Posts Tagged ‘universal healthcare’
Americans of a Lesser God?
- Image via Wikipedia
I came across this honest piece at the excellent Blog for Iowa. Sounds like it was originally published in my home-town newspaper, The Burlington Hawk-Eye. [That’s beautiful Burlington, left, at the top.]
I had the following published in the Burlington newspaper last Saturday. I offer it here for people to use, distribute further, etc. My essay is a little long and rambling, but I have been silent too long. And we dare not lose this fight.
David Ure
Burlington, Iowa
~To what lesser God do those people who have no health care insurance belong? What sin did they commit? I have no doubt some of them have made mistakes, made bad choices, engaged in illegal or immoral activities in some instances, didn’t get themselves elected to the state house or Congress; but not all 47 million plus.
The time has come, if we are to continue to call ourselves a nation of God and faith and fairness, for every American to have health insurance. My preference is to plop everyone into Medicare whose operational costs are half to 2/3 lower than the private sector, and allow the insurance companies the opportunity to sell all of us supplemental policies as my elderly, now long-gone, relatives purchased for years.
But I won’t say it has to be this way or nothing. More than anything else, I want to see coverage in place for everyone, and for it to be there in as direct and obvious a manner as can be cobbled together. Read the rest of this entry »
GOP Rep despairs over public option savings
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- The goal isn’t to be bipartisan. The goal is to pass effective health care reform that helps everybody. (americablog.com)
Health insurers near monopoly control of most markets
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I thought I understood why insurance companies were the main threats to a “public option.” It’s easy. Their overhead—exec salaries, advertising, political lobbying, etc.—averages 31%. Medicare’s overhead is 1%. No duh they don’t want to compete.
Today, I found out there’s another reason: they mostly don’t even compete against each other. Consumers in 94% of America’s insurance markets buy their health insurance from near-monopolies that dominate their region. The Bigs don’t want to avoid public competition, they want to avoid any competition.
And what happens when profit-makers don’t have to compete? You know what.
Premiums have risen 87% over the last six years, while profits at the ten Bigs rose 428%. Wait a minute: If your insurer’s profit is up 400%, why are your premiums rising so fast?
So, on with the debate: Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), speaking on Fox News, defended the insurance company position, saying a public option would “destroy the marketplace for health care.”
But TPM today covered a report by Health Care for America Now, saying:
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And maybe that’s why millions of your excess insurance premium dollars are being spent on defeating a public option, rather than on reducing your premium.
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- Why the Critics of a Public Option for Health Care Are Wrong (tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com)
- No Country for Old Men (thehealthcareblog.com)
- Antitrust Laws a Hurdle to Health Care Overhaul (nytimes.com)
- Study: Americans Struggle To Pay For Health Care, With 40 Percent Delaying Treatments Or Services (huffingtonpost.com)
Sen. Grassley: “Bipartisan” means “no public option”
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Aw, c’mon, Senator.
72% of Americans want health care reform to include a “public option.” Nearly three-fourths of the nation. Including more than half of all Republicans.
Sen. Grassley, however, insists that the “public option” must be killed if there is to be a “bipartisan” bill.
But wait. Isn’t America already bipartisan on this? Even Iowans, Mr. Grassley’s constituents, support a public option 56% to 37%.
Mr. Grassley wants the Senate to ignore what a bipartisan majority of American people want in order to get what a minority of U.S. Senators want.
Ah. Then, he’d maintain, we’d have something bipartisan. In Washington. Hooray for that.
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By the way, Senator Grassley is the 6th-largest recipient of health care industry money in the U.S. Senate.
Looks like the industry’s getting what it wants from Mr. Grassley.
Looks like Americans—and Iowans—aren’t.
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