Hillary Would Have Given Us Single-Payer

Conservative Forbes Magazine Says Leave Obamacare Alone

Rick Ungar, policy analyst for Forbes magazine, says:

"If these small businesses found the new law to be so onerous, why have so many of them voluntarily taken advantage of the benefits provided in the law to give their employees these benefits? They were not mandated to do so. And to the extent that the coming mandate obligations might figure into their thinking, would you not imagine they would wait until 2014 to make a move as the rules do not go into effect until that time?

Of course, there is the nagging banter as to how Obamacare is leading us down the road to socialism.

Let it go, folks."

Will the GOP listen? Boehner is not. If you love your country, you will share this article far and wide as fast as you can before it is too late.

http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/01/06/more-small-businesses-offering-health-care-to-employees-thanks-to-obamacare/

Strategy for Helping U.S. Automakers and Reforming Health Care

If the U.S. auto industry wants a bailout, let us respond by offering to foot their health care bills. The U.S. auto industry is at a comparative disadvantage to foreign auto companies because they pay for part of employee (including retired employee) health insurance. This dollar figure has grown far faster than inflation for over a decade. If the U.S. government offered to include all auto industry employees in its government employee health care pool (this is Obama's plan for national health care), it would not only take a huge weight off of Detroit's shoulders, but also benefit the US by serving as a proof-of-concept for national health care. The success of the plan will take a lot of wind out of the sails of the anti-national healthcare lobbying groups (who derailed Hillary's proposal in 1993).

It's a win-win idea!

Myth That Doctors Love Private Healthcare

New survey:
Many doctors plan to quit or cut back...dealing with our current system involves too much paperwork

Remember, a Single Payer, Universal National Health Care system streamlines paperwork.

I like the quote from the doctor who says he was trained in medicine, not in running a business. The myth is that as true Americans, everyone in their heart of hearts really wants to RUN A BUSINESS.

Yes, I know a lot of doctors do get off on being entrepreneurs. But this survey casts doubt on the true prevalence of that trait. Also, it will be interesting to see how the changing demographics (more women, more minorities) of doctors alter how common this trait is among doctors.

Health Care

On Obama's innovative Change.gov site last week, I sent my two cents of advice. My number one priority for the agenda is Healthcare. Universal healthcare is a policy that has the potential to lift all boats during this economic malaise. I won't list all the numerous benefits of Universal Healthcare here (but do want to remind pro-business folks that it will help our businesses compete with foreign businesses who don't' have to worry about paying for their employees healthcare....Ford and Chrysler anyone???) but I am convinced that tackling this issue would be far more productive than short term fixes to the economy (though I think investment in infrastructure is a close second).

Given that one of my biggest concerns vis a vis Obama winning the Democratic Primary was his lukewarm stance on Universal Healthcare (see Krugman's critiques), I was very pleased to see Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) quickly chiming in this week . This could be very good dynamic, with the Congress leading the charge rather than the Administration (as opposed to the opposite in 1992). Keeping my fingers crossed.

I also hope to see more recognition of what is at stake for women, and hope there is more visibility for the women's groups that are making it clear that women have the most to gain from Universal Healthcare.

On the UK Dentist Story

How pathetic. In response to the national outcry for national health insurance, a story gets planted in the US Media going by headlines such as: "English 'pull own teeth' as dental service decays".

I am sure the rate of self-performed dentistry in the U.S. is a lot higher than in the U.K. Only, the U.S. government has no incentive to do such a study as was done in the UK.


As I understand it, what has happened in the US and in the UK, since about 10-20 years ago, modern dentistry had been a great success in cutting down on stuff that historically plagued teeth (cavities, I suppose) and that for a period of time it looked like much fewer dentists would be needed (witness the closing of dental schools in the US during the late '80's and 90's. ).

In the UK, they recognized that great success and created a new contract with dentists to cut down on the number of patients Dentists had to see.

In the US, the dentistry field recreated itself, doing lots of cosmetic dentistry (to make money).

In the UK, the new contract apparently backfired in unanticipated ways (yes, you always get those with government programs). But all in all it seems a temporary situation in Britain until they re-do the new contract. In the meantime, if you have enough money in Britain, you can still get dental work done, just like in the US.

References:
UK Story on Dental Care Problem

Dental Care Crisis in United States

Health Care, Government, Trust

Gotta hand it to Michael Moore for knowing how to put it. I got a great e-mail from him today. Here's an excerpt:

And all of the media should start saying how much it costs to go to a doctor in these other top industrialized countries: Nothing. Zip. It's FREE. Don't patronize Americans by saying, "Well, it's not free -- they pay for it with taxes!" Yes, we know that. Just like we know that we drive down a city street for FREE -- even though we paid for that street with our taxes. The street is FREE, the book at the library is FREE, if your house catches on fire, the fire department will come and put it out for FREE, and if someone snatches your purse, the police officer will chase down the culprit and bring your purse back to you -- AND HE WON'T CHARGE YOU A DIME FROM THAT PURSE!

These are all free services, collectively socialized and paid for with our tax dollars. To argue that health care -- a life and death issue for many -- should not be considered in the same league is ludicrous and archaic. And trust me, once you add up what you pay for out-of-pocket in premiums, deductibles, co-pays, overpriced medicines, and treatments that aren't covered (not to mention all the other things we pay for like college education, day care and other services that many countries provide for at little or no cost), we, as Americans, are paying far more than the Canadians or Brits or French are paying in taxes. We just don't call these things taxes, but that's exactly what they are.

And when he was on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart had a zinger about how Americans are find about trusting the Government when it comes to killing people (Military), but not when it comes to Health Care.

It also occurs to me a similar comparison could be made about how Republicans stress that those "Evil" Corporations are in fact run by us, the people, since so many Americans own stock (never mind that the 50% level reached after 401k's took off is deceptive because something like 99% of the dollar value of all stock is owned by 1% of the people. That is, 49 out of that 50% own miniscule amounts of stock that has comparatively no voting power in the corporation). Whenever a Republican mentions that factoid (it resembled a fact), quickly point out that the same is true with our Government, although in that case we all have EQUAL say, not based on how much money we inherited.

Related: More Americans May Own Stock, But Many Live On Financial Edge by Froma Harrop