PERSONAL HEALTH  
Caveat Press / By Don Sloan
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The Best Health Care Is Reserved for Congress

In an excerpt from his new book, Practicing Medicine Without a License, Don Sloan, M.D., shows that members of Congress enjoy health coverage with unlimited doctor visits, no deductibles and no co-pays -- all for $35 a month. So what about the rest of us?
July 11, 2007  |  
 
 
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The following is excerpted from Chapter 2 of Practicing Medicine Without a License! The Corporate Takeover of Healthcare in America.

Nothing happens in a political vacuum. Nothing. The toe bone is connected to the head bone. Healthcare's place in a country agenda is but a microcosm of where a nation ranks its social consciousness. It reveals the quality of our purpose, our economy, our priorities and where they are placed on the chain of command. Along with education, healthcare tells all about a government and its people.

For without a healthy and literate people, a society cannot succeed. World history has proven that over and over again. Where then does America stand on the ladder of accomplishments when stacked up against the rest of the nations of the world? Sadly, with all of its opulence, power, wealth, and resources, nowhere near high enough.

U.S. foreign aid

For openers, we have often bragged about how generous we are toward the rest of the world as measured by our foreign aid. Politically, it is no secret that we base our aid not on need, but on its service as a tool of our foreign policy. Countries that are friendly to the U.S. power structure are the beneficiaries of our benevolence. Thus, the nations that receive by far the lion's share of our foreign aid are Israel and Egypt, the two nations in the Middle East boiling pot that are most politically aligned with our ideals and ambitions.

If generosity has been properly defined as the giving of what you have little of, then in that context, no matter how benevolent we might seem, we are not a generous nation. Even now, there is that brouhaha over our rehab funding of Iraq. Revelations come daily of contracting through the Halliburton empire and other corporate friends of the Administration, based not on value or need, but on the size of contributions to the various political campaigns or their political connections.

Despite our reputation, the numbers betray it as false. For although we have been ballyhooed as the world's foremost social worker, the truth is sadly the opposite. The United States of America continues to give less overseas aid as a percentage of its Gross National Product (GNP) and income than any other developed nation. With the exceptions of aid to Israel and Egypt, we allocate and spend more in one day on the military operation in the Gulf War than we spend all year on social foreign aid. Likewise, here at home, the Pentagon spends more in fifteen minutes than is federally funded for women's healthcare in a year! Other similar examples abound.

We fall behind most other industrialized nations in just about every area of social need. In percentage of one-year-old children fully immunized against polio, we are number seventeen. China and even Brazil are in front of us. There are lower rates of low birth weight babies born in Egypt and Jordan than here at home. Before the debacle of 1989 that took away its socialized healthcare, the then-USSR was also ahead of us on that list. Lebanon, Libya, and Cuba have more teachers for their children than the USA.

Oh, yes. We are first among western industrialized nations when it comes to percentage of children living below the poverty line, murders of males between ages fifteen and twenty-four, in the number of handguns in the street used by people of all ages, the percentage of citizens incarcerated, energy consumption per capita, and in the emissions of air pollutants.

And, we are by far number one in the rate of people gunned down each year in street crimes and similar violent incidents. In America today, there are more African-American adult males in jail than in college.

Shameful statistics
The World Health Organization (WHO), the arm of the United Nations (UN) that is in charge of the world's state of health, as well as its monitoring and reporting, has often reminded the U.S. that we lag far behind other G-7 countries, including Australia and Canada, in what the WHO states is "healthy life expectancy." Its latest report suggests that there are many "Third World pockets" within U.S. borders. I remind you that over 45 million Americans have no healthcare coverage at all, and it is easily estimated that over 40 million more have healthcare that can only be described as inadequate. Of course, as expected, much of this follows along racial and ethnic lines, with blacks and Hispanics over-represented among the denied groups.

Life spans alone tell the story. White males are at 75.4 years, white women at 80.5; African-American males hover at 69.2, black women are 76.1. These numbers have improved slightly overall in the past decade, but shockingly are in decline compared to other industrialized nations.

In fact, America sits weakly at number twenty-nine of the thirty-five nations included in the latest UN Human Development Report released in 2005, which lists average life expectancy. It is notable that not only have more countries moved ahead of the USA, but also the gap between us and the healthiest country, Japan, with its average life expectancy of eighty-two years, continues to widen.

The WHO report stated that Native Americans, rural African-American males, and much of the inner city poor have numbers that match many Third World nations. Shamefully, our U.S. is the world's only nation that reports its healthcare statistics in two categories, one for black and the other for white citizens. The differences are that stark.

It has been wisely written that the most heinous and pervasive weapon of mass destruction is poverty. Affluent USA has not escaped that dungeon. Even during our greatest periods of economic boom -- strictly subjective depending on who is doing the reporting and whether it is an election year or not -- almost one in five (18.5 percent) U.S. children were living in officially defined poverty as we entered the twenty-first century, with black and Hispanic poverty numbers nearly double that of white and Asian. This, despite our gross domestic product's (GDP) nearly doubling in the last quarter of the twentieth century. It is clear that not everyone gets to enjoy the perks of a strong economy. The streets of America that are "paved with gold" are apparently not trod upon or open to all. ...

How the USA compares

What is the state of healthcare in the U.S. today? Our USA spends over 50 percent more than say, Switzerland, on healthcare per capita, the next country in line. And on average, we spend 150 percent over other industrialized nations. The number of beds per capita in the U.S. is consistently in the bottom quartile on those countries.

And that filters down to all other healthcare expenses, from hospital overheads to medical malpractice to prescription drugs. The latest data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has now confirmed what we already knew. The OECD also points out that although the United States spends more, we do not receive the services we pay for.

Healthcare layout accounts for about 15 percent of the U.S. GDP at a time when only two other countries, Switzerland and Germany, put out more than 10 percent. Averaging over the first years of the new millennium, the United States spends circa $5,200 per person on healthcare. Canada $2,900; Germany $2,800; Switzerland $2,600; Britain $2,200. Yet, each of them boasts of a longer life expectancy, lower infant mortality, and better U5MRs than we. All have a national healthcare service that covers all their people. No one is shut out.

The United States has 2.9 hospital beds per 1,000 residents compared with 3.7 beds/1,000 in the average OECD nation; 2.4 physicians per 1,000 people compared to 3.1/1,000; 7.9 nurses/1,000 compared to 8.9/1,000 among the others.

The U.S. has 12.9 CT scanners per one million population compared with 13.3 elsewhere in the developed world. We do have more magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines than the other OECD nations listed, but ours are only in use ten hours daily, compared to fourteen in the others.

The best healthcare is available

The OECD conclusion was not a surprise. We just do not get enough for our buck. But that is not true for everyone in the country. There is an employee/insurance deal in the U.S. that includes unlimited doctor office visits of your choosing; covers all accidents, routine exams, physical therapy, labs and X-rays; and the like; unlimited hospital visits and stays; certain chronic care and rehab; full prescription coverage; and unlimited specialty consultations. For the employee and the entire family. There are no deductibles, no co-pays, and only a $35 monthly fee taken from an annual salary of $158 thou. Thirty-five dollars!

The group awarded this insurance looks forward to a full pension and continued coverage until their deaths. Quite a few, most in fact, were millionaires before they took on their jobs that got them such a perk. Who gets this coverage? It would be nice if it were the underprivileged or the chronically ill and debilitated or our veterans.

But no. For starters, the 535 members of the U.S. Congress, and add to that the few hundred in the upper executive and judicial branches of government. They are also members of a demographic group where seven were arrested for shoplifting, nineteen for writing bad checks, and eighty-four for drunk driving. This bunch also has an overrepresentation of felony indictments, and a few ended up serving time.

And, they are also the very same group who keeps such credible healthcare proposals and bills like John Conyers' HR676 and Barbara Lee's HR3000 holed up in committee, year after year, denying them access to a public hearing and floor vote. In 2005, the president and his cronies up on the Hill voted to slash $10 billion over the next decade from Medicaid. Their own medical benefits stayed intact.

Could it be they don't believe that the rest of America should share in what they are so fortunate to have? We know better. That is the kind of care that we should all have and can afford.

