Conyers/Kucinich on: "Universal Health Care" The facts listed are awakening.

[Flabbergasted]

April 2006

"Health care is an essential safeguard of human life and dignity and there is an obligation for society to ensure that every person be able to realize this right."

Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Chicago Archdiocese

Our health care system is broken, and H. R. 676, the Conyers-Kucinich bill, is the only comprehensive solution to the problem. It is also the system endorsed by more than 14,000 physicians from Physicians for a National Health Program. Nearly 46 million Americans have no health care and over 40 million more have only minimal coverage. In 2005 some 41% of moderate and middle income Americans went without health care for part of the year. Even more shocking is that 53% of those earning less than $20,000 went without insurance for all of 2005. In fact, the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine estimates that 18,000 Americans die each year because they have no health insurance.

The American health system is quite sick. Pulitzer Prize journalists Donald Barlett and James Steele, in their stunning analysis of the health care industry, Critical Condition (2006 Broadway Books), insist that "... U.S. health care is second-rate at the start of the twenty-first century and destined to get a lot worse and much more expensive." Considering the following facts from Tom Daschle's article for the Center for American Progress: "Paying More but Getting Less: Myths and the Global Case for U.S. Health Reform":

Americans are The Healthiest People in the World.

FACT: Citizens of 34 nations live longer than Americans.
The U.S. is the Best Place to Get Sick.

FACT: The World Health Organization ranked the U.S. 37th in the world for health system performance. Countries like Australia and the United Kingdom rank above the U.S. Americans have lower odds of surviving colorectal cancer and childhood leukemia than Canadians who do have national health care. Americans also experience greater problems in coordination of care than the previously mentioned countries and New Zealand.
Covering All Americans Will Lead to Rationing.

FACT: Same-day access to primary-care physicians in the U.S. (33%) is far less available than in the United Kingdom (41%), Australia (54%) and New Zealand (60%). Per capita spending for health care averaged $2,696 in countries without waiting lists and $5,267 in the U.S.
Global Competitiveness is Hampered in Comprehensive System.

FACT: "Health care costs are not just a burden and barrier to care for individuals; they are taking a heavy toll on American businesses." The strain on employers in 2005 was staggering. "The average total premiums for an employer-based family plan was $9,979 in 2005 ..." Most of our competitors in the world markets finance their systems outside corporate taxes and employer mandates. Without Medicare for Everyone, the U.S. will continue to hemorrhage jobs.
We Cannot Afford to Cover All Americans.

FACT: We already spend enough to have universal health care. "The truth is, we cannot afford to not reform the health system." We spend about 50% more than the next most expensive nation and nearly twice per person what the Canadians do. On May 1, 2006 Paul Krugman explained in Death by Insurance how incredibly wasteful the current system is. The doctor he referenced has two full-time staff members for billing, and two secretaries spend half their time collecting insurance information on the 301 different private plans they deal with. This type of waste is easily 20%. Also consider that 98% of Medicare funds are spent on medical care.

IMPORTANT: The hackneyed –- and inaccurate –- mantra of Republicans when universal health care is introduced is to blame trial lawyers and malpractice cases for our lack of national health care. In fact, 0.46% of our total health spending is spent on awards, legal costs, and underwriting costs –- about the same as Canada and the United Kingdom and about the same amount we spend on dog and cat food each year. While "defensive medicine" may drive up the price, it hardly accounts for our stunning health care costs. The belief that citizens should give up their right to fair legal redress for legally proven medical mistakes in exchange for lower health care costs rings as true as the promise that if we must give up our civil rights to be safe from terrorists.

Even those with coverage too often pay exorbitant rates. The current profit-driven system, dominated by private insurance firms and their bureaucracies, has failed.

We must establish streamlined national health insurance, "Enhanced Medicare for Everyone." It would be publicly financed health care, privately delivered, and will put patients and doctors back in control of the system. Coverage will be more complete than private insurance plans; encourage prevention; and include prescription drugs, dental care, mental health care, and alternative and complementary medicine.

Perhaps the clearest and most eloquent explanation of the Conyers-Kucinich National Health Insurance Bill was given on February 4, 2003, in Washington, D.C. by Dr. Marcia Angell in introducing H. R. 676. Backed by over 14,000 doctors, this is the future of American medicine.

"We are here today to introduce a national health insurance program. Such a program is no longer optional; it's necessary.

