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Doctors' Group: Obama Plan Leaves Millions Uninsured, Boosts Private Insurers
WASHINGTON - President Obama's health care proposal, preserving as it does a central role for the for-profit, private health insurance industry, is incapable of achieving the kind of universal, comprehensive and affordable reform the country needs, a spokesman for a national doctors' group said Wednesday.
"Regrettably, the president's proposal is built on some of the worst aspects of the Senate bill," said Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, an organization of 17,000 doctors who support single-payer, Medicare-for-All approach to reform. Young's statement comes on the eve of the president's bipartisan summit in Washington.
"For example, the president's proposal would ship hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to the private health insurance industry in the form of subsidies," Young said. "And to help finance this, it would impose a new tax on health benefits of workers, especially those in high-cost states.
"Its individual mandate would force millions of middle-income uninsured Americans to buy insurers' skimpy products - insurance policies full of gaps like ever-rising co-pays, deductibles and premiums. Such policies already leave middle-class American families vulnerable to economic hardship and medical bankruptcy in the event of a serious illness like cancer," continued Young, citing a recent study.
"Even so, at least 23 million people would remain uninsured," he said. "We know that being uninsured raises your chance of dying by about 40 percent," he continued, citing another recent study. "That translates into about 23,000 unnecessary deaths each year. As physicians, we find this completely unacceptable."
"In short," Young said, "this proposal is an insurance company bonanza, not good, evidence-based health reform. The president would do better by abandoning the insurance and drug companies and instead taking up the single-payer approach." His group has estimated that such an approach could save hundreds of billions of dollars annually by simplifying health administration.
"By building on and improving the already popular Medicare program, we could put our patients' interests first," he said. "Were President Obama to do so, he would meet with strong public support, including from the medical community."
Although the physicians' group requested an invitation to Thursday's summit at Blair House, no reply from the White House has been forthcoming, Young said. Similarly, requests from Reps. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, Anthony Weiner of New York and Peter Welch of Vermont president that single-payer advocates be included in the meeting have apparently gone unanswered.
Outside the Blair House on Thursday, a grassroots "Sidewalk Summit for Medicare for All" will underscore popular support for the measure.
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112 Comments so far
Show All-" the president's proposal is built on some of the worst aspects of the Senate bill"
to be fair, the Democrats would say that this is pure coincidence.
-"Although the physicians' group requested an invitation to Thursday's summit at Blair House, no reply from the White House has been forthcoming"
They are not trying hard enough to get invited, otherwise Obama would have them arrested.
They called slick Willy Clinton the great communicator. Obama is the great capitulator.
Obama and the Democratic leadership focus hasn't learned any lessons from lost political races and polls, as it continues to try and jam through remnants of a bad bill so it has something to wave in front of the electorate in their political campaigns this fall. The party is a failure.
Obamacare will give the Republicans a formidable weapon in THEIR campaign arsenals during the 2010 elections. The Republicans won't even need to fib to convince voters how bad it is. Democrat incumbants will be on the defensive all the way.
Health care is all about Freedom. Health means Life: Health means Freedom. See and study what George Lakoff has to say about framing and metaphors.
This can be a learning moment for the progressives.
He who can frame the question wins the day.....
IE Who what that lady I saw you with last night?
Well, this states it pretty well; now let's see what the Fawning Corporate Media will do with it -- ignore it probably, like they've ignored the extensive lobbying by big pharma and insurance companies and how the biggest recipients are the unreform bills' biggest supporters.
Gary
"Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon."
-~ Doug Larson
All valid points, lucidly stated. Denied! Unfortunately they are falling on deaf ears, being that those ears are stuffed with insurance industry money which we all know speaks louder than words.
Everyone who has any say in this matter is busy scooping up reelection money, and that includes our President. And thanks to the Supreme Court, this is just the beginning of where things are headed. Our country is being run by mercenaries and sociopaths.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
In most Canadian provinces, medical care can make or break a government.
Apparently, in the USA, healthcare isn't so important an issue, and social-climging politicians and profit-seeking Big Insurance can play around with it like it was a big nerf football.
Americans don't care about their own health so much as they care about low taxes and a free market for all businessmen to exploit - no matter what their business is.
