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TechnoratiWhy Can’t a Better Health Care Plan Be the Next Stimulus?
We bailed out the banks to the tune of 2 trillion dollars in the past year, put through an enormous stimulus bill, bailed out the European banks, put through yet another war supplemental, and never asked how we were going to pay for it. We just wrote a bunch of big checks.
But now that it has come to taking care of the health of Americans, well, we have to tighten the old belt and it's suddenly "pay-as-you-go."
Everyone is obsessed about "how we're going to pay for this" when discussing health care. And as long as we're prisoners of a CBO score (is it $1 trillion? $1.4 trillion?) we're going to wind up passing a bill that does not cover average Americans in the way they need to be covered so that as a country we can step forward into a new business era of international economic interdependence. Other industrialized nations cover health care. We're saddling business with that cost, and a huge chunk of what we are planning to spend will go to bail out insurance companies.
Meanwhile, just as Krugman and others predicted, White House aides are saying we need another stimulus plan. Joe Biden and Steny Hoyer have sent up trial balloons.
Middle class Americans pay huge premiums every month for junk insurance. Four hundred, six hundred, a thousand dollars a month easily. Even if they have employer-based insurance, huge deductibles mean that every trip to the doctor is costly. If those costs get cut, a huge financial burden is lifted off average Americans. They are no longer prisoners of a job, or a state, just to keep an insurance policy they can't leave without risking their economic security or their health.
But more importantly, a huge burden of anxiety is lifted from Americans in a time of economic insecurity. If a plan is passed that only affects the poor, it's going to anger the middle class when they are the ones that get shafted once again. It's only going to increase anger and frustration that there is nobody at the helm who cares about them, and confirm their fears that government exists to benefit Wellpoint at their expense.
I was up on the Hill yesterday, and discovered that Congress never had ordinary people come and testify about their insurance company horror stories, because nobody wanted to piss the insurance companies off. It was incomprehensible and outrageous.
Compared to the huge sums we've shelled out without batting an eyelash over the past year, why are we going to have a shitty, compromised plan just so Blanche Lincoln and Olympia Snowe can achieve their objectives of protecting insurance company profits, when for $30 billion more a year we could actually do it right? Why is that suddenly such a big price tag?
In short, if we need more economic stimulus, why aren't we talking about health care as economic stimulus?
36 Comments so far
Show AllBetter health care would require better doctors. Most of our health care could be performed by a street hype who knew how to write a script.
"Dr House" would be run out of town by his incompetent Fellows.
Pick-Em:
1. Pay-to-play is The American Way.
2. Some staff and Members of Congress prefer to have a lucrative future in the healthcare industry or with its finanical beneficiaries than screw up the status quo by developing a lean, clean single-payer machine.
3. Some Members fret over the futures of their kinfolk, who are so entrenched in lobbying for the industry that it is counter-intuitive to effect change we can believe in.
4. Those with platforms ... in the White House and in Congress ... have failed to be Educators. Absent what they haven't told the public about how abusive, fraudulent and wasteful specific organizations have been, the information deficit nurtures an edition of 'reform' which will be nominal in quality enhancement and cost-effectiveness.
5. ... which leads to the failure of the media and other societal institutions to expose truths, which are not self-evident. Think about it! During the President's ABC News forum on health care last month, Diane Sawyer quoted The Lewin Group Study. It is owned by UnitedHealth Group. The vast majority of even the most intelligent media fail to check their sources.
6. Americans require disgust to effect substantive change. It was true of the Civil Rights Movement ... the Anti-Vietnam War Movement ... and other dramatic social changes. Absent disgust, they buy into the B.S. perpetrated by their elected officials.
7. Somewhere between those who are content to be insured by their employers (decreasing benefits and increasing out-of-pocket costs) and those in government who promised that we should all have the access to the 'insurance' that Congress has, there is no room for those with weak or no healthcare coverage.
8. Progressives have failed to capture the attention of the silenced majority. Tactically and strategically, they have been splintered, meek and unsophisticated.
