Two local rallies are being held today to send a clear message to Sen. Maria Cantwell that her constituents need and want substantial health care reform. For those of you up in Everett, Dying for Universal Healthcare will host a rally at 11:45 AM at Senators Cantwell and Murray’s joint offices, 2930 Wetmore Ave, while down here in Seattle MoveOn.org will be holding a rally at 12:15 PM at Cantwell’s office at 915 Second Ave.
From all accounts, Sen. Murray is a strong supporter of a public option for health insurance, but Cantwell can best be described as wavering in her opposition, instead promoting the formation “co-ops” like Group Health… which I suppose for those of us here in Group Health territory would mean no reform at all.
That’s just not good enough, not for the poor, not for the middle class, not for anybody.
I’ve been self-employed or a small business owner for most of my adult life, and at times, I’ve even made some decent money at it. But individuals like me no longer have access to full health insurance with robust preventative care at nearly any price.
For example, and to get very personal, there is a history of colon cancer in my family, but as an individual I can’t find affordable insurance that will cover a colonoscopy as part of routine preventative care before the age of 50. If I worked for the government, or big company, yes, but as an individual, that option simply isn’t available.
“So what?” you may say, “Stick with your catastrophic coverage and pay for it yourself.” And I very may well do that. But if I do, through the simple act of denying the claim, the procedure will cost me maybe a couple thousand dollars more than the pre-negotiated price between my provider and my insurer. I’m already not particularly inclined to let somebody stick something up my ass, so charging me an extra couple thousand dollars for the privilege doesn’t exactly incentivize responsible well care.
And now Regence wants to raise my premiums another 17%, the third year in a row of double-digit increases.
As an individual subscriber I’m doubly penalized for not being an employee of a large group. First I must pay a higher premium for my insurance, and then I must pay retail for the many services not covered. And for many American families, paying retail for preventative care, let alone a serious illness or injury, can result in thousands of dollars of bills they can’t afford. It’s a silly system in which Regence won’t pay for my cancer screening, but they will pay for treating my cancer. Where’s the sense in that?
The fact is, if co-ops like Group Health were such a cure-all, we wouldn’t have so many uninsured and underinsured individuals here in Washington state. But we do.
Let Sen. Cantwell know that the status quo simply isn’t good enough.
Per coversation a few days ago, Sen. Cantwell personally favors a public option: “Medicare For All”.
Her pragmatic concern is that a public option may not pass, and it’s better to avoid another total shut-out (and 12-24 year wait for the next “health care moment”).
I called yesterday in response to an email from O (good sign that the President’s network is finally engaged). Her staffer hedged…
It would be good to post Cantwell’s number in the post for the more casual readers / non Seattle livers amongst us:
202-224-3441
The health care/insurance situation in this country is a tragic joke. I cannot comprehend how anyone who is not well paid by the healthcare/big pharma cabal cannot support an end to “for profit” healthcare. Why??? Why should healthcare be a “profit center”? Should Doctors and administrators be paid? Of course. Should they be paid well? If they deserve it, sure.
Should there be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for a neccesity…a life and/or death neccesity? Absolutely not.
I spent a number of years in the insurance business and I really wish I had a better opinion of the industry as a whole. Why we penalize or businesses large and small and put ourselves at a competitive disadvantage to the rest of the industrialized world is completely beyond me.
Ms. Cantwell will certainly be hearing from me.
RonK @1,
That’s great to hear. It will take leadership to pass it in the Senate. I’d love to see Cantwell show the same sort of extraordinary leadership she did in opposing Uncle Ted on ANWR and tankers in the sound.
