Thursday, June 17, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Dems Pass 'Historic' Insurance Reform
President Obama and the Democratic Congress have now cemented their place in history as being the most corrupted by corporate special interests with the passage of Obamacare (at least phase I, and pending the 'reconciliation' bill). It seems like years ago when we read about the secret meetings that Sen. Kennedy's staff and members of his H.E.L.P committee were having behind closed doors with all the 'stakeholds' (defined as special interests and not to be confused with America's working class who were NOT represented). Of course Sen. Baucus was also doing the same thing for the Senate Finance Committee along with someone he hired away from Wellpoint (the country's largest private insurance company) Liz Fowler, V.P. of Public Affairs.
Then came the very public and televised 'Health 'Care' Summit #I' at the White House. There again Obama only invited the corporate special interest groups (i.e. 'stakeholders") and their key congressional representatives like Sen. Baucus and Speaker Pelosi. Representatives like Kucinich, Grayson or Weiner who had openly advocated (at least on the surface) for a truly Universal Comprehensive Health CARE system were specifically excluded as were representatives advocating for the American People.
As of last night they now have their fiat accompli for the special interests to include:
No Universal Single Payer Health CARE
Mandatory purchase of private insurance
Prohibit Medicare from negotiating for lower prices
Prohibit import of lower cost drugs from the rest of the world; all of whom enjoy lower prices through their universal healthcare programs
No 'Robust Public Option', aka Medicare Option, aka Jakob Hacker Public Option that would provide better and lower cost insurance to EVERYONE
No Kucinich amendment to allow states to create their own Single Payer plans
No elimination of Bush's Medicare Part D in favor of a 'real' prescription drug plan
No elimination of the Bush tax cuts to the most wealthy which could pay for healthcare and a lot more
Taxes on 'high cost' insurance premiums that his the middle income earners
Here is an article I wrote that was just published in the OpEdNews.com site: http://www.opednews.com/populum/page.php?a=108998#allcomments
I'm not sure yet what I will recommend for future actions, but it certainly will not be more letters, emails and calls to the White House and Congress. They had their chance and they threw us (progressives and the American working class in general) under the bus. I do know one thing, November is not that far off!
Then came the very public and televised 'Health 'Care' Summit #I' at the White House. There again Obama only invited the corporate special interest groups (i.e. 'stakeholders") and their key congressional representatives like Sen. Baucus and Speaker Pelosi. Representatives like Kucinich, Grayson or Weiner who had openly advocated (at least on the surface) for a truly Universal Comprehensive Health CARE system were specifically excluded as were representatives advocating for the American People.
As of last night they now have their fiat accompli for the special interests to include:
No Universal Single Payer Health CARE
Mandatory purchase of private insurance
Prohibit Medicare from negotiating for lower prices
Prohibit import of lower cost drugs from the rest of the world; all of whom enjoy lower prices through their universal healthcare programs
No 'Robust Public Option', aka Medicare Option, aka Jakob Hacker Public Option that would provide better and lower cost insurance to EVERYONE
No Kucinich amendment to allow states to create their own Single Payer plans
No elimination of Bush's Medicare Part D in favor of a 'real' prescription drug plan
No elimination of the Bush tax cuts to the most wealthy which could pay for healthcare and a lot more
Taxes on 'high cost' insurance premiums that his the middle income earners
Here is an article I wrote that was just published in the OpEdNews.com site: http://www.opednews.com/populum/page.php?a=108998#allcomments
I'm not sure yet what I will recommend for future actions, but it certainly will not be more letters, emails and calls to the White House and Congress. They had their chance and they threw us (progressives and the American working class in general) under the bus. I do know one thing, November is not that far off!
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Single Payer Healthcare
Check out this video which in 4 minutes explains what government provided health insurance really would be!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jng4TnKqy6A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jng4TnKqy6A
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Stop the Corporate Insurance Bailouts
Washington still doesn’t get it, or they are trying to deny it. America is tired of corporate giveaways. The Massachusetts election of Mr. Brown gave voters, 24% of the Democrat and 60% of the Independent voters, the opportunity to send a loud and clear message to Washington, they would not put up with another corporate handout; this time to the insurance and drug corporations. The pending ‘insurance bills’ passed by the Senate and the House are prime examples of another corporate giveaway by the Democrats on a scale that dwarfs the Wall Street bailout.
Both bills would give about half a trillion dollars of tax payer money to subsidize the private insurance companies to cover lower income families (according to Sen. Rockefeller); and there are no strings attached on the amount those companies can charge for that insurance. They are already trying to increasing some premiums by 39% in California and 24% here in Maine. Those subsidies go to the very corporations that have caused the current healthcare crisis; they are unconscionable and citizens resent it. And to add insult to injury, Washington wants to pay for this by taxing workers’ insurance benefits.
Because of President Obama, the current House and Senate bills also prevent Medicare from negotiating for lower prices; costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars for overpriced medicines. In addition, the President agreed to kill the measure that would allow the importation of drugs at reduced prices for private citizens. America is tired of sweetheart deals where they end up paying for the sweets but get none.
We all know that the bills would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, and cancelling their coverage once they get sick and make a claim (which should be against the law anyway), but that does not justify the hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate subsidies, and preventing the importation of discounted prescription drugs.
And to top it off, the pending House and Senate bills would make it mandatory (or be fined) that everyone purchase health insurance from the very insurance corporations that have been the primary contributor to America’s healthcare crisis. As a result, Washington will be handing an additional 30-45 million new customers (the current uninsured) over to the insurance companies on a silver platter.
If it isn’t completely obvious that Washington has done the bidding of the special interests, consider the fact that Senator Baucus hired Liz Fowler, VP for Public Policy and External Affairs at WellPoint (the country’s largest private health insurance corporation), to write the Senate Finance Committee bill (see the document’s ‘properties’, she’s listed as author) .
I will address the solution to the healthcare crisis in my next letter.
Both bills would give about half a trillion dollars of tax payer money to subsidize the private insurance companies to cover lower income families (according to Sen. Rockefeller); and there are no strings attached on the amount those companies can charge for that insurance. They are already trying to increasing some premiums by 39% in California and 24% here in Maine. Those subsidies go to the very corporations that have caused the current healthcare crisis; they are unconscionable and citizens resent it. And to add insult to injury, Washington wants to pay for this by taxing workers’ insurance benefits.
Because of President Obama, the current House and Senate bills also prevent Medicare from negotiating for lower prices; costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars for overpriced medicines. In addition, the President agreed to kill the measure that would allow the importation of drugs at reduced prices for private citizens. America is tired of sweetheart deals where they end up paying for the sweets but get none.
We all know that the bills would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, and cancelling their coverage once they get sick and make a claim (which should be against the law anyway), but that does not justify the hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate subsidies, and preventing the importation of discounted prescription drugs.
And to top it off, the pending House and Senate bills would make it mandatory (or be fined) that everyone purchase health insurance from the very insurance corporations that have been the primary contributor to America’s healthcare crisis. As a result, Washington will be handing an additional 30-45 million new customers (the current uninsured) over to the insurance companies on a silver platter.
If it isn’t completely obvious that Washington has done the bidding of the special interests, consider the fact that Senator Baucus hired Liz Fowler, VP for Public Policy and External Affairs at WellPoint (the country’s largest private health insurance corporation), to write the Senate Finance Committee bill (see the document’s ‘properties’, she’s listed as author) .
I will address the solution to the healthcare crisis in my next letter.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
