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Holt Baker: We’re Sick of Insurance Company Abuses |
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The new AFL-CIO leadership team’s cross-country effort to lay out a progressive vision continues in multiple states today. In Philadelphia, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker led a rally of hundreds outside the headquarters of CIGNA, a major insurer, demanding health insurance reform that puts people first, not insurance company profits. (AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is in New York, calling for tough new regulations on the financial industry.)
The rally in Philadelphia is part of a National Day of Action on health care, as well as a national push by the AFL-CIO’s newly elected officers to mobilize for an economy that works for everyone.
Holt Baker led a march from City Hall to CIGNA headquarters, saying the time had come to declare independence from the insurance giants who dominate the nation’s health care system.
Said Holt Baker:
We’re sick of insurance companies telling doctors what they can and can’t do. That has to stop. We’re sick of our family members and neighbors getting denied coverage because they once got sick. That has to stop. We’re sick of insurance company policies that reward denying claims. That has to stop. And we’re sick of their using our premium money to work against the health care reform we need.
America is in a big fight over health care. The American people are on one side. Big Insurance is on the other side. Only one of us will win.
Holt Baker introduced several doctors and patients who explained how the broken health care system has affected them. To build an economy that works in the long term, Holt Baker said, we need a health care system that can provide affordable, high-quality care to everyone—not one in which insurance companies call the shots.
Click here to join the campaign to fight the insurance industry and support health care for all.
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WHAT’S HAPPENED TO SUPPORTING THE PUBLIC OPTION? JUST 1 MONTH AFTER THE TRUMKA SPEECH TO GET TOUGH W/ DEMS WHO DON’T SUPPORT A PUBLIC OPTION, YOU ARE MOBILIZING ONLINE FOR INSURANCE REGULATION REFORM W/O A PUBLIC OPTION. DIDN’T TAKE LONG FOR THE LIES AND BETRAYALS TO START.
Attacking insurance industry greed and supporting public option are not mutually exclusive.
I’ve been an RN for almost 30 years. When I first became a nurse it was pretty simple: the doctor chose the tests, gave you a diagnosis and recommended the treatment he/she felt would fix your problem(s). 93% of Americans had health insurance. Life was good and the economy was booming.
Then came the 1990’s. The Greed Years. After Hillary Clinton’s attempt to drive meaningful healthcare reform forward the insurance industry swore they didn’t need government interference: they could and would police themselves and cut costs. Meanwhile, the mantra of the day concerning profits was ‘all that the traffic will bear’. There was no end to the corporate greed. And it just got worse, year by year until we had Enrons, Sachs-Goldman and this year the incalculable greed where ONE insurance/banking company paid out and obscene 16 BILLION in ‘incentives’ to execs.
But back to reform insurance companies did cut costs responsibly. At least in the beginning, they did. They cut unnecessary tests, reigned in some of the abuses and made sure their profits did not interfere in the cost of healthcare. Slowly at first, then gradually gaining speed like a snowball down a steep incline they began changing the face of American healthcare. Doctors in 1993 had to play Mother-may-I with at first experimental treatments. By 2003 what doctors were able to do bore NO resemblance to 1989.
Today doctors have virtually NO independent say-so over your healthcare in most circumstances. Each insurer has a slate of plans tht may -or may not- allow a doctor to treat you according to what the physician believes is in your best interest. Specialists with 20 or 30 years training and experience must beg permission - not of other expert review boards- but of some high school grad with a company manual.
Sadly, those who have health insurance today haven’t a clue as to the dangers they face. Many feel ‘Hey, I got insurance, I don’t see a problem.’ Well, dont look now but images in the mirror are closer than you think.
