tagged w/ Universal Healthcare
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I got to witness something really special. About a dozen tea party activists had staked out Sen. Al Franken's booth, and confronted him loudly when he arrived. But within minutes, he'd turned an unruly crowd into a productive conversation on health care. The discussion went from insurance reform, to the public option, to veterans benefits, to cap and trade. He made a few laugh and even told a touching story that moved a few to tears. A whole lot of common ground was found.I got to witness something really special. About a dozen tea party activists had... more
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Jenime
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5 days ago
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11/9/2009 Ron Paul’s Weekly Update on Healthcare, Congress, Government, and the Constitution.
***This article has been chosen as a discussion topic on PFP Movement Radio, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/pfpmovementradio Friday night at 6pm-8pm. Please Call In To The Show, 347-633-9636. COMMENTS will be included in the show so feel free to discuss or ask questions here on current.com as they will be addressed during the show. This article will also air on Freedom Hour Saturday at 9pm-10pm on Movement TV http://www.peacefreedomprosperity.com/?page_id=36***11/9/2009 Ron Paul’s Weekly Update on Healthcare, Congress, Government, and the... more
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Despite mass efforts by "Medicare for All" supporters, and Pelosi's willingness to allow a vote, Kucinich and Conyers have pulled their amendment from consideration for now.
Kucinich stated the following (http://healthcare.change.org/blog/view/kucinich_tries_to_kill_vote_on_medicare_for_all):
"... we want to offer a strong note of caution about tomorrow’s vote. The bill presented tomorrow will not be HR676. While we are happy to relinquish authorship of a single payer bill to any member who can do better, we do not want a weak bill brought forward in a hostile climate to unwittingly accomplish what would be interpreted as a defeat for single payer."
It makes a lot of sense to me to hold back on support of the current bill before Congress which has been called an insurance industry bailout, since it was largely authored by insurance industry lobbyists. Some say that getting any public option plan out will be a first step. I think doing that could quell and appease reformers into complacency, leaving us with years of continued third world health care in this country.
A weak public option is not a first step. It could be a last step. The real first step was Medicare.
Step two: Medicare for All.
The following letter comes from Healthcare Now, a coalition of Medicare for All supporters:
___________________________________________________________
On the eve of what could have been the first vote on single-payer legislation in our nation’s history, we have just learned that because of last minute developments, the vote and debate on Congressman Weiner’s single-payer amendment will not happen.
Speaker Pelosi received a statement from Rep. Kucinich and Rep. Conyers, the co-authors of HR 676, that they do not think that this is the right time for a vote on national single-payer legislation. They made this statement despite the extensive mobilization in support of this vote across the country. In addition, Speaker Pelosi felt that offering a single-payer amendment would open the floodgates to amendments proposed to limit abortion funds, restrict immigrant access to healthcare, and other regressive legislation.
Let us remember that the potential vote on Congressman Weiner’s single-payer amendment resulted from holding fast to our principles of universal, comprehensive healthcare with no financial barriers. These efforts have brought truth and clarity to a national debate on healthcare reform that has been polluted by the corporate influence over Congress. While the private insurance industry has sent 3,000 lobbyists to Capitol Hill this year, spending 1.4 million dollars a day to shape reform that protects their profits, our calls, faxes, and demonstrations have created the momentum to bring legislation based on HR 676 to the floor of the House and Senate.
The vote for Congressman Weiner’s single-payer amendment would have allowed advocates to have their representatives on record as single-payer supporters.
But this legislative battle is not yet over. Our focus can now turn to two remaining efforts for single-payer in this Congress. Sen. Bernie Sanders will introduce S 703 in coming weeks, and we understand that he is considering editing it to be more like HR 676. We will have the opportunity again to see the first ever vote on single-payer in this Congress. In addition, Rep. Kucinich’s amendment to allow states to more easily implement a single-payer system may be reinserted into the bill during the conference committee between the House and Senate.
All of these efforts are crucial to building the movement for the only solution to our healthcare crisis – single-payer national healthcare.
If this Congress passes inadequate legislation, there will no doubt be emboldened state movements in the coming years. We welcome them. But let us not forget the movement to push our federal legislators to meet the demands of the people, not roll that responsibility onto the states. Healthcare-NOW! and the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care remains committed to a national, single-payer solution to the healthcare crisis. Comprehensive, quality healthcare is a right that should be extended to every U.S. resident.
At this important time, let us not forget how far we have come. Either now or later, a single-payer national healthcare system must come to the table. We will keep building the movement to make that happen.
For healthcare justice,
Healthcare-NOW!