A play with the numbers is even more revealing. Using those same governmental accounting sources, the billions spent on the Iraqi campaign yearly would have given similar healthcare benefits to four out of every five Americans for a year. Think about that.

As the denied are reported to number in the many millions, the profits amassed by the pharmaceutical industry and the robber barons that are the insurance and banking healthcare conglomerates are measured in billions. The arguments used in lobbying against the allowance of pharmacy generics that would slash the costs of drugs to a needy people would mach the New York State Health Department when it wrote that the "quality of life" was not in its purview.

A study of U.S. bankruptcies tells a part of this scandalous story. Harvard Medical School's Steffie J. Woolhandler addressed a meeting of the Society of General Internal Medicine and said, "Among all debtors filing for bankruptcy, 55 percent ... cited one or more medical causes ... This is an incredibly profound indictment of healthcare financing in the United States."

Spending by the general population on its healthcare increases every year, similar to the growing governmental allocations per person for health that we mentioned earlier, now up to over $6,000 an individual. Healthcare expenses are now the third largest overall outlay in the U.S., surpassed only by the government and the retail industry. They are measured in the trillions and account for almost 15 percent of the total economy.

As getting sick is expensive for the individual in our society, so, too, is it costly to the taxpayers, the system, and the facilities. Sickness affects us all. Prevention would be a lot cheaper for everyone. And add to that the loss of a productive person's skills and labor to our diminishing "quality of life."

Our dubious honors

In a puzzling statement, as government think tanks keep crying out how we must control the healthcare dollar with all sorts of tightening-up rules and regulations and practices, the National Academy of Sciences stated that, rather, we must reward high-quality medical programs as a way of making better doctors and providing us with better facilities, from high tech ORs to chronic care nursing homes.

With health costs on the dole mounting, so are our national debts. A Herblock cartoon from 1986, in reporting that the U.S. had just become the world's leading debtor nation, a place we have not since relinquished, sported the headline "We're Number One!" Tragically, we can make other similar dubious claims, as well.

What is the American paradox, as asked by political writer Ted Halstead in preparing us for yet another wild promise in a State of the Union address? That we a nation with the most patents, Nobel laureates, and millionaires. But we are as well the world's leading industrialized country with the highest levels of poverty, homicide, and infant mortality.

We remain without a healthcare program that covers all our citizens. In presenting the data for this book to various publishing outlets and media moguls, I was told by more than one that healthcare and its need does not seem to be that important to people. I guess I should have answered by reminding them that they should think that over when they don't feel so well.

There is nothing more devastating than having poor health, but worse still is having a health deficiency that is undiagnosed, frightening, painful, and goes untreated for one reason or another. Nothing equals that feeling of powerlessness and frustration. Imagine, then, having suck a feeling but with the added burden of never having hope or an avenue of relief of any kind, much less a cure.
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A medical doctor with nearly four decades in private practice, Don Sloan has published more than 85 peer-reviewed journal articles on medical practice and the politics of his profession. Sloan is active in New York healthcare reform organizations and national legislative forums.
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Therein Lies the Problem....
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Posted by: CatDad on Jul 11, 2007 5:06 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There is no health care "crisis" for our nation's ruling corporate, government and military elites. The system works for folks at the top tier...and since our government is primarily concerned with the interests of these people, there's little incentive to effect change.

One of the Right Wings's most important strategies has been to keep those at the economic bottom from joining together to form a powerful voting bloc, such as senior citizens. Such a voting bloc could effect change and demand (and get) Congress to have universal coverage for all Americans regardless of economic status....yet...it was not to be...The Right has been highly effective in keeping those at the economic bottom fighting amongst themselves...based largely upon racial lines...and more recently they've tapped into homophobia to stir things up.

I have consistently said on this board that we will not see univeral health care coverage in this nation because the underlying structural obstacles are too great to overcome at this point. In the end a 50-year old CEO and members of Congress won't tolerate being put into the same heath care pool as a plumber or cashier. However inefficient our largely private heath care system is (and that fact that it shuts out coverage to some 47 million in the wealthiest nation the world has ever known)...it does work for those at the top...and the inefficiencies of the system are the source of billions of profit.

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» He was talking about diversion Posted by: WhatNow?
» And so and so and so Posted by: edith

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Puzzeled.
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Posted by: itchyvet on Jul 11, 2007 5:57 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It never ceases to amaze me that the U.S. is supposed to the richest country in the World, yet has the worst medical cover for it's citizens.
What is wrong with the American citizen, that they allow their representatives to get away with such a shody system, and never call them to answer for it ?

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» RE: Puzzeled. Posted by: CatDad
» RE: Puzzeled. Posted by: albrechtkrausse
» Corporations need to get involved. Posted by: albrechtkrausse
» RE: Puzzeled. Posted by: babs
» RE: Puzzeled. Posted by: albrechtkrausse
» RE: Puzzeled. Posted by: LeftCoastProgressive

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You Wouldn't Imitate a Thief, So Why Would You Imitate Congress?
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Posted by: edith on Jul 11, 2007 6:07 AM   
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A $35, no deductible health plan is a plan that is a freebie, compared with the Blue Cross or Hmo plans normal workers may have. Dangling the Congressional lard in front of our noses as bait serves no useful purpose other than to demand Congress dump its typical self-serving gratuity to itself. Congress is not just 435 members in the House and 100 Senators. It is doubtful that a sound national health plan could survive if crafted to congress' generous, extremely subsidized giveaway health benefit.

There are hundreds if not thousands of congressional employees beyond the Members of Congress, including the Library of Congress and the Congressional Budget Office. What is their health plan? Congress is, like many organizations in DC/N.Virginia, a politically active nonprofit organization. Thus its health plan should resemble something like the NEA, AFL, Chamber of Commerce, National Assn. of Homebuilders or other larger nonprofits in the DC area. This plan would still be better than many plans and of course better than what Americans with no insurance have. But it would be a mistake to use the Congressional model, which has no incentive to hold costs down, as a national model.

I revel as does the author of the article here in the rank hypocrisy of the elected midgets who purport to represent us. But while we need a universal health care system, it needs to be partially funded by direct payments of users(co-payments) and it will need to make tough choices about how much health care to provide(Should grandad get "free" open heart surgery at 87 and then be compensated for all the complications that follow?)

IF there is any area where the Congressional freebie should be copied, it should be in preventative medicine, including annual physicals. This is how unnecessary high costs can be partially at least ameliorated so we can have a financially sound health care system that truly is all-inclusive.

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What is the matter?
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Posted by: ProgressiveManiac on Jul 11, 2007 6:16 AM   
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The problem with the American people is that they are mostly ignorant of the problem. Ask the average (affluent) guy or gal on the street and you will hear that the U.S. health care system is the best in the world. This may once have even been true, and our MSM has done little to inform people that things have changed over the last thirty years.

This is where Michael More comes in. Everyone who has a chance should thank him for what he has done to popularize this issue. Unfortunately, those who most need to become informed are the least likely to see his new movie.

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» RE: What is the matter? Posted by: Trazom

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Here's a good one,
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Posted by: paschn on Jul 11, 2007 6:17 AM   
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There are a WHOLE MESS 'o' fools in this country who know this and think it's okay and as it should be. I call 'em Sheep with fangs. Easily led to the slaughter but capable of and more than willing to mete out the same slaughter on other people in the name of their "great Nation".

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The USA is the best, but "They" hate "Us"
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Posted by: mrcentrist on Jul 11, 2007 6:26 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Paradoxically, Americans are taught that the United States is the best country in the world (thus all the people from foreign countries who would like to move to the USA) but at the same time they're also taught that "They" (all foreigners) hate "Us" (all Americans.) Obviously, both of these ideas are cartoonish and extremely simplified, but both of them help to keep many Americans from criticizing their system -- healthcare or anything else. The first idea makes many Americans believe that there is little to criticize about their system -- since it's the best in the world -- and the second idea makes many Americans think that the USA is under constant attack or threat of attack from all sides, so that they have a patriotic duty to stick by "the American way" of doing things, for all of its real or imagined faults.