Take me. I used to have 100% insurance in 1989, fully paid for by my employer. Even last year I still had a pretty comprehensive plan. Today my insurance is meager, indeed. I must pay the 1st 1,000 before I get ANY coverage. Then I pay the 1st 20%of all visits or hospital stays. I must also pay ALL amounts the insurance company refuses (as not ‘reasonable or customary’ - a catch phrase used to stick huge costs to the patients), must pay $200 for the ED, $75 for UC and $50 per doctor visit. My ‘plan’does NOT cover ANY imaging - no MRI, no CAT, SPECT or PET scans - just plain Xrays. Wait though, it also does NOT cover ANY therapy. Drugs? Um, as long as they’re generic. NO name brand drugs, even if there isn’t a generic substitute.
The upshot is even a minor car accident with a 3 day hospital stay and a broken arm or a leg could run me a whopping $15,000.00.[I should mention this is the company's HIGH plan. The other plan is a 50/50 plan with a 5,000.00 deductible. Oops, should mention the cost: 1/6 of my gross salary each pay.]
I’ve seen doctors so frustrated they have simply QUIT. They’re forced into huge hospital based practices where they are told how many patients they must see (Kaiser & Cleveland Clinic doctors might be schedule a patient every 10 minutes on a busy day!).
If a doctor signs up with ONE hospital chain they can’t practice at the other. So, if your hospital doesn’t do well in, say, orthopedics and hospital B does, you’re screwed. Further patients are stuck with the hospitals and doctors in their [current] plan: when the company changes plans each year you may or may not get to keep your doc.
Doctors must be in by 7:30am and are lucky to get out by 6pm. They must spend a huge amount of time filling in forms (which Obama is absolutely right: computerized charting would solve many problems) and after all that, find themselves (as is the patient) for such idiocy as a typo in a diagnosis or choosing a ‘wrong’ diagnosis code (Example: Put in ‘Carotid Ultrasound’ and the insurer will probably veto the test; ‘Ultrasound of the carotids’ would be accepted. )
Maybe the patient doesn’t have ALL the underlying disease processes. ( Oh, you want to do a cardiac cath on a woman with vague back pains and mild chest pressure? Sorry. She has to go into a major heart attack before she can have her life-saving catheterization. Why? Because she doesn’t have a ‘history’ of cardiac disease. Yet every cardiologist knows women have much different signs than men. I know. In 1997 I needed a cardiac cath for those exact symptoms and was diagnosed with a rare heart disorder. I was prescribed medication and am fine. Today? Well, it wouldn’t matter because my ‘plan’ doesn’t cover cardiac caths, so I would be S.O.L.
Thanks to the loss of the healthcare we had 20 years ago when we were 7th in the world, the US has fallen to 29th/30th in quality of care. We are actually BEHIND countries like Poland, Hungary and Slovenia! We are the ONLY modern industrial nation to lack cradle-to-grave healthcare for every citizen.
By 2019 -just 10 years from now- 53% of Americans will NOT have ANY healthcare. America will - literally - go bankrupt because of health related costs. But, hey, the news isn’t all bad. If healthcare insurance execs continue their meteoric rise in salaries and compensation they will be earning a whopping 27 million per year each (CEOs, COOs, CFOs etc). That goes for hospital execs too. [The CEO of the Cleveland Clinic takes home 26 million NOW- what will he get in 10 years?].
One of the amendments proposed is by Ron Loyden (D-OR) who’s proposing the Free Choice Amendment. This would ensure if you don’t like your plan, if they screw you, try to make you leave your doc, refuse care - or for no reason at all - you could opt out and select another plan or the Public Option. I can’t figure out why the AFL-CIO is opposing this amendment. Maybe they don’t understand it? At any rate, it’s a good one.
So, for anyone reading this, take it from an industry insider. You had better get off your butts and start fighting for your healthcare rights. The Constitution guarantees Life, Liberty & Pursuit of Happiness. None of those happen without comprehensive, affordable healthcare.
If electing Democratic “labels” was what the voters needed to do, then we did it. One elected politician can’t pass a law. One elected politician can’t even get a bill out of committee! The voters are much more interested in candidates that sign issue specific platforms. Perhaps we should remind our favorite candidates of our lack of enthusiasm for any candidates that can’t find a any other candidates that agrees (specifically) with them - on even a single (specific) issue!
