1.4 Million a Day

Avatar for ddnlj
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Registered: 03-26-2003
1.4 Million a Day
7
Wed, 11-04-2009 - 8:24am
Commentary: This country needs an outburst of common sense




By Joseph L. Galloway | McClatchy Newspapers

If ever there were a time for comprehensive health care reform, it's now, and yet the forces of darkness are lining up against this urgent need, buttressed by lies, mobs inflamed by those lies and millions of dollars changing hands and changing votes in Washington, D.C.


The idea that doing nothing and going on without changing the way this country's health care is delivered works to the benefit only of the insurance companies, the giant health care providers and the big pharmaceutical companies.


That industry is now pouring $1.4 million A DAY into lobbying — read that buying or renting members of Congress �� to water down or delay or preferably kill health care reform and hope it goes away for another 20 years or so.


"1.4 million A DAY!!!!  Yet, insurance companies continue to deny coverage to people who need it.  And we have to wonder if Congress is getting free medical insurance as a perk for kissing up to the lobbyists"


 


Part of that high-dollar industry budget is going to the low end of Washington's K Street lobbying corridor, the firms and the folks who specialize in dirty tricks, panicking the uninformed and most vulnerable citizens, financing the creation and spread of lies written, spoken and spread like viruses by robot dialing machines.


The Republican Party, on life support itself, somehow sees an opportunity in encouraging and participating in this flim-flam operation. It ought to, and should, seal the GOP's fate.


Each night for the past week, we've been treated to the sight of mobs screaming and ranting and shouting down town hall meetings where congressional representatives had come to answer their constituents' questions.


No questions got answered. No information got provided. No one left more informed than he or she was when he or she arrived.


That's because they and their organizers were following online playbooks that are telling them where to go, where to sit, how to make it appear as if there are more of them than there are and, above all, to stop the program and allow no discussion of this issue.


They scream that any government-run health care is socialism or Communism. But look at them; look at their gray hair and thickened waists. At least half of them probably depend entirely on Medicare, a government-run program and a damned good one, for their own health care.


They scream that the bills still being written and amended in Congress will deny vital treatments for older Americans and doom them to an early and unnecessary death. Some dare call it euthanasia.


What utter, unadulterated BS.


The only outfits in America that have the right to refuse you treatment for an illness or deny you an organ transplant are the health care corporations, if you're unlucky enough to have to depend on that wonderful private insurance the right wingnuts are so loudly praising and defending.


This is the same wonderful health coverage that's driven hundreds of thousands of American families into bankruptcy because their private insurers refused to pay for urgently needed surgery or cancer treatment, or simply cancelled their coverage.


Why is that?


It's because those same corporations have, in just one decade, driven their profits and overhead (hiring those lobbyists and buying those congressional critters and building their fleets of private jets) from 5 percent to nearly 20 percent.


In other words, the corporate bite has gone from 5 cents of every dollar paid in premiums to 20 cents of every premium dollar.


It's good old unregulated American greed of the same stripe that drove this country into its current economic meltdown. Wall Street loves these guys.


We desperately need a government-run health care program that can, by good old American competition, force private health insurers to get off their pirate ships and back in the real world. The 46 million or so uninsured Americans need somewhere to get their health needs tended. The millions more in dire danger of losing their jobs and their private insurance need some alternative immediately available.


All of us need some people in Congress who haven't been bought or rented by the pirates, liars and thieves to speak out in favor of filling those real needs.


Wonder how much Big Pharma donated to the key committee members who amended the health care legislation to prohibit any government-run health program from negotiating lower drug prices with the price-gouging drug companies of, you guessed it, Big Pharma?


What we need right now is a huge outburst of common sense and enlightened self-interest.


Those gray-haired Medicare recipients who're playing angry mob need to stop screaming and start listening and reading, separating fact from fiction and learning who’s manipulating them and why.


Follow the money trail back to the pirates and thieves and their handmaidens, the greasy liar lobbyists and those in Congress who're slurping at their troughs.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
In reply to: ddnlj
Wed, 11-04-2009 - 9:32am

Another factor.........


