Congress will adjourn next week for their August recess without getting health care reform done. In some ways, that's a good thing. I'd prefer they don't rush into passing legislation. We will likely not have an opportunity to fix the system again in my lifetime, so I want it done right!
On the other hand, I read a story today that said that the RNC will spend at least $1 million during the month of August alone to try to turn the public against their own best interests!
The fact of the matter is that health care should be a basic human right and, as such, should be one of the services on which no profit is made. Yes, doctors, nurses, and other true health care professionals are entitled to make a handsome living. But for-profit health insurance companies --which do nothing to cure the ill or to keep people healthy and exist only to make a profit by draining 30% of the money we spend on health care (as a parasite leeches on and drains its host of blood and nutrients)-- should be done away with entirely!
If we took the profit motive out of health care, and had just one, centralized "insurance company" that paid all medical claims, taking no profit for itself, every dollar you spent on health care would actually go towards your medical care.
Is that Utopia?
No! It's what every other first world country on the planet offers their citizens!
Before jumping on the right wing Kool-Aid bandwagon by saying you don't like the health care bill (we don't have one yet!) or that it costs too much (it won't if we get rid of the parasitic for-profit insurance companies), take the August recess when your elected representatives will be at home and use the time constructively to call and visit their offices and demand real reform once and for all!
Tonight on Air America, I'll get a postscript from Dr. Ogan Gurel, who walked 700 miles from Chicago to Washington, D.C. in an attempt to call attention to the health care crisis in this country. He arrived in D.C. yesterday, and tonight will tell us what he was able to do with all the stories he gathered.
I'll also explain tonight why I think health care is our nation's second most important issue! Number 1 is campaign finance reform. My guest will be Dan Weeks, president of Americans for Campaign Reform. Until we get money out of politics and elections, we'll never get true reform on health care, or anything else! Too much money is at stake, and too many lobbyists are throwing it around, and our representatives are beholden to too many special interests!
And we'll wrap up the night with a visit from Alaska blogger/broadcaster Shannyn Moore, who was there yesterday, close enough to tell Sarah Palin no to let the door hit her on the ass on her way out...
Listen live here, call in at 866-303-2270, and join in the online chat by clicking here!
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1 comments:
Guess what I haven’t had to change since going on Medicare: my doctor, or the quality of my care. Actually, when you take into account Part C, it’s a return to the short time when I had double coverage from two competent insurers -- I never see a doctor’s bill.
The donut hole is a problem, but who devised Part D? Republicans.
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