I have searched for the right words to find for the health care industry, and every time I attempt to articulate my thoughts on the matter, finding the right words becomes difficult due to my lack of expertise. I will now try to articulate those thoughts based on what I know, and hope that it doesn't sound like Liberal jibberish.



Talk, or paranoia rather, about health care reform has managed to ensue the nation, causing a massive uproar that stems further outside the neoconservative base. Let's take a look at the arguments here:

The conservative base in general has always had a fear of "socialized health care; it is not exclusive to the neoconservative base. This paranoia has stemmed back to the early 60's even, when the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Operation Coffee Cup Campaign against Socialized Medicine released videos and records attempting to instill fear amongst average Americans, and succeeded. The Operation Coffee Cup Campaign against Socialized Medicine sold records of a familiar celebrity voice by the name of Ronald Reagan, who, at the time, was still a private citizen. On this record, Mr. Reagan preaches that doctors begin to lose their freedom, would not be able to work in their town because there would be regulations that only allow a certain amount of doctors in each city. The government would also regulate who could see which doctor, and determine who lives or dies. From this program, other programs would follow that would invade the freedoms of every American in the nation, "..until one day, we will awake to find, we have SOCIALISM."

Ok don't get me started on socialism as I've already had way too many conversations about that, but since it's already been brought up, allow me to make a preemptive list of all the different socialist programs within the United States that many of us are using, or have used:
- Medicare
- Medicaid
- Social Security
- Unemployment
- Bridges built
- Libraries
- Public Roads
- Public Schools
- The U.S. Postal Service
- The Police Department
- The Fire Department
- The Holocaust Memorial

You get the idea. Republicans may say they hate socialism, but they would never speak out against having a police department. See both the ignorance AND the hypocrisy?

In the early 1990's, when Bill Clinton took office, he gave the job of reforming the health care system to a very familiar figure today: The now Former First Lady and current Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. Her goal was to achieve universal health care; health insurance for all Americans without the denial as a result of a preexisting condition, or "experimental procedures" etc etc etc. The counter-argument was made by figures who were significant then, and in some cases, are still significant today (Bob Dole, Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, etc). They, once again, created fear about "socialized medicine" and about how we would have no control over our coverage, what doctor we saw, what kind of treatments we would receive, you get the idea. The argument was the same then as it was in the early 1960's, only the media became much more evolved, and had a similar layout that we see today in 2009. So the word was able to be spread very quickly, and more activism spawned from that, one protester even burning Hillary Clinton in effigy.

The health care industry (The AMA, Health Insurance Association of America, etc), at that point, paid congress over $100,000,000 (one-hundred million dollars) to silence Clinton's health care crusade, and succeeded in blocking health care reform. It wasn't the politicians, it was those whom the politicians sold their votes to. Hillary Clinton's silence herself was then bought by the health care industry as she became the 2nd highest earner of money from health care lobbyists in the entire senate. All orchestrated by the ones who want to maintain the status quo. If you don't believe me, take a look:

Within an insurance company is someone known as a medical reviewer. A medical reviewer is someone, often times another doctor, who determines whether or not an insurance company will pay for a certain method of treatment. The Medical Reviewers, along with the Board of Trustees, determine whether or not someone can be treated or not. If not, they instruct the doctors to not allow the treatment to take place. The standard by which someone is allowed or denied coverage for their treatment is determined by the Medical Director. As one former Medical Reviewer for Humana said, "The very definition of a good medical director is someone who can save the company a lot of money."

This Former Medical Reviewer goes on to talk about the mandatory denial rate, which at the time she worked, was 10%. That means that 1 out of every 10 people at a minimum would have to be denied coverage in order for them to retain their job. That number is then compared to what the denial rate of that reviewer was, and the ones with even more denials are given bonuses. So they're given incentive to screw people over: If I can save my company money, even if it's at the cost of someone's life, I'll get some of that money saved for my own personal use.

Sounds pretty soulless doesn't it?

Well, one medical reviewer actually had a soul, and chose to testify in open court: Dr. Linda Peeno, another former worker for Humana who now has a career in Medical Ethics. Here's part of the testimony she gave back in February of 2002:

“As a physician working for Humana, I denied a young man a heart transplant that would have saved his life, and thus caused his death. No person or group has held me accountable for this, because, in fact, what I did was I saved a company a half a million dollars.

“Humana’s only concern was costs. The young man fit all the criteria, a donor had been found, his doctor was ready to do the operation. Meanwhile, behind the scenes Humana employees scrambled to find a loophole in the patient’s contract. When they did, I was the one who had to tell the surgeon that the operation would not be covered.

“The doctor asked me if I knew that the patient would likely die of his condition without the surgery, and I said I knew. When I hung up the phone my colleagues at Humana were thrilled, even joyful. I was sickened....When HMO’s came on the scene, we were told that they would eliminate only the 'inappropriate care' and they would reduce costs so everyone could have insurance. Exactly the opposite has happened. They deny and delay needed care with sophisticated techniques, consume enormous resources for overhead costs and profits, and health care costs are rising dramatically.”


