HR676 - national health insurance

[guru_5685]

http://www.pnhp.org/nhibill/nhi_execsumm.html

Above is the link for HR 676 evec summary...

Why is this bill going nowhere?

[sallyseven]

1. Because the medical cabal and Drug Co. are afraid.

Too many people will survive. they will protect themselves with health and wellness visits. Fewer drugs.

[guru_5685]

2. but the doctors are for it

I would like to know what the AMA thinks

[NCarolinawoman]

17. My doctor is certainly for it.

She and many other doctors I know can't stand the way the insurence industry is set up. They find it unfair and too time-consuming.

[Nederland]

32. Not just them

...ordinary people are afraid too.

This is the conundrum of health care in this country: yes, there are 42 million uninsured people in this country, but those with health insurance are by and large happy with it. The polls I've seen show that 80% of those with health insurance are pleased with the care they get. That's a huge number of people, especially politically powerful old people. So even when you see polls that indicate that the public is broadly in favor of providing universal coverage, you've got to make sure you don't make things worse for those that are already happy. When all those happy people realize what will happen to their quality of service when you dump an additional 42 million people into the system they get nervous--and that kills the momentum behind universal health care.

The bottom line: people are in favor of UHC in theory, but afraid of the reality.

[loyalsister]

33. The truth about insurance.....

I have to wonder what is being measured in the polls.
The people who have the best insurance coverage in this country are elderly, poor, or wealthy.
Middle class, have plans with selective coverage with fine print that many times can be canceled if things get bad.
It usually doesn't cover the ongoing devestation of disability, etc.
As baby boomers age and they realize what is going to happen to their children and their children's children, they may be more convinced.
We are approaching an insurance crisis where the middle class is going to get squeezed more and more as baby boomers age. They should start watching out for themselves on this issue.
The way to do it would be to make basic medical and optional additional coverage available to everyone who wanted to buy in. It would to take tax money, but it would replace the tax premium many people already pay. The good news is for some people it would be new coverage, most others would have access to better coverage. The government can administer a single payer plan for much less than insurance companies.
It would be less expensive than some people might presume, because providing basic care would help save money.
Taking the squeeze off the middle class would help the economy considerably.
Providing opportunities for the poor by providing health care would also open doors.
All of these things would open the door for people to start small businesses, etc.
This would be good for all of us.

[nickshepDEM]

3. How do we pay for it? Only realistic answers please...

We have no power. We cannot withdrawl from Iraq. The defecit is out of control. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have shown no desire to cut pork and streamline gov't. Tax breaks for the wealthy are still the talk of the town.

[guru_5685]

4. read the link

follow the link that I laft originally..it goes to the executive summary of the bill which explains how to pay for it

[nickshepDEM]

10. "A payroll tax on all employers of 3.3%."

Maintain employee and employer Medicare payroll tax of 1.45%. Implement a variety of mechanisms so that low and middle income families pay a smaller share of their incomes for health care than wealthiest 5% of Americans; i.e, a health income tax on the wealthiest 5% of Americans, a small tax on stock and bond transfers, and closing corporate tax shelters. A repeal of the Bush tax cut of 2001. For more details, see PNHP's "Financing National Health Insurance."

Like that will fly w/ this congres...

[Telly Savalas]

21. So acceptable public policy is dictated by what a GOP dominated

Congress would approve? Doesn't that kind of tie our hands behind our back?

As it stands, we spend more per capita on health care than any other country in the world. All an appropriate tax adjustment would do is divert that money from private insurance companies into a government sponsored single payer system. No additional money needs to be raised, so this right-wing "where will the money come from?" question is just a red herring.

[catmother]

5. the only way i can see paying for it would be higher taxes. most

people will scream about that -- but if you don't have to pay for your health insurance preimiums and deductibles and co-pays, you would probably save much more than the higher tax you would pay. my insurance comes from my husband's company -- they used to pay the whole thing. now we pay a portion and every year it gets higher and the deductibles and co-pays are higher.

