BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform

Subject: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Azizi
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 05:22 PM

Watch this, and then let's talk about 'world's best health care'
1:25 pm August 25, 2009, by Jay:

"Here's an exchange on CNN, in which a desperate woman tries to explain her plight to U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., at a health-care town hall meeting. Watch it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3jwhLcW_c8&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Edailykos%2Ecom%2Fstoryonly%2F2009%2F8%2F25%2F772146%2F%2DSena
Senator Tom Coburn Tells Women Crying About Her Health Care Coverage At Town Hall: "Government Is Not The Answer" - 08/24/09


"Senator Coburn, we need help," she says. "My husband has traumatic brain injury. His health insurance will not cover him to eat and drink. And what I need to know is, are you going to help him, where he can eat and drink? We left the nursing home, and they told us we were on our own."

Those words, written on the page or screen, do not convey the anguish in her voice or in her heart. The reaction from Coburn, a physician and probably the most conservative member of the U.S. Senate, is telling, as is the astute observation at the close of the segment from CNN anchor Rick Sanchez"...

Viewer's Comment (Chris)

Senator Coburn (to a big round of applause): "Government is not the solution."

He went on to recommend that neighbors need to step up and help each other. But Coburn doesn't seem to understand that in a democracy (or a republic, if you prefer), WE are the government. By asking our representatives in Washington to support health care reform and, at the very least, to provide a government insurance option–that IS neighbors helping neighbors. Helping neighbors, in part, is what government (i.e. us) is for (read the "general welfare" clause of the Constitution)."

http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2009/08/25/watch-this-and-then-lets-talk-about-worlds-best-health-care/?cxntfid=blogs_jay_

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Azizi
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 05:24 PM

Here's a comment from a viewer of this YouTube video:

corbyz: "Coburn is basically saying that the government shouldn't take care of its citizens... and if you're not covered by your insurance company... ask your neighbors for money! That's the solution! WOW!!"

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Alice
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 05:26 PM

I'd be dead now if I'd had to rely on neighbors saving me.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Azizi
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 05:31 PM

Here's a link to a dailykos dairy about this woman's plea for help to the senator at that health care town hall:


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/8/25/772146/-Senator-Coburn-tells-weeping-woman-government-cant-help.

Senator Coburn tells weeping woman government can't help.
by caseyaaronsmith
Tue Aug 25, 2009 at 10:30:29 AM PDT

**

Here are three comments from that dailykos dairy:

Yeah, the woman begs for a speech patholotist and the ah offers up a neighbor with a pot of soup.
by Lying eyes on Tue Aug 25, 2009 at 11:05:02 AM PDT

**

If her neighbors are speech pathologists, physical therapists, and homecare providers she's all set...if not? Well then she's shit out of luck...
by wry twinger on Tue Aug 25, 2009 at 01:26:54 PM PDT

**

He'll probably tell her to put out some donation cans around town and have a 3rd rate C&W band perform at a spaghetti dinner in the local fire hall to raise some money. Like that's going to generate enough $$ to pay his friends' treatment bills & hospital costs.

So one has to work oneself up to tears, go to a town hall (one or two a yr at most), and BEG! What do those people do with the tele-town halls?

This is NOT the answer!!!
by PinHole on Tue Aug 25, 2009 at 11:12:31 AM PDT

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Azizi
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 05:32 PM

This is absolutely disgraceful!

And BTW, Republican Senator Coburn is a medical doctor-and he's vehemently against the public option in the health care reform bill.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Peace
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 05:34 PM

No, that isn't the damned answer. Many of your representatives in government are--I've wiped better dog shit off my shoes.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 05:39 PM

You know, I am beginning to understand why the religious nuts in the US shoot people. It would be too good a fate for Coburn. Someone should tattoo the hippocratic oath on his dick with witch-hazel. Every week.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Stringsinger
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 05:40 PM

Hi Azizi,

I was shocked too by the insensitivity of Coburn. He played the "neighbor" card as
a politician might by invoking the idea of early Americans at a "barn raising".
Coburn is so full of it that it almost isn't worth talking about.

