Grayson Pushes for Public Option Act

Progressive firebrand Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) isn't giving up on offering Americans a public option.

The congressman on Tuesday introduced the four-page H.R. 4789 "Public Option Act," also called the "Medicare You Can Buy Into Act," would allow all legal American residents under 65 to enroll in Medicare by paying a fee. He made a passionate call for a vote on the floor of the House.

"The government spent billions of dollars creating a Medicare network of providers that is only open to one-eighth of the population," Grayson said. "That’s like saying, ‘Only people 65 and over can use federal highways.’ It is a waste of a very valuable resource and it is not fair. This idea is simple, it makes sense, and it deserves an up-or-down vote."

The inclusion of a public option in the larger Democratic health care legislation has been a topic of immense debate. The Senate dropped the proposal in December and the final package is unlikely to include it. A Medicare buy-in option was also briefly considered but didn't survive.

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Pelosi's Strong Public Option Reduces Deficit

Public Option is Cost Effective, Reduces Deficit

A preliminary analysis from CBO may have sealed the deal. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is preparing to move ahead with a "robust" public option--one that reimburses hospitals and providers at Medicare rates, plus five percent--in the House's health care bill. She is briefing her caucus about the plan's savings tonight, and, pending the approval of a sufficient majority of members, will adopt the measure as part of the complete reform package.

A preliminary estimate from the Congressional Budget Office projects that the House Democrats' health care plan that includes a public option would cost $871 billion over 10 years, according to two Democratic sources. CBO also found that the Democrats' bill reduces the deficit in the first 10 years. analysis finds the reconstituted House proposal to be deficit neutral, and require less than $900 billion in new spending, over ten years.

The bill remains nominally more expensive than the Senate Finance Committee proposal, but would cover 96 percent of all Americans, providing greater bang for each federal dollar spent. And, aides note, the bill that comes to the floor of the Senate will be a hybrid of the Finance and more expensive HELP Committee bills, so the price is expected to rise.

The move is sure to make progressives ecstatic, and puts Senate leaders, who have been unable to reach any decisions about their preferences for a public option in their own bill, in an uncomfortable position. Senior Democratic aides told CNN that House Democratic leaders are likely to put this version of the public option favored by liberal Democrats in the final bill they are drafting. While no final decision has been made, on Tuesday night Speaker Pelosi made the case to House Democrats that this approach saves the most money and would put the House in a better negotiating position when it comes time to negotiate a final health care bill with the Senate.

sources: CNN, TPM











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Why Healthcare Reform is So Desperately Needed

Watch Keith Olbermann's riveting "Special Comment" on the need for healthcare reform in America.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Protecting Insurance Company Profits

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

This video is a depiction of the beliefs of the Republican Party -- the party of "NO".











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45,000 American Deaths Linked to No Health Insurance

Think a Public Health option is not necessary? THINK AGAIN!

(CNN) -- A freelance cameraman's appendix ruptured and by the time he was admitted to surgery, it was too late. A self-employed mother of two is found dead in bed from undiagnosed heart disease. A 26-year-old aspiring fashion designer collapsed in her bathroom after feeling unusually fatigued for days.

What all three of these people have in common is that they experienced symptoms, but didn't seek care because they were uninsured and they worried about the hospital expense, according to their families. All three died.

Research released this week in the American Journal of Public Health estimates that 45,000 deaths per year in the United States are associated with the lack of health insurance. If a person is uninsured, "it means you're at mortal risk," said one of the authors, Dr. David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

The researchers examined government health surveys from more than 9,000 people aged 17 to 64, taken from 1986-1994, and then followed up through 2000. They determined that the uninsured have a 40 percent higher risk of death than those with private health insurance as a result of being unable to obtain necessary medical care. The researchers then extrapolated the results to census data from 2005 and calculated there were 44,789 deaths associated with lack of health insurance.

source: CNN












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Shocker! O'Reilly Supports Public Option

An astute Daily Kos observer caught an exchange between Fox News' Bill O'Reilly and a guest, in which O'Reilly appears to endorse the so-called public option -- a government-run competitor to private insurance companies, whose prospects in the Senate appear grim.




source: RAW STORY












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Poll Finds 63% of U.S. Doctors Favor Public Option

Most US doctors approve of a "public option" to supplement private health care insurance in the United States, as proposed by President Barack Obama, a poll showed Monday.

