The Democrats Are Asking Some Great, Even Important Questions Today

 Yes sir and ma'am, the Democrats and their Democratic Party are asking some great and important  questions today over at their website. Without further adieu, they are:

3 Questions for Senate Republicans Today

Three key questions for Senate Republicans to answer today — and they didn’t even have to watch President Trump’s spectacle last night to answer:

1. If the Supreme Court rules to invalidate the Affordable Care Act, why do you still not have a plan to replace the health care law and maintain current protections for pre-existing conditions? (Reminder: all of the GOP’s deceptive pre-existing conditions bills would still gut those protections.)
2. Will you commit to accepting the results of the November election and pledge not to undermine public confidence in the outcome with unfounded claims about voting?
3. Why are you comfortable supporting a president who refuses to condemn white supremacy?

If they can’t provide straightforward answers to these basic questions, they have no business serving in the United States Senate.

Senators?

Senator Blunt?  Senator Hawley?

Your answers, gentlemen?

America: We're Exceptional, All Right

Professor Reich came out with this video this week on his YouTube channel. He always gets me thinking.



Then there's this important to me, anyway, article from yesterday's New York Times.

The U.S. Is Lagging Behind Many Rich Countries

The United States is different. In nearly every other high-income country, people have both become richer over the last three decades and been able to enjoy substantially longer lifespans.

But not in the United States. Even as average incomes have risen, much of the economic gains have gone to the affluent — and life expectancy has risen only three years since 1990. There is no other developed country that has suffered such a stark slowdown in lifespans.

And this.

Health Insurance Is Broken

...Nothing illuminates the problems with an employer-based health care system quite like massive unemployment in the middle of a highly contagious and potentially deadly disease outbreak. For one thing, uninsured people are less likely to seek medical care, making this coronavirus that much more difficult to contain. Also, people with chronic or immune-compromising medical conditions are particularly susceptible to this new contagion — which means the people most in need of employer-sponsored health benefits are the same ones who can least afford to return to work at the moment.

“The pandemic has amplified all the vulnerabilities in our health care system,” says Drew Altman, president of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, including “the uninsured, racial disparities, the crisis of unmanaged chronic conditions and the general lack of national planning.”

So there's just a short list of articles that I think are important to us, to Americans, to the entire nation, along with this one video from Professor Reich.

We have fixing to do, America. Let's get out, vote, vote blue and get to the hard work of more justice and equality.

It will make us all, it will make the nation, stronger.

Our Obscene, Highly Immoral, Bankrupting, Even Murderous Healthcare System

In the past week, quite by accident, I've heard two different stories from two completely unconnected people, women, as chance would have it, about health care travesties. They highlight, very well, the ugly insanity of how we do health care.

The first was from a woman who said she worked full time at a law office and for her family's health insurance, she paid $600 per month.

That's it.

That's the whole story.

One person, one woman, trying to support her family and the best her company--heck, our nation--could offer her was to pay $600 per month for health care insurance.

She rightly and truly pointed out, too, that this didn't include the huge, thousands of dollars minimums she'd have to pay first if there were any health care needs nor does it include the co-pays.

That alone is, as the headline says, obscene and immoral.

Is it any wonder health care costs are the number one cause of bankruptcy in this nation?

The second example was from a co-worker, by chance, this afternoon. I heard her talking that she had, some time ago, gone to her doctor's office and had some sort of health care episode of some kind. She was in her doctor's office by coincidence, for something else, entirely. The doctor's office was physically attached to the hospital. One could go through the hallways to get there.

Once she started having this "episode"--I don't know what the ailment was--they told the doctor's staff, naturally. That staff informed the woman they would not only call an ambulance but that--get this--THEY HAD TO CALL THE AMBULANCE.  She couldn't go through the building or even go around to the front door or something. An ambulance had to be called, she had to be put into it and be taken to the emergency entrance.

So that's what happened.

And because of that, she was billed $800.

$800 for an ambulance trip, AROUND THE BUILDING, not even a block, that took seconds.

This is a woman who doesn't make a great deal of money, ladies and gentlemen.

We seem to not have any sense when it comes to health care in this nation. We're all about companies and corporations making loads of money and having big profits but we don't care about the costs.

Again, WE ARE THE ONLY NATION THAT DOES THIS.

We, the US, are the only nation in the world that ties health and health care to profit and profits.

Consequently, we are the only nation that has citizens that go bankrupt due to health care costs.

We are the only nation that has people die because they can't afford treatment. We are the only nation that has people die because they can't afford insulin, as just one perfect example.

We just are not very bright. In spite of what we tell ourselves.

