Tag: Medicare

Those “death panels” really do exist

MediaMatters — August 20, 2009

To date, the media have debunked the “kill granny” lie more than 40 times. The nonpartisan FactCheck.org says the claim of mandatory counseling on ending seniors’ lives is “a misrepresentation.” ABC’s chief medical editor, Dr. Tim Johnson, said “the idea about death panels” is “not at all legitimate.” PolitiFact.com has called “death panel” claims “a ridiculous falsehood.” When the Associated Press conducted a fact check of the bogus charge, it reported, “No ‘death panel in health care bill.’ “

After former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin claimed that “Obama’s ‘death panel’ ” could decide the fate of her parents or her son who has Down syndrome, conservative radio host Larry Elder aptly called her comments “over the top.” […]

It seems Sarah’s still leading that pied-piper Twitter Parade …

Since the GOP is fond of saying that “the USA has the Best Health Care System in the World”, I decided to do a little Fact Checking. … And according to the World Health Organization:

Health Performance Rank By Country

United States of America:

Performance: On level of health : 72nd

Performance: Overall health system: 37th

Health expenditure per capita in international $’s

Country Rank:  USA: 1st

http://www.photius.com/ranking…

We’re Number One! alright — BUT only in terms of HOW MUCH WE PAY PER PERSON, for our Health Care! (1st in the World, in terms of Cost)

That’s sounds like a contest, that we just don’t want to keep winning!

If you’re lucky enough to still have Insurance —

1 in 7 Americans Don’t have that Luxury, by the way —

Well you might not feel so Lucky, after learning how much more of the Insurance Premium tab, you have been picking up, over the last several years.

Health Insurance is a “Benefit” of Employment — yeah Right!

A Benefit to the Employer, to keep you locked in your lousy Job.

A Benefit to the Insurer, who has a guaranteed source of Income, every time you get a paycheck!

That “Lucky Insurance Policy” has been to costing you more and more, each year, while promising you less and less, in terms of coverage … this squeeze has been happening for years!

Something is seriously wrong with this Nation’s Broken Health Insurance system …

Medical bills prompt more than 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies

By Theresa Tamkins — CNN, June 5, 2009

This year, an estimated 1.5 million Americans will declare bankruptcy. Many people may chalk up that misfortune to overspending or a lavish lifestyle, but a new study suggests that more than 60 percent of people who go bankrupt are actually capsized by medical bills.

Bankruptcies due to medical bills increased by nearly 50 percent in a six-year period, from 46 percent in 2001 to 62 percent in 2007, and most of those who filed for bankruptcy were middle-class, well-educated homeowners, according to a report that will be published in the August issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

1.5 million Americans x 60% = 900,000 Americans

that’s about 2500 more people per day

… going bankrupt from medical bills, which were NOT covered by our broken Health Insurance system

Former CIGNA Exec Wendell Potter, says Michael Moore was right!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

WENDELL POTTER: I thought that he hit the nail on the head with his movie.

But the [Insurance] Industry, from the moment that the Industry learned that Michael Moore was taking on the health care industry, it was really concerned.

BILL MOYERS: What were they afraid of?

WENDELL POTTER: They were afraid that people would believe Michael Moore.

The Speaker of the House, took a break from serious legislation, to spell out their plan for Messaging …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

Nancy Pelosi:

You see CEOs of these Industries making millions of dollars a year — indeed many of them a million dollars a month — for their ‘Leadership’ in withholding benefits, to people in NEED of Health.

let the Drum beating, begin …

as reported on Rachel Maddow’s Thursday show:

Congressman Weiner’s bluff-calling, put-up-or-shut-up amendment to the House health care bill (H.R. 3200):

Really Republicans, don’t like Publicly run Health Care?

Would you care to put your Vote where your rhetoric is,

to eliminate a very successful Public Health Care Program — Medicare?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

So what happened?

Will Medicare be relegated to the “junk heap of history” as another “failed idea” of the Liberal Agenda? … well in a word, HARDLY!

I am posting this article from the New England Journal of Medicine http://content.nejm.org/cgi/co… in full and admitting to all the laws and rules I have broken, so sue me. The article was written by Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY) who was the ranking member of the committee on rules. I am doing this to inform those who need informing, you know who you are – hold up your hands, how K street, lobbyist, and corporate $ have taken our government and are in the process even as we speak of stealing from seniors and the disabled via plan D. I was caught in this and am still hot about it. This article shows the depth of corruption and how legislators operate with impunity, disregard of the law and, without fear of criticism from their ethics committee. We must keep hammering these guys and get more folk involved if we are to counter the big $. Article, written June1, 2006, begins:

“Most Americans agree that affordable drug coverage under Medicare has been needed for some time. But instead of a solution to a growing problem, Congress gave the country a prescription-drug plan that achieves few of its original goals. The current problems with Medicare Part D are largely the direct result of the undemocratic way in which the plan was authored and passed. The final legislation, heavily influenced by drug-company and health insurance lobbyists, focused mainly on the needs of those industries instead of those of the seniors it should serve.  

I don’t know if you’ve been thinking about it, but the costs of long-term care have been on the mind of some friends of mine lately.

For reasons that we won’t go into here, they are in the process of pricing long-term care at care facilities…and yesterday afternoon, we had a chance to have a look at the “menu” of services (the facility’s term) that can be purchased at this particular location.

If you are facing this issue in your own family, if you are a taxpayer thinking about how we plan to fund long-term care in the future…or if, one day, you expect to be old yourself…this conversation will surely matter.