The current state of health care coverage in the U.S. is unacceptable. Fully 25% of our health care dollars go to insurers and this money — all of it — buys nothing more than claims-processing bureaucracies; not a penny of it buys any health care. Insurers bolster their profits by arbitrarily and abusively denying claims. Policies are written in legal gibberish and riddled with loopholes to give insurance companies discretion to deny legitimate claims and to deceive policyholders into paying premiums for coverage they don’t actually have due to fine-print exclusions. The only rhyme or reason to any of it is making consumers pay too much for an insurance product that doesn’t protect them enough. Millions are left with no health insurance at all and millions more are left uncovered. Yet, they’re usually not denied medical care; instead, the costs are passed to the rest of us in the form of higher billing charges and insurance premiums. (Note to those who rail against “socialized” medicine: We already have a socialist system of making the insured pay for the uninsured.) This is a case for government intervention if there ever was one — it’s akin to a company storing dynamite in a shed 20 feet from private homes. Those who oppose health care reform are shooting their own balls off, because they’re perpetuating a system that hurts them as much as it hurts the uninsured or the rest of us who are insured.
@1 “Her pragmatic concern is that a public option may not pass, and it’s better to avoid another total shut-out (and 12-24 year wait for the next “health care moment”).”
If that’s her excuse, my response is that if we can’t get health care reform with a Democratic president and a 60-seat Democratic senate, we’ll never get it — so why not try to get it now?
I checked out who’s up for election in the U.S. Senate in 2010, and it doesn’t look like very fertile ground for the Democrats increasing their majority significantly.
By my quick count, there are 34 seats up for election in 2010, and of these 18 are held by Republicans and 16 by Democrats – only a slight advantage to the Democrats.
But a quick check of the states involved show they are all pretty reliably red states, with little likelikhood that Democrats could pick up a Senate seat there unless something unsuual happens. The two exceptions are Vitter in Louisianna (he hasn’t been up for re-election since showing up in the D.C. Madam’s black book), and Voinovich of Ohio (Ohio is a swing state, and prospects in 2010 will improve for Democrats if the economy recovers over the next year).
So we might as well swing for the walls in Health Care this year – there probably won’t be a better political environment in 2011.
Last summer, on my lettuce farm inspections around the state, I encountered a 75-year-old woman working as an itinerant campground attendant for minimum wage. She lives in a trailer which she tows from campsite to campsite in her search for temporary and seasonal employment. She told me her story.
She and her husband, a World War II vet, worked hard all their lives. They had a nice 4-bedroom home in the suburbs and raised 4 kids. They thought they had a secure retirement lined up.
Then he had a heart attack. As a disabled veteran, he was entitled to VA medical care. But when the ambulance took him to the VA hospital, he was turned away because all the beds were full and the VA hospital was “redflagged” against admitting any more patients, no matter how dire their medical condition. So the ambulance took him to a private hospital where he ran up hospital and doctor bills at private billing rates. He lived just long enough to bankrupt his widow.
She lost everything. Him, their savings, their home — everything. Now, pushing age 80, she works in low-wage laboring jobs and lives in a trailer. Is she bitter? You’re damned right she is! She tells her story to anyone who’ll listen, and I listened.
This is the Bush legacy of cutting funding for veterans to give bigger tax cuts to billionaires. This is the failure of our health insurance system, which works to destroy people’s lives, instead of protecting them financially. This could happen to anyone. It could happen to you.
It’s not acceptable. Not in America. Health care reform is on the table right now. Anyone in Congress who votes against it doesn’t deserve your vote. A vote against health care reform that is affordable, covers everyone, and eliminates the insurance loopholes is a vote to turn America into a third-world rathole. Only an anti-American SOB could vote that way.
@7 There will never be a better political environment than right now. Whatever Congress passes this year is all we’ll ever get. Damn right reformers should swing for the walls! We’re fools if we don’t.
And it’s absolutely, positively, crystal clear the private sector has failed us miserably and a government solution is needed. The mechanics of it are simple as pie: Extend Medicare to everyone.
@6: I agree with Roger – now is the time to get some health care reform.
We really have no competition or free market in health care insurance even now. For instance, regence just huiked their rates (note how much their execs make!) and if you have a preexisting condition – you can’t switch and get coverage. There are also not that many other companies around in this area and their plnas differ (some have really high deductibles, some limit access and have only PPDs, some cover dependents at exorbitant levels …all in all, the current “system” stinks.
