Republicans Strategy on Health Care, “Just Say NO”

There are so many lies out there now about the Canadian health care system, it is almost impossible to enumerate them, let alone try to correct them. But, I will give it a shot.

First off, our system is, in fact, an insurance system with payments and monthly costs to employers, not some free system paid for totally from taxes. Each family MUST be covered, and, if the income is above a certain level, each family pays premiums.

Doctors are NOT bound by any government, but do and will have the ability to open a practice and to become a business entity, incorporate. Doctors are free to move wherever they want to, and can, in fact, make a very handsome living.

What really annoys the hell out of me are some of the selective advertisements seen in the U.S. that somehow portray our system as being selective on the treatment and allowing people to be untreated. IF anyone has a life-threatening condition and requires immediate treatment, they do get it, provided they have seen a doctor in the first place.  Some of the ads from the Conservative groups in the U.S. portrays a woman who claims she “will die” from not receiving an operation on her brain. That was, and is, a completely false assertion. That woman had a CYST on her gland, and the cyst could, NOTE could, cause her to lose sight in her eye or eyes, which is certainly NOT cancer, NOT a death sentence.

I grew up when people were billed for visiting the doctors and even then, people were suffering needlessly because they had lost a job, had been ill, and had no way to pay. Tommy Douglas was Premier in one province, and he introduced the concept of a health care system. Imagine! One man who wanted to see every citizen in his province healthy. Wow!

There are so many lies about this that it boggles the mind. Single payer systems usually are cheaper than the current system in the U.S.  The cost of medical services in the U.S. is far higher than here, around 16% of GDP in the U.S. and around 9% in Canada, yet we manage to have every single person insured and our hospitals are working well.

In May of this year, the Republicans admitted that the health care system in the U.S. MUST be changed, must be fundamentally altered.

“The status quo is no longer acceptable,” political strategist Frank Luntz wrote in a confidential memo to congressional Republicans earlier this month. “The overwhelming majority of Americans believe significant reform is needed — and they see Republicans (and the insurance companies) as the roadblock.”

“It is time to publicly admit that the health-care system in America is broken. Costs are rising at an unacceptable rate — more than doubling over the last 10 years, which is nearly four times the rate of wage growth. Too many patients feel trapped by health-care decisions dictated by HMOs. Too many doctors are torn between practicing medicine and practicing insurance. And 47 million Americans worry what will happen to them or their children if they get sick.”

Here is where some lies get going. There are many people in the insurance industry that have put out messages to Congressmen, Senators and others that are just flat out lies.

This is from a letter sent out by Doctor Frank I. Luntz, to Congressmen, Senators and anyone lobbying to stop the reform of the health system in the U.S. It is available in PDF form on the internet.

“In countries with government run healthcare, politicians make YOUR healthcare decisions.
THEY decide if you’ll get the procedure you need, or if you are disqualified because the
treatment is too expensive or because you are too old. We can’t have that in America.”

Sorry, that is a lie. What is the reality is that there are people who stand between Americans and their doctors, but that person is an employee of the insurance company who is being prodded by stockholders in the company to increase the profit margin of the company, hopefully by dumping people who are ill.

If there is no available treatment in Canada, then the health care system here does, and will, pay for patients to go to the nearest place to get that treatment, even in the U.S. AND the treatment is paid for by the insurance in Canada. Believe me, American doctors LOVE to see Canadians come there for treatment because they are GUARANTEED payment.

Here is more of the “information” Doctor Luntz asked others to use against the current reform.

(19) Always place protecting the doctor-patient relationship an essential priority for any
healthcare initiative. Your three most powerful phrases are:
—     “No Washington politician or bureaucrat should stand between you and
your doctor.”
—     “Decisions about you and your healthcare should be between you and
your doctor and no one else.”
—     “Let your doctor decide.”

Yes, there are rules for this……

WORDS THAT WORK
Federal standardization is healthcare by committee – and we don’t need the inefficiencies of government committees making healthcare decisions.
Doctors are our true experts. The best system is where a patient and a doctor make the decisions about care. Doctors have to go through a pretty rigorous plan to get “Dr.” next to their name, and the overwhelming majority of them are great doctors.

We don’t need some committee rationing care and telling people what they can and can’t have. We need to give patients the best choices of health plans and doctors and let them make their own decisions.
– Senator Jim DeMint

Sorry, Senator, but there are no such committees here. Doctors are quite able to make the decisions without anyone from the government interfering.

