Paul - I'm keepin' on. And thank you.

I worked in not-for-profit healthcare for over 20 years. The financial end of things, not as a care giver. I know from experience that our healthcare delivery system has evolved in that time, and the driver has been the insurance companies and the reimbursement system and greed. The hospitals and doctors, the ones that actually deliver the healthcare, have been having a harder and harder time delivering their services. They have been squeezed dry. They can no longer financially deliver the care that they aspire to because it will not be paid for by the insurance companies. The insurance companies are the "Gate Keepers". They are the ones that determine who will get care and what that care will be. Medical professionals no longer make those decisions. The only solution is to get rid of the Gate Keeper!!! The only real solution is single payer coverage ie Medicare for all.

Support HB 626!!!

I still want to know if a like kind bill is going to get introduced in the Senate. Does anyone know?

Exactly, bigassbelle, H.R. 676 Conyers Kucinich Medicare for All bill (read about it above; go to links provided above). Tell your Rep. to co-sponsor.

Thankyou Rebel Farmer for your post here and numerous others of yours I have seen at other locations. You write well, usually seem well informed, appear to have given the ideas you hold forth on quite a bit of thought, and propose solutions rather than just whining all the time. I consider you a cognizant literate patriot who objects to the many wrong paths our country has been led down lately. Keep on keepin'on.

Sometimes I get a bit frustrated by the lack of change that is inevitably due in our country. I've written hundreds of blogs & letters to members of congress & newspapers, and the number of petitions I've signed would easily fill a book, yet while I can see some movement in the right direction little has actually changed in our country. The one thing that keeps me from taking the path of going out and throwing rocks at someone or something is my belief that Voltaire had it right in "Candide" when Pangloss proclaimed, "This is the best of all possibilities in the best of all possible worlds". I've always had the belief patience is the most sublime virtue, and accept the reality of, "Rome wasn't built in a day, but it got built."

We are in a long uphill struggle to take back from the usurpers what is rightfully ours...our airwaves, our governance, our natural resources, our care for the health of our friends, family, & loved ones, our constitutional rights, our court system, our educational system, our voting system, our criminal justice system, our monetary system.

No private company has a right to own what is part of our 'commonwealth'. Our country was started on this concept. Mass. & Va., the first two colonies, were originally founded as commonwealths, and both still are considered as such. Although efforts are being made to do it now no states were ever founded as 'private wealths'. Privatization of basic necessities & governmental systems for the public welfare are just schemes & scams being foisted upon us by the greedy & corrupt to steal from us OUR 'common wealth'.

The greatest threat to our democracy/republic is the inequitable distribution of wealth & power into fewer & fewer hands. A good place to start toward returning our country to the principle of 'commonwealth' is revisiting the 1886 ruling that created entities of corporations. Rulings like that must change with the needs of the times, and in this age corporations must be taken down a peg or two for the good (read survival) of us all.

My mother was an RN who worked at an HCA (Hospital Corporation of America) hospital and even over 35 years ago I was telling her socialized medicine was a right & necessity. She didn't believe me at the time (nor did she believe me in 1968 when I told her Nixon was a crook and would cause our country great problems), but might now if she saw what a mess our health care system is in because of consolidation, mismanagement, and privatization. She was a caring & loving, hard working, educated woman (rest in peace), just not very visionary. Since health care of our citizens is a necessity rather than luxury, it should not be a consideration of a private company's bottom line who lives or dies.

Go now to www.citizensforhr676.org, read it! and then write your congressman and everyone you know. Tell all of your friends to read it and write their congressman!!! Hurry up!!! Do something!

My husband and I currently pay $16,000 a year for health care coverage! The premiums rise every year. This year they went up over $3000. How much longer can we do this? It's more than our house payment! We are insured through a group! We are in our 50's and though we are in relatively good health, it is unlikely we can get coverage elsewhere without exclusions and no one else will pay for prescriptions we already are on... we are considering going without coverage...but who wants to take that risk? This country's health care system a cluster f***!

it is tax time and i'm adding up healthcare expenditures for the last year. over $17,000 out of pocket for insurance for two, prescriptions and copays.

i am grateful that we can afford this, but i think of the millions who cannot and i feel as angry about this as i do about iraq.

Barack Obama has recently stated that he would favor a single-payer healthcare system if the employer-based healthcare benefits system wasn't so complex.

The logical pathway way to simplify the employer-based system is to assess employers what they are paying in premiums to insurance companies to a central, accountable, oversight single payer universal healthcare authority. This isn't rocket science.

