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Congre$$, Heal Thyself
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairs the Senate Finance Committee, key to any health-care reform. Baucus has held several high-profile Senate committee hearings on health care, with no single-payer advocates. They were present, though, until Baucus had them arrested-for standing up one by one in the audience, protesting the exclusion of a single-payer representative on the panel. Baucus is only parroting President Barack Obama's pledge that "single-payer is off the table." Yet single-payer health care has significant support among the U.S. public, and increasingly among health-care providers. With single-payer, the government pays the bills, but people still choose what doctors to see. Private health-insurance companies and HMOs-the profiteers-go out of business.
Mike Dennison, a reporter for The Montana Standard, found that Baucus has received more campaign money from health- and insurance-industry interests than any other member of Congress. Dennison told me, "We're talking about the health-insurance industry and ... HMOs, hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical companies-that's probably where the bulk of his money has come from ... out of about almost $15 million he's raised in the last six years, both for his campaign and his leadership PAC, 23 percent of that came from insurance and health interests ... which we believe is probably more than any other member has received."
At a public forum in New Mexico, Linda Allison asked Obama about Baucus' finances: "[S]o many people go bankrupt using their credit cards to pay for health care. Why have they taken single-payer off the plate? And why is Baucus on the Finance Committee discussing health care when he has received so much money from the pharmaceutical companies? Isn't it a conflict of interest?"
Obama dodged the issue of Baucus, but did admit: "If I were starting a system from scratch, then I think that the idea of moving towards a single-payer system could very well make sense. That's the kind of system that you have in most industrialized countries around the world."
Allison's concern about bankruptcy is timely. According to a recent Harvard Medical School study, "62.1 percent of all bankruptcies in 2007 were medical." Many of these people are not from the 50 million or so uninsured Americans, but from among the estimated 25 million who are underinsured. That a person can have health insurance and still be driven to bankruptcy over hospital bills and pharmaceutical costs is a national disgrace.
Just days before Obama addressed the American Medical Association this week, the AMA announced that it would oppose a public health option.
In response, at least one doctor canceled his membership. In his resignation letter, Dr. Chris McCoy of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., wrote that the AMA "couldn't get through the second paragraph before bringing up the issue of physician reimbursement ... the AMA represents a physician-centered and self-interested perspective rather than honoring the altruistic nature of my profession. ... I advocate first for what is best for my patients and believe that as a physician, as long as I continue to maintain the trust and integrity of the profession, I will earn the respect of my community. The appropriate financial compensation for my endeavors will follow in kind."
Recent congressional financial disclosures show that many key members have major investments in the health-care industry. The Washington Post reported this week that almost 30 members of Congress who hold key committee memberships that will impact the health-care debate also have significant investments in health-care companies. The bipartisan group of investors includes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.; Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H.; the family of Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif.; Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.; Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.; Sen. Michael Crapo, R-Idaho-in all, amounting to between $11 million and $27 million (the number is imprecise, since the disclosure forms allow some ambiguity).
According to The Associated Press, Jackie Clegg Dodd, wife of Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., serves on the boards of four health-related companies and earned more than $200,000 last year. Sen. Dodd is sitting in as chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, in place of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.
Congress will soon break for its "summer recess," with members going back to their home districts to raise money, of course, and, perhaps, to visit their hometown health-care provider-paid for by their publicly-funded congressional health-care plan.
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
- Posted in
63 Comments so far
Show AllThe only way we're going to heal Congress is to vote them all out and keep trying our luck with new reps until we hit the jackpot. Good luck trying to tell Congress to heal itself.
Congress knows that voting them out rarely happens. March on Washington with a call to End Health Care for Congress until there is Single Payer Health Care for all.
Yeah, like Pelosi's district re-elected her, even after she'd agreed to give a pass to the Bush administration's usurption of the Constitution. One big happy corporate family.
I'd like to vote out our newly elected liar in chief as well...keep on trying until we get something like a LEADER...not just another politician.