[RagingInMiami]

6. $5 billion a month is going to Iraq

Where are our priorities?

[catmother]

11. let's not even go there when we've been asked to cut programs

to pay for katrina while we spend the money on a "war" that probably will never be won. our priorities are f------up. we all know that.

[Warpy]

12. Higher taxes and NO INSURANCE PREMIUMS

In the short term, that would be a blessing for employers, who would instantly be completely off the hook for their contribution.

There is no plan out there for FREE insurance, nor should there be. The choices are between continuing the present nonsystem that is serving only a few overfed CEOs well or adopting a universal coverage state sponsored insurance or abandoning the idea of insurance altogether and allowing social Darwinism to weed out all the old, the sick, and the poor.

The only people who will fight national health insurance are right wing ideologues, the insurance industry, and Big Pill.

[Liberal Veteran]

8. How do we pay for health insurance now?

Premiums, co-pays, shared risks. We really need to get the corporations out of being our health care providers and see what we can do about insuring everybody. Sure taxes would have to go up some, but so what? Tax a bit from the corporations who will no longer have to provide health insurance to employees so it is not a windfall for them.

It's totally doable. We just have decide whether our priorities want to be finding more and better ways to kill people or heal them.

[jaxx]

15. I think we already pay for it with medicaid, pvt ins, medicare.

But it still is able to exclude people due to the cracks along the eligibility lines. This is outrageous in the supposedly #1 country in the world. I would think the insurance companies would be the ones fighting this, along with the drug co's. They are left out in the cold, and it's way beyond time.
Nobody should have to go without healthcare.

[hippywife]

20. The way Dennis Kucinich has been

saying all along:

I have a detailed plan to provide universal health care. Others may use that phrase, but their plans leave many Americans without coverage. Under my plan, patients and doctors are put in charge of the system, instead of HMOs and private insurance companies. Patients are able to select their doctors. The costs are completely covered by the government. And we don't end up paying any more than what we're paying now. A new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Public Citizen estimates that national health insurance could save at least $286 billion annually on paperwork, enough to cover all of the uninsured and to provide full prescription drug coverage for everyone in the United States.

We're already paying for universal coverage. We're just not getting it. We're pouring a large portion of every health care dollar into the waste of the private insurance companies, their executive salaries and stock options, their lobbying and advertising. My plan would remove that waste by making the government the single payer for health care.

more at:
http://www.kucinich.us/issues/universalhealth.php

[WhereThereIsFire]

25. Health care when I lived in Hawaii

When I moved to Hawaii, the state basically had universal health care and it worked beautifully. Just before I moved to the mainland in 1990, Dukakis was out there researching how it worked and much of his research went into writing the Clinton healthcare plan ... which of course the Republicans scuttled for all of us. And, around that time HMO's (Kaiser) moved into (invaded??) Hawaii and now their healthcare is distroyed just like the rest of American's. But, at least I had the opportunity to experience what universal healthcare could be like at the state level. It was awesome and STILL most people living in Hawaii got yearly rebates on the state taxes they paid. Actually, USAToday, back then did a really comprehensive cover story on it in 1990 or 1991 ... before the pugs tore the plan to shreds. It can be done, but the repugs have effectively kept it out of reach. They know it mostly effects the poor ... and that is NOT their "base" so frankly, they just don't give a damn. Let'em die and we are better off, could be the repug motto. Of course, first we have to insure that as many of them as possible DO get BORN ... since life is precious and we must CHOOSE LIFE. :silly:

[eridani]

22. We are ALREADY paying for universal health care--

--we just aren't GETTING it, as Dennis Kucinich always says. We get the money from the premiums that are being pissed away on private insurance, which exists solely for the purpose of cherry-picking and denying care to actual sick people.

[RagingInMiami]

7. How come this bill doesn't get any press?

Lack of National Healthcare is the one thing that separates us from other developed nations in the world.

[catmother]

9. good question. has the media ever picked up on this bill or

ever mentioned it? i just heard about in here at DU a few months ago.

