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Posted by Kari Chisholm on Sunday, June 10, 2007

Universal Health Care: Tell Senator Wyden what you think.

Universal health care.  It's a nice bumper sticker, but Senator Ron Wyden has actually produced a plan to get us there.

His plan guarantees every American universal, affordable, comprehensive, portable, high-quality, private health coverage that is as good or better than Members of Congress have today.  And with the independently-reviewed cost containment measures, it's entirely paid for—with the $2.2 trillion that we're already spending today.  

You can learn more about the Healthy Americans Act (surely more than you ever wanted to know), but here's what Senator Wyden and I would like to know:  What do you think?  Does the plan make sense?  Tell us what you like.  Tell us what you don't like. 

It's going to be hard work passing this critical legislation, and - for all Americans - it'll take some getting used to.  How will it make your life better and more secure?  Will it be worth it?

Let's start a conversation about health care for all Americans.

Comments (47)

  • Posted by Sandie Bossenbroek on Monday, June 11, 2007

    Hi! I wanted to email Sen. Wyden earlier on in my semester (I am working towards a BS in Healthcare Services Mgt) as I had read of his proposal and it intrigued me.  I am writing a paper entitled “Single Payer Healthcare - Is the Healthy American’s Act a Solutiion?” What I am wondering is if you could briefly tell me (honestly) what the overall political consensus is on this proposal.  Having worked in healthcare for the past 13+ years, I believe that SOMETHING must be done!  For the uninsured, the underinsured and the hey I’m going broke covering my family’s health insurance folks (like me!).  If you have time in the next few days - the paper is due Sat. night - I would greatly appreciate a response.  Thanks so much and good luck.  If it ever gets to the point that someone like me in Texas can help, let me know!  thanks, Sandie Bossenbroek - Fredericksburg, TX

  • Posted by Kari Chisholm on Friday, June 15, 2007

    Well, Sandie, right now there’s a growing political consensus that we must do something for universal health care—but there’s a lot of debate about what the solution should be.  Should be a government-run program?  Or should we regulate and leverage the power of private markets?  Should we mandate that everyone gets insurance, and if so, how do we protect low-income folks? 

    I’d recommend exploring this site - and reading the many news articles we’ve linked here… there’s a lot of information out there.

  • Posted by Harold Ream on Tuesday, June 26, 2007

  • Posted by Susan Silodor on Tuesday, July 3, 2007

    I agree about the devil being in the details.  And I think that it will be damn near impossible to come up with a plan that is fail-safe. My question is about employers who currently do NOT offer insurance...what about their employees and how, exactly, will their premiums be figured?

    I’d very much like to see this plan moved forward to a vote.  Because without a reform plan in place, we are left with nothing to amend, shape and reshape as we work out those devilish details.

  • Posted by Joe Shields on Friday, August 10, 2007

    I like the Wyden plan.  In fact, I will no longer vote for a candidate for national office, regardless of party, who does not unequivocally support the Wyden Health Care plan.  If no candidate for a specific office supports the Wyden Plan, I will write in “Ron Wyden of Oregon” on the ballot.

  • Posted by Rick Falk on Tuesday, October 2, 2007

  • Posted by Diane Bakker on Monday, February 25, 2008

    I am a Republican and I think the Plan sounds pretty good.  My question is, if this money is a “one-time pay raise”, wouldn’t we have to pay taxes on it?

  • Posted by Judy Wilcox on Wednesday, February 27, 2008

    Problems with Sen. Wyden’s healthcare plan -

    - IT IS NOT A SINGLE PAYOR PLAN
    - for profit insurance companies are still involved in healthcare
    - what happens when rates increase?
    - what is the cost of the burocracy to regulate your plan?
    - recommend everyone interested in healthcare issues see Michael Moore’s documentary SICKO

  • Posted by Clark Carradine on Monday, March 3, 2008

    This is the first “Free Market” approach to health care that I believe can actually work in the USA. I am a self-employed individual who has been DENIED health insurance because I am in a high risk pool because of benign high blood pressure. Which is another way of saying I am not PROFITABLE to the insurance companies.

    I have written both my Senators from Texas. I urege everyone esle to do the same today.

  • Posted by Jeff Jones on Thursday, March 6, 2008

    This is the best health care plan to ever come out of D.C. Sen. Wyden should run for president!

