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Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Public... - 9/7/2009 10:06:50 PM   
Brain


Posts: 3792
Joined: 2/14/2007
Status: offline 		Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Public Option, and It Works Flawlessly


I am sick and tired of people saying universal healthcare or the single-payer option doesn’t work and the government is taking over the system. It is a bunch of Republican garbage lies and must end. Obama had better deliver the single-payer option because the American people deserve the best.

As California's other health insurance plans--including Kaiser Permante, the largest health insurance provider in California--are seeing double digit increases in premiums, CalPers premiums are being held to close to the rate of inflation.

According to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, CalPers' size gave it the leverage it needed to reduce costs in difficult negotiations with providers:

The theory behind a public option is that a broader health insurance pool will have more leverage in negotiations with drug companies and health care providers. CalPers tested this theory with a pool of 1.3 million enrollees, and managed to keep costs in an environment where private, for-profit plans were being forced to pass spiraling costs onto their customers. Simply put, California has tried the public option on health care, and it is a smashing success.

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/7899

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RE: Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Pu... - 9/7/2009 10:17:52 PM   
TheHeretic


Posts: 19100
Joined: 3/25/2007
From: California, USA
Status: offline 		LOL  You don't follow much news from California, do you, Brian?  $26 billion in deficit, and our State public health insurance provider (Medi-Cal) just slashed benefits all over the place. 

The public employee health system is doing great?  No fucking suprise there.  They have a pension plan most of the taxpayers would love to have, too, but don't try to pretend for one second that this has any relation to "public health care."

< Message edited by TheHeretic -- 9/7/2009 10:18:33 PM >

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RE: Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Pu... - 9/8/2009 12:33:05 AM   
Brain


Posts: 3792
Joined: 2/14/2007
Status: offline 		Your talking apples and oranges, you’re comparing two different things. Your California State plan doesn’t cover everyone but a plan with a real public option does. California has 37% of it’s citizens uninsured.

From the NY Times: A Public Option That Works
California Desk
August 26, 2009
By WILLIAM H. DOW, ARINDRAJIT DUBE and CARRIE HOVERMAN COLLA
Published: August 21, 2009

TWO burning questions are at the center of America´s health care debate.

First, should employers be required to pay for their employees´ health insurance? And second, should there be a "public option" that competes with private insurance?

Answers might be found in San Francisco, where ambitious health care legislation went into effect early last year. San Francisco and

Massachusetts now offer the only near-universal health care programs in the United States.

The early results are in. Today, almost all residents in the city have affordable access to a comprehensive health care delivery system through the Healthy San Francisco program.

http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/view/116126


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RE: Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Pu... - 9/8/2009 3:10:56 AM   
Irishknight


Posts: 2016
Joined: 9/30/2007
Status: offline 		You did notice that the information you posted said "near-universal?" There are still some areas that need to be covered and some that need tweaked to make these systems what most are claiming.

As for government healthcare not working, there has yet to be an effective plan put out by Congress for doing it. They always find a way to fuck it up. Thats not Republican bullshit or Democrat bullshit thats just the bullshit of an untrustworthy House and Senate.

If they ever quit trying to bend us over and fuck us and then spend millions of dollars playing the blame game they might give us a real option for public health care. Until then, we are stuck with second rate garbage from people who are being overpaid for not doing their jobs.

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RE: Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Pu... - 9/8/2009 5:07:56 AM   
servantforuse


Posts: 6363
Joined: 3/8/2006
Status: offline 		The last I heard was that Californias budjet deficit for the next two years was nearing $ 45 billion.That State is broke . Maybe their  health care system is one of the reasons why.  

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RE: Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Pu... - 9/8/2009 7:15:42 AM   
DomImus


Posts: 2004
Joined: 3/17/2009
Status: offline 		So when you need an operation in California does Ahnold write you an IOU for it?

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RE: Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Pu... - 9/8/2009 9:59:28 AM   
servantforuse


Posts: 6363
Joined: 3/8/2006
Status: offline 		I think they will give you an IOU to have the surgery at a later date, if you live that long to make the note good again.

