Cheney would "probably be dead by now" if not for his federally funded health care

Nurses Activism

Published

December 7, 2007, 2:58 pm

Nurses' Health-Care Ad Takes Aim at Cheney

Susan Davis reports on health care.

Vice President Dick Cheney would "probably be dead by now" if not for his federally funded health care, according to an eye-catching ad calling for universal health care that will run Monday in ten Iowa newspapers. The ad is union-funded by the California Nurses Association and its national arm, the National Nurses Organizing Committee, which represents 75,000 nurses.

"The patient's history and prognosis were grim: four heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery, angioplasty, an implanted defibrillator and now an emergency procedure to treat an irregular heartbeat," the ad states, referencing Cheney's lengthy medical chart. "For millions of Americans, this might be a death sentence. For the vice president, it was just another medical treatment. And it cost him very little."

The group is calling on the presidential candidates to support a single-payer government-run health-care bill introduced in Congress by Rep. John Conyers (D., Mich.) that has 88 co-sponsors, including long-shot Democratic candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.

The three Democratic front-runners have all proposed sweeping plans to cover all or nearly all uninsured. Republicans have offered more modest plans and none advocate a single-payer system. The nurses group opposes the plans of Sens. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards because they argue that each plan will "continue to rely upon the wasteful inclusion of private insurance companies." The single-payer plan would take insurance companies out of the equation altogether. ...

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2007/12/07/nurses-health-care-ad-takes-aim-at-cheney/

Originally Posted by HM2Viking

We already pay the highest health care taxes in the world see:

Taxes already pay for more than 60 percent of US health spending

Americans pay the highest health care taxes in the world. We pay for national health insurance, but don’t get it.

(Woolhandler, et al. “Paying for National Health Insurance — And Not Getting It,” Health Affairs 21(4); July / Aug. 2002)

If we're already paying for national healthcare, then it shouldn't cost another red cent to implement it. OK. Go for it!

That is exactly the point of the PNHP proposal. Administration for health care plans should cost no more than 3-5%. The other 26-29% we pay to the private insurance companies goes to profit and NOT patient care. Thanks for finally acknowledging the point that I have been reiterating for months.

See:

This is because private insurance bureaucracy and paperwork consume one-third (31 percent) of every health care dollar. Streamlining payment through a single nonprofit payer would save more than $350 billion per year, enough to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all Americans.

Source: http://pnhp.org/

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Specializes in L & D; Postpartum.
I have no problem agreeing on that. That doesn't make them equals. To suggest it does means that Al Gore is equal to George Bush. Does that statement bother you at all? Then you should know how I feel about hearing Cheney being called an equal to Clinton.

They are both men, they were both elected to high-ranking positions and no, in that context I have no problem whatsoever in them being considered equals. For the purposes of this discussion (should Cheney get medical treatments or not) they would be considered equals in my view of it. If others wish to nit-pick it and say, but one was President and one was Vice-President, so be it. But I'm not going to do it.

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Specializes in Public Health, DEI.
They are both men, they were both elected to high-ranking positions and no, in that context I have no problem whatsoever in them being considered equals. For the purposes of this discussion (should Cheney get medical treatments or not) they would be considered equals in my view of it. If others wish to nit-pick it and say, but one was President and one was Vice-President, so be it. But I'm not going to do it.

Yes, it is nit-picking to point out the difference between being one of the most powerful and influential men in the world, and only having the potential of being that if your boss suddenly becomes incapicitated. How very very silly of me.

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Specializes in L & D; Postpartum.
Yes, it is nit-picking to point out the difference between being one of the most powerful and influential men in the world, and only having the potential of being that if your boss suddenly becomes incapicitated. How very very silly of me.

Perhaps I misunderstood you. It seemed to me that you felt one was more important than the other. Based on the above statement, with which I concur, both are very important, maybe being more equal than not. They are both very important, which begs the question of why anyone would question the second in command getting proper medical treatment, regardless of who's paying.

Personally, I want the second in command to be hale and hearty, just in case. And this is true, regardless of which party is in the White House.

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Specializes in Public Health, DEI.
Perhaps I misunderstood you. It seemed to me that you felt one was more important than the other. Based on the above statement, with which I concur, both are very important, maybe being more equal than not. They are both very important, which begs the question of why anyone would question the second in command getting proper medical treatment, regardless of who's paying.

Personally, I want the second in command to be hale and hearty, just in case. And this is true, regardless of which party is in the White House.

Yes. I do. The President is more important than the Vice President. The Vice President has the potential to become that important, but it is contingent on becoming the President.

As for the current 2nd in command, I'd much prefer that he wasn't in office at all. But then, that goes for his boss, too.

