Roy Sekoff Discusses the Roadblocks to Health Care Reform with MSNBC's Carlos Watson

Huffington Post editor Roy Sekoff appeared on MSNBC Wednesday to talk with anchor Carlos Watson about the roadblocks to health care. The question, as Sekoff put it, is are we going to get real reform or are we going to get "D.C. reform," which would mean no reform at all. He also spoke about the unprecedented lobbying that is taking place by the health care industry.

Comments

[Joseph A. Palermo - Huffpost Blogger]

Give 'em hell Roy!

[Trittydi]

Public Option is crap -- it is not health care reform.

Single Payer Now!!
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[Trittydi]

DC Reform Indeed. If they can stop health care reform - they will. Very few of our elected representatives in DC are actually interested in REAL reform and this will continue to be an exhaustive up-hill battle.

The lawmakers we send to DC are not there for us - they are there to serve the needs of their corporate constituency. They don't think there will be consequences if we are unhappy - but they won't be able to rake in the golden eggs if they make the corporatists unhappy.

Except ... this time they're wrong. If they get health care wrong -- they will pay a price.
*

[breakingpoint]

“I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program.” (applause) “I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody.

And that’s what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan.

And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House.” - Obama speaking to the Illinois AFL-CIO, June 30, 2003.

http://jischinger.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/the-health-care-cartel

If the Democrats drop the ball on this
Game Over.

Time to make ready for Independent candidates.
Open the process state by state and open the debates.

Never again

[Benton]

I actually appreciate Carlos Watson's style of interview.

[Trittydi]

Yes - I liked him as well.
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[GiGiOne]

Do we live to work, or do we work to live? The rest of the world has chosen to live and work. We are being made to work in order to live, and then some!.

This health care thing being tied to your work is ... INSANE. Health care bankrupting ordinary people is ... barbarian.

How did this country get to this point? Mean, corrupt, intolerant, infantile with slogans. We need to turn back the clock. I thought we had done that with Obama, but I'm waiting ... nervously. Meanwhile we are the laughing stock of the world, on the way we don't take care of our sick.

I'm going into the streets on July 30th. Are you?

www.pnhp.org

http://www.healthcare-now.org/docs/july30.pdf

[AnotherTry]

TV

[jimmyjimmy07]

great comedian explains how health care works:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCSUGLc7PG0&feature=related

[xargaw]

This is War. If the American people want to survive the corporate army, they have to pressure, harrass and hound their representatives over and over again on this issue. Make it clear, their re-election is based on their support for public health insurance. We are fighting unbelievable money and power. Industry must be crushed. If they win this, we will never win anything important again. We have to show congress the constituent votes are stronger than any amount of money.

[nickels]

Funny, they don't have trouble "finding" the money when they are saving their buddies, the bankers. It is only now, when they are working on something that might benefit the people, they suddenly can't "find the money" to "pay" for it.

[WinterParkMom]

Public Option Now
Look at hard numbers forward to your reps:
47 million uninsured, 20 million underinsured. Subtract 10 million uninsured poor, leaves 37 million who can pay, divide that in half: 18.5million can only afford $50, 18.5 mill can afford $100, the under insured can afford $100 and get rid of their private carrier.

18.5 mill @ $50 = $925,000,000.
18.5 mill @ $100 = $1,850,000,000
20 mill @100 = $2,000,000,000.
Grand total = $4,775,000,000

That is FOUR BILLION, SEVEN HUNDRED SEVENTY FIVE MILLION DOLLARS PER MONTH in just affordable premium payments. That is OVER FIFTY SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS ANNUALLY, just from uninsured and under insured. That does not count the countless millions who will drop their rapists to come to a public option. Then factor in that the majority of folks will be getting preventive care, not sickness treatments (less payout to a doctor for a checkup than say dialysis)

We should also introduce a 1 penney sin tax on fast food, food/drinks with high fructose corn syrup and every bottle/glass of alohol. These are just as bad for the health as cigarettes and paying a dollar for a burger instead of 99cents isn't going to put anyone into the poorhouse.

Pass these numbers on to everyone, people need to see hard numbers and stop being scared off by rationing and long lines and it'll hurt insurance companies. Heck yeah why not? We've been the ones hurting for far too long!

[Peabodies]

Wow, WinterParkMom, you've done your homework! I will USE these numbers. And it bolsters my case that Single Payer will pay for itself, no matter what the "vested interests", the "health insurance-­pharma-med­icaldevice­s-hospital­-AMA" industrial complex says.

NOW IS THE TIME. Single Payer or bust!

[babyboomerorig]

Excellent! I would be soooo happy to pay $50 a month to see my doctor. Sure can't afford the $150 the clinic charges....and then blood work could be updated....new X-Rays on my back to check to see how bad the arthritis and bulging disk have gotten....then there are the hips (almost as painful as the back).

