Kucinich's Medicare-for-all: preferred by boomers

[Mairead]

In fact, AARP officials acknowledge that most polls have found that Medicare is more popular and trusted among boomers than their private insurance plans {emphasis added}. AARP spokesman Steve Hahn told me, "Many boomers can't wait to get into Medicare because of high medical expenses. Because health insurance costs so much, many go without coverage until they are eligible for Medicare." Many of the 44 million uninsured are boomers and their families.

http://www.newsday.com/features/columnists/ny-saul3591446dec20,0,3608068.column?coll=ny-features-columnists

Here we have some usefully solid evidence that the only 2 candidates who are on the right track about healthcare are CMB and DK (as we DK people have been saying all along!). Dean, Kerry, and the others are well off the mark, if the wishes of actual voters are important.

[LWolf]

1. What really attracts me

is the idea of focusing on care rather than "coverage." It's not about insurance; it's about getting care. Having health insurance does not guarantee health care, as I have cause to know.

Insurance companies are often an impediment to actual health care.

[DemBones DemBones]

10. My Blue Cross HMO will not pay for a medication that my

physician has prescribed for me because I need it. It is too expensive to buy, especially with the co-pays on my other meds (also all needed, thanks to lupus and other malfunctions of my immune system) being nearly $300 a month. So I don't take one of the drugs that I need, and hope it doesn't cause me more illness in the future. I do take a less effective, older drug that the HMO will pay for. Ironically, they say they'll approve the new drug for patients if they have "tried and failed" all the other possible drugs on the market, which I have, yet they still deny me. I should appeal to the state insurance commissioner, but I don't want to risk making my HMO mad at me. If I end up in the hospital again, maybe I can just SUE the bastards.

They also refused to pay for a procedure that our physician ordered for my husband. The doctor said we should ask them if they would assume responsibility for anything that happens to my husband as a result of their denial. We could tell he was ticked off about it and then he explained that insurance companies will deny a medication or a procedure and then when patients develop the problem the doctor was trying to prevent, they blame the doctor, as if he were guilty of malpractice when it's the damn HMO that denies the care!

Besides that, every physician we know is driven half-crazy by dealing with the insurance companies and their strange rules. I know two or three who are talking about getting out of medicine because of the hassles.

:mad: :mad: :mad:

[LWolf]

12. My blue cross

is no longer accepted at the only hospital in my local area. I was injured 2 1/2 years ago in a freak accident; skull fracture, some nerve damage, severe frontal lobe concussion. Down and out for the count for several hours before anyone found me. They air lifted me to a hospital on the other side of the mountains rather than running me over to the local.

My son, who has Kaiser, fought for 2 years to get approval for hernia surgery. He had 2 hernias. He was in pain. He would turn pale and sweat carrying grocery bags. The gp diagnosed him, sent him to the specialist, who said he didn't have any hernias and refused to operate. For 2 years. After 2 years of battling red tape, they finally, begrudgingly, operated. On one. And left the other hernia as is.

Insurance "coverage" does not guarantee health care. It actually guarantees less care than if you could just pay out of pocket for what you needed. If we were wealthy, I could have gone straight to the local hospital. My son would have had both hernias taken care of as soon as they were diagnosed, and missed 2 years of pain and frustration.

Care available for the few who can pay cash for it; the rest of us wait in line and beg our insurers to actually treat us.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. My brother's a doctor

and the insurance companies seem to go out of their way to avoid paying for procedures that actually help the patients. He's rather eclectic in his approach and uses massage. posture evaluation, stress reduction, and other non-invasive, non-drug procedures to help chronic pain sufferers, but the people who decide whether he gets reimbursed are not medically trained, just trained to categorize medical procedures according to a formula, and ironically, if he prescribed expensive painkillers or referred the patients for surgery, that would be covered, but curing someone's chronic pain by having them make ergonomic adjustments at work is not.

In other words, he's being penalized for providing effective treatments that cost less than drugs or surgery.

