Category: Health Care

From HuffPo comes the news that Nancy Pelosi is starting to kick ass.  This is what teh presdient must do.  People need a narrative of good guys v. bad guys.  They see it in books, TV, movies, daily life.

 The real “villains” in the fight for health care reform are insurance companies.

snip

“They are the villains in this. They have been part of the problem in a major way,” Pelosi said of the insurance industry after her weekly press conference. “It’s almost immoral, what they are doing,” she said, referring to industry lobbying against a public insurance plan option. “Of course, they’ve been immoral all along. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening, and the public has to know about it.”

The current system works so well for insurers that they don’t even want subsidies, Pelosi claimed. “They’ve had a good thing going for a long time at the expense of the American people and the health of our country,” she said, adding that it will be tough to keep them from getting their way. “This is the fight of our lives.”

Pelosi referred to the health insurance industry’s campaign against reform — specifically, the public option — as “carpet bombing” and “shock and awe” during the press conference.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

I think the President will build on this.  I hope so.  Obama, Pelosi and Reid (yech) must speak with one voice to win.  

Good and evil, right and wrong.  It’s now up to the President, for Nancy has shown a light on the way to success.  He must courageously take the fight to the immoral insurance companies.  No more everyone at the table.  

Also on Daily Kos.  Presented here without change, although the venue here needs lesss apologetics.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

Watching Baucus try to sell out the President’s plan and all the roadblocks put in the way of what is essentially a half measure, a tepid reform, reminded me of the reality in American politics many wish to deny.

GreenSooner mentioned that he was “actually surprised that real(ish) reform has gotten as far as it has.”  This is because

Our political system has essentially been reengineered to prevent things like actual health care reform.

(Link to comment)  President Obama and progressive Democrats have really worked hard to push some reform in health care against overwhelming odds.  But this fight has once again exposed the reality of Washington.  It’s broken.

More, after the fold.  

Simulposted at Daily Kos

   Simply put, I voted for Obama/Biden, NOT Baucus/Conrad. If these fools want to try to squander away our electoral victories through Bipartisanship with the party of “No/Birthers”, I will not give one more cent to any organization that might fund Baucucrat Senators.

    Tell your Senator:     If there is no public option in health care reform, there is no public option in our Democracy.

    I am NOT holding my breath and hoping this Senate will hold Baucus/Conrad and others accountable. They didn’t do shit when Liberman sided against Obama and with McCain, they won’t do it now.

    In my opinion, the ONLY way to force these Baucucrats accountable, the only way to force Senate Misleadership to do something is to hit em in the one place they care about, their election funds.

    Therefore, I propose that we withhold ANY and ALL financial support from groups that fund incumbent Senators until a bill with a robust public option is on President Obama’s desk.  

Crossposted at Daily Kos

    A group called “Patients First,” a project of the lobbyist-funded Americans for Prosperity, has been going around the country and hosting tea parties in opposition to “government-run health care.”

ThinkProgress.org

    Yesterday, AFP decided to hold a protest in front of the offices of Democratic Rep. Frank Kratovil’s (D-MD1) office. Despite the fact that Rep. Kratovil has yet to take a stance for or against health care reform, the AFP protesters felt it would be appropriate to voice their concerns by hanging him in effigy.

    And I thought calling the Congressman or writing him was the best way to influence his opinion! I didn’t know this was an option.

    It’s not an option, of course, unless you have lost your mind or you are a hate mongering sociopath.

    Now, if I were Rep. Kratovil, I would vote for health care reform just to spite this proto-lynch mob.

    Unfortunately, I am not he, and I don’t know how Congressman Kratovil will respond to this.

    This is not the first time a Democratic Politician has been threatened with hanging by voices empathetic to the GOP. Recently Sam Joe The Plumber the Propaganda machine suggested that someone should String up Senator Chris Dodd.

    And then of course there are the tea baggers, the Obama is a socialists, the Obama is a fascists, the Obama is a Kenyan, and on, and on, and on.

    This is not Democracy of We The People. This is not the rule of law decided by fair elections. This is how to intimidate citizens through threats of violence. This is the rule of mob.

   I do not know if the goal is to threaten Kravotil into opposing Health Care reform or if these tea baggers are just so mindlessly hateful and violent that this is the only way they can express themselves. I honestly do not know what the fuck these clowns are thinking when they do this kind of shit.

   But I do know what the goal is. The goal is to use threats of violence to achieve their political means.

   And that is the definition of terrorism.

   So when is the line in the sand drawn? When do We The People who voted for NotTheGOP put our foot down and say ENOUGH to these Corporatist psychotic brownshirts?

     

Now that we see the shape of the bill that will come out of Sen. Baucus’ (Insurance Lobby, MT) finance committee it is there are some things we need to recognize. First off, just because he and the other lily livered Dems on that committee can’t seem to get a real bill that meets not only the President’s minimum requirements and the countries minimum needs does not mean it is all over. There was always going to be a Conference Committee on this set of reforms. So just because Sen. Baucus (Putz, MT) has drunk the bipartisan Kool Aid does not mean the game is over.