    ...and I’m a registered Republican!

  • Posted by Dbeorah Rendahl on Thursday, March 13, 2008

    This appears to be a fair plan to a problem that is the foremost issue for me .
    I worked in the restaurant business for years
    and only had adequete health care during a period of three years I lived in the state of Hawaii- I now work as an educational assistant in Oregon. a Although I have health care benfits ,after I pay for my $25.00 a month union dues that allows this to happen and my $35.00 a month ins.premiums, my take home is such that I can’t really afford the 25.00 co-pays for the doctor who will probably refer me to a $35.00 specialist because I have one of those great plans that says I can see any specialist without referal - meaning I usally have to self diagnoss to save $25.00. Nor can I afford the prescription co-pays.
    D. Rendahl

  • Posted by Rebecca Lord on Monday, April 14, 2008

    The only way to bring down the cost of healtcare is to take the insurance companies out of the picture and require pharmaceutical to lower their prices. We already have health care systems that work very efficiently - the US Congress coverage and the military/VA systems. These could be expanded to provide coverage to all Americans.

    Currently, hospitals and in insurance comanies are in collusion to keep prices high. I heard a report today that an MRI costs around $1200 whereas the actual cost is closer to $100. How would this change if everyone is required to get insurance through an insurance company?!?

  • Posted by Gary Kleppe on Wednesday, April 16, 2008

    Let’s stop bending over backwards to accommodate the private insurance industry’s leeching off of us. Cut them out of the picture and pass the system which will be far simpler and cheaper than any public/private hybrid mess: single-payer.

  • Posted by steve on Wednesday, April 16, 2008

    Nice start ... but it needs a do-over.

    Nobody will compel me to purchase a private product. Don’t bother to compare to auto insurance, I use a car on public roads. I don’t live on the street.

    Until the special interests are out of the ‘healthcare industry’ I won’t support it. You and nobody’s army can’t make me!

    The ‘system’ is made up of rip-off insurance companies, double-billing hospitals, Mafia-run big-pharma, hacks, cranks and quack doctors ... if you want to improve healthcare, get these parasites out of the picture, first. Don’t even try to make me buy this crap until you compel the healthcare ‘system’ to guarantee their products and to honor contracts.

    Otherwise, I’ll see you in court!

    >>>>>>>>>

  • Posted by David English on Wednesday, April 16, 2008

    I agree with the premise of universal health care for all. The video though didn’t do much for me though. I’m not sure what it is that makes me feel odd about it.

  • Posted by Jeff on Monday, April 21, 2008

    Health insurance should be:
    1) portable
    2) universal
    3) designed to promote welness (no preexisting exclusions)
    4) directly answerable to voters (publicly administered)

    Three out of four may not be bad, but there’s room for improvement.

    Many people work at minimum wage jobs which do not provide insurance benefits. For those people, the expectation that their employer will give them a raise commensurate with their benefits package is glib.

    There are tens of millions of people who cannot afford even the most rudimentary medical insurance. People under $50k/year income and those who don’t have employer provided insurance should be allowed to opt-in to medicaid.

    I’m ambivalent about having for-profit insurance have any role whatsoever in the delivery of medical care, but if the current political reality does not allow their malignant presence to be removed from the system, we should at least devise a system which encourages an effective, accountable public system to grow around it.

    Sen Wyden, I know that you have been a strong proponent for public power here in the northwest (I’m a Grays Harbor PUD customer). I see many of the same dynamics at work in this issue. Private insurers only interest is in maximizing profit. Private utilities operate the same way. Were it not for government intervention, huge areas of the northwest would be without power because private profit does not always generate public good.

    Open eligibility for Medicaid should be a significant component of any reform.

  • Posted by Judy Hopkinson on Wednesday, April 23, 2008

    There are two problems with this plan:

    1. It will still siphon approximately 30% of health care dollars to private insurance companies. America needs a single payer system.

    2. It still puts the consumer in the position of having to sort through fine print on dozens of options, figure out which companies are least likely to deny payment when medical costs exceed their expectations, and then live with the anxiety that they really do not know whether they picked either the best plan or the least predatory company. The anxiety associated with sorting through and relying on commercial insurance agencies to cover health care is phenominally stress provoking. It would be informative to have an estimate of the health impact of that stress. The cost of keeping private insurance agencies might actually be somewhat more than 30% of what we now spend.