Kucinich '12
The people who make money thanks to someone else's suffering are the same people who have the guts to tell you that they wil make a living serving your interest so you should vote for them. The politician class are the reason we have no single payer healthcare. If Obama continues to straddle all the issues on the fence it might make his butt sore. It looks like we are going to have to make him fall to one side, and I am begining to doubt he is going to fall on ours.
Amy is a goddess, the facts shown here are just more ammunition for us. Yes these people's toes need to be held to the fire when they come around with their begging bowls during congress' break. I am going to organize a group and provide a list of questions to the candidate when he does our little town. People have been forgotten in the cycle of money that the haves built for themselves.
Love
Zero
From the Associated Press:
(Max) Baucus told reporters, "The goal of public option is to keep the health insurance (industry's) feet to the fire. Make sure they do all the things we tell them to do in the legislation." He said another goal is to keep costs down.
But, he added he remains open to "another way to accomplish the same result."
In an interview with The Associated Press, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stressed that Obama is open to compromise on the issue of a public plan. She spoke positively of the compromise proposal of cooperatives, which she said could receive seed money from the Treasury but then be free of control.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090616/ap_on_go_co/us_health_overhaul
*** The fix is in. They've already decided to trash the patheticly weak "public option" and replace it with an idea Republicans pulled out of their asses at the last moment...a "cooperative". Apparently Obama has already given the thumbs up.
what's your best guess:
1. palestinians will have a homeland before americans get single payer health insurance
2. americans will get single payer health insurance before the palestinais get a homeland
3. ricky ricardo himself will rise from the grave banging on the bongos to the tune of "send in the clowns/lucy i'm home" for the stunning climax during the half time show at the next super bowl
(hint: number 3 has the best liklihood of fruition in this lifetime)
Nuff said. Its #3. Nicely put.
Finally! A bit of Hope™ I can cling to.
They may even let Zombie Desi do "Babaloo" for an encore!
· Yr Obd't Servant
I think you're right. #3 is the most likely to happen. And if it does, like others have suggested, I hope Ricky gets to sing Babbaloo as his encore.
Seriously, what 'the people' want sure as shit doesn't seem to have much to do with anything happening in congress and 'the people' seem powerless to do anything about it.
I hardly ever come over here to commondreams anymore and I am trying to ignore news outside a very small circle of reality that is my personal life. What goes on in the larger society seems increasingly unconnected to my individual pursuit of happiness.
While I have a powerful hunch that if 'everyone' had health care and, what the heck, decent shelter and enough food and clothing money, that we might see heaven unfold on earth . . . and I still have teeny tiny dreamy thoughts that someday humanity will figure out how to stop greedy people from bullying the rest of us. . . not in my lifetime, not in my child's lifetime and not, if I ever have any, in my grandchildren's lifetime.
We humans are hundreds, if not thousands, of years away from stopping the neocon loonies.
Health care for all is supported by a majority of Americans, doctors, nurses and health economists.
We already have shelters and food banks and goodwill clothing. But lets not make our goals too big that we never get anything.
14% were considering Nader in the last election and that is before Obama stole 13/14% of those votes with his lies. Now that he has broke all his election promises, I figure that 13% of the voters won't make that mistake again in 2012.
With only 2 right wing candidates for President, the Dems and the Repubs, they can either not make any significant election promises (e.g. McCain) or lie and break promises (e.g. Obama).
I predict there will be a 3rd Presidential candidate with double digits on the score board in 2012. We all still support many sports teams that are losing right now in the hopes they will win in the future. Perhaps because they represent a part of us in some way. Shouldn't that logic apply to our candidates for Congress and the President?
what's your best guess:
1. palestinians will have a homeland before americans get single payer health insurance
2. americans will get single payer health insurance before the palestinais get a homeland
3. ricky ricardo himself will rise from the grave banging on the bongos to the tune of "send in the clowns/lucy i'm home" for the stunning climax during the half time show at the next super bowl
(hint: number 3 has the best liklihood of fruition in this lifetime)
It seems a comprehensive campaign finance reform plan (one that works) should be also on the table so that some meaningful legislation can be accomplished before the end of Obama's term. How can anything be effective with all the lobby money pouring in to the members of congress?