Everyone forgets a simple fact. are the government. They work for us.
The corporations that own this country don't work for us. In most cases, they
work against us.

Of course Coburn doesn't want the National Health Service. It would keep him from
lining his greedy little pockets.

Frank

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Azizi
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 05:45 PM

Bruce, I think we crossed posted.

To clarify, do you mean that neighbors helping neighbors isn't the answer? If so, I definitely agree with you.

Neighbors should help each other when they can. But when it comes to catastrophic illness, a neighbors' help isn't nearly enough.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Peace
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 05:47 PM

This twit--Coburn--has stated that government couldn't run a health care system. However, as a Senator, he is covered by a government-run health care system.

He don't think too good, imo.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Peace
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 05:51 PM

Azizi, you nailed it.

Your medical system is a disgrace. I think it will be resolved when people 'take to the streets'. I mentioned on another thread that people who have nothing to lose should just go get arrested in hospitals. That is, if I had no health insurance and cancer, I'd go to a hospital and sit there. Period. I'd get arrested and force the police to deal with me. THEN the courts. THEN I'd go back to the hospital and start all over. And keep doing it until such time as I was treated. PERIOD!

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 05:54 PM

All Americans in any position to affect change, should be deeply ashamed of their pre-third world "health care". It's unbeleavable.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: bobad
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 06:00 PM

I presume that imprisoned people are given health care, so getting yourself imprisoned for treatment could be a good pressure tactic for people with serious illnesses and no insurance.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Peace
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 06:04 PM

There are 50,000,000 people who HAVE no insurance. FILL THE DAMNED HOSPITALS AND JAILS.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 06:09 PM

"world's best health care" - the USA?

Do you really have people who actually believe that to be the case?

Good grief.

About as plausible as saying San Manrino is the biggest country in Europe.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 06:16 PM

A bit like saying Harrods is the only food store..

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: pdq
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 06:26 PM

...from Sen Coburn's bio:

"In 1970, Dr. Coburn graduated with an accounting degree from Oklahoma State University.  One of the Top Ten seniors in the School of Business, Dr. Coburn served as president of the College of Business Student Council.

From 1970 to 1978, Dr. Coburn served as manufacturing manager at the Ophthalmic Division of Coburn Optical Industries in Colonial Heights, Virginia.  Under his leadership, the Virginia division of Coburn Optical grew from 13 employees to more than 350 and captured 35 percent of the U.S. market.

After the family business was sold, Dr. Coburn changed the course of his life by returning to school to become a physician.  Again he emerged as a leader, becoming president of his class at the University of Oklahoma Medical School where he graduated in 1983.  He then did his internship in general surgery at St. Anthony's Hospital in Oklahoma City and family practice residency at the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith.

Dr. Coburn returned to Muskogee where he specializes in family medicine, obstetrics and the treatment of allergies.  Dr. Coburn has personally delivered more than 4,000 babies.

During his tenure in the House, Dr. Coburn wrote and passed far-reaching legislation. These include laws to expand seniors' health care options, to protect access to home health care in rural areas and to allow Americans to access cheaper medications from Canada and other nations. Dr. Coburn also wrote a law intended to prevent baby AIDS.  The Wall Street Journal said about the law, "In 10 long years of AIDS politics and funding, this is actually the first legislation to pass in this country that will rescue babies."  He also wrote a law to renew and reform federal AIDS care programs.  In 2002, President George Bush chose Dr. Coburn to serve as co-chair of the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA).

Dr. Coburn also is a two-time cancer survivor."

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Azizi
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 06:26 PM

Lobbyists Spend Millions to Influence Health Care
By Dan Eggen

"Drugmakers, hospitals and insurers continued to pour millions of dollars into lobbying during the second quarter of this year, hoping to limit the damage to their bottom line as lawmakers and the Obama administration wrangle over landmark health-care legislation.

New disclosure reports that began arriving Monday in Congress showed familiar players at the top of the health-care influence heap, including $6.2 million in lobbying by the dominant Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and $4 million by the American Medical Association.

