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Fight for the Health of Our Country
As Congress works to adopt national health care reform, President Obama is traveling the country holding town halls stressing the importance of a public health insurance option.
The president has been telling Americans that a public plan will create competition, lower the cost of private insurance, and improve care. The data just in from San Francisco's pioneering universal health care program is proving that he's right.
Healthy San Francisco is demonstrating what most people already know: that it's less expensive to keep people well, than it is to treat their sickness.
Two years, after we launched the country's first universal health care program, more than 70% of previously uninsured San Franciscans are now enrolled in our "public option" program.
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Healthy San Francisco provides quality health care at a much lower cost than similar private health care options and it is available to all residents, regardless of pre-existing conditions. A recent study shows that the average cost of Healthy San Francisco is $280 per person, per month. This is significantly less expensive than comparable private health insurance, where a similar plan in California is $388 per month.
As the Chair of U.S. Conference of Mayors Health Care Reform Task Force, I am working to make the case for the president's plan to reform our national health care system. But, if we are going to defeat the special interests and make sure Congress includes the necessary public option as part of health care reform, we all have to act forcefully.
The majority of Americans understand that we cannot afford the status quo. Our emergency rooms are at a capacity, more Americans are losing coverage every day and premiums continue to rise.
We now have data to draw on -- the San Francisco experience of lowering costs and improving care by providing a public option for health care.
A public option must be part of the health care reform bill. The health of our nation and our future economic prosperity depends upon it. We must not accept anything less from our elected representatives.
Please take action. Call your representative. Email them. Sign our petition and show your support for President Obama's plan to reform our national health care system. We can reform our health care system, but we have to fight for it.
Follow Gavin Newsom on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GavinNewsom
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Gavin sorry, Fail. You've ruined SF just like the so called leaders in Seattle are ruining it. You invited big pharma and other corps to SF, you gave them tax breaks to lure them there.
Result. After NY the highest rent in America. Yuppies everywhere, natives driven out of their neighborhoods, the rich richer, the poor poorer, and SF has contributed to the state's budget meltdown. It's a pretty picture but rotten underneath
Fail
You mean the same city that is Billions in debt, from a state that is $25 Billion in debt? Oh yeah and is this the same city with the 9.5% sales tax?
Shouldn't you be more worried about fighting for the health of California. This appears to be just political posturing. You haven't been elected President of the United States yet, man.
Yes, yes, yes. For those of us who work in healthcare NOT to get wealthy, reform will work i.e. single payer. We have to remember that currently it is a business and a lot of people are making a lot of money off the system. This eludes a great many people.
Business has no business being in medicine.
The two main arguments against single-payer system are:
COSTS: The CBO estimates a single-payer national plan may cost $1.6 trillion over the next decade. US businesses pay 2.4 times more for employee benefits than do foreign firms. To stay competitive and profitable, US businesses outsource jobs, or move production out of the country. As businesses leave and jobs lost, tax revenues decrease while demands for public services increase, further straining federal and state budgets, and costing more than the $160-billion/annually. Those in Congress concerned about the tab for a single-payer system are the same who voted for the Bush tax cuts ($1.8 trillion), to fund the war in Iraq ($1.3 trillion), and the TARP bail-out for Wall St. ($1.4 trillion).
RATIONING: Insurers already ration care. They deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions or a propensity (based on family medical history) to an illness. Insurers deny claims and offer incentives to physicians to delay or avoid costly medical are, while gouging them for liability premiums (forcing them to practice "defensive medicine."). Once someone suffers a serious illness or injury, their coverage is dropped, or premiums exponentially increased, making it unaffordable.
Those congressional representatives who decry a government, taxpayer-subsidized healthcare system should opt out of their plan, paid for and provided to them by their constituents (since they have an ideological objection to such), and purchase their own coverage on the "free market" as they advocate.
VERY WELL SAID!
Hear! Hear!
state care in Mass. is going DOWN HILL people take a look.
The health insurance companies are spending $l.4 million a day to stop public option or any additional health care run by the government.
