The ‘Birthers’, as they’ve now come to be known, are obviously totally out of control at this point. They seethe in the belief that President Barack Obama was not born an American and therefore cannot be President. It doesn’t matter what proof is furnished…and it never will. These people listen religiously to and believe fanatically in everything that’s said by racist, paranoid psychos like Glenn Beck. They’re all on the express train to ‘Crazy Town’ and the only thing left for sane people to do is get the hell out of the way and hope that they don’t hurt anybody before their heads explode.
Delaware GOP Congressman Mike Castle, a moderate, found that out during a recent Town Hall meeting with some of his constituents. Check out the video link at the end of today’s blog. OMG! If that woman has kids they’re probably all running away from home today…or they should be! Here’s the hard truth of the matter. The ‘Birthers’ simply refuse to accept that a legitimately elected black man is now the President of the United States. They don’t want it to be true, so in their deluded world, it isn’t…and unfortunately they apparently feed off each other.
- - - - - -
It’s pretty much a slam dunk that Sonia Sotomayor is going to be named the next Supreme Court Justice of the United States. In these eyes, that’s a good thing…but we’re left with a lingering question now that her Senate Judicial Committee hearing has ended. Call it an itch that needs to be scratched. I couldn’t help wonder why, when every one of the Republican members of the committee kept hammering at her about being a racist who might be unduly influenced by her Latina roots, someone didn’t turn the tables on them? The question just begging to be asked was if any of them had been even the least bit concerned during Chief Justice John Roberts’ confirmation hearings as to whether or not he might be unduly influenced by his whiteness? Just Wondering?
- - - - - -
The Health Care Reform initiative seems to be bogging down, particularly in the Senate, and it now appears that nothing substantive will be tabled at least until the fall. After all…c’mon now. These are hard working people representing us in the Senate. They claim they really need this holiday to clear their heads and think this thing through…and maybe they do? Better that they come up with some meaningful, well-conceived legislation than some half-assed idea that’s meant to mollify everyone but won’t help anyone…except, perhaps, the insurance mafia! So we’ll give them a pass…even that spineless little milquetoast Harry Reid…until we see what they end up bringing back for our approval.
But in the interim, here’s a little anecdote they can go back home and regale their constituents with. We were at a sporting event in Charleston, South Carolina the other night where we ended up in conversation with a 50’ish medical doctor from Canada. When talk came around to the Health Care Reform initiative being bandied about in Washington…and everywhere else in the country for that matter… he just kind of rolled his eyes and listened sympathetically as we tried to guess where our system was headed.
Then he said…and we’re paraphrasing here because we weren’t rolling tape on this conversation… “Did you know that in the Ottawa/Montreal area we have a jet airplane that we regularly charter for one specific purpose. The plane is flown down into the United States…anywhere in the country that it needs to go… on a regular basis. Its sole mission is to retrieve Canadians who have been hospitalized in your country for anything serious and bring them back home to Canada for treatment.” When we asked why Canada felt the need to do this the good doctor smiled kind of sadly before answering. “Because the people responsible for overseeing our health insurance system have come to the realization that it’s less expensive to charter a jet and bring the hospitalized Canadians back home than it would be to pay the kind of hospital bills they’d be faced with if they stayed to be treated in the United States. They’re covered by their Canadian health insurance when they travel into the States, but if it’s a significant problem it’s much less expensive to just go and get them and bring them back home so we can treat them in Canada.”
And if that doesn’t speak loudly to just how screwed up the health care system is in this country, then you’re just not listening.
We’ll be back with more on Monday. Let us know if there’s anything in particular you want us to look into or discuss. Until then, have a great weekend!
Now…fasten your seat belts because you’re about to board the express train to crazy town!
Steve
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNjLpWDWCaE
Friday, July 24, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
The Answers from our President:
Watching President Obama answer questions about health care reform with 81 year old Grandma, a lifelong Republican, was revealing. She loved it. She believed everything he said, and couldn’t see how anyone could argue with what he wants for health care reform.
Then Chris Matthews and Dr. Nancy, even Ed Schultz, ostensibly more supportive than the typical life-long Republican, declared that he hadn’t made the grade with this one.
Did he answer the questions our media pundits hoped he’d answer?
* address the lies of nay-sayers – not really.
* tax health insurance from employers – no answer
*guarantee small business they won’t foot the bill to their detriment – not really
* itemize the components he wants – not really
* how will we save money – sort of – we’ll only pay for what works, the public option will keep insurance companies honest and encourage reducing administrative costs to compete.
* will he give up on covering everyone – he won’t, though inevitably a few people will reject coverage
* will the plan give the employee the right to choose his coverage – no mention
* is public option in jeopardy, without it insurance companies have no incentive to cut costs – sort of - see "how will we save money" above
* did he show graphics to explain cost cutting – no graphics, but some explanation on unnecessary duplication because of lack of sharing of test results, and that will change
* is he willing to pull back on the time-table and not rush – somewhat, but still an urgent need to act quickly, because too many people are suffering
Not much there in the way of feeding the media the meat they’re looking for.
But in fact, he framed the discussion differently, assuming we want and need to cover everyone, and addressed a lot of things Grandma wanted to hear, most notably:
Where will we come up with the money? Answer: We’re already paying 2/3 of the cost. And he wants to keep extra taxation to those who make about $1 million a year. (A million a year – can you imagine? How can anyone making that kind of money object to helping fund health care for those making $20,000 or $40,000?) He promised he wouldn't pay for it with a tax on the middle class. And he says we will change the way we fund it, paying for success instead of the volume of the care we get. Because we will have a public option, insurance companies will be forced to reduce their administrative costs to compete.
Who will have to sacrifice? Answer: Well, insurance companies are making record profits, and charging more and more for premiums, and there are additional government subsidies for much of the health care providers. At the same time, the average family take home income is shrinking. Hmmmm….. who should give a little?
If we already have the best health care in the world, why change it? Answer: If someone told you there was a plan that would guarantee doubling the cost of health care, and destroy our economy, would you go for it? That’s what would happen if we do nothing.
How about listening to ideas from the other side? Answer: If they’ve got a good idea, we’ll take it. We’ll use a neutral group of experts and consumers called MedPac (a Republican idea in the first place but never given any power) to help hammer out the details and make sure Medicare and Medicaid work efficiently.
Haven’t we already thrown enough money at the economy with TARP and the bailouts? Answer: Wall Street took extraordinary risks with other people’s money. It was fundamentally unsound. It was the right thing to step in – things would be worse if we hadn’t. We’ve seen some stabilization in the economy, we’ve stepped away from the brink, and now some banks are making a profit and paying back the money. But we haven’t seen the changes on Wall Street to ensure it won’t happen again, (example - outrageously high bonuses to executives) and we need fees for the kinds of risky transactions they were performing to help provide a backstop. They need to put something in a kitty so if they screw up again, it’s not the taxpayers who pay for it but the profits.
All in all, he pulled some punches, but seemed determined to succeed at taking a huge step toward putting the wheels back on the wagon. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if Congress is more like Grandma, or media pundits. With Harry Reid's announcement today that the vote won't happen until after the August recess, it appears the Congress pays more attention to the media pundits than it does to the people they represent.
Jacque
Then Chris Matthews and Dr. Nancy, even Ed Schultz, ostensibly more supportive than the typical life-long Republican, declared that he hadn’t made the grade with this one.
Did he answer the questions our media pundits hoped he’d answer?
* address the lies of nay-sayers – not really.
* tax health insurance from employers – no answer
*guarantee small business they won’t foot the bill to their detriment – not really
* itemize the components he wants – not really
* how will we save money – sort of – we’ll only pay for what works, the public option will keep insurance companies honest and encourage reducing administrative costs to compete.
