Rep Anthony Weiner blows away Joe Scar borough on health care

[Spytheweb]

Universal single payer is the most cost effective way to go and the insurance companies and the government knows it and won't talk about it. The congressman on the take don't want their kickbacks to dry up from health care industry but it's going to come to light that single payer (HR 676) will change America and cut out insurance companies. Like Rep Weiner says what do the insurance companies bring to the deal for their 30%?

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[ProPokerPlayer]

We have single payer now....Its called medicare and its broke and corruption is rampant....

What does the GOVT do for its share of anything?????? Anthony Weiner is a liar and a cheat....

 

[ProPokerPlayer]

Two firms that received $343.3 million to handle advertising for Barack Obama’s White House run last year have profited from his top priority as president by taking on his push for health-care overhaul.
One is AKPD Message and Media, the Chicago-based firm headed by David Axelrod until he left last Dec. 31 to serve as a senior adviser to the president. Axelrod was Obama’s top campaign strategist and is now helping sell the health-care plan. The other firm is Washington-based GMMB Campaign Group, where partner Jim Margolis was also an Obama strategist.

This year, AKPD and GMMB received $12 million in advertising business from Healthy Economy Now, a coalition that includes the Washington-based Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA, that is seeking to build support for a health-care overhaul, said the coalition’s spokesman, Jeremy Van Ess.
Axelrod was president and sole shareholder of AKPD from 1985 until he sold his interest after Obama’s victory, government records show. The firm owes Axelrod $2 million, which it’s due to pay in installments beginning Dec. 31. Axelrod’s son, Michael, still works there. He didn’t return a phone call. The firm’s Web site continues to feature David Axelrod’s work on the Obama campaign.
…At the White House, Axelrod’s role in the health-care debate ranges from Sunday talk show appearances to meetings with House and Senate lawmakers…
Van Ess said HEN is now dormant. PhRMA and three other members of HEN, plus the Washington-based Federation of American Hospitals, have created another coalition, Americans for Stable Quality Care, which last week announced a new $12 million ad campaign to promote health-care overhaul. GMMB and AKPD are also working on the new coalition’s ads.

 

[nimue77]

If you get your way and we get single payer don't believe for a second your taxes won't go up. It's not for nothing that tax rates in Europe are high as hell - socialism is inefficient.

 

[Spytheweb]

This is not Obama's bill.

July 17th, 2009

By a 25-19 vote, the House Committee on Education and Labor on Friday approved an amendment to the House's health-care reform bill allowing states to create single-payer health care systems if they so choose.

"There are many models of health care reform from which to choose around the world – the vast majority of which perform far better than ours. The one that has been the most tested here and abroad is single-payer," explained Congressman Dennis Kucinich, the Ohio Democrat who proposed the amendment. "Under a single-payer system everyone in the U.S. would get a card that would allow access to any doctor at virtually any hospital.

Doctors and hospitals would continue to be privately run, but the insurance payments would be in the public hands. By getting rid of the for-profit insurance companies, we can save $400 billion per year and provide coverage for all medically necessary services for everyone in the U.S."

Votes for the amendment came from progressive Democrats who favor single-payer -- such as Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairs Lynn Woolsey, of California, and Raul Grijalva, of Arizona -- as well as conservative Republicans who have no taste for single-payer but want states to be able to set their own agendas. Opposition to the amendment came mainly from Democrats such as committee chair George Miller, of California, who have resisted moves to create more flexible, innovation-friendly legislation.

http://www.truthout.org/071909B

 

[Spytheweb]

If you get your way and we get single payer don't believe for a second your taxes won't go up. It's not for nothing that tax rates in Europe are high as hell - socialism is inefficient.

What do you call spending twice as much as everybody else in the world on health care? Inefficient? What we have now is inefficient, but by George, it's making a few people very rich.

High taxes? Just ask people who are paying $1,000.00 or $1,400.00 a month for health insurance with healthy people in their families if they feel like they are being taxed?

