Featured Cause
-
End Homelessness
- 2404 Members
- 2186 Actions
- $205 Dollars Raised
End Homelessness
Health Care is a fundamental human right. No one should have sell their house to pay for their mother's cancer. No one should have to choose between food and medicine.
Free basic health care for all!
Why?
1) Its the most efficient approach
2) It works. Why do places such as Cuba and Costa Rica have such good healthcare systems when they spend so little on healthcare?
3) It will solve insurance problems and peopl'e being left without insurance (obama's approach won't get everyone covered).
4) For our children
HR 676 Bill is one way of achieving this but not the only way.
(NOTE: Free obviously means paid for through some kind of tax, preferribly on the wealthy)
I must be missing some piece of information: I don't see where to vote on that site.
http://www.ninenineohnine.org/pages/Votes
Posted by Sharon Musgrave on 01/07/2009 @ 08:38AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
Mr Christensen- my guess we're already there. Those are some huge yachts in "Little Venice" Harbor Miami. Sorry to post this again but I found that hard to believe. Someone isn't filthy rich- its way past that.
And I fought for this country and I can't even afford a lousy rowboat? Something is very awry.
Posted by Sharon Musgrave on 01/07/2009 @ 08:42AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
There is no reason why single payer cannot be "individualized". Medicare is now.
I think that there is a myth of US "complete individualism" and "exceptionalism". I am pretty ceratin that people who are sick, in the uS, respond just as well to medical treatment as the rest of the world. There is no genetic basis for our "exceptionalism". It just seems to be a way to avoid the inevitable, unless, of course, we dont mind Third World Status.
The DOCTOR would be in charge of care, and THAT individualizes it, It is not decided by some for-profoit bureaucrat. There could be pay-to-play plans for anyone who has the money to buy them. (I would be against this--except, that the uS has yet to stop the idea of "choice" as so important, even though , most people know now, that it is promoted by corporations as a sign of "freedlom"-- it is not, in my opinion)
US "choices" are killing people are all over the world. We simply cannot afford, it, as a society, and, as a planet.
"Choice" in health care, should be for the best that can be provided, for the most, at the least cost. If we start with that, as in other countries, the rest falls into place. Doctors in the EU live middle class lifestyles. Good doctors here, should not expect more than that. We could do alot to lower the cost of Medical school, as well as all college, by making state and federal supported universities free to all who can "pass"--but that is another topic--sorry. LOL.
I guess the point is--we're paying for it anyway...alot of people complain about TAXES (even though the rich in this country have the lowest personal income taxes in the "free" world) It is not what you PAY, it is what you get for it--surveys in the EU and Japan, show that that is the case. We are just paying and not getting anything of value.
Thanks for all of your votes!
I vowed to "not let up" on single payer, when a friend of mine, who found out she was very ill, and could not AFFORD hopspice, commited suicide , rather than try to eek out on morphine, on her own. I swore I would "never surrender" on this one. We cant. Please.
Posted by Kyle Christensen on 01/07/2009 @ 08:47AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
WAKE UP PEOPLE! If you think the Government can regulate or control health care in America and produce a healthier population you obviously have not noticed the horrible mess our government has made out of the things they already “control”.Education in America is Failing.Social Security is Failing.Our Civil Rights are Floundering.Our Tax System is Failing.You need to judge people and organizations by their actions not their promises. Pharmaceutical companies are making Billions, yes Billions, selling psychiatric drugs that do not cure anything but are guaranteed to have negative side effects. Our Government supports more psychiatric drugging as well. (Reference the Mothers Act where every pregnant mother in America now has to take a Mandatory psychiatric evaluation for depression. Psychiatry’s cure for depression???? That is right they do cure anything but they do have dozens of drugs “antidepressants” that have side effects such as suicide, homicidal thoughts, anxiety etc.) Pharmaceutical companies make Millions in profit each day selling drugs that do not work and this is all sanctioned and approved by our government. God forbid they get more control over our lives and our health because if this is how they “help” people now I fear for everyone’s health and sanity if they are given more power.You need to read and vote for the Health Freedom IS Our First Freedom option as that gets down to the root of the problem that we are facing in America’s health care system. I agree the system is broken but we should not reward the group who broke it by giving them control over the entire system.Just ask yourself, How is our educational system working before you vote to give the government more control over your lives. Our educational system has been going downhill for the past 60 years and there is no sign of things getting better.
Posted by John Buckley on 01/07/2009 @ 08:49AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
PLEASE SIGH MY PETITION AT
http://www.stopthemadness.com/topic.php?topic_id=90
HEALTH CARE
FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS END FAILED WAR ON DRUGS TO FINANACE
TAKE THE 100 BILLION WASTED ON THE WAR ON DRUGS AND PAY FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS AT NO COST. IF SOMEONE GETS ADDICTED TO OXYCONTIN OR CRACK THEY CAN GET HELP NOT JAIL. .
Posted by Fred Hood on 01/07/2009 @ 08:52AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
A Million Votes for Single-Payer – a clarification
The voting is at this web page, the button at the top for the idea “Free Single Payer Health Care.”
I will make that clear at the other web page shortly. I apologize for the fact that took the time to post those comments on other topics. Beyond that apology, I do need your patience --- And I do need your further feedback if you have any comments about what you see later at the monitoring web page (to be announced later today).
– Bob
Posted by Bob Haiducek on 01/07/2009 @ 08:57AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
Jake, the physicians will maintain their private practices. No one (except the Socialist Party) is advocating government-run health care.
Millions of us want the government to get OUT of health care and even out of health care financing by setting up the needed public agency and then keep the darn politicians out of it, especially the 50 states, but even the federal government to a very high degree. The government bureauracracy is overhelming.
We want simplicity.
http://www.ninenineohnine.org/pages/Simplicity
As taken from the bottom of the Simplicity web page, "Our care will be provided by primary care physicians who will maintain their private practices, but have less stress, lower operating costs, more time for patients, and a staff that can focus dramatically more on the patients and dramatically less on the now simplified administrative functions."