Recently, I joined a group specific to NYC that continues to work toward a single-payer health care system for this country. Tomorrow (Thursday, Feb. 25), we are meeting at 100 Centre Street at 8:45 in the morning -- at the Criminal Court of New York City.
There are other actions taking place in other cities. For information about the actions, you can go to:
http://www.healthcare-now.org/
I don't see any actions in L.A.
If anyone knows about any Single Payer events in Los Angeles, please post the info.
Thanks.
Of course, single-payer advocates are still being shut out of the discussion, as they have been since this circus began. As jlocke says, Obama will have them all arrested if they actually try to participate. They're probably terrorists anyway, as is anyone trying to advocate for justice in any form. No, they're going to shove an utterly worthless insurance reform bill down our throats and congratulate themselves on a great victory. Let's hope the goddamn thing dies stillborn and Obama has to wear the badge of failure for the next three years. Not that this is any Republican victory either. They may have managed to kill this piece of shit bill for all the wrong reasons, but that doesn't mean it was ever worth saving. Both parties deserve to be boycotted and abandoned by the public, because neither of them serves any of our interests or needs. I've never voted for a Republican in my life, and from now on I'll never vote for a Democrat either.
I'm with you Ephraim. The Democrats have seen their last vote from me and they've received plenty of them from me in the past. Bring on president Palin. All the sooner we can flush this toilet we call government and start from scratch. This Obama guy has turned into a first rate clown. Unbelievable.
Lefty - I agree. I am beginning to think that I would rather have Palin or some other rightwing idiot in the next time so the masses can finally be awakened from their b.s. induced hypnosis. Democrats, specifically the DLC, steal from us quietly - while the fascist republicans at least do it with verve and nerve. If the people have to rise up, it will be better if it happens sooner rather than later.
odoco should be careful of what he wishes for. Hitler didn't awaken the German masses before he drove them off the cliff.
Hi Solo,
This corporate fascist juggernaut is not one man. This is made abundantly clear by the performance of Obama. It can shape shift into any form it likes. Whether it be Junior or Obama, Clinton or Reagan, the results are the same. You are thinking 1930's in 2010. You are being driven off a cliff today and you don't even know it. It is unfortunate.
Sioux Rose
Maybe the nation will get lucky and a real terrorist will bomb the Chicago School.
It is not only ridiculous, and short-sighted, but criminal in every way but title, that these types of pay-the-elites to frisk us, diminish the worth of our assets, and increasingly place our lives on the line (if not by courting war through an all balls/no brain foreign policy, then through the dangerous chemical exposures compromising our health in covert, insidious ways) are being held up as official state policy. A new Divine right of select owners privilege themselves with the right to lay access to all our assets and our very rights to life!
Chris Hedges was right. We are being turned into serfs, expected to pay rent on our very LIVES to the same small elite groups that are ready to forfeit these as collateral damage, the cost of doing business, when business is all about war. U.S. economics today damage so many, while benefiting so few. It's the same game plan with respect to global warming (no sane measures to conserve resources), to illegal foreign wars, to the looting of our treasury to cover the BAD bets on Wall St. and even now, the same crap tables are playing high stakes gambles with OUR life savings. Our property values have been sliced in half (in many instances), our education system in tatters, our food corrupted... and both "official parties" play to the same CRIMINALLY NEGLIGENT PATHOLOGICAL sponsors.
Bad play! Somebody turn on the lights!
Dang Rose! I'm liking that revolutionary beret you're wearing today.
Sioux Rose
Hi, LEFTY: It's like insult, slap in the face/pocketbook, assault after assault on the part of our "leaders" in office to hypothetically REPRESENT our interests! I guess dealing with my taxes this week is adding to my "mood." If you caught my relating the incident where I almost drowned in an undertow (I decided to swim at a dangerous time having just gotten my Life Saving Certificate) that's what my personal economics now feel like. It's the economic equivalent of drowning to deal with insurance/taxes on properties, insurance/registration on vehicles, sales taxes, user fees on everything, inflated credit card interest fees, and income tax. Added to the minuses in the form of actual income, savings, stocks, and property values. What a trade-off!
The more things are tanking (and/or heading south) due to the "savvy management principles" of those in charge, the more they are charging ($) us! The "Peter Principle" meets "The Chicago School," it would seem. It makes one hope that whoever sleeps with Grover Norquist pulls a "Loreena Bobbitt."