9. The industry has been effective in staying in the game. Insurance, hospital, and drug companies have sold 'proposals for reform plans' ... and The White House and Congress appear to have bought it.
I pick All of the Above.
"...the White House and Congress appear to have bought it." And what the monopoly bought is a piece of the "food safety" bill that criminalizes the act of speaking or writing a health claim without FDA approval. At all costs, maintain the monopoly. The White House and Congress know exactly what they're doing. They have only "bought it" in the sense that they may think this could be the best ploy with which to sucker the public.
Are you the poster who wrote about Dr. Mark Hyman? If so, thanks. I looked him up and functional medicine is comparable to nutritional medicine and natural medicine. In other words they seek to treat root causes, not symptoms--the only way to run a health care system.
And another thing:
Bernie Sanders is once again reading his tear jerking health horror stories in the Senate. For christ's sake, Bernie, stop the theater! You know your collegues have no conscience. You know the elites don't care. You know those of us who wrote those letters from Vermont and other places might feel better that you are "on our side" but it doesn't amount to a hill of beans as to getting universal health care legislation passed. Are you some kind of socialist token noise maker to pacify the masses? We aren't stupid, Bernie. You refuse to filibuster the war funding. You refuse to call Obama a turncoat. You continue to caucus with the Democrats. You work with Republicans on bi-partisan legislation. You are a liar and a hypocrite, Bernie. I wish it weren't so.
Why can't health care be a stimulus?"
Because there is no money and the idea of a stimulus is silly. This is a problem of debt and you can't get out of debt by borrowing more. You have to pay it off or write it down. We've been avoiding this for 30 years and now it's time to pay the piper while those who have been fleecing us will be on an island in the Persian Gulf or in mountain fortresses.
"This is a problem of debt and you can't get out of debt by borrowing more. You have to pay it off or write it down."
How old are you? I remember when Ronald Reagan said the same thing. They were screaming that our country was going bankrupt in the late seventies. Yeah sure, now it's worse. So how come we have a trillian bucks a year for war but are wailing about a trillian and a half in TEN YEARS for health care? I'll tell you why. Because the numbers are similar. It's a PR game. They are leaving out what war would cost for ten years. We'd have a collective heart attack if they publicized that. They knew a trillian would get our attention so they ran the numbers for ten years, not one year like they should. And don't give me that crap about this and that program going bankrupt. The blatantly illegal amount of 12 trillian dollars in one fucking year has been handed to elite wall street bankers so spare me the alligator tears about DEBT. If the rich think they won't be left on the hook to pay this shit, they've got another thing coming.
Cassandra may have a point though. The funding for Obama's stimulus bill that passed earlier this year was based on the same kind of funding that Dubya's tax cuts for the wealthy/corporate elite and Iraq war was based on, borrowing from China. The same thing can be said for the Wall $treet bailouts. Now, single payer health care doesn't carry a price tag anywhere close to that of wars, bailouts, and tax cuts. In all cases, we're trying to fund something with money we don't really have but are borrowing. It is possible that when the US borrows from China or wherever, there's a stipulation tied to it but I doubt it. Still, since it would cost far less to fund single payer than it would wars and bailouts so I still agree that it is a blatant double standard to push for more war and bailout spending and yet say "pay as you go" on something like single payer that costs far less. We have to draw a line somewherein all of this.
"We have to draw a line somewhere in all of this."
Jennifer,
I agree. I am drawing the line at war profiteering. You are drawing it at health care public option costs? No you aren't. I've read anough of your comments to know you don't trust our crooks in congress but you still believe we can pressure them somehow. I respect your opinion but I think they'll just game this thing with a pretty name and no substance. I hope you are right and I am wrong.
I'm old enough to have voted for Clean Gene McCarthy. So what if Reagan said it. It was true. He was just a hypocrite who pretended to be fiscally conservative while he dug a 2.4 trillion dollar hole in 8 years with total complicity of the Democrats. I've been concerned about gov't debt since 1970 when I saw what Viet Nam was doing to the federal budget. Wealthy people have gotten their kicks from war for millenia. Americans got suckered and now there is no fixing this, at least any way the federal gov't will do it.
