Where In The World Is Universal Healthcare?

We Must Collapse The Current For-Profit Healthcare System And Replace It With Single Payer

I have been writing about a “Not-for-profit” healthcare system (a single payer system) for years. I have shown many countries that have such systems. I have shown that they live longer, have a better quality of life, don’t go bankrupt over medical issues, have fewer dead babies, and actually see the doctors more, but are much more healthy, while spending a fraction per individual than Americans do. How can we be so stupid? How can we NOT want what these other countries (we are somewhere around Number 45 in healthcare in the world… we were once Number 2 or 3) have for their citizens?

My guess is that the answer is that most of us are too stupid to understand what I am writing about. You fall for the two party lies. You fall for the MSM’s lies. You actually like and want corporations dominating you and your life. In other words, as much as Dr. Robert S. Dotson seems to indicate that the problem is the 545 elected congress maniacs, in all actuality the problem is us. Until the current system collapses (and it will, just how long it will take is the question) his recommendations are pertinent:

In a perfect world, it is my opinion that we should have some form of single payer healthcare system and divorce ourselves from corporate medicine. In my opinion, this will not happen without the complete collapse of the present system. Since that is unlikely to occur before more seasons of national election fraud are imposed on us, a few “in-the-meantime” suggestions follow:

Avoid contact with the existing health care system as far as possible. Yes, emergencies arise that require the help of physicians, but by and large one can learn to care for one’s own minor issues. Though it is flawed, the internet has been an information leveler for the masses and permits each person to be his or her own physician to a large degree. Take advantage of it! Educate yourself about your own body and learn to fuel and maintain it as you would an expensive auto or a pet poodle. One does not need a medical degree to:

1. avoid excessive use of tobacco or alcohol or, for that matter, caffeine;
2. avoid poisons like fluoride, aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, and addictive drugs (legal or illicit);
3. avoid unnecessary and potentially lethal imaging studies (TSA’s radiation pornbooths, excessive mammography, repetitive CT scans – exposure to all significantly increases cancer risk);
4. avoid excessive cell phone use and exposure to other forms of EMR pollution where possible (the NSA is recording everything you say and text anyway);
5. avoid daily fast food use and abuse (remember: pink slime and silicone) ;
6. avoid untested GM foods (do you really want to become “Roundup Ready?”):
7. avoid most vaccinations and pharmaceutical agents promoted by the establishment;
8. avoid risky behaviors (and, we do not need a bunch of Nanny State bureaucrats to define and police these);
9. exercise moderately;
10. get plenty of sleep;
11. drink plenty of good quality water (buy a decent water filter to remove fluoride, chloride, and heavy metals);
12. wear protective gear at work and play where appropriate (helmets, eye-shields, knee and elbow pads, etc.):
13. seek out locally-grown, whole, organic foods and support your local food producers;
14. take appropriate nutritional supplements (multi-vitamins, Vitamin C, Vitamin D3);
15. switch off the TV and the mainstream media it represents;
16. educate yourself while you can;

And, lastly…

17. QUESTION AUTHORITY!

We, if we had any sense, whatsoever, would have learned the truth and done away with both faux parties and took the bull by the horns to eliminate the health insurance stranglehold over us (and those corrupt politicians who made it possible that these companies take you for everything you have). And maybe the answer is to address it at the state level, like Maryland seems to be doing.

The following series of videos presents one of the better descriptions of how a single payer system would work, how it would be paid for and how much money would be saved, how it would serve far better healthcare, longer lives, better quality of life, fewer dead babies (and an improvement in every other metric I can think of):

Also, the entire series with transcripts can be seen at the RealNews Network.

Of course, you might want to save 25% over what you pay right now?

Naaa.

h/t Paul Craig Roberts

Importing Measles

via~ Centers for Disease Control

During the first 19 weeks of 2011, 118 cases of measles were reported, the highest number reported for this period since 1996. Of the 118 cases, 105 (89%) were associated with importation from other countries, including 46 importations (34 among U.S. residents traveling abroad and 12 among foreign visitors). Among those 46 cases, 40 (87%) were importations from the World Health Organization (WHO) European and South-East Asia regions. Of the 118, 105 (89%) patients were unvaccinated. Forty-seven (40%) patients were hospitalized and nine had pneumonia. The increased number of measles importations into the United States this year underscores the importance of vaccination to prevent measles and its complications.

I have a better way. Screen those wishing entrance to Amerika.

As a result of high vaccination coverage, measles elimination (i.e., the absence of endemic transmission) was achieved in the United States in the late 1990s (1) and likely in the rest of the Americas since the early 2000s (5). However, as long as measles remains endemic in the rest of the world, importations into the Western Hemisphere will continue.

The prices we pay for a ‘global economy’ that make rich people richer.

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Where In The World Is Universal Healthcare? France

We were supposed to take BuelahGirl to the doctor for a check-up related to a busted ear drum which was the result of ear tubes being placed in her ear canals as a means of minimizing ear infections and related sickness. Of course, at the time she had that surgery, I had a good job and good insurance (but was still out several thousands of dollars). Such is the idea of “good insurance” in America.

Since, however, I was laid off (along with the other sales people) from the company, even tho it was my efforts that was keeping them afloat and subsequently, they have made money off of my endeavors, without me being compensated, nor paid the money that I had on the books (in others words, they used me and kept the money I made them). Such is a “good job” in America.

After being ripped off, we used all of our savings and cashed out what little retirement I had accumulated and have been barely getting by on the meager unemployment compensation. But, we were able to qualify my daughter for TennCare, which is supposed to be a life saver for people put into my predicament. The problem is that almost all the doctors we were using refuse to accept Tenncare and now we find ourselves searching for a doctor that will, even though it was the previous doctor’s operation that CAUSED this problem in the first place. Again, such is “good healthcare” in America.

But let me show you what good healthcare actually is by pointing to the world’s Number 1 country… those stinky under-armed French.

Click to enlarge

 The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks the French health care system as the best in the world. The U.S. system ranks 37th. The complex details of the procedures used to determine these rankings are available on the WHO website. The WHO has hundreds of rankings on health related topics as specific as beer consumption by country. The U.S. fails to distinguish itself favorably in any of them.

Read all of that Rag Blog article to get a taste for how poorly we add up to France and then come here and tell me how we are Number 1. But let me share a quick synopsis:

• France spends $3,300 per capita, while we pay $6,400.
• Infant mortality in France is 3.9 per 1,000 live births, we are 7.0 per 1,000.
• Deaths from respiratory disease in France is 31.2 per 100,000, we are 61.5 per 100,000.
• Deaths preventable with good healthcare (amenable mortality) in France is number 1 of 19 industrialized countries, we are last.
• 65% of the French are satisfied with their healthcare, but only 40% in America are happy (and I would bet it is far lower than that).
• The French have Universal coverage, yet we have 15.4% that are not covered at all (and twice that many are UNDERinsured).
• French insurance companies MUST offer “guaranteed renewability”, so you can’t be dropped due to illness. Here, let me laugh.
• Doctors are paid far less in France, but have no student loans to pay back as we have.
• French doctors are mandated to provide preventative care, here, as my doctor recently told me, she only practices AFTER one is sick.
• French people can go to any doctor they like, even specialists (without referral) and experience no long waits. But here, I have the exact opposite experience.
• France, like us, has new mandatory “Co-Pays”, but a doctor’s visit is roughly $1.42 out of the individual’s pocket… $.71 for a prescription… and a whopping $24/day for a hospital stay. what did you pay in co-pays lately?
• Because the French take care of their citizens so well, especially early on, they live longer and have far better lives.

Yes, those filthy French are horrible, aren’t they? They pay far less than us, but have far superior health and lives. Unlike us and our crazy-assed Ayn Rand wannabes who make policy decisions based simply upon self and as much money as can possibly be made, they actually care for each other over there and are willing to help those (the poor) who can’t afford it by taxes and guaranteeing universal healthcare for everyone. Here, in the Greatest Nation In The World (trademark), however, we are so stupid to realize that our system is nothing more than a corrupt money gobbling system intent on as much profit from every avenue they can find a penny to squeeze it from.