The paradigm stinks to high heaven! The grotesque theater of the absurd seen in the money thrown at the gamblers drunk on their own UNEARNED profits in a fast and loose dance of casino-style capitalism, and/or war after war... while there is NOTHING for THE PEOPLE... I think the Chicago School having been the black waters from which the spawn of these fiscal crises were delivered, is an APT target.
Qualifier: I have no personal interest (Hi all you Homeland Security personnel. Are you having a nice day today?) in being involved IN any such target operation. I am speaking metaphorically. (Metaphor = Painting a picture with words)
Good qualifier SR, and you gave a nice simple definition of metaphor so that the intellectually challenged folks at the Reichssicherheit-hauptamt can understand.
Sioux Rose
SOCIALIST: I appreciate your seeing what I see. Although it's now both fashionable AND apt to BE paranoid (given the fact that Homeland Security has its well-paying sights set on U.S.), some still think the presence of interlopers amongst us is a pretentious or contrived possibility. And newcomers to CD don't know what to think. Our pointers help them along.
Sioux Rose:
Yes indeed; a lengthy but very informative article on globalresearch.ca goes into this in some detail under the sub-title "Could Martial Law Come to America?"
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17736
Sioux Rose
SOCIALIST: Did you catch the opening scene in "Brazil" where after the anti-terrorist squad arrests what turns out to be the wrong man, his wife must sign the paperwork consenting to the FEES for said arrest & charges. We ARE nearly there... by whatever name they call it. Next they may start asking for the first born daughters, shades of the BRAVE HEART film-story. Maybe that would 'rouse the sleeping giant of a public existing in a semi-somnambulistic state, what with lies for news, faux filler for food, and utter exhaustion from the long labors of often meaningless jobs.
LEFTY: I hear you. I know people with jobs they feel desperate to keep. Meanwhile others are being "down sized" away effectively leaving my kin and friends with the equivalent of TWO jobs under the "new & improved" banner of one. Then, too, there are all those "independent" contractor gigs with NO benefits attached. Talk about a throw-away society becoming its own human version of that very thing.
I still feel it's the boomerang of karma. Our nation, out of its sizable blessings in natural resources, human innovativeness, and geography (situated far away from "enemies)... could have used its fortune to build up the world, lift many out of poverty, illiteracy, and despair. Instead the bad boys with their lust for killing put on uniforms, got well-paid by a monstrous Mars-oriented organ, and went to war/work killing so many of the poorest and weakest of persons. It is nothing short of diabolical. And since it's now official state policy, it's not really a wonder that so many are being brought to their knees in the land of the anything but FREE.
When the Republican president is warning you about the military industrial complex, you would have thought our ears would have perked up. Indeed I thought they had. When I think back on my youth and the optimism that the 60's cultural revolution brought to me, I can only wonder what went wrong. Peace, love and dope turned into hate, drug addiction and death. I watched the transformation with a front row seat. We were on the cusp of something good but we couldn't take the next step. The bad karma you speak of seeped into our lives like an insidious virus. Many of the hippies I know from the 60's have turned into shameless money grubbing hacks, abandoning their leftist ideas, transforming themselves into convenient middle of the road mush. With that capitulation, the country became rudderless and the fascists seized the rudder. What surprises me about the 60's is the fact that so few came out of the era to continue the work. When the war ended, it shut down. I always knew that there were plenty of herd animals that were just going with the flow of the movement. What surprises me today is the fact that so little positive has stood the test of time. In spite of a black president, we are rolling back full steam to the racism, sexism and paranoia of generations past. Plenty of bad causes today, pumped into our brains by an endless stream of high tech propaganda. Very few willing to stand up and point out that the emperor has no clothes on.
I too cry at what the sixties (and early seventies) promised for us, and what we later became. The revolution stalled when the cause célèbre of Vietnam petered to a tragic close. The life went out of the movement, and crass "reality" set in as the sharing became selfishness once again.
Now it is difficult to believe how infused with real change so many of our generation were. We were ready to scrap all the old hatreds and barriers, and turn everything upside down. Capitalism was seen as the cancer it truly is, and America as Amerika. It was a palpable feeling of union and trust and even joy at the courageous collective actions of the many.