Another former worker for an insurance company named Lee Einer, someone who was hired to look for reasons, even one slip-up on an application otherwise invisible to the naked eye, to get an insurance company's money back if they've been forced to pay for a procedure, had a few words to say:

"We're going to go after this like it's a murder case, and I mean a whole unit that is devoted to going through your health history for the last 5 years." He goes on to say that you might not even know you have had a preexisting condition, but an insurance company would ping you for one for having a symptom that might indicate a condition that an otherwise prudent person would seek treatment for known as a "Prudent Person Preexisting Condition." Thankfully that's not legal in every state, but there are still states where it's permitted.

"It's their friggin money!" he adds, "It's not unintentional. It's not a mistake. It's not an oversight issue. You're not slipping through the cracks, somebody made that crack and swept you toward it, and the intent is to maximize profits."
"...Did I do harm in other people's lives? Yeah... Hell yeah."

One insurance group, Keiser Permanente, wouldn't even allow treatment for someone's daughter, even though they were taken to the hospital and had a fever of above 104 degrees. Why? The mother didn't take their doctor to a Keiser Permanente hospital, and thus the Board of Trustees would not allow treatment. The woman was forced out of the hospital as she was being viewed as a volatile threat, and she then took her daughter to a Keiser Permanente hospital, just in time for her to have a seizure, slip into cardiac arrest, and die. The reason? It would have cost Keiser Permanente too much money to treat her at a different hospital.

One woman even had her health care coverage dropped after she had a procedure for cancer, and then they discovered that several years ago, she had a yeast infection. It wasn't that the procedure itself was illegal or unjust, it was just that the procedure cost a lot of money, and so the insurance company scrambled to find a reason they could get the money back. So, a simple yeast infection was enough of a preexisting condition to not only drop her coverage, but to force the doctors to come after her for the money from her procedure. The goal? To maximize profits.

These are all people who already had insurance. The stories of tragedy are endless, and in some form or another, touch us all. The United States has the lowest infant mortality rate in the entire Western World, your baby would have a better chance of surviving in El Salvador than here. As of 2007 we were the 37th ranked nation in the world when it came to health care, the #1 on the list being those "European Socialist Nations", France. Yes, those who we tried to demonize and change the name of French Fries for, they outdo us in Health Care 36x over, quite literally too.

One might argue that those nations with socialized medicine have absurdly long waiting periods to get in for an examination, doctors don't get paid as much, and often flock to America so they can have better coverage.

All Myths.

Many Canadians refuse to even come to America without some kind of guarantee that their insurance would be covered if they were injured. The moment they cross the boarder, they have no insurance. If they break a bone and need to go to the hospital, they're instantly several thousands of dollars in debt unless they can stand they pain until they drive back to Canada. Even in the busiest hospital, there have been several testimonies that the longest anyone has to wait to get treatment would be 20-40 minutes. The supposed fact that the better, more immediate treatment is here in America couldn't be more false.


Now, let's get back to modern days, what is the argument against health care reform now? They're creating fear about "socialized medicine" and about how we would have no control over our coverage, what doctor we saw, what kind of treatments we would receive, and in the end, senior citizens would be, essentially, put to death because the government could control how they die.

...Folks, it's just the same old song and dance. The same routine that Reagan and the AMA pushed in the 1960's, they're still pushing now, and it's working. Obama's approval rating on health care? 39%. Town Hall meetings on the matter? They're exploding across the nation, some even in acts of violence. One congressman has already been assaulted, and two earlier today nearly broke out in a riot. As one senior citizen tried to say, "Why should we have to change our way of life for only 20% of our country??" *whole room applauds.*

What they don't take into account is not only was that senior citizen most likely under a socialized health care program, but the 80% that do have insurance are on the verge of losing their coverage due to a lack of job security nowadays, or are at risk of having their treatment denied as companies become even greedier during an economic crisis. So, let's put that number of people with secure health insurance closer to about 50-60%. That puts half of our country either uninsured, on the verge of losing their coverage, or likely to not have a treatment covered. And yet even the thought of reforming health care, accompanied by that scary word "socialism", has created so much fear, anger, and outrage amongst citizens based off of what their congressmen say that people essentially want to kill over it.

The congressmen who they're getting their "opinions" from are those who have sold their votes to the health care industry. As a result, the people are becoming so fired up about an issue that they do not understand, but yet it reaches into the very depths of one's self-security: The thought of losing coverage and potentially dying. It's driving people to the point where we're on the verge of either revolution, or all-out civil war. It's truly unbelievable; something that should be as uniting of a cause as any, the right for every American to be treated, is on the verge of tearing us completely in half.