And we continue to fall from our self-perceived perch of grandiosity.

We are truly the stupidest people on the face of the planet for allowing it.

If you like what you see here at The Revolt, please subscribe via Email subscription or by the RSS Feed button found on the upper right hand corner of this page and/or hit the Share Button at the bottom of the post to share via various means.

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BuehlahMan’s Revolt or WordPress.com

Related articles

• Proposed reimbursement rate cut for TennCare providers may mean even fewer services available (knoxnews.com)
• Why healthcare costs so much in the U.S. (dailykos.com)
• Healthcare in America (jsexton0.blogspot.com)
• ObamaCare: How Stupid Are The Sheople, Really? (buelahman.wordpress.com)
• Also Read These for more from B’Man on Universal Healthcare
• More “Where In The World Is Universal Healthcare” at B’Man’s Revolt

BuelahMan is Justin Bieber’s Newest Fan

My daughter is 6. She is “in love” with this kid and “wants to marry him”. She has MADE me sit thru each and every video of him (and Usher). For the life of me, I don’t get it, except to say that the kid is an extremely talented multi-instrumentalist and singer. He dances, too. Personally, if he did rock and roll I might be even more adoring of him.

But before I go on, I want to tell you about my day.

I have been to a foot “specialist” to confirm what I already knew: I have torn my Achilles tendon. This is no minor deal, either. This tendon is one of the worst to tear and repair and is apt to have many more problems with as I go forth. This specialist is a great guy. He was a student of my Mother-in-law and actually rode with her to school for quite some time. He also graduated high school with my wife. He understands my financial situation and is breaking a few of his business rules, but even with that, this is going to cost me alot of money that I don’t have.

Case in point, “The Boot”:

This sweet little contraption normally costs $500. Our friend (The Dr) let me have it for $300. They wanted me to use crutches with this boot and would sell me a pair for $80 (luckily I have access to a bent up pair that my wife’s Grandfather used 20 years ago… which will suffice). I can bend them back straight if it becomes too much of a problem, but they’re good for now.

They did Xrays of my foot and ankle ($150) and his charge for the visit was $100. My insurance comes with a $3500 deductible starting at the beginning of this year, so guess what… it’s all on me at my $290/week unemployment set to end the end of this month. He allowed me to pay $200, but the rest is due within 30 days. He has an order for me to go to the local hospital for an MRI on the lower leg, foot and ankle to confirm what we both know is the problem. I’m guessing somewhere around $1000 (maybe more).

Then, if true (I go back Tuesday for confirmation), he will send me to another Doctor for surgery in a town not too far from here (for he doesn’t work on anything above the ankle). It appears that most Achilles tendon tears are actually up around the calf, where the tendon is at its weakest point and not where it attaches to the heel. All of this means that I can figure to spend at least another $5,000 for the surgery and new Doctor. This is all money I don’t have and no way to get.

So, why do I now find myself a Bieber fan? Because he said this in a Rolling Stones article:

The Canadian-born (Justin) Bieber never plans on becoming an American citizen. “You guys are evil,” he jokes. “Canada’s the best country in the world.” He adds, “We go to the doctor and we don’t need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you’re broke because of medical bills. My bodyguard’s baby was premature, and now he has to pay for it. In Canada, if your baby’s premature, he stays in the hospital as long as he needs to, and then you go home.”

I don’t really know if he was joking or not, but the system is evil as hell, in my opinion. If you have read here any length of time, you know how I feel about Big Meds. I was a huge advocate for Single Payer and wrote about it constantly when the debate (yeah, as IF they ever debated Single payer) was brewing.

I have tracked those corrupt Congresspeople that gain from fighting against Single Payer. And I have paid tribute to the very few who worked to get it debated (and then the ones who capitulated like the lap-dogs they are). I have called the lying liars out on several occasions, noting that Mr Soetero was once a very vocal advocate (but that only happened with certain audiences):

Poor lying bastard.

I also did a series called Where In The World Is Universal Healthcare, where one could do their own investigation into how other countries have implemented similar Single Payer systems and achieved far better results in health that we could ever achieve with a profit driven system. I highly advise you read thru those posts to see how you, as an American, are getting screwed.

Suffice it to say that I recognized that the American Sheople were being taken for a ride and most gobbled up the lies like a 750 pounder gobbles up donuts. We could have better, but the people here need to wake up and get rid of the two party criminal Corptocracy which feeds in large amounts from the health insurance industry.

Rock on, Biebes!

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BuehlahMan’s Revolt or WordPress.com

Where In The World Is Universal Healthcare? Taiwan Revisited

I wrote about Taiwan here with a breakdown of how their system is implemented and who and what it covers and for how much. Today, I received a letter from my friend Doctor Sutherland, who is the TN Chair of PNHP. He expressed delight in the fact that our calls this week must have made a difference, because the Wiener Amendment is again going to be voted on (probably Saturday):

Politics are unpredictable! The Weiner amendment for Single-Payer is now back on the floor of the House thanks to calls, emails and faxes sent to the Congressional leaders this past week.
This is our last big push to get true health care reform passed this year. Please call your Congressperson tomorrow and flood their switchboard with our voices to pass Single-Payer. The public is confused and tired of the way the Congress has tried to cobble more of the same dysfunction on our broken system- give them a simple and efficient plan to vote on to get true health care reform now.
Push for “Improved and Expanded Medicare for All”! Send this out to all your colleagues and families and friends.

Health care is a human right.

I have been to this man’s house and spent time with him. He is wealthy and has a very renowned practice in Memphis. He could keep his mouth shut because he and his wife are set for life. But just like many of the other Doctors that are ready to fight for Universal Healthcare, even to the extent of going to jail for it, I believe he sees the injustices and wants change. There isn’t a dubious rationale that I can imagine and I have a great deal of respect for him and his views. He went farther to add Ida Hellander’s letter to members and activists:

Dear PNHP Board and Activists,

Quick update and “last call” for lobbying your Representative to support Medicare for All!

The latest news from Capital Hill is that there could be a vote on the Weiner amendment for single payer as soon as this Friday, although it may not come up until Saturday.  The House is expected to vote on the Democrats’ bill at 6 p.m. Saturday.  The Kucinich amendment did not make it into the final bill, and is dead.

Last minute calls to encourage your Representative to vote “yes” on the Weiner amendment for single payer are encouraged.  The Congressional Switchboard number is (202) 224-3121.

As Harvard health economist William Hsiao told the New York Times yesterday “you can have universal coverage and good quality health care while still managing to control costs. But you have to have a single-payer system to do it.”

In solidarity,

 

Ida Hellander

Its not too late to make a difference. Call.

But, also read detail about a system that was implemented in Taiwan and how, who and why they did it in this fashion (remembering that we, America, is the only industrialized wealthy nation IN THE WORLD that doesn’t implement something similar.

Health Care Abroad: Taiwan

By Anne Underwood
New York Times
Prescriptions blog
Nov. 3, 2009

William Hsiao is a professor of economics at the Harvard School of Public Health and co-author of the 2004 book “Getting Health Reform Right.” He served as a health care adviser to the Taiwan government in the 1990s, when officials decided to reform that country’s health care system and to introduce universal coverage. He spoke with Anne Underwood, a freelance writer.

Q. Taiwan instituted universal insurance in 1995. What was the health care system like before?

A. Only a portion of the people were insured, including civil servants, employees of large firms and farmers. The military had its own system of coverage. But 45 percent of the population did not have insurance, and they faced financial barriers to access to health care. President Lee Teng-hui felt strongly that he wanted to do something concrete and visible for all the citizens. He thought of introducing national health insurance to touch the lives of all the people. There was a sense in Taiwan that health care is needed by everyone and a country has to assure everyone equal access.

