Today’s Washington Post had a most interesting article regarding the House Representative from Virginia, Eric Cantor. As some of you may know, Mr. Cantor is the number 2 leader in the Republican House Leadership. He is also one of the most vociferous mouthpieces on the floor of the House. His commentary for the President has been along the lines of the Tea Party and 9-12 Plan fruitcakes. Death Panels, Kill Grandma, Socialist President Obama, etc.

Yesterday, in Richmond something happened that can either bring a ray of sunshine or a chill of apprehension regarding the Republican party. Cantor hosted with a Democrat, Representative Bobby Scott a “town hall meeting that wasn’t”. There was no talk of death panels, no illegal alien rants, and no NAZI emblems denigrating “libruls” and the President. Cantor and Scott were there to discuss health care. Health Care? Eric Cantor? He also had acording to the report, words for his Republican peers, “Stop the revivial stuff and let’s talk”. Many in his audience of about 250 people were not happy, they came expecting to be able to perform as they have in town hall meetings all across the nation. But no,,, Cantor and the moderator, the publisher of the Richmond Times Dispatch, all pretty much held the cat calls, shouts and rude overtalk to, get this, ZERO.

Folks, there were two things that crossed my mind while I was reading this article. The first was that some alien being had come to Earth and taken over Cantor’s body and mind. The second, and even more scary was that this was a big plan by the GOP to blunt the lousy impression they have made on the American people over the past several years, leading to their back to back losses in congressional elections and culminating with the loss of the White House as well. Chills ran up and down my spine as I took this thought to another level, that the GOP was putting on a blitz of “niceness” to convince folks that they had learned their lesson and should be given another chance at the reins of power.

Heaven Forfend!!! Simply look as what the GOP was able to accomplish in just two presidential terms. Taking the nation from one of prosperous, jobs building, 401(k) gaining economy to an economy and jobs picture that was one step away from the abyss of the Great Depression.

Do we really want to trust them to be repentful and deserving of another shot at destroying the nation and it’s people?

Well, Not this Cantankerous old Coot.

They all, as a great lady Helen Philpot says, need to sit down and shut up for a few more years.

Max Baucus, that wonderful inclusionary senator from Montana (more on that later), has submitted his plan for Health Insurance Reform. (Note that I use the term Health Insurance, Health Care Reform is no longer on the plate) Max submitted his legislation and immediately it got hit with hundreds of modifications or amendments.

Max’s bill holds a great glaring problem for most of us Americans. There is no facility for a public option, nor is there any real support for inclusionary insurance coverage for the majority of Americans. Max’s deal seems to be, if you breathe, you must buy insurance from his pals in the health insurance industry. There is minimal support for those who are in such dire straits that affodability of medicine is out of the question in most cases, let alone the requirement to purchase an insurance policy from one of the very few companies that are still in the game.

The biggest problem I see with Max’s bill is the tremendous focus on individual policies. That is also the focus of the “bipartisan” plan from Wyden and Bennet (Democrat and Republican respectively). The entire focus on these plans it to move people into individually purchased insurance policies. The insurance companies are going to love that.

The stupid word is being revived again, CONSUMER as in Consumer Directed Health Plan or Individual Consumer policies. Folks, I have been ranting about that stupid word for more than three years. Health Care is NOT, let me repeat this, IS NOT a consumer product. When you are sick, you are a PATIENT and you do not have the inclination or the capacity to “shop for health care”.

Only a blithering idiot would continue to use that focus, yet here we have Baucus, Wyden and Bennet all joining in with the conservatives to push Consumer centric health care. Bull crap folks.

Anyone ever had to deal with an insurance company who has denied a claim for medical care? I have and if it had not been for the fact that I was in a GROUP program, I would have been out tens of thousands of dollars. One Claim was denied because the anesthiesologist was not in the network. Excuse me, I was in a hospital, undergoing surgery and both the surgeon and the anesthesologist were on the hospital staff. I am supposed to halt the surgery to check their network affiliations? Not with a tumor in my colon, thank you very much.

Baucus has run into quite a buzz saw so far, none of his “bipartisan” team from the Republican side has stuck with him. All have basically said no as we all felt would be the end result. However, Senator Snowe of Maine has submitted several amendments that might make the Baucus bill a bit more tolerable?

The simple fact is, that if the Max Baucus Finance Committee bill is the keystone to the Obama Health Insruance Reform, hold on to your seats folks, it’s going to get really bumpy from now on.

Bu then why would we think it would be any different? Millions of dollars are being paid by the health care industry to the senators and representatives in our Congress. The average American stands a snow ball’s chance in hell of being recognized as someone with a valid opinion.

On Wednesday Evening, September 9, President Obama made an address to a joint session of the Congress. In this address, he was discussing two major items. The first was the pending health care reform bill (or as I like to refer to it as the health insurance reform bill), and the second was to address the lies, fear mongering and outright attempt to kill any reform in the are of health care.