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Specializes in L & D; Postpartum.
Yes. I do. The President is more important than the Vice President. The Vice President has the potential to become that important, but it is contingent on becoming the President.

As for the current 2nd in command, I'd much prefer that he wasn't in office at all. But then, that goes for his boss, too.

That's pretty obvious. But then, some feel exactly that way about the Pres and VP who came just before these; also about the potentials of next time around.

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.
That is exactly the point of the PNHP proposal.

Quote from HM2Viking post #61 above: Streamlining payment through a single nonprofit payer would save more than $350 billion per year, enough to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all Americans.

Source: http://pnhp.org/

If that were "exactly the point of the PNHP proposal", the program would be fully paid by existing funds, not by an additional 9% (or more) of my (and everyone else's) income. Yet PHNP depends upon a (minimum of) 9% income tax, proving that this plan can't be funded in the manner you describe above..

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you are deliberately missing the very specific point of the pnhp proposal which is:

the payroll tax would replace all other employer expenses for employees’ health care. the income tax would take the place of all current insurance premiums, co-pays, deductibles, and any and all other out of pocket payments. for the vast majority of people a 2% income tax is less than what they now pay for insurance premiums and in out-of-pocket payments such as co-pays and deductibles, particularly for anyone who has had a serious illness or has a family member with a serious illness.

source: http://www.pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php#raise_taxes

its meant to be a wash. instead of paying insurance premiums you would pay taxes. no net difference in cost is the goal.........

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Its meant to be a wash. Instead of paying insurance premiums you would pay taxes. No net difference in cost is the goal.........

Except that the idea of a gov't program coming in on time and on budget is an urban myth.

Just as much a myth or more that 'close enough for gov't work' will provide me with increased efficiency.

Or, that the gov't will look out for me. Sure, ask anybody in New Orleans about that.

Does anybody really trust the gov't that much? When it comes to my healthcare, if there's even a ONE PERCENT chance that gov't will operate as it normally does, instead of in this pollyanna world imagined, then I'd just assume the gov't kept its hands off my healthcare.

See, the very thing about this proposal that is so troublesome is its promises of great, beneficial, cheap, friendly gov't care that can't be tested until AFTER it destroys any alternative.

But the way you can tell the real scoop: if it's so darn great an idea, why not make it voluntary? If it's so pie-in-the-sky, then why do I have to join, at the point of a gun? That's what I thought.

~faith,

Timothy.

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Specializes in Trauma,ER,CCU/OHU/Nsg Ed/Nsg Research.

Give it to the gov't and just watch how a bloated monopoly is constantly overbudget as it sinks to mediocrity.

~faith,

Timothy.

Isn't that our current problem with managed care?

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If Dick Cheney Were Anyone Else, He'd Probably Be Dead By Now

By Rose Ann DeMoro

...Imagine if you had the Vice President's health history. Four heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery, angioplasty, an implanted defibrillator, and just recently, an emergency procedure to treat an irregular heartbeat.

Take that chart to Blue Cross, UnitedHealth, or Aetna and try to get coverage or even continued care.

If you already have one of their policies, they'd probably drop you like a hot potato or raise your premiums - or if you are part of a group plan, your group's premiums - to an amount higher than the national debt.

Or perhaps they'd just demand you re-pay them for your last bypass surgery because they discovered you once chipped a tooth you'd never disclosed on your application form.

Not that we're wishing him more misfortune. We just think everyone should be entitled to the same guaranteed, first-class health care that Cheney and other government officials receive today....

http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/in-the-news/2007/december/if-dick-cheney-were-anyone-else-he-d-probably-be-dead-by-now.html?print=t

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Except that the idea of a gov't program coming in on time and on budget is an urban myth.

Just as much a myth or more that 'close enough for gov't work' will provide me with increased efficiency.

Or, that the gov't will look out for me. Sure, ask anybody in New Orleans about that.

Does anybody really trust the gov't that much? When it comes to my healthcare, if there's even a ONE PERCENT chance that gov't will operate as it normally does, instead of in this pollyanna world imagined, then I'd just assume the gov't kept its hands off my healthcare.

See, the very thing about this proposal that is so troublesome is its promises of great, beneficial, cheap, friendly gov't care that can't be tested until AFTER it destroys any alternative.

But the way you can tell the real scoop: if it's so darn great an idea, why not make it voluntary? If it's so pie-in-the-sky, then why do I have to join, at the point of a gun? That's what I thought.

~faith,

Timothy.

At the point of a gun??I will continue to see a future for our government, anarchy is not a acceptable substitute. We still have the vote, we CAN and should use it to change what we dont like in our OWN government.
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