Yep....I could do this. And will copy this to send on. Thanks!

[breakingpoint]

cut 1% of the military Budget and everyone could have health care.

Then Audit the Pentagon .

[StansDad]

but we NEED the extra super mega awesome fighter jets they make! Didn't Independence Day the movie teach you anything!?!

[Betrayedcitizen]

Very 'inteesting post. I really can't digest your numbers yet ..but they look impressive.

My contribution to this problem is to make strong laws prohibiting the discount of health related charges that the hospitals, insurance companies, and large phamacetical comanies plague us with.

This is the biggest sham ....everyone should know by now that these mentioned promoters , along with health care providers only collect a fraction of their phoney bills. This facade , where a hospital only receives a 30% payment of a bill creates the illusion of humongous costs and thus causes single payers to have their premiums more than double what they really cost. The insurance industry fools the public and they prosper like greedy Wall St.

So...cut the premiums and stop the bankruptcys by individuals who have to pay out of pocket the FULL Amount because they have no insurance, Whats more, our elected officials know this and play dumb...just like they did with the Oil Commodity sham and $145 bbl/oil and $4.50 /gas and the Oil companies making profits of $35 Billion a Quarter.

There...I'v cut health care costs in half....Lets go back to the 50's & 60's when a days stay in the hospital cost about a day's wages.....Very few make thousands a day...

BTW...Don't even think of single payer insurance by the government­.....we're 10 X the size of Canada and the undertaking would be a disaster...in service .We need non profit -mutual insurance companys.


.

[Wiseup2Day]

If they pass reform we will have to get them all out in 2010..and they know it..this is not popular.

[Billl]

There is only one way to lower health care costs enough to prevent bankrupting the United States Treasury, government owned and operated hospitals and clinics paid for by a national sales tax.

Nobody can collect the money to pay for health care as cheaply as the government can through a national sales tax, and nobody can deliver high quality care and medications as cost effectively as the VA has for years.

A civilian model of the VA is the best fix in a new dual public/private system.

If private systems work for you keep doing what you’re doing except no government funding should be spent through private systems in order to drastically lower government mandated program costs.

A new public health service could provide:

Free care and medications to everyone choosing to use public care, rich, poor, old, young, Medicare, Medicaid, no limitations, and everybody that asks for it could have it no insurance or co pays would be required the service would be free period.

Businesses that would choose the public health care service for their employees would no longer be required to pay for or be involved in health care in any way.

Think what this alone would do for the US economy.

Government cost for this new public health care system even after bringing in 50 million people currently outside of any system would still be hundreds of billions of dollars cheaper than the $2.5trillion spent last year for health care.

[kbkw54]

How can we have any reform when people who serve in the committee like Chris Dodd have ties to the health care industry. "WASHINGTON (AP) — The wife of a senator playing a lead role on a national health care overhaul sits on the boards of four health care companies, one of several examples of lawmakers with ties to the medical industry. Jackie Clegg Dodd, wife of Sen. Chris Dodd, serves on the boards of Javelin Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cardiome Pharma Corp., Brookdale Senior Living, and Pear Tree Pharmaceuticals, a financial disclosure report the senator released Friday shows." ..The whole article can be found here...http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hQtJLTMCxp5OdQHbnCgmTL-pk6wAD98P9S300

[justwaitandsee]

I had a problem with Carlos and Roy and their comments on the Michael Jackson Memorial. Once Carlos stated that Michael's daughter crying was staged I had no further use of what he had to say. Just because he is fake and doesn't mean everyone else it.

[ThomH]

The biggest scam of all is getting people to believe that "a public option" is real reform., as alas, HuffPo's Roy Sekoff is doing here.

Medicare For All, single payer HR 676 is real reform. It covers everyone, costs less, saves over $3 trillion that healthcos will otherwise impose as useless overhead costs in the next decade, "strong public option" or no.

It is preferred by majorities of voters and physicians.

But it's "off the table".

Why?

This is what Roy Sekoff should be revealing, instead of shilling for a combination of mandates and subsidies that will put taxpayer money into the pockets of health insurers, increasing their revenues and profits, while millions are still left uncovered.

The healthcos "oppose" this kind of faux-reform just like Bre'r Rabbit didn't want to be thrown into the briar patch.

Enough of this nonsense. Let's have real reform, Medicare For All, single payer HR 676.

[KrugnacTheMagnificent]

Exactly. The only reason Dems even mention Repubs or Luntz is to try to f0o1 people into thinking that what they Dems support is true reform.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

[CherokeeGirl]

I wouldn't call it a scam, it's just taking medicare for all and making it an option.

otherwise it's the same, it just lets people keep their current coverage if they want to.