[DuctapeFatwa]

2. The focus of this plan seems to be on medical treatment

It is hard to see how it would generate increased revenues for insurance companies or reduce undesirable populations.

Looks like a plan much better suited to a democracy than to the US.

[dfgrbac]

3. Do you care to make a serious comment?

Rather than a tongue-in-cheek comment, that is.

This primary election is arguably the most serious election of all time! We better get serious.

Why is it the most serious? Because this primary and general election will determine the future direction of mankind like nothing ever has before. We are living in a superpower nation that has one of the most violent governments ever, and I am not just talking about the Bush Administration or the Republicans. The USA has been terrorizing the world with its military force for decades - this is the reason for 9/11! But it is a history not told here at home where we, the people, would put a stop to it if we generally knew about it.

Now is the time "to put a stop to it" and start working for peace and security. If you are not aware of what our government does "in our name", read DREAMING WAR by Gore Vidal. It is a fast read, 200 some pages double spaced.

Our spending for our Military Empire is the reason we don't have universal healthcare for our citizens, and why our civilian infrastructure is crumbling. Only Dennis Kucinich seems to realize this!

[DuctapeFatwa]

5. you have just outlined why a political solution is not realistic

There have been windows of opportunity for a political solution, and the decision was made to let them pass by.

It is unlikely that very many voters have the faintest idea what this means to them, and more importantly, their children.

Whether to put a Democrat face on the PNAC agenda is not a particularly important question, nor do I think Mr. Kucinich would be interested in being that face.

I believe that he could provide invaluable help in making sure that the US is disarmed in a humane manner, without civilian casualties and that regime henchmen, including most of his colleagues in the Congress, be transported to the Hague with swiftness, dignity, and in full compliance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and 4th Geneva, and I would be happy to see him as a candidate in a subsequent free and open election with universal franchise and under the supervision of international monitors.

[dfgrbac]

7. And that's the reason!

It is unlikely that very many voters have the faintest idea what this means to them, and more importantly, their children.

You are exactly right. That's why they need to be told, and soon before it is too late!

The Democratic Party has its big chance with this election to resurrect itself as the Party of the people. If we create a platform for stopping the military Empire and explain it to the people during the campaign, we will win - and win big!

But can our Party make this commitment? They would absolutely have to give up most corporate money doing this. There are good corporations in this country that would support the idea, but the big established mulitnationals probably would not.

Incidently, I told the Democratic Committee I would no longer support them. When they asked why not, I said, "Due to the Party's support of the war!"

I will support a "peace candidate", however.

[Mairead]

4. Indeed. Perhaps we can use it as a sort of democratic litmus test?

See how many people can actually recognise democracy when it stares them in the face. Then see how many embrace it and how many try to beat it to death.

[Terwilliger]

6. Go Dennis!

<--

[ThirdWheelLegend]

14. Terwilliger!

nice avatar!

:hi:

[corporatewhore]

8. kick !!!!

[DemBones DemBones]

9. In the interest of

actually getting some sleep tonight, I'm going to repost a post of my own here:

A lot of people here at DU say they really like DK , BUT

they think he's not electable so they're supporting someone else whom they like less but who seems "electable."

People say the US isn't ready for a progressive like Kucinich in 2004.

There's a great poster "for the liberal protester" that reads:

What do we want?
GRADUAL CHANGE
When do we want it?
IN DUE COURSE

A little more activism is needed, a little more DETERMINED activism.
Pink tutus are passe. Get yourself a pair of shitkickers and get ready to rumble!

Good night, Mairead, and thanks for posting this! :hi:

Dennis J. Kucinich: The Dark Horse Cometh

[Mairead]

11. Love the poster

Shouldn't it read, though

What do we want?
GRADUAL CHANGE!
When do we want it?
EVENTUALLY!

with the other side reading

What do we want?
REAL CHANGE!
When do we want it?
NOT NOW!

:(