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When Patients Own the System
A Progressively Financed, Single Standard of Care for All
The national legislative healthcare fix that may be passed by the 111th Congress and then signed by President Obama will do little to relieve the stresses felt by most patients in this country. The steady decline most of us have seen in the kind of quality medical services we need is not likely to be mitigated. Insurance companies will grow ever stronger and more deeply ensconced, and the patient voice will fade more quickly from prominence than it has in recent years.
Patients have been props in this discussion. Patients are widgets in an economic system. Patients are an annoyance to insurance companies who worry about the medical losses (claims) as a loss of profit and often even to providers who must carefully screen patients to make sure they come with profit potential via their insurance coverage or very deep pockets full of cash for payment. Pesky patients.
And nothing - nothing - in the current legislation disrupts this process from deepening.
The results are mind boggling and devoid of any ethical grounding which would lead anyone to believe that healthcare is a human right in America.
I know scores of patients - people who need medical care - who tell me about their personal journeys. They are often shuffled from provider to provider getting whatever medical tests or procedures are approved by their insurance companies while not receiving even one stitch of treatment or relief for the issue that brought them to seek care. The money flows; the patient is not treated. Maybe a pill. Maybe.
The practice of medicine has long ago shifted away from being a patient-centered art and science, from the perspective of most patients I know. Most providers spend very little hands on time with patients and even less listening time. Nothing about forcing the purchase of private, for-profit insurance will change that reality. And finding that one or two providers who still care enough to try to provide kind and compassionate patient care is a daunting and long process for most patients I know. Most give up and just get care when they have to and put up with being treated as an annoyance, an irritation in a system that just wants to take more and more profit with less and less contact with the patients who generate that profit.
The costs of that shift form the practice of medicine to the profit-taking of the medical business is enormous both in dollars and cents and in human decency. People spend long days and weeks and months seeking a medical home - somewhere that they can trust to provide the right care at the right time with just a touch of kindness instead of the nasty, condescending atmosphere so many patients endure just trying to make appointments, get test results or God-forbid ask a question over the phone.
I know a seriously ill person who has at least five different providers. Yet this patient is slowly wasting away while begging someone, anyone to take his symptoms seriously. Not one of the providers has an appointment time in anything less than five or six weeks - and all have office staffs that grow angry if questioned about that wait. No one on the other end of the phone wonders what is making the patient feel bad or even suggests a way for some earlier treatment. Not one provider who has made thousands of dollars on this patient's behalf cares enough to want to find out how they can help. The providers simply have all the revenue streams they need coming through the door so one patient's life and one patient's suffering doesn't matter much in the scheme of things.
Nothing in the reform bill will interrupt this hideous and relentless process for many patients. You simply cannot legislate a system drunk on money and massive profits to care about patients. We, the people, need to control the system - our money, our system, our lives. Nothing but a progressively financed, single standard of high quality care should be allowed. It should be a crime to do less.
The U.S. healthcare system represents more than 16 percent of the gross domestic product. That's a huge chunk of the economic energy of this nation. That's going to get bigger and bigger in the years going forward. And as the financial linkages and economic impact of the system grows, the patients' individual significance will continue to lose ground. It's simply a numbers game.
My biggest worry is that the diminishment of caring and compassion will accelerate that has escalated in recent years with managed care and for-profit insurance driving medical decisions and therefore medical profits and therefore how providers really treat patients.
We, the people, must own this system or it will own us. Public, progressive financing of a single standard of high quality care is the only way to protect patients from the abuses.
I remember days not so very long ago when patients were treated so very differently. We're never going back to those days but we'd better stop the trending. Patients need to band together, share information about provider practices and take a stand together - it must be our system. Or the profit-takers will make their fortunes ever larger on our suffering and pain and never look back for an instant.
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Show AllTo call this bill a "national legislative healthcare fix" is to not know it. I wrote a long review on this bill a few days ago to prove that this isn't a fix at all. Had the Senate not removed the public option and had not Stupak's anti-abortion gag not made it, I might have been dumb enough to settle for scraps. Donna, you know this isn't a "national legislative healthcare fix" by any means. That was a great article otherwise and I would add that nurses, patients, non-profit doctors, and non-profit lawyers need to get together on taking over the system and shut the insurance industries out.
