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Dingell Explains Decades-Long Quest for Health Reform, and Other News |
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Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) has been fighting for health care reform for more than 50 years, and he’s seen the situation become even more dire over the past decade. In a great new op-ed, he explains the hard truths of our broken system and why we can’t wait any longer for health care reform:
This is not a time to give into fear….Reform is neither easy nor cheap, but the cost of inaction is far greater—in terms of lives lost, quality of life, and dollars. Make no mistake, if we don’t reduce costs we face certain economic disaster.
I will tell my fellow members, when you explain a vote like this one to the generations that live with the consequences of these decisions there is no poll, not even an election result, that can justify your decision. You will be asked about this vote until the day you die. Years from now, none of these things we put so much stock in now will matter. All anyone will want to know is: did you do the right thing when history called on you? It is time for health care reform. We can’t afford to wait. We can’t afford to think small. We can’t afford to fail.
Read the whole op-ed. Dingell lays out, in great detail, how the House bill will provide affordable, high-quality health coverage for everyone, end insurance company abuses and put our economy and our country’s families on a more sustainable, healthy path.
Here’s more news from the battle for health care:
- In a series of district-by-district fact sheets, the House Energy and Commerce Committee explains what the health care reform bill would mean for families.
- Open Congress posts two useful summaries of the House bill—a short, detailed overview and a longer section-by-section summary.
- As Matt Yglesias notes, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) has released his principles for health care reform, and they’re more notable for what they don’t do. The Boehner proposal is not intended to cover more people, prevent insurers from denying care or coverage or protect workers who lose their coverage when they lose their job. As our friends at Health Care for America Now point out, the proposal amounts to a win for insurers and a loss for everybody else.
- Igor Volsky has more details on Boehner’s plan here.
- Speaking of Boehner’s health care proposal, last night the Wall Street Journal reported on it—with the headline “GOP Health Bill Gives the Insurers More Leeway.” The story was removed quickly.
- In yet another set of polls, voters in key states—Nebraska and North Carolina—want their senators to support health care reform that includes a public health insurance option.
- Consumers Union is getting behind health care reform with a new ad in Maine.
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If health care is the problem, insurance is not the cause and government is not the answer.
Of those “50 million,” that lack insurance there were 45,000 who died without health care. With health care, 98,000 died FROM health care because of malpractice.
The question is do we want to trust that largest corporation in the world, the U.S. Government.
Do not expect house calls anytime soon.
We have seen how well the government delivers on its promises and its bureaucracies pursue the money without giving us benefits on so many levels. Imagine another organ of the government that only ultimately must listen to the Secretary of the Treasury - another “service” of which is the IRS.
http://theprogressivecapitalist.blogspot.com/2009/10/affordable-health-care-for-america-act.html
That blog of mine above has several .pdf connections (HR. 3962 and two summaries, a few videos, and page references for new taxes and other mandates). If you cannot use the link, google “Progressive Capitalist H.R. 3962.”
If you believe the promises of this bill, you have to deal with the lie that it fosters competition with a government option called the “Public Option” and establishes the government as a monopoly making its own rules.
Don’t worry. You’ll run out of “rich” soon enough. We have at least a$12 trillion economy of which at least $1.8 trillion is spent on health care. If you read the bill, there are plenty of opportunities to soak the middle class, if you do not mind the 1.6 million made jobless.
FYI- Here is an excellent article on health care. Follow the link to read the full article. From WSWS (World Socialist Web Site)
WSWS speaks with physician on state of health care in America
“People’s needs go unmet—it’s just inexcusable”
By Kate Randall
2 November 2009
The World Socialist Web Site spoke recently to a retired primary care physician about the current state of health care in the US, and the Obama administration’s proposals to overhaul the system. He spoke from years of experience of a system where the majority of patients are dominated by the burden of health care costs, and are often unable to obtain needed treatment and services because of this.
He related the frustrations of patients and doctors alike under conditions where the delivery of medical care is subordinated to the insurance companies’ bottom line. From a physician’s point of view, he also commented on what type of changes he would like to see implemented.
…
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/nov2009/doct-n02.shtml
There was a time when those of us in organized labor had the gumption to talk straight. We recognized that nearly every politician was a fair-weather friend of America’s working class. We knew that they would have to be forced to do the right thing.
Today too many people bow and scrape and beg.
Then, too, we are deluged with crap like the stuff posted by JohnLloydScharf. He conveniently ignores the fact that the most popular health insurance plan in the U.S. is Medicare. Medicare, as everyone should know, is government health care. It is publicly funded, privately delivered health care. It has the highest number of enrollees of any insurance plan. While he is correct in saying all the health “reform” bills currently under discussion are pieces of junk, he is way off base when he criticizes publicly financed health insurance (aka, Medicare).