(15) ISSUE: Federal Standardization. Oppose this policy idea by attacking bureaucrats in the name of protecting the doctor-patient relationship. Polling reveals two attacks that work best against the creation of a federal panel that would determine a standardized approach to medical care.
—     “It would have federal bureaucrats determining healthcare standards rather than the doctors who are actually providing the care.”
—     “It will take the power away from patients and doctors to choose what treatment the patient receives and give it to the politicians in Washington.”

Yeah, and where is there any mention of any federal bureaucrat determining standard of care? I seriously doubt any politician, even a wildly “socialist” one, would ever want to get involved in this at all.

“WORDS THAT WORK
This plan may sound good rhetorically, but at the end of the day, we are moving very swiftly towards a Washington-engineered, bureaucratic controlled, healthcare system. And we all know that when the government gets in the middle of anything, the quality can quickly diminish.                                      – Eric Cantor”

Oh really Mr. Cantor, then I guess the military and the FBI, CIA, and many other things have gone down in quality then? The federal aviation system is now poor in quality?

That argument is what is known as a straw man argument. BUT, I am wondering if they really do think that any federally run system is guaranteed to fall in quality just because it IS run federally.

(13) Maximize your attacks on the Democratic plan by choosing the BEST words. For instance, calling it the “Democratic plan” isn’t your best bet; doing so makes it political in the wrong way. It makes the issue Republicans vs. Democrats – which doesn’t favor you. The issue needs to be Americans vs. Washington. So here are the words to use:
   “This plan puts politicians in charge of your healthcare” is even better than “bureaucrats.” Bureaucrats are scary – but at least they are professionals. But politicians? They bring all the wrong things to something as vital as healthcare. Both words do damage to the Democratic plan, but “politicians” does the most.
   “Washington” beats “Government.” Washington has all the problems of every other level of government, and more.
   “Washington Takeover” beats “Washington Control.” Takeovers are like coups – they both lead to dictators and a loss of freedom. What Americans fear most is that Washington politicians will dictate what kind of care they can receive.”

Does this look and sound familiar? Yes, it definitely should because this script is written expressly for those who have no idea what else to say, or how to say it.

Now, to get to the other side of this thing.

1. Bureaucrats do exist, and they do interfere with the care you and many other receive now, but they are not from any government, but within the insurance industry. They are in front of those stockholders who DEMAND that at least 20% of every dollar the insurance companies get, stockholders will receive.

Don’t believe me, then maybe you will believe someone who worked in the industry for decades.

WENDELL POTTER who worked for CIGMA for 15 years.

“Well, I was beginning to question what I was doing as the industry shifted from selling primarily managed care plans, to what they refer to as consumer-driven plans. And they’re really plans that have very high deductibles, meaning that they’re shifting a lot of the cost off health care from employers and insurers, insurance companies, to individuals. And a lot of people can’t even afford to make their co-payments when they go get care, as a result of this. But it really took a trip back home to Tennessee for me to see exactly what is happening to so many Americans.”

“I went home, to visit relatives. And I picked up the local newspaper and I saw that a health care expedition was being held a few miles up the road, in Wise, Virginia. And I was intrigued.

I borrowed my dad’s car and drove up 50 miles up the road to Wise, Virginia. It was being held at a Wise County Fairground. I took my camera. I took some pictures. It was a very cloudy, misty day, it was raining that day, and I walked through the fairground gates. And I didn’t know what to expect. I just assumed that it would be, you know, like a health– booths set up and people just getting their blood pressure checked and things like that.

But what I saw were doctors who were set up to provide care in animal stalls. Or they’d erected tents, to care for people. I mean, there was no privacy. In some cases– and I’ve got some pictures of people being treated on gurneys, on rain-soaked pavement.

And I saw people lined up, standing in line or sitting in these long, long lines, waiting to get care. People drove from South Carolina and Georgia and Kentucky, Tennessee– all over the region, because they knew that this was being done. A lot of them heard about it from word of mouth.

There could have been people and probably were people that I had grown up with. They could have been people who grew up at the house down the road, in the house down the road from me. And that made it real to me.

I had been in the industry and I’d risen up in the ranks. And I had a great job. And I had a terrific office in a high-rise building in Philadelphia. I was insulated. I didn’t really see what was going on. I saw the data. I knew that 47 million people were uninsured, but I didn’t put faces with that number.

Just a few weeks later though, I was back in Philadelphia and I would often fly on a corporate aircraft to go to meetings.

