Canadians Compare our Health Care to Theirs. They're Happy with Theirs

Canadian Doctors for Medicare hosted a celebration of Medicare in Canada. The speakers included Roy Romanow, former Saskatchewan Premiere and Commissioner on Health Care in Canada. They tell Americans that Canadian universal health care works and encourage Americans to implement a single payer universal health care systems.



Medicare for all would cost less in the long run and can be cost controlled much more easily than monitoring all the Insurance companies. Our health is not a commodity to be traded on the Market and it shouldn't be a for profit business to insure our health.

Why We Need Government Run Health Insurance

Why Can't a Better Health Care Plan Be a Stimulus Package

From FDL July 9th

I can't agree more with this idea. Why not put our tax dollars into something tangible like health care and infrastructure. Bailing out banks and insurance companies does not one damn bit of good for middle/working class and poor. Like the often played clip on the Sam Seder Show, "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining". Take it away Jane Hamsher.....

We bailed out the banks to the tune of 2 trillion dollars in the past year, put through an enormous stimulus bill, bailed out the European banks, put through yet another war supplemental, and never asked how we were going to pay for it. We just wrote a bunch of big checks.

But now that it has come to taking care of the health of Americans, well, we have to tighten the old belt and it's suddenly "pay-as-you-go."

Everyone is obsessed about "how we're going to pay for this" when discussing health care. And as long as we're prisoners of a CBO score (is it $1 trillion? $1.4 trillion?) we're going to wind up passing a bill that does not cover average Americans in the way they need to be covered so that as a country we can step forward into a new business era of international economic interdependence. Other industrialized nations cover health care. We're saddling business with that cost, and a huge chunk of what we are planning to spend will go to bail out insurance companies.

Meanwhile, just as Krugman and others predicted, White House aides are saying we need another stimulus plan. Joe Biden and Steny Hoyer have sent up trial balloons.

Middle class Americans pay huge premiums every month for junk insurance. Four hundred, six hundred, a thousand dollars a month easily. Even if they have employer-based insurance, huge deductibles mean that every trip to the doctor is costly. If those costs get cut, a huge financial burden is lifted off average Americans. They are no longer prisoners of a job, or a state, just to keep an insurance policy they can't leave without risking their economic security or their health.

But more importantly, a huge burden of anxiety is lifted from Americans in a time of economic insecurity. If a plan is passed that only affects the poor, it's going to anger the middle class when they are the ones that get shafted once again. It's only going to increase anger and frustration that there is nobody at the helm who cares about them, and confirm their fears that government exists to benefit Wellpoint at their expense.

I was up on the Hill yesterday, and discovered that Congress never had ordinary people come and testify about their insurance company horror stories, because nobody wanted to piss the insurance companies off. It was incomprehensible and outrageous.

Compared to the huge sums we've shelled out without batting an eyelash over the past year, why are we going to have a shitty, compromised plan just so Blanche Lincoln and Olympia Snowe can achieve their objectives of protecting insurance company profits, when for $30 billion more a year we could actually do it right? Why is that suddenly such a big price tag?

In short, if we need more economic stimulus, why aren't we talking about health care as economic stimulus?

Cheney Diagnosed with Blood Clot in his left leg

Here's Reuters report:

Cheney has blood clot in leg, not hospitalized
12 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Doctors found a blood clot in Vice President Dick Cheney's left leg on Monday but he was not admitted to a hospital and will be treated with blood thinning medication, his office said.

Cheney, who has a history of heart troubles, went to his doctor's office after he "experienced mild calf discomfort," his office said in a statement.

"An ultrasound revealed a deep venous thrombosis (DVT) or 'blood clot' in his left lower leg," it said. "His doctors will treat him with blood thinning medication for several months. The vice president has returned to the White House to resume his schedule."

Won't say any more!

New Poll on Health Care - Most Americans want Guaranteed Healthcare

The New York Times/CBS Poll reports that:

A majority of Americans say the federal government should guarantee health insurance to every American, especially children, and are willing to pay higher taxes to do it, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Now isn't that interesting. More people willing to pay higher taxes to insure they have healthcare. Lets get the percentages:

Only 24 percent said they were satisfied with President Bush’s handling of the health insurance issue, despite his recent initiatives, and 62 percent said the Democrats were more likely to improve the health care system.

