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Senate Tweaks Away Your Healthcare
As my grandmother used to say, "I was born on a weekend but not last weekend." The latest insult to Americans hungry for a bit of healthcare justice for all comes from the news that the Senate health bill now allows insurance companies to place annual limits on payments for some catastrophic illnesses, like cancer.
Surprise, surprise, surprise. Another day. Another lie uncovered in the process. Another piece of this reform bill that favors the for-profit health insurance industry.
Associated Press' Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar writes, "Health care loophole would allow coverage limits": "A loophole in the Senate health care bill would let insurers place annual dollar limits on medical care for people struggling with costly illnesses such as cancer, prompting a rebuke from patient advocates.
"The legislation that originally passed the Senate health committee last summer would have banned such limits, but a tweak to that provision weakened it in the bill now moving toward a Senate vote.
"As currently written, the Senate Democratic health care bill would permit insurance companies to place annual limits on the dollar value of medical care, as long as those limits are not 'unreasonable.' The bill does not define what level of limits would be allowable, delegating that task to administration officials."
Read that passage again folks. The bill was "tweaked." No official or legal amendment required when the insurance industry needs a tweak they damn well get a tweak. And this is quite a tweak.
Just hours ago, I continued to read reports that claimed our healthcare reformers in Congress were doing away with pre-existing condition clauses and also ending lifetime caps on coverage. Some patients and families were thrilled with this change alone, and most especially those people struggling with serious illnesses.
This summer, a friend of mine in Colorado was asked to introduce President Obama at a forum in Grand Junction. Nathan Wilkes was selected to do so because he could speak clearly and passionately about his family's troubles keeping enough insurance coverage for his son, Thomas, who has a serious blood disorder. My friend has been and is a supporter of Medicare for all, single-payer type reform, but this opportunity to introduce the President and weigh in about eliminating lifetime benefit caps was a powerful pull. Nathan gave an intelligent and emotional intro for the President, and he was later invited to Washington to watch Obama's address to Congress on healthcare reform.
Well, the joke’s on you Nathan and on a lot of others who trusted the details of reform being sold by members of Congress and President Obama. Only this is not at all funny. Families like the Wilkes family will go broke trying to keep kids like Thomas alive. And kids like Thomas will die without the care they need.
Nathan responded to the latest news out of the Senate with the clarity of a father who has fought hard to support reform that would make our system better not more problematic, “Now it looks like such plans will have a floor before they start covering (beyond the deductible/out-of-pocket) and a ceiling at which they stop (no "unreasonable annual limits"). That is the sweet spot for profiteering health insurers. They avoid paying the common and the catastrophic, while soaking up premiums from all of us.”
The death panels allowed by this legislation are those set up and protected by the insurance industry – and tweaked into law by Congress and the President.
You simply cannot do this sort of tweaking and not have people notice. Did you think the Wilkes family wouldn't notice when the annual cap is reached for Thomas and they have to start paying out of pocket or stop treatment?
This process has been fraught with disclosures of the misleading marketing of various details in the reform legislation from all involved. Who can the American public trust on this? Anybody?
As we sit on the verge of 2010, we citizens have some more political work of our own to do. We need to do some tweaking in the streets and at the polls. Because we surely are not going to get healthcare as a basic human right from this Congress and this administration. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats seem to get it.
When we do the math for ourselves and when we watch you all play a deadly game of push-me, pull-me with our healthcare reform legislation, we know for certain you are only maneuvering for political advantage while we are out here fighting for our lives, our health and for our financial security. You didn't hear us loudly enough at the polls in 2008, apparently.
Let me get this straight. You will force us to buy private insurance products that will not guarantee approval of treatment or payment for treatment. You will tax our insurance benefits if our employers offer those deemed as "Cadillac coverage" regardless of whether or not we make less than $250,000 a year. You cannot guarantee that employers will keep our current insurance plans and provider networks or that insurance companies will keep benefits and providers the same - therefore we cannot keep what we've got if we like it. You've crumbled on the notion of any real public option for coverage at all much less a "robust" option -- whatever that squishy word ever meant. And now insurance companies will decide when we've had enough treatment for serious illness each year.