And I just thought that was a great way to travel. It is a great way to travel. You’re sitting in a luxurious corporate jet, leather seats, very spacious. And I was served my lunch by a flight attendant who brought my lunch on a gold-rimmed plate. And she handed me gold-plated silverware to eat it with. And then I remembered the people that I had seen in Wise County. Undoubtedly, they had no idea that this went on, at the corporate levels of health insurance companies.

“It was just the most difficult. We call them high profile cases, when you have a case like that — a family or a patient goes to the news media and complains about having some coverage denied that a doctor had recommended. In this case, Nataline Sarkisyan’s doctors at UCLA had recommended that she have a liver transplant. But when the coverage request was reviewed at Cigna, the decision was made to deny it.”

There it is, a company denies health care for their own patient because they NEED to have profits and patients who get ill cut into those profits. Nataline’s doctore recommended treatment, life saving treatment, and she was denied coverage by some damn bureaucrat in some damned corporation more concerned with profits than healthy customers!

Michael Moore came out with his film “Sicko” and this is what the industry saw and did.

Again, words from Wendell Potter.

“I thought that he hit the nail on the head with his movie. But the industry, from the moment that the industry learned that Michael Moore was taking on the health care industry, it was really concerned.

The industry has always tried to make Americans think that government-run systems are the worst thing that could possibly happen to them, that if you even consider that, you’re heading down on the slippery slope towards socialism. So they have used scare tactics for years and years and years, to keep that from happening. If there were a broader program like our Medicare program, it could potentially reduce the profits of these big companies. So that is their biggest concern.”

This is what the industry saw as being true about the Moore film, and certainly does NOT want YOU to know.

That we shouldn’t fear government involvement in our health care system. That there is an appropriate role for government, and it’s been proven in the countries that were in that movie.

You know, we have more people who are uninsured in this country than the entire population of Canada. And that if you include the people who are underinsured, more people than in the United Kingdom. We have huge numbers of people who are also just a lay-off away from joining the ranks of the uninsured, or being purged by their insurance company, and winding up there.

And another thing is that the advocates of reform or the opponents of reform are those who are saying that we need to be careful about what we do here, because we don’t want the government to take away your choice of a health plan. It’s more likely that your employer and your insurer is going to switch you from a plan that you’re in now to one that you don’t want. You might be in the plan you like now.

But chances are, pretty soon, you’re going to be enrolled in one of these high deductible plans in which you’re going to find that much more of the cost is being shifted to you than you ever imagined.”

HERE is where YOU get to give more money to the insurance companies for service that is actually going to be paid for with higher costs. YOU really want this??

All of this and more is on the following site:

Wendell Potter exposes Insurance Resistance to Health Reforms (video)

“REP. JOHN BOEHNER: The forthcoming plan from Democratic leaders will make health care more expensive, limit treatments, ration care, and put bureaucrats in charge of medical decisions rather than patients and doctors.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL: Americans need to realize that when someone says “government option,” what could really occur is a government takeover that soon could lead to government bureaucrats denying and delaying care, and telling Americans what kind of care they can have.

SEN. JON KYL: Washington run healthcare would diminish access to quality care, leading to denials, shortages and long delays for treatment.

REP. JOE WILSON: How will a government run health plan not lead to the same rationing of care that we have seen in other countries?

REP. TOM PRICE: We don’t want to put the government, we don’t want to put bureaucrats between a doctor and a patient.”

Hmmm wonder where that comes from??

“The industry doesn’t want to have any competitor. In fact, over the course of the last few years, has been shrinking the number of competitors through a lot of acquisitions and mergers. So first of all, they don’t want any more competition period. They certainly don’t want it from a government plan that might be operating more efficiently than they are, that they operate. The Medicare program that we have here is a government-run program that has administrative expenses that are like three percent or so.” Wendell Potter

“You told Congress that the industry has hijacked our health care system and turned it into a giant ATM for Wall Street. You said, “I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick, all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors.” How do they satisfy their Wall Street investors?

Well, there’s a measure of profitability that investors look to, and it’s called a medical loss ratio. And it’s unique to the health insurance industry. And by medical loss ratio, I mean that it’s a measure that tells investors or anyone else how much of a premium dollar is used by the insurance company to actually pay medical claims. And that has been shrinking, over the years, since the industry’s been dominated by, or become dominated by for-profit insurance companies. Back in the early ’90s, or back during the time that the Clinton plan was being debated, 95 cents out of every dollar was sent, you know, on average was used by the insurance companies to pay claims. Last year, it was down to just slightly above 80 percent.

