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Old 06-17-2009, 07:57 PM   #1
JoyAnna
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Default Current Health Care Reform proposals would give $ billions to Insurance Companies

As bad as the current situation may be, I feel great anxiety at what may emerge as a "reform" with our bought-and-paid-for representatives completely unwilling to even listen to suggestions for single-payer health care. During the presidential campaign, Dennis Kucinich claimed that we already spend more on health care than it would cost to move to a single payer plan, because of the savings in administrative costs and all the profits extracted by insurance and pharmaceutical corporations.

Quote:
Congress to Transfer Hundreds of Billions in Tax Dollars to the Insurance Industry

Tuesday 16 June 2009
by: Kevin Zeese, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Single-payer advocates see the current health care reform proposals as a transfer of hundreds of billions of dollars to the health insurance companies. (Photo: Meryl Schenker / Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Single-payer witnesses show the common-sense path, but Congress is listening to industry donors.

Yesterday, as Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) left the health-care hearing room, he leaned over to me and said:
"I used to sell insurance. The basic rule is the larger the pool the less expensive the health care. Today we have 1,300 separate pools - separate health care plans - and that is why health care is so expensive; 700 pools would be more efficient and less expensive and one pool would be the least expensive. That's why single payer is the answer."
Nothing like common sense.
But, common sense was not on display in the Senate yesterday. Instead, the Senate is seeking a path to the goal of universal coverage by protecting the least-efficient model - the for-profit insurance industry that through waste, fraud, abuse and bureaucracy eats up 31 percent of the cost of health care.
Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) who chaired the hearing, standing in for the ailing Ted Kennedy, has received $2.1 million from the insurance industry throughout his career, another $547,000 from the pharmaceutical industry and $467,000 from health care professionals. Dodd opened the hearing stating the stark facts:
Americans spend more than $2 trillion on health care every year - more than 18 percent of our GDP. By 2040, 34 cents of every dollar we spend could be on health care. That is not simply unacceptable - it's unsustainable. Premiums and out-of-pocket costs for individuals and families alike continue to skyrocket.
It was evident throughout the day that money was on the minds of the senators. But, they could not look into the face of the obviously most efficient path, single payer. Instead, they were going through contortions to protect their benefactors in the insurance industry.
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Old 06-18-2009, 05:27 AM   #2
JoyAnna
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Default Re: Current Health Care Reform proposals would give $ billions to Insurance Companies

Quote:
The AMA Does Not Represent Us

Posted on Jun 15, 2009

Dr. Margaret Flowers and Dr. Carol Paris
As the American Medical Association begins its annual convention in Chicago, we want to take this opportunity to make it clear to the American public, to the media, and to the president and members of Congress, that the AMA does not represent us. It is a common misconception that this organization speaks on behalf of most American physicians but that is a misconception with very serious consequences at such a critical time in the health care reform debate. So long as the public, the media and our elected officials lump all physicians together as “the AMA,” then we are guilty by association of a failure of our Hippocratic oath to “first, do no harm.”

In fact, the AMA represents less than one-third of America’s physicians, and half of those are retired. In fact, the American Medical Student Association endorses universal health care reform.

The AMA’s longstanding opposition to every effort to change health care financing, including Medicare in the 1960s, has resulted in decades of needless and countless morbidity and mortality. Sixty people die every day in this country simply for lack of access to health care. And instead of being an advocate for the only solution that accomplishes the goals of universal coverage and fiscal viability, the single-payer option, the AMA continues to be primarily a trade association looking out for the financial interests of its members.

But who, then, is looking out for the interests of patients? Certainly not Congress and the president. If that were so, the United States would long ago have relieved itself of the dubious distinction of being the only developed country in the world that does not have a universal system of health care. No, the evidence is clear that our Congress and our president are looking out for themselves and continuing the tradition of pay-to-play politics. How else would a reasonable person explain the fact that our elected officials, Democrats and Republicans combined, have accepted $12 million in campaign contributions since 1998 from the American Medical Association?

We would suggest that the American people, the media, President Obama, and the members of Congress need look no further than PNHP, Physicians for a National Health Program, if they want to consult an organization that represents the interests of patients and has been doing so for 22 years.

We are proud members of PNHP. We’re waiting and eager to be consulted. And our physicians are willing and able to continue to engage in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience. Health care reform is the civil rights issue of the decade.

The AMA does not represent us.
Dr. Margaret Flowers and Dr. Carol Paris are members of Physicians for a National Health Program.
You can find information on the PNHP or contact the organization on the Web site here.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/..._represent_us/

Last edited by JoyAnna; 06-18-2009 at 05:29 AM.
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