During this session, President Obama mentioned that one of the lies about the bills under consideration was that they would allow illegal aliens to be participants. He stated flatly that that was not true. At that point a rude asshole from South Carolina, Representative Joe Wilson shouted out “You Lie”. Wilson broke a precedent in the Congress that had stood for 200 years, you do not shout and demean the President during an address in the Congress. Is shows a total lack of class. Of course in my humble estimation, that pretty much sums up the Republican Party of the past couple of decades. NO CLASS.

The Republican Leadership, in the form of John Boehner, responded to Mr. Rahm Emanuel’s demand for an immediate appology from Wilson. Boehner finally convinced Wilson that he was an ass and should make the appology. Wilson did a half hearted and half assed appology given to Rahm Emanuel for the President.

I would bet, dollars to donuts that immediately following the session that the republicans feted Wilson at one of the many watering holes in the District. Most likely the Old Ebbits Grill or some other high dollar place so they could waste more of the taxpayer dollars on a total cretionous jerk.

Lucky things do happen however, Wilson’s democratic opponent has recieve a substantial increase in his campaign donations, to the tune of more than 450,000 dollars at last count. Some good did come out and if there is a God in Heaven, Joe Wilson will be sitting out the next congress after getting his butt handed to him by the Democrats.

This sort of stuff goes on all the time. What is it with Republicans, conservatives, libertarians or simply religious fundamentalists bible thumpers? Do they have a mental block about how they appear to people? They rage and curse, gnashing their teeth and beating their breasts over the Democratic plans as being no good, yet, they have no alternatives. Oh wait, there was one put forth by Boehner I believe. Cancell all group insurance, cancel medicare cancel medicaid and let people buy their own policies.

Yep, that would work. Even with group coverage where one has their company and it’s HR department backing them, in a majority of cases they get totally screwed by their insurance company’s propensity for denial of claims. It is the industry’s basic response to any claim, denial unless challenged. But the Republicans would have you believe that you could get good health care with an individual policy. Certainly this must be true, the GOP backs it.

Frankly folks I wonder about a good portion of the American people when they appear to have been beaten with a STUPID STICK in their idiotic adherence to everything the GOP says as if it were written in the stone tablets and brought down from the Mount…..

Gad, will reason never come to these folks. Why are Republicans so obtuse? Because they like being that way. Like a Rock, only dumber.

Let’s take a short look at the “reform” that our current administration and our congress has been touting. Where is it? Who knows, but is sure is beginning to appear that the Obama Administration and our Congress have sold us down the river in favor of the private sector.

Frankly, I am very dissappointed in our president. His campaign words were so full of promise that we would actually see some real reform in our health care system. Instead, it appears that the nation’s citizens are being ignored to the tune of the lobby influence from the health care industry. Instead, the Obama Administration would not even allow the single payer folks at the table, until they were embarrased by the people so much. Even then, it was miniscule compared to the level of interest and the potential benefits that would be potentially forthcoming from such a program. I don’t quite understand why someone who was percieved as being such a “man of the people” could simply ignore so many and not allow decent hearings of the SPUHC options. Not quite ready to tag Obama with feet of clay, but he sure has let a lot of us down on the “reform” of health care.

The Democratic Legislators are a major disappointment also. Especially the Senate committees charged with developing a comprehensive health care reform bill. Max Baucus even had some citizens arrested for exercising their rights under the constitution to demand a hearing by the legislaive bodies. Several doctors and nurses were arrested and Baucus even had the temerity to laugh and joke about having the medical professional arrested, all the while playing up to representatives from the private health care insurers, pharmaceutical and other health care INDUSTRY organizations. Yet he had no time to listen to citizens, to doctors, to nurses? What the hell is going on in our Congress? Are they not supposed to be the legislative representatives of the people? Who do they think they are kidding?

The Republicans? Heck, they were expected to sell us out to the private sector interests. Especially on the issue of health care, because of their fealty to the major health care insurers and pharmaceutical companies. These so called representatives of the people would put the interests of business ahead of the well being of people without a single thought to the outcome. They simply don’t care about the American citizens unless they happen to be among the rich and powerful.

The Republican leadership, which, in my humble opinion suffers greatly from a dearth of integrity and honor, and is primarily represented by several extremely poor excuses for human beings, has continued to show itself as more interested in protecting the insurance companies than in protecting the health of Americans. John Boehner of Ohio, Eric Cantor of Virginia, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, all three in the leadership of the Republicans in Congress think nothing about lying to the people if it means advancing their personal fortunes and they care not one whit about the people they are SUPPOSED to represent. No, we can absolutly forget about any support from the GOP on the issue of health care for all Americans. There is one thing that you can count on for certain, if McConnell, Boehner, or Cantor is saying something about health care, you can be absolutely certain that the opposite is the truth. These three would like just for the hell of it.

Cost Effective Option

Single Payer Universal Health Care has been proven to be cost effective and in point of fact, far more cost effective and efficient than our current for profit health care system. The existing system is badly broken, is killing our citizens and is costing us double digits overhead on every dollar spent on health services. Take the legislation from Conyers or Sanders, both in the House and the Senate, are two bills that would improve our health care access, increase the effacy of our health care outcomes and significantly increase or national health profile. AND it would do all this at a much lower cost than we are paying now.

