tagged w/ healthcare reform
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The Obama administration and Senate Democrats are debating a health care reform outline that will insist upon a public option for insurance but leave open the possibility for it to be kicked in via triggers.
Multiple Democratic sources tell the Huffington Post that the White House and key members of the Finance and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committees are in the process of hammering out key principles on health care reform -- with a meeting scheduled at the West Wing this afternoon. One of the components will be music to progressive ears: that any bill includes an option publicly run health insurance coverage. But it also comes with a caveat that could engender opposition from that very same constituency.
A trigger would pave the way for public option to come into place only after certain market conditions are met -- mainly if private insurance companies are unable to achieve various metrics for coverage within a certain time frame. The proposal would placate many of the private health care actors who consider a public plan the first step towards a single-payer system. Progressives, however, view it as reform in name and not substance.The Obama administration and Senate Democrats are debating a health care reform... more
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President Barack Obama warned on Thursday that if health care reform didn't take place this year, it won't be completed during his presidency.
"We need health care reform legislation that works, that preserves what works about health care, that fixes the things that are broken. And I think the status quo is unacceptable " said the president, on a conference call with volunteers for his leftover campaign arm, Organizing for America. "And we have to get it done this year. If we don't get it done this year we are not going to get it done."
Underscoring the high stakes of the debate, Obama called on his supporters to make the same organizational effort on behalf of health care that they did during the election. There were, he said, few more important issues facing his administration.President Barack Obama warned on Thursday that if health care reform didn't take... more
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"Single-payer" isn't mentioned anymore, and now even Obama's Medicare-like public insurance initiative looks unlikely"Single-payer" isn't mentioned anymore, and now even Obama's... more
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he Wingnut explains why socialized healthcare sucks
Our undercover conservative answers a tough question: If socialized medicine is so awful, how come no country that's adopted nationalized healthcare has ever gotten rid of it?
Editor's note: "Ask a Wingnut" is written by a real live conservative and former Bush official who chooses to remain anonymous. Each week "Glenallen Walken" will bridge the cultural divide and answer questions from liberals about why conservatives think and do what they think and do. If you would like to submit a question to "Ask a Wingnut," send it to mschone (at) salon (dot) com.he Wingnut explains why socialized healthcare sucks
Our undercover conservative... more
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The most stunning and least reported news about President Barack Obama's press conference with health industry executives this week wasn't those executives' willingness to negotiate with a Democrat. It was that Democrat's eagerness to involve those executives in a discussion about healthcare reform even as they revealed their previous plans to pilfer $2 trillion from Americans.
That was the little-noticed message from the made-for-TV spectacle that administration officials called a healthcare "game changer": In saying they can voluntarily slash $200 billion a year off the country's medical bills over the next decade and still preserve their profits, healthcare companies implicitly acknowledged they were plotting to fleece consumers and have been fleecing them for years. With that acknowledgment came the tacit admission that the industry's business is based not on respectable returns, but on grotesque profiteering and waste -- the kind that can give up $2 trillion and still guarantee huge margins.
Chief among the profiteers at the White House event were insurance companies, which have raised premiums by 119 percent since 1999, and one obvious question is why -- why would Obama engage those particular thieves?
It's a difficult query to answer, because Obama is a healthcare mystery, struggling to muster consistent positions on the issue.The most stunning and least reported news about President Barack Obama's press... more
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Doctors and other advocates of a national single-payer system–also known as Improved Medicare for All–directly confronted Senators at the Senate Finance Committee roundtable on health reform today.
The single payer advocates wanted to know why single-payer experts were being excluded from the roundtable of fifteen witnesses.
The doctors said that a publicly funded, privately delivered single-payer system is the only solution to the crisis plaguing our nation’s non-system of health care. It covers everyone, and contains costs.
“Why isn’t single-payer at the table today?” they asked.
Despite polling that shows a clear majority of public and physician support for a single-payer system, Senator Baucus, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee has stated on multiple occasions that single-payer is “off the table” of health reform.
Today’s round table, the second of three, consists of 15 witnesses with no single-payer advocates.