"Americans have the most expensive health care system in the world. We spend about twice as much per person as other developed nations, and that gap is growing. That's not because we are sicker or more demanding (Canadians, for example, see their doctors more often and spend more time in the hospital). And it's not because we get better results. By the usual measures of health (life expectancy, infant mortality, immunization rates), we do worse than most other developed countries. Furthermore, we are the only developed nation that does not provide comprehensive health care to all its citizens. Some 42 million Americans are uninsured (nearly 46 million today -- updated figure) -- disproportionately the sick, the poor, and minorities -- and most of the rest of us are underinsured. In sum, our health care system is outrageously expensive, yet inadequate. Why? The only plausible explanation is that there's something about our system -- about the way we finance and deliver health care -- that's enormously inefficient. The failures of the system were partly masked during the economic boom of the 1990's, but now they stand starkly exposed. There is no question that with the deepening recession and rising unemployment, in the words of John Breaux, 'The system is collapsing around us.'

"The underlying problem is that we treat health care like a market commodity instead of a social service. Health care is targeted not to medical need, but to the ability to pay. Markets are good for many things, but they are not a good way to distribute health care. To understand what's happening, let's look at how the health care market works ... "

"Mainstream" writers like Ph. D. economist and columnist for the New York Times Paul Krugman now agree with those doctors and Dennis that "covering everyone under Medicare would actually be significantly cheaper than our current system." They all recognize that we already spend enough to provide national health care to all but lack the political courage to make the tough decisions that doctors, nurses and medical professionals must run our health care system, – not "for profit" insurance companies who make money by denying health care.

It is time to recognize that all the civilized countries have a solution that we must adapt to this country. American businesses can no longer be competitive shouldering the entire cost of health care. Health care is a right that all Americans deserve.

[lovuian]

1. We need Universal Health our Meidcal system can't

survive with inflation rates of 8%
and gobbling up GDP

its unsusstainable

[thethinker]

2. It is just not the people that want this plan

Corporations, like Walmart, also want this plan. There is no reason that corporations should be paying the high price of insurance for employees. Insurance is robbing the public and the corporations. I would think Walmart and other corporations would be pushing this one through.

Health care is a basic human right. Unfortunately, it is a human right we are going to have to fight for. It is what our tax dollars should be paying for, instead of insane endless wars.

[papau]

3. time for this - but was intro'd in 02 - and now what do Hilaary/Obama/Edwards/etc say about this -

the co-sponsors do not seem to have changed:

