Joe Biden

Earlier this week, Joe Biden called Medicare for All “ridiculous.” He compared us to Trump. He said we were “trying to con the American people.”

The truth is, it is really sad that Joe Biden is using the talking points of the insurance industry to attack Medicare for All.

Joe must know that we currently spend twice as much per capita on health care as the people of almost any other major country and that we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.

He must know that under Medicare for All, funded in a progressive manner, all Americans will have comprehensive health care coverage as a guaranteed human right and, with no premiums, co-payments or out-of-pocket expenses, ordinary Americans will be spending far less for that care than they currently pay.

We knew that we would be taking on Trump and the Republican Party in the fight to guarantee health as a right for every man, woman and child. We knew that we would be taking on the drug companies and the insurance industry.

But I am honestly a bit tired of Democrats who insist on defending a dysfunctional system, a cruel system, that leaves millions uninsured and underinsured and tens of thousands of people dying every single year.

But that is what we are up against — and it is a fight we must win. And I cannot do that alone. So I am asking:

Can you make a $10 contribution today to help us win this primary, and as a way of saying that in the richest country in the history of the world, we MUST guarantee health care as a right for ALL of us?

Ours is a campaign with the guts to stand up to the greed and the corruption of the insurance companies and the drug companies whose reckless pursuit of profits is killing Americans. We are going to fight them — not beg them for money.

And if we stand together, we are going to win.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

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RSN: Scott Galindez | Trump's Phony Victory

27 July 17

It's Live on the HomePage Now: 

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FOCUS: Scott Galindez | Trump's Phony Victory

Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News
Galindez writes: "Yesterday’s vote to start the debate on repealing and/or replacing Obamacare was all symbolism. The worst-kept secret in Washington is that Republicans still don’t have a plan that will get 50 votes."
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Sunday, July 23, 2017

by

Common Dreams

Connecting McCain's Tragic Diagnosis to Trumpcare 'Is the Goddamn Point'

"The personal hell that John McCain and his loved ones are walking through right now is the point of it all," writes pastor in viral blog post

by

Jon Queally, staff writer

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) speaks at American Visionary: John F. Kennedy's Life and Times debut gala at Smithsonian American Art Museum on May 2, 2017 in Washington, DC. Last week, McCain was diagnosed with a potentially terminal form of brain cancer. (Photo by Larry French/Getty Images for WS Productions

"It isn't in poor taste, and it isn't political opportunism—it's the goddamn point."

That's what Jon Pavlovitz, a pastor from North Carolina, writes regarding the importance of talking about the recently-announced cancer diagnosis of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)—which he calls "tragic" and "horrific"—in the midst of a raging national debate over healthcare.

"The personal hell that John McCain and his loved ones are walking through right now is the point of it all. These moments are precisely what we're talking about, arguing about, screaming about: The atomic bomb of grief that gets dropped on your family when you get the test results and your planet is altered forever." —Pastor John PavlovitzOn Thursday, McCain's doctors confirmed the 80-year-old senator and former presidential nominee had been diagnosed with an aggressive and malignant form of brain cancer. In the wake of the news there was an outpouring of support and well-wishes from across the political spectrum aimed at the senator and his family.

With the Republicans still aiming to ram some version of their Trumpcare proposal through the Senate this week—and as the popular opposition vows vigilance to thwart those efforts—Pavlovitz argues its disingenuous for people to argue that McCain's illness should be off limits politically.

"The personal hell that John McCain and his loved ones are walking through right now is the point of it all," the pastor wrote Thursday in a blog post that started to go viral over the weekend. "These moments are precisely what we're talking about, arguing about, screaming about: The atomic bomb of grief that gets dropped on your family when you get the test results and your planet is altered forever."

While acknowledging that McCain is one of the nation's most recognizable political names and someone who holds a powerful position, Pavlovitz explains why his privilege and status exposes the inequality and shortcomings of a healthcare system that works for the haves, but not for the have nots.

He writes:

John McCain deserves life. He deserves to have every available resource exhausted to try and make him well. His family deserves this. His wife and his children deserve it. The people who treasure him deserve it. They deserve it, not because he’s wealthy or known or "important"—but simply because he's loved by someone who wants more time with him. That's enough for me. Every human being deserves this. Every spouse and every child and every treasured person.

