Momentum Gathers for Truly Universal Health Care

[keep_it_real]

Labor activists from 31 states gathered in St. Louis last weekend, solidifying their strategies to push "Medicare for all" -- and to oppose the half-hearted health care plans circulating in Washington

The meeting launched Labor for Single-Payer Healthcare, a campaign whose reform would cut the insurance industry out of health care and expand an improved Medicare system to everyone.

The single-payer concept has been endorsed by 39 state AFL-CIO federations, 100 central labor councils, and more than 400 local unions.

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/121870/momentum_gathers_for_truly_universal_health_care/

[Skink]

1. Single payer just doesn't sound right. Medicare for all is a better way to say it.

[bkkyosemite]

3. And Medicare that pays for Everything is more like it. I'm so tired of all these insurance companies

vying for what Medicare does not pay. It should be 100% with a reasonable monthly premium for all.

[eleny]

4. Absolutely

:thumbsup:

Less confusing, too.

[Oregone]

6. I have Universal, Single Payer Health Insurance and it doesn't pay for everything

And it would have previously seemed insane to me if I wasn't familiar with it, but now that I am, it really makes sense. You cover everyone's basics (their right to reasonably exist without becoming slaves) and then you let the private market pay for the extra frills. The public service costs $54 for a single person, and $108 for a family (and if you can't afford that, its subsidized).

Then, once the basics are covered, a full private setup is only another $100. Once you have the basics covered with single payer, it drastically changes the costs of dental/vision/other elective stuff, as well as changes an entire society. Another great thing is at this price, employers don't mind covering it all what so ever.

[Lugnut]

9. Yep. I must agree.

After tiptoeing through the minefield of HMO rules the past few years my husband and I are both now on Medicare. While it's a pleasure to not have to deal with getting referrals for every little thing it's not cheap. We each pay $96.40 for Medicare and $106.00 for a Medigap PPO every month and there's a copay for just about everything and we're still subjected to having to use a meager provider list for health care.

[shraby]

12. We have medicare and went to a local insurance

company for the 20% that medicare doesn't cover. We got a plan that covers the whole 20%, no co-pay, no restrictions. Haven't had to pay one dime besides the premiums that are about $140 or so apiece per month.

[thesquanderer]

15. combination is good

As others on this page have said, a single-payer for the essentials and private insurance for more than that is a good plan. It is more viable politically. It helps keep the consumer-cost for the essentials low. It keeps insurance companies in business, which, like it or not, is the sensible thing to do. (You can't expect the government to put an entire industry out of business with a bill passage. The last thing we need is more unemployed, more stockholders losing their savings, etc.)

[uponit7771]

25. +1

[unblock]

10. "americare" is even better

and i'll let you use it, free of charge.

[defendandprotect]

2. Keep those calls, e-mails going . . . and ....

don't forget to annoy all your relatives and friends by discussing politics.

"Politics" . . . "the shadow cast over government by corporations."

********************************************************************

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. 50 years after Truman.

Baby steps...

[Oregone]

7. After 50+ years, I ask, why do people feel it is closer today than yesterday, or than with Truman?

Sorry, thats my cynical side. BTW, I don't think the insurance lobby in the US allows baby steps, as their big giant feet crush anything that get out of line.

[New Dawn]

8. K&R

[cliffordu]

11. Yep. Let's take the profit out of cancer.

[Fireweed247]

13. then they might actually find a cure!

If we take the profit out of health care, the doctors might also begin to focus on prevention.

[Spangle]

14. Hospital Hiring Freezes ! ! !

I'm not hearing this talked about much. But many hospitals are hurting as well. They are not getting the expected funds from state and federal governments. AND with folks out of jobs and having no insurance.... Hospitals are having a hard time paying the bills. Folks are having to cut back their hours, or work extra hours with no pay, what ever it takes.

Another reason for Universal Health Care.

[bvar22]

16. Sign me up!

Keep up the pressure.

The Democratic Party Establishment, flush with bribes money from the HUGE Insurance and "Health Management" corporations have forbidden the discussion of Single-Payer at their discussions of the best ways to force all Americans to buy private insurance from the FOR PROFIT Health Insurance Corporations.

