Health Care

August 7, 2009

The VA doesn't turn people away, you just end up waiting days or weeks to see

a doctor who barely made it through medical school to tell you that he can't

find anything wrong with you.

The problems we have with health care here in the U.S. will not get better

with MORE government involvement. The reason our health care costs are

skyrocketing is due to trial lawyers filing frivolous lawsuits against doctors

and hospitals. Greed is the problem, and I think you are right to blame

politicians. However, if you blame them for these problems, why turn around and

entrust them to fix the situation?

The truth is, our system is still the best in the world. If government

wanted to make it better, they would create legislation to place limits on trial

lawyers suing doctors and hospitals. Since a large portion of politicians are

lawyers, including our current President, I don't see that happening.

I love this country because it was founded on individual freedoms and a free

market. The government was never supposed to be as empowered as it is now.

Making it bigger is not the answer.

Darren

oleander soup , Melly Bag <tita_mel wrote:

>

> Am of the opinion both Republicans and Democrats can be so evil.

> Below is a material written by Howard Dean. Please ponder before going to

your representatives/governors if whether we should go for the change as the

present system really stinks. As another member of a forum said, VA and

Medicare do not deny treatments like the private insurance companies.

>

> Melly

> =================

> Howard Dean: How Republican Attack Dogs Plan to Thwart Health Reform

> By Howard Dean, Chelsea Green Publishing

> Posted on August 3, 2009, Printed on August 3, 2009

> http://www.alternet .org/story/ 141713/

>

> Editor's note: In his new book, Howard Dean's Prescription for Real Health

> Reform, the physician and former presidential candidate devotes a chapter to

> the forces arrayed against substantive health reform -- the insurance

> industry, big business, some pharmaceutical companies and political

> conservatives. The following is an excerpt in which he discusses the long

> fight against progress mounted by conservatives.

>

> During the early 1990s, under the leadership of Representative Newt Gingrich

> (R-GA) and Senator Bob Dole (R-KS) and bolstered by the ideological support

> of the Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, and Manhattan Institute,

> Republicans successfully defeated President Clinton's health reform effort.

> Conservatives of all stripes argued that healthcare reform was " creeping

> socialism " or " big government, " denied the existence of a healthcare crisis,

> or co-opted the term reform to push their own agendas and dilute support for

> a comprehensive solution to the nation's healthcare crisis.

>

> Unfortunately, today's Republicans are no less inflammatory. Relying on a

> very similar playbook, conservatives are distorting progressive proposals in

> an effort to obstruct reform. In May 2009, GOP wordsmith Frank Luntz

> authored a new messaging memo defining the Republican rhetoric on healthcare

> reform. The memo, titled " The Language of Healthcare 2009, " " is based on

> polling results and . . . captures not just what Americans want to see but

> exactly what they want to hear. " The memo suggests " The Words That Work " and

> instructs that " from today forward, they should be used by everyone. "

>

> Luntz warns that " if the dynamic becomes 'President Obama is on the side of

> reform and Republicans are against it,' then the battle is lost and every

> word in this document is useless. " The trouble is, the document is already

> useless. Because rather than challenging the tenets of American reform

> proposals, Luntz establishes a straw man argument against a nonexistent

> health plan. Buried amid the usual rhetoric about government-run healthcare

> is Luntz's predictable contradiction: He instructs Republicans to " be

> vocally and passionately on the side of REFORM " but then urges GOP lawmakers

> to misrepresent and obstruct any real chance of passing comprehensive

> legislation.

>

> " Humanize your approach, " but argue that healthcare reform " will result in

> delayed and potentially even denied treatment, procedures and/or medications

> " " Acknowledge the crisis " but ask your constituents " would you rather . .

> 'pay the costs you pay today for the quality of care you currently receive,

> OR 'Pay less for your care, but potentially have to wait weeks for tests

> and months for treatments you need.' "

>

> In other words, say there is a crisis but then argue that healthcare reform

> would lead to " the government setting standards of care " and government

> rationing care " and would " put the Washington bureaucrats in charge of

> health care. " " This plays into more favorable Republican territory by

> protecting individual care while downplays the need for a comprehensive

> national plan, " the memo states.