Doctors and activists representing a coalition of single-payer advocacy organizations including Physicians for a National Health Program, Healthcare-NOW!, Single Payer Action, Private Health Insurance Must Go, the Campaign for Fresh Air and Clean Politics, Prosperity Agenda, and Health Care for the Homeless dressed in black in memory of the 22,000 people who die every year due to lack of health insurance.
They spoke out at today’s Senate Finance Committee Hearing one after another during the opening comments of the discussion.
“Health insurance administrators are practicing medicine without a medical license,” said Dr. Margaret Flowers, Co-Chair of Maryland chapter PNHP. “The result is the suffering and death of thousands of patients for the sake of private profit. The private health insurance industry has a solid grip on patients, providers and legislators. It is time to stand up and declare that health care is a human right.”
Much to the frustration of Chairman Baucus, multiple disruptions demanding single-payer be on the table set the tone for the second of three roundtables on Health Reform by the Senate Finance Committee.
“The current discussion on health reform is political theater at its best. Our elected officials are hosting these events to go through the motions of what developing effective national health policy should look like. There is a big difference between getting health policy experts in the room and the witnesses here today who would profit the most from reform. That difference means our hard earned dollars will go to further insurance industry profits, not to guarantee health care to the American people,” states Katie Robbins, Assistant National Coordinator of Healthcare-NOW!, representing thousands of citizens in support of single-payer health care.
“It’s a pretty spectacular display of raw political power,” said Russell Mokhiber of Single Payer Action. “The health insurance industry demands that not one of the fifteen people who testified today shall be a single payer advocate. And the industry gets what it wants. It’s time for the American people to storm the gates and demand – put single payer on the table.”
Single-payer is successfully implemented in the United States’ own Medicare system providing comprehensive care to the elderly, as well as in many of the best health care systems in the world. A single-payer system as embodied in legislation HR 676 and S 703 would provide guaranteed, quality care to all Americans at the same cost of our current system.
Single-payer advocates will continue to use direct actions and nonviolent civil disobedience to urge the inclusDoctors and other advocates of a national single-payer system–also known as... more
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asherp
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added this
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3 years ago
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Baucus told the head of CBO last Wednesday that the CBO will play a significant role in efforts to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system because the agencies cost assessments will make or break this enterprise. Experienced observers assert that this is Baucus way of pressuring the agency to come up with figures to justify the kind of healthcare reform Baucus wants.
The fact is, the CBO has issued a series of recent studies which have found that most savings claimed, in the effort to keep private-for-profit insurance companies in the mix, do not exist.
Alternatively, a single-payer system would save more than $350 billion per year, enough to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all Americans.
The CBO has been recognized for the accuracy of its findings and projections and for its non-partisanship. Lets keep it that way.
Tell him we need accurate numbers not creative figuring. Single-payer should be on the table and should be given a full and fair hearing by the Senate Finance Committee.
Easily email Sen. Baucus here, or contact him using the following information.
Senator Max Baucus
511 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-2651 (Office)
(202) 224-9412 (Fax)Baucus told the head of CBO last Wednesday that the CBO will play a significant role... more
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Barack Obama's plans to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system would cost the federal government $75 billion the first year but would provide health insurance for 95 percent of Americans, consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers said on Wednesday.
This works out to about $2,500 per newly insured person, the firm said in a report.
"The plan would increase to $1 trillion cumulatively by 2018 or approximately $130 billion per year," the report said.
While the plan would extend health insurance to two-thirds of the 47 million people who currently lack it, the overhaul may worsen some problems, such as a shortage of primary care doctors, the analysis found.
"Unless costs are cut, growing health care costs will increase the costs of Obama's plan dramatically over time and reduce the effectiveness of mandates. This could make the federal costs unsustainably high," the report said.
"Because of the deficit and financial crisis, there's unlikely to be any new federal money available, so health reform may require reallocation of dollars already in the health system."
Dr. David Levy, health industry specialist at the consulting firm, said the current financial crisis does not outweigh the need for healthcare reform.