Q. How did you become involved in the health care reform process?

A. The government initially appointed four Taiwanese professors to lead a task force of technical experts. But the four professors all had different ideas. It was like a wagon drawn by four horses, with each going in a different direction and nobody driving. After a year of this, government officials realized there was a problem. In addition, they wanted someone who understood health systems and health care abroad and what lessons other countries could offer to Taiwan. The domestic experts did not have much international experience.

I was invited to a three-day workshop, where they tested me. At the end, I was put in charge of the task force of four professors and 16 other technical experts. It turned out to be a big advantage that I’m not Taiwanese and had no aspirations of getting a job in Taiwan. At the end of the day, our recommendations and findings were perceived as more objective and free of self-interest.

Q. What was your assignment as head of this task force?

A. We had to design a national health insurance plan for Taiwan, based on international experience. Government officials wanted to understand how other advanced countries fund and organize health care and learn from their successes and failures, so I made a study of the systems in six high-income countries – the United States, the U.K., Germany, France, Canada, Singapore and Japan.

Q. And what was your conclusion at the end of this study?

A. We adopted a single-payer system along the Canadian lines. I did not invent it. I’m just in the transfer-of-knowledge business.

Q. Why did you choose the Canadian model?

A. Canada has a single-payer system with universal insurance coverage. It offers people free choice of doctors and hospitals, and it has competition on the delivery side between public and private hospitals. The quality of health services is very high, and people were very satisfied with the system from the 1980s through the mid-1990s.

Unfortunately, in the early-to-mid 1990s, Canada went through a severe recession for four or five years. The budget became very tight. The government underfunded national health insurance, which led to long waiting lines for elective surgery, MRIs and so forth. But when Canada adequately financed its N.H.I., it was a very good system.

Q. In Taiwan, can people choose any doctor or hospital they want?

A. Yes, any provider. Americans talk about choice. But in fact, insurance plans in this country restrict what providers you can go to. Canada gives its citizens more choice of providers. So does Germany. So does England. So does Taiwan.

Q. How comprehensive is the coverage?

A. It covers prevention, primary care and hospitalization, among other things.

Q. I‘ve read that it also covers Chinese massage, acupuncture, traditional herbal medicine, mental health care, dental, vision and long-term care.

A. Yes, these services are covered. We tried to design a benefit package that would give people what they value. For many Taiwanese, that includes traditional Chinese medicine. Though Chinese medicine is not 100 percent proven to be medically effective, people believe in it. And some therapies have been proven effective. For example, when acupuncture is given in certain spots, it stimulates the brain to release opiates.

Q. The Taiwanese system also covers home care.

A. You need home care by visiting nurses for people who are chronically ill or bedridden. It’s not rocket science to recognize this. Some people argue that the patients should pay for home care themselves. But if people have to pay out of pocket, they might not ask for visiting nurse services and their illnesses may get much worse. Then they will need to be hospitalized.

Q. Is the system very expensive?

A. Expensive is a relative term. Taiwan spends 6 percent of G.D.P. on health care, compared to 16 percent in the United States.

Q. How much do people have to pay?

A. If you’re employed, your employer pays 60 percent of your premium. The employee pays 30 percent, and the government subsidizes 10 percent. The government fully subsidizes the premiums for the poor and gives partial subsidies to veterans, the self-employed and farmers.

Q. How much is the typical premium?

A. The total insurance premium for employed workers is 4.6 percent of wages. That’s much lower than in the United States, where the average is between 12 and 20 percent of wages for those who are covered by their employers.

Q. Are there co-pays, too?

A. Yes. The task force felt that service should not be totally free or else people might waste services. For example, we studied what happened in Taiwan when some insurance policies gave prescription drugs free to everyone. One-third of the drugs dispensed were never taken but thrown away. You can imagine, if you have free office visits, some people will say, “I have this little ache. I’ll go see the doctor because it’s free.” We wanted to moderate this waste.

Q. How high are co-pays?

A. The charge is $2 for a visit to a clinic and about $4 to a hospital outpatient department. The co-pay for hospitalization is now 10 percent for the first 30 days and 20 percent for the days beyond 30 days. For prescriptions, it’s 20 percent of the cost of the drug, but capped at $6 for each prescription. Taiwan also sets a ceiling on the total co-pays, so patients won’t face bankruptcy.

Q. How long did it take to implement this program?

A. Less than a year. Mr. Lee pushed through the legislation in four to five months, because an election was coming. Then he asked for the new system to be implemented six months after that – and they did it.

Q. What percent of the population is now insured?

A. Within the first year, Taiwan managed to insure 95 percent of the population. That increased that by another percent or so each year, until they reached 98 percent. They had trouble with that last 2 percent, because some were living overseas and others were homeless. The government literally sent people to find the homeless under bridges and enroll them. Now they have close to 99 percent enrollment.

Q. Has this translated into better life expectancy or lower complication rates from major diseases?

A. There is evidence of positive health results for select diseases, like cardiovascular disease and kidney failure. But overall, it’s really difficult to say that national health insurance has improved the aggregate health status, because mortality and life expectancy are crude measurements, not precise enough to pick up the impact of more health care. That said, life expectancy is improving, and mortality is dropping. And everyone now has access to good health care.

Q. What does the system do particularly well?

A. In addition to covering everyone, it has a uniform system of electronic health records. Every patient has a Smart Card. When you go in for services, the physician puts the card into his computer. You give him the code to access your records, which are all stored on the card – what medications you’ve taken, what tests, along with the results, the last time you saw another physician. With a single, unified electronic system, it improves treatment and it also vastly reduces claims processing. Hospitals and doctors get paid in a week or two. It’s a paperless system. That’s why it keeps administrative costs down to 2.3 percent of the total premium. In the United States, it’s more than 10 percent.

Taiwan was also able to control health-expenditure increases very well in the early years. Unfortunately, now that the government budget is tight, it is overdoing it.

Q. What are the system’s weaknesses?

A. In the legislative process, compromises had to be made. First, the president yielded on payment reform, so Taiwan kept its fee-for-service payment system. Unfortunately, that encourages doctors and hospitals to give more treatment in order to boost their income.

Second, the Taiwanese system doesn’t have a systematic way to monitor and improve quality of care.

Third, in the legislative process, they rejected a provision to adjust the premium automatically when the national health system depletes its reserves. In every country, health care costs are increasing faster than wages. When that happens, the premium has to go up. But that provision wasn’t incorporated into the law. As a result, the system is running a deficit. National health insurance tries to cut the fees for hospital and physician services. But eventually these fee reductions will adversely affect the quality of health care.

Q. What’s the most important lesson that Americans can learn from the Taiwanese example?

A. You can have universal coverage and good quality health care while still managing to control costs. But you have to have a single-payer system to do it.

Originally found here.

Where In The World Is Universal Healthcare? Taiwan

The Natural News has become a regular daily read for me. The Health Ranger (Mike Adams) has been a long time proponent of Universal Healthcare, for many of the same reasons that I do. The first and foremost is that Medicine and healing should NOT be a “for-profit” endeavor that only really accomplishes one thing: a monopoly for Big Meds and Big Insurance.

In Mike’s latest article, “Read This, Seniors: Tawian’s Universal Health Care System Provides Full Coverage For $21 a Month – Why Can’t We?“, he delves into the system that Taiwan provides for extremely low to no cost. They, of course, take a wholly different approach to health in Taiwan and push for natural medicines (covering it, as well) and preventative care instead of the Big Pharma fix of more and more unproven medicines and treatments intent on keeping us sick and unhealthy.

Taiwan’s universal care system provides full coverage for slightly over $21 / month for an individual who is unemployed. A typical family of four where both parents work is paying roughly $75 / month which includes full coverage for both the parents and their two children.

