Obamacare

[zqt3344 21]

This guy is only going to tax the working middle class more and take away your money and give it to his black voting block so they can all get even more free welfare and healthcare. Open your eyes.

Obamacare

Medicine by bureaucrats

Robert Goldberg

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) listens to questions on Tuesday while hosting an economic round table at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

"My plan begins by covering every American. If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change for you under this plan is the amount of money you will spend on premiums. That will be less. If you are one of the 45 million Americans who don't have health insurance, you will have it after this plan becomes law. No one will be turned away because of a preexisting condition or illness."

That sounds very reassuring. But if you think you will be getting the state-of-the-art treatment Sen. Ted Kennedy is now receiving for his brain cancer, Obamacare is not the sort of change you can believe in. Rather, Mr. Obama plans to make Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) expansion the foundation of his proposal to expand coverage. He would make private health insurance affordable by having the government force doctors to accept below-cost rates for their services and impose a 4 percent tax on physician earnings. Then he would have a national health board determine which drugs and procedures the government would pay for under his new plan.

Many states have used the same approaches to cover the uninsured and to make existing premiums less expensive. Instead of doing so, such proposals have driven many doctors out of government-run programs and have rationed access to new medicines. Private insurers are leaving markets. And patients who are forced to wait months for needed care often wind up not getting the medicines they need.

For example, Nicole Garrett's three teen-age children lost their private coverage, so she lost her private coverage and enrolled them in Michigan's managed-care Medicaid program.

According to a 2007 article in the Wall Street Journal by Vanessa Furhmans, when Nicole's 16-year-old daughter, Jada, needed to see a rheumatologist, the one listed in her managed-care Medicaid plan's network would not see her. Nicole notes, "When we had real insurance, we could call and come in at the drop of a hat."

Mr. Kennedy was rushed into surgery less than two weeks after his diagnosis. Jada's wait just for an appointment was a bit longer: The wait to get into a public clinic was more than three months. By the time she found a Medicaid-approved rheumatologist in a nearby county to take her in months later, Jada's debilitating pain had caused her to miss several weeks of school.

Edith Andrews of Zanesville, Ohio, faced the same problem when her twin girls, Sara and Samantha, were born prematurely nearly four years ago. Each weighed less than 3 pounds and needed a ventilator to breathe.

According to an article in the Cinncinnati Enquirer: "To get care she had to take her infants to a Zanesville clinic or an emergency room, where they saw a different doctor every time, if they saw a doctor at all."

When Sara's lung collapsed, Edith couldn't find a Medicaid pediatrician to care for her. "Sarah's complications got worse and worse, and there was never a doctor around when I needed to talk to somebody." She finally found a doctor to take her daughters on as patients after a year of searching.

Mr. Obama would also create a new health board to create lists of "cost effective" new drugs and medical devices, and set prices for their payment. Similar review boards in Canada and Europe delay access to new medicines by months or years and are biased by cost-containment considerations.

In the Medicaid and SCHIP programs, such "preferred lists" have made it harder for people like Melissa Brown of Cincinnati to get the right drugs for her 6-year-old son, Max, who suffers from bipolar disorder and other psychiatric illnesses. Under private insurance, her doctor was able to choose a drug that controlled unpredictable and violent behavior. The drug treatment she got for Max "changed his life."

But now Melissa and Max are in Medicaid and bureaucrats, not doctors, will decide which drugs he will get, based on the cost-effectiveness standards Mr. Obama wants to impose on us all. Max will have to change his prescriptions and get authorizations for new medications.

The change has Melissa worried: "This is a day-to-day, minute-to-minute struggle. She told Ohio legislators, "Please don't make it any more difficult for me." That's a message we should all send to Mr. Obama before November. Affordable coverage should not be difficult or substandard. Under Obamacare, it will be both.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jun/17/obamacare/

[SaadBell 0]

This guy is only going to tax the working middle class more and take away your money and give it to his black voting block so they can all get even more free welfare and healthcare. Open your eyes.

