Healthcare, OECD, please read and think

Ø The United States is the only country of the 30 members of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) not offering universal health care. OECD is 30 of the wealthiest countries, referred to as “developed countries.”

Ø The World Health Organization ranks the United States 37th in the world for health care just ahead of the small communist country of Cuba which ranks 39th!

Ø The US has the highest per capita spending on health care of OECD. The US has the reputation of providing the best health care a credit card can buy.

Ø Medical debt is the principal cause of bankruptcy in the United States as reported by CBS in June of 2009. The Congressional Budget Office does not include the reduction of the cost of bankruptcy in any of its analysis of health plans.

Ø New Hampshire, your state, has about 200,000 residents, roughly 15% of the population, uninsured or underinsured according to NH Citizen’s Health Initiative,

Ø Again, according to Citizen’s Health Initiative one of the "myths" that is being perpetuated is the "cost" of insuring the 45 million uninsured people. The reality is that these individuals are already in our cost structure. What is lost in these discussions is an understanding of who actually pays for this care; it is each of us who purchase our insurance on the open market. There is a $600 per insured life added on to the cost of private coverage. For a family of 4, that is $2,400 per year, or almost 20% of the average family premium. More often than not these uninsured use the most expensive delivery option in the medical system - the emergency room.

Ø A June 16, 2009 letter from the CBO to you stated, “However, large reductions in spending will not actually be achieved without fundamental changes in the financing and delivery of health care. Those approaches could directly lower federal spending on health care and indirectly lower private spending on it as well.”

Ø According to AAUW without health care reform, insurance companies could continue the discriminatory practice of gender rating, and women could continue to pay monthly premiums ranging from four percent to 48 percent higher than men.

Ø Eighty-three percent of Americans favor “creating a new public health insurance plan that anyone can purchase” according to the June 2009 poll conducted by Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), a conservative business research organization.

Ø In a June 2009 New York Times/CBS poll found that seventy-two percent of Americans favored a public option for health care

After following this issue for the last few months I have concluded that the essential part of achieving the “fundamental changes in the financing…of health care” mentioned by the CBO, is a public option health insurance plan.

A public option would insure that the opportunity for historical, meaningful healthcare reform will finally be achieved, and that all citizens will have access to quality and affordable health care. I am counting on you to support any public option bill that comes before the Senate.


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Please don't confuse american adults with the facts.It doesn't work.

 

I agree, the System is quite messed up, and Realy needs a ton of work. however i think the whole economy structure could use a complete overahaul as well.

However, No I will not support "Any" public option bill that comes into existance.

I urge everyone to Download and Read the Bill, and sit there and understand the wording to it, before ever supporting any of them. This is a requirement that needs to be started by everyone rather then just thinking the "Title" says all it will be.

 

So there's a lot of people who favour universal health care. Nothing new there.

 

The thinking part would be new for some.

 

yeh real hard....

 

I think it's sad that you are (apparently) an older person, and you still define 'thinking' as agreeing with you. People who think differently than you are still thinking. Do you really not realise this?

 

Perhaps Americans would be more open to Health care reform if our politicians could tell us that they actually read the bill.

The Health care bill was crafted by Nanci Pelosi, Henry Waxman and David Bonner, the most left wing members of Congress. I fear income redistribituion by another name. Bring some moderates on board, we have the time to consider such an important issue.

 

The bill may not be much good as written. There seems to have been some compromises that have been much needed tho. For example,the insurance companies won't be able to refuse potential customers for pre-existing conditions and they won't be able to refuse payment for medical services rendered. I haven't read the bill,so I don't know how eficacious it will be. Mr Grape,I don't define thinking as agreeing with me. I was referring to people that are throwing around the Nazi appellation and generally serving as unwitting shills for the insurance companies and Pharma by trying to preclude give and take debate. The poster that started this thread laid it out pretty well and this information has been around for a good while. Those for whom a little research is a bad or inconvienient thing could have gotten their facts straight had they bothered to try. Fuckinay I'm old,but that doesn't mean I'm stuck in my ways. I have been known to engage in some creative hyperbole from time to time tho!! (Did you notice I put spaces after my periods?I'm learnin')

 

Since government has been consistently proven to be far more cost-effective and efficient than the private sector, I support the public option. The private sector has its uses- it's good for starting and supplying wars and stuffing your mailbox with spam and seeing that all get to hear penis drug commercials and fascists like Glenn Beck. Government, on the other hand, provides PBS, moon landings, the Internet, national parks, highways.... there's just no comparison.