A person who is self-employed pays roughly $45 / month. Someone who is employed at an average income level pays just $10 / month (the employer pays the rest). The out-of-pocket fee for a typical visit to the doctor is roughly five dollars.

Taiwan isn’t some third-world country. This is an advanced, first-world nation with state-of-the-art western medical care. They have high-end technology, world-class physicians trained in western medical schools (I mean, if you believe in western medicine as being useful), and some of the most modern hospitals in Asia. I was actually in a Taiwan hospital just a few months ago, and I got to witness a simple outpatient surgical procedure conducted quickly, efficiently and with amazing medical expertise.

Veterans are provided 100% free health insurance for life. Spouses of veterans get 70% of their insurance paid by the government. All farmers and fishermen only have to pay 30% of their insurance, too, because the other 70% is paid by the government. This means the average Taiwan farmer pays just a few dollars a month for health insurance.

Low-income individuals receive 100% free health care and pay nothing for full coverage. (http://www.nhi.gov.tw/english/webda…)

Amazing, huh? Are you wondering how they do it? Before we get into that, this is what Taiwan provides in their system:

What’s covered in Taiwan’s universal health care system

Taiwan’s universal health care system covers: (http://www.nhi.gov.tw/english/webda…)

• All doctor checkups and routine medical procedures

• All pharmaceuticals

• All dental care other than cosmetic

• All vision and eye care

• Emergency medicine, including ambulance costs (covers 80%, you pay 20%)

• Physical therapy and rehabilitation services

• All prenatal care and birthing care

• Traditional Chinese Medicine, including acupuncture, herbs and medical massage (Tui-Na)

• At-home care (covers 90%, you pay 10%)

• Long-term chronic care in the hospital (you pay 5% for the first 30 days, then increasingly more the longer you stay, with a maximum of roughly $875 out of pocket per stay, no matter how long)

• All mental health care, including psychiatric medicine

I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t look so bad, does it? But, surely us Big Fat White People are simply so different from those little yellow people that comparing such systems doesn’t work (like Ed insinuated about Panama’s Single Payer System)? Do I have to explain how ignorant such a statement is? I mean, aren’t we America, by God? Can’t we do anything we want to do?

Here is what is NOT covered by their system:

What’s NOT included in Taiwan’s universal health care system

Taiwan’s universal health care system doesn’t cover everything. Here’s some of what’s not included:

• Cosmetic surgery, including breast enlargement, facial surgery and purely cosmetic dental procedures. If cosmetic reconstruction is necessary due to an accident or injury, then it is covered.

• Vaccinations

• Sex change surgeries

• Infertility procedures or birth control surgeries

• Over-the-counter medications

• Blood (for transfusions) (You have to buy your own blood, or bring a relative who has some to spare)

• Experimental medicine

• Eye glasses and artificial eyes

• Wheel chairs, walking canes

• Hearing aids

• Substance abuse addiction recovery

Those are the big exclusions. Nearly everything else is covered, including dental, prenatal, emergency medicine and medications.

One could squabble that EVERYTHING should be covered, but I don’t agree. I think we should evaluate each and every other Universal System in place in the world; take the best of each and implement it here. By doing so, we could end up with the very best system in the world and could truly say, “We’re Number 1!”, again in reality and truth.

No matter what, the value-deducting Health Insurance Companies MUST go. There is no place for the middle man that offers nothing of value; in fact, they deduct value from each and every visit to your doctor and every interaction in your health.

If you disagree, please explain to me in comments precisely what it is of value that Big Insurance does to earn that 30%?

Until then, take a gander as to how Mike explains the biggest differences between the Taiwanese system and ours:

The differences between Taiwan’s health care philosophy and America’s philosophy is revealingly found in a web-based ad appearing at the Bureau of National Health Insurance for Taiwan (http://www.nhi.gov.tw/). It offers the following advice:

• Exercise
• Drink Water
• Eat a Healthy Diet
• Enjoy Nature
• Be Happy

In the U.S., a similar ad on a U.S. government website would instead say something like:

• Get vaccinated
• Get irradiated with a mammogram
• Take more medications
• Avoid sunlight
• Avoid nutritional supplements and healing herbs

Is it any wonder that the U.S. health care system is failing? The U.S. system pushes pharmaceuticals, surgery and truly bad health advice that just keeps people trapped in a cycle of disease. The Taiwan system, on the other hand, actually encourages people to adopt healthy lifestyle changes and prevent disease. Is it any wonder that Taiwan gets better results?

Where In The World Is Universal Healthcare? Panama

(Taken from the comments here, Kelso explains, AGAIN, exactly how the propaganda is nothing but lies and fear tactics)

Okey-dokey, let’s do this one more time, B’Man.

I live in a country with a Single-Payer system.  There is not one piece of American Anti-Single Payer propaganda that’s true.  All lies:

* “DEATH” PANELS: Not true. The elderly and chronically-ill are priority patients if anything.

* THE GOVERNMENT INTERFERES IN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR DOCTOR: Not true.  The government’s roles are to pay medical personnel, set salary MINIMUMS which UNIONIZED doctors, nurses, support staff may protest and always settle through a collective bargaining process.

* DOCTORS AND NURSE ARE NOT ADAQUATELY COMPENSATED: Manure.  What Single-Payer does is merely make health-care essentially free for people.  That’s all.  They have no say in how hospitals run themselves other than providing courts through which people settle malpractice claims and the like.  There is PLENTY of salary competition among hospitals, for example, for the best thoracic surgeon, or the best post-natal nurse, or whatever.

* YOU HAVE NO PRIVACY: Lie.  You have more privacy because only Sheople ™ would allow a government more intrusive powers when they are the ones who put the government into power and a government is in charge of something. Yes.  I excuse you guys.  You can let the government walk all over you just the way you like.  When these systems were put into place in other countries, there were national referenda restricting government access to doctor patient and nurse patient records and files.

* YOU HAVE NO CHOICE OF DOCTOR.  Utter horseshit.  You can see a different doctor for each ailment as long as you can keep finding new ones in the Yellow Pages.

* IT’S “SOCIALISM“.  For people yes, for medical professionals, no.  Besides, there is not a capitalist self-governing nation on Earth that is purely “free-market” or purely “socialist.”  Every country is basically capitalist with some balance of the efficiency of the market economy with the social justice of collective-ownership (yes, including the USA)

* THE QUALITY OF CARE IS NOT UP TO USA STANDARDS. Please don’t tell me you believe this.  About half the doctors where I live have gone to the best medical schools in the US and Europe, our National University Medical School is top-shelf as are the medical throughout South America.

* YOU CAN’T HAVE PRIVATE INSURANCE FOR EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES OR TO COVER TRANSPLANTS: Wrong.  The difference is that private insurers have a hard ceiling as to what the can charge you in premiums and may not — by law — deny anybody anything for pre-existing conditions. You’d get some crazily good Major Medical coverage for $200/month, without waiving your National Health at all

* LONG LINES: Wrong. No lines. And family doctors make house-calls.

* THIRD WORLD HOSPITALS: If you consider a brand-new branch of say Johns Hopkins University Hospital to be “third world,” you’re right.

* COMMUNIST BUDGET-BUSTING SOCIAL-PROGRAM FAVORING POOR OVER WORKING MAN: Manure. The budget here is in surplus.  Why? No wars of choice.  No bloated military apparatus.  No militarized police-prison state.

* THEY’LL RAISE MY TAXES: HR 676 will not raise your taxes. But here I pay 15% corporate.  Maximum 10% personal.  And 1% capital gains.  You can do an awful lot of good in an economy in which nobody has an incentive to cheat because no one wants to tinker with a good thing. Again, no wars and no Tax Bureaucracy and no nosy police state does wonders for a budget.

FREE INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS LESSON:
Venezuela, by the way, has less of its productive capacity in government hands than the USA does, and what it does have is actually collectively-owned by the people, as opposed to being for-profit entities for the benefit of the IRS and Federal Reserve.