Physicians for a National Health Program
Progressive Democrats of America
California Nurses Association
Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care
Public Citizen
Healthcare for All Texas
Western PA Coalition for Single Payer
Alliance for Democracy
___________________________________________________________
http://www.healthcare-now.org/statement-on-the-withdrawal-of-rep-weiners-single-payer-amendment-to-house-bill/
Visit http://outinthestreetfilms.comDespite mass efforts by "Medicare for All" supporters, and Pelosi's willingness to... more
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So if you're a loyal Democrat, you're probably all riled up about the health insurance reform going on in congress. You're probably anxious for Congress to get something, ANYTHING passed. Not so fast there buddy. Health insurance reform, even if it's done by Democrats could end up making things WORSE, not better.
"What? How could this possibly be?" you might ask. Well...
It's old news by now that insurance giant Wellpoint, owner of Maine's Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, is suing the State of Maine, to increase their profits. But you may not know the entire backstory: Anthem Blue Cross, in anticipation of the individual mandate for health insurance, has jacked up their rates 18% from what they were previously, jacking many people's rates through the roof.
What may surprise you if you're not paying close attention, is that the Health Insurance industry is actually in favor of health insurance "reform." How could this be? Did they suddenly grow a concience, and decide that letting people die to increase their profit margin was wrong? Are they crying out to Big Government to regulate them like Sinners calling out to Jesus? "Please, Government! Save us from our own wicked nature!"
Not a chance in Hell.
It's no surprise that Wellpoint has run television ads in favor of the health insurance "reform" being pushed by Democrats in Congress. If the individual mandate becomes a final part of the bill, whether you can afford to or not, we will all end up having to pay these new increased rates, or face federal fines of up to three thousand dollars, depending on which version of the individual mandate ends up in the final bill.
Maine's state government has the power to regulate insurance rates. In light of this 18% increase, the State of Maine stepped in, and reduced the increase from 18% to 11%. So people's rate are still going up, and health insurance is still becoming less affordable. But that wasn't enough for the private insurance giant.
Last year Wellpoint made $2 billion in profits. In Maine alone, they've paid out over one million dollars in CEO bonuses. Rather than cut CEO bonuses to reduce their overhead, they are increasing their rates. Let's call a spade a spade. Wellpoint is essentially suing to ensure not their profit margin, but their CEO bonus margin.
[full article at link]So if you're a loyal Democrat, you're probably all riled up about the health insurance... more
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asherp
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27 days ago
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Sam Pullen arrested for at a healthcare sit-in, was released Monday after being jailed for 5 days. He tells Amy Goodman his story on Democracy Now. He was released against his will. He was released unconditionally without bail, charges dropped, signifying a victory for his organization Mobilize for Healthcare at http://mobilizeforhealthcare.org.
Sam, as many of us including most doctors and healthcare professionals, continues to fight for universal healthcare for all. The public option which some see as an insurance industry bailout, is not good enough.Sam Pullen arrested for at a healthcare sit-in, was released Monday after being jailed... more
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The President has said that the health care insurance industry is 1/6 of our economy. Which 1/6 would that be? Because 1% of the population owns more wealth than 95%. So isn't that 1/6 of the economy in the 1% part of the population (his friends) on Wall Street and inside the beltway? The 95% can do just fine without the health insurance industry which makes money on their health care and medical debt.
So the argument that we can't have a universal health care system due to it being 1/6 of the economy is questionable. With universal health care we can eliminate medical debt, which is a big part of the problem, since it is the cause of most foreclosures. Yes the health insurance for-profit industry would be decimated. But it is a criminal industry that preys upon people and holds them hostage for their health insurance premiums, denying care when they need it, and effectively murdering 122 people every day who die for lack of care. As public health nurse Maureen Cruise says, they would be jailed in any other country.
The bank, credit, and finance industry should do just fine without the health insurance sector. After all, the health insurance industry has been making record profits, while everyone else, including the credit and bank sectors, languish as corporate welfare bailout recipients despite health insurance record profits.
The public option is just another bailout for the health insurance sector, which needs it the least of anyone.
Visit http://OutInTheStreetFilms.com/?page_id=3The President has said that the health care insurance industry is 1/6 of our economy.... more
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Please pass this on to others.........
On Tuesday, the Senate health committee voted 12-11 in favor of a two-page amendment, courtesy of Republican Tom Coburn which would require all Members of Congress and their staff members to enroll in any new government-run health plan.
Congressman John Fleming has proposed an amendment that would require
Congressmen and Senators to take the same health care plan that they would
force on us. (Under proposed legislation they are exempt.)
Congressman Fleming is encouraging people to go to his Website and sign his
petition. The process is very simple. I have done just that at:
http://fleming.house.gov/index.html .
HR 615 - Please forward to everyone you knowPlease pass this on to others.........
On Tuesday, the Senate health committee... more
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plusaf
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1 month ago
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In my 20 years of practice as a family physician, I have encountered dozens of cases where the main contributing factor to a person’s death was the lack of health insurance for most of their lives.