Wow. Sweet tweaking indeed for the profit-takers -- and without so much as a debate or airing on the floor of the Senate. It seems only the things that would benefit real people require an appropriate following of legal process in Congress and full debate -- amendments like Senator Bernie Sanders' single-payer amendment aimed at strengthening real reform haven't even gotten a hearing. We're still fighting for that.
Please don't insult us any more by selling this legislation as healthcare reform or even health insurance reform. This seems more and more like health industry protection and less like anything at all to do with providing what President Obama declared as a basic human right during the campaign. Even he said the only way to get to full coverage is a single-payer plan. And that's a tweak too far from profit protection, it seems.
Hang on, fellow citizens. This healthcare mess is about to get messier and make you wonder if anyone told us the truth at all. Then we'll have some serious tweaking of our own to do in 2010 and 2012. We will not forget this.
- Posted in
43 Comments so far
Show AllWell said, Donna Smith.
I was wondering about the "buying into medicare" and how that compares with extending medicare(do 65 year olds have to buy in?). Are they the same? Or is it a bait and switch with no cost control or guarantee of actualy receiving care?
And the cap on spending? You can get sick, but not too sick, or they will pull the plug. Are the senators taking the mick?
What I've been hearing is that the cost of "buying" into Medicare will be about $7600/year or $633/month. I can get BC/BS insurance in NC for between $334 and $589/month depending on the deductible. So whop-de-do on O-bama-care, It does not look like it is going to help too many people.
Lucky you in NC. Here in NYC, it costs about 900-1200 a month.
But that's not even the most important point anymore(to me). They should be calling this the Insurance Protection Plan. At this point I want them to stop the whole process before they destroy what little protection we have.
omk
I believe you are right. The only winners I have found in the proposals so far are the insurance companies, drug companies and the tax man.
It is a bad bill and must be voted down.
and the Republicans.
I'd say the Senator's are on the "take" for sure.
What's the difference between the Republicans and the Democrats? Republicans tell us to our faces that they do not want Americans to have health care and they do everything in their power to make sure We don't get it. Democrats talk very eloquently about how they're on our side fighting for every American to have health care, then they screw Us behind our backs, all the while telling of the wonderful job they did on reforming health care.
EuroDan Your post nailed it!
So true, well said. The Dinocrats are a bunch of lying scheming bastards. The GOPERS are right out in front, they want us losers to fucking die and get out of the way so they and they're pals can have all the candy. Some choice we have.
No, most all politicians are paid actors working for
the highest bidder, and they have nothing to do with
decisions, as they are paid to obey and not once
while in office do they make a decision.
Surely your talk just generates confusion and hides
the rich who we should be exposing with a vengeance.
Excellent!
Yes, the Dems are lying, they are fools and if they pass this slimey mess, they will indeed pay a high price for their ignorant, arrogant stance.
But we will pay much more for much less and help no one....who's the real loser if they do this then?
No, Henry, they won't and they know it. As long as there is a TV in every household spewing corporate lies, more than 50% of 'voters' will re-elect these scumbags, and those of us who want to fight it will have our hands tied by television propaganda.
I frankly believe its different this time Michael. Usually the folks I hear are saying that damn Bush/Republicans/RW or that damn bunch of Obama/Democrats/Socialists/LW.
Now they are saying we need to sink all the SOB's. They aren't happy with either side. They are angry in a way I've never seen before. But this is the first time they have felt that their own govermnment was against them.
Most no longer believe the media and they sure don't believe the politicians, Republican or Democrat. They do understand economics, real economics.
It is different this time. At least thats my opinion.
You know Henry8 I really hope that you are right but fear that Michael is. While many more of us have awaken I fear that too many are still asleep. I do however feel that all we need is time. Eventually even Rip Van Winkle woke up.
Well Loon, lets hope that the American people are just like RVW and have awakened after a long sleep. I may be wrong because all I can really get a feel for are my state and a few surrounding states. But if they are reflecting the rest of the country, they are wide awake and PO'ed.
Rhetoric is not reality and if you listen to the media and Congress you'd think that every American couldn't wait for them to pass Reform of this or that. But at minimum, over 70% of all Americans oppose the things they are trying to pass.
And they are just as PO'ed at Republicans and Neocons.
