<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">Therefore, we should not expect anything good from government action, right?<br><br>Ricky<br>
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"Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn<br><br>--- On <b>Mon, 3/22/10, C. G. Estabrook <i><galliher@illinois.edu></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"><br>From: C. G. Estabrook <galliher@illinois.edu><br>Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] What hath got rot?<br>To: "Jenifer Cartwright" <jencart13@yahoo.com><br>Cc: "Peace-discuss List" <peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net><br>Date: Monday, March 22, 2010, 9:33 PM<br><br><div class="plainMail">No, what could be depends on what Obama was willing to press for (as LBJ did for Medicare 45 years ago).<br><br>Obama could have pushed for the simplest solution - Medicare for all - but chose<br>not to, because it would have adversely affected the profits of the elite<br>sectors to whom he owed his presidency.<br><br>In America, if you want to do anything at all through government action, you have to pay
off rich people first. Obama understands that quite well. --CGE<br><br><br>Jenifer Cartwright wrote:<br>> The rejoinder, of course, is that what */should /*be and what */can/* be depends (in this case) upon members in Congress, who are the ones who make<br>> and pass our laws. (You HAVE been watching the news the past year, right??)<br>> We'll be lucky if this bill actually makes it -- there are some good<br>> provisions in it -- and hopefully, when the citizenry begin to benefit from<br>> these, they'll quit their caterwauling and push their senators and reps to<br>> enact real health care reform. That's the only way it'll happen -- almost<br>> every elected official's first priority is to get re-elected. --Jenifer<br>> <br>> --- On *Mon, 3/22/10, John W. /<<a ymailto="mailto:jbw292002@gmail.com" href="/mc/compose?to=jbw292002@gmail.com">jbw292002@gmail.com</a>>/* wrote:<br>> <br>> <br>> From: John W. <<a
ymailto="mailto:jbw292002@gmail.com" href="/mc/compose?to=jbw292002@gmail.com">jbw292002@gmail.com</a>> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] What hath<br>> got rot? To: "C. G. Estabrook" <<a ymailto="mailto:galliher@illinois.edu" href="/mc/compose?to=galliher@illinois.edu">galliher@illinois.edu</a>> Cc: "Peace-discuss<br>> List" <<a ymailto="mailto:peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net" href="/mc/compose?to=peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net">peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net</a>> Date: Monday, March 22, 2010, 5:18<br>> PM<br>> <br>> Amen, and amen, and amen. There's no rational rejoinder to this. None.<br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 2:47 PM, C. G. Estabrook <<a ymailto="mailto:galliher@illinois.edu" href="/mc/compose?to=galliher@illinois.edu">galliher@illinois.edu</a><br>> </mc/compose?to=<a ymailto="mailto:galliher@illinois.edu"
href="/mc/compose?to=galliher@illinois.edu">galliher@illinois.edu</a>>> wrote:<br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> [This is from the statement by Physicians for a National Health Program<br>> (<a href="http://pnhp.org" target="_blank">http://pnhp.org</a> <<a href="http://pnhp.org/" target="_blank">http://pnhp.org/</a>>) on the Dear Leader's triumph. --CGE]<br>> <br>> <br>> As much as we would like to join the celebration of the House's passage of<br>> the health bill last night, in good conscience we cannot. We take no comfort<br>> in seeing aspirin dispensed for the treatment of cancer.<br>> <br>> Instead of eliminating the root of the problem - the profit-driven, private<br>> health insurance industry - this costly new legislation will enrich and<br>> further entrench these firms. The bill would require millions of Americans to<br>> buy private insurers' defective products, and turn over to them vast
amounts of public money.<br>> <br>> The hype surrounding the new health bill is belied by the facts:<br>> <br>> * About 23 million people will remain uninsured nine years out. That figure<br>> translates into an estimated 23,000 unnecessary deaths annually and an<br>> incalculable toll of suffering.<br>> <br>> * Millions of middle-income people will be pressured to buy commercial health<br>> insurance policies costing up to 9.5 percent of their income but covering an<br>> average of only 70 percent of their medical expenses, potentially leaving<br>> them vulnerable to financial ruin if they become seriously ill. Many will<br>> find such policies too expensive to afford or, if they do buy them, too expensive to use because of the high co-pays and deductibles.<br>> <br>> * Insurance firms will be handed at least $447 billion in taxpayer money to<br>> subsidize the purchase of their shoddy products. This money
will enhance<br>> their financial and political power, and with it their ability to block<br>> future reform.<br>> <br>> * The bill will drain about $40 billion from Medicare payments to safety-net hospitals, threatening the care of the tens of millions who will remain<br>> uninsured.<br>> <br>> * People with employer-based coverage will be locked into their plan's<br>> limited network of providers, face ever-rising costs and erosion of their<br>> health benefits. Many, even most, will eventually face steep taxes on their<br>> benefits as the cost of insurance grows.<br>> <br>> * Health care costs will continue to skyrocket, as the experience with the<br>> Massachusetts plan (after which this bill is patterned) amply demonstrates.<br>> <br>> * The much-vaunted insurance regulations - e.g. ending denials on the basis<br>> of pre-existing conditions - are riddled with loopholes, thanks to the<br>> central
role that insurers played in crafting the legislation. Older people<br>> can be charged up to three times more than their younger counterparts, and<br>> large companies with a predominantly female workforce can be charged higher<br>> gender-based rates at least until 2017...<br>> <br>> <br>> It didn't have to be like this. Whatever salutary measures are contained in<br>> this bill, e.g. additional funding for community health centers, could have<br>> been enacted on a stand-alone basis.<br>> <br>> Similarly, the expansion of Medicaid - a woefully underfunded program that<br>> provides substandard care for the poor - could have been done separately,<br>> along with an increase in federal appropriations to upgrade its quality.<br>> <br>> But instead the Congress and the Obama administration have saddled Americans<br>> with an expensive package of onerous individual mandates, new taxes on<br>> workers' health
plans, countless sweetheart deals with the insurers and Big<br>> Pharma, and a perpetuation of the fragmented, dysfunctional, and unsustainable system that is taking such a heavy toll on our health and<br>> economy today...<br>> <br>> <br>> A genuine remedy is in plain sight. Sooner rather than later, our nation will<br>> have to adopt a single-payer national health insurance program, an improved<br>> Medicare for all. Only a single-payer plan can assure truly universal,<br>> comprehensive and affordable care to all.<br>> <br>> By replacing the private insurers with a streamlined system of public<br>> financing, our nation could save $400 billion annually in unnecessary,<br>> wasteful administrative costs. That's enough to cover all the uninsured and<br>> to upgrade everyone else's coverage without having to increase overall U.S.<br>> health spending by one penny.<br>> <br>> Moreover, only a single-payer
system offers effective tools for cost control<br>> like bulk purchasing, negotiated fees, global hospital budgeting and capital<br>> planning.<br>> <br>> Polls show nearly two-thirds of the public supports such an approach, and a<br>> recent survey shows 59 percent of U.S. physicians support government action<br>> to establish national health insurance. All that is required to achieve it is<br>> the political will.<br>> <br>> The major provisions of the present bill do not go into effect until 2014.<br>> Although we will be counseled to "wait and see" how this reform plays out, we<br>> cannot wait, nor can our patients. The stakes are too high...<br><br><br>-- This message has been scanned for viruses and<br>dangerous content by MailScanner, and is<br>believed to be clean.<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Peace-discuss mailing list<br><a ymailto="mailto:Peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net"
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