And, for the most part, we lost it all. The System corrupted us. We joined in the rat-race. We became drones in the hive-mind of conformity and gutlessness. We remade the world alright, into a even more perverse military-industrial-complex where the political system is utterly debased.
It makes me cry for what we cast away.
Gary
"The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Sioux Rose
LEFTY/GARY: Our instant-gratification society conditions us to expect change in the blink of an eye, whereas our human-ego demands that we see change within our own life-span.
What happened in the 60's was an awakening, the fruit of which went latent, its seeds held safely in the bosom of the earth until such time as the atmopshere would support their growth.
I have related many times in this forum that the earth element focuses on the material world and thus capital. The highest of the 3 earth signs is Capricorn, and the 5 outer planets with orbits ranging from 12 to 248 years have all made transits through Capricorn in the past 30 years. The entire "flavor" of jurisprudence has reflected this in its own earthbound, pro-property (over human rights) stance.
My point is that there are "rivers" in time that bring with them specific currents. The conservative ethos was in synch with the past 30 years... but a complete shift is coming... this is the final phase of the Piscean Age with fish opposing fish. Pisces, the sign of deception is really out-doing itself insofar as the signs of our times. Good = evil, leadership = criminal enterprise, green technology = nuclear, war = peace, etc. We often comment on how the language used by elites and suffused throughout our media echoes the admonition of George Orwell.
It is a trying time to say the least; but it's short-sighted to presume the values and ideals of the 60's died. A Renaissance to humanitarian values is part of the Phoenix process, that is, what shall rise from the ashes of centuries of hierarchical oppression of too many by too few, for reasons they dreamt up and erroneously gave the Divine's signature and sanction to.
I hear ya Rose. I'm sitting upside down with my mortgage, flat broke with one graduated, one dropped out and the last one graduating from university next year. Those teaser credit card rates used to be illegal. I've worked hard all my life but could be laid off tomorrow. Shareholder is king, employee so much crap on their heels. The environment at work is absolutely horrific. They know where they got us and the treatment is in line with the reality. I'm supposed to worry about talking about open source revolution? They can come and get me. I'll probably be laid off in the next year or so anyway so I can spend my retirement in prison. When they have stripped everything of value away, make you grovel when you have cancer, there isn't much to fear.
I hope today's fire stays with you. These are painful transitions but I suspect if we remain true to ourselves, we'll come out stronger.
I hear yah, Lefty. Now, if we could only figure a way to stick around and give our kids emotional support when times REALLY get hard for them. This is the saddest part of all.
Hi kat,
The really hard times are here. Six figure debt for a college education, no job upon graduation. Nothing more than indentured servitude to banks. The remaining career paths pointing towards war, death and oppression. No economic plan on the table outside of unsustainable ponzi-like growth. One thing is certain, I'm going down swinging. I feel much shame and disgrace but I have not lost all hope.
Going down swinging is a great idea. But for many of those who's lives are being chipped away one bit at a time, will have nothing left to fight with when all is said and done.
Maybe we could emigrate. There could be an exodus of some kind. :) I hear Venezuela could use some help.
Yeah, it's high time we seceded from this Christo-Corporate-Fascist nightmare. Every State for itself.
Hi Humbaba,
There is a lot to be said about secession. If things continue to spiral into the abyss, I think we'll start seeing it a lot sooner rather than later.
Even extending Medicare to those 10 years younger would prevent illness from becoming chronic, by catching the illness at it's inception. Congress people complain that those on Medicare are really sick, thereby costing more money. Many of the population don't have health care prior to retiring and getting Medicare. This translates into the sick getting sicker as they wait for coverage. Merely restructuring the system could save money.
You make a valid point and all the more reason they will never expand Medicare. A government that actually works is the last thing these fascists want.
Those damn meddling doctors should get back to work and leave it to Obama to do the reform. They don't have any business campaigning against insurance companies. Without insurance companies, those damn doctors wouldn't be able to pay for those frivolous lawsuits. Better build some more prisons in case those doctors do some lawbreaking again. Pesky welfare varmits wanting free government handouts !
I hope you wrote this tongue in cheek.Even so it was not funny.
If you did not mean it to be funny then it is plainly stupid or your a stupid troll. Isn't there a bridge you should be under?
