The numbers have never been this grim. Almost 50 million Americans are uninsured. The average annual premium for a family is nearing $13,000, and racing upward at rates that wages can’t hope to match. If nothing changes, by 2050, government healthcare spending will consume 37 percent of the gross domestic product, and private health spending will be far more. There will… return to article
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Reader Comments (10)Page 1 of 1 pagesWhere Kirsch and HCAN miss the boat is where they fail to acknowledge the fact that the chaos and injustice that exists in our healthcare system(s) today is directly attributed to the private healthcare insurance companies. While these huge insurance corporations are raking in record profits, our quality of care is declining. While corporate CEOs rake in seven figured incomes, their insurance companies are denying sick people coverage and needed treatment!
House Resolution 676 can be a reality! This is why the insurance companies and their allies are so adamantly opposed to it and why they welcome groups like HCAN. So long as the insurance companies escape accountability and are allowed to continue feeding at the trough, they are content!
676 has the endorsement of over 90 members of Congress, about 470 labor organizations across the nation, Physicians For A National Health Program, Latinos For a National Health Plan (Latino M.D.s), the Board of Church & Society of the United Methodist Church, the general assemblies of the Episcopalian, Presbyterian and Unitarian churches, the 2008 National Conference of Mayors, movie maker Michael Moore and thousands of individuals. It is easy to see why the healthcare corporate bosses are fearful!
Most industrialized nations have a form of national healthcare or the other. Only in the United States is healthcare considered to be a commodity or a privilege! This mentality must end! Healthcare is a basic human right!
-Frank Valdez, Co-Chair
San Antonio Healthcare-Now Coalition
Posted by Chicano Wobbly on Jan 23, 2009 at 7:44 PM “...really strict regulation of the private health insurance industry, so that it can’t continue to have a business model that drops people when they need health care.”
The problem with our healthcare is the business model.
For-profit healthcare does exactly what it is designed to do: distribute healthcare based on the profit motive.
You can’t fix that with “really strict regulation.”
If you assume healthcare is a human right—and that those rights ought to be distributed equally—then the proper goal of our healthcare system is to provide healthcare for all, equally.
Not based on the profit-motive.
Of course, our healthcare does not achieve that goal. And to the extent it fails to achieve that moral imperative is the measure of that system’s corruption by the profit-motive.
So the problem of our healthcare sytem is simply that it has been corrupted.
No tinkering of the for-profit system of healthcaare with market savvy work-arounds, policy ad-hocery and strictor regualtions or technical quick fixes is going to make our system uncorrupt.
There is only one way to make our healthcare system uncorrupt.
The profit-motive in healthcare has to go. That is, the corruption has to be taken out.
Posted by gregsdiary on Feb 5, 2009 at 9:10 PM I happen to be a US citizen who now lives in Canada. while I know that there’s been a lot of talk about the waiting lines up here, I personally have not encountered them. The one-payer system works well for me and all of my friends. we get health care and don’t get a bill. That’s right! The only time I pay is for elective items like having a mole removed which was certainly not life threatening. The cost savings is fantastic. My hospital has probably a tenth of the accounting staff that a similar sized US hospital has. Nurses don’t waste time counting bandaids.
And taxes really aren’t that bad. I have paid taxes in both countries, and for me, there was only about a 5% difference between the two countries.
It is a documented fact that in 1990, Americans spent 14% of their GDP on healthcare while Canadians spent 9% and Canada gave health care to everyone. Also, any employer who is tired of paying health care costs will look at a country where they don’t have to pay. Think of the health care insurance costs in the US as a tax on business.
Posted by Bob Hunger on May 11, 2009 at 12:47 AM “And taxes really aren’t that bad. I have paid taxes in both countries, and for me, there was only about a 5% difference between the two countries.”
I just saw a really good clip from The Real News where Senator Jim Bunning makes the comment:
“When I look at Sweden and I look at Canada and I look at the United Kingdom, where we have single-payer, and government single-payer, we have a tax rate of 60 percent or higher in those countries. “
60 percent! What bullshit.
here’s the link:
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31 1&Itemid=74&jumival=3665&updaterx=2009-05-07+13:57:46
The guy narrating the vidoe goes on to blow up Bunning’s bs.
Posted by gregsdiary on May 11, 2009 at 11:00 PM Thank you, gregsdiary, for the great video. I just saw where the cost of health care is up to 16% of the GDP. How can these people in good conscience think that they are serving the American people.
Maybe we should get a busload of people to visit Senator Bunning at home to let him know what real people pay for health care in other countries and how much they need an efficient system.
Posted by Bob Hunger on May 12, 2009 at 12:56 AM I like the busload idea. A mobile protest in a protest mobile.
There must be plenty of unemployed/uninsured with the time for a bus trip. What better way to Use Jobless Time to Build Better World?
But since the Dems are the most formidable obstacle to single-payer I would focus on them.
I’d like to pay Baucus a little visit. Then there’s a Dem in Pennsylvania…and one in Hyanis Port too!
What Happens When Angry Citizens Crash the Gates of America’s CEO Class?
By Mark Ameshttp://www.alternet.org/workplace/139479/what_happens_when_angry_citizens_cra ash_the_gates_of_america’s_ceo_class/?page=2
Posted by gregsdiary on May 12, 2009 at 1:46 AM Maybe a list of their addresses would be nice so the peasants can visit them to let them know how they feel.
That stop at Poling’s house is just the first warning of what could be. Maybe if the front men for them, i.e., these people you mentioned realized that they could be the next to be visited, things might change.
Posted by Bob Hunger on May 12, 2009 at 12:38 PM “Maybe if the front men for them, i.e., these people you mentioned realized that they could be the next to be visited, things might change.”
http://m-u-s-h.org/
Posted by gregsdiary on May 16, 2009 at 8:33 PM In San Antonio we have attempted for three years to have two of our three democratic congressmen endorse H.R. 676. To no avail.
With Max Baucus throwing single payer activists in jail and the continued domination of “health care reform” by the healthcare corporate elite, we have decided to pay one of our congressman a visit at his home on June 13th. We shall picket his home and handbill his neighborhood to explain our presence.
Some say that this is to radical and will “offend” the congressman. We say his arrogance offends us! He supposedly works for us, not the other way around! If he is offended and changes his mind, then it was worth it. If he is offended and continues to ignore us, well we shall just intensify our tactics! It’s his choice. THE STRUGGLE FOR SINGLE PAYER IS GOING TO THE STREETS!
Posted by Chicano Wobbly on Jun 1, 2009 at 4:12 PM I congratulate you on getting out there and doing something about this issue. I think there are a lot of people who are offended by what Congress is doing. In Canada, the man who got single payer health care going was Tommy Douglas of Saskatchewan almost 50 years ago. Today, he is looked back on as one of the greatest politicians in Canadian history. To say that his memory is revered is an understatement. Don’t these politicians in Washington realize that they could make a major difference in people’s lives if they just looked past the lobbyists and money? They too could be remembered with fondness by Americans of all levels of society. What a legacy they have the opportunity to leave their country!
Posted by Bob Hunger on Jun 2, 2009 at 12:57 AM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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