Rather than listen to the likes of Beck, Limbaugh, et al, working class folks should do some independent research. The moneyed interests that oppose publicly financed health insurance have nothing to teach those of us who actually turn the wheels in America. The coiffed and manicured purveyors of right wing extremism produce nothing. They help no one. They serve no purpose. If hate did not exist they would have nothing to sell. They’d be unemployed.
The loony claim that government screws everything up loses its traction when we consider that fire and police departments, the forest service, schools, the Center for Disease Control, our highway system, public ports, and Social Security and Medicare are all government programs. (And yes, we’ve all heard horror stories about Social Security and Medicare. The fact of the matter is that millions of us receive Social Security checks, and have Medicare coverage, and we don’t know what we’d do without both programs.) Some of the malcontents who rail against those government programs are at the same time recipients of the benefits those programs provide. Talk about ill-informed! (By the way, Social Security would be solvent for eons if all income, not just the first $106,000, was subjected to Social Security withholding. And whatever funding problems exist with Medicare are largely due to the fact that private insurers have been allowed to get their talons into the fund.
The solution to this nation’s health care woes is a national, single payer insurance program that covers everyone for everyone at truly affordably costs. When dolts rant against other nations with single payer they are doing nothing more than repeating extremist chatter. Their words are symbolic of a national chauvinism that pretends to have all the answers.
That’s why we are almost continuously involved in wars, and why our health care system is rated 37th in the world. Too many know-it-alls refuse to acknowledge that other nations sometimes have good ideas too.
Some people talk tough. All that tough talk has not stopped corporate America from screwing them left and right. Rather than kicking the dogs that need to be kicked, they listen to hate radio and then go off half-cocked. And here is something else they do: They bow and scrape and beg. In the streets such people are called suckers.
Turn the anti-government record over! We are suppose to be a government of, by, and for the people. Instead, too many people buy into the same right wing rhetoric that has got them living from paycheck to paycheck.
The scales held by Lady Justice are intended to be balanced. Do you trust the same “free market” profiteers that brought about the financial crisis and who continually move U.S. jobs offshore to do the right thing? After nearly four decades of such Reaganomics thinking, it would seem that only those fitted with blinders would still see virtue in those failed policies.
Capitalism is inherently greedy and inefficient. It needs to be regulated and barred from screwing everyday people. “Free market” capitalism is the enemy. Medicare and Social Security are benefits! It is high time for the duped to recognize they’ve been taken to the cleaners by the anti-government crowd.
It is up to us to see to it that our government operates the way it is supposed to, and that everyone has a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In the mean time, listen to music instead of right wing junk uttered by people who have not and will not ever put in an honest day’s labor.
USPS/IRS Health Care
If health care is the problem, insurance is not the cause and government is not the answer.
Of those “50 million,” that lack insurance there were 45,000 who died without health care.
WITH health care, 98,000 died FROM health care because of malpractice.
The question is do we want to trust that largest corporation in the world, the U.S. Government. Do not expect house calls anytime soon.
We have seen how well the government delivers on its promises and its bureaucracies pursue the money without giving us benefits on so many levels.
Imagine another 111 bureacracies that only ultimately must listen to the Secretary of the Treasury - another “service” of which is the IRS.
http://theprogressivecapitalist.blogspot.com/2009/10/affordable-health-care-for-america-act.html
That blog of mine above has several .pdf connections (HR. 3962 and two summaries, a few videos, and page references for new taxes and other mandates).
If you cannot use the link, google “Progressive Capitalist H.R. 3962.”
If you believe the promises of this bill, you have to deal with the lie that it fosters competition with a government option called the “Public Option” and establishes the government as a monopoly making its own rules.
If you read the bill, there are plenty of opportunities to soak the middle class, if you do not mind the 1.6 million made jobless.
REPUBLICAN Affordable Health Care For America Act
MAKING HEALTH Care Affordable For EVERY AmeriCAN
http://thehill.com/images/stories/whitepapers/pdf/ainsfloor_01_xml.pdf
The AFL-CIO at its recent convention joined the CNA and endorsed Universal Single Payer or Medicare for all. It is way past time to get rid of the vulture insurance companies and treat access tp basic health care as a right and not a privilege. Our health care system is broken and we need to change many things. We rank 37th in the world as far as the quality of our health system is concerned. With people losing their homes, jobs and going bankrupt due to medical bills even if they have insurance, change is needed. What are we waiting for? People have died because of lack of health care. We should finance health care in the same way we finance police and fire protection–taxes. Tax reform is needed so that the rich pay their fair share. The vanishing middle class has paid more than their fair share for a long time.
The terrorist at Gitmo get better health care than most Americans do.