Don’t let anyone fool you, WE pay all of the cost for health care in this nation today. The best medical plans in the counry are still coming out of our pockets. Higher cost for products and services, lower incomes for the workers. Those costs are simply not as evident. Why would we not want to see a more robust health care availability, bette health care outcomes and all at a lower overall cost. Why, with SPUHC fully functional in this country, our people COULD recieve a considerable increase in their net take home pay. It would come, or should come, from the savings that their employers would see from being unburdened from the financial load of group health care premiums.

France has far better health care for it’s citizens than the United States, yet their national average cost is far less than half what the we spend. They even have physicians who make house calls! The French Citizen lives a longer healthier life and is freed from the horrible anxiety that most Americans live with every day, that of losing their health care access and having a sick child.

Actuarial projections show a savings in health care access across the board of 300 billion dollars a year. So can someone tell this old crazy coot why these dimwits in Congress are talking about over a trillion dollars in costs? Makes no sense to me. Wonder if they have even read the HR676 legislation? It is not that darn difficult, it is short and to the point, no bazillion words and pages that only a lawyer could understand. Heck I read it and understood it, why can’t they? Oh wait, they probaby can, and they see millions of dollars in lobby campaign funds going bye bye. Skanky slugs.
More thant 18000 people dies from a lack of health care access in this country every single year. Yet we have had the Congress, both houses, working on complex, convoluted legislation that in the end, will do absolutely nothing to Reforme health care delivery. Hell it won’t even reform health care insurance operations. Yet they have been “working hard” to get these health care bills ready for a vote and for Obama to sign their final bill into law. And we will get screwed once again.

Any reason you can think of as to why the American people simply have a very very low opinion of the Congress? In fact, i ALL politicians?

http://maturecommunications.com/AdvocacyDocumentation/nhi_bill_final-HR676.pdf________________________________________

Once again, dear friends, we find that our interests as citizens of the United States of America is being subverted by our political “representatives” that WE elect and send to Washington.

As full disclosure, let me start off by saying that I am really angry, actually pissed off is a better word at our Congress, our President, and our entire process of governance. Some of this is very personal anger and some is simply an old man getting tired of seeing the same old crooked sleazebags continuing to rape and pillage this nation when they are supposed to be “doing the people’s bidding”.

As my disclosure, I should tell you that on May 9th of this year, my son, Mike, at 44 years of age and in excellent physical condition, died because of a lousy mis-diagnosis in an emergency room in one of our “excellent” medical facilities. He was diagnosed originally with a “raging sinus infection” on Friday morning after 5 hours in the ER and the sent home. My daughter, who had taken him to the hospital at 4:30am that morning stated that my son was crying from the pain in his head.

My son NEVER cried!

After bringing her brother home to the apartment they were sharing, my daughter called my other son’s wife and asked her to come and sit with Mike while she filled the prescriptions provided by the ER doctor. This was around 10am. At one oclock in the afternoon, they were taking Mike BACK to the ER in an EMT Ambulance because he was totally non-responsive.

When they admitted my son to the ER for the SECOND time that day, he had to be heavily sedated because he was thrashing around on the gurney. A second ER doctor took over Mike’s case at that point and began to suspect that he was suffering from MENINGITIS!!! They wanted to do a spinal tap to confirm but he had become unstable. They placed my son on a helicopter for a lifeflight trip to the major trauma center in this area for advanced treatment capability. He arrived there at around 3:00pm that Friday Afternoon. At 10 pm that evening, the neurosurgeon came to tell us that Mike’s brain had swollen pushing his brain stem into his neck. He was “CLINICALLY BRAIN DEAD” and our family had sufferred the loss of our son, brother, uncle and friend to hundreds of people across the country. At eight oclock the following evening, we asked that the machines be removed and we let Mike’s body shut down completely.

It is my confirmed opinion, opinion only folks, I am not a medical person, but I beleive, that my son died due to the fouled up medical system we have in this country. Because we have a for profit bent to our enire medical system, things like my son’s death happen every single day. Had we had a more comprehensive medical system in place, such as the majority of the countries in the world, there is a high likelihood that my son would still be here with us, his wide smile lightening the room as he entered.

The current state of Emergency Rooms has deterioriated to the point where they are part ER, and part Urgent Care CLINICS. That is not their function! They are supposed to be 100 percent, focused on emergency care of patients who come there in a critical state and require immediate and FOCUSED attention. This ER doctor totally missed a major symptom of Meningitis, my son had informed him that he could not bend his neck down toward his chest. This was a classic sign of meningitis. This happened at 5:00am the morning that my son Died that evening. Could Mike have been saved at that point? A bit late to say, since he is DEAD. But everyone we speak with in the field said that Meningitis was corrective if it is caught in time. Perhaps that five hours in the ER could have been better spent treating my son for a suspected case of meningitis instead of brushing off his cry for help as simply a sinus infection because there were too many patients most of whom were there because they had no other recourse. They had no medical insurance and therefore their only recourse was the Emergency Room. My son was mis-diagnosed, EVEN after the doctor asked him a pertinent Meningitis diagnosis question (Can you move your head up and down and my son answered no!). Had this doctor been able to pay proper attention, he would have probably picked up on the fact that my son was suffering from more than a “sinus infection” and Mike, my beloved son would be with us today, his grin still infectiously bringing smiles to all around him.

