big news in healthcare

[Elsa]

The health insurance industry offered Tuesday for the first time to curb its controversial practice of charging higher premiums to people with a history of medical problems.
The offer from America's Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is a potentially significant shift in the debate over reforming the nation's health care system to rein in costs and cover an estimated 48 million uninsured people.

 

[Charlene]

i own the brooklyn bridge and i'll sell it to you for one dollar.

LOL

 

[Ashley]

I hope something will be done with health care. I do not have any as I can not afford any and I do not qualify for state care either, not even at a reduced rate. But that said when I went to the doc or pink eye I was in for about 5 mins, total bill was just over $200 thats a bit outragious if you ask me.

THey hit the nail on the head when they said it makes it hard for a person to go to the doc when they need to. Probably why I waited a week and a half and until I could no longer bare it.

 

[Jill]

 

[LowriseMinis]

Will probably happen before the year's over Jill, sorry!

 

[Debby - LB]

Nice to hear....especially in light of the fact that Blue Cross Blue Shield JUST THIS WEEK raised my husbands Ins. premium over 110.00 a month beginning May 1st..... for a total now of $565.00 per month... and this was with us raising our deductible last year to 5,000 to be able to keep it.

Pitiful to think it was $78.00 per month when we took it out in 1993.

Their stated policy of only raising premiums within certain groups and not singling out individuals is a crock of S"*!

 

[Jill]

Will probably happen before the year's over Jill, sorry!

Lowrise, since I can afford to continue my expensive private insurance, I don't think I'm going to be one of the ones who ends up with the short end of the stick. I'm sorry for the ones counting on some sort of socialized public healthcare, or those who will be forced to accept it

However, you will no doubt see over the course of time that much of what you expect to happen actually won't. Brace yourself for some substantial let downs and re-stated "promises"

[SIZE=14pt]A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.[/SIZE]

 

[MyBarakah]

Well..... I think the whole country is going to heck in a hand bag so to speak. I do NOT see anything good that is going to happen to this country any time soon. I personally think our new president will not help the matters any....

I have independent insurance..... which is ONLY major medical and I do have a co-pay... basically this insurance lets me out of paying for my whole doctor bill there on the spot. I "tried" to get better insurance....but because of my thryoid problems and needing check up's and testing to make sure my nodules in my neck are not cancerous they will NOT accept me.... I qualified for the CHIP program that bluecross offers..... HOLLY COW!!!!!!!! That was UNBELIEVEABLEY expensieve!!!!!!!! About triple what my regular insurance is! There's NOOOOOOO way I could ever afford that! What's sad is that I still owee about $2000 from my Thryoid deal back in '07. And have not been able to test to see if my nodules are cancerous (I'm suppose to get tested every 6 months because I have SO many in my neck)....... but I can't afford a $4000 doctor bill ever 6 months!!!!! I will NEVER see the light of day if I did that!!!!!! I'm hoping to get that bill down and then will go get tested maybe this fall........?? OR next year in the spring..... Very frustrating!!!!

 

[Elsa]

I expect private insurance to become cheaper next year or even towards the end of this year as talk of a government funded public plan develops. Insurance companies can't afford to lose the monopoly they have on coverage and a public plan would completely ruin private plans.

 

[Jill]

... as talk of a government funded public plan develops.

Know that "government funded" means tax payer funded.

[SIZE=12pt]The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Why not phone up Robin Hood, and ask him for some wealth distribution?[/SIZE]

 

[Sonya]

Well, if the public healthcare system ends up anything like Hawaii's attempt, it will be over before it even begins.

 

[Danielle_E.]

All the fear-mongering has been going on for some time with the likes of

http://crooksandliars.com/2007/07/06/unive...cruitment-tool/

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/scarce...-care-privilege.

"Universal health care" will be a giant burden off of an extensive portion of the U.S. population and hopefully it will forever remove people from losing homes, etc. because of astronomical medical bills

. I believe your President spoke of "options" and that those that wish to stay with their private insurance could do so Those that can not afford some of the exhorbitant costs in many cases will have options. I am glad to see that the insurance companies are now seeing the light and are trying to remedy the un-necessary gouging they have done at the expense of those seeking coverage. I am of the firm opinion that health care is not a privilege for some and not others. Without your health you have nothing and it's not something to play russian roulette with or have big business make the huge profits on sick individuals or by denying them for whatever reason they can drum up so that they don't have to pay anything. It's rather sad. Mind you it's nothing new that this has been going on when a physician who worked for one of the companies and oversaw claims went to your congress and "confessed" as to what was going on.

 

[Danielle_E.]