A total of 62.9 percent of physicians who participated in the survey by the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) said they favored a public option, or government insurance plan, against 27.3 percent backing a private system alone.

Another 9.6 percent favored a completely government-owned health care coverage system.

"It's clear that the majority of US physicians support both public and private options to expand coverage," NEJM said, noting that between 52 and 69 percent of Americans favor a supplemental public option.

The journal described physicians as "critical stakeholders" in health care reform.

Obama has vowed to pass legislation by the end of the year that would spread coverage to America's 47 million uninsured by making insurance obligatory and affordable for all.

But he has faced strong criticism, especially from Republicans, who have jumped on the 900-billion-dollar price tag and stoked fears that a mooted public option would lead to a federal takeover of health care -- anathema to many Americans who abhor the idea of big government.

The NEJM poll found that 58.3 percent of physicians favor expanding Medicare, the public health insurance plan for seniors over 65 years old, to people aged 55 and over.

source: RAW STORY











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Obama Delivers on Healthcare

During a special full-length primetime broadcast, President Barack Obama addressed the U.S. Congress in order to tackle concerns over the ongoing legislation and debates over health care reform.











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McCain Continues Hateful GOP "Death Panel" Campaign

Senator John McCain Repeats Healthcare Lies About Vets

Speaking with Fox editorialist Sean Hannity on Thursday, U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), a beneficiary of government-funded health care, supported the myth that President Barack Obama's health insurance reforms would establish some kind of nebulous, undefined "death panel."

Hannity was specifically talking about the literature, "Your Life, Your Choice," which he insinuated somehow encourages sick and dying veterans to not be a burden on society.

The claim is an echo of the latest attack on the proposed insurance reforms.

First came Palin's allegation that a so-called "death panel" would have killed her down syndrome baby. More recently, RNC Chairman Michael Steele alleged that a VA pamphlet dredged up by the Obama administration is encouraging vets to "commit suicide."

Hannity's cleverly-worded question merely piggy-backed on this fallacy, albeit through the use of softer terminology.

Addressing McCain, the Fox pundit asked, "Is that the kind of death panel that people were maybe afraid of ... ?"

McCain, a veteran himself, answered: "Yes."

source: RAW STORY

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Why American Healthcare MUST Be Reformed

This lady's story is one of millions in which our healthcare system failed due to insurance companies refusing to provide coverage, even for the insured.

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Debunking Health Care Reform Myths - 5

MYTH 5: Health care reform will raise your taxes

CLAIM: Health care reform would be funded by broad-based tax increases.

• MARA LIASSON: "But the fact is, what have they been hearing? It has a $1 trillion price tag over 10 years, it's going to raise your taxes. I think --

CHRIS WALLACE: "Well, aren't those both true?" [Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, 8/2/09]

REALITY: The surtax in House bill applies only to income exceeding $350,000 per year for joint filers. The House health care legislation would establish a 1 percent tax on joint income exceeding $350,000 but not greater than $500,000 per year; a 1.5 percent tax on joint income exceeding $500,000 but not greater than $1 million per year; and a 5.4 percent tax on joint income exceeding $1 million per year. Single filers would be subject to the surtax starting at income exceeding $280,000 per year. In a July 15 Huffington Post piece, Rep. George Miller (D-CA) stated that "[o]nly the highest earning 1.2 percent of American households will pay a surcharge."

source: MediaMatters.org










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Debunking Health Care Reform Myths - 4

MYTH 4: Health care reform legislation will cover undocumented immigrants

CLAIM: Under health care reform, you will be denied care, and it will be given to undocumented immigrants instead.

