Clipmarks | masbury's 'healthcare' clips

McCain advisor: Stop calling people un-insured

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 23:39:37 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Wants executive order requiring the Census Bureau to "cease and desist" from describing any American as uninsured. "Will cost not one thin dime," he brags. Problem solved.
Really, he says that!

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

As the Census Bureau reports that California has the highest number of uninsured people, and Texas has the highest percentage of residents, a McCain adviser utters some remarkably stupid analysis:

But the numbers are misleading, said John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-leaning Dallas-based think tank. Mr. Goodman, who helped craft Sen. John McCain's health care policy [the McCain camp distances themselves], said anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort

"So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime," Mr. Goodman said. "The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured.

Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.

"So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."

Tags: healthcare, insurance

Protesters to Rally Against Health Insurance Companies

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:45:50 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "because they profit by denying care to our patients—not by providing it" - CA Nurses Assn

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Protesters to Rally Against Health Insurance Companies

Protests are being held across the country today calling for a single-payer healthcare system. Demonstrations will target the headquarters of several health insurance companies, including Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Aetna, Humana and United Health Group, as well as the annual convention of the insurance industry lobbying group America’s Health Insurance Plans in San Francisco. Malinda Markowitz of the California Nurses Association said, “We are calling a national protest against these insurance companies, because they profit by denying care to our patients—not by providing it."

Tags: healthcare

Elizabeth Edwards' healthcare questions for McCain

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:37:09 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: She writes as one with a pre-existing condition, asking for straight answers from the straight talker. Worth noting is the fact that McCain would be virtually un-insurable were he not on the government's insurance plan.

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

1. Under your plan, Senator McCain, would any health insurer be required to sell you or me (or those like us with pre-existing conditions) a health insurance policy?

2. You say your plan is going to increase competition to the point that it actually lowers costs. Isn’t there competition today

Haven’t costs continued to go up despite that competition?

3. You say that under your plan everyone is going to pay less for health insurance

Are you talking about cheaper overall or just a cheap policy that doesn’t kick in until after thousands of dollars of deductibles have been paid?

4. Isn’t the type of competition you are talking about really a rush to the bottom? As long as you allow insurers to underwrite and deny access, you encourage insurers to offer plans that may be cheap, but that get that way by avoiding people with cancer or other high-cost diseases

As one of those with a pre-existing condition, I sure would like some straight talk.

Tags: mccain, healthcare, insurance

7 Senators stall President's AIDS relief plan

Mon, 26 May 2008 05:12:07 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: And some Democrats playing politics, reluctant to do things that make the President look good

Clip Source: blog.beliefnet.com

The president recently proposed an increase in funding for PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.) But it's not going anywhere. Why?

Seven Republican senators -- Tom Coburn, Jim DeMint, Jeff Sessions, Saxby Chambliss, David Vitter, Jim Bunning, and Richard Burr -- have placed a hold on the reauthorization.

The seven, led by Coburn, complain that the reauthorization is too costly.

politics is at play. Gerson writes that some Democratic senators have no interest in passing something that would give credit to the president.

[S]upporters of the PEPFAR reauthorization now estimate a 50 percent chance it will be shelved until next year. Without a five-year U.S. commitment on AIDS funding, other countries would be reluctant to put new people on treatment. And lives would be lost.

Surely this is one place where saving lives should outweigh politics. It's time for something Washington knows less and less of: bipartisan politics on key moral issues.

Tags: aids, politics, healthcare

"If Cheney were a regular American, he'd probably be dead"

Tue, 13 May 2008 06:11:27 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: despite four major heart attacks and other serious coronary issues, Cheney "can't be denied health insurance no matter how serious his heart condition is" because he is a U.S. government employee. But you'd be dead.

Clip Source: rawstory.com

The report cites the high quality, condition-free medical insurance enjoyed by the likes of Vice President Dick Cheney, who, despite four major heart attacks and other serious coronary issues, "can't be denied health insurance no matter how serious his heart condition is" because he is a U.S. government employee.

