Healthcare: It's WAR!

The war is on and everyone needs to do something THIS MONTH (resources below).

My own experience was that my healthcare insurance refused to diagnose or treat a 95% survivable cancer - twice. I could have died in less than a year if I did not pay out of pocket for treatment. My health plan covered treatment, but their medical guidelines were "proprietary", i.e. they don't necessarily provide the treatment you are covered for - and there's no way of knowing in advance. They also continue to collect their premiums even when you pay for your own treatment. You bet I'd want to protect that kind of racket too.

Appeals? Not if your health plan doesn't want to. They can run out the clock easily or refuse to diagnosis = NO treatment. Even better yet, fight them (also known as appeal) and forget about getting any medical care covered afterwards, i.e. don't piss off your insurance company or even the flu won't be treatable. I was told Medicare would've covered my treatment, "no problem" and if I needed to appeal, I wouldn't have been penalized. 

It's illegal for corporations to ignore their primary duty to increase profits. 

In case you've never experienced being unable to get life-saving medical care, let me explain that the feeling was probably similar to staring down the barrel of a loaded gun since the results are the same. Denying necessary medical care should be criminalized like a violent crime. But instead, my insurance company made more money. The insurance company became a better "buy" (watch the video series) for investors. Market forces don't work well for medical care when few people actually have much choice about their insurance. 

I also paid the highest rates charged because I didn't pre-negotiate rates like a high volume mega-corporation for medical care. So who is supplementing who?

Healthcare insurance works more like an investment firm. Providing medical care is secondary. Watch Bill Moyers series and look up the ex-Cigna exec,  Wendall Potter for more information. It's essential knowledge.

(the rest is here)

Requiring healthcare insurance provides a guarenteed market and is the healthcare industry's wet dream come true; providing millions of new customers, without limits or interference. They've recently lost a lot of beneficiaries due to people unable able to afford their product as it is. If "free market" existed, healthcare insurance companies wouldn't be posting near record profits like they have. Health insurance seems to be recession proof.

An example would be Plan D (also known as MMA of 2003). There was no "public option". It resulted in a windfall for insurance companies, and drug prices were raised by 60% within a few years for everyone (not just for Medicare). Plan D had a "trigger option" (no mechanism to "trigger" it), prevented government negotiations to lower drug prices, a nightmare of confusion and increased paperwork for beneficiaries and doctors (AARP, Medicare Rights). MMA passed unfunded.

Compare that to Medicare which is a public / private plan hybrid, has over a 40 year history and has held costs down better than private plans alone have (raising only 11% since 2000 v. private health insurance > doubling). But still, not everyone chooses traditional Medicare (the public option) over private plans and I doubt they would with this either. Both public and private plans have high satisfaction rates and compare favorably to private healthcare insurance. Both public / private plans use private doctors and use open medical standards. 

Medicare was heavily criticized by Republicans for leading us into "socialized medicine" when President Johnson signed it over 44 years ago.  Obviously that wasn't true either. 

So if the big bad, scary government-run healthcare plan was so terrible, why didn't anyone vote to end Medicare when they had the chance? Why is the GOP saying they support Medicare from cuts and at the same time saying they don't want "government-run" or "rationing" or "socialized medicine" for the rest of the population? 

"On Thursday, July 30th, the anniversary date of the enactment of Medicare, Rep. Weiner offered an amendment to HR 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, proposing to repeal Medicare - that "socialist" government run health care system that has been so demonized. Health Care -- 44 Years Of Medicare Success as time for Republicans to "put up or shut up."

Medicare is popular and Congress are still afraid of loosing their jobs. This proves lobbyists haven't marginalized public opinion out of existence, yet. Your opinion still matters.

If private insurers are afraid of competing with the public option - why should the public be expected to support another failed industry (i.e. bailout)? My doctor provides my medical care, not my insurance company. Insurance jobs are largely administrative and easily absorbed into almost any field. Where was the GOP when they were exporting millions of jobs overseas - why would they be so concerned now? 

It's marketing. The average person in the US should have a spidey-sense honed to sniff out advertising campaigns like this. The vocal minority sounds as if they want the complete destruction of the US government comparable to the Taliban. They want Obama to fail for other reasons - unrelated to the well being of our country or what's best. That's why they won't discuss healthcare coverage based on merits or offer any alternatives. 

Some have stated (Grassely, DeMint) they will not vote for any Democratic bill, even if they got everything they wanted - health care or garbage collections. They have no interest in solutions, representing voters or improving the economy. That's extremism gone wild. 

References and Resources:

William Kristol's '93 memo to Republican's on how to defeat Clinton's healthcare plan. Kristol reccomends avoiding debate on merits of the plan and to use generalities such as "bigger government", "socialism", etc. He admits 79% of the public wants significant healthcare reform (even back then). He's not concerned about representing the majority or the economy of the nation (another marketing myth put to rest). 

Kristol's reason for defeating healthcare is party ideology; defeating the Democrats. Nothing has changed;

- Sen. Jim Demint (R-SC) evoked Napoleonic metaphor, saying, “If we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”

- Speaking to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt last Thursday, James Inhofe (R-OK) said, “We can stall it. And that’s going to be a huge gain for those of us who want to turn this thing over in the 2010 election.”

The Blue Dog Democrats formed within a year after the Clinton plan failed in '95, by a Republican (I'm not kidding). They tend to vote with Republican's and healthcare hasn't been an exception. The GOP still leads Congress with Blue Dogs heading every committee developing healthcare reform bills (5 versions). The Blue Dogs have also accepted the most healthcare industry funding of the Democrats (opensecrets.org). Their website states they will not vote for the public option. DEMOCRATS DO NOT HAVE A MAJORITY IN CONGRESS. That might explain a lot.

FactCheck.org

Media Matters

Congress.org to find your elected officials.

VIEWERS BEWARE of Anti-Health Care Ads: From the non-partisan Public Campaign Fund exposes the group behind the political ads opposing health care reform. The ads are funded by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which has a record as a right-wing political operation and is headed by an operative with ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. These groups are funded using several organizations.

The Corporate Powers Behind the Anti-Healthcare Reform Movement from Institute for Southern Studies.

"... a memo written by the FreedomWorks website Tea Party Patriots, details how supporters should disrupt meetings and harass members of Congress. It offered advice to protesters on making their numbers look bigger than they actually are, disrupting the proceedings and rattling the speakers." The article details more groups liked to ads, protests and fear mongering. A copy of the memo: "Yell, Stand Up and Shout Out" was posted on American Progress. It's unbelievable and undemocratic. More:

"FreedomWorks is chaired by former Congressman Dick Armey, a Texas Republican who served as the House majority leader from 1995 until his retirement in 2003, when he joined the prominent law firm DLA Piper. That year Armey also became co-chair of Citizens for a Sound Economy, which in 2004 merged with Empower America to become FreedomWorks.

FreedomWorks launched its campaign to block health care reform earlier this year -- the same year DLA Piper received $830,000 to lobby on behalf of the pharmaceutical firm Medicines Co., according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The pharmaceutical industry has been spending millions of dollars on lobbying efforts in recent months to influence the health care reform debate."

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