More later, Jake, but please do vote for this.
Posted by Bob Haiducek on 01/07/2009 @ 09:03AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
PLEASE SIGH MY PETITION WHEN I GET 2 MILLION SIGNATURES I WILL TAKE IT TO WASHINGTO MYSELF. SPRED IT AROUND PLEASE
http://www.stopthemadness.com/topic.php?topic_id=90
HEALTH CARE
FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS END FAILED WAR ON DRUGS TO FINANACE
TAKE THE 100 BILLION WASTED ON THE WAR ON DRUGS AND PAY FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS AT NO COST. IF SOMEONE GETS ADDICTED TO OXYCONTIN OR CRACK THEY CAN GET HELP NOT JAIL. .
Cherokee Fred Hussein Stein King aka Stupid old man
Posted by Fred Hood on 01/07/2009 @ 09:21AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
It's absurd that we Americans already outspend EVERYBODY in health care, and so few of us Americans get health care. The problem is that this money is going to huge corporate interests and huge bureaucracies (and political campaign contributions) which support those interests. We've already MORE than paid for it, folks! We just need to access those dollars!
And, as Mr. Benedict pointed out, a lot of money is getting spent on just attacking (supposedly) illness, not on maintaining wellness (which is cheaper). Just wiping out POVERTY would be the most cost-effective thing, because POVERTY breeds disease. Vaccines are just part of the huge corporate interests which our politicians serve...deaths from nearly all those nasty diseases which they purport to combat were down to nil BEFORE there were vaccine campaigns to combat them; the REASON is that most of the population had, for the first time in history, adequate food, potable water, decent shelter, and sewers and sewage treatment plants.
35 years ago, various countries asked the World Health Organization to analyze all the data on childbirth so as to tell them the most cost-effective way of providing maternity care. (This was because they had universal health care, and wanted to know what works. You see, the U.S. will never even ask this question as long as the various profit-makers can moan to Congress about people lacking "health insurance"--as if it's the same thing as health CARE--and Congress helps itself to more of the contents of our pockets in order to benefit those providers of INSURANCE.) The WHO concluded that independent midwives provided the best AND most cost-effective care as primary care clinicians of maternity clients. This was in 1983--how many Americans are remotely aware of this? Or of the fact that many countries, all of which have better perinatal survival results than the U.S., have c-section rates of less than 10%, while the U.S. c-section rate is over 32% now? Why are we tolerating all this extra expense (c-sections being more expensive than vaginal births, and OBs charging way more than midwives) for extra morbidity and mortality (even with at least of our maternal deaths not being reported as such)? Why does this not ever get into the news, any more than Kucinich's presidential campaign? Why do doctors & nurses have to buy malpractice insurance in order to work--why doesn't the state certification which they have to get vouch for their competence? Have the states, in essence, privatized their quality assurance (to the huge profit of insurance companies)? If everyone had health care, we wouldn't have to sue anybody in order to pay for health care that is warranted when some medical procedure goes awry or accidents happen. (Perhaps tort lawyers would lose out.)
Seems to me that the people who complain about universal health care are those who are currently at the receiving end of the gravy train.
Posted by Jill Herendeen on 01/07/2009 @ 09:42AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
The government is "not effective", because the people do not demand that it be. Without govt, we have no social society nor civilization. People who say that they "want govt out of their lives", generally have no idea of the state many people are living in. They think that they are libertarians. As they say, everyone is GOP, until they need a Democratic solution.
We saw "govt out of our lives" at work in Hurriacane Katrina (the govt messed it up , because the Bush Adminis, wants to "limit govt" and hand it over to charities--read Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine"--HK was NOT a "mistake"--it was fully intentional!). We see them at work on WALL ST (no regulation--innocent people lost their life savings).
Maybe we could have a n option for people that "want govt out of their lives"--no police, no fire, no ambulance service, no free use or roads, no water supplied, (build you r own sewer), no electrical wirting, no cable or internet--build you r own.
Go fight your own wars, if you support them.
It is not that Govt CANNOT be effective--we just dont demand that it be.
I am all for ending the "war on drugs"--it is actually a "war on the poor". Thank you, Sharon Musgrave. I used to work at a Vet Center. People can say "support the troops", but, it means nothting if they are not willing to pay their taxes to give them the benefits that they desreve. The case for "charity" to replace govt functions, collapses on its face when things like the stock market collapse happens. There wil not be near as much money for charity now. Charity is not reliable. It leaves people hanging, dependent on others good will (or no) as to whether they survive. What we need is people who are patriotic enough to PAY THEIR TAXES (Biden was right about that one--we are at WAR, folks--whether we shoudl be is not the question here).
I do not see how using tax loopholes to get out of paying during wartime is not treason. Maybe Daddy Warbucks Cheney can tell us...
Posted by Kyle Christensen on 01/07/2009 @ 09:46AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
ahahahhahahahah
Posted by The Pope on 01/07/2009 @ 09:47AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
SOCIALISM--we already are a socialist country, only it only benefits the very wealthy. Please read Dean Baker's THE CONSERVATIVE NANNY STATE (available for reading in its entirety on google) and Mike Kirchubel's "This Financial Mess-- Causes and Cures" on www.opednews.com (Dec. 27, '08) and www.dunwalke.org.
Posted by Jill Herendeen on 01/07/2009 @ 09:49AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
Jasmine and others, thank you so much! It means alot...I will fight for the last veterans, children, elderly and disabled to get health care until the day I die. It will be sooner, rather than later, if we cannot get universal health care.
TO the lady who spoke of having to compromise her children;'s heatlh care:SHAME on you, America! I worked with disabled children (autistic) for years, also. I suppose some here, would deny them, also.
If we do not learn to live together as brothers, we wil perish alone as fools...
