HR-676 Is Hands Down The Best Health Care For All Americans

 

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This Page Is A Historical Repository That Documents The Sham That Was Promised To Us As Health Care Reform. It Should Also Serve As A Public Embarrassment To The Crooked Assholes Who Destroyed This For All Of Us, All For The Sake Of Corporate Profit As Well As Political Bribery.

While this bill is not what was originally intended, it is a good start to build upon to end the insurance company exploitation and abuse of client policies. It will eventually put an end to denial for pre-existing conditions. There are some positives here, but it is a far cry from the Conyers-Kucinich plan, HR-676. When we achieve that plan, only then will America truly have outstanding health care.

"We the People" Know The Good Few On Capitol Hill That Fought On Our Behalf. The Rest Of You Should Be Tried For Treason. Plain And Simple. You Are Either Political Scum Or Immoral Corporate Sleaze.

Many thanks to those who continue to fight the good fight for health care reform, particularly Congressman Dennis Kucinich from Ohio and Congressman John Conyers from Michigan, to name but a few, who have championed this important cause for all Americans, Democrat and Republican, rich and poor.
 

 

THE HEALTH (S)CARE DEBATE:
WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW & WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The Best Public Option: Single Payer Universal Government Paid Care

Hopefully this explains the necessity of single payer HR 676 to the FOX news crowd.

NewsFocus: Congressional Representatives Fighting Against Government Run Health Care Should Give Up Their Own Government Paid Health Insurance. (They Get It For Life)


Insurers Tell Sebelius They'll Accept Pre-Existing Conditions In Children - But Warn It'll Cost More
Boy, these insurance companies really have hearts of gold, don't they? They finally agree they won't kick out sick kids - "but it'll cost you." They're going to milk every last dime out of this until the new law kicks in:Insurers said they would comply with regulations the government issues requiring them to cover children with pre-existing conditions, after a dispute with lawmakers over interpretation of the new health-care legislation.
The Obama administration has made near-immediate coverage for sick children a priority in its health-care overhaul. But shortly after the bill's passage last week, insurers contended that the law didn't require them to accept sick children until 2014.
... (Read More)

Insurance companies, what part of "No pre-existing conditions exclusions for kids" don't you understand? CrooksandLiars
 


Obama Signs Historic U.S. Health Care Bill
Health-Care Reform Is Now Law
Washington Post (blog)
 - Ezra Klein - ‎032310‎
The president has signed the bill. I know this has confused some, but health-care reform is now law. The Senate's vote on the reconciliation fixes will ...

Health Care Bill Signed by Obama
CBS News - Stephanie Condon - ‎032310‎
President Obama today signed his comprehensive health care overhaul legislation into law, marking the most significant legislative accomplishment of his ...

Obama Signs Health care Bill Into Law

So why is the GOP bitter? They neutered this bill as much as they could.

Health Care Reform: What It Means For Real People
CNN.com - 032310

About 32 million Americans who don't have health insurance will get access to coverage when the $940 billion health care plan takes effect.

What does that mean for Americans who don't have insurance, or who are in danger of losing it? A few shared their thoughts with CNN about health care reform and how it affects them. Then we sought expert opinions on how reform might really work in their lives. (Read More)

An Extraordinary Achievement Huffington Post
Professor Obama's Master Class Huffington Post
Health care reform helps all Americans Baltimore Sun
Opinions turn favorable on health care plan USA Today
Obama hails historic health care overhaul bill The Associated Press
Is Obama's healthcare victory GOP's Waterloo? San Francisco Bay Guardian
Analysis: Have Republicans met their Waterloo? Toronto Star
13 attorneys general sue over health care overhaul The Associated Press
Obama signs health care bill that generations have 'hungered to see' USA Today

How Senate Reconciliation Will Work (Answer: Not Well For GOP)
Newsweek (blog) - Daniel Stone - ‎032310‎
Now that President Obama and his 20 pens have signed the health care reform bill, the debate now officially begins in the Senate over the 153-page list of ...

The Costs and Benefits of the Republican Strategy On Health-Care Reform
Washington Post (blog) - Ezra Klein - ‎032310
David Frum's post lambasting the Republicans for their unyielding obstructionism has been getting linked around, and for good reason. ...
 


Dennis Kucinich and Ralph Nader on Democracy Now


House Liberals Won't Support Senate Bill: 'That's Their Damn Problem'

Greg Sargent reports that House liberals are refusing to support the Senate healthcare reform bill, which sets a whole new dynamic in play. Good for them! I, for one, am tired of the House members being treated as minor players in such important legislation:

In a private meeting in the Capitol just now, a dozen or more House liberals bluntly told Nancy Pelosi that there was no chance that they would vote to pass the Senate bill in its current form — making it all but certain that House Dems won’t opt for this approach, a top House liberal tells me.


 


Landmark health care overhaul bill heads to Obama's desk
CNN - Alan Silverleib, Ted Barrett - ‎032210
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer celebrate during Sunday night's health care vote. Washington (CNN) -- A sweeping bill overhauling the US medical system goes to President Obama's desk on Monday to ...

Obama lauds House for passing health care bill
Washington Post - Ben Feller - 032210
AP WASHINGTON -- Capping a long day and a consuming political journey, President Barack Obama celebrated the passage of health care legislation with hugs, high fives and an emboldened attitude. Said the president to the nation, "Tonight, ...

One step remains in Senate; GOP set for battle to the end
Boston Globe - Lisa Wangsness - 032210
As Democrats celebrated their health care achievement last night, Republicans countered with a warning: They will fiercely challenge those parts of the package that must still win approval in the Senate. GOP leaders are preparing a ...

Alan Grayson On Health Insurance Care
 


The Great Public Option Health Care Rip-Off
We Are Being Screwed By Politicians And Wealthy Corporate Institutions
NewsFocus: Congressional Representatives Fighting Against The Health Care Public Option Should Give Up Their Government Paid Health Insurance
(They Get It For Life)
NewsFocus, by Tim Watts 060609
Americans should be outraged by the fiasco known as health care reform. First off, the best plan for the people is hands down HR-676, the Conyers-Kucinich plan. It is the only not-for-profit health care plan out there. With over 33% of health care going to the health  insurance industry, it is the one plan capable of single handedly bringing down the exorbitant price of health care.

What is most galling in this endeavor is the greed and politicization that has taken over, with no regard for the initial concept of caring for the people. At this point the Republican Congress and conservative blue-dog Democrats have opted to side with the multi-trillion dollar insurance industry, rather than giving any substantive regard to their constituents. When you hear Congress members remark that a government backed public-option would be too attractive and hurt the private insurance industry, you know their priorities are not in our best interests to begin with. Most glaring of all, where is any mention of a single payer government paid for plan?  ... (Read More)


 

See Who The Insurance Industry Has Working For Them On Capitol Hill:

 
 

The Truth About Canadian Health Care - This Would Be HR-676

This is what the ill-informed health care opponents are fighting against.

10,000 Turn Out In DC To Attack Insurance Co. Profits; Network News Ignores Them
CrooksandLiars.cm, by  Susie Madrak Wednesday Mar 10, 2010 9:00am

It got a brief mention on some of the cable channels, but the only major TV network that carried live coverage of this healthcare reform rally in D.C. yesterday was Fox - and then, only to ridicule it:

The reason? AHIP, the health insurance lobbying organization, was meeting in (where else?) the Ritz-Carlton. A coalition of groups led by unions including SEIU, AFSCME, UFCW and Health Care for American Now declared the meeting site a "corporate crime scene" and attempted to make a citizens' arrest:

In a reverse twist on the old protestors' tactic of getting arrested to make a point, union leaders and other backers of President Obama's healthcare plan issued "citizen's arrest" warrants for health insurance executives Tuesday – accusing them of exploiting consumers. ...