Many health companies and associations increased their first-quarter lobbying expenditures, sometimes dramatically. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association upped its lobbying expenditures by a full million, to 2.8 million dollars in the second quarter; GlaxoSmithKline's spending jumped from $1.8 million to $2.3 million; Novartis grew from $1.4 million to $1.8 million; and Metlife Group reported $1.7 million, up nearly 50 percent. Allstate, which spent less than $900,000 on lobbying through March, boosted its spending to more than $1.5 million from April to June.

Others simply kept up the pace, including Johnson & Johnson at $1.6 million and America's Health Insurance Plans and Bayer Corp. both approaching $2 million in spending from April to June. The AMA has spent a total of $8.2 million on lobbying through June of this year.

Final aggregate numbers are likely a day or two away as reports continue to trickle in and get tallied by journalists and watchdog groups. But the data so far suggest that the second quarter has a good chance of reaching a new high for the health-care lobby. The industry already set records from January to March, when health-care firms and their lobbyists spent money at the rate of $1.4 million a day.

There were a few surprising examples of declines, however, most notably PhRMA, which reported spending about $700,000 less than it did in the first quarter. But consider that PhRMA spent $8.6 million in the first half of 2008 -- just two thirds of what they've spent so far this year."

By Post Editor | July 21, 2009; 6:00 AM ET


http://voices.washingtonpost.com/health-care-reform/2009/07/health_care_continues_its_inte.html

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Azizi
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 06:34 PM

Here is a reader's comment from that Washington Post "Daily Dose" site whose link I previously provided:

"The US has the most expensive healthcare system in the world. It is almost twice as expensive as every other developed nation. This is largely due to administrative costs which account for 19-25% of healthcare costs, and up to 34% at for-profit hospitals.

Other than South Africa, America is the only developed country in the world that does not provide healthcare for all of its citizens.

Yet, the US ranks 26th in infant mortality and 24th in the number of healthy years a person can expect to live - putting America's healthcare system in the company of Cuba and Slovenia rather than Canada and Western European nations.

And, despite ludicrous right-wing anecdotal claims of high dissatisfaction among those who live in countries with universal healthcare, the reality is that, with the exception of Italy, Americans are more dissatisfied with their healthcare than are the citizens of every other developed nation, including England, France, Germany, and Canada. Moreover, US doctors spend less time with patients that do doctors in other nations.

PLEASE CHECK OUT THE FACTS AT THESE LINKS:

http://dll.umaine.edu/ble/U.S.%20HCweb.pdf
The U.S. Health Care System: The Best In The World or Just the Most Expensive?

http://news.ucsf.edu/releases/comparison-study-shows-us-low-in-primary-care-physician-visits/
Comparison study shows U.S. low in primary care physician visits-
June 13, 2007"

Posted by: WVUWEIRTON | July 21, 2009 7:17 AM |

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Azizi
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 06:36 PM

Here is another comment from that same reader of that Washington Post article:

"WHY DO CERTAIN SENATOR'S OPPOSE PRESIDENT OBAMA'S PUBLIC HEALTH INSURANCE PLAN?

DO THEY THINK IT REALLY IS BAD FOR AMERICA - OR IS IT BECAUSE OF THE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS THEY HAVE ACCEPTED FROM THE HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY!!!

WHAT DO YOU THINK???


These are the bribes that have been paid by the health care industry to these Senators. I guess their money is more productive than the will of the American voters.

Senator Wyden - $1.2 million

Senator Nelson - $1 million

Senator Landrieu - $1.3 million

Senator Specter - $4 million

Senator Feinstein - $1.4 million

Senator Baucus - $3 million

STAND UP AMERICA BEFORE WALL STREET, BIG BUSINESS AND THE HEALTH INDUSTRY WITH THE HELP OF THEIR REPUBLICAN CRONIES KEEP 50,000,000 WORKING AMERICANS FROM GETTING HEALTH CARE!!!!

THE FACTS ARE THE REALLY POOR AND WEALTHY BOTH HAVE HEALTH CARE, BUT THE WORKING POOR CANNOT AFFORD THE 1200 TO 2400 A MONTH INSURANCE COMPANIES CHARGE FAMILES!!!