Posted by Kyle Christensen on 01/07/2009 @ 09:53AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
Insurance is always a middle man wasting resources in paperwork and claims denial and resubmissions and appeals. Why not simply have the government create a safety net of hospitals and clinics funded directly? Pay doctors a salary, not per-service. Patient payment scales could be means-tested based on income tax returns each year. Slide from Free to Market Rates. Then people with jobs could have insurance for elective care at public or private hospitals. The VA is a model which works fairly well and could be expanded on/ polished.
Currently, even Medicare is administered through insurance companies. Quit wasting money paying insurance companies to deny care. Believe me they aren't going broke and they have us all trapped.
Kathy Conable
Posted by Katharine Conable on 01/07/2009 @ 10:01AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
We do not need to "reinvent the wheel"--the rest of the civilized world (is the uS a part of it?) has already done it. Why not ask a representative from Canada or Japan, or Germany to advise Daschle on this? It might help our relations with one of these allies--we need all the allies we can get!
Btw--Daschle's plan is market based, tax refund based, and, may actually make the problem worse, by giving more money to the health insurance industry. LIke Medicare Part D, which was a big , sloppy kiss to the neo-con welfare state (along with tax breaks billionaires), to the tune of $85 billion! And, that was just to star t out.
We cannot negotiate for bulk drugs, we pay the highest prices in the world, and , some doctors, to get free samples for their poorer patients, are sometimes force to become drug marketers....free patients, free doctors, free nurses--free the people from the horror of worrying about bankruptcy!
Whoever said that the govt is "forcing pregnant women to take anti-depressants" need to provide a link to such allegations., I think that uS citizens use way too many drugs. ONe reason may be , that, insurance has agreements with drug cos., so they often pay for this, instead of paying for talk therapy. Or other treatments. They pay for oxycontin, but not biofeedback or accupuncture or herbs. They pay for Prozac or LIthum--but not psyhochotherapy. We are all caught in this trap--lets get out!
Thank you in advance!
Posted by Kyle Christensen on 01/07/2009 @ 10:03AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
GREAT comments, Kyle, thanks! AND Kathy!
Posted by Jill Herendeen on 01/07/2009 @ 10:10AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
...less than HALF of maternal mortality is reported in the U.S. (Goes with 8 comments ago)
Posted by Jill Herendeen on 01/07/2009 @ 10:17AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
I have but one comment.At age 20 I fell across my back and was paralyzed for a short while,yet I have only once for 3 months required any form of "Public Aid" and then it was only food stamps.Choosing to "Work" and be a useful,thrifty individual,despite the severe pain I still suffer. So here is my comment,compliments of Thomas Jefferson co author of the Constitution and later President:
"I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy." Thank You Mr.Jefferson! Yes people needed health care back then too.You have no "Right to my hard earned dollar because you exist!"
Posted by William Bonnie on 01/07/2009 @ 10:58AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
So, you think that you are somehow "honorable" for "just taking food stamps"?If you didnt need them, you shouldnt have taken anything...what a hypocrite!
"3 mos paralyzed", is hardly disabeled, at age 20!
It sesms that Mr; Jefferson was saying that we should be taxed on food. But, you collected food stamps...unreal.
The main reason we are in debt is NOT "welfare"--unless you consider rich peoples' welfare, like Wall St! The other reasons are these ridiculous "wars" ,and, the Bush tax cuts.
I suggest you stop availing yourself of societies benefits , if you find them so objectionable. I would love to go back to work--I cannot risk losing my health care. I paid into pension for 15 yrs--the govt took it to "give me Mediciad". It also took my social security. It takes everything and give us nothing.
Whether it could work is not in question. It works everywhere else, except Third World countries--which is what we are becoming. The rich did NOT all"get there through hard work". Think of the hardest wortking people you now--are they rich? Who, Bush? Cheney? Trump??
You cannot just pick and choose society;s benefits when YOU need them...we will get past this type of thinking or, become Third World. The midlde class is dying...
Posted by Kyle Christensen on 01/07/2009 @ 11:12AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
WOAH, since when was a person's ambition reflected in how much money they have!? I'll be damned if Paris Hilton is more ambitions than I am.
MOST millionaires were born rich. VERY FEW are able to work up from the bottom, or even up from the middle, no matter how ambitious they are, how many new ideas they present to the world. A genius could be born to a homeless woman in the 'hood and may never be realized because he lacks the money and power.
Posted by Kate Anderson on 01/07/2009 @ 12:02PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
I fully support H.R. 676 as the first step in providing affordable health care for all Americans
Posted by Richard W. Firth on 01/07/2009 @ 12:37PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
This is urgently needed and all of the half measures, while they may help get change enacted, must lead to single payer, federally administered health care. We can't afford to have middle men and profit takers in our healthcare system. It should be a fundamental human right, to get care when needed.
Posted by Judith Daniel on 01/07/2009 @ 12:44PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
We have recently moved back here from Australia and I have to tell you that Universal, single payer healthcare, is brilliant. I have experienced the health system more than most - I truly know what I am talking about and have to laugh out loud when I read the propaganda from decades ago still being used as the reasons NOT to change to Universal care for all.
We have two beautiful children who were unlucky to be born with an extremely rare gene mutation resulting in Congenital Rigid Spine Muscular Dystrophy. Their minds are intellegent, loving and creative, but their bodies just don't want to cooperate.
What I have come to realize over the last six months (since being here with the children in the US), is that there is a huge hole in the health"care" of sick Americans - and that is sick middle-class America. I must be candid here, because what I am saying is so important, particularly to the life of my family - Insurance Companies DO NOT help sick people. Insurance companies are ideal for those with very little need ie. healthy people, because they accept the monthly payments, provide next to nothing in return and make amazingly huge profit margins.
For those with medical needs that cost on a daily basis, living below the poverty line to get medicaid is the only current option. And I must say that this upsets me greatly. I have met about a dozen people since being here who have no other choice, but to live in poverty so that their sick children can get the surgeries and supplies required to keep them alive and thriving. Others divorce in order to get medicaid. The system is so broken, that it is forcing honest people to HAVE to do whatever it is they have to do.