“Originally posted at Squarestate.net“

I keep reading on all the blogs that the debate is about how to get everybody (including those who simply cannot afford it) to buy in to the health insurance scam. But that’s not health care and it’s not health care reform. It’s just a way for insurance companies to make a lot more money denying medical care to people who need it.

So if you’re like me and see clearly that none of this is going to “reform” our health care system or extend health care delivery or fix any of the serious problems we’ve got within the health care system itself, bear with me while I cite some of the details.

Yesterday was the 17th anniversary of my son’s death. It always hits hard, due to the considerable amount of trauma involved in having your son bleed to death while hovering in a Life Flight helicopter refused permission to land for a pre-approved transfer.

It was a situation of such gross medical malpractice involving blatant lies, clear violation of regulatory and criminal law that it took seven years, 6 regulatory and criminal complaints, more than $150,000 we didn’t have, and a whole lot of do-it-yourself investigation and lawyering to get a modicum of justice. 2 of 5 doctors are no longer allowed to practice medicine, an  ex-Medical Examiner has a criminal record for producing a completely fraudulent autopsy report (on an autopsy never performed), and laws governing emergency services and transfers were strengthened considerably. And when I say a “modicum” of justice I mean just that. It cost us money, we didn’t make any. Though several lawyers padded their pockets nicely. See, that’s how insurance scams work. It’s ALWAYS the lawyers who make money.

The Real News Network talks to Executive Editor Glen Ford of the Black Agenda Report.

Ford has a little different take on the situation and analyzing the current political dynamics surrounding the issue says that by excluding a single payer plan, Barack Obama allowed the right to dominate the reform debate, and concludes that the longer the Democrats wait to reform the health care system, the more likely it is that the public is going to turn against the so-called reforms.

   And you wonder why they fear socialism.

    “But Bill, the profit motive is what sustains Capitalism. Yes, and our sex drive is what sustains the human species but we don’t try to fuck everything!”.

~snip~

   “The problem with President Obama’s health care plan is not socialism, it is capitalism.”

~snip~

   “It’s not just medicine, prisons used to be a non profit thing.”

~snip~

   “It is not a coincidence that we outsourced running prisons to private coporations and then the number of prisoners skyrocketed.”

~snip~

   “And my final example of the profit motive screwing something up that used to be good when it was non-profit . . . TV NEWS!

   I heard all the news anchors this week talk about how much better the news coverage was back in Cronkites day, and I thought, ‘Gee, if only you were in a position to do something about it.’ ”

   Class warfare.

   In order to make a super profit we rape the earth and enslave our fellow human beings. Can you think of ANYTHING that is Big Business that doen’t do one or the other?

   We need to PUSH BACK, YELL LOUDER, whatever it takes.

   We need to March on Washington this summer for health care if they are going to vacation while main street burns. We need to march for health care, for war crimes accountability, to audit the Fed, for many reasons.

   The status quo is not just untenable, it is KILLING US.

   We need to march for justice.

   And I will lead the way, if you will follow me.

   So, who’s coming with me?

Lynn Sweet “Surprised” Obama Said Cambridge Cops “Acted Stupidly”

copyright © 2009 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

It was not the first time.  Many individuals fear it will not be the last.  Last evening, during a Presidential press conference, millions witnessed the characteristic wonderment that is Lynn Sweet.  Whilst citizens in this country anxiously awaited more words from the President on what, for most is truly a tangible issue, Health Care coverage, Ms Sweet decided to move the conversation in her own memorable manner.  Provocateur , otherwise known as Chicago Sun Times Columnist Lynn Sweet did as she often does.  She changed the subject.  

Simulposted at Daily Kos

Consider this your health care reform talking point for the rest of the summer.

    This is why this legislation is urgent. This is why it cannot wait!.

If Congress is allowed to go to recess without passing the legislation, that will be at least a 3 month delay, resulting in at least 4,500 more Americans dying than if the bill was passed now. That’s more than the number of people who died in 9/11.

We passed the Patriot Act overnight.

By the same measure of urgency of lives, the current Healthcare Reform Bill has been scrutinized to death. The deaths of those 4,500 Americans to be precise.

democraticunderground.com

     4,500 lives. That’s more than 9/11 or Katrina.

     The article at democraticunderground.com goes on to blame Republicans for playing politics with our lives. I will not blame the Republicans because they are utterly powerless. I am blaming Harry Reid and Congressional Democrats.

One Hundred Twenty Million Americans Will Lose Their Insurance! The words drip from the mouths of the GOP in their opposition to the public option. Of course it’s all bunk, but the details behind the Lewin Group which produced these numbers are worse.

First Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) released a rebuttal of the Lewin Group study, revealing that the Heritage Foundation paid for study and that UnitedHealthCare owns the Lewin Group(PDF).

Then came a doozy from the Washington Post:

[T]he Lewin Group is part of Ingenix, a UnitedHealth subsidiary that was accused by the New York attorney general and the American Medical Association, a physician’s group, of helping insurers shift medical expenses to consumers by distributing skewed data. Ingenix supplied its parent company and other insurers with data that allegedly understated the “usual and customary” doctor fees that insurers use to determine how much they will reimburse consumers for out-of-network care.

In January, UnitedHealth agreed to a $50 million settlement with the New York attorney general and a $350 million settlement with the AMA, covering conduct going back as far as 1994.