* will he give up on covering everyone – he won’t, though inevitably a few people will reject coverage
* will the plan give the employee the right to choose his coverage – no mention
* is public option in jeopardy, without it insurance companies have no incentive to cut costs – sort of - see "how will we save money" above
* did he show graphics to explain cost cutting – no graphics, but some explanation on unnecessary duplication because of lack of sharing of test results, and that will change
* is he willing to pull back on the time-table and not rush – somewhat, but still an urgent need to act quickly, because too many people are suffering
Not much there in the way of feeding the media the meat they’re looking for.
But in fact, he framed the discussion differently, assuming we want and need to cover everyone, and addressed a lot of things Grandma wanted to hear, most notably:
Where will we come up with the money? Answer: We’re already paying 2/3 of the cost. And he wants to keep extra taxation to those who make about $1 million a year. (A million a year – can you imagine? How can anyone making that kind of money object to helping fund health care for those making $20,000 or $40,000?) He promised he wouldn't pay for it with a tax on the middle class. And he says we will change the way we fund it, paying for success instead of the volume of the care we get. Because we will have a public option, insurance companies will be forced to reduce their administrative costs to compete.
Who will have to sacrifice? Answer: Well, insurance companies are making record profits, and charging more and more for premiums, and there are additional government subsidies for much of the health care providers. At the same time, the average family take home income is shrinking. Hmmmm….. who should give a little?
If we already have the best health care in the world, why change it? Answer: If someone told you there was a plan that would guarantee doubling the cost of health care, and destroy our economy, would you go for it? That’s what would happen if we do nothing.
How about listening to ideas from the other side? Answer: If they’ve got a good idea, we’ll take it. We’ll use a neutral group of experts and consumers called MedPac (a Republican idea in the first place but never given any power) to help hammer out the details and make sure Medicare and Medicaid work efficiently.
Haven’t we already thrown enough money at the economy with TARP and the bailouts? Answer: Wall Street took extraordinary risks with other people’s money. It was fundamentally unsound. It was the right thing to step in – things would be worse if we hadn’t. We’ve seen some stabilization in the economy, we’ve stepped away from the brink, and now some banks are making a profit and paying back the money. But we haven’t seen the changes on Wall Street to ensure it won’t happen again, (example - outrageously high bonuses to executives) and we need fees for the kinds of risky transactions they were performing to help provide a backstop. They need to put something in a kitty so if they screw up again, it’s not the taxpayers who pay for it but the profits.
All in all, he pulled some punches, but seemed determined to succeed at taking a huge step toward putting the wheels back on the wagon. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if Congress is more like Grandma, or media pundits. With Harry Reid's announcement today that the vote won't happen until after the August recess, it appears the Congress pays more attention to the media pundits than it does to the people they represent.
Jacque
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Anticipation…
So what are we looking for from our President’s comments on health care reform this evening?
Will he take on the lies of the right-wing nay-sayers?
Will he capitulate to those who want him to tax health insurance provided by employers?
Will he reassure small businesses that they won't be forced out of business by a requirement for provision of health insurance to employees because there will be affordable options - guaranteed?
Will he specify each and every component he wants to see passed?
Will he explain dollar by dollar how we’ll save money with the reform he’s looking for?
Will he give up important components, like ensuring that EVERYONE is covered?
Will he endorse the Senator from Oregon’s plan to allow an employee to take cash instead of employer coverage, and use the cash to get a plan he prefers?
Will he finally “make it plain” – that without a public option, there’s nothing that will compel private insurance companies to cut premiums by cutting overhead?
Will he show us charts and graphics that demonstrate that we can cut costs by cutting back on unnecessary tests and procedures, but still provide the “best health care in the world”?
Will he back off his time-table, bowing to the notion that 40 years of watching the wheels fall off our health care wagon requires us to spend the next 40 years figuring out what to do about it?
We’ve heard various “experts” insist that some combination of these answers are absolutely essential tonight if the President wants to get his health care reform back on track.
Whatever President Obama tells us this evening, one thing is certain: we’ll all be listening with bated breath. This may be the single most important issue we are facing these days. It is literally life and death for many of us. It could be life and death for our economy, too.
We've started seeing ads purporting to support health care reform sponsored by America's Health Insurance Plans, and Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America. They are surprisingly vague, don't you think? No actual proposals, just the notion that everyone should get coverage, somehow. Oh, with no pre-existing condition exceptions. Somehow.
Polls are showing that public approval for the President’s health care reform proposals is fading, slipping below 50%. Most media pundits are presenting that statistic as if people don’t want to reform our health care system anymore.
But I’d bet dollars to donuts that any slippage is because we want MORE from this reform effort, not less. We don’t approve of the way the Democrats backed away from universal coverage and single payer plans; of the deference paid to those mega-profitable insurance companies; of kowtowing to the elitist American Medical Association; of the sucking-up to PhRMA; of trying to protect Senators and Congresspersons who take millions and millions of dollars from the aforementioned groups.
This blog hasn’t earned an advance copy of the President’s remarks, so we’ll be watching with you. More comments following the press conference.
Jacque
Will he take on the lies of the right-wing nay-sayers?
Will he capitulate to those who want him to tax health insurance provided by employers?
Will he reassure small businesses that they won't be forced out of business by a requirement for provision of health insurance to employees because there will be affordable options - guaranteed?
Will he specify each and every component he wants to see passed?
Will he explain dollar by dollar how we’ll save money with the reform he’s looking for?
Will he give up important components, like ensuring that EVERYONE is covered?
Will he endorse the Senator from Oregon’s plan to allow an employee to take cash instead of employer coverage, and use the cash to get a plan he prefers?
Will he finally “make it plain” – that without a public option, there’s nothing that will compel private insurance companies to cut premiums by cutting overhead?
Will he show us charts and graphics that demonstrate that we can cut costs by cutting back on unnecessary tests and procedures, but still provide the “best health care in the world”?
Will he back off his time-table, bowing to the notion that 40 years of watching the wheels fall off our health care wagon requires us to spend the next 40 years figuring out what to do about it?
We’ve heard various “experts” insist that some combination of these answers are absolutely essential tonight if the President wants to get his health care reform back on track.
Whatever President Obama tells us this evening, one thing is certain: we’ll all be listening with bated breath. This may be the single most important issue we are facing these days. It is literally life and death for many of us. It could be life and death for our economy, too.
We've started seeing ads purporting to support health care reform sponsored by America's Health Insurance Plans, and Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America. They are surprisingly vague, don't you think? No actual proposals, just the notion that everyone should get coverage, somehow. Oh, with no pre-existing condition exceptions. Somehow.
Polls are showing that public approval for the President’s health care reform proposals is fading, slipping below 50%. Most media pundits are presenting that statistic as if people don’t want to reform our health care system anymore.
But I’d bet dollars to donuts that any slippage is because we want MORE from this reform effort, not less. We don’t approve of the way the Democrats backed away from universal coverage and single payer plans; of the deference paid to those mega-profitable insurance companies; of kowtowing to the elitist American Medical Association; of the sucking-up to PhRMA; of trying to protect Senators and Congresspersons who take millions and millions of dollars from the aforementioned groups.
This blog hasn’t earned an advance copy of the President’s remarks, so we’ll be watching with you. More comments following the press conference.
Jacque
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Shona The Shill:
In our last post we told you about Shona Holmes, the unfortunate woman from Waterdown, Ontario who, as we found out in a dramatic TV spot that recently began airing nationally, was diagnosed with what she described as a brain tumor. And again according to her, the Canadian health care system told her it couldn’t fit treatment of same into their schedule for six months. In her estimation she would have been dead by then…and jeez, a brain tumor! How could anyone ever doubt a story like that?
Funny thing about ‘walking back the cat’ though. When you start pulling on a thread as you trace a story back to its routes, more often than not the entire garment begins to unravel…and pretty soon the emperor, or in this case the empress, has no clothes.