Our two children have several needs and Insurance has fine print to get them out of helping in almost every circumstance. With very high monthly payments, very high co-pays and extremely high deductibles, it is actually, in all reality, impossible to be middle-class in America and have one or more sick family member. For example: Our children are both fed via a gastric tube. To order the formula and tubing supplies from Intermountain Home Care costs $120/day. This is equal or greater than my husbands middle-class daily salary. And this example is JUST to feed them - it does not include their breathing equipment, walking equipment, orthotics, spinal surgeries, other surgeries, therapies, intensive-care visits and regular specialist visits.
I would like those of you that are afraid of change, to open your mind to the idea that profit-driven Insurance Companies (as there is no other kind) actually have no place being in charge of the countries health - they do a poor job indeed and are most certainly NOT the solution. I understand that Insurance Companies are very powerful in the political arena, but it is time for a change - a much overdue change. I know that many people are afraid of the change that needs to happen, but that is not a good enough reason NOT to be courageous and make the change.
The stress that the current system puts on the family, society and the economy is intense - so intense that my words can't adequately describe my current emotional state as I continue battling for the needs of my children. Did you know that American-made medical supplies are at LEAST three times more expensive here than in Australia, just because they can be - all connected with the idea that insurance is covering the bill, therefore lets make the price whatever we want. Not only does insurance NOT cover the bill for our children, but it is a completely broken system that needs to be fixed by Universal Health Care like every other first world country.
It does not matter that a new tax will have to be introduced - people will no longer have the financial burden of large monthly insurance payments, plus copays, plus out-of-pockets, plus deductibles. All the reasons to fear Universal Healthcare are inconsequential. I am sure you have read the research and know how much money will be saved on the reduction of paperwork alone, by switching to Universal Healthcare. I am also sure that many of you know how much money is wasted in the current system. Please be open to this possibility and do your due-diligence by researching the facts.
I have come to know through difficult and highly stressful experience, that there is no such thing as "effective coverage" and "affordable coverage" when you are truly ill and have healthcare needs that surpass the odd doctors visit, breast screening, ear infection or broken arm. More Insurance is NOT the answer, and I mean this sincerely. Insurance Companies are designed to NOT help sick people - they are public and need to make money for their CEO's and investors. Insurance Companies truly are designed to help healthy people - because they don't need help.
Insurance for all is not the solution and it simply will not work.
I believe there are many reasons why the US is not as great as it once was - and the Insurance-run health system is most certainly one of the reasons, I sincerely feel this. It is a cold-sore on the face of America.
Posted by Jasmine Bailey-Barf... on 01/07/2009 @ 01:51PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
Mrs Bailey-Barf I think I get the privilege of thanking you for your post first. Thank you deeply for what you have written.
Yes, indeed there are those in this country who care nothing about others and their only concern is their investment returns. Eight years of that is ingrained into them but it extends much farther back than that. It is an entire mind set that much be defeated by all of us who know that we know a better way.
We have a long battle ahead to overcome the naysayers. We can do this. We can.
Posted by Sharon Musgrave on 01/07/2009 @ 01:59PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
I hear you Sharon. I believe that through talking with our friends and family, we can change the world, one person - or even better, comunities at a time. It requires that we all open our mouths now though and have long discussions, and sometimes these discussions may not be pretty - as a couple of the previous posts illustrate - but it will be worth it. Minds can be changed when educated with personal experience, facts and numbers.
There is this overwhelming sense at times, that the US is indeed the center of the universe. Upon arriving here, many people have been shocked to learn that there are other countries out there, like Australia, that are pretty much getting things right in the healthcare arena. There is most certainly much to be learned from other countries of the world, if humble and brave enough to do so.
We can do it Sharon!
Posted by Jasmine Bailey-Barf... on 01/07/2009 @ 02:15PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
I think it's interesting that everyone I've talked to who has lived in a country with single-payer health insurance is an enthusiastic proponent of it for the U.S. I really don't understand some of the people who have posted on this board who
a) do not believe health care is a "right" because "it's not in the Constitution."
b) believe that "the rich" will be paying for health care for the undeserving "poor" who presumably have no one but themselves to blame, since the "rich" people got that way by dint of "hard work."
c) believe that they are somehow not paying for goods and services affecting the entire population when they pay taxes, and therefore should be able to pick and choose where their tax dollars go. "Hell, why should I pay for the health care of someone who got lung cancer from smoking, or a heart attack from eating too much cholesterol and no exercise?" We are all paying for this RIGHT NOW in increased medical costs. If the government took over health care costs and embarked on a huge public health education initiative, we would see health costs go down over time because more people would be practicing healthy lifestyle habits.
People, before you start sneering at poor people and the uninsured, do some homework. And for the record: most rich people did not get rich through hard work. They inherited their money and were given all sorts of contacts and advantages that you and I don't get. (I think Kyle posted about this earlier, and it deserves to be repeated.) Mean-spiritedness and lack of concern for the less fortunate and the common good are all too common in this country, unfortunately. I've seen a lot of this on these message boards.
Posted by Suzanne Davis on 01/07/2009 @ 02:56PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
And the interesting thing is, is that these mean-spirited and quite ignorant (almost bigotted) comments are made by people who may, one day, have a diseased child of their own - through no lifestyle choice of that child or parent; or may themselves die a slow and agonizing death as my father did - through no lifestyle choice of his (Motor Neuron Disease aka Lou Gericks).
It is so easy to simplify the situation with broard sweeping statements of ignorance isn't it. I really hope that through this opening up to discussion, some minds can be opened, educated and changed and as a result, the country may change for the better.
Posted by Jasmine Bailey-Barf... on 01/07/2009 @ 03:10PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
To Ms Anderson-
A lot of the rich think the poor are poor due to lack of ambition and just downright laziness. The poor know the truth; you can't get UP THERE from down here. You can work your -ss off and you can make some tremendous strides but becoming independently wealthy, becoming Bill Gates or Warren Buffet only happens to a few. Very few.
It won't be us.
