Rep. Xavier Becerra, who’s taken thousands of dollars in donations from private insurers such as AHIP, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and thousands of dollars from pharmaceuticals, hospitals, and medical-device makers, just happily said that he was in favor of President Obama’s plan to force us to buy health insurance that we can’t afford without a public option as a cost containment. Here’s what he said in the Hill below:
Becerra on Thursday made it clear that he would be prepared to follow the president down a road that is short of his vision for a perfect healthcare system.
“Every one of us has our goals, every one of us has our bottom line,” he said. “But at the end of the day, what the president would like us to do is the most influential comment here, because we have to try to get something done, and the president is the most powerful voice on trying to get us somewhere.”
So basically he’s a-ok with bailing out private insurers that have denied care to millions of Americans, raised insurance premiums over 25% every single year, and kicked sick Americans off their policies. Rep. Becerra doesn’t even seem to realize he’s contradicting himself in the same article below:
“When I spoke to the president last week, he said, ‘I want to make sure I reduce the cost for those who have healthcare insurance, and that I increase the number of people who [have] health insurance. Those are my two main goals,’” Becerra said. “And I said to myself, ok, if those are your two main goals, that means you have to have a strong public option in this plan. Otherwise, if you don’t have the public option, you’ll have a broken health insurance industry on steroids, because all we’re going to do is pump in a ton of money to try and make it work better.”
So, which is it, Rep. Becerra? Are you okay with bailing out the private insurance industry with no cost containment on premiums? Are you okay with funnelling billions of taxpayer dollars in subsidies to private insurers, and allowing premiums to rise with no end in sight? Are you okay with forcing Americans to be mandated to buy insurance they can’t afford?
These are the kind of questions that Rep. Becerra’s constituents should ask him, and keep in mind when they go to the polls in 2010.
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For some good news, as I was listening to David Sirota’s radio show in Denver, he got DeGette to commit to voting against a PO-less final bill or a bill that did not have a “robust” alternative. I didn’t hear enough of the show to see if David later followed up with a question of whether she thought a co-op or trigger was “robust”. Seeing as how “robust” has been always modifying PO in this debate, I thought that qualifier by DeGette indicated a stronger position instead of weakness — as in “don’t give me something lame and call it PO, I mean I want something robust.” Anyways, if you FDL folk know David’s super secret cell phone number, he could probably confirm (or not) for you for the whip count, column 2.
Howdy Slink !
yesterday’s diary was incredible – the Eshoo 4-1-1 alone was illuminating
who is this asshat?
death panels
News Release
For Immediate Release
September 2, 2009
California’s Real Death Panels: Insurers Deny 21% of Claims
PacifiCare’s Denials 40%, Cigna’s 33% in First Half of 2009
More than one of every five requests for medical claims for insured patients, even when recommended by a patient’s physician, are rejected by California’s largest private insurers, amounting to very real death panels in practice daily in the nation’s biggest state, according to data released today by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.
CNA/NNOC researchers analyzed data reported by the insurers to the California Department of Managed Care. From 2002 through June 30, 2009, the five largest insurers operating in California rejected 31.2 million claims for care — 21 percent of all claims.
The data will be presented by Don DeMoro, director of CNA/NNOC’s research arm, the Institute for Health and Socio-Economic Policy, at CNA/NNOC’s biennial convention next Tuesday, Sept. 8 in San Francisco. The convention will also feature a panel presentation from nurse leaders in Canada, Great Britain, and Australia exploding the myths about their national healthcare systems.
“With all the dishonest claims made by some politicians about alleged ‘death panels’ in proposed national legislation, the reality for patients today is a daily, cold-hearted rejection of desperately needed medical care by the nation’s biggest and wealthiest insurance companies simply because they don’t want to pay for it,” said Deborah Burger, RN, CNA/NNOC co-president.
For the first half of 2009, as the national debate over healthcare reform was escalating, the rejection rates are even more striking.
PacifiCare denied 40 percent of all California claims in the first six months of 2009. Cigna, which gained notoriety two years ago for denying a liver transplant to 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan of Northridge, Calif. and then reversing itself, tragically too late to save her life, was still rejecting one-third of all claims for the first half of 2009.
“Every claim that is denied represents a real patient enduring pain and suffering. Every denial has real, sometimes fatal consequences,” said Burger.
PacifiCare, for example, denied a special procedure for treatment of bone cancer for Nick Colombo, a 17-year-old teen from Placentia, Calif. Again, after protests organized by Nick’s family and friends, CNA/NNOC, and netroots activists, PacifiCare reversed its decision. But like Nataline Sarkisyan, the delay resulted in critical time lost, and Nick ultimately died. “This was his last effort and the procedure had worked before with people in Nick’s situation,” said his older brother Ricky.
California Blue Cross rejected 28 percent of claims in the first half of 2009. In 2008, six days before RN Kim Kutcher of Dana Point, Calif., was scheduled to have special back surgery, Blue Cross denied authorization for the procedure as “investigational” even though the lumbar artificial disc she was to receive had FDA approval.
