No Excuses -- Health Care Really Can't Wait

Today in his address to the nation from a children's hospital President Obama stated, "We can't afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care. There are too many lives and livelihoods at stake." He couldn't be more right. Now is not the time to hold up health care over every single thing that needs to be fixed. Now is the time for bold action to make good, affordable health care a right. The question is, can Congress rise above the demands of every lobbying group and make it happen?

Two House committees have now approved legislation that will make good health care affordable to American families and small businesses, stop insurance company abuses and offer a choice of private insurance or a public health insurance plan. Despite united Republican opposition the bills passed the committees with the support of 90 percent of Democrats. With key votes ahead in the next 10 days, It's time for all members of Congress to get on the right side of history.

There are two types of arguments in the debate. First, there are obstructionists, mostly from "the party of no," who just want to block health care reform to politically damage the president. In a recent call to conservative activists in the Republican Party, Sen. DeMint said, "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him." It is clear that they have no concern for the millions of Americans facing rising premiums and who are one serious illness away from bankruptcy.

Secondly, there are some in Congress who are missing the big picture. Yes, there are parts of this legislation that we all want to improve on. However, it is simply ridiculous to vote against an entire structural change that will provide quality, affordable health care to thousands of your constituents because it doesn't address ever problem in health care. Work with your colleagues to make it better -- don't block it.

We can't make any excuses that will embolden the opponents of reform. There are real consequences for people each day that we put this off. Here is what happens every three weeks that we delay health care reform in America:

• 143,250 people will lose their health insurance coverage [pdf]
• 53,507 people will file for bankruptcy because they can't pay their medical bills
• 1,265 people will die [pdf] because they lack coverage

Washington insiders want to talk about the horse race, and the political bickering, but that is not what the American people care about. People care about premiums rising four times faster than wages, not bipartisan compromises that will water-down reform.

Just this week in Tennessee, hundreds of citizens with no access to health care lined up for a Remote Area Medical event. Remote Area Medical was created to serve people in third world countries, but now spends most of their time in the U.S. as the only alternative for thousands of people all over the country to see a doctor -- including thousands of children. Stan Brock, Remote Area Medical's founder, said, "We have had to cut back on our operations in places like Haiti, Guatemala and India because of the tremendous demand here in the United States."

Enough is enough. Big changes like this don't come easy. It's time for our leaders to stand up for us and rise above the petty political back and forth. No excuses -- health care can't wait!

Comments

[johnashman]

06:52 PM on 07/27/2009

http://64.203.97.61/SolutionsLab/Solution.aspx?Guid=2d50363e-00be-44e8-9251-9a6589ba820d

Solves the actual problems, rather than putting expensive single payer band-aid on it.

[jmpurser]

10:18 AM on 07/22/2009

So, Obama comes up with a "uniquely American" health care plan that keeps absolutely EVERYTHING bad about our current system but we can't criticize him because it would "embolden" our enemies???

Where have I heard this "logic" before....?

And when Congress gets paid off by a lobbyist I can look it up and find out how much he got paid and what he did for it. Not an ideal system but at least I can keep score. When Obama makes the White House log available to the press and stops cutting deals behind closed doors THEN he can call on congress to rise above the demands of every lobbying group..

[desktop]

09:05 AM on 07/22/2009

To bad the so called health care reform won't help the needy for 4 or more years. The so called reform will force the unemployed and underemployed to pay for more insurance than they can afford or be fined large amounts. Ya, that sounds like reform, attack the homeless and unemployed. The only way to reform health care was to dump the providers. This so called reform is all smoke and mirrors.

[Connolly1916]

01:10 PM on 07/22/2009

The way to reform health care is to dump the private, for-profit insurance companies altogether.

[katielady]

08:13 AM on 07/22/2009

there is an article in today's NYTimes OP ED section, saying, "Time for Congress to get rid of an expensive plan taxpayers don't need. I wrote to all my representatives this am and encouraged my family and friends to do the same. I encourage all Americans to ask our members to put aside their VERY COSTLY PERKS, we taxpayers foot and come up with a plan they, and we can enjoy should we need or choose to participate.
thank you

[ClarcKing]

08:09 AM on 07/22/2009

The Congress must re-enact the Hill-Burton Act: the general hospital system, the best in the world. Insurance companies made themselves the arbitrators of for-profit healthcare via the Nixon administration and have proceeded to bankrupt Americans. Get fid of the HMO's and the insurance companies. The congress should not re-inflate the Wall St. or the insurance bubble.

