We need HR 676 Medicare for All ... It would get rid of insurers altogether ... It's the only way to go ...

So What have we heard from Obama? I see no Plan. I don't even see any talking points. Since Obama has been in office he has taken the lead on exactly NO Legislation. Not even a whimper when the Cram Down Legislation failed in the Senate. Obama is MIA on all important legislation, the House and the Senate lead the fights while he ponders his navel.

Obama proved to be a brilliant manager on his way to becoming President .... But we need more than a manager for our fights ... We Need a Leader ... Obama has shown nothing in this regard ... His incrementalism, preemptive compromises and crony appointments have shown the he truly doesn't have what it takes ... the will to fight for what is right ... That is Leadership!

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Profit Care comes ahead of Patient Care in Tennessee and Virginia.

http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=62

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Unfortunately, Obama has probably killed our chances for universal healthcare, just as he has scotched our chances for election reform, derailed the antiwar movement, blown the economic recovery, and insured that Republican war crimes will fester.

We've got another neocon in the White House.

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The lobbyists' argument against it is perfectly contradictory: They say that a public insurance option would, A) be a disaster for patients and doctors, and B) they could never hope to compete with it.

That's not contradictory. They won't be able to compete with it because employers, who are the ones actually contracting for insurance services, aren't going to continue to buy private insurance for their employees if those same employees can join a tax-supported 'free' plan instead.

As to the disaster thing, I'm sorry. As much as I like the concept of universal health care, I've got friends in countries that have it. Based on their stories and experiences, I don't want that here. Let's expand Medicaid to cover the poor and uninsured and leave the rest of us alone.

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There. Fixed your title.

People have been paying for less healthcare for years. All of that extra money will be used to derail any and all possible reforms.

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No, we are not going to let Health care industry propaganda derail Health Care Reform.
Nor will we let Obama. His plan still gives away the store.

Is this reform?
Not allowing Single-Payer advocates into the Health Care Summit?
John Conyers excluded from the meeting? Advocates forcibly ejected & arrested?
And made fun of by the chair?

And then this response from Obama to a citizen's question at the Rancho Rio, NM event:
Q: Why is a government single-payer plan off the table?

A: Obama replied that he is confident the health care overhaul can get done this year, but not if people try too hard to be "ideologically pure."

I worked for Kucinich in the primaries, but voted for Obama in the election.
Kucinich said in effect: "You want to hold the highest office in the land,
& yet you're afraid of (or will concede power to) an Insurance company?? Hello??"
And all this from Obama in the name of pragmatism?
Give me a break. When the corporations have that much power,
it's called Fascism. When we cave in it's called cowardice.
I've joined those continuing the fight (& pressuring our Reps & Obama) for Single-Payer in the guise of H.R. 676.
Full & proper Health-Care-for-All is a basic Human RIght.
Pressure you Rep to back H.R. 676.


David E. Mynott II
Boston, MA

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...executives are lying?

ANSWER-IF THEIR LIPS ARE MOVING

Recent history gives us no reason to trust them at all.If they get to the table again we should demand that they earn our trust and demand requirements with verifiable regulatory provisions Toothless promises are almost useless.

Dr. Rick Lippin
Southampton, Pa
my blog

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Health care ad budgets against the Obama lemming press. This should be a good fight.

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on health care for all that won't break the individual families bank??? NO!!! too much $$ to be made...

these health insurance guys make the banksters and wall street hedgers look like the tooth fairy... they can not only steal your whole wallet but kill you for it at the same time...

working the health insurance carrier we have, (no other option available) is a part time job in this house, sometimes full time when we have to use it...

warming up here for the fight... 2 weeks out of shoulder impingement surgery where I had 5 surfaces shaved down and gave up 1 ligament (ins. co. insisted on 6 months of PT 80-20% coverage that only made things worse and locked up more before ok'ing the surgery) and there's a stack of envelopes right next to me to fight over with them...

gonna do my PT exercises which cause big time pain first so I am exceptionally grouchy when I begin to make the calls... got the dog-eared policy ready to go and reading glasses at the ready... opening line is always 'either you're going to pay now, or you're going to pay more later, so let's talk...'

this is nuts... medicare for all!!!