 

See What A Nationalized Health Care System Could Be Like
Videos on HR 676. Make sure you see the videos on France and Norway!
Who wouldn't want an America like this?

The Myth of Private Health Competition
RawStory.com 082209
1 or 2 companies dominate most regions; public plan would save billions. ...

This Is Why The Anti-Trust Exemption Needs To Go
 

MONEY DRIVEN MEDICINE: (A Great Expose On American Healthcare)
Bill Moyers: Money Driven Medicine - Pt 1
Bill Moyers: Money Driven Medicine - Pt 2

The Plight of Some In The Insurance Industry To Make A Buck

If this doesn't make you angry, then you're in the health insurance industry.

The Health Insurance Racket

This will make you sick, but then the healthcare industry would only profit.
 

 

America Needs The Conyers-Kucinich Bill HR 676
A Not-For-Profit Universal Health Care System That Would Save Trillions In Under A Decade (Learn What The Insurance Industry Doesn't Want You To Have)
By Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Our health care system is broken, and H.R. 676, the Conyers-Kucinich bill, is the only comprehensive solution to the problem. It is also the system endorsed by more than 14,000 physicians from Physicians for a National Health Program. Nearly 46 million Americans have no health care and over 40 million more have only minimal coverage...

Congressman Kucinich of Ohio On Healthcare In America

HR-676 is the only not-for-profit health care system, saving us trillion$.

Health Care or Insurance Care? It's Time to Respond!

Kucinich Update! (9/10/09)

Dear Friends,

The President's health care policy speech was brilliant but when you get into the details another picture emerges. Unfortunately, at this point, the proposal outlined last night is the ultimate corporate giveaway. It's not health care, it's insurance care. As many as thirty million new customers for an insurance industry which makes money not providing health care. The only way this country will see true health is by investing in real health care. That is the essence of HR676, the single payer bill.

The President opened his speech speaking of how we have solved the economic crisis - how? By rewarding those who caused the crash! Is this the way we solve the health care crisis? Rewarding the insurance companies? Helping insurance and pharmaceutical stock to soar, propping up markets while skimping on health care? The very same system which caused the health care crisis is being rewarded with the guarantee of tens of millions of new customers mandated - by law - to have health care. The latest plan rewards the very companies that have denied treatment, denied care, denied drug coverage while their profits grow daily.

The only way this country will see true sustainable economic recovery is through investment in the real economy, priming the pump through job creation. The only way this country will see true health is by investing in real health care.

The "public option" has been relegated to insignificance. What we will now get is yet another "private option", not a public option, because single-payer is "off the table." We the people deserve better. We have been faced with general warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan - multi-trillion dollar bailouts for arms merchants, $12 trillion in bailouts for Wall Street, bailouts to coal and nuclear industries, and now proposed huge subsidies for the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. What's wrong with this picture? Everything!


(letter from 9/9/09)

Dear Friends,

The health care decision-making process in Washington is horribly tainted by the campaign contributions of insurance and pharmaceutical interests. Under the pay-to-play system health care becomes insurance care, the public option shrinks to irrelevance, the choice we are left: What kind of private, for-profit insurance do you want? This is not acceptable. We must respond now, and not settle for a plan which subsidizes insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies and sets the stage for the privatization of Medicare. We want Health Care for all the people, Medicare for All, which is exactly what the bill John Conyers and I wrote,
HR 676, accomplishes. And the only way we will achieve it is to organize and take action in our communities to effect real change at a state and national level. Let us initiate immediately an action plan to intervene and provide health care for all:

  1. On-line petition. Please contact your lists, your family and friends. Please sign the petition for a single payer system. I will deliver the petitions directly to your Congressperson.
  2. Petition to download, print and circulate among friends and neighbors - including an instruction sheet.
  3. A National Health Care for All Conference Call from Washington, DC, at 10 pm EDT, Thursday, September 10th at 1-800-230-1096. Join us, so that we can discuss our new beginning and ways in which we can all help. Pre-registration is necessary in order to reserve sufficient phone lines. Please RSVP here. When you call in and the operator asks, "what conference call?" tell the operator, "Health Care for All."
  4. Health Care Meet-Ups. Coming Thursday September 10 2009.
  5. Tell A Friend. Every email forwarded will make a difference? Please use the "Forward Email" link below to circulate up to 5 emails at a time to your friends.

I need your help to initiate this action. If you believe, as I do, that we can and must begin a new long-term state-by-state grassroots effort to create a single-payer, not-for-profit health care system, please contribute now at Kucinich.us

Thank you.

Sincerely.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich
 

Congressman Dennis Kucinich Outlines Health Care Reform
 
 

Kucinich on not for profit health care

 Kucinich spells out bill HR 676

An open letter from Congressman Kucinich on healthcare...

Dear Friends,

In mid-May, in an effort to reach consensus, President Obama secured a deal with the health insurance companies to trim 1.5% of their costs each year for ten years saving a total of $2 trillion dollars, which would be reprogrammed into healthcare. Just two days after the announcement at the White House the insurance companies reneged on the deal which was designed to protect and increase their revenue at least 35%

The insurance companies reneged on the deal because they refuse any restraint on increasing premiums, co-pays and deductibles - core to their profits. No wonder a recent USA Today poll found that only four percent of Americans trust insurance companies. This is within the margin of error, which means it is possible that NO ONE TRUSTS insurance companies.

(Read the rest here...)

Kucinich responds to Obama's health care address
Raw Story - ‎Sep 10, 2009‎
Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) was interviewed by Jack Rice of Talk Radio/Talk Media News Service. Kucinich, who has been a leading proponent of a single-payer ...

Health Care Reform on the Homestretch
Progressive.org - Ruth Conniff - 091509
The so-called Kucinich Amendment--HR 676, the "Medicare for All" bill, sponsored by Representatives Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers, is supposed to come to ...

More from Congressman Kucinich on HR 676, Health Care For All Americans YouTube
 

 

NewsFocus: Capitol Hill, You Failed Us Miserably!
But For A Select Few, You're All Bought Off Criminals. We're Sick of You!

Senate Approves Health-Care Bill Along Party Lines

We're one step closer to passing this historic healthcare bill. A year ago, I would have put the odds of this passing the Senate right up there with... well, with the odds of the Vatican praising "The Simpsons." ...
Critics Speak: Health reforms change little
 RawStory.com

Senate Health Bill Passes; US Senate Fails Us Miserably
CommonDreams.org - 122409
A Big Win For PhRMA, Health Insurance Companies, Obama, Reid, Nelson, Lincoln, Lieberman; A Big Loss For The American People And the Progressive Movement. Today’s vote in the Senate to pass their health care reform bill was a big win for many people. It was a big win for the drug companies, the biologics industry, the hospital companies, and the for-profit health insurance corporations. They will all get billions of government dollars piled on to their ledgers, and and millions of Americans now forced to buy their products. The vote was also a huge win for the lobbyists who just saw their profits jump thanks to this great opportunity to show their clients just how powerful their hold on Washington really is. ...

With The Finish Line In Sight, The House Begins To Negotiate

Now the final phase begins, where we see what House liberals can achieve within the confines of a broken system that gives a handful of senators from sparsely populated states a disproportionate power to shape legislation ...