  • Posted by Jeff Tramiel on Wednesday, April 23, 2008

    Your proposal, sadly, ASS-umes that all people want ‘establishment’, drug-driven health care.  Your so-called ‘wellness’ provisions do not take into account the possibility of people wanting non-pharmaceutical solutions to their health, such as homeopathy which the AMA was specifically formed back in the 1840s to abolish.

  • Posted by B. Nerin on Wednesday, April 23, 2008

    The idea is great; the method of implementing is flawed because of the unnecessary expense of supporting the Insurance industry.  A single payer plan, such as medicare, is far more cost efficient.  As a taxpayer I am fed up with Government policies that benefit unnecessary expenditures.

  • Posted by William Tepper on Wednesday, April 23, 2008

    Thank you for bringing this up, although I see some flaws I think we need to begin this conversation and go somewhere with it. I might ask though if have you brought this up with the presidential candidates?

  • Posted by sslyon on Wednesday, April 23, 2008

    That video scares the crap out of me. After pondering it, I don’t see how it can make a positive impression on the folks who REALLY need to be convinced to support it: Small businesses.

    If you saw Bill Moyers presentation of a survey of health care programs around the world, you would have a much more rational idea as to what must be done. America is 3rd world in coverage plans. Taiwan of all places, did a global survey and successfully built a plan around the best aspects of top plans.

    You can’t tell me that we can’t do the same thing, tailored to specific American circumstances.

  • Posted by Mel Smith on Wednesday, April 23, 2008

    If everyone would stop eating the food that is packaged full of MSG, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Aspartame and other Processed food and go Organic and Support your Local Farmers. You wouldn’t need health Insurance.

    Also If you take these two substances you would have great health and wouldn’t get sick. We could break the Drug companies, The food industries,and the Insurance Companies.

    Go to these sites and read
    http://www.my-healthy.info/mms.htm

    http://topview.provibranthealth.com Watch the videos

    This may save your Life or a loved one.

  • Posted by Lee S Davis on Wednesday, April 23, 2008

    We Must not allow the Insurance Companies, tell us how to manage our Health Care System. We must Have A single payer Health System, us the system that already exist’s, expand Medicare to Cover all Americans, Fund it with a 3% tax on Income, the way we fund Social Security. Put a Clause in the Law, that say’s money from this tax, can’t be used for any other purpose, except for Health Care. Don’t allow Congress to Rob this program,the way they did with Social Security.

  • Posted by R. Rice on Wednesday, April 23, 2008

    Nothing short of a single payer, not-for-profit,
    government run program will solve the problem.

    We saw what happened with the recent private prescription drug program. Congress had to give a 15% bonus to the private insurers to compete with Medicare.

    We don’t need corporations standing between us and our doctors.

  • Posted by MAMartorana on Wednesday, April 23, 2008

    I am a senior who pays $96 per month for medicare plus $135 deductible plus 20% copayments and all my own prescriptions,vision and dental. I earn under $12,000 per year on social security which I supplement from a soon to run out savings account. I do not have a house or a car because I can’t afford it. I don’t live in subsidized housing either.  Because I have over $2000 in the bank Medi-cal does not help me. The so-called medicare hmo’s are a deceptive racket. What is this healthcare reform going to do for the many Americans who are like me?

  • Posted by Deanna Essert on Wednesday, April 23, 2008

    Universal access single payer without the blood-sucking insurance companies is the only way to go.  I watched Bill Moyers and yes, there are countries who have incorporated private insurance companies into their plan.  Switzerland is one example but these insurance companies are not-for-profit.  I don’t see any insurance company in America that would want to be not-for-profit!

  • Posted by M. Edmund Howse on Thursday, April 24, 2008

    If any insurance companies are allowed to participate the costs will not be affordable except for the wealthy. I hope this is not what you are attempting to create. Also, if you let Doctors control their own salaries, again affordability will be only for the wealthy. This is how HMO’s etc. work. Ever sat in an office for an hour before you were seen and then you get rushed out with a prescription for drugs and a note to see the Doctor again in two weeks. Real Health Care should be the main GOAL!! This means free too and mainly because 40K a year in one city etc. is not the same income as in another locale. The logistics of maintaining a lifestyle on any income is relative to many things. I hope I don’t need to spell them out?