[Sundialsvc4]

08:07 AM on 07/22/2009

When we re-read the text of the Constitution of the United States, we can conclude either that:

(a) Vellum was incredibly expensive in those days ... or ...

(b) Tom Jefferson got writer's cramp very easily ... or ...

(c) They were all "men of few words" but incredibly wise.

I tend to choose (c), and here is why: Article 2, Section 4. The oft-repeated but usually-ignored "impeachment clause." The direct law-enforcement command that applies, supposedly, to "any Civil officer" of this Government.

I need not quote it here, but when you read it, do observe that "Bribery" sits adjacent to "Treason" in the very same sentence.

It is BRIBERY, and nothing else, that is (by your statistic) destroying the lives of 199,022 people every three weeks. I don't know about you, but that's a very disgusting number.

Remind me now, Richard... what country do we live in? We must all be miserable sots. I'm sure they don't have such rampant corruption in The United States of America! Man... wish we all lived THERE!

... awright ... enough commiserating. Let's FIX the damned thing and get it back up in the air.

[zell]

10:54 PM on 07/21/2009

Mr. Kirsch is right. Healthcare cannot wait. All of the senators that were listed on KQuark's posting (here on the Huff Post website) have been supporters of starting or funding the two wars that are currently going on. Yet, when it comes to helping We, the People, get the Public Option, they start talking about the deficit. Will someone please answer this question? Why is it ok to start a war and continue to fund it without money in the Treasury but it is not ok to help We, the People get healthcare? These DINO's (Democrats in name only) need to be exposed and need to be defeated in the next election if they cannot support our president in his fight to get the Public Option healthcare package passed ASAP!!!!!.

[toggan]

02:45 AM on 07/22/2009

You ask, "Why is it ok to start a war and continue to fund it without money in the Treasury but it is not ok to help We, the People get healthcare?"

This is the current state of affairs or mindset in D.C. Can you believe it? Borrow money, start wars and take citizens' lives, but will not support a penny for Health Care Reform to save citizens" lives. They fight and try to block any significant legislation that would help the American people. They water down legislation, give the legislation great titles, comes before the cameras, put on a good show of how great the passage, and it helps no one or very few. Great Representatives we have in D.C. right?

[toggan]

03:02 AM on 07/22/2009

correction: "come before the cameras"

[RepugsOut08]

09:21 PM on 07/21/2009

I think we should just forget about trying to figure out some convoluted plan to pay for some half way public option. Obama and the progressives should just admit what the civilized world has known for decades. Health care should be a right in any civilized nation that cares about it's citizens.
Our current for-profit system is too expensive, and doesn't deliver the quality to justify the expense. It is also barbaric in the way it treats those without insurance or those inadequately insured.
Let's start educating the people about how other single payer systems REALLY work, instead of falling back on the tired old propaganda from the insurance companies and the AMA. Let's debate the pros and cons of these systems, and determine what works best in them.
We can offer various government incentives to those entering the medical profession. The American people will get behind this if they're given the facts versus the scare tactics of those protecting the insurance company profits.
How do I know this? Well, have you ever heard of ANY nation with single payer, demanding that their government return them to a for profit system? Didn't think so. That, more than anything else, should prove that it's far superior to our clunky expensive and 37th in the world rated dinosaur of a health care system.
After a healthy debate, Obama and Congress can then bring single payer before the people next year. Perhaps even put it up for a vote by the people.

[toggan]

02:15 AM on 07/22/2009

The current system is barbaric and, in my opinion, an embarrassment.

[cripes]

09:04 PM on 07/21/2009

What are we waiting for? More than 75% want the reform.What possible reason could there be not to go forward with health care reform? After all the pillaging that's gone on with our brothers ?Could we somehow be on the insurer's side of no reform?
Look , I am sure that everyone on the forum has a brother ,father mom, cousin, sister,friend that is in need of this reform.Someone you know with pre existing clause preventing them coverage.Hey and who is to say next month you don't come down with something that causes them to cancel your policy.We are all on thin ice with the existing bs, and we know it.
Get on with it congress....

[bighat]

07:13 PM on 07/21/2009

As this bill is expected to cost 1.5 trillion would it not be prudent to start on a smaller scale like California or New York. And start immediatley after the signing of the bill instead of waitinf for 2013. Would we not learn valuable information before launching on the entire US.

