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Written by Adrian Campbell
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Monday, 05 January 2009 16:07 |
Thank you! I am getting ready to do another video, and I hope this one will be more of an impact, and hope that everyone in America sees it. It will really hit home. My sister slipped on the walk way yesterday morning, on her way to work. It was very icy, and the apartment complex had no0t alsted, it was 6 in the morning. She broke her ankle in two places, and has to have surgery. She is 23, has no insurance, already has $30,000 in medical bills from a car accident that was not her fault, she works part time at Target (but will be off now for a couple of months) she lost her full time job last fall.
She is ready to join in the fight for single payer! She was afraid to talk out about her horror stories, but at this point she has nothing else to loose. She is scared to get her bill from yesterday, and is fearing going to the orthopedic surgen this afternoon. She fears they won't operate because she has no insurance, and no real way of paying the bill. I am going to be by her side every minute!!! |
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Written by Paul Roden
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Monday, 05 January 2009 15:54 |
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There have been 5 Sessions on healthcare conducted by members of the Obama-Bidden Transition Team in Bucks County PA. I was invited back for a follow-up session for more in depth discussion and input on health care coverage, health care costs and prevention and education.
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Read more...
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Written by Linda Prine MD
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Monday, 05 January 2009 15:50 |
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From an MD who works in NYC:
I work in a network of urban community health centers (NYC) and we have a great electronic health record that links to the hospital and allows us to communicate with our patients, etc etc. But we take 52 different health insurance plans which means 52 different specialist networks, 52 different formularies, 52 different rules for prior authorizations, and on and on. This needs to END! Huge efforts wasted in this bureaucratic morass!!! Time stolen from the doctor-patient interaction. Money going to these parasites (health insurance companies) instead of to health care.
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Written by Howard Green MD
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Thursday, 01 January 2009 13:04 |
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Why is anyone surprised that Obama will not support a single payer Universal health insurance program for the Country based on Medicare? At no time during Obama's campaign did he issue any statements in support of 'Medicare for all single payer'.
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Written by David Welch
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Thursday, 01 January 2009 09:26 |
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Just an FYI - I was part of one of these discussions last night. Several things stood out from the experience:
1. Even at a time like this, between Chistmas and New Year and with minimal publicity - just a couple people's e-mail lists - we had around 70 participants in our fairly small city (Does anyone else think the timing of the window for these meetings - December 15 to 30 - was intended to minimize participation?)
2. The determination that single payer is the right way to go was nearly unanimous.
3. The questions that were put out for the participants to answer were inane and clearly designed to prevent rather than stimulate serious discussion. We pretty much universally ignored the suggested questions and discussed what we wanted to discuss.
4. The event organizers had looked at the website that is used to report on the discussion and their impression is that it is designed to force answers to the above mentioned inane questions, but they intend to ignore that and use the comment box available to report what we really think.
5. Anecdotally, I've heard a fair bit about other similar community meetings around the country, and the general impression is that they are all coming up pro-single payer. It will be interesting to see if that is honestly reflected in the summary that the transition team produces.
David Welch |
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Written by Don McCanne (www.pnhp.org)
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Thursday, 01 January 2009 09:16 |
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Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law
August 2008
Health Economists' Views of Health Policy
By Michael A. Morrisey and John Cawley
This article reports the views of a national survey of U.S. health economists on a series of questions ranging from mergers among health care providers to the profits of pharmaceutical manufacturers to fundamental health care reform. We find a high degree of agreement on issues of fact but considerable disagreement on issues that depend on values.
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Written by Clark Newhall MD JD
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Tuesday, 30 December 2008 17:00 |
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Article from 2003 blames the failure of the auto industry partly on the high cost of for-profit helath insurance and compares our system unfavorably with Canada's. |
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Written by Dayne Goodwin
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Tuesday, 30 December 2008 16:50 |
yes, i remember those "Harry and Louise" ads. they were paid for
by the Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA) which had been
the major national health insurance lobby UNTIL 'the big five'
(Prudential, Metropolitan, Aetna, Cigna and Travelers) national health
insurance corporations pulled out of HIAA and set up their own
separate "Alliance for Managed Competition" lobby as part of their
behind-the-scenes dealings with the new Clinton administration.
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Written by Clark Newhall MD JD
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Tuesday, 30 December 2008 14:50 |
We don’t have a healthcare problem. We don’t have a health care crisis. What we have is a health care famine. I realized this when a friend told me that she was not in favor of universal health insurance. She was opposed to paying for health care for all. She has a little boy with cancer. She was afraid that universal health care would mean her little boy would not be able to get an appointment with the oncologist. “But all those other children with cancer deserve treatment too don’t they?” I asked. ‘I guess so’ she grudgingly admitted, ‘but I have to worry about my little boy.’
Too many other people’s children would be trying to get appointments and treatment. Too many other people would be competing for a scarce resource—the time of a doctor.
It is a HealthCare Famine.
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Written by Leo van der Reis MD
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Tuesday, 30 December 2008 14:36 |
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Dear Sir or Madam,
In the December 28 New York Times you permitted Stanford economist Enthoven to promote a "new model" for the US health care system. This guru of managed care, who views patients as mere inanimate objects, fails to mention that his proposal was "sold" to the Dutch government and became law there on January 1, 2006. As anyone with a modicum of experience in patient care could have predicted, the Dutch system has since deteriorated. Today the "private" insurance companies have resorted to offering chimney sweeping, baby sitting, window washing and all sorts of services, according to the insurance companies at cost to their policy holders. These phenomena and inducements reflect the adverse influence of so-called competition within a closed and controlled national system. Certainly not the road to genuine universal access to medical care. I hope that in future you will print simultaneous rebuttals to letters such as the Enthoven one.
Sincerely, Leo van der Reis, M.D. |
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