Our girl Shona ended up making her way to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona where, for a mere $100,000.00, they confirmed the diagnosis, did some additional testing, performed the appropriate operation and sent her home fully cured just four days after the surgery. Trouble is, the surgery wasn’t for a brain tumor, or brain cancer as Fox News so typically overstated during their interview with this unfortunate victim of Canada’s socialized health care system. It was for the removal of a benign cyst…and they excised it not by boring through her skull, but by going up her nose with something akin to a Roto Rooter and popping that sucker like a big ol’ zit.
What she actually had was called a Rathke’s Cleft Cyst, a rare, fluid-filled sac that grows near the pituitary gland at the base of the brain. It can cause hormone and vision problems, both of which Holmes had been experiencing, and can also cause more serious problems if left untreated. But it is not…NOT…life threatening, and is normally treatable with minimally invasive surgery, as was the case in this instance.
End of story, right? Our victim/heroine escapes the tentacles of Canada’s oppressive, socialized health care system, heads south to that ‘shining city on the hill’, gets the treatment she was denied in her own country, and finally goes back home to live happily ever after. Wow! If it weren’t for this damn gag reflex it would probably bring tears to our eyes.
Here’s the thing, though. This procedure took place four years ago, but Americans For Prosperity/Patients United Now didn’t see the need to produce and release a TV spot featuring Holmes until just recently… when they undoubtedly felt it could do the most public relations damage to any Health Care Reform initiatives currently being considered by Congress. And the Mayo Clinic, which first wrote about this story in 2007 as a not so subtle dig at Canada’s public health care system, and a not so subtle plug about their own expertise, all of a sudden decided to re-release it this summer to coincide with the release of the TV spot. Oh the humanity!
What a crock of unadulterated horse pucky! For openers there is no way…no freaking way…that anyone with either a life threatening or immediate need medical condition gets put on hold by the Canadian health care system, unless there has been some kind of misdiagnosis or they have somehow fallen through the cracks. And neither of those things could ever have happened here, in the good ol' USA, right?
Oh, you may have to wait a while for that vasectomy or nose job, and maybe even for that hip or knee replacement…and that could never happen here either, eh? But if you need treatment NOW for ANYTHING that is in any way life threatening, the Canadian system will make sure you’re taken care of. Anyone who tries to tell you differently is either misinformed, or just plain lying for their own selfish reasons…like that health insurance agent we told you about yesterday.
We don’t know what Shona Holmes was paid or given for agreeing to do that ill-advised TV spot or the Fox News interview decrying the Canadian public health care system…maybe a ton of money, maybe all the expenses associated with her treatment at the Mayo Clinic, maybe nothing? But what we do know is this. She is nothing more than a shill…and she’s being used by extreme right-wing interests in this country who, for their own selfish reasons, will do anything to try and stop any type of ‘public health care for all’ from becoming a reality in the United States.
The Canadian system isn’t perfect. Nobody ever said it was. But like ours, the quality of care is world class. The difference is that their system is significantly more accessible and exponentially more effective and efficient than what we have here…or maybe ‘what we don’t have here’ would be a more accurate way to describe it!
And here’s a little nugget for you that you probably don’t know…and you’ll certainly never be told by anyone who leans to the right in this country. When asked in a poll at the turn of the millennium to pick who they thought was the most important person in the history of their country, Canadians overwhelmingly selected a man by the name of Tommy Douglas. The late Mr. Douglas is noteworthy for a few reasons. He was the father-in-law of actor Donald Sutherland and the grandfather of actor Keifer Sutherland…and he’s also the man primarily responsible for making Canada’s public health care system a reality. We’re fairly certain the latter reason is why so many Canadians named him the most important man in their country’s history.
For more on the Shona Holmes traveling circus, there's some excellent material on these sites:
Funny thing about ‘walking back the cat’ though. When you start pulling on a thread as you trace a story back to its routes, more often than not the entire garment begins to unravel…and pretty soon the emperor, or in this case the empress, has no clothes.
Our girl Shona ended up making her way to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona where, for a mere $100,000.00, they confirmed the diagnosis, did some additional testing, performed the appropriate operation and sent her home fully cured just four days after the surgery. Trouble is, the surgery wasn’t for a brain tumor, or brain cancer as Fox News so typically overstated during their interview with this unfortunate victim of Canada’s socialized health care system. It was for the removal of a benign cyst…and they excised it not by boring through her skull, but by going up her nose with something akin to a Roto Rooter and popping that sucker like a big ol’ zit.
What she actually had was called a Rathke’s Cleft Cyst, a rare, fluid-filled sac that grows near the pituitary gland at the base of the brain. It can cause hormone and vision problems, both of which Holmes had been experiencing, and can also cause more serious problems if left untreated. But it is not…NOT…life threatening, and is normally treatable with minimally invasive surgery, as was the case in this instance.
End of story, right? Our victim/heroine escapes the tentacles of Canada’s oppressive, socialized health care system, heads south to that ‘shining city on the hill’, gets the treatment she was denied in her own country, and finally goes back home to live happily ever after. Wow! If it weren’t for this damn gag reflex it would probably bring tears to our eyes.
Here’s the thing, though. This procedure took place four years ago, but Americans For Prosperity/Patients United Now didn’t see the need to produce and release a TV spot featuring Holmes until just recently… when they undoubtedly felt it could do the most public relations damage to any Health Care Reform initiatives currently being considered by Congress. And the Mayo Clinic, which first wrote about this story in 2007 as a not so subtle dig at Canada’s public health care system, and a not so subtle plug about their own expertise, all of a sudden decided to re-release it this summer to coincide with the release of the TV spot. Oh the humanity!
What a crock of unadulterated horse pucky! For openers there is no way…no freaking way…that anyone with either a life threatening or immediate need medical condition gets put on hold by the Canadian health care system, unless there has been some kind of misdiagnosis or they have somehow fallen through the cracks. And neither of those things could ever have happened here, in the good ol' USA, right?
Oh, you may have to wait a while for that vasectomy or nose job, and maybe even for that hip or knee replacement…and that could never happen here either, eh? But if you need treatment NOW for ANYTHING that is in any way life threatening, the Canadian system will make sure you’re taken care of. Anyone who tries to tell you differently is either misinformed, or just plain lying for their own selfish reasons…like that health insurance agent we told you about yesterday.
We don’t know what Shona Holmes was paid or given for agreeing to do that ill-advised TV spot or the Fox News interview decrying the Canadian public health care system…maybe a ton of money, maybe all the expenses associated with her treatment at the Mayo Clinic, maybe nothing? But what we do know is this. She is nothing more than a shill…and she’s being used by extreme right-wing interests in this country who, for their own selfish reasons, will do anything to try and stop any type of ‘public health care for all’ from becoming a reality in the United States.
The Canadian system isn’t perfect. Nobody ever said it was. But like ours, the quality of care is world class. The difference is that their system is significantly more accessible and exponentially more effective and efficient than what we have here…or maybe ‘what we don’t have here’ would be a more accurate way to describe it!
And here’s a little nugget for you that you probably don’t know…and you’ll certainly never be told by anyone who leans to the right in this country. When asked in a poll at the turn of the millennium to pick who they thought was the most important person in the history of their country, Canadians overwhelmingly selected a man by the name of Tommy Douglas. The late Mr. Douglas is noteworthy for a few reasons. He was the father-in-law of actor Donald Sutherland and the grandfather of actor Keifer Sutherland…and he’s also the man primarily responsible for making Canada’s public health care system a reality. We’re fairly certain the latter reason is why so many Canadians named him the most important man in their country’s history.