The myth of 'people like their healthcare plans' and hence, don't want change, is a propaganda tool by the GOP and its healthcare special interests. What people want is access to high-quality, affordable, and safe healthcare. This is quite different than health insurance.

Healthcare is the vehicle for eradicating vivid inequities in America. It is the only service and product set all of us will choose and use in the course of our lives. Trumpeting the humane virtues of America while enabling by default tens of millions to be without healthcare and tens of millions more to be burdened with outrageous costs is a national hypocrisy of epic proportions.

"Right now, the FDA is trying to disallow alternative medicine. There is a move to remove dietary supplements from the market."

They've been trying to this for years at the request of big pharma who wants to sell us drugs instead of health. If Congress is stupid enough to allow this to happen, there will be civil unrest in this country, especially with so many people without health insurance who are trying to keep themselves well with nutritional supplements.

We seem to define health care in terms of insurance and drugs.

I will be 71 years old next week. My problem is that I have serious adverse reactions to drugs - especially to antibiotics. About 10 years ago, I went to a doctor with an annoying sinus infection. By the time the doctors got through with me, I was allergic to everything and, according to one doctor, my immune system was "over the edge". The attitude of doctors towards people like me who have bad reactions to drugs is that we need counseling.

I regained my own health by careful diet (including organic produce), exercise, and supplements. The local health food store was more helpful than any doctor.

My greatest concern is that medical treatment is defined by the drug companies in terms of the drugs that will create profit for them. Right now, the FDA is trying to disallow alternative medicine. There is a move to remove dietary supplements from the market. The USDA is trashing organic standards. Statin drugs are now approved for children as young as 10. Children are also being given psychiatric drugs.

The current direction of health care will soon remove people's ability to stay healthy regardless of whether or not everyone is insured.

How can we change that?

All I can add to this discussion is that the idea that the pivate sector can do anything better than the govenment is not true when it comes to the public realm. As we know, all corporations exist to mke the most money possible at the least expence to THEM.
Ever since Reagan and Thatcher began to privitise everything they could, public service has declined. Electricity, water, garbage collection, serving and preparing meals for our men in uniform, jails and prisons, the infrastucture, education, health care, savings and loans institutions, voting - all this and more has gone downhill.
These public services are the duty of the government to fulfill. I don't know much about anarchy except the stuff one hears growing up in the USA and it's all negative. But still, these services can't be properly carried out if there is a motive for profit.
There is another bad idea many have bought from the conservative party. Was it Grover Norquist who said he wants to shrink government to the size where he can drown it in a bathtub? We all know who he's speaking for but if my memory isn't completely shot, societies have always needed some form of oversight to establish laws and provide things like education and health care if that society was going to advance.
Back to anarchy and I'll also include communism here. From what I have read there is nothing inherently better or worse about these two things than any other system of runing a society. What I do believe about communism is that we as a people just aren't ready to handle such forms of government. Communism in the 1800's was tried and worked well in cases involving educated and small groups of people. You can refer to John Stuat Mill's observations on communism to read about his thoughts on communism. And this is well before Marx or Engel.

Another tell tale sign that Soylent Green is almost here.
Limiting life span to 60 They called it Going Home in the Movie. The volunteer gets to drink a cup of poison that then he or she watches a big screen TV with pictures of how the EARTH use to be.
All this insurance BS has got us to where we are today. People All People have to start caring for All The People .As far as Drug Companies? Most of their discoveries save you from one affliction while leaving you subseptable to a dozen others.
Why do we not accept death when it comes instead of trying to cheat it.What is really left in this world that is worth living even one extra day? The Earth I know was destroyed in my 60 plus years. Families are not families anymore. Real friends are hard to find.Our Government only reacts to those who have money. Frankly I am beginning to look forward to Soylent Green

WITH REGARD TO YOUR HEALTH SYSTEM IN THE USA.JUST A SHORT COMMENT ON SOME OF YOUR YOUNG PEOPLES ATTITUDE TO IT.
I WAS DISCUSSING WITH THEM OUR SYSTEM IN SCOTLAND WHERE EACH WEEK OR MONTH WE HAVE DEDUCTIONS FROM OUR SALARY TO COVER OUR HEALTH CARE.
I WAS TAKEN ABACK WHEN ONE REPLIED "BUT WHAT IF WE DONT NEED HEALTH CARE THEN THATS IS US WASTED ALL THAT MONEY".
I THINK ATTITUDES WOULD NEED TO CHANGE,IT IS THE WRONG WAY OF THINKING.