Posted by Sharon Musgrave on 01/07/2009 @ 03:19PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
I am glad to hear of peoples' general level of awareness. I heard how many businesses are , either giong out of busines, to provide care, or, are just dropping it altogether. The stimulus bill is proposing ( I think) to add the ability to apply for Medicaid, for those whose COBRA runs out, and, they are unemployed. This would be great, although Medicaid varies greatly from state to state, it is all crappy, but, they had better increase funds to states! Many states are broke! Why not reverse the Bush tax cuts, and just resolve that we are going to do this?
WHY DONT WE JUST DO THE OBVIOUS!
Jasmine--My heart goes out to you and to your family. I wish there was something we could do. Well...acutally we can. Pass HR 676. Have a heart. Or dont. And admit you just do not care. Just admit it. To those who are just concerned about their own profit--why not have a separate society, where they can all go fight dog-eat-dog?
Posted by Kyle Christensen on 01/07/2009 @ 04:23PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
A Million Votes for Single-Payer
A Great Start — Time to Ramp Up the Pace and Get More Votes from More Americans
With a jump of over a thousand votes before 2 p.m. of its first day … and now having jumped up over 1325 votes so far today and steadily climbing, this campaign is off to a great start.
There might be a few more small refinements in the following web page to be made, but it's been good enough to get things started so please proceed with it. Let's get the number of votes per hour going at an even higher rate.
Go to the following link for details of the campaign, and let me know if you have any comments or suggestions … http://www.ninenineohnine.org/pages/Votes
Above all, whether you contacted 5 or 10 or 20 persons or a hundred, check back with them with a politely-worded question 24 hours later asking if they had a chance to contact at least 5 additional persons who went to the website, registered, and voted.
— Bob Haiducek, Bob the Health and Health Care Advocate
Posted by Bob Haiducek on 01/07/2009 @ 05:04PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
First I have something to say, Mr Haiducek. I think even a million votes isn't enough. It won't be when private insurance realizes the fight is on. They are going to start a media blitz. You and I both know it. We have to assume for now that maybe there is no break even point, no number large enough. The only sign that we're prevailing will be when the right wingies stop posting here, stop presenting the same tired selfish arguments and quietly start realizing we've got them outnumbered. I don't think thats happened yet. I have right wing friends who won't even speak to me because they know whats coming. It saddens me to lose friends this way but I'm convinced a few years from now they'll see we were right.
Posted by Sharon Musgrave on 01/07/2009 @ 05:24PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
Be careful what you wish for with "free" healthcare. I am fearful of any large concentration of power and this would be giving the government an incredible amount of control over our lives. My relationship with my doctor is a private one and I want all decisions about my health to remain between him and I... not some government handbook or quota. Healthcare didn't start becoming expensive until the government got involved. Ask your grandparents.
Posted by Gregory Scheuchenzu... on 01/07/2009 @ 05:36PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
I am quite ceratin , that, to people who have no health care, that is not a major concern. If you think your relation ship with your doctor is "private", you must be paying cash. Insuarance companaies certainly cant be trustted with the info!!
It is fine to make your own health care decisions--in almost all countries where there is universal, there are private plans also. But, you should not make them for others...
Posted by Kyle Christensen on 01/07/2009 @ 06:07PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
Hi Everyone I congrats to all your giant efforts.
I do agree with single payer healthcare . And casted my vote.
I wanted Hillary for national healthcare . Make insurance mandatory for every adult also. Where the rise in premiums come from due to the uninsured..
However I have been in the health insurance business for 10 years and now I am laid off. Yes insurance claims are denied but may times for insufficient information or not following certain rules like referrals etc. Not that I think its right to deny other essential things. My heart goes out to the Australian woman and her children. Unfortunately the insurance companies have to many representatives to fight their existance and will fight very hard with much money and power.
One million votes who knows what will make the difference. Money talks more then votes I am afraid. Sharon is right (2 above ) media will side with advertisers etc.
My idea if you want an easier approach ( I am for single payer for those who cant afford it ) Instead of just complete single payer health care an easier approach is this which will also keep cost down is this.
* First we must demand for MANDATORY PARTICIPATION FOR ADULTS THAT DONT HAVE IT, under one largely funded plan taken by our income tax.
* Charity drives the high cost. The young adults are risktakers and over age 40 has more claims too before medicare even starts like heart attacks and strokes.
* We all know about prevention and is a good thing too
* Limited Reasonable rates must be negotiated by law to control these outragious amounts. Whether its in or out of network on what is allowed to be charged in the industry by the providers of healthcare. Bans on what is suitable lawsuits and lower malpractice insurance for providers. * Make public financed healthcare for federal and state goverment , and public financed unions like teachers, police , firefighters and construction... police unions all PARTICIPATE IN THE SAME PLAN to be offered by Obama , that drive property cost up
(part of the burden not just by us but also doctors offices, labs , and hospitals etc ) have all publicly funded, also all participate in the same plan to keep the cost down and taxes lower for property tax of healtcare facilities ,
as well as us struggling taxpayers. Dont get me wrong I appreciate all you very hard workers, but I feel their plans are not realistic to our economy. I have witnessed working for the insurance company their skyhigh benefit perks zero deductables and zero to single digit copays and drastically low premius like 40.00 a month compare that to NJ small business average 2400 on average a month . Not so fair. So yes they are getting the gravy train we all need to share in this burden to help the economy.
Lets talk about
*Medical cost ratio (MCR) is a metric used in managed health care to measure medical costs as a percentage of premium revenues. It is calculated by dividing those premiums allocated for fully insured or self-funded health care coverage into the total expenses for inpatient, professional (physicians and other licensed providers), outpatient, and pharmacy. (Briefly, MCR = Costs/Premiums.) As a general rule, a medical cost ratio of 85% or less is desirable. Some insurers now call MCR "benefit cost ratio" (BCR).
Maybe someone can help with an idea of change about that.
Insurance companies must abide by laws that are filed by each state by the department of insurance. (Check out the laws on your state website. ) Our premiums are also writted by how each state files from their Dept of insurance.
So premiums can vary hugely by each state.