  • Posted by Mary Kreiter on Thursday, April 24, 2008

    I live in Michigan and this proposal does not address all the people who cannot find work, so they are not employed.
    Only a plan that would supply health care to all citizens of the United States would help.  I do think that a co-pay based on income, assets etc. that would help keep people from going to the doctor un-necessarily would be a good idea, as would severe punishment for fraud.
    Frankly medicare works quite well with administrative cost of about 3%.

  • Posted by Dennis Burges on Thursday, April 24, 2008

    Unfortunately, this plan would leave most of us pretty much where we are now--just as you say. It would not approach the advantages of a national health care system. If you simply compare the administrative overhead costs of Medicare with the very best private insurance carrier, you see that ALL private plans are, sadly and simply, loaded with unnecessary large overheads--spell that profits--for an unnecessary industry.

    If I were an executive in the health insurance industry and could see what should be coming--a national health care system--I would jump on this plan with flags and whistles to try to divert attention from what the nation really needs. Are you sure, Senator, that you aren’t being funded by insurance lobbyists?

  • Posted by Madeline Bishop on Thursday, April 24, 2008

    OUT OF CONTROL! 
    Our society is out of control.

    Too many people don’t cook their own healthy food, don’t exercise, don’t use their minds to understand how their world works, don’t show initiative to turn off the media and take responsibility for their own lives, their own entertainment. They just DON’’T CARE!

    Parents used to insist that children learn how to live moral, healthy, caring lives.  Some still do. And those youngsters maximize their chances in our society.  Other young people do not have such wise parents, and grow up with bad habits and a bleak future.

    Isn’t this a “spiritual” problem in the widest sense of the word? (I’m not saying it is a “Christian” problem.) The spiritual problem is that we don’t value the miracle of a human body with a conscious spirit that lives in it.  Our life ends if we don’t take care of this body.  We must care for ourselves and each other.

    There can’t be a strong America if a large number of citizens live without caring about their own lives.  And what if our government doesn’t even care about us?

    So… here’s what I’m getting at.

    We don’t need to hear that God loves every human (or bird that falls, to quote scripture.) We need to hear that our COUNTRY loves us....And cares about us..... And that every citizen is valuable AND DESERVES HEALTH CARE. We, the people, are the United States. And we need to feel like we are a valued member of the union.  That new sense of being an important American, i.e. not thrown away by our government, can go a long way toward encouraging a desire to participate in democracy, and to even vote for people like you, senator Wyden. 

    Just one last pertinent statement.... America doesn’t need the CEO’s of Insurance companies to feel that they are valued. We don’t need to feed the bottom line of a private company (and buy a yacht for the CEO) before we get care for our meager dollars.  Let’s just pay the government and skip private industry, thank you.  We need universal health care, not universal health care insurance.

  • Posted by Cybershaman on Friday, April 25, 2008

    Due to the quest for cheap labor, American workers have had to face almost three decades of ‘downsizing’.  We watched, helpless, as all our fellow workers were eliminated.  Unfortunately, their workloads didn’t just disappear with them.  THAT was dumped on the backs of those who survived the cuts.  Now we have a workforce that is desperately trying to do the work previously done by four other people, without any financial compensation for that ‘extra productivity’.  This has led to a workforce that is physically breaking down. 
    These employees have to take multiple prescription drugs in order to keep their bodies from collapsing.  The ‘prescription drug benefit’ aspect of their health insurance is now breaking the bank.  Employers are jumping on this healthcare bandwagon because they do not want to have to pay for the bad decisions that have led us to this state. 
    Deregulated insurance and phamaceutical companies have gouged us unmercifully and will continue to do so if left in the equation.  This ploy to create mandatory health insurance will end up just like mandatory auto and home insurance did.  Legalized robbery and fraud.  THIS is the new paradigm.