Here is a letter to the editor from the Seattle times comparing the Canadian health care system to ours for the same disease. We lose big time.
Not so fast, Goldy…
Checked the poll numbers lately? Especially those that deal with new programs and new federal government spending?
Politico has and it the trends don’t look good for a big, over-weaning, massively expensive, liberty-depriving health care program of dubious effectiveness.
It’s in all the papers…You can read all about it in, say, the LA Times.
BTW…you might try putting together your own Health Savings Account then socking away a few pre-tax bucks a month to save up for that colonoscopy. I have one, and it just paid for an eye exam and a couple pair of expensive (I have a weird astigmatism) glasses. An HSA is a pro-consumer-choice market option that works.
Oh…and I’ve had one of those procedures. Truly unpleasent. Chug-a-lugging a couple bottles of that nasty Fleet’s Phospho-soda isn’t my idea of an appetizing libation. And it doesn’t even mix well with Glenfiddich!
The Piper
@11 “Glenfiddich!”
Perhaps you have a redeeming quality or two after all.
@11
Vacuous scum like you are the proponents of a system that produces stories like that of the Widow campground attendant. May you and your subhuman slime rot in hell. You’re more than an unwitting comedian, you’re one of the conservative tumors.
Have a nice day, slimebucket
Goldy if you sign up for that colonoscopy or any similar routine procedure without insurance or even with an HSA, get a written quote first.
And tell them that you want to know how much it is for everything without insurance (assuming zero complications).
They always seem to forget the “facility charge” which was $2,200 in my case. Several co-workers had exactly the same experience.
Finally negotiated down to about a third of that.
About 2 hours on the phone what a PITA.
If Jiffy Lube did this an oil change would cost $1000.
Next time I need to do anything like this I will go overseas.
@12
Want to bet on it?
@15 “Want to bet on it?”
No thanks. Not a good bet.
@14…EBP…
Aside from the obvious joke about anything having to do with a colonoscopy being a PITA, why is it so bad to spend a couple hours on the phone bargaining down the price of the procedure by two-third’s?
How much time do you spend haggling over the purchase price of a car? And doesn’t your effort show that prices can be adjusted downward by a savvy and persistent consumer?
Where would health care prices be if everyone did that?
The Piper
Piper Scott.
It’s interesting that you equate health-care with buying a car.
In the unhappy event that I or my family need immediate care I would prefer that negotiations do not descend to “how much do you want to spend today” car buyer experience.
I have visited many a “Souk” in my life.It is not something I advocate when it comes to health-care.
This savvy and persistent consumer prefers to know the price before signing on the bottom line.They changed the price after I had the procedure done.
Spending two hours arguing with these wankers just makes me mad.The fact that I walked away with a substantial discount makes me believe they are dishonest thieves.
Piper @17,
You’re kidding, right? The price of a medical procedure should depend on how good and persistent you are at negotiating a discount? That’s the basis for a functional health care “system”…?
19. Goldy spews:
Piper @17,
You’re kidding, right? The price of a medical procedure should depend on how good and persistent you are at negotiating a discount? That’s the basis for a functional health care “system”…?
07/09/2009 at 12:50 pm
And think of everyone in the US doing that! That is sure to help. I just can imagine the call to the insurance office. Your call is very important to us however you are 50,000 in line!
I think Piper is pulling our proverbial plonkers!
@19…Goldy…
Like anything else, you’ve got to shop around. The only way something isn’t negotiable in price is if you refuse to negotiate.
If individual bargaining became popular, don’t you think Web sites akin to Priceline, Hotwire, etc., would spring up to give the consumer more options?
Think outside the box, my man.
The Piper
@20…EPB…
Of course there will be emergency situations, but even then a discounted price can be negotiated for cash. I’ve received medical bills that allow you to discount the invoice if it’s paid within a certain period of time.
I also know of some doctors who refuse to take medicaid/medicare patients at all because of the paperwork hassles, but who will take payment at those rates. Even knew one once who refused to take private insurance but charged only a discounted fee.
