Posts by sammielee24

348

National Healthcare for the USA

by sammielee24 in

jw
friends

just an fyi for anyone interested - there is a major drive on to push the bill forward for national healthcare in the usa.

you can sign the petition by going to http://www.onecarenow.org/.. it has gone through one part of the process last year and now the push is on to get it moved to the next level - it is backed by over 400 groups including the uaw i believe.

it is no longer if it happens, it is only a matter of time as to when it happens.

sammielee24

A little message that I thought was interesting re the healthcare of the American Indian situation - the fight continues to have the acts reauthorized -

I am happy to respond to your two questions regarding the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. 1) Will Congress act upon reauthorization of P.L. 94-437 this year? Probably not. Both bodies of Congress are controlled by the Republicans, as is the White House. In fact, much of Washington, D.C., and its insiders are conservative Republicans as well. They have no interest in enacting responsible health policy for non-Indians, let alone Indian health policy. Why? Because it will cost more and this party would prefer to arrange massive tax breaks for the wealthy and spend our tax dollars (Indian and non-Indian) on the war in Iraq or on multi-billion dollar contractors like Halliburton. The Vice-President's former company was awarded a no-bid contract worth over $7 Billion to help rebuild Iraq. Time Magazine spelled this out on 5/30/04. I don't think our Nation's First Americans whose per capita expenditure for health is worth less than $1,100, as compared to $5,000 plus for our Federal Prison Inmates, were even on the radar screen when this appropriation of Federal funds was awarded.

Do Democrats who support Indian Health funding deserve our support? Yes, definitely. The most recent push to increase the IHS budget by $3.44 billion was decided on a straight party line vote back in March of this year. I believe the vote was 51 to 48 opposing the increase. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell did not vote in support of the increase, nor did many of the Republican Senators with large Indian populations. The only Indian organization to highlight the need for support on this amendment was NCAI. With a difference of 4 votes, Indian people could be enjoying better health care this year. It would have been great if Senators Stevens, Murkowski, Domenici, and McCain had voted to support their native people. Instead, the energy rich Americans with financial interests in oil and gas are making a bundle and our people continue to suffer from limited health resources. The $7 billion to Halliburton is only one contract, just imagine how much more is being expended on foreign aid and prolonged war efforts. On the homefront, we know the States scored $75 billion in new Homeland Security resources right after 9/11. And the tribes got less than $275,000 at last report.

348

National Healthcare for the USA

by sammielee24 in

jw
friends

just an fyi for anyone interested - there is a major drive on to push the bill forward for national healthcare in the usa.

you can sign the petition by going to http://www.onecarenow.org/.. it has gone through one part of the process last year and now the push is on to get it moved to the next level - it is backed by over 400 groups including the uaw i believe.

it is no longer if it happens, it is only a matter of time as to when it happens.

sammielee24

Thanks for your concern and kindness

Watch it Swalker...you might make her cry. As you know she is the epitome of human kindness and her well of compassion is full because she doesn't take the time to drink from it. sammieswife.

348

National Healthcare for the USA

by sammielee24 in

jw
friends

just an fyi for anyone interested - there is a major drive on to push the bill forward for national healthcare in the usa.

you can sign the petition by going to http://www.onecarenow.org/.. it has gone through one part of the process last year and now the push is on to get it moved to the next level - it is backed by over 400 groups including the uaw i believe.

it is no longer if it happens, it is only a matter of time as to when it happens.

sammielee24

Little Toe - please bear in mind too that you have to be covered by medicare in order for that first 80 to be covered by them! For anyone falling in between the cracks that isn't covered by medicare - you pay it all and often upfront - before you get the service!!!! I just called for quotes for an eye exam and the lowest cost is $65.00 at Walmart with the highest being $275.00 at an optometrist. Walmart is booked up for a month solid and the optometrist is booked up until the end of September. Now - I can get in at a location that is a 2 1/2 hour drive away and it will cost $125.00 for the exam or another place only 1 1/2 hours away and the cost is only $105.00 for the exam. I'm travelling to the one an hour and a half away simply because I need the exam. The lines for medical service that everyone keeps harping on with the Canadian system and the length of time it takes to get an appointment is no less in the USA. Every system has it's worms.