This guy is just one of the resident right-wing trolls who simply tries to get a rise out of folks by cutting and pasting Fox News talking points. Most folks just ignore him
I'm shocked, how could this happen in a democratic society? How can both parties defy and ignore public opinion for decades and get away with it? What can we say when the Ds are more pro-corporation and anti-citizen than the Rs?
What shall be done to stop this?
Chip in together by the hundreds of millions, ten bucks to a c-note apiece and buy the results we want? Seems the only way. Be as corrupting as big business and "capitalism."
Gary
"Capitalism and the market are presented as synonymous, but they are not. Capitalism is both the enemy of the market and democracy."
-- David Korten
The push for this health care reform originated with the insurance monopolies themselves becaused they are alarmed that so many young healthy people are not buying their crap so along comes Obama to promote their idea and he began campaigning on this even talking about a public option to engage liberal democrats in the movement. So now after over a year of watching the corrupt congress discussing various pro-industry reforms they have a final product which is a boon to its principal sponsor the insurance companies that will get about 50 million slaves as new customers some even subsidized and all guaranteed by force of law to buy protection from the organized crime families of the health insurance industry.
Way to go, BO!
Can we recall Presidents like we recall Toyotas? This is an emergency situation.
Ted Kennedy's Seat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHpqcLdU28w
That's the American system in a nutshell, folks. I won't even call it capitalism as it's contrary to even the most fundamental principles of that economic theory. In the U.S., profits, incentives and bonuses are awarded to corporate interests that contribute VALUE NEGATIVE services to the commonweal.
The insurance industry's sole "contribution" to health care is to turn your money into profits for themselves by providing as little of it as possible to actual health care providers. At least the mafia mobsters are more honest and call that "public service" what it is: SKIMMING OFF THE TOP.
Even the most ardent proponents of pure capitalism should oppose that perversion of their pet "value added" theory of competitive "free market" enterprise. But don't hold your breath.
RV, your second sentence--"I won't even call it capitalism as it's contrary to even the most fundamental principles of that economic theory"--only means that your theory is no good.
Evidently it has escaped your notice that your "value negative" to the "commonweal" is "value positive," i.e., profit, to the corporate capitalist/imperialist elite that is running the world to hell. (That's real and private profit, RV, not your profit "in theory." You can read about the real thing in corporate financial statements, free on the web.)
After all, it is "value" judgments that we are disputing, is it not?
And please don't tell us (again) that Americans can't bear to hear the truth about their beloved capitalism. So what? Most of them can't stand the truth about themselves; which is not a problem for the truth-speaking minority.
The problem is that your "truth" is derived from and defined by the practices and propaganda of the "elite" that you deplore. To follow your totally illogical reasoning is to blame democratic theory itself for the perversions and misrepresentations that they label as "democracy" in the U.S.
Capitalism isn't MY theory, nor theirs, nor yours. And neither are you the arbiter of "the truth" of what I'm allowed to tell anyone about anything here or elsewhere.
The origins of capitalist theory are generally credited to Adam Smith who stated that economic theory's purpose and consequences as operating "in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value." Ergo, any system whose practices are not only inconsistent with that purpose, but the consequences of which are precisely the contrary, cannot be regarded as fulfilling the intent of that capitalist economic theory in practice.
The bottom line is that American "capitalism", like its "freedom and democracy" is a complete sham and perversion of what it claims to be. And if you really think that its health insurance industry produces the greatest value in return for your money, or any non-negative health care value at all for that matter, I have some swampland for sale cheap.
Actually Adam Smith never used the words "capitalist" or "capitalism" for his theory of wealth. And certainly wasn't the "father" of capitalism, not even "modern" capitalism. It existed well before the late 18th century even if theory took a while to catch up. Otherwise your post has considerable merit. Kudos.
Gary
"Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate."
-- Lord Bertrand Russell
I have tried and tried to find a reason why I should ever vote for the Democrats again, and frankly I can't think of one. I would never ever vote Republican, but I sure as hell won't vote Democrat ever again. With exception to only a few in Congress, who are so few they have become irrelevant to passing anything meaningful to ordinary Americans, the entire lawmaking body and the White House are nothing but a cancer destroying this country from within to its very core. I am DONE with these sorry-asses!!! They can all rot in hell.
Amen Nancy. Well put!
Well said, Nancy!
I'm right there with you Nancy.
I third this post!