This is why I am really angry, not upset, damn angry. Angry at our Senators, angry at our House Members and certainly damned angry at our President. Why? Because they are knuckling under to the special interests, the insurance companies, the HMO’s, the Pharmaceuticals and the lobby industry in general. They are allowing these special interests to divert their attention from the very reasont that they exist,, to serve the needs of the American People.

The overwhelming majority of people in the United States have indicated that they would like to have fully access to health care, through a government sponsored national health care plan. Not a pool of private sector plans, not additional insurance billions in profits, and certainly not to have some clerk in an office up in Omaha or some similar location deny your claim for health care payment. The idea fo a single payer universal health care program is simple, straightforward and would save the country billions through a better program of health care outcomes. Actuarial professionals have shown where the SP-UHC envisioned in the HR-676 bill would save the country over 300 billion dollars in health care costs beginning in the very first 18 months of its existance.

Yet we hear on the television, on the radio and in print ads how a government bureaucrat will restrict your access and deny your medical claims. Bull pucky simply not true, and besides who the hell do they think denies all the medical claims each day currently>? Private Sector Bureaucrats, that’s who. This wonderful private sector medical system that the right wing and the lobbists have convinced our legislators is so wonderful is directly responsible for thousands of deaths each year through DENIAL OF SERVICE or through CANCELLATION OF COVERAGE with no warnings.

We have more than 18,000 people each year who die simply because they cannot have decent access to health care. That is more than 50 people EACH AND EVERY DAY. And, as I have heard over and over again from right wing pundits and political prostitutes, this is supposed to be the greatest health care system in the world? Bull! We are 37th in the list folks. We are only ahead of a couple of third world countries for crying out loud.

It is time to quit screwing around folks. It is time that we all got off our colletive asses and let these political hacks in Washington know that we are damn sick and tired of their giving us the shaft in favor of these damn special interests. It is time we let them know in no uncertain terms that we will definately watch their actions in regard to American health crises response and we will VOTE ACCORDINGLY. That they should not get too comfortable in their fat cat chairs on the Hill.

Frankly even after they take this coming vote for health “reform”, we will still be screwed folks. Nothing will change in reality. The insurance companies will get billions more dollars in their pockets and we will wind up losing our sons, daughters, wives, husbands, well you get the message. I was already involved in the health care battles for several years, but now, since the health care system KILLED MY SON, I am more dedicated than ever before.

Even when the Congress and the President put this piece of garbage into law as the “Health Care Reform”, people like me will not stop hammering on their butts. They are going to screw over every man woman and child in this country with the abominations that the current congress is talking up. Hell these bills were written by the lobbyists and their clients, and we the people get the shaft once again. WE need to keep the fight going, month after month, year after year, until a national health care plan is put into law and incorporates the tenets of HR-676 at minimum. No more private for profit greedy bastards involved with health care systems. No more will these greedy slugs have the opportunity of killing more sons and daughters like they killed my son.

HR676, SPUHC, National Health Care Program, what ever. We must keep up the fight until the battle is one. Kick the political hacks out of congress if they can’t support the people who elected them. IF they vote for anything except TRUE HEALTH CARE REFORM, not the Obama plan, not the Democrat Plan, of course the Republicans have no plan, then by all that’s holy, let’s dump them fat fannies out of their cushy congressional pig trough. Find a representative and a senator who will listen to the people and vote for THEIR interests. The damn companies don’t vote, WE do!

The capitol hill cretins need to remember that. WE need to remind them of that on Election Day and through Marches on Capitol Hill. Let them know that Health Care is NOT a consumer product and that we are mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore!!!

Believe this, folks. There are those out there, especially on the right, who are the declared enemy when it comes to our advocacy issue, Single Payer Universal Health Care. In one example, a member had written to the political representatives regarding the aspect of universal health care, and specifically the HR-676 legislation from Conyers and Kucinich of the US House of Representatives. One wrote back and from the member’s comment was full of the proverbial bull feces regarding the aspect of HR-676. In essence this lying congress critter indicated that the costs of HR-676 would be astronomical and would create such a drain on the people in higher taxes, that is would not be feasible.

Strange, in every single industrialized nation, except for two, there is a comprehensive single payer universal health care system in place, and they all cost their governments and the people, less than half what ours costs us. Plus, and this is a real “gotcha” the citizens of these countries actually live longer, healthier lives than we do. Oh yeah, by the way, that other country without a sp-uhc program? South Africa!!!! Don’t that just make your heart swell with pride that the United States and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that still treats its citizens as so much cattle with regard to health care?

We have been working on contacting other organizations with similar beliefs in the idea of Single Payer Universal Health Care and believe that the implementation of HR-676 would be a great start. Among these organizations are the http://www.pnhp.org Physicians for a National Health Program an organization of doctors who strongly support the idea of a SP-UHC program.

There is also the California Nurses Association and their support for this program, their web site is at: http://www.calnurses.org/

These are but two of the health care professional organizations, now couple that with the plethora of other groups and it becomes readily apparrent that this type of legislation is needed now. The new Congresss could do a lot worse than please a huge majority of the people by passing this legislation into law.