  • Posted by V Diane Corbin on Friday, April 25, 2008

    From a quick reading I see two important problems:  Forcing each of us to hand over proof of which Insurance Company we picked which, in my opinion, violates our rights by forcing us to pick and choose a corporation medical plan.  It says nothing about prescriptions which, in many cases, even though we have to pay each month to the companies that provide prescription drug plans and then again for the prescriptions, we end up paying more for the drugs than the doctors!  I will refuse to have anything to do with any health plan that relies on corporations for drugs and corporations of Medical plans, most of which are no good anyway.  I often feel I would be saving money if I didn’t have to pay that $135 or whatever it is to Medicare and turn around to pay medical and prescription companies and then pay doctor bills and for the prescription drugs.  And you fail to say where those of us who are retired would get the bills paid to all these companies and copays, etc.  This is a bad plan!

  • Posted by Stuart on Saturday, April 26, 2008

    It is like the House and the Senate don’t talk, ever hear of HR 676?

    Did Senator Wyden watch Sicko? See Frontline’s Sick Around the World documentary?

    We don’t want mandatory Insurance; we want the human right to health care as an enlightened society.

    Single Payer is the lowest cost to administer, is fair and simple in assessing your ability to pay.

    The difference between a premium and a tax: the premium is a legalized protection racket; a tax is based upon your income/wealth to pay for a common benefit to society.

    A simple question would be what country has got it right? 

    If you were sick with an expensive illness and disabled, what country would you hope you lived in?  Norway? France? Denmark? Canada? Cuba?

    Unless your in the top 1% in this country who has done better in the last five years, the answer is not the United States.

    If you lived along the Mexican boarder, even as a foreign national, you can buy into the Mexican Nation Health Program for $300 a year, why would you buy a US plan?

    HR 676 is current legislation, it has been in the last three Congressional sessions, it has the most sponsors of any bill in Congress. 

    Why hasn’t it been voted on?  Why does the Senate ignore it?  Because it deals the Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industry and Lobbyists out of the game.

    The First Domino in change is Public Financing of Campaigns. 

    Senator Wyden knows this, he confessed to spending half his time fundraising, wanted to limit fundraising to the last three months of the year. 

    My response to him, we (tax payers) already pay him to do his job, not to raise money from those who don’t represent we who pay his salary, but who expect a Quid Pro Quo.

    Single Payer Healthcare = Single Payer Elections.

  • Posted by Shlomo on Sunday, April 27, 2008

    Didn’t read the details.  The video clip was off-putting.  Must go!  It has many negative messages in it.  You can be funny/attractive without being negative.

  • Posted by G. Gurling on Thursday, May 1, 2008

    Americans are too STUPID for national healthcare. 

    They’re so stupid, they re-elected Bush.

    They volunteer to be cannon fodder in an illegal war.

    They don’t deserve national healthcare.  Let them all die in Iraq.

  • Posted by Anti Coulter on Thursday, May 1, 2008

    Medicare for all; healthcare is a human right!  Maintaining and expanding over 800 foreign military bases worldwide is not!  Politicians need to stop pandering to the the insurance companies - “health insurance for all” DOES NOT EQUAL “Universal Health Care”!  In this age of huge data bases maintained by ChoicePoint & its ilk, to have employer-sponsored healthcare is troubling.  And how many hours are going to be needed to understand the plethora of policies offered by just one health insurance company - never mind several?  I will gladly reivew my experience as a small business owner in “selecting” among may plans offered by AmeriHealth (as lowest cost carrier) - not even reviewing higher-premium carriers Aetna, Horizon, Guardian, etc. 
    And AmeriHealth has increased premiums every year by 15-20% since 2001!!! 
    Sen. Wyden, you are on the right track - Americans should be free to pursue businesses, volunteer work, etc, but are stuck in jobs because if they get sick without insurance they are bankrupted by out of control medical costs and predatory policies that actually charge higher fees to the uninsured.  Doctors pay exorbitant premiums, too - AND THE INSURERS PROFIT HANDSOMELY FROM BOTH SIDES - AND POLITICIANS WANT TO GIVE THEM MORE???  Politicians used to have guts to stand up for citizens, but most congress members are wealthy so they have no understanding of everyday Americans.

  • Posted by teresa Smith on Friday, May 2, 2008

    To me this is all ego-driven which is what Washington is all about.  Politicians want their names stamped on the policy that will save the US from all that ails it.  Politicians also have a knack for complicating issues that are much more easily solved… think single-payor universal healthcare. 
    To me, Wyden is a politician in a long list of many who have sold their souls to the insurance companies.  They have struck a deal, of sorts where the people have an illusion of getting “free” healthcare while the insurance companies can breathe a sigh of relief as their business will remain intact.
    Until these politicians put their egos aside, ignore the lobbyists, and start listening to their real constituents, the problem of healthcare will get worse.  Why must our government be so smug as to not look elsewhere for answers?  It is frightening what we have allowed to happen.