Selling A Pig With Lipstick
Obama: Health bill ‘most important social legislation since 1930s  RawStory.com

President Obama: I'm Getting 95% of What I Want on Reform in Health Care Bill  (NewsFocus: But What About Us?! We're Getting Screwed!)
CrooksandLiars.com, b
As Steve Benen noted this is a better answer than the "I didn't campaign on the public option" nonsense which I thought was silly and insulting. People who've been following the process understand the difference between what you'd like to get passed and what's achievable with this Congress. President Obama said he got 95% of the reform he wanted in the health care bill. Whether you can call this 'reform' or not and whether he actually got what he wanted as opposed to what he campaigned on is something all of us will be debating for some time to come. There are some good things in the bill but I personally don't think they outweigh the bad without some meaningful regulation on the insurance companies.

You can watch the entire interview on PBS's site here.

"Any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange -- a one-stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, costs, and track records of a variety of plans -- including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest." - President Obama - Weekly Radio Address - July 17, 2009

Senate Democrats get 60 votes to move healthcare bill along
Los Angeles Times - ‎122109‎
It's the first of three major hurdles in the Senate en route to an anticipated vote by Christmas. Victoria Reggie Kennedy, widow of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, greets Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., after the vote. ...

Feingold blasts reform 'deal making that secured votes'  RawStory.com
Senate Passes Health Care Bill With 60 Votes CrooksandLiars.com
President Barack Obama hails US Senate healthcare vote BBC News 
Senate healthcare bill set to pass by Christmas Los Angeles Times
Obama: Senate healthcare vote "big victory" Reuters
Feingold slams Obama over public option RawStory.com

Senate Dems eye finish line for health bill
msnbc.com - ‎122109‎
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama cheered a crucial health care vote in the Senate on Monday that put historic legislation well on its way to pre-Christmas passage and which sharpened already edgy partisan tensions. The middle-of-the-night vote, ...

Harkin: Public option is not dead
Key Dem insists plans for a public health care system will be 'revisited'
NewsFocus: We will believe it when we see it. Here's a tip: Put up or just shut up!!

AMA, Hospitals Back Senate Health Bill But Big Insurance Is Still Opposed
Wall Street Journal (blog) - Jacob Goldstein - 122109‎
The AMA came out in favor of the Senate health-care bill today. The support comes just after the Senate hammered out a major compromise ...

NewsFocus: The Criminal Insurance Industry Should Be Indicted
 


Sen. Chuck Grassley Named Third 'Insurance Puppet' by Campaign Finance Watchdog
PR Newswire (press release) - ‎Dec 3, 2009‎
Public Campaign Action Fund is a national nonpartisan group dedicated to advancing comprehensive campaign finance reform. It also campaigns to hold elected ...

Insurer donations make senators 'puppets,' says watchdog group IFAwebnews.com

Public Doesn't Like Healthcare Bill, So Democrats Must Buy Votes
U.S. News & World Report (blog) - Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson - ‎122109
It hasn't been pretty today. It's all coming out, the deal-making by Democrats trying to secure the 60 votes ...
Harry Reid Defends Deals Politico 

Stakeholders in Health Insurance Reform Debate Gave Big to Senators

Senators who opposed the health insurance reform bill passed on Christmas Eve received an average of nearly 30 percent more political donations from political action committees and individual employees of health and health insurance-related groups and companies since 1989, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis has found.... (Continue)

Study Details How Health Lobby Marshaled Congressional Insiders to Fight Reform

Exhausted Reid mistakenly voted ‘no’ before changing vote  RawStory.com

An ugly finale for health-care reform
Washington Post - Dana Milbank - ‎122109
Going into Monday morning's crucial Senate vote on health-care legislation, Republican chances for defeating the bill had come down to a last, macabre hope. They needed one Democratic senator to die -- or at least become incapacitated. ...

White House as Helpless Victim on Healthcare
InformationClearinghouse.info, by Glenn Greenwald - Dec 2009
From the start, assuaging the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries was a central preoccupation of the White House -- hence the deal negotiated in strict secrecy with Pharma to ban bulk price negotiations and drug reimportation, a blatant violation of both Obama's campaign positions on those issues and his promise to conduct all negotiations out in the open (on C-SPAN).
Continue
 

 
We Are Being Steered To A Plan Benefiting The Insurance Industry
Why No Mention of HR-676, The Single-Payer Option? (Universal Health Care)
NewsFocus, by Tim Watts 100809

With the health care debate raging, the scare tactics have abated for the most part, however, the disinformation and need for greed have not let up. With over a trillion dollars per year in health care profits on the line, it is easy for those that understand what's at stake to realize the impetus for the deception of the public. Since most Americans fail to read anymore, preferring to be spoon-fed their news by a lazy, if not overly complicit corporate media, few understand the ruse being played out in front of them.

First off, HR-676, universal health care for all, is hands down the least costly, yet the best coverage and health plan for Americans. Every single American would get coverage, while still being able to see the doctor of your choice. So why argue about being forced out of your costly private insurance plan for a government plan when the bottom line is that you still get to choose your doctor?

Secondly, all other plans still allow the insurance companies to profit handsomely, raking in over 33% of health insurance premiums for their profit, driving up the cost of American health care while putting themselves in league with the excessively lucrative oil companies, all during arguably the worst economic downturn in this country's history.

Under HR-676, the Conyers-Kucinich plan, the insurance company profit would not exist, forcing the cost of American health care down. The reason being, HR-676 is a non-profit plan.

That is the primary reason why the insurance industry has spent over one-million dollars per day to dupe Americans on health care reform. Not only have they spent quite handsomely, but they've pulled in all of their political favors from the politicians beholden to them through millions in campaign donations. Every politician fighting against health care reform is on the big money gravy-train from the insurance industry.

The biggest ruse is the public-option. They make it seem as though they don't want us to have it, in essence out-Freuding many to then scream and beg for it, so they think they're getting something they shouldn't have. This is nothing more than psychological warfare. The Republicans and Blue-dogs want Americans to believe the insurance industry doesn't want it, but truth be told, even though the public-option may be government regulated to feature a lower cost, it still delivers 46-million new customers to the insurance industry to profit from. A huge win for the insurance industry.

Are you starting to get the picture?

The best plan for America is one that emulates the European health care system, a government provided system that is free for all Americans. With a single-payer plan, we get the freedom to choose our own doctor, to visit the hospital of our choice, but with no premiums or co-pays. Single-payer HR-676 is free health insurance that will cost less than all other health care plans out there.

Don't be cheated by our bought-and-paid-for politicians, or a deceptive health insurance industry. There's a reason they've spent close to $400-million in this fight so far, to fool you so that they can keep their own share of over one trillion dollars in health insurance profits.

If you're tired of being denied due to pre-existing conditions, while enduring ever rising insurance rates, don't be a chump and allow yourself to be spoon-fed a blatant lie. Take the time to look at non-biased sources of health care info and get the real facts on universal health care, single-payer HR-676. Hands down, the best plan for America.

Fight for your right to the health care we all deserve.

Politicians Are Hiding The Best Health Care Plan From Us All

The health insurance industry doesn't want us to have the best plan.
HR 676, 'Universal' Health Care For All Americans!

It's all inclusive, more comprehensive and cheaper too!
The Cost: Conyers-Kucinich Plan HR-676 $387B  |  Baucus Plan $856B

HR 676 Is THE Plan For Americans

California Nurses Back The Single Payer Plan

Congressman Kucinich's HR 676 Health Care Webpage

Sign the petition for single-payer HR-676

Read The Bill: HR 676

Information On HR 676 And Its Funding
HealthCareNow.org
Funding the plan: Maintain current federal and state funding for existing healthcare programs; employer payroll tax of 4.5%, an employee payroll tax of 3.3%, in addition to the already existing 1.45% for Medicare; establish a 5% health tax on the top 5% of income earners; 10% tax on top 1% of wage earners, 1/3rd of 1% stock transaction tax, closing corporate tax loop-holes; repeal the Bush tax cut for the highest income earners. (The ultra-wealthy would finally pay part of their debt to society to fund HR 676.)