March 25th, 2009 1:09 am

Protesters outside and inside White House health care forum in Iowa

By O. Kay Henderson / Radio Iowa

There were protesters outside and inside this morning's White House health care forum in Des Moines.

About 20 protesters stood on the street outside, waving signs and chanting. A psychiatrist from University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City stood in the middle of the group, wearing his white lab coat and chanting "Everybody in, nobody out" along with the others. Dr. Jess Fiedorowicz is a member of Physicians for a National Health Program. "'Everybody in, nobody out' truly universal health care. Universal health care has become a buzz word in the elections, but if you look at the proposals people are proposing, they truly do not intend to cover everybody," the doctor said. "…We're interested in everybody being covered."

Sixty-one-year-old Vashti Winterburg of Lawrence, Kansas -- another protester -- opposes any plan that keeps health insurance companies in business. Winterburg said the Kansas nonprofit board she serves on is finding it more and more difficult to pay the premiums of workers who provide in-home care to the elderly. "It costs us a thousand dollars per policy, per employee, per month," Winterberg said. "That's horrible."

Iowa Farmers Union president Chris Peterson of Clear Lake said he's glad the forum was held in the Midwest, as most Americans don't understand the challenges rural citizens face. "Rural Iowans struggle with finding affordable insurance. Even solidly middle class farmers are feeling the pinch. Nearly one in eight Iowa farmers battle outstanding health debt," Peterson said. "I am one of them."

Peterson, who is 53, was kicked off his private insurance plan about two years ago for what the company said was a preexisting condition. Peterson and his wife, who has no private insurance either, have accumulated $14,000 in medical debts in the past two years. "The health care system in this country is dysfunctional and burdensome," Peterson said of the private insurance industry. "...Personally, what I've been through, it seems at times it's a ponzi scheme -- they're taking your money -- or (it's) just the robber barons pulling money out of your pockets."

Once the forum got underway, protester Mona Shaw of Iowa City stood to call the event "shameful" because health insurance companies were participating. As she was escorted out of the event hall, Shaw accused insurance companies of ignoring the needs of their customers. "Governor Culver has taken $20,000 from Blue Cross-Blue Shield, of course he's not going to let the insurance industry take any of the flack for this," Shaw shouted toward reporters as she left. "Iowans are dying."

President Obama's White House advisor on the health care issue sat on a panel that included Iowa Governor Chet Culver, the governor of South Dakota and Senator Tom Harkin. Seventy-five-year-old Darlene Neff of Iowa City, a retired school teacher, told the group she's survived breast cancer and a brain tumor. "We who are retired and have insurance as well as Medicare know how good we have it as far as health care goes, but we know, too, that there are millions out there who don't have good health care," Neff said. "That basic health care should be available to everyone today."

Small business people like John Piper of Des Moines were among those who talked of their difficulties in keeping employees because they cannot offer health insurance as a benefit. "I reduced the size of my company because of health insurance," Piper said. "So now, it is a one-person company."

Those who provide health care services were part of the discussion, too. Karen Van De Steeg , executive director of a cancer center in Sioux City, urged officials to consider private companies are doing things to control the cost of health care. Van De Steeg manages Siouxland Pace which provides inhome care to the elderly.

"Essentially, the private sector, our company has taken on risk for taking care of these patients," Van De Steeg said. "We are providing some of the poorest, oldest, most-frail people the absolute best care they could possibly get in their homes. It's an alternative to nursing home care and the whole reason we're successful is it's about prevention. We do everything possible to keep that person well."

A couple of state legislators and a pharmacist from eastern Iowa were among those who also stepped to the microphone to air their thoughts on health care reform, too.

 

[Danielle_E.]

Friday, March 13th, 2009

Healthcare Reform Effort Slaps Elders’ Wisdom: Shame On Us All ...by Donna Smith

WASHINGTON, DC – It was a week of intense contrasts in Washington, DC, and especially with respect to our national effort to reform the healthcare mess. Maybe I shouldn’t use the word respect anywhere near this topic right now because some of what I have witnessed has been the most shameful and disgusting display of disrespect that I could have imagined.

We’ve come a long way from the civil rights riots of the 1960s and the outrage we shared during that time. By God, we’ve elected an African American President, haven’t we? It’s a new day. Indeed.

First, let me say clearly that none of the people I will mention in this piece would ever have asked me to write this and I am fairly certain they might even be embarrassed that I would. But I am witnessing the least classy and most self-righteous arrogance I think I have ever seen in any political arena, and it needs to stop before we allow it to kill not only our better instincts and hopes for the best possible outcomes in healthcare reform but also what had been our cultural norm of showing at least some deference to our elders.