OMG I don't even have words for this that I can even say on this forum. Very scay stuff

[rika60607 215]

Dr. Strangelove is a great movie to watch sometime if you haven't seen it yet.

Of course, I've seen it !

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Dr. Strangelove is a great movie to watch sometime if you haven't seen it yet.

Of course, I've seen it !

Just watched it again this weekend...very relevant to these times. (bomb, bomb Iran)

[rika60607 215]

Yep,

zgt, me thinks you crossed a line here.

This guy is only going to tax the working middle class more and take away your money and give it to his black voting block so they can all get even more free welfare and healthcare. Open your eyes.

OMG I don't even have words for this that I can even say on this forum. Very scay stuff

[HAL 9000 96]

Majority of Americans Support National Health Insurance

CHICAGO – Last month 10,000 physicians announced their support for single payer national health insurance; their proposal for reform appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association and received widespread media attention (www.pnhp.org).

Today the physicians’ group was “pleased but not surprised” that public support for a “universal health insurance program, in which everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that’s run by the government and financed by taxpayers” is high and rising rapidly. By a 2:1 margin (62 percent to 32 percent), an ABC News - Washington Post Poll released today found that the public favors national health insurance to “the current health insurance system, in which most people get their health insurance from private employers, but some people have no insurance”

“What’s new about this groundswell of public support for single payer is that it includes the middle-class. The middle-class is hurting,” said Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, an expert on bankruptcy in health care and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard.“Homeowners, people earning more than $50,000 a year, even a substantial number of physicians find themselves locked out from coverage.”

The poll also found that 8 in 10 people think it is important to cover all the uninsured “even if it means higher taxes”. Dr.Woolhandler noted that “Americans already pay the highest health care taxes in the world. We pay for national health care but we don’t get it. We don’t need more money in the system; we can save enough on paperwork (by adopting a single payer system) to cover everyone. That’s been proven over and over.”

“What’s striking is not the high level of public support for reform; our system’s been in critical condition for years,” said Dr. Quentin Young, National Coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program. “Support for reform is a “no-brainer.” What’s striking, and shameful, is the way our elected officials ignore the remedy for the crisis because of opposition by powerful groups like the insurance and drug companies. In 1996, after 50 years of support, even the Democratic Party dropped national health insurance from its platform.

Dr. Alan Jackson, an African-American cardiologist who was featured on the ABC Evening News Sunday night, said that the despite massive public popularity, the issue is virtually dismissed by major newspapers, as well as some TV networks. “There’s incredible media bias on this issue, when there isn’t simply a blanket media blackout,” said Dr.Jackson. He noted that the New York Times ran a prominent story on 2 dissatisfied Canadian doctors over the weekend, but completely neglected to report on more than 10,000 U.S. doctors expressing dissatisfaction with the U.S. system and endorsing national health insurance. “The media is getting the story wrong. We spend two to three times more on health care than other nations, yet it’s the U.S. health system that’s broken. How much worse does it have to get?”

“We need to have an open, vigorous debate over national health insurance,” said Dr. Don McCanne, a retired family practitioner and President of Physicians for a National Health Program. “This polling data is encouraging, but what if Americans knew that a single payer system would give them free choice of physicians, instead of the limited choices they have now? What if Americans knew that we are already spending enough money to eliminate the long, sometimes unlimited, waits for care that the uninsured experience, as well as the waits by people trapped in HMOs? We need an honest debate so that people can separate the myths from the facts.”

“A universal program of national health insurance would provide affordable, comprehensive care for everyone,” said Dr. McCanne. “According to this poll, that’s exactly what Americans want.”

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2003/october/majo...of_american.php

Oh but did they have a semantic majority? Only then is it really, reeeally valid you know...

Hey, I lived there, you didn't!

Arriving to the US I found that most American doctors I meet know less about medicine than I do. How sad is that - I am not even a doctor. Granted, I am not VIP, but I had insurance... I went to see doctors at a State University.

Not all doctors in the late USSR were excellent, but it was easy to find an excellent specialist if you really wanted/needed.