But we must be constantly vigilant because there are any number of congressmen, lobbists and the major health care industry players themselves who would not balk at all sorts of dirty tricks to savage the idea of a single payer universal health care program for this country.

Admitedly most of these enemy congresscritters are on the right side of the aisle and the Republican party has never made a secret of their preference for private business over the best interests of their constituents. However, don’t be surprised to find that opposition can come from the most unsuspected places. The beauty of all that, is that these opposition “enemy combatants” are in the extreme minority. They are loud, they are vociferous but they are in the minority. Some 75% of United States Citizens state that the time has come for health care for all, and that health care should come from a single payment source, the public sector. The private sector, in the opinion of these majoity folks, has had it’s chance and they blew it big time, through their greed, their insensitivity and their totally uncaring attitude for their very customers, you and me.

The idea behind the HR-676 is to combine the Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP and VA programs into a comprehensive plan for health care delivery. Click on the HR-676 link to see the actual bill, it’s not that long, just 27 pages. Short by legislation standards.

This new approach will take these programs, expand the coverage and establish a health care plan for every single American and the program will be expanded to cover all medically necessary implements as well.

The Senior Citizens Consortium has been an avid supporter and advocate for the Single Payer Universal Health Care program for virtually all of our existance. We fully and unequivocably support Congressman Kucinich and Congressman Conyers in their efforts to bring the HR-676 legislation to the floor of the house for a vote.

We would, as an organization, encourage everyone to seriously consider joining with us in developing and acting upon a March of Washington for Health Care. It is never too late, and you are never too old or too young to get involved in advocacy issues such as this one.

My challenge to any and all who happen to read this blog post,,, contact your senator and congressional representative. ASK them directly, what their position is relative to the HR-676 legislation and the very idea of Single Payer Universal Health Care for all Americans and legal residents!

You may be pleasantly surprised, or you may be very unpleasantly surprised depending on the idological bent of your representatives.

Also, go to the President’s web site for citizen’s input and give him your opinion on SP-UHC and the HR-676 legislation. The web site is: http://www.change.gov. There is also a new section there called the Presidents Briefing Book. Go to that and leave your recommendation, opinion or comments. Let’s take advantage of the fact that this administration is at least willing to read what we have to say.

In my next blog entry, I will put up a listing of links to papers and other documents that we have accrued regarding this important topic.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich, representing Ohio’s 10th District has been on the forefront of Single Payer Universal Health Care for over 5 years. Here is an article from his on web site speaking to health care. Pay close attention to the myth/fact section, it is very enlightening.

Universal Health Care
“Health care is an essential safeguard of human life and dignity and there is an obligation for society to ensure that every person be able to realize this right.” – Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Chicago Archdiocese

Our health care system is broken, and HR 676, the Conyers-Kucinich bill, is the only comprehensive solution to the problem. It is also the system endorsed by more than 14,000 physicians from Physicians for a National Health Program. Nearly 46 million Americans have no health care and over 40 million more have only minimal coverage. In 2005 some 41% of moderate and middle income Americans went without health care for part of the year. Even more shocking is that 53% of those earning less than $20,000 went without insurance for all of 2005. In fact, the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine estimates that 18,000 Americans die each year because they have no health insurance.

The American health system is quite sick. Pulitzer Prize journalists Donald Barlett and James Steele, in their stunning analysis of the health care industry, Critical Condition (2006 Broadway Books), insist that “… U.S. health care is second-rate at the start of the twenty-first century and destined to get a lot worse and much more expensive.”

Considering the following facts from Tom Daschle’s article for the Center for American Progress: “Paying More but Getting Less: Myths and the Global Case for U.S. Health Reform”:

Americans are The Healthiest People in the World.
FACT: Citizens of 34 nations live longer than Americans.

The U.S. is the Best Place to Get Sick.
FACT: The World Health Organization ranked the U.S. 37th in the world for health system performance. Countries like Australia and the United Kingdom rank above the U.S. Americans have lower odds of surviving colorectal cancer and childhood leukemia than Canadians who do have national health care. Americans also experience greater problems in coordination of care than the previously mentioned countries and New Zealand.

Covering All Americans Will Lead to Rationing.
FACT: Same-day access to primary-care physicians in the U.S. (33%) is far less available than in the United Kingdom (41%), Australia (54%) and New Zealand (60%). Per capita spending for health care averaged $2,696 in countries without waiting lists and $5,267 in the U.S.

Global Competitiveness is Hampered in Comprehensive System.
FACT: “Health care costs are not just a burden and barrier to care for individuals; they are taking a heavy toll on American businesses.” The strain on employers in 2005 was staggering. “The average total premiums for an employer-based family plan was $9,979 in 2005 …” Most of our competitors in the world markets finance their systems outside corporate taxes and employer mandates. Without Medicare for Everyone, the U.S. will continue to hemorrhage jobs.