Believe me, I know it's a fix for the profit-takers like an addict gets a fix -- thanks for reading Stanley, and I do know full well that the only way to go is a patient-citizen-publicly owned -- single-payer, Medicare for all system.
Donna Smith, American SiCKO
Speaking of profit-takers, I have found out a long time ago that some doctors are in on it. The cases you mentioned on patients being forced to limp thanks to lack of coverage for all or some procedures or treatments are common with doctors who can't really do it but can easily exploit someone's insurance coverage to say that so and so isn't covered. If they do know how to do it though, they'll ask obscene amounts up front. That would force patients and their family members to find a doctor who would overlook our coverage and not charge too much. When one family member loses his or her life or the condition is irreversible for the rest of his or her life, the rest of the family suffers emotionally and sometimes in health as well.
Someone on this site gave an excellent description of why insurance is a scam and I would add that insurance creates lack of properly trained and dedicated doctors. Some people will call me a communist for saying this but a 10 year moratorium minimum must be imposed on capitalism with socialism to take its place. Every profession including health and medicine is structurally failing from capitalism in this country.
It is interesting to me that we seem to be "fighting" for access to a current "healthcare" system that in and of itself is in need of reform. The red herring here seems to be that the insurance companies are the problem, which of course is true. However, the so-called healthcare system that operates in this country is a far cry from promoting health. The framework from which it views health, illness, and disease continues to go something like this....an individual goes to his/her doctor with symptoms or a group of symptoms, those symptoms are matched to traditional diagnostic tests/procedures, the resulting tests are given a label/diagnosis, and usually some form of pharmecutical drug or drugs are prescribed. The person goes home. If what ails them isn't complicated, they get better...if not, they go back to the doctor and the whole scenerio repeats itself...except that person usually has another layer of complaints/symptoms resulting from the prescribed one-size-fits-all medications that they had been given in the previous visit. What most of us experience in our "wonderful" "state of the art" best in the world "sickcare-healthcare-system" is a one size fits all approach to health and that's the bare bones truth of it. Yep, we have a despicable greedy industry driven system and that needs to not only be exposed, it needs to be hung from the rafters...BUT, we are also dealing with a system that chooses to ignore its blatant insistance on a one-size-fits-all approach to health. Even if we get profit driven insurance companies out of the picture, we will still need to address the issue(s) of what a viable healthcare system needs to be for the health of all of us.
Treating the symptoms or at least holding them back is easy for almost any doctor to do and they too can make some profits out of it. But in the meantime, the root problem of the patient gets worse as the patient has to limp on and at some point, the illness is so bad enough that no amount of symptom curing will keep the patient alive or able to reverse that illness. Getting profit driven insurance out will have the reverse domino effect because the mediocre doctors aiming for he bucks would suddenly find themselves exposed and no longer able to use insurance as an excuse. Keep in mind that good doctors can be hard to find because the greedy ones who probably couldn't do anything right for what they are hired to do have a lot of money to advertise themselves and I'll bet that the drug and insurance companies help them on that, lawsuit costs, and everything else as well. Donna is not fighting for access to our current health care system but instead fighting to install a new health care system accessible to all.
I have a great deal of trepidation when I find myself needing to access what we call healthcare in this country. However, there is a new paradigm emerging in relation to healthcare that is on the horizone, and one that a few pioneering doctors are practicing now...it is called Functional Medicine. The emphasis in the practice of approaching health related problems through Functional Medicine is ferreting out the CAUSE of illness rather than treating the symptoms through the traditional medical model. I encourage as many who might be interested to research this approach to healthcare. A good starting place that I've found very helpful is www.ultrawellness blog.com. There is also a Functional Medicine website...just key-in the words Functional Medicine. It is difficult to find a physician practicing this form of comprehensive healthcare, but if you're sick and you want to find out why, and how to get better.....I haven't found any approach other than this one as a way to take our health back.
