Universal Health Care

News Clips

Health checkup
The last time people in high places in Washington seriously weighed the system of health care in the United States there were 37 million uninsured Americans. Today there are 41 million-plus. Among other things, that sad kind of "progress" was in the forefront of the National Academy of Sciences' thinking when it urged the Bush administration to test some possible solutions to the crisis in the nation's health care system. 11/26/02

Study: High co-payment discourages workers from filling prescriptions--  ... a new study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which found that the average number of prescriptions filled declined substantially by as much as 30 percent as out-of-pocket expenses increased.- 
"Raising the co-payments is a statement by large corporations that the quality of health care employees and families get doesn't make a difference -- it's not as critical as the bottom line," said Donald Steinwachs, chairman of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. 10/9/02

Judge denies national class action for patients, OKs doctors
MIAMI — Managed care patients will not be allowed to sue their insurers under a single nationwide lawsuit, but about 600,000 doctors can group themselves together in a class action, a judge ruled Thursday. The ruling virtually wipes out a lawsuit covering an estimated 145 million patients that prominent trial lawyers had hoped to use to put managed care companies under the legal microscope. 9/27/02

Morton Kondracke: Health care debate reopens
With health costs surging and the ranks of the uninsured swelling, Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John Breaux (D-La.) are pushing for a new look at comprehensive health care reform. Kennedy, the old lion liberal, has given up on his dream of a Canadian- style, government-run health insurance system and shortly will introduce legislation mandating that every employer except the smallest provide a basic insurance plan for its workers. 9/24/02

Calif. adopts paid family leave
By Bob Keefe, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
The law allows eligible workers to get paid 55 percent of their salary for up to six weeks. 9/24/02

Doctors threaten to flee Florida over soaring insurance costs - Dr. Eric Frohn last month closed his obstetrics practice to start anew in another state. Dr. Khadra Osman gave up delivering babies, the part of medicine she loved best. Family physician Sanford Kinne is cutting back on the nursing homes he visits. 9/23/02

Medical malpractice lawsuits not a problem in Florida
FORT LAUDERDALE — Only one in six medical injuries reported by hospitals in Florida in the late 1990s brought a malpractice claim, according to a study released Tuesday by Public Citizen, which is urging medical malpractice reform nationwide... 9/18/02

Crisis pushing doctors to quit
ATLANTA -- Thousands of tourists from across America who spent part of July in Las Vegas were gambling on more than slots, blackjack and roulette. 9/16

Medicare cuts impact patients and physicians-- 
Medicare patients don't know it, but doctors may roll up the welcome mat come January. Nothing personal, physicians say. The blame goes to Congress and the federal government. Reimbursement cuts for patient care under Medicare, the government insurance for people 65 and older, is causing a simmering revolt — and physicians aren't going to take it anymore... 9/15

More health costs, less access
By Fran Hathaway, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
As employers cut back, employees go without. 9/15

Bad health habits unaffordable
The latest national survey of health insurance trends is guaranteed to depress millions of Americans even as it flattens their wallets. It may even make them willing to take a look at their poor eating and exercise habits, the better to manage costs. The survey tells a story of double-digit price increases — at 12.7 percent the largest since the 1990s — declining coverage for people who work in businesses employing three to 199, the elimination of post-retirement coverage for new hires or existing employees (watch out baby boomers), and larger deductibles and co-pays. 9/12

Frivolous suits threaten quality of our health care
Doctors are leaving the state of Florida due to the unaffordable medical malpractice insurance. Insurance rates are skyrocketing due to a civil justice crisis in Florida manifested by an abundance of frivolous lawsuits filed by unscrupulous personal injury attorneys. The problem has become so bad that the Florida Medical Association is keeping track of doctors leaving the state. 9/10

HMO exodus may force 200,000 to change plans - WASHINGTON -- Nearly 200,000 people may have to change health plans next year as health-maintenance organizations continue their exodus from the Medicare program, according to a survey by an HMO trade group. 9/10

Insurance to gobble paychecks
Workers will have to help offset this year's and next year's increases of 20%. 9/10

Appeals court upholds judge who upheld drug list
TALLAHASSEE — A federal appeals court has upheld the decision of a judge who approved Florida's new policy of making drug manufacturers give rebates if they want their drugs covered by Medicaid. In late December, U.S. District Judge William Stafford ruled against a pharmaceutical trade group that had challenged Florida's list of preferred drugs. 9/10

