctor this morning for 18 dollars. Everything seemed fine to me.

Doctors invest 12 or more years of school beyond high school to obtain an MD. If it weren't for these folks I would not be walking or moving my arms. Their sacrifice is enormous. Some of them make way too much money yet that isn't the norm anymore.

While Canada and Britain may have problems at least everyone has minimal insurance. Usually a mix of state/federal plans and private work the best. A mixed economy makes more sense than a government that is run by PAC's.

States have the opportunity to do something about health insurance and most don't. It is a complex answer yet if every USA citizen and if our elected officials were serious about it this would be a healthier nation.

Of all the developed nations I know that US is like 16 or something in the health of its citizens.

I know that folks are flying to other countries to pay for their medical treatments as they cannot afford to pay here. Some are dying on the way home from complications because it is dangerous to fly too soon after surgery.

18 dollars? Was that Dr. Pepper by the case?

And 81% percent of Americans do NOTHING ABOUT IT.

Key Features of Single-Payer

Universal, Comprehensive Coverage
Only such coverage ensures access, avoids a two-class system, and minimizes expense

No out-of-pocket payments
Co-payments and deductibles are barriers to access, administratively unwieldy, and unnecessary for cost containment

A single insurance plan in each region, administered by a public or quasi-public agency
A fragmentary payment system that entrusts private firms with administration ensures the waste of billions of dollars on useless paper pushing and profits. Private insurance duplicating public coverage fosters two-class care and drives up costs; such duplication should be prohibited

Global operating budgets for hospitals, nursing homes, allowed group and staff model HMOs and other providers with separate allocation of capital funds
Billing on a per-patient basis creates unnecessary administrative complexity and expense. A budget separate from operating expenses will be allowed for capital improvements

Free Choice of Providers
Patients should be free to seek care from any licensed health care provider, without financial incentives or penalties

Public Accountability, Not Corporate Dictates
The public has an absolute right to democratically set overall health policies and priorities, but medical decisions must be made by patients and providers rather than dictated from afar. Market mechanisms principally empower employers and insurance bureaucrats pursuing narrow financial interests

Ban on For-Profit Health Care Providers
Profit seeking inevitably distorts care and diverts resources from patients to investors

Protection of the rights of health care and insurance workers A single-payer national health program would eliminate the jobs of hundreds of thousands of people who currently perform billing, advertising, eligibility determination, and other superfluous tasks. These workers must be guaranteed retraining and placement in meaningful jobs.

Unfortunately none of the 82% are McCain or his disciples.

What will be covered with HR 676?
All medically necessary care would be funded through the single payer, including doctor visits, hospital care, prescriptions, mental health services, nursing home care, rehab, home care, eye care and dental care. We also advocate a sharp increase in public health funding.

Government does health care they better pull the money from another program and not raise taxes. They get more than enough money to do everything they need to do. And if push comes to shove remove the IRS and place a standard Tax on everything and take out the excessive stealing from the paychecks.

Imagine if cops had to work under "private insurance" schemes like doctors do?

"You're only covered for 7 days of rape investigation and any DNA tests that need to be run will have to be out-of-pocket expenses payable in advance. If you want us to investigate your rape case beyond 7 days you'll have to pay us $10,000 per month with a 3 month minimum due and payable upfront on day 8. Let me have your credit card number and we'll begin the investigation."

Sounds like bullshit, right?

"Also, your particular plan doen't cover 911 calls so you be recieving a bill for $500 for that call. If we need to testify in court in regards to your case your plan will reimburse you up to 50 percent of our expenses at the end of the fiscal year, but understand those court related testimony expenses will be payable in advance by you prior to any legal proceedings otherwise we will refuse to testify. If you fail to pay all outstanding debts owed to this police preceinct you wages will be garnished."

People can clearly and rationally see that using the "free market" system to regulate crime is utterly ridiculous, inefficent and counter-productive on every possible level. THAT they can see. But when you point out that exactly 100 percent how our healthcare is being managed they can't see how that's a problem.

If the doctor says, "You're dying of a tumor. If we operate now we can save your life. If we don't you'll die within months. Possibly weeks. The surgery will cost $175,000 without insurance or $65,000 with insurance."

You explain that you don't have $65,000 in cash or sitting in a Swiss bank account.