Until today, Russia does not always have the best medical equipment, but we have plenty of excellent doctors (by world standard). This did not come out of nowhere - these people were taught by old (socialist) medical school.

As far as reference to socialism - you may not like socialism, but thinking that EVERYTHING socialist was/is evil is plane wrong. I find Europe became very socialist. Especially cool countries like Sweden and France.

I think Obama's plan is wonderful, if it is what is described in this article.

That is a lot like what we used to have in Soviet Union. It worked great!

Ahh... Karolinska Institute... someday...

Sorry!

I solemnly swear that I did not enjoy Soviet communism and that capitalism is ever so wonderful and productively efficient!

(after all France and Sweden still ARE capitalist countries, no?)

Rika

God NOooooooo! Not the S word! You've just unleashed legions of Free Market Capitalists who are grabbing their guns as we speak, looking for the Ruskies who are trying to steal their precious bodily fluids.

How is Russia doing NOW with this particular issue? Just curious.

This guy is only going to tax the working middle class more and take away your money and give it to his black voting block so they can all get even more free welfare and healthcare. Open your eyes.

OMG I don't even have words for this that I can even say on this forum. Very scay stuff

And racist in nature, no doubt.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

This guy is only going to tax the working middle class more and take away your money and give it to his black voting block so they can all get even more free welfare and healthcare. Open your eyes.

I think you've opened ours....

[mawilson 2,133]

Sorry!

I solemnly swear that I did not enjoy Soviet communism and that capitalism is ever so wonderful and productively efficient!

(after all France and Sweden still ARE capitalist countries, no?)

Rika

No, we hate France and Sweden.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Sorry!

I solemnly swear that I did not enjoy Soviet communism and that capitalism is ever so wonderful and productively efficient!

(after all France and Sweden still ARE capitalist countries, no?)

Rika

No, we hate France and Sweden.

Okay, I can see France but Sweden? What did they do to pizz you off?

[mawilson 2,133]

Sorry!

I solemnly swear that I did not enjoy Soviet communism and that capitalism is ever so wonderful and productively efficient!

(after all France and Sweden still ARE capitalist countries, no?)

Rika

No, we hate France and Sweden.

Okay, I can see France but Sweden? What did they do to pizz you off?

They are one of the world's most peaceful countries and no-one hates them - somebody's gotta do it.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Sorry!

I solemnly swear that I did not enjoy Soviet communism and that capitalism is ever so wonderful and productively efficient!

(after all France and Sweden still ARE capitalist countries, no?)

Rika

No, we hate France and Sweden.

Okay, I can see France but Sweden? What did they do to pizz you off?

They are one of the world's most peaceful countries and no-one hates them - somebody's gotta do it.

...way to take one for the team.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Sorry!

I solemnly swear that I did not enjoy Soviet communism and that capitalism is ever so wonderful and productively efficient!

(after all France and Sweden still ARE capitalist countries, no?) Rika

No, we hate France and Sweden.

Okay, I can see France but Sweden? What did they do to pizz you off?

They are one of the world's most peaceful countries and no-one hates them - somebody's gotta do it.

How about the Swiss? Too rich to be hated?

[HAL 9000 96]

Sorry!

I solemnly swear that I did not enjoy Soviet communism and that capitalism is ever so wonderful and productively efficient!

(after all France and Sweden still ARE capitalist countries, no?)

Rika

No, we hate France and Sweden.

Okay, I can see France but Sweden? What did they do to pizz you off?

They are one of the world's most peaceful countries and no-one hates them - somebody's gotta do it.

Watch out for the Swedish Conspiracy now...

[mawilson 2,133]

How about the Swiss? Too rich to be hated?

Nah, hate them. Can't trust a country that hasn't been involved in a single war for two centuries.

[rclouse 0]

This guy is only going to tax the working middle class more and take away your money and give it to his black voting block so they can all get even more free welfare and healthcare. Open your eyes.

OMG I don't even have words for this that I can even say on this forum. Very scay stuff

Racist AND delusional. A two-for-one.