Miami may cut teachers' raises to fund rising insurance costs
MIAMI — The nation's fourth largest school district may be forced to cut positions, reduce employee benefits and skip teacher raises because of rising medical insurance rates, officials said. Insurance companies hoping to represent the Miami-Dade school district's 40,000 employees in 2003 have asked for double- digit rate hikes in the $160 million insurance contract, district officials said. 9/10

A BLOW FOR OLDER PEOPLE
The Senate's failure before recessing to adopt prescription-drug relief for America's most vulnerable seniors is a colossal disappointment to millions of older residents. After five years of promises, Senate Democrats and Republicans have accomplished no more than to point blame at each other. The big losers are the elderly who will continue to be buffeted by astronomical drug bills. 8/14/02

Decade After Health Care Crisis, Soaring Costs Bring New Strains WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 — Ten years after a health care crisis threw American politics into turmoil, many experts see another one looming on the horizon.-- 
The cost of health care, which had stabilized in the mid-1990's with the advent of managed care, is climbing rapidly again, putting new strains on employers, workers and government programs that cover 75 million Americans. In a struggling economy, many employers say they can no longer simply absorb these higher costs and must pass more of them on to employees.-- 
It is not just a problem of rising costs. The troubled economy is expected to cause a rise in the number of Americans without insurance, which stood at 39 million even at the end of the booming 1990's. Families USA, a consumer advocacy group, has estimated that more than 2 million Americans lost their insurance last year because of layoffs.-- 
If the cost of coverage keeps going up, experts warn, even more Americans will join the ranks of the uninsured because they will be priced out of the market. Many health care analysts, their faith shaken in managed care, see no easy fixes.-- 
Politicians in both parties are beginning to respond, but they are profoundly divided on the issue, a deadlock underscored last month by the Senate's inability to pass a prescription drug benefit for Medicare. As a result, the issue is expected to bubble throughout the fall elections. 8/11/02

Tax cut's bitter pill
Without surplus, prescription-drug benefit withers. 8/2/02

State's cuts in Medicaid squeezing poor adults
While Gov. Jeb Bush was boasting about the new state program to help poor seniors afford drugs, Brenda Ormiston of Pembroke Pines was worrying about how to pay $600 a month for her prescriptions after suddenly being cut from the state's Medicaid program. 8/2/02

HEALTH INSURANCE FOR KIDS
There are almost 400,000 poor children in Florida who are eligible for free and low-cost health insurance. But they are not covered. Unfortunately, the amount of funds available to reach their families, educate the parents and enroll those kids continues to fall. 8/2/02

Report says inmates mistreated in Broward jail
The Broward County jail system has countless serious problems, including poor medical care that contributed to preventable deaths, a pattern of excessive force, inadequate mental health care and improper use of restraints on mentally ill prisoners, according to experts’ reports released Thursday. 8/2/02

Insurer builds big profit on denial of needed care
I read the July 21 Business article "In health insurance, size builds clout, profits," about Blue Cross Blue Shield Florida, and I felt sick to my stomach. My family is on the other side of this equation. 7/31/02

Bush should help drug debate
WASHINGTON -- President Bush is too clever for me.-- When I heard he was going to North Carolina last Thursday to talk to doctors about medical malpractice, I was baffled why he would do such a thing.- Many health care issues were being debated in Congress, but medical malpractice was not one of them. 7/29/02

Program provides coverage for uninsured
Some uninsured Jacksonville residents went home from Memorial Hospital Jacksonville Saturday with something they could not afford before -- health coverage. 7/29/02

For $1,500, you can be local doctor's VIP
During the last 10 years, Dr. Jason Mercer found himself in a dilemma that was becoming worse. As his practice grew, he felt pressured by health insurance companies to spend less time with patients. 7/29/02

8 convicted of Medicare fraud
A Miami jury convicted eight people -- doctors, pharmacists and owners of pharmacies and medical equipment companies -- of defrauding Medicare of millions of dollars Friday. It was part of the largest Medicare fraud conspiracy ever unraveled in the Southern District of Florida, according to the U.S. attorney's office. 7/27/02

Bush to urge malpractice-award limits
By Larry Lipman, Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau
The president wants 'pain and suffering' and punitive damages in medical malpractice suits kept to $250,000. 7/25/02