  • Posted by sam ruben, md on Sunday, May 4, 2008

    http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dgsrck2c_6f787c3&hl=en

  • Posted by Geoffrey Morrison on Monday, May 5, 2008

    The problem with socialized medicine is the assumption that every single thing that traditional physicians, hospitals, big pharma, and deluded patients want should be paid for. Isn’t it past time to re-visit these assumptions? Do we really need all this baggage?

    Traditional physicians and medicine do shine brightly with great emergency care, but dim rapidly with chronic disease care. We need to consider alternative care--and not just for prevention. Of course, vested interests move heaven and earth to distract us so that we’ll continue to neglect this path....

    I think socialized med is the 2nd best solution. A totally free market in med may be 1st, but not as repubs wish (this false assumption has been disastrous). I say remove the legal props and protections for the traditional med estab--without their government muscle, they turn to --well, you know what I mean. After a lengthy weaning-off period, and considering mechanisms for helping seniors and continuing emergency care, insist that Americans actually pay for their medical care and choose the best method. With a more true free market, harmful baggage will be shed, and prices will drop to a more reasonable level--do we need to be so “benevolently” protected by government?

  • Posted by Roman Kent on Thursday, May 8, 2008

    Could a byproduct of this new plan be the elimination of television commercials for prescription drugs?

  • Posted by Stan carr on Saturday, May 10, 2008

    No good Senator Wyden. This plan is a “gimmie” for the Insurance companies. It still costs us money, and profit for the “health” corporations.
    Give us universal health care just like you have, that costs you no money. The Government pays for the system, we pay mose taxes, but we pay no more payments to the crooked insurers that won’t take care of our bills. We pay more tax, but no more insurance payments. Should work out the same or better for us. However you may lose some lobbyist dollors for your campains. We’ll push for Government financed election to take up the slack.

  • Posted by Jerry on Tuesday, May 13, 2008

    I think the government should run healthcare they have done such a great job with SS, Medicare, FAA, Budgeting, Education, completing a war, they need one more thing they can screw up. Senator it’s always easy to fix things with a blank check and someone else responsible to make your idea work. Our healthcare doesn’t include everyone but what does besides death. I think congress has enough to try and fix. May be congress’s health plan should be reduced to our health plan and save some money.

  • Posted by J. Cameron on Monday, May 19, 2008

    From the front page: “No one should be forced to stay in a job just to protect their health coverage.”

    What?!?  On, I understand.  I don’t need to take responsibility for providing for myself. Why should I be burdened with work I don’t like just so I can PROVIDE FOR MY FAMILY.

    I have a better message for everyone: “If you have to stay in a job you absolutely hate, just to provide adequately for yourself or your family, then tough.  Welcome to adulthood.”

  • Posted by Sue Emerich on Thursday, June 12, 2008

    I’m not sure who was speaking on Today this morning, but I did hear his comments about paying for Universal health insurance by taxing food, drugs, and other personal services not taxed now. He said people will get a raise from their employers to be able to afford this, as companies will save so much money by not having to pay for their employee’s health coverage.
    That leaves folks like us who have been retired for 10 years or more and are struggling now to live on falling interest rates on our savings, and higher food and gas prices going up daily, to be forced to pay even higher costs for our daily needs, and we don’t have any employer to give us a raise, except Social Security, which has not kept up to true inflation rates the past few years, and in order to remain intact for years to come, won’t be able to do so in the future, I am sure.
    Let’s do a little more thinking before introducing this kind of plan on national t.v. There are a lot of us Seniors in this country, and we turn out to vote in elections in large numbers. Short change us once again, with this kind of plan, and I am sure some of the underwriters will be voted out of office quickly.

  • Posted by Inna on Tuesday, July 1, 2008

    We can not forget the Seniors or infants during this process of thinking and rethinking about this sensitive topic-that is for sure!
    German’s or UK’s systems as well as Canadians are not perfect ones, nor the former Soviet Union system, but we can benefit from the combination of best(Patient centered)services and financial solutions from all those systems.
    All we missing is an educational part for Americans. Why? Many big businesses (big Pharma, commercial insurances, medical management companies) will be affected if we will really start to change medical and Rx coverages.
    Are we up to these challenges?

