Saturday, September 5, 2009

Rolling Stone: How Washington Is Screwing Up Health Ins. Reform

Matt Taibbi writes a hard hitting article in the Rolling Stone on the health insurance reform debate. It's long, but it's worth reading the entire thing - it details the health insurance debate describing the actual plans proposed in the House and Senate committees. Through it all Taibbi weaves observations about how the insurance reform idea has gotten so screwed up:
Let's start with the obvious: America has not only the worst but the dumbest health care system in the developed world. It's become a black leprosy eating away at the American experiment — a bureaucracy so insipid and mean and illogical that even our darkest criminal minds wouldn't be equal to dreaming it up on purpose.

The system doesn't work for anyone. It cheats patients and leaves them to die, denies insurance to 47 million Americans, forces hospitals to spend billions haggling over claims, and systematically bleeds and harasses doctors with the specter of catastrophic litigation.

The cost of all of this to society, in illness and death and lost productivity and a soaring federal deficit and plain old anxiety and anger, is incalculable — and that's the good news.

Click to read the full story...

Letter From Lewisville ISD Parent On The ISD's Decision To Block President Obama's Speech

From whosplayin.com - A letter from a Lewisville ISD (LISD) parent to the LISD school board in response to the ISD's decision to block President Obama's speech to school students.
snippets...

. . .Before moving here, my husband and I were both Active Duty servicemembers with the United States Navy, we served proudly for a number of years. During the course of our duty we were faced with the tragedy of September 11th. For me that time was painful and frightening.

. . .My reason for sharing my anecdote with you, was that during this time I never forgot that I had my country behind me. I knew that my government was doing everything in its power to protect its citizen and maintain the greatest country in the world. I knew that the Office of the President of the United States and my Commander in Chief had worked tirelessly to win the position of the most powerful man in the world and that when he spoke, we listened. Not because we always agreed with him but because it was part of the social contract of being a citizen of the United States of America.

. . .After hearing the news that Lewisville Independent School District chose not to televise President Obama's speech to America's school children on the importance of an education and staying in school, I became outraged. As a veteran of the Armed Forces, I am offended that the elected officials who supervise my son's education are disrespecting the Office of the President of the United States. ...I am truly offended by what appears to be a partisan decision that you have made out of fear.

. . .You are robbing my son of these moments that make him American and I will not allow to do so. We will be keeping him home on Tuesday, September 8th so he can witness first hand, the President of the United States address him directly.
Click here to read this concerned parent's letter in full...

The GOP Wants To Save School Children From Obama!



Friday, September 4, 2009

What’s In the House Health Insurance Reform Bill For Seniors?

Rising health costs are hitting seniors’ wallets—with the average Medicare Part D plus Part B premium consuming an estimated 12% of the average Social Security benefit in 2010—and 16% by 2025. Medicare, the government program that provides health care for Americans age 65 and older, will be strengthened under America’s Affordable Health Choices Act. In fact, for Medicare enrollees, the House bill lowers prescription drug costs, makes preventive care free, ensures that you can keep your doctor, and improves the quality of your care.
In a press conference to discuss what health insurance reform means for America’s seniors Rep. Xavier Becerra, Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus and senior member of the Ways and Means Committee, dispelled myths about the legislation. Rep. Becerra was joined by Richard Fiesta from the Alliance for Retired Americans and representatives from the Center for Medicare Advocacy and National Womens Health Network.


What’s in the health reform bill for seniors?
LOWER DRUG COSTS
Ending the ‘doughnut hole’ for prescription drug coverage. The reform bill will result in lower overall prescription drug costs for seniors, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Right now, evidence suggests the “doughnut hole” coverage gap reduces seniors’ use of drugs prescribed by their doctor by an average of 14%, posing a real health threat to seniors who simply cannot afford the drugs.
FREE PREVENTIVE CARE
So you pay nothing on recommended preventive services that will keep you healthier longer. Right now, one in five women age 50 or over did not have a mammogram in the last two years, and 38% of adults age 50 or over have never had a colonoscopy – with costs often a factor.
BETTER PRIMARY CARE
Ensuring you have access to and can spend more time with your primary care doctor, and making sure your care is better coordinated to ensure you get recommended treatments, particularly for chronic diseases. Right now, about 12 million seniors lack access to a primary care doctor in their community.
GUARANTEED ACCESS TO YOUR DOCTOR
Eliminating the 21% pay cut your doctor was facing for Medicare reimbursements, ensuring that these doctors will still be able to care for seniors—especially in rural areas. Right now, without reform, 40% of doctors say they will reduce the number of Medicare patients they treat.