At the time of denial, which she calls “insurance hell,” Kutcher notes she had “already gone through pre-op testing, donated a unit of blood, had appointments with four physicians.” Kutcher paid $60,000 out of pocket for the operation and is still fighting Blue Cross.
Kaiser Permanente denied 28 percent of all claims in the first half of 2009.
Rejection of care is a very lucrative business for the insurance giants. The top 18 insurance giants racked up $15.9 billion in profits last year.
“The routine denial of care by private insurers is like the elephant in the room no one in the present national healthcare debate seems to want to talk about,” Burger said. “Nothing in any of the major bills advancing in the Senate or House or proposed by the administration would challenge this practice.”
“The United States remains the only country in the industrialized world where human lives are sacrificed for private profit, a national disgrace that seems on the verge of perpetuation,” she said.
http://www.calnurses.org/media…../20…
I am fairly new to this site (which I love) and have not left a comment yet, but I just had to this time. Becerra is my congressman, and I am totally outraged! I have called his office and sent e-mails letting him know that if he signs something without a public option, he will not have my vote during the next election cycle. This is totally disgusting. I live in a fairly urban area of Los Angeles, which is undoubtedly filled with A LOT of uninsured families, some of whom earn just a little bit too much money to qualify for MediCal, but who cannot afford to purchase their own insurance. Despite what right-wingers would say, they are not all illegal immigrants. I will be contacting his office again RIGHT NOW, and telling everyone I know about how he is a “kept man” for the insurance industry.
Again..why are these Dems fighting against their voters? Why do they hate us? Why do these Dems not care if we live or die?
It’s the money? They are bought and paid for by insurance, drug cos, health providers..how could I forget.
Welcome, and good on you for your activism.
Man I couldn’t wait to get to the voting booth last November to vote Democrat on everything from Board of Supervisors all the way up to President Obama.
Heh, little did I know I was just electing more Republicans.
WTF?
Thanks for the welcome! I tried contacting his office and couldn’t get a live person. I will try again later and will e-mail this article to him as well.
ayup!
need a big laugh?
Source: Daily Telegraph
Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska who built her reputation on her rugged application of motherhood, does not actually fish and has no idea how to use her own gun, according to her daughter’s former boyfriend.
Levi Johnston, the teenager who Mrs Palin embraced as part of her family last year when it emerged during the presidential campaign that he had impregnated her 17-year-old daughter, turned against the family in an interview with Vanity Fair, painting the former governor as a selfish woman who took little interest in her children.
He claimed that Mrs Palin, whose fans boasted she could “field dress a moose”, was incapable of handling a gun kept in the family home in Wasilla.
“She says she goes hunting and lives off animal meat – I’ve never seen it,” said Mr Johnston, 19. “I’ve never seen her touch a fishing pole. “She had a gun in her bedroom and one day she asked me to show her how to shoot it. I asked her what kind of gun it was, and she said she didn’t know, because it was in a box under her bed.”
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new…..n20…
Whenever I hear “at the end of the day” wrt almost anything my bullshit detector goes off.
At the end of the day, Mr. Becerra is a whore for the insurance industry, not a representative of his constituents.
Kabuki.
NPR AND
MARA LIASON LYING HER ASS OFF about the public option
DEEEEEEEEEEES…GUSTING
Aside from receiving a legal bribe, what do supporters of the insurance companies see as the value added? What do they actually do aside from collect premiums, pay med bills (in some cases) and decide deductibles, limit coverage, by excluding people and conditions to be covered.
Why would someone defend what they do? They are not keeping costs of the suppliers down. And they are not making a claim simply to file.
Why defend them? What good are they?
“cost containment on premiums”
I would urge us to focus on healthcare reform and not health insurance reform, otherwise we’re just going down the road that the conservadems want to lead us. The goal is to use the reform mechanism (competition for private insurers from a public option) to promote cost-growth containment throughout the healthcare industry, and not just with respect the premiums. Even the total elimination of premiums just forestalls the final terminal implosion of the system by 3-4 years, given the 9%+ per year growth rate in the underlying cost for healthcare services. Reform must give the government levers to compell healthcare providers, and not just insurers, to contain their costs. In theory, a strong PO may help do this, through a competitive mechanism, but only if we don’t lose sight of this essential goal.
slink, please identify this weasel’s party affiliation in your post. sorry if you did and i missed it. i’m assuming he’s a lamppost-loving dog democrat.
If this is true, it is a hoot. What a phony. I’ll give her credit for something. She got no shame and big balls to try to pull off what she did.
If she gets away with money from it all, she will have made America work for her. I hope she ends up broke and in jail.
so she’s a fraud, even at being a fraud.
YES YES YES. Lots of bad players in the game. And they all need to be spanked.
Keep at it!
D, CA-31 (which includes Hollywood!). He needs to be primaried. That must be a D+20 district.
private insurers deny 22% of claims.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…..of-Claims-
i grew up in india. the state-run Life Insurance Corporation of India paid out 98% of claims.
How are the Bees? and your good self?
