Comments (4)

1. 

   dr.steveb

   It would be nice if all us "real universal health care" folks could get our votes together on this.

   Should revise this to specificy or reference in context of support for John Conyers HR-676 (since that is the real universal health plan that also happens to be the plan in the House with the most co-sponsors), and combine votes with other lower-voted similar please for real universal health care.

   Representative John Conyers is the lead sponsor for the only real universal health plan that provides coverage that is truly universal, comprhensive, affordable to inidviduals and families and controls overall costs.

   http://www.house.gov/conyers/news_hr676.shtml

   That plan also has more co-sponsors then any other plan in the House.

   http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR00676:@@@P

   Please make sure that it is an active part of the discussion as we move forward to real health care reform.

   There are many proposals for “reform” of the U.S. health care system out there. For the newcomer it can be very confusing. Here are the four simple questions to ask of any health care proposal.

   1. Is it Universal? Does it cover all people? This would seem to be pretty basic, insofar as all other developed countries do it. But just being, or claiming to have, universal coverage is not enough. It is a common error to claim universality and then let it go at that. When thinking about a so-called health care reform proposal you must also explore how the proposal deals with items 2, 3 & 4:

   2. Is it Comprehensive? Does it cover all needed conditions, prevention, treatment? What care is included under the proposal? What care is not covered?

   3. How much is it going to Cost Individuals? Is it affordable year-in and year-out. How much does it cost you and your family if you are not sick? Can you afford to get sick. What is the total cost of the system to you and your family including taxes, premiums, deductibles, copays, uncovered conditions/expenses, coverage refusals. What is your total out of pocket costs? If you get sick are you going to go bankrupt?

   4. How much is it going to Cost Overall? What is the cost to the system, to the country, for example as a percent of GNP? How does it control costs. How is it paid for, and who is paying, all the pieces, direct and indirect?

   Too many folks fall for the trap of hearing “reform” or even “universal” and don’t realize that it is not really Universal Coverage, IF that Coverage is really “coverage” because it leaves you with too much legitimate care not actually covered, leaves you and your family with bankruptingly high out of pocket expenses when somebody

   4 years ago

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2. 

   ammasdarling

   I would not worry about multiple questions about the same issue. I agree that HR 676 is currently the best bill for passage of Single Payer. When you read on the home page about how this process works, they say, "Some questions will be posed exactly as they were submitted, some will be edited down, some will be combined with others."

   I have no doubt that if all the single payer questions get a lot of votes, then there will be one question about the issue. The way I read the rules, it is better to have five questions about the issue, each of which gets above average + votes rather than one question that gets +++ votes.

   4 years ago

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3. 

   Debbie

   It gets no attention because Democrats are just as much in the pocket of large corporations as republicans these days. Vote third party. We need to end this bi-partisan crap that keeps hurting the average American. Vote Nader. He supports this FULLY. Obama does NOT. Obama will subsidize the insurance companies (with our tax dollars). Don't they get enough already?

   4 years ago

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4. 

   Debbie

   NPR has been broadcasting a very interesting series about health care systems in other countries. This morning, they were in the Netherlands. Here, they found that:

   1) There are 24 hour clinics available for people to visit on off-hours, instead of having to go to the emergency room for all ills when it isn't necessary. They found this drastically reduces costs.

   2) It is actually cheaper to provide on-call doctors who make HOUSE CALLS for those people who are too ill to come to the clinics. A physician's aid will field the phone calls and discuss with the patient what their symptoms are and whether they should come to the clinic or have the doctor come visit or wait until morning. If it is deemed necessary to have a doctor see them, they will send one to their house where the doctor will determine if their illness can be addressed directly by that doctor or if the patient should be admitted to the hospital. During the shift that they were embedded with this particular doctor only one of 10 patients seen required hospital admittance.

   3) a database of all the patient's health issues is accessible by these doctors on call so that they can treat the patients appropriately.

   4) All health care is covered through universal single-payer health care systems.

   HERE, we would have had probably all 10 people visiting an emergency room where the doctors are not familiar with the patient's medical history, the patient will wait in the waiting room sometimes for many hours, doctors are more expensive because they are dealing with trauma cases and there aren't always appropriate facilities to handle all of the people, especially in large cities.

   No one in the Netherlands will ever go bankrupt due to illness. Whereas HERE people can fall into debt paying for sub-par health care EVEN WHEN THEY ARE COVERED BY PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE. Because most people get health care via their employers, should they be unfortunate enough to be too ill to continue working, they could LOSE their coverage just when they need it most.

   I am not holding my breath that the Democrats will address this issue. They've not shown that they have enough backbone to be leaders on anything these days.

   This is just one of many reasons that my vote is going to Nader this year.

   4 years ago

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