Showing posts with label healthcare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healthcare. Show all posts
10/5/10
Public Option Was Taken Off The Table in 2009
In his book, Daschle reveals that after the Senate Finance Committee and the White House convinced hospitals to to accept $155 billion in payment reductions over ten years on July 8, the hospitals and Democrats operated under two “working assumptions.” “One was that the Senate would aim for health coverage of at least 94 percent of Americans,” Daschle writes. “The other was that it would contain no public health plan,” which would have reimbursed hospitals at a lower rate than private insurers.Wonkroom
9/18/10
A Word About Pre-Existing Conditions, Mike
"It sounds so good, and it's such a warm message to say we're not gonna deny anyone from a preexisting condition," Huckabee explained at the Value Voters Summit today. "Look, I think that sounds terrific, but I want to ask you something from a common sense perspective. Suppose we applied that principle [to] our property insurance. And you can call your insurance agent and say, "I'd like to buy some insurance for my house." He'd say, "Tell me about your house." "Well sir, it burned down yesterday, but I'd like to insure it today." And he'll say "I'm sorry, but we can't insure it after it's already burned." Well, no preexisting conditions."Really Mike Huckabee? Those of us with cancer and such are just a fucking burden, I know. We should just die, and die quickly (Grayson was not being hyperbolic, apparently).
We needed Universal Health Care and we didn't get it. We didn't even get a public option. But we got the pre-existing condition (PEC) thing, and the Republicans want to repeal it. What assholes.
I am now among those with a pre-existing condition and no insurance. I can't tell you how stressful it is. I was hoping, if I live till 2014, to be able to get insurance when the PEC part kicks in. It looks like that may never happen.
I am disgusted by the classism that defines our politics. I am worried our oligarchy has been cemented in place. This is a scary time, unless you are rich.
The super-wealthy in America have not been paying their share. They are a disgrace to the human race.
Fuck you, Mike Huckabee.
3/29/10
3/21/10
About Health Care
We on the left apparently have 2 positions on the health care debate:
1. Pass it even though it sucks,
or
2. Vote no because the bill is not what anyone wants.
Obama ran on health care, and touted the public option as the only way to control costs. I think just about everyone who voted for Obama knew he was settling for a public option because single payer would never pass. Democrats aren't stupid; we are self-defeating.
As Obama and the Democrats caved on everything to the insane right, the left apparently realized they had no cojones, and they had better try to get whatever Republicans would let them have. They forgot that Republicans won't let them have anything. We have to fight for it. But Obama wanted bipartisanship. So we ended up with a year-long fight.
There were some Progressives in Congress who stood up to the nonsense and presented a united front in favor of a public option: Weiner, Kucinich, Grayson, among others. They were considered fringe, even though the left (among others) wants exactly what they want--universal health care--but we decided to settle for a public option.
That was our first mistake.
Now we find ourselves making the last of the Progressives cave into the debacle that has become the health care reform debate (there is no debate about the need, just who will profit). And it isn't reform. And Kucinich caved, just like the rest of them.
Yeah, yeah, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Well, what we have is not good, and what we will get is not good; it's just less bad. And that is what Kucinich and Grayson and Nader and all the rest have been saying. But they are too far out on the fringe (except they are not) to take seriously. Even though they are correct that this bill is a disaster. Mark my words, the insurance companies will find a way around most provisions, especially those that don't take effect for a couple years.
We are doomed, but at least a few folks who don't have health insurance now will get it (and they will pay, because it will be the law). In their minds, going to the ER was a much better deal, I am sure.
We know that America needs universal, single payer health care. We know it, but won't do it.
We know Bush, Cheney and the rest lied and tortured, but we won't prosecute.
We know they spied illegally and sent prisoners away to black sites for even worse torture, but we will do nothing.
We know the banks are stealing from us, but we will do nothing.
What is the point of living here? America, the greatest country in the world? You decide.
Kucinich should vote no. He said he would. But now he feels like he has to help Obama, or something. Voting for Obama is turning out to be something of a mistake. Would Hillary have been better? Probably. Oh hindsight.
I am so tired of Democrats trying to be reasonable. Reason is not what drives most people. We need less reason and more "vim and vigor," based on reason. We need to match Republican resolve. We need to fight with the same weapons, and reason is NOT a Republican weapon.
Democrats fucked this thing up. Now it's Hamsher v. Moulitsas. Hamsher is our conscience--she fights for what we need, deserve and actually want. Moulitsas is now, and I guess it's kind of funny, the establishment, arguing for what we can get.
