Now that we’ve managed to pass comprehensive health care legislation, there are a few things every American should know before the Republicans break out the spin machine and try to claim that the bill doesn’t do anything and spends too much money. In reality, the bill does a lot right now, and even more over time. Pulled straight from Alternet, here are some of the changes that will be effective almost immediately after the President signs the bill:

Changes happening immediately:

1. Adult children may remain as dependents on their parents’ policy until their 27th birthday
2. Children under age 19 may not be excluded for pre-existing conditions
3. No more lifetime or annual caps on coverage
4. Free preventative care for all
5. Adults with pre-existing conditions may buy into a national high-risk pool until the exchanges come online. These pools won’t be cheap, but they are still a lot better than being excluded. And there is expected to be some advantage due to the wider pool of the uninsured.
6. Small businesses will be entitled to a tax credit for 2009 and 2010, which could be as much as 50 percent of what they pay for their employees’ health insurance.
7. The “doughnut hole” closes for Medicare patients, making prescription medications more affordable for seniors. The government would offer a $250 rebate to Medicare beneficiaries to help pay their prescription drug costs when they hit the “doughnut hole.” Next year, Medicare beneficiaries would see a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs to further close that gap.
8. All insurers will be required to post balance sheets on the Internet and fully disclose administrative costs, executive compensation packages, and benefit payments.
9. Authorizes early funding of community health centers in all 50 states (Bernie Sanders’ amendment). Community health centers provide primary, dental and vision services to people in the community, based on a sliding scale for payment according to ability to pay.
10. No more rescissions. Effective immediately, you can’t lose your insurance because you get sick.
11. Effective immediately would be a 10 percent tax on tanning salon services, which opponents say would lead to higher costs for indoor bronzing.

That’s a pretty damned good list of effects, I would say. Maybe the only people who will complain are the same ones who always complain: rich white folks who are headed to the tanning salon and see that the cost to give themselves skin cancer has gone up.

Now for the changes that will take a little time to take effect:

The following changes will occur over time. I have included the date of all implemented changes.

1. By 2014, all Americans must have health care coverage or pay a fine. Subsidies would be offered to help those making less than $44,000 or $88,000 for a family of four, afford insurance. Fines would be $95 in 2014, gradually rising to $695 by 2016, or up to 2.5 percent of income.
2. The most notable tax increase will occur in 2013, on individuals making more than $200,000, or $250,000 for couples. Taxes would be 0.9 percent on earned income above those amounts, and 2.9 percent on investment income (dividends, rents, royalties, etc.)
3. By 2014, no adults can be denied insurance due to pre-existing conditions.
4. Companies with more than 50 workers would be required, by Jan. 1, 2014, to provide health care for their employees or face a penalty of $2,000 per worker (exempting the first 30 workers.) Up to $40 billion in tax credits would be offered to help companies buy insurance for their workers.
5. For individuals: Beginning Jan. 1, 2014, those making less than $44,000 annually, or $88,000 for a family of four, would be offered subsidies to buy health care. The subsidies would be on a sliding scale up to 9.5 percent of income.
6. For small businesses: Beginning this year, companies would be offered tax credits of up to 35 percent of health premiums to buy insurance for their workers. Tax credits would rise up to 50 percent by 2014. Those businesses with fewer than 10 workers would receive a full credit to cover costs.
7. New taxes would be imposed, on Jan. 1, 2018, on high-value health insurance plans held by individuals — the so-called “Cadillac plans” often offered to union workers or executives. The tax would be 40 percent on the value of individual plans above $10,200 and family plans above $27,500 (slightly higher, at $11,850 and $30,950, for retirees or workers in high-risk professions.) Excludes dental and vision plans.
8. Pharmaceutical companies would face a $4.8 billion fee beginning in 2011; medical device manufacturers would be hit with a 2.9 percent fee in 2013; and insurance companies would begin to see a nearly $70 billion fee in 2014.
9. Government payments to the Medicare Advantage program would be frozen in 2011 and decline in subsequent years.
10. By Jan. 1, 2014, most states would establish new health care exchanges, where those without job-based insurance could purchase policies, much the way members of Congress now buy insurance from an array of suppliers.

How incredible is that? Sure, those dates may slip and slide depending on political will in Washington, but at least the legislation is passed and we have solid ground to fight on. Well done – I’ve never been more proud of my congressional representatives (all of whom voted in favor of this legislation.)