The lack of universal health care is a mass killer in this country.
Nearly 45,000 deaths in the United States each year are attributable to the lack of health insurance, according to a Harvard University study released in September.
That astonishing figure, which appears in the American Journal of Public Health, is a big uptick from the Institute of Medicine’s finding seven years ago that 18,000 people die each year because they lack insurance and thus have less access to care.
The Harvard Medical School researchers found that an uninsured person’s risk of death is 40 percent higher than his or her privately insured counterpart. Looked at another way, every 12 minutes a person dies unnecessarily because he or she doesn’t have health coverage.
As startling as this 45,000 figure is, I fear it underestimates the problem.
In my 20 years of practice as a family physician, I have encountered dozens of cases where the main contributing factor to a person’s death was the lack of health insurance for most of their lives.
I recall one family that lost three members this way.
George was 21 when he died of complications of juvenile diabetes that he’d had since the age of 2. Whenever George worked for a while, he lost his Medicaid. This meant he could no longer afford to test his blood sugars, they would get out of control, he would get sick, have to stop working, he would spend down, then qualify for Medicaid again. This went on for the three years I knew him.
His older sister Tina also had juvenile diabetes from the age of 6. Her situation was the same — working, losing insurance, getting sicker, not working, getting Medicaid etc. Tina was pregnant at the time of George’s death. Her poorly controlled diabetes made her a very high risk for complications in pregnancy. The baby was born three months prematurely and died in the intensive care unit one month later. Tina’s health worsened after that and within one year she died in post-op after heart bypass surgery. She was 25.
Then there’s Russell — also a diabetic, also on and off insurance. He died at age 37 of diabetic kidney failure. He was uninsured for years.
Another case — Vivian — had warning signs for cancer for years. She finally qualified for insurance but died two weeks into the workup of a pulmonary embolus (a complication of pelvic cancers).
I am only one clinician, and yet I have witnessed dozens of cases of people who died of preventable illnesses — preventable illnesses that could have been treated had these patients possessed uninterrupted, seamless coverage for needed treatments over their lives.
Take my experiences and multiply them 700,000 times for the number of physicians in this country and you arrive at a lot more than 45,000 deaths a year due to lack of insurance.
It is time that our nation join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee seamless health care coverage to every man, woman and child in America.
In other words, it’s time to enact single-payer health care — Medicare for All.
Dr. Deb Richter practices family medicine in Montpelier, Vt., and is a past president of Physicians for a National Health Program.In my 20 years of practice as a family physician, I have encountered dozens of cases... more
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Okay, it's not exactly scientific ... but it makes a point. Well, at least I hope it makes a point.Okay, it's not exactly scientific ... but it makes a point. Well, at least I hope it... more
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year -- one every 12 minutes -- in large part because they lack health insurance and can not get good care, Harvard Medical School researchers found in an analysis released on Thursday.
"We're losing more Americans every day because of inaction ... than drunk driving and homicide combined," Dr. David Himmelstein, a co-author of the study and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, said in an interview with Reuters.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year -- one... more
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Oh reeeaaaallly? I'm gonna read this and memorize it and present it to douchebag republicans next time they wanna talk shit!Oh reeeaaaallly? I'm gonna read this and memorize it and present it to douchebag... more
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"Do you want to see the tooth?" Dr. Mehrdad Makhani asked me Friday morning at the free clinic being staged inside Inglewood's Fabulous Forum. "Come. I'll show you."
Jenny McLean, 36, opened her mouth and Makhani aimed a little flashlight in there.
"You see here?" he said.
The area around a back tooth was red and swollen, and McLean's eyes were teary with discomfort. She'd endured the pain for more than a year because she's had neither insurance nor the money for a dentist since losing her job as a social worker.
It was a story repeated hundreds of times last week at the Forum, where a nonprofit called Remote Area Medical had brought in volunteers to treat legions of the uninsured.
"Here, look at this," said Makhani, pointing to a second tooth that would have to be extracted and yet another that needed a root canal.
Makhani pointed me to another dentist. "Talk to him. He's worked in Brazil."
That would be Joseph Chamberlain, a Westwood dentist who said he's done charity work in Brazil, but not in conditions like this.
"They have a nice system of public hospitals and clinics," he said.
But don't patients have to wait for treatment?
"Yes," Chamberlain said. "But not like this. Not for a year."
Stan Brock, who founded RAM in 1985 to bring medical care to Third World countries, told me that in 1992 he began getting requests to do the same work in the United States.
"The people we're seeing here have teeth as bad as the people in the Upper Amazon," said Brock, who used to tangle with wild beasts on "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom."
