This is the Dennis I support.
:patriot:
December 15, 2009
Frequently Asked Questions To Congressman Dennis Kucinich: Health Care ReformWhy did you vote against the bill?The legislation requires Americans to purchase insurance, mostly from for-profit private insurance companies, or pay a penalty. Having insurance is not the same thing as having health care since insurance companies make money by not providing health care. People will pay twice. They would pay for premiums directly or through their employer. Secondly, tax dollars will be used to subsidize private insurance companies. As a result, insurance companies would gain at least 21 million new customers and at least $70 billion in new annual revenue. Insurance companies use an elaborate private bureaucracy to deny care, deny claims and delay payments. The legislation did little to control premiums, co-pays or deductibles. There were no real controls on cost and it did not put a stop to most of the methods by which insurers deny care. I could not support such legislation.
But wasn't the bill a step in the right direction?No. The bill eliminated hopes for reducing or controlling insurance premiums. Insurance companies have forced double-digit increases in premiums in each of the last four years. A national single-payer plan was taken "off the table" at the very beginning of the debate. Consumers had only two hopes that the aggressive premium increases would be halted: A "robust public option" and an amendment which protects the right of states to create a single-payer system. The robust public option initially would have covered 129 million Americans and offered real competition with the insurance companies. Significant compromises whittled down the number of beneficiaries to 6 million Americans -- hardly competitive. The state single-payer amendment, which I authored, passed the Education and Labor Committee, but it was later taken out of the bull under pressure from the insurance companies and at the insistence of the White House. This leaves consumers at the mercy of the insurance companies.
Did you work with other members of Congress to try to improve the bill?Yes. In addition to securing a bi-partisan vote for the passage of the state single-payer amendment, I was able to add four other amendments in the bull. Three were aimed at driving down the cost of prescription drugs, preventing insurance companies from changing Americans' coverage unless Americans can switch plans, and improving access to integrative medicine. Unfortunately, the substance of these amendments was removed from the bull in compromises made behind closed doors. One amendment survived. It provides consumers more information about the health care plans in which their doctor participates.
The Alternative: The Conyers-Kucinich Single-Payer Plan - Medicare For AllI co-authored, with Rep. John Conyers, HR 676, Medicare for All , which would ensure that all Americans have health care with no premiums, co-pays or deductibles and with the doctor of their choice. There are 87 congressional co-sponsors.
How would you pay for it?American spends $2.4 trillion a year in health care, twice as much per capita as other nations which provide health care for their citizens. We are already paying for a universal standard of care. We are not getting it because one of every three dollars, or $800 billion a year, goes to massive insurance bureaucracies and to corporate profits, stock options, marketing and multi-million dollar salaries. Medicare is not for profit. If we took all the money from the present system that is not used for care and put it into Medicare for All we would have enough to cover all Americans' health care needs, including vision care, dental care, mental health care, prescription drugs and long term care.
Are you advocating a government-run system?No. Under HR 676, Medicare would pay the bills, with huge administrative cost savings. People would be able to choose any doctor. The government would not run the hospitals or intervene with patients' care.
http://www.youshouldown.com/2009/12/congressman-dennis-kucinich-newsletter.asp---
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
