At House Party on Health Care (at the behest of Obama), the Diagnosis Is It’s Broken

[groovedaddy]

VIENNA, Va. — When a dozen consumers gathered over the weekend to discuss health care at the behest of President-elect Barack Obama, they quickly agreed on one point: they despise health insurance companies.

They also agreed that health care was a right; that insurance should cover “everything,” not just some services; and that coverage should be readily available from the government, as well as from employers.

Those were the conclusions of a house party held here in Northern Virginia at the home of Karima Hijane and Theodore A. Kolovos, information technology consultants who have been married for seven years. It was one of more than 4,200 such events being held around the country from Dec. 15 to 31, as part of an experiment in grass-roots politics and policy-making, to provide recommendations to the president-elect.

“We have to keep the momentum going,” said Ms. Hijane, 34, who was a volunteer in the Obama campaign and is active in women’s health advocacy. “We are not lobbyists. We are simple citizens. We want to make sure that our voices are heard and that health care is reformed.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/health/23health.html?th&emc=th

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Our meeting is Dec. 29

I hope that the folks there will come to the same conclusion. I would also hope that we say that insurance companies have no right to practice medicine, and should not be the ones to decide which prescription drugs are allowed and which are not. It isn't always about cost--lately insurance companies are telling us no to one name brand prescription drug and asking us to substitute another name-brand prescription drug. The only reason I can see for this is that the insurance company is getting a kickback from a drug manufacturer. This should stop.

[BanzaiBonnie]

2. How can we keep the the insuance companies out

I want to know why the largest managed health care group in the country is heavily advising our legislators on health care issues.

Yesterday, my day started when I made a phone call to my Congressman in support of keeping single payer health care on the table. I explained to senior aide Jessica, in charge of health care issues for Congressman Brian Baird, that in order to bring costs under control we need to cut the profit making insurance companies out of the picture.

She parried that we were not going to get single payer insurance because it’s politically not possible. It’s a dead issue.

I told her I was going to work on getting more citizen support. She said that the Congressman was elected to make the decisions on what is best for us. We elected him to represent us, not to do what we ask him to do. She just kept telling me it won’t work.

So I went to Brian Baird’s website and looked at what he’s proposing. He’s supporting Ron Wyden’s Healthy American’s Act. This proposal is heavily supported by information provided by the nonpartisan Lewin Group.

However, just because they’re nonpartisan does not mean they are unbiased. Through a bit of digging, I found that Lewin Group is owned by UnitedHealth, the largest managed care provider in the country.

[cosmik debris]

3. Bush won't talk to his enemies either

He thinks he can solve the problems without talking to all the parties involved.

I'm sorry to see that you support Bush's strategy.

[Crunchy Frog]

4. Yes. Not letting the lobbyists call the shots on health care reform

is exactly the same thing as refusing to talk to Iran.

[cosmik debris]

5. Bullshit

The post I responded to said:

"How can we keep the the insurance companies out"

It did not say:

"How can we keep the insurance companies from calling the shots".

I believe it is a bad idea to exclude interested parties from the discussion.

You may try to turn that into an entirely different argument, but that's BULLSHIT.