[ Health Care Reform, Just the Facts: Immediate Changes, Others That Will Happen Over Time ]
Source: AlterNet

I’ve written about the racism and homophobia that exists in the Tea Party several times, and how in fact their so-called leadership (as much as anyone can “lead” a group of thugs with torches and pitchforks) are driven by and funded by racist and far-right fringe groups, some of whom have openly called for the death of the President. Never has it been more front and center than this weekend, where protesters both for and against the health care legislation that passed the House yesterday faced off in DC. What do you do when you’re out of steam, never had any ideas to begin with, and are fueled by pure hate and ignorance? Show it off, of course:

Demonstrators outside the U.S. Capitol, angry over the proposed health care bill, shouted “nigger” Saturday at U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia congressman and civil rights icon who was nearly beaten to death during an Alabama march in the 1960s.

The protesters also shouted obscenities at other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, lawmakers said.

“They were shouting, sort of harassing,” Lewis said. “But, it’s okay, I’ve faced this before. It reminded me of the 60s. It was a lot of downright hate and anger and people being downright mean.”

Lewis knows what’s up. He’s faced far more hatred than this bunch of glorified trolls, but it’s just another example of the cancer that the right-wing has in their ranks – one that they desperately need to remove if they expect anyone to take them or the mainstream Republican party (if there is such a thing anymore) seriously in any election.

But it didn’t stop with racism:

Protestors also used a slur as they confronted Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., an openly gay member of Congress. A writer for Huffington Post said the crowd called Frank a “faggot.”

Frank told the Boston Globe that the incident happened as he was walking from the Longworth office building to the Rayburn office building, both a short distance from the Capitol. Frank said the crowd consisted of a couple of hundred of people and that they referred to him as ‘homo.’

“I’m disappointed with the unwillingness to be civil,” Frank told the Globe. “I was, I guess, surprised by the rancor. What it means is obviously the health care bill is proxy for a lot of other sentiments, some of which are perfectly reasonable, but some of which are not.”

“People out there today, on the whole, were really hateful,” Frank said. “The leaders of this movement have a responsibility to speak out more.”

This, everyone, is the ugly, horrible face of conservative America. The worst part is that they don’t see anything wrong with their hatred and ignorance, and have absolutely no desire to join the rest of the American community in any kind of intelligent, civil discussion. Heaven forbid they educate themselves – willful ignorance and hatred feed on this mentality, and if they had to enlighten themselves, they’d be in a world of trouble.

[ Racism, Homophobia Dominates Tea Party Protest Over Health Care Bill ]
Source: TruthOut

Let’s lead off with the important stuff:

CBO told lawmakers that the health package would cost $940 billion over the next decade, reducing the deficit by $130 billion. It will reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion in the second decade of the plan’s implementation, according to those who have seen the score.

That’s a larger deficit reduction than the healthcare measures passed by both the House and the Senate last year, though the CBO said the current bill would spend more than those bills.

This – this is why Democrats are the party of fiscal conservatism; they know where to invest the country’s money and on which things matter the most to us. Not only will it save us money in the long run, it’ll put taxpayer dollars into things that really matter to the American people – our own internal priorities, like the well being and care for our families and our neighbors. And they’re doing it all with an eye towards saving money and making programs like Medicare and Medicaid financially viable.

This is why this measure passed the House in historic fashion last night.

[ CBO: Health Package Costs $940 Billion; Hoyer Eyes Sunday Vote for Measure ]
Source: The Hill

One of the fantastic things about last week’s CBO report on the historic health care legislation that passed the House last night is that it’s probably the biggest defecit cut that any member of Congress in office today will ever have the opportunity to vote on. Cutting the throat of the right-wing fallacy that “we can’t afford this bill,” the Congressional Budget Office, which has always been nonpartisan, came out with the real costs of the health care legislation last week in advance of the House vote. The total? Just over $900 Billion dollars, but the bill will not only pay for itself in time and get less expensive over the years, but it will cut the federal defecit by well over $1 Trillion dollars over the next 10 years. That’s massive.

So how did conservatives react? Did they stop and think about how their last argument – like all of their others – had again been revealed to be a lie? Not at all – they simply decided to call the CBO liars and dismiss them outright. Yeah – pretty much the same tactic they take whenever reality doesn’t line up with their political ideologies. Plug your fingers in your ears and sing loudly to yourself.

The conservative response to the Congressional Budget Office analysis that health care reform will cut the deficit more than $1 trillion over the next two decades is simply to call the nonpartisan analysts liars.