We Cannot Afford to Cover All Americans.
FACT: We already spend enough to have universal health care. “The truth is, we cannot afford to not reform the health system.” We spend about 50% more than the next most expensive nation and nearly twice per person what the Canadians do. On May 1, 2006 Paul Krugman explained in Death by Insurance how incredibly wasteful the current system is. The doctor he referenced has two full-time staff members for billing, and two secretaries spend half their time collecting insurance information on the 301 different private plans they deal with. This type of waste is easily 20%. Also consider that 98% of Medicare funds are spent on medical care.

IMPORTANT: The hackneyed — and inaccurate — mantra of Republicans when universal health care is introduced is to blame trial lawyers and malpractice cases for our lack of national health care. In fact, 0.46% of our total health spending is spent on awards, legal costs, and underwriting costs — about the same as Canada and the United Kingdom and about the same amount we spend on dog and cat food each year. While “defensive medicine” may drive up the price, it hardly accounts for our stunning health care costs. The belief that citizens should give up their right to fair legal redress for legally proven medical mistakes in exchange for lower health care costs rings as true as the promise that if we must give up our civil rights to be safe from terrorists.

Even those with coverage too often pay exorbitant rates. The current profit-driven system, dominated by private insurance firms and their bureaucracies, has failed.

We must establish streamlined national health insurance, “Enhanced Medicare for Everyone.” It would be publicly financed health care, privately delivered, and will put patients and doctors back in control of the system. Coverage will be more complete than private insurance plans; encourage prevention; and include prescription drugs, dental care, mental health care, and alternative and complementary medicine.

Perhaps the clearest and most eloquent explanation of the Conyers-Kucinich National Health Insurance Bill was given on February 4, 2003, in Washington, D.C. by Dr. Marcia Angell in introducing H. R. 676. Backed by over 14,000 doctors, this is the future of American medicine.

“We are here today to introduce a national health insurance program. Such a program is no longer optional; it’s necessary.

“Americans have the most expensive health care system in the world. We spend about twice as much per person as other developed nations, and that gap is growing. That’s not because we are sicker or more demanding (Canadians, for example, see their doctors more often and spend more time in the hospital). And it’s not because we get better results. By the usual measures of health (life expectancy, infant mortality, immunization rates), we do worse than most other developed countries. Furthermore, we are the only developed nation that does not provide comprehensive health care to all its citizens. Some 42 million Americans are uninsured (nearly 46 million today — updated figure) — disproportionately the sick, the poor, and minorities — and most of the rest of us are underinsured. In sum, our health care system is outrageously expensive, yet inadequate. Why? The only plausible explanation is that there’s something about our system — about the way we finance and deliver health care — that’s enormously inefficient. The failures of the system were partly masked during the economic boom of the 1990’s, but now they stand starkly exposed. There is no question that with the deepening recession and rising unemployment, in the words of John Breaux, ‘The system is collapsing around us.’

“The underlying problem is that we treat health care like a market commodity instead of a social service. Health care is targeted not to medical need, but to the ability to pay. Markets are good for many things, but they are not a good way to distribute health care. To understand what’s happening, let’s look at how the health care market works … ”

“Mainstream” writers like Ph. D. economist and columnist for the New York Times Paul Krugman now agree with those doctors and Dennis that “covering everyone under Medicare would actually be significantly cheaper than our current system.” They all recognize that we already spend enough to provide national health care to all but lack the political courage to make the tough decisions that doctors, nurses and medical professionals must run our health care system, – not “for profit” insurance companies who make money by denying health care.

It is time to recognize that all the civilized countries have a solution that we must adapt to this country. American businesses can no longer be competitive shouldering the entire cost of health care. Health care is a right that all Americans deserve.

With the rising unemployment, company cash flow problems, and the stock market sinking ever lower with each passing day, there has never been a better time for us to begin raising our voices to the incoming government about Single Payer Universal Health Care. Or as Mr Kucinich and Mr. Conyers, sponsors of HR-676 term it, National Health Care Program.

With the new government starting up in a few days, we have a prime opportunity of telling them what we the people want to see in our world. A great hue and cry should emanate from all the people to the halls of Congress and the rooms of the White House. We showed the politicians in November that we were tired of the same old stuff and that we wanted to see CHANGE. Well, the time has come, to put up what was stated all during the interminable campaign.

We have been seeing the effect of the for profit motives within the health care industry. Higher and higher rates for group coverage to our business entities, entire families being thrust into bankruptcy because of a lack of proper health insurance and medical bills that are astronomical and patients having to forego their critical medications because they cannot pay for them.

We, the people of the United States of America are the ones who are paying for the current broken health care system. Every day our money goes to cover health care, either directly thorugh cash payments to doctors, clinics, pharmacies, or through our co-pay amounts and our premiums for group health care insurance. Even the emergency care health access that the uninsured people of this country is actually paid by every single American citizen.

The idea that a Single Payer Universal Health Care program would be too expensive is simply a well worn mantra issued by the health care industry, and repeated by their shills until a portion of the American public actually believes that tripe. The fact is folks the United States health care costs from two to three times what BETTER health care costs in other countries. We pay out almost 7,000 dollars a year for every single person in this country. France on the other hand shells out less than 2200 dollars. Their people live longer, have healthier lives, their medical treatment outcomes are better and their infant mortality rates are far lower. What’s wrong with this picture?