NY is cheaper then NJ for instance and Pa is cheaper too. An experienced underwriter might have more points of view to help.
If anyone can add and comment on my topics I do appreciate it. I voted for your idea but I feel my idea might be easier then trying to bring down insurance companies or fighting them totally; as I said money talks and they have more then us individually (Am I misreading when you say single payer healthcare if this is the intent? Isnt it the same as national or universal healthcare? If so then great.
We can still use insurance if desired or as secondary, like the UK. Not that I can afford anything now being laid off my cobra is 1400 a month )
We really need to be creative and constructive and act fast to get an idea to President-elect Obama.
Posted by Linda Smith on 01/07/2009 @ 06:54PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
HR676 Universal Health Care Universal Health Care "Health care is an essential safeguard of human life and dignity and there is an obligation for society to ensure that every person be able to realize this right."Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Chicago ArchdioceseONE MORE THING: Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Gore, Romney, Guiliani, McCain, etc. none of these candidates will support a single payer system unless we help them understand it and make it crystal clear that this is what we want from them. They must give up their dependence on the millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical drug industry and the insurance companies –they are our representatives our government and they are only in office because of the people, the voters, not because of the campaign contributions. CLINTON And OBAMA took the MOST MONEY form the Pharms and Health Care co's for this election it was all on Democrat.com and Kucinich.us Now President Obama is hiring GUPTA he is Not for UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE ...Is this the Way that OUR President DOES things ? So IS President Obama a COWARD ?Not to be Able to tell the Peopel who Elected him BECAUSE they all thought They where getting Universal Health Care are Now NOT GOING TO GET ANYTHING BUT LIES ! Because GUPTA IS AGAINST HR676 ! Want to Bet ? We NEED MICHEAL MOORE NOW MORE THAN EVER and OLBERMAN !!!
Posted by William Laman on 01/07/2009 @ 06:58PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
tax the wealthy?
they are already in a high tax bracket. Some get taxed more than what you make in a year. I personally only make $30k, but this is unrealistic.
Not getting my vote.
Posted by George Chambers on 01/07/2009 @ 07:03PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
There is no such thing as free healthcare anywhere in the world, period. If the solutions to reforming healthcare in this country were so clear and so simple they would have been implemented already. Perhaps youthful, idealistic minds can get excited about such a utopian concept of simply providing free care for everyone, but anyone who works in healthcare understands it just isn't that simple. So please, study this universe more carefully before suggesting our elected representatives consider this to be 'the nation's' #1 mandate for health reform.
Don't get me wrong, our heathcare 'system' is horribly broken and at serious catastrophic risk of imploding and becoming unable to do much more than provide incredibly expensive and often unnecessary care via marvelous technology that misses the mark or bringing people back from the brink only to leave them seriously ill but alive. Nowhere in this bleak picture are we as a nation getting healthier or getting healthcare with outcomes on par with the results of the most successful countries on the planet. I'm only saying that thinking that making healthcare free to all is horribly simplistic and unrealistic.
Here are a couple of other ideas: first, we need to radically alter what we spend our healthcare dollars on, or more directly, what gets paid for. The expensive machines and services they provide, and the specialists who run them and intepret their results do so for one general reason-that's where the money is. If healthcare PAYMENT reform were legislated such that prevention and primary care were reimbursed well and expensive, technology intensive care was not, how long do you think it would take for doctors and hospitals to change their delivery models?? Second, our basic healthcare infrastructure is in bad shape, right now! While it might be soothing to imagine better health and healthcare for our nation somewhere in the future, the fact is right now our emergency rooms and hospitals are at or over capacity and without improvements to this infrastructure we're seriously at risk for more horrific events like the patients who have died while in ER waiting rooms in Los Angeles and elsewhere in this country recently. By including these types of infrastructure improvements in the current stimulus package being developed, we could provide the immediate relief our dedicated emergency providers and the general healthcare consuming public need now, while longer term solutions are developed and implemented over the next several years.
The healthcare system is too complex, too substantial to our entire economy and too tightly woven into our cultural habits, beliefs and practices to truly be cured by simple fixes. However, there are things that can be done relatively soon that will stop the bleeding and begin to create real change that is for the better.
Posted by Ken Marx on 01/07/2009 @ 07:22PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
Please read what people are saying. Not tax the wealthy only take from income tax where evveryone pays for it; so if you loose your job you can get it too.
This is a safe guard for everyone who can someday loose their job or be forced to take a lower salary and not afford it.
Lets get serious.
I want to hear constructive ideas only .
Please go back to my ideas and comment. Nothing is fast in simple fixes but we need this vote soon, but please give constructive ideas everyone if not leave it alone.
Yes to last comment , about provider billing reform..providers have always been creative billers, individually billing instead of bundling for an example if they are at the wound site make a stich, not make the patient come back, simple things like that codes are bundled I have seen much abuse and fraud. I can say that but it needs to start somewhere. If there was a table of what they are allowed to bill per procedure per diagnosis things could be different.
Please read all my ideas and comments above . thanks.