For some reason, when the CBO was harshly criticizing early drafts of Democratic health proposal, conservatives thought the CBO was so awesome, and some even claimed Democrats would devilishly refuse to let CBO score the final bill before the vote.

Let’s take a Hot Tub Time Machine journey all the way back to 2009.

Bill Scher, writing for the Campaign for America’s Future, calls out this hypocrisy for what it is, and takes us back to last year when the Republicans were using the CBO analysis to bolster their arguments that the bill was too expensive. Now that the bill has been revised – and includes their ideas – and actually saves the country money in the long run, they just can’t handle it:

* The CBO director Doug Elmendorf just told Congress that early Democratic draft would raise the health care cost curve. And top Republicans thought the CBO was pretty sharp. From the W. Post:

Republicans also seized on Elmendorf’s remarks, with House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) saying they prove “that one of the Democrats’ chief talking points is pure fiction.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Elmendorf’s testimony should serve as a “wake-up call” to Obama and Democratic leaders to heed requests from lawmakers in both parties to slow down the process.

* Boehner’s office put out a statement heralding the CBIO: “Exposed: CBO Confirms Democrats’ Plan Will Increase Americans’ Health Care Costs.”

* GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley was calling the CBO “God.”

* GOP Rep. Mike Pence really appreciated the CBO analysis of his own bill, with a news release headlined: “Pence Hails CBO Report on Republican Health Care Bill.”

* The Heritage foundation blog trumpeted: “CBO Deals Another Crushing Blow to Obamacare.”

Now, get back in the Hot Tub Time Machine and return to the present day, 2010.

* RNC Chair Michael Steele said of the CBO conclusion that the pending bill will cut the deficit more than $1 trillion: “That’s a lie.”

* Multiple Fox News personalities trash the CBO, with the Fox Nation website also calling the CBO score “a lie.”

* Hell hath no fury like Rep. Boehner’s CBO love scorned: “That’s why the whole so-called CBO scoring issue is a fallacy.”

* And Rep. Pence is not “hailing” the CBO anymore: “Only in Washington, can you spend a trillion dollars and say you’re gonna save the taxpayers’ money.”

When the CBO gave the Democrats analysis that was politically harmful to their position, Democrats respected the CBO analysis and responded by modifying the legislation to make it even more fiscally responsible.

When the CBO gave conservatives numbers politically harmful to their view, they ended their love affair with the CBO, and decried the agency as not credible.

But it’s not the CBO’s credibility that’s drowning.

Good work guys, way to undermine yourself at every single turn. It makes me wonder why we even need more proof that the right-wing is off the deep end.

[ Take A Hot Tub Time Machine Trip To 2009, When Conservatives Loved The CBO ]
Source: The Campaign for America’s Future

Now that we’re headed to a showdown in Congress over health care and things are looking to wrap up soon, let’s dive into some of the myths that Republicans have been propagating about health care, thanks to Newsweek.

The truth is that Obama’s health care plan is by no means a government takeover, is by no means “too expensive for America,” will by no means “end up raising taxes,” and will by all means save America money in the long run:

There have been lots of absurdities in the debate—such as it is—about health care reform. There’s the hypocrisy of people dependent on government-run health care complaining about government-run health care. And now comes the Republican canard that the current health care reform proposal constitutes a government takeover of one-sixth of the economy. Here are Rep. Steve Buyer of Indiana, Rep. John Fleming of Louisiana, and Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina making precisely that argument.

First, the proposed health care reform does not take over the system in any sense. Much to the chagrin of progressives, the bills under consideration don’t contain a public option and don’t provide for a single payer. In fact, they provide subsidies for millions of people to purchase private insurance.

Second, such statements reveal how pathetically little many of our policymakers and pundits understand American health care spending. We’re already halfway toward socialized medicine, but not because of Obamacare. (Here’s a column I wrote about this in December 2006.) Over the last couple of decades, as the private sector has done a miserable job controlling costs, as employers have felt less and less compelled to offer health care benefits as a condition of employment, as the population has aged, and as the government created new health care entitlements, the government has been slowly assuming a higher portion of health care spending in the United States—or “taking it over.”

Check out Table 123 in the CDC’s big annual report. In 1990, health care expenditures in the United States were split, 60-40, between the private and public sectors. By 2000, the ratio had fallen to 55.9-44.1. In other words, in the 1990s, a period in which Republicans controlled the House for six years, the share of health spending controlled by the government rose by 10 percent. The trend continued in the period from 2000 to 2008, when Republicans controlled the White House and largely controlled Congress.