The site you mentioned looks interesting and I would be glad to pass this along. As for "Functional Medicine", I keyed in the search at first but didn't get the result. However, when I searched again in the bigger box within the page frame, I got the results. I saw them asking that Obama's health care plan be fixed but that was on June 9, 2009. Their 9 point plan is great but according to the bill, most of those points are out and even for the ones included, it's like those G8 leaders showing off on planting a tree or two while simultaneously allowing industries to burn down entire forests. Thanks for the site.
I have an activist friend in Massachusetts who has been living under the Mass Plan for several years now.
She posted a detailed analysis of the HCR legislation that "may" be passed this week in D.C. at Real Clear Politics. Here it is:
http://comments.realclearpolitics.com/read/42325/594591/594709.html#msg-594709
Please forward this important information to every activist you know so we can get the truth out to as many as possible BEFORE this monster of a despotic bill is passed into law.
Thank you,
Abbybwood, R.N.
P.S. I heard an outstanding interview this morning that Ian Masters did with Jane Hamsher. Jane gave an excellent update as to what is going on in D.C. right now with the HCR legislation. Please check Ian's archives for the audio. His show is called "Background Briefing" and it's on KPFK in Los Angeles. Thanks.
The more you look at this healthcare situation, the more you realize it has become a run-away freight that is about to jump the tracks. Now that the coffers have been wrung empty by wars of foreign aggression and "too big to fail" bailouts, who will pay for boomer healthcare? The workers who have no healthcare or shoddy healthcare provided by government mandated private insurance purchase? Talk about bizarre pipe dreams.
Donna you are correct. The only way to go is Medicare for all system - and get those money changers (insurance companies) out of the picture. The health of our citizens should never be in a 'for profit' system - as our citizens will lose everytime and often with their lives.
This Congress has been wasting time for more than a year on the so-called "healthcare reform" and still nothing productive, much less beneficial, for the American public has resulted from it.
Talk about a scandalous waste of time and money!!! We have 537 members of congress at present, each netting a salary of $174,000.00 per year (FOR LIFE)! That comes to a total salary expenditure this past year for Congress of $9,343,800.00 AT THE PEOPLES' EXPENSE and so far they've produced absolutely NOTHING!!! Nine million dollars down the drain!!!
I recently threw out my TV set because it broke and wouldn't turn on any more and bought a new one to replace it. IT'S TIME WE DO THE SAME THING TO THIS DO-NOTHING CONGRESS! They are NOT working for the American people! They're much too busy enhancing their personal positions in the government and in so doing have COMPLETELY BROKEN OUR GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM! IT'S TIME TO THROW THE BUMS OUT ALONG WITH THE INSURANCE COMPANIES WHO ARE FEEDING THEM!!!
Congress, what the hell are you waiting for???? Can you just this once forget all the excuses (lies) you keep telling us that are preventing you from passing this necessary reform, forget your personal position, political philosophy, and reputation in Congress that "prevents" you from passing this - and do this ONE THING that every citizen will forever be greatful for???
If you don't, this may be your last year in government!!! We'll get a government that WORKS FOR THE PEOPLE, NOT THEMSELVES!!!
MEDICARE FOR ALL!!!!!