"We think this is a moment in time, with ... Obama's election, when in fact we could see not a stalling of healthcare reform but a potential acceleration of healthcare reform," he told a telephone briefing.
"Maybe this crisis has helped unleash more market forces to drive this system toward more value for patients," he added.
not sure if this will work. i do not go to hospital unless there is blood involved...WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Barack Obama's plans to overhaul the... more
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Student government leaders from across the country attend a conference and hear from a wealth of healthcare experts on the realties of this nation's healthcare crisis and proposals for potential solutions. This is part 3 of the five part series that provides highlights from the confernce including remarks from:
-US Representative Jim Cooper, (D-TN)
-US Senator Bob Corker, (R-TN)
-Stephanie Kennan, healthcare policy expert and author of the "Healthy Americans Act"
-Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a former member of President Clinton's Health Care Task Force, author of "Healthcare Guaranteed" and current Chair of Bioethics at the NIH Student government leaders from across the country attend a conference and hear from a... more
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Student government leaders from across the country attend a conference and hear from a wealth of healthcare experts on the realties of this nation's healthcare crisis and proposals for potential solutions. This is part 2 of the five part series that provides highlights from the confernce including remarks from:
-US Representative Jim Cooper, (D-TN)
-US Senator Bob Corker, (R-TN)
-Stephanie Kennan, healthcare policy expert and author of the "Healthy Americans Act"
-Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a former member of President Clinton's Health Care Task Force, author of "Healthcare Guaranteed" and current Chair of Bioethics at the NIH Student government leaders from across the country attend a conference and hear from a... more
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Student government leaders from across the country attend a conference and hear from a wealth of healthcare experts on the realties of this nation's healthcare crisis and proposals for potential solutions. This is part one of the five part series that provides highlights from the confernce including remarks from:
-US Representative Jim Cooper, (D-TN)
-US Senator Bob Corker, (R-TN)
-Stephanie Kennan, healthcare policy expert and author of the "Healthy Americans Act"
-Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a former member of President Clinton's Health Care Task Force, author of "Healthcare Guaranteed" and current Chair of Bioethics at the NIHStudent government leaders from across the country attend a conference and hear from a... more
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NEW YORK (AP) -- Elizabeth Edwards said Saturday that her passion for reforming the nation's health care system has been "a great refuge" for her during the recent turmoil over her husband's extramarital affair.
Edwards, who has incurable breast cancer, also said medical tests this week showed that her condition hadn't worsened since March of 2007, when she and her husband, former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, announced her cancer had returned and spread to her bones.
Edwards was interviewed at the New Yorker Festival by medical writer and surgeon Atul Gawande, who asked how she was managing to continue speaking out publicly on health care, given the turmoil in her personal life.
"Partly by plowing through, like I intend to do with your question, as well," she said, to laughter and applause from the audience.
"The ability to speak out doesn't require a particular skill. It requires one thing - passion about what you believe in. And that passion has been a really great refuge for me," she said.
On her medical condition, Edwards said doctors don't believe the cancer has spread to her lungs or her liver.
"It hasn't really changed since March 2007," she said of her condition. "Then they gave me five years, so if I had five years then, I have five years now, and if I can just keep that up ..." The crowd interrupted her with laughter.
Edwards ruefully described a day recently when was having unrelated stomach troubles, and said that when she checked a Google alert she has set up for her name, she read that she had been sick.NEW YORK (AP) -- Elizabeth Edwards said Saturday that her passion for reforming the... more
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ivxx
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3 years ago
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The statistics are compelling and from them it is clear that without profound reform, the millennials stand to suffer disproportionately from the impending healthcare crisis. The financial burden that healthcare is placing on the future of this country is evident in a vital yet unsustainable Medicare program, the fading of a once dominant American competitive advantage in the global economy and the growing inability of our healthcare system to guarantee affordable access to all Americans. With a problem as large and complex as healthcare's rising cost, it is difficult to even know where to start. What we do know is that we should start today.The statistics are compelling and from them it is clear that without profound reform,... more
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