John McCain is priceless to those he loves and who love him—as priceless as the people you love are to you, as you are to them.
He is a household name, but every one of us is a household name to someone whose life is defined by our presence and who would be decimated by our absence.

Universal healthcare is something we need to talk about now, because Cancer is an equal-opportunity bastard who cannot be defeated without help; because life-threatening illness is a bully that knocks the hell out of you and those who care about you, because we are all terrified of dying and want to know that we won’t be left alone if the shit hits the fan.

I want John McCain to live. I want him to get to spend more time with those who would grieve his loss in ways I'll never understand. But I want this for you too. I want it for your father and your children and your friends. I want it for those I love. I want it for people I agree with and people I don't.

We should be for one another. We should fight for each other's life with all that we have.

In a letter published in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, reader Ed Sinderman stated: "I hope there’s a realization that if McCain had not been a privileged senator of the United States, he may have not had the proper medical attention that resulted in this unfortunate diagnosis and best possible outcome, whatever that may be.  I do not intend to make a political issue out of McCain's health, but his party needs to understand that its policies treat the lives of people like the senator much differently from less fortunate American citizens."

While the national debate continues, and as Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell makes "a last-ditch" attempt to navigate the minefield within his own party to get a bill through the Senate, a look at low-income Americans desperately lining up and waiting for hours to receive the most basic care provides a sharp indictment of a for-profit system that increasing numbers of people realize is both inhumane and beyond repair.

In recent days, a temporary free medical clinic set up in rural Virginia offered a brutal reminder about how people without access to health insurance or regular care remain victims to a healthcare system that leaves tens of millions Americans left out. As the Washington Post reported:

No relief is in sight for someone like Larry McKnight, who sat in a horse stall at the Wise County Fairgrounds having his shoulder examined. He was among more than a thousand people attending the area’s 18th annual Remote Area Medical clinic, where physicians and dentists dispense free care to those who otherwise have none.

"I really think that they don’t have any clue what’s going on," McKnight said of political leaders in Washington. "You watch the news and it’s two sides pitted against each other, which in turn just makes them pitted against us, the normal person."

Dr. Paula Hill, clinical director of the Central Appalachia Health Wagon, which organizes the event, explained to the local Bristol Herald Courier that the health care provided at the RAM clinic is vital to those it serves.  "These people need help," Hill said. "There are people out there that work every day that do not have access to vision and dental care, even if they have insurance."

Late Saturday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) shared the Post's article on the free clinic to his Facebook page and added this commentary: 

No. This is not some poor third world country where over one thousand people lined up in a field for emergency health care. This is Virginia, the United States of America, the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. But it's not just Virginia. It's every state in the nation. Today, in the United States, some 28 million people have no health insurance while even more are under-insured with high deductibles, high co-payments and high prescription drug costs. Unbelievably, the Republicans are not content with this disgraceful situation. They want to make it even worse by throwing another 22 million people off of the health insurance they currently have. Our answer: in a democratic civilized society, health care must be a right of all, not a privilege. We need a Medicare for All single payer program.

And so, as Pavlovitz argues, talking about healthcare in the wake of the "terrible news" about Sen. McCain is not "disrespectful" or off the mark.

It's the whole goddamn point.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/07/23/connecting-mccains-tragic-diagnosis-trumpcare-goddamn-point

Trumpcare: Slashes MEDICAID $880 BILLION in WEALTHY WELFARE

Trump promised not to cut Medicaid. His health bill will cut $880 billion from it.

Updated by Andrew Prokopandrew@vox.com  Mar 13, 2017,

Trump at his campaign announcement in June 2015.

 Steve Sands/Getty

As a candidate, Donald Trump promised that he wouldn’t cut Medicaid. He’d “save Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security without cuts,” he pledged during his announcement speech. “Have to do it.”

The House Republican health care bill doesn’t just break that promise — it makes a mockery of it.

According to the Congressional Budget Office estimate released Monday, the American Health Care Act would slash $880 billion in federal funds from Medicaid in the next 10 years. As a result, 14 million fewer people would have Medicaid coverage in 2026, the agency estimates.

Trump’s promise not to cut Medicaid wasn’t a one-off — he used it specifically to argue that he was different from other Republicans. In May 2015 when he was preparing his campaign, he said, “I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid. Every other Republican is going to cut.”