"Talk about a scandalous waste of time and money!!! We have 537 members of congress at present, each netting a salary of $174,000.00 per year (FOR LIFE)! "
http://www.snopes.com/politics/socialsecurity/pensions.asp
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/congresspay.htm
If anyone wants to feel poetic commiseration, try some Ani Difranco such as this, which I think every one of our damned stupid politicians shoud be forced to listen to ;
"Your Next Bold Move"
"Coming of age, during the plague of reagon and bush
watching capitalism gun down democracy
it had this funny effect on me
I guess
I am cancer, I am HIV
and I'm down at the blue jesus blue cross hospital
looking up from my pillow
feeling blessed
and the mighty multinationals
have monopolized the oxygen
so it's as easy as breathing
to participate
yes, they're buying and selling off shares of air
and you know it's all around you
but it's hard to point and say 'there'
so you just sit on your hands and
quietly contemplate
Your next bold move
the next thing you're gonna need to prove
to yourself
What a waste of thumbs that are opposable
to make machines that are disposable
and sell them and sell them and sell them
to seagulls flying in circles
around one big right-wing
yes, the left wing was broken long ago
by the sling-shot of Cointelpro
and now it's so hard to have faith in
anything
especially your next bold move
the next thing you're gonna need to prove
to yourself
you want to track each trickle back to its source
and then scream up the faucet
til your face is hoarse
because you're surrounded by a worlds worth of things
you just can't excuse
but you've got the hard cough of a chain-smoker
and you're at the artic circle
playing strip-poker
and it's getting colder and colder
every time you lose
so go ahead
make your next bold move
tell us
what you're gonna need to prove
to yourself"
from the CD's "reckoning" (2002), and from "Canon" (2007) (and I think from "Portland"2004)
The Ins. bandits own the system because the care givers don't want to have to deal with their patients on that level. They want to be paid whatever and not have to dirty their hands with having to ask. It wasn't always that way in the past. The system insulates the Drs. and hospitals from directly dealing with patients as economic entities. Its another way were being mis-handled by a system increasingly becoming Corp. and inhumane and its going to get even worse soon. Obamacare is just a slick way of selling us all off permanently to the same Health Ins. vandals that run the present non-system and the ongoing collapse will just get worse. The Dems. aren't spineless they're corrupt and thats why were getting shuffled into a Corp.centric system that cares NOTHING for any of us.
The health profiteering bailout parallels the financial profits bailout. In banking, those privileged to live at the top of the food chain used government influence to protect themselves from the consequences of the failure of the system they themselves had gamed. No different in health profiteering. The government again colludes to keep those profits rolling, no matter how big the failure of the system to do what medicine is supposed to do: care for all.
The system is about to crash if they do nothing. Yet, they prop up the profits instead of using this crisis as a time to reassess how we got here and whether we are still on the track with the original purpose.
"Not one of the providers has an appointment time in anything less than five or six weeks..."
This must be about a patient in Canada or France. Not here in the U.S. with the Best Health Care System in the World.
Assuming that hamster's comment is supposed to be taken seriously, then he or she should come to the realization that long waiting times are not restricted to those countries that have universal health care [even though they do not have to wait lengthy periods of time regarding serious illnesses]. A few years ago my wife had to wait four or five months [again, that is months, not weeks] to see a neurologist in Seattle. And when she finally did see that neurologist, this specialist told my wife that what she was experiencing was either carpal tunnel syndrome or vertigo but which now appears to be, instead, Parkinson's Disease.
As T.R. Reid points out in his book The Healing of America, in countries like Canada there are indeed waiting times [as evidenced by his chapter on Canada entitled "Sorry for the wait"]. But, again, that is not for life threatening emergencies while here in this country one may see a doctor in less time [generally speaking] but the cost for seeing that physician or a number of physicians will be much more expensive than it would be in Canada, France or any other country where its citizens are lucky enough to have universal health care. But it is more than luck as the leaders of those countries recognize that, unlike here, health care should be considered a right instead of a privilege.
HEALTHCARE NOT WARFARE.
My post was entirely facetious. I was making fun of the right's misinformation campaign about long wait times in countries with universal health care, the US's "best health care system in the world", portraying any reform as a "government takeover", hordes of foreigners coming to the US for health care, and the rest of the easily refutable nonsense that they spew in defense of the profit-driven insurance, pharmaceutical, and HMO corporations that finance think tanks to disseminate this misinformation which then is endlessly repeated by brainless talk radio hosts, columnists, and their knee-jerk faux-patriotic audiences.
Gee Erroll, when Obama was running for president - different time, different person - he declared that health care was a right. Now it's become an obligation. And the insurance industry is ready with economy plans for the less fortunate. Or as my hopefully soon to be ex-Senator Ron Wyden put it, a plan for every budget.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Huffington Post reported on 3/12 that the Texas Board of Education "...removed Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum, "replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin." That's what Texas thinks of Jefferson. Not me, I'm with you.
Oh no, of course not.
USans, even those who have excellent insurance, also wait. It's the nature of the beast. Here in Canada, we do have unacceptably long waitlists for some surgeries. But projecting future need for certain specialties is a hugely complex undertaking. Take orthopedic surgery: thirty years ago, when now-established orthopedic surgeons were matching for residencies, no one realised that the running and fitness craze would produce so many worn out knees and hips in 50+-year-olds who now expect a much higher degree of functionality than did previous generations at that age. And technology marches to its own drummer: the possibility that there won't be enough clinicians to meet future demand for them doesn't deter (nor should it) researchers from developing new therapies.