Congress' own healthcare benefits: membership has its privileges


Lawmakers can choose among several plans and get special treatment at federal medical facilities. In 2008, taxpayers spent about $15 billion to insure 8.5 million federal workers and their dependents.


http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/02/nation/na-congress-benefits2


Too much, too fast, too expensive. Those are some of the objections lawmakers have thrown up against the healthcare overhaul Democrats are attempting on Capitol Hill.


But many feel Congress is out of touch. How, they wonder, can lawmakers empathize with the underinsured or those lacking insurance when they receive a benefits package -- heavily subsidized by taxpayers -- that most Americans can only envy?


Among the advantages: a choice of 10 healthcare plans that provide access to a national network of doctors, as well as several HMOs that serve each member's home state. By contrast, 85% of private companies offering health coverage provide their employees one type of plan. Take it or leave it.


Lawmakers also get special treatment at Washington's federal medical facilities and, for a few hundred dollars a month, access to their own pharmacy and doctors, nurses and medical technicians standing by in an office conveniently located between the House and Senate chambers.


In all, taxpayers spent about $15 billion last year to insure 8.5 million federal workers and their dependents, including postal service employees, according to the Office of Personnel Management.


There are generous plans available in private industry. But the federal coverage far surpasses that enjoyed by 70 million Americans who are underinsured and financially at risk in the event of a major health crisis -- not to mention the estimated 46 million who have no medical insurance.


"For the average worker, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan would probably look quite attractive," said Pete Sepp, a spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union, a pinch-penny advocacy group.


Indeed, a question often surfaces: Why can't everyone enjoy the same benefits as members of Congress? The answer: The country probably couldn't afford it -- not without reforms to bring costs way, way down


Given their choices, lawmakers can tailor coverage in a way most Americans cannot. If a child has asthma, for instance, a federal employee might opt for coverage that costs a little more but has a bigger doctor network and lower office-visit fees.


The plan most favored by federal workers is Blue Cross Blue Shield, which covers a family for about $1,030 a month. Taxpayers kick in $700 and employees pay the rest. Seeing a doctor costs $20. Generic prescriptions cost $10. Immunizations are free. There is no coverage limit.




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Avatar for ddnlj
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
In reply to: ddnlj
Wed, 11-04-2009 - 12:33pm

This is just another rich grow richer, poor get poorer scenerio.


What I don't understand is that MOST Americans aren't rich; not by a long shot. Yet they rally around the rich as if they expect to get something out of it. Instead, they should be watching out for themselves and their own futures and demanding just a bit more fairness across the board before what little bit we do have disintegrates before our eyes.

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Avatar for claddagh49
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Registered: 07-20-2004
In reply to: ddnlj
Wed, 11-04-2009 - 2:11pm
AMEN!
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2005
In reply to: ddnlj
Thu, 11-05-2009 - 2:32pm

The US flag flying over the building that houses Congress should be replaced with a "For Sale" flag, just like those signs posted in countless yards across the nation.


And the Congressional senators and reps should have their clothing

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
In reply to: ddnlj
Fri, 11-06-2009 - 8:41am

"Yet they rally around the rich as if they expect to get something out of it."


Like dogs waiting for scraps to fall on the floor.


I can't fathom why they support those that don't have their interests at heart.


 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
In reply to: ddnlj
Fri, 11-06-2009 - 8:44am

".........

 


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Avatar for ddnlj
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
In reply to: ddnlj
Fri, 11-06-2009 - 11:38am

Good idea, but we live in such a corporatist culture that I don't think it would make much difference. We've been collectively manipulated into believing that what's good for the corporation is good for us. Protect the corporation at all costs. Provide money to the corporation. Keep the corporation healthy, wealthy and wise. Allow the corporation to steal you blind, kick you in the teeth, throw you to the curb, and coddle their executives.


We allow it because we've come to accept it...no, worse than that now. We've come to EXPECT it.

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