That same month, he tweeted the following:

 Follow

Donald J. Trump 

✔@realDonaldTrump

I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid. Huckabee copied me.

11:38 AM - 7 May 2015

 
•  3,2523,252 Retweets
 
•  2,1822,182 likes

Trump has also repeatedly promised, even after his election, that his health care plan would provide insurance for everyone. “We’re going to have insurance for everybody,” he said in January. “There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.”

The American Health Care Act utterly breaks that promise. Not only does it roll back Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, it would overhaul the entire Medicaid program to cap how many federal dollars states would get per enrollee, as Dylan Matthews explains. As a result, it would cause millions of people to be tossed off Medicaid without offering them an affordable alternative.

http://www.vox.com/2017/3/13/14914812/trump-ahca-medicaid-cuts

Affordable Care Act

The US is the only industrialized nation that fails to provide universal health care to its citizens. 

US health statistics reveal the consequences. 

The GOP has ignored the increasing ranks of uninsured Americans or is it just the wealthy that hard working Americans are supporting?  

When will we as a nation protect our brethren? 

President Obama Remarks on the Affordable Care Act

http://www.c-span.org/video/?326435-1/president-obama-remarks-affordable-care-act

I can promise you this.....

 

I'm about an hour from stepping out onto a stage in front of thousands of people who came out to Waterfront Park in Burlington, Vermont to kick off my campaign for president.

Today, as I've walked around my hometown, I've seen families with young children as well as many seniors; folks who drove three or four hours and more to get here. They have come together united around a single purpose: starting a political revolution to take back our country from powerful special interests.

I will tell them shortly what I'll tell you now: This is our country, and it's time we took it back from the billionaire class. Today, we come together to say, "Enough is enough."

I'm asking you to add your $5 contribution to our campaign now to help us start this political revolution. Click here to make your contribution.

The Agenda for America I'm laying out this afternoon is a bold plan that can and will rebuild our country. Here are some of the components of that agenda:

• Address income and wealth inequality by demanding that the wealthy and large corporations start paying their fair share of taxes
• Make quality health care a right for all Americans
• Raise the minimum wage to a living wage and make sure women are paid as much as men
• Make higher education affordable by ending tuition at all public colleges and universities and by substantially lowering interest rates on student debt
• Expand and protect Social Security and Medicare
• Have America lead the world in addressing the planetary crisis of climate change
• Take on Wall Street to restore sanity to our economy

There's much more, of course, and you'll be hearing more detail about each of these issues in the weeks ahead.

But let's be clear about one thing. While you and I and most people in America see these proposals as common sense, they represent a very real threat to the political and financial establishments.

We are challenging powerful special interests, which is exactly what we have to do if we are to transform our society.

For years, the very rich have gotten richer while the rest of us have gotten poorer. Powerful corporations make billions emitting carbon into the atmosphere as they accelerate climate change and help destroy the planet.

 

Private insurance companies and drug companies make huge profits while 35 million Americans have no health insurance.

 

Now, a handful of billionaires are flooding our political system with huge amounts of money, drowning out the voices of the rest of America. They own much of the economy. Now they want to own our government.

 

But we're not going to allow that to happen. The forces of greed are enormously powerful but, when we stand together, we can beat them. And we're going to beat them not just for ourselves, but for future generations and for the survival of our planet.

 

Now I am asking you to help us build our campaign. Please contribute $5 now to our campaign.

Let's be clear about something in this campaign: we will be vastly outspent, not just by other candidates, but also by Super PACs and shadowy groups funded by some of the wealthiest people in this country.

 

I can promise you this, however. Every penny contributed to our campaign will go to building the platform on which we can launch our political revolution.

 

Already, more than 120,000 people have contributed over $5 million dollars to our campaign, with an average contribution of about $40 dollars. In other words, our campaign is not being funded by million dollar checks coming from the rich and the powerful.

 

Instead, we are powered by ten dollars from a park ranger in Florida; twenty dollars from a woman who cleans school buses in Colorado; thirty-five dollars from a union worker in Minnesota. Incredibly, we are receiving five dollar contributions from low-income folks who are retired, on disability, or who are struggling to get a job in this economy.

 

And if you can't donate right now, I understand that. Times are tough for too many people, and there are other ways that you can help. But if you're fortunate enough to be able to make a contribution to our campaign, it would be great if you could make a contribution right now.

 

Click here to donate $5 to our campaign for president.