The California Nurses Association (CNA) criticizes such "Cadillac healthcare" favoritism and contrasts it to the limited options afforded to the majority of Americans. The CNA has launched an ad campaign saying that "if Cheney were just a regular American, he'd probably be dead by now."

The CNA's executive director rues the "double standard," saying, "There should be an excellence in care that applies to all people. We, as the public, pay for Dick Cheney's care. ... Why is the government not providing the same type of care to all Americans?"

Tags: healthcare, news

Nader: Pay-or-die health care - unique to the USA

Sun, 11 May 2008 04:45:47 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Insurance too little, hospital demands cancer patient pay $105,000 before being admitted. Yet hospitals making record profits.

Clip Source: www.counterpunch.org

This is a tale of pay or die that recurs again and again all over our country and only in our country in the entire western world.

Advised by her physician to go to M.D. Anderson for urgent treatment of her leukemia, Mrs. Lisa Kelly was told she had to pay $105,000 up front before being admitted. The hospital declared her limited insurance unacceptable.

Sitting in the business office with seriously advanced cancer, she asked herself – “Are they going to send me home?” “Am I going to die?”

net income per bed at non-profit hospitals tripled to $146,273 in 2005 from $50,669 in 2000.

huge pay packages awarded hospital executives.

Lisa Kelly. She and her husband returned with a check for $45,000.

the hospital oncologist urged admittance quickly.

Then the hospital demanded an additional $60,000

In a particularly grotesque incident, she was hooked up to a chemotherapy pump, but the nurses were not allowed to change the chemo bag until Mr. Kelly made another payment.

Tags: healthcare, insurance, politics, news

McCain healthcare proposal mirrors Bush

Thu, 01 May 2008 02:57:04 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: And haven't seven years of Bushplan done us a world of good?

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

McCain Healthcare Proposal Mirrors Bush Admin

On the Republican side, Senator John McCain has unveiled the healthcare plan he’ll campaign on this November. At a speech in Tampa, Florida, McCain called for a similar approach to President Bush’s failed healthcare effort. Tax rebates would go to individuals seeking private insurance outside of company health plans. McCain says he’d promote the use of health savings accounts and grants for hospitals that cut costs. And McCain vowed to create a program to help care for vulnerable Americans but offered no details.

Tags: mccain, election, healthcare

Big Pharma spends $25,000 per physician annually

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:19:44 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: And TV ads for prescription drugs are illegal in most countries. Now friends, why do you suppose they're legal in the USA? Is it because we just love freedom so much? Or is it because big business controls Congress?

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

While we've now become accustomed to the barrage of prescription drug commercials on prime-time TV, it's jarring to learn that this advertising is legal only in the United States and New Zealand. The pharmaceutical industry doesn't just target Americans directly, but also spends roughly $25,000 per physician per year. With the aid of information from data mining companies, a pharmaceutical representative knows exactly how many prescriptions for what medication a doctor has written, allowing the industry to individually target them.

Tags: healthcare, drugs

France Best, US worst in preventable deaths

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 19:31:11 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: If they were equal, US would have 101,000 fewer deaths per year. Attention conservatives: this is indefensible!

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

WASHINGTON - France, Japan and Australia rated best and the United States worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions in 19 leading industrialized nations, researchers said on Tuesday.

If the U.S. health care system performed as well as those of those top three countries, there would be 101,000 fewer deaths in the United States per year, according to researchers writing in the journal Health Affairs.

Nolte said the large number of Americans who lack any type of health insurance — about 47 million people in a country of about 300 million, according to U.S. government estimates — probably was a key factor in the poor showing of the United States compared to other industrialized nations in the study.

“I wouldn’t say it (the last-place ranking) is a condemnation, because I think health care in the U.S. is pretty good if you have access. But if you don’t, I think that’s the main problem, isn’t it?” Nolte said in a telephone interview.