[cripes]

09:08 PM on 07/21/2009

that cost is over a ten year period

[cripes]

09:11 PM on 07/21/2009

over a ten year period

[Peabodies]

06:22 PM on 07/21/2009

HCAN did organize a nice rally in D.C. on June 25, attended by some 7000 people (Did you see it on TV? Didn't think so). I say we need every kind of help, right now, even if it isn't perfect. That said, we need public/Medicare for All option, as soon as the bill is signed, NOT IN 2013!!

We also need to remove the employers out of the health CARE equation.

Doctors are overwhelmingly FOR the Public Option/ Medicare For All. Single Payer.

They are sick and tired of spending so much time filling out forms for the 1300 private insurance companies (that actually are owned by 6-7 LARGE health care DENIERS). Single Payer will make them compete on a level playing field. Right now the private interests rule, at great cost to you, me and your neighbor. About time for GOVERNMENT PAID health care, the way the rest of the world does it! Because health care is a human right, not a FOR PROFIT commodity.

[cripes]

09:09 PM on 07/21/2009

Go!

[cripes]

09:11 PM on 07/21/2009

Another rally coming July 30

[Donald Cohen]

05:59 PM on 07/21/2009

As the debate heats up over national health reform, it's worth noting the long history of opposition to universal health insurance by medical associations, the insurance industry and conservatives. For example:
- In 1949 the AMA opposed Truman’s national health bill, stating: “Would socialized medicine lead to socialization of other phases of life? Lenin thought so. He declared socialized medicine is the keystone to the arch of the socialized state.”
- In 1965, The Association of American Physicians opposed Medicare: “We oppose the Medicare program because foreign experience has shown that socialized medicine is harmful to both the doctor and the patient, primarily to the patient.
- In 1993, The Health Insurance Association of America, sponsored an ad campaign opposing Clinton’s health care plan. “What we don’t do is let the government run our health care system through mandatory and monopolistic insurance purchasing schemes. That approach would take away your freedom of choice about health care…”
- And now in 2009, America's Health Insurance Plans, advocating against a public insurance plan that consumers can choose, stated: “The allure of a government-run health plan is distracting and unproven, and brings a high risk of unintended consequences such as reducing competition and consumer choice. Moreover, even if a government-run plan could be designed in a way that preserves choice for most Americans, it would delay the start of universal coverage for years.”
See more quotes here:http://onlinecpi.live.radicaldesigns.org/downloads/CryingWolfHealthcare.pdf

[vanmungo]

06:10 PM on 07/21/2009

But the AMA now supports the House Democratic reform bill, complete with its enfeebled, hamstrung "public option" that will guarantee the HMOs continued chokehold on the system.

Here's the dirty little secret of the health-care debate: all the major player on both sides of the aisle are paid employees of the major health-care companies, including HMOs and Big Pharma. In the 2008 election cycle alone, the Democrats slopped up $90 million from the health sector, the Republicans with $76 million. Obama led the pack with $19 million. So all these Beltway knaves agree on one key proviso--keeping their paymasters in business. The rest is quibbling over marginal details.

That's why the "public option" contained in these bills is too feeble to either contain costs or guarantee coverage to the tens of millions of Americans who desperately need help: the fix is in, and it will never offer serious competition to the HMO greedheads who own Congress and the executive branch. In fact, according to the leading scholar in this area, the public option will EXPAND the market for the HMOs (http://www.pnhp.org/blog/2009/04/15/qotd-hacker-says-that-public-optionprivate-exchange-would-expand-private-insurance-market/)

For more information on the only real health-care reform—nonprofit, single payer Medicare for all--and how to achieve it, please see the following Web sites:

www.singlepayeraction.org
http://www.healthcare-now.org
www.pnhp.org
http://www.1payer.net/
http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/

[RepugsOut08]

08:04 PM on 07/21/2009

Single payer! Absolutely! We keep dancing around this obvious answer, for no other reason than to keep a handful of people profiting from millions of people's misery. It's time for this barbaric for profit system to end!

[vanmungo]

05:54 PM on 07/21/2009

Richard Kirsch is a former supporter of real reform--single-payer--who has joined forces with the mainstream corporate liberals who are peddling the AMA-approved public-option fraud that will neither rein in runaway costs nor guarantee coverage to all Americans.

Most liberal columnists and posters trot out the phrase "public option" like a magical formula--few of them, however, have any idea of what it really entails or how it would work.