There you have it ladies and gentlemen – if there’s a government takeover of health care, it’s not because of Obama, or socialism, or Democrats – in some ways, you could blame the Republicans, but in reality?

The reason is because of a self-feeding, rapidly self-inflating private system that is more interested in selling insurance, denying coverage, and shunting costs and patients to the government at all costs whenever possible. It’s not that the government wants to run health care, it’s because we’re saddled with a private sector that’s not only completely incapable of handling the need for quality health care, but because the government seems to be the only effective provider of such care. Pure and simple.

[ Why The GOP is Wrong on Health Care ]
Source: NewsWeek

If you want a beautiful example of why health reform is badly needed and why the well being of our fellow Americans should never ever be left to conservatives, this is a great example. When left unchecked, they’ll go around passing laws like this, without any concern for the people who’ll actually be affected by them – all in the name of so-called moral principle and superiority, when in reality what it boils down to is an almost obsessive need for the conservative base to own not only the halls of the state, but you as a peripheral of it – and then never let go.

When conservatives talk about Obamacare as “socialist” and “nazist” and “communist,” they clearly don’t know what they’re talking about (because if they bothered to look up the meanings of the words they use, they’d see that clearly) but it’s legislation like this that borders on “your body is property of the state” fascism – the same kind conservatives claim to be against, but would never lift their finger towards because they agree.

On Monday afternoon, a controversial Utah bill that charges pregnant women and girls with murder for having miscarriages caused by “intentional or knowing” acts, was signed into law by Gov. Gary Herbert.

Contrary to media reports last week, the “Criminal Homicide and Abortion Amendments” or HB12, which previously also applied to miscarriages caused by “reckless” acts, was never “withdrawn” by its sponsor, Republican Representative Carl Wimmer (who is crafting similar “model legislation” for other states). After the governor expressed concern over “possible unintended consequences,” of the legislation as written, Rep. Wimmer swiftly introduced a new version, titled “Criminal Homicide and Abortion Revisions” (HB462), which omitted the word “reckless.” Gov. Herbert signed the new bill and vetoed the old one.

…

Nevertheless, women’s and civil rights groups say the new, just-signed version of the bill is just as dangerous.

“We are still passing legislation which seeks to criminalize women for their actions,” Marina Lowe, legislative and policy counsel for the ACLU of Utah, told AlterNet. “The language is still problematic.”

In the end, this is another piece of legislation that’s making small inroads to criminalizing abortion by criminalizing very specific abortions and behaviors that lead to the end of a pregnancy that don’t result in a bouncy white baby. Planned Parenthood is completely correct here:

Planned Parenthood’s Melissa Bird says the same questions that so alarmed the bill’s earlier critics still apply to the rewritten version that was just signed into law.

“What happens to women who are in abusive relationships?” she asks. “What happens if a woman threatens to leave the abuser, falls down the stairs and loses the baby? What if the abuser beats the woman and causes a miscarriage? Could he turn her in? Who would the prosecutor believe? What happens if a drug addict who’s trying to get clean loses her baby? Will she be brought up on murder charges?”

Rep. Wimmer claims such women would not be prosecuted because they didn’t knowingly act to terminate their pregnancies. But Bird says that is not necessarily the point.

“Even if the prosecutor doesn’t take the case, nothing precludes a woman from being brought to the attention of law enforcement in the first place,” she said. “What we’re doing is driving women underground and preventing them from getting health care and prenatal care.”

To put this in human terms, had Rep. Wimmer’s bill been on the books last spring — and had the 17-year-old’s fetus not survived — she would have faced a prison sentence of 15 years to life. Rep. Wimmer says he’s OK with that because the teenager has to face the “consequences of her barbaric actions.”

“It’s pretty rare for a politician to openly support jail time for girls who have abortions, no matter how desperate they seem to be” a 40-something abortion provider who asked to remain anonymous, told AlterNet. “This is extreme. Mark my words. If they can get away with this, they will try to make abortion illegal in the state of Utah. People need to wake up.”

The fact that this provider didn’t want to give his or her name just proves the point that this brand of conservatives have already made inroads entirely too deep into our health communities. The fact that abortion providers have been bombed, shot, and otherwise killed because they dare provide reproductive health services to women who desperately need them in the form of something tested and proven and healthy and not just “go home and pray,” proves that the far religious-right has lost their concience and instead is focused entirely on making sure they can legislate morality for the rest of us.