Health insurance in America is a scam. This is how it works, you fill out your paper work, they accept you, you start payments maybe $500-$600 a month
deductible $5,000. So if you need care and it costs you 4,000 you pay, like not having any insurance. Anyway 15 years go by now your premiums are $1100 a month, guess what your wife finds out she has breast cancer, good thing you have health insurance. You make a claim and the insurers know what it's going to cost them, maybe at lease 300,000-500,000. Guess what? You are what they call "a medical loss" for them. Remember that paperwork you filled out 15 years ago, they never looked it over because they didn't need to. They wanted your premiums and your premiums are non refundable. Now they have a need, they employ people who's job is to find something in your paper work that they can use for denial. Yeast infection, too fat, too skinny, maybe you took some medicine for a condition you never wrote down even if the condition only lasted a week. Same thing for everyone in your family. They will find something, it does not have to be a good reason, just good enough for them. Once you are denied where do you turn? Their no is no. You have a sick wife and you loss 15 years of premiums, nice plan.

This happens to people every day. 14,000 a day, some of these just lose their jobs, and health care.

 

[nimue77]

I didn't say the current system is good.
What should be encouraged is giving people more direct control of their health care choices...meaning, forget insurance...the insurance the way it is set up only serves to cause higher prices....people don't think twice about what anything they are doing costs because you paid your premiums and after that just go anywhere and get what you want. In no other business do people not look at the price of what they are buying. People should be looking at the price and going where it makes most sense...which will cause hospitals/doctors to compete in both cost and quality. In so much as insurance is desired, it's asinine that current law makes it illegal to purchase insurance from outside your state. And how about making all health care costs tax deductible? Nah, that makes too much sense.

 

[Willie99]

the track record of the federal government being fiscally responsible and reducing costs is not very good, maybe actually batting .000

I think there's a far better likelihood that the Royals will be playing the Nationals in the World Series this October.

Talk about a pipe dream, a suspension of disbelief and a total disconnect from reality, believing such is all of it.

The proof is in the pudding

 

[punter]

the track record of the federal government being fiscally responsible and reducing costs is not very good, maybe actually batting .000

I think there's a far better likelihood that the Royals will be playing the Nationals in the World Series this October.

Talk about a pipe dream, a suspension of disbelief and a total disconnect from reality, believing such is all of it.

The proof is in the pudding

Whats the track record of private insurance companies at reducing anyone's cost but their own?

 

[Dave007inVegas]

So single payer, government run, utopia healthcare is what you wish?

By Darah Hansen, Vancouver Sun August 18, 2009

According to the leaked document, Vancouver Coastal — which oversees the budget for Vancouver General and St. Paul’s hospitals, among other health-care facilities — is looking to close nearly a quarter of its operating rooms starting in September and to cut 6,250 surgeries, including 24 per cent of cases scheduled from September to March and 10 per cent of all medically necessary elective procedures this fiscal year.

BY PATRICIA ANSTETT
FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER

Hospitals in border cities, including Detroit, are forging lucrative arrangements with Canadian health agencies to provide care not widely available across the border.

Michael Vujovich, 61, of Windsor was taken to Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital for an angioplasty procedure after he went to a Windsor hospital in April. Vujovich said the U.S. backup doesn't show a gap in Canada's system, but shows how it works.

"I go to the hospital in Windsor and two hours later, I'm done having angioplasty in Detroit," he said. His $38,000 bill was covered by the Ontario health ministry.

Dany Mercado, a leukemia patient from Kitchener, Ontario, is cancer-free after getting a bone marrow transplant at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit.

Told by Canadian doctors in 2007 he couldn't have the procedure there, Mercado's family and doctor appealed to Ontario health officials, who agreed to let him have the transplant in Detroit in January 2008.

Canada, for example, has waiting times for bariatric procedures to combat obesity that can stretch to more than five years, according to a June report in the Canadian Journal of Surgery.

Richard Poe
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

President Obama has promised huge cuts in medical spending. In fact, he has warned that, if America fails to make such cuts, it will face financial Armageddon.

How will Obama cut costs? His June 13 radio speech gave some hints. Obama said his plan would provide "incentives" to doctors to "avoid unnecessary hospital stays, treatments and tests that drive up costs."

In Europe, governments already ration health care, just as Obama plans to do here. The older and sicker people are, the less care they get.

In England, for example, bureaucrats determine a patient's eligibility for health care using the QALY system (quality-adjusted life years). They divide the cost of treatment by the number of "quality" years the patient is expected to live. Older, sicker patients are expected to live fewer "quality" years, so why bother treating them at all? On this basis, British elders are routinely denied treatment for cancer, heart disease and other deadly illnesses. Each year in the U.K., nearly three times more people die from hospital infections than from traffic accidents.