It is disappointing to see Obama get sidetracked by this broken system he has to work with. I think down deep he has the conviction to do the right thing but he needs to be like FDR when he said, "Make me do it." Obama needs the American people to produce a mandate and tell him they are not going to settle so he has no choice but to follow that mandate and has a reason to challenge the congress. An effective change in health care needs to happen as our way of living depends on it.
"It seems a comprehensive campaign finance reform plan (one that works) should be also on the table". Obama raised three quarters of a billion dollars for his run at the presidency, so much for campaign finance reform. "It is disappointing to see Obama get sidetracked by this broken system he has to work with." A system he has done nothing to correct, just look at his cabinet and his team of "advisors".
"Obama needs the American people to produce a mandate and tell him they are not going to settle". A sizable majority of the people are in favor of single-payer, as opinion polls have shown, yet Obama doesn't support that option. Obama is nothing but a run of the mill status quo politician who talks left then governs right.
Hi Newbie, sounds like our last Democratic president. In fact, sounds like almost every Democratic politician we have. Time for a clean sweep. And good luck with that considering the broom we have to work with (clueless voters).
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
the problem with healthcare, like much else, is two things:
(1) private enterprise. turning the necessities of our lives into commodities bought and sold for profits is grossly exploitative and anti-social. cancer and aids patients pay hundreds and sometimes thousands of times the cost of production for the pills that prolong their suffering because private tyrannies know they can exploit their bargaining power to do so.
you can see it on TV when they do home makeovers. a family has a sick member and they are being crushed under the weight of medical bills because they are forced to sacrifice a decent life to pay for profits for a medical insurance or medication or operation. in effect, they pay for some rich a-hole to go on a six week vacation to the Bermuda Islands or to send his snotty children to college in Europe.
(2) markets. that our health is bought, sold and traded on a cold, stale, heartless system like markets is equally disturbing as private enterprises. in markets, you vote with your dollars and those with the most votes get the most say. if you have the luxury or privilege to pay for good health care you can get it, but if you are not so lucky then you will suffer.
some critics point to long waits in Canada and Europe as example of a flaw in the system. The reason we dont have long waits in the US is because those who cant pay for the care dont bother going to the doctor. The problem in Canada and Europe is not that people seek care, but that not enough facilities are in place to accomodate them. How many Americans say they wont get care or attention because they dont have the money? Private insurance is an abomination; a racket.
You are right on. But I would suggest that we have long waits right here in the good old USA. Missed my scheduled primary care physician appointment - had to reschedule 3 months later! This is a long wait, even for someone with insurance.
That's ridiculous. I've been with my GP in Canada for over 35 years and I can phone first thing in the morning and usually get an appointment the same day.
Exactly. This is a case of propaganda being repeated so often that it just trips off the tongue.
There are waits everywhere, depending on the region, the availability of facilities, the procedure, etc. I live 1/2 mile from the hospital where my doctor practices. Sometimes I get in to see her the next day, sometimes the next month. Right here, in the good ol' US of A.
So, the "issue" of waits in Canada and other countries with single-payer universal health insurance is dishonest. A red herring. A canard. A dead issue.
Next...
the issue of waits is exaggerated but the waits do exist. but the problem behind the waits isnt single-payer. the problem is lack of facilities, and as you pointed out, depending on location, procedure and so on.
in the US waits are rare because those who need care but dont have insurance or the money simply dont go.
my best friend has a messed up knee and insurance but wont go over costs.
my bro-in-laws wife has knee problems too but no insurance so wont go.