  • Posted by Carol Rognas on Thursday, July 10, 2008

    I was excited to hear about this plan...until I learrned that it is indeed anoher plan for insurance companies.  I want a plan for me that gives the same care to the poorest people, without jobs, without resources, refused SSI, refused medicaid.  I want it to cover health care, dental care, vision care, and mental health.  Insurance is not health care.Look at Taiwan and see if you can come up with care equal to that.  I am disappointed, but hopeful????

  • Posted by Lowell Lischer on Wednesday, October 15, 2008

    There are naturally a number of concerns about having the government getting involved in providing anything at a reasonable cost.  However, it is very clear that the current system is far from fair or adequate.  As one who has been denied health insurance, I am not looking for a free ride, but I do need insurance.  Fortunately, Texas has risk pool insurance for people like me, but what about the rest of the U.S.—what are the options in other states?  Too often it is inferred that those who do not have insurance cannot afford it, but there are those of us who can and need a means to get it when insurance companies have an aversion to risk in providing it.  In a country that is obsessed with obesity, I was actually turned down for health coverage because my weight had not been stable for the last six months.  The reason it hasn’t been stable is I got on a program of weight loss and exercise and have lost 32 pounds during the period.  Now had I gone on a crash diet to lose the 60-65 pounds I want to lose, the method of calculation by the insurance company would have granted me insurance.  So because I made a healthy choice and undertook a healthy method, I do not qualify for insurance.  When I see the methodology the health insurance industry takes to deny coverage to those who need it in favor of providing it to those who don’t, it isn’t too difficult to see how broken our system really is.  Best thing is to get the details on this bill and fight for meaningful changes as needed and get something that makes sense in place.  Socialist health care may not be the answer, but free enterprise isn’t doing such a great job either for the individual who cannot get individual health insurance and does not have access to any sort of group plan.

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Friday, November 21, 2008
  • Political temperature may be just right for healthcare overhaul - Nov 18 - Noam N. Levey and Lisa Girion, The Los Angeles Times
  • Wyden: a future spy czar in the Senate? - Nov 17 - Jeff Mapes, Way West of the Beltway
  • Wyden Objects to Potential Loss of Critical Fighter Aircraft - Nov 10 - Salem-News
  • Wyden seeks to prime slumping economy - Nov 8 - John Darling, Medford Mail-Tribune
  • Gains by Democrats embolden Oregon lawmakers - Nov 8 - Charles Pope, The Oregonian
  • Wyden’s Stimulus Plan Targets Job Creation - Nov 7 - Chris Jones, KTVL-Medford
  • Wyden on board for Pioneer route - Nov 7 - Dean Brickey, Hermiston Herald
  • Wyden touts road projects in Redmond - Nov 7 - Patrick Cliff, Bend Bulletin
  • Walden, Wyden talk economy in Central Oregon - Nov 6 - Kate Paul, KTVZ-Bend
  • Wyden, LaRocco participate in round-table with Valley health care experts - Oct 31 - Colleen LaMay, Idaho Statesman
  • Wyden urges FCC to hold off Election Day vote - Oct 30 - PR Newswire
  • Wyden, other Senate leaders Raise Concerns With FCC’s Telecom Proposal - Oct 28 - Market Watch
  • Wyden sides with fishermen on quota shares - Oct 28 - Cassandra Profita, The Daily Astorian
  • Wyden organizes removal of deadly logjam - Oct 28 - Brad Cain, Associated Press
  • We need health coverage that leaves no child behind - Oct 23 - Editorial, TDN.com
  • Wyden-Blumenauer work to curb illegal logging - Oct 22 - Martin, Vaughan, Wall Street Journal
  • Collaboration between states, federal government key to health care reform - Oct 21 - National Institutes of Health, JAMA
  • Ron Wyden calls out Palin on sending Alaskan LNG to Japan - Oct 21 - Martha Mendoza, Associated Press
  • Wyden catches Palin trying to pick your pocket - Oct 21 - Kagro X, Daily Kos
  • Obama/Wyden support Merkley - Oct 20 - Britten Chase, PolitickerOR

More, more, more...

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