>

> Readers are also instructed to conflate Obama's fairly moderate hybrid

> approach to reform (building on the current private-public system of

> delivering healthcare) with " denial horror stories from Canada & Co. "

>

> Focus on timeliness- " the plan put forward by the Democrats will deny people

> treatments they need and make them wait to get the treatments they are

> allowed to receive " -and argue that Republicans will provide " in a word,

> more: 'more access to more treatments and more doctors . . . with less

> interference from insurance companies and Washington politicians and special

> interests.' "

>

> But that's the major problem with Luntz's memo: It tries to obstruct health

> reform by ignoring what Obama is actually offering. Instead, Luntz is

> attacking an easy extreme-what he wishes the Democrats were proposing-and

> pretending that the Republicans actually have some kind of healthcare

> solution (the memo instructs Republicans to focus on targeting waste, fraud,

> and abuse).

>

> For their part, Republicans have no solution to the healthcare crisis. In

> fact, a recent article in Politico.com noted that the GOP is " stumbling " to

> find new ideas for reforming the healthcare system. " No Republicans leading

> the charge . . . have coalesced the party behind them, " the article notes.

> Their message is still vague and unformed. Their natural allies among

> insurers, drug makers and doctors remain at the negotiating table with the

> Democrats. So Republicans now worry the party has waited so long to figure

> out where it stands that it will make it harder to block what President

> Barack Obama is trying to do. "

>

> To the extent that Republicans are discussing healthcare, they're relying on

> trite McCain-campaign talking points and old hands from the 1990s. In other

> words, they've outsourced the conversation to attack dogs and relinquished

> the serious debate about how to lower costs, increase access, and improve

> quality.

>

> The truth, and what the Politico.com article hints at, is that the GOP

> leadership has little understanding of healthcare issues. In February 2009,

> House Republicans formed a study group to devise so-called free-market

> alternatives to President Obama's healthcare proposal. Minority Leader John

> Boehner (R-OH) tapped former GOP whip Representative Roy Blunt (R-MO) to

> lead the group of sixteen Republicans, including Representatives Michael

> Burgess (R-TX) and John Shadegg (R-AZ). " Through this working group,

> Republicans will develop real solutions to improve our health care system by

> putting patients before paperwork and frivolous lawsuits, " Blunt promised.

> But at the group's first meeting, " members reviewed polling data and agreed

> to bring in a series of experts to discuss problems with the health care

> system and potential solutions. " As of this writing, the Republicans have

> yet to embrace a healthcare solution or properly diagnose the cause of the

> healthcare crisis.

>

> In April, the Health Policy Consensus Group, headed by the conservative

> Galen Institute, published " a vision for consumer-driven health care reform "

> that focuses on tax breaks for healthcare and giving Americans " control "

> over their healthcare dollars. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) had proposed a

> similar plan during the presidential campaign, but he never convinced

> Americans to abandon their employer-provided insurance for the promise of

> cheaper coverage in the individual market. Part of the problem rests in the

> fallacy of the theory; the rest, in the burden of experience. After all,

> Americans are routinely denied coverage in the unregulated individual health

> insurance market, and small businesses are " frequently finding health

> policies too expensive and are dropping coverage, sending even more people

> shopping for insurance. " Healthy Americans who do find coverage enroll in

> bare-bones plans that offer little substantive protection.

>

> As The Miami Herald recently reported, insurers deny coverage for patients

> with " diabetes, hepatitis C, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, quadriplegia

> Parkinson's disease and AIDS/ HIV. " Moreover, " some insurers will

> automatically reject applicants who are using certain prescription drugs.

> Wellpoint denies anyone who within the past year has taken Abilify and

> Zyprexa for mental disorders as well as Neupogen, which is used to treat the

> side effects of chemotherapy. Vista lists the anticoagulant warfarin and the

> pain medication OxyContin. Both companies list insulin. "

>

> And why not? Competition without meaningful regulations incentivizes

> companies to offer insurance to only the healthiest Americans. How else

> could they beat the insurer across the street? Offering coverage to sicker

> Americans would attract a sicker pool of enrollees and serve as a

> competitive disadvantage. In fact, free-market healthcare fits the

> definition of a failed market. A market fails when these conditions exist:

>

> . A monopoly, which occurs if a single buyer or seller can exert significant

> influence over prices or output. In healthcare, " insurer and hospital

> markets are increasingly dominated by large insurers and provider systems, "

> an Urban Institute report points out. " The increased concentration has made

> it difficult for the nation to reap the benefits usually associated with

> competitive markets. "

>

> . Negative externalities, which occur if the market does not take into

> account the impact of an economic activity on outsiders. In the Wild West

> environment of the individual health marketplace, companies leave the

> sickest patients without coverage. Healthcare costs increase for everyone

> when patients are forced to forgo early and appropriate care or to visit the

> emergency room once a condition becomes unbearable.