For more on the Shona Holmes traveling circus, there's some excellent material on these sites:
http://mediamattersaction.org/factcheck/200905270002
And if you really want a laugh, check out the Fox News anti-health-care-reform infomercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBJGTcfcWGo
Steve
Monday, July 20, 2009
Health Care Reform: Lies The Right Wing Told Me
As the health care reform debate continues on Capitol Hill, with some sort of government-backed plan seeming all but assured now, the right-wing misinformation machine has moved into, if not out-and-out lying mode then, at the very least, the kind of fear mongering that has become their stock in trade. It began in earnest this past weekend with the national launch of a TV spot…seen several times by these eyes on CNN… that’s based entirely upon an unsubstantiated first-person account accompanied by some highly inflammatory narrative innuendo.
Before we ‘walk back the cat’ to the origins of the TV spot, which will go a long way towards establishing its lack of veracity, one thing needs to be made abundantly clear. This blog does not hide the fact that it is fully supportive of significant health care reform in the United States…but neither does it deny that the quality of health care that’s available in this country is at least as good, if not better, than that which can be obtained anywhere else in the world. The problem, as we see it, is that so many Americans don’t have access to that health care…primarily because of money!
As for the TV spot, here’s what you need to be aware of concerning its origins…and this is information anyone with a computer can find out with about 15 minutes of on-line investigation. The focal point of the ad is purportedly a Canadian woman by the name of Shona Holmes of Waterdown. Canada’s a big place and the ad doesn’t specify where exactly Waterdown is, but our research leads us to believe it’s near Hamilton, Ontario…less than 50 miles from Toronto.
In any case, accepting that she actually is who and what the ad says she is, here’s the gist of it. Holmes apparently suffered from a brain tumor and she claims that the Canadian health care system wasn’t going to even let her see a specialist for six months. She further claims that she would have died within six months had she not come to the United States for “…world-class treatment”. She then advised Americans not to give up their rights. We’re not exactly sure what rights she meant…but we assume it was the right to choose your own health care coverage.
Meanwhile, the voice-over narration was saying things like, “…government runs health care in Canada…care is often delayed or denied…patients wait a year for vital surgeries…many drugs and treatments aren’t available because government says patients aren’t worth it…now Washington wants to bring Canadian-style healthcare to the US…government should never come between your family and your doctor…learn more at patientsunitednow.com”.
Here's the spot in question - watch it and come back to this blog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwLp2KJCLOQ
What the ad doesn’t tell you is that Patients United Now is a splinter group of an organization called Americans For Prosperity…and that that group is substantially funded by Koch Industries. What it also doesn’t tell you is that AFP is headed by Tim Phillips…the same Tim Phillips who is known to have, or to have had, close ties to, among others, Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Karl Rove. This guy has always kept company with the scumbag elite.
Some of AFP’s more recent initiatives include an attack ad debunking global warming (The Hot Air Tour), a group working to defeat the Clean Energy Economy legislation (No Climate Tax), another promoting increased domestic drilling (Free Our Energy), one that is attempting to stop passage of the Recovery Act (No Stimulus), and a group that actually pays Joe The Plumber to essentially spend his time smearing the Employee Free Choice Act (Save My Ballot Tour).
That brings us to Koch Industries, a huge, privately-held oil company that you’ve probably never heard of unless you happen to be a U.S. senator, a member of Congress or a lobbyist…or unless you’re an environmentalist. Over the years Koch Industries has been hit with hundreds of millions in dollars in fines for various oil spills and dumping incidents, and the discharge of 15 times the legal limit of a carcinogenic chemical from one of their refineries. Predictably, all of these fines were settled for pennies on the dollar once the Republicans were back in control of the White House and Congress…and no one served any jail time in spite of the fact that four Koch employees were facing up to 35 years each for one of the transgressions.
And so goes the thread running from the AFP/Shona Holmes TV spot back to its source, which basically leaves us back where we started…outright lies and fear mongering by the righties. They’ll literally stop at nothing to prevent meaningful health care reform in this country. And what ultimately happens is that this campaign of misinformation leads to misunderstanding and ignorance…much of it on the part of people who you would think should know better.
One acquaintance who happened to be in the business of selling health insurance actually sent out a letter on company letterhead saying actress Natasha Richardson would have survived her skiing accident had the incident occurred in the United States rather than in Canada. Another, who has never once had to pay a significant medical bill or a spiraling health insurance premium because the head of their household is retired career military, relies on second-hand anecdotes to decry the Canadian system. And so it goes.
So remember, the next time you hear someone speaking out against health care reform or criticizing, for example, the Canadian health care system, ask them for some facts to back up their positions. It says here that they won't have any, or at least none that they can corroborate. And if pressed, nine times out of ten you'll find they either have a stake in trying to ensure that the status quo in America remains, or that they have absolutely no practical, user-based knowledge of either the Canadian system or, in fact, of the American system that those of us who have to pay our own way have come to know all too well.
Steve
Before we ‘walk back the cat’ to the origins of the TV spot, which will go a long way towards establishing its lack of veracity, one thing needs to be made abundantly clear. This blog does not hide the fact that it is fully supportive of significant health care reform in the United States…but neither does it deny that the quality of health care that’s available in this country is at least as good, if not better, than that which can be obtained anywhere else in the world. The problem, as we see it, is that so many Americans don’t have access to that health care…primarily because of money!
As for the TV spot, here’s what you need to be aware of concerning its origins…and this is information anyone with a computer can find out with about 15 minutes of on-line investigation. The focal point of the ad is purportedly a Canadian woman by the name of Shona Holmes of Waterdown. Canada’s a big place and the ad doesn’t specify where exactly Waterdown is, but our research leads us to believe it’s near Hamilton, Ontario…less than 50 miles from Toronto.
In any case, accepting that she actually is who and what the ad says she is, here’s the gist of it. Holmes apparently suffered from a brain tumor and she claims that the Canadian health care system wasn’t going to even let her see a specialist for six months. She further claims that she would have died within six months had she not come to the United States for “…world-class treatment”. She then advised Americans not to give up their rights. We’re not exactly sure what rights she meant…but we assume it was the right to choose your own health care coverage.
Meanwhile, the voice-over narration was saying things like, “…government runs health care in Canada…care is often delayed or denied…patients wait a year for vital surgeries…many drugs and treatments aren’t available because government says patients aren’t worth it…now Washington wants to bring Canadian-style healthcare to the US…government should never come between your family and your doctor…learn more at patientsunitednow.com”.
Here's the spot in question - watch it and come back to this blog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwLp2KJCLOQ
What the ad doesn’t tell you is that Patients United Now is a splinter group of an organization called Americans For Prosperity…and that that group is substantially funded by Koch Industries. What it also doesn’t tell you is that AFP is headed by Tim Phillips…the same Tim Phillips who is known to have, or to have had, close ties to, among others, Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Karl Rove. This guy has always kept company with the scumbag elite.
Some of AFP’s more recent initiatives include an attack ad debunking global warming (The Hot Air Tour), a group working to defeat the Clean Energy Economy legislation (No Climate Tax), another promoting increased domestic drilling (Free Our Energy), one that is attempting to stop passage of the Recovery Act (No Stimulus), and a group that actually pays Joe The Plumber to essentially spend his time smearing the Employee Free Choice Act (Save My Ballot Tour).
That brings us to Koch Industries, a huge, privately-held oil company that you’ve probably never heard of unless you happen to be a U.S. senator, a member of Congress or a lobbyist…or unless you’re an environmentalist. Over the years Koch Industries has been hit with hundreds of millions in dollars in fines for various oil spills and dumping incidents, and the discharge of 15 times the legal limit of a carcinogenic chemical from one of their refineries. Predictably, all of these fines were settled for pennies on the dollar once the Republicans were back in control of the White House and Congress…and no one served any jail time in spite of the fact that four Koch employees were facing up to 35 years each for one of the transgressions.
And so goes the thread running from the AFP/Shona Holmes TV spot back to its source, which basically leaves us back where we started…outright lies and fear mongering by the righties. They’ll literally stop at nothing to prevent meaningful health care reform in this country. And what ultimately happens is that this campaign of misinformation leads to misunderstanding and ignorance…much of it on the part of people who you would think should know better.