State Medicaid cut takes big bite from dental care for poor - Marc Berube's kidney disease has drained the calcium from his bones and weakened his teeth to the point he needs the top row pulled and replaced by dentures.-- 
Two broken hips and dialysis treatments keep him out of work, so he can't afford costly dental care. A Medicaid program was set to pay for the work last month, but Berube had a reaction to anaesthetic and planned to come back later. -- As of July 1, however, he need not bother.-- 
More than 37,000 low-income adults no longer have access to basic dental care and dentures as a result of state Medicaid budget cuts effective this month. Only emergency services are still available. -  7/24/02

Senators tell elderly to wait for drug benefit - WASHINGTON -- Despite years of campaign promises from both parties to help the elderly pay soaring prescription-drug costs, the Senate fought to a draw on the politically charged issue Tuesday, with scant hope of breaking the impasse this year. ... Either alternative would have represented the biggest expansion of government aid to the elderly since Medicare was established in 1965. "This is a vote about national character and priorities," said Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., one of the few still in the Senate who served in 1965   7/24/02

Guest editorial: It's time we treat, not incarcerate, mental illness
Mental illness is a stigma insurance companies need to face now, if for no other reason than for its cost- effectiveness. 7/22/02

Malpractice war calls for academic task force
TALLAHASSEE -- What Florida needs least, but is least likely to escape, is another malpractice war between doctors and trial lawyers. The rhetorical guns are already thundering. Arsenals are beginning to swell with money, the root of all political evil. This is good news only for politicians on the take and for the campaign advertising industry. 7/21/02

Hospital infections are killing patients-- Many deaths from infection are easily preventable, but soaring infection rates have been exacerbated by hospital budget cutbacks in infection control staffs and housekeeping services, the newspaper found.-- 
The problem has grown so severe that deaths linked to hospital germs represent the fourth leading cause of mortality among Americans, behind heart disease, cancer and strokes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infections connected to hospital-based germs kill more people annually than auto accidents, fires and drowning combined. 7/21/02

Hormone study symbol of research lag
Now they tell us. Women have been here before. Standing in front of their medicine cabinets, eyeing a prescription bottle with fear and alarm. 7/21/02

Florida Medicaid plan drops thousands of elderly, disabled - ...As of this month, Stratos and as many as 5,500 other elderly and disabled Floridians fell victim to a change in Medicaid eligibility, enacted by Florida lawmakers in a 2001 special budget session to save up to $63.3 million in the state's nearly $10 billion Medicaid budget. ... "Right now, there's nothing we can do for her," Paula McAuley, a senior analyst supervisor at the Agency for Health Care Administration who oversees the Medicaid recipients, said of Stratos.-- 
"We are satisfied that there are places for everyone [who lost coverage] to go," Bush spokeswoman Jill Bratina said, when asked whether the rule change would be reversed. 7/18/02

Medicaid changes prompt class-action lawsuit
Sarah Stratos' life is in turmoil, all because of $11 a month. On July 1, a lower eligibility rate for state Medicaid benefits went into effect in Florida, and Stratos, an 88-year-old Daytona Beach widow, is now without coverage. 7/18/02

Man sues jail's health care provider -"There is a financial incentive not to do their job," Rush said, "and that's what happened here." 7/18/02

Doctors drop malpractice insurance
Two doctors have stopped delivering babies due to the cost of malpractice insurance. 7/18/02

Doctors, lawyers fight, but insurers to blame
Malpractice 'crisis' is state's latest issue.7/18/02

Malpractice crisis? What malpractice crisis?
Thursday's "My Word" column, "A malpractice crisis driving our doctors away," was based purely on anecdotal arguments and lacked any factual or empirical support. 7/16/02

Advocates hit road to stop Medicare cuts
Health care advocates are on the road gathering signatures in an effort to stop a looming 10-percent cut in Medicare reimbursements to nursing homes. 7/16/02

State senator to push for study on helping people on ventilators - State legislators, when they learned Florida nursing homes were becoming so reluctant to take people on life-supporting breathing machines that some patients had to go to centers as far as Maryland, ordered health regulators to start studying the problem and develop a "focused system of care."-- 
That was two years ago, when House Bill 2329 became law. Nothing was ever done. 7/16/02

Change Rule On Interpreters
One reason medical costs are so high, and climb-ing higher all the time, is that the United States is becoming a country where just about everyone wants just about everything -- and imagines a constitutional right to it -- and politicians looking for votes are eager to accommodate, regardless of cost. 7/16/02

