HC Position Paper: Your Input Needed!

[FightinNewDem]

OK, health care wonks, I need your suggestions, feedback and input on my health care proposal:

http://www.sullivanforcongress.org/HealthCare.html

Let me know your ideas on how we can improve this plan.

Thanks!

[Denver Dave]

1. Health Care - One issue world?

I'm not sure we can make it a one issue world, but when fund raisers call me, I've been saying that I will not give any money or put up any yard signs for candidates or parties that do not endorse a Single-payer comprehensive approach to national health care. I'm not sure I can maintain this stand, but feels good to say it.

If you'll come to www.HCTalk.com and discuss what's happening with access to health care in New Hampshire, I'll setup a NH section for you.

[Warpy]

2. OK, here goes

"Establish a Universal Health Benefits Plan. Currently, members of Congress and other federal
employees have access to a choice of plans providing a basic level of health care coverage. It's
time to provide uninsured Americans with the same health care options open to members of
Congress."

Very laudable. However, who is going to provide this? Members of Congress have the best socialized, single payer insurance in the world. Is that what you're taling about, single payer, government insurance, "make them scream socialism" insurance? Or are you talking about Hillarycare, leaving the insurance companies who fucked the system up in the first place and now spend a great deal of their administrative overhead DENYING CARE instead of delivering it in the catbird seat? This is clear as mud, but it smells like Hillarycare.
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"For individuals and families whose income levels make it difficult to pay premiums, the
federal government would provide refundable tax credits to help with the costs of participating in
the UHBP."

Folks, this WILL NOT WORK. Giving someone who pays about 10% a year in Fed taxes a "tax break" is not going to help him buy a $700/month insurance policy on a wage that barely allows him to keep body and soul together. His choice, as it is now, will be between insurance and shelter. Which would YOU choose? Tax credits are CRAP unless you're in an astronomically high bracket, and then you're making enough to afford the fucking insurance in the first place. This does NOTHING for most of the uninsured, who would be unable to afford the kind of out of pocket costs for an entire calendar year that would trigger those wonderful refunds.
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"Assist small business. Many small business owners want to provide health insurance for their
employees, but are deterred by the high cost. By allowing small businesses to buy into the UHBP,
and providing favorable tax benefits for small businesses that opt to provide coverage, we can
markedly increase the number of families and individuals with employment-based health care
coverage."

Ah, I see, that UHB DOES still leave Big Insurance in the catbird seat, and still places the onus on employers and consumers. Folks, this is what got us into so much trouble in the first place. WAKE UP!
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"Harness technology. The federal government should engage in a joint effort with the private
sector to find ways to make better use of modern information technology as a means of reducing
administrative costs and eliminating the risk of medical errors."

Well, it looks like the New Dems are asleep, as usual. Most places have been doing this for the past 5 years. The main thing it's done was force the purchase of a great deal of electronic equipment. The jury is still out on any reduction in medical errors.
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"Provide parity for mental health coverage. Mental health care is as important as any other form
of health care. Left untreated, illnesses and conditions such as depression and bipolar disorder
tear apart families, reduce business productivity and impose tremendous societal costs. It is time
to end the stigma against mental health care and prohibit health plans from establishing separate,
unequal coverage limits for patients seeking mental health treatment."

Sounds great, but mental health care, REAL mental health care, is labor intensive. Do you honestly think for profit health insurance is going to foot THOSE bills? Can you imagine what premiums are going to skyrocket to? Can't you just see the phone banks dedicated to telling schizophrenics to simply ignore the voices and depressives to snap out of it, you're not sick enough for the hospital?
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"Create an American Center for Cures. By establishing a Center for Cures within the National
Institutes of Health, we can wage an effective war against long-term, debilitating conditions such
as Alzheimer's, diabetes and cancer. The Center for Cures would serve as a coordinating agency,
encouraging information sharing and joint research efforts involving the public, private and
academic sectors."

We already have these, they're called "universities," and they're funded by purely socialist NIH grants. Since this is the most socialist part of the whole business, this is the part that's working really, really well, giving us all the breakthrough drugs that Big Pill tries to alter slightly so they can peddle me-too drugs.
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The New Democrats need to stop consulting insurance industry insiders on how to fix this mess and start consulting health care professionals at all levels. We're out there in the trenches and we've all got some good ideas.

This yuppie, keep the insurance industry in there and fuck the working class stuff just WON'T WORK. It's just too late to "tweak" a system that has been so utterly destroyed by insurance company greed and callousness.