West Virginia Blue
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Got an email from Organizing for America asking for Captio's constituents to call her office in Charleston (304-925-5964) and ask her to support health care reform. Since it was lunchtime, I did so right that minute. Todd in her office took my name, address, phone number and said that she was getting many calls about the issue.
He "hadn't heard" the distortions being bandied about by the GOP that I told him about when he me asked what they were. I was very polite, but I told him he must not be listening to the news. I said to ask her to listen to her constituents. His comment was that their calls are overwhelmingly "opposed to President Obama's health care proposals and she IS listening to her constituents". Those of us in Congressional District 2 need to call her and demand she do what's best for the American people. We must not be outmaneuvered by the GOP and the special interests who are fueling a frenzy of misinformation to those who don't seem to understand they are being manipulated.
TPM has provided us with an excellent document to use when facing Right Wingers in August.
It's a good thing we have web sites like TPM to show us what's going on when we're competing for Health Care Reform during Congress' August recess. Today they published the Teabaggers documentation that is being used to break up Town Hall meetings given by Democrats who support reform.
"Do you have health insurance?" That was a question recently posed in the comments. This answerby One Citizen deserves its own diary.
Many West Virginians can't answer your question for themselves - because they're dead.
According to Families USA (the national nonprofit, non-partisan organization voice for health care consumers for the past 25 years), around four working-age West Virginians die each week due to lack of health insurance (approximately 210 people in 2006).
Furthermore,
Between 2000 and 2006, the estimated number of adults between the ages of 25 and 64 in West Virginia who died because they did not have health insurance was nearly 1,500. Across the United States, in 2006, twice as many people died from lack of health insurance as died from homicide.
Uninsured adults are more likely to be diagnosed with a disease in an advanced stage. For example, uninsured women are substantially more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stage breast cancer than women with private insurance. Lack of insurance is the third leading cause of death for the near-elderly, following heart disease and cancer.source
Stevewvu, if your fellow West Virginians dying for lack of health insurance doesn't impress you, then perhaps learning what it costs you personally will clue you in.
Over the past nine years, premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance have more than doubled, a growth rate four times faster than cumulative wage increases. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average cost of an employer-based family insurance policy premium in 2008 was $12,680 - nearly the annual earnings of a full-time minimum wage job.
The New America Foundation estimates that by 2016 the national average cost of family employer-sponsored health insurance will top $24,000, an 83 percent increase over 2008 premium levels. The same study found that in West Virginia, family insurance purchased through an employer will cost $25,529 in 2016, an increase of 126 percent above 2006 premium costs.
So by 2016 in West Virginia, family health insurance with a price tag of $25,529 would consume 53.1 percent of the projected West Virginia median family income.
Families USA reports that n 2007 and 2008, 497,000 West Virginians - 32.2 percent of all West Virginians under age 65 - went without health insurance for some period of time.
After out-of-pocket payments and government and charity program contributions, in 2008, the uninsured received $42.7-47.9 billion worth of uncompensated care from hospitals, doctors, and other providers.
What that means to you, stevewvu, is that when those who lack insurance can't afford to pay the entire cost for emergency health care, the costs are shifted to those who can pay. Doctors and hospitals charge insurers more for the services provided for patients who have health insurance, and the insurers pass on these shifted costs in the form of higher premiums for consumers and businesses that purchase health insurance, resulting in a "hidden tax."
In the present American system, private insurance companies are allowed to "capitalize their profit and socialize their risk" by simply denying coverage to those needing it the most.
And that's why
West Virginia families pay an additional $2,000 in premium costs due to this "hidden tax," and individual insurance premiums in West Virginia are $760 higher.