The people do not stand a chance when our legislators are getting all that money for their campaigns from the lobbyists who get theirs from the insurance industries.
Anybody who thinks oher wise is dreaming.
We might get health care that looks like reform, but it will only mean more customers for the health care industry and will not be what the people want or need--which is better health care for less.
More profit for the CEO's of the insurance companies is going to happen, whether the people want it or not. No amount of resistance is going to change it, I firmly believe. Negative, but true!
Although people who has gone out and protest on Heath Care reform without any media coverage, I tell you all, don't give up, because the media is paid off too. But, we must continue to press, push and demand from our Reps until they cave. If we have to start a RECALL petition on these Reps in their states, we let's organize to sent a clear message. Remember, change starts from the bottom up!
The Health Care Plan as presented to Congress would indeed provide coverage for all Americans and, of course, illegal aliens as well. The problem is twofold: 1), The cost is exorbitant and unbearable for taxpayers to maintain. 2) Although everyone will have coverage, only the youngest and healthiest will have care. Rationing care will become essential to keep this enormous program from collapsing in upon itself.
How many of you are ready to see your parents and grandparents denied life-saving care due to their age or pre-existing conditions? How many of you are ready to hear a bureaucrat say, "Your mother is too old, her care does not justify the cost. You will have to take care of her yourself".
Instead of health care reform, we need tort reform. We have the best health care in the world, the only thing that needs to be fixed are the ridiculous law suits from people looking for that big payday in the sky.
this is repub talking points. i heard it from my friend whos daughter watches fox news only. this is just a repub shill trying not to sound wacko. the message is still nuts. cant hide the insanity of the post tho. fail.
So you dismiss the entire point because a friend has a daughter that watches FOX NEWS?!?! And you call them names?!?! o.k. DON'T BE A HATER!
Okay, so why the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) saying that the public plan will save 150 billion over 10 years?
( http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_treatment/archive/2009/07/10/exclusive-early-cbo-score-on-public-plan-it-s-good.aspx )
Ya'll running out of excuses.
"only the youngest and healthiest will have care. Rationing care will become essential to keep this enormous program from collapsing in upon itself."
Replace the word "program" with "PROFIT" and you describe how "healthcare" insurance companies do business!
HOPEfully you won't suffer a catastrophic injury or chronic illness ... and your care does not justify the cost.
Well, let me be the first to remind tro//s to check out
http://www.pnhp.org
http://PDAmerica.org
http://www.standwithdrdean.com
Single Payer/Medicare for All -- everybody in, nobody out. Public option disguised as "triggers", "co-ops", "mandates", "taxation of health benefits" are ruses to derail real reform.
I've looked. You consider these folks mainstream and objective?
Guitan -- They have YOUR best interests at heart. Who do the "insurance" interests represent?
Gavin is running SF so well. I can't wait for him to become governor so that he can instill this universal healthcare state wide.
fact----he is not running sf well------messy, messy, budget, muni lines cut back, issues w/ homeless never change, on and on-----makes Downtown WB look almost fab---
English please.
Oh, brilliant!!!! Let's take our lead from a state who is so completely bankrupt that employees are now being paid in IOU's!!!!! What happens when they can't afford to fund their health care system any longer? Are the Dr.'s going to treat patients with an IOU? Are phamacies to dispense drugs using IOU's ??The fact that lines at the DMV waste hours of my time leads me to shudder when I think that my family's health is in the hands of the same government . Ever had to wait in line for welfare? How about the social security office? Models of effieciency all of them!!!! PLEASE!!!!
This government is running us so deeply into debt that I doubt that health care could even remotely be sustained without taxing us to a point where private health care would be a much more viable option financially speaking! It would be hysterically funny were it not so sad!!!
I defy ANYONE to show in the constitution or bill of rights where health care is included. I pay for coverage for me and my family. I don't expect anyone else to provide for me, and I darn sure don't want my hard earned dollars paying for those without the will to provide for themselves!
Sorry, but you're wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. On every point......WRONG!
Please, for the love of GOD, expound! How is every point wrong? Back up your comments!