As a self proclaimed social democrat I abhor the greed and averice displayed by these fellow citizens. These people with windfall salaries and bonuses should be taxed accordingly. There companies should not be allowed to register overseas and they should face stiff taxation by the U.S. govt. There right to operate in this country should be treated as a privledge and their incorporation should be reviewed annually as to their contribution to the common good. Revocation of that privlidge should be a real consideration of government. All services provided to the people by government should be provided by non profit corporations (true patriots, I would say). Reasonable profits should be allowed to corporations. All windfall or extra ordinary profits should be taxed at the highest level possible as tax breaks should be given at the highest level possible in times of extra ordinary downturn.

As I see it our economy is colapsing. These people, with the help of those in the administration and congress, are looting our treasury and this is an act of treason. These peoples corporations are knowingly overcharging and profiteering through sham legislation and lack of regulation and control. This is also treason.

Fascism as defined is the control of the govt. by corporate interests.

I am an American and I am not a Fascist. I think the majority of Americans would say the same thing.

Be it Republican or Democrat we must take this country back, of the people , by the people and for the people.

"Our health care is in a car that is accelerating toward a cliff," Alan Sager, co-director of the Health Reform Project at Boston University, told IPS.

We've already reached the cliff, and the front wheels are hanging off the edge. It's time to call the tow truck!

Why are Americans waiting for Congress to bring in a single-payer , universal health plan . If Americans admire the Canadian system and those systems in Europe so much then find out what we did . WE DID NOT WAIT FOR THE FEDERAL GOV'T to move their ass on this ; we did it ONE PROVINCE AT A TIME.

The town , not city , not state , not country that I live in , Tsawwassen BC , 120 miles (200 kms)north of Seattle raised enough money in 1966 to build , staff and equip a hospital that still runs on donations and municipal/provincial taxes.All is not perfect; there are a few private hospitals but they are regulated as stictly as the public hospitals.

The superenlightened State of Vermont with all of its little bitty towns voting for impeachment would be a logical place to start . One town , one state at a time and the dinosaurs in Washington will pick up the ass end of the parade some day.

The observation that Opeluboy made is absolutely correct. Healthcare reform is the one hot botton issue that can really mobilize people. And "Single Payer" (not to be confused with "Universal Healthcare")is the only workable solution. So here's the plan: Write your US Reps and tell them to support HR 676 Medicare for All bill. Then tell everyone you know to do the same. It would really be interesting to see the Prez candidates debate this one on the House floor. Is there going to be a bill introduced in the Senate?

For those that understand that we have to have election campaign finance reform,then when you get done with the above, call, write, or e-mail your Congressional representatives and get them to support/sponsor the U.S. House Bill 3099 "Clean Money, Clean Elections". In the Senate, get them to support/sponsor the Durbin/Spector bill "Fair Elections Now Act".

It would really be cool if the debates and votes could actually happen BEFORE the '08 elections. Then the candidates would have to stand on their record instead of feeding us a bunch of sound bites.

Yes, but Kucinich is just a Democrat Party hack. In the last election he said he wanted to bring all the dissidents "back into the big tent of the" Dumbocrats. He sabatoged Nader and supports the Establishment System, when push comes to shove. The guy is all talk except with it comes to Israel receiving 3 billion dollars in aid every year from the US and then he is silent.

It's simple: Universal, single payer healthcare = KUCINICH!
He has it all planned out and worked out with John Conyers. Go to: www.kucinich.us and see it....

In Australia, we have a bulk bill system and private insurance that covers a percentage (average 55%) of sundry items i.e. chyropractor, accupuncture, physiology, etc.
All wage and salary earners above a certain level pay 1.5% of their pay.The system covers all and though the hospitals are often short of funds, it works.

Until both parties are no longer awash in big pharma and other big med dollars, there will only be patch work solutions that both manage to keep the natives out of the streets and the contributions flowing—this has been going on every since Harry Truman's failed efforts.

If the above was just an isolated example of the failure of our government to perform, then I would be more hopeful, but the sad truth is, it is just a part of a larger pattern. Consider the government's performance on the following range of issues: current accounts crisis, ag subsides, loss of mgf jobs, green house gases, immigration, loss of energy security, imminent medicare failure, "theft" of social security trust funds, gross maldistribution of income (48.5% to top 10% of income earners in 2005, the most recent data available), epidemic obesity and coming reversal of decades of improving health statistics, failure to respond to Katrina in both the short and long term, the use of National Guards as if they are reserves, failure to uphold international treaties, precipitous loss of international prestige, a failing auto industry, failure of our fisheries, etc., etc.