Let's not overlook the fact that
A broken health care system leads to lost productivity. A recent study shows that the West Virginia economy loses between $690 million and $1.4 billion due to "uninsured Americans who live shorter lives and have poorer health." source
or that
High health care costs hinder business growth. The cost of health care is holding businesses back, as 40 percent of small business owners have stated that high health care costs have a negative effect on other parts of their business, such as high employee turnover or preventing business growth. source
Back in June, Sen. Rockefeller made a prophetic statement about health care reform legislation. Now it's August, a Jr. Sen. has been seated from Minn. (go, Franken, go), and Sen. Rockefeller's statement is as true as ever:
"There is a very small chance any Republicans will vote for this health-care plan. They were against Medicare and Medicaid [created in the 1960s]. They voted against children's health insurance.
"We have a moral choice. This is a classic case of the good guys versus the bad guys. I know it is not political for me to say that," Rockefeller added.
"But do you want to be non-partisan and get nothing? Or do you want to be partisan and end up with a good health care plan? That is the choice."
At the time, we said Sen. Rockefeller had nailed the Republicans. Turns out, there's more than few obstructionist Senate Democrats who want to be "non-partisan and get nothing," too.
Consequences
This week, feeling pressure from a Democracy for America advertisement running in his district, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) inexplicably lashed out at this grassroots group as an "outside interest group" before indulging a bipartisan fetish:
July 31, 2009 - Following is a statement released today by Jake Thompson, Senator Ben Nelson's spokesman, in response to an ad running in the Nebraska media concerning Senator Nelson and health care.
"Nebraskans don't need outside special interest groups telling them what to think. Senator Nelson has nothing but praise for Nebraska groups working toward health care reform. Unfortunately, he says, these outside groups undermine the sincere and dedicated efforts of people in our state.
[snip]
Nebraskans know Ben Nelson is an independent thinker. He also has a long record in the governor's office and the U.S. Senate of bringing people together and working constructively so important legislation becomes law. Today, he's looking to support bipartisan legislation that reduces health care costs, boosts the quality of care and expands coverage to people who can't obtain it now."
The primary partner with DFA in running this ad is the PCCC (Progressive Change Campaign Committee). Here is their hard-hitting response:
Response, Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee
"Ben Nelson just called a Nebraska small businessman whose health insurance went up 42% an out-of-state special interest, while never disputing that he is bought and paid for by health and insurance interests who gave him millions to vote against his own constituents. If Ben Nelson stands behinds his spokesman's words, he just proved himself a fundamentally corrupt and out-of-touch politician who feels perfectly comfortable lying to his constituents and going to bat for private insurers who fear competition and want to rip off the people of Nebraska."
"We will be increasing our Nebraska ad buy on Monday morning."
Visit HealthCareCantWait.com now and join me (and 20,000 others!) in signing a call for Senate action. Let the Senate know, we can't wait, we need health care reform now.
I get out of the gym at the Shepherd University Wellness Center and go downstairs to the Cafe where I get my post-exercise coffee and plop down in front of the lobby television. Today on C-Span 3 they were showing an all Republican Health Care panel, supposedly exposing all the things wrong with the countries that have single-payer (read "socialized medicine") health plans.
And, of course, the Congress- men and - women were quoting and basing their arguments on stuff from the "highly non-partisan" Lewin Group.
The sheeple of the United States are being taken in again by a combination of the media and the right wing noise machine. The press has made it clear that the Democratic Party can't hang together on health care and problems with what is referred to as the high cost to taxpayers.
Just take a quick look at this article from Reuters that illustrates the negative effect that opponents to the "cornerstone" of President Obama's platform have achieved. The article can be read by clicking here.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Public support for President Barack Obama's strategy to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system appeared to waver as Republicans stepped up attacks on Monday on a plan they say is costly and unworkable.
Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele called Obama's efforts to push healthcare legislation through Congress before the August recess "a reckless experiment."
"The president is rushing this experiment through Congress so fast, so soon, that we haven't had a moment to think if it would work -- or worse, to think about the consequences to our nation, our economy and our families' economic future if it doesn't," he said at the National Press Club.
The real truth about the CBO's estimates regarding the cost of the President's plan can be read here. In reality the program is deficit neutral!