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walldodger1969
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Posted by: walldodger1969 on Jul 11, 2007 6:56 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Ya all forgot the the most important part of our healthcare.....PRAYER!!! (sometimes thats the only thing folks have)

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» RE: walldodger1969 Posted by: mrcentrist

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Breakdown of costs?
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Posted by: bookie on Jul 11, 2007 7:40 AM   
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, the United States spends circa $5,200 per person on healthcare.

I'm curious, does anyone have a breakdown on those average costs? I'm wondering how much of that $5,200 is being spent on medicines. I would suspect a lot, but don't know.

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» RE: Breakdown of costs? Posted by: steve7

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Five Myths of Socialized Medicine
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Posted by: Liger on Jul 11, 2007 7:43 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]

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misuse of public office should be a criminal offense...
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Posted by: Suzon on Jul 11, 2007 7:56 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
and independent grand juries could indite specific congressmen and congresswomen. Just the thought of it could help to concentrate their minds. I've been campaining on government (and judicial) accountability in the UK since at least 1992, putting bold ads in national newspapers (at least until my money ran out).

That resulted in the Committee on Standards in Public Life (appointed by Prime Minister John Major because of so much sleaze in his party) recommending in 1997 that such an offense be made statutory.

Lord Nolan, the top judge who was the chairman, set out the elements of the offence:

1. Misuse of public office can arise both as a result of actions taken and of failing to act.

2. The neglect of duty must be wilful and not merely inadvertent; it must be culpable in the sense that it was without reasonable excuse or justification...and of such degree...as to call for condemnation and punishment.

3. The unifying factor...appears to be the existence of some improper, dishonest or oppressive motive in the exercise or refusal to exercise some public function

4. ...the offence could include the exercise of a public function in a manner which involves dishonesty, as when some improper advantage is sought by the public official himself or for another party.

5. While evidence of improper intention would be usual, it should be possible to prosecute also in the event of gross negligence.


Anyone up for this? What better issue would there be to go for, fellow progressives?! Why should my son who lives in England have free health care while the two who live in the US have no access at all?

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The logical and humane thing to do...
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Posted by: Trazom on Jul 11, 2007 8:19 AM   
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Is to combine reformation of the progressive federal tax codes along with "free" universal health care. The free part only exists as far as the patient or demand side is concerned, obviously taxes have to be used to pay for the coverage. For this reason I don't think we can have universal health care without a re-tooling of the tax laws, they go hand-in-hand.

The exact answer? I'm not sure, but it would most likely include higer tax rates for the wealthiest of the wealthy, along with more tax brackets past a certain income level (say $150,000), all resulting in more revenue for said health care system.

That would be the humane thing to do, but not necessarily the human thing to do.

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Let's not forget
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Posted by: Trazom on Jul 11, 2007 8:27 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The credit card industry has a lot at stake here too. After all, the 55% of the people declaring bankruptcies due to a medical condition most likely have run up some kind of debt in their futile quest to avoid the inevitable, so you can bet your middle class income that they will be there supporting their big brother in some form or another. It really is a multi-headed beast we are fighting here in America. I wonder exactly why the majority of the people didn't see this coming.

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» RE: Let's not forget Posted by: Krain61

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Excellent article.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: WhatNow? on Jul 11, 2007 8:47 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I wonder how much we would save if everyone was able to afford regular health care. How many deadly problems might be caught early when they could be treated easily and less expensively?

I am one of the 45 million without coverage. I think my health may be starting to fail. Would it better for me to go to the doctor and find something wrong that will saddle me with debt that I will never be able to pay and weigh heavily on me the rest of my life or should I just take my chances and when I get too sick to function at all, end my life intentionally? With the cost and coverage that insurance companies offer me, I am led to believe my best coverage will be a bullet in the brain. Pretty sad that this is the US health care system for me and I am definitely not alone.

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» RE: xcellent article. Posted by: solrev
» RE: xcellent article. Posted by: Trazom
» RE: xcellent article. Posted by: solrev
» RE: xcellent article. Posted by: Trazom

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What's good for the Ruling Class, is too good for the rest of us..!
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Posted by: TJ-stars4peace on Jul 11, 2007 9:29 AM   
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This is of course so true that Congress and The Senate, The President his family and The Vice President all have Single Payer Health Care..!

What this tell us, is that what's good for The Ruling Class is to good for the rest of us..!

Let every member of Congress and The Senate against a Single Payer System as well as the President and Vice President give up the one they exploit, and pay for their own health care like the rest of us, when we can even get it..!

Simple as that..!

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Charles V--"let them die"
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Posted by: zooeyhall on Jul 11, 2007 9:56 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"so what about the rest of us?" the author asks in the prologue to this article.

I am reminded of a story told about Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Hearing a disturbance outside of his palace, he was told that it was hungry poor people protesting. His reply was "let them die" and then he went on to compare them to "bugs, worms and other vermin that eat the eat the good things of the earth that should instead go to their betters".

Funny how we think we are so civilized and advanced from this opinion expressed 400 years ago. But you can hear the same sort of reply today from the ruling classes in this country.

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Universal care is not sustainable.
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Posted by: jacques7 on Jul 11, 2007 10:34 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I'm a Canadian who is proud about our system.
However, we are facing a crisis here. Every year, the
costs to the system are increasing rapidly due mostly
to the cost of "end of life" medical interventions that
only extend people's lifetimes for a short period while
incurring huge costs. Our system will not survive in its
current form. When the baby-boomers retire, their use
of the system will be enormous. As a consequence, our
system will change!

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Let me see if I have this right
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Posted by: Trazom on Jul 11, 2007 11:01 AM   
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Total healthcare spending in 2005 was about $2 trillion, according to the National Coalition on Health Care. Let's say for the sake of argument that this number is now $2.5 trillion in 2007. There are 250 million insured people in the United States, give or take. That makes the total yearly healthcare cost per insured person approx. $10,000.

Yet the members of Congress, who are mostly in the upper 5% income bracket of society, contribute only $35/month to their plan, or roughly 5% of the amount required to boot the bill for one person. Yeah, that's fair.

What an example they set for this country. Disgusting.

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» You do have it right Posted by: edith
» RE: You do have it right Posted by: Trazom

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How to solve America's health care crisis.
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Posted by: HughScott on Jul 11, 2007 11:29 AM   
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Step 1: In the 2008 general election, vote against Congressional incumbents.

I don't have a second step, but the first one should be a move in the right direction.

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I SURE HOPE PSYCH EVALS ARE INCLUDED :)
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Posted by: drricklippin on Jul 11, 2007 2:26 PM   
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Not to make light of a shameful hypocrisy you report if congress does have exams I hope and pray they include a thorough and routine psych evaluation on these leaders.

Now THAT would be $ well spent

I actually wrote a piece on Mental Illness Among US Presidents on my blog http://medicalcrises.blogspot.com (scroll to March 7th)

Thanks

Dr. Rick Lippin
Southammpton, Pa

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One in five
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Posted by: vertical on Jul 11, 2007 2:40 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
According to you one in five children live in poverty. You blame the goverment, but parents should also be blaimed: A responsible parent dosn't have a child they can't afford to support!

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» RE: One in five Posted by: Lincoln fan
» RE: One in five Posted by: Krain61
» RE: One in five Posted by: Trazom

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Devide and concore
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Posted by: Krain61 on Jul 11, 2007 3:51 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"Devide and concore"
I use to work in a steel mill before well you know that part
but anyhow the company would do shit to get the people
to fight among them selves and not bother them.
When they got wages dropped through concessions the people
now were afraid to miss aday or speak out for fear of loosing
there job..
The Corporations and Government are the same and are using
the same tactics. Now people are just getting use to having that
bucket of sand near there ass and expect a good reeming.
They never stick together. You can barely get a few people in one
room to have the same opinion on anything.
Reagan started the ball rolling with the airline traffic controllers
and it has snow balled ever since.
Instead of hearing news when watching TV people are watching very
ignorant things like who's in rehab and who got a DUI or who cut there
hair all off. Is any one really surprized that these Bastards in charge of
our lives and money are treated better than us.
Look at your pay check and how they keep you poor.
They know if you start sticking together you could fight them but
instead they keep us fighting amonst outselves.
The gay issue or race issue or anything that would seperate the people
shouldn't be used..They want you seperated. Power is in numbers unless
you are the ruler.And even then Power in numbers can take back what
was stolen. If only people could open there eyes and start thinking for them selves and stop letting TV ads and radio and papers do there thinking and start talking among each others out in the open. Solidarity is not here in the USA
Unless bush wants to start another war and these people will stand behind him..God help us it people don't wake up soon.