Posted by: WVUWEIRTON | July 21, 2009 7:09 AM

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Peace
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 06:37 PM

What I get from your post, pdq, is that the good Dr/Senator has his and screw the rest.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Amos
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 07:07 PM

That's really sad. And damning.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 07:26 PM

As I understand it Bobad, US prison inmates are given intentionally minimal treatment and largely allowed only aspirin as pain relief. It does not sound like a good option. It is of course to save money.

One of the US contingent here some time ago posted survival rates for prostate cancer patients (and something else) in the USA and the UK - professing the US to be superior. What he overlooks was that in the UK everyone gets treatment. In the US only those who can afford it get treatment. Skews the stats somewhat.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Azizi
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 07:37 PM

pdq, with regard to your 25 Aug 09 - 06:26 PM post, in my opinion, the issue is not whether Republican Senator (Dr.) Coburn has introduced and helped pass significant health legislation that benefitted people.

The issue is what is the Senator proposing to do about the crisis in this nation's health care system?

At his recent health care town hall, that woman told Senator Coburn that her husband had a catastrophic brain injury and that his insurance company refused to approve the cost of a speech therapist who would help him regain the ability to speak and eat. That woman was crying when she asked her Senator what could the government do to help her husband.

Senator Coburn's response was that she could meet with him, but the government wasn't suppose to do anything about this. Senator Coburn said that Americans should rely on their neighbors.

In my opinion, no matter what good the Senator may have done previously in the area of health care, his response to that woman was a big FAIL.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Bobert
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 07:38 PM

Republican town hall meetings are nothin' but circle jerks... Let one danged real person in with real danged problems and you get exactly what you saw...

Yeah, the Repubs love to say how much they are for community based initiatives but when it comes down to it they are the folks who won't/don't post when the chips are down... I know... When I was s social worker I had to beg for food and clothes and rent and all kinds of stuff for my clients... Tell ya'll what... You'll get more from poor folks than you'll get from a room full of circle jerkin' self righteous Repubs... And you can take that to the food bank!!!

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: katlaughing
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 07:46 PM

I liked this viewer comment from the first link Azizi gave in her initial posting: ...health care should be funded the same way police and firefighters are.

Imo, EVERYONE should listen to an interview of T.R. Reid, on FRESH AIR. IT was just on, yesterday. Here's a bit about it:

Journalist and author T.R. Reid set out on a global tour of hospitals and doctors' offices, all in the hopes of understanding how other industrialized nations provide affordable, effective universal health care. The result: his book The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Azizi
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 07:50 PM

I should emphasize that that woman's husband had private health insurance. What she said is that that insurance company refused to approve services that her husband needed.

What can the government do when situatons like this happen?

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Peace
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 07:53 PM

Yeah. What?

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Bobert
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 08:47 PM

If one checks out Medicare you'll find that if this woman's husband's doctor had perscriobed such a treatment that the treatment would be provided...

Those who say the government will ration health care are ignorant... Even poor folks on Medicaid have better patient rights then folks in private policies... Okay, the treatment might not be as timely as those who are in Congress but these folks won't be refused either...

This entire health care debate is not a debate at all... It is a rumble that bears little resembelnce to democracy... It is a bunch of racists and haters who are takin' advantage of the fact the Repubs will take anyone these days as supporters... Gun-nuts... Anarchists... Loonies... Don't matter much and the health care reform debate has brought the extreme fringe out of the woodwork...

But back to neigbors helping out... Yeah, yer rooh blow off and maybe ... But ask a room full of loonies to pitch in a few hundred bucks here and there and you'll find a lotta folks who write checks like man with no arms...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Azizi
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 08:55 PM

What can the U.S. government do?

Listen to what Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) is saying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdaV91BCPjo&feature=channel_page
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) debates Medicare on Fox and Friends

Here's one aquote: "Dose Medicare work better than private insurance? The answer is clearly 'Yes'".