Make HR 676 Your Amendment (send a letter to all of Congress with one keystroke)

Can We Really Fix U.S. Health Care? Link TV

See What A Nationalized Health Care System Could Be Like
Videos on HR 676. Make sure you see the videos on France and Norway!
Who wouldn't want an America like this?

A Republican Response To A Constituent On HR 676


 

See Who The Insurance Industry Has Working For Them On Capitol Hill:

   
 

Keith Olbermann Details The Fraud From The Insurance Lobby

They claim premiums will rise, but don't admit that it's they who will do it,

Dylan Ratigan Goes After The Insurance Monopoly In America

The insurance industry should not be exempt from the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

Bill Moyers Reveals The Dirt Behind The Health Care Deception

This is a crooked alliance and should be prosecuted for the corruption that it is.

Senator Max Baucus Refuses To Put The Single Payer Plan On The Table

Baucus used to work for Wellpoint Health Insurance. Get the picture?


Health Care Is A Civil Right, Declares Congressman Kucinich
Huffington Post (blog) - ‎Sep 28, 2009‎
Mr. [John] Conyers (D-MI) and I wrote HR 676 and it is an important vehicle for individuals to organize [around] at a local and state level. ...

Private lobby dictates terms in health-care reform
Examiner.com - ‎Sep 14, 2009‎
No surprise then that Evan Bayh has followed his wife's lead by declaring opposition to single-payer (HR 676) and describing himself as "agnostic" on the ...

Mad-As-Hell Doctors On Cross-Country Tour with a Mission For HR-676
Single-Payer Option for Health Insurance Reform
Portland City Council endorses single payer bill
Unions For Single-Payer Health Care
Single-payer right way on health care
Harris offers wrong fix for health care (Give Us Single-Payer HR-676)
Health Care Reform: Let's start from scratch
'Medicare for all' adds real health reform

Union Sings For Single-Payer
Avoid health care reform made to suit corporations (Vote For HR-676)
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) says healthcare is “the next civil rights movement”
We Need Your Support on HR 676, S. 703, and the Weiner and Kucinich Amendments
Single Payer Action (Ralph Nader)
Single-payer solution

A clean sweep
Lawrence Journal World - Joe Douglas - ‎Sep 14, 2009‎
HR 676 represents the key to jobs jobs jobs and new economic growth to the nation. It will make the USA far more attractive to new industry and hopefully ...
 

 
60 million Americans had no health insurance last year
Food Consumer - ‎121709
By Jimmy Downs About 60 million people in the United States had no health insurance at some point in time after January 2008, according to survey data released from the Centers for Disease and Control Wednesday.
US Study: 1 in 5 Lost Health Insurance in Past Year
ABC News
 
 
Number of US uninsured rises to 46.3 million
Poverty rate in US soars 13.2%, number of poor Americans at 39 million
(NewsFocus: So with mandated health insurance for all, the industry stands to add 46.3 million new customers, making billions immediately and trillions in the next decade. The insurance industry is no doubt turning cartwheels of joy. Given this mandate from Obama, a public option is not going to hurt these parasites in the least.)
 
 

Republicans Working With Lobbyists to Further Weaken Health Care Reform
HuffingtonPost.com - 122609
Liberal bloggers have attacked the health care reform bill now in the conference committee. The all-but-eliminated-public option, the proposed taxes on so-called Cadillac health plans won by union workers over years of difficult labor negotiations, the attack on abortion rights, the lack of restraints of insurance company fees, the rejection of competition in drug pricing, all these and many more failings in the bill have been railed against on this site and others. ...

Gingrich’s New Contract With America: ‘Our Commitment Should Be Simple…We’re Repealing’ Health Care

Olbermann: 'Not health, not care, not reform'
RawStory.com, 121709
 

 
Harry Reid Kept The Medicare Buy-In Secret, Didn't Give Supporters Time To Mobilize
CrooksandLiars.com, b
Can we please have new Senate leadership now? The White House and Harry Reid have made one bad decision after another. We can't do anything about Obama, but why do we have to put up with an incompetent Senate Majority Leader? (Read More)

NewsFocus: Reid and Pelosi aren't for helping America. They proved that when they categorically stated that impeachment was off the table. They have given Democrats a bad name. It's time for a leadership change, now, or a people's march on Washington.
 

 

The Battlefield for Health-Care Reform Now Moving To A State Near You
CrooksandLiars.com, b
Activism and organizing for healthcare reform on the state level has the potential to be more effective, because while state legislators are even more easily influenced by campaign donors, they're also more vulnerable to local pressure. So it's important to follow the fight in your state, make your position on strong regulation known to your representatives and lobby friends and family to do the same.  ...

 
 

 

Senator Bernie Sanders Says He Won't Vote For Current Senate Health Care Bill
CrooksandLiars.com, b
Wednesday, Senator Bernie Sanders became the first to introduce a universal health care bill on the floor of the Senate. (see above video) While he eventually withdrew the bill after Republican delaying tactics, my hat is off to the Independent Senator from Vermont. He has always stood up for the people of his state and the country and he has big brass ones!

Now, Bernie has said that he will not vote for the current bill. More from The Hill: (Read More)

Major unions line up against Senate health bill RawStory
 

 
'We're Turning Insurance Companies Into Halliburton-Style Monopolies'

I think Marcy Wheeler makes the single most compelling argument here about the precedent of a private health insurance mandate ...
 
 

Drug-Makers Paying Off Competitors To Keep Cheap Generics Off Market
IntelDaily.com, Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:53:00 +0000
Republicans and their allies in the business community talk a good game about the virtues of free-market competition. But, as we've seen in the debate over the public option, that stance often goes out the window when corporate profits are at stake.

And now we've got another example -- one of the sleaziest and most blatantly self-serving yet. ...

Congressional Democrats Call For Investigation Into Drug Price Increases
CrooksandLiars.com, b
Congressional Democrats are calling for two inquiries after the New York Times reported earlier this week that drug companies were jacking up their prices, negating savings they promised for healthcare reform:

Responding to news reports of unusually high wholesale price increases in brand-name prescription drugs, four House leaders and one senator asked for government reviews of the pricing practices. ...


 

 

Gingrich’s New Contract With America: ‘Our Commitment Should Be Simple…We’re Repealing’ Health Care
ThinkProgress.org, By Faiz Shakir 121209
Yesterday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich stumped for Ethan Hastert, the son of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and candidate for Illinois’ 14th congressional district. Gingrich, of course, was the architect of the Republicans’ “Contract with America” in 1994 that helped the GOP regain the majority. Now, Gingrich is apparently rallying Republicans behind a new “contract” with Americans — a pledge to take away their health care.

Gingrich reiterated his call for all Republicans to commit to repealing any form of a health care bill that Democrats might pass before the 2010 elections ...
 

 
NewsFocus: Americans Are Being Fooled Into Giving Big Insurance More Money
New CBS/NY Times poll: 65% of Americans want the Public option
CrooksandLiars.com, A new poll done by CBS and the NY Times shows that not only do Americans want a public option, they want it BIG TIME. These are numbers that the White House and Rahm can't ignore anymore. 65% of Americas do favor a government administered health care plan like Medicare that would compete with private insurance companies. That's something the Baucus Dogs and Republicans do not want to see after the mark ups have just completed. I'm sure they thought the teabaggers spoke for America, but as any informed person would know, they do not. ... (Read More)

Times Poll: Americans Strongly Favor Public Option
New York Times - ‎Sep 25, 2009‎
Obama has better ideas about overhauling health care than Republicans do, according to a national poll conducted by The New York Times and CBS News. ...
Those Socialist Americans Washington Post
Poll: Even Republican Voters Favor The Public Option TPMDC

Single-payer solution
Salt Lake Tribune - ‎Sep 24, 2009‎
I am a woman in her mid-fifties in good health. Thank goodness, because I cannot afford to go to the doctor. Three days ago, I received my quarterly health ...
 