[ Utah Governor Signs Controversial Law Charging Women and Girls With Murder for Miscarriages ]
Source: AlterNet

Now this is the President we elected; the President that can stand up in front of a crowd and call out the opposition for what they are: obstructionist, reactionary, and in the pockets of their own special interests and a party gone mad.

The President demanded an up-or-down vote on health care; a phrase that Republicans used to use whenever they felt they couldn’t get a bill to the floor against Democratic opposition. He also trashed the same old GOP lies and talking points that we’ve seen for the past several months levvied against health care reform – all which are clearly designed not to make health care reform more palatable to Republicans and conservatives, but instead to just kill the initiative outright, completely forgetting the fact that the status quo simply isn’t acceptable.

Watching President Obama’s speech this afternoon on the way forward on health care reform, I noticed something I haven’t seen from the always-cool chief executive in a while: real passion.

It was unmistakable — this president wasn’t just making the case for reform, he was practically demanding it. Forget any rumors you may have heard about half-measures or additional compromises. President Obama is going all in.

From the outset, the president reminded his audience why the notion of reform being “rammed through” is silly. Referencing last week’s summit, Obama noted:

“This meeting capped off a debate that began with a similar summit nearly one year ago. Since then, every idea has been put on the table. Every argument has been made. Everything there is to say about health care has been said and just about everyone has said it. So now is the time to make a decision about how to finally reform health care so that it works, not just for the insurance companies, but for America’s families and businesses.”

The president noted several areas of agreement with Republicans, and presented his plan as a middle ground between the left (which wants single-payer) and the right (which wants to let insurance companies do as they please).

He also spent some time outlining exactly what his proposal is all about, including the notion that reform would give Americans “more control over their health care,” while building on the existing system. Obama presented his package in three parts: (1) ending insurance company abuses; (2) creating a marketplace for uninsured individuals and small business owners; and (3) bringing down costs. All of this would be paid for, and would bring down the deficit.

At that point, the president started knocking down GOP talking points — forcefully.

The article goes on to outline some of the GOP’s common strawman arguments and lies about health care reform – and then the President’s response to each and every one of them. If I could I would forward the article to every person who’s ever said that reform is being “rammed down our throats,” for example.

[ Fired-Up President Demands "Up or Down" Vote on Health Care ]
Source: The Washington Monthly

While it’s absolutely no surprise that the GOP would take the opportunity to be on TV to blubberingly try to talk over the President and denounce health care reform as if the alternative – millions of Americans in the US without access to health care or health insurance and thousands dying every year as a result of that fact – and while it’s no surprise that the GOP is completely out of ideas and instead would rather simply roadblock any congressional action entirely, it was a little surprising (although it shoudln’t be, I suppose) that they chose to get on national television and continue to just lie about the nature of health care reform in America, lie about how much it’ll cost, (and how it’ll actually save us money in the long run, and the amount of money required to fund it is actually a smaller figure than the amount of money we’ll spend in the same time period to keep funding health care the way we have up to this point) and lie about what the bills entail as though they’d never read any of them.

That’s the entertaining thing about the GOP – they lie and they lie, and when they’re finally called out on their lies, they backtrack and claim that they’re just the little guy being pushed around by a Democratic majority, thus rousing the hackles of their fringe Tea Party compatriots and their Ronulan allies (did you hear that their straw poll at the CPAC for the next person they should champion for the White House is Ron Paul? That’s hilarious – and I’ve explained why on at least one occasion.)

So then, we should completely have expected that they’d be out in force again, lying their faces off so badly that if the GOP were actually the pinnochio party, their collective noses would be in the way of the cameras:

The President has been charitable thus far in claiming that there are “philosophical” differences between the parties. From out here, it looks more like a visceral hatred for government on the part of Republicans rather than a real intellectual argument. That’s a divide that can’t be bridged. Because the Republicans continue to just lie, whether it’s about process (see reconciliation) or the CBO reports on the existing plan. Ezra:

Lamar Alexander and Barack Obama just had a contentious exchange on this point, so it’s worth settling the issue: Yes, the CBO found health-care reform would reduce premiums. The issue gets confused because it also found that access to subsidies would encourage people to buy more comprehensive insurance, which would mean that the value of their insurance would be higher after reform than before it. But that’s not the same as insurance becoming more expensive: The fact that I could buy a nicer car after getting a better job suggests that cars are becoming pricier. The bottom line is that if you’re comparing two plans that are exactly the same, costs go down after reform.

