thanks Jon

In order to understand where these right wingers are coming from on the health care debate, one needs to understand their system of values. What better way to do that than to analyze the recent Values voter Summit. Short analysis of the summit below.

http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2949

Sorta OT:

It’s so worth all the Blue America-type efforts and money just for moments like these:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..-This-Game

Alan Grayson exposing the Repubs for the keystone kops they are. Let’s make Balkus next.

Thanks! This type of post really helps those of us who get bogged down in the weeds.

you are welcome.

States with very good benefit mandates can now at least prevent their state from being flooded with lower quality “national plans.”

True enough, but backward states with legislatures and/or governors bought by the insurance industry will be only too eager to embrace these lower quality “national plans”. Furthermore these same states, often in the South, already have less healthy consumers with less healthy lifestyles and eating habits. Their sick will only get sicker. I’m looking at you, Jim Cooper.

In fairness if the insurance companies have the sway to make them accept national plans, they probably have the sway to strip most of the benefit mandates they don’t like. For a handful of the 4-5 worst states the national plan might sadly be a step up in benefit mandates.

I personally don’t like even this plan but it is still an improvement.

Meanwhile, Nancy tells the Blue Dogs to STFU:

http://thehill.com/homenews/ho…..healthcare

OT.jay rockefeller was just on the ed show. says the mayo clinic has come out in favor of the public option if it like the plan the congress has.

Thank you Jon and all pups for all you do.

Take a minute and relax with Will Ferrell and some very funny actors in this short piece, “Protect Insurance Companies”

Listening to the process on CSPAN gives the uneasy feeling that this is nipping at the edges of this Awful Bill and more concerned about LITTLE NUMBERS than BIG NUMBERS that Competition and CHOICE can Bring!
_____________________

WYDEN-BENNETT INCLUDING STRONG PUBLIC OPTION = WHAT ALL AMERICANS NEED:

[Thanks&Congrats to Ed&Dy1an Rattigan for Strong Support of Excellent Solutions!]

0BAMA=”Choice+Competition+Portability” =Quality+AffordableCoverage+Accountability

Current 5 Bills now = Over 85% are legally prohibited from choosing any options?

Wyden = “Free Choice Proposal” = Empower Consumers to make GOOD CHOICES

0BAMA often said = “You should get the same deal that members of Congress get”

Wyden = Universal coverage model like members of Congress+Fed employees

Private&Public Choices=Competition= Lower Cost+Negotiate Fair Provider Pricing

Internet Health Coverage Exchange so 100% of Americans (including 180 Million with Employer Coverage) can simply Compare&Rank 1,300 Insurers+Medicare Public Option on Total Annual Cost, coverage, deductibles, co-pays, etc. Then make a choice! STRONGEST Medicare Public Option is HR 676 Medicare Choice OPTION!

If Medicare Public Option is ranked for 1,300 Insurers by ANNUAL COST then Medicare will frequently be the Best Plan (Near Top in the Sorted List) so competition will be the key to having market competition!

Put Consumer in driver seat = Turn Tables on Insurers

Wyden+Bennett of Utah, Republican co-sponsor is NOT backing off from his support

Senator Bennett = Says we need choices and competition for private sector

Wyden-Bennett Bill = Stabanow + Cantwell + Merkley on board

Insures lower prices+increase coverage to compete =Best way to increase Innovation

Accountability= If insurer rips you off in Sept 2009 then Jan 2010, you CHANGE

INTERNET EXCHANGE =1,300 Insurers (ZIP state allowed)+Strongest Public Option

Yeah, that isn’t a “public option”. It’s a highly subsidized Exchange. It’s better than what they are crafting in Congress because it doesn’t discriminate based on age, but it is not public insurance. It’s private insurance. The reason it is so cheap for Congress is because we foot 70% of the bill. The Mayo guy said the PO can’t be based on Medicare because Medicare is going broke and it would bankrupt the country, which is a complete falsehood.

We’re told we need to accept the mandate so the insurers will accept everyone with pre-existing conditions. I don’t think it will work that way. What’s to stop someone from purchasing the cheapest high deductable policy they can find, then switching to a comprehensive plan if they get sick? Of course that will not be allowed! Insurers will still discriminate against pre-existing conditions. Perhaps the person who gets sick will be allowed to keep their existing, junk insurance, but will not be allowed to switch plans. Nothing will change, people will not get to choose their plan – the insurance industry will just get richer off the backs of the people!

OT, but too funny:

http://nonotyou.tumblr.com/pos…..gtheruckus

True
most states will fall under the media blitz that follows

They will say that dems are keeping people from health care

business will want the cheaper plans and we will all lose out

This is a bad item that will make many of us worse off

The Congress is back in session and doing the dirty work for the Medical Industrial Complex.

mcconnell $3.3M, hatch $2.9M, baucus $2.8M, grassley $2.7M,
lieberman $2.6M, burr $2.4M, ensign $2.4M, cornyn $2.2M, kyl $2.1M,
conrad $2.1M, cantor $1.8M, boehner $1.7M, coburn $1.2M, j wilson 800K
were paid by the Medical Industrial Complex to kill Health Care Reform.
(Source: OpenSecrets.org)

Co-Author Dr. Steffie Woolhandler of a Recent Harvard Study on Annual Deaths of America’s Uninsured, says the lack of coverage can be tied to about 45,000 deaths a year in the United States. The only way to affordably cover all Americans is through a Medicare-for-All, Single-Payer System. A Single-Payer System would generate $300-$400 billion in administrative savings annually, enough to cover all of the uninsured, and to plug the gaps in coverage for Americans with only partial coverage. Obviously, Medicare-for-all is anathema to the insurance industry. What politicians are doing is saving insurance industry profits, but sacrificing American lives.

12 Million Americans were denied health care coverage by the Medical Industrial Complex because they had a pre-existing medical condition. 12K Americans are denied insurance coverage everyday by a for-profit Insurance bureaucrat. (Source: WaPo Article 05′ by Harvard Prof. E. Warren)

Medical malpractice lawsuits are a hot topic but, are they? Tort Reform is such a “Red Herring” and is easily disproved. A 2004 report by the Congressional Budget Office said medical malpractice makes up only 2 percent of U.S. health spending. Even “significant reductions” would do little to curb health-care expenses, it concluded.

bush(43) economic speech writer david frum, at least, is willing to admit the idea about selling insurance across state lines is a crock:

New Jersey health policies cost more in large part because New Jersey hospitals and doctors charge more. If I buy a cheaper Kentucky policy that reimburses my providers at Kentucky rates, leaving me to pay the balance, how much good does that do me? And if the Kentucky policy is made to pay New Jersey rates, there vanishes my low Kentucky price.

These are some of the easily refuted arguments bought and paid for by the Medical Industrial Complex to derail any chance of their criminally massive profits being reduced.

Follow the Money: Link

Call Congress and demand, Single-Payer Health Care for All!

(Toll Free # House and Senate)
1-866-338-1015_______________1-866-220-0044
1-800-473-6711_______________1-866-311-3405

Sign Single-Payer Petition: Link

Don’t let the Medical Industrial Complex steal your Health Care from you and your family by donating huge sums of money to Crooked Politicians in order to maintain the Status Quo. Keep up the good fight.

SEMPER FI!