Sioux Rose
TRUTH: Excellent points and analysis. I was thinking about the way all aspects of life, even genes, are now rendered into commodities that don't exist in their own right, but rather on account of their perceived value as articulated by a casino-like apparatus entirely based on betting. That the well-being of our citizens is now about to be traded (through insurance companies and their stockholders' call for profits) demonstrates how far this nation's ethics have sunk. I would add to your list that basic foodstuffs are also seeing their pricing defined by Wall St and its gamblers. To impoverished folks around the world, that difference of pennies can and does mean life or death. When speculation becomes the basis of a nation's economy, all bets are (or should be) off! Makes me wish Jesus would return to overthrow the tables of the moneychangers who have turned Wall St into the temple of their living god, mammon.
Insurance companies are selling a defective product: an insurance policy that doesn't protect you. The majority of bankruptcies were caused when people were unable to pay their medical bills, even though many had insurance. Congress has acted to make corporate bankruptcy merely an inconvenience, while they do nothing to protect citizens from being made destitute from a circumstance beyond their control, one they even bought insurance to protect against.
Why are medical costs so high? Ask a republican and they'll say it's because technology is producing the best care in the world. It is your choice to use it or not. They overlook a couple of issues.
One reason why costs spiral out of control is that medical device manufacturers want to sell as much product as possible. They are helped by competing hospitals who buy expensive equipment even if the hospital down the road has it. Republicans pretend that capitalism produces that equipment unaided by government subsidy, but no hospital could afford them without an increasing supply of money.
Another reason, and one that most people don't know, is that our congress got together years ago and created Group Purchasing Organizations or GPOs. Out of that grew a monopoly that legally skims 6% off of all hospital purchases. Making the situation even worse, this purchasing system enters into various contracts with suppliers for extra profit. The supplier actually pays for the opportunity to be on the GPO's list of providers. Needless to say, this is not delivering the best value possible to hospitals. Even though they get a portion of it back - that's why they're in the group - much of that money goes elsewhere.
When republicans raise the issue of "choice," they are suggesting that the above delivery system is a free market one. They also conveniently overlook the fact that a free market only exists when a buyer and a seller freely agree to a price. And we all know that is not the case when someone is trying to prevent the death of someone they love. No one gives a damn about money when that is the case.
So you have a very elastic demand - money no object, do whatever it takes. This problem is also inherent in the hospital administrator's ability to pass on the cost. No way we would have the system and the costs we have today if the supply side of the scale was not being tipped by the government making those cost increases possible.
Making the problem even worse, we have the layer of insurers who can pass along increases in cost as well as increases in profit with impunity. For example, Uncle Sam's premiums are going up 8% this year. That cost is simply passed along to the taxpayer.
If the republicans were truly concerned about the free market and choice, they would let the market set the amount of care available and let the patient's ability to pay set its price. It would be an awful mess, but if republicans want to put their money where their mouths are, that's what they would advocate.
Instead we have both parties concerned about the health and well-being of already very profitable corporations. As in 2003 when the industry received over $600B in subsidies, congress's solution is to increase the tax money going to the supply side. Another $600B will do nothing to increase the efficiency of supply or make the product more affordable. It will make things worse.
Of course, our health, our care should never have been made into a product to begin with.
What you said.
Sioux Rose
PITCH FORK: Great post. I didn't know all that! Apparently there are parallels now with respect to the dental field. I recently had to have a tooth extracted, and instead of handing me a typed sheet of follow-up instructions, I am kept in one of the 7 chairs in this SINGLE dentist's office while a very sophisticated screen shows me, via video (from a selection of about 30 videos) how to proceed. I recognize in MY bill how this dentist endeavors to pay for all this fancy high-tech stuff. The overhead video also shows my Xrays immediately after they are taken. And I am made to agree to a variety of procedures that I don't necessarily want, but according to her office MUST agree to BY LAW. And once I am out of there, I can't remember half of what the video related, so would have preferred the single sheet of instructions on paper!
What's very problematic about American medicine is that little goes into prevention or educating persons about diet and chemical exposures. Instead, to those who have good insurance a battery of expensive tests are scheduled.