The argument as posted by LDH can't be taken without a lot of other factors as you say, being contemplated - genetics, environment, preventative measures, education - all for a few. I would ask if the government funded healthcare is for all the residents of South Dakota or just the American Indian population. This would provide a more accurate view of healthcare within that state. Does it apply to reservation or non reservation people or both? I have no doubt there are problems, just as there are in every system, but there are a whole host of other issues to deal with on this subject.

If the South Dakota American Indians are in fact covered by a national healthcare system as she indicates - well, first off, they aren't included in the 45 million who still have no access to even that level of care and secondly, they are cared for by doctors within the USA - and if profit is their mandate, then substandard care will follow.

sammieswife.

348

National Healthcare for the USA

by sammielee24 in

jw
friends

just an fyi for anyone interested - there is a major drive on to push the bill forward for national healthcare in the usa.

you can sign the petition by going to http://www.onecarenow.org/.. it has gone through one part of the process last year and now the push is on to get it moved to the next level - it is backed by over 400 groups including the uaw i believe.

it is no longer if it happens, it is only a matter of time as to when it happens.

sammielee24

I often wonder, when people "leave" the world of JWs, how they adapt to having to actually BUILD A CASE for their position

Interesting thought - but who are you talking about? I was never a JW - never baptized, never brainwashed - were you raised a JW? Is that what you are talking about?? Whew...you are finally admitting you can't debate the issue logically and calmly because of your background. Thank goodness..makes me feel better because I understand the confusion and complexities of surviving the cult. swife

348

National Healthcare for the USA

by sammielee24 in

jw
friends

just an fyi for anyone interested - there is a major drive on to push the bill forward for national healthcare in the usa.

you can sign the petition by going to http://www.onecarenow.org/.. it has gone through one part of the process last year and now the push is on to get it moved to the next level - it is backed by over 400 groups including the uaw i believe.

it is no longer if it happens, it is only a matter of time as to when it happens.

sammielee24

FYI, the majority of US doctors favor a fairly reimbursed single-payer plan (see www.pnhp.org).

And if we go single payer and they don’t like it, they have options. One, anyway. It’s called South Africa and it is the only other country outside of the US that does not have a universal health care system.

And I’ll say once more: single payer is not socialized medicine, it is socialized insurance. It essentially eliminates the profits that are shelled out to the 1500 insurance companies in the US in favor of one Medicare administrator.

For the same amount of money that we are paying to cover 85% of the population ($1.7 trillion), we could cover 100% of our people. The only people that won't like it are the insurance, HMOs, pharmaceutical and hospital industries

348

National Healthcare for the USA

by sammielee24 in

jw
friends

just an fyi for anyone interested - there is a major drive on to push the bill forward for national healthcare in the usa.

you can sign the petition by going to http://www.onecarenow.org/.. it has gone through one part of the process last year and now the push is on to get it moved to the next level - it is backed by over 400 groups including the uaw i believe.

it is no longer if it happens, it is only a matter of time as to when it happens.

sammielee24

There's one big reason healthcare costs so much more in the U.S. and it has nothing to do with rationing care.

The payment system for healthcare in the U.S. is based on a fatally flawed assumption: that competition will make private coverage more efficient, when it does exactly the opposite. No private insurer is required to cover everybody who applies to them. So they have great financial incentives to spend time and money to identify potentially high cost people and reject them. For individual insurance companies this makes economic sense, but for society as a whole this system creates an enormous duplication of cost and time.

The result: nearly 30% of all U.S. healthcare spending goes to administration, i.e. rules and red tape to screen out potentially high cost people, compared to 3% for Medicare and other single payer systems.

Several independent studies comparing many payment systems have found that a single payer system would cover everybody for less than we spend now. And with no reduction in the kind of coverage that most of us have now. We could save nearly 30% of our current healthcare spending and use it to cover everybody, with the same private care and quality as we get now.

You cannot fix a system that is based on a fatally flawed economic assumption by making small changes on the margin. You have to change the fundamental design of the system to get it to work.

