For many years now, I've tried to describe, often in excruciating detail, a healthcare system which inflicts terrible hardships on the American people. We live in a country which accepts a neutered government, owned and paid for by lobbyists who lavish insurance industry campaign payola on compliant politicians.
In our nation, the political class is required to repay its masters who fund them, so these fine public servants do next to nothing to protect their constituents from insurance industry abuse. In such a thoroughly corrupt and broken system as ours, cancer patients are denied chemotherapy, senior citizens forego unaffordable medication, and young children are denied life-saving transplants. The rest of us, delay needed healthcare, because despite being insured, we know it's likely at the end of the day, we'll face huge bills--and bankruptcy. And of course, we're not even touching the 47 million uninsured.
Today, I'm sad to say, that I'm going to tell you about amputees denied limbs by the for-profit insurance industry.
In France, the European Union, the rest of the industrialized world (but not in the United States), healthcare is a right of citizenship. During an economic downturn, Americans face daunting odds, access to healthcare is one of the first luxuries to disappear.
I just finished reading the excellent diaries by bonddad and Jerome a Paris. Please forgive my random and panicked thoughts. But I am panicked just like all of us.
One huge thought is circulating through my brain. And I'm sorry to say this. We Americans are not very lucky. If we lived in any other industrialized nation, we would not need to add to all the other crises bearing down on us, how to come up with the scratch to pay for healthcare.
Fasten your seat belt, I'm going to tell you about faith-based healthcare.
The economic collapse in the United States will mean more and more Americans are finding themselves out of work and without their junk insurance.
As I discussed the other day, those of us still able to pay exorbitant health insurance premiums, will likely see staggering increases this year due to dramatically lower health insurer profits. And as this happens the ranks of the 47 million will swell to unprecedented levels.
But, as usual, the government regime does nothing.
This is going to be painful and demoralizing reading.
Health insurer profits are dropping--alot. This means you and I (though not our elected officials), could will be facing sharply higher premiums, higher deductibles, higher co-pays, and more denied care--all in the name of restoring profits to the insurance industry. It also means many cash-strapped Americans, facing unemployment or certainly less disposable income, will drop their already unaffordable insurance.
Shares of WellPoint (WLP: 46.45, 0.81, 1.71%) sank 28% Tuesday after the nation's largest insurer by membership cut first-quarter and full-year earnings estimates. The profit warning quickly spread to other health insurers.
With sharply escalating energy costs and home mortgage loans adjusting to new heights of unaffordability, sadly, middle-class Americans will have no choice but to draw the line on health care. They will join the ranks of the 47 million uninsured, and drop their insurance.
It's a very sad day for those of us who live in New York and believed in Eliot Spitzer.
There's an important lesson to be learned, don't ever vest too much hope in a politician, sooner or later they'll break your heart.
I enthusiastically voted for Eliot Spitzer. I was excited for the first time in a long time--I was actually voting for someone, not against someone else.
I believed that as a son of great wealth and great privilege, Eliot would look out for the less fortunate among us.
It hurts so damn badly when a Democrat fails, because we expect so much, we are so ready, and yes, so many are so desperate. But then we see, after all, they are just frail and sadly human.
What's the real tragedy in all this? It's about New Yorkers who are hurting. New Yorkers who thought after twelve long years of failed Republican leadership, Mr. Spitzer would be their champion, their protector, indeed their savior. It's about New Yorkers who expected that Eliot would be a true friend and advocate, someone who would focus relentlessly on the crushing problems bearing down on average, hard working, tax paying citizens.
A wonderful Kossack named Rogneid brought this uniquely American and deeply demoralizing story to my attention.
You can honestly mutter in revulsion as you read this, "only in America".
Though some Americans are able to cobble together a little healthcare. Others succumb.
But don't take my word.
Do heed the grim statistic from the highly-regarded Institute of Medicine . "Lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States."
I want to tell you what goes through my mind when I read crap like this. I think our country, the leadership, our elected representatives are without an ethical center, a moral compass or a sense of shame. Personally, I feel nothing but anguish and despair for our nation. And I wonder why the American people tolerate such a primitive and Third World state of affairs to exist in the 21st century.
In several conversation I had with Rosen, he discussed institutionalized and organized corruption at the highest levels of U.S. health insurance companies. He described regulators who look the other way, politicians who listen to his documented litany of insurance industry crimes, say they will "look into it," and then do nothing. He called what is going on in the United States "nationwide insurance industry fraud."
Then in a second diary, I told you about his testimony before a committee of the New York State Assembly.
Today, I'm going to give you a brief update on several very significant legal actions which may focus a harsh national spotlight on the murderous and predatory U.S. health insurance industry.
Finally, we may be seeing action. A few politicians (thank you, Andrew Cuomo), are finally getting the message and doing their jobs.
Imagine if 435 member of Congress had to try to purchase for-profit, individual health insurance just like you and I?
Pre-existing conditions, exclusions, huge deductibles, skyrocketing premiums--the works. Just imagine.
Will you forgive me for returning one more time to Congressional health benefits and why this must be on the table for discussion?
We need to explore why the healthcare our elected officials happily give themselves yet deny the American people, is not part of the national discussion. This is a huge piece of our great American healthcare catastrophe.
Yesterday, I told you that "Democratic stategist" Donna Brazille dismissively said that the next Democratic president must "get something on the table" within 100 days of being inaugurated. I think we all agree.