My best friend's Mother recently had stomach pains and was admitted to the hospital and died in the midst of all those tests. My friend's sister considered suing, but then decided against it. What my grieving friend said to me stays with me, "They're just like us." What she meant was that for all their years of medical training, many doctors can't tell one set of symptoms from another and thus rely on a great many tests. More than 20 years ago my Step-Mother had some unusual pains and decided to go with our neighbor's brother, although he had a reputation for being expensive. Even back then the tests were over $700 and what pissed me off was he STILL could not define the problem or how to alleviate it. We are a Guinea Pig population!
I have a cousin who for years was diagnosed with Lyme Disease though he's hardly a camper. More recently they've changed the diagnosis to M.S. I see him rarely but noticed he was drinking a diet drink and I believe THAT is the culprit; but he's over 60 now and has had some major physical deterioration, in part as a result of a faulty diagnosis. These examples make me very conscious of what I put into my body. I'd rather eat nothing than 80% of what is sold in America. And it's really a problem when I am on a road trip. Eighteen months ago I drove to my town in Florida from North Carolina and NEVER stopped to eat. I got to my house (yeah, I sped and luckily got no speeding ticket) in about 8 hours and made a GREAT meal... not a recipe for the faint-hearted. A nation that loves guns and war is NOT healthy; and that helps to explain why providing CARE, a VENUS value is not on its top ten list of things to do!
Congress needs to go to jail first before it will even think of healing itself !
What is the hurry? Why does Obama need the reform by the August recess?
This is one of the largest acts of legislation in American History -
Every single American needs to understand the problem
Every single American needs to learn the options
Every single voice should be heard - town hall meeting, internet or otherwise.
We CANNOT trust our representatives - The people must be educated and must be heard.
Push back the legislation until next summer
Educate the public and provide public forums - not closed door hearings with Backass.
Next year is an election year - Americans should know how their representatives voted - just before the elections - so they can be removed if necessary.
Obama is afraid of losing his majority - so he will give us a crappy plan to keep the majority in power?
Our question to our representatives and our president should be - What's the hurry? - If they can't answer, they should be voted out...
Sioux Rose
DUCK: Notice it was that same "emergency" call that pushed through the invasion of Iraq and throwing an embarassment of riches at all those wonderful bankers. The recipe for "Disaster Capitalism" involves a very speedy BLOW to the public's temple; then it's much easier to grab their wallet(s). It is increasingly improbable to make a case for anything other than the fact that our so-called leadership is nothing other than an organized crime sindicate. The only difference, they're not generally of Italian descent. (Sammy Davis, Jr. could have done a great Obama had he lived long enough!)
Agreed - Obama is giving us bread and circuses while he systematically strips us of any possibility for true reform.
The American Public has been played for fools once again..
Not only is he afraid of loosing his 'majority' (which will probably not happen), but he is afraid of loosing the financial support of medical establishment, legal establishment and insurance establishment, all of which support Democrats to a large degee. As Ralph Nader wrote today, although 'candidate' Obama said that he supported a single payer system, President Obama has learned that he must 'go along to get along'.
Yeah. . . what the heck is the hurry? I don't care if Obama gets something by August. . . I think most people care that real, good, meaningful change in delivering health care occur. . .
One thing really burning me is that the AMA uses its power to maintain the status quo. I wish healers would do some inner work and trust that their needs will be me if they do the work they are called to do (healing work), do their best and trust.
I sure wish our elected leaders would start talking about things like trust. Everyone in public discourse (the ones who get to fund politicians and, more nominally, the politicians themselves, I don't have any illusion that we the people get to decide anything) should be talking about what is the right thing.
Then, after agreeing that the right thing is to create a system that meets the very real human need for medical care, then set out to design a system to deliver it. Trust that everyone who works in the system will earn a reasonable wage and design a system to deliver the needed care. Eliminate insurers and profit: it would be relatively easy to design a system to deliver care and compensate the people working to deliver it cause that's all we need to fund. Care and the caregivers.
