Support health-care reform bill

There is a little-known bill in Congress that I encourage you to support: House Resolution (H.R.) 676. The goal of this bill is to expand Medicare coverage for all in the United States. I am proud that Congressman Emanuel Cleaver supports this bill.

This is not socialized medicine. Socialized medicine means that the government owns the health-care industry. This bill would simply allow federal government to be the only single payer for health care. You would still get to choose your own doctors and hospitals. They will be private institutions. Contrary to popular opinion, this would create less bureaucracy and be less expensive than our current system.

This bill is pro-business. Imagine the small businesses that would thrive without having to provide health insurance for employees.

I encourage you to study this for yourself.

Brian Morse
Independence

Comments

[Air Jordan 12]

A gene is a gene is a gene. But a single gene often has more than one job in the cell.

[whispering_to_kc]

"... the shortage of doctors is causing some clinics to offer shared medical appointments."

But only partly because Massachusetts primary care physicians suddenly had 1/2 million new (formerly uninsured) patients to look after?

It's funny, but the same story (your source?) takes on a different life as it's passed from the original article through a rightwing mouthpiece ...

The original "Boston Globe" article detailed an experiment at only one doctor's office: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/11/30/the_doctor_will_see_all_of_you_now/

"When Dr. Gene Lindsey arrived to see his 4 p.m. appointment on a recent Thursday, his nine patients already were seated on folding chairs arranged in a semicircle around a table of snacks. Lindsey, a cardiologist, shook each patient's hand, rolled up his sleeves, and, for the next 90 minutes, examined them, one by one."

""The 15-to-20-minute medical appointment is a failure," Lindsey, Harvard Vanguard's chief executive, declared in a recent interview. "For doctors, it's too much to do in a short period of time."

The Phyllis Schlafly/WorldNutDaily interpretation of the original: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=83159

"You are sitting in a doctor's waiting room with eight other sick patients, and the nurse announces: The doctor will see all of you now – at the same time. That's how the Boston Globe recently described shared visits that are being used to cope with the long waits now customary in Massachusetts."

"Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama are planning that the new Democratic Congress' first order of business will be to extend the Massachusetts health care mistake to all 50 states."

Hysterical.

[Engineer]

. First aid for sniffles but forget the cardiac problems

[Engineer]

One thing that worries me about "single payer' health insurance is that most of its supporters worry about the number of specialists. There are too many and they are too expensive. BC promoted the idea of paying teaching hospitals for not training specialists as their services are so expensive. Top quality health care for serious illnesses comes from specialists. If you are opposed to specialists then you are not really interested in high quality health care. First aid for sniffles but forget the card

[Kate]

In Massachusetts, where the law requires everyone to buy health insurance or sign up for expanded Medicaid, the shortage of doctors is causing some clinics to offer shared medical appointments. The doctor examines several patients at once, and the patients all sign promises to keep everything confidential.

I hope this isn’t the wave of the future. I’m as sociable as the next person . . . but not while wearing a paper gown.

[Casady]

If nothing else Mark, you are just as polite and respectful as you are one sided. I commend you for that.

While I remain on the fiscally conservative side of the spectrum, even I can say with a relative degree of certainty that we have seen enough damage from totally unfettered free markets for one decade but thank you for playing.

[whispering_to_kc]

David Gratzer is a Canadian psychiatrist.

He's a conservative author and think tank associate.

And he likes to "massage" his statistics to "prove" his points.

Nationalized, single payer health insurance - however they want to do it - whatever model they want to follow. Put the for-profit insurance companies out of business.

[Mark Robertson]

Right, Lyndon Johnson said that Medicare would cost around 9 bil. in 1990. It cost 67 bil. that year, and now is approaching a half trillion annually. And the unfunded liability of Medicare and Social Security is a cool 53 trillion, meaning that this much should be currently set aside gaining interest to pay for future debts. It's going to crash if nothing is done, yet the clueless, including Brian, want this catastrophe to cover all citizens.
Single payer systems are collapsing around the world. They kill people. Just look to the north. Canada's system is predictably a disaster. Even the originator of the system says it has failed.
See the book: "Lives at Risk,Single Payer National Health Insurance around the World," by Goodman, Musgrave, Herrick. It shows what a disaster single payer systems are around the world and how they are turning to free markets.
The main problem with the U.S. health care system is overregulation and the fact that it is already about half socialized, which includes Medicare.
The answer to U.S. health care and and worldwide systems is capitalism and free markets with such items as health savings accounts. See the book: "The Cure, How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care," by Dr. David Gratzer. Thankyou.

Mark Robertson
Independence

[Jim]

Rush isn't worried about health care. He's always been able to get his meds through his housekeeper with little cost or difficulty.

[mianotkia]

Brain single payer systems result in less health care for all, do a little research before you spount off.

If you like going to the DMV, you will love a single payer system.

[T. Hanson]

Sorry you already lost half the people when you said a Democrat supported it.

Why do research when Rush or Bill can tell me what to think?