 
Nick Kristof: Members of Congress Should 'Go Naked' on Health Insurance

As I discussed last week, members of Congress not only have great health insurance, they also have access to the superb on-site Office of the Attending Physician for themselves and their family for a mere pittance. So of course they don't understand!

I think Nick Kristof makes a fine suggestion here and we should ask Congress to do it to show they're working in good faith:

Let me offer a modest proposal: If Congress fails to pass comprehensive health reform this year, its members should surrender health insurance in proportion with the American population that is uninsured.

It may be that the lulling effect of having very fine health insurance leaves members of Congress insensitive to the dysfunction of our existing insurance system. So what better way to attune our leaders to the needs of their constituents than to put them in the same position? ... (Read More)
 

 

Al Franken Calls Out John Thune On Health Care Lies

MN had Wellstone and now we have another great Senator, Al Franken!

 

The Best "Public Option" Should Be A Government Paid (Free) Single Payer Plan For Each And Every American, Universal Health Care. Why Isn't Congress And The Media Talking About HR 676?
We already pay more than enough in taxes to afford this plan for everyone in America, but we don't apply our tax dollars wisely. This plan is easily feasible, if we ask for it.
Read more on this page about Single Payer Plan HR 676, the one they won't discuss.
 

 

Is This Real Reform?
The Insurance Companies Got Everything They Wanted

AHIP's Karen Ignagni Appears on MSNBC

So according to this L.A. Times article, the health insurance got everything it wanted in this healthcare "reform" bill - except the death of the public option. So as relatively small a concession as that is unacceptable to them - which tells you who really owns this country. (Not us.) All the more reason to push your congress critter. Call today! ... (Read More)

Dems Want Some Healthcare Reforms to Kick In Before Mid-Terms

As expected, Dems are pushing hard for something to show the voters. Too bad they didn't just drop the Medicare age, but oh well:
Democrats are pushing Senate leaders and the White House to speed up key benefits in the health reform bill to 2010, eager to give the party something to show taxpayers for their $900 billion investment in an election year. ... (Read More)
 

 

Taking Away Patients' Rights To Further Enrich Insurance Companies
CrooksandLiars.com, b
What a week. We've already seen Blue Dogs take women to the back of the bus (or was it the alley?) with Stupak's impressively Stupid Amendment. Now we're hearing that those who supposedly worry about "too much spending" when it comes to health care--you know, the meatloaf-brains who rejected the public option, which would create competition and actually bring down costs--are now blathering on about embracing "tort reform."

Because you'd really want to take away the rights of victims in a democracy to lower the health care costs by...wait for it...wait for it... ".5%" (according to the CBO).

All you really need to know is that Blue Dogs/GOPers (is there any difference?) are those in favor of this counterproductive course of action, yet if you do indeed need more, watch the heart wrenching videos recounting the tragic results of medical malpractice. To learn more about the 98,000 lives lost due to medical error each year--or 268 every day--go to 98,000 reasons, a website set up by the American Association for Justice. Once there send a message to your Senator: Remind them you won't have your rights further stripped away so they can scarf down more caviar with their contributors at Big Insurance.
 

 
Insurance Exec Pay Targeted
In rare weekend session, senators scrutinize big insurer salaries.
 
 

Ex-Blue Cross Hack: Health Insurance 'Worst Product in History'
CrooksandLiars.com, b
Via Raw Story. Actor/comedian Andy Cobb once did ads for Blue Cross in Florida. And now CIGNA's Wendell Potter has someone to talk to:

Teaming with the liberal Brave New Films, a former Blue Cross pitchman is now pitching against Blue Cross.

Andy Cobb, who once tried to sell Floridians on a Blue Cross health insurance plan, says he's fed up with the industry.

"I was a spokesman for BlueCross and Blueshield of Florida," Cobb says. "Call me a spokesjerk. People who make money for buying things you don't need. And we're telling you lies."

"They, by which I mean I, make money by standing in the way of reform," Cobb says in the ad, which appears as a spoof of something like a freecreditreport.com ad. "It's time for change." ... (Read More)
 

 

Stupak Amendment Passes
CrooksandLiars.com, b
Well isn't this lovely? 64 Democrats decided to sell out women's health with this horrid vote.

Final vote tally 240-194 with Shadegg voting present.

Word is it will be stripped out in committee. We'll see.
 

 

Today's Roundup: The Usual Suspects Are Doing Their Best To Sandbag Health-Care Reform
CrooksandLiars.com, b
So according to the Times, the pharmaceutical companies are jacking up their prices high enough to cancel out the savings they promised Obama for the health care bill. Why am I not surprised?

What does it take for Democrats to understand how this works, anyway?

And in other healthcare reform news, the Washington Post reports what the usual suspects are up to:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and an assortment of national business groups opposed to President Obama's health-care reform effort are collecting money to finance an economic study that could be used to portray the legislation as a job killer and threat to the nation's economy, according to an e-mail solicitation from a top Chamber official.
 

 

Hail Mary: Long Shot to Get Kucinich Single-Payer Amendment Back In Bill
CrooksandLiars.com, b
The Kucinich bill would allow states to form their own single-payer systems:

As reported earlier, House leaders have stripped the Kucinich amendment from the House health care reform bill. This amendment would help nullify legal challenges against efforts by individual states to enact their own single-payer systems. ...
 

 

Single-payer stripped from health reforms
RawStory.com, by John Byrne - Friday, October 30th, 2009 -- 8:56 am
A government-run healthcare program may become an "option" for those who don't have employer-sponsored healthcare coverage, but a government-run healthcare system will not.

House Democratic leaders quietly stripped a single-payer provision from the House version of the healthcare overhaul Thursday. The measure would have allowed states to set up their own state-run healthcare systems, where local governments would have become de facto health insurers for residents.
 

 

Kucinich: Health reform legislation ‘a bailout for insurance companies’
CrooksandLiars.com, by Stephen C. Webster Saturday, October 31st, 2009 -- 4:01 pm
According to Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), the Democrats' health reform legislation is basically a sham.

Appearing on MSNBC's The Ed Show on Friday night, the House's most unabashed progressive condemned Democratic leadership for removing his amendment that would allow states to create their own single-payer systems. Then he called the entire legislative package "a bailout for insurance companies."
 

 

Corporatist Dems: Let Us Gut Medicare and Social Security, or We'll Sabotage Health-Care Bill
CrooksandLiars.com, b
As Wanda Sykes might say, "I am so damned sick of these @#!*# Democratic snakes on this @#!*# plane!" Yes, once again, ConservaDems are holding a gun to the head of progress. This time, they want to blackmail Congress into overriding the Constitutionally-mandated power of the House over the nation's purse strings - and hand it over to them:

Seven members of the Senate Budget Committee threatened during a Tuesday hearing to withhold their support for critical legislation to raise the debt ceiling if the bill calling for the creation of a bipartisan fiscal reform commission were not attached. Six others had previously made such threats, bringing the total to 13 senators drawing a hard line on the committee legislation.
 

 
SICK AND WRONG
Rolling Stone, by Matt Taibbi
How Washington is screwing up health care reform - and why it may take a revolution to fix it ...

Bill Moyers: Dick Armey Fighting To Keep His Government Health Care

The hypocrisy from the right is absolutely galling.