I never had any illusion that Obama was a progressive. I always thought he was a lot like Clinton, determined to drag us all to a middle mediocrity, but that Obama has a little more discipline. He believes in the system as it stands.
I think about the only good thing about Obama is that he is black. With that single stroke, he has shifted the landscape for the whole world. It doesn't really matter if he acts like all the white men who had the job before him. The simple power of his race is changing our culture. And that's about all the good he is going to do.
Just look at him waffle. He believes in maintianing the status quo. Like many, he can't see any other way.
We need to throw out how we deliver health care and start completely from scatch. maybe create some kind of public panel whose recommendations would have the power of binding arbitration. Appoint ordinary citizens, lots of health care professionsl, a small percentage of health insurance types because they aren't really relevant to delivering human need to humans, some economic experts, some scientific experts and lots of ordinary committed citizens willing to devote a huge chunk of time to studying this problem and creating innovative new solutions. We'd be better off putting all Americans names in a hat and pulling out names arbritrarily than allowing obama and other politicians choose this panel.
I would sure like to hear Obama and other putative leaders talking about trusting.
I sure wish medical doctors would trust that their needs will be met.
When the number of uninsured reaches 100 mil. it still won't matter to the other 200 mil. with Ins. until they lose theirs'. That's the country were now living in. It's the bitter fruit folks of 30 yrs. of concerted Conservative and Reactionary education and media. America's real motto now is "Every man and women and child for himself!" In God we trust all others pay cash!
Corporate money buys congresspeople. One has to be rich otherwise to get elected. For the most part rich people are inclined to vote their own interests. Thus the disparity in income between rich and poor grows ever wider. Only thru public financing of elections will we get legislative fairness.
That, and forcing the media to comply with the Fairness Doctrine and making free airtime available to qualifying candidates as a condition of them receiving their broadcast license.
Corporate money buys congresspeople. One has to be rich otherwise to get elected. For the most part rich people are inclined to vote their own interests. Thus the disparity in income between rich and poor grows ever wider. Only thru public financing of elections will we get legislative fairness.
When I asked Jason Almire, my Congressman, if the $700,000 he has taken from big pharma and Helth insurance interests he seemed genuinely offended. He said that these were cheap attempts to impugn his integrity.
What we have here is a case of brain washing. Jason, whose previous career was as an HMO lobbyist was already a true believer, the fact that he takes money doesn't influence him at all. I believe this is true of most Congressman. They sold out long before they ran for public office.
We can't expect much from Congress if these are the people we elect. Our only democratic hope is to get these people out of office. Primary challenges if you want to stay in the party or support of a third party if you are as disgusted as I am.
Sioux Rose
TAMMONS: I would say both aspects apply; that is, he's a true believer, but he is also open to graft. Notice his sense of entitlement at YOUR expense; and the deft use of that certain criminal finesse in turning your honest observation around to make it an indictment of you. Like how dare you question him, as if he, as one of our leaders/representatives has ANYTHING on record that remotely demonstrates integrity (as per his recent votes).
Legalized extorsion...throw out all the lobbiests who represent profit making industries, and all the incumbents who have consistently voted to have warfare(on our people as well as those abroad) our main exports, (war, grief, despair while the right would have you believe that the US is a 'christian' nation)...time for a quantum evolutionary step beyond this present illusion and into reality....or we are all doomed to extinction.
Obama has caved on every issue so far, so why should we be surprised if he does so with health care?
Like the Clinton's before him, he has said one thing in the campaign and did another in office.
Meanwhile we are given the Obama Show. Trips to get hamburgers, dates with his wife, and a new puppy.
While millions go bankrupt, he panders to the Republicans and their corporate needs.
Mr. Obama, if not now then when?
"Baucus has held several high-profile Senate committee hearings on health care, with no single-payer advocates. They were present, though, until Baucus had them arrested-for standing up one by one in the audience, protesting the exclusion of a single-payer representative on the panel. Baucus is only parroting President Barack Obama's pledge that "single-payer is off the table."