One acquaintance who happened to be in the business of selling health insurance actually sent out a letter on company letterhead saying actress Natasha Richardson would have survived her skiing accident had the incident occurred in the United States rather than in Canada. Another, who has never once had to pay a significant medical bill or a spiraling health insurance premium because the head of their household is retired career military, relies on second-hand anecdotes to decry the Canadian system. And so it goes.
So remember, the next time you hear someone speaking out against health care reform or criticizing, for example, the Canadian health care system, ask them for some facts to back up their positions. It says here that they won't have any, or at least none that they can corroborate. And if pressed, nine times out of ten you'll find they either have a stake in trying to ensure that the status quo in America remains, or that they have absolutely no practical, user-based knowledge of either the Canadian system or, in fact, of the American system that those of us who have to pay our own way have come to know all too well.
Steve
Friday, July 17, 2009
Pat & Bay Buchanan Fight for White
Pat and Bay Buchanan – carrying the banner of racism for the Republicans by (nudge nudge wink wink) accusing Sotomayor of being a racist!
It may have started in Congress, but none of those unscrupulous legislators does a better job of cozying up to the racist, fearmongering extreme right Republican base than those lovable Buchanans! And the media just eats it up.
Apparently it doesn’t matter how much evidence you can pile up that makes it so clear that Sotomayor is decidedly neutral in evaluating cases that come before her…
Apparently it doesn’t matter that, having faced bias herself, she might be very careful not to give in to it because she can see what that does…
Apparently it doesn’t matter that, in context, she said someone who was wise (and happened to be a Latina) was more likely to make a better decision than someone who was not wise (and happened to be a white male)…
Apparently it doesn’t matter that only a tiny percentage of Sotomayor’s decisions get appealed, and only a tiny percentage of those get accepted for consideration by the Supreme Court, and in overturning one of her decisions, they decided to disregard precedent and take the law in a new direction (ACTIVISTS!)…
Apparently it doesn’t matter that you hammer on an assertion that has been discredited over and over and over again by every neutral and respected organization and board that evaluates judges…
As we all know, there has been a decades-long effort by Republicans to reassure their base in barely subtle ways that the GOP will look out for white folks first and foremost; that they believe that other folks are simply inferior and can’t be trusted; and they paint white males as the victims of horribly unjust discrimination. Nudge nudge wink wink, we’ll fight that unjust discrimination.
The supreme court has been a bastion for the white male since the beginning of America. Please tell me that doesn’t mean our forefathers believed that only white men could be wise enough to settle our legal differences. And because our forefathers believed that, we have to hold fast to it. Otherwise the world will come to an end.
Between the lines, that’s what we’re hearing from the Buchanan twins. Have they no shame? Or do they really believe this?
Jacque
It may have started in Congress, but none of those unscrupulous legislators does a better job of cozying up to the racist, fearmongering extreme right Republican base than those lovable Buchanans! And the media just eats it up.
Apparently it doesn’t matter how much evidence you can pile up that makes it so clear that Sotomayor is decidedly neutral in evaluating cases that come before her…
Apparently it doesn’t matter that, having faced bias herself, she might be very careful not to give in to it because she can see what that does…
Apparently it doesn’t matter that, in context, she said someone who was wise (and happened to be a Latina) was more likely to make a better decision than someone who was not wise (and happened to be a white male)…
Apparently it doesn’t matter that only a tiny percentage of Sotomayor’s decisions get appealed, and only a tiny percentage of those get accepted for consideration by the Supreme Court, and in overturning one of her decisions, they decided to disregard precedent and take the law in a new direction (ACTIVISTS!)…
Apparently it doesn’t matter that you hammer on an assertion that has been discredited over and over and over again by every neutral and respected organization and board that evaluates judges…
As we all know, there has been a decades-long effort by Republicans to reassure their base in barely subtle ways that the GOP will look out for white folks first and foremost; that they believe that other folks are simply inferior and can’t be trusted; and they paint white males as the victims of horribly unjust discrimination. Nudge nudge wink wink, we’ll fight that unjust discrimination.
The supreme court has been a bastion for the white male since the beginning of America. Please tell me that doesn’t mean our forefathers believed that only white men could be wise enough to settle our legal differences. And because our forefathers believed that, we have to hold fast to it. Otherwise the world will come to an end.
Between the lines, that’s what we’re hearing from the Buchanan twins. Have they no shame? Or do they really believe this?
Jacque
Health Care Reform?
2013. No significant cost containment. 10 million still uninsured after 10 years. Tax increase. Growing deficit. And that's not all.
As we've been trying to point out in previous posts, the piece meal approach to reforming Health Care in America may be doomed to failure. Not failure in Congress. Failure in the marketplace. Failure in providing affordable accessible high quality health care for all.
And even worse than the inadequacies of the legislation are the outrageous lies and fearmongering by the Republican opponents, funded and scripted, we suspect, by the health insurance industry.
Where do we start? How about inadequacies of the legislation.
The reform we're likely to see won't provide the public option coverage until 2013. It isn't going to help us, and others with pre-existing conditions and no employer-provided plan, for four years. Guess we'll just have to rely on prayer and luck. Various analysists tell me that's because of the way the Congressional Budget Office calculates things. Let me quote Ezra Klein of the Washington Post:
"The slow start is a way of holding down costs in the 10-year budget window. If the bill begins in 2010, but the subsidies don't kick in until 2013, then that's three years that are under the budget but aren't costing much money. That means the new health-care system can really cost an average of $140 billion each year, as opposed to $100 billion, and that means you can afford a better system. "
Does that make sense to you? All we get from that is this is another political machination with disregard to the impact it will have on the people. We'll pretend to be providing for the people for 10 years for $1trillion, but we'll only really provide it for 7 years for $1trillion, so the amount we can spend each year we actually DO this can go from the stated "average annual cost" of $100billion to $140billion and we can do more with it. Except for the three years we do nothing for people.
Mandated coverage. How can we be forced to get an insurance plan when there's nobody out there right now that will give us a plan we can afford, thanks to pre-existing conditions and age? The public option might help here, but it won't be available for four more years! And when it is, it will be subsidized on a sliding scale. Those of us with middle-class incomes will get screwed again.
Premium costs. Are we reading this correctly? Insurance companies have to take everyone who applies, but they can "adjust" their premiums. They can charge older people twice as much as younger people. If nothing is done to reduce the premiums currently charged, that could mean your adult offspring in their 30s pay $400 per month for insurance, and you in your 50s could pay $800 for the same monthly plan. How is this reform?
Can't these legislators see that all they have to do is take an eraser to the Medicare legislation and eliminate the 65 year age barrier -- make it accessible to everyone -- and we get the reform we need as soon as the President signs it . (OK, we'll give them a few months to hire more people - possibly the insurance company employees who would be out of work, and add more computers, so they can process the billing.)
A single-payer system would save billions of dollars without reducing the quality or accessibility of the care we receive -- arguably, those aspects would actually improve. That's money we, the people, won't have to spend on health care. Same providers, same services, just a different payment system.
What's so scary about this concept?
We'll look at the lies we're hearing in our next post on this. Here's a taste:
*The government will ration health care (like the insurance companies don't now?).
*We'll die standing in line waiting for health care just like in Canada (Are you kidding me? They actually SAY that!).
*Taxes will go up on everyone to pay for this (they may have something there if we don't do more to contain costs).
*Americans are getting cold feet about health care reform (that's completely dependent on who you ask, Dems or Repubs).
Jacque
As we've been trying to point out in previous posts, the piece meal approach to reforming Health Care in America may be doomed to failure. Not failure in Congress. Failure in the marketplace. Failure in providing affordable accessible high quality health care for all.