We didn't learn when Hillary and Bill took a shot at it, and it appears we can't control the frame now. How do you get the message out when even your own party can't and won't support you. The President is getting more aggressive in taking on his own party members. He must name those like Max Baucus and John Kerry that are taking huge money from the Militant Health Industrial Complex. Note that the compliant press that rarely if ever spoke out about the recklessness of the Bush years now has no problem taking on Barack Obama with impunity. Check out the diary at Crooks and Liars regarding John King on CNN and his attacks on Democrats attacking Democrats by clicking here.
King: So Donna, what is happening? You know, we had an election in November. What we thought we got was united government, a Democrat in the White House, a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate. Instead it seems that we just have a different kind of divided government. You have a Democratic President that's fighting with wings of his own party in congress, including, this is from Democracy for America. It's an email. It's a liberal organization. It is now sending an email to its supporters essentially saying send us money so that we can "run tough ads pressuring Democratic Senators who've taken millions of dollars from the health and insurance interests while standing in the way of one of President Obama's top priorities".
I support the Blue America PAC in running ads against the Blue Dogs and others that are not supporting the Public Option, and have given my fair share. We all need to get on board and let Congress and the press know that health care for all is the answer not the crap we are being fed now. Learn more from Howie Klein by clicking here.
Continuing with the same old BS health care in our country will only result in what is now the most expensive health care system in the world dropping even further down the ladder relative to the health of our citizens.
"Don't bet against us. We are going to make this thing happen," said Barack Obama to reporters yesterday when he announced that he expected a Senate Health Plan to come out of Max Baucus' Finance Committee by the end of the week.
Obama is committed to having this plan out before Congress takes its August vacation (does it dawn on you that these guys take a lot of time off? I guess when you're collecting from insurance companies and other lobbyists you have to make appearances at their summer gatherings...), and time is running out.
When you wake up in the morning and rub the sleep out of your eyes are you surprised to find a great shadowy figure in the room? We are past the Fourth and the "let's celebrate America" holiday feeling only to find that the lobbyists continued to move forward while we were distracted by fireworks and speeches.
The Wapo points out this morning that a large number of former inner-office employees of Max Baucus and Charles Grassley and other active Congressional committee members are being snatched up by lobbying organizations:
Walmart, in one of their worst ways of prioritizing prices above qualities to date, turns to a foreign drug supplier, Ranbaxy Laboratories, LTD, who has repeatedly been investigated by the FDA and the DoJ for "inadequate" safeguards against contamination, falsification of records and submitting false information to the FDA.
On top of that, just eight months before the FDA inspected Ranbaxy's Paonta Sahib plant and found significant violations, Walmart awarded the company a "Supplier Award" for improving shipping times and performance.
In a new report on our website, we detail their multi-year spanning violations, DoJ investigation, Congressional Investigation, and list out all of the drugs made at the facility in questions. Additionally, we detail their recent violations below.
Here are some state specific factoids about the state of health care (or the lack of it) in West Virginia from Health Care for America Now:
*Health insurance premiums for West Virginia working families have skyrocketed, increasing 75 percent from 2000 to 2007.
*For family health coverage in West Virginia during that time, the average annual combined premium for employers and employees rose from $6,844 to $11,970.
*The combined cost to employers and workers of health insurance for a West Virginia family of four is equal to 30 percent of the state's median family income. Given current trends, that share will grow to 53 percent in 2016.
*The cost of employer-sponsored health insurance in West Virginia is growing at an annual rate of 8.5 percent, compared with a 1.8 percent growth rate for income.
*About 140,000 non-elderly adults in West Virginia hold jobs that don't offer health insurance benefits. That comprises 61 percent of all non-elderly uninsured
people.
*In West Virginia 13.8 percent of working adults reported spending 20 percent or more of their income on out-of-pocket health care expenses in 2004, a 48.4 percent increase from three years earlier.
*Between 2000 and 2007, the median earnings of West Virginia workers increased 19 percent, from $19,876 to $23,599. During that time health insurance premiums for West Virginia working families rose four times faster than median earnings.
*In West Virginia 249,384 were uninsured in 2007.