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» RE: Devide and concore Posted by: Lincoln fan

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We already spend more on health care than any other country per capita
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Posted by: UnEasyOne on Jul 11, 2007 5:19 PM   
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and don't insure everybody. Medicare for all, combined with elimination of the stupid and corrupt provision denying the government the right to negotiate drug prices (should substitute it with a mandate that any US firm provide drugs at a price no higher than the lowest price paid by other countries) would actually save us a fortune! The 3% administrative cost of Medicare combined with elimination of the huge HMO bureaucracy would actually reduce overall cost while extending medical benefits to everybody!

It's a real no-brainer - which explains why our corrupt congress hasn't enacted it.

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Accountability
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Posted by: packofwolves on Jul 11, 2007 5:25 PM   
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Until the people who make the rules have to live by them, nothing will ever change. Demand equality and accountability. If Congress has great health benefits, that you pay for, then the rest of us should too. Demand what's right. Remember, Congress is supposed to work for us not us for them.

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steve7
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Posted by: steve7 on Jul 11, 2007 5:27 PM   
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If you ask most people about universal care you will get the reply "that is socialism" as if the latter is a dirty word. People with insurance, congressmen and women included, feel that the money they are spending belongs to someone else. They do not realize their pay is reduced by the benefit costs and they fail to act like the most unknowledgeable consumer. Consumerism and cost consciousness is not going to work. We might as well change the paradigm and give everyone first dollar benefits. It might save money. Ideas are needed to break systemic failures. Go to www.healthcaresoundoff.com and join the forum on how to realistically make changes. Our fear of "socialism" is too pervasive even though Medicare accounts for 60% of our total health bill. Medicare for some reason is not socialism.

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» RE: steve7 Posted by: CatDad

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America's health care system
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Posted by: willymack on Jul 11, 2007 6:48 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Our sterling Congress, headed by prezdint AWOL get the best health care $35 per month can buy. Over 200 million ordinary citizens heve piss-poor plans, and pay through the nose for ithem, while about 49 million have nothing at all. Want to bet that if we suddenly stopped spending $1 billion a week murdering our military personnel and innocent Iraqi citizens, we could easily afford the same deal our "leaders" get?

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What a relief !!
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Posted by: davy on Jul 12, 2007 1:00 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As an X pat yank living in the UK I can't tell you what a relief free medical care is !! My 94 year old mom in law spent 4 months in hosp. at the cost of, well, NOTHING. Had it not been for the N.H.S. we would now be SCREWED.

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» RE: What a relief !! Posted by: CatDad

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PayPal for Health Insurance
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Posted by: Trazom on Jul 12, 2007 9:35 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Why don't we all just say a giant "F U" to the private insurers and start our own non-profit program managed by the people? I can think of nothing more delicious then the insurance giants losing customers and getting screwed out of premiums, copays, and all the other fees associated with health-related treatments.

It would be very simple. Everyone pays the same amount per month, say $35/month (just picking the number out of the air). First we get all 47 million uninsured on board. After one month we have $1.6 billion in the account (before any health expenses that is). Now is that enough to insure 47 million people? By the latest statistics, no it is not (average expenditure of $10,000 per person per year, or $833 per month means that insuring 47 million people would cost about $39 billion per month). It is approx. 1/24 the amount required. However, up to 1/3 of the current model is paper pushing beauracratic waste, which if removed from the equation means that we need $26 billion per month. So we're down to 1/16th of what is required. It is worth pointing out that many, if not most, clinics and doctors give significant discounts to cash paying customers. So if you assume a discount of 40% on average, then the $26 billion becomes a little over $16 billion. Ok so now we're down to 1/10th of what we need.

Some unknowns at this time are: how many expensive medical procedures will not be prescribed in the first place since the HMO or private insurer would no longer be bilked for it? Also, how many people will take more of an interest in their health and seek more preventive care now that the insurance man is out of the picture? Unfortunately neither of these variables is significant enough to make up for the 1/10th discrepancy.

Three things are becoming clear here. The first thing is that the $35 fee is not adequate enough to provide insurance for all 47 million people. It should be more like $350/month. But since many of the 47 million uninsured are poor and couldn't afford that anyway, that means the flat payment is not practical. Which brings us to the second point, in order to make this a reality we would need a progressive pay rate system, much like our federal taxes, but it would need to involve the entire population. This refutes the original argument of creating a non profit insurer just for the 47 million in the first place - it just isn't economically viable. The third thing evident from all this is that medical (hospital, doctor, etc) costs are important and it is in our best interest to keep them as low as possible, as the math shows that it is virtually impossible to insure the 47 million uninsured in this country without tapping into the wealth of the rich.

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Nothing worse ...
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Posted by: du2vye on Jul 12, 2007 2:57 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There is nothing worse than having healthcare insurance and still not able to get treatment. My sister-in-law died from breast cancer because it was treated with minimal care and no one knew better. She was 30. At the age of 50, I'm diagnosed with a cancer that's 95% survivable and my insurance company would only treat it with palliative care. Plus they weren't going to tell me. By then I'd learned a couple of things, like get a second opinion out of the network. My insurance has been worthless to me ever since. But they are still getting paid as if everything was fine.

What was surprising was watching a video on the Oprah website interveiwing Michael Moore. She had no idea this was going on. Oprah? I thought she would be more in touch.

I thought I was covered, until I needed it. I never needed much healthcare before. So did my sister-in-law. 80% or more people who have health insurance think they are covered when the reality is opposite. They just don't know it yet. That's the shock. Appeal? That's stacked - it's neither quick or easy and very hard to do if your sick. Lawyers? Don't count on it. Most insurance is restricted to federal courts and only for certain things and still takes years to achieve. Most people wouldn't live that long. Then you loose your job and enter the medical bankrupt world.

Healthcare companies know this. There answer has been to add .... credit cards.

If the U.S. had a single payor system (end private for profit care) just the administrative costs alone, would cover the costs of care for the entire population. Just have to convince a few people at the top they don't need six figure salaries to survive.

This country now has an elite class that feels totally justified feeling "special" and above the masses. There is going to be a backlash and the longer it's put off, the worse it will become.

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We should e-mail this to all our Congressmen!
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Posted by: ld7440 on Jul 12, 2007 7:39 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Thank you, Dr. Sloan. Knowledge truly is power. Of all the self-serving, shameful, and hypocritical things politicians are doing today, this ranks right up there.

As a Social Worker, I have seen more than my share of health care atrocities, from mentally ill patients with no insurance, to children in public schools (in New York, mind you) with rotting teeth because their parents cannot afford the co-pays. The richest country in the world? I believe that a countries "riches" include the health and happiness of its citizens. Our congressional leaders should come out of their ivory towers on occasion, and look around.

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impeachment
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Posted by: gsaephanh on Jul 13, 2007 1:03 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Call in your vote TODAY for impeaching Bush and Cheney at this number: 202-225-0100

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office is taking calls voting for Impeachment of Bush/Cheney at 202-225-0100. PLEASE CALL TODAY. At the toll free capitol switchboard #s below, you can also call your particular district’s congressional representative to insist that they support impeachment for Cheney. E.g., for Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s H Res 333 for Cheney; please say:

“In addition to supporting Kucinich’s bill H Res 333, I would also support a similar Impeachment Resolution against Bush, especially after the disgraceful Scooter Libby sentence “commuting” and the following issues: wiretapping, torture, numerous 9/11 intelligence misrepresentations, the continued occupation of Iraq, gross negligence during Hurrican Katrina, the Valerie Plame CIA leak, […list your other grounds…] ..”[see resolutions on tab #2 for other grounds for impeachment]).