And even worse than the inadequacies of the legislation are the outrageous lies and fearmongering by the Republican opponents, funded and scripted, we suspect, by the health insurance industry.
Where do we start? How about inadequacies of the legislation.
The reform we're likely to see won't provide the public option coverage until 2013. It isn't going to help us, and others with pre-existing conditions and no employer-provided plan, for four years. Guess we'll just have to rely on prayer and luck. Various analysists tell me that's because of the way the Congressional Budget Office calculates things. Let me quote Ezra Klein of the Washington Post:
"The slow start is a way of holding down costs in the 10-year budget window. If the bill begins in 2010, but the subsidies don't kick in until 2013, then that's three years that are under the budget but aren't costing much money. That means the new health-care system can really cost an average of $140 billion each year, as opposed to $100 billion, and that means you can afford a better system. "
Does that make sense to you? All we get from that is this is another political machination with disregard to the impact it will have on the people. We'll pretend to be providing for the people for 10 years for $1trillion, but we'll only really provide it for 7 years for $1trillion, so the amount we can spend each year we actually DO this can go from the stated "average annual cost" of $100billion to $140billion and we can do more with it. Except for the three years we do nothing for people.
Mandated coverage. How can we be forced to get an insurance plan when there's nobody out there right now that will give us a plan we can afford, thanks to pre-existing conditions and age? The public option might help here, but it won't be available for four more years! And when it is, it will be subsidized on a sliding scale. Those of us with middle-class incomes will get screwed again.
Premium costs. Are we reading this correctly? Insurance companies have to take everyone who applies, but they can "adjust" their premiums. They can charge older people twice as much as younger people. If nothing is done to reduce the premiums currently charged, that could mean your adult offspring in their 30s pay $400 per month for insurance, and you in your 50s could pay $800 for the same monthly plan. How is this reform?
Can't these legislators see that all they have to do is take an eraser to the Medicare legislation and eliminate the 65 year age barrier -- make it accessible to everyone -- and we get the reform we need as soon as the President signs it . (OK, we'll give them a few months to hire more people - possibly the insurance company employees who would be out of work, and add more computers, so they can process the billing.)
A single-payer system would save billions of dollars without reducing the quality or accessibility of the care we receive -- arguably, those aspects would actually improve. That's money we, the people, won't have to spend on health care. Same providers, same services, just a different payment system.
What's so scary about this concept?
We'll look at the lies we're hearing in our next post on this. Here's a taste:
*The government will ration health care (like the insurance companies don't now?).
*We'll die standing in line waiting for health care just like in Canada (Are you kidding me? They actually SAY that!).
*Taxes will go up on everyone to pay for this (they may have something there if we don't do more to contain costs).
*Americans are getting cold feet about health care reform (that's completely dependent on who you ask, Dems or Repubs).
Jacque
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Throwing Turds At The Wall
The lunatic crap that the fringe right comes up with on an almost daily basis…their ‘we’ve got to take down Obama’ attack plan if you will…literally defies comprehension if you’re the type of person who actually thinks before you open your cake hole.
Take Reserve Army Major Stefan Frederick Cook for example. This is the guy who filed suit to skirt a deployment order to Afghanistan, which has since been suspended, because he says he doesn’t believe that Barack Obama is really an American and therefore not really the president and, by extension, not the commander-in-chief either.
WTF? Never mind that this ‘Obama’s never produced his birth certificate’ story has been debunked about a thousand times now…as if John McCain’s people, the RNC, or even Hilary Clinton’s people and the DNC, wouldn’t have done their due diligence and checked this out by now. Duh!
Anyway, Major Cook…and how the hell did that ever happen…decides to go all out and hire a lawyer to present his case. Great idea except that apparently he didn’t, or at least not exactly. He ended up retaining some caricature from California who goes by the name of Dr. Orly Taitz. Turns out she’s a dentist cum real estate agent cum lawyer (???) who got her law degree from something called William Howard Taft University…one of those on-line/correspondence degree mills. Seriously! You couldn’t make this stuff up.
In any case, we’re pretty sure she did actually manage to get that prestigious Taft law degree. In fact, we’re fairly positive because she’s now a member of the bar and licensed to practice…in California. She also boasts the estimable Alan Keyes (just ask him) as a client who, like Cook, has essentially sued to contest Obama’s legal right to be POTUS. Who could possibly doubt her credibility as a litigant?
So anyway, off they go with the Cook case, right? Well…not exactly. Apparently ol’ WHTU isn’t accredited by the American Bar Association, so she can ONLY practice law in California…where you can also start up a church if you discover a potato chip that reminds you of the Virgin Mary. Problem is, our intrepid Major lives in Georgia where the good doctor/lawyer can’t practice law… we’re not even sure she can pull teeth or sell houses there…just like she can’t practice law anywhere else in the United States except for California.
Tough break that, but no matter. They did manage to get their suit filed and it’s already starting to bear fruit. Cook’s regular job WAS working for an army sub-contractor, but now that he’s filed his law suit…against the army…he’s no longer welcome on any American military bases. So the dopey Major and his lawyer wannabe have so far only succeeded in getting him fired. Interesting strategy.
Honest to God! It’s almost as if these wacko righties wake up every day determined to throw as many turds at the wall as they possibly can in the hope that some of it will stick. The problem is that they end up with so much stink on themselves that nobody with a lick of sense wants to be anywhere near them lest it rub off.
Steve
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Executive Termination Squads!
“Executive Termination Squads!”
Imagine if you can the seizures of apoplexy that mind-boggling phrase would send the right-wing wackos into if it were somehow connected to the Clinton administration! Even worse, how would they react if those three words were in any way even insinuated to be associated with The Great Satan hisownself -- Barack ‘Adolph’ Obama!
If either were the case, Right Wing World would be praisin' the Lord for giving them this chance to wreak vengeance on the Democrats with a passion they have lately been reduced to finding in airport washroom stalls or hiking the Appalachian Trail with someone else's wife.
Suffice it to say that on GOP TV Bill O’Reilly would probably be so righteously enraged as to be screaming red-faced at the camera, veins in his temples throbbing visibly. Sean Hannity might very well have to admit to his viewers that he’d just crapped himself right there on the set. And Glenn Beck -- OMG -- the hard on he has for anything left of extreme right would likely just pop up and knock the keyboard clear off the desk.
As for Rush Limbaugh, somehow a picture of him jumping up and down with his eyes spinning around in that humungous melon of his, snot running out of his nose and drool leaking from the corners of his twisted, blathering mouth does not seem too far fetched!
And what of the Republican politicians who populate this psycho, right-wing, man world on the Isle Of White? The resulting scene we’re imagining on Capitol Hill would be kind of like a sneak preview of the Rapture…John Boehner facing a bank of microphones looking paler than Michael Jackson…backed by Mitch McConnell with that moronic half smile of his having been replaced by a lecherous leer…and Eric Cantor with, as always, his mouth moving but now seemingly speaking in tongues.
Then would come the religious right, which as we all know is neither...but led nonetheless by none other than the second coming of Rick Santorum, descending from what appears to be a fissure in the dome of the Capitol Building, riding in a glimmering white chariot emblazoned with a crest of two parallel lightning bolts topped by a fiery cross and drawn by a team of winged unicorns. Good gawd…wait a minute. Sorry about that! For just a minute there we got kind of caught up in their world.
But this is our world, or as most of us know it, the real world. And unbeknownst to Congress or anyone else that could have or should have known, these Executive Termination Squads apparently operated under the direct supervision of the dark lord himself, former Vice President DICK Cheney. WHAT THE HELL!
And guess what? Right-wing world doesn’t want the country to look back. It would be unproductive…too expensive…and possibly even divisive. Never mind that we spent four years and hundreds of millions of dollars investigating a freaking blow job. What’s the big deal here? Who cares what the rest of the world thinks because a man who was only ‘a heartbeat away’ from our presidency broke the law and ordered foreign nationals, and who the hell knows who else, to be murdered in America’s name?