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RE: Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Pu... - 9/8/2009 11:41:12 AM   
Brain


Posts: 3792
Joined: 2/14/2007
Status: offline 		I pretty much agree with you but I think the Democrats are a little better than the Republicans. This single-payer option can be done correctly and save the country a great deal of money in health care costs if it’s done properly. I am 100% sure of this because it has been done in other countries. Other countries spend half the money the United States does on healthcare and get as good or better results.

Click on Watch the full program online.

FRONTLINE: sick around the world | PBS
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/


quote:

ORIGINAL: Irishknight

You did notice that the information you posted said "near-universal?" There are still some areas that need to be covered and some that need tweaked to make these systems what most are claiming.

As for government healthcare not working, there has yet to be an effective plan put out by Congress for doing it. They always find a way to fuck it up. Thats not Republican bullshit or Democrat bullshit thats just the bullshit of an untrustworthy House and Senate.

If they ever quit trying to bend us over and fuck us and then spend millions of dollars playing the blame game they might give us a real option for public health care. Until then, we are stuck with second rate garbage from people who are being overpaid for not doing their jobs.


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RE: Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Pu... - 9/8/2009 1:52:44 PM   
awmslave


Posts: 599
Joined: 3/31/2006
Status: offline 		  As Obama does not have power to include public option I would advise "Obamacare" to add government price control in order to make the new system work. Otherwise, US can not afford it considering a weak economic outlook. Price control works well in Japan. I had to use US health-care system recently and I experienced totally ridiculous pricing policies. The same procedure did cost me $900 in one place and $400 in the other. At the same time nobody explained the cost and options in advance. It was very strange (amounts to racketeering)  and it should not be legal.

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RE: Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Pu... - 9/8/2009 2:14:34 PM   
tazzygirl


Posts: 37833
Joined: 10/12/2007
Status: offline 		welcome to US health care as it lives and breathes!

~FR

I cannot say if the state health care plan caused or didnt cause the budget crisis in California. But, if it did, what is the excuse of almost every other state having issues with theirs?

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RE: Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Pu... - 9/8/2009 4:45:02 PM   
OrionTheWolf


Posts: 7803
Joined: 10/11/2006
Status: offline 		I hate to select one party over another in anything, but the Dems have been better at digging into some of the actual costs in healthcare, and then trying to apply some of the data to their local area. The problem is with the Feds handling things. I have always been an advocate of State run healthcare, no matter how in depth, as long as private citizens always have the option to get their own insurnace if they want. Your last sentence is the key to the problem "Other countries spend half the money the United States does on healthcare and get as good or better results.". I do not have faith in the current US government handling things properly, in a way that gets people the coverage they need and is cost efficient.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Brain

I pretty much agree with you but I think the Democrats are a little better than the Republicans. This single-payer option can be done correctly and save the country a great deal of money in health care costs if it’s done properly. I am 100% sure of this because it has been done in other countries. Other countries spend half the money the United States does on healthcare and get as good or better results.

Click on Watch the full program online.

FRONTLINE: sick around the world | PBS
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/


quote:

ORIGINAL: Irishknight

You did notice that the information you posted said "near-universal?" There are still some areas that need to be covered and some that need tweaked to make these systems what most are claiming.

As for government healthcare not working, there has yet to be an effective plan put out by Congress for doing it. They always find a way to fuck it up. Thats not Republican bullshit or Democrat bullshit thats just the bullshit of an untrustworthy House and Senate.

If they ever quit trying to bend us over and fuck us and then spend millions of dollars playing the blame game they might give us a real option for public health care. Until then, we are stuck with second rate garbage from people who are being overpaid for not doing their jobs.




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RE: Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Pu... - 9/8/2009 6:40:56 PM   
Brain


Posts: 3792
Joined: 2/14/2007
Status: offline 		Sometimes you need the federal government to take action to correct problems.