• DICK MORRIS: "The point about these death panels is that if you restrict the amount -- the lifesaving surgeries, and you tell someone, no, you can't have that bypass surgery -- but I'm going to die if I don't have it. Well, here's the grief counselor. That will happen. And whether they fund the grief counselor or the end-of-life counselor or not, the rationing will take place when they tell you, no, you can't have the surgery because we have to give it to a 40-year-old illegal immigrant instead." [Hannity, 8/17/09]

REALITY: House bill stipulates that those "not lawfully present" may not receive subsidies to purchase insurance. Under the "Individual Affordability Credits" section of the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009:

SEC. 242. AFFORDABLE CREDIT ELIGIBLE INDIVIDUAL.

(a) DEFINITION. --

(1) IN GENERAL. -- For purposes of this division, the term ''affordable credit eligible individual'' means, subject to subsection (b), an individual who is lawfully present in a State in the United States (other than as a nonimmigrant described in a subparagraph (excluding subparagraphs (K), (T), (U), and (V)) of section 101(a)(15) of the Immigration and Nationality Act) --

[...]

SEC. 246. NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS.

Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.

Senate HELP bill excludes those "not lawfully present" from federal funding. Under the "Making Coverage Affordable" section of the Affordable Health Choices Act:

(h) NO FEDERAL FUNDING. -- Nothing in this Act shall allow Federal payments for individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.

source: MediaMatters.org












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This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

FOX News Lies Again About Healthcare Reform

FAIR AND BALANCED WITH AN AGENDA

Here is their headline: "AARP, Losing Members Over Health Care, Faces Challenge From Grassroots Senior Advocacy Group"

The article begins:

"Look out AARP. There's a new senior advocacy group on the block offering a conservative alternative to seniors.

The Atlanta-based American Seniors Association (ASA), which is opposed to President Obama's health care plan, is trying to capitalize on growing public dissatisfaction with the AARP.

About 60,000 seniors have quit AARP since July 1 due to the group's support for health care reform, a spokesman for the organization said this week."

THE TRUTH:

AARP has actually increased its membership during this period of time.

AARP is running ads to support a health care overhaul and hosted Obama at an online forum recently to promote his agenda to AARP members. But the group has not endorsed a specific bill and says it won't support a plan that reduces Medicare benefits.

Spokesman Drew Nannis told The Associated Press it wasn't unusual for the powerful, 40 million-strong senior citizens' lobby to shed members in droves when advocating for a controversial issue.

Nannis said the group loses some 300,000 members a month but he couldn't say how many more members had quit for other reasons in that time period. He said AARP gained some 400,000 new members during the same period and that 1.5 million members renewed their membership.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/18/aarp-losing-members-health-care-faces-challenge-grassroots-senior-advocacy/












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Public Health Option Will Save $1.8 Trillion

Public Health Option Means Taxpayer Savings

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A nationwide health insurance exchange that includes a Medicare-like government option could save $1.8 trillion more than if only private plans are offered, a prominent private U.S. health policy group said on Wednesday. Federal spending on health-related costs would still rise from 2010 to 2020, but they would be less with a plan that pays doctors and hospital rates similar to the Medicare program for the elderly and disabled, according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund.

The New York-based health policy research group compared possible savings a health insurance exchange could bring under three different scenarios. One would include a Medicare-like plan along with private insurance. Another would instead offer a government-run plan with rates somewhat higher than Medicare. The final one would be private insurance with no government plan at all. Such an exchange would offer a central point for consumers to shop for and compare health plans. An exchange that instead offered a plan with rates slightly higher than Medicare but below current private plan rates would save nearly $800 billion over one with only private options, according to the Commonwealth Fund's analysis.

"Offering a public plan choice and the design of this choice makes a difference in the pace of change," said Cathy Schoen, the group's senior vice president. Whether Democrats' plan to revamp the U.S. health care system and provide coverage to the roughly 46 million uninsured Americans includes a government-run insurance plan is a major sticking point as Congress finalizes its proposal. Supporters say such an option would offer Americans an affordable alternative. Most people with health insurance in the United Stated get it through their employer or the government. But those who do not have coverage through work and do not qualify for Medicare or the Medicare program for the poor can face a tough time buying a policy.

The Commonwealth fund echoed those sentiments, saying private plans could lower premiums as more people seek insurance and that lower administrative costs with the government-run options may force private plans to streamline.

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