The “socialist” government of Venezuela is far more fiscally and monetarily conservative than the governments of the United States have EVER been with the possible exceptions of Bush Sr’s last two years and Bill Clinton’s first two years.

Canadians Setting The Record Straight On Their Universal Healthcare

What do you do when people tell lies about you? Do you sit around and ignore it?

What do you do when people seem to intentionally misrepresent something about America or our particular issues? Do you explain the issue and squash the rhetoric?

Thank goodness these Canadians have heard enough of the bullshit and want to set the record straight:

Universal Health Care Message to Americans From Canadian Doctors & Health Care Experts

Canadian Doctors for Medicare hosted a celebration of Medicare in Canada. The speakers included Roy Romanow, former Saskatchewan Premiere and Commissioner on Health Care in Canada. They tell Americans that Canadian universal health care works and encourage Americans to implement a single payer universal health care systems.

Then, to contrast, we have our government officials telling us that government can’t help them:

Sen Coburn Tells Women Crying Over Health Care “Govt Is Not The Answer”

h/t AfterDowningstreet

Methinks that our government officials are owned; lock, stock and barrel.

Where In The World Is Universal Healthcare? Denmark

And leave it up to Lou Dobbs to point this out.

WHAT?!? LOU DOBBS?

I don’t know what his angle is, but the illumination from the MSM is needed. Leslie Savan, from The Nation wrote an article, picked up by Alternet and I saw the link at AfterDowningStreet. I couldn’t believe my ears and had to add it here.

Of course, even with the current system:

HERE’S ONE WAY TO CUT HEALTH CARE COSTS

Mort Mintz, Nieman Watchdog - “We have to control the rate of increase in health care costs,” the chief executive officer of Aetna Inc., told Judy Woodruff the other evening on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer. Woodruff didn’t mention a glaringly obvious way for Ronald A. Williams and his counterparts in the health-insurance industry to slow the rise in those costs: slashing their exorbitant compensation. “Anyone who wants to know why health insurance is so expensive need look no further than the insurance company proxy statements,” Frank Schneider, of Chicago, wrote in the current issue of The Progressive Populist. According to the latest statement, United Healthcare paid its CEO, Stephen Hemsley, $3,241,042 in 2008,” Schneider said in a letter to the editor. “But don’t shed a tear; he was paid $13,164,529 in 2007. . . The top five executives of the half dozen of the largest health insurance companies took home $169,837,696 in 2008. And that was a bad year for executives, with the collapsing stock market.”

h/t UnderNews

Los Angeles, Guatemala

This is what your beloved Health Insurance Companies would love to have in place for those they refuse to cover or cannot afford coverage.

Am I the only real life redneck who thinks that this shit is absurd?

Stan Brock says it all when he says, “This could be Guatemala. There is no difference.”

h/t Organizing Notes:

These “health care fairs” are popping up all over the country as currently almost 50 million Americans have no real health care. Is this the kind of reform the health insurance corporations suggest we have?

Last night at the cultural rally in Seoul one of the songs had a chorus line that went: “Say good-bye to the world you thought you lived in”……a fitting way to describe America’s race to the bottom of the barrel.

Isn’t it past time that we began to demand more and to fight for it?

We have become a colonized people in the US by the corporate powers but we still seem to suffer from the illusion that we are a democracy and that the people are in charge. The sooner we wake up from this misbegotten dream the better for us all.

And then California does THIS (h/t WorldProutAssembly):

A state board voted Thursday to begin terminating health insurance for more than 60,000 children Oct. 1 as a result of the budget amendments signed into law recently by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Those children would be up for an annual review of their coverage next month, but instead they may be dropped from the California Healthy Families program under the action by the state Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board. The board is scrambling to secure funding from other sources, including money set aside by voters for early childhood education, but so far it has come up short. If additional funds are not found, board officials said, the program could ultimately drop 669,296 children in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2010. Currently, 921,000 people age 18 and younger are enrolled in Healthy Families.

By Patrick McGreevy and Evan Halper

Yes, cut healthcare for the neediest. I know I ain’t no California Dude, but this sure seems fucked up to me.

Heather, at C&L, has a clip of  Real Time’s Real Reporter, Dana Gould, as he examines the difference between visiting the right-wing nutcases and the RAM gathering in California. Can you imagine the upside down rationale for the people WITH healthcare being all pissed off about Single payer (or any kind of change), when the people hurting the most are the most cordial and helpful?

RT-Gould-081409

►

But the Brutal Truth About America’s Healthcare is described by the founder of RAM, Stan Brock in this interview and article first published at The Independent/UK and also featured at CommonDreams. You keep hearing the Rush maniacs scream at TownHall events, but they are mum about this issue. Here is a snippet:

…

President Obama’s healthcare plans had been a central plank of his first-term program, but his reform package has taken a battering at the hands of Republican opponents in recent weeks. As the Democrats have failed to coalesce around a single, straightforward proposal, their rivals have seized on public hesitancy over “socialized medicine” and now the chance of far-reaching reform is in doubt.

Most damaging of all has been the tide of vociferous right-wing opponents whipping up skepticism at town hall meetings that were supposed to soothe doubts. In Pennsylvania this week, Senator Arlen Specter was greeted by a crowd of 1,000 at a venue designed to accommodate only 250, and of the 30 selected speakers at the event, almost all were hostile.

The packed bleachers in the LA Forum tell a different story. The mobile clinic has been organized by the remarkable Remote Area Medical. The charity usually focuses on the rural poor, although they worked in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Now they are moving into more urban venues, this week’s event in Los Angeles is believed to be the largest free healthcare operation in the country.

Doctors, dentists and therapists volunteer their time, and resources to the organization. To many US medical professionals, it offers a rare opportunity to plug into the public service ethos on which their trade was supposedly founded. “People come here who haven’t seen a doctor for years. And we’re able to say ‘Hey, you have this, you have this, you have this’,” said Dr Vincent Anthony, a kidney specialist volunteering five days of his team’s time. “It’s hard work, but incredibly rewarding. Healthcare needs reform, obviously. There are so many people falling through the cracks, who don’t get care. That’s why so many are here.”

Ironically, given this week’s transatlantic spat over the NHS, Remote Area Medical was founded by an Englishman: Stan Brock. The 72-year-old former public schoolboy, Taekwondo black belt, and one-time presenter of Wild Kingdom, one of America’s most popular animal TV shows, left the celebrity gravy train in 1985 to, as he puts it, “make people better”.

Today, Brock has no money, no income, and no bank account. He spends 365 days a year at the charity events, sleeping on a small rolled-up mat on the floor and living on a diet made up entirely of porridge and fresh fruit. In some quarters, he has been described, without too much exaggeration, as a living saint.

Though anxious not to interfere in the potent healthcare debate, Mr Brock said yesterday that he, and many other professionals, believes the NHS should provide a benchmark for the future of US healthcare.

“Back in 1944, the UK government knew there was a serious problem with lack of healthcare for 49.7 million British citizens, of which I was one, so they said ‘Hey Mr Nye Bevan, you’re the Minister for Health… go fix it’. And so came the NHS. Well, fast forward now 66 years, and we’ve got about the same number of people, about 49 million people, here in the US, who don’t have access to healthcare.”

“I’ve been very conservative in my outlook for the whole of my life. I’ve been described as being about 90,000 miles to the right of Attila the Hun. But I think one reaches the reality that something doesn’t work… In this country something has to be done. And as a proud member of the US community but a loyal British subject to the core, I would say that if Britain could fix it in 1944, surely we could fix it here in America.