I have already told my two US Senators from Arkansas to vote against the final Senate bill; not because I'm Republican, they will all vote against it. I ask them to vote against it because it has been gutted, watered down, and so many poison pills added that it won't be worth passing. When the House version passed by a few votes the Demos acted like they had re-invented the wheel. If these bills are finally passed there will be little reform of the insurance industry and lots of legalized robbery of the people by the insurance industry lobbyists. It's ironic that I ask Senators Lincoln and Pryor to vote against this proposed "reform", because their waffling and opposition allowed the bill to be gutted. I also have reminded them that there will be thousands of diehard Republicans in this state who will also suffer in silence and die early because they have no health insurance.
I agree with Henry8. There is an anger building that I haven't heard since I listened to old timers talk about the Great Depression--and how the banks, Wall Street, big corporations and the politicians all conspired to destroy the working class in the 1930s.
I was born a few years after the Great Depression ended, but I still remember the look in the eyes of the farmers who lost their farms in the 1930s. They felt, and rightly so, that their own government had deliberately allowed the wealthy classes to declare war on the middle and lower classes. Their own government had conspired to take away everything they owned, leaving many of them wandering across the Midwest searching for shelter and something to eat. Meanwhile, their farms were gobbled up by banks and Wall Street speculators.
I believe we have reached that point again, and it is time to look for political leadership outside of the two major parties. Most of what we see in Washington, D.C, is political theater, an attempt to divide working class Americans so they throw stones at one another (liberals versus conservatives, union workers versus non-union workers, etc.). It's the old divide and conquer strategy, promoted by both the politicians and the mass media, and it has worked marvelously for those who benefit from a divided lower- and middle-class.
When average Americans stop pointing their fingers at others in their socio-economic class who are also struggling, and start pointing their fingers at the big corporations and their political lackeys in both parties, we might be able to turn this thing around. But first average Americans must overcome the superficial differences that keep them divided.
I believe the anger is building, and I think it is a good thing. It may very well be the one thing that forces average Americans to stop fighting among themselves and finally unite against a common enemy with an insatiable greed that seeks to destroy everything below itself in the economic food chain.
The poor and the middle class fought back in the 1930s, and they can do it again. The anger has created the foundation for a true populist revolt. It won't take much of a catalyst to get it started.
In the 1930’s my grandfather ran a speakeasy and had all the bootleg
whisky and slot machines for two counties. Only the farmers had
money then, so the dance halls were out in the country and if you
wanted to gamble or some moonshine, head for the country store.
And if the Sheriff was kept well funded you knew just when the
Fed’s were coming to town.
My grandfather lived in northern NY. He allowed bootleggers bringing in liquor from Canada to stay in his barn. He was sometimes paid in cash and sometimes in Canadian liquor. No bathtub gin for the Shaw family and friends!!
AMEN!
Too bad a lot of that anger has been co-opted by right wing power brokers. This is the Tea Party world so many like to sneer at.
I would simply say, don't believe all the propaganda, wait and see. Right Wingers sure aren't controlling the folks I've met that go to those meetings. They are as angry at RW'ers as they are at this administration.
In the 1930s the sophisticated forms of advertising we have now, did not exist. The media companies can control people very very effectively. Nothing like that will happen until there is a major economic collapse and/or a physical catastrophe. Even then the advertising companies may find ways to deflect the anger of the populace toward, let us say, a convenient foreign enemy or some "terrorists."
Over half of society has wealth, more wealth then debt,
and being self-absorbed never have they allowed government
to give the lower class decent healthcare.
So why is the lower half of society so passive? Well that is just
how things work, for the supervisors, landlords and those above
them hand out the pay, give the orders and no one dares buck
the chain of command.
So if we want to organize rebellion this is the schism we must overcome.
Half of society has wealth? Really? Last time I heard, it was only the top 1% percent but hey...
Impossible. The wealthy corporations and interest groups are just too strong. Only an overwhelming physical or economic collapse might eventually enable people to escape the grip of advertising.
I don't say the above lightly. It's the sad conclusion of years of watching the political and propaganda mills degrade our news and discourse further and further each year since about 1956, as television became ubiquitous in this country.
Healthcare is a Human Right, not a commodity to be bought and sold by the Corporate Machine.
