President Responds To Detroit Mom's Letter About Health Care

[bigtree]

March 14, 2010



DETROIT --

(Detroit mother Tiffany) Smith's letter outlined her daughter's life-long struggle with symptoms, explaining that she's already had to be admitted to Children's Hospital in Detroit 28 times.

Smith said she and her husband both have jobs, but are constantly strapped for cash because of costly co-pays for her daughter's 10 monthly prescriptions.

Smith explained that her daughter's case of the disease is a rare one, which means there's no generic drugs to treat her.

"It's a struggle, day by day," Smith said.

In his response, Obama wrote about struggling with his grandmother's costly medical expenses and referred Smith to a Web site and phone number where Smith could get some help with the co-pays.

Smith said she's grateful she even got a response.

"Thank you, Mr. president, for writing back and responding," she said.


read: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35864729/ns/local_news-detroit_mi/

[Kalun D]

1. TALK TALK TALK (PROPAGANDA)

Obama talks the working class talk a mile a minute

Obama walks the corporatist walk at 100 miles an hour.

He's not done jack crap for the working class. But boy he's sure distributed $Billions of dollars to his cronies in banking, defense, and with this bills passage health care, big pharma and insurance.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

2. +1!

[bigtree]

3. looks like he helped this woman

. . . by directing her to prescription assistance . . . and it looks like she appreciated his 'talk'.


ON PRESCRIPTION DRUGS: The president's health proposal would close the 'doughnut hole' coverage gap in the Medicare prescription drug benefit that kicks in once seniors have spent $2,830. The Senate bill would have provided a 50 percent discount on the cost of brand-name drugs in the doughnut hole but Obama would close the gap entirely by 2020. The added cost, which Democrats have not yet disclosed, would be paid for in part by an additional $10 billion in fees on the drug industry.

http://www.theledger.com/article/20100313/NEWS/3135060/1002

[Donnachaidh]

5. by 2020?

So that's supposed to help seniors NOW *how*? the average donut hole is $2500. That TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED.

He's going to close it so it *only* costs TWO THOUSAND now.

Big FUCKING deal -- that's NOT help to seniors living on limited income NOW. It's a bloody phot-op, for him to strike a pose with the Pharma lobbyists he makes DEALS with behind closed doors.

"Change you can believe in" -- yeah right.

[bigtree]

9. If he had it in his back pocket

. . . I'm certain he would have delivered it personally to the woman that day. Unfortunately, his suggestions, proposals, and initiatives are only as prescient as Congress provides their support.

[Donnachaidh]

13. blah blah blah blah...

Seniors with money problems -- where? They don't exist in syncophantland. :sarcasm:

[roseBudd]

4. Don't you mean congress has done nothing for the working man? POTUS is a veto pen

[Donnachaidh]

6. POTUS has closed door meetings with Pharma and Insurance

He's had MUCH more to do with this travesty - he's just better at covering his ass about it.

[roseBudd]

10. You know the part about covering preexisting conditions is conditional on the mandate?

This is not a dictatorship. There is no magic wand

[Donnachaidh]

12. And protecting the profits of Insurance cartels is OKAY?

Mandating that people purchase from the companies that CAUSED THE PROBLEM IN THE FIRST place is the solution? And making the IRS the collection agency for a for profit cartel is OKAY?

I guess Fascism is *okay* as long as the one leading us down that road looks good in a bathing suit? :sarcasm:

[bigtree]

16. that's Congress

. . . more than it is the President. I don't buy the stuff about 'backroom deals' from the White House. They have correctly challenged the industry in those meetings. It's Congress which let all of the negative influences in the door and gave them a seat at the 'table'.

I think you overstate the President's influence and role, and I think you've attributed motives and actions to President Obama which are not supported by any discernible facts in your response.

[Kalun D]

20. Pay Attention

""I don't buy the stuff about 'backroom deals' from the White House.""

then you haven't been paying attention. Clue, you won't see it on the nightly TV news which is pwned by the drug companies.

Is the Huffington post good enough for you?

The Real Reason Obama's Plan Doesn't Include a Public Option

The reason Robert Gibbs gives for President Obama's health care plan not including a public option -- that despite majority voter support, it can't get 51 Democratic votes in the Senate -- doesn't hold up. The real reason is that Obama made a backroom deal last summer with the for-profit hospital industry that there would be no meaningful public option.

This is one of the great under-reported stories of the health reform saga. Much has been written about the Obama administration's deal with big Pharma to continue to block Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices or to allow consumers to buy cheaper drugs from Canada, in exchange for Pharma running pro-Democratic ads and giving campaign contributions to Democratic candidates. That's the reason, under pressure from the White House, that Senate Democrats voted down an amendment that would have allowed consumers to buy cheaper drugs from overseas.

But Obama's deal with the for-profit hospital lobby to insure there would be no public option has, as best I can tell, only been reported in two articles in The New York Times. On August 13, The Times reported that while President Obama had presented himself as "aloof from the legislative fray," particularly in connection with the public option, "Behind the scenes, however, Mr. Obama and advisors have been...negotiating deals with a degree of cold-eyed political realism potentially at odds with the president's rhetoric." One of the deals reported in The Times article was the Pharma deal. The other was a deal with the for-profit hospital lobby to limit its cost reductions to $155 billion over 10 years in exchange for a White House promise that there would be no meaningful public option.

According to The Times:

"Several hospital lobbyists involved in the White House deals said it was understood as a condition of their support that the final legislation would not include a government-run health plan paying-Medicare rates...or controlled by the secretary of health and human services. 'We have an agreement with the White House that I'm very confident will be seen all the way through conference', one of the industry lobbyists, Chip Kahn, director of the Federation of American Hospitals, told a Capitol Hill newsletter...Industry lobbyists say they are not worried 'We trust the White House,' Mr. Kahn said...."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/miles-mogulescu/the-real-reason-obamas-pl_b_473924.html

[bigtree]

8. good point

I like to remind that the president can certainly encourage legislation by threatening to withhold his signature (or indicating he'll sign a bill), but he's mostly charged with implementing and defending the laws Congress fashions and advances to his desk. I like to see the president exercise his 'bully pulpit', but I also value an independent, competent legislature.

[roseBudd]

11. The Party of No and the lying pundits & Repugs, plus the screamers at the Town Hall have hijacked

the process.

Change comes from the bottom up, and Obama does not have the kind of mandate that FDR had.

He can not force the Democrats to vote the way he wants them to.

[Donnachaidh]

15. no they haven't - that's the official meme to IGNORE what the public wants.

Obama is NO FDR.

His closed door sessions after promising a *transparent government* was proof of THAT false fable.

[roseBudd]

18. Haven't you heard while people were arguing on DU, the death panels meme stuck

[Donnachaidh]

14. the bully pulpit has been reserved to assure insurance future profits.

The public will only see the *official* side. Especially on this issue.

[Edweird]

17. So Bush/Cheney are off the hook in your eyes?

[Kalun D]

19. Sure Bush and Cheney

Are off the hook

The Obama "justice" department says so.

[Donnachaidh]

7. perfectly timed PR. n/t