The private insurance corporations have had a heavy hand in producing the dysfunction of our current health care system. Their greed has become so distasteful and so disgusting to us that any sane American wants them out of the system.
Part of our trek toward Single-Payer Universal Health Care for All is confronting these corporations and making it clear to our fellow citizens that private insurers are a drag and an impedance on us. They block us from getting the medical care we need when we need it. They are a middle man that takes billions of dollars out of the system, using the money for immorally high CEO salaries, advertising and dividends, instead of using it to restore health and alleviate suffering.
June 19th is a day of national protest against these corporations. There will be thousands of health activists meeting to speak up and out against their greed.
There's an ad made by the Courage Campaign and the California Nurses Association that highlights the human problems caused by private insurance company greed. Beth Broderick (from "Lost") explains in a piece from the HuffingtonPost:
In the ad which is Inspired by the scene from Airplane (1980!) where Barbara Billingsley translates "jive," I play a nurse who attempts to translate Insurance speak to a couple in my care. I translate it but this is where the comparison ends because I am not funny ... this stuff is not funny at all. The ad is based on the true story about breast cancer patient Pasty Bates who had to forgo her chemotherapy treatments after Health Net, cancelled her policy. The Los Angeles Times reported Ms. Bates' experience earlier this year when an arbitration judge ordered Health Net, one of California's largest for-profit insurers, to pay her $9 million in punitive and other damages.
The role of a nurse who has had enough of this" jive" was not exactly a stretch. All of us have stories about desperately ill friends and family who have faced the cold cruel reality of being denied treatment by an indifferent insurer. We have all had enough of Blue Cross, Assurant, Health Net, Cigna and the many other giant companies canceling coverage just when the patient needs and expects to be, well, insured against catastrophe. The simple truth is that the insurance industry is built on our premium payments, but it profits when it does not have to pay.
I was at the San Francisco Rally. What an inspiring day. It was wonderful to see so many people coming together for Healthcare Justice. Together we can demand the change. :redbeathe:redbeathe:redbeathe
Medicare can run on 3%. Why do the private insurers need 31%? That's money lost to greed. And there is no room for that when it comes to health care.
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I work with the Medicare population. After you have spent most of your life on private insurance and transfer to Medicare you will understand impact of being taken care of by an organization with 3% overhead. Besides, that is a misleading figure. I lived in Baltimore, 10 miles from CMS Headquarters, and I can tell you that I have never worked in such upscale surroundings. THey have lots of money to operate, it just doesn't show up in the 3%
Here's a link that lists the other cities that will be holding protests on June 19th, in case you can't get to San Francisco: http://www.healthcare-now.org/june19.html
OMFG! Who gave you the purple Koolaid?
The insurance industry saves millions of consumers billions of dollars every month by allowing them to contract their healthcare costs. Who could do it cheaper? Ozzy Ozborne?
The insurance industry saves millions of consumers billions of dollars every month by allowing them to contract their healthcare costs. Who could do it cheaper? Ozzy Ozborne?
Do you know that 70 people died today---TODAY! because they did not have insurance and did not have access to health care. 70 Americans die every day simply because they do not have access to care. About 22,000 a year. It is a national disgrace brought to us courtesy of the private health insurers.
Who can do it better? National Health Care. HR 676. SB 840.
the only function the insuarance companies are performing is to siphon off billions of our healthcare dollars in return for nthing at all. If they really did their job - insured everyone who wants to buy and covering the care they actually need, then they would be performing a useful service. As it is they cover only the well and all too often refuse the car needed when you do get sick.
Of the people who are driven into bankruptcy by healthcare costs, 75% had insurance when they got sick.
What's the difference between the mafia and a health insurance company?
when you pay off the mafia, they usually won't kill you.
It is obvious that you do not understand a darn thing about economics. Healthcare is a business, it is not a right given to us by our creator.
Universal healthcare is an oxymoron. Waiting times for the NHS are actually up. The standard for day and ordinary care is 26 f- weeks!
A government program to replace private insurance? I would rather pay for insurance than see a government program spiral out of control. I have the choice to self insure or contract my cost. I choose to contract.
Taxes are out of control and need to be reigned in. The taxes to support the NHS are in the area of 15%! That is on top of income taxes, council tax, ect in the UK. Those tosspots are sapping the life out of the average working man. I do not want any more of my paycheck being confiscated.
As far as the number of people dying for lack of insurance I want a solid source, not something out of prisonplanet.com I find it difficult to believe that one can properly quantify the number.
250k Americans die each year of alcohol related illness. About the same number die from smoking and cardiac events. Where is your concern for them? Oh that's right, you have an agenda, not an actual cause.
It is obvious that you do not understand a darn thing about economics. Healthcare is a business, it is not a right given to us by our creator.
Universal healthcare is an oxymoron. Waiting times for the NHS are actually up. The standard for day and ordinary care is 26 f- weeks!
A government program to replace private insurance? I would rather pay for insurance than see a government program spiral out of control. I have the choice to self insure or contract my cost. I choose to contract.
Taxes are out of control and need to be reigned in. The taxes to support the NHS are in the area of 15%! That is on top of income taxes, council tax, ect in the UK. Those tosspots are sapping the life out of the average working man. I do not want any more of my paycheck being confiscated.
As far as the number of people dying for lack of insurance I want a solid source, not something out of prisonplanet.com I find it difficult to believe that one can properly quantify the number.
250k Americans die each year of alcohol related illness. About the same number die from smoking and cardiac events. Where is your concern for them? Oh that's right, you have an agenda, not an actual cause.
It was the Institutes of Medicine that in 2004 estimated that 18,000 Americans die a year due to lack of access to care. The number is about 22,000 now. http://www.ur.umich.edu/0304/Jan19_04/00.shtml
My dad died of lung cancer from smoking. Your glib comments about my concerns are way off base and not appropriate.
My dad died of lung cancer from smoking. Your glib comments about my concerns are way off base and not appropriate.
They are appropriate as your own comments. We enjoy political freedom which means people will hold political opinions that are subjectively offensive to people who don't hold them
They are appropriate as your own comments. We enjoy political freedom which means people will hold political opinions that are subjectively offensive to people who don't hold them
Indeed,
Free expression is a path to freedom. If you cannot take the heat do not jump into the fire.
In any event the response to my simple request for a proper source was silence. Case closed.
I't always so amusing to talk to someone who lives in the fantasy world where the laws of economics apply to healthcare in the same way they apply to other things. Just for one example:
there's a common econ concept called the elasticity of price and demand. It tells us that if you make something cheaper, people will use more of it, and if you make it free they will use an infinite amount. To see if it applies to healthcare, just ask yourself this: Would I get extra mammograms, or colonoscopies or prostate exams just because they were free. Of course not. Because consuming healthcare is not enjoyable.
The fact that healthcare is a business in this country is the problem. there arent any other wealthy countries in the world where healthcare is mainly a business - and all those other countries manage to cover everyone, cost less and achieve results that are as good or better.
Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.
The Institute of Medicine is a proper source.
Lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States. Although America leads the world in spending on health care, it is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage.
All of us may need a fully equipped and staffed emergency room at an unexpected time and place.
Despite the lifesaving feats performed every day by emergency departments and ambulance services, the nation's emergency medical system as a whole is overburdened, underfunded, and highly fragmented, says this series of three reports from the Institute of Medicine.
As a result, ambulances are turned away from emergency departments once every minute on average and patients in many areas may wait hours or even days for a hospital bed. Moreover, the system is ill-prepared to handle surges from disasters such as hurricanes, terrorist attacks, or disease outbreaks.
Ludlow
109 Posts
There's an ad made by the Courage Campaign and the California Nurses Association that highlights the human problems caused by private insurance company greed. Beth Broderick (from "Lost") explains in a piece from the HuffingtonPost:
Click Insurance Jive to see the ad.