No, not collective us of the slow thinking laboring class,
the 50% of voters who refused to vote last November for
our next dictator.
But you of the upper class who fund all elections, you
who have more wealth then debt, most of you not wanting
to give decent healthcare to us who cannot afford it.
Don't be absurd. Who persuaded you that Obama will become a dictator? You are buying a propaganda line which was never intended to help you, and spreading it around to other uneducated people.
Betrayal.
Fire the blasted lot of them, Congress, and Obama, at this point.
I keep saying the same thing over and over again: how much more is it going to cost us and how much less are we going to get? Put us out of your misery already!
Donna Smith finally sees it--this is "health industry protection" legislation.
I repeat myself once more--If you want to change the system and get affordable health care, start repealing legislation and cut off the FDA's power to remove safe treatments from the market. Then take away the AMA's ability to pull licenses unless there is evidence of harm of an ethical concern. Or, teach yourself about the true alternatives to the medical monopoly. The people taking natural thyroid are trying to fight back. The more people who know of these low-cost and effective treatments, the harder it will be to get rid of them.
And here's another little known gem. THE HEALTH INSURANCE INDUSTRY HAS AN ANTI-TRUST EXEMPTION!!! I couldn't believe it but I Googled it and it's true.
We need Obama to win, this is about our great leader's legacy! Obama must win and the GOP must be defeated! Plus Big Pharam wants it!
This is what the American people want. They continually vote the same idiots into office and then cry and whine when the corpotate rats vote corporate. One would think that they would of learned by now. Go ahead and turn on the slime box and you will hear all the pundits saying how this is actually a better bill than any public option or single payer bill out there. Just because it has one or two good things in it, never mind all the corporate welfare that they built into it. I qoute Buggs Bunny again "What a bunch of Maroons".
Obama's audacity of hope? Hold out both of your hands, hope in one and crap in the other, let us know which one fills up first.
Nothing in this country will change untill the people change!
You cannot just blame "the people." They (we) are being fed propaganda from morning to night, specifically targeted (by zip code and even sometimes house by house) with direct mail, mass email, web ads, print ads, billboards, t-shirts, bumper stickers, radio, TV, telephone canvassing and "push polls," all aimed at our weaknesses and fears, in order to get us to vote for Congressional incumbents.
If you're tempted to say, "People should know enough to ignore the propaganda," let me just say in a nutshell that you are underestimating the powerful effect of all those forms of advertising on a mere human being. There is always something that will scare a person or make them angry at a given candidate.
Of course this is especially true of poorly educated people, who constitute a majority in some areas of the country. And how did such people come to be poorly educated? By continual tax and budget cuts aimed at ruining public education. This has all been going on for at least 40 years, so a majority off the population has never known anything else.
Amen, Donna, for another fine piece of truth telling. So when are the coalitions going to organize a great march on Washington demanding health care reform? It would make good press (if it made the press) that people are rejecting the sham and the scam of the obamaplan.
This "tweaking" strategy has consistently been used for the past 30 years. As long as people settle for "crumbs or nothing," that's what they'll get.
Good article. It lays out the problem clearly and simply. I hope a lot of people read this.
Fine article, Donna.
Someone should perhaps mention the connection between the insurance companies and the Wall Street banksters. Recently Anthem or Aetna (I can't remember which) jettisoned 630,000 of their least lucrative customers at the behest of Wall Street, which wanted higher profits.
As long as we have for-profit insurance companies, politicians will continue to be bought, and we will continue to suffer and die.
The For-Profit Insurance and Pharmaceutical Company Recovery Act needs to be killed, the sooner the better.
It's really quite easy to limit health care spending. Just put caps on the number of services provided such as a maximum number of heart attacks treated. Next in line? Too bad!
Otherwise, it is not possible to limit spending without limiting prices.
obama the spineless coward. the bishops, generals, the cheneys, and the big lobbyists all make him shake. even when he plays basketball, he makes sure some punk of a white guy who looks like bill gates guards him. i'm sick of seeing his endless intellectualizations and pontificating and empty rhetoric on t.v. howard dean needs to immediately march up to new hampshire and sign up for its 2012 democratic presidential primary. that's the only way to put the heat on this full blown coward of a president whom the limousine liberals have foisted upon us!