Medical people are in business…so do business with them.
Dentists are particularly open to negotiating. Just tell them you want the best cash price possible, offer a percentage of that, then watch what happens.
Try it…you’ll like it.
The Piper
Well, having some cash-in-hand didn’t help one guy.
“A $1 million lottery ticket didn’t help Wayne Schenk of New York at all. He was diagnosed with lung cancer and given less than a year to live in 2007, a few weeks before scratching off the winning numbers. But lottery rules prohibited a lump-sum payout, so Schenk couldn’t pay for treatment. He died about three months after winning, and only received one $50,000 check.”
After the Jackpot
You’d think someone in his position could pay for treatment with cash, right? Wrong. When it comes to expensive proceedures requiring extended treatmetn & care, lots of doctors, hospitals, and clinics won’t even book an appointment unless you have confirmed insurance coverage. Even if you volunteered to pay up front, they are afraid they would get stuck being ethically forced to continue treating you if the bills & treatment ended up being greater than expected, and beyond your ability to pay.
So here we have a $1 Million lottery winner who can’t even get treatment under our current system.
I have tried it, I don’t like it. What I get from this is you haven’t experienced a significant traumatic medical event in your life.
My wife is an oncology nurse at a major local cancer facility. My sister is a hospice nurse. I know what they and most of their patients would say, you are so full of shit!
@23…RHP6033…
There are a jillion companies out there who will buy a lottery annuity for a lump sum.
Under the National Health systems in the U.K. and Canada are there no patients who cannot receive treatment because of rationing? Where the administrative decision is made that it’s too cost-prohibitive for someone to receive care or their life expectancy doesn’t warrant it?
And if National Health systems are so good, why do so many who live in the U.K. and Canada purchase supplemental insurance.
Here’s a thought…before any so-called public option plan passes, insert into it an absolute requirement that all federal employees must be covered by it exclusively and that no federal employee, appointed or elected, may access any care not available generally to the general public. Then watch Congress bail on the damn thing like rats deserting a sinking ship.
Even BHO on his ABC infomercial wouldn’t commit to putting his family under a US version of National Health. Chicken…
The Piper
rhp6033 @7:
Au contraire. There are plenty of opportunities to continue the rehumanization of the Senate. For example:
NH — Gregg is retiring. The Granite State is no longer Republican, and Paul Hodes (my classmate at Dartmouth) will likely beat whoever the GOP can find. It won’t be Sununu Jr.
MO — Bond is retiring. Robin Carnahan is the most popular politician in the state, and will defeat Rep. Roy Blunt (father, and mentor, of the recently-disgraced former governor).
KY — Bunning is reviled by his own party, will have a bloody primary. Either AG Jack Conway or LtG Dan Mongiardo (whichever one wins the Dem primary) should be the next Senator.
OH — Voinovich is retiring. The GOP candidate is Rob Portman (Dubya’s OMB head), who will have a tight race against either LtG Lee Fisher or SoS Jennifer Brunner. I hope it’ll be Brunner, who’s a great progressive.
NC — Burr’s seat has switched parties in every election since 1980. He’s deeply unpopular, though I don’t think the Dems have come up with a quality candidate just yet. The state is increasingly Democratic.
FL — Martinez is retiring. Charlie Crist would win if he can get the Republican nomination, but there’s a Club For Growth wingnut who’s gained a lot of traction. If Marco Rubio wins the nomination, it’ll go Democratic.
I’m not sure whether the Democrats can win in LA, even with Diaper Dave on the other side. Though I believe Charlie Melancon might have decided to run for the Senate, so maybe there’s a chance after all.
@25 Why in the name of heaven would you want to do such a thing, Piper? Are you so eager to fuck around with peoples’ well-being just to try and prove some cockamamie point?
Why do some Canadians and Brits purchase supplemental coverage? Maybe because they can?