Medicare drug markup: 10,000%
You might think Medicare gets a good deal on chemotherapy drugs, but it often pays as much as 100 times what the drugs cost.-- Doctors who pay only $7.75 for a single dose of Vincasar, for example, are reimbursed at a rate of $700 under Medicare. The government covers $560, and the Medicare patient pays $140. 7/14/02

Patients as pocketbooks
The state's investigation of Eckerd Corp. shows the extent to which personal medical information has become a valuable commodity for drug manufacturers. 7/14/02

States face rising health care costs
The nation's governors opened their summer meeting Saturday with an eye toward shoring up faltering state economies by taking aim at their biggest budget albatross: the mounting cost of health care. 7/14/02

Health care debt continues to grow for City of Fort Lauderdale - FORT LAUDERDALE · The failed health insurance program has plunged the city $7.5 million in debt, and that number is growing. 7/14/02

Doctors hope cash can move legislation
An unusually blunt fundraising letter states a desire that $10,000 donations will get the attention of top lawmakers. The doctors plan to discuss medical malpractice legislation with two legislative leaders, bearing gifts for the GOP....The letter sent to other Marion County doctors last week describes plans to discuss medical malpractice legislation next month with two powerful legislative leaders, incoming Senate President Jim King of Jacksonville and incoming House Speaker Johnnie Byrd of Plant City.... "We are asking that you make a contribution to the Republican Party of Florida (There is no limit) and send this to us as soon as possible. ... We have been directed to bring at least $10,000 to each of these events and we can do this if everyone helps." 7/16/02

Malpractice crisis? What malpractice crisis?
Thursday's "My Word" column, "A malpractice crisis driving our doctors away," was based purely on anecdotal arguments and lacked any factual or empirical support. 7/16/02

Advocates hit road to stop Medicare cuts
Health care advocates are on the road gathering signatures in an effort to stop a looming 10-percent cut in Medicare reimbursements to nursing homes. 7/16/02

State senator to push for study on helping people on ventilators - State legislators, when they learned Florida nursing homes were becoming so reluctant to take people on life-supporting breathing machines that some patients had to go to centers as far as Maryland, ordered health regulators to start studying the problem and develop a "focused system of care."-- 
That was two years ago, when House Bill 2329 became law. Nothing was ever done. 7/16/02

Change Rule On Interpreters
One reason medical costs are so high, and climb-ing higher all the time, is that the United States is becoming a country where just about everyone wants just about everything -- and imagines a constitutional right to it -- and politicians looking for votes are eager to accommodate, regardless of cost. 7/16/02

Mayo changes policy on Medicare
The Mayo Clinic is changing the way it bills Medicare patients. More than half of the visitors to the world-renowned center are on Medicare and may soon have to pay more to see physicians there. 7/11/02

470 women in UF hormone therapy study told to stop taking the pills
When a federal study of hormone replacement therapy in postmenopausal women was abruptly halted on May 31, University of Florida researchers participating as one of 40 national centers in the Women's Health Initiative were caught by surprise. 7/10/02

Hormone Treatment's Risks Exceed Benefits, Study Says
A landmark scientific study has found that giving hormones to healthy menopausal women does more harm than good, a finding that overturns doctors' long-held beliefs about the treatment's benefits and creates new uncertainty for ... 7/10/02

Test case on drug costs
Will court let Maine take on drug-makers? 7/5/02

PRESCRIPTIONS FOR SENIORS
Many of the 40 million Americans on Medicare struggle to cover the increasingly high costs of medications. For them and others, the need for a drug-prescription plan is real. Yet conventional wisdom says that Congress won't approve a plan this year, because of competing legislation and partisan rhetoric. 7/5/02

Migrant workers sue medical company for refunds
FORT PIERCE — Five migrant workers have filed a class-action lawsuit against a company they say charged them $800 each to deliver their babies, even though Medicaid had already paid for their medical care. The women were assured by a clinic run by Trinity Medical Inc. that their money would be refunded once they gave birth and enrolled in an emergency state insurance program, according to the civil suit filed Tuesday in state circuit court.7/4/02

Patients stand to lose in state liability crisis
Florida's health care news has taken on an ominous tone in recent weeks. On the heels of headlines about the state's desperate need for nurses, the American Medical Association dropped this bombshell: Florida is one of 12 states where skyrocketing malpractice insurance premiums have "seriously threatened" patient access to physician care.6/30/02