The doctor shrugs and says, "Then die. The choice is yours."

Ah, but is "not wanting to die" from an illness you were powerless to prevent really a free-market choice identical to buying an Ipod???

Most normal Americans can see how the "free market" model really doesn't apply to illnesses and healthcare in general.

The ones that can't? Voting for McCain.

How do you get people demanding and getting universal healthcare, when 60,000,000 people voted for a baby killer in the last election? Where are all these efficient and intelligent people? The group in power will just mention married gays and abortion on demand and black presidential candidates with no experience, (every 20 minutes, 24/7 till the first tuesday in Novenber) and we'll just come undone again!

How come our healthcare system is set up where there is no competition? That's not the way they designed the free entrprise, capitalist model, is it?

I think Obama would do well if he re-framed the entire issue and explained to people that free market capitalism works really, really well on some things (like making better cells phones) and is totally useless on other things that aren't actual products.

Corn, oil, iPods, beer -- all these things thrive and improve under free market capitalism because they are all a) actual physical items and b) are all choices people can make. Now it doesn't have to be necessarily be a physical item, it can be a service. But the key requirement is that it has to be optional in order for free-market forces to really have any effect.

Health isn't a tangible thing and it really isn't optional. A stroke or a heart attack isn't really a "consumer product" in any meaningful sense of the word and it isn't a choice. That is to say, you can't splurge at Christmas and buy a blood clot. Having a crush injury because you got hit by a drunk driver isn't really a consumer choice.

Same with public safety. Safety isn't an actual "thing" that can be sold and it isn't a choice. Police stations can't really compete to improve the product of "safety" in any meaningful sense of the word. Getting mugged or shot isn't really a choice.

Obama needs to shift the thinking and reframe it so that people stop viewing "healthcare" as a tangible product that can enjoy the same benefits of free market capitalism that cell phones do.

It just doesn't work that way.

too bad, if more people were awake during primaries Ron Paul shares this view also.

I have no insurance right now as a student, my mother is a low income student going back to school as well, so right now im down with any option to get me coverage at this point.

Isn't "idealized" or "perfect" insurance ultimately just single-payer by another name?

If everyone has a insurance policy, makes a monthly payment based on income, and then recieves ALL the healthcare they need and never have to pay out-of-pocket expenses (like $25,000 out-of-pocket because their insurance didn't cover all of a particular life saving surgery) --- then isn't that just single payer by another name?

Unless you're arguing that only a small percentage of citizens (based on income) are entitled to comphrehensive healthcare services and the rest must be denied (or must bankrupt themselves for the privilidge of not dying) so that the rich may prosper.

Is "healthcare" truly finite?

That's like trying to argue that police protection is finite and must be "rationed out" by forcing people to buy private public safety plans. Public safety (or the general welfare, as the Founding Fathers called it) would be rationed out by income level. Hardly in keeping with the concept of "All men are created equal...."

Again, health (like public safety or national security) is a concept and not a thing. Free market forces have no effect on "health" because there is no choice.

People cannot choose what illnesses they will or will not get, nor can they choose the exact time or place they will get these illnesses.

Neither do the doctors have any choice. They cannot (for emergencies) choose who they will treat.

If a whino gets hit by a car and requires $250,000 of life saving surgery --- neither the unconscious whino nor the hospital have any choices about anything. They (the doctors) must save the whinos life and they must perform a set number of specific procedures in order to achieve that result.

This situation is unheard of in any other true free market situation (like selling cell phones). Virgin Mobile is not "required" to give be phones nor are consumer "required" to buy them.

Trying to apply the free market to healthcare simply doesn't work because there is no choice.

With all of the economic crisis and the bankruptcy filings, I've noticed there aren't any insurance companies or HMOs going out of business. Yet we see new cancer clinics, therapy centers, and corporate hospital expansions quiet frequently. Does anyone know how this can be? Surely these entities wouldn't take advantage of the very people that they are supposedly taking care of.

How many of these 82% actually will take action to bring us Universal Health Care for all Americans?

the other 18% are millionaires...

We pay almost twice as much for health care as anyone else. We are way down in something like #37 in health care? Because we have the for profit insurance companies taking about one third of our health care dollars. This is STUPID!