Let’s get something out in the open, folks. If you go down to Swedes, you aren’t going to find the lobby packed full of Canadians waiting to check in for elective procedures. The right’s claim that people in the rest of the industrialized world are suffering under their single-payer health-care systems is a lie. Plain and simple. Period. Designed to scare the rubes into accepting our system the way it is even though it sucks, because they’ve been conned into thinking that any change will inevitably be for the worse.
I’ve got news for y’all. If we don’t do anything, it is going to get worse. A lot worse. And those of us who survive will be debating it 20 years from now.
@24…EPB…
Oh, how little you know of the Ol’ Piper!!!
Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean that it’s not a good way to go…or an effective one.
You and so many of the other HA Happy Hooligans always blame the health care system or the government for not providing you care of a kind and with an ease you like. Witness your aversion to good old-fashioned marketplace haggling.
But here’s a question you all should address: To what extent are we all responsible for properly ordering our lives, managing our affairs, and stewarding our resources such that we can purchase insurance coverage or otherwise secure coverage through an employer?
Where’s the individual ownership over the problem?
And before I forget, Goldy? My last colonoscopy was covered under an individual insurance contract through Regence Blue Shield. Yes, I had to pay roughly $1,200 out of pocket (two polyps were found resulting in a price drop because it became treatment, not preventative), but I had some bucks tucked away for just such an occasion.
Tragic, hard, catastrophic situations do occur, and those need attention. But for too many the hand simply is stretched out because it won’t do anything to take care of the rest of its body.
It isn’t always someone else’s responsibility…
The Piper
Sure, you can try to bargain with your provider to try and get a better deal. If things are a little slow this week in proctology, they may well take you on for less, figuring that maybe they’ll find a mess of cancer in there and they’ll make up the difference on your colectomy.
Now, the insurance companies can and do bargain with the providers to accept less to do stuff. Aetna even arm-twisted Virginia Mason a few years ago into making certain procedures unavailable to anyone, not just their own clients, to cut the overhead of being ready to do them.
After they squeeze out better deals like that, they still increase your premium and exclusions and co-pays, and the difference becomes “value for the shareholders” AKA greater profits.
@11 Too bad. Years ago, when my Dad was going in for one of those, he asked if rum qualified as a clear liquid, and they said yes. So, he turned the bottle of citrate of magnesia they had you drink at midnight in those days into a perfectly reasonable Daiquri.
AMERICA’S NATIONAL HEALTHCARE EMERGENCY!
It’s official. America and the World are now in a GLOBAL PANDEMIC. A World EPIDEMIC with potential catastrophic consequences for ALL of the American people. The first PANDEMIC in 41 years. And WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES will have to face this PANDEMIC with the 37th worst quality of healthcare in the developed World.
STAND READY AMERICA TO SEIZE CONTROL OF YOUR NATIONAL HEALTHCARE SYSTEM.
We spend over twice as much of our GDP on healthcare as any other country in the World. And Individual American spend about ten times as much out of pocket on healthcare as any other people in the World. All because of GREED! And the PRIVATE FOR PROFIT healthcare system in America.
And while all this is going on, some members of congress seem mostly concern about how to protect the corporate PROFITS! of our GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT NATIONAL DISGRACE. A PRIVATE FOR PROFIT DISGRACE that is in fact, totally valueless to the public health. And a detriment to national security, public safety, and the public health.
Progressive democrats the Tri-Caucus and others should stand firm in their demand for a robust public option for all Americans, with all of the minimum requirements progressive democrats demanded. If congress can not pass a robust public option with at least 51 votes and all robust minimum requirements, congress should immediately move to scrap healthcare reform and request that President Obama declare a state of NATIONAL HEALTHCARE EMERGENCY! Seizing and replacing all PRIVATE FOR PROFIT health insurance plans with the immediate implementation of National Healthcare for all Americans under the provisions of HR676 (A Single-payer National Healthcare Plan For All).