Health care dilemma
Universal health care doesn't have to be government-funded. It may be possible to retain the best of private enterprise, while still extending health care coverage to all Americans.-- 
When it came to prescription drugs, over a quarter (26 percent) of Americans reported that they did not fill a prescription due to cost, compared to 19 percent in Australia, 13 percent in Canada, 15 percent in New Zealand and 7 percent in the United Kingdom.-- 
Differences in ability to get needed medical care were particularly stark among people whose incomes were below their country's median. Among those with below-average incomes, 36 percent of U.S. residents did not visit a doctor for needed care because of cost concerns, compared to 14 percent of Australians, 9 percent of Canadians, 24 percent of New Zealanders and 4 percent of U.K. residents. 6/30/02

Doctors seeking to drop insurance
Many view the risk as less onerous than paying, for example, $100,000 a year for $250,000 in malpractice coverage. 6/29/02

Guest editorial: Mammograms that miss tumors
Pity the poor mammogram patient. For months now she has been witnessing a dispute among professionals over whether mammograms can save lives by detecting tumors early, when they are most treatable. Now she must confront the sad truth that in day-to-day medical practice, many mammograms are interpreted by radiologists who miss an alarmingly high percentage of the cancers they should be detecting. 6/29/02

Seniors go hospital shopping
Blue Cross will no longer pay for some seniors' visits to Orlando Regional hospitals. 6/27/02

Benefit plans only give approval to high drug costs
At the risk of sounding like an ungrateful old man, I'm not as thrilled as you might expect with the House Republican bill to add prescription drug benefits for seniors. 6/24/02

United States can do better on drug benefits
Americans age 65 and older make up about 13 percent of today's population, but they account for more than 40 percent of all spending on prescription drugs. Eight out of 10 use a prescription drug every single day. 6/23/02

GREENS URGE CONGRESS TO REJECT BUSH-FRIST HEALTH CARE CORPORATIZATION, ENACT A NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE PLAN

As corporations take over public health care, seniors continue to lose prescription coverage; Sen. Frist must recuse himself from health care financing decisions because of conflicts of interest, say Greens


WASHINGTON, DC -- The Green Party of the United States urged Congress to reject the Bush-Frist corporatization proposals for Medicaid and Medicare and instead enact national health insurance to guarantee the right to health care in the wealthiest country in the world.

"Greens have always made single-payer national health insurance a major goal of the party," said Carol Miller, public health activist and New Mexico Green. "The U.S. is the only democracy on earth that doesn't guarantee access to health care, which is why 41 million Americans are uninsured, tens of millions more are under-insured, and nearly half of all personal bankruptcies each year are caused by health problems or a large medical debt, even though 79% of the families filing for bankruptcy had at least some health insurance coverage. It's time to get health care decisions out of the hands of corporations, whose only concern is maximization of profits, and back into the hands of patients and physicians. Medicare should not be turned into the next Enron."

"National health coverage would drastically reduce health costs for most Americans, would provide quality guaranteed health care to all Americans regardless of income, age, or prior medical condition, and would allow Americans to choose which physician, hospital, or clinic they visit," added Miller.

President Bush, in his January 28 State of the Union address, proposed giving HMOs a major role in disbursement of Medicare. The President has also advocated granting states the power to reduce and eliminate Medicaid benefits for millions of low-income people, especially senior citizens who need long term care.

"Bush is eager to have the HMOs take over Medicare, despite evidence that HMOs increase Medicare costs, provide poorer qualilty care, and restrict patient choice," said John Battista, M.D., Connecticut Green and President of the Connecticut Coalition For Universal Health Care. "HMO's profit by restricting treatment, restricting the choice of providers, and enrolling healthy Medicare recipients. As Physicians for a National Health Program reminds us, managed care plans seek to enroll the healthy elderly because they are paid the same amount for each Medicare recipient they enroll. HMOs offer financial incentives and penalties that compel primary care physicians to limit referrals, diagnostic tests, and hospital visits. These practices pit patients against doctors, and specialists against primary care physicians."

"In the District of Columbia, Mayor Anthony Williams' privatization plan has caused a health care emergency for thousands of older D.C. residents on very limited income," said Michele Tingling-Clemmons of the D.C. Statehood Green Party. "We're fighting to get the medicines restored for seniors and disabled people on Medicare who have had the prescription coverage they enjoyed through the DC public health care system for over 30 years, along with the Gray Panthers, D.C. Health Care Coalition, and other groups in D.C.'s Emergency Committee to Restore Seniors' Prescription Drug Benefits. Privatization really hurts people who've worked all their lives and deserve health care security without sacrificing their rent and food money."