LANIC requests that Americans call today…Not tomorrow or next week. Every call adds to the extraordinary grasswoots and nationwide movement’s pressures on House Speaker Pelosi to act now .before further innocent lives are lost in Iraq and elsewhere. Last week 28 Americans lost their lives. Over the July 4, 2007 weekend over 400 Iraqis lost their lives…

SEND MAIL TO HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI: Attn: Nancy Pelosi, House Representative/Speaker of the House, 235 Cannon H.O.B., Washington, DC 20515 ; Pelosi’s Fax # 202 225-8259

Pelosi’s e-mail address :

Americanvoices@mail.house.gov

CC her at: sf.nancy@mail.house.gov

Please send her a pro-impeachment email and a specific call to endorse H Res 333. Note: On Saturdays/Sundays, Pelosi’s office has a comment line at which you can leave a voicemail. Your message will be transcribed and relayed to her. Please do encourage your family/friends to contact the same number. Refer them to www.bcimpeach.com for the actual telephone #s & contact info.

Find out who your Congressional representative is and call that person. For toll free numbers to your Congress rep: (800) 828 – 0498; (800) 459 – 1887; or (866) 340 – 9281. You will be connected once you name your congress person. The staff aid should take detailed notes and provided to the Congressional representative.

Final Note: Please say “I support Impeachment based on ____. I’d like to know where “[representative name]” stands on this issue.” Let’s strike while the Libby fury keeps the iron hot! Please call and Act Now!

PLEASE ALSO CONTACT THESE KEY CONGRESSIONAL REPS RE IMPEACHMENT:
Representative Capitol Phone Capitol Fax
Howard Berman 202-225-4695 202-225-3196
& 818-944-7200 818-994-1050

MAILING ADDRESS FOR BERMAN
Congressman Howard L. Berman
14546 Hamlin Street, Suite 202
Van Nuys, CA 91411

Henry Waxman 202-225-3976 202-225-4099
Loreta Sanchez 202 225-2965 202-225-5859
D. Watson 202 225-7084 202-225-2422
LindaSanchez 202 225-6676 202-226-1012
L. Solis 202 225-5464 202-225-5467
A. G. Eshoo 202 225-8104 202-225-8890
L. Roybal/Allard 202 225-1766 202-225-0350

http://www.bcimpeach.com/

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"Socialized" Medicine
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Posted by: opeluboy on Jul 13, 2007 5:36 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Apparently it's quite acceptable for both our Communist Republican and Communist Democratic representatives to partake of "socialized medicine," but not for us. Okay for our leftie military, too.

Remember this the next time you hear one of the pigs in either war party tell you that single-payer healthcare is socialism and ask them to go buy their own goddamn health insurance like the rest of us poor slobs.

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Our veterans deserve (and get) the best!
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Posted by: Dleifneerg on Jul 15, 2007 4:28 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It's no longer just the Congressional Health care package that is the envy of all. The VA's once well deserved negative reputation has made a 180 degree turn and has, since the late 90s, galloped to the forefront as one of the world's most efficient healthcare programs. For some reason or another, this is one of the best kept secrets of our government servants who usually consider patting themselves on the back as their primary raisons d'etre.

The following Internet address will take you to an article extolling in no uncertain terms what our government is capable of doing for it's people with good leadership and an open hand. The article is a bit long but worth reading to the end where the author, Phillip Longman, has an excellent suggestion for opening up this fantastic program to anyone and everyone interested in joining. He makes it clear why other healthcare programs don't/won't/can't imitate the VAH and suggests that this program could be made available to all, in true democratic fashion, without forcing any of the "unwilling" (to coin a phrase) to do anything other than to keep on just the way they are. Although the article was written two years ago, the VAH is not only as good as it was then but has continued to improve. If I weren't such a cynic, I might wonder why the general public is being kept in the dark. Go to: washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0501.longman.html

Please pass the word regarding the VAH. Our veterans (Walter Reed is a "military" hospital, not a Veterans' Hospital) are receiving the kind of care that should be the envy of every citizen in America and even many veterans aren't aware of that fact. --Carolyn

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And the Point is...?
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Posted by: talkville on Jul 16, 2007 3:25 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"Best Healthcare" has always been reserved, available and cheap to the ruling class. Even the Worst Healthcare is reserved for that a-contextual and un-historic "middle" layer of the social base. No Healthcare is guaranteed to the proletariat. To receive even emergency care, a person in the lower orders must accept indenture and humiliation many time for the remainder of their life. Most costs for even an in-grown toe-nail of any member of the elite or their families is off-set to the premiums and taxes of the rest of the population. They call it Private Enterprise, and there's thick legislation embedding it into our society for many a year to come. The treat is theirs; the trick is ours. The pace-maker in Cheney's chest can be compared to the woman who died recently in California while a janitor mopped all around her as she died. It is, after all, a human comparison - and leaves us all sadly wanting.

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freedom freedom freedom
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Posted by: richholland on Jul 16, 2007 5:08 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Many countries were fascistic or communistic and had a statehealth insurance for everyone.

I saw that an insurance policy for a singleperson costs about US$ 125,==
In Westerneurope EVERYONE is insured and therefor the totalcosts are much lower then in the USA.

Of course you can have additional coverage and then pay for it.
The idea that an all insured country has any thing to do with communisme is no recommendation for the brains of the speaker.

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Factcheck please?
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Posted by: OldCynic on Jul 20, 2007 10:24 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I read this article some days ago and have been looking for some verification of this $35.00 per month Platinum health care package. I can't find any reference to a special deal for Congress critters, Just the standard Federal Employees Health Benefits Programs. Has anyone else been able to locate something to support this assertion? I'm usually more easily pursuaded when someone provides a source for their information. The good doctor doesn't seem to think this is necessary.

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» RE: Factcheck please? Posted by: du2vye
Alternet Comments:

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Therein Lies the Problem....
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Posted by: CatDad on Jul 11, 2007 5:06 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There is no health care "crisis" for our nation's ruling corporate, government and military elites. The system works for folks at the top tier...and since our government is primarily concerned with the interests of these people, there's little incentive to effect change.

One of the Right Wings's most important strategies has been to keep those at the economic bottom from joining together to form a powerful voting bloc, such as senior citizens. Such a voting bloc could effect change and demand (and get) Congress to have universal coverage for all Americans regardless of economic status....yet...it was not to be...The Right has been highly effective in keeping those at the economic bottom fighting amongst themselves...based largely upon racial lines...and more recently they've tapped into homophobia to stir things up.

I have consistently said on this board that we will not see univeral health care coverage in this nation because the underlying structural obstacles are too great to overcome at this point. In the end a 50-year old CEO and members of Congress won't tolerate being put into the same heath care pool as a plumber or cashier. However inefficient our largely private heath care system is (and that fact that it shuts out coverage to some 47 million in the wealthiest nation the world has ever known)...it does work for those at the top...and the inefficiencies of the system are the source of billions of profit.

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» He was talking about diversion Posted by: WhatNow?
» And so and so and so Posted by: edith

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Puzzeled.
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Posted by: itchyvet on Jul 11, 2007 5:57 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It never ceases to amaze me that the U.S. is supposed to the richest country in the World, yet has the worst medical cover for it's citizens.
What is wrong with the American citizen, that they allow their representatives to get away with such a shody system, and never call them to answer for it ?

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» RE: Puzzeled. Posted by: CatDad
» RE: Puzzeled. Posted by: albrechtkrausse
» Corporations need to get involved. Posted by: albrechtkrausse
» RE: Puzzeled. Posted by: babs
» RE: Puzzeled. Posted by: albrechtkrausse
» RE: Puzzeled. Posted by: LeftCoastProgressive

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You Wouldn't Imitate a Thief, So Why Would You Imitate Congress?
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Posted by: edith on Jul 11, 2007 6:07 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
A $35, no deductible health plan is a plan that is a freebie, compared with the Blue Cross or Hmo plans normal workers may have. Dangling the Congressional lard in front of our noses as bait serves no useful purpose other than to demand Congress dump its typical self-serving gratuity to itself. Congress is not just 435 members in the House and 100 Senators. It is doubtful that a sound national health plan could survive if crafted to congress' generous, extremely subsidized giveaway health benefit.

