Impeding changes to our Health Care system

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

There was a point when all we needed was one Republican woman, who could have had pretty much anything she wanted for her vote. It wasn't enough.

A whore?

[classicman]

In a sign of how far health care had fallen since Obama campaigned on it,

Senate Democrats devoted a weekly policy lunch Thursday to discussing jobs, not health care.

In a letter to supporters outlining Democrats' 2010 agenda, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer didn't even mention health care.

Yet House and Senate leaders insisted success was still in reach.

"We're going to move forward on health reform. We're going to do health care reform this year," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged in her weekly news conference that plenty of work remained if the House was to agree to changes to the Senate bill.

Link

[richlevy]

Would this have happened if the U.S. had single payer health care? Can you imagine a Marine corpsman stopping to check for medical insurance or firefighters waiting to find out if the owner of a burning house was up to date on their taxes?

I understand the magnitude can be overwhelming, and that budgets are tight but this really makes the U.S. look like a bunch of wankers.

It looks like a huge clusterfuck.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35156892...new_york_times

MIAMI - The United States has suspended its medical evacuations of critically injured Haitian earthquake victims until a dispute over who will pay for their care is settled, military officials said Friday. The military flights, usually C-130s carrying Haitians with spinal cord injuries, burns and other serious wounds, ended on Wednesday after Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida formally asked the federal government to shoulder some of the cost of the care.
Hospitals in Florida have treated more than 500 earthquake victims so far, the military said, including an infant who was pulled out of the rubble with a fractured skull and ribs. Other states have taken patients, too, and those flights have been suspended as well, the officials said.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services said the decision to suspend the flights was made by the military, not the federal health department. A military spokesman said that the military had ended the flights because hospitals were becoming unwilling to take patients. “The places they were being taken, without being specific, were not willing to continue to receive those patients without a different arrangement being worked out by the government to pay for the care,” said Maj. James Lowe, the deputy chief of public affairs for the United States Transportation Command.
Florida officials, meanwhile, said the state’s hospitals had not refused to take more patients. Jeanne Eckes-Roper, the health and medical chairwoman of the domestic security task force for the South Florida region — where the Super Bowl will be played on Feb. 7 — said she had requested only that new patients be taken to other areas of the state, like Tampa.

[TheMercenary]

A great quote by Obama. At least he admits it was a lie afterall...

The last thing I will say, though -- let me say this about health care and the health care debate, because I think it also bears on a whole lot of other issues. If you look at the package that we've presented -- and there's some stray cats and dogs that got in there that we were eliminating, we were in the process of eliminating. For example, we said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your -- if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you're not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge.

http://realclearpolitics.blogs.time....ing-admission/

[classicman]

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. -- Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams will undergo heart surgery later this week in the United States.

Deputy premier Kathy Dunderdale confirmed the treatment at a news conference Tuesday, but would not reveal the location of the operation or how it would be paid for.

"He has gone to a renowned expert in the procedure that he needs to have done," said Ms. Dunderdale, who will become acting premier while Mr. Williams is away for three to 12 weeks.

"In consultation with his own doctors, he's decided to go that route."

Mr. Williams' decision to leave Canada for the surgery has raised eyebrows over his apparent shunning of Canada's health-care system.

"It was never an option offered to him to have this procedure done in this province," said Ms. Dunderdale, refusing to answer whether the procedure could be done elsewhere in Canada.

Mr. Williams, 59, has said nothing of his health in the media.
today.

Link
Why?

[glatt]

Pure speculation on my part, but he's probably going to a world renowned doctor that most Americans wouldn't be able to afford. Someone who treats only the uber rich and world leaders because insurance probably only covers a fraction of what he charges, and the remainder is so high that most can't afford it. And that person is probably better than any doctors near him. That person probably works in the US because the system here allows him to charge what he will.

[TheMercenary]

What you say is pretty true glatt. We have a ton of doctors who trained in Canada practicing here because of the living they can make.

[classicman]

Health Care for Dummies: What You Need to Know
How Will Health Care Bill Affect You? Here's What You Should Know

Democratic leaders have gone behind closed doors to hash out the final details of their health care reform proposals. No matter how they resolve the differences between the House and Senate versions, the final bil will, if passed, affect nearly every American to some degree, depending on how much money you make and how you currently get your health insurance.

The bill aspires to insure nearly every American. But citizens will have to buy insurance themselves.

The average health insurance plan for a family of four cost more than $13,000 in 2009 for a family, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The foundation has also created a handy calculator, taking into account age and income to determine what that a person's government subsidy would be. You can find it HERE.

[piercehawkeye45]

Looks like there will be some bi-partisan effort with the health bill. Could just be for show...

WASHINGTON — President Obama said Sunday that he would convene a half-day bipartisan health care session at the White House to be televised live this month, a high-profile gambit that will allow Americans to watch as Democrats and Republicans try to break their political impasse.

Mr. Obama made the announcement in an interview on CBS during the Super Bowl pre-game show, capitalizing on a vast television audience. He set out a plan that would put Republicans on the spot to offer their own ideas on health care and show whether both sides are willing to work together.

“I want to come back and have a large meeting, Republicans and Democrats, to go through systematically all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward,” Mr. Obama said in the interview from the White House Library.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/us...l?ref=politics

WASHINGTON — When Republicans take President Obama up on his invitation to hash out their differences over health care this month, they will carry with them a fairly well-developed set of ideas intended to make health insurance more widely available and affordable, by emphasizing tax incentives and state innovations, with no new federal mandates and only a modest expansion of the federal safety net.

It is not clear that Republicans and the White House are willing to negotiate seriously with each other, and Mr. Obama has rejected Republican demands that he start from scratch in developing health care legislation.

But Congressional Republicans have laid out principles and alternatives that provide a road map to what a Republican health care bill would look like if they had the power to decide the outcome.

The different approaches will be on display Feb. 25, when lawmakers from both parties are scheduled to go to Blair House, across the street from the White House, for a televised clash of health policy ideas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/he...l?ref=politics

[classicman]

Yeh I think the R's will have to come to the table now. However I think both sides are gonna come out pointing fingers. . . we'll see.

[piercehawkeye45]

It's Reagan's fault.

[classicman]

HA HA HA HA HA HA - very good PH!

[TheMercenary]

Well it looks like Anthem is taking a pre-emptive strike at the potential loopholes of the the single party healthcare reform bill now in Congress. Imagine that...

Anthem Blue Cross dramatically raising rates for Californians with individual health policies

California's largest for-profit health insurer is moving to dramatically raise rates for customers with individual policies, setting off a furor among policyholders and prompting state insurance regulators to investigate.

Anthem Blue Cross is telling many of its approximately 800,000 customers who buy individual coverage -- people not covered by group rates -- that its prices will go up March 1 and may be adjusted "more frequently" than its typical yearly increases.

The insurer declined to say how high it is increasing rates. But brokers who sell these policies say they are fielding numerous calls from customers incensed over premium increases of 30% to 39%, saying they come on the heels of similar jumps last year.

continues:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...tory?track=rss

[xoxoxoBruce]

.

[TheMercenary]

silly.