Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Health care

If you haven't seen it before, or even if you have, please take a look at this earlier post on single payer health insurance. We still need to keep unrelenting pressure on Nancy Pelosi.

Heed the words of Congressman Jim McDermott:
Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) predicted Sunday that the U.S. would adopt a single-payer, national healthcare system.

"It's in our face," McDermott told a university healthcare group in a speech, according to the Monterey County Herald. "We can't avoid it. That's why something is going to happen."
McDermott also said that constituents and grassroots activists could significantly advance the cause of a single-payer system.

"There will be a campaign to support this from the grass roots. You need to place pressure on your congressman," he said. "They will react to people asking them, why don't you do something? There's no question people can make a real impact."
The PUMA-friendly blogs have responded magnificently. The larger Obama-obsessed blogs have not.

If you still travel in those circles -- or if you know people who do -- please do whatever you can to convey the message to the D.U. and Kos Krowds. We still need to inundate the Fax machines of Nancy Pelosi and all other congressfolk. Again and again, day after day.

Like it or not, those sites have large readerships. We need their aid.

The ideas discussed by Obama and Baucus are disconcerting and could be disastrous:
Establishment of a National Health Insurance Exchange. The Obama Plan proposes a National Health Insurance Exchange ("Exchange"), through which businesses and individuals would be able to purchase private health insurance.
Individuals insured through the Exchange proposed by President Obama would be able to keep their insurance when they change jobs, but they might be responsible for premiums if not covered by their new employer.
This scheme will accelerate transferring salaried jobs to freelance status.

The alternative is like unto it: The Healthy Americans act, which the newly Democratic Arlen Specter seems to favor. This act would function as a single bullet aimed at both your health and your wallet, because it would end employer-based coverage while maintaining a private insurance system. The proposed salary increase will soon disappear in today's economy. (Employer to you: "Take a lower paycheck or lose your job.")
Meanwhile, an individual mandate would be implemented, forcing every American to purchase one of the options offered by their state's newly formed Health Help Agency (HHA). The HHA's will have a menu of private insurance plans...
Again, this system encourages the transfer of salaried jobs to freelance work.

Private insurers already take up one-third of your health dollar: That's why Americans pay more than everyone else in the world does for health care. Private insurers are leeches. They serve no purpose.

Single payer is the way to go. But it won't happen unless thousands, hundreds of thousands of people demand it. Like it or not, we need the aid of the Obots in this crusade. Tell them to go here and learn how to do what needs to be done.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The GOP filibustering UHC is no longer an excuse

mad in mpls said...

"Take a lower paycheck or lose your job."

Yes, the lucky ones will be given a choice. Most will simply be given the boot. Position eliminated. Period. And then they hire someone else as a freelancer.

Snowflake said...

The blogs you mentioned are taking orders from the Obama admin-or at least they used to.

My feeling is Obama wants the support of the health care industry and wont support single payer-no amount of force will make him turn on his financial backer.

On the other hand, Pelosi is in a liberal enclave and probably could be shamed into supporting it.

Rather than ask the Obama blogs for help, I think they should be shamed into supporting this. If anyone has access to the media they should try to ask, on air, why the brave, brave Kossacks types are backing off universal health care-now that they could have it. Is the political and financial cost to them too high?

Chickens? Baaaawk, baaaawk...

Sextus Propertius said...

I think the 31% figure for the added expense of private insurance is almost certainly an underestimate. I believe it only counts direct costs, rather than (for example), the additional costs incurred by practitioners as a result of having to deal with different insurers - extra clerical employees, time spent dealing with insurance companies rather than actually treating patients, etc.

Anonymous said...

I agree with snowflake that the alleged liberals have some splainin to do. How is it that the left bows to a politician who finished off any chance of publicly funded elections, prefers insurance company profits to citizens' care, and derailed the entire antiwar movement? Amazing, no?

Snowflake said...

It would be interesting if someone created a list of the 10 or 20 of the most influential pro Obama blogs-stick a ticking clock next to it that counted days, and ask when they are going to take a position on this issue.

None of them will want to second guess Obama, so they will resist responding-and look like the suck up cowards they are.

This can then be contrasted to a list of PUMA blogs or anyone supporting single payer . It will show everyone the difference between PUMA supporters or sane people and Obama supporters on a real issue-as opposed to the fairy tale issues that the Obama blogs normally rally around.

Bob Harrison said...

Keep those cannons firing! My popguns are going nonstop, too.

Perry Logan said...

"The GOP filibustering UHC is no longer an excuse."This seems a bit unfair. The Republicans' love of filibustering is a reality. It was never an "excuse."

"How is it that the left bows to a politician who finished off any chance of publicly funded elections, prefers insurance company profits to citizens' care, and derailed the entire antiwar movement? Amazing, no?"Amazing, yes. I'm sure he's futzed the economy as well, and will let Republican war crimes fester.

We, the people who saw through Obama right away, need to get our fellow liberals and progressives through their cognitive dissonance as quickly as possible. The sooner they admit Obama is a complete disaster and get organized, the better. Apologies would be nice...but there's no use hoping for miracles.

Anonymous said...

I wish the locution "Obot" would be abandoned. I prefer Obama Fan Base (OFB) because at least a fan, as oppose to a bot, is human. Dehumanization isn't something I'm into.