It would be nice if we could send Brock to the nation's capital and have him grab the vipers and hyenas by their necks until they work out a healthcare reform plan. But Brock has a better idea: The nation's leaders should instead come spend a day at one of his clinics and learn a thing or two."Do you want to see the tooth?" Dr. Mehrdad Makhani asked me Friday morning at the... more
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If you watch the mainstream press, you will hear that a single-payer health care plan will not be seriously considered by lawmakers crafting reform of the US health care system. Advocates of HR 676, the single-payer health care plan in the House of Representatives, beg to differ. This video follows their efforts at a rally in Upper Senate Park.If you watch the mainstream press, you will hear that a single-payer health care plan... more
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The band “Rage Against the Machine” has a song called “Know Your Enemy” in which they suggest that anyone who calls the USA the land of the free is your enemy. I dissent, but only in part. The USA is rightfully and supposed to be the land of the free, and we should own that. At the same time, anyone DESCRIBING it presently as the land of the free should be questioned, and if they maintain that position, that person may well be your enemy. Here’s why:
The opposite of love is hate but even moreso it is apathy – the “I don’t care whether you live or die” attitude. Someone with that
attitude is your enemy, whether they want to call it that or not.The band “Rage Against the Machine” has a song called “Know Your Enemy” in... more
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Why other Western countries offer no panacea for American woes
ObamaCare is in retreat. That much was clear the moment the president started springing B-grade Hollywood references to "blue pills and red pills" in its defense during his news conference last week. But before ObamaCare can be beaten back decisively, its critics need to answer this question: How did his plan for a government takeover of roughly a fifth of the U.S. economy get this far in the first place?
The answer is not that Democrats have a lock on Washington right now—although they do. Nor that Republicans are intellectually bereft—although they are. The answer is that both ObamaCare's supporters and opponents believe that—unlike Europe—America has something called a free market health care system. So long as this myth holds sway, it will be exceedingly difficult to prescribe free market fixes to America's health care woes—or, conversely, end the lure of big government remedies.Why other Western countries offer no panacea for American woes
ObamaCare is in... more
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Addiction first took hold of Richard Farrell after a torn knee put an end to hopes of a professional athletics career. That same injury started his relationship with pain medication. One thing led to another, as these things do, and by the time he reached thirty Farrell had succumbed to almost every aspect of the heroin lifestyle.
His journey to redemption is chronicled in his new memoir, What's Left of Us. Farrell was one of the lucky ones; after twenty failed attempts, he slayed his dragon at a run-down, state-funded detox clinic in Massachusetts, and went on to fulfill his potential as an author, journalist, teacher, filmmaker and screenwriter.
Many addicts will not be so fortunate. Clinics such as these are the easy victims of budget cuts. As bankrupt states struggle to pick up the incarceration tab for the collateral damage of the War on Drugs, and our federal government goes deeper into debt to pay for its War on (drug-funded) Terror, Farrell's life experience leads him to pose an important question: Have we forgotten the simple laws of supply and demand? By funding these two never-ending wars are we ineffectually treating the symptoms instead of battling the cause? Wouldn't our money be better spent reducing the demand for drugs?
The state-funded treatment of drug addiction has never been a vote-winning cause (just look at the tap dancing Obama was forced to do recently on the prickly issue of needle exchange programs).
Here, Farrell makes the case for a more enlightened drug (and healthcare) policy and talks of the horrors that will likely transpire if we continue on our current course, which is tantamount to treating cancer with a gold-plated plaster -- ridiculous, ineffectual, expensive and ultimately fatal.
Hit the link above to read Farell's essay.Addiction first took hold of Richard Farrell after a torn knee put an end to hopes of... more
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The beltway consesnsus seems to be that the Democrats' prospects of passing meaningful health insurance reform this year have become much slimmer, if they haven't already entirely evaporated. Like Ezra Klein, however, I'm not really sure what everyone was expecting. There is a lot of money -- and political capital -- at stake here. Were opponents of health care reform going to roll over and play dead? Has anything proceeded that differently from how we might have expected it to proceed ahead of time?The beltway consesnsus seems to be that the Democrats' prospects of passing meaningful... more
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Dennis Kucinich is the MAN!
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asherp
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added this
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5 months ago
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Progressive members of Congress need to draw a line in the sand and demand a public health insurance option -- something 76% of Americans want.
They need to Take the Pledge to vote against any health care bill that doesn't have a public plan which is:
available nationwide
on day one
and accountable to Congress and the voters
Please call progressive members of Congress and ask them to Take the Pledge now.
A list of number is provided at the link above.
Call and let us know what they say below....Progressive members of Congress need to draw a line in the sand and demand a public... more
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*Disclaimer*---I DO NOT support Fox News (see: Faux News), I DO NOT support Glenn Beck, but I DO Support Rand Paul. That is why I used this video.
Rand Paul, Kentucky Senate 2010*Disclaimer*---I DO NOT support Fox News (see: Faux News), I DO NOT support Glenn... more
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