If the "something" Ms. Brazille cites isn't a bold and audacious health reform which is nothing less than cradle to grave affordable and guaranteed healthcare to all Americans, then I submit, the "something" must be the end to heavily taxpayer-subsidized healthcare for 435 members of Congress and 100 United States Senators.
So you've been fighting again. You been squaring off into armed camps.
Cliques, sub-cliques, and sub-sub cliques have sprouted like uncontrolled weeds.
The left side of the page waxes eloquent and all-knowing about every mystery under the sun. The right side degenerates into a daily mud wrestle, and the chasm between the two sides of Daily Kos grows wider by the day.
Stop for a moment, and consider another reality. Ponder, if you will, the lives of good, hard working and frightened Americans who (please forgive me), don't know about, give a rat's ass, or care to read what anyone has to say on Daily Kos.
Can you blame anyone for thinking we're rapidly losing our once razer sharp cutting edge clarity? You don't just wave a wand and stay great, you've got to work at it day-in, and day-out. Daily Kos--all of it--is falling woefully short in this department. And yes, I know, no one has asked me to weigh-in on such an inconvenient subject.
Back to reality. These are the people who are hurting. These are the citizens we better start convincing to vote for the Democratic nominee whomever that person turns out to be.
Here's a snapshot of the way many people live in America.
Sometimes it takes an outside observer to help you see the forest for the trees. And to provide a clue to the definition of insanity.
For many years, our own Jerome a Paris has written periodically about the French health care system.
When I first came to Daily Kos, an eon ago, it was Jerome a Paris who kept me coming back. In those days, Jerome was writing about his own very ill son. He described how he and his family received healthcare in France. At the time, only one word came to mind reading his harrowing accounts--humane.
This is a humane system, I thought. France is a humane nation.
Our broken heathcare system, is destroying American families. The depravity of for-profit healthcare, is used as a point of reference by citizens of more enlightened nations as a jumping off point to scorn us. The reality that healthcare in the United States is a privilege, not a right, is justifiably used to lambaste our country. This is understandable. Our dirty little American secret, isn't so secret any longer.
It's true, I don't normally get into stuff like this, but I can't resist when a god damn, lobbyist-lovin hypocrite like John McCain is exposed.
So, I took a trip over to the Alcade & Fay web site, I suggest you check it out as well. Alcade & Fay is the employer of Vicki Iseman, McCain's "friend".
Here's the link called Meet the Firm. It appears to have been disabled.
When I receive information about something this ghastly, I drop everything. Over the years, I've developed a primal need to alert the world to these uniquely American atrocities.
Today, we're going to learn about an American teacher in Los Angeles who is dying of cancer and about to exhaust her very unaffordable and expensive COBRA benefits.
America Politicians, just hang your heads in shame.
Despite lofty talk on the campaign trail, what you're about to read, is undoubtedly the reality for many American teachers. We need to pay them what they're worth, we need to value their heroic work, and when they get sick, don't we have a moral responsibility to take care of them--to provide guaranteed and affordable healthcare to them and all Americans?
Shame on America the political class. Yes, shame on all of them. And three cheers for Michelle Obama for speaking the uncomfortable truth. We know what she means, and so does everyone else.
She's talking about underpaid teachers and unarmored veterans and all of us, just waiting for a crumb of the American dream.
DarkSyde has come up with a new name for America's largest health insurer, UnitedDeath. And nyceve just throught of a better title for the diary.
This is how the the chief lobbyist for AHIP, Karen Ignagni belittles the investigation into UnitedHealth and others by Andrew Cuomo the New York State Attorney General.
Let's do two things at this interesting juncture. Step back for a moment and understand the flagrant distortion contained in the statement. Then recognize that these are the unscrupulous people healthcare Swiftboaters we will be battling come January, 2009.
You're gonna love it--the video. I'm still deeply conflicted about our two candidates.
You all may have missed a very important diary recently, if you read this, and the diary you missed, you might understand some of my reservations--about both of them.
But first, before we all start screaming and fighting, enjoy the video.
Then, let's have some honest words about two quite inadequate health care plans. And yes, they are marginally better, than what the enemy is proposing, which is nothing.
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced an "industrywide" investigation into an alleged scheme in which insurers and health information firm Ingenix manipulated reimbursement rates. Cuomo said he has issued 16 subpoenas to insurers and plans to file a lawsuit against Ingenix, its parent, UnitedHealth Group, and three UnitedHealth subsidiaries.
This investigation has just been announced by Attorney General Cuomo. Let's hope that this is only the first act, and that other state AG's will follow his courageous lead.
And as you're reading this, please keep in mind that these are the same criminal companies that sadly our two Democratic candidates for President want the American people to entrust their lives to.
And a brief message to Henry Waxman. When you're finished with Roger Clemens, do you think you could do the business of the American people and get the insurance industry CEOs under oath?
Senator Obama says we'll have universal health care by the end of his first term.
Keep the year 2012 planted firmly in your brain as you read what follows.
2012 is a lifetime away for millions of Americans.
I haven't heard Senator Clinton address this critical issue. I don't know her healthcare timetable. Does she believe she can sign sweeping healthcare legislation into law long before the end of her first term? She needs to let us know.
But dear friends, to hear Senator Obama repeatedly make the pledge to enact healthcare reform by the end of his first term, has shaken me to my core.
After the experts speak, after the pundits weigh in, this email says more to me about the fragile yet determined psyche of the American people than all the bloviating you'll hear between now and November 2nd.