It's almost time to go out and meet the thousands of Vermonters who are in Burlington today to join our campaign kickoff. As we hit the campaign trail, you'll hear more from us in the days ahead as we take our grassroots movement to New Hampshire, Iowa and elsewhere.

I cannot thank you enough for all you've done so far for our campaign, and all you'll continue to do.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

- Bernie

 

P.S. You can watch a livestream of my announcement online. Click here to watch at 5pm ET.

 

 

 

 

The Progress Report: Health Care Mythbusters

The report speaks for itself!

Why would any reasonable person deny Americans health care?

Health Care Mythbusters

Jul 10, 2014 | By CAP Action War Room

Six Pieces of Great News In The Latest Research On The ACA

We’ve heard the conservative critics of the Affordable Care Act express their skepticism of the law’s successes many times. Not enough uninsured Americans are signing up for coverage. Individuals with coverage through the ACA can’t access the doctors that they want. People with ACA insurance coverage are worse off than they were before the law went into effect.

Turns out, new research from The Commonwealth Fund dispels these myths — and finds that even Republicans with new health coverage through the ACA exchanges are happy with the results.

Here are six key findings from the survey:

1. The Uninsured Rate In America Has Fallen From 20 Percent To 15 Percent. According to the Commonwealth survey, the uninsured rate for adults under age 65 dropped from 20 percent before the ACA marketplaces opened last September to 15 percent in their April-to-June 2014 survey period. That amounts to 9.5 million fewer uninsured adults. More than three-in-five (63 percent) who selected a private plan or enrolled in Medicaid said that they were uninsured prior to gaining coverage. This isn’t the first report to make the case that millions of uninsured got covered thanks to the ACA: Gallup has also seen a precipitous drop in individuals without coverage.
2. People Who Signed Up For New ACA Insurance Plans Are Happy With Them–Including Republicans. Overall, 78 percent of new enrollees were very or somewhat satisfied with their new health insurance, including 73 percent of those enrolling in private plans and 84 percent of those enrolling in Medicaid. What is even more noteworthy is that nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of Republicans reported being satisfied with their coverage, too.
3. In States That Expanded Medicaid, The Uninsured Rate For Those In Poverty Plummeted. The percent of uninsured adults with incomes at 100 percent of the federal poverty line or below dropped sharply in the states that expanded Medicaid, from 28 percent to 17 percent. But the other side of the story isn’t as positive: in the states that have continued to put politics over people and refuse to expand health care to low-income Americans, there was no significant change in insurance coverage among those in poverty.
4. The Groups Most In Need Of Coverage Are Seeing The Biggest Gains. Plenty of the law’s followers, both supporters and opponents alike, were unsure at the beginning if young people would sign up for insurance. The Commonwealth survey reaffirms that they did. In fact, young adults ages 19 to 34 the largest decline in uninsured rate among all age groups, from 28 percent to 18 percent. And among racial groups, Latinos were the most likely to be without insurance coverage; they are also the ones seeing the biggest gains, with the percent uninsured falling from 36 percent to 23 percent.
5. Most People Are Finding The Doctors They Want And The Care They Need. Among adults who enrolled in new coverage, more than half (54 percent) said that their plan included all or some of the doctors they wanted. Of the new enrollees who tried to find a primary care doctor, three-quarters found it easy or somewhat easy. And of those who found a doctor, two-thirds got an appointment within two weeks. Perhaps even more importantly, three in five enrollees have already used their new coverage for health care services (either doctor/hospital visit or filling prescription) and 62 percent of these people couldn’t have accessed or afforded this care before the ACA.
6. People Agree They Are Better Off. The majority of people in the survey (58 percent) thought they were better off with their new health coverage. A minority (27 percent) thought they were basically the same as they were before. Just 9 percent of respondents thought they were worse off with their new coverage.

In other related news, it turns out that all that anti-Affordable Care Act advertising by the Koch brothers may have actually helped the law.

BOTTOM LINE: The latest research takes a close, scientific look at the before and after of the first enrollment period and offers a lot of good news for the law. The Affordable Care Act is working: the stronger the evidence gets, the harder the conservative myths about it fall.

