Senator Bernie Sanders vs Insurance
By Louise
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is making history this year when - for the first time ever - he brings a bill creating a national single-payer health care system to the floor of the Senate for a vote. As a compromise on a public-option plan that would allow states to opt out gains steam in the U.S. Senate, Sanders, a Vermont independent, continues to focus his attention on a single-payer bill, although he acknowledges that there are not enough votes to pass it. Sanders says, "That bill will lose. The question, however, will be how much support it will get." Sanders' American Health Security Act of 2009 would eliminate the role of private insurance companies, create a public fund that would insure all residents of the United States, insure the 46 million Americans without coverage and could save upwards of $400 million annually by eliminating insurance overhead and medical bureaucracy. Unfortunately, it would cut the profits of the health insurance gangsters who lose out in a single-payer plan.
Comments
#2
I will be happy to support this Insurance Reform (notice I did not say heath care reform which is another issue all together), but the proposed legislation that just passed the house is fine as long as I can be the insurance provider. As I see it, I can offer every American (300,000,000 people) heath care for a one time $500 fee and $10 a month. This will give my insurance company $150 billion to start with and a monthly income of $3 billion.
It will pay any and ALL claims no mater what. It will not try to negotiate with doctors, hospitals, or pharmas, and everyone will have the same premiums. You can see any doctor you want. ALL claims will be paid! No exceptions. I keep 15% of all monies that come in. After all, I am in this for a profit. This is VERY nice for me! I'm a multi-billionaire over night, and I am making $450 a month in income, and everyone is happy!
The insurance companies do not want health care reform, so I am offering to do it for them, the medical industry can charge what they want, patients will get what they want, and I will get rich! ONLY in America! The only catch will be that if the claims exceed the money everyone sends in I will have to increase rates accordingly, but that is good for me because if I double rates, my 15% will be double what it was too! So that is good for me, but not the greatest for everyone else. However, we all know that what is good for Insurance companies is what is good for us all, right? Right! Perfect!
Let's get started right away with Art's Universal Heath Coverage for all US Citizens! Send your $500 right away to: Art's Health Care, 123 EASY STREET, Takencareofbusiness, DC OU812
NOTICE: you are MANDATED BY OUR GOVERNMENT TO PAY ME. I HOPE YOU DON'T MIND, BUT IF YOU DO WE WON'T ARREST YOU WE'LL JUST MAKE YOU PAY MORE TAX AND ARREST YOU IF YOU DON'T PAY THAT!
This is what the house has just passed! Anyone supporting this travesty is foolish at best, and the fact that the insurance companies are complaining about it reminds me of Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby. This rabbit got caught up in a trap set by the fox and continually begged this fox NOT to throw him in that there brier patch. Well, the fox wanting to do the worst thing he could to the rabbit threw him in the brier patch only to find the rabbit was born there and was able to use the thorns to pick off all the tar and escape. The insurance companies NOT wanting THIS "health care" is JUST as stupid, and they want us NOT to do it JUST as bad as that rabbit!
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
From Cracking the Code:
"In Cracking the Code, Thom Hartmann, America’s most popular, informed, and articulate progressive talk show host and political analyst, tells us what makes humans vulnerable to unscrupulous propagandists and what we can do about it. It is essential reading for all Americans who are fed up with right-wing extremists manipulating our minds and politics to promote agendas contrary to our core values and interests."
From Screwed:
"The powers that be are running roughshod over the powers that OUGHT to be. Hartmann tells us what went wrong — and what you and I can do to help set American right again."
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"Right through the worst of the Bush years and into the present, Thom Hartmann has been one of the very few voices constantly willing to tell the truth. Rank him up there with Jon Stewart, Bill Moyers, and Paul Krugman for having the sheer persistent courage of his convictions."
I would like to leave two comments.
First, Bernie knows that his introducing of a national single-payer health insurance plan will go no where but I give him credit for the introduction.
Second, here are some words that are away from the main theme of the article but I cannot resist sharing them with you. From Karen Kwiatkowski's most recent article, "Afghanistan a Success - Time to Come Home!" here are some very powerful words.
Thinking people everywhere see our Afghanistan experience as a crash of 20th-century American empire on the 21st-century rocks of reality. The contraction of our empire – happening today in monetary as well as military terms – is at least a full generation overdue. The false sustenance of a financial bubble corresponds with the failing sustenance of military empire. Our children are the first generation who are not citizens, but Caesar’s slaves, bound to a life of fear and labor, made bearable only by their inchoate dreams of freedom. The military-industrial complex, a benign tumor in the days of Eisenhower, has metastasized to the extent that generals run Washington and the fourth estate exists solely to serve the imperial machine.
Obama has a small window of opportunity to declare victory and take a step towards retroactively earning his Nobel peace prize. Afghanistan no longer threatens us, and they’d like their country back.