I find these failures in toto disconcerting. I don't think we are going to work our way out of this jam by producing more—we are probably already working as hard as we can. And anyhow if we plan to continue multiplying and consuming and excreting (from our SUVs, jets, homes, offices, schools, hospitals, industrial farms, and plants as well as our own bodies) like the hyper multiplying yeast cells in a wine vat, nature is going to deal with us the way it deals with the yeast when the ethanol they are excreting becomes too concentrated, the way it deals with all organisms that don't manage to find a way to live harmoniously within the environment that supports them—not taking more from the environment than it can sustainably produce and not excreting more that the environment can process--that is brutally. Every undernourished child—that is every 4th one—already knows first hand about that, as well as most of the 3.6 billion people living on less than $2 per day.

If there is a way out of this crisis, it involves a paradigm change—a remaking of our social and economic systems so that they will become harmonious with the ecological laws which maintain the integrity of the ecosystem—the ultimate provider of our resources (before they get to the mall.) Sounds all nice and green and wholistic and all that sort of fuzzy stuff until you get down to what it really means: a reversal of skyrocketing population growth, the contracting of first world economies, and the massive sharing of resources--all this fueled by the giving up of a lot of "truths" that the ecological facts of life are rapidly invalidating eg unlimited cheap energy, shopping for entertainment and pleasure, discharge of CO2 no problem, unlimited ocean fisheries, unlimited availability of water, unlimited ability to produce food, we can fix it with technology (see ozone hole), the market is the best solution for all problems (see medical care, see fisheries, see energy), equating success with quantity of resources used, you have a right to whatever you want if you got the money, you can do what you want with your property, it is cool to jet to far away places, buying non local food, etc. etc. These "truths" were quite functional—from white man point of view—when the Europeans hit the shores in 1492, and remained so until our "success," like that of the yeast in the wine vat, began to undermine itself.

Do we just focus on the latest trendy green issue, global warming, and continue on without undergoing the necessary fundamental change? For right now, the answer appears to be yes as even the most serious commentators will not broach the root causes of the crisis: over population, over use of renewable and unrenewable resource base, and maldistribution of resources (which along with over population drives the overuse of the renewables eg. forest, fisheries, ground water, soils, biodiversity, etc.) As has been demonstrated by Zephyr Teachout in the Howard Dean campaign and MoveOn.org, one could certainly create a grassroots campaign which (along with educating its community) could begin moving congress toward the obvious necessary public policy changes: the creation of a quasi gov sustainability institute to to vet any legislation, the immediate halt of subsidies to non sustainable enterprises eg. drilling for oil, and the beginning of the serious limiting of advertising eg. fast food advertising to kids and SUV advertising to anyone (if someone can't come up with this ecologically ridiculous idea on their own, we certainly should not be helping them do that.)

It is not just that we have less renewable resources because of increasing population, there is this ongoing loss of the renewable and non renewable resource base: the atmosphere, the Amazon, the coral reefs, the soils, ground water, glaciers, the biodiversity, etc. What in the past has been an unconscious theft from future generations is now becoming increasingly conscious and demanding of our action as moral agents.

jon
Connecting the dots: from human behaviors to ecosystem collapse
http://StudentsForTheEarth.org

Frequently I run into people who believe politics is best left to others, are totally apathetic about politics or buy into the lie that we have no power, so why bother with politics at all.

But ask them about their healthcare. Suddenly they have an opinion, and it is usually a strong one. Aside from the war(s), there are few issues that affect people so personally.

So when faced with someone who thinks politics, voting, etc., is a waste of time, I bring up this subject, and contrast Republican vs. democratic views and plans. It's amazing how quickly they realize the importance of being involved in choosing the direction this country is headed.

It comes down to their own life.

Big Pharma's big money bought them enough access to let the Republican House leadership let them and the insurance companies write the Medicare drug benefit legislation to suit themselves. Two of the leaders who helped muscle it through the House with threats, promises and one attempted bribe now make big bucks as Pharma lobbyists. And it's not the only industry to be treated so kindly (e.g., Dick Cheney's energy policy group made up of oil, gas, coal and nuclear buddies wrote the Energy Act of 2005).