Healthcare compared

Health spending as a share of GDP

US 16%

UK 8.4%

Public spending on healthcare (% of total spending on healthcare)

US 45%

UK 82%

Health spending per head

US $7,290

UK $2,992

Practising physicians (per 1,000 people)

US 2.4

UK 2.5

Nurses (per 1,000 people)

US 10.6

UK 10.0

Acute care hospital beds (per 1,000 people)

US 2.7

UK 2.6

Life expectancy:

US 78

UK 80

Infant mortality (per 1,000 live births)

US 6.7

UK 4.8

Source: WHO/OECD Health Data 2009

Where In The World Is Universal Healthcare? Venezuela’s Horrible Socialized Medicine State

How many of you still swallow the MSM shit burger about how horrible Chavez and Venezuela are? Isn’t it amazing how he differs from our politicians in that he seems to actually care about his fellow citizens and their health (not so much around here, eh)? The fact is that Americans are so snookered (or downright stupid) that they believe all the bullshit that the Politicians blather (these are the same assholes who get much of their campaign financing from the same assholes who are gouging us in healthcare). Funny how that works, huh?

Susie at C&L links to one of the better articles I have read that exposes the truth about the comparison of them versus us (sometimes, even that democratic party sycophantic blog gets something right). I just wish Amato would get off that Dem Party bandwagon. Me thinks he wants and needs to rub elbows with these same shitbags who are ravaging America and his indebtedness (or awestruck fandom) is not helping true Progressives. In the meantime, I will give the ones there who actually act as if they are progressive their due when deserved (Blue Gal and Susie are a couple of the best):

A Look at the Venezuelan Healthcare System

By Caitlin McNulty, Venezuela Analysis

Many in the United States fear that people would abuse a free health care system, causing overcrowding and a compromised level of care. Others claim that a single payer system would limit the freedoms of both doctor and patient. These claims, propagated by the corporate media in the United States, are a hollow attempt to keep those in the US from organizing to demand single payer health care.

The right to health care is guaranteed in the Venezuelan Constitution, which was written and ratified by the people in 1999.  Through implementing a state-funded social program called Barrio Adentro, or inside the barrio, free comprehensive health care is available to all Venezuelans. Beginning in June 2003 through a trade pact with Cuba, Venezuela began to bring Cuban doctors, medical technology, and medications into rural and urban communities free of charge in exchange for low-cost oil. The 1.5 million dollar per year program expanded to provide a broad network of small neighborhood clinics, larger regional clinics, and hospitals which aim to serve the entire Venezuelan population. (1) Chavez has referred to this new health care system as the “democratization of health care” stating that “health care has become a fundamental social right and the state will assume the principal role in the construction of a participatory system for national public health.” (2) In Venezuela, not only is health care a right; it is recognized as essential for true participatory democracy.

Some of what characterizes this movement towards health care for all includes popular participation, preventative medicine, and evaluation of community health issues. Western medicine typically operates in a top-down fashion. Doctors treat symptoms, and often fail to evaluate the larger picture of community health issues or teach prevention. (3) In a private for-profit system, there is little incentive to prevent costly illnesses. In Venezuela, however, Barrio Adentro began constructing clinics within neighborhoods where many had never been to a doctor. Through this program, a community can organize to receive funding to build a clinic and bring in doctors. The community is responsible for creating health committees, the members of which go door to door to assess the specific health issues of their community.  Doctors who live in the communities also make house calls. (4) People participate in the process of serving the health needs of the entire population.

The extensive health program is also being used to train a new generation of Venezuelan doctors. The training program takes place within the clinic system itself and relies heavily on experiential learning. The program seeks to build a new relationship between doctor and patient based on the values of service, solidarity and compassion. Doctors participating in the training program are coming from the communities they are learning in and serving, building on their intimate knowledge of the communities to provide truly compassionate and personalized care.  Using popular forums, medical professionals are able to respond to the needs of the community and offer education, treatment and consultation addressing unique public health issues.(6)

Although the system began by focusing exclusively on preventative health, it has expanded to include emergency health services, mental health services, surgeries, cancer treatment, dental care, access to optometrists as well as free glasses and contact lenses, support systems for those with disabilities and their families, as well as access to a large variety of medical specialists. They have succeeded in taking an under funded, corrupt public health care system and changing not only the quality and accessibility but also the mentality of those working there. Instead of a for-profit industry systematically denying access to large sectors of the population, health care in Venezuela is seen as a basic human right. No one is turned away, and no one is denied care. In Venezuela, they treat whole person, not simply their illness, and money stays where it belongs- outside of the health care system.(7)

During my time in Venezuela, I developed a cough that went on for three weeks and progressively worsened. Finally, after I had become incredibly congested and developed a fever, I decided to attend a Barrio Adentro clinic. The closest one available was a Barrio Adentro II Centro de Diagonostico Integral (CDI) and I headed in without my medical records or calling to make an appointment. Immediately, I was ushered into a small room where Carmen, a friendly Cuban doctor, began questioning me about my symptoms. She listened to my lungs and walked me over to another examination room where, again without waiting, I had x-rays taken. Afterwards, the technician walked me to a chair and apologized profusely that I had to wait for the x-rays to be developed, promising that it would take no more than five minutes. Sure enough, five minutes later he returned with both x-rays developed. Carmen studied the x-rays and informed me that I had pneumonia, showing me the telltale shadows. She sent me away with my x-rays, three medications to treat my pneumonia, congestion, and fever, and made me promise to come back if my conditioned failed to improve or worsened within three days.

I walked out of the clinic with a diagnosis and treatment within twenty-five minutes of entering, without paying a dime. There was no wait, no paperwork, and no questions about my ability to pay, my nationality, or whether, as a foreigner, I was entitled to free comprehensive health care. There was no monetary value connected with my physical well-being; the care I received was not contingent upon my ability to pay. I was treated with dignity, respect, and compassion, my illness was cured and I was able to continue with my journey in Venezuela.

This past year, a family friend was not so lucky. At the age of 56, she was going back to school and was uninsured. She came down with what she thought was a severe case of the flu, and as her condition worsened she decided not to see a doctor because of the cost. She died at home in bed, losing her life to a system that did not respect her basic human right to survive. Her death is not an isolated incident. Over 18,000 United States residents die every year because of their lack of prohibitively expensive health insurance. The United States has the distinct honor of being the “only wealthy industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage”.(8) Instead, we have commodified the public health and well being of those live in the US, leaving them on their own to obtain insurance. Those whose jobs do not provide insurance, can’t get enough hours to qualify for health care coverage through their workplace, are unemployed, or have “previously existing conditions” that exclude them from coverage are forced to choose between the potentially fatal decision of refusing medical care and accumulating medical bills that trap them in an inescapable cycle of debt. And sometimes, that decision is made for them. Doctors often ask that dreaded question; “do you have insurance?” before scheduling critical tests, procedures, or treatments. When the answer is no, treatments that were deemed necessary before are suddenly canceled as the ability to pay becomes more important than the patient’s health.(9)

It is estimated that there are over fifty million United States residents currently living without health insurance, a number that will skyrocket as unemployment rates increase and people lose their work-based health care coverage in this time of international financial crisis.(10) Already this year, 7.5 million people have lost work-related coverage. Budget cuts for the state of Washington this year will remove over forty thousand people from Washington Basic Health, a subsidized program which already has a waiting list of seventeen thousand people.(11) As I returned to the US from Venezuela, I was faced with the realization that as a society, the United States places a monetary value on life. That we make life and death judgments based on an individual’s ability to pay. And that someone with the same condition I had recently recovered from had died because, according to our system, her life wasn’t insured.

Many in the United States fear that people would abuse a free health care system, causing overcrowding and a compromised level of care. Others claim that a single payer system would limit the freedoms of both doctor and patient. These claims, propagated by the corporate media in the United States, are a hollow attempt to keep those in the US from organizing to demand single payer health care. Primary care and preventative medicine are seen as the first steps towards sustainable universal health care, keeping people out of costly hospital stays, tests, and treatments down the road.  Socializing the costs of medicine keeps costs low by preventing expensive treatments and health problems. It is difficult to understand how much quality, free health care means until you find yourself in a position of vulnerability and need. I felt a sense of security traveling in Venezuela that I do not feel in the United States; in Venezuela, there is a safety net ready to catch you when you fall. People in the US must ask themselves, as a country, where our values lie and how we have not only let people slip through the cracks but worked to systematically exclude them. Do we believe that insurance corporations and the medical industrial complex should be profiting from denying care and keeping sick people from receiving treatment? Or do we believe that care should be separate from an individual’s ability to pay? As a nation, we must embrace our humanity and value life over profits.