>

> . Asymmetric information, which occurs when one party has more or better

> information than the other party. Americans looking for coverage in the

> individual market have no way of comparing different policies and rarely

> know what the plans actually cover.

>

> Conservative health proposals double down on this broken marketplace. They:

> (1) eliminate the employer tax exemption for health benefits, (2) provide

> everyone with a refundable tax credit to go out and purchase individual

> coverage, and (3) loosen the already lax insurer regulations. The results

> are predictable. Not only will Americans with preexisting conditions go

> without coverage-or, at best, be offered very expensive plans-but as healthy

> Americans with bare-bones policies fall ill, they'll discover that their

> insurer has little enthusiasm for paying claims.

>

> Conservatives may no longer deny the existence of a healthcare crisis, but

> they sure do misdiagnose the causes of rising healthcare costs. Blunt, for

> instance, promised that " Republicans will develop real solutions to improve

> our health care system by putting patients before paperwork and frivolous

> lawsuits. " But to identify " real solutions, " we must first properly diagnose

> the problem. Blunt's argument that " frivolous lawsuits " are significantly

> driving up healthcare costs misses the point entirely.

>

> The total cost of malpractice constitutes just 0.46 percent of total

> healthcare expenditures, and settlements have grown modestly with inflation.

> While approximately 98,000 people die each year from negligent treatment, a

> mere 2 percent sue their physicians. As health policy analyst Maggie Mahar

> observed, " A very small group of doctors are losing or settling malpractice

> lawsuits, but they are losing big. " Between 1990 and 2002, " 5.2 percent of

> doctors were responsible for 55 percent " of all malpractice payouts. The

> increasing costs of malpractice insurance premiums are hurting doctors, but

> they're not the real causes of our growing healthcare bill. In reality, the

> longer Republicans obscure the real issues and obstruct reform efforts, the

> higher the costs will rise.

>

> Click here to buy a copy of Howard Dean's Prescription for Real Health

> Reform

>

> Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont, is the founder of Democracy for

> America, a grassroots organization that supports socially progressive and

> fiscally responsible political candidates.

>

> View this story online at: http://www.alternet .org/story/ 141713/

>

August 8, 2009

This article from McClatchy points to some made up rumors which cause confusion and chaos. Republicans must be very happy but people will wake up and find out the truth. Maybe the original proposal, before conservatives and republicans totally changed it, was not as bad as we thought.

Melly

==============

Health care debate degenerates into brawls, death threats

By David Goldstein, McClatchy Newspapers David Goldstein, Mcclatchy Newspapers â€“ 1 hr 29 mins ago

WASHINGTON â€” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver will hold his monthly "Coffee with Cleaver" Saturday morning, and the Missouri Democrat, a Methodist minister, is praying for the best.

He's expecting the worst, however, based on what's been happening around the country as the debate over overhauling the nation's health care system grows increasingly bitter and more divisive.

"President Obama underestimated the free-fall the nation had already taken in partisan hostility when he talked about bringing change to Washington ," said Cleaver, who supports reform. "It has gotten worse. There is something at play here that is indescribable."

From Connecticut to California , angry demonstrators opposed to health care reform have disrupted recent town hall meetings held by congressional Democrats. They attack lawmakers for backing a "socialist agenda," shout questions without waiting for answers and repeat misinformation as fact, in some cases even accusing Democrats of favoring mandatory euthanasia for senior citizens.

On Friday, a Democratic lawmaker from Washington state received a faxed death threat a day after he described angry town hall demonstrators as "a lynch mob." Rep. Brian Baird of Washington , who supports President Barack Obama's push to overhaul the health care system, said that he also received threatening phone calls. He cancelled the rest of the town halls he'd scheduled during Congress' August recess.

A few Democratic congressional offices also have received threats connected to the health care debate. The U.S. Capitol Police has advised all of them to cancel their town halls.

The demonstrations have grown more unruly. Six people were arrested Thursday after a forum on aging in St. Louis held by Democratic Rep. Russ Carnahan drew an overflow crowd of health overhaul opponents and backers who came to counter them.

In recent weeks, demonstrators in Maryland hung in effigy a Democratic congressman who backs an overhaul, and in Texas opponents erected a tombstone with the name of another. Police in New York had to escort a Democratic House of Representatives member to his car after a raucous town hall meeting on health care.