[Dr.Phool]

13. One week ago the St. Pete Times ran an editorial

It's the first I've seen anywhere, and it agreed that our health care system is a shambles.

Two days before x-mas, I got a letter from my insurer that my deductibles were being increased from $500 single, and $1000 family coverage to $2000 and $4000 respectively. The next day I received a letter from Railroad Retirement that my disability pension was being increased $75 per month.

I'm working for a congressional candidate, John Russell, in Florida's 5th District who supports a single payer system, and we'll soon be posting a link to Conyers bill on our web-site. Check out:

www.johnrussellforcongress.com for more info.

We can bury Ginny Brown-Waite on this issue.

[catmother]

16. thank you. i have saved the website. n/t

[Rainscents]

14. Thanks for the link!!!

I am going to save this, incase, some says to me, Dem's has no plans and haven't heard any!

[NCarolinawoman]

18. Blue Cross Blue Shield and others of their ilk,

surely are lobbying against this. I would like to know who are the reps. getting tons of money from them.

[Nutmegger]

19. What a joke it is that

we're the richest country in the world and don't have a national health care system. We do have money for tax cuts and for this fake war...all about money and profits. The wealthy individual must be able to contribute because they made their fortunes here, in this system.

[eridani]

23. Because all three branches of government are Republican--

--and about 1/3 or the Dems are too gutless to take on the corporations.

[Telly Savalas]

26. On the Democratic front, it's not that simple.

While insurance companies would take a beating if universal health care were to be adopted, most other corporations would benefit in as much as their role in providing health benefits for their employees would be greatly reduced. This would boost their competitiveness in a world market where pretty much every other Western democracy does have universal health care. You don't hear corporations operating in Western Europe and Canada whining about the health care systems there, now do ya?

[eridani]

27. True, but American corps seem to be reluctant to break ranks--

--with insurance companies, against their own long-term interests.

[WhereThereIsFire]

31. Yes, loss of jobs & unemployment

are factors of rising health care costs. I know employers who decided to improve the bottom line by "restructuring" the jobs so current employees that needed health insurance were "let go" as part of the plan. They were replaced by employees who did not need to be covered by health insurance (they had spouses providing it or were willing to work without it.) Since there is a never-ending supply of worker-bees out there, and many willing to take any job, with any appalling lack of benefits ... companies know they can "cut the insurance" to the bone and even if they lose some workers they can replace them with less experienced ... many companies and employers really just don't care.

[LynneSin]

30. You're half right

The half about republicans in charge. I'm sure that if they were, Pelosi would get this to the floor. Conyers is a senior member of the house but he's in the minority. So the whole "gutless democrats" are a mute point because every single democrat could demand this be debated and Hasert would just scoff at them

[AtomicKitten]

24. Republicans would privatize your bowel movements if they could.

If there is money to be made, then screw the masses. They don't care that hospitals charge uninsured people substantially more than they charge those with insurance. They don't care that people can't afford prescription drugs.

Hillary Clinton worked long and hard on national health care and she was beaten down like a dog.

But I say the time has come for a hard swing to the left. The far right brings you war and poverty. The far left will bring you health care. I wish Americans would digest that dichotomy before voting.

[formernaderite]

28. My one fear is the amount of "required"

visits and treatments that could possibly ensue. We were mavericks at the time, but had NONE of our kids immunized. 18-25 years ago, I didn't need to lie and state it was for religious objections, although I now know folks that do. There is no one fit for everyone, and I do prefer to treat myself and my family with homeopathy first. My health costs are very cheap, and I'd hate to have to pay into a more restrictive system. On the other hand, I have no problem with a voluntary system.

[LynneSin]

29. Last I checked Conyers is a democrats and republicans are in charge

It's simple math - as long as there are more of them and less of us then stuff like this will be bottled up in committee forever. And that forever will last even longer if we keep thinking that it's better to not vote for a democrat if they don't pass some random yardstick test that some DUers think they have the right to judge.

More democrats means this bill makes the floor. Less democrats means we just wasted alot of bandwidth on the internet posting questions like why bills like this are going nowhere!