REAL COMPETITION CAN STOP HEALTH INSURANCE GOUGING

By Jim Hightower


Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama is all for Congressional efforts to produce health care reform – as long as they don't contain any actual reform.

The senator gets fainting spells at the mere mention of Barack Obama's proposals, gasping that they add up to socialized health care and would destroy "the best health care system the world has ever known."

The best? Maybe he meant the most expensive, for it surely is that. But the best? Hardly. The quality of our care ranks 37th in the world – only one notch better than Slovenia!

Perhaps it's not Shelby's fault that he's so out of touch with the costly, bureaucratic, uncaring system now run by a handful of insurance corporations. After all he's been in Congress for 30 years, so he and his family have long been receiving platinum-level coverage, courtesy of us taxpayers. Yes, you see, Shelby already gets excellent socialized health care, so of course he thinks it’s the best!

Obama is not so bold as to offer you and me the same sweet deal that our congress critters get, but his plan does include one provision to help us escape the untender mercies of insurance profiteers. Called the "public option," it creates a publicly-run insurance plan as an alternative to the costly, mingy, inscrutable policies shoved at us by the big, monopolistic insurers.

Of course, insurance executives don't want any real competition, so they've unleashed an army of Washington lobbyists to get congress to kill this option. The question is whether the industry's political cash and lobbying clout will induce enough senators and house members to vote against the American people – 72% of whom tell pollsters they want the public option.

To learn more and to support real consumer choice in health insurance, contact Democracy for America: democracyforamerica.com .

Lee Stranahan video

Familiar Players in Health Bill Lobbying Firms Are Enlisting Ex-Lawmakers, Aides

By Dan Eggen and Kimberly Kindy
Washington Post

The nation's largest insurers, hospitals and medical groups have hired more than 350 former government staff members and retired members of Congress in hopes of influencing their old bosses and colleagues, according to an analysis of lobbying disclosures and other records...

The hirings are part of a record-breaking influence campaign by the health-care industry, which is spending more than $1.4 million a day on lobbying in the current fight, according to disclosure records. And even in a city where lobbying is a part of life, the scale of the effort has drawn attention. For example, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) doubled its spending to nearly $7 million in the first quarter of 2009, followed by Pfizer, with more than $6 million.

Read the rest of this story here.

Darci's Story

I started adding health (s)care stories to the blog because I feel this is our most pressing social issue we face. Please express your feelings or add your own story by going to our ULCMAforum.

My husband and I are both in our 20's, and in June of 2008 he was diagnosed with a primary immune deficiency called Common Variable Immune Deficiency, or Hypogammaglobulinemia. Thankfully there is a treatment for this deficiency, but that treatment costs around $1500/week. It is an infusion of antibodies called IVIG which he can administer at home, but he will be doing it the rest of his life, or until another method comes about to treat his immune deficiency. This was overwhelming news for us as we started our life together, and just thinking about the health/physical side of it is enough. But when you add on all the medical costs; the infusion, all the doctor appointments for the symptoms of his immune problem, as well as surgeries, and the cost of a health insurance that will cover him, it seems like an impossible thing to face. Luckily, we live in Oklahoma which is one of about 30 states that provides a high risk pool. We were able to get him onto this insurance, but the premiums are about $350/month, along with a $500 deductible, and $2000 out of pocket amount each year. Roughly, we will still pay $6700 each year just to have health insurance that will pay the medical bills. Our total yearly income is somewhere around $40,000 which means his healthcare alone costs us nearly 17% of our income. I just think this is outrageous. We make ends meet, and we were lucky enough to both get college educations and decent jobs that we enjoy. But my heart goes out to people who were not born into the same priveleges as we both were, who have had an uphill climb their whole life in order to make ends meet and find a way to take care of their families. It isn't right that drug companies and insurances are making an ungodly amount of money off of people who are just trying to live a life that is healthier and productive. I believe that the US could have a MUCH better healthcare system, that would take care of MANY more people if the big money makers of our current healthcare system would let go of their greed. Or if our government would simply stand up and say that they will find a better way to make America healthy no matter whose pocket books it may hurt. I do believe our country's healthcare is the most expensive for the amount of care we receive. So many other countries have found a way to provide great healthcare for so much less than what Americans pay, so there HAS to be a way to improve our system. PLEASE reform this current broken system, and do so with clear consciences and good hearts, looking out for the well being of the citizens you represent.