Link:

Americans are dying because they can’t afford insulin

What the Labor Movement Begat

Republicans, Their AHCA, aka "Trumpcare", at Last

Cut health insurance coverage for 23 million Americans?

Slash Medicaid?

Make it harder for the elderly to get health insurance?

Make it harder for the disabled to have health insurance?

Make it harder for America's Veterans to have health insurance?

Make it harder for women to have health insurance?

Make it harder for families to have health insurance?

Take away the mandate for those with pre-existing conditions to get and have health insurance?

But give yet more tax cuts to the already-wealthy?

Really?

This is who we are?

This is who we want to be?

Tell us how this isn't oligarchy and plutocracy, both.

Fortunately, there is this.

Four GOP senators say they can't vote 

for Republican health care bill

And it only takes 4 Republicans defecting to kill it. There's no telling how many more won't be able to back it, as word of this nightmare gets out.

One last note. Check out what happened at the very cowardly and heartless Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office today, too.

Capitol Police drag disabled protesters out of wheelchairs during Trumpcare protests

This is not going to go well. It's not going to go well for them. How every Republican in Congress isn't already running from this thing, this health care nightmare, is anyone's guess.

I will be very, very surprised if this bill of theirs, the Republicans, isn't DOA.

Already.

Links:

Here's the simplest takedown of the Republican scheme to take away health care from millions

Senate's health care bill shreds Medicaid 

and essential health benefits

The people who will be hurt the most 

by Trump's Medicaid plan

Many Republican senators are unhappy about the AHCA draft

Quote of the Day -- On Our Health Care

Senator McCaskill, On the Trail of Our Crushing Health Care System

Proof positive, folks, of what the insanity of having our health care system tied to profit and profits does. Capitalism, at it's both worst and finest, and brought to light, thank goodness, by our own Senator Claire McCaskill. From yesterday's New York Times:


Senator Claire McCaskill, left, and Senator Susan Collins presented a 130-page report Wednesday on price gouging by prescription drug makers. CreditDrew Angerer for The New York Times

To Stop Price Spikes on Prescription Drugs, 

a Widening Radar

In the actual paper itself, it had a different headline and one that I like far better. It was

The Price of One Vial: $38000

A bit of the article:

Congressional reports can be a snooze. But that is not how I’d characterize Wednesday’s in-depth account of price gouging among prescription drug makers. The 130-page narrative prepared by the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging was juicy, detailing how four pharmaceutical companies have taken advantage of our health care system to enrich themselves and their executives, harming patients and taxpayers.

Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine who is chairwoman of the committee, and Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri who is its ranking member, published the report. But in a statement, they said their work was not finished and called for “continued efforts to stop bad actors who are acquiring drugs that have been off-patent for decades and driving up their prices solely because they can.”

The report focused on Retrophin, Rodelis Therapeutics, Turing Pharmaceuticals and an old favorite, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International. But these four companies are not alone in pursuing the pernicious price-hike business model, the committee noted. Other companies take the same approach, hurting taxpayers, patients and the health care system.

That’s for sure.

It is unclear where the Senate may set its sights next. But fresh Medicare data points to a candidate right in Ms. McCaskill’s backyard: St. Louis-based Mallinckrodt PLC. It makes H.P. Acthar Gel, a 1950s vintage, off-patent drug whose cost has rocketed from $40 a vial in 2001 to $38,000 today.

That Epi-pen episode, not that long ago was just one more example of this kind of, again, Capitalist gouging of the American public. Sick Americans, actually.

Senators McCaskill and Susan Collins (R-Maine) get credit for bringing this to light and for doing this examination. Seems the women have the empathy for the American public who are trying to afford our grossly obscene and immoral health care system. Men in Congress don't seem to be as interested in doing this so-important work.

Senator McCaskill gets additional kudos for this exploration since one of the companies they're looking into is based right here in Missouri, Mallinckrodt PLC.  That takes some guts since she no doubt risks some political capital--potential votes--in doing this though the article did mention one Senator Tim Scott (R-So. Carolina) did raise questions about this drug's pricing "over a year ago."

It's a fascinating, even, possibly important, very relevant, if depressing article. Virtually all adult Americans, paying for health care, should be aware of it. It shows just what the pharmaceutical companies are doing to us all and getting away with.

All in the name of health care.

And, again, that mighty, mighty Capitalism so many love so dearly.

Links:

Healthcare, Meet Capitalism

US Healthcare is an Embarrassment

Will Corporate Greed Destroy Our Healthcare System?