THIS IS A PLAN TO SABOTAGE THE REFORM, TO ENSURE THAT THE INSURANCE COMPANIES FORCE EVERY SINGLE PERSON TO BUY INSURANCE FROM THEM. Make no mistake, they want Congress and the Senate to do NOTHING! That would be the ultimately desirable outcome.

This is what the GOP want.

The GOP plan would make the health benefits that companies provide their workers count as taxable income, and then use that money to provide tax credits with which individuals could purchase their own health coverage. Economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who advised the McCain campaign, said the new plan goes further than previous Republican offerings. For instance, it would provide new incentives for insurers to offer coverage to people who now have trouble buying it because they have pre-existing health conditions. It also puts more emphasis on preventive care and sets up “state exchanges” — similar to the one now operating in Massachusetts — in which individuals and families could comparison-shop for insurance plans.”

In short, the GOP want to keep the insurance companies happy, and force YOU to buy the coverage. What?? That must have the insurance companies smiling gleefully!

When I first heard of Pre-Existing Conditions, I had absolutely NO idea what they were or how they factored into health care.  Then, I found out and was totally appalled and disbelieving. If a woman had, at one time, a yeast infection (which, by the way, can happen in babies) then she could and, in one instance, be denied health insurance coverage. What the hell??

If I lived in the U.S. and applied for health insurance, then I would possibly be turned down because I DID have Rubella twice in my childhood and my titre count is higher than normal. What in hell does that have to do with any health issues I now have? Or, because I did have gall stones at one time, and have not had them at all since, I am refused coverage? Bizarre!

I guess it comes down to not knowing that this type of exclusion is unknown elsewhere. If you are not aware that other places don’t even know what a pre-existing condition is, nor that it is grounds for exclusion of health coverage, then you come to think this practice is normal. Believe me, it is NOT.

I can go and get health care even though I have had Rubella twice, had gall stones (and have my gall bladder) and other things including yeast infections because of the effects of taking an antibiotic or other medicine. It is inconceivable to me that I would not!

Obama, Slam Those Salaries, Now!

I knew at least two months ago that the CEO’s and other fat cat exec’s would find a way to circumvent the ceiling on their bonuses, their income, and get the money.  Quelle Surprise!

They made over 100 of the upper echelon in one company “partners” to get around this,in others,  they just thumbed their noses at the taxpayer, the government and took the money anyway.

I have yet to see anything to get those damned Credit Default Swaps under control, and with the serious lack of legal recourse, the fat cats are eating out on the taxpayers of the entire world. Remember, most of the banks do have international branches or connections.

President Obama, put those ceilings into law, harsh penalties if they violate, and make damn sure they do give you full disclosure on every damn cent of taxpayer monies they are spending. No excuses, no hiding, nadda.

If necessary, put a full investigation using every federal agency, including the IRS, the FBI, and the Wall Street agencies. Stop this abuse of trust now.

As for our own government here, there is an equally apalling lack of investigation, oversight, accounting, so I can gather the same is happening in Japan, Korea, the U.K., Belgium, Germany, and virtually every country tied to this disastrous mess.

Here is where diplomacy comes in, there MUST be an international cooperation, an international accounting, and definitely an international effort to kick these guys where, obviously, they need it, in the wallet.

Damn this is a mess!

Housing Crisis and Financial Mess 3 Years Old!

Speaking of the FBI, housing crisis, and mismanagement of money, there is one that seems to be just fine when it comes to the governments and any oversight! Yes, it is now 3 years old, yet no-one seems to even give a damn! There were millions, perhaps hundreds of millions, that have apparently gone missing, yet no-one in the administration, federal, state or even city has done a damn thing to find out where that money went!

What am I talking about? Well, once upon a time, roughly 3 years ago, a storm hit and, in the words of President Bush, “those people in that place” faced death, destruction, homelessness, and even starvation. Starting to ring any bells yet? People from all over North America rallied, raised huge sums of money for relief, and those who had gone through hell, including children, were seen as worthy of any help!