Notes:

1 Wilpert, Gregory. Changing Venezuela The History and Policies of the Chavez Government. New York: Verso, 2006.

2 “Mision Barrio Adentro.” Mision Barrio Adentro. 02 June 2009 <http://www.barrioadentro.gov.ve/&gt;.

3 Wilpert, Gregory. Changing Venezuela The History and Policies of the Chavez Government. New York: Verso, 2006.

4 “Mision Barrio Adentro.” Mision Barrio Adentro. 02 June 2009 <http://www.barrioadentro.gov.ve/&gt;.

6 “Mision Barrio Adentro.” Mision Barrio Adentro. 02 June 2009 <http://www.barrioadentro.gov.ve/&gt;.

7 ibid

8 “Insuring America’s Health: Principles and Recommendations -.” Institute of Medicine. 02 June 2009 <http://www.iom.edu/?id=19175&gt;.

9 “PR-2000-43/ WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION : ASSESSES THE WORLD’S HEALTH SYSTEMS.” 02 June 2009 <http://www.who.int/inf-pr-2000/en/pr2000-44.html&gt;.

10 “Census Revises Estimates of the Number of Uninsured People – Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 02 June 2009 <http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=245&gt;.

11 “PR-2000-43/ WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION : ASSESSES THE WORLD’S HEALTH SYSTEMS.” 02 June 2009 <http://www.who.int/inf-pr-2000/en/pr2000-44.html&gt;.

America’s Health Insurance: Care Is Not The Goal— Profit Is

THOUGHTS ON SINGLE PAYER HEALTH INSURANCE

Richard Scheerer – Early in my work history, the manager of our personnel department came to me with a moral, ethical, and legal dilemma he was facing. Once a month, the president of the company directed this manager to provide him with a copy of the group medical claim report prepared by our plan administrator. From this report, the president could determine which employees or dependents had medical expenses and the severity of the condition involved. If the conditions had the potential of reoccurring costs, the president would indicate his dissatisfaction to the employee’s superior leading to the employee being terminated or better yet, being forced to resign without unemployment benefits. Even valued employees or company officers did not escape; they would be slowly stripped of responsibilities and would never again qualify for a raise or promotion. What makes this situation so reprehensible and eye opening is that this was an insurance company that sold personal health insurance policies.

This is no longer an isolated situation as employers today continue to eliminate employees for medical reasons to reduce health care costs. The “downsizing” craze of a few years ago was a way to get rid of older long term employees and the higher expenses associated with them – salaries, longer vacations, higher health care costs, higher pension contributions, etc.

I have spent most of my career as an officer of various insurance companies and finished my career as a reinsurance intermediary. My insurance colleagues may look disdainfully upon this writing, but I strongly believe that private health insurance can not, and will not, result in the greater good for our society. I have watched the health insurance industry completely change. At one time, probably 30% of all life insurance companies and a number of casualty companies sold medical insurance. Today we are down to a handful that sell individual medical plans; probably no more that five to ten in any one state including a few national marketers.

The employer group insurance choices are not much better. Although there are a limited number of insurance companies offering group health insurance plans, there are a number of insurance companies and non-insurance administrators that provide claim services for employer self-insurance plans. Self-insured plans have become the trend in recent years as another way to control costs. Even these plans need reinsurance for excess and catastrophic losses, but here again we are down to only a few reinsurers willing to offer such coverage. Have one or two large claims and lose a reinsurer, and your plan is in real trouble.

The real problem with our system of reliance on private insurance, whether individual, group or for that matter employer self-insurance plans, is that no plan wants to pay claims. The primary goal of any private company operating under our capitalistic system is to generate as much profit as possible; as a result, the structure of our private health insurance system operates against good public health policy. Care is not the goal; profit is. The welfare our society is not considered. Greatest profit occurs by charging high premium and eliminating or restricting claims. Underwriting, pre-existing condition clauses and terminations are used to eliminate potential claims by assuring only the healthiest receive coverage. With high deductibles, coinsurance percentages, pre-certification, coverage restricted to certain providers, most plans are designed to reduce claims costs to the insurer and transfer these costs directly to the insured. Additionally, it is becoming common for plans to limit one’s choice of providers and to limit treatment by requiring the provider have prior approval.

We spend 15% of our gross national product, basically twice that of most other developed countries, to insure 80-85% of our population. Are we getting twice the benefit? The answer appears to be no, as we have higher infant mortality, lower life expectancy, 50 million uninsured, and many more underinsured – the latter being the number one cause of bankruptcy. Since our system is not universal and public based, we are probably in the worst position of all developed countries to handle a epidemic or pandemic. Our employers are at a competitive disadvantage due to health care costs.

There are two insurance programs that are directly related to health care that also need discussion. First, almost all medical plans, group or individual, eliminate coverage for occupational accident and sickness. Employers are generally required to carry or furnish occupational sickness and accident coverage under mandatory worker’s compensation laws. The cost of mandated workers compensation alone exceeded the wages in many third world companies; a reason in itself for outsourcing.

The second insurance program not being discussed is medical payment coverage under automobile insurance policies. This should not be confused with liability coverage. Medical coverage is immediate and does not require the assessment of liability. This is duplication of costs, but not a duplication of benefits. Injuries can be collected on only one policy.

There is only one true reform that addresses all – universal single payer health. Anything other than universal single payer will simply be a costly government band-aid to continue a broken system that is destined to fail. A universal single payer system will cover everyone. It could eliminate the need and costs of medical coverage under worker’s compensation, and reduce auto insurance premiums by eliminating redundant medical coverage. Universal single payer health care is not a question of additional cost, but a reallocation of that which we already spend.

Richard Scheerer is President Intermediaries Plus

Article found in Excerpts From Reader Comments at UNDERNEWS

The Blagojevich Committee Chaired By Max Baucus

Follow the money, honey, to see why Sen Max Baucus (Dungheap: Montana) will not allow Universal Healthcare “on the table”. Do you think that this corrupt, bought and paid for Insurance water boy will fight against his MAIN financing that gets you local Montana dumbasses to vote for him?

The “Pay to Play” Senator is clear about his intentions on his own site:

Universal Coverage: The first principle is universal coverage, every Montanan and American has a right to affordable health coverage. Universal coverage is essential if we are to make meaningful progress on the other four principles. We cannot address the health care system, if we leave a growing portion of the country behind. The solution, however, must build on the current system and must involve a public and private sector mix.

It MUST? Really? Wonder why it MUST?

Like I said, follow the money. His invitation was to “Stake Holders”. No real consideration of American workers or the public, in general. Pay to Play.

Now then, I saw a video at Dandelion Salad which continues the gist of my post from yesterday regarding the heroic 8 people who demanded that Universal, Single-Payer Healthcare be “PUT BACK ON THE TABLE“. The Real News Network’s video illuminated the lies that these corrupt, deep pocketed pawns say (and the American Sheople take as truth and “Gospel”) and offered the truth in answer to those lies.

The video quotes from a Harvard School of Public Health Feb 2008 Press release and shows poll results of how Americans feel about “Socialized Medicine”, broken down by Party affiliation. From the poll (just to show you that a majority of those who believe they understand what “Socialized medicine” is, feel like it would IMPROVE our system). Sorry to take away the lying MSM meme of “Americans are against it” (no I’m not).