RELATED SEE: What is a political party? http://bit.ly/117M0o
“Holt Baker: We’re Sick of Insurance Company Abuses”
If you’re really “Sick of Insurance Company Abuses” then the anser is simple….eliminate the cause of the abuses. Completely get rid of the corporate parasites by rejecting entirely Obama’s “health care reforms” and actively and publicly support “single-payer” Medicare-for-all.
The people of this country desperately need single-payer “Medicare for All” — as endorsed unanimously by the highest body of the AFL-CIO, the recent convention in Pittsburgh — and demand defeat of corporatist Obama’s “health care reform”.
Why does Mr. Trumka and the new AFL-CIO leadership ignore and fail to actively support “single-payer”? The evidence is overwhelming: some 70 percent of the people favor “single payer”, hundreds of union locals passed resolutions in favor of single-payer, etc.
The “health care reform of Obama” will only further enrich the corporate parasites with 50 milliion new victims who will be forced to sign up with these crooks or pay a $1,000 fine. Under Obama’s reform, millions will not be covered, including everyone who is not a citizen.
Obama’s plan is an abomination. A further illustration of Obama’s and the Democratic Party’s complete subservience to corporate greed. The continuation of war in Afghanistan (war produces more profits), the “cap and trade” scam (that allows profitable polluters to stay in business continues the crisis of Global Warming), the vast corrupt “bale out” of the very ganster capitalists (who sparked the collapse of the economy), the billions to the auto industry (that has decimated auto workers). and now this phony “health care reform”.
FYI some more information:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/sep2009/heal-s19.shtml
Obama accelerates push for cost-cutting health care plan
By Kate Randall
19 September 2009
President Barack Obama spoke Thursday at the University of Maryland to continue his public relations drive for a cost-cutting overhaul of the health care system. Addressing students at the College Park, Maryland campus he claimed that his proposals would provide affordable health care for more young adults and lower medical-related debt for the student population—all this without adding “one dime to the deficit.”
….
An examination of some of the features of the Baucus proposal reveals that Obama’s claims in relation to improved health care provision for young adults are without merit, and that health care legislation taking shape in Congress will result in increased costs and reduced care for the majority of the general population.
…
Democrats and Republicans are in agreement on the main components of any health care bill that stands a chance of emerging from Congress. Such legislation must be “deficit neutral,” include drastic cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, protect the profits of the insurance and pharmaceutical companies, and establish a system where the vast majority of the population is relegated to cut-rate, inferior medical care.
is the debate health care reform or health insurance reform? If such a big concern, the AFL-CIO would have endorsed HR 676 years ago, and made a campaign of pushing for single payer instead of whatever HCAN is looking for.
TrueDemocrat on 23.09.2009 at 12:43 ,
So you think the whole problem is who is lining up for Obama (public option) and who is lining up for real health care reform (single payer)?
I know many public option people that admit single payer is the better choice, but are tied to supporting Obama’s choice.
I suggest the AFL-CIO leadership move immediately to act upon the unanimous vote! Support, with all resources, a national universal health care program.
Single Payer…..everybody in nobody out.
I believe the President made a tactical error by not sticking with and demanding Medicare For All from the beginning. He came across as too nice and too willing to compromise with the do-nothing Republicans. If he would have hammered home the Medicare for All, the Democrats would have fallen in line or risked looking like the Republican obstructionists. Be that as it may but we are where we are and hopefully The Public Option is still a good possibility along with the other reforms.
After the bill passes and rest assured it will, the other great win for us is that this entire process will leave no doubt that the Republicans are more interested in protecting the corporate interests instead of supporting legislation that protects the people.
The Republican Party is well on its way to becoming representative of 20-25% if the country. We should continue giving them all the rope they need to continue hanging themselves.