5/20/09

GOP Recreating Another Donut Hole?

Only this time they want to make the entire health system a nightmare of junk choices... Call it a donut hole in a pastry puff.

Republicans talk in circles to justify subsidizing junk for-profit plans putting your healthcare in the hands of, for the most part, foreign corporations:

The argument is this: after the employer exclusion is repealed, employers will convert the money they spend on your health care benefits into higher wages and you’ll be able to use that increase and the ($2,290 per individual or $5,710 per family) refundable tax credit to purchase health care coverage in the new State Health Insurance Exchanges or the existing individual market.

Since everyone would have “universal access” to coverage, greater government involvement in health care would be counterproductive. Government rots the system, and Americans know this, they argue:

In solving our health care crisis, Americans already know that government will not work…Patients should be able to choose from a variety of private insurance plans. The Federal government would run a health care system — or a public plan option — with the compassion of the IRS, the efficiency of the post office, and the incompetence of Katrina.

Therefore, greater government involvement must not only be avoided, but existing government involvement should be phased out. Low-income families with dependent children should shift out of Medicaid and into “higher quality private plans through direct assistance that will be coupled with a tax credit.” Medicare Advantage — the program that contracts with private insurers — should be “reformed” and possibly expanded.

But today, the Commonwealth Fund released a new survey indicating that “elderly Medicare beneficiaries reported greater overall satisfaction with their health coverage, better access to care, and fewer problems paying medical bills than people covered by employer-sponsored plans.” “The findings bolster the argument that offering a public insurance plan similar to Medicare to the under-65 population has the potential to improve access and reduce costs,” the organization concluded:

- Medicare beneficiaries report easier access to physicians. Ten percent of Medicare beneficiaries’ physicians did not accept their insurance, compared with 17 percent of respondents with employer-sponsored plans.

- Medicare beneficiaries are less likely to report not getting needed services. Twelve percent of elderly Medicare beneficiaries reported going without care, such as prescribed medications or recommended tests, because of cost restraints. Of individuals with employer-based plans, 26 percent reported experiencing these cost/access issues.

- Medicare beneficiaries are sicker and poorer but report fewer medical bill problems.

Medicare beneficiaries were less likely to report a medical bill problem than those covered by employer plans.

Within our hybrid public-private system of coverage, public plans compliment private insurers — providing services to vulnerable populations more efficiently. Today, talk of “government-takeover” conjures up images of health care rationing in Great Britain or Canada. If, however, Democrats are able to shift the frame of reference to an expansion and improvement of Medicare, then they may very well win this debate.

The overcomplicated answers republicans try to offer are simply a distraction from the really easy, inexpensive solutions that Americans want. It would be too easy and make too much sense to simply open up Medicare to anyone that wanted it. An even more common sense solution would be a single payer solution.

You know? The government pays the bill for healthcare, nothing more and nothing less from Uncle Sam, and everything else is between you and your doctor.

No insurance companies to mess it up by denying you care, or offering so many different levels of care from the poor man's death plan to the elites Cadillac plan (generally reserved for politicians), or making a 30% cut from your paycheck to buy a new yacht for their CEOs - the very people that caused this healthcare disaster.

Just you, your doctor, making medical decisions... And a medical bill that you (and any company you work for) never have to see again for the rest of your life.

Some basic and indisputable facts in this debate:

  • The majority of Americans want a single payer healthcare system.
  • The majority of Americans are willing to pay more taxes for a single payer healthcare system.
  • The majority of doctors want a single payer healthcare system.

Special interests and lobbyists are the only ones that are trying to force insurance companies into the middle of the Doctor patient relationship. And politicians are obliging them like their special-interest-life-after-politics-retirement-funds depended on it.

Some resources from 1Payer.net:

Join Us Now, It's Free!

Join us in making Medicare For All a reality. Sign up to receive important information and alerts. Help spread the word about Medicare For All -- full health care access with free choice of doctor, no deductibles, no pr...

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Join the March on Washington

Join us in a 'CyberMarch' on Washington on May 30, 2009. We want Medicare for All -- health care for every American! Sign Up today and choose your avatar who will go to Washington for you on May 30. Your avatar will j...

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Call the White House

It's more important than ever. Tell the White House to support a Single Payer National Health Plan.

1-800-578-4171

Send Your Free Fax

Choose from the following list to send your free fax to congress members:


5/19/09

The Missing Link?

Maybe:
Scientists Unveil Missing Link In Evolution

Scientists have unveiled a 47-million-year-old fossilised skeleton of a monkey hailed as the missing link in human evolution.

The search for a direct connection between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom has taken 200 years - but it was presented to the world today at a special news conference in New York.

The discovery of the 95%-complete 'lemur monkey' - dubbed Ida - is described by experts as the "eighth wonder of the world".


I want to see what some of the many science Bloggers out there have to say about this because I am pretty sure this only plugs one hole in the links.

[update]
Pharyngula is already telling people not to overeact:

When Laelaps says, "I have the feeling that this fossil, while spectacular, is being oversold," I think he's being spectacularly understated. Wilkins also knocks down the whole "missing link" label. The hype is bad news, not because Ida is unimportant, but because it detracts from the larger body of the fossil record — I doubt that the media will be able to muster as much excitement from whatever new fossil gets published in Nature or Science next week, no matter how significant it may be.
Anyways...

Descended from the apes! My dear, let us hope that it is not true, but if it is, let us pray that it will not become generally known.
- Bishop of Worcester's wife to Charles Darwin

5/18/09

Dodd and DeLauro Get Hammered on Single Payer

Yet again, protesters turn out to demand single payer at another forum on healthcare:
A “town hall discussion” on health care reform held at Griffin Hospital Saturday became contentious when advocates of a single-payer health insurance system shouted at U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd to put the plan back “on the table.”

A group of Yale School of Medicine students also challenged Dodd and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, on the issue, but they didn’t repeatedly shout their questions without being called upon. And so, unlike the earlier advocates, they were not taken out of the building by security guards.

At least 200 people jammed the hospital cafeteria for the session, which gave the public a chance to ask questions of not just Dodd and DeLauro, but also Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform.


Some basic and indisputable facts in this debate:
  • The majority of Americans want a single payer healthcare system.
  • The majority of Americans are willing to pay more taxes for a single payer healthcare system.
  • The majority of doctors want a single payer healthcare system.

Special interests and lobbyists are the only ones that are trying to force insurance companies into the middle of the Doctor patient relationship. And politicians are obliging them like their special-interest-life-after-politics-retirement-funds depended on it.

Yeah... We get it. For your viewing pleasure, a series of YouTubes from the event and of others that get it:
singlepayeraction.org 5/16/09 A group of doctors, lawyers, Yale medical students, and universal health care activists called on Senator Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut), Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut), and Obama health care czar Nancy-Ann DeParle to put single payer health insurance back on the policy table.