Interest is Growing

Two years ago, when I first got involved in the idea of Single Payer Universal Health Care, it was difficult to find anyone who had even considered it, let alone would support the idea. Now, across the country, interest groups, professional organizations, union assocations, and senior citizens groups are beginning to advocate for a Single Payer Universal Health Care program across the USA. In fact, now, recent statistics show that over half the physicians and health care workers in the USA fully support the idea of this approach to health care access. OVER HALF of the medial professionals are in favor, and many others have simply not been appraised of the benefits to them and their practice.

How’s this for one benefit for doctors and other medical practitioners, a guarantee of claim payment within 30 days. My goodness, from the medical folks I have spoken to over the past 24+ months, if they got their reimbursement within 180 days it would be a miracle. Yet here is a program that guarantees reciept of payment wtihin 30 days. What’s not to like if you are a medical professional?

The Naysayers

There is of course a rather large group of naysayers regarding the idea of Single Payer Universal Health Care. Most of these folks simply repeat what they heard someone else say, the majority who have never performed any research on the subject matter at all. I also refer to these people as the “DENIERS” because they issue such marvelous claims that “you will never see government run health care in our nation”. But they forget that we already have that, with Medicare, Medicaid and the VA health care systems. All are run by the government and franklyl all are working considerably better than the “for profit” side of the equation.

Of course it is quite easy to be a Naysayer or Denier, simply take a stated position and deny it. Remember you really don’t need any facts, just a constant denial or naysaying attitude will suffice.

What these naysayers and deniers don’t think about is the over 42 MILLION Americans who are without access to health care. Within that group are more than 8.5 million Children!!! 8 out of 10 in that group are gainfully employed and go to work every day. But their health care consists of putting off a problem until it is critical and then using the hospital emergency room, because in most of these facilities they know that they will recieve treatment.

Entire families live on the brink of an abyss with regard to health care, millions of your neighbors are praying every day that they can stay well just one more day. Any illness or injury will bring them to financial crisis immediately because the have no recourse.

These are our fellow Americans folks and the current thrust is to implement MANDATORY insurance coverage. Yep, that will work, you bet, that’s the ticket… FOR THE INSURANCE COMPANIES. Not for the working poor citizens who make JUST enough to be excluded from any government supports under these plans.

But the insurance companies, the administrative HMOs well they are really for this approach, because by golly their risky participants will be paid for by the government and the last big risk will be removed from their bottom lines. But the Naysayers and the Deniers will accept this plan, because the GOVERNMENT is not running the program!!

Let our new President Know

Our incoming president, Barack Obama has created a web site that solicits your suggestions and comments. There is a lot of focus on health care issues with his administration and his transition team. The site is at a URL named Change.gov and there is a facility for you to submit your idea for the new administration and our incoming government. Go out to his web site and let him know how you feel about the issues that matter most to you. While you are there, please also give him your input on the health care crisis in our nation today. Also suggest that he might take a look at the HR-676 legislation while the government is still brand new and his party has a majority.

More Organizations are getting involved

As I peruse the various discussion forums, organization and association web sites, I find that more and more each day, interest in the idea of Single Payer Universal Health Care continues to grow. We see physicians groups, nursing and clinician associations, medical technicians union associations, senior citizens groups, and state governments are all starting to get behind this idea of a national health care program.

They are starting to discuss the possibility of moving toward this type of health care access program. Perhaps it is due to the excitement of the Obama Administration taking control in 2009, or perhaps it is just that so many people have realized that what we currently have is not working at all anymore. I don’t know what the impetus is behind this awakening, but I for one am darn glad.

Small business is starting to get involved, because they are impacted significantly by the rising cost of health insurance for group coverage. These small companies cannot keep pace when the coverage premiums increase by 20 to 40 percent each year. A severe drag on their bottom line and many of the small business organizations are begining to join in the cry for total reform of the health care delivery system.

An article in the New York Times a few days ago (December 23, 2008) described a “House Party” at the home of a Vienna, Virginia couple regarding health care. These small gatherings in homes are part of the Obama approach to getting people involved in the decisions of the country. It does appear that they are serious. The link to the NYT article is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/health/23health.html?_r=2

Bear in mind this gathering did not discuss the aspect of Single Payer Universal Health Care, but there was some talk that would indicate a willingness by all gathered to consider positively such a program. There was discussion about the Obama proposal to create a “public health care program” that in essence would compete with the private sector insurace plans. While close, it is still not the cigar as yet.

Demonstrating our Commitment

I have, for the past several months, been engaged in attempting to get some organizations interested in a March on Washington For Health Care. For months on end, it seemed that no one was home to my repeated knocks (emails and postal letters). A good friend suggested that I not be disheartened, that most likely all the groups were more focused on the elections and just didn’t have the time to respond. So, based on that, the ELECTIONS ARE OVER and here comes the lettes and emails again folks.

Hope someone is at the office and has some time to read. The idea is to make our government representatives understand that we are not fooling around anymore. We want them to listen to the people who voted to put them in office, not the health care industry including insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and the like. Oh I realize that for us to start down this road is like David challenging Goliat or the Marshall High School Football Team challenging the Super Bowl Champion NFL Team.