348

National Healthcare for the USA

by sammielee24 in

jw
friends

just an fyi for anyone interested - there is a major drive on to push the bill forward for national healthcare in the usa.

you can sign the petition by going to http://www.onecarenow.org/.. it has gone through one part of the process last year and now the push is on to get it moved to the next level - it is backed by over 400 groups including the uaw i believe.

it is no longer if it happens, it is only a matter of time as to when it happens.

sammielee24

according to Dr. David Goodman, a researcher at Dartmouth's Medical School, the corporate practices compete for the insurance and Medicare dollar by subjecting patients, especially the elderly, to unneeded tests and procedures. He contended in a July New York Times article that "small physician groups in disconnected offices provide fragmented treatment while multi-specialty practices" increased the quality of care, as well as efficiency if they are integrated with a hospital like Hopkins.

Beatty blames much of the trend toward corporate medical practices on the influence of the insurance industry, which encourages their formation to enlarge their networks. And often the HMOs second-guess these practices and deny coverage to patients. But for doctors, the corporate practice has become necessary for their survival. For the insurance industry, Beatty says, "it's a matter of greed."

He has a point: Ronald A. Williams, chairman of Aetna, earned $6.1 million, plus $18.2 million in stock options last year. Dale B. Wolf, chief of Coventry Health Care, earned $13 million in 2004, including stock options. And William W. McGuire, CEO of UnitedHealth, raked in nearly $37 million in 2004.

348

National Healthcare for the USA

by sammielee24 in

jw
friends

just an fyi for anyone interested - there is a major drive on to push the bill forward for national healthcare in the usa.

you can sign the petition by going to http://www.onecarenow.org/.. it has gone through one part of the process last year and now the push is on to get it moved to the next level - it is backed by over 400 groups including the uaw i believe.

it is no longer if it happens, it is only a matter of time as to when it happens.

sammielee24

you would have told me that your "cousin" died last week while tragically falling under a tractor wheel at work, and since he had no insurance everyone just left him there to rot.

No - I couldn't have. I only have one family member who owns a farm and she lives in Canada so if she has an accident, she gets immediate care. Sorry you don't like real people with real stories LDH - thats life for millions of people. I often wonder if low self esteem drives people to self absorption or if it is a product of their childhood. swife.

348

National Healthcare for the USA

by sammielee24 in

jw
friends

just an fyi for anyone interested - there is a major drive on to push the bill forward for national healthcare in the usa.

you can sign the petition by going to http://www.onecarenow.org/.. it has gone through one part of the process last year and now the push is on to get it moved to the next level - it is backed by over 400 groups including the uaw i believe.

it is no longer if it happens, it is only a matter of time as to when it happens.

sammielee24

How much is spent on healthcare for jailed pedos, rapists, murderors and other scum of the earth each year

HB..I did bring up the issue of the 2.1 million prisoners that are currently in the system and receiving health care services. Seems like those who don't want to pay for national health care for the victims aren't doing much to lobby for no healthcare for the prisoners. I'm confused. It's okay for our dollars to pay for the healthcare of 2 million prisoners - including rapists, murderers, sex fiends - but it's not okay for our tax dollars to pay for healthcare that would cover everyone outside of prison...doesn't make sense to me. Report after report ad nauseum, has shown that the costs to cover every single person in the USA with medicare at this point, is less than the average cost per person spent right now. sammieswife.

348

National Healthcare for the USA

by sammielee24 in

jw
friends

just an fyi for anyone interested - there is a major drive on to push the bill forward for national healthcare in the usa.

you can sign the petition by going to http://www.onecarenow.org/.. it has gone through one part of the process last year and now the push is on to get it moved to the next level - it is backed by over 400 groups including the uaw i believe.

it is no longer if it happens, it is only a matter of time as to when it happens.

sammielee24

Sweet Jesus. Save the drama for your mamma.

Unfortunately my 'mamma' is dying. She has enough drama of her own right at this moment but thanks for caring - I'll be sure to pass on your well wishes. Thank you. sammieswife.