There are hundreds if not thousands of congressional employees beyond the Members of Congress, including the Library of Congress and the Congressional Budget Office. What is their health plan? Congress is, like many organizations in DC/N.Virginia, a politically active nonprofit organization. Thus its health plan should resemble something like the NEA, AFL, Chamber of Commerce, National Assn. of Homebuilders or other larger nonprofits in the DC area. This plan would still be better than many plans and of course better than what Americans with no insurance have. But it would be a mistake to use the Congressional model, which has no incentive to hold costs down, as a national model.

I revel as does the author of the article here in the rank hypocrisy of the elected midgets who purport to represent us. But while we need a universal health care system, it needs to be partially funded by direct payments of users(co-payments) and it will need to make tough choices about how much health care to provide(Should grandad get "free" open heart surgery at 87 and then be compensated for all the complications that follow?)

IF there is any area where the Congressional freebie should be copied, it should be in preventative medicine, including annual physicals. This is how unnecessary high costs can be partially at least ameliorated so we can have a financially sound health care system that truly is all-inclusive.

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What is the matter?
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Posted by: ProgressiveManiac on Jul 11, 2007 6:16 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The problem with the American people is that they are mostly ignorant of the problem. Ask the average (affluent) guy or gal on the street and you will hear that the U.S. health care system is the best in the world. This may once have even been true, and our MSM has done little to inform people that things have changed over the last thirty years.

This is where Michael More comes in. Everyone who has a chance should thank him for what he has done to popularize this issue. Unfortunately, those who most need to become informed are the least likely to see his new movie.

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» RE: What is the matter? Posted by: Trazom

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Here's a good one,
[Report this comment]
Posted by: paschn on Jul 11, 2007 6:17 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There are a WHOLE MESS 'o' fools in this country who know this and think it's okay and as it should be. I call 'em Sheep with fangs. Easily led to the slaughter but capable of and more than willing to mete out the same slaughter on other people in the name of their "great Nation".

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The USA is the best, but "They" hate "Us"
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Posted by: mrcentrist on Jul 11, 2007 6:26 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Paradoxically, Americans are taught that the United States is the best country in the world (thus all the people from foreign countries who would like to move to the USA) but at the same time they're also taught that "They" (all foreigners) hate "Us" (all Americans.) Obviously, both of these ideas are cartoonish and extremely simplified, but both of them help to keep many Americans from criticizing their system -- healthcare or anything else. The first idea makes many Americans believe that there is little to criticize about their system -- since it's the best in the world -- and the second idea makes many Americans think that the USA is under constant attack or threat of attack from all sides, so that they have a patriotic duty to stick by "the American way" of doing things, for all of its real or imagined faults.

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walldodger1969
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Posted by: walldodger1969 on Jul 11, 2007 6:56 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Ya all forgot the the most important part of our healthcare.....PRAYER!!! (sometimes thats the only thing folks have)

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» RE: walldodger1969 Posted by: mrcentrist

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Breakdown of costs?
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Posted by: bookie on Jul 11, 2007 7:40 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
, the United States spends circa $5,200 per person on healthcare.

I'm curious, does anyone have a breakdown on those average costs? I'm wondering how much of that $5,200 is being spent on medicines. I would suspect a lot, but don't know.

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» RE: Breakdown of costs? Posted by: steve7

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Five Myths of Socialized Medicine
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Posted by: Liger on Jul 11, 2007 7:43 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]

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misuse of public office should be a criminal offense...
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Posted by: Suzon on Jul 11, 2007 7:56 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
and independent grand juries could indite specific congressmen and congresswomen. Just the thought of it could help to concentrate their minds. I've been campaining on government (and judicial) accountability in the UK since at least 1992, putting bold ads in national newspapers (at least until my money ran out).

That resulted in the Committee on Standards in Public Life (appointed by Prime Minister John Major because of so much sleaze in his party) recommending in 1997 that such an offense be made statutory.

Lord Nolan, the top judge who was the chairman, set out the elements of the offence:

1. Misuse of public office can arise both as a result of actions taken and of failing to act.

2. The neglect of duty must be wilful and not merely inadvertent; it must be culpable in the sense that it was without reasonable excuse or justification...and of such degree...as to call for condemnation and punishment.

3. The unifying factor...appears to be the existence of some improper, dishonest or oppressive motive in the exercise or refusal to exercise some public function

4. ...the offence could include the exercise of a public function in a manner which involves dishonesty, as when some improper advantage is sought by the public official himself or for another party.

5. While evidence of improper intention would be usual, it should be possible to prosecute also in the event of gross negligence.


Anyone up for this? What better issue would there be to go for, fellow progressives?! Why should my son who lives in England have free health care while the two who live in the US have no access at all?

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The logical and humane thing to do...
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Posted by: Trazom on Jul 11, 2007 8:19 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Is to combine reformation of the progressive federal tax codes along with "free" universal health care. The free part only exists as far as the patient or demand side is concerned, obviously taxes have to be used to pay for the coverage. For this reason I don't think we can have universal health care without a re-tooling of the tax laws, they go hand-in-hand.

The exact answer? I'm not sure, but it would most likely include higer tax rates for the wealthiest of the wealthy, along with more tax brackets past a certain income level (say $150,000), all resulting in more revenue for said health care system.

That would be the humane thing to do, but not necessarily the human thing to do.

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Let's not forget
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Posted by: Trazom on Jul 11, 2007 8:27 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The credit card industry has a lot at stake here too. After all, the 55% of the people declaring bankruptcies due to a medical condition most likely have run up some kind of debt in their futile quest to avoid the inevitable, so you can bet your middle class income that they will be there supporting their big brother in some form or another. It really is a multi-headed beast we are fighting here in America. I wonder exactly why the majority of the people didn't see this coming.

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» RE: Let's not forget Posted by: Krain61

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Excellent article.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: WhatNow? on Jul 11, 2007 8:47 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I wonder how much we would save if everyone was able to afford regular health care. How many deadly problems might be caught early when they could be treated easily and less expensively?

I am one of the 45 million without coverage. I think my health may be starting to fail. Would it better for me to go to the doctor and find something wrong that will saddle me with debt that I will never be able to pay and weigh heavily on me the rest of my life or should I just take my chances and when I get too sick to function at all, end my life intentionally? With the cost and coverage that insurance companies offer me, I am led to believe my best coverage will be a bullet in the brain. Pretty sad that this is the US health care system for me and I am definitely not alone.

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» RE: xcellent article. Posted by: solrev
» RE: xcellent article. Posted by: Trazom
» RE: xcellent article. Posted by: solrev
» RE: xcellent article. Posted by: Trazom

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What's good for the Ruling Class, is too good for the rest of us..!
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Posted by: TJ-stars4peace on Jul 11, 2007 9:29 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This is of course so true that Congress and The Senate, The President his family and The Vice President all have Single Payer Health Care..!

What this tell us, is that what's good for The Ruling Class is to good for the rest of us..!

Let every member of Congress and The Senate against a Single Payer System as well as the President and Vice President give up the one they exploit, and pay for their own health care like the rest of us, when we can even get it..!

Simple as that..!

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Charles V--"let them die"
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Posted by: zooeyhall on Jul 11, 2007 9:56 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"so what about the rest of us?" the author asks in the prologue to this article.

I am reminded of a story told about Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Hearing a disturbance outside of his palace, he was told that it was hungry poor people protesting. His reply was "let them die" and then he went on to compare them to "bugs, worms and other vermin that eat the eat the good things of the earth that should instead go to their betters".

Funny how we think we are so civilized and advanced from this opinion expressed 400 years ago. But you can hear the same sort of reply today from the ruling classes in this country.

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Universal care is not sustainable.
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Posted by: jacques7 on Jul 11, 2007 10:34 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I'm a Canadian who is proud about our system.
However, we are facing a crisis here. Every year, the
costs to the system are increasing rapidly due mostly
to the cost of "end of life" medical interventions that
only extend people's lifetimes for a short period while
incurring huge costs. Our system will not survive in its
current form. When the baby-boomers retire, their use
of the system will be enormous. As a consequence, our
system will change!