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While these MSM-driven campaigns paid for by corporations to skew an affect is not new.
Civil class-action against the MSM for knowingly broadcasting mis and disinformation should have a court based remedy, this should have applied to the NYtimes/Judy Miller crime of mal/misfeasance and a cavalcade of deceit that followed?

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Only the naive would believe that he cared for health care reform that did NOT include more power to the health insurance industry.

It's his/their bread and butter. Single payer challenges the established rules of campaign funding and most re-elections.

That's why we need it. That's why we'll never get it.

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"Big Health said it wanted to be a proactive partner with a 'seat at the table'."
That's the problem, and part of why Clinton failed at healthcare reform. Keeping the insurance companies at the table is a guarantee that they will write the rules.
Eliminate all those paper-pushers whose only vested interest is to deny care and protect their profit.

"Big Health 'did not support reducing the rate of health spending by 1.5 percentage points annually'."
In the words of Ronald Reagan, "There you go again." So, they are really saying they can't be trusted to keep their word...DUH!

So, we can look forward to..."a series of ads invoking the bogeyman of a government-run health system in which faceless bureaucrats make health care decisions, people with pre-existing conditions are denied care, and Americans are left to die waiting for urgently needed procedures."
Gee, faceless bureaucrats. Sounds like insurance companies to me! And I thought that medical professionals were making all those decisions. The GOPigs will bring this up as a way to scare the public; sadly, many of the sheeple will buy this big lie.

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"Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina -- the state’s largest insurer, handling almost $11 billion in claims last year -- is preparing a series of ads invoking the bogeyman of a government-run health system in which faceless bureaucrats make health care decisions, people with pre-existing conditions are denied care, and Americans are left to die waiting for urgently needed procedures.

So this would be different HOW, from what we experience now that WE pay for? Each day thousands of Americans are refused treatments, much needed tests and medications, based on an Insurance Company's claims employee deciding that there is a cheaper alternative OR that we simply do not need them.

I have a chronic, life threatening arterial and cardiac disease, which to date has only been able to be treated palliatively, until they can determine a special course of treatment to open arteries and treat the underlying disease process that causes it. You see, I have multiple drug allergies and cannot take the majority of drugs used to treat the condition or the drugs that will be needed daily after their plan to implant an ICD (implanted defibrillator). After having numerous anaphylactic reactions, nearly dying and requiring epinephrine injections, it has been a slow, dangerous process to find the right medication balance for me. I was refused one of my long standing Rxs recently, after it was removed from the Insurance Cos "formulary list" and even though the documentation was sent, proven that their new recommendation would literally kill me because I had already had a dangerous, life threatening reaction to it and pleading from my physicians, I had to pay over $300 per month for several months, for my own medication because they fought us tooth and nail. I am now finally receiving the medication after a huge battle. Do they forget, WE are the patients, who are sick and shouldnt have to be fighting to get what is needed?

I need several stents placed in cardiac arteries, but those used today disperse small doses of chemotherapeutic agents, which theoretically help keep the arteries open longer, but my specialists have determined that I need plain metal, because the drug emitting stents may well kill me from an anaphylactic reaction. I have transient ischemic attacks, which are "mini strokes" that many times lead to a full blown CVA or stroke and when my specialist ordered an MRI and MRA of my brain and carotid arteries this month, we were told that the MRA, the part that examines the arteries, was not necessary...to do the MRI first and then "if necessary" he could order the MRA. Now, knowing what I have explained about my condition, we are fully aware that the MRA must be done to monitor stenosis that I have in my external carotid artery, so what does this mean? This means that in an attempt to save the additional few hundred dollars that the combination test would cost, they would rather have me leave my home where I am in bed and ill most of the time, travel to the facility and lay in the MRI tube for over an hour, TWO different times at FULL price each time, just in hopes that they will have compliance from the doctor and that he will be intimidated into NOT ordering, in this case, the most important aspect of the MRI/MRA. The sad thing is that I am paying over $800 per month, out of pocket, for my health insurance because I am now disabled retired, with chronic health issues.