H.R.676
Title: To provide for comprehensive health insurance coverage for all United States residents, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Conyers, John, Jr. (introduced 2/8/2005) Cosponsors (78)
Latest Major Action: 4/4/2005 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COSPONSORS(78), ALPHABETICAL : (Sort: by date)
Rep Abercrombie, Neil - 5/5/2005 Rep Baldwin, Tammy - 5/10/2005
Rep Becerra, Xavier - 11/17/2005 Rep Berman, Howard L. - 9/12/2006
Rep Bishop, Sanford D., Jr. - 6/14/2006 Rep Brady, Robert A. - 12/5/2006
Rep Brown, Corrine - 11/15/2005 Rep Brown, Sherrod - 2/1/2006
Rep Capuano, Michael E. - 12/13/2005 Rep Carson, Julia - 6/7/2005
Rep Christensen, Donna M. - 2/8/2005 Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy - 5/10/2005
Rep Cummings, Elijah E. - 5/5/2005 Rep Davis, Danny K. - 5/26/2005
Rep Delahunt, William D. - 12/15/2005 Rep Doyle, Michael F. - 5/22/2006
Rep Engel, Eliot L. - 6/7/2005 Rep Evans, Lane - 6/7/2005
Rep Farr, Sam - 5/5/2005 Rep Fattah, Chaka - 5/17/2005
Rep Filner, Bob - 4/5/2005 Rep Frank, Barney - 5/18/2005
Rep Green, Al - 2/16/2006 Rep Grijalva, Raul M. - 5/25/2005
Rep Gutierrez, Luis V. - 5/18/2005 Rep Hastings, Alcee L. - 6/13/2005
Rep Hinchey, Maurice D. - 5/5/2005 Rep Honda, Michael M. - 6/22/2005
Rep Jackson, Jesse L., Jr. - 5/25/2005 Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila - 5/19/2005
Rep Johnson, Eddie Bernice - 7/25/2006 Rep Jones, Stephanie Tubbs - 11/14/2005
Rep Kaptur, Marcy - 2/14/2006 Rep Kilpatrick, Carolyn C. - 5/26/2005
Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. - 2/8/2005 Rep Lantos, Tom - 6/7/2005
Rep Lee, Barbara - 5/5/2005 Rep Lewis, John - 5/25/2005
Rep Lynch, Stephen F. - 11/17/2005 Rep Maloney, Carolyn B. - 5/26/2005
Rep McDermott, Jim - 2/8/2005 Rep McGovern, James P. - 5/10/2005
Rep McKinney, Cynthia A. - 6/16/2005 Rep McNulty, Michael R. - 12/6/2005
Rep Meehan, Martin T. - 5/22/2006 Rep Miller, George - 5/10/2005
Rep Moore, Gwen - 9/21/2006 Rep Nadler, Jerrold - 5/25/2005
Rep Napolitano, Grace F. - 11/14/2005 Rep Norton, Eleanor Holmes - 7/25/2006
Rep Olver, John W. - 4/13/2005 Rep Owens, Major R. - 5/10/2005
Rep Pastor, Ed - 5/18/2005 Rep Payne, Donald M. - 5/10/2005
Rep Rangel, Charles B. - 4/5/2005 Rep Reyes, Silvestre - 2/14/2006
Rep Roybal-Allard, Lucille - 2/8/2006 Rep Rush, Bobby L. - 12/15/2005
Rep Sanchez, Linda T. - 7/25/2006 Rep Sanders, Bernard - 6/7/2005
Rep Schakowsky, Janice D. - 12/13/2005 Rep Scott, Robert C. - 5/25/2005
Rep Serrano, Jose E. - 5/12/2005 Rep Solis, Hilda L. - 7/12/2005
Rep Stark, Fortney Pete - 5/5/2005 Rep Thompson, Bennie G. - 5/19/2005
Rep Tierney, John F. - 6/15/2005 Rep Towns, Edolphus - 5/26/2005
Rep Udall, Tom - 5/26/2005 Rep Velazquez, Nydia M. - 12/15/2005
Rep Visclosky, Peter J. - 6/22/2006 Rep Waters, Maxine - 12/15/2005
Rep Watson, Diane E. - 5/5/2005 Rep Waxman, Henry A. - 5/19/2005
Rep Weiner, Anthony D. - 5/25/2005 Rep Wexler, Robert - 2/1/2006
Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. - 5/10/2005 Rep Wynn, Albert Russell - 5/5/2005

Medicare for all is also the Kennedy Bill in the Senate.

In California on 2/27/07

February 27, 2007
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Nurses Laud Sen. Sheila Kuehl for Reintroducing Bill for Genuine Healthcare Reform - CNA President Burger Speaks at Press Conference and Hearing as Advertising Campaign for Single-payer Bill Begins
The California Nurses Association (CNA) enthusiastically supports SB 840, a bill that was reintroduced today to guarantee all Californians access to a "Medicare for All"-style healthcare system, CNA President Deborah Burger, RN said at a Sacramento press conference today. The bill, authored by State Sen. Sheila Kuehl, chair of the Senate Health Committee, made history last year by passing through both houses of the Legislature and landing on the Governor's desk, only to face a veto. CNA is the principal sponsor of SB 840 and pledges to help pass it once again.

Burger, who also testified at a hearing in support of the bill, emphasized the difference between a single-payer system like SB 840, and the insurance-based healthcare proposals favored by Arnold Schwarzenegger and other politicians:

"Working families pay more and get less in a system that spends 30 percent of every healthcare dollar on paperwork, denial of care, advertising, and marketing of health insurance plans. They find themselves in medical bankruptcy, or begging providers for life saving care for their small children or other family members. Giving insurance companies more customers would be like treating cancer or asthma with cigarette smoke."

Burger continued, "We know one very important fact. A single-payer system is the only cure for the current market-based system that has turned our health into a commodity subjected to "insurance products" that cost more and deliver less every year. A single-payer plan is the only way to assure genuinely universal care – not universal insurance with a windfall to health plans. It is the only way to avoid a multi-tiered system, assure better, more comprehensive benefits, and also patient choice of physician and hospital."

[AnOhioan]

4. Dennis has been pushing Single Payer for awhile now...

puts him way ahead of the pack on this isuue.

[Cobalt Violet]

5. We need this.

:kick: