The future of Obamacare

they are refusing to pay for a treatment that evidence has shown does not contribute to long term sustained improvement of low back pain.

How terrible -those poor people have to be subjected to evidence based medicine -its a travesty I tell you

If it helps just one person then it is worth it. Constant mantra of the left.

they are refusing to pay for a treatment that evidence has shown does not contribute to long term sustained improvement of low back pain.

How terrible -those poor people have to be subjected to evidence based medicine -its a travesty I tell you

they are refusing to pay for a treatment that evidence has shown does not contribute to long term sustained improvement of low back pain.

How terrible -those poor people have to be subjected to evidence based medicine -its a travesty I tell you

No, actually what they are doing is essentially the opposite of evidence based medicine. Steroid injections have a much better track record than osteopathic manipulation and acupuncture in peer reviewed journals.

Interesting! The OP must be against civilizing the healthcare system in this country. The link takes the reader to an attention grabbing headline in the Telegraph.UK which might leave the casual observer to conclude that our President Obama is somehow in favor of "rationing" that would force patients to suffer. Pure nonsense! I hope everyone will read the entire article to appreciate the benefits of having a publicly accountable system of health care. It's important to note that the UK has a transparent process that looks at risks, benefits, and a variety of therapeutic modalities; no patient in the UK is being denied access to assessment and treatment for pain. This fact is a far cry from the current reality that exists in our non-system of healthcare delivery that's run by the "for-profit" insurance industry in this country; a system that delays, denies, and excludes millions of patients based on "pre-existing conditions" and/or their ability to pay. Ours is a system that causes the highest rate of deaths from preventable/treatable illness of the modern industrialized countries in the world. Of note, ours is the only nation without a form of single-payer, universal health care from among that grouping of countries according to a study by the Commonwealth Fund.

The majority of us in this country continue to hope that President Obama will demonstrate leadership by advocating for the elimination of private, for-profit insurers and replace them with a single payer system. Actually we already have a single payer system of health care that works in this country: Medicare. We need to improve it and expand it to cover everybody. The system will allow us to end the inhumane and uncivilized practice of denying medically necessary preventative and restorative care to those in need. The care would still be provided by our current system of non-profit, for-profit, and public hospitals and providers, so we're not talking about nationalizing the whole system, just the payment for the care. The savings that result from eliminating the waste of the insurance company bureaucracy, (read bonuses, marketing, advertising, dividends to shareholders, and overhead), is enough to pay for the system.

Obama in 2009: "For us to transition completely from an employer-based system of private insurance to a single-payer system could be hugely disruptive, and my attitude has been that we should be able to find a way to create a uniquely American solution to this problem that controls costs but preserves the innovation that is introduced in part with a free-market system."

From where most of us sit in this country, the only uniquely American "innovation" that has resulted from the insurance market is this: They do what they're supposed to do, which is maximize revenue, so they can pay their investors and their executives. Their profits are breathtaking and obscene! Insurers don't exist to provide healthcare. They are the most undemocratic and discriminatory institutions that are allowed to exist in this country; profit at the expense of the sick and injured has no place in health care. The NHS in the UK doesn't exist to make a profit, nor does Medicare in this country.

Obama is in danger of losing his credibility when it comes to health care reform. I'm disappointed that he hasn't demonstrated more leadership and courage in the face of the corporate backed assault on the public/social service model of health care. That's the fact that has me concerned about the "future" of "Obamacare."

No, actually what they are doing is essentially the opposite of evidence based medicine.

I beg to differ.

"A spokesman for NICE said its guidance did not recommend that injections were stopped for all patients, but only for those who had been in pain for less than a year, where the cause was not known."

What is interesting to note is the fear-mongering emotive language used in the article -perhaps the author also works for the anti-healthcare reform lobby across the pond ? The case the author uses as an example in the article would not even fit the criteria:

"Iris Watkins, 80 from Appleton, in Cheshire said her life had been "transformed" by the use of therapeutic injections every two years. The pensioner began to suffer back pain in her 70s. Four years ago, despite physiotherapy treatment and the use of medication, she had reached a stage where she could barely walk."

Also of note is the battle between Dr Paul Watson, a physiotherapist (who helped draft the guidelines and who was forced to resign as President of the British Pain Society) and pain management physicians worried about funding of their pain management clinics (without the revenue from these treatments with questionable efficacy).

(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5955840/Patients-forced-to-live-in-agony-after-NHS-refuses-to-pay-for-painkilling-injections.html)

IMHO the best thing a doctor can do for my (very real) chronic low back pain is to refer me to a physical therapist -and I believe the evidence backs me up on that -see Diagnosis and Treatment of Low Back Pain: A Joint Clinical Practice Guideline from the American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/147/7/478

Obama is in danger of losing his credibility when it comes to health care reform. I'm disappointed that he hasn't demonstrated more leadership and courage in the face of the corporate backed assault on the public/social service model of health care. That's the fact that has me concerned about the "future" of "Obamacare."

Loved your post RN4MERCY, I too am very concerned about the "corporate backed assault on healthcare reform". We the people need to fight back -call your representative, your senators and register your opinion, attend these Town Hall meetings and let your voice be heard, get involved -there are many organizations out there. Our lives and the lives of our family, friends and neighbors depend on it - this is not hyperbole.

Interesting! The OP must be against civilizing the healthcare system in this country. The link takes the reader to an attention grabbing headline in the Telegraph.UK which might leave the casual observer to conclude that our President Obama is somehow in favor of "rationing" that would force patients to suffer. Pure nonsense! I hope everyone will read the entire article to appreciate the benefits of having a publicly accountable system of health care. It's important to note that the UK has a transparent process that looks at risks, benefits, and a variety of therapeutic modalities; no patient in the UK is being denied access to assessment and treatment for pain. This fact is a far cry from the current reality that exists in our non-system of healthcare delivery that's run by the "for-profit" insurance industry in this country; a system that delays, denies, and excludes millions of patients based on "pre-existing conditions" and/or their ability to pay. Ours is a system that causes the highest rate of deaths from preventable/treatable illness of the modern industrialized countries in the world. Of note, ours is the only nation without a form of single-payer, universal health care from among that grouping of countries according to a study by the Commonwealth Fund.

The majority of us in this country continue to hope that President Obama will demonstrate leadership by advocating for the elimination of private, for-profit insurers and replace them with a single payer system. Actually we already have a single payer system of health care that works in this country: Medicare. We need to improve it and expand it to cover everybody. The system will allow us to end the inhumane and uncivilized practice of denying medically necessary preventative and restorative care to those in need. The care would still be provided by our current system of non-profit, for-profit, and public hospitals and providers, so we're not talking about nationalizing the whole system, just the payment for the care. The savings that result from eliminating the waste of the insurance company bureaucracy, (read bonuses, marketing, advertising, dividends to shareholders, and overhead), is enough to pay for the system.

: "I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program. ... A single-payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. That's what I'd like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we've got to take back the White House, we've got to take back the Senate, and we've got to take back the House."

Obama in 2009: "For us to transition completely from an employer-based system of private insurance to a single-payer system could be hugely disruptive, and my attitude has been that we should be able to find a way to create a uniquely American solution to this problem that controls costs but preserves the innovation that is introduced in part with a free-market system."

From where most of us sit in this country, the only uniquely American "innovation" that has resulted from the insurance market is this: They do what they're supposed to do, which is maximize revenue, so they can pay their investors and their executives. Their profits are breathtaking and obscene! Insurers don't exist to provide healthcare. They are the most undemocratic and discriminatory institutions that are allowed to exist in this country; profit at the expense of the sick and injured has no place in health care. The NHS in the UK doesn't exist to make a profit, nor does Medicare in this country.

Obama is in danger of losing his credibility when it comes to health care reform. I'm disappointed that he hasn't demonstrated more leadership and courage in the face of the corporate backed assault on the public/social service model of health care. That's the fact that has me concerned about the "future" of "Obamacare."

Wrongo. The majority do NOT want single payer. Check Rassmussen or Gallup. BTW, Medicare is an underfunded disaster.