The way to get access to healthcare and slash costs is by changing how medicine is practiced. If everyone who went to a doctor with some complaint were tested for gut pH, vitamin D status and allergies and problems were corrected a significant percent of illness and medical costs would just go away. Many other simple treatments and self-care would further reduce costs. Then national health care for catastrophic illness would be easy to pay for as would covering people who could not afford their own care.
I don't cry alligator tears over debt. It is a fact. This is what the banksters and their gov't shills have done to countries all over the world. It's just taken them longer to do it to us because we had so much more. They own us and they call the shots. Ask Senator Durbin.
If you don't believe me about medicine search Dr. Mark Hyman, functional medicine, pyridoxamine Spend $49 for a 1 yr subscription to Nutrition & Healing. You will find research and references and 9 years of archives with a good search engine. The author is a physician with over 35 years of his own family medicine practice. www.wrightnewsletter.com
Don't want to spend money? Go to www.hsibaltimore.com Sign up for free e-alerts. Search the archives for anything and see what turns up. Ignore the ads and focus on content.
Okay, I see what you mean. you didn't address the PR issue on money playing games but you are clearly on board as to why we have wars and war spending.
On the healthcare issue, you are preaching to the choir. Although I am a retired air traffic controller, I took pre-med in college towards the end of my FAA career so I know a little about the medical issues. The main issue is the premium placed by the medical community on diagnostic skills. The fact is that if
1) Everyone had access to comprehensive diagnostic software and
2) The ability to order their own lab tests,
doctor visits would be infrequent. As to prescriptions, the software could, and with more reliability, recommend a prescription, flag a government doctor to check and approve, disapprove or order a doctor visit as needed within 24 hours. It's all RIDICULOUSLY SIMPLE to do with expert systems software. Even the alternative treatments for various conditions could be thrown in to the software. The reason it hasn't been done is because the medical profession is interested in maintaining an elite position. I spoke with a chemistry university professor on the subject of why the course material (42 in the class-35 Fs, 5 Cs, 2 As) was set up in such a confusing manner when there existed much easier ways to get the knowledge to the students. Since I was part of the "in" crowd because I got an A, she clued me in. She said the purpose of a bachelor in science is not to educate people, it is to weed them out so only the "smartest" get through. So there you have it. Medicine is overrated. A robot has ALL the information at his beck and call and never gets nervous or forgets anything. It never needs a nurse to keep it from fondling a woman's breasts or other abuse commonly done by male doctors. The medical profession is a dinosaur. Computers can take over and care can be super cheap. The cost is artificially inflated, Period. If our civilization lasts another hundred years or so, this making gods out of doctors thing will be over.
As to wellness, just like car insurance reduces your rates for not having accidents you provoked, people who can prove they exercise and eat healthy should be PAID by the health insurance crooks for indirectly lowering their costs. But hell, all this is just logical thinking. In our crooked country, corruption and bullshit is what rules. Fiscal responsibility? You've got to be kidding!
Thanks for paying attention. I am probably more anti-war than I am pro- or anti- anything else. And I understand how this situation can produce anger. I've been furious for years but now they are going after quality food and all dietary supplements and my fury is reaching unheard of peaks.
You are correct about the robots based on current medical practive. But the way to health relies on treating root cause, not symptoms. Diagnostic software would probably be tremendously useful to committed professionals. The body is biology and psychology as well as physics and chemistry. Healing requires a holistic approach whether self-administered or through a trained and experienced professional.
"It was incomprehensible and outrageous.'
REALLY? Not to me and most people at CD. Comprehensible, logical, predatory, calculated to destroy hope and quite effective.
But thanks, Jane, for once again shining a light on "NO one blinks for war and wall street money" hypocricy of our crooks in congress while they wail about health care costs.