HOLY CRAP! It’s enough to render us speechless. More on this as the sordid details are revealed, but right now it’s all we can do not to hurl chunks in reaction to the sheer hypocrisy. WTF!
Steve
Imagine if you can the seizures of apoplexy that mind-boggling phrase would send the right-wing wackos into if it were somehow connected to the Clinton administration! Even worse, how would they react if those three words were in any way even insinuated to be associated with The Great Satan hisownself -- Barack ‘Adolph’ Obama!
If either were the case, Right Wing World would be praisin' the Lord for giving them this chance to wreak vengeance on the Democrats with a passion they have lately been reduced to finding in airport washroom stalls or hiking the Appalachian Trail with someone else's wife.
Suffice it to say that on GOP TV Bill O’Reilly would probably be so righteously enraged as to be screaming red-faced at the camera, veins in his temples throbbing visibly. Sean Hannity might very well have to admit to his viewers that he’d just crapped himself right there on the set. And Glenn Beck -- OMG -- the hard on he has for anything left of extreme right would likely just pop up and knock the keyboard clear off the desk.
As for Rush Limbaugh, somehow a picture of him jumping up and down with his eyes spinning around in that humungous melon of his, snot running out of his nose and drool leaking from the corners of his twisted, blathering mouth does not seem too far fetched!
And what of the Republican politicians who populate this psycho, right-wing, man world on the Isle Of White? The resulting scene we’re imagining on Capitol Hill would be kind of like a sneak preview of the Rapture…John Boehner facing a bank of microphones looking paler than Michael Jackson…backed by Mitch McConnell with that moronic half smile of his having been replaced by a lecherous leer…and Eric Cantor with, as always, his mouth moving but now seemingly speaking in tongues.
Then would come the religious right, which as we all know is neither...but led nonetheless by none other than the second coming of Rick Santorum, descending from what appears to be a fissure in the dome of the Capitol Building, riding in a glimmering white chariot emblazoned with a crest of two parallel lightning bolts topped by a fiery cross and drawn by a team of winged unicorns. Good gawd…wait a minute. Sorry about that! For just a minute there we got kind of caught up in their world.
But this is our world, or as most of us know it, the real world. And unbeknownst to Congress or anyone else that could have or should have known, these Executive Termination Squads apparently operated under the direct supervision of the dark lord himself, former Vice President DICK Cheney. WHAT THE HELL!
And guess what? Right-wing world doesn’t want the country to look back. It would be unproductive…too expensive…and possibly even divisive. Never mind that we spent four years and hundreds of millions of dollars investigating a freaking blow job. What’s the big deal here? Who cares what the rest of the world thinks because a man who was only ‘a heartbeat away’ from our presidency broke the law and ordered foreign nationals, and who the hell knows who else, to be murdered in America’s name?
HOLY CRAP! It’s enough to render us speechless. More on this as the sordid details are revealed, but right now it’s all we can do not to hurl chunks in reaction to the sheer hypocrisy. WTF!
Steve
Part II – Socialized Medicine?
I can’t believe how weak the health care reform bill from the House appears to be. For starters, it leaves at least 10 million people uninsured. It has totally ignored the concept of cutting costs by cutting out the billions we spend on billing 1900 different insurance companies.
The well-funded special interests (“stakeholders” is the new politically correct euphemism!) who are working so hard to prevent a single-payer health program for America want you to believe a whole lot of lies and misinformation. “American’s want to preserve their freedom to choose their insurance company.” Ha! We want the freedom to choose our caregivers and treatment, as we discussed in the previous posting.
We want to choose to PREVENT disease, and get insurance coverage for the programs that will help us do so. Very few insurance companies make this a priority. We had to fight for years to get mammograms and colonoscopies covered. Birth control isn’t covered – but Viagra is!
With a single payer system, would you have to wait forever for appointments and elective surgery? If you check the COMPLETE statistics (not the cherry-picked isolated cases) from countries like Canada, Australia, France, Denmark, Germany and others, you’ll see: absolutely not. At least not more than you already do. Try to get an ablation on your atrial fibrillating heart right now – you’re looking at four to six months here in South Carolina. Need your knees replaced by the orthopedics specialist you believe to be the best? Plan on several months on the waiting list. Will that get better with a single-payer system? No guarantees, but it won’t get worse. And if you show up in an emergency room with severe stomach pain, you won’t be waiting in line behind all those uninsured folks who have only the emergency room to seek treatment for their kid’s ear ache (which is probably much worse than it would have been if they’d seen a family physician two weeks ago when it started, but they couldn’t because they couldn’t afford it!).
What would we give up with a single payer system? Lots of jobs in the insurance industry. Lots and lots. High paying jobs. Really high paying jobs for the executives. Nearly 2 Billion for one United Health Care CEO. We won’t have to pay for those industry bureaucrats anymore.
Lots of jobs in the lobbying industry. High paying jobs. People who put money in the campaign chests of our representatives. Millions and millions of dollars. We won’t have to pay for that anymore.
That might upset those Senators and Congresspersons who currently take millions and millions from those lobbyists. Please see the website cited in the last posting to see some of the Democrats who answer this description. (http://vote.wewantthepublicoption.com)
In a single payer system, all of our premiums will go to a system that is modeled after Medicare. It works. Medicare only uses 3% of its budget for administration. The typical health insurance company spends about 33% of your premium for administration. I’m sure your imagination will suggest some of the ways they waste that money on unnecessary expenses, like office space in high-priced neighborhoods, leather desk chairs, “customer service” representatives whose job it is to find a way to deny a claim, corporate jets for the CEOs, annual meetings in Cancun for the senior managers, etc., etc.
How would we pay for it? Opponents are telling you we can’t afford this “socialized medicine” – but WE ALREADY CAN’T AFFORD THE SYSTEM WE HAVE! In fact, with a single-payer system, we can identify millions – even billions - of dollars of savings over what Americans currently pay (about $500 Billion per year). And the single-payer route is the only version of health care reform that will certainly provide those enormous cost reductions. The money we DON’T pay to health insurance companies will allow us to pay for the public system and put the savings back in our pockets.
Oh, and another thing: the single-payer would be able to bargain for lower prescription drug prices, for everyone. They’d have high volume purchasing power. So your Aunt Hattie wouldn’t have to choose between her heart medicine and groceries.
Socialized medicine indeed. How about medicine whose priority is taking care of the members of our society, not putting money in the pockets of high society?
I’ll put my money into a single-payer system any day. Suppose half of the uninsured gave $1 each to help fund primary opponents of Democrats who backed away from securing good health care for all. $23 million could make a difference, I’m guessing.
Do you think they’d listen to $23 million? Disgusting, isn’t it?
Jacque
The well-funded special interests (“stakeholders” is the new politically correct euphemism!) who are working so hard to prevent a single-payer health program for America want you to believe a whole lot of lies and misinformation. “American’s want to preserve their freedom to choose their insurance company.” Ha! We want the freedom to choose our caregivers and treatment, as we discussed in the previous posting.
We want to choose to PREVENT disease, and get insurance coverage for the programs that will help us do so. Very few insurance companies make this a priority. We had to fight for years to get mammograms and colonoscopies covered. Birth control isn’t covered – but Viagra is!
With a single payer system, would you have to wait forever for appointments and elective surgery? If you check the COMPLETE statistics (not the cherry-picked isolated cases) from countries like Canada, Australia, France, Denmark, Germany and others, you’ll see: absolutely not. At least not more than you already do. Try to get an ablation on your atrial fibrillating heart right now – you’re looking at four to six months here in South Carolina. Need your knees replaced by the orthopedics specialist you believe to be the best? Plan on several months on the waiting list. Will that get better with a single-payer system? No guarantees, but it won’t get worse. And if you show up in an emergency room with severe stomach pain, you won’t be waiting in line behind all those uninsured folks who have only the emergency room to seek treatment for their kid’s ear ache (which is probably much worse than it would have been if they’d seen a family physician two weeks ago when it started, but they couldn’t because they couldn’t afford it!).