*The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 7.5 percent of West Virginia's labor force was unemployed in April 2009.
*A recent report estimated that 62 percent of bankruptcies were directly related to medical bills; in West Virginia there were 5,133 non-business bankruptcies in 2008.
(Note: footnotes removed from the original document.)
Those are admittedly just WV numbers, but while things may be a little different here it's pretty much the same story all over the country.
Houston, we have a problem...
(There's more on this and other stuff at Goat Rope.)
Opponents of a pubic option for health coverage have been trying to scare people with the prospect of a government run health care system. As noted in yesterday's post, it isn't working.
There are any number of reasons for this but here's a big one: millions of Americans already receive health coverage from one form or another of public insurance. Consider:
Medicaid in 2006 covered almost 59 million Americans, mostly those with low incomes and/or disabilities.
Medicare in 2008 covered almost 45 million Americans, mostly the elderly.
TRICARE, a health program for military personnel and retirees, covers more than 9 million Americans.
And this doesn't count the many other kinds of health coverage directly or indirectly provided by federal, state, and local governments. What the country needs is a public insurance option to compete with private plans for those not eligible for the programs listed above.
(Cross posted from Goat Rope. There's more stuff there.)
Right wingers in Congress and elsewhere have been trying to scare people lately with dark rumors of a "Washington takeover" of the nation's health care system. They are referring to the creation of a public option for health coverage for those who aren't covered adequately by private insurance plans.
However, they seem to be way out of step with the American people.
Across a number of questions, the poll detected substantial support for a greater government role in health care, a position generally identified with the Democratic Party. When asked which party was more likely to improve health care, only 18 percent of respondents said the Republicans, compared with 57 percent who picked the Democrats. Even one of four Republicans said the Democrats would do better.
The national telephone survey, which was conducted from June 12 to 16, found that 72 percent of those questioned supported a government-administered insurance plan - something like Medicare for those under 65 - that would compete for customers with private insurers. Twenty percent said they were opposed.
In addition, 64 percent believed the government should guarantee coverage and nearly 60 percent would be willing to pay higher taxes to make sure everyone was covered. Support for a government option was strong across the political spectrum, with support from half of self-identified Republicans, around three-fourths of independents and nearly nine out of ten Democrats.
In El Cabrero's humble opinion, if any health care reform plan does not include a public option, they might as well leave things as they are--which is unacceptable.
Given the wide support of a public option among ordinary Americans across the political spectrum, I hope this survey fortifies the will of the Obama administration as well as congressional leaders not to trade away the public option in a search for what Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne has called "the bipartisanship of fools."
Now this is a real winner for the Insurance Companies that are already sucking the money out of the Healthcare system and making it more expensive for the majority of us. For one thing, EVERYONE would be required to buy insurance... and those who couldn't afford it would get a government subsidy... your tax money in Insurance company pockets.
Medical problems contributed to nearly two-thirds (62.1 percent) of all bankruptcies in 2007, according to a study in the August issue of the American Journal of Medicine that was published today online. The data were collected prior to the current economic downturn and hence likely understate the current burden of financial suffering. Between 2001 and 2007, the proportion of all bankruptcies attributable to medical problems rose by 49.6 percent. The authors’ previous 2001 findings have been widely cited by policy leaders, including President Obama.
Surprisingly, most of those bankrupted by medical problems had health insurance. More than three-quarters (77.9 percent) were insured at the start of the bankrupting illness, including 60.3 percent who had private coverage. Most of the medically bankrupt were solidly middle class before financial disaster hit. Two-thirds were homeowners and three-fifths had gone to college. In many cases, high medical bills coincided with a loss of income as illness forced breadwinners to lose time from work. Often illness led to job loss, and with it the loss of health insurance.
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Walmart, in one of their worst ways of prioritizing prices above qualities to date, turns to a foreign drug supplier, Ranbaxy Laboratories, LTD, who has repeatedly been investigated by the FDA and the DoJ for "inadequate" safeguards against contamination, falsification of records and submitting false information to the FDA.