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Let me see if I have this right
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Posted by: Trazom on Jul 11, 2007 11:01 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Total healthcare spending in 2005 was about $2 trillion, according to the National Coalition on Health Care. Let's say for the sake of argument that this number is now $2.5 trillion in 2007. There are 250 million insured people in the United States, give or take. That makes the total yearly healthcare cost per insured person approx. $10,000.

Yet the members of Congress, who are mostly in the upper 5% income bracket of society, contribute only $35/month to their plan, or roughly 5% of the amount required to boot the bill for one person. Yeah, that's fair.

What an example they set for this country. Disgusting.

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» You do have it right Posted by: edith
» RE: You do have it right Posted by: Trazom

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How to solve America's health care crisis.
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Posted by: HughScott on Jul 11, 2007 11:29 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Step 1: In the 2008 general election, vote against Congressional incumbents.

I don't have a second step, but the first one should be a move in the right direction.

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I SURE HOPE PSYCH EVALS ARE INCLUDED :)
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Posted by: drricklippin on Jul 11, 2007 2:26 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Not to make light of a shameful hypocrisy you report if congress does have exams I hope and pray they include a thorough and routine psych evaluation on these leaders.

Now THAT would be $ well spent

I actually wrote a piece on Mental Illness Among US Presidents on my blog http://medicalcrises.blogspot.com (scroll to March 7th)

Thanks

Dr. Rick Lippin
Southammpton, Pa

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One in five
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Posted by: vertical on Jul 11, 2007 2:40 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
According to you one in five children live in poverty. You blame the goverment, but parents should also be blaimed: A responsible parent dosn't have a child they can't afford to support!

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» RE: One in five Posted by: Lincoln fan
» RE: One in five Posted by: Krain61
» RE: One in five Posted by: Trazom

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Devide and concore
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Posted by: Krain61 on Jul 11, 2007 3:51 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"Devide and concore"
I use to work in a steel mill before well you know that part
but anyhow the company would do shit to get the people
to fight among them selves and not bother them.
When they got wages dropped through concessions the people
now were afraid to miss aday or speak out for fear of loosing
there job..
The Corporations and Government are the same and are using
the same tactics. Now people are just getting use to having that
bucket of sand near there ass and expect a good reeming.
They never stick together. You can barely get a few people in one
room to have the same opinion on anything.
Reagan started the ball rolling with the airline traffic controllers
and it has snow balled ever since.
Instead of hearing news when watching TV people are watching very
ignorant things like who's in rehab and who got a DUI or who cut there
hair all off. Is any one really surprized that these Bastards in charge of
our lives and money are treated better than us.
Look at your pay check and how they keep you poor.
They know if you start sticking together you could fight them but
instead they keep us fighting amonst outselves.
The gay issue or race issue or anything that would seperate the people
shouldn't be used..They want you seperated. Power is in numbers unless
you are the ruler.And even then Power in numbers can take back what
was stolen. If only people could open there eyes and start thinking for them selves and stop letting TV ads and radio and papers do there thinking and start talking among each others out in the open. Solidarity is not here in the USA
Unless bush wants to start another war and these people will stand behind him..God help us it people don't wake up soon.

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» RE: Devide and concore Posted by: Lincoln fan

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We already spend more on health care than any other country per capita
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Posted by: UnEasyOne on Jul 11, 2007 5:19 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
and don't insure everybody. Medicare for all, combined with elimination of the stupid and corrupt provision denying the government the right to negotiate drug prices (should substitute it with a mandate that any US firm provide drugs at a price no higher than the lowest price paid by other countries) would actually save us a fortune! The 3% administrative cost of Medicare combined with elimination of the huge HMO bureaucracy would actually reduce overall cost while extending medical benefits to everybody!

It's a real no-brainer - which explains why our corrupt congress hasn't enacted it.

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Accountability
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Posted by: packofwolves on Jul 11, 2007 5:25 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Until the people who make the rules have to live by them, nothing will ever change. Demand equality and accountability. If Congress has great health benefits, that you pay for, then the rest of us should too. Demand what's right. Remember, Congress is supposed to work for us not us for them.

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steve7
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Posted by: steve7 on Jul 11, 2007 5:27 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If you ask most people about universal care you will get the reply "that is socialism" as if the latter is a dirty word. People with insurance, congressmen and women included, feel that the money they are spending belongs to someone else. They do not realize their pay is reduced by the benefit costs and they fail to act like the most unknowledgeable consumer. Consumerism and cost consciousness is not going to work. We might as well change the paradigm and give everyone first dollar benefits. It might save money. Ideas are needed to break systemic failures. Go to www.healthcaresoundoff.com and join the forum on how to realistically make changes. Our fear of "socialism" is too pervasive even though Medicare accounts for 60% of our total health bill. Medicare for some reason is not socialism.

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» RE: steve7 Posted by: CatDad

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America's health care system
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Posted by: willymack on Jul 11, 2007 6:48 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Our sterling Congress, headed by prezdint AWOL get the best health care $35 per month can buy. Over 200 million ordinary citizens heve piss-poor plans, and pay through the nose for ithem, while about 49 million have nothing at all. Want to bet that if we suddenly stopped spending $1 billion a week murdering our military personnel and innocent Iraqi citizens, we could easily afford the same deal our "leaders" get?

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What a relief !!
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Posted by: davy on Jul 12, 2007 1:00 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As an X pat yank living in the UK I can't tell you what a relief free medical care is !! My 94 year old mom in law spent 4 months in hosp. at the cost of, well, NOTHING. Had it not been for the N.H.S. we would now be SCREWED.

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» RE: What a relief !! Posted by: CatDad

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PayPal for Health Insurance
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Posted by: Trazom on Jul 12, 2007 9:35 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Why don't we all just say a giant "F U" to the private insurers and start our own non-profit program managed by the people? I can think of nothing more delicious then the insurance giants losing customers and getting screwed out of premiums, copays, and all the other fees associated with health-related treatments.

It would be very simple. Everyone pays the same amount per month, say $35/month (just picking the number out of the air). First we get all 47 million uninsured on board. After one month we have $1.6 billion in the account (before any health expenses that is). Now is that enough to insure 47 million people? By the latest statistics, no it is not (average expenditure of $10,000 per person per year, or $833 per month means that insuring 47 million people would cost about $39 billion per month). It is approx. 1/24 the amount required. However, up to 1/3 of the current model is paper pushing beauracratic waste, which if removed from the equation means that we need $26 billion per month. So we're down to 1/16th of what is required. It is worth pointing out that many, if not most, clinics and doctors give significant discounts to cash paying customers. So if you assume a discount of 40% on average, then the $26 billion becomes a little over $16 billion. Ok so now we're down to 1/10th of what we need.

Some unknowns at this time are: how many expensive medical procedures will not be prescribed in the first place since the HMO or private insurer would no longer be bilked for it? Also, how many people will take more of an interest in their health and seek more preventive care now that the insurance man is out of the picture? Unfortunately neither of these variables is significant enough to make up for the 1/10th discrepancy.

Three things are becoming clear here. The first thing is that the $35 fee is not adequate enough to provide insurance for all 47 million people. It should be more like $350/month. But since many of the 47 million uninsured are poor and couldn't afford that anyway, that means the flat payment is not practical. Which brings us to the second point, in order to make this a reality we would need a progressive pay rate system, much like our federal taxes, but it would need to involve the entire population. This refutes the original argument of creating a non profit insurer just for the 47 million in the first place - it just isn't economically viable. The third thing evident from all this is that medical (hospital, doctor, etc) costs are important and it is in our best interest to keep them as low as possible, as the math shows that it is virtually impossible to insure the 47 million uninsured in this country without tapping into the wealth of the rich.

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Nothing worse ...
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Posted by: du2vye on Jul 12, 2007 2:57 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There is nothing worse than having healthcare insurance and still not able to get treatment. My sister-in-law died from breast cancer because it was treated with minimal care and no one knew better. She was 30. At the age of 50, I'm diagnosed with a cancer that's 95% survivable and my insurance company would only treat it with palliative care. Plus they weren't going to tell me. By then I'd learned a couple of things, like get a second opinion out of the network. My insurance has been worthless to me ever since. But they are still getting paid as if everything was fine.

What was surprising was watching a video on the Oprah website interveiwing Michael Moore. She had no idea this was going on. Oprah? I thought she would be more in touch.