To begin…
Q1 Politicians sometimes talk about “socialized medicine”. How well do you understand what this phrase means? Would you say [READ LIST]?
67% VERY/SOMEWHAT WELL (NET)
34% Very well
33% Somewhat well
31% NOT VERY/NOT AT ALL WELL (NET)
15% Not very well
15% Not at all
2% Don’t know/Refused
(Asked of those who understand what socialized medicine means “very well”, “somewhat well” or “not very well”; n=886)

Q2. So far as you understand the phrase, do you think that if we had socialized medicine in this country that the health care system would be better or worse than what we have now?
45% Better
39% Worse
4% About the same (volunteer)
12% Don’t know/Refused

When Sen Jim Bunning of Kentucky weighed in (heavy laden with his largest campaign contribution coinage in his pockets from Big Insurance), he told what is termed down here in Tennessee, “A Damned Lie” when he said that when he looks at “Government Single Payer” healthcare in other countries like the UK, Canada, Sweden, etc that he sees MUCH higher tax rates on workers (“60% and Higher”). In other words, government run, “socialized medicine” causes very high tax rates for the workers of those countries compared to us.

But what is the truth about that claim?

The truth is found in the OECD Fact Book.

Canada 33.3%

UK 32.6%

Sweden 50.1% (but they also get free college for everyone and many other “social services” that we pay for out of our pocket, or double the unemployment insurance protection than our own government provides).

NONE are the Big Money’s (or the “Owned” Sen from Kentucky’s) lie of “60% or higher”.

But just what IS the American tax rate (before our expensive health care, college and other “social services” we pay for are factored)?

30.4%

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a tax burden of ALMOST as much as they do, but we STILL pay for our healthcare in premiums, out of pocket and the cattle train mentality of our extremely lucrative medical industry (and the health insurance companies that control it via their high dollar campaign contributions to the very ones who keep the only viable option OFF THE TABLE).

Now what does our 2-3% “savings” in tax rate get us? Besides the $.31 of every Healthcare Dollar going to the Big Insurance Company’s overhead and outrageous salaries and bonuses?

Well, it gets us more dead babies on arrival. Yes, that’s right… the American infant mortality rate is higher than all of these “socialized medicine” controlled countries. (On a side note, Cuba beats us, too) Along with France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Denmark, Austria, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Japan, S Korea, Israel, The Czech Republic, Portugal, Australia, (do I have to go on)…

US 6.26 out of 1,000 births

Canada 5.04

Sweden (that monsterous “Socialized Medicine/College/Worker Friendly” country?

2.75 infant deaths out of 1,000

(Do you understand what this means? That those bastards in Sweden have twice as good an infant mortality rate, get all their college paid for and are very well treated as workers and citizens, while we… well, you know what you are going through)

These scumbags are liars and well paid for it. Sen Baucus can giggle about “needing more police”, but if you ignorant sheep herders from Montana would just wake up to his bullshit, we could rid ourselves of another Big Money crony set to protect his coffers and fuck his fellow citizens. I’m working on my sorry assed Senator Alexander. Step up and do your part.

We need to rid our country of these slimy assholes enriched by ill-gotten gain that leaches off of you and your families’ health.

Where In The World Is Universal HealthCare?

Perhaps the most accurate way to ask this question is,

“Where In The World Is NOT Universal HealthCare?”

For that is an easier question to answer. A cursory look at Universal Healthcare in Wikipedia has a very blunt answer:

Universal health care is implemented in all but one of the wealthy, industrialized countries, with the exception being the United States.^[1][2] It is also provided in many developing countries and is the trend worldwide.

The very healthcare system enjoyed by EVERY wealthy, industrialized nation EXCEPT the United States.

Please let that sink in. Let the fact that the “greatest country in the world” is the ONLY ONE that doesn’t make Universal healthcare the system of choice. How can it be that we have allowed ourselves to be last in anything? We are America, right?

My buddy Kelso replied to a comment and had this single sentence that touched off this rant and rationale for a series of posts showing the extremes of hypocrisy that the American people have been duped into believing:

Alan Garcia, Far Right Wing President Of Peru and former Reagan era death squad leader, has Single Payer Health Care.

I admit my ignorance to many things on the world stage, especially the politics involved with countries like Peru. It is simply a case of where I, too, have fallen for the screaming meme of “America is the greatest country”, even in light of the horrific and dubious roles we play in South Americans lives (not to mentioned everywhere else in the world we don’t belong). Why care about those “little brown people” if I live in the “greatest country in America”? I mean, surely those backwoods little brown people don’t know shit from shinola, right?

I have to admit that while studying President Garcia’s history, it did cause me to question just how intelligent these people may be if they re-elect a man who’s policies help usher in a devestating financial breakdown. But politics are truly local and when you review how the election was set up, you see how it could be made possible.

From a BBC News Profile on Alan Garcia:

Under his rule, inflation multiplied, reaching four figures; the Shining Path guerrilla insurgency had surged unchecked; corruption was rampant.

Mr Garcia fled the country in 1992, facing corruption charges and with troops despatched to arrest him.

Nine years later he returned to Peru to stand in presidential elections.

He lost to Alejandro Toledo – but only by a slender margin. Mr Garcia had signalled that he was back.

And in 2006, to the astonishment of many onlookers, Mr Garcia triumphantly regained the presidency.

But, again, I digress. Peruvians elected the man and they get what they pay for and when he said the following, it must have changed their minds somehow:

Do you think I want my tombstone to read: ‘He was so stupid that he made the same mistakes twice’?

And believe me, all us big fat white people are no smarter than those little brown people… we DID re-elect W, didn’t we? As a matter of fact, it just proves a point that any electorate can be fooled with fear and almost any shiny little object to sway our attention from prescient matters to those of nothingness and fear.

Now back to my point. This year, as Kelso points out, President Garcia helped usher in a Universal, single payer healthcare system in Peru. From wiki:

Perú

On April 9, 2009 the Government of Peru published the Law on Health Insurance to enable all Peruvians to access quality health services, and contribute to regulate the financing and supervision of these services. The law enables all population to access diverse health services to prevent illnesses, and promote and rehabilitate people, under a Health Basic Plan (PEAS). ^[14][15]

Not only that, but yesterday, they actually took it a step farther by implementing this (from LivinginPeru):

The Peruvian government has extended public health insurance coverage to laid-off workers for an additional  period of six months, according to a decree published today in El Peruano official gazette.

This decision is intended to help families to overcome the effects of the global financial crisis.

The ones who can make use of this benefits are those who get laid off between January 1st, 2009 and July 31st, 2010.

The decree sets up a temporary special regime of coverage for the unemployed and their families, which will allow them to access to Essalud (the National Social Security System) complete health services, provided they had already been included in the  Essalud system during at least five months.

Think about that and then consider your Blue Cross Blue Shield Cobra plan since you lost your job.

Is there any “real” American in this country that can stand against healthcare for all? How can you be “Christian” and do so? How can you have a moral bone in your body and deny others? How can you mimic Christ in any realistic way when supporting large scale murder and carnage (via our military), yet deny the very basic healthcare to any person alive? How do you live with yourself and the blatant hypocrisy?

As an American, are you embarrased that we are the ONLY freaking industrialized country that won’t do it? The “Greatest Country?”

As Bro’ kelso stated (and Brother Jeremiah Wright once said):

GOD BLESS AMERICA? NO, GOD DAMN AMERICA

Let me just say to all you faux Christians out there, running around immersed in hate and reproach for others, when the Christ was noted saying:

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy

Do you think he had your merciless ass in mind? Do you think that when He healed someone, he asked if they were “covered” or needed their “co-pay”? Do you think you should be “happy” or be “shown favor” by God (that is what “blessed” means) if you believe that people should not be healed if they can’t pay for it?

American people: It is high time you stop your idiotic head burying and begin to force these medical and insurance company backed politicians into doing what the REST OF THE WORLD is doing and get rid of the profit in healthcare and make sure our people are cared for and well-treated.

If you don’t, don’t call yourself a Christian. Just call yourself a uncaring scumbag.

The hypocrisy is making me puke.