Phyllis's health care story

Note: I feel very strongly about the health care crisis that is crippling our country. As such, I feel that we as Universal Life Church minister's should be outspoken on this and several other issues, but as this is the one that is at the forefront of debate in Washington right now, I will be highlighting stories such as this for the next few weeks or so. Tell me what you think by sharing your thoughts on the ULCMA forum.

Phyllis's health care story

I am a practicing physician assistant. Almost every day an insurance company denies something that I have tried to do for one of my patients, either prescribe a medicine or order a procedure. I have now started to prepare patients for the possibility that their health care will be "rationed" by somebody at their insurance company and follow it with this: "the people opposed to a new system of health care in this country want you to believe it will end up 'rationing'health care. Health care is and has been rationed for a very long time. I think it's about time the playing field was leveled and we all understood what the rules are." I'm soing my part to educate the health care consumer, are you? Call your members of Congress and demand that this happens!

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Introducing the Concept of Choice Into Our Health Care System

Public plan option. Three words in the health care reform process about which much has been said -- a lot of it meant to stoke fears. Amidst all of the mischaracterizations being thrown around, let's focus on the most important of those three words: Option.

As in choice.

As in something that isn't common for American families when it comes to their health care.

If your family has health coverage through your employer, that certainly brings some peace of mind. But there's still a good chance that only one insurance plan is available to you. If your premiums are high, if you can't choose the doctor you want or if your plan refuses to cover your pre-existing condition, there's little hope for improvement.

In recent health care reform listening sessions I held in New Jersey, a top complaint of families who already have health insurance is that their claims keep getting denied. Without any other real options available to them, even families that have health coverage are struggling to get affordable treatment.

Meanwhile, if you're not offered health coverage through work and don't qualify for Medicaid or Medicare, then you really have no health insurance choice at all. That's just not right.

Read the rest of Senator Menendez' post here.

For more information about the Universal Life Church Minister's Association at ulcma.webs.com

Why You May Be Stuck Holding The Bill For The Largest Taxpayer Rip Off

By Dean Baker

This is the time when the excrement starts hitting the fan. The lobbyists are in overdrive, rounding up members of Congress just like the cowboys of the Old West would bring in the herd.

The industry groups will also have their friends in the news media working overtime hyping any possible obstacle to health care reform. And they are filling the airwaves with scary ads, warning that people will never be able to see a doctor again if meaningful health care reform passes.

Since there are trillions of dollars at stake, the effort is understandable. The basic story is simple. The insurance, pharmaceutical and medical supply industries, along with the hospitals and the American Medical Association, have rigged the deck so that they get rich at the public's expense. They have structured our health care system so that we pay more than twice as much per person as people in other wealthy countries, even though we get worse care by many measures.

The bloat in the health care sector is projected to grow rapidly over the next decade as health care consumes an ever larger share of the economy. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reports that just the increase in health care spending share of the economy over the next decade will cost us $4.3 trillion. That is equal to a health care tax of $57,000 for an average family of four.

Read the rest of Dean's blog here.

Self-Preservation: The Real Reason the GOP Opposes Health Care Reform

We've heard all the reasons, listed ad infinitum on Fox News and, particularly, at length on MSNBC's Morning Joe. Health care reform will cost too much. It will bankrupt the country. It will force government bureaucrats between patients and doctors -- as though this was somehow worse than our current system, in which insurance-company bureaucrats insert themselves between patients and doctors and, with a profit motive in mind, lose themselves in the sort of banal evil that has created one horror story after another in our health care system.

Read the rest of Dan's post here.

You can find out more about the Universal Life Church Minister's Association at ulcma.webs.com