Cut The Crap!

[dhpgetsit]

The Insurance Industry shills have launched a propaganda campaign designed to poison public support for single payer health care insurance. This article does a good job of exposing and debunking the lies.

http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/2009/07/deconstructing-the-right-wing-lies-health-bill.html

[tridim]

1. Did anyone really expect otherwise?

The insurance people know a clean public option will cut into their obscene profits. They'll fight this to the last day, no doubt about it.

[tosh]

2. K&R and thanks!

[Raine1967]

3. There is also this site:

http://healthcarereformmyths.org

We are setting this site up to debunk the myths. As we finish the layout and design, I will be debunking more of them. Sites like these are critical to getting information out there.

[goclark]

13. Excellent idea ~

[Shagbark Hickory]

4. The FCC needs to step in and block these ads from showing up on TV.

I know that's a little communismish but we need to do it just this one time.

[iverglas]

5. the Shona Holmes ad is an atrocity

I wonder whether anyone has actually made a complaint to the FCC??

It contains outright lies.

No Canadian network would have continued to run it after learning this. Complaints would have been made to the CRTC if they did, and any network that did run it would have been hounded into removing it, if it didn't do so voluntarily upon realizing how false the statements in it were.

It's all such a complex web.

Deregulation. It gets you health insurance companies run wild in the health insurance market, and broadcasting lies about health insurance on the public airwaves.

[Shagbark Hickory]

6. I wonder what's worse, a police state or a society that is run by corporations-gone-wild

[iverglas]

7. I wonder why you ask that in reply to my post ...

?

Rhetorical musing, I suspect. ;)

Depending on who one is, either one might be worse, I guess!

[Shagbark Hickory]

8. I don't know about Canada but it's absolutely out of control here.

Where we need regulation the most, we have none.
Law makers are influenced by campaign contributions rather than what is best for the people of the country.
I posted that because I don't know if I'd rather have the ability and opportunity to be like the corporations or if I'd rather not get continually screwed by them.

[iverglas]

9. ah, rhetorical musing ;)

Absolutely. Regulation is what you need the most, in every imaginable sector of the economy. It's the first step along the path to a truly democratic society. Liberal democracy is the first step, and then social democracy. We're kinda halfway between, up here.

From the outside, that has always been my view of your health care situation. If universal single public payer coverage isn't possible, for whatever reason, regulate regulate regulate. Regulate the hell out of the insurers.

No denials for pre-existing conditions. No whatever awful shit they engage in that I'm not familiar with. Requirements that they offer coverage to all comers who pay, and limits on the ranges of rates they can charge different classes (group, individual ...). Regulations governing what providers can charge uninsured vs insured patients. Boards or tribunals to arbitrate disputes effectively and efficiently - for consumers and providers. A body to approve pricing structures. (We have them up here for telecommunications, there are rules governing interest rates; why not have rules and allowable rates for health insurance?)

Level the playing field for insurers, make them all subject to the same rules and requirements, with mechanisms for making the rules and setting the requirements that allow them to have input and provide for reasonable rates of return. Watch them cut out the overhead and administrative costs, and stop nickel and diming every consumer and every provider who crosses their path.

One can dream, can't one? ;)

[Shagbark Hickory]

12. I honestly don't believe a "health insurance" business is viable unless you screw people over.

There's only so much to be made if you're are obligated to pay claims.
It's going to be real hard to make money when you can't pick & choose your policy holders.
And if the rates even come down from what they are, you can forget about profit.
By the time the corporate execs get paid, they will be in debt.

It's like I've been saying. If you're making money selling healthcare, you ain't doin' it right!

So regulation may work temporarily but either it will spell the end of private health insurance "for profits" (which is fine with me) or the insurance companies will find loopholes and ways to deny people. Or after some time, the ins cos will have enough lawmakers in their pockets that they'll be able to slip in ammendments into various bills and before you know it, the framework is all eroded again. They're not just going to sit there and let their industry become obsolete.

I'm all for regulation but in this case it will be a short term solution IMO. Wait til the pendulum sways back in 8 years and some other Ronald Regan shit for brains tears it all apart.

[Bigmack]

11. NONE of my Canadian friends

and I/we have SEVERAL, say that their health care system is PERFECT. but ALL of them, ALL of them, say that it is basically a good system which they ABSOLUTELY want to keep. They are all appalled by what passes for "health care" in THIS strange land.... Ms Bigmack

[dhpgetsit]

10. The two usually go hand in hand. It's called Fascism.

[wolfsbane]

14. I like my government run health care.

We should let Jon Stewart run our PR campaign for Health Care...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa69puS7J0Q

I personally think my Veteran's Healthcare is top-notch. I get appointments quickly and they are thorough. I haven't paid for a prescription drug in I don't know how long. The only time government has gotten in my health care was asking me to list myself in a voluntary database to improve the quality of care for the whole. (i.e. track m/TBI symptoms and treatment results so that earlier more preventative treatment can be offered to the next wave of sufferers.)

The people who broke our economy and have lived lavish existences off of our suffering are going to fight, tooth and nail, every step of the way as we take back our country.

Corndogs!