And the Republican plan, such as it is, and what happens to premiums under it? Jon Cohn:

So, yes, the Republican health care bill will lower premiums overall. But many people in poor health will see their premiums go up. And many people will get lower premiums only because they’re getting inferior coverage. Meanwhile, more than 50 million people will have no insurance whatsoever.

There. Can we just settle on the fact that the Republicans have absolutely no credibility, on this issue or just about any other, and be done with it? Let’s move forward with or without them.

[ GOP Lies at the Health Care Summit ]
Source: AlterNet (courtesy of The Daily Kos)

The most hilarious thing about the “alternatives” that the Republicans have tried to put on the table to health care reform is that they’re all exactly what they complain the President always does: talk but provide no direction. The Republicans claim their option will “eliminate frivilous lawsuits against hospitals and doctors,” which essentially amounts to torte reform – the kind that has been proven time and time again to benefit insurance companies by making patients less able to file claims for ineffective or inappropriate or harmful care and treatment.

The majority of Americans has never supported torte reform, and they won’t even if they change the language – it essentially puts more power in the hands of insurance companies and less in the hands of patients and doctors who are actually responsible, and it just goes to further the fear that Americans have – and are dying from – of going to the doctor for medical treatment, even when something is clearly wrong.

I’m getting too deeply into a discussion of torte reform, but this is true all around whenever the Republicans try to dabble in health care. Their last attempt was so horrific they tried to play it off like it was just a first and rough draft and no one should have seen it, even though they were the ones who released it.

But this one is just as bad. The goal here, as usual, is “self empowerment,” which is really code for “you’re on your own, no one cares about your health care, we just want to not spend money on you so we can cut costs arbitrarily to spend money on things like bombs and missles.”

Hidden in the cobwebby depths of the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions lies the conservative answer to health care. It’s a plan that would cost about $940 billion less than the House Democrats’ bill, and cut deficit spending by tens of billions over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office – all while keeping large employers and insurance moguls happy as clams on subsidized Prozac.

The downside? It would leave more than 52 million nonelderly Americans uninsured. That’s an improvement of roughly zero percent.

The legislation, ambitiously dubbed “The Empowering Patients First Act,” was introduced by Rep. Tom Price, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, in July. It has lately been resurrected as the paragon of reform done right by right-wing columnists, as well as conservative bastions such as the Heritage Foundation and the Christian Coalition.

The Empowering Patients bill would grant tax credits to people purchasing insurance – not much use to unemployed and low-income Americans. It would allow health insurance companies to sell policies across state lines, knocking off state oversight of insurers.

The legislation would not require that employers offer coverage, nor would it impose regulations preventing insurance companies from cherry picking healthy clients.

It would require that no federal funds be used to pay for abortions unless “the pregnancy endangers a women’s life or was the result of forcible rape.”

And, to help fund the minimal expense of the bill, it would instate “medical liability reforms” that would force down the cost of compensation for malpractice lawsuits and make it harder for patients to sue for injuries incurred during treatment.

Feeling empowered yet?

Awesome – so a bill that…does nothing but slash costs and benefits and leaves millions of Americans to fend for themselves, whether they’re sick, needy, elderly, or none of those things.

That’s the conservative way: I’ve got mine, you can go to hell.

[ The Republican Health "Alternative": Empowering Ourselves to Death ]
Source: TruthOut

(click the graphic for a larger version)

The National Geographic Magazine blog has this very telling infographic today detailing the cost of health care as a line between the cost of care per person and that person’s average life expectancy based on the country in which they live. The line also shows how many average doctor’s visits the person takes (on average) per year as the thickness of the line. You can clearly see that those of us in the United States spend the most on health care as any other nation on the list, is only one of two without a universal health care system, and our life expectancy doesn’t really show much for all of those dollars and the socially-reinforced lack of doctor’s office trips we take for things like preventative care.

From the NatGeo blog:

The United States spends more on medical care per person than any country, yet life expectancy is shorter than in most other developed nations and many developing ones. Lack of health insurance is a factor in life span and contributes to an estimated 45,000 deaths a year. Why the high cost? The U.S. has a fee-for-service system—paying medical providers piecemeal for appointments, surgery, and the like. That can lead to unneeded treatment that doesn’t reliably improve a patient’s health. Says Gerard Anderson, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who studies health insurance worldwide, “More care does not necessarily mean better care.” —Michelle Andrews

Sounds right to me, and by “right” I mean horrendously unacceptable.

[ The Cost of Care ]
Source: The National Geographic Magazine Blog