Posted by Linda Smith on 01/07/2009 @ 07:33PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
To David Handel, George Chambers and others that think to wealthy shouldn't be taxed for our health care system:
Re this article:
I think that I've been saying since 2003 that we have been getting screwed by the Haves and Have Mores (George W's Base) since good 'ol Ronnie Reagan started his trickle down economic agenda. This report provides the sickening data to back up that statement. If you remember that during the presidentail campaign the Republicans, espescialy Sarah Palin, were accusing Obama of promoting the redistribution of wealth in this country. Well they were scared to death that the actual redistribution of wealth that has been going on since the Reagan years, that is the distribution of wealth from you and I to the super rich, would stop under Obama. We need to demand that this rip off end and start turning the flow the other way aroud! Shayne MungerA Final Report Card on the Reagan Years?From the Campaign for America's FutureBy By Sam PizzigatiJanuary 5th, 2009 - 8:59am ET Our current economic meltdown may finally have ended the era that began when Ronald Reagan became President. Now a new study — from the Congressional Budget Office — helps us understand the inequality that has us melting. Two days before Christmas, with hardly anyone at all paying much attention, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office delivered up a final report card on the Reagan era. The highest grades? They went, almost exclusively, to the super rich.You won't, to be sure, find any As, Bs, and Fs in this new Congressional Budget Office report card. And the CBO's researchers certainly didn't set out to grade America on the years since Ronald Reagan became President a generation ago. But they've done just that. On taxes and income distribution, their new report makes vividly clear, the United States desperately "needs improvement."That may or may not be the message Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus from Montana had in mind, last year, when he asked the Congressional Budget Office to dig a little deeper into the data on taxes and income than the CBO had dug in a report released late in 2007.The CBO's December 2007 study, Historical Effective Tax Rates, 1979 to 2005, had looked at the federal taxes Americans at different income levels have been paying since the year before Ronald Reagan's election. But the report had a hole. Nothing in it indicated how the really rich have fared in the near three decades that the basic principles of Reaganomics — tax rate cuts, deregulation, and privatization — have set the public policy pace.Senate Finance Committee chair Baucus asked the CBO to fill that hole — by focusing on the richest of the rich. The CBO's new report meets that request, with dramatic results.Americans in the overall top 1 percent, the 2007 CBO data showed, did quite well in the Reagan era's first quarter-century. Their average incomes, after taking inflation into account, essentially tripled, rising 201 percent. But these top 1 percent stats, the new CBO data help us understand, hardly tell the full story. The truly stunning income increases over recent decades have gone to the tippy-top of the U.S. income distribution, not the top 1 percent, but the top tenth — and top hundredth — of that top 1 percent.The higher up you go on the income ladder, in other words, the sweeter the Reagan era.Between 1979 and 2005, the bottom half of the top 1 percent saw their average incomes only double, after inflation. These incomes increased 105 percent. The next highest four-tenths of the top 1 percent somewhat raised the income bar. Their average incomes, after inflation, rose 161 percent.That brings us to the top 0.1 percent of Americans. Their incomes, from 1979 to 2005, rose a staggering 294 percent after taking inflation into account. Not bad at all. But the top 0.01 percent did even better. The 11,000 households in this rarified air took home an average $35.5 million in 2005, a 384 percent increase over average top 0.01 percent incomes in 1979.Need some perspective here? Let's compare Americans at the top to Americans in the middle. Between 1979 and 2005, the average income of America’s statistical middle class — the 20 percent of Americans in the exact middle of the U.S. income distribution — rose, according to the CBO figures, a mere 15 percent. That's less than 1 percent a year.But many average Americans never actually saw that less than 1 percent. That's because the CBO takes a kitchen-sink approach to defining income. CBO researchers include in their “comprehensive income” calculations all the standard household revenue streams — wages, dividends, interest, and the like — and lots more, too, from food stamps and Social Security to employer-paid health benefits.All these add-ins tend to inflate average household “incomes.” If your employer’s health insurance company jacks up prices, for instance, the extra dollars in premiums that your employer has to pay count as income to you, at least in the CBO calculations.The CBO actually has a good reason to take this "kitchen-sink" approach to defining income. Conservative cheerleaders for the Reagan era have been arguing for years that the United States isn't growing that much more unequal, not when you calculate in the various benefits that poor and average Americans get from government and their employers. But the CBO figures, by adding in all those benefits, neatly expose the flim-flam behind this cheerleading. The United States definitely has become substantially more unequal. Overall, after taxes, the very rich — the top 0.01 percent — have nearly quadrupled their share of the nation's income since 1979.These super-rich Americans in the top 0.01 percent, even more amazingly, now pay a lower share of their incomes in federal tax than the merely rich. The overall top 1 percent paid federal income tax at an average 19.4 percent rate in 2005. The top 0.01 percent paid at just a 17 percent rate, mainly because the richest of the rich get nearly half their income from capital gains — and capital gains enjoy preferential tax treatment.Under George W. Bush, the tax rate on capital gains income — income from the sale of stocks, bonds, and other assets — dropped to 15 percent, less than half the current top 35 percent tax rate on “ordinary” income from paychecks.
And that brings us to about the only hopeful news we can take, of late, from the Congressional Budget Office. No one on Capitol Hill has spoken out more clearly on the noxious consequences of preferential treatment for capital gains income than Peter Orszag, the CBO director until last month.Taxing capital gains at a lower rate than other forms of income, as Orszag has testified to Congress, “creates opportunities for tax avoidance and complicates the tax system.”As CBO director, Orszag couldn’t do much about capital gains tax breaks for mega millionaires. Now he can. President-Elect Barack Obama last month named Orszag his choice to direct the Office of Management and Budget, the federal government’s most powerful fiscal agency. Sam Pizzigati edits Too Much, the online weekly on excess and inequality.
Posted by Shayne Munger on 01/07/2009 @ 07:41PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
Glad to hear that Mr. Handel earns enough money to pay for HIS health care. Would that we all could. I'm all for it. Got a decent job for me and half the people in my county?
As I've pointed out earlier, we ALREADY pay more per capita to pay for non-profit health care for everybody in this country. No need for more taxes on the wealthy or anyone else--just need to stop spending it on things which do not promote anyone's health, such as lobbyists' salaries, campaign contributions to politicians, a huge bloated bureaucracy, a 32% c-section rate, etc.
OTHER countries have BETTER health care than we do, per person, AND they have it for everyone, and they spend less money than we do. Obviously, it CAN be done. All it takes is for us to stop accepting the propaganda spewed forth by those who have got theirs and know that they'll have to find a PRODUCTIVE (and possibly less lucrative) job if universal, non-profit health care ever gets implemented here.
Posted by Jill Herendeen on 01/07/2009 @ 08:22PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
David Handel, you are an example of what is wrong with America.
Not only are your views reprehensible, but they are dead wrong, not even remotely based on fact.
Posted by Suzanne Davis on 01/07/2009 @ 09:02PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
my apologies to everyone but that was too much. i usually keep my temper but not that time. i'm sorry.