We need to be both Firedogs and Kossaks.
Maybe Next time.
1. Pass it even though it sucks,
or
2. Vote no because the bill is not what anyone wants.
Obama ran on health care, and touted the public option as the only way to control costs. I think just about everyone who voted for Obama knew he was settling for a public option because single payer would never pass. Democrats aren't stupid; we are self-defeating.
As Obama and the Democrats caved on everything to the insane right, the left apparently realized they had no cojones, and they had better try to get whatever Republicans would let them have. They forgot that Republicans won't let them have anything. We have to fight for it. But Obama wanted bipartisanship. So we ended up with a year-long fight.
There were some Progressives in Congress who stood up to the nonsense and presented a united front in favor of a public option: Weiner, Kucinich, Grayson, among others. They were considered fringe, even though the left (among others) wants exactly what they want--universal health care--but we decided to settle for a public option.
That was our first mistake.
Now we find ourselves making the last of the Progressives cave into the debacle that has become the health care reform debate (there is no debate about the need, just who will profit). And it isn't reform. And Kucinich caved, just like the rest of them.
Yeah, yeah, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Well, what we have is not good, and what we will get is not good; it's just less bad. And that is what Kucinich and Grayson and Nader and all the rest have been saying. But they are too far out on the fringe (except they are not) to take seriously. Even though they are correct that this bill is a disaster. Mark my words, the insurance companies will find a way around most provisions, especially those that don't take effect for a couple years.
We are doomed, but at least a few folks who don't have health insurance now will get it (and they will pay, because it will be the law). In their minds, going to the ER was a much better deal, I am sure.
We know that America needs universal, single payer health care. We know it, but won't do it.
We know Bush, Cheney and the rest lied and tortured, but we won't prosecute.
We know they spied illegally and sent prisoners away to black sites for even worse torture, but we will do nothing.
We know the banks are stealing from us, but we will do nothing.
What is the point of living here? America, the greatest country in the world? You decide.
Kucinich should vote no. He said he would. But now he feels like he has to help Obama, or something. Voting for Obama is turning out to be something of a mistake. Would Hillary have been better? Probably. Oh hindsight.
I am so tired of Democrats trying to be reasonable. Reason is not what drives most people. We need less reason and more "vim and vigor," based on reason. We need to match Republican resolve. We need to fight with the same weapons, and reason is NOT a Republican weapon.
Democrats fucked this thing up. Now it's Hamsher v. Moulitsas. Hamsher is our conscience--she fights for what we need, deserve and actually want. Moulitsas is now, and I guess it's kind of funny, the establishment, arguing for what we can get.
We need to be both Firedogs and Kossaks.
Maybe Next time.
2/25/10
We Are Part Of The Third World
h/t JM
Those light gray countries? That's usually called the third world.
Olbermann On Health Care
Keith Olbermann's father is not doing well. The conversation one has to have at the end of life is a hard one, but a necessary one, as Keith forcefully and personally explains:
2/18/10
2/1/10
Did You Get The Email? Single Payer!
From an email I got today:
It's FINALLY Time For The People To Be Heard On Health Care.Now click on the link and be heard!
What a sad tragedy, that the Democrats had to trash the Senate seat in Massachusetts just to be willing to start to listen to their constituents on health care reform. But this is what President Obama said in his State of the Union address:
"But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know. Let me know. Let me know. I'm eager to see it."
That's what he said. OK then, so NOW we the people need to TELL him.
Single Payer Push Action Page:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1031.php
What are we supposed to do? Not tell him?? He just invited us to the table. What are we supposed to do, not show up, so he can say the people did not respond to his invitation?
1/20/10
Wendell Potter On The Health Care Bill (It's Bad)
From The Raw Story:
Potter pointed out, for example, that many plans -- even after consumers received proposed government subsidies to help pay for them -- would come with high deductibles that prohibit people from using their insurance or cause them the kind of financial hardships that healthcare reform was purported to prevent.
“What worries me,” he said, “is people who are forced to buy coverage and all they can afford to buy is a high deductible. And if they get really sick then they have to pay so much out of their own pockets that they’re going to be filing for bankruptcy and losing their homes.”
In the Senate bill, in particular, Potter noted, some people will be buying insurance that will only cover roughly 60 percent of their medical costs if they get sick.
“There are a lot of people who don’t have insurance now because they can’t afford premiums,” he said. “They certainly couldn’t afford premiums plus the out-of-pocket expenses in today’s market.”