This year alone, the number of people who will be diagnosed with cancer- but who have no way to get their treatment paid for- is roughly comparable to the number of people in the crowd at Woodstock. That's just in America, just this year, just cancer alone.

We already have a "death panel." It's more formally called the Republican Party.

 

I wasn't suggesting you were set in your ways, I was saying that I would expect wisdom from someone your age.

So, let's politely debate this question: do insurance companies exist to service the public? If they are public services, not private businesses, then they may as well already be a part of the government. I think it is wrong for a business to use underhanded tactics to attempt to avoid paying for things that they have fairly agreed to pay for. I do not believe that insurance companies should be forced to insure anyone, because they are private businesses which exist to make a profit. When you insure someone, you're gambling that they won't get sick, and you'll take their payments without ever having to pay out. This is how the industry works. How can they hope to make a profit if they're forced to insure people when they already know they'll have to pay out thousands and thousands of dollars?

Look at it this way: the industry is either government-run, or it's not. You can't have it both ways. An insurance company may be forced to insure everyone the government wishes it to, but what if its owners decide to shut it down? Then it insures no one. At present, this is still an option. But if we follow the rhetoric used to justify the first provision (preventing them from rejecting people based on pre-existing conditions, etc.), why would it not be equally in the public interest to force them to stay in business? You can see how quickly insurance would companies become a branch of government.

And for the record, I think the people running these companies are probably total scum, for the most part. However, I still stand by my principles.

 

Well,that's where we differ then. I believe healthcare should be non profit. Proper healthcare is life it's self and should be delivered to all. Insurance companies should go the way of 8 track tapes and model T's. Wisdom is as wisdom does. I never claimed to be full of it or even smart. I have an opinion on healthcare that I have held for many years and you won't change it. I don't care to change your opinion -- because I don't have a burning desire to be right or to convince anyone of any thing.Try Weldon Potter on for size.

 

Wiki


Health care spending in the United States is concentrated. An analysis of the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey found that the 1% of the population with the highest spending accounted for 27% of aggregate health care spending. The highest-spending 5% of the population accounted for more than half of all spending. These patterns were stable through the 1970s and 1980s, and some data suggest that they may have been typical of the mid-to-early 20th century as well.[30][31] One study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) found significant persistence in the level of health care spending from year to year. Of the 1% of the population with the highest health care spending in 2002, 24.3% maintained their ranking in the top 1% in 2003. Of the 5% with the highest spending in 2002, 34% maintained that ranking in 2003. Individuals over age 45 were disproportionately represented among those who were in the top decile of spending for both years.[32]

I have paid health insurance premiums for over 30 years with zero claims, it's getting old.

 

I'm sure as hell glad I have insurance and medicare. I have have come close to death in the past 4 years and only missed it by inches.I feel for those that can't afford it.

 

Perhaps,......... If the Gov could control cost and adjust to change in a competive business environment....... Say by downsizing the USPS it might inspire the confidence to accept Guvvie Health Care.

Examination of the California Goverment financial crisis by the Media, the blogs is off the radar. Pundits today do not want to face uncomfortable financial situations in state goverments..... Far easier to bash Bernie Made-Off; Ken Lay; Scrunchy, Mike Milken and other criminal capitalists.

I am reading about New York Off Track Betting Corporation, yeah those folks who sponsor sleazy betting parlors in downtown locations. They are loosing millions of dollars and taxpayers are subsidizing the operations of a gambling house that was supposed to funnel profits for schools and education.

Seems if you complain about the public fisc you are labeled a... whaterver

Goverment needs more examination than it does cheerleading.

 

I just found out my Senators wife sits on three healthcare corporations board of directors. She had income of over $2 million last year. I always thought she was a homemaker WTF! Guess who's interests this guy will vote for?

 

Yup.There ya go.Thats one reason why so many millions don't have health insurance and why an equitable gov-run insurance program won't happen. Wonder how many more have similiar positions.