Mandatory Private Insurance is NOT Universal HealthCare.
It IS a Republican Scam that channels $Billions of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of the BIG INSURANCE.

I agree with what an early poster said.
We need to rename and reclaim Single Payer HealthCare.
He suggested "Americare", which I love.
"PatriotCare" or "Support-the-Troops Care" or "I-Love-The-Flag Care" would work too. :)

Whatever we use, it is ESSENTIAL that we NOT allowe the Corporate Owned Blue Dogs/DLC to co-opt the name to mean some generic Health Insurance scam.

Americare/MediCare for ALL !
No "Romney Care" for America.


"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans. I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans, family farmers, and people who haven't felt the benefits of the economic upturn."---Paul Wellstone

[nolabels]

17. I hope you that are so ready for Universal Care are also ready to give up some more rights

Once the government is put in charge of everything there will be problems arising from that model there too.

I like the current approach, Universal Health Care for children now and figure out other things later

[Zhade]

18. Works fine in Canada and Sweden.

Stop listening to rightwing lies about UHC.

[nolabels]

22. So does several other things if you are comparing them the U.S.

We all need to wake up to the fact that U.S. government is WAY bloated and is now falling on it's face. Borrowing money from the rest of the world to build weapon systems for wars that could never be fought is my definition inappropriate expenditures. Last time i checked The Strait of Hormuz was not part of U.S.

[eridani]

19. Give up what rights? The only right I want is the right to choose my providers

And that is a right that single payer guarantees, and private insurance has stripped me of.

[nolabels]

20. The right to chose what is medically appropriate treatment and who gets its...........

will be taken farther away from the patient and or those near and dear. The idea that a single large government agency will decide and control so much seems kind of scary to me.

[supernova]

21. That's there now, in case you hadn't noticed

they're called loosely, "clinical pathways" and "standard of care" protocols

IOW, there are a lot of basic disease processes in which you get a well thought out, well planned out IN ADVANCE framework of care. For most people and most healthcare problems, these clinical pathways will work to relieve them of their particular problems like diabetes, like heart disease, fibromyalgia, and so on. And of course, where needed, then other methods come into play.

So, you're not getting as much of a decision as you might think you are, even under the private for profit model we have now.

I don't want a company bean counter deciding what healthcare I get. I want to decide that with the doctor.

Insurance companies need to lessen their choke hold on medical care in this country. edit: What they are doing, usually denying care under the rubric that it's too expensive, is practicing medicine without a license. They need to be sued for that.

[nolabels]

23. So trading one problem for another problem to try to repair a related problem makes sense?

In case you haven't noticed the large conglomerate insurance companies were also created by way of legislative fiat. In the last few decades the federal government has created the department of education, energy and homeland security. How are all of those working for you? To me they all just seem like more cash cows that corporations use to rip off more tax dollars from the public

[supernova]

24. By way of your good buddy, Richard Nixon

is why we have HMOs and their ILK, damn him to hell :grr:

Education and Energy Depts work just fine for me, if they are oriented toward the goals of education for all and using our energy resources properly. Not with the goal of transfering tax dollars to private schools through "vouchers" nor the energy dept being an outpost for the oil industry.

Homeland Security needs to be dismantled. That creepy third reich name really needs to go into the dustbin. I was never in favor of it. I viewed it as a desperate CYA for Georgie Porgie.

So, why are you at DU? If you espouse these conservative views, you're going to have a rough ride here. This is a forum for Liberals afterall. There aren't many at DU who do not support a form of Universal Healthcare.

[nolabels]

26. My good buddy Richard Nixon?

:spray:


Just because i believe BIG does not necessarily make better does not make me a friend of Tricky Dick! Also, since when did the word "Liberal" indicate a love for large government?

To me Nixon was just another cog in the wheel, the whole mess started long before he was ever born.

Here is nice little article that straddles the line of both education and health
Herbalist Review, Issue 2003 #4: The Dumbing Down of American Education: Implications for Herbal Education
(farther down the article also)A summary of Thom Hartmann's findings on corporate abuse of power
http://www.rmhiherbal.org/review/2003-4.html

[eridani]

27. The government would decide nothing except what is and is not

--evidence based medicine. Any bells and whistles that people want not covered by single payer can be covered on your own dime.