Health Care Problem Isn't Socialism, It's Capitalism

Healthcare Isn't A Free Market, It's A Giant Economic Scam

The Great American Smokeout Tomorrow!

Yes sir! The annual Great American Smokeout is tomorrow!

For any of the smokers out there, maybe today is the day to take this push and try to quit, if even for a day. There are so many benefits, too, as you may well already know. There are many benefits to your health but saving money factors in and more.

So good luck tomorrow and have fun with it! (If possible).

America's Actual Health Care Problems

The news has been breaking lately--

Employees' Share of Health Insurance 

Costs Rising

So naturally, too many people are blaming it on Obamacare. 

The fact is, the culprit and problem isn't Obamacare, the actual problem is that we still have our health care costs tied to profit and profits.  It needs to be pointed out, yet again, that NO OTHER INDUSTRIALIZED NATION IN THE WORLD does this. No other nation ties health care to profit. 

It's why we have the most expensive health care system in the world. It's how we got where we are today. To now blame Obamacare and President Obama for the health care costs rising just gives further license to these corporations to raise their rates and premiums and prices all the further. It's insane. It's how we're getting things like this:

U.S. Health Care Costs Rise Faster 

Than Inflation

We have to end our current system of health care and go to a single payer plan, once and for all.

The Republican Nightmare That Is Obamacare

Oops.

Question for you, America

The Republican Replacement for Obamacare?

So, after years and years of complaining and criticizing and 56 votes against it in Congress, the Republican Party has finally, finally come up with what they say is their replacement for Obamacare. And it's a beaut:

GOP replacement plan for Obamacare unveiled by Congressman Fred Upton, two U.S. senators

From the article:

Congressman Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, is among the authors of a Republican plan released this week to replace the Affordable Care Act.

The plan would abolish the federal Health Insurance Marketplace and the expansion of Medicaid. In its place, Americans with an income of up to 300 percent of the poverty guidelines would receive tax credits to purchase insurance on the private market.

The federal mandate to purchase insurance would be abolished. Insurers would be required to insure people with pre-existing conditions, but only if they haven't let their coverage lapse. 

The plan would still allow young adults to stay on their parents' health care plan until age 26, but states could "choose to opt out of this provision."

In another change from the ACA, insurers would be allowed to charged older customers up to five times more for premiums compared to young adults, who are typically healthier and less expensive to insure. The ACA limits the cost differential to three times more.

The plan also would eliminate the types of medical services mandates in the ACA, allowing Americans more flexibility in purchasing plans that provide minimal coverage.

Overall, it appears the proposal would reduce the government costs compared to the ACA, but increase costs for some individual consumers and insure fewer people.

So it's a total "give" back to the health care insurance companies.
All these former, existing benefits of Obamacare for the people go away.

And the Republicans are for the people.

Yeah, right.

Guess which country

Obama bad for America?

Really?

Further successes of "Obamacare"

To all the haters and non-believers out there, read 'em and weep (with thanks and a hat tip to The Huffington Post):

CBO: Obamacare Will Cost Less Than Projected

WASHINGTON -- The Congressional Budget Office has released updated estimates on the Affordable Care Act's impact on both the budget and the health insurance industry. The findings show that the president's signature health care law is actually growing cheaper to implement, costing the government $5 billion less in 2014 than was previously projected. The law also is projected to cover more individuals than previously believed, owing, in part, to some broader workforce trends.

Some of the highlights:

Twelve million more non-elderly people will have health insurance in 2014 than if Obamacare had not become law. CBO's projections on this crucial measure of the law's success are higher than recent surveys from the Rand Corp., which estimated a 9.3 million reduction, and from Gallup, which shows a 3.5 million decline.

For all of 2014, the CBO expects 6 million people to be covered by private health insurance policies purchased through the exchanges, fewer than the 7.5 million enrollment figure touted by the White House. That's mainly because the CBO expects people to cycle in and out of different types of coverage over the year -- perhaps by taking a new job and the health benefits that come with it -- and because some enrollees won't pay their first month's premium or will let their policies lapse during the year.

Even with those gains, a good chunk of the country will still lack coverage. The number of uninsured in 2014 will be 42 million people, according to the CBO. It will fall to 36 million in 2015 and 30 million in 2016 and 2017.

Most of them will remain uninsured because they will have declined coverage, the CBO said. Forty-five percent of them will have access to private insurance through the exchanges or an employer, while 20 percent will be eligible for Medicaid but will not sign up. In addition, 30 percent will be undocumented immigrants, who aren't permitted to use the health insurance exchanges or enroll in Medicaid, and 5 percent will be legal residents eligible for Medicaid but living in states that refused to expand the program under the Affordable Care Act.

Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program will grow by 7 million more beneficiaries in 2014 than if Obamacare weren't law, the CBO said. The law calls for an expansion of Medicaid eligibility to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $15,300 for a single person, but 24 states declined to broaden the program this year. The number of enrollees will jump next year but eventually level off. The CBO projects that 11 million more people will sign up for Medicaid in 2015, and 12 million to 13 million per year between 2016 and 2024. The CBO does not estimate how many more people would have signed up for the programs this year had their states chosen to participate in the expansion.

The cost of the health care law is falling, according to the CBO. Between 2015 and 2024, the price tag of Obamacare will be $1.383 trillion, $104 billion lower than prior estimates. This is because of a combination of factors, including a reduction of $165 billion in the gross costs of coverage (the government will spend less on exchange subsidies) and fewer people and businesses paying penalties for either not purchasing coverage or not providing it to their workers.

So, the long and short of it is, as Vice President Joe Biden said at the signing, rather famously, "It's a pretty big f*cking deal."

Oh, and the two of them and the Democratic Party were all right on this thing, all along.

Just sayin'.

Powerful stupid coming out of Jefferson City

The Republicans at the statehouse in Jefferson City seem to be outdoing themselves this week:

New attack on Obamacare filed in Missouri Legislature

JEFFERSON CITY • Missouri would strike another blow against the federal Affordable Care Act under a bill filed by state Sen. John Lamping, R-Ladue.

The bill would suspend insurance companies’ state licenses if they accepted subsidies offered by the federal government to help pay health insurance premiums for low- and middle-income Missourians.

Forget that we have the most expensive health care system in the world.

Forget that more people have worse health outcomes from this outrageous system than the other top 16 industrialized nations.

Forget that more people go bankrupt in this nation with health care expenses than with any other cause.

Forget all that.

Just go to Jefferson City and vote for your political party. Vote the party line. Create bills and vote against the people of your very state and nation.

Yeah.  Great idea.  This, ladies and gentlemen, is what the Republican Party, both nationally and state by state, are trying to achieve---

And we're the ones being held hostage.

Think the European countries spend more on taxes than the US on their health care?

You would be very, very mistaken.



We, the US, spend far, far more on taxe--as well as and on top of our health care--than any other nation.

We are being taken for a very, very expensive ride, ladies and gentlemen and it's all so the insurance companies and pharmaceuticals and other corporations can make--and keep making--big, big profits.

All on our backs.

We need to demand an end to this.

"Obamacare" is just one start in our favor.

More proof of why we badly need "Obamacare"

And from where else today but The New York Times?

In Need of a New Hip, but Priced Out of the U.S.

Our health care system, being beyond question the most expensive in the world, is forcing some of us to have to go outside the country, to other nations that have--oops--universal health care and far less expensive systems.

A bit of the article:

WARSAW, Ind. — Michael Shopenn’s artificial hip was made by a company based in this remote town, a global center of joint manufacturing. But he had to fly to Europe to have it installed.        

Mr. Shopenn, 67, an architectural photographer and avid snowboarder, had been in such pain from arthritis that he could not stand long enough to make coffee, let alone work. He had health insurance, but it would not cover a joint replacement because his degenerative disease was related to an old sports injury, thus considered a pre-existing condition.        

Desperate to find an affordable solution, he reached out to a sailing buddy with friends at a medical device manufacturer, which arranged to provide his local hospital with an implant at what was described as the “list price” of $13,000, with no markup. But when the hospital’s finance office estimated that the hospital charges would run another $65,000, not including the surgeon’s fee, he knew he had to think outside the box, and outside the country.

“That was a third of my savings at the time,” Mr. Shopenn said recently from the living room of his condo in Boulder, Colo. “It wasn’t happening.”  
     

$65,000 here in the States vs. a mere $13,000 in Belgium.

 Round trip flight included.

The isn't working, folks. The health care system we have is broken. It doesn't work for the people. The companies and corporations are getting rich--filthy, stinking--on our backs. It's good for them but it's keeping the rest of us either broke, sick, in pain or even dead prematurely.

We need the Affordable Care Act. 

We need "Obamacare."

And badly.

What Americans don't know about health care

There is a terrific article today in The New York Times about health care in America--and Sweden.  I contend that virtually all Americans should read it--with an open mind--and so few will.

What Sweden Can Tell Us About Obamacare

Just a small bit from the article:

The United States spends more than $8,000 a person per year on health care, well more than twice what Sweden spends. Yet health outcomes are far better in Sweden along virtually every dimension. Its infant mortality rate, for example, was recently less than half that of the United States. And males aged 15 to 60 are almost twice as likely to die in any given year in the United States than in Sweden.

