December 7, 1964 from a newspaper in the national archives
Says Medicare Bill Will Be Passed
Newark – Speaking at a meeting of the New Jersey Association of Health Underwriters at the Military Park Hotel here Friday, Joseph J. Sear, president and chairman of the board of the Progressive Life Insurance Company of Red Bank, said the outcome of the recent election makes it virtually certain that the 89th Congress, meeting in January, will pass a Medicare bill, and that it will be signed by the President.
“We, in the accident and health insurance business,” he said, “should have no fears that the passage of such a bill will hurt our business unless it becomes the opening wedge for a socialized medicine program such as in Great Britain, which includes everyone from cradle to the grave. The bill before Congress is generally restricted to providing medical aid for persons 65 years of age and older under the Social Security Program, and we are still insuring primarily persons below the age of 65.
“Since I last spoke to you 13 years ago, (note: 1951) the people cared for by hospital expense policies increased from $85 million to $145 million and the people cared for by medical expense policies increased from $28 million to $102 million, and the trend is still upward.”
Forty Six Years Later
March 23, 2010. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), aka Dole/Nixon/RomneyObamaCare, signed into law by “Democratic” President. 2009 Bill passed by Senate still lacks universal coverage and the option of purchasing government insurance, but contains universally loathed tax mandate and excise tax pushed by “Democratic” Senator from Massachusetts and WH “Economist” consultant from MIT. Bill not designed to add more Medicaid coverage until 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P…
September 17, 2010. Number of uninsured Americans now rises to 50.7 million, or 1 out of 6, or 16%. Workers now paying 47% more for family health insurance coverage than in 2005, while employers pay 20% more.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/n…
January 3, 2011 New Republican Majority leader Eric Cantor introduces bill to rules committee called “Repealing the Job Killing Health Care Law Act” “Effective as of the enactment of Public Law 111- 148, such act is repealed, and the provisions of law amended or repealed by such Act are restored or revived as if such act had not been enacted.”
pdf download text here: http://rules-republicans.house…
January 4, 2011 from Kaiser Health News-
House Republicans have scheduled a Jan. 12 vote to repeal the health care law. While the measure is expected to pass the House, Democrats in the Senate have pledged to stop the bill.
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.or…
January 5, 2011 Shuffle the Deck Chairs on the Titanic
The Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, created just after the law passed, is about to be folded into the federal Medicare agency, signaling a major organizational shift just months after the office was created, administration officials said.In addition, Michael Hash, who has been serving as a top White House health adviser, has taken the reins of the Office of Health Reform at the Department of Health and Human Services. Hash succeeds Jeanne Lambrew, who has been director of the office since May 2009 and has played a central role on the health law. Lambrew, a former aide to President Bill Clinton, will stay on at HHS as an adviser to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
The insurance oversight office was headed by Jay Angoff, who battled with insurance companies both as a Missouri official and a class-action litigator. He’ll become a senior adviser to Sebelius.
The office will become part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and will be managed by Marilyn Tavenner, deputy administrator of CMS.
January 5, 2011. Blue Shield of CA seeks rate increases of up to 59% for customers by March 1st. They blame costs of hospitals
http://www.latimes.com/health/…
Hospitals treat the un insured when their health descends into the most expensive crisis mode, and pass the markup, make it up prices along to the insured, while charging the uninsured the highest rates, so they can still have their debts “sold.”
And nothing has changed the basic dynamic of leaving a portion of the population uncovered to act as a price lever on the rest.
Nothing.
A million and a half people filed for bankruptcy last year. The leading cause is uncontrolled medical debt.
Blue Shield spent $16 million on federal lobbyists in 2010. The top recipient was “Democrat” There Will Be No Public Option Blanche, the former Sen. Lincoln of Arkansas. Eric Cantor got $22,500.
http://www.opensecrets.org/org…
They have a PAC, too, for their executives to use.
http://www.campaignmoney.com/p…
There’s more – each of those executives will be making other, individual donations.
But in CA, the real action is at the state level. How they loved Schwarzenegger, the ex governator. And the Republicans. And the Democrats. Last year’s money bomb:
http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/Ca…
http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/Ca…
most complete list of donations in 2009 – 2010 election cycle:
http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/Ca…
Poor Jerry Brown only got $2,500 out of all of that ?