Hopefully you saw Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on the sorry state of the Health Insurance System in American. And hopefully, you were moved to action, like I was. There's still time to pony up, if it slipped your mind. Let's give Keith some ammo when he resumes the fight next week.
Nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year -- one every 12 minutes -- in large part because they lack health insurance and can not get good care, Harvard Medical School researchers found in an analysis released on Thursday.
"We're losing more Americans every day because of inaction ... than drunk driving and homicide combined," Dr. David Himmelstein, a co-author of the study and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, said in an interview with Reuters.
Overall, researchers said American adults age 64 and younger who lack health insurance have a 40 percent higher risk of death than those who have coverage.
A 1993 study found that those without health insurance are 25% more likely to die. That study put the number of annual deaths at 18,00 a year. The new study used the same methodology. It excludes people over the age of 65, because they have health insurance. It's called Medicare. A government run health plan. The increased number of deaths is due largely to the increased number of uninsured. 27,000 more, each year. Since 1993. Since the Clinton Administration's attempt to reform health care was destroyed, largely by the insurance industry.
What the band played as Titanic slowly began to sink is never disputed - ragtime, waltzes, specific tunes noted by survivors included 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' and 'In The Shadows'. But a question mark still hangs over what the last song was as Titanic's stern began to rise clear of the Atlantic Ocean, and indeed, would it be physically possible for them to play anything in those conditions?
In an interview last week with Michael Smerconish, The Undecider said, "Winning the election is just the start. Victory in an election wasn't the change that we sought."
I don't know what change you sought, Barack, but letting the losers of the election dictate policy is not the change we sought. That's innovative change, no doubt about it, but it's not change anyone who voted for you can believe in.
That election came with Obama's promise of the government insurance option, a provision that Obama's team now calls "preferred" but not mandatory. Obama declined to call it a deal breaker. He said "the press got excited and some folks on the left got a little excited" when he and top administration aides made statements indicating that a publicly run health insurance option was just one of several alternatives.
Since then, Obama has faced increasing criticism from his left flank. "And even though some White House advisers seem to have forgotten, the reason the public option has become central to reform is simple: We're fed up with the insurance companies and we need real accountability for them," liberal MoveOn.org said in a message sent to its 5 million members. "They've had decades to fix the problems with our health care system, but they haven't done it."
One caller to Smerconish's program said he sensed the administration was making a misstep. "I'm getting a little ticked off that it feels like the knees are bucklin' a little bit," said the caller who identified himself as Joe. "You have an overwhelming majority in both the House and the Senate, and you own the whole shooting match. It's very frustrating to watch you try and compromise with a lot of these people who aren't willing to compromise with you."
WENDELL POTTER: I thought that he hit the nail on the head with his movie.
But the [Insurance] Industry, from the moment that the Industry learned that Michael Moore was taking on the health care industry, it was really concerned.
BILL MOYERS: What were they afraid of?
WENDELL POTTER: They were afraid that people would believe Michael Moore.
The insurance industry in the United States of America is actively recruiting and hiring and training LOBBYISTS in huge numbers to ready themselves for the shit-storm that the American people and HOPEFULLY their elected Representatives are about to lay down on them in the very near future.
As we are all well aware, medical insurance and the FOR PROFIT Insurance Corporations in the U.S. are out of control. Millions of citizens are not insured at all, most citizens that do have some sort of medical insurance are under-insured and the sky-rocketing costs of medical insurance are becoming more and more prohibitive for the average American worker. Add to that fact that employer based medical insurance is where most Americans recieve their insurance package and then consider the rising unemployment issue in this country, and things can only go from horrible to completely unacceptable.
In an essay I submitted yesterday, US slips down development index, Citizens live shorter lives, we discussed the fact that the citizens of America are now only 42nd among countries in the world regarding life expectancy, even though we spend more money per person on medical care than any other country in the world.
At some point, it should become obvious to even the Insurance Corporations that we are simply not getting our money's worth with that dismal track record. Yet, they simply don't care. The bottom line is profit, and they are going to spend an incredible amount of their profits on Lobbyists to make sure that no matter the quality of health care U.S. citizens might or might not receive is made to be a moot point. Their continued profits are all they care about and they are going to fight tooth and nail to make sure those profits continue to flow into their coffers.
Reform Immigration -
March on Washington