But hey folks, if we don’t try, what does that say about us?

So any of you who may read this blog entry, if you know of an organization that has any advocacy leanings, and you think that they might be interested in hearing about this idea of Marching on Washington, please let me know. I can be reached at executivedirector@seniorcitizensconsortium.org

And I will be very happy to send along any information they might wish about the plans. I am also willing, within reason, to make the journey to speak with them face to face. But remember, every nickle of that travel will come out of my pockets, we have no advocacy funds in the SCC. I don’t mind spending the money to visit, IF there is interest so let us know.

We are also trying to establish a group of interested folks who can help organize, communicate and assist with the planning for this demonstration of our desire for a national health care plan. If you have any interest at all, please feel free to contact me either at the email listed above, or on our member forum.

The Senior Citizens Consortium had adopted the Single Payer Universal Health Care program as one of our advocacy issues As an advocacy issue for our organization of caring seniors, we look forward to finally getting the United States of America on a reasonably even par with the rest of the world regarding access to health care. When we first began to explore the aspect of Single Payer Universal Health Care (SP-UHC) we found very little discussion of this subject in our nation.

However, over the past year or so, we have noticed that our voices are no longer simply a small cry in the wilderness. We see more and more evidence of the American People’s will issuing a demand for Single Payer Universal Health Care. From various state legislation to member directed organizations we hear more ane more people saying that they want to have a nation where EVERYONE is provided with access to health care.

However, there is a real danger that this growing momentum will be drowned out by the people and corporations who are vehemently opposed to any sort of SP-UHC in this country and they are well funded as usual. We must stay active and must let our voices be heard loudly and consistently that this country MUST implement a SP-UHC plan for all of our citizens.

We were sorely disappointed when the presidential candidates presented health care programs that did nothing to ensure access for all people to a health care system that took the insurance companies and hmo organizations out of the mix. None, save the Representative from Ohio, Mr. Dennis Kucinich offered up a plan that would put health care decisions back in the hands of the doctor patient relation and take it out of the hands of some administrative claims manager thousands of miles from the situation. The closest of the top three beauty pageant stars (Clinton, Obama, Edwards) to a similar plan is John Edwards and his plan is a long long way from a SP-UHC. Clinton, Obama and Edwards all three tout a universal health plan but their plans simply put more money into the coffers of the health care INDUSTRY, they do nothing to improve the access for citizens other than make participation mandatory.

Mr. Kucinich, along with Mr. Conyers co authored a bill known as HR 676 which essentially takes the program currently used by us seniors Medicare, and expands the services and extends it to cover ALL Americans. This program would be administered by the Department of Health and Human Services through the auspices of the CMS which currently administers the Medicare program. Under the HR676 or the National Health Care Plan would replace the existing programs for Medicare A, B, C and D along with the State operated Medicaid.

The top countries in the developed world for universal health care are France and Germany. But every single developed country in the entire world, EXCEPT the United States of American has a single payer universal health care plan in place and the medical outcome statistics PROVE that these plans provide citizens with a better, healthier, and longer life. We will have white papers and other fact pages available for review in subsequent postings, both here on the SCC web site and links to other web sites where data will be made available.

I will say a lot more about this program and the aspect of Universal Health Care under a single point of payment in another blog but this particular blog is focused on the aspect of bringing more attention to the idea of SP-UHC. In poitn fo fact, there are several blog entries earlier that address SP-UHC.

After a number of online discussions with various people, and following our question to the AARP about SP-UHC (they are against it), we all came to the conclusion that it was time for the Senior Citizens to once again let the powers that be in Washington know of our displeasure. As you will recall, several years ago, a group of seniors known at the Gray Panthers marched and frankly scared the hell out of the politicians.

Well we say it is time for the old gray hairs among us to get our sneakers laced up, our walking clothes on and once again tell the congress, the administration and these wannabe’s running for office that it is time to stop catering to the big money people and actually listen to the people who VOTE.

We are planning, over the next few months to contact senior organizations across the country to see if they would care to join in our March on Washington for Health Care. We will also reach out to the various organizations that have been active in promoting health care access changes, and the single payer aspects.

So we will be reaching out to solid senior issue organizations such as the Alliance of Retired Americans, to the Gray Panthers, and to other organizations. We would encourage the Divided We Fail and the AARP to join in this advocacy, but they have already made their position clear and have stated clearly that they do not support the idea. However, the Alliance of Retired Americans do support it.

We will also request that reasonable political personages participate, including Messrs Kucinich and Conyers. We will request that other notable persons join in this effort to bring the attention of the entire country and our politicians to this important subject.

More will be posted on this blog, and on the SCC web site. We may, if conditions warrent, put up a special web site for communications in the near future.

Care to join us? We will welcome all serious assistance. Simply contact us either through this facility or send and email to the SCC Executive Director at

executivedirector@maturecommunications.org
or
spuhc@seniorcitizensconsortium.org

and we will respond immediately to your serious inquiries.

Thank you for your consideration,
The March on Washington for Health Care Committee.