But the public option is nothing like Medicare.

It will be neither truly public (cannot accept government funding after the initial infusion) nor really an option for the tens of millions who need it most (because it is self-sustaining, it would charge premiums and impose deductibles)

Moreover, it would likely be saddled with the oldest, sickest, and thus most expensive cohort, and would have to offer higher fees than Medicare--so no cost savings, none of the cost efficiencies of a single risk pool; it would be competing with1,300 private HMO risk pools, which would aggressively market the youngest, healthiest, and thus cheapest and most profitable cohort.

This farce has only one true beneficiary: the HMOs, which will retain their chokehold on this system.

For more information on the only real health-care reform with a proven record of cost control and universal coverage--nonprofit single-payer Medicare for all--see the following Web sites:

www.pnhp.org

www.singlepayeraction.org

http://www.healthcare-now.org

http://www.1payer.net/

http:// www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/

[katielady]

08:20 AM on 07/22/2009

there is an article in today's NYTimes decrying the plan Congress now enjoys and is too expensive and wasteful .. Time for Congress to dump that plan and pass one we taxpayers can afford and they, and we, should we choose, can enjoy. I wrote to my Congressional members, encouraged my family and friends to contact their reps and encourage all readers to do the same.

It is time for Congress to stop playing games and creating "Waterloos" of sorts and time to grow u p and act in our interests.

thank you

[expired]

05:13 PM on 07/21/2009

Good question, because he is too busy pandering. He has to live up to that bipartisan bcrap. Time out, f'em. Let's move on sans them. Grow a pair already.

Health Care: The Public Plan Option

These Democratic Senators have NOT agreed to support it:
Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)

Senator Tom Carper (D-DE)

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA)

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR)

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL)

Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE)

Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA)

Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND)

Senator Max Baucus (D-MT)

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN)

Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR)

Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT)

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA)

These names are reported by The Hill here and here

Update: Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) says she supports a public option.
Update: Senator Jeff Binghaman (D-NM) says he supports a public option.

You can also contact the White House and voice your opinion
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On The Show
Coming up Wednesday, July 22, 2009

[vanmungo]

06:01 PM on 07/21/2009

Please specify what you mean by "public option": would it be publicly financed or self-sustaining, would it charge premiums and impose deductibles, would it have to pay fees that are higher than Medicare's?

People throw this term around without realizing how empty the Democratic proposal really is--how UNlike Medicare it is, and how much LIKE an HMO it is: an enfeebled, hamstrung HMO that will discredit the idea of publicly funded health care for another generation.

So let's hear your version of the public option: specific details, please.

[Andreams]

12:41 PM on 07/22/2009

Public Option to me means an affordable way to buy insurance. I want to pay premiums that are fair. Right now, my insurance premium is 77% of my income. That is not fair. I've read the bills and basically like them. I do believe there should be subsidies for those who cannot afford to pay the full price but I believe they should be based on true need, not a free ride. Reimbursements should be above the Medicare reimbursement rates and the cost should be higher.

I'd also be happy to pay more in taxes.

[Andreams]

12:35 PM on 07/22/2009

The senator from Fl, Bill Nelson, won't commit to either a public option or to support the President. His office sounds like he's very much against it. Senator Nelson is on the Finance Committee but he spends his days meeting with healthcare reps, insurance companies and big insurance agencies.

Bill Nelson is a blue dog. 25% of the people in his state have no health insurance. Florida has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. I'm angry that my own senator can care so little about Floridians.

Give him a call and let him know how you feel. He wants to vacation while people in his state die. He wants to vacation while more lose their insurance and everything they own. Bill Nelson DOES NOT CARE about anything but killing the public option and supporting the insurance business.

[expired]

05:11 PM on 07/21/2009

Health Care: The Public Plan Option

These Democratic Senators have NOT agreed to support it:
Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)

Senator Tom Carper (D-DE)

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA)

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR)

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL)

Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE)

Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA)

Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND)

Senator Max Baucus (D-MT)

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN)

Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR)

Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT)

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA)

These names are reported by The Hill here and here

Update: Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) says she supports a public option.
Update: Senator Jeff Binghaman (D-NM) says he supports a public option.

You can also contact the White House and voice your opinion
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On The Show
Coming up Wednesday, July 22, 2009

[cripes]

09:15 PM on 07/21/2009

Senator Max Baucus (D-MT)
LIEBERMAN
Conrad
Don't expect too much from these guys,,,top money lobbyists