 

The Republicans Finally Put A Plan On Paper: How To Use The Rules To Obstruct Health-Care Reform
Steve Benen with the story about the Republican plan to obstruct health-care reform:

We learned yesterday that Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) has distributed a three-page memo to his Republican colleagues, reminding them of various procedural tactics they can utilize to obstruct, delay, and undermine the debate on health care. Sam Stein called it "the equivalent of an obstruction manual -- a how-to for holding up health care reform."

This morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) seized on the document: "The good news is that Senate Republicans finally, at long last, have put a detailed plan down on paper. The bad news is that it's not, as we'd hoped, a plan to make health care insurance more affordable; it's not one to make health insurance companies more accountable; and it's certainly not a plan to reverse rapidly rising health care costs and draw down our deficit.

"The Republican plan we've waited weeks and months to see ... [is] not even about health care at all. The first and only plan Senate Republicans could be bothered to write up is an instructional manual on how to bring the Senate to a screeching halt. We knew that was happening anyway, but they had the audacity to put it in writing."


 

 

Howard Dean to Lieberman: If You're Going to Block Health-Care Bill, Resign Your Chairmanship
CrooksandLiars.com, I wonder: Now that Howard Dean's been the first person to say it out loud, will the media lemmings follow? We'll see:

Former DNC Chair Howard Dean called on Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn) to resign as chair of Senate Homeland Security Committee if he can't bring himself to oppose a Republican filibuster of health care reform legislation.

Appearing on "The Joe Scarborough Show" on WABC, Dean stressed that he had no problem with Lieberman opposing the bill on its philosophical merits, or lack thereof. But he insisted that it was irresponsible and unprincipled to not allow the legislation to come to an up-or-down vote.

"I think that is a very complicated guy," said Dean. "He does because he says he's a principled guy but there's nothing principled about holding up a bill... If he was a principled guy he'd resign his chairmanship." ...
 

 

Billionaires For Wealthcare Crash AHIP Meeting With Song

These guys are great! A different slant on getting the message out.

 
'Reform' or Legislative Obscenity? (Must Read)
The Baucus Bill 'milestone' obscures the only real solution to the ills of our current health care system (A single payer plan, universal health care, HR 676)
BradBlog.com, By Ernest A. Canning on 10/16/2009 10:34AM

As recounted in a front-page article in The New York Times, on the strength of a single "yes" from a member of the Party of No, President Barack Obama described the 14 to 9 Senate Finance Committee vote in favor of the Baucus health care bill as "a critical milestone," adding, "We are now closer than ever to passing health care reform."

With all due respect, Mr. President, it is nothing of the sort. To the contrary, the Senate Finance Committee has produced nothing less than a legislative obscenity. ... (Read More)
 

 
What If, Instead of Fox, Team Obama Tackled Insurance Profiteers
by John Nichols
Suppose President Obama and his aides had decided to take on the worst offender among the big insurance companies this fall. Suppose the White House had highlighted the failure of the company to provide quality care, the abuses in which it has engaged and the behind-the-scenes campaigning by a self-interested corporation to influence the health-care debate in a manner that helps it while harming Americans. ... (Read More)
 
 
Public option likely to be managed by private insurance company
RawStory.com, by John Byrne - Saturday, October 24th, 2009
A little-noticed tidbit in Saturday's Washington Post is sure to raise eyebrows among liberal supporters of a government-run healthcare plan: the plan is likely to be administered by a private insurance company, the very companies that progressive activists are trying to unseat.

The public option would effectively be just another insurance plan offered on the open market. It would likely be administered by a private insurance provider, charging premiums and co-payments like any other policy. ...

NewsFocus: <sigh> As suspected. It's not about health care, it's about insurance care.
See the YouTube video farther below: HR 676 Universal Health Care For All Americans
Politicians Are Hiding The Best Health Care Plan From Us All.
 

 
Sen. Sherrod Brown: 'Where Was The Compromise From Their Side?'
CrooksandLiars.com, b
So Harry Reid's holding firm - for now. And you just can't argue with Sherrod Brown: What concessions have the ConservaDems made? ...
 
 
Senate Panel Rejects Pair of Public Options in Health Plan
CBS News - Stephanie Condon - ‎092909
A key Senate panel shot down two amendments on Tuesday afternoon to add a government-run health insurance plan to its health care bill. ...
Can the Public Option Be Saved? The Nation

NewsFocus: What is so wrong about Single Payer Option in the health reform bill and why are the Republicans fighting so hard to keep it from us? Two reasons: 1) It will hurt the trillion dollar insurance industry that lines their Republican pockets. 2) they want to hurt the Democratic party for the next election in their zeal to get back in office. So, essentially the GOP is willing to sell us all up the river on health care for money and possible 2010 votes. Republican Senator John Ensign actually admitted that they are afraid the American people will find a Single Payer or Public Option too attractive. Seriously. They don't want to let us have either because we might like them too much! Now there's some twisted political logic for you.
 

 
Paying $10 billion a month on wars America hates is good, but paying money to fix our health care system is bad

The media, conservatives and the democratic deficit hawks are telling America that the cost of reforming America's health care system better not add one red cent to the deficit. Why doesn't the liberal media explain to America that we are paying 10 billion dollars a month on two wars that Americans hate?

I asked Rep. Alan Grayson on a live chat on C&L how much the US of A
spends each month on the wars, and he answered thus:

The appropriated cost is around $10 billion a month, which is enough to pay for the entire health care plan by itself. But that doesn't include the future health care costs for injured American soldiers, which is staggering. Nor the cost to the Iraqis or Afghans, of course. ... (Read More)
 

 
President Obama strongly supports Public Option in speech to Minneapolis
I know there's some debate over whether the president fully supports the public option and we know that the gang of six in the House of Lords is trying to derail it. Fox News is telling us that the public option is dead and the do-nothing Republicans are calling for it to be gone, but in a huge speech Saturday that took place to a fired-up campaign-style crowd in Minnesota, Obama was as strong on the public option as I've ever heard him. ... (Read More)

(NewsFocus: But does he support a plan that is as good or better than HR-676?)

 


Senator Alan Grayson Talks About The Republican Health Plan

Fictitious or not on the GOP, it's what the health insurers want.

Conservatives Spread Fear Mongering On Health Care

Protecting a trillion dollar market for the rich insurance tycoons

 

Insurers Admit That 50,000 Employees Are Lobbying Congress
Memo tells employees to keep a low profile
RawStory.com, By John Byrne August 24, 2009
A spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s trade group, admitted in an article published Monday that as many as 50,000 industry employees are involved in an effort to fight back against aggressive healthcare reform.

The admission, published in the last sentence of a Wall Street Journal article, highlights the stakes of potential healthcare reform for the private health insurance industry. Insurers and investors alike are terrified at the prospect of a so-called “public option,” which would create a government-run health insurance program to compete with private insurers. Because the government plan wouldn’t have to earn a profit, the plan would be able to undercut the premiums of private firms, pressuring profit margins. ...

Revealed: Millions Spent by Lobby Firms Fighting Obama Health Reforms
Republicans Getting Rich Denying Us Health Care
InformationClearinghouse.info, by Chris McGreal
Six lobbyists for every member of Congress as healthcare industry heaps cash on politicians to water down legislation.
Continue

Democrats who voted against public option got $19 million from healthcare firms
RawStory.com, by Muriel Kane Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 -- 12:38 pm
Five Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee who voted on Tuesday to shoot down a proposed public option for the health care reform bill — a measure which polls show is favored by 81% of Democrats — are coming under close scrutiny for their ties to the health care industry.

According to Intershame.com — a site which aims to draw attention to misbehavior — those five senators have collectively been the recipients of over $19 million in donations from health care, pharmaceutical, and health insurance companies over the course of their Congressional careers. ...

