Doctor Linda Peeno, a renown expert in the field of "Managed Care", explains to Congress the dirty little secrets behind the Business of Health Care Denial:
THE REAL DEATH PANELS: Insurance Companies That Deny Care
In the spring of 1987, as a Physician, I denied a man a necessary operation, that would have saved his life. And thus caused his death. And I'm haunted by the thousands of pieces of paper, on which I have written that deadly word: Denied.
Well, The System's Broken [...] Certainly I don't accept, in the richest county on Earth, that we should have 47 Million people without Health Insurance, and Millions of more people being bankrupted because of a Medical Bill.
[...]
As President of the United States, what I've proposed to do, is to make sure that we got a plan that covers ALL Americans.
[...]
The key to making this happen, is to overcome the resistance we're going to see from Drug Companies, Insurance Companies, HMO's. Over the last 10 years alone, Drug and Insurance Companies spent over $1 Billion, in preventing Health Care Reform from happening. That's going to require then, a mobilization of energy among the American People, to insist on a Congress and a White House, that are actually going to deliver this time.
[...]
"My daughter got sick with cancer after her husband lost his job. She never told anyone she was sick because she knew the financial hardship it would cause and eventually the hospital would take their house for unpaid medical bills. We lost her in the following spring ... We read her diary and learned all she was feeling and thinking. Now I wonder how many others are just like her in this America? And how many before her?"
Deaths due to Preventable Diseases: Dead Last
Rankings 1st to 19th. France, Japan, Australia, Spain, Italy, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Greece, Austria, Germany, Finland, New Zealand, Denmark, Britain, Ireland, Portugal, United States
When Jesus heard that, he said to them, "Healthy people don't need a doctor; those who are sick do. I've come to call sinners, not people who think they have God's approval."
(emphasis added)
GOP Health Care Obstructionists, are you Listening???
The Pharisees, thought they were doing God's work too.
Imagine their surprise when this upstart Carpenter, from the old neighborhood, dared to stand up to their blatant self-righteousness ... and dish back to them some cold, hard truth ...
Those "death panels" really do exist MediaMatters -- August 20, 2009
To date, the media have debunked the "kill granny" lie more than 40 times. The nonpartisan FactCheck.org says the claim of mandatory counseling on ending seniors' lives is "a misrepresentation." ABC's chief medical editor, Dr. Tim Johnson, said "the idea about death panels" is "not at all legitimate." PolitiFact.com has called "death panel" claims "a ridiculous falsehood." When the Associated Press conducted a fact check of the bogus charge, it reported, "No 'death panel in health care bill.' "
After former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin claimed that "Obama's 'death panel' " could decide the fate of her parents or her son who has Down syndrome, conservative radio host Larry Elder aptly called her comments "over the top." [...]
It seems Sarah's still leading that pied-piper Twitter Parade ...
Conservatives and Republican politicians would have us believe that the problem of 47 million Americans unisured is not a problem at all. They argue that those without health insurance are illegal immigrants, the very young who do not want insurance, or quite simply the very lazy who refuse to get off their duffs to get a job and buy their own insurance. While there are undoubtedly some who fall within those categories, the wide majority do not fit the Repubican scenario.
Well you might not feel so Lucky, after learning how much more of the Insurance Premium tab, you have been picking up, over the last several years.
Health Insurance is a "Benefit" of Employment -- yeah Right!
A Benefit to the Employer, to keep you locked in your lousy Job.
A Benefit to the Insurer, who has a guaranteed source of Income, every time you get a paycheck!
That "Lucky Insurance Policy" has been to costing you more and more, each year, while promising you less and less, in terms of coverage ... this squeeze has been happening for years!
Something is seriously wrong with this Nation's Broken Health Insurance system ...
This year, an estimated 1.5 million Americans will declare bankruptcy. Many people may chalk up that misfortune to overspending or a lavish lifestyle, but a new study suggests that more than 60 percent of people who go bankrupt are actually capsized by medical bills.
Bankruptcies due to medical bills increased by nearly 50 percent in a six-year period, from 46 percent in 2001 to 62 percent in 2007, and most of those who filed for bankruptcy were middle-class, well-educated homeowners, according to a report that will be published in the August issue of The American Journal of Medicine.
1.5 million Americans x 60% = 900,000 Americans
that's about 2500 more people per day
... going bankrupt from medical bills
, which were NOT covered by our broken Health Insurance system