Stimulus? Shitimulus! For every dollar spent on tha average person, 10 dollars or more were spent on corporate welfare. So here we go again. Frugal folks like me are killing corporate bottom lines so Government Sachs has to "hep em' out". They can't squeeze the poor much more through income taxes but they can jack up federal sales taxes on telephone use, highway tolls, etc. which are severely regressive. You think they won't do it? Of course they will. We have no government, Jane.
You want a stimulus? Here it is:
ANYONE with a net worth of more than ten million MUST donate any excess above said amount to their municipal government. In return, they will no longer have to pay local, state, federal or any other kind of taxes for the rest of their lives. Any excess of said amount will be taxed at 90% until the excess is gone. There will be no more income tax. All taxes will be based on NET WORTH.
All of a sudden Jane Hamsher and folks like Arianna Huffington might not be so keen on "doing the right thing". Arianna was just talking about her summer vacation. These people just don't get how truly hurting most Americans are right now. Nobody cares about your summer vacation except the vacuos brained predator elites, Arianna. Tell it to Oprah.
Jane, we are tired of the bullshit. Forget health care. The problem is the WARS and the fortunes of the rich families in the USA that perpetuate the WARS!
Why are we using the word "stimulus" anyway and why should they pass another stuffed packaged and call it a "stimulus" ? Haven't they learned our last lesson from Obama's packed and stuffed bill? Can't they just take it issue by issue and prioritize and spread them out ?
Jennifer,
The options involving legislation are incredibly flexible. They can pass a bill (and they often do) for the benefit of ONE person on ONE issue (A personal recognition of some war veteran is an example). They are NOT limited by congressional or senate rules. So what's the problem? The problem is corruption. The corruption is part and parcel of the corporate mutt and jeff (Republican and Democratic) One party system. You play that game or they destroy you. They are all very bright people but they aren't as rich as those that dictate their actions. And make no mistake, the goal of our politicians is individually to amass more power to themselves. They fancy that they are "playing" the rich elites for their own benefit but just let them get a little populist and the press whores start "revealing" misinformation about them. It's all about money. If you don't have it, you don't play. And if you are a billionaire with a consciense (I doubt there is such a thing), they will kill the movement you are backing by banding together. The only successes allowed are those based on war, predation and power amplification. I wish it weren't so.
Jennifer,
Here's some more info on "how it works" in the government:
Prostitution, Blackmail, and Political Corruption
By Agents of the United States
Sex Slavery, Forced Prostitution, Human Trafficking, extortion, blackmail―of the most egregious kind―of U.S. Citizens by the U.S. Government Brothel of Bureaucrats
My name is Robin Head, previous owner of Playboy Escorts in Houston, Texas. I was approached by various law enforcement agency's, FBI, ATF, etc... who wanted me to abet them in entrapping "State and political officials" having sex so they could extort, control and blackmail them, not to charge them with misdemeanor prostitution. At the same time, women at my service were being tricked and trafficked overseas to Bangkok and called me collect from a jail in Vienna.
A madam from Alabama was found hanging in a federal jail cell in nearby Brazoria County. When I refused to abet in the extortion, I was thrown in jail, no bond, a 'Life' sentence filed on me, and then my son and family were harassed and attacked endlessly in some kind of gang like Mafia style.
I went to the FBI, but it was like reporting the devil to the witch, they said they would help me but only if I would help them, again, to set up officials. They had no interest in the corruption aspect. Some very high profile names were involved, people seen on TV news commentary.
Who are these agents with this monstrous agenda and what do they want? This is not a left/right wing thing it is a most vicious entity in this country.