"Ask seniors about relying on HMOs for health care," noted Ron Forthofer, Ph.D., Texas Green, retired professor of biostatistics from the University of Texas School of Public Health, and single-payer advocate. "Over 2 million seniors have been dropped by HMOs during the past few years. We don't want for-profit companies involved in delivering health care because their emphasis is the bottom line, not health care."

Sen. Bill Frist (R.-TN), whose plan President Bush supports, is tied financially to Columbia-HCA, a recidivist criminal corporation which has paid the largest fines in the history of Medicare. The largest hospital chain in the country and notorious union-buster, Columbia-HCA was founded by Frist's father and brother; Frist himself owns millions in company stock, kept in a blind trust. Even though Columbia-HCA had a patent stake in the outcome of 'Patients' Bill of Rights' and other health care legislation, Frist refuses to withdraw from debates and votes on these issues. Meanwhile, Columbia-HCA has been the focus of the government's longest running health care fraud inquiry ever. Columbia-HCA recently announced an $880 million settlement with the Justice Department.

"Sen. Frist should remove himself from the Finance Committee and the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and recuse himself from any vote that affects his personal wealth," said Jake Schneider, Wisconsin Green and treasurer of the Green Party of the United States.

Physicians for a National Health Program is announcing a single-payer national health care plan on February 4, in a bill to be introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D.-MI). Green candidates and elected officials support such a proposal as a major plank of the party platform. The party urges all Americans to tell their Representatives and Senators why national health insurance is the only solution to the current health care crisis:

*** The U.S. is the only democracy on earth that doesn't guarantee basic treatment. 41 million Americans lack health care coverage; 30 million more have only limited coverage.

*** Those with coverage suffer skyrocketing health insurance premiums, malpractice costs, reduced care (especially long-term), restricted referrals, limited choice of health care professional, and runaway drug prices. Those with inadequate or no coverage forego treatment until they need critical care, often receiving last-resort primary care from hospital emergency rooms, which drives up health care costs for everyone.

*** Private insurers take a 13% bite out of premium dollars for overhead and profit, and even more, about 30%, in big managed-care plans. In contrast, overhead consumes less than 2% of funds in Medicare's fee-for-service program, and less than 1% in Canada's program. Canada spends $1,000 less per capita on health care than the U.S., but delivers more care and greater choice for patients.

*** The U.S. pays far more for health care than any other country in the world -- 14% of the Gross National Product, compared to 9% in Canada -- while the quality of American health care is ranked only 37th by the World Health Organization.

*** According to Congress' General Accounting Office, administrative savings from single-payer reform would total about 10% of overall health spending and about $100 billion annually, enabling us to cover all of the uninsured and virtually eliminate co-payments, deductibles and exclusions.

"We can win true universal health care, but we need the political will and elected officials who aren't swayed by corporate HMO, insurance, and pharmaceutical, and other corporate lobbies," said Jo Chamberlain, California Green and member of the party's national Steering Committee. "We need an informed citizenry that demands national health insurance. All of us need health care at some time or other. Our lives are at stake."


MORE INFORMATION

The Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org  National office: 1314 18th Street, NW Washington, DC 20036 202-296-7755, 866-41GREEN

Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) http://www.pnhp.org/  

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Health care is big profit business

TALLAHASSEE -- One of the perils of being a public official is to mingle with and take favors from people he will have reason to wish he had never met. (Remember the Keating Five?). Most recently, it happened to Gov. Jeb Bush. 

He took a pasting in the press over private jet trips and campaign contributions provided by a company called National Century Financial Enterprises and its founder, Lance K. Poulsen. National Century was hit last month with a $3.5-billion fraud suit, filed for bankruptcy, and involuntarily welcomed swarms of FBI agents and accountants to its Ohio headquarters. 

But the real story, universally overlooked, was bigger than the efforts of yet another questionable entepreneur to ingratiate himself with one of the Bushes. It had to do with the nature of the perfectly legal business that National Century was in. 

That business was to finance doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and other health care providers while they waited -- and waited, and waited -- for money owed them by health insurance companies, HMOs, and Medicare and Medicaid. 

Every dollar in profits was a charge against the nation's overall health care bill. Not a penny of it made any sick person well. 

There would be no place in an efficient or humanistic health care system for a practice like that. 

It must be an awfully lucrative business, however, because there are other companies in the field. 

They do it by buying accounts receivable at a discount and pocketing the difference when they finally collect the unpaid bills. It comes as no news that health insurance companies stall on paying out for as long as they think they can get away with it. 