Congressional switchboards are lighting up, as well. Democratic and Republican offices both report a high volume of calls opposing an overhaul, and some Democrats have decided not to hold any public meetings during the recess because of the overheated atmosphere.

Aides to Republican members said the callers were generally polite, but worried.

"Lots of people are happy with their coverage and really don't want government meddling in their health," said Wendy Knox , a spokeswoman for Republican Todd Tiahrt of Kansas .

Democratic aides, however, said the callers are usually combative, often use profanity and accuse the lawmaker's staff of lying to them.

"They are much more aggressive, much more hostile," said Rebecca Black , a spokeswoman for Rep. Dennis Moore , a Kansas Democrat.

"I don't agree with people cussing them," said Bob Ballard , an organizer with Kansas City Tea Party , a conservative activist group involved in the protests. "I do believe people get very passionate, but passion and vulgarity are two different things."

So are facts and allegations. In calls to lawmakers and at the town halls, opponents charge, among other things, that proposed legislation would force them to lose their own insurance even if they're satisfied with it, or require euthanasia for seniors.

Neither is true, according to FactCheck.org, a nonprofit, nonpartisan watchdog project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania .

Republican congressional leaders point to the angry protests as signs that the public opposes Democratic plans to overhaul health care.

Whether the protests reflect a growing segment of voters upset over everything from the economic stimulus package to the auto bailout and now a $1 trillion overhaul of the health care industry, or just a narrow but very vocal minority magnified by the media, especially talk radio, the Internet and cable television, is unclear. Recent polls, however, have found that public support for both the president and a health care overhaul has been slipping. "Democrats are in denial," Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio said this week. "Instead of acknowledging the widespread anger millions of Americans are feeling this summer . . . . Democrats are trying to dismiss it as a fabrication." Backers of the protests include a variety of conservative activist groups, including the Tea Party movement, which grew out of protests earlier this year against Obama's $787 billion stimulus package. Some of their Web sites list every upcoming congressional town hall in the country held by lawmakers from both parties. Democrats charge that the demonstrators are organized and scripted. They point to a memo widely available on the Internet called "Rocking the Town Halls," whose tactics â€” "Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep's statements early" â€” has been used at demonstrations around the country. Ballard denied that the town hall protests were coordinated. "We're a bunch of common people doing this, just a bunch of regular Joes who are concerned about what's going on in Washington ," he said. "We don't guide our people to ask certain questions. We're not going to direct their speech. The First Amendment is of the utmost importance to us."

August 8, 2009

I am glad to see the people getting mad, and showing them that they are against socialized, government controlled health care! Sounds like the Democrats are are trying to make those who are opposed to the Obamacare, look bad by saying bad things about them, and more lies! People have to stand up and speak out for what they want, otherwise turn into sheeple! All those tea parties were peaceful. But Obama and his followers ignore what the people want. It looks to me like the Obama followers have sold their soles to the devil, because they certainly do not have the "Best Interest" of the people of this country at heart! What a price to pay for evil! The only real chance we have for recovery in the USA is to "vote" new people into congress

and into our states, who believe in the right things for this country, and have the Guts to Stand Up for those beliefs! And... Pray for God to Help "His" People! So Get on it! We can make this Happen! Obama should not even be President of this Country! He needs to be thrown out of the Presidency! Those who have ears to hear, let them hear, eyes to see , let them see! Then get rid of him! Sincerely, Elizabeth

Melly Bag <tita_meloleander soup Sent: Friday, August 7, 2009 7:40:42 PM Health Care

This article from McClatchy points to some made up rumors which cause confusion and chaos. Republicans must be very happy but people will wake up and find out the truth. Maybe the original proposal, before conservatives and republicans totally changed it, was not as bad as we thought.

Melly

============ ==

Health care debate degenerates into brawls, death threats

McClatchy Newspapers" src=" " width=150 height=27>

By David Goldstein, McClatchy Newspapers David Goldstein, Mcclatchy Newspapers â€“ 1 hr 29 mins ago

WASHINGTON â€” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver will hold his monthly "Coffee with Cleaver" Saturday morning, and the Missouri Democrat, a Methodist minister, is praying for the best.

He's expecting the worst, however, based on what's been happening around the country as the debate over overhauling the nation's health care system grows increasingly bitter and more divisive.

"President Obama underestimated the free-fall the nation had already taken in partisan hostility when he talked about bringing change to Washington ," said Cleaver, who supports reform. "It has gotten worse. There is something at play here that is indescribable. "