What would we give up with a single payer system? Lots of jobs in the insurance industry. Lots and lots. High paying jobs. Really high paying jobs for the executives. Nearly 2 Billion for one United Health Care CEO. We won’t have to pay for those industry bureaucrats anymore.
Lots of jobs in the lobbying industry. High paying jobs. People who put money in the campaign chests of our representatives. Millions and millions of dollars. We won’t have to pay for that anymore.
That might upset those Senators and Congresspersons who currently take millions and millions from those lobbyists. Please see the website cited in the last posting to see some of the Democrats who answer this description. (http://vote.wewantthepublicoption.com)
In a single payer system, all of our premiums will go to a system that is modeled after Medicare. It works. Medicare only uses 3% of its budget for administration. The typical health insurance company spends about 33% of your premium for administration. I’m sure your imagination will suggest some of the ways they waste that money on unnecessary expenses, like office space in high-priced neighborhoods, leather desk chairs, “customer service” representatives whose job it is to find a way to deny a claim, corporate jets for the CEOs, annual meetings in Cancun for the senior managers, etc., etc.
How would we pay for it? Opponents are telling you we can’t afford this “socialized medicine” – but WE ALREADY CAN’T AFFORD THE SYSTEM WE HAVE! In fact, with a single-payer system, we can identify millions – even billions - of dollars of savings over what Americans currently pay (about $500 Billion per year). And the single-payer route is the only version of health care reform that will certainly provide those enormous cost reductions. The money we DON’T pay to health insurance companies will allow us to pay for the public system and put the savings back in our pockets.
Oh, and another thing: the single-payer would be able to bargain for lower prescription drug prices, for everyone. They’d have high volume purchasing power. So your Aunt Hattie wouldn’t have to choose between her heart medicine and groceries.
Socialized medicine indeed. How about medicine whose priority is taking care of the members of our society, not putting money in the pockets of high society?
I’ll put my money into a single-payer system any day. Suppose half of the uninsured gave $1 each to help fund primary opponents of Democrats who backed away from securing good health care for all. $23 million could make a difference, I’m guessing.
Do you think they’d listen to $23 million? Disgusting, isn’t it?
Jacque
Monday, July 13, 2009
Socialized Medicine?
Part I - Socialized Medicine?
WE can’t overstate how tired we are of hearing complaints about health care reform that use the jingoistic phrase “socialized medicine” -- as if the changes we might see would amount to living in a totalitarian, communist state! So let’s start from this point: this is not a slippery slope to communism. The rest of the industrialized world’s democracies have already discovered that people have an absolutely essential need, and a right, to good health care, just like they need highways, fire departments, sewage systems, and public education.
In fact, the single-payer proposals floating around out there are so American. They all involve the patient freedoms so beloved by us. What we want is the freedom to choose our caregivers; what labs we go to for mammograms or blood work; whether we want to pay a little extra for a private room in the hospital; and where we’ll fill our prescriptions (as determined by our doctors, not our insurance companies!).
The health industry lobbies would have us believe that a single-payer system would put a “bureaucrat” between us and our doctors. That’s ridiculous! A single-payer system would actually LIBERATE many of us who are now tied to “networks” of “preferred providers.” Ask your friends how many of them have had to switch doctors because their health insurance carrier changed networks. You’ll also find many who ended up paying extra for lab work because some insurance company drone got between them and a lab that used to be IN NETWORK without bothering to adequately inform them of the change -- BEFORE they were sent for doctor ordered blood work!
Doctors won’t work for the government. They’ll be free to work for YOU! All that changes is how they get paid. Instead of having 10 billing clerks to figure out the complexities and dodges of 1900 different payers, they’ll need 1 to send the paperwork to a single payer.
Do you work for a company that provides health insurance? Lucky you. But what if you don’t get coverage for the treatments or procedures or prescriptions your doctor thinks you need? What choice do you have? Virtually none! You can opt out of the company plan, but you won’t get a raise with the company’s savings, to help you pay for a private plan. Besides which, a private plan with reasonable coverage would cost you big bucks, especially if you arrive with a pre-existing condition -- which they probably won’t cover.
A single-payer plan also won’t exclude coverage for mental health, dental or vision care.
The hospitals won’t be controlled by the government either. They, too, would experience tremendous savings in the outrageously high cost they now have in their billing departments. That money could be spent on more nurses and aides on inpatient floors; more outpatient care for follow up visits; or extending your stay enough to make sure your stitches are healing, your pacemaker is working, or your baby isn’t jaundiced.
There’s more to this story… the lies you’re being fed about waiting too long for treatment, the lies about how we’ll need a gigantic tax increase to pay for this… we’ll take on those issues in the next posting. For now, listen to what Congressman (and Majority Whip) Jim Clyburn has to say about the political realities of this urgent and necessary reform process (click the video below, then come back to our blog):
To help influence those reluctant Democrats, check out this website:
http://vote.wewantthepublicoption.com/
Jacque
WE can’t overstate how tired we are of hearing complaints about health care reform that use the jingoistic phrase “socialized medicine” -- as if the changes we might see would amount to living in a totalitarian, communist state! So let’s start from this point: this is not a slippery slope to communism. The rest of the industrialized world’s democracies have already discovered that people have an absolutely essential need, and a right, to good health care, just like they need highways, fire departments, sewage systems, and public education.
In fact, the single-payer proposals floating around out there are so American. They all involve the patient freedoms so beloved by us. What we want is the freedom to choose our caregivers; what labs we go to for mammograms or blood work; whether we want to pay a little extra for a private room in the hospital; and where we’ll fill our prescriptions (as determined by our doctors, not our insurance companies!).
The health industry lobbies would have us believe that a single-payer system would put a “bureaucrat” between us and our doctors. That’s ridiculous! A single-payer system would actually LIBERATE many of us who are now tied to “networks” of “preferred providers.” Ask your friends how many of them have had to switch doctors because their health insurance carrier changed networks. You’ll also find many who ended up paying extra for lab work because some insurance company drone got between them and a lab that used to be IN NETWORK without bothering to adequately inform them of the change -- BEFORE they were sent for doctor ordered blood work!
Doctors won’t work for the government. They’ll be free to work for YOU! All that changes is how they get paid. Instead of having 10 billing clerks to figure out the complexities and dodges of 1900 different payers, they’ll need 1 to send the paperwork to a single payer.
Do you work for a company that provides health insurance? Lucky you. But what if you don’t get coverage for the treatments or procedures or prescriptions your doctor thinks you need? What choice do you have? Virtually none! You can opt out of the company plan, but you won’t get a raise with the company’s savings, to help you pay for a private plan. Besides which, a private plan with reasonable coverage would cost you big bucks, especially if you arrive with a pre-existing condition -- which they probably won’t cover.
A single-payer plan also won’t exclude coverage for mental health, dental or vision care.
The hospitals won’t be controlled by the government either. They, too, would experience tremendous savings in the outrageously high cost they now have in their billing departments. That money could be spent on more nurses and aides on inpatient floors; more outpatient care for follow up visits; or extending your stay enough to make sure your stitches are healing, your pacemaker is working, or your baby isn’t jaundiced.
There’s more to this story… the lies you’re being fed about waiting too long for treatment, the lies about how we’ll need a gigantic tax increase to pay for this… we’ll take on those issues in the next posting. For now, listen to what Congressman (and Majority Whip) Jim Clyburn has to say about the political realities of this urgent and necessary reform process (click the video below, then come back to our blog):
To help influence those reluctant Democrats, check out this website:
http://vote.wewantthepublicoption.com/
Jacque
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