The business of buying accounts receivable is known as factoring. It is common in other lines of commerce. 

But health care is not, or ought not to be, just another line of commerce. It's a matter of life or death for everyone. It should more resemble a religion than a business. 

Instead, health care has become the biggest of businesses. Overall, America will spend an estimated $1.5-trillion on health care this year. That's more (often more than twice as much) by every measure -- total, per capita, percentage of gross domestic product -- than any other developed nation. Yet for more than 40-million Americans, those with no health insurance of any kind, the doors of this business are closed except on an emergency basis, when it is most costly and often too late. 

A shocking amount of this money -- $112-billion this year, according to government data -- is written off to what it calls "government administration and net cost of private health insurance." The private sector accounts for most of that. 

Another significant statistic, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, is that 27 of 28 other countries spend proportionately more of their total health costs out of public funds than we do. (The exception is South Korea). The OECD average: 74.1 percent. The United States: 46.4. 

Many of the others are healthier, though whether it's for better medical care or for eating less and walking more would be hard to say. 

None squanders money the way we do in ways that make people richer but not healthier: on swollen profits for HMOs, hospital chains and the like. 

Everywhere else, private health insurance is a small slice of the pie. Here, it's nearly 35 percent. France, at 12.8 percent, and Germany, at 12.5, come next. 

Speaking of France, the total bill for a routine visit to the doctor is $20, and the Securite Sociale refunds the patient most of that. 

The United States could afford good health care for everybody with the money we would save by getting rid of the middlemen. 

Sam Gibbons, the former congressman, had the right idea: Medicare for everyone. 

Medicare has its faults, chiefly in the exclusion of pharmaceuticals and preventive care. It also pays less than the doctors and hospitals say they need. But it is not as slow to pay as the private insurers are. Unlike the private insurance companies, it has no profit motive for making the doctors wait for what they have earned. Its cost of administration is the lowest of all, and it could easily be expanded into a true single-payer health insurance system covering everyone. 

This issue is coming to life again despite the calamitous defeat under the Clintons. Even Al Gore, reversing himself in barely two years, has come out for single-payer ("A death-defying act," according to the Economist.) 

But that single-payer has got to be the government, not the private health insurance industry. Otherwise there will always be money to be made not from making patients well, but by stiffing the people who do. 
....Martin Dyckman,   St Petersburg times, 12/15/02
 http://www.sptimes.com/2002/12/15/Columns/Health_care_is_big_pr.shtml 

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$8.30 a month? Congress, get real

If I could speak bluntly and directly to my senators and representative in Washington, and everyone else who serves there, here's what I'd say, loud and clear:

The average increase in Social Security for an individual in 2003 will be $13 a month. From this magnificent sum, you deduct the 2003 increase of $4.70 for Medicare and that leaves us with an amount of $8.30 a month -- or the overwhelming amount of $99.60 a year. I'm already making my reservations for the French Riviera.

Prescription drug prices alone rose 16 percent last year and are estimated to rise 14 percent to 19 percent this year --and yet these items are not included in determining the Consumer Price Index's measure of inflation. Who decides what should be included in this index? Do we omit the high-increase items so that the overall increase can be lowered? What other items are omitted? Why would something we pay for not be included in a cost-of-living figure? Are you kidding?

How about getting a backbone and imposing price controls on pharmaceutical companies? If Canada can do it, why not the United States? Are you afraid those companies will stop their contributions to your election campaigns? Even with price controls in Canada, I don't see companies stopping business, because they still make a tremendous profit. Here in America, you let them charge the highest prices to the group (seniors) least able to afford it.

Those of you in Congress don't seem to have any problem appropriating money for other things, especially the "pork-barrel" items for your own states as witnessed by the pork-barrel king from West Virginia, Sen. Robert Byrd.

And this poverty level that has been made up to qualify for certain programs (i.e., less than $17,000 for an individual and $24,000 for a couple) is so unrealistic that whoever set the level must be completely out of touch with reality. Do you mean to imply that a couple with an income of $25,000 a year is living in the lap of luxury? If couples earning $24,000 a year are eligible for certain benefits, shouldn't couples above that figure be eligible for benefits on a sliding scale?

Here is what you in Congress should do: You take my medical plan and I'll take yours (which we pay for). You live on a salary of $25,000 a year and let me know how you make out.

I think it is a sorry state of affairs when some seniors have to decide between food, rent or prescription drugs. Don't you?