The answer in health care actually IS HR676, a fine plan that leaves no one out and would save us billions while improving health care. To eliminate the excessive influence large corporations now have, we really need to switch to 100% public financing of elections and free TV and radio time for all candidates. K Street would then have to rely on cogent argument and good information to get anything out of Congress (who after all are our employees, not theirs).

ironic that those seduced by GREED its own sickness would be heavily represented in the "health care" field, i.e. big pharma. Years back the entire Kennedy clan was interviewed on OPRAH and she asked why so many of them dedicated their careers to public service. They answered via the ST. Thomas Admonition, "That to the one much is given, much is expected." How do people (these CEOS) live with such greed? How do they thrown lavish parties when behind the scenes they strongarm third world nations to ensure that their citizens cannot gain access to much cheaper generic drugs? What medicine would remedy the greed that places profit so obscenely before human lives? And one more point. I was caretaker to my father in his final days and those days consisted, I kid you not (and me being the naturalist sort, the routine was a sort of modern hell to me) of going literally from one medical appointment to the next. My father, 86, clinging to life, said with pride that the medical field had many significant strides. I countered that if the strides may have added a bit of borrowed time, but at what quality of life? Watching his body bear the wounds of blood transfusions, the doctors promising the lie of lasting continuity. I spoke with elderly people in medical waiting rooms, and saw the LAVISH expense on these people to what... extend their lives sometimes a matter of months? I understand 25% of US funds go towards extending these final days. And I know many wish to cling to their loved ones, but as a society, perhaps searching for grace near the natural end of life would be more altruistic, since if there are finute resources (?) the money spend on the already dying, might aid the young with a greater cause to live. (Ideally, a rich society would not pit one against the other; but ours does, so I am sharing what I witnessed.)

There is a proposed solution: H.R. 676, the Conyers Kucinich Medicare for All bill. Single payer is the only solution, not a mix of private for-profit insurance companies and government sponsored insurance. That is unsustainable according to any health economic model because the "healthy wealthy" will purchase the private coverage and the "unhealthy unwealthy" will have to go with the gov't sponsored coverage which will bankrupt therefore. We need a single risk pool, single payer formula. For more info: www.citizensforhr676.org

The bill calls for a 15 year plan to convert to single payer and even includes funds to retrain those who would lose jobs due to ending for-profit insurers. (Not that the CEO of my state's BlueCross needs that: in 2005, the CEO of BC/BS of Vermont rec'd compensation totaling $845,000. See why we don't need for-profit companies? Imagine how many Vermonters could have rec'd care for his salary alone!)

i think its pretty clear what Nietzsche means - and the defintion of government can certainly be broadened far enough to include anarchy, but that doesn't much consider what the word means

this form the online etymology dictionary

govern Look up govern at Dictionary.com
1297, from O.Fr. governer "govern," from L. gubernare "to direct, rule, guide," originally "to steer," from Gk. kybernan "to steer or pilot a ship, direct" (the root of cybernetics). The -k- to -g- sound shift is perhaps via the medium of Etruscan. Governess "female ruler" is 1483, shortening of governouresse "a woman who rules;" in the sense of "a female teacher in a private home" it is attested from 1712. Government is first attested 1553, from O.Fr. governement (replacing M.E. governance); governor (c.1300) is from L. gubernatorem (nom. gubernator) "director, ruler, governor," originally "steersman, pilot." Gubernatorial (1734, chiefly in Amer.Eng.) preserves the L. form.

what i believe makes the difference here is the notion of self-rule - which still turns on the word "rule" which is anathema to anarchists and freedom. I think nietzsche is correct in stating that a government's task, when it is theself governance of a democratic country is to provide for the general welfare - see preamble - health of course being the most readily seen example of welfare. all of your point that follows is of course in keeping with what nietzsce says - for a democratic government that does not provide for the health and well being of itself - is one that must perforce be lying and stealing.

Nietshie,

Not sure what are saying here. What exactly would you replace "government" with? Even if you are an anarchist and wish to replace "government" with workers' councils or such, taht would still be a government.

My take on the remark is that health care in most of the civilized world is part of the public infrastructure like roads, water, electricity, not something to be a comodity to be traded on the so-called "free market". The former approach, decried by US elites as "socialist", produces better outcomes by every measure.

The idea (currently being heavily promote by industry) that someone with a life treatening illness is going to to shop and comapare the prices of doctors, hospitals and procedures to find the best bargain, is utterly preposterous. Yet USAns brainwashed into the free-market fetishism cult, actually buy this crap, no pun intended.

"Most countries see it as part of their job to take care of their people" Taking care of their people is the ONLY job of ANY government.

The very fact that Appel thinks it necessary to state something so obvious in the expectation that it will be read without some visceral reaction does more to demonstrate what is wrong with government, any government, than anything else could.

Oh this is the greatest country all right. It demonstrates how easily people can be imposed upon. It lifts a lamp to light the way to other ruling classes the world over: "See how eager they are to be told what to do"

Whatever it says it lies. Whatever it has it has stolen.