Coverage can begin immediately through our current medicare system. With immediate expansion through recruitment of displaced workers from the canceled private sector insurance industry. Funding can also begin immediately by substitution of payroll deductions for private insurance plans with payroll deductions for the national healthcare plan. This is what the vast majority of the American people want. And this is what all objective experts unanimously agree would be the best, and most cost effective for the American people and our economy.
In Mexico on average people who received medical care for A-H1N1 (Swine Flu) with in 3 days survived. People who did not receive medical care until 7 days or more died. This has been the same results in the US. But 50 million Americans don’t even have any healthcare coverage. And at least 200 million of you with insurance could not get in to see your private insurance plans doctors in 2 or 3 days, even if your life depended on it. WHICH IT DOES!
If President Obama has to declare a NATIONAL STATE OF EMERGENCY to rescue the American people from our healthcare crisis, he will need all the sustained support you can give him. STICK WITH HIM! He’s doing a brilliant job.
THIS IS THE BIG ONE!
THE BATTLE OF GOOD Vs EVIL!
Join the fight.
Contact congress and your representatives NOW! AND SPREAD THE WORD!
God Bless You
Jacksmith – WORKING CLASS
Why is it that we allow doctors and hospitals to set the price for a procedure AFTER the procedure is done? Their prices are not published.
Why do they charge different rates for different types of patients? (insured, medicare, uninsured, cash). That’s discrimination and illegal.
Let’s fix that – I guess that it will help lower health care costs and insurance premiums.
@10 The people who “warn” us about Canadian health care are lying. If it were the horror story wingers portray it as, don’t you think it would have been scrapped a long time ago? The fact is, most Canadians are happy with it. It works well for them. That’s the simple truth of the matter.
@11 “a big, over-weaning, massively expensive, liberty-depriving health care program of dubious effectiveness”
So you prefer a big, over-weaning, massively expensive, financially-raping private health care system of proven ineffectiveness?
@1 ronk chimes in with ‘pragmatic’ – sounds a LOT better than politically incompetent, OR, sold out – so, tell me ronk of ‘pragmatic’, how many of the last 30 years of fascist bullshit have you spent as 1 of the tens of millions making 8 or 12 bucks an hour,
waiting for the Dems to kick fascist ass instead of chickening out over ‘pragmatic’ yet again?
rmm.
I require that they fix Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA before I trust the government with more entitlements.
@36 We took care of a large part of the problem with #3 last November.
http://people-press.org/report/528/
In a recent Pew poll, only 6% of scientists declared themselves Republicans. Reading the apologia for stopping health care reform in this thread helps explain why.
Too many Republicans
deny global warming and/or its human causes
deny evolution
are young earth creationists
reject any science that might show liability for corporations on
water pollution
air pollution
health affects of dietary fat
health affects of tobacco
I am sure you can add to the items above.
Hee haw this is some funny bull crap.
As a co-host of the MoveOn healthcare rally in Everett on July 9th, it was one of the most interesting public rallies I have attended. Cantwell’s aide was definitely on the defensive and obviously nervous about our impact, as she was present for most of the rally. The difference between Senator Murray’s aide and Cantwell’s couldn’t have been more stark. Late in the rally, we went to Murray’s office to invite him to come down to say a few words. He spoke a couple minutes and left.
Very early in the rally, Cantwell’s aide turned to me and said, “I take great exception with your signs.” My signs read “Dying for Healthcare” and “Lobbyist$ Kill Us and Democracy.” Obviously, they hit a nerve with her. When I chose that verbiage, we felt that it was absolutely true. Having listened to Bill Moyers’ interview with Wendall Potter, CEO at Cigna Insurance, there is no doubt that those signs stated the absolute truth. Potter’s conversion came when he decided to drive to a fairground, where free healthcare was being offered to nearby residents. Doctors/nurses were volunteering their time. Hundreds of people were sitting in lines, waiting to receive various medical procedures in animal stalls with very little privacy. Potter couldn’t believe that this was going on in the “richest country in the world”. He was shocked and saddened.