This country has become as fearful as any other 3rd world country when it comes to reporting crime to officials just exactly like in Russia, Iraq, Africa, Mexico, etc... where it is the officials that are the perpetrators of the crimes, kidnapping, ransom, drugs, and it is dangerous to report to them.
http://fbicorruption.250free.com
http://www.defraudingamerica.com/robin_head.html
• Posted by: XXXMADAM • Report Comment
I think it's theoretically possible to reverse the war madness but I can see that it won't be easy especially since we're in the middle of the "Mars rule" era. It is possible to separate war and money but that too will be very difficult to accomplish. I always reckoned that government was corrupt enough but I didn't realize it was that bad. Howver, seeing how our country's foreign policy works, I think I can connect the dots. Thanks for the info. Another piece of the jigsaw puzzle.
"It's too disruptive".
It's unlikely that we will ever get a rational health care system that benefits all. More likely is that with the continuing economic decline, health care profits will plummet all around. Some health insurance providers will go bankrupt and/or offer policies with drastically reduced coverage. Many hospitals will close, and doctors will have to take less to stay in business. Those who cannot pay outright or afford any coverage will simply be turned away. This is what presently happens in many third world countries. As long as health care remains a for profit enterprise, whatever system maximizes profits will be the one we get. This also means there will be a two or three tier structure providing medical services: rich and poor, or rich, middle, and poor.
People getting turned away because they can't pay is happening right here in the USA, unless of course, you were referring to the USA as a third world country as well. I do have 2 suggestions to help this situation.
1) Refuse to donate or sell any of your body products for the benefit of the meical industry. Most who donate their organs could never afford to have the same operation to save themselves. Blood products are used daily in life saving therapies and treatments. Stop giving it away! Access to everyone based on need or nothing for anyone.
2) I know that there are plenty of disillusioned medical specialists out there who were falsly lead to believe they were studying to take care of people then got a hard and quick lesson about that lie. Thier job is to treat and protect profits of thier employers and if the patient gets better as a result, that's ok too. We need a co-op of health professionals to stand up and just start taking care of people like they were trained to do. I wish I knew about medical administration, I would try to implement this myself. If you are in the heath industry and are motivated only by your lust for wealth, I don't want your "brand" of care anyway. Fock the insurance industry.
Very true, they are turned away for the most advanced procedures. About donating body parts, I've always thought the same thing! Why should you donate (which equates to tacit support for the status quo) to a system that would not offer you an organ in return should you need one? Hospitals make a great deal of money off these procedures (or so I'm told), but expect you to donate your organs for free. Imagine a single payer system that said something to the effect, "be on the donor list and be eligible to receive an organ should you need one." Probably just about everyone would offer to be a donor then.
What a great idea!
Our Congress is not willing to fund Health Care for All, not because it costs too much money, but because it saves money. The question is who makes out---the people or the corporations? All the wars, all the bankster bailouts, and our present system of health care make the rich richer. That is the purpose of our Congress, to help the rich get richer. Don't you know that?
Do you know that the Democrats and the Republicans share my opinion of what is the purpose of our Congress? It should be clear to all working people of this nation that we are being screwed. There is no lesser evil political party. Both are in on the screwing. What we have to do is wise up. Stop voting for the bastards. If your rep voted for the massive bankster bailout, the continuation and expansion of the wars and does not vote YES on HR 676, are you going to remember what they did when they start the new fleecing season? Want to be skinned again? Vote for the same folk. Want something different? Don't vote major party.
Why Can’t a Better Health Care Plan Be the Next Stimulus?
-you know why
Take heart my friends, Obozos approval rating is now down to 61% from a whopping 76% in February. The sheeple are awakening.
The "sheeple are awakening"? That is very encouraging.
This will mean that those 'sheeple' will eliminate the Plutocratic Oligarchy and make the USA ---for the first time----a Democracy.
when that happens I will 'stake a claim' to 'citizenship in a Democracy'----presently I am and was born a 'prisoner or War of a Plutocratic Oligarchy' that has only gotten more ridiculous, greedy, arrogant, and inept.
As things present themselves currently it would be better to wait for the world to tire of the USA--- cut off all lines of credit, and the Plutocratic Oligarchy will turn on itself----they most likely will make the rivers and streams run red with their own blood---all the way to all three 'coasts'---then when the smoke clears and the stench of death blows away with the wind----- my people will ride our horses through the cities the Americans have made empty.