A study done in 2007 concluded that 750,000 Americans left the Country thatyear to get Health Care abroad. They also concluded that this number was increasing exponentially and that by 2010 (This year) some 6 million Americans would go to other countries for health Care.
The number of Canadians "lining up at US Hospitals because they can not get care in Canada" is 12,500.
To that.
The Health Care Minister here in British Columbia has suggested we open up our operating rooms to more American patients and charge them a fee to do so wherein the monies would go back into our system.
He claimed that OR Surgeons were sitting idle and demanding more operating room time and that many of these facilities were underutilized. He suggested that the system could charge Americans 4 times the rate they receive for the same surgery done on Canadians.
As example he pointed out that a caeserean section is currently reimbursed at 400 dollars from The Canadian Government for every such surgery perfromed on Canadians and the system could charge Americans 1600.00 and still come out ahead. (The same surgery in the US runs 2500-3500 dollars)
Needless to say there was a whole lot of opposition to his suggestion with many claiming this would shift too many resources into a "for profit" system.
Hey neighbour: that 12,500 number? That's all (known) Canadians who sought medical care in the US. Even if that number reflects the total number of Canadian residents who received care in the US (my sense is that it's way too high), only a tiny fraction of them travelled to the States specifically to obtain medical care. See this 1996 study: http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/long/21/3/19.
I would like to share your optimism about contacting Pelosi and others in hopes that they will listen but I seriously doubt that they are listening to the angry people that they are supposed to be listening to. As this bill gets worse, it seems that the only people they are listening to are the lobbyists for Big Insurance, Big Pharma, anti-abortion gaggers, NRA, and the rest of the rightwinger groups. Pelosi has been in Washington for too long to be a remote liberal anymore. Look at how she gave Stupak the floor to do his anti-abortion gag but she wouldn't give Conyers a chance to bring up HR 676 for a vote.
I have to agree with you, Stanley. Pelosi stripped the public option from the bill at Obama's request. She's not listening to her constituents.
And why do they get a pension at full salary for life?? Did we the voters agree to that? Or to their automatic leaps in pay raises? As the Bush era proved, they don't even have to show up for work to get paid. Sweet.
As others have said, we need a spring cleaning. Out with all Democrats and Republicans. If they want to re-register as independents and forgo all corporate money they can earn our votes. They can form a bunch of caucuses - you know, the Blue Dogs, the Bible Thumpers, the Progressives, whatever, and create coalitions. But NO corporate money. Now THAT would be taking our country back.
But until the public learns it needs to ignore campaign commercials, we're stuck with the corporations running the country (into the ground).
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House and she wields more power than any representative so it is her responsibility to get her party in line. Looking at her leadership in the past, it's obvious that she and the majority whip and corporate owned Steney Hoyer have been crusading hard for the MIC and the huge corporations including the insurance industries. People have already been contacting her thousands of times so what's the guarantee that any more calling and begging them will work this time?
I wouldn't bother helping Nancy Pelosi on anything except getting her out of office and sending another check to Cindy Sheehan or a progressive like her to replace Pelosi. Pelosi deserves a pink slip and her party will lose a huge number of seats with the possibility of a Republican takeover. Even if her party retains Congress by some luck, she will be forced to give up her position and put some new Democrat in her place either as a minority leader or speaker. I'm not giving one cent to my telco just to phone Pelosi and her corporate ilk.
None of those pols have served in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, or whatever other US military occupied nation on this planet or have their children serving and they have their single payer to themselves so what do they know about losing and suffering ?!?!? How dare she allow for this administration to send more young men and women into harm's away in Iraq and Afghanistan while going mum on health care ! Let them do as they please and we'll give them a crude awakening at the voting booth.
VP and JWV, I doubt that they are scared of losing anything. Even if they lose their seats, lucrative jobs in the private sector rarely given to ordinary citizens awaits them. Just ask Dick Gephardt and Billy Tauzin who work for lobbying firms long after retiring from Congress. I don't really think that we have any way out because it seems that every time we replace them, we get same or worse.