These SOBs dare to try to frighten us with horror stories of a government "official" deciding our treatment and our fate and waiting until it is too late to be approve for life saving treatment and the Insurance Companies do this ROUTINELY! By the way, I have Blue Cross as my primary insurance! (continued in 2nd post)

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These tactics may work for many of you who do not suffer from any chronic illnesses yet, but before you allow this PR campaign to convince you, speak to someone who suffers from a chronic illness. Find the facts for yourselves. Don't believe the propaganda! Make a point to speak to Canadians about their government sponsored care ... it is not as we have been misled to believe. They are very happy with it! Speak to some Europeans or Scandinavian patients on forums and ask them their opinions of the health care they receive, all free to them. Take time to watch the movie "Sicko" and learn the truth of the major scam that Health Insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies have going on in the US today! Like so many things recently, we have been fed lies and misinformation, in an attempt to scare us into compliance by the corporate complex big $$$ that control our country and our lawmakers.

I don't share my personal medical history as a rule, but felt it necessary to do so here as a means of demonstrating just one incident of how we, as American patients, suffer and face life threatening decisions, based on insurance co employees who do not have a medical degree, but are free to determine the "best course of treatment" for us and in opposition to what our trained physicians order. Oh, they will tell you that they have a licensed physician who makes the determinations, but their med director only sets guidelines and then a department full of non-medical persons use their own interpretation to make daily decisions. The medical director only gets involved when there is difficult case and they receive multiple letters from docs who want them to agree to a necessary treatment and God forbid that you ever call your insurance co and ask for the name and license number of the doc who denied you. They flat out refused to give me that info, even though this med director made decisions about my treatment, that will effect my longevity and comfort level and have never even spoken to me, met me or read my medical records!

There is definitely cause for fear people, but be sure you know exactly who the enemy is ... and it most assuredly is not a system that is trying to improve health care and assure that everyone received the appropriate care through a government sponsored system. Insurance companies have robbed America and all of us of billions of dollars and frankly, what have any of us to show for it?

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Is YES. Our nation is largely composed of people so ignorant that they'll go with what sounds best to them, irrespective of the FACTS. Remember Harry and Louise in Clinton's day? Most of us probably DON'T, but the neocons knew damn well that Madison Avenue trumps the TRUTH every time with a large portion of our people. Nothing's changed since then, so don't hold your breath for anything resembling what the rest of the civilized world takes for granted. The sad fact is that those of us who read and post to this and other sites, write letters to the editor of our local papers, and could actually understand what's being said on sites like this one, are in the distinct minority.

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Whether we want to or not?

No, we'll work AGAINST that plan. Why on Earth would we want to pour yet more of our money into the FIRE (that's finance, Insurance, real estate)? The trillions they've already gotten aren't enough?

If you want real public, universal, single-payer healthcare, you're going to have quit trying to ride a dead donkey and vote for the Green Party. We're the only national party campaigning for it.

C'mon, Joshua, I thought you were smarter than this.

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I just read Ted Rall's piece on Commondreams today (/www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/21-6) (Why isn't Rall on Alternet any more?). His idea needs extension:

With the Democrats behind it, I think the Subsidize-the-Insurance-Mob plan will pass. We will then ALL be faced with a demand that we buy their rotten product. My suggestion:

Don't.

Just Don't Pay Them.

If millions of us just refuse to buy in, maybe they'll get the point. Remember, it'll happen anyway, because if we could afford it, we'd already have insurance. So we might as well take political credit for it.

Tax penalties for refusing? Don't pay those, either. Sure, they can collect it, but it costs far more to do that than you'll owe. And the point will be made.

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Wonderful article, thanks for shedding some light on the corrupt practices of the insurance industry.

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Check on how Dr. Robert Gumbiner, the Frist family, Billy the Ex Senator, and William Mcquire (poster boy for parasites) and see how their criminal acts of turning nonprofit helath organizations in to private entities worked. They basicly stole hundreds of millions from tax payers. Most HMOs are nothing short of money laundering operations.

Anything short of single payer is a complete failure. The Media blitz will be awesome and completely untrue.

Get a copy of David Cay Johnston's "Free Lunch" for an eye opener on health care. Not to mention the rest of the Corporate Welfare and crimes commited openly.