Tags: healthcare

A personal story of European healthcare

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 04:44:56 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Originally a comment by thisnamecantbetaken here on Clipmarks, I found this so eye-opening that I blogged it. Thanks, tncbt!!

Clip Source: masbury.wordpress.com

I live in a western European country. We pay higher taxes, yes indeed we do! … BUT we ALL have healthcare. From cradle to grave, that is taken care of. You need, help? You’ll get it. From the homeless to the rich. Here, we are EQUAL in that regard. It CAN be done, to provide universal healthcare to your citizens, without that meaning you all of a sudden are “communists” and without necessarily affecting your quality of life, to the negative.

We ALL get free education. If you mind your schooling, even a pauper, can become a doctor. The deciding factor is not money. In fact, they pay US to go to school. (Higher education is encouraged) We live longer. Our infant mortality rate is lower. We are all-round healthier.

Get yourselves together with all that healthcare shit. It makes America look bad, so many of your citizens are homeless, living in poverty and dying from lack of healthcare. It’s just not…civilized.

Tags: healthcare

Reasons people have no health insurance

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 23:30:16 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Save this graph and use it when people say "everybody can get it who really wants it"

Clip Source: masbury.wordpress.com

* Based on response to a survey question regarding the reasons a household member stopped being covered by health insurance or did not have health insurance. Persons might be counted in more than one category.

^† Estimates are age adjusted using the 2000 projected U.S. population as the standard population and using four age groups: 0–11 years, 12–17 years, 18–44 years, and 45–64 years. Estimates are based on household interviews of a sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized U.S. population.

^§ 95% confidence interval.

^¶ Includes moved, self-employed, never had coverage, did not want or need coverage, and other unspecified reasons.

Tags: healthcare, insurance, universal healthcare, politics

Satire: Top 10 reasons to oppose universal healthcare

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 06:52:20 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: People have given me 5, 6, and 2 with a straight face, along with their earnest estimation that a thousand insurers with a thousand different plans on a thousand different forms, each spending millions on self-promotion is more efficient than wasteful government bureacracy. We've been boon-doggled into believing the industry's propaganda, while 47 millions of our neighbors don't get to be insured.
Also - can anybody source this cartoon for me?

Clip Source: masbury.wordpress.com

Tags: healthcare

And I can't afford her health care

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:09:29 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: The American healthcare disaster - 31 seconds

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: healthcare, single-payer, insurance, universal, politics

Health insurance prevents business startups

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:41:38 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Don't plan on starting your own business in US: healthcare too high

Clip Source: www.goodmagazine.com

I know plenty of people who are sweating health-care coverage. None of them are poor kids. And they don’t work at Wal-Mart.

The people I know who are worried sick about coverage work for themselves

While the French just held an election in which one of the central issues was their anemic rate of self-employment, America acts as if all is well when in fact we’re one of the only developed countries with a rate of self-employment even lower than France’s. While surveys show that Americans are nearly twice as entrepreneurial as Europeans, we’re only half as likely to actually become self-employed.

What is holding Americans back? In two words: health care.

In other developed countries, where self-employment rates tend to be higher, taking the leap to working for yourself doesn’t affect your health care coverage or your family’s

we may end up achieving universal coverage without unleashing the talented and entrepreneurial.

Health-insurance payments will continue to act as an “ambition tax.”

Tags: healthcare, business, insurance, politics

"Heads blown off for the president's amusement"

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 21:54:54 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Congressman blasts Bush veto of SCHIP

Clip Source: www.truthdig.com

After the House failed to override Bush’s veto of the SCHIP children’s health care renewal bill on Thursday, Rep. Pete Stark berated the administration and the bill’s opponents. In light of their attitude, he questioned whether the nation’s kids would “grow old enough for you to send [them] to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president’s amusement.”

Follow this link to watch the clip.

Tags: shcip, politics, healthcare