Posted by Sharon Musgrave on 01/07/2009 @ 09:13PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
Just Vote..Give Single Payer a Chance with Change in Government with President Obama putting American Families First...This is a long overdue must for the Health of our Nation will decide its fate....Thanks
Posted by Retta Crawford on 01/07/2009 @ 09:25PM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
Not tax the wealthy? What is wrong with that? To have a civilization, you need revenue. People just say it without thinking--who should we tax--the poor? we already do....the wealthy here have the lowest personal income taxes in the "free" world...the capital gains tax (at 15%) is a disagrace--people did little or nothing to earn this money, yet it is taxed at a lower rate than someone's income who works hard all day...the "death" tax shoudl be called the Patis Hilton or Donald Trump tax..Peopl enned to look this stuff up! These people cheat and lie and pull loopholes to take money out of our countries comonwealth..
People who think that the uS is so "different" or that it is widely ingrained in our "culture"
--well, so was slaverly. So was child labor. So were sweatshops..So was illiteracy. So was a class system, almost to the point of a CASTE system (As found in India) before the New Deal. NOw we are sliding back...
Do we want to be a First Class Free Country, or do we want to continue to devolve into Third World Staus? Do we want to ceoncern ourselvse with our countrymen, or just spend money killing innocents abroad? The amount we curerntly spend on "wars" is staggering--it is not hard to find money for a single payer. They found it for Wall St.
If we are to become truly civilized, we have to care for one another. Our country will fall apart if we do not. Do not let these people discourage you--more and more people realize everyday. More people talk to others in other countries and realize---never surrender to the laissez-faiere capitalists and neo-cons! We must fight for our country!
Lets take it back--with an attitude that this is OUR country and we want it back! Their "revolution" has failed us all...
Posted by Kyle Christensen on 01/08/2009 @ 12:44AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
Most people don't realize Britain borrowed money from us to start their NHC system. What do we do? Borrow from China to conduct war.
Posted by Sharon Musgrave on 01/08/2009 @ 03:43AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
I have seen some of the plans. It is normal for our so called leaders to favor big business over our bet interest. Because big business pays our representatives millions every year to keep it that way. The majority in this country is lame or not paying attention?
The republican idea only benefits the insurance company they want to give a tax credit. So we can continue paying ever higher fees to the insurance company. Where is the money coming from a tax credit which means in the log run we pay for it. Then they forget to renew the tax credit and we are back where we started. In the meantime the major insurance companies never stop charging and charging more and more. THIS IS NOT A GOOD PLAN FOR US!!!!!!!!
Cherokee Fred
WE MUST STOP THE LOBBIEST AND PACS BEFORE WE WILL BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING....OUR REPRESENTATIVES MUST HAVE OUR BEST INTREST AT HEART TODAY THEY DO NOT..
Posted by Fred Hood on 01/08/2009 @ 05:37AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
We need to combine the top three.
END THE WAR ON DRUGS AND USE THE MONEY TO PAY FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE FOR ALL A WIN WIN FOR US FOR A CHANGE....
Stop the madness 100 billion a year wasted 2 million non-violent passive people in jail. FOR WHAT???????????????????????????/
Cherokee Fred Hussein
Posted by Fred Hood on 01/08/2009 @ 05:58AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
About this "libertarian" notion that the wealthy don't owe the poor anything...if the wealthy live in this country, they're benefitting from the fact that the poor around them pay the local taxes which keep the roads paved, fund the public schools so our rugrats aren't cluttering up the streets, mow our lawns, fund the firefighters and EMTs, and fund the police who keep the poverty-stricken from camping out on the estates and golf courses of the wealthy, and from cluttering up sidewalks and other public spaces with cardboard boxes and campfires. They're benefitting from the fact that, in most of this country, there aren't warlords with private armies pillaging for a living, and that they can go MOST places in this country with little fear of having their throats cut if they happen to relax their vigilance for a moment. We haven't ONCE set up a guillotine! These qualities are obviously worth something to the wealthy, as demonstrated by the fact that they choose to reside here rather than in Calcutta, Cartagena, Gaza, or any number of colorful locales where the cost of living is probably far cheaper. In short, they're benefitting directly from the sweat of OUR brows, probably a lot more than we sweat-ers are (having some free time to enjoy it in, after all). Perhaps we should stop apologizing for living and demand some benefit for being such good do-be's. Call it a Forebearance Tax or Toleration of the Insanely Wealthy Tax.
Posted by Jill Herendeen on 01/08/2009 @ 06:00AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
PLEASE SIGH MY PETITION WHEN I GET 2 MILLION SIGNATURES I WILL TAKE IT TO WASHINGTO MYSELF. SPRED IT AROUND PLEASE
http://www.stopthemadness.com/topic.php?topic_id=90
HEALTH CARE
FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS END FAILED WAR ON DRUGS TO FINANACE
TAKE THE 100 BILLION WASTED ON THE WAR ON DRUGS AND PAY FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS AT NO COST. IF SOMEONE GETS ADDICTED TO OXYCONTIN OR CRACK THEY CAN GET HELP NOT JAIL. .
Cherokee Fred Hussein Stein King aka Stupid old man
Posted by Fred Hood on 01/08/2009 @ 06:01AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.
Tax credits do nothing for those of us who don't earn enough money to pay income tax, but who are still too well-off to qualify for Medicaid. (Funny how Medicaid doesn't cover a lot of families whose incomes are below the poverty level.)
The health-insurance system doesn't work now, and throwing more money at it won't make it work any better. Health CARE is NOT the same thing as health INSURANCE, no matter how often politicians use those terms interchangeably. Politicians just want to pass money on to their special interest groups/campaign donors who, ironically, already have money, and then pat themselves on the backs for doing something to promote health CARE, when all they did was feed big corporate interests. What better way to screw the have-nots than to persuade them that you're helping them.
Posted by Jill Herendeen on 01/08/2009 @ 06:11AM PST
You must be signed in to report content.