Hands off our health service

[IndianaGreen]

To President Obama: A "unique American system" is the crap we now got. The Brits NHS is far better system than what is being offered today.

Hands off our health service

Friday 14 August 2009
by John Millington

British health unions unveiled two initiatives designed to address a barrage of propaganda from US insurance companies and lobbyists who hope to scupper US President Barack Obama's plans for public health.

Launching the "NHS factfile" for sister unions in the US, health union UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: "We are outraged by the gross lies and distortions being spread in the US about our NHS.

"A universal health system, free at the point of need is something that we can all be proud of - it is a mark of a civilised, caring society," he said.

UNISON and Unite joined forces to launch a campaign highlighting the benefits of the NHS to the public.

A Unite spokesman said that the union was calling on NHS staff and communities to challenge the "sell-off and break-up of our NHS."

The latest twist in a war of words that is assuming international incident proportions saw the reactionary US Conservatives for Patients Rights group heavily criticised for a documentary about the British health-care system featuring NHS patients.

Several people who appeared in the broadcast complained that their views had been "misrepresented" in order to discredit the concept of universal health care.

Further fuel was added to the fire when Tory MEP Daniel Hannan appeared on Fox News to tell US viewers that he "wouldn't wish the NHS on anyone."

Mr Hannan went on to compare the NHS with being a relic of a time of "rationing" and part of a "benign" state.

Embarrassed Conservative Party leader David Cameron was forced to distance himself from the "eccentric" views of Mr Hannan, insisting that the NHS was his party's "number one mission."

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/features/hands_off_our_health_service

No Tory regard for the truth

Friday 14 August 2009

The scandalous attacks on President Barack Obama's proposed reforms to the inadequate and disgracefully class-biased health care system in the US illustrate graphically what is wrong with US democracy.

A coalition of insurers, pharmaceutical giants and private medical firms have recruited the right-wing press and media Establishment to mount an offensive against what can only be described as a fairly inadequate attempt to extend medical care to nearly 50 million US citizens presently without any real cover.

The frothing mass of journalists and commentators in the pay of the US right have leaped eagerly onto the medical big business bandwagon to fight against what the have variously described as Obama's fascist, communist or socialist attempt to bring some humanity to a free-market system which supplies medical care to those who can afford it, but precious little to those who can't.

And in the process, they have demonstrated little or no regard for the truth.

Mindless fictions, for example failed Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's "death panels," which, she untruthfully alleged, would determine individuals' rights of access to life-saving treatment, have vied with blatant lies by media incompetents who have avowed that people such as iconic scientific theorist Stephen Hawking would not have survived under a system such as Britain's NHS.

Thankfully, 67-year-old Professor Hawking, a lifelong sufferer from motor neurone disease, was still around, thanks to a near-lifetime of NHS care, to debunk that one himself and to indignantly defend the service.

But that hasn't quieted the ravings of the US right which, fuelled by the distortions of lobbyists funded by medical industry billionaires and free market pressure groups, is in full cry over the attack on "choice" which they say that a state-funded alternative to private medical insurance would provide - what they really mean, of course is that their massive profits would be endangered, but they don't tell the punters that.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/comment/no_tory_regard_for_the_truth

[LiberalFighter]

1. The truth

Insurers, Pharmaceutical Giants
and Private Medical firms

Against National Health Care

But

For Higher Premiums, Drug Costs, Lab Fees.

[IndianaGreen]

4. They are the same coalition which opposed Medicare in the 1960s

The difference is that President Johnson was a skilled legislator that used every trick in the book to get the legislation passed. LBJ never kissed GOP ass for the sake of some nebulous bipartisanship.

[ipaint]

2. The "Uniquely American System" phrase is industry pr.

It comes from the same folks that came out with "most americans are happy with their insurance" and "single payer will never pass".

Classic industry pr. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

58% of americans want a single payer medicare for all health care system. Most Americans are not happy with their ins. companies because most american are working class and they are getting screwed. And in this case being uniquely american means being profoundly ignorant and susceptible to industry manipulation.

[IndianaGreen]

5. The American people have little to no influence in their government regardless of party in power

A majority support Single Payer, yet it is the one option kept off the table. Millions marched against the war in Iraq back in February 2003, yet our voices were ignored. Banks and financiers were bailed out, yet the people continued to lose their homes and jobs.

If you want real change, you must first topple the American ruling class from power!

[mwooldri]

3. Just imagine if the whole US healthcare system was nationalized...

you'd create the worlds's biggest employer, far dwarfing Wal-Mart, the Chinese Army, the US Department of Defense (Army, Navy etc combined), the Indian railways and even the UK's NHS, who is the worlds' #5 employer in terms of size.

And if they joined a union...

I know this would make a lot of Americans heads explode but ... welcome to the NHS. The mark of a civilized and caring society.

[IndianaGreen]

6. Under Single Payer, delivery of care remains largely private

Single-Payer National Health Insurance

Single-payer national health insurance is a system in which a single public or quasi-public agency organizes health financing, but delivery of care remains largely private.

Currently, the U.S. health care system is outrageously expensive, yet inadequate. Despite spending more than twice as much as the rest of the industrialized nations ($7,129 per capita), the United States performs poorly in comparison on major health indicators such as life expectancy, infant mortality and immunization rates. Moreover, the other advanced nations provide comprehensive coverage to their entire populations, while the U.S. leaves 45.7 million completely uninsured and millions more inadequately covered.

The reason we spend more and get less than the rest of the world is because we have a patchwork system of for-profit payers. Private insurers necessarily waste health dollars on things that have nothing to do with care: overhead, underwriting, billing, sales and marketing departments as well as huge profits and exorbitant executive pay. Doctors and hospitals must maintain costly administrative staffs to deal with the bureaucracy. Combined, this needless administration consumes one-third (31 percent) of Americans’ health dollars.

Single-payer financing is the only way to recapture this wasted money. The potential savings on paperwork, more than $350 billion per year, are enough to provide comprehensive coverage to everyone without paying any more than we already do.

Under a single-payer system, all Americans would be covered for all medically necessary services, including: doctor, hospital, preventive, long-term care, mental health, reproductive health care, dental, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs. Patients would regain free choice of doctor and hospital, and doctors would regain autonomy over patient care.

Physicians would be paid fee-for-service according to a negotiated formulary or receive salary from a hospital or nonprofit HMO / group practice. Hospitals would receive a global budget for operating expenses. Health facilities and expensive equipment purchases would be managed by regional health planning boards.

A single-payer system would be financed by eliminating private insurers and recapturing their administrative waste. Modest new taxes would replace premiums and out-of-pocket payments currently paid by individuals and business. Costs would be controlled through negotiated fees, global budgeting and bulk purchasing.

http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2009/08/10/only-you-can-save-health-care-reform-so-please-act-now/