Like CAP Action on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

Death by Dogma: Charlene Dill Didn’t Have to Die

. . . Except That They're Driving the Working Poor Over the Cliff 

Republican-controlled States are refusing to take free federal money to expand Medicaid health care coverage to the working poor. My State, Florida, is one of them. The consequences of this callous GOP decision are grave. In a column for the Tampa Bay Times last week, I explained how grave they were for Charlene Dill - they put her in her grave. Please take a moment to read my piece, entitled "The price of ideology: a woman's life." I believe that every Floridian who is sick should be able to see a doctor. Every person should get the necessary care to stay healthy and alive. Sadly, not every Floridian can afford health care. One of my constituents, Charlene Dill, could not afford it. Last month, at 32, Charlene died of heart disease, leaving her three young children behind. This young mother didn't have to die. Charlene knew she had a heart problem, but she couldn't afford the medications and frequent visits to the doctor. She worked three jobs but earned only $11,000 last year. With only $11,000 to feed her three children, keep a roof over their heads and pay the property taxes on her trailer, Charlene couldn't afford standard health coverage. And because she made more than $5,400, she was not eligible for free or reduced-cost coverage under Florida Medicaid. Floridians with annual incomes between $5,400 and $11,400 are stuck in the "Medicaid expansion gap." Charlene Dill was one of an estimated 1 million uninsured Floridians who fell into that gap. It cost Charlene her life. When Congress passed Obamacare, it included a provision to expand Medicaid coverage to the working poor, like Charlene. States expanding Medicaid would receive the full cost of that coverage from the federal government for three years, and then 90 percent of the cost after that. The U.S. Supreme Court determined that states could drop that expansion after the first three years, without penalty, and pay nothing. The federal government committed more than $50 billion to fund Florida's Medicaid expansion. You might think that our cash-strapped state would be clamoring for money to provide health care to the sick and poor. But you would be wrong. Republican ideologues in the Legislature refused the money. And now, Charlene Dill is gone. Florida has the second highest rate of uninsured individuals in the nation. Twenty percent of our state has no coverage. When these people get sick, they go to the emergency room. Emergency rooms cannot provide long-term care, manage chronic health conditions or provide lifesaving treatments on a one-off basis. Charlene could never get the care from one single visit to the emergency room that she needed to stay alive. And she won't be the only one. One study estimates that approximately 1,158 to 2,221 Floridians will die each year as a result of Republicans' stubborn refusal to expand Medicaid. Even if you leave aside the obvious moral merit of providing health care to nearly 1 million Floridians, the GOP's refusal to expand Medicaid defies any economic sense. Florida's forfeiture of tens of billions of federal dollars means that our federal tax dollars will instead pay for health coverage for the working poor in New York, California and other states that expanded Medicaid. But our own residents will receive nothing. That's a high price to pay for the GOP's blind adherence to ideology. The rejection of Medicaid funding is only the latest instance of our GOP state legislators putting party politics ahead of what's good for Florida. Their intractable opposition to the President has led them repeatedly to turn down federal aid with no strings attached - money that is urgently needed in central Florida. In 2011, GOP lawmakers attempted to block $8.3 million in federal aid to allow the Osceola County Health Department to expand its community health centers. Why? Because they didn't like Obamacare. Lawmakers also turned down $2.1 million over a five-year period to help elderly and disabled nursing home patients regain independence and move back home - again, because they didn't like Obamacare. (Ironically, the same legislators so morally opposed to accepting any money from Obamacare made an exception for $2.6 million in funding for "abstinence-only" sex education.) Republican legislators argue that accepting funds from a bill that they opposed would be politically "inconsistent." But what is more important, saving face or saving lives? To Republican lawmakers in Tallahassee, on behalf of all of Florida, I have one request of you: Choose life. Expand Medicaid. Take the money. And spare 1 million Floridians from suffering, from sickness and from death. Charlene Dill: R.I.P.

Paid for and Authorized by the Committee to Elect Alan Grayson

The Health Wagon: Third World Health Care

If you didn't see 60 Minutes' segment on Health Care, it's a must watch! [links below]

60 Minutes Story on The Health Wagon – Full Piece



Dirty Coal has impoverished and destroyed communities, leaving in its wake untreated health problems and hungry Americans.

In this case, dedicated workers provide much needed care. What of those communities that lack care?

60 Minutes

Nurse practitioners are providing badly needed health care to the uninsured... S46 (12:38)

Affordable Care


This defines the Moral Bankruptcy of a nation.