Those are words of the 'son of a nation' of people who have earned the right to 'claim' that they have 'survived the Americans'----not many on this planet can make that claim.
Good Luck America, you really need it.
"This will mean that those 'sheeple' will eliminate the Plutocratic Oligarchy and make the USA ---for the first time----a Democracy."
-NativeSon, you are obviously an optimist.
Allow me to pass along a little advice given by none other than Norman Solomon: "Let's strive to eliminate disillusionment by dispensing with illusions."
brilliant
it would be a perfect stimulus package
and paid for by the greedy insurance companies, drug companies and hospital corporations but their profits
Crude, short answer: Because the corporate vultures that dictate policy will not allow it.
That's why we will have no meaningful health care reform, no regulations on derivatives etc; no prosecutions of High Treason and war crimes; further centralization of the financial system, further degradation of organized labor, no EFCA, further escalation of imperial occupations and aggression, an ever increasing Pentagon budget, subsidization and rewards for financial crooks, etc. etc.
And all this with D controlling both houses and Obama in the WH; could it be any worse under the Rs? The only difference I see is the rhetoric and window dressing
May I just add.. Brutal police repression for people redressing grievances to thier government.
Just those three little words - "Medicare For All"
The bloodleting leaches are all 'worried' about how to pay for it but nobody is saying what 'It' is.
The first job is to decide 'where' to go and then 'how' to get there!
You state whats wrong with these folks very well!
Because it wouldn't go to Goldman Sachs?
Is it just me or is it normal for me to feel like a complete jackass for voting for bailout candidates in the name of practicality which now means nothing?
Completely normal. And you've got plenty of company my friend.
The Banks and the Insurance companies own DC folks. Game over. The Congresscritters and the Obam admin. have already told us peasants to STFU already , they're not going to help us. They're going to instead hand us and part of our taxes now and in the future over to the very crowd ( The Health care Mafia). My guess when this is over we'll get stuck with a mandate to have to buy Private Ins. or some phony shell called a Public Option. If Sen "I'm for a Puiblic Option " Schumer's plan then for sure it will be a worthless piece of crap. Schumer has to be the prime example of the crafty duplicity of these bastards and their clients the Health Mafia. He's crowing to the press day and night how he's for a "public Option>" NOT!! Go read the Schumer scam that he's for. He wants any so called Public Option to have to be on a "LEVEL PLAYING FIELD" with all the Private plans out here. So Chuck, tell me what makes a Public Option then any better then the crap that were already being forced to swallow? NOTHING! Schumers ball less Public Option kills the whole reason for a Public Option and it also kills REAL reform for another generation! That's what Congress is cooking up for us , another shit sandwich like the rotten Wall st. Non-reforms for 2 Trillion and the Gutless Climate Cap and trade joke. Is this Change we can believe in? Or is it Change the BIG CORP. donors of these pricks can believe in? Take a guess.
Thank you for saying this. It would be a stimulus package that would actually do something for us! Thank you! I know congress is opposed to ever doing anything that would benefit ordinary, working people, but it is about time they broke down and helped us. They have no problem putting debts of trillion onto our backs to bail out banking execs, but won't do the most basic things to protect our quality of life.
I've spent most of my life paying for crappy insurance that would not protect me from bankruptcy. Now congress's solution is to make buying it mandatory and to further subsidize insurance for the poor. This solution is worse than nothing.
And by the way, no one talks about the $19B to make medical records electronically outsourced to India and what a job drain that will be over the next decade.
Obama, if you can't help us then do NOTHING.
Excellent comment and excellent suggestion for our Imperial President.
By the way Seaglass.....Sen "I'm for a Puiblic Option " Schumer as I'm sure you know is a lap dog of Pelosi's and NOT on our side.
If its not Single Payer and not carefulyy implemented and discussed over months and months........its just more "give me your money" and here is the sandwich you suggested earlier.