**

Why won't the U.S. government do this? Part of the answer is because so many people in Congress-Republicans and Democrats-have been bought off by health insurance companies and pharmaceutical industries.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Azizi
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 09:05 PM

Medicare Defender Michael Steele Says Medicare 'Is A Very Good Example Of What We Should Not Have'

"Yesterday, the Republican National Committee announced a "Seniors' Health Care Bill of Rights," in which they announced that they would "protect Medicare." "We want to make sure that we are not cutting the Medicare program," said RNC Chairman Michael Steele on ABC's Good Morning America.

But on Fox and Friends this morning Steele undermined his new argument that Medicare is a sacrosanct program that must be protected by calling it "a very good example of what we should not have happen with all of our health care."

Asked to respond to Rep. Anthony Weiner's (D-NY) argument that "if you like Medicare and you don't want to make any cuts to it, then you're basically defending a single payer system," Steele launched into an attack on the program, implying that it would be better if it were privatized:

...'I mean the reality of it is that, you know, this single payer program known as Medicare is a very good example of what we should not have happen with all of our health care. The reality of it is, how may times have we been at the trough of bankruptcy and no money for the Medicare program when Congress is running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to figure out how to fix a program that they've already mismanaged.

So, now you want to do that Congressman on a larger scale? You want to include all of us? You're talking, taking our senior population and now expanding it to the broader population? Government cannot run a health care system. They've already shown that. Trust the private markets to do it the right way. If there are reforms to be put in place, let's deal specifically with those reforms."

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/25/steele-medicare-fox/

-snip-

Trust the private markets to do health insurance the right way? Republican Chairperson Michael Steele is such a comedian.


[Italics added by me for emphasis].

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Bobert
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 09:25 PM

Yer right, Miz... Nothin' will happen for this woamn's husband... She had her little 15 minutes of fame, the insurance companies will hope it blows over and the poor guy will be dead in less thasn a year... Won't even be a footnote in the news when he dies...

And the beat goes on...

And all these so-called "neigbors", a term that used to mean something will go on hating the government...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Maryrrf
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 10:18 PM

Thanks for posting this Azizi, althought viewing it made me feel physically sick at the self righteousness of this twit, and the stupidity of the audience who applauded. Neighbors might be able to bring over a casserole, help this woman by running a few errands, etc. but how are they going to provide the therapy that her husband needs????   Not long ago I participated in a fund raiser for the parents of a four year old girl who has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. In addition to the worry and anguish about their little girl, who is terribly ill, they don't know how they are going to cope with the thousands of dollars in bills that are piling up - for co-pays, medications, etc. not covered by their insurance. We performed at a neighborhood mini carnival and raised a paltry $300. It will help a little bit, but how many fundraisers can be organized when we are talking about thousands of dollars. And why should people have to beg for charity when they or a family member are faced with a devastating illness?   Rarely does a week go by without an announcement in the local paper about a fundraiser, bowl-a-thon, spaghetti dinner, marathon walk etc. to benefit someone whose family risks being bankrupted by the costs of an illness. Neighbors and friends should be there to provide comfort and emotional support, not physical therapy, skilled nursing care, and financing for medical procedures.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: CarolC
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 10:26 PM

So I guess Coburn is telling us that had he not had access to health insurance himself when he needed to be treated for his two episodes of cancer, his neighbors would have taken care of it for him.

Uh huh...

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 05:47 AM

Our next door neighbour fell off a ladder while cutting branches a few weeks back. Found him lying in the garden. Broken legs, broken ribs, broken skull.

So we phoned emergency, and a paramedic was there within minutes, and an ambulance a little later to carry him off to hospital.

We found his keys and locked up his house, and made sure his garden was looked after while he was getting better, visited him in hospital, and contacted his daughters.   That's what neigbours can do - as well for him he wasn't dependent on us for getting medical care, because we weren't up to that. That's what the NHS is for.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: maire-aine
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 10:40 AM

Great thread, Azizi. Thanks for all of you effort to pull this info together.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Azizi
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 11:05 AM

You're welcome, maire-aine. And thanks to all who have posted on this thread. Special thanks to all who are advocating for Real reform of the U.S. health care system-including the health insurance system.