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Yes..........

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Well, today I was reading online about the NRA's campaign to paint Obama as anti-gun. They wrote up a brochure filled with lies and made it look as if it came from Obama's HQ then mailed it to the whole NRA membership. It was wildly successful---scared the hell out of gun-owners, who have been running around screaming and peeing in their pants and going crazy ever since. They are so sure Obama is going to send his Black Militant Thug Corps to disarm them that they are literally burying extra guns in the back yard and buying the ammunition stores empty. Now if the GOP can do that, I am not very optimistic that they can't derail the health plan. Already townhall.com is full of, not predictions but absolute statements, that Obama is building gulags where the elderly will be sent to die without medical care. When you have no scruples at all, you are very free to do whatever works.

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Socialize medicine? Really. What do you think we have now. I work in an urban emergency room and many nights it is one non English speaker after another. Who do you folks think is paying for those er visits? They have the best insurance already. You and me! Okay, let the government come to the rescue that will work UH Huh.

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He has NO 'health care plan' - - he has a Health INSURANCE Plan, so his pals in the insurance industry can expand their efforts to bleed the 'little people' dry. Obama is a liar. Don't listen to what he says - watch what he does.

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Well, after reading a transcript of Larry Summers on Meet the Press....I can only wonder why no one is mentioning the Obama plans include what amounts to (more) health care rationing....Is it possible that the situation could only get worse?

www.foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/04/27


Last Sunday on “Meet the Press,” Larry Summers, Obama’s chief economic adviser, let the cat out of the bag on health care. In explaining why universal health care wasn’t going to increase the deficit, Summers said that people are just getting too much unnecessary care. Summers claimed: “whether it’s tonsillectomies or hysterectomies . . . procedures are done three times as frequently [in some parts of the country than others] and there’s no benefit in terms of the health of the population. And by doing the right kind of cost-effectiveness, by making the right kinds of investments and protection, some experts that we — estimate that we could take as much as $700 billion a year out of our health care system.”

This sure seems like rationing. Total health care expenditures in the United States in 2008 came to $2.4 trillion, implying that Summers believes that the proper government regulations can cut health care expenditures by almost 30 percent. That would cut back health care a lot. Summers softened the blow by saying that right now the government wouldn’t have to cut expenditures by more than a third of that $700 billion.

Tonsillectomies have primarily been done because of acute or chronic throat pain. Where different people are willing to draw the line between pain and surgery is a choice that we have traditionally left up to patients, but unless you know something about the patient’s preferences it is hard to claim that a surgery was a “mistake.”

The selective use of statistics by Summers and others in the Obama administration is startling. In 2000, New York had 501 abortions per 1,000 live births, Wyoming had 1. New York had 31 abortions per 1,000 women, Wyoming had fewer than 1. Abortion procedures rarely involve the health of the mother. Yet, presumably, Summers wouldn’t argue that these gaps, which are 10 to 167 times greater than the 3-to-1 ratio that so upsets him for other procedures, imply that abortions should be rationed.

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The real problem is Congressional graft. As long as members of Congress continue to sell their votes, the profiteers will continue to rule.

If Net media would consistently publish such voting, displaying the names of those in the pockets of the health industry---their voting along with the amount of graft (contributions) received from the same sources---we might have a chance in hell.

In addition, advocates of a fair system need to place short and simple TV ads in the homes states of the most notorious sellouts. They would soon be running scared or voted out of office.

The key is to insist on open voting, rather than the voice vote behind which so many sellouts have hidden in the past.

We citizens are asked to contribute to so many efforts, but if we prioritize, health care turns out to be right at the top, along with jobs. Let's get behind those efforts, first and foremost. I believe that home state ads are essential in such efforts.

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and he's been fighting this amoral outrage since he got in Politics...

their is absolutely no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats... maybe the demo's try to right the wrongs of the freakish Neo-cons, but greed always happen to unhinge them and steer them off course and nothing gets done...

if you don't get "single desk health care reform" passed this time around [politically] you will hamper medical progress worldwide and the world won't take it... US influence is on a serious slide and this aint helping

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