Tauzin and Gephardt pale in comparison to other politicians turned lobbyists such as John Breaux and Trent Lott constantly defending the big oil, gas, pharma, and insurance giants. The reason why politicians become lobbyists is they get paid millions whereas being in Congress, while it pays them a lot, pales in monetary comparison. People like Jimmy Carter are rare examples of politicians who get poorer once out of office and yet becomes better compared to when they were in office.
Let's start a Pledge of Non-Cooperation: we will refuse to buy for-profit health insurance if this monstrosity passes.
my think on complaining to to the Politicians is that all of the considered argumentum by the voters, becomes distilled into "THE NATIVES ARE RESTLESS"...whereupon the sausage maker is turned back on...(and then you get (teeny, tiny sausages flavored with a soupcon of "voter angst"...tasty)...the mess that has become amerika is systemic, EVERYTHING IS TOO BIG....(a. Kelly made this point recently about A.I.G, "A.I.G was too diverse and global...no one was in charge")...the country is being crushed by its own size and "small is beautiful" talk has that whiff of gov. "moonbeam" patois...i love what Donna and the National Nurses United are doing... maybe they could start an Angie's list....giving a voice here might help a little and getting the pols at primary challenges, but basically we're screwed for some time to come...peace
I sent this to my reps:
If we really want immediate relief, and not an ongoing bipartisan debacle on national healthcare insurance coverage, why not legislate by reconciliation a simple Medicare buy-in for all option, sliding scale based on income, continue payroll tax but without a cut-off and at a lower rate to keep the buy-in cost low; those without means for any buy-in get government subsidy. Private insurers who want to continue in that business can give better service/coverage beyond Medicare or whatever they think the customers will buy from them with whatever conditions they choose.
Since the Medicare infrastructure is already in place, it could more quickly and easily work than a whole new scheme. This scheme could be a job booster by putting more money into low income pockets (people most likely to spend) and giving small business a break from the drag of providing healthcare. Medicare would have even more volume for cost-cutting clout and a greater income stream to stay solvent.
Still, we must continue to work on the underlying problem of high medical cost: seriously look at best practices both medically and fiscally and better promote what works, including treatments that are considered nontraditional in this culture; expand access to medical education (on all levels, not just MDs); expand efforts to educate the public generally on positive health practices and self-treatment options.
We demand a strong public option; and we vote our anger and encourage others to vote!
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden – Send questions, comments, concerns, or well-wishes to the President or his staff.
U.S. Senators – Search for your senators by name, state, or congressional class; and visit their websites.
U.S. Representatives – Find contact information for your U.S. representative by typing in your zip code.
State Governors – Select your state to access e-mail, telephone, and postal contact information for your governor.
State Legislators – Get the names of your state legislators and other elected officials by entering your ZIP code.
Tweet a Message to Your Representatives – @2gov identifies your representatives and sends them professional reports with your messages (even if they aren't on Twitter!)
http://www.contactingthecongress.org/
Libramoon, you're missing the point. They aren't trying to create something that works, they're trying to not get caught making the insurers richer.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
edweg
capitalism and socialism would undergo complete transformation when choice existed
- that's why health providers are choice allergic, see it as step ending the game
I have struggled through both regular medical insurance and Medicare. Medicare is better, but not great. Every problem with both is caused by the fact that whoever pays the bill is the real customer, no matter who is getting the "care".
I think the best solution is to take out a HIGH deductible catastrophic insurance policy (say a deductible representing 30-50% of your yearly earnings). [Providing catastrophic insurance is perhaps the best role for government.] Then, funnel every dollar you can to a tax-free health savings account through which you can pay all your medical expenses. Finally, find a doctor who works mostly alone, takes no insurance, Medicaid, or Medicare and accepts only cash/credit cards/checks. Because this doctor knows everything is coming out of your pocket (you're finally the customer), he/she will order only those tests/drugs that are necessary. "Let's try this $4 drug first to see how you do, then if it doesn't work, we'll have to go to the $300 drug."
