Pro-single-payer doctors: Health bill leaves 23 million uninsured

[Mari333]

# About 23 million people will remain uninsured nine years out. That figure translates into an estimated 23,000 unnecessary deaths annually and an incalculable toll of suffering.
# Millions of middle-income people will be pressured to buy commercial health insurance policies costing up to 9.5 percent of their income but covering an average of only 70 percent of their medical expenses, potentially leaving them vulnerable to financial ruin if they become seriously ill. Many will find such policies too expensive to afford or, if they do buy them, too expensive to use because of the high co-pays and deductibles.
# Insurance firms will be handed at least $447 billion in taxpayer money to subsidize the purchase of their shoddy products. This money will enhance their financial and political power, and with it their ability to block future reform.

more...........















http://www.pnhp.org/news/2010/march/pro-single-payer-doctors-health-bill-leaves-23-million-uninsured

[NJmaverick]

1. This article by this fringe group is no better the 6th or 7th time it is being posted

The AMA supports the bill and that says more than a handful of doctors.

[bluethruandthru]

2. PNHP is not a fringe group. n/t

[Mari333]

5. more from the site

Similarly, the expansion of Medicaid - a woefully underfunded program that provides substandard care for the poor - could have been done separately, along with an increase in federal appropriations to upgrade its quality.

But instead the Congress and the Obama administration have saddled Americans with an expensive package of onerous individual mandates, new taxes on workers' health plans, countless sweetheart deals with the insurers and Big Pharma, and a perpetuation of the fragmented, dysfunctional, and unsustainable system that is taking such a heavy toll on our health and economy today.

[robinblue]

41. Only in your imagination.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

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[leftstreet]

7. They've been arrested for their cause in defense of the people. Have you?

:popcorn:

[brooklynite]

23. How did getting arrested help advance their goal?

The bottom line is, they have to convince 216 Democratic Congressmen and 51 Democratic Senators to vote with them. They haven't been able to do it in over a year. And arguing that the "No" votes blocking Single-Payer are Corporatist DINO's may make you feel better, but it's not changing the result.

[laughingliberal]

27. Only time will tell

There were many years of people protesting and going to jail for it before we reached a level of awareness in this country which allowed us to pass civil rights legislation.

Same with the labor movement. Many people went out on strike, demonstrated, were arrested, died, before we won some rights for workers.

Sadly, looks like we will need to refight some of those battles in the future (especially for workers' rights) as Americans have become complacent and allowed us to track backwards in the name of pragmatic deal making. 1 step forward, 2 steps back. And why? Cause people today ask questions like, "how did getting arrested help..."

When do we learn what Dean told us a while back? If you give them a seat at the table, they will eat all the food.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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[suffragette]

26. The AMA has opposed all public plans, including Medicare

in the U.S. and single payer in Canada.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/06/why_the_american_medical_assoc.html

Which is all to say, of course the American Medical Association is opposed to the public plan. It has opposed all public plans proposed by all presidents in all contexts. The AMA opposed national health care as proposed by Harry Truman ("all forms of security, compulsory security, even against old age and unemployment, represent a beginning invasion by the state into the personal life of the individual, represent a taking away of individual responsibility, a weakening of national caliber, a definite step toward either communism or totalitarianism"), and Medicare and Medicaid as envisioned by John F. Kennedy. And it will oppose the public plan now.


http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,835949,00.html

It was an ironic accident of timing. The American Medical Association's 115th annual convention in Chicago last week wound up just in time for the doctors to go home to deal with the consequences of Medicare, the social security-administered medical insurance that so many of them had fought against so vehemently and so long.



They have always been on the wrong side of this issue - for their own profits and against greater public benefit.


Speaking of fringe, the AMA were the ones who helped jumpstart Reagan's political career, by producing Operation Coffeecup opposing Medicare:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/operation-coffeecup-reaga_b_45444.html

