[Peace-discuss] Single-payer health reform bill introduced in
Senate
E. Wayne Johnson
ewj at pigs.ag
Sat Mar 28 11:27:53 CDT 2009
The insurance companies have indeed been a major player in creating this
horrible system in Amerika.
However I find that the Amerikan people are both culprit and victim.
One of the fundamental problems in the American system of healthcare is
that we have allowed medicine to be shrouded in mystery,
and Americans are isolated from personal responsibility and knowledge
regarding their own health and any real knowledge of what costs ought to
be, or where the money goes.
We are being ripped off by the medical system at an incredible rate.
Maggots ain't stupid, but Americans don't appear to be very smart at times.
The most noxious lie I hear describing the American system is "quality".
That horseleech has a sister, called "our American standard of health care".
Another damned lie is that the high cost in the US is because so much
money is going to research.
That is, unless "research" has some NewSpeak meaning reminiscent of
"Enhanced Interrogation" and
"overseas contingency operations", where the victims are our individual
and collective wallets and the investigation
involves the asymptotic limits of what we can stand.
My proposal would be criticized as a tremendous downgrading of the
"quality" of medical care by those who are in
control of the system and those who are under the control of the system.
I would phase out the FDA (gradually) and would gradually eliminate the
concept of "prescription drugs".
All drugs would be over the counter just as they are in Asian countries,
except for those few drugs
that truly have significant potential for harm or addiction, such as
opiates, barbiturates, tranquilizing agents,
and the like.
The FDA is a major cause of disease suffering and death in our society.
Again, most Americans are ignorant in science and
medicine and are easily carried away by the rhetoric that the FDA is
there for consumer protection. I would that it were.
I would legalize all forms of alternative medicine and alternative
therapy, herbal therapy, nutritional therapy, and holistic medicine.
What we really want is good health not "health care". We need more
medical care people, more competition, and less bureaucracy.
I would favor a sort of simplified "guerrilla" medicine providing simple
care at simple prices, without all the vanity, largess, and graft that
characterizes most of the American system.
We need to remove from our thinking and from our society the concept of
"Medical Liability" except in cases of obviously fraudulent practice.
The transcendent reality here is that when one is sick, or has some
medical procedure, there really is no guarantee that the treatment will be
appropriate to your condition. Quite often the treatment is
inappropriate and flawed but the patient gets well in spite of the
treatment. The
opposite is also true, that a truly fitting treatment is made but
characteristics of the patient's body and complicating factors result in
a suboptimal outcome.
There are no guarantees. The ultimate responsibility lies with the
individual and it is better to be blessed than to be merely smart.
That pretty much summarizes day one of my program. Day two would bring
new things.
LAURIE SOLOMON wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> And your proposal for furnishing everyone equitable quality healthcare
> without maintaining or reinforcing a new well-funded market for the
> existing system of medical-pharmaceutical-industrial providers and
> suppliers is?
>
>
>
> What single payer does do is take the insurance industry out of the
> mix as a day-to-day policy maker and gatekeeper to the provision of
> quality healthcare equitably to the entire population and to the
> healthcare system itself for the most part and, at worst, remands that
> industry to the secondary role of administrator and distributor of the
> health care single-payer funds to the healthcare providers on behalf
> of the single-payer premium collector without being a determiner of
> who can get what service by whom and when.
>
>
>
> You are right that it will not eliminate or control medical costs by
> regulating the amounts of money going to universities to do medical
> research or to private research facilities to do the same, the amounts
> of money being spent on buying the latest and greatest medical devices
> and instruments mostly for the purpose of making the service provider
> in the healthcare system competitive with its competitors in the local
> community, or the amounts of profits that medical equipment
> manufactures and sellers make from the medical equipment that they
> sell to the healthcare delivery system. However, aside from complete
> and total nationalization of not only the healthcare delivery system
> but the associated research, pharmaceutical and other supplies, and
> equipment vendor industries, I do not see any way that any proposals
> in a capitalist or welfare capitalist world would be able to regulate
> and control - much less eliminate - such markets for the existing
> system of medical-pharmaceutical-industrial providers and suppliers.
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net
> [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of E.
> Wayne Johnson
> Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 1:23 PM
> To: C. G. Estabrook
> Cc: Peace-discuss
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Single-payer health reform bill
> introduced in Senate
>
>
>
> My concern is that the American "Health Care" system is designed to
>
> deliver medical services
>
> at maximum profit with minimum liability.
>
>
>
> Most of the proposals don't dare to attack the
>
> medical-pharmaceutical-industrial complex at its roots.
>
>
>
> Americans are afraid that if they challenge the morality and
>
> effectiveness of the medical supply system,
>
> then their doctors will simply let them die. Don't mess with us or we
>
> won't fix your problem, or worse.
>
> Waterboarding at a refined level.
>
>
>
> The problem with so-called "single-payer" is that it doesn't actually
>
> fix the system in any way,
>
> it simply opens up a new well-funded market for the existing system.