Not that Americans are about to learn anything--anything--from Sweden or anyone else (heck, learning alone is a problem for us) but it would be nice if we could read or study these other country's situations--gasp--and, as I said, learn something.

Just a few comparisons:

Doctors in the two countries also face different financial incentives. In the United States, under the fee-for-service model, they can bolster their incomes, often substantially, by prescribing additional tests and procedures. Most Swedish doctors, as salaried employees, have no comparable incentive.

Another important difference is that, unlike many American health insurance providers, the government groups that manage Swedish health care are nonprofit entities. Because their charge is to provide quality care for all citizens, they don’t face the same incentive to withhold care that for-profit organizations do...

      

The Swedes also provide drugs and other treatments only when evidence establishes their effectiveness. People can spend privately on unproven treatments, but the government refuses to impose their cost on taxpayers.

Clearly, the Swedish health care model is far more humane and moral than our profit-based one.

There was an excellent program on PBS a few years ago that did just that, too--compared other country's health care systems, one to another to ours:

Comparing International Health Care Systems

This one, here, above, compared our system to the Netherlands, which is highly successful both in keeping costs down and in getting good outcomes from the health care paid for.

And then these two, from 2009 and 2012, again on PBS, comparing our costs which, by the way, are and have been the highest in the world for decades now:

 Health Care Expenditures: An International Comparison

 

Health Costs: How the U.S. Compares With Other Countries

Here's just one very indicative chart from this article:

 

And then there's this tidbit, from that same article:

Life expectancy at birth increased by almost nine years between 1960 and 2010, but that's less than the increase of over 15 years in Japan and over 11 years on average in OECD countries. The average American now lives 78.7 years in 2010, more than one year below the average of 79.8 years.

Another fact:

When we look across a broad range of hospital services (both medical and surgical), the average price in the United States is 85 percent higher than the average in other OECD countries.

If anyone in this country thinks we don't or didn't need the Affordable Care Act--aka "Obamacare"--when we spend grossly more than any other nation on the planet for that care and our results are worse than any the other, top 17 industrialized nation, they are badly and sadly mistaken.
________________________

More PBS links on health care (in case anyone out there actually does want to learn about us and our health care system:

Toyota-inspired approach to improving care and bringing down costs.

What steps can you take to make your next hospital stay safer and cheaper?

They illustrate what the U.S. could buy with the $750 billion wasted in American health care each year, and, in a separate post, our partners at Kaiser Health News examine the "Top 7 Drivers of U.S. Health Care Costs."

In a "Reporter's Notebook," Betty Ann Bowser examines Virginia Mason's decision to eliminate a staple of the American hospital: the waiting room.

What inefficiencies have you seen in the U.S. health care system?

How Missouri legislators in Jefferson City waste time: this kind of nonsense

From The Star today:

Contraceptive health insurance bill awaits Nixon’s decision

JEFFERSON CITY -- "The fate of a bill allowing employers in Missouri to refuse to provide health insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization or abortion is in the hands of Gov. Jay Nixon, who over the years has managed to sidestep taking a stand on abortion legislation.

Two anti-abortion bills have been sent to the desk of the Democratic governor during his first term, and both times he took no action. Instead of signing or vetoing the bills, on both occasions he let a constitutional deadline pass that allowed them to became law without his signatures."

Every legislative session, those chuckleheads--too many of them Republican--down in Jefferson City keep introducing bill after bill after bill, trying to ever-tighten Missouri's abortion laws.

Forget that we've got lots of laws on them already.

Oh and by all means, forget that--hello?--abortions are legal in America and have been ever since 1973, rather family.

Forget that abortions in America are decreasing, sure. Somehow they're sure we need more, more and yet more legislation on contraception, even, let alone on abortions.

Forget that an abortion procedure is an incredibly difficult and emotional situation and problem that isn't gotten into or carried out easily or without a lot of heartache, thought and deliberation.

Forget that our health care system is broken--badly broken--and that it needs attention and solving. Forget that we, the people, need protection from our legislators and government from our health insurance companies, who are gouging us all, collectively and individually, just so they can get ever richer.

Forget all that.

Legislators in our state capitol and all across this nation keep proposing bill after bill after bill, all the while ignoring our real problems both as a state, in this case, and as a nation, in the case of Washington, D.C.

This is the way our legislators are "fiddling" as our Rome burns.

Thanks, guys. (Because it is mostly guys, too).

Link: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/06/02/3639492/contraceptive-health-insurance.html#storylink=cpy