Not wrong at all, in fact he or she is completely right! Read the bills of rights and the constitution please. There is not one mention of the government providing health care. Does the system need fixing? You bet, but everybody I know is totally happy with their health care, and according to polls, 83% of Americans are, so why should it be totally dismantled??? Tweaked? Yes. Government run? HELL NO!
"The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States;"
In my book, and most people's book, health care is part of general welfare.
Now, I defy YOU to show in the constitution or bill of rights (part of the constitution, of course), where health care is excluded.
p.s. In case you get all wigged out over providing for "welfare":
welfare, n.
Health, happiness, and good fortune; well-being.
Prosperity.
etc.
Lets try the 10th amendment.
Nothing in there about Federal healthcare.
Better review the founding fathers' take on 'welfare' as enumerated at the time.
BTW, what is it about the federal government and the elected officials there in DC that make you so confident they'll so much better a job?
Hey, I'm just askin'
I'd much rather pay for WELL fare than WAR fare! We've got an ENDLESS supply of money when it comes to "spreading democracy" everywhere but HERE ...
The United States has been dropping in standings worldwide in health care availability, longevity and infant mortality for decades. Now is the time to reverse this dangerous trend, for the security of America.
I recommend you go to the CDC's website and look at the standings and causes of death because you'll find our mortality rate has nothing to do with our health system providing insufficient health care but at the same time people in countries with socialized health care do die waiting to be helped. In fact, in some countries like Greece for example there are black market doctors who will treat people for a charge simply because state run health care is so pathetic. People in the US don't get turned away at the ER and bleed to death cause they don't have health care, and when is the last time you heard a baby die at birth because because of a lack of health care. Don't forget that the US defines infant mortality rate when a newborn dies within 24 hours as where in other countries they don't have such strict standards.
'Some countries like Greece?' Since when is Greece a model for anything in the modern world? I notice you 'failed' to mention Canada, Great Britain, France, Scandinavian countries, etc; You 'failed' to mention state run health care in these countries far outshine the U.S. in health care. You also managed to distort the 'infant mortality rate' issue. The U.S. lags overall in this area also, compared to many other countries. Your using examples from 3rd world, dictator run, and fascist run countries.
'People don't get turned away?' Are you kidding? They're just bankrupted when the get the bill. And, they may not get turned away if they're bleeding to death, but they sure do for anything judged to be 'non-life threatening'--so what if they are in agonizing pain, suffering, and misery.
Finally, you've ignore the fact that the U.S. ranks 37th in the world in overall health care.
Good health promotes less need for heath care--which means lower costs.
To be sure, I am all for less expensive coverage that surpasses what we are generally offered today. I also genuinely hope that a public option will enable affordable care for the myriad Americans who fear a visit to the doctor represents a futurre visit from a debt collector.
That being said, expressing that our system should match Canada, France, or virtually any other developed nation is over simplifying the issue. Those countries have far greater socialist tendencies than the US. And, although socialism isn't the dirty word that Rush makes it out to be, it does cost money in the form of higher taxes. Americans have the highest disposable income, not because we make the most money per capita, but because our net purchasing power parity surpasses the rest of the world's. Take a look at relative tax statistics here. http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Taxes/P148855.asp
There is certainly loads of fat to cut from our current, broken system... concessions need to be made by hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies. In the end, however, the people have to pay for it. Whether that means high taxes or high premiums, no service is free.
Healthy SF is not insurance in any way shape or form. It is essentially an expansion of an already existing practice in SF of Health Dept providing free care to medically indigent people. $100 million of DPH fund were re-directed to a new program called Healthy SF. This amt was augmented by a revenue source by way of employers providing insurance or paying fee to the City. There is no governmental regulation of the program as there is for real insurance, all benefits are at the whim of the Director of Health and cronies of the mayor. Please don't mistake this for a model that could be used nation wide as insurance or single payer. BTW, Mayor Newsom did nothing more for this program than not veto the enabling legislation, the 'credit' goes to Tom Ammiano.
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