Physicians for a National Health Program (PHNP) Leaders Statement on Health Bill Passage

[Better Believe It]

http://pnhp.org/blog/wp-content/themes/dilectio/dilectio/images/pnhp_logo_

If this bill were a step forward, we would support it
by Margaret Flowers, MD
Dr. Margaret Flowers, a Maryland pediatrician, is PNHP’s Congressional Fellow.
March 21, 2010


If we believed and evidence indicated that this bill could be “tweaked” into something better, we would support it.

But this bill is a step backwards, a step away from single payer. This bill further cements the privatization of health care, further enriches the industries that are the problem.

We are seeing the same scenario play out at the national level that has played out at the state level for decades. People see the suffering because it is very real. They are told that we must do something and that this all they can get. So the people accept this believing it is an incremental step towards reform. And guess what – it is not a step in the right direction. This type of reform has failed every time. This is why we continue to be in a health care crisis.

As this passes, the public will be told it is a solution. They will be told to wait and see how it works when it is implemented in 2014. In the meantime, people will continue to suffer, go bankrupt or die of preventable causes. This is unacceptable.

We want health CARE reform. Health insurance reform makes no sense. Health insurance is very regulated but they are rich enough and clever enough to evade regulation. We will not support health insurance reform: it is a waste of time, money and human life.

If we want real reform, it isn’t going to be pretty. It can’t be brought in through the back door or by tweaking. We will have to take on a very powerful industry that currently owns the White House, Congress and the media. But work for anything less is a waste of time. The smallest increment of change that will be effective is to change to publicly funded health care.

It is not going to be another 10 years or 50 years before we get real reform if this bill fails. The single payer movement is growing. We can organize and push for real reform. But we must stand strong and united on our principles. We must put single payer on the table. It won’t happen any other way.

http://pnhp.org/blog/

[NJmaverick]

1. This claim is bull crap and flies in the face of the AMA's support

[havocmom]

4. So, are you in the tweak or no tweak column?

We thought this bill would mean better things to come.

[NJmaverick]

7. I think it's s solid foundation and I have no problem with efforts to improve it

I would like to see the end of life counseling brought back for example. I would like to go after the drug companies and their obscene profits and their efforts to produce drugs that only treat rather than cure (plus wasting huge amounts of research $$$ on drugs that give erections or longer eyelashes) is another.

[ipaint]

23. The solid foundation it was built on-

Health Sector Campaign Contributions and Lobbying Totals, 1989-2009*

All Years-

Total Contributions- $944,969,972
To Current Members of Congress- $376,172,916
Total Spent on Lobbying- $3,590,912,402

2009 Only-

Total Contributions- $57,029,709
To Current Members of Congress- $40,515,330
Total Spent on Lobbying- $576,402,070


http://www.opensecrets.org/capital_eye/health.php


Industry PAC contributions to Obama in the 2008 Presidential Election:

Lawyers and Lobbyists: 43,755,917

Finance/insurance/Real Estate: $39,663,073

Health: $19,507,812

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/sectors.php?sector=H



PAC Contributions to Federal Candidates

Total Amount: $49,226,365
Total to Democrats: $27,083,922 (55%)
Total to Republicans: $22,131,168 (45%)
Number of PACs making contributions: 127

Health Professionals: $24,597,359
58% to Dems / 42% to Repubs

Health Services/HMOs: $4,208,616
53% to Dems / 47% to Repubs

Hospitals/Nursing Homes: $6,826,151
58% to Dems / 42% to Repubs

Misc Health: $84,300
39% to Dems / 61% to Repubs

Pharmaceuticals/Health Products: $13,509,939
49% to Dems / 51% to Repubs

http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/sector.php?cycle=2008&txt=H01



Solid foundation for multi millionaires on the take. The rest of us... not so much.

[avaistheone1]

14. The claims are true. Where is your evidence it is not so.

I am confident you can not supply any evidence whatsoever that the assertions in the press release are not true.

Put up or shut up.

[Cleobulus]

15. The AMA has long opposed UHC reform of any shape or form...

Remember their rants against Socialized Medicine in the Movie "Sicko"? To be honest, I find myself suspicious that they support the bill just passed now.

[avaistheone1]

18. True. Historically the AMA has really only looked out for their

own pocketbooks and the health care interests as opposed to the patients interests as far as health care reform goes.

[kenny blankenship]

17. The AMA !!!!!!! Omygod. You cited the AMA as proof the bill is good!? Did that just happen?

Listen sweetie the AMA cares about ONE SHINING IDEAL: every doctor in America gets 2 new Mercedes a year. That's all they care about, and all they ever cared about. Check the record: they have always been the enemy of any proposal for universal healthcare. They have always been the enemy of any proposal for affordable healthcare. They like this bill only because it KILLED the public option for the foreseeable future.

Citing the support of the AMA is like citing the support of the pharmaceutical lobby. Both cases are true but the fact of their support just undermines your fantasy that this is a good bill.

You want to keep their support on the quiet.