We all read about last week’s White House summit on healthcare and the carefully crafted invitee list and the shrewd or rude – depending on your viewpoint – decision not to invite Rep. John Conyers of Michigan to the gathering. Conyers is the author and chief co-sponsor of HR676, the National Health Care Act, and it would create a publicly financed, privately delivered, single payer healthcare system. It is also co-sponsored by 64 other members of Congress, as of this writing, and in the 110th Congress it had 94 co-sponsors. But, we all know that it’s hard to get traction in the press or in some other circles in Washington for the single payer point of view – even with 15 percent of the House sponsoring the legislation.

John Conyers, 79, is also the only member of Congress ever endorsed by the late Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was there when the horrible and the unthinkable played out in America’s streets and neighborhoods. He was there for the fight to honor the late Dr. King with a national holiday. And Conyers was certainly there 100 percent with team-Obama through this election cycle.

Conyers was eventually invited to Obama’s White House summit on healthcare – begrudgingly and reluctantly -- after protests grew and folks argued that the summit was a bit biased against single payer (I am being kind when I say that). And as I watched the coverage on C-SPAN last week, I saw Mr. Conyers, but he never spoke. Whether he chose not to speak and not to rock the Obama healthcare boat or he was asked to stay quiet, we’ll never know. He is the consummate gentleman and a loyal man. He would never tell us that.

But what concerns me most about that scenario is not that the single payer message was being squelched and was not at the infamous table, it is that one of our elder-statesmen with all due respect to him was not seated at the very head of the table. John Conyers is a man who knows the long arc of this nation’s history as a Congressman since Lyndon B. Johnson was our President, and Conyers is a man I could argue has more class in his little finger than the whole lot of wonks I heard this week could hope to muster.

So, I asked myself last week, was I being blinded by my admiration of Conyers and of his vision of healthcare justice and fiscal responsibility in delivering that justice? Maybe, I thought. He was after all the man who allowed me – an average, middle class (or used to be) American grandmother – to testify about going bankrupt while carrying health insurance and getting cancer. I am still the only American citizen to testify under oath to Congress about the financial devastation this broken system is doling out to middle class folks who trust health insurance to deliver on its promises. That speaks volumes too.

So, I didn’t write last week about how angry it made me to see him disrespected – not just his point of view, but him as a man and as a champion of the very civil rights fight that allowed President Obama to build on the dreams of many fathers who never thought they’d see the day we all rejoiced in this past January 20th. I thought I should just wait.

But then it happened again. Some of us were invited to attend a meeting held by Senator Ted Kennedy’s staff to update people on the progress in the Senate on healthcare reform. This time, I knew another champion of healthcare justice was attending, so I was proud to take a seat next to Dr. Quentin Young, who once treated Dr. King, and who has devoted his life to not only practicing medicine but also to the right of every person to have access to healthcare. Conyers had asked for Dr. Young to be invited to the White House summit, but that request was denied, so I suppose the invitation to the Kennedy staff briefing was something of an olive branch.

Dr. Young is from Chicago – Hyde Park to be specific. And he has known President Obama for a long time. In fact, just last week at a special event honoring Young, a letter from Obama was read. The good doctor is also in his mid-80s and after retiring from more than 60 years in private practice, he devotes full time attention to Physicians for a National Health Program, the 14,000 member single payer advocacy group for docs.

So, there we sat. Fourth row back and watching the presentation made by several people who have been involved in the much more tightly controlled Kennedy-stakeholder meetings. Among those addressing us was Karen Ignagni, the CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry group for the for-profit, private health insurance industry. She’s at the front of the room and the front of the table in this nation’s discussion of healthcare reform. Her position in the discussion is an elevated one.

During the meeting’s questions and answer period, Ms. Ignagni sat up front with the Senate Committee staff, while even the other “stakeholders” addressing the group sat in the audience front row. Called out by President Obama at the summit last week and now embraced quite specifically in this week’s briefing, I’d say her position within this health reform effort is very secure indeed. She often whispered to Senate staff, worked on her Blackberry and then almost seemed to quietly direct some of the flow of the question and answer effort.

Dr. Young waited politely to ask a question. When he did, he asked why in the world if we are still in the discovery process in taking input from a broad range of groups – why would any plan, such as a single payer plan, be taken “off the table” by Senator Max Baucus or anyone else? Senator Kennedy’s staff member stood and answered dismissively. He said the last time Sen. Kennedy offered a piece of comprehensive healthcare legislation it was single payer and that at that time Kennedy had no co-sponsors standing with him in the Senate. (Mind you, that was 1971. Thirty-eight years later I’d say the situation has changed a bit.) But the staff made it clear this day, and he was meant to put Dr. Young in his place – certainly not at the table. Ms. Ignagni was pleased with the Kennedy staffer’s rapid response to yet another of this nation’s elder leaders.