Government health care supposedly works better in France. But in August 2003, when temperatures in France soared to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, nearly 15,000 elderly people dropped dead – that is, 15,000 more than the average or expected death rate for that time of year.

This is the dirty secret behind the movement for universal health care. Its true purpose is to cut medical care, not increase it.

So be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

 

[kingbill]

Canada has single payer and our top tax rate is less than the US top rate.

 

[punter]

So single payer, government run, utopia healthcare is what you wish?

By Darah Hansen, Vancouver Sun August 18, 2009

According to the leaked document, Vancouver Coastal — which oversees the budget for Vancouver General and St. Paul’s hospitals, among other health-care facilities — is looking to close nearly a quarter of its operating rooms starting in September and to cut 6,250 surgeries, including 24 per cent of cases scheduled from September to March and 10 per cent of all medically necessary elective procedures this fiscal year.

BY PATRICIA ANSTETT
FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER

Hospitals in border cities, including Detroit, are forging lucrative arrangements with Canadian health agencies to provide care not widely available across the border.

Michael Vujovich, 61, of Windsor was taken to Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital for an angioplasty procedure after he went to a Windsor hospital in April. Vujovich said the U.S. backup doesn't show a gap in Canada's system, but shows how it works.

"I go to the hospital in Windsor and two hours later, I'm done having angioplasty in Detroit," he said. His $38,000 bill was covered by the Ontario health ministry.

Dany Mercado, a leukemia patient from Kitchener, Ontario, is cancer-free after getting a bone marrow transplant at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit.

Told by Canadian doctors in 2007 he couldn't have the procedure there, Mercado's family and doctor appealed to Ontario health officials, who agreed to let him have the transplant in Detroit in January 2008.

Canada, for example, has waiting times for bariatric procedures to combat obesity that can stretch to more than five years, according to a June report in the Canadian Journal of Surgery.

Richard Poe
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

President Obama has promised huge cuts in medical spending. In fact, he has warned that, if America fails to make such cuts, it will face financial Armageddon.

How will Obama cut costs? His June 13 radio speech gave some hints. Obama said his plan would provide "incentives" to doctors to "avoid unnecessary hospital stays, treatments and tests that drive up costs."

In Europe, governments already ration health care, just as Obama plans to do here. The older and sicker people are, the less care they get.

In England, for example, bureaucrats determine a patient's eligibility for health care using the QALY system (quality-adjusted life years). They divide the cost of treatment by the number of "quality" years the patient is expected to live. Older, sicker patients are expected to live fewer "quality" years, so why bother treating them at all? On this basis, British elders are routinely denied treatment for cancer, heart disease and other deadly illnesses. Each year in the U.K., nearly three times more people die from hospital infections than from traffic accidents.

Government health care supposedly works better in France. But in August 2003, when temperatures in France soared to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, nearly 15,000 elderly people dropped dead – that is, 15,000 more than the average or expected death rate for that time of year.

This is the dirty secret behind the movement for universal health care. Its true purpose is to cut medical care, not increase it.

So be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

Wonder how many French homes have air conditioning?

Thousands were killed in Iraq during desert storm, Guess that's because of a poor healthcare system.

 

[nimue77]

Good post. Always good to show documented examples.

So single payer, government run, utopia healthcare is what you wish?

By Darah Hansen, Vancouver Sun August 18, 2009

According to the leaked document, Vancouver Coastal — which oversees the budget for Vancouver General and St. Paul’s hospitals, among other health-care facilities — is looking to close nearly a quarter of its operating rooms starting in September and to cut 6,250 surgeries, including 24 per cent of cases scheduled from September to March and 10 per cent of all medically necessary elective procedures this fiscal year.

BY PATRICIA ANSTETT
FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER

Hospitals in border cities, including Detroit, are forging lucrative arrangements with Canadian health agencies to provide care not widely available across the border.

Michael Vujovich, 61, of Windsor was taken to Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital for an angioplasty procedure after he went to a Windsor hospital in April. Vujovich said the U.S. backup doesn't show a gap in Canada's system, but shows how it works.

"I go to the hospital in Windsor and two hours later, I'm done having angioplasty in Detroit," he said. His $38,000 bill was covered by the Ontario health ministry.