[suffragette]

21. The AMA was also against Canadian single payer

and fought tooth and nail against it.

http://www.slate.com/id/2245037/pagenum/all/#p2
The AMA, together with Saskatchewan's College of Physicians and Surgeons, warned that if the CCF won, doctors would leave the province in droves. But here was the kicker: As Dave Margoshes writes in his 1999 biography of Douglas, the campaign told voters that if the state were permitted to take over health care, "patients with hard-to-diagnose problems would be shipped off to insane asylums by bungling bureaucrats."

The campaign failed. Douglas won the election, and the CCF government went on to introduce his health care plan in 1962, creating the model that the rest of Canada would later follow. (So far as we know, insane-asylum panels did not come to pass.) But the fight for health care reform in Saskatchewan, which the AMA worried could spark change in the United States, was a precursor to the battle in America today—a mix of populist anger, political opportunism, and disinformation. As Democrats debate whether to pursue health care reform in the face of growing opposition, they might consider the lessons of Saskatchewan.


They have always been against single payer.

[Better Believe It]

22. But today 17,000 doctors in the PNHP are fighting the AMA and for a single payer system

[suffragette]

27. Exactly

And nurses unions, too.

Insurance companies and HMO's have long been impeding care and many in the health care field have realized that.

But the AMA continues with its history of blocking the best option, and the one, when all the terminology is cut through, the people in the U.S. support - single payer.

I think they're still doing what they did in Canada. The difference is the Canadians stood firm and difficult as it was and it was incredibly difficult, they adopted a better method and one which the vast majority of Canadians approve.

[Vinca]

2. Recommend a million times.

Howard Dean was on MSNBC this morning and reminded me how the current bill screws me over: 300% premiums for older people with pre-existing conditions. While I'm happy as a clam for anyone who will be helped, some of us are being tossed to the side of the road.

[Inuca]

8. Do you know

how much higher your premiums would be without the bill? I do not know the answer, just asking. What I do remember though, is part of the discussion in the Senate Finance Committee when this issue was discussed, and if I remember correctly Kerry put in the amendment for this differential not to be HIGHER than 300%. He mentioned numbers (that I do not recall) about what is happening now, and was saying that 300% is way more than what he would like, it would be a significant improvement over the currernt situation. I also think he wanted it to be no more than 200% but for reasons that again I do not recall he had to settle for 300%. Again, all this is from memory only, but I am pretty sure that the basic ieas is correct.

[Vinca]

9. I estimate the cost will be $200 over the last policy I was offered and couldn't afford.

And I don't qualify for subsidies by a hair. Older Americans will remain on the "keep your fingers crossed and hope you don't die before Medicare" plan.

[Inuca]

11. :-(

:hug:

[EFerrari]

3. Invisible rec.

:)

[kestrel91316]

5. Their "support" is moot at this point, someone needs to remind them

(and I APPLAUD their stance supporting SP, BTW). They need to spend all their energy now working to improve the system incrementally with Single Payer as the ultimate goal. Grandstanding against what is DONE is a waste of their time and energy.

[Tommy_J]

10. Right on

[Better Believe It]

12. You didn't carefully read their statement before commenting on it?

"It is not going to be another 10 years or 50 years before we get real reform if this bill fails. The single payer movement is growing. We can organize and push for real reform. But we must stand strong and united on our principles. We must put single payer on the table. It won’t happen any other way."

I think their statement clearly indicates they are not intending to fold their tent and have not given up the fight for a single payer system. That's the only system that can reduce health costs and provide universal health care. This health insurance bill simply won't do that.

In fact, the health insurance industry bill is an obstacle to a single payer system .... it was intended to make a single payer system more difficult to accomplish. That's a major reason why a strong public option was not included as a "fix" to this bill.

As this new health insurance company controlled system fails, as it will, I think the single payer system which now has majority support, will grow even stronger and at some point will win the day and approval in Congress.

And that won't be achieved in little itty bitty pieces .... one tiny incremental step at a time.

[kestrel91316]

16. You do realize that you and I are NOT in disagreement?

The bill is deeply flawed in places, and those flaws will become apparent as it is implemented, and we all need to be ready to use that opportunity to enact REAL improvements.

In the meantime, I am happy for those people who will benefit from this legislation by being able to obtain medical insurance where they could not before.

Personally, I prefer that selling medical insurance policies be a federal crime, lol, but I know Americans are not quite ready for that.......if they get screwed too badly here, they certainly will be.

[Better Believe It]

19. Not when you falsely charge the PNHP, of all groups, with grandstanding.

That charge just irritated the hell out of me and such knocks of PNHP and other single payer organizations usually come from opponents of single payer.

So if we're on the same page please don't accuse the PNHP of grandstanding.

I thought there was a pretty good chance you didn't real the full article when you made that charge.

I hope this clears things up and that you'll continue to support the efforts of single payer organizations.

[Faryn Balyncd]

6. k and r

[LWolf]

13. K & R

[berni_mccoy]

20. PNHP is single-payer-or-die. They can go to hell.

[ipaint]

24. LOL. nt

[Owl]

25. Crying on Christmas. Bah.

[Better Believe It]

26. Exactly! What do they know about healthcare? They are only doctors who don't support the AMA

[suffragette]

28. K&R