I am ashamed today of all of us who have decided to allow these marvelous gentlemen in such diminished roles in this effort. Even if we were to ultimately opt for some system reform other than the one they advocate, what in the world are we doing by disrespecting them now? How did we get to this place of dishonoring our elders? And how in the world does President Obama suppose that makes both of these champions of civil rights feel at this stage of their lives? It is shameful beyond what I can comprehend.

We seem to get it that Senator Kennedy has earned some measure of respect for his years of service and commitment. Why not these lions in their own rights? It’s not as if they were our crazy uncles sitting in a drunken stupor drooling after Sunday supper.

I have often heard it said that our children learn how to treat us from watching how we treat our parents and other elders. Wow, we are headed for a world of hurt in this nation if our kids model just a bit of the arrogance and disrespect we are seeing in the healthcare discussion.

Reset the darn table, folks. Put the elder leaders at the head. Bring in the young, wiz-kids and the powerful interests if you must. But don’t you ever again call on Karen Ignagni to speak or allow her to smirk in smug defiance when the healthcare of this nation is being discussed. Never.

 

[wantminimore]

I hope something will be done with health care. I do not have any as I can not afford any and I do not qualify for state care either, not even at a reduced rate. But that said when I went to the doc or pink eye I was in for about 5 mins, total bill was just over $200 thats a bit outragious if you ask me.
THey hit the nail on the head when they said it makes it hard for a person to go to the doc when they need to. Probably why I waited a week and a half and until I could no longer bare it.

I'm in the same boat as you Ashley. My son needs a perscription every month and it was costing around $160.00 hen one month it jumped to $180.00 a couple of months later (Jan./Feb. ) it went to $222.00. I'd like to have some kind of insurance just to cover that. At the check out they always ask if I have insurance and if I know how much the perscription costs. It doesn't matter what it costs, he has to have it!!!

 

[Sonya]

Just remember not all drugs will be covered under the national healthplan if and when it takes place, just like in Canada and other countries...if you require a certain drug, you may have to pay for it yourself...the same goes for certain procedures.

I agree prescrip prices are outrageous, but just because there may be national healthcare doesn't mean you won't be paying for it out of the pocket as well as from your taxes.

 

[LowriseMinis]

If I decided to purchase the insurance from my job, it would have taken up about 1/5th of my paycheck, and I'm barely scraping along as is. I can't afford that. But of course, I make too much to qualify for assistance.

I've had this pain in my jaw for a week and I'd LOVE to be able to get it checked out so I can eat normally again, but that's not happening if I want to pay my bills. So I'm just going to do what millions of uninsured Americans are doing: wait and see and hope it gets better. And hopefully it's nothing serious. Otherwise I'll be in the E.R. in another week, racking up a medical bill I can't pay and clogging up the waiting room.

Yes, ours is a great system.

I'm really sorry healthcare is getting expensive for some of you, but at the same time I'm just a bit envious that you have it. I don't see why those of you who are already paying for insurance are upset. No one's going to force you to switch over to the national system, and with such a huge competitor, I seriously doubt your premiums are going to go up.

 

[Elsa]

Just remember not all drugs will be covered under the national healthplan if and when it takes place, just like in Canada and other countries...if you require a certain drug, you may have to pay for it yourself...the same goes for certain procedures.

Indeed. A national plan would only cover the very basic. No way can a healthcare tax cover comprehensive coverage for everyone. People needing care would be stuck paying double coverage essentially, because out of pocket costs would still apply to anything beyond the clinical protocol.

 

[Sonya]

I'm really sorry healthcare is getting expensive for some of you, but at the same time I'm just a bit envious that you have it. I don't see why those of you who are already paying for insurance are upset. No one's going to force you to switch over to the national system, and with such a huge competitor, I seriously doubt your premiums are going to go up.

No one will force, but some people who are paying premiums will, regardless if they can afford their own or not, they will figure they are paying for national healthcare through their taxes so why should they pay additional premiums, which is understandable...and that's exactly what happened in Hawaii and in a couple months they had to stop the program because it went bankrupt...they were banking on those who had their own insurance to keep it and they didn't... they used the Hawaii system.

It will be interesting to see if and how it all pans out and what the restrictions will be. I for one will be keeping my own insurance even though it's costly. There are many ill-run govt. programs in the U.S. and I see this health plan as being the next one...time will tell I guess. I hope it does help those w/o insurance but I see alot of false-hope coming our way too.

 

[Connie P]

I usually stay clear of these topics but I have to say I LOVE the Margaret Thatcher quote!