Republican Congressman who shouted 'you lie' got $240,000 from health industry
RawStory.com, By Sue Sturgis 091009
Whether because of his outspokenness or in spite of it, Wilson is a major recipient of contributions from the health care industry. In fact, over his entire congressional career, health professionals represent Wilson’s top industry contributors, donating a total of $244,196 to his campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics OpenSecrets.org database. He received another $86,150 from pharmaceutical companies, $73,050 from insurance companies and $68,000 from hospitals and nursing homes.

Rolling Stone Finds A Smoking Gun: Betsy McCaughey Lied About Healthcare Reform For Tobacco Lobby
CrooksandLiars.com, b
You remember Betsy McCaughey, don't you? She's the right wing hack who propagated a purposely misleading article in The New Republic that was used to torpedo the Clinton health plan, and more recently the author of the "death panels" lie.
 

 

The Republican Party Has An Ulterior Motive On Health Care

The GOP is willing to deny you health care just to weaken Obama

 

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds

       --Albert Einstein         

 

WE NEED HR-676, SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE FOR ALL!
The Only Not For Profit Healthcare Plan That Stops Health Insurance Rip-Offs

Pelosi: Public option is essential  (But What About Single Payer?)
House Speaker says no bill will pass without it, tells Obama we have the votes.

Dose of Truth: Five Facts About Health Care Reform Huffington Post
Health insurance profits turn the stomach Northwest Progressive Institute Official Blog
Profit has no place in health insurance Wisconsin State Journal
For-profit health insurance is immoral and should end The Plain Dealer
For-profit health care leaves us vulnerable Albany Times Union

SPIN METER: Once Medicare's foe, GOP now boosts it
The Associated Press - Beth Fouhy - ‎070909‎
NEW YORK - Weren't Republicans against Medicare before they were for it? It's a question vexing Democrats in the fierce battle over President Barack Obama's push for a health care overhaul as the head of the Republican Party has portrayed the GOP as ...

The Health Scare Being Perpetrated By Those Protecting Big Insurance

The far-right and those bought-off by big insurance are lying to Americans

Socialism Is Not A Dirty Word!
Unless Of Course You Are A Capitalist Trying To Profit From Public Services
A Message To The Non-Thinking Lemmings Of America
NewsFocus, Op/Ed by Tim Watts 090209

Once again the ultra-wealthy have fooled the mass populace of stupid Americans. In case you don't know, let me clarify who the stupid ones are. Those are the people who do not look at both sides of an issue or a story. Those are the people that stay within the narrow confines of their warped political paradigm, accepting only information from those with their same political viewpoint, mouthpieces that are also ignorant, or else getting kickbacks in profit to keep you in the dark.

What? Someone would actually profit by keeping you in the dark?

This can't be true you might say. What possible scenario would exist where something like this could occur? Well, first you need to crawl out from the big huge rock you're hiding under for a moment and then we can try to think real hard of an example. Let's think together now, real hard.

Hey! I know, the health care debate, or as I like to call it, health scare.

Let's see now. Our elected representatives have written a bill that would reform the health insurance industry and give us free health care, like Canada, so that we can live a better life and escape from exorbitant medical bills that crush families and drive many to poverty, while others get filthy rich denying us all needed medical services. ...
(Read More)

California to probe HMO claims

1-Percenters (Richest Americans) Launch Attack On Health Care
The Rich Well-To-Do Don't Want The Rest of America To Be Cared For
By David Sirota 072409
Here's a truism: The wealthiest 1 percent have never had it so good. According to government figures, 1-percenters' share of America's total income is the highest it has been since 1929, and their tax rates are the lowest they've faced in two decades. Through bonuses, many 1-percenters will profit from the $23 trillion in bailout largesse the Treasury Department now says could be headed to financial firms.

Why the Gang of Six Is Deciding Health Care for Three Hundred Million of Us
InformationClearinghouse.info, by Robert Reich 082409
We have a Democratic president in the White House. Democrats control sixty votes in the Senate, enough to overcome a filibuster. It is possible to pass health care legislation through the Senate with 51 votes (that's what George W. Bush did with his tax cut plan).
Continue

A Very Clever Ruse Against The Healthcare Opponents

Already duped by the GOP and insurance industry, these healthcare opponents are duped once again, this time by the 'Wealthcare for Billionaires.' Brilliant!
BillionairesForWealthcare.com

False 'Death Panel' Rumor Has Some Familiar Roots
New York Times - Jim Rutenberg, Jackie Calmes - ‎Aug 14, 2009‎
There is nothing in any of the legislative proposals that would call for the creation of death panels or any other governmental body that would cut off care ...

Report: 'Death panel' claim tone familiar United Press International

FOX Keeps Up The Health (S)care Death Rhetoric
Chris Wallace Edits VHA Document To Imply Vets Being Pressured On Death

These guys know no shame. Is the health insurance industry paying them?


The Republican Death Panel
Huffington Post - ‎Aug 25, 2009‎
It's been quite bewildering how worked up conservative members the Republican Party have gotten over the fake-concept of Death Panels. ...
Nobody pulling the plug on Grandma, key Republican says Reuters Blogs

'Death panels' already in Medicare (But It's Not What You Think)
Kansas City Star - ‎Aug 24, 2009‎
The death-panel rhetoric has it all wrong: government isn't making end-of-life decisions, it's facilitating discussion between physician and patient. ...

Operation Scare Grandma On Healthcare

This is so close to what is happening right now. Thank you SNL!.

America's True Journalist Jon Stewart Debates Betsy McCaughey
Stewart Exposes The Lie Being Perpetrated In The Health (S)care Fiasco

 

Jon Stewart vs. Betsy McCaughey- Part 1

Jon Stewart vs. Betsy McCaughey- Part 2

If YouTube pulls the above links, then please view the interviews on the following page.

McCaughey's Ideas Called Hyperbolic, Dangerous By Jon Stewart
Huffington Post - ‎Aug 21, 2009‎
In addition, she came prepared to do whatever she could to ingratiate herself with the audience and with Stewart, plying him with saccharine compliments. ...

GOP supported 'death panels' in 2003

This Pretty Much Sums Up The Evils Of "Socialism." (Ooh, I said a scary word!)

The people against healthcare have done nothing but listen to the right-wing.

Labor to Dems: Public option now
Major unions threaten to pull their support if Dems 'compromise' on health.

Liberals demand public option

Keith Olbermann Special Comment On Health Care / Public Option
Go Get 'Em Keith! Sick 'Em Boy! Kicking Ass And Naming Names!  :o)

Countdown Special Comment - Part 1

Countdown Special Comment - Part 2

Keith Olbermann Exposes The Made Up Lie Of 'Death Panels'

Olbermann hits this one on the head.

Ten Things Obama Did Wrong on Health-Care Reform

Helen's right, damn it. And look at Gibbs' deflection: "We've had a pretty good week." Sorry, Gibby, health-care reform is slowly slipping away. Don't just stand there.
Here are my thoughts on what the White House did wrong, in no particular order: (Read More)

Hardball's Lawrence O'Donnell Corrects An Ignorant Protester

This woman highlights the ignorant discourse whipped up by the far-right.


The Truth On Organized Mobs In The Health Care Debate

And the far-right claims the town hall mobs aren't organized?

Rachel Maddow On Orchestrated Town Hall Outrage

Rachel Maddow Exposes The Vitriol In The Healthcare Debate
Proof That The Animosity Behind The Healthcare Debate Is Sadly GOP Organized

Rachel Exposes The Fraud

Rachel Uncovers The Organizers

Corporate Thuggery Behind Health Care Disinformation
 

Rachel Exposes The Lie On Death Panels For Old Folks

Rachel Maddow Offers A Sane Viewpoint In The Healthcare Debate
From 'Meet The Press'

Rachel Exposes Dick Armey Fraud (4:00 mark)

Rachel Interviewed By Dick Gregory

Republicans Will Be Toast in 2010 If the Dems Pass Health Reform, and They Know It
Adele M. Stan, AlterNet 072109
If Obama and the Democrats get health care reform done, the Republican Party is finished in the next election. So it's pulling out the stops. ...