The war against Medicare dated back to the 1940's, when Harry S. Truman attempted to to create a national health insurance system. (Yes, this debate's been going on intermittently for more than half a century.) He encountered a well-organized and financed opposition that included insurers, large corporations, the American Medical Association ... and the usual conservative interests of the time.

~~~

A series of incremental reforms were passed in 1960 creating the "Old Age Assistance" and "Medical Assistance for the Aged" programs, but these extended only limited coverage. When John F. Kennedy became President in January 1961, he began to work for comprehensive health coverage for both elderly and low-income Americans.

Enter the AMA. As Skidmore and Larry de Witt recount, Ronald Reagan was hired as part of a covert campaign to undermine support for Medicare and Medicaid. "Operation Coffeecup" was born.

[laughingliberal]

28. Yes. They tend to be doctors of the Chamber of Commerce variety. nt

[suffragette]

32. And the AMA's membership is declining

and is increasingly made up of students and retirees, not active doctors
http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/AMA/6006

Note, recent estimates range even lower, only from 15 - 25% of doctors being AMA members.


Meanwhile, the public and the medical community is increasingly supporting single payer.

http://www.wpasinglepayer.org/PollResults.html

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/588331

[laughingliberal]

33. Yes. Last I heard was 19%. nt

[eridani]

36. Sure. The 59% of doctors who favor single payer are "fringe" n/t

[freddie mertz]

37. AMA has a long history of resisting health care reforms.

Are the single-payer docs a bit too "mavericky" for you, then?

[unapatriciated]

38. Ah Yes the AMA

They have long supported Universal Health Care:sarcasm:
Yes it does say a lot if the AMA supports it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCqA4QhfXHA
but what the heck we can't have the evils of socialism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRdLpem-AAs

Sorry but the AMA's opinion is not something I respect.

[ipaint]

42. LOL. nt

[MercutioATC]

3. The article doesn't specify who those 23 million are.

Illegal immigrants, perhaps?

[dionysus]

6. if i didn't know better i'd think you keep repeating yourself.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

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[laughingliberal]

29. Nothing shocks me anymore. nt

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[leftstreet]

9. K&InvisibleR

[pleah]

11. K&R

[Greyhound]

12. One; "$447 billion in taxpayer money to subsidize the purchase of their shoddy products"

And two; The only thing this so-called insurance bill does is block every avenue of escape from the corporatocracy for the bill payers (us).

There is no health care in this bill, there are no enforceable restrictions of the insurance companies (give the corporate lawyers a year), this is the legislation that future republican'ts will use for decades to keep power.

Congratulations.

[d_b]

13. May they die quickly.

[leftstreet]

16. What about costs to bury them? Quick! Mandate life insurance

just in case:

:sarcasm:

[d_b]

18. derrrpp my favrite pickchure of all tyem

i so hapee we dliver helthkare 4 all dad the werk iz ovur

[leftstreet]

21. ...

I Can Has Presdency 2012?

Yes, you can has!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. Let them eat aspirin.......If they can afford it. K&R

[Donnachaidh]

25. have you bought aspirin lately?

:rofl:

[bigwillq]

15. K and R (nt)

[Echo In Light]

17. k/r

[LWolf]

19. K & R nt

[kestrel91316]

20. I completely support their stance in favor of Single Payer, however,

given that we don't even know what will be in the final version of the Reconciliation Bill, I think these numbers are premature. Also, do they seriously think that, if the law leaves that many uninsured, that WE THE PEOPLE will ignore the fact and not force improvements before nine years is up?

[Donnachaidh]

24. is single payer in the reconciliation bill?

NO.

But let's call those 23 million people selfish because they worry about their situations. Right?

[kestrel91316]

30. Those 23 million don't exist except in your fevered imagination.

We've got 32 million who RIGHT NOW are likely to get coverage. If that doesn't pan out, then we work to improve things.

Some of us understand that wanting instant gratification is for the immature. And I say this as someone who very well may fall through the cracks and remain uninsured, but I am NOT going to begrudge those who DO get it.

But carry on with your bitter hatred of all things and persons mainstream Democratic.

[Oregone]

22. ALSO: It make Americans collectively pay $400 billion more for health care a year

Which could be saved according to the NEJM with a switch to single-payer.

You are telling poor people to pay for this premium too, who will have plans that are not equal to rich people.

So while people here kick the poor around like political footballs, they don't give a damn that they have to pay a large sum such that private shareholders continue to get their due.

[truedelphi]

34. But hey, in some cases some of us may get 35% tax credits

To help us pay the inflated premiums' prices.

I'll take it. That will be far better than the $ 2,000 in deductions I recouped when I was paying $ 12K a year.

Of course, the CEOs don't even worry about the taxes on their huge bonuses. Which they need to help pay the lobbyists that Congress needs to help them maintain the campaign chests, which the media needs so they can tell us whom to vote for, and how the latest news about Tiger Woods is that he's sorry, while ...

[amborin]

35. K&R

[liberal_at_heart]

39. K&R for single payer!

[robinblue]

40. YES.

[thotzRthingz]

43. "23 million people will be uninsured by 2019" -- that number is straight out of the CBO's estimates!