I took a lot of flack yesterday for saying the above. Single Payer as is dead as Carthage and has about as much chance of rising. So why is it so hard to understand it is over?
Anyone expecting the Imperial Presidency to change course now is in for a long wait.
Sign Bernie Sanders petition for single payer at this site,
http://sanders.senate.gov/petitions/index.cfm?uid=7fd59f2e-88e1-477a-8eaf-762a5b050809
I would like to pay for Single Payer thru a FLAT TAX, NO CAP. The Reichists like flat taxes, give it to them on this issue. How to figure the rate? We can come up with the amount needed to fund Single Payer and divide that into the amount of wages and compensations earned. Income redistribution?? Well, I guess but we are a nation. We are in this as one people I thought. At least that is the tune sung in the anthems and in the Reich Wing Media Organs when bodies are needed to go fight and die. There is a crisis in our nation and the Rich Reichists need to dig deep and help out the nation.
300,000,000 citizens...550 national politicians...
600,000 to 1...and they run things?
dubet, 550 plus the deadliest army, navy, air force, national guard, mercenaries, FBI, US marshals, swat teams, cops and God knows what else, to keep the US population in check. All these people are trained KILLERS, and they like their jobs. No, the citizens of this nation have no chance against these foes. You no longer live in a country of laws. I'm not going to list all the recent executive orders that allow the executive branch to declare a state of emergency and confiscate money, gold, transportation, weapons, houses, farms and business. They can also make you take experimental drugs, force you to work and move you to a different region. Can you say freaking SLAVERY.
Sioux Rose
SANITY: One can almost hear the loudspeaker over the modern American (coming) work camps: "Attention! You are all Free Slaves now! It is time to go your work posts. Proceed in an orderly manner."
Things off the table:
Ending the war/occupation of the Middle East
Bringing war crime charges against Bush, Cheney (and now Obama, Pelosi)
Single payer health care
The questioning of providing bailouts to corporations with our tax dollars
Regulating Banks and Credit card corporations (or any other corporation for that matter) against corruption
Having Obama's government become more transparent and public than Bush's
We have the best government that money can buy.
Hope is the opiate of the masses.
This is what Medicaid is like for chronic pain patients:
No diagnostic tests
No referrals
No treatment
But: All Pharmaceuticals all the time
This costs MUCH more then diagnostic tests and treatment (but profits the HMO more financially). The Medicaid system will pay thousands of dollars for patients to be on multiple drugs and antidepressants but won't pay for the MRI which will diagnose what is causing the pain. Some corrupt doctors often interpret all pain as "depression", and get their kickback in the mail for writing the prescription. (They sometimes even "fudge" medical records to not include patient’s statements about adverse reactions to drugs this is very dangerous!) Unless you want drugs that actually kill pain - they they don't get the kickback since these drugs have been around for eons. But the system will pay for Drug Rehab (where they will push patients to take even more antidepressents and psychological drugs). It's insane.
When doctors order an expensive diagnostic for a Medicaid patient - they get their job threatened by the CEO that runs the HMO (this cuts into the profit the CEO uses for corporate travel and other perks). The patient has to go to the doctor several times before the Dr. will even consider ordering tests (appointments paid for by the taxpayer).
The HMO's don't care if the Medicare system pays too much for Dr. appointments and drugs - that financialy rewards them. When the patient becomes a pest and repeatedly demands diagnostic tests - the are sent into surgery or other invasive procedures that often fail, giving more profits to the technocrats of medicine - and MORE pain and suffering to the patient (and more drugs).
Insured Auto accident victims get Physical Therapy, massage, chiropractic, etc. The medical Industry claims this is only palliative and not curative to chronic pain patients (which is BS) so pain patients on Medicaid are denied these treatments. The drugs are palliative, not curative, and the healthcare system pays for that!
The way to reform the healthcare system is to start with getting the Profit motive - especially the blood sucking insurance and pharmaceutical corporations - out of the prime decision making position AND rid ourselves of their paid off politicians. In other words, get the crooks out of it entirely!