I thought I was covered, until I needed it. I never needed much healthcare before. So did my sister-in-law. 80% or more people who have health insurance think they are covered when the reality is opposite. They just don't know it yet. That's the shock. Appeal? That's stacked - it's neither quick or easy and very hard to do if your sick. Lawyers? Don't count on it. Most insurance is restricted to federal courts and only for certain things and still takes years to achieve. Most people wouldn't live that long. Then you loose your job and enter the medical bankrupt world.

Healthcare companies know this. There answer has been to add .... credit cards.

If the U.S. had a single payor system (end private for profit care) just the administrative costs alone, would cover the costs of care for the entire population. Just have to convince a few people at the top they don't need six figure salaries to survive.

This country now has an elite class that feels totally justified feeling "special" and above the masses. There is going to be a backlash and the longer it's put off, the worse it will become.

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We should e-mail this to all our Congressmen!
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Posted by: ld7440 on Jul 12, 2007 7:39 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Thank you, Dr. Sloan. Knowledge truly is power. Of all the self-serving, shameful, and hypocritical things politicians are doing today, this ranks right up there.

As a Social Worker, I have seen more than my share of health care atrocities, from mentally ill patients with no insurance, to children in public schools (in New York, mind you) with rotting teeth because their parents cannot afford the co-pays. The richest country in the world? I believe that a countries "riches" include the health and happiness of its citizens. Our congressional leaders should come out of their ivory towers on occasion, and look around.

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impeachment
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Posted by: gsaephanh on Jul 13, 2007 1:03 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Call in your vote TODAY for impeaching Bush and Cheney at this number: 202-225-0100

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office is taking calls voting for Impeachment of Bush/Cheney at 202-225-0100. PLEASE CALL TODAY. At the toll free capitol switchboard #s below, you can also call your particular district’s congressional representative to insist that they support impeachment for Cheney. E.g., for Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s H Res 333 for Cheney; please say:

“In addition to supporting Kucinich’s bill H Res 333, I would also support a similar Impeachment Resolution against Bush, especially after the disgraceful Scooter Libby sentence “commuting” and the following issues: wiretapping, torture, numerous 9/11 intelligence misrepresentations, the continued occupation of Iraq, gross negligence during Hurrican Katrina, the Valerie Plame CIA leak, […list your other grounds…] ..”[see resolutions on tab #2 for other grounds for impeachment]).

LANIC requests that Americans call today…Not tomorrow or next week. Every call adds to the extraordinary grasswoots and nationwide movement’s pressures on House Speaker Pelosi to act now .before further innocent lives are lost in Iraq and elsewhere. Last week 28 Americans lost their lives. Over the July 4, 2007 weekend over 400 Iraqis lost their lives…

SEND MAIL TO HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI: Attn: Nancy Pelosi, House Representative/Speaker of the House, 235 Cannon H.O.B., Washington, DC 20515 ; Pelosi’s Fax # 202 225-8259

Pelosi’s e-mail address :

Americanvoices@mail.house.gov

CC her at: sf.nancy@mail.house.gov

Please send her a pro-impeachment email and a specific call to endorse H Res 333. Note: On Saturdays/Sundays, Pelosi’s office has a comment line at which you can leave a voicemail. Your message will be transcribed and relayed to her. Please do encourage your family/friends to contact the same number. Refer them to www.bcimpeach.com for the actual telephone #s & contact info.

Find out who your Congressional representative is and call that person. For toll free numbers to your Congress rep: (800) 828 – 0498; (800) 459 – 1887; or (866) 340 – 9281. You will be connected once you name your congress person. The staff aid should take detailed notes and provided to the Congressional representative.

Final Note: Please say “I support Impeachment based on ____. I’d like to know where “[representative name]” stands on this issue.” Let’s strike while the Libby fury keeps the iron hot! Please call and Act Now!

PLEASE ALSO CONTACT THESE KEY CONGRESSIONAL REPS RE IMPEACHMENT:
Representative Capitol Phone Capitol Fax
Howard Berman 202-225-4695 202-225-3196
& 818-944-7200 818-994-1050

MAILING ADDRESS FOR BERMAN
Congressman Howard L. Berman
14546 Hamlin Street, Suite 202
Van Nuys, CA 91411

Henry Waxman 202-225-3976 202-225-4099
Loreta Sanchez 202 225-2965 202-225-5859
D. Watson 202 225-7084 202-225-2422
LindaSanchez 202 225-6676 202-226-1012
L. Solis 202 225-5464 202-225-5467
A. G. Eshoo 202 225-8104 202-225-8890
L. Roybal/Allard 202 225-1766 202-225-0350

http://www.bcimpeach.com/

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"Socialized" Medicine
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Posted by: opeluboy on Jul 13, 2007 5:36 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Apparently it's quite acceptable for both our Communist Republican and Communist Democratic representatives to partake of "socialized medicine," but not for us. Okay for our leftie military, too.

Remember this the next time you hear one of the pigs in either war party tell you that single-payer healthcare is socialism and ask them to go buy their own goddamn health insurance like the rest of us poor slobs.

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Our veterans deserve (and get) the best!
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Posted by: Dleifneerg on Jul 15, 2007 4:28 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It's no longer just the Congressional Health care package that is the envy of all. The VA's once well deserved negative reputation has made a 180 degree turn and has, since the late 90s, galloped to the forefront as one of the world's most efficient healthcare programs. For some reason or another, this is one of the best kept secrets of our government servants who usually consider patting themselves on the back as their primary raisons d'etre.

The following Internet address will take you to an article extolling in no uncertain terms what our government is capable of doing for it's people with good leadership and an open hand. The article is a bit long but worth reading to the end where the author, Phillip Longman, has an excellent suggestion for opening up this fantastic program to anyone and everyone interested in joining. He makes it clear why other healthcare programs don't/won't/can't imitate the VAH and suggests that this program could be made available to all, in true democratic fashion, without forcing any of the "unwilling" (to coin a phrase) to do anything other than to keep on just the way they are. Although the article was written two years ago, the VAH is not only as good as it was then but has continued to improve. If I weren't such a cynic, I might wonder why the general public is being kept in the dark. Go to: washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0501.longman.html

Please pass the word regarding the VAH. Our veterans (Walter Reed is a "military" hospital, not a Veterans' Hospital) are receiving the kind of care that should be the envy of every citizen in America and even many veterans aren't aware of that fact. --Carolyn

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And the Point is...?
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Posted by: talkville on Jul 16, 2007 3:25 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"Best Healthcare" has always been reserved, available and cheap to the ruling class. Even the Worst Healthcare is reserved for that a-contextual and un-historic "middle" layer of the social base. No Healthcare is guaranteed to the proletariat. To receive even emergency care, a person in the lower orders must accept indenture and humiliation many time for the remainder of their life. Most costs for even an in-grown toe-nail of any member of the elite or their families is off-set to the premiums and taxes of the rest of the population. They call it Private Enterprise, and there's thick legislation embedding it into our society for many a year to come. The treat is theirs; the trick is ours. The pace-maker in Cheney's chest can be compared to the woman who died recently in California while a janitor mopped all around her as she died. It is, after all, a human comparison - and leaves us all sadly wanting.

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freedom freedom freedom
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Posted by: richholland on Jul 16, 2007 5:08 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Many countries were fascistic or communistic and had a statehealth insurance for everyone.

I saw that an insurance policy for a singleperson costs about US$ 125,==
In Westerneurope EVERYONE is insured and therefor the totalcosts are much lower then in the USA.

Of course you can have additional coverage and then pay for it.
The idea that an all insured country has any thing to do with communisme is no recommendation for the brains of the speaker.

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Factcheck please?
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Posted by: OldCynic on Jul 20, 2007 10:24 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I read this article some days ago and have been looking for some verification of this $35.00 per month Platinum health care package. I can't find any reference to a special deal for Congress critters, Just the standard Federal Employees Health Benefits Programs. Has anyone else been able to locate something to support this assertion? I'm usually more easily pursuaded when someone provides a source for their information. The good doctor doesn't seem to think this is necessary.

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» RE: Factcheck please? Posted by: du2vye
 
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