What I'd hope for is to receive a reply from one of you, although in the past I haven't. It would be nice to hear from a member of Congress personally once instead of from a staff member.

Thanks to anyone who is listening.
... from My Word, Orlando Sentinel 10/23/02, By Bob Henken

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Although we spend more on health care than any other industrial nation, we are the only one not to cover all its residents.¹ Nearly 45 million of us – most with full-time jobs – have no coverage whether through the job or government program like Medicare and Medicaid.² Many of us lucky enough to have health insurance have inadequate coverage and forego needed care and medication because of high co-payments and deductibles.

The Labor Party proposes national health insurance: a public insurance fund (with the federal government as the insurer) and a private delivery system (health care services – doctors, hospitals, clinics – remain private). Individual health care consumers will have the freedom to choose their doctors, hospitals and other health care providers.

From birth to death, all medical care is covered, including: • doctor visits • access to specialists • hospitalization • prescription drugs • mental health treatment • nursing home and long-term care • dental and vision services • occupational health services • preventive and rehabilitative services • medical supplies and equipment

In 1999, the United States spent an estimated $1.2 trillion on health care – 12.8 percent of the Gross Domestic Product or an average of $4,443 per person.³ The total U.S. health care budget – for all doctors, drugs, dentists, hospital care and administration – is funded currently by:

Tax revenues (including the employer and employee Medicare payroll tax) fund government services including Medicare, Medicaid, public health programs, health care for government workers and the military and medical research. (more....)

Could it really be done? Here's one way...

OVERVIEW

The Labor Party proposes a national health insurance program for the United States that would provide universal coverage of comprehensive health benefits for every U.S. resident. By eliminating administrative waste and profit in the private health insurance industry, the United States can pay for universal coverage as well as extensive benefits such as nursing home, prescription drugs and long term care for the same total amount of money (an estimated $1.213 trillion for 1999) that we now spend.

The Labor Party proposes to keep most existing government revenues in place (nearly half the current U.S. health care budget); implement a variety of mechanisms to make the wealthy pay their fair share; and impose a modest tax on all employers (a dramatic windfall for employers now purchasing health care).

• Keeps much of the existing health care financing in place – the government already accounts for half of health care spending.

• Eliminates employer contributions to private insurance premiums; replacing them with a modest employer payroll tax of 3.303 percent

• Eliminates individual premiums including Medicare Part B and co-payments as well as 80 percent of out of pocket costs

• Creates no new taxes for workers (except for wealthiest 5 percent of Americans)

• Creates new funding sources that draw on the incredible wealth gained by the richest Americans over the last decade

• Protects health industry workers via Just Transition

© Labor Party 2000 Publication Number 706

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Alachua County says YES! to Just Health Care! 

In the November 7 election, sixty-five percent of Alachua County voters cast their ballot in favor of the Labor Party-sponsored universal health care nonbinding referendum. Now it's time to take this message further.

Use California model to end Florida's health-care crisis

In response to The Post's July 18 editorial "Doctors, lawyers fight, but insurers to blame," about the health-care crisis that is facing Florida: While it is true that there is a real danger of our state becoming bogged down in a battle over blame, what we need now is a solution, not a protracted fight that will cost time, money and very possibly the lives of Floridians.

Why? Regardless of who is responsible, we are losing the services of good doctors because of skyrocketing professional liability insurance costs, and this trend threatens to increase exponentially if unchecked. Soon, people won't care why they no longer have access to quality health care, but by then, it will be too late to take the steps necessary to correct the damage.

Thankfully, there are steps that Florida lawmakers can take immediately that have proven successful in California over the past 27 years. Faced with a similar crisis in the mid-1970s, that state passed legislation that prevented the threat of a similar decrease in access to health care, and residents continue to enjoy stable, first-rate medical care.

Briefly, California's Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act limits non-economic damages but does not control reparation for lost wages and medical bills; limits lawyers' contingency fees so that patients receive more of the money they are awarded; allows payments above a certain amount to be paid over time; limits defendants to paying only their percentage of awards; and prevents double recovery, in which plaintiffs receive full compensation from a jury that is unaware that this compensation already has been paid by an insurance company.

This law works. It offers a proven model that will provide Florida with a solution to this crisis today. The longer we concern ourselves with blame, the more harm will be inflicted on Florida's patients tomorrow.

President, Florida Medical Association,Tallahassee,  letter to the editor, 8/1/02 Palm Beach post