Potter asserted that the current legislation will, in large part, simply move millions of people from being uninsured to underinsured, or from insured to underinsured. Citing a 2007 study by the Commonwealth Fund, he said there are already over 25 million Americans who fall into the category of the underinsured.
Potter also noted the deleterious effect of cost shifting on small businesses. Many small business owners will earn just enough to be denied subsidies.
“After a certain income level, there are no subsidies,” Potter explained. “But you still have to buy coverage. And I’m concerned that after you get above the median level of income, you’ll find that a lot of people who don’t get subsidies will probably be forced to buy coverage. But the only coverage they’ll be able to buy will make them underinsured.”
1/12/10
Those Greedy Bastards!
Health Insurers Funded Chamber Attack Ads
By Peter H. Stone
Updated at 6:45 p.m.
Just as dealings with the Obama administration and congressional Democrats soured last summer, six of the nation's biggest health insurers began quietly pumping big money into third-party television ads aimed at killing or significantly modifying the major health reform bills moving through Congress.
That money, between $10 million and $20 million, came from Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Kaiser Foundation Health Plans, UnitedHealth Group and Wellpoint, according to two health care lobbyists familiar with the transactions. The companies are all members of the powerful trade group America's Health Insurance Plans.
The funds were solicited by AHIP and funneled to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to help underwrite tens of millions of dollars of television ads by two business coalitions set up and subsidized by the chamber. Each insurer kicked in at least $1 million and some gave multimillion-dollar donations.
1/11/10
How The Middle Class Will Pay For Health Care Reform
By Robert Reich:
The Last Big Question: Will Health Care Reform Be Paid For By The Rich or the Middle Class?
Monday, January 11, 2010
There’s only one big remaining issue on health care reform: how to pay for it. The House wants a 5.4 percent surtax on couples earning at least $1 million in annual income. The Senate wants a 40 percent excise tax on employer-provided “Cadillac plans.” The Senate will win on this unless the public discovers that a large portion of the so-called Cadillacs are really middle-class Chevys, expensive not because they deliver more benefits but because they have higher costs.
The dirty little secret under the hood is that less than 4 percent of the variation in the cost of current health-care plans has to do with how many benefits they provide. Most plans that cost more do so because (1) a particular set of employees is older and tends to get sicker than the average set of employees (that’s true for a lot of old rust-belt firms), (2) the plan is offered by a small business that lacks bargaining clout with insurers (small businesses pay, on average, 16 percent more for the health insurance they provide, per capita), (3) the work that employees do subjects them to greater risk of medical problems (health-care workers, for example), or (4) most employees are women (who tend to have higher health-care costs than men because women are the ones who bear children). Plans could also cost more but deliver average benefits because (5) insurers in the area don’t face much competition (one main reason for the public option).
So by taxing so-called Cadillac plans, the Senate bill would actually end up taxing the Chevy plans of a large portion of the middle class. And as time goes by, a still larger portion, since the Senate plan is geared to the overall rate of inflation rather than to the (much higher) rate of increases in health-care costs.
Defenders of the Senate plan say not to worry. Employers who bear the tax and therefore have an incentive to cut back on health care for their employees will make it up to employees in higher wages. But anyone taking even a passing glance at today’s labor market knows this is wishful thinking. Employers have no incentive to raise wages when almost everyone is worried about keeping their jobs. (Besides, a dollar’s worth of tax-free health benefit is worth more than a taxable dollar of wages.)
In any event, I thought a major purpose of health-care reform was to get more care to more people, not to cut it back. Even employees who get extra dollars of wages to make up for the cutbacks won’t necessarily plow those wages back into health care.
Some say the Senate’s excise tax is the only way to control long-term health care costs. Baloney. If a portion of the middle class loses their health care, they won’t get the preventive care that’s so crucial to containing long-term costs. If Congress wanted to do more cost containment it would allow Medicare and Medicaid to use their huge bargaining power to get lower costs from pharmaceutical makers and medical suppliers. And it would have a public option to compete with private insurers.
Of course, we’re playing with probabilities here. No one knows exactly what will happen when the Senate excise tax hits — how many employers will cut back coverage without raising wages to compensate, how many middle class people will be hit hard by this, how many who do get higher wages will use them to buy health care, including preventive care.
But why even take these chances when the House bill simply and cleanly goes after the top 1 percent? It’s not as if couples earning over a million can’t afford to pay the tax. When I last looked, the top 1 percent was taking home a record 23 percent of total income. If anything, the Great Recession is widening the gap. It’s bonus time on Wall Street again. But the middle class is taking a beating.
This is the last big fight on health care reform. It’s being fought right now. Make your voice heard.
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