Yeah, once upon a time, this happened. Today, those who are first responders, including the police, the firefighters, and those who were litterally washed out of their homes are living and working in pathetic trailers. The New Orleans Police Department is operating out of trailers now, and their ability to do their jobs is hampered with a severe lack of resources. Even the houses for first responders had to have someone from another country come down to help repair and restore a few of them. Why the hell does it take someone from another country to do this? Very little infrastructure is back to normal, some children and their parents are STILL living on the street, and others are STILL living in emergency housing.

Scammers have grabbed land, others are abusing the shortage of any decent housing to charge rents way out of proportion.

Yet, no investigation! NO authorities, state, city or federal are even looking for the money. NO investigation into the federal emergency aid monies or housing restoration has happened either! Hmmm maybe because those children and families are NOT white?

If President Obama wants a place to start with investigating, working on infrastructure, housing, and supporting citizens who just got caught in a whole series of lies about water, levees etc. then I would say New Orleans, Saint Bernard Parish IS the place to start.

Maybe I need to be a bit more blunt. IF a nation CANNOT restore a city where there ARE NO insurgents, then the credibility of the nation is basically shot. How can any nation propose to restore, rebuild and help others when THAT NATION REFUSES TO REPAIR ITSELF? This tells the whole world that the US cannot even manage to restore a part within the country and any promises to help other countries will likely end up with the same mess years later.

When the US is trying to get the world to help out in the two wars, and the stated objective is to restore Iraq and Afghanistan to democracies, perhaps the argument for restoring those countries would hold a hell of a lot more credence if the US could actually restore one small city. Until that happens, people around the entire world see the promises from the US as empty air.
Maybe now that more than just one small city with “those people in that area” are affected, somebody may actually pay attention now!

Mortgages, Foreclosures, Banking, Total Mess

I have spent some time reading all over the place to find out what is going on with all those mortgages, the foreclosures, and the banks. My conclusion? The financial world did not K.I.S.S (keep it simple, stupid!) and have created a mess that unwitting people all over the US got snared with. What is just as disturbing is the lack of any charges. What happened to the FBI investigations? I have seen nothing about this yet! Maybe because the investigation leads to companies like Wells Fargo, Fanny Mae, Goldman Sachs, and the company executives? Until there are charges or at least some grand juries convened, I have a feeling this is all just going to be wallpaper over cayuse crap. Those who knowingly defrauded, manipulated and created a huge problem need to be found and face the music. The Bush Administration has put some of the “old boys network” in the very positions where the investigations may well end up squelched.

The countries of the world elsewhere have K.I.S.S and that has allowed mortgages to be renegotiated directly with fewer foreclosures. What is the difference? “Securitized mortgages” where speculators, unscrupulous financial activity and banks all DELIBERATELY chose to “reduce risk” by cutting up the dealings to make far more money off housing.
There is obviously a HUGE problem with the U.S. regulations if this was even allowed to happen. Housing and other shelter lending should NEVER have been exposed to these practices.
What can be done now? First off, write a piece of legislation banning CDS, along with severe restrictions on shelter lending, whereby there is a simple process. Banks can ONLY lend directly to purchasers, period. The mortgages MUST be maintained within a single lender, and NO allowed contracts or other practices where there is ANYONE else allowed in. Keep It Simple, Stupid!
This may mean that the government now becomes the Master Servicer of mortgages, which is almost guaranteed to raise screams of protest from banks, and “investors” because this would put the government in the position of negotiator. For those who find their mortgages “repackaged” it would allow them the ability to renegotiate directly, simply, and probably effectively with the Master Servicer, the government.
Reform the shelter bankruptcy laws, along with an increased involvement of Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac as the holder of the mortgages. This reform MUST change the way mortgages are renegotiated, change the way mortgages are written, and MUST CUT OUT any contractual access from any other person than the banks and the mortgagee. Get those bloody contracts out of the housing market, now! Those contracts are crippling the ability of the banks, the holders of mortgages and lending to even find a clean, simple way to get things resettled.
If a housing market has dropped the value on the properties, then it is up to the banks to “eat” the losses. Why? Because BANKS are the ones that sold off the mortgages to others, complicated the hell out of the whole thing in the first place!
One reason most people have not figured this out IS because of the “securitization” of mortgages, the underlying manipulation and speculations that made millionaires out of people who NEVER had a stake in the shelter market at all!
Personally if I do go into the US market and buy a house, I am going to make DAMN SURE that the lending institution WILL NOT, HAS NOT, AND WILL NEVER turn my mortgage over to speculators. I want to have a clause that allows me to sue the hell out of the bank if they do!
KEEP IT SIMPLE! STUPID!