>
>
>
>
>
> C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>
> > FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
> > March 26, 2009
>
> > Contacts:
>
> > Quentin Young, M.D., (312) 782-6006
>
> > Mark Almberg, (312) 782-6006, cell: (312) 622-0996, mark at pnhp.org
>
> >
>
> > *Single-payer health reform bill introduced in Senate*
>
> >
>
> > *Would save $400 billion on bureaucracy, enough to cover all 46 million
>
> > uninsured Americans*
>
> >
>
> > Challenging head-on the powerful private insurance and pharmaceutical
>
> > industries, Vermont's Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced a single-payer
>
> > health
>
> > reform bill, the American Health Security Act of 2009, in the U.S.
> Senate
>
> > Wednesday. The bill is the first to directly take on the powerful
> lobbies
>
> > blocking universal health reform in the Senate since Sen. Paul
>
> > Wellstone's
>
> > tragic death.
>
> >
>
> > The single-payer approach embodied in Sanders' new bill stands in sharp
>
> > contrast to the reform models being offered by the White House and
> by key
>
> > lawmakers like Senators Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Edward Kennedy
>
> > (D-Mass.).
>
> > Their plans would preserve a central role for the private insurance
>
> > industry, sacrificing both universal coverage and cost containment
> during
>
> > the worst economic crisis since the Depression.
>
> >
>
> > In contrast, Sanders' new legislation would cover all of the 46 million
>
> > Americans who currently lack coverage and improve benefits for all
>
> > Americans by eliminating co-pays and deductibles and restoring free
>
> > choice
>
> > of physician. The most fiscally conservative option for reform, single
>
> > payer slashes private insurance overhead and bureaucracy in medical
>
> > settings, saving over $400 billion annually that can be redirected into
>
> > clinical care.
>
> >
>
> > "This is excellent news for the nation's health," said Dr. Quentin
> Young,
>
> > national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program and a
>
> > past president of the American Public Health Association. "There is
>
> > now an
>
> > affordable cure for our dysfunctional health care system. In the face of
>
> > our present economic calamity, this is an urgent necessity."
>
> >
>
> > Highlights of the bill include the following:
>
> >
>
> > * Patients go to any doctor or hospital of their choice.
>
> >
>
> > * The program is paid for by combining current sources of government
>
> > health spending into a single fund with modest new taxes amounting to
>
> > less
>
> > than what people now pay for insurance premiums and out-of-pocket
>
> > expenses.
>
> >
>
> > * Comprehensive benefits, including coverage for dental, mental health,
>
> > and prescription drugs.
>
> >
>
> > * While federally funded, the program is to be administered by the
>
> > states.
>
> >
>
> > * By eliminating the high overhead and profits of the private,
>
> > investor-owned insurance industry, along with the burdensome paperwork
>
> > imposed on physicians, hospitals and other providers, the plan saves at
>
> > least $400 billion annually -- enough money to provide comprehensive,
>
> > quality care to all.
>
> >
>
> > * Community health centers are fully funded, giving the 60 million
>
> > Americans now living in rural and underserved areas access to care.
>
> >
>
> > * To address the critical shortage of primary care physicians and
>
> > dentists, the bill provides resources for the National Health Service
>
> > Corps to train an additional 24,000 health professionals.
>
> >
>
> > "We are confident that Sen. Sanders' bill will accelerate the national
>
> > drive for the only reform that we know will work," Young said. "A
>
> > majority
>
> > of physicians endorse such an approach. Fifty-nine percent of U.S.
>
> > physicians support national health insurance. Two-thirds of the public
>
> > also supports such a remedy. We remember well that President Obama once
>
> > acknowledged that single-payer national health insurance was the
> best way
>
> > to go. It still is."
>
> >
>
> > Sanders, who serves on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor,
>
> > and Pensions, is a longtime advocate of fundamental health care reform.
>
> > His new bill draws heavily upon the single-payer legislation
>
> > introduced by
>
> > the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) in 1993, S. 491, and closely
>
> > parallels similar legislation pending before the House, H.R. 1200,
>
> > introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.).
>
> >
>
> > A single-payer bill introduced by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), H.R.
>
> > 676, obtained 93 co-sponsors in the House during the last session.
> It has
>
> > been reintroduced in the new Congress as the U.S. National Health Care
>
> > Act
>
> > with the same bill number.
>
> >
>
> > A copy of the bill is available here:
>
> > www.pnhp.org/PDF_files/American-Health-Security-Act-single-payer.pdf
>
> > (PDF)
>
> >
>
> > ###
>
> >
>
> > Physicians for a National Health Program, a membership organization of
>
> > over
>
> > 16,000 physicians, supports a single-payer national health insurance
>
> > program.
>
> > To contact a physician-spokesperson in your area, call (312) 782-6006
>
> > or visit
>
> > www.pnhp.org/stateactions.
>
> >
>
> > _______________________________________________
>
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>
> > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>
> > http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss
>
> >
>
> >
>
>
>
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>
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