Americans showed a striking willingness in the poll to make tradeoffs to guarantee health insurance for all, including paying as much as $500 more in taxes a year and forgoing future tax cuts.

This issues is second only to the War in Iraq:

While the war in Iraq remains the overarching issue in the early stages of the 2008 campaign, access to affordable health care is at the top of the public’s domestic agenda, ranked far more important than immigration, cutting taxes or promoting traditional values.

And the findings of this poll crossed party lines:

The poll found Americans across party lines willing to make some sacrifice to ensure that every American has access to health insurance. Sixty percent, including 62 percent of independents and 46 percent of Republicans, said they would be willing to pay more in taxes. Half said they would be willing to pay as much as $500 a year more.

Nearly 8 in 10 said they thought it was more important to provide universal access to health insurance than to extend the tax cuts of recent years; 18 percent said the tax cuts were more important.

“I wouldn’t want to pay a lot of taxes, but if it was spread out and everyone paid their fair share, it would be fine,” said Don Galvan, 50, a computer programmer from Ringwood, N.J., who considers himself an independent. “Everybody should have some kind of medical coverage, in case they or their children get sick. Especially children.”

With 15% of the population of the United States uninsured (nearly 47 million people) this problem must be addressed and soon. If you want good healthcare and the ability to have insurance, keep the heat on your Senators and Reps!

Late Night Open Thread Feb 23, 2007 - Health Care

Health Care. That and the Iraq war are the most important issues for the voting public.

Many plans have evolved, recently, to try to tackle the Health Care issue. Here's Massachusettes plan:

Massachusetts spurs health-care debate
BOSTON (Reuters) - Working the phones of a health-care hotline in Boston, Kate Bicego does something that is unique in the country: she explains how even the poorest people can get state-funded health coverage.

Nearly a year into its pioneering health-care law, Massachusetts offers both a way forward and a warning that puts the state at the center of a growing national debate over extending health care to millions of Americans.

"We're handling just an incredible amount of calls," Bicego said at the non-profit Health Care for All. "Everyone wants to know about this new program."

Massachusetts has signed up 105,000 of its poorest people for coverage, or about a quarter of the uninsured, since April, when it became the first U.S. state with near universal health insurance.

The law makes coverage mandatory, bringing it within reach of poorer people through subsidies and industry reforms in an attempt to reverse a trend that has left more than 47 million Americans uninsured as traditional employer-based coverage shrinks. For those in Massachusetts earning less than the federal poverty level of $9,800, coverage is provided free.

Hospitals and Insurance Companies are getting into the act as well.

Here's what they are offering:

Hospital group pitches universal insurance
A group of U.S. hospitals on Thursday offered a plan to cover the nation's 47 million uninsured, including mandatory coverage for all and subsidies for the working poor.

The proposal by the Federation of American Hospitals, which represents about 20 percent of the industry, is the latest in a flurry of proposed schemes to solve the growing problem of the uninsured. Since 2000, about 6 million people in the United States have lost their insurance.

The hospital group's plan, estimated to increase federal spending by $115 billion, would build on the employer-based health system, under which most Americans already get coverage.

It would provide subsidies for individuals to buy insurance from their employer if they cannot afford it, or to buy tax-subsidized coverage in the open market.

Currently, individuals buying coverage in the open market don't receive the same tax advantages as employers.

Under the hospital group's plan, individuals would be required to sign up for a health insurance plan. If they don't, the government will do it for them and then those individuals will be assessed taxes to pay for the insurance premiums. The plan also encourages states to automatically enroll more people in public health programs like Medicaid.

Snip

Late last year, the trade group America's Health Insurance Plans, which represents managed care companies, presented its own $300 billion 10-year plan to expand insurance coverage.

The best would be a single payer Universal Health Care that is offered to the people in most of the Industrialized world.