“No one claims to know how often policies are canceled -- in large part, congressional investigators say, because insurance companies are regulated by a patchwork of state laws and policies. But the practice is common enough to spur lawsuits and state regulatory action. “

The article below is more like the real reason the state of California is having problems with its budget deficit. It’s because private companies get away with this unethical garbage in order to make profits. They keep all the healthy people as customers and take their premium money and then if somebody gets sick they get rid of those people because they cause too much and then the state has to pay for them in the emergency rooms. That’s the private sector for you, that’s the ethical way they make their money.

As 'Rescissions' Spawn Outrage, Health Insurers Cite Fraud Control - washingtonpost.com
In the past 18 months, California's five largest insurers paid almost $19 million in fines for marooning policyholders who had fallen ill. That includes a $1 million fine against Health Net, which admitted offering bonuses to employees for finding reasons to cancel policies, according to company documents released in court.

"This is probably the most egregious of examples of health insurers using their power and their resources to deny benefits to people who are most in need of care," said Gerald Kominski, associate director of the Center for Health Policy Research at the University of California at Los Angeles. "It's really a horrendous activity on the part of the insurers."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/07/AR2009090702455.html?hpid=topnews


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RE: Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Pu... - 9/8/2009 7:03:50 PM   
servantforuse


Posts: 6363
Joined: 3/8/2006
Status: offline 		Maybe they should fix social security and medicare first. Then tackle health care. When they get all of that done they can go to work fixing the USPS. 

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RE: Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Pu... - 9/8/2009 8:22:02 PM   
thishereboi


Posts: 14463
Joined: 6/19/2008
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: tazzygirl

welcome to US health care as it lives and breathes!

~FR

I cannot say if the state health care plan caused or didnt cause the budget crisis in California. But, if it did, what is the excuse of almost every other state having issues with theirs?


I can't speak for other states, but here we are blaming it on Jennifer and the auto industry.

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RE: Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Pu... - 9/9/2009 7:01:40 AM   
DarkSteven


Posts: 28072
Joined: 5/2/2008
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: tazzygirl

welcome to US health care as it lives and breathes!

~FR

I cannot say if the state health care plan caused or didnt cause the budget crisis in California. But, if it did, what is the excuse of almost every other state having issues with theirs?


1. The nature of government makes for difficulty in reducing their costs.  It's pretty much people's salaries.
2. People are out of work.  Their incomes were assumed in making up the revenue base that funded government.
3. People are out of work.  That means they need public assistance. 

Colorado's hurting but thanks to TABOR it's not as bad as it could have been.


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RE: Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Pu... - 9/9/2009 7:51:04 AM   
CreativeDominant


Posts: 11032
Joined: 3/11/2006
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: DarkSteven

quote:

ORIGINAL: tazzygirl

welcome to US health care as it lives and breathes!

~FR

I cannot say if the state health care plan caused or didnt cause the budget crisis in California. But, if it did, what is the excuse of almost every other state having issues with theirs?


1. The nature of government makes for difficulty in reducing their costs.  It's pretty much people's salaries.
2. People are out of work.  Their incomes were assumed in making up the revenue base that funded government.
3. People are out of work.  That means they need public assistance. 

Colorado's hurting but thanks to TABOR it's not as bad as it could have been.

Nicely said, Dark.  Thank God we DO have TABOR or we'd have been in deep doo-doo.  Even so, look at the furlough day the State had to take yesterday.  Look at the problems with the PERA for Colorado employees...wouldn't you love to have that as your back-up? 

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RE: Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Pu... - 9/9/2009 3:44:13 PM   
Aylee


Posts: 24103
Joined: 10/14/2007
Status: offline 		I miss living in the TABOR state of Colorado.  I really really really miss it. 

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RE: Universal healthcare - California Has Tried the Pu... - 9/9/2009 8:06:22 PM   
NuevaVida


Posts: 6707
Joined: 8/5/2008
Status: offline 		California?  CalPERS?  California is broke with its State Employees on three days of furlough a month - Including the CalPERS employees.

Sure, sign me up for more, lol.


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