Sen. Baucus wants "creative," not accurate assessment of health reform
Published March 02, 2009 @ 10:44AM PT
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT), who ruled single-payer “off the table” before he even started considering healthcare reform, is now pressuring the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to favorably judge his health plan as financially sound–even though it isn’t.
According to CongressDaily (2/25), Baucus, other lawmakers, and “some special interest groups have not been particularly pleased with what they view as CBO’s conservative scoring of some supposed cost-cutting efforts that are needed to help offset the enormous price tag” of overhauling the healthcare system under the Baucus plan.
Baucus said if healthcare reform is to pass, the CBO needs to “get ever more creative to find … pathways to get the savings that we have to have” (Edney, CongressDaily, 2/25).
Baucus told the head of CBO last Wednesday that the CBO will play a significant role in efforts to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system because the agency’s cost assessments will “make or break this enterprise.” Experienced observers assert that this is Baucus’ way of pressuring the agency to come up with figures to justify the kind of healthcare reform Baucus wants.
The fact is, the CBO has issued a series of recent studies which have found that most savings claimed, in the effort to keep private-for-profit insurance companies in the mix, do not exist.
Alternatively, a single-payer system would save more than $350 billion per year, enough to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all Americans.
The CBO has been recognized for the accuracy of its findings and projections and for its non-partisanship. Let’s keep it that way.
Tell him we need accurate numbers not creative figuring. Single-payer should be on the table and should be given a full and fair hearing by the Senate Finance Committee.
Easily email Sen. Baucus here, or contact him using the following information.
Senator Max Baucus
511 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-2651 (Office)
(202) 224-9412 (Fax)
For more on Baucus’ creative statistics, see DrSteveB’s Daily KOS article.
Image by stgermh via Flickr.
Labor's Perspective on Single-Payer Healthcare
Published February 27, 2009 @ 08:49AM PT
On February 25 the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care held a forum in Washington, DC called "National Lessons from State Health Reform: The Massachusetts Case Study."
The following video is of Peter Knowlton, a Vice President of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), who presented at the forum. Peter explains how rising health insurance costs have hurt the labor movement by forcing workers to pay more for premiums and co-pays, while wages remain stagnant.
Labor's Perspective on Single-Payer Healthcare from TakePart With Ideas for Change on Vimeo.
We want to thank the all of you who supported our action, here on Change.org, to tell your Representatives to attend this forum. The turnout was phenomenal. To see the entire video of the forum, go here.
Senate and Industry Lobbyists Meeting Secretly to Steamroll Bad Health Care Reform through Congress
Published February 23, 2009 @ 09:28AM PT
The New York Times reported last week that, “Since last fall, many of the leading figures in the nation’s long-running health care debate have been meeting secretly in a Senate hearing room.”
The sentence should make us all tremble. Those whose pockets books will benefit most from health care reform are secretly meeting. It also sounds familiar. 16 years ago, the last time health care reform was on the national agenda, the secrecy and exclusion of Congress in its development was one of the major reasons why the reform failed.
Similar clandestine strategies are at work again today. The people sitting at the table include pharmaceutical and industry lobbyists mixed with big labor unions and other special interests. The people who will be most affected by the reform have no voice at the table, and there is certainly no strong advocates for single-payer included.
The Kennedy legislation will include a mandate component to health care reform. This means any citizen not eligible for a public option - primarily Medicaid (for those with low-incomes) or Medicare (for the disabled or those over 65) - will be forced to purchase private insurance or risk being fined or otherwise punished.
The “Individual Mandate” model is currently used in Massachusetts. It is a deeply flawed plan resulting in huge profits for the insurance industry and little improvement to the health care access and quality of the state. This is not a model for the Nation.
Here are the major flaws of the Massachusetts model for reform in a nutshell:
- The plan is bankrupting the state.
- It is not universal.
- Having health insurance does not guarantee access to health care. People are still denied needed coverage because copays and deductibles make needed care and prescriptions unattainable for their budgets.
- It criminalizes the uninsured.
- It is not affordable for everyone.
Is this the model we want for national reform? NO!
Here is what you can do to help get the word out about this unjust model for health care reform:
Invite everyone you know to watch the upcoming Congressional forum on the Massachusetts reform live on February 25, from 2-4 PM. This is a unique opportunity to listen to witnesses, medical professionals, union representatives, and patients from the state of Massachusetts testify against the problems of the reform to Congress.
Urge your representative to attend on your behalf.
If you are in the DC Metro Area-–Join us to Walk the Halls and deliver the following to each member of Congress: a copy of the letter to Senator Kennedy signed by over 500 Massachusetts Physicians, urging him to introduce single payer legislation in the Senate; a copy of the letter signed by over 40 Massachusetts labor leaders urging President Obama to support 'Medicare for All'; and a copy of the just released report on the Massachusetts Plan which eloquently outlines the many failures of the model. Let us know if you'd like to help here.
Image by gilesbooth.
An Uninsured Veteran
Published February 17, 2009 @ 01:07PM PT
Besides opposing the war in Iraq, Iraq Veterans Against the War support full healthcare benefits (including mental health benefits) for veterans regardless of discharge status.
The following video is an interview with Iraq veteran Nick Morgan who was trampled by police at a demonstration against the war at Hofstra University, in Hempstead, NY. Nick discusses his injuries, and his $5,000 medical bill not covered by his VA insurance despite coming home from the war less than five years ago.
A national, single-payer healthcare system would guarantee health coverage to all veterans, and American residents, for life.
All donations made to Healthcare-NOW! in honor of Nick Morgan and IVAW will help pay for his medical bills and build the movement for single-payer national healthcare.
Feb. 12: National Call-In Day for HR 676
Published February 11, 2009 @ 04:11PM PT
Thursday, February 12th is a National Call-In Day to support single-payer health care, HR 676.
This call-in day is being organized by the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care, which includes Healthcare-NOW!, Progressive Democrats of America, California Nurses Association, and Physicians for a National Health Program.
(Technically Not) Free Single-Payer Health Care
Published February 11, 2009 @ 03:43PM PT
Single-payer supporters regularly send angry emails asking me to change the title of our campaign because single-payer health care isn't free.
I felt the same way during Michael Moore's Sicko when he asked the Canadian guy how much he paid for the stitches in his head, or how much the young London couple (pictured above) paid to deliver their baby. They both said "nothing."
Single-payer health insurance isn't free. It's paid for, among other things, a modest payroll tax (3.3%), later explained in the movie, that's matched by your employer.
The Lock-Down on Single-Payer Discussion
Published February 06, 2009 @ 12:44PM PT
Every day we hear from politicians that single-payer healthcare can't happen in the US. Leading healthcare reform officials, like senator Max Baucus (D-MT), say it's "un-American," too expensive, and not politically feasible.
Even universal healthcare supporters say it won't happen. Richard Kirsch, Health Care for America Now’s (not to be confused with Healthcare-NOW!) national campaign director wrote in his blog that, “One point of this approach [giving people the choice of private insurance or Medicare] was not to scare people away from reform or to make it easier for the opponents of reform to panic the public.”
The truth is, Americans aren't scared of national health insurance. They want it now!
About Free Single Payer Health Care
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.
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