Minutes before the rally began, Cantwell’s aide arrived with a “hot off the press” flyer, which was handed to the crowd. Her statement read, “Let me be clear: a public option needs to be part of health care reform.”
A woman in the crowd asked the aide, “Why is Cantwell one of only 10 senators being targeted for not supporting the public option?”
Her aide replied, “We have no idea either.”
The woman then said, “Well, her website doesn’t state that she is in support of a public option.”
The aide said, “We will need to change that if that is the case.” As of Sunday night (7-12-09), Cantwell’s website in her “Issues” section and the page on “Healthcare” still does not mention the words “public option”. When Cantwell website mentions her work on healthcare reform, public option is again never mentioned.
At another point in the rally, another woman asked the aide, “We want the same healthcare that our representatives in DC get”. Then later the aide comes out to tell the group, “We don’t get our healthcare for free. I pay $18,000/year.” It seemed so bizarre, as though she had to return to her office to research what she was spending on her healthcare to make a statement that hers is expensive too. I have no proof and no way of researching, but that figure of $1500/mo seems suspect to me.
Having attended Cantwell’s healthcare panel forum in Seattle on June 30, she couldn’t have been more non-descript in her statements on a public option. The journalist for the Times headlined his article, “Cantwell Might Support Obama’s Healthcare Plan”. Gregoire came out loud and clear for her desire to truly get meaningful reform with a public option, along with a member of the AFL-CIO, and Dr. Mitchell a retired physician. Cantwell barely spoke and she only answered a question, if it was directed at her. Audience members had to write their questions on index cards of which few were read.
Just my opinion: I mention this, as Cantwell would have swung almost 180 in a week’s time. I think Cantwell’s aide was nervous and did a bit of overreaching at the rally on behalf of Cantwell. The aide’s comment, “Cantwell takes no PAC or Lobbyist money”, can be reviewed at http://www.opensecrets.org. Among all of the 100 Senators with info ending in 2008, Cantwell is #14 with $16 Million as a recipient for contributions and Murray is #17 at $15 Million. It did show that Cantwell takes very little from those two sources. It becomes so obvious why it is difficult to beat an incumbent. Al Franken did the near impossible with a squeak of a victory.
There will be another MoveOn event on July 23.
Glenda
If people joined together – maybe not under an ~existing~ co-op, but through the formation of new ones, then they could attain group rates, too.
A more competitive insurance market would put pressure on cancer centers to offer their services at market rates, or fear a redirection of a sufficient number of their clients as to hurt technological investment. Insufficient technology would hurt the reputation of the center, which leads to the best doctors not wanting to work there, and the affluent not going there.
In an uncompetitive market, they can get away w/cutting your insurer a break, and not passing it onto you, but a co-op pools purchasing. “Preempting” restrictions on out-of-state insurers would also lower insurance cost ~and~ facilitate more competition in policy-terms. Why? There would then be pressure for at least one state not to put onerous “shall carry” restrictions, and so insurers could offer more coverage in one area, but less in others. They might want those with higher genetic risks to opt-in to more preventative care, if they tied it in with catastrophic cancer care, since taking advantage of the former would reduce risk of pay-out in the latter.
If the pooling of buying power is advantageous for the government, why not do it with a public plan? The reason the latter is hazardous to the health of health are in America is because the federal government would be such a large buyer that, through underbidding for such a large portion of the population, and progressively undercutting insurers not able to subsidize low prices, it could gradually become a monopsony (single-buyer), in which its bids set prices.
When this results, price does not reflect supply & demand, but only demand, and the medical supply chain is disrupted due to a loss of signal-feedback from the market. This could curtail innovation, disrupt the supply of doctors into specialties, or discourage medical technology manufacture.
Lets inject dynamism into the health care market, not supplant it, with a short term fix that kills the golden goose that lays the eggs of affluence, and finding ourselves mired in a single-payer nightmare with wait-lists, and one-size fits all rules coming from on-high. Insurers have rules, too, but at least there is choice there (and there could be MORE), and if one gets a rep as too restrictive, the market can discipline it.