If you do not believe change is needed in the health care sector, I invite you to reread what I wrote in its entirety, and then explain your reasons why. I invite you to tell me why things shouldn't be changed, and why more of the horror stories you just read about should continue to happen simply for the sake of bolstering your own political status. As Senator Jim DeMint said, health care reform "will be Obama's Waterloo."

It's time for us as a nation to say enough to the greed. Enough to the lies. Enough to it all. It's time we stood up and fought for what is the truth as opposed to a load of fabricated crap that comes directly from the Legislative branch selling their souls, both Democrat and Republican alike. It's time we said enough is enough. We were all so outraged by the greed of the banking industry, and yet the greed within the health care industry is not only acceptable, but worth tearing our nation in half over? Worth dividing this great, one of a kind nation? We would go to war over something as simple as wanting all Americans to have coverage?


The time for greed and selfishness is over; the time for uniting for a common cause is now, and we are the only ones who can make it happen.

Good thread Domino.

I just don't believe Greed and Lies will not be part of "National Health Care". In fact it will be full of loopholes that will take decades to close. Can we not fix our current Health Care System, which is the best, and most expensive, in the world? Or do we scrap it and start over?

Now that was worth reading. Though very sad. People are so skeptical of government, yet they would allow the status quo, which is robbing them blind to keep things as they are. Sadly some of the very people that have been staunchly against this may find themselves in some of the awful positions described in this article. I have to wonder if they will feel any remorse at all.


I guess I believe in what goes around comes around for all of us. When you deny treatment, you might just be denied yourself.

Skeptical of government.......That's an understatement.........
The ******** can't be trusted..........

yes, all the systems that don't work need to be scraped and start over...
many have been failing for a long time. These up and coming young people have a lot of great ideas on how to do these things. Get these rich old farty white men out of power...
I would love for my grandchildren to have a better world.

Good read and well articulated. Your own thoughts and research. You should be a writer and get paid for it instead of letting it go for free all the time.

Okay now back to greed...lol

I have been trying to point some of those points out to people myself.

I guess if the program is not one you need or see need for, it is socialist and the enemy is the government who is trying to force it on you.

I did some research myself and if you enter England no matter if you are a citizen or not and need care and help it is available to you.

Canada will provide you with health care no matter if you are a citizen or not.

Mexico will provide you health care whether you belong there or not. Of course there are warnings to the quality of care there but they will still give it to you at almost no cost.

Care to give any sort of logic or are you just going to sit there making grubmly emoticons and typing a lot of dots?

Sweet post OP... Well written and researched.




They get care here also on our dime(need I remind any of the 'illegal' tail chasing... We send doctors all over the world on our dime.

We do those things now... Why change the system. They send their young doctors to US FOR TRAINING... (and some of them are darn good doctors).

why change the entire system when all you need to do is 'tweek' it a bit... Fed guidlines type of tweek... In our BEST interests.

In keeping with what the world needs also.

Thanks for all the compliments, I'm actually trying to work on a Journalism and Political Science double-major as time progresses.

There are people without care paying cash to see the doctors here in this country. That is not acceptable. If it is by choice for them that is different but it is not.

Tweeking a failing system will not help.

Good luck finding a job.

That was a sweet piece of research... I remember some of that.

Well I'm glad people liked it, I haven't gotten really much for negative feedback (one person tried to say I had "fallen off the deep end" for claiming the police department etc. was a form of socialism, so he didn't even challenge anything substantive), but otherwise.. Seems like I did something sort of right anyway.

If I may, I would like to add more programs to your list.

Sewage disposal
Legal Aid
Garbage pick-up
Service jobs
Museums
Animal Control
Parks

I'm sure there's more too.

if you don't have health insurance Canada will not allow you in to the country

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYSYipouABI

One thing wrong...

Lots of the 'bad' listed but none of the 'good'... There are allways both.

Well if I were to do an article about how we execute health care reform I would include the positives; what works about the current health care system we have. This is simply a call to say we need health care reform, and we need to push through it regardless of what pea-brained argument against reform there might be.

Thanks for the additional list, gotta drive the point home about how insane the opposition is being.

except one pea brained concept.

There are other ways of fixin it besides spending money that does not exist.

My government is no longer functioning as a representitive of the people...

It serves corporations.

and has placed this nation in a position where it has effectivly removed the quality of life and very freedoms of FUTURE citizens of this country.

I wish to fix THAT first... Before I allow medical care to be decided upon (by those same people that have SHOWN a lack of ears where people are concerned).

I am tired of the 'we know better' crap from congress....

We all know by know this is far from true.

Couldn't agree more, it's become a government for the corporation, by the corporation. At the same time, can't that be eliminated by pushing legislation regardless of how many millions of dollars the industry pumps into congress in attempt to shut people up?

In other words, can't we make them irrelevant by pushing beyond them, or do the lobbyists for certain need to be taken out of the picture before anything can happen? Can we push beyond, or do we need to completely push them out to move forward? It's a legitimate question to ask.