MEDICARE FOR ALL

[SmileyRose]

I'm posting this every day.
I'm calling every government official I have every day.
I'm writing a letter to the editor of every paper in my neck of the woods every day.
I'm submitting it to "the vent" every day.
I'm going to write it on a slip of paper and sticking it where one of my community will find it every day.
I'm going to email my entire address book every day.

[RC]

1. General welfare out ranks your Private health care.

Twice in our Constitution it mentions "general welfare" What constitutes 'General Welfare'?
The old-age benefits provisions of the Social Security Act of 1935 is an example of providing for the 'general welfare'. Medicaid/Medicare are 2 more examples of providing for the 'general welfare'.
Government controlled, Single Payer, Universal health care for the people of the United States IS covered by the Constitution, because the relative health of our citizens does affect the general welfare of the Nation. 45,000 dead people a year are proof the profit driven, privately run systems we have in place now are not working to provide the necessary health care for our nation.
How can our present private health insurance system, with its many insurance companies, each with its own way of doing things, its own highly paid management, its own attention to the bottom line for its share holders, its own claims requirements, its own forms for submitting claims, etc., be more efficient than any government controlled single Payer system, with its single set of rules and forms?

[CTyankee]

3. Tell everyone you can that Germany, a socialist democracy, is the most competitive nation in

business in the world. They have strong labor unions, universal health care, universal educational opportunities (university and trades)and other strong safety net protections.

So how do they do it? Well, they have a healthy and well educated population, that's how. Nobody is struggling with debt from their higher education. They don't have to worry about paying for health care if they are small business owners.

They are big entrepreneurs in Germany. Tell people about that. Germans have big labor unions...even lawyers belong to unions. They have guaranteed vacations of up to 6 weeks for workers.

What is WRONG with us? Why don't we get it? We are stupid...

[RKP5637]

4. Many of the citizens in the US are absolutely brainwashed and perpetuate

the system, because they are led to believe it's the best, it just needs some fixing here and there. Those not brainwashed are on the take, and many are in the middle hoping for the best. So here we sit, divided country, and we muck along rather than effective change. So, we live with a hobbled together so called capitalistic system run by an oligarchy. And told, "Ain't this the greatest in the world."

[CTyankee]

5. It's kool aid on the Jonestown epic proportion, what people are doing to themselves.

They don't have information, they believe lies perpetuated thru decades and decades, they are simple minded as a result...it's crazy...

I want to slap these people silly...

[RKP5637]

10. You're reading my mind! I was watching some dribble on MSM yesterday and

I was thinking to myself, this is just like Jonestown. The BS being dosed out and many are just enjoying it... It's now generational, the constant brainwashing over decades and decades. The perfect herd of lambs for an oligarchy. It's like living through some Twilight Zone episode.

[roody]

18. They have fantastic safe bike lanes also.

There is a commitment to the common good in Germany.

[Dragonfli]

2. Good Idea! I think I'll join you.

The politicians don't appear to care about us or the common good, I hope they respond to pressure or are at least embarassed by their lack of either concern or action.

[RKP5637]

6. Please see my post #4. I really, anymore, don't think they care. They have all been

elevated to lofty positions in wealth and power, many for life, in a system that rewards them handsomely. Some care, but I really do not think the majority care. None feels the pain like one directly experiencing the pain and they are insulated, for the most part, from the everyday struggle.

[Cleita]

7. I don't know if it will do any good before the elections,

but I'm going for it between November and January regardless of which Party gains power. A lame duck Congress just might pass a bill to make Medicare available to all Americans even if as a choice on the health insurance exchange to buy into.

We can't let the ball drop, even if they think they have put the issue away.

[w8liftinglady]

8. i am right there with you.I can't watch people suffer without at least trying...

[SmileyRose]

9. Elections are not material to my commitment

I'm doing this every day until we either get it or I die. Period.

[elocs]

12. Even if you were a young person my bet would be on your dying before there is Medicare for all.

Good luck with your quest though.

[Lint Head]

11. The blood of innocent people is on the hands of the US government.

Daily, homeless people, poor people, children, men and women die because they do not have health insurance.

Private health insurance companies are greedy leeches feeding from the bloody trough of the dead and dying.

[leftstreet]

13. K&R

[grahamhgreen]

14. We will get there.

[Lifelong Protester]

15. Smiley rose, I like your style.

I think I will join you. I am the queen of the post-it notes anyway, so I think I will carry those and a sharpie wherever I go.

And I have continued with my senators and congressman. But you give me some encouragement to keep on, and keep the message simple.

Mine is: End the wars now. Medicare for all now.

[ibegurpard]

16. k&r

[Lugnut]

17. K & f'n R! n/t

[newtothegame]

19. What’s your reimbursement plan for “Medicare-For-All?”

I am now the director of a pediatric cancer organization, but before this, I was head of our hospital foundation. The reason I ask the question is because government payers comprised 75% of our patients. Medicare reimbursed us 51% of our cost to provide care, and Medicaid was even worse. And when I say costs, I don't mean our charges, but our actual COSTS of providing care. And that’s just to provide current care, not to fund future technology, outreach clinics, etc. Meeting those costs would be just to keep our doors open this year, and the government can't even get halfway there. Commercial payers were actually our BEST payers, but we had to bilk them and upscale charges to them to make up for the ENORMOUS shortfall from government payers.

So my question is, if the government can only pay providers $.51 on the dollar for care now, what the HELL would reimbursement rates be if the government had to reimburse for EVERY patient? I'm all for a single payer system, but the government can't even afford to reimburse us for the patients it has now...

[SmileyRose]

22. We can afford it just fine.

If you put all the taxes used for government paid medical care plus all the premiums paid to private insurance companies all in one big hopper you'd obviously have more money to go around for MEDICAL CARE than you do now because there would be no need to pay huge bonuses and dividends.

[PHIMG]

20. This should be THE PLATFORM fight in 2012

We should not let the centrists run the party anymore.

Mandate and subsidize, aka Romneycare (Masscare) aka "Obamacare" IS more wealth redistribution to the wealthy -- same thing for privatized Medicaid.

A Republican policy passed by a Democratic Congress.

The DLC Party cheerleaders tell us Progressives to just keep drinking the coolaid. This redistribution ideology is killing our economy and our future.

It's time to for the silent majority of Democrats who are closer to socialists than DLC types to get active in the local party and take it back from the beltway boys and the billionaires.

MEDICARE FOR ALL in the party platform in 2012. We have to win this fight. Put the DLC on the DEFENSE.

[alberg]

21. This is what the Democrats should have focused on.