People have to understand how corrupt the system already is before they push for taxpayer funding of more of the same - Or else the money will continue to flow to the Drug and Insurance industries. The aging population will be used like Pods in the Matrix - funneling huge profits to corporations. The insurance industry wants an even BIGGER piece of this and is now chomping at the trough of government corruption to get it.
We must not only have Single Payer for everyone, but also equal access to good medical treatment for everyone.
Insurance should be for things - Not People
I receive my medical care through Medicare and Medicaid and I have for a long time because I am permanently disabled.
I have never had the kinds of experiences you describe, Revenge Girl. Perhaps you are describing things that happen when a Medicaid recipient enrolls in an HMO. Since I am eligible for both programs, my situation might be different but I don't think people on Medicaid have to enroll in an HMO. True, someone on Medicaid has to find health care providers who will accept Medicaid but it is not hard to find them. Maybe in rural areas without a lot of health care facilities but in cities?
My gosh, I get all my medical care at Stanford University. All big medical centers take medicaid.
I actually have a significant, ongoing problem with chronic pain that will probably increase as I continue to age. I have never had any trouble getting treatment for it. Never has a doctor ordered a test for me that was not covered. . . . but, then again, I did not make the mistake of enrolling in an HMO.
Well, I have just remembered one. A couple years ago, I developed a painful foot conditions. I had some kind of spur or something. My doctor referred me to a foot doctor and the foot doctor's office informed me that my insurance would not pay for the foot doctor. But I could still get my foot treated by a primary care doctor, just not a foot one.
I made the mistake of going to a facility that Became an HMO in the 1990's and I didn't realize it is like stepping over Dracula's threshold - he can only spellbind you if you enter voluntarily.
I have had the worst medical "Care" you can imagine. I was made to wait a year for diagnostic tests for what the doctor said was a “muscle strain” which turned out to be a severe spinal injury with several herniated discs and torn tendons, for which I was originally prescribed Paxil and sent home without even an off work slip.
My worker comp case was denied because of theis doctor.
During the Corrupt Bush years, when my state suddenly cut back and kicked everyone off the prescription drug program people were dying because they could not get their medicine. The state told everyone to "Apply to the pharmaceutical companies special needs programs and they will "give" you your medication if you qualify" (and get a tax write off!). That's fine, except when you are too sick and no one will help you. The emergency rooms were full of people going through withdrawals from prescribed medications. Including from so called "off label pain medications" that are really antidepressants and seizure medication. When I went to a hospital to get help I was diagnosed "alcohol dependent" and I do not drink at all (tested negative for it and all street drugs). They tried to load me up with antipsychotics; it was the most corrupt viper’s nest of Republican snake oil salesmen I ever met who fabricated my medical records in order to get money.
I got out of that situation with the help of a friend and have never taken a medication on a daily basis since. The healthcare system is not to be trusted and people who think it is haven't really experienced it yet because they have MONEY or LUCK. I have met a dozen corrupt doctors, a few that were just doing their jobs badly and one or two good ones. None of the good ones take Medicaid. You never get to meet the HMO CEOs - they are too busy going to spas for "corporate training" seminars.) The most corrupt are the facilities that the State health insurance recommends.
The"Health" Care" system almost killed me but I'm still here to warn people what the money taken out of their paycheck really pays for. Before we give them any more money the system needs to be changed completely.
Revenge Girl, sounds like you live in Oregon. When they cut off the prescription drugs for mental patients we had a hideous rash of suicides.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
PS. Tree Fitz, sorry you're in pain.
I forgot to tell you...
I had a sprained ankle once.
The HMO cure for that is - no diagnostic tests or specialists:
Just… "Neurontin, Lyrica, Cymbalta, Ultram"
(Some of these drugs make people hallucinate - but it lasts longer than LSD and isn't any fun, then when you stop taking them your ears are ringing for a year.)