Also, RIP Senator Kennedy who worked so long to help create a better health care system in the United States.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Azizi
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 12:26 PM

"Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), the only senator to have served longer than the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), mourned his friend Wednesday, saying his "heart and soul weeps."

Byrd's wistful statement focused on the work accomplished with Kennedy during decades together in the Senate, and called on the healthcare bill before Congress to be renamed in honor of Kennedy.

"In his honor and as a tribute to his commitment to his ideals
let us stop the shouting and name calling and have a civilized debate on health care reform which I hope, when legislation has been signed into law, will bear his name for his commitment to insuring the health of every American," Byrd said."

http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/08/26/byrd-wants-health-bill-renamed-for-kennedy/

**

See these comments from a dailykos dairy:

"Agreed, but only if the bill includes a robust, a truly robust, public option, along with the other necessary features, banning pre-existing conditions, subsidized premiums for the less affluent and small businesses, no exclusions ore [sic]recisions ever, mandatory negotiations for all drugs and medical appliances, and tort reform. Anything less would be an insult to Senator Kennedy"...
by Kelvin Kean on Wed Aug 26, 2009 at 08:32:10 AM PDT

**

Naming health care legislation after Ted Kennedy now seems like the only thing Congress should do. Teddy fought his entire career for social justice and equality and it would be the right thing to do to name any health care legislation after him. However, I personally wouldn't want it named after him unless it's GOOD LEGISLATION with a Public Option. Someone commented up thread saying we should name it the Kennedy Option. I'd vote for that!

RIP Teddy.

by Sally in SF on Wed Aug 26, 2009 at 09:07:59 AM PDT

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/8/26/772618/-Robert-Byrd-Wants-Health-Care-Bill-Named-After-Kennedy
ert Byrd Wants Health Care Bill Named After Kennedy
by RandySF
Aug 26, 2009 at 08:04:37 AM PDT

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: mg
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 01:36 PM

It's a shame because some of the medical care people need is for very simple things that people without too much education could be moved into...home health assistants etc. People need to be fed and cleaned and taken out in the sun and for walks etc. The actual medical treatment is fairly minimal...we need some sort of movement from unemployment to being medical home health assistants etc....and that needs to be part of both economic and health care reform..as does some sort of basic shelter system that is clean and safe for people with no where to go..and believe me ..when our first major epidemic hits we will wish we had some place like that...mg

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Peace
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 01:40 PM

Neighbours should and do help neighbours--at least in smaller places. Some care HAS to be given by LPNs or RNs, but much other stuff could be handled in a manner that mg states. THAT is good thinking.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 03:04 PM

What intrigues me is the naive notion that National healthcare equals the government running the system.

That is certainly NOT how it happens in the NHS.

The government funds it

The Primary Healthcare Trusts manage and administer distribution of those funds, and MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS run the frontline care.

The government is not in any way micro-managing patient care.

I would have thought that was preferrable to your current system of being ripped off if you HAVE insurance, and left to die if you don't.

It's the twenty first century, and well past time the USA got with the plot.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: jacqui.c
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 07:33 PM

There have been adverts on TV for and against this legislation.

One of the worst that I have seen shows a guy purporting to be a doctor telling the viewer that the legislation will be a disaster as there are not enough doctors to cater to an extra 50,000,000 people and that would mean a reduced service for those who are lucky enough to have health coverage. In other words, if you've got health cover get your representative to vote no, so that you can continue to get fast, unrationed treatment, at the expense of those who can't get, or can't afford cover. That really stinks.

Problem is, there will likely be a good number of folk out there who will take that on board.

Subject: RE: BS: Neighbors Help Vs Health Care Reform
From: artbrooks
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 07:48 PM

On Republicans on Medicare:

I was listening to an article on NPR this morning - they were talking about the efforts made by LBJ to get Medicare off the ground in the 1960s. A very vocal critic of the entire idea was Ronald Reagan, then running for governor of California, who said something to the effect that, "if this awful Socialist idea passes, it would be the end of private healthcare in the US". I'm not completely sure if that comes under the general heading of 'how times do change' or 'what comes around, goes around'.