Dany Mercado, a leukemia patient from Kitchener, Ontario, is cancer-free after getting a bone marrow transplant at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit.

Told by Canadian doctors in 2007 he couldn't have the procedure there, Mercado's family and doctor appealed to Ontario health officials, who agreed to let him have the transplant in Detroit in January 2008.

Canada, for example, has waiting times for bariatric procedures to combat obesity that can stretch to more than five years, according to a June report in the Canadian Journal of Surgery.

Richard Poe
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

President Obama has promised huge cuts in medical spending. In fact, he has warned that, if America fails to make such cuts, it will face financial Armageddon.

How will Obama cut costs? His June 13 radio speech gave some hints. Obama said his plan would provide "incentives" to doctors to "avoid unnecessary hospital stays, treatments and tests that drive up costs."

In Europe, governments already ration health care, just as Obama plans to do here. The older and sicker people are, the less care they get.

In England, for example, bureaucrats determine a patient's eligibility for health care using the QALY system (quality-adjusted life years). They divide the cost of treatment by the number of "quality" years the patient is expected to live. Older, sicker patients are expected to live fewer "quality" years, so why bother treating them at all? On this basis, British elders are routinely denied treatment for cancer, heart disease and other deadly illnesses. Each year in the U.K., nearly three times more people die from hospital infections than from traffic accidents.

Government health care supposedly works better in France. But in August 2003, when temperatures in France soared to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, nearly 15,000 elderly people dropped dead – that is, 15,000 more than the average or expected death rate for that time of year.

This is the dirty secret behind the movement for universal health care. Its true purpose is to cut medical care, not increase it.

So be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

 

[Dave007inVegas]

Good post. Always good to show documented examples.

It sure beats the hell out of wondering and guessing.
:toast:

 

[Dave007inVegas]

Another POV…..

@ 11:45 am by Jordan Fabian

Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) said on Wednesday that providing healthcare to uninsured Americans is "not what this healthcare reform debate is about."
In making his comments, Ross, who is the centrist Blue Dogs' health reform point man, questioned one of the primary healthcare goals of the White House and Democratic leaders. (BO will be thrilled to hear that).

"That is a side benefit to healthcare reform and an important one," Ross told the Arkansas Educational Television Network. Instead, the fifth-term congressman said the bill should focus on "cost containment."


The Energy and Commerce Committee member reiterated that he wants to pass a health reform bill by the end of this year, a desire that may irk some Republicans who supported his effort to slow the bill before August recess.

"The extreme right had a two-week love affair with me," Ross said. "The extreme right, simply, they do not want healthcare reform. And so, they saw me as killing healthcare reform because I put the brakes on healthcare reform."

The influential fifth-term Democrat identified several provisions that would prevent him from voting for the bill.

On the public option, Ross said he would not vote for a plan that would "force government-run healthcare on anyone. Period." But he also said that the House bill contained a public plan that is "strictly…an option."

Providing government subsides for abortions, coverage for illegal immigrants, rationing of care, and deficit increases comprised Ross' deal-breakers.

"I've got the extreme right and the extreme left angry with me so I must be doing something right," he said.

Ross said the bill should reduce costs by allowing the Medicare to negotiate prices with drug companies and by dropping co-pays for preventitive doctors' visits.

In the end, Ross acknowledged that the House version may not make up the bulk of the final bill. He estimated that 90 percent of the conference committee bill would come from the Senate Finance Committee's version.

 

[kcameron95]

I find it ironic people are saying if government takes over health system the old, sick, and disability will be allowed to die to save costs. What planet are these people living on? If it was purely free market system, no insurance company would take these people. Currently the government takes the old of the hands of the insurance companies so they can insure the more profitable segment of the population. And if it weren't for tax breaks and legitation MANY people would have no option for insurance because of pre-existing conditions.

The guy in the video makes perfect sense. What value do the insurance companies bring? Doctors/Hospitals provide the service and all they do is stand in the way patient and doctor. In addition the government takes the sick off their hands and they are left to insure the most healthy segment and take about 30%. Government can easily do this at MUCH lower costs because they can pool larger segment of the population and they don't need to run profits.

 

[Dave007inVegas]

On the public option, Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) said he would not vote for a plan that would "force government-run healthcare on anyone. Period."

Oh yeah….. !~~~!

Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) -- House Speaker Nancy the repugnant said legislation to revamp the U.S. health-care system won’t get through her chamber unless it creates a government-run insurance program to compete with the private industry.

“There’s no way I can pass a bill in the House of Representatives without a public option,” the California Democrat said at a press conference in San Francisco yesterday.

I am amused that Ms. Repugnant chose the word compete. The better term would have been all wee weed up.

 

[Spytheweb]

Here are 2 states that had studies done on single payer system savings. Just think what it mean for all 50 states and everybody's covered.

Colorado, August 2007

The Lewin Group

Technical Assessment of Health Care Reform Proposals (Proof Report)
August 20, 2007
Prepared for: The Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care Reform

The Lewin Group was engaged by the Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Reform to assist in developing and analyzing alternative proposals to expand health insurance coverage and reform the Colorado
health care system.

Single Payer Results, Excerpt:

COLORADO HEALTH SERVICES SINGLE PAYER PROGRAM

The Colorado Health Services (CHS) Program is a single payer plan that would provide coverage to all residents of the state, including state and local workers, and residents currently covered under Medicare, Tricare, Veteran’s Health, Indian Health Services and Federal Health Benefits programs. The program would provide all people with comprehensive health care benefits that cover the same list of services now covered by the Colorado Medicaid benefits package. Consumers would have their choice of providers and hospitals within the state.

0 - number remaining uninsured

$1.4 billion - decline in health spending

All Other Plans, Results, excerpt:

BETTER HEALTH CARE FOR COLORADO

Better Health Care for Colorado provides a path to universal health care through a public program expansion and access to private insurance coverage with low-income subsidies through a Health Insurance Exchange. Individuals eligible for public programs would receive benefits under those programs, and individuals who purchase private coverage would have access to a limited core set of benefits, with premiums copays.

467,200 - number remaining uninsured

$595 million - increase in health spending

SOLUTIONS FOR A HEALTHY COLORADO

Solutions for a Healthy Colorado provides coverage to all Colorado residents under a Core Limited Benefit Plan in the private sector and expands coverage under Medicaid and Child Health Plus (CHP+). People who are low income but who would not be eligible for the government programs would receive a premium subsidy.

133,400 - number remaining uninsured

$271 million - increase in health spending

A PLAN FOR COVERING COLORADO

A Plan for Covering Coloradans provides coverage to Coloradans through a public program expansion and a mandatory private pool for all residents not eligible for the public program. It provides a minimum benefits package in a private pool and premium assistance based on income for those who cannot afford insurance. All plans would provide a comprehensive minimum benefits package, and differ mainly on cost-sharing amounts.

106,500 - number remaining uninsured

$1.3 billion - increase in health spending

Source:
Lewin’s Technical Assessment of Health Care Reform Proposals (230 page report):
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellit...05890619&p=1178305890619&pagename=RIBBWrapper

Comment by Dr. Don McCanne, PNHP Senior Health Policy Fellow:

Once again, fiscal analysis shows that the models of reform that build on our highly flawed, fragmented system of financing health care actually increase health care spending while falling far short on the goals of reform. In contrast, the single payer model would provide truly comprehensive care for absolutely everyone while significantly reducing health care spending.

December, 2007: Kansas

Single Payer would save $869 million

The Kansas Health Policy Authority hired the consulting firm of Schramm-Raleigh to do a fiscal analysis of five options for expanding coverage. They found that single payer (“the Mountain plan”) would cover all the uninsured and reduce state health spending by $869 million annually. The other plans would cover a portion of the uninsured and would raise costs between $150 million to $500 million in the state.

A link to the Schramm-Raleigh Report “Kansas - Pricing the Roadmap to Reform” is located on the web site of the Kansas Health Policy Authority :

www.healthfund.org/reportspubs/11012007fdn_report_khpa.php

http://www.pnhp.org/facts/single_payer_system_cost.php?page=all

 

[Spytheweb]

"Government health care supposedly works better in France. But in August 2003, when temperatures in France soared to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, nearly 15,000 elderly people dropped dead – that is, 15,000 more than the average or expected death rate for that time of year."

The best healthcare in the world? 100,000 die in the US every year from medical mistakes. (and you pay top dollar for it)

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius acknowledges to Hearst that there's been no "significant improvement in the level of medical errors." Sebelius told Hearst the annual death toll from errors is 100,000, about the same as a decade ago.