Of course, if you have a major health problem already, this won't work because you won't be able to get the catastrophic in the first place, but this plan is good for many people. In my doctor's office, there are 2 docs, 2 blood takers, and 9 people fighting with insurance/government for payment; let's eliminate the 9.
miamigreek, fine for you, but what about all the families living on minimum wage incomes or even worse, looking for work? Or do you think it isn't important to consider other people's situations? And what was your fallback plan for those with expensive preexisting conditions?
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
"God-forbid ask a question over the phone"
Only in Merka do people lose their right to ask a doctor for information, yet continue to defend that culture with the utmost pride. It seems like the Lizard King Godzilla has spawned several hundred million miniature progeny in Merka, on a mission to defend evil.
Dear Donna Smith,
Why don't the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United start a Co-operative Health Insurance system, a hybrid co-op owned half by nurses and half by patients. Since, unless by some miracle Alan Grayson's bill pulls through, we're not going to get a "public option," create one of you own.
People trust and admire nurses more than they do doctors, and certainly more than insurance companies; and since you won't have to take 30 cents out of the premium dollar for profits and costs, you could easily out compete the insurance vultures. Just the initial publicity would get you millions of customers. And success would give you additional leverage to push for Single Payer.
Any reason why not? I hope you will talk about it.
According to the bill being passed, and I mentioned this in my earlier review of it, CO-OP crushes non-profit because of the harsh eligibility requirements for non-profits to receive funding while Big Insurance continues to receive subsidizations. Let me ask you this. Why do we need another insurance system when we should be focus on taking profit OUT of health care altogether in the first place? I recall "teddy" once detailing why insurance is generally a scam and it all has to do with profit and only profit. Even with public option in, profiteering by Big Insurance still goes on. Donna has a bigger goal when she and the CA Nurses Association are pushing for single payer and I believe that CA is finally closer to passing single payer thanks to her efforts. I applaud her ongoing efforts not to back down and settle for compromises and maybe that's what we need.
"I know scores of patients - people who need medical care - who tell me about their personal journeys. They are often shuffled from provider to provider getting whatever medical tests or procedures are approved by their insurance companies while not receiving even one stitch of treatment or relief for the issue that brought them to seek care. The money flows; the patient is not treated. Maybe a pill. Maybe."
This is an accurate description of Kaiser Hospital's usual care. Doctors have edited the Hippocratic Oath to include "thou shalt watch the bottom line above all else". Of course that same mantra is the norm in almost every human endeavor these days, thus we all suffer for it.
Patients are pawns in the political system. This is what the supporters of Obamacare like Hoyer and Pelosi say to us on the progressive side. "Unless you accept our system of health insurance subsidy, (which is the only one will will actually consider) you are responsible for the deaths of 45,000 uninsured Americans a year. How can you idealistic reformers, with you unrealistic and stupidly naive proposals, (f--king retards-- as Rahm Emanuel calls us) who dare to propose Medicare for All, stand in the way of those who are concerned with providing this insurance. See how morally good we with our concern of extending Health insurance. Support us or watch your fellow citizens die." I'm not buying it-- I'm done with Democrats. I don't want their extortionist stink rubbing off on me.
Let's go roll some incumbents -- figuratively, figuratively.
Donna-
I think we should start a new National Non-Profit health care independent of the government. I have written an article that is slightly too big for this comments thing. I put it in Google Docs. Please read it and email me to talk further...
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcgz45p6_32cpg6w9c8
Good luck with that. I mean, Big Insurance would be not only entitled, but OBLIGED, by federal law, to squash you like a bug.
I want single-payer yesterday. And Obama's plan isn't remotely acceptable to me, in the long run.
However: in the short run, Obama's plan puts the cracked ERISA amendments exempting health insurers from normal antitrust law to the test. And yes, SCOTUS in its current configuration, will side with corporate personhood. One thing Obama's doing on this front that's gone almost entirely unnoticed is that he's nominating for key federal judgeships people who have qualms about that construct. Health insurance reform might not happen overnight, but it won't happen at all if congress doesn't change the conversation by repealing legislation that explicitly or implicitly gave Big Insurance a free pass to print money for their shareholders.
Any federal legislation regulating BI has got to be better than the status quo.