IMPROVED SAFETY

Developing national standards on quality measurement and reporting, investing in patient safety and rewarding doctors and nurses for high quality care. Right now, nearly one in five Medicare patients who are discharged from the hospital are readmitted within 30 days—many for preventable reasons.
PROTECTION OF MEDICARE
Extending the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund by five years, to help ensure Medicare can cover every American as they get older. Right now, the Medicare Trust Fund is projected to be exhausted in just eight years, in 2017, which could cause cuts to services and care.
TIGHTER OVERSIGHT
Focusing health care dollars on your care and benefits and cracking down on waste, fraud, abuse, and overpayments to enrich private companies. In the last year alone, improper Medicare payments that were discovered and stopped totaled more than $450 million.
Rep. Becerra also released a guide on health insurance reform for seniors — including frequently asked questions and the facts on repeated myths. Download a copy(.pdf) here>>

A Teachable Moment



Teachable Moment By Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle
Pres Reagan Gave A National Address To Students in 1988 — Broadcast on C-Span — where the president used the opportunity to sell his ideas about cutting taxes.

On the eve of the 1992 presidential campaign Pres. G. H. W. Bush gave a speech broadcast live to school classrooms nationwide where he promoted his own education plan. (video at DailyKos)

On September 11, 2001 Pres. G.W. Bush was visiting an elementary school to deliver his message to students.

President Obama's speech is reportedly focused on encouraging students to stay in school, work hard to get good grades and take responsibility to get a good education. Republicans object to Pres. Obama's message to their children! Florida Republican Chairman Jim Greer says:
"As the father of four children, I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama’s socialist ideology. The idea that schoolchildren across our nation will be forced to watch the president justify his plans for government-run health care, banks, and automobile companies; increasing taxes on those who create jobs; and racking up more debt than any other president, is not only infuriating, but goes against beliefs of the majority of Americans, while bypassing American parents through an invasive abuse of power.”
If Pres. Obama's message really goes against beliefs of the majority of Americans, he wouldn't have been elected president in a near landslide of Obama 365 to McCain 173 electoral votes!

Politifact investigated the claim made by Florida Republican Chairman Jim Greer that President Obama's upcoming address to schoolchildren will "indoctrinate" the kids with "socialist ideology." Their conclusion: it's a "pants on fire" lie.

Al Franken Talks Down Angry Mob


DUSTYTRICE.COM
: About a dozen tea party activists had staked out Sen. Al Franken’s booth at the Minnesota State Fair and confronted him loudly when he arrived.

But within minutes, he’d turned an unruly crowd into a productive conversation on health care.

The discussion went from insurance reform, to the public option, to veterans benefits, to cap and trade. He made a few laugh and even told a touching story that moved a few to tears. A whole lot of common ground was found.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Texans Tell Democrats "Git ‘er Done" Regarding Health Insurance Reform

ProgressPolitics.com: 2000 Texans tell Democrats "Git ‘er Done" regarding Health Insurance Reform and a Public Option. 2000 reform supporters from across Central Texas attended a rally with Congressperson Lloyd Doggett in Austin this past weekend to show unwavering commitment for health insurance reform and a STRONG and ROBUST Public option!

DailyKos: There were plenty of speakers at the Doggett event, which was really more of an educational forum than a rally. Pastor Jim Rigby spoke about our ethical obligation to provide health care. Chris F., a veteran, spoke about how one third of vets in Texas lack health insurance, and many can't access the VA because they live in remote, rural areas. Brittany M., a college student, told her heartbreaking story of losing her mother to heart disease, and the medical debt of her parents she assumed after their passing. Every story made it clear time and again that our health insurance system is broken, and we need real reform.

picture of Ms. Van Auken used with her kind permission
On Monday Texas G.O.P. Reps. Sam Johnson of Plano, Joe Barton of Arlington, and Jeb Hensarling and Pete Sessions of Dallas hosted a town hall at the Eisemann Center in Richardson.

During the meeting Barton said. "We do believe the president's proposal is a radicalization and some would say socialization." He said the best option would be to defeat the current plans.

Kelley van Auken (pictured above) attended the Eisemann Center town hall to voice her support for Health Insurance reform.

"Most people [who oppose health insurance reform] were actually quite nice, but there's an abundance of misinformation," said Ms. van Auken. She said that one opponent of health insurance reform told her that she doesn't need health insurance, rather, she just needs to go to church for help with health care costs. Ms. van Auken, who is confined to a wheelchair, commented that opponents of health insurance reform believe, "there are churches that will cover my $72k/year drug costs and other medical expenses." In a CBS 11 news interview Ms. van Auken said, "I've been disabled my whole life and I've been fortunate to have access to healthcare, unfortunately there are a lot of people like me or with less ailments who don't have it and really do need it."