How The Far-Right And The 'Bought-Off' Try To Fool Us On Healthcare

The rich, well-off conservatives are going out of their way to scare us.

Who Will Pay For Health Care?
The Fight For Health Care In America
Global Research, by Shamus Cooke - June 13, 2009

There’s a jumbled, increasingly hysterical tone to the health care debate going on in Washington. On each side of the uproar lie powerful and opposing interests: on one side the giant corporations who make billions of dollars via the status quo; and on the other, the majority of working people who suffer immensely from it.

Creating a health care “compromise” between these two interests is of course impossible, but seeing the politicians in Congress attempt one is at least good entertainment.

And although neither party within the two-party system represents the interests of working people, they nonetheless understand the immense importance of health care for the vast majority of Americans, and the political/social effects another major letdown will have. They are thus begrudgingly forced to consider the desires of ordinary people.

This desire, however, becomes mutated in Congress, especially after corporate lobbyists finish tampering with it. Therefore, a nationalized single-payer system such as Canada and England have — the type most desired by working people here in the U.S. — is “off the table,” and all kinds of rotten “compromises” have flooded the debate. ... (Read more)

Real Time on health care debate: 'What the f**k?'

Bill Maher On Healthcare: Not Everything Has To Be For Profit

Watch The Full Version Here

Maher With More On Profit And Healthcare

Right On Bill!

Health insurance rates to double by 2020
RawStory.com 082209
Insurance rates will rise 94 percent by 2020 if cost-saving reforms to the US health care system aren’t enacted, a new study from the Commonwealth Institute finds. ..

Labor Leaders: 'Single Payer' Should Be Part of Obama Health Plan
Common Dreams (press release) - ‎Mar 4, 2009‎
"At the same time," he continued, "we are deeply concerned by the apparent failure of the administration to include a single supporter of HR 676 among the ...

FAIR Study: Media Blackout On Single-Payer Healthcare
Big Money Is Trying Very Hard To Keep This From The Public
FAIR
 - ‎Mar 6, 2009‎
Though more than 60 lawmakers have co-sponsored HR 676, the single-payer bill in Congress, Obama has not expressed support for single-payer; both the idea ...

The Hidden Truth Behind Drug Company Profits
InformationClearinghouse.info, by Johann Hari
This is the story of one of the great unspoken scandals of our times. Today, the people across the world who most need life-saving medicine are being prevented from producing it.  
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Union Leaders to Campaign for HR 676
Common Dreams (press release)
 - ‎Feb 18, 2009‎
19 where HR 676 is on the agenda. In New Jersey, activists from the New Jersey State Industrial Union Council and the Bergen, Passaic, Monmouth and ...
Single-payer and the battle for health care People's Weekly World
Single-payer health system doable Dailyrecord.com
Pass HR 676 Medicare Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Time to do something about health care
Examiner.com

Time For Universal Care
Bangor Daily News
 - ‎Feb 18, 2009‎
John Conyers has introduced HR 676, which already has garnered nearly 50 co-sponsors — a bill that restructures our health care system much like the rest of ...

Support Bill HR 676 On Health Care
BlueRidgeNow.com
 - ‎Feb 25, 2009‎
To The Editor: HR 676 is on the table, even if Sen. Baucus does not want it to be. Not only is it on the table, but is the “only” option to stop the gouging ...

Support HR 676 for health
Modesto Bee
 - ‎Feb 20, 2009‎
House Resolution 676 makes the playing field of affordable medical care more level: Each will pay according to his ability. Our police-fire-mail services ..
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Dean Sends A Somewhat Mixed Message On Health Care Mandate
ThinkProgress interview with former Gov. Howard Dean (D-VT) on health care
Think Progress.org, Bt Faiz Shakir Mar 4, 2009
I don’t have an objection to a mandate. And I know Senator Clinton – now Secretary of State Clinton – who I have enormous respect for — argued for one. The president is considering changing his mind and doing one. I don’t have strong feelings against it. I just don’t think it will work. I don’t think the American people like mandates. ...
Wash. Rep. Introduces Universal Healthcare Bill ... Renal Business Today
Health advocates tell Capitol Hill: go for single-payer, not Mass ... People's Weekly World

At Summit, Obama Urges Solutions for Rising Cost of Health Care
Washington Post
 - ‎1 hour ago‎ 030509
President Barack Obama opened a White House health care summit Thursday, calling for his allies and opponents to come together to overhaul the US health care system.
Q+A: Obama faces challenge on healthcare overhaul Reuters
Kennedy returns to Washington as health care reform heats up
CNN

Seattle Stands Up For Health Care For America

3,000 strong show up in support, except for the media.
 

 
The Movie That All Of America Needs To See On Healthcare!
This Is The Movie That Health Insurance Companies Don't Want You To See.
Michael Moore's Award Winning, "SiCKO."

You owe it to yourself and your family to get the real truth on health care.

Watch the full movie farther below down this page, or click here for a larger view.

NOTE: This movie was free to view on Google Video for well over a year, but now that the health (s)care debate is raging, it has recently been pulled by the folks at Google. Gee, I wonder why?
 

 

SiCKO, The Movie
Michael Moore's brilliant health care documentary on what it is like to be sick in arguably the richest nation on earth is a must see for all. You will be surprised to see how other countries such as Canada, France and Denmark do things to provide their people with healthcare, a basic necessity for quality of life. We could easily afford this.

 
Watch the full movie SiCKO
See what true healthcare for all really means.

 

HEALTH CARE WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE
The masquerade is over! The "public option" is ... dead.

Health care reform is now a private option: WHICH FOR PROFIT INSURANCE COMPANY DO YOU WANT? You have to choose. And you have to pay. If you have a low income, under HR3200 government will subsidize the private insurance companies and you will still have to pay premiums, co-pays and deductibles.

The Administration plan requires that everyone must have health insurance, so it is delivering tens of millions of new "customers" to the insurance companies. Health care? Not really. Insurance care! Absolutely. Cost controls? No chance.

You will next hear talk about "co-ops." The truth is that insurance company campaign contributions have co-opted the public interest. ... (Read More)

Congressman Kucinich Rips An Indignant Dr. David Gratzer

The term "dick" comes to mind as Gratzer tries to avoid answering Kucinich.

Former Members Of Congress, Staffers On Record-Setting Lobbying Jihad To Defeat Public Option
According to this Washington Post article, a large group of former members of Congress and former staffers are heading up a giant group of lobbyists who are trying to make sure that millionaire CEOs continue to stand between you and your health care...
 

 
Health Insurers Rip Off Consumers For Billion$
Ex-Insider Testifies Before Senate On 'Fear Tactics'
Washington Post, by David S. Hilzenrath - Thursday, June 25, 2009
Health insurers have forced consumers to pay billions of dollars in medical bills that the insurers themselves should have paid, according to a report released yesterday by the staff of the Senate Commerce Committee. ...

Senate Report: Insurers Charged 'Billions' to Consumers They Were Supposed to PayIt's really important to understand that insurers are not to be trusted, especially now that we know they've been defrauding us all along. Former CIGNA communications chief Wendell Potter (watch the complete video here) testified before the Commerce Committee yesterday and summed it up: Don't trust the insurance companies. ...
 

 

   
 

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Last modified: May 06, 2010