Loved your post RN4MERCY, I too am very concerned about the "corporate backed assault on healthcare reform". We the people need to fight back -call your representative, your senators and register your opinion, attend these Town Hall meetings and let your voice be heard, get involved -there are many organizations out there. Our lives and the lives of our family, friends and neighbors depend on it - this is not hyperbole.

We the people are calling, writing, emailing, and attending town halls. We plan on letting Sen. Specter know how we feel next week when he holds his town hall nearby. Our congressional representative has gotten an earful. Check the polls. You know the politicians are.

We the people are calling, writing, emailing, and attending town halls. We plan on letting Sen. Specter know how we feel next week when he holds his town hall nearby. Our congressional representative has gotten an earful. Check the polls. You know the politicians are.

or we the healthcare insurance corporations????????

these teabaggers are doing the lobbyists dirty work and not even getting paid for it - I can't believe that so many people have been brainwashed into lobbying against their own interests -amazing!

Wrongo. The majority do NOT want single payer. Check Rassmussen or Gallup. BTW, Medicare is an underfunded disaster.

Au contraire. Medicare is wildly popular among seniors 65 and over. Just try taking it away. The fact that it's so popular has not escaped the right wing spindocs--anti-reformers are busy baiting its beneficiaries, claiming that Obama's plan will reduce or eliminate their benefits.

Medicare Part D was a gift of windfall profits to insurers and drug companies; this fact was very meticulously and credibly exposed in the documentary, SiCKO. Medicare is being systematically underfunded and gutted by politicians who are corporate handmaidens. They have an agenda to underfund the public health infrastructure so they can call it a failure; the current for-profit system works for them. Like pigs at the trough they take campaign cash from (and do the bidding of) the corporations, at our expense. Sadly, it seems such politicians fear losing favor with their political donors more than being held accountable by the people who vote. It's intellectually dishonest to call Medicare a "disaster" under those circumstances.

*A recent AP/Yahoo poll found that 65 percent of Americans agree that the U.S. should "adopt a universal health insurance program in which everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that is run by the government and financed by taxpayer."

* The results of the "Citizen's Health Care Working Group" were overwhelmingly in favor of single payer health insurance despite considerable bias against single payer health insurance in the way the meetings were structured. In fact, 25 of 29 of the meetings (86 percent) reported that a national health program was their most favored option.

*An April 2009 CBS/New York Times poll said 57 percent of respondents were "willing to pay higher taxes so that all Americans have health insurance."

*Similar strong support for Medicare for All was found the last time health reform was on the top of the nation's agenda during the Clinton administration. In 1993, a citizen jury sat for 8 hours a day for five days in Washington, DC before making their choice among the then-leading options for health reform: managed competition (supported by Clinton), medical savings accounts, and single payer. Single payer received 17 out of 24 votes (70 percent).

The Polling is Quite Clear. The American public supports guaranteed healthcare on the "Medicare for All" and "single-payer" model. :typing

I find this thread rather interesting.....so here's my 2 cents on the subject....

1. Since when is capitalism a crime? Corporations are bodies of people who work for a common goal in exchange for money. I guess we should give back money to the hospitals we work for or cap our salaries at $25k a year because like big corporations, medical personal do no need to profit from health care. I mean why should a nurse be driving a Mercedes or BMW when a simple salary reduction would allow that money to go to a more needy person? That is what some of you folks are saying...isn't it?

2. Medicare/Medicaid is the perfect system of non-accountability.

3. Other then the military, is there anything the government is any good at?

I'm sure not back in school to get a job with a salary cap...

Good day!

Why does the left always believe people are stupid or brainwashed when they don't agree with them. We understand exactly what the President is up to this isn't a thugocracy like he is use to in Chicago and his minions in the House and Senate are finding out this aint't no "Burger King" legislation where they can have it their way. Once again the people who make this country work will be footing the bill for a bunch of free loaders who always want something for nothing and do nothing as productive members of society except funding casinos, lottery sales, alcohol, and cigarettes instead of paying their bills.

"Ignorance, the most expensive commodity we pay for in this country"- Rush Limbaugh

or we the healthcare insurance corporations????????

these teabaggers are doing the lobbyists dirty work and not even getting paid for it - I can't believe that so many people have been brainwashed into lobbying against their own interests -amazing!