Many opponents of health insurance reform believe private insurance companies provide all the health insurance coverage America needs. Many of those who have health insurance and are "satisfied" with their coverage, in fact aren’t “insured” from the financial burdens of rising health care costs or an unexpected costly illness.
“Under-insurance is the great hidden risk of the American health care system,” says Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor who has analyzed medical bankruptcies. “People do not realize they are one diagnosis away from financial collapse.”
A national study released this year found that while medical debt contributed to 62 percent of the bankruptcies in 2007, 78 percent of those bankruptcy filers had health insurance but “still were overwhelmed by their medical debt.” No government agency keeps an official count of the under insured.
A 2007 survey by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based nonprofit that studies health care issues, estimates 25 million under insured Americans can't afford to cover the gap between what their insurance covers and their medical bills demand, up from 16 million in 2003.
Tens of millions more Americans may not realized they are under insured by their current private health insurance because they and their family members fortunately have not needed to call on their private insurance company to pay for a serious and costly illness.

From the MiamiHerald.com:
Cathy Kerns has multiple sclerosis. The drugs she takes are lifesaving, she says, but they cost more than $5,000 a month -- and she must make a 20 percent co-payment. Her specialized physical therapy costs $600 per half-hour -- and she pays 20 percent of that.

``If I call and plead with the insurance company that I need more therapy so I can walk, they say, `Sorry, it isn't in the policy,' '' she says. ``I'm paying more than $30,000 a year out of pocket. I'm running through my savings.''

Kerns, 60, who is retired and lives in Orlando, represents hidden millions in America's healthcare crisis. She has insurance -- but she is underinsured.

In that category she joins a California woman who was bitten by a rattlesnake, ran up a $73,000 hospital bill for medicine and an overnight stay, and learned her insurance would pay only $3,000 of it. And a Miami woman whose policy won't cover her diabetes because it was a preexisting condition.

The underinsured include the working poor whose employers don't provide full coverage, people who lose their jobs and their employer-subsidized insurance, and those who fail to understand the fine print in policy contracts and end up with less coverage than they expected.

``People often become underinsured because they lose their jobs,'' says Lori Parham, Florida state director for AARP. ``They can't afford to continue the good insurance they had through their employer, so they shop around for cheaper coverage -- policies with low cost, but so many limitations.''

Under the federal law known as COBRA, people who leave their jobs can continue their employer-provided policy for up to 18 months. But they must pick up the entire bill -- so if, as an employee, they paid 20 percent and their employer paid 80 percent, under COBRA they must pay 100 percent.

Kerns, who was a hotel-restaurant marketer in Orlando, left her company in 2000 and went into a COBRA plan that let her keep the insurance by paying 100 percent of its cost. She now pays $14,500 in premiums a year with a $5,000 deductible, and more than $12,000 a year in co-payments for her expensive drugs. ``Premiums keep going up,'' she says. She has been trying to get cheaper coverage, but can't because of her multiple sclerosis.

Although she is sick, she must do what she can for her husband Gary, 69, who survived esophageal cancer but now has congestive heart failure and just entered a hospice.

``It's horrifying,'' she says. ``I'm a human being. I'd like to enjoy what little time I have left.''

Even when people do find less expensive policies, they often come with limits -- higher deductibles, lower maximum healthcare payments, more exclusions for preexisting conditions and other restrictions.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Vote Centers Coming To Collin Co. For Election Day This November!

Sharon Rowe, the Collin County Elections Administrator, this afternoon notified Vote Center Site Selection Committee members by email that Ann McGeehan, Director of Elections in the Texas Secretary of State office, selected Collin County to participate in the County Wide Vote Center Program for the November 3, 2009 election. Ms. Rowe indicated that, "A formal letter from the State will arrive [at the Collin County Elections office] later today."

The U.S. Dept. of Justice (DOJ) must give final clearance for Collin County to implement the "County Wide Vote Center" plan under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1964. The DOJ may not make their final ruling on the vote center plan for until late September or some time in October.

Related Posts:

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Health Care Reform Is A Powerful Motivator Of The Base


Health Care Reform Is A Powerful Motivator Of The Progressive Base. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America teamed up to target a key opponent of health insurance reform. The two progressive groups have raised over $65,000 in 24 hours on the fundraising clearinghouse Act Blue to air the new video ad about Sen. Chuck Grassley's (R-IA) opposition to reform.

Progressive News Network Sept 1st Report


Progressive News Network
[10 min 35 sec]
Ben Armbruster of the The Center For American Progress and Think Progress discusses the week’s political stories; This week - Health care reform.