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.wow…..elushi.jpg
Why aren’t conservadems “conservative” with regard to the pentagon budget and military industrial complex spending?
Why are they conservative only when it comes to the health of their constituents?
So Becerra is in favor of the Insurance Company Revenue Enhancement Act
why couldnt the media find this out last fall?
Not only is he a Democrat, but he’s a Democrat in a heavily D district (PVI D+29). Being for the public option should be easy for him.
’cause its not so much that they’re conservatives, but rather that they’re bought and paid for. They’re the chattel of corporate owners, and their masters lack any ideological or moral constraints whatsoever.
like I said in #21, primary him. Let’s get his liberal Hollywood constituents to hound him out of office.
He’s a giver. Nice, huh?
see my# 4comment
me likey
LOL. The bees are healthy and working their little butts off. (Waggle dance, done mostly with the bee butt, tells other foragers where the good stuff is.) But it’s touch & go as to whether they’ll have enough for the winter. Weather is now cool, after rain all summer long, and the flowers are nearing their end.
Here’s my beekeeper’s website. He just came by this Tuesday and we looked inside the hive.
Yeah, just saw that.
I’m s-l-o-w sometimes, usually when distracted.
Sorry about that.
Welcome !
per Waxman’s wonks (pdf), there are 273,000 uninsured individuals – 42% of the district. and there are 14,300 small businesses in the district that would receive tax credits under the proposed House legist.
and let’s not forget, this Big Insurance strumpet is Caucus Vice Chair
this is a typical story.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…..l-wont-pay
try D+29, per 4/9 ratings
be a good mother bee ,i have faith in you!
I talk to them every day, and have been highly apologetic for the weather.
Where do you think the money for all the lobbyists and anti-reform advertising is going to come from
they are just monsters
and not even as simpatico as Frankenstein
There’s a nice write up in The Nation magazine on healthcare. Blue America PAC, Jane Hamsher and Firedoglake are featured.
iirc,when i dated this hotshot venture capitalist…..in the last real estate bubble…they lost their asses in real estate developement…………..THEY NEED MANDATES…methinks
SHOOT THE MOON ideology
that TIGER SAINTJANE….she is one of a kind!
well i talk to my horse,and am fluent in Tenn,walker stallion dialect….he wuvs me
Obama Administration continues to keep Blackwater on the US Government payroll.
You could go to a rethug event and talk to a horses ass.
i prefer Levi….4legged Levi that is……….g
trying to post his pic
he. Thanks. Unbelievable. And this guy’s still behaving like a conservadem? Surely some Hollywood type wants to be a Congressman and can toss this guy out on his ear by simply declaring a primary challenge?
sadlyyes
foothillsmike
And to think, sometimes my friends ask me why I like the comments section as much as the posts themselves.
Can always use a good laugh, and got one today.
THANK YOU KINDLY!
laughter keeps us sane,……well almost……..g
a little anecdote here to underscore what we are up against ( yeah, as if we need more of that)
there’s an org out there called The Drum Major Institute – I have read and referenced their usually reliable, reality based reporting in the past. Always thought of them along the lines of The Sunlight Foundation
sadly, just this morning, I stumbled across a link to their accountability site: themiddleclass.org. – and they gave Becerra an A+ for his work on behalf of middle class and working families . . . up from last year’s ‘B’
oh yeah, I sent them a note ;D, but dear gaia, either he is some kind of super snake oil salesman or that is one giant Veal Pen
Yes, it is money and loyalty to Obama.
If there is no PO, it falls on Obama who never fought for it.
And the party splits like no split since the 60s.
You cannot make a meaningful promise unless you know the limits of what you are promising. He does not know such a thing. I put this in the manure box to be turned into compost.
The podcast of DeGette’s statement is at am760.net, Jay Marvin’s show, podcast hour 1 starting at 26:20.
Cardinal Richellieau Emmanuell has apparently brought out the arm twisting jig. Its coming down to the hard part where we threaten and then they do exactly what they will anyway, any PROBABLY throw some stuff in there (or take it out) to hurt progressives. This is just a game to them.We have to puinish them for playing a game with our lives,and this is the fun part, even though its not instant gratification, is working on the electoral revenge. we HAVE to stay together on that, maybe others will follow and we build a real progressive movement.
Thanks, tamirod. Appreciate that as a constituent you’re taking action. Means a lot.
Huh, I’ll ask about that.
I disagree with your interpretation of that first quote. As far as I can see, Becerra just said that what the president says is influential. I say this because the first quote is vague, the second quote which supports the public option is far more specific and because I’m quite familiar with Becerra and his positions on issues. Becerra is a co-sponsor of HR676 as well as being a strong supporter of the public option. He is a member of the Progressive Caucus and Americans for Democratic Action give him a 100% liberal quotient (a rating they determine by looking at Congressmembers’ voting records on specific bills). He used to be my Congressman and progressives in Southern California adore him. Just ask other progressives you know in Southern California who are familiar with him. I think you’ve done a disservice to an excellent Congressman, to your readers, and frankly to yourself. I generally am a fan of your postings but I will look at them in the future with a far more critical eye.