Happy Birthday Medicare

                                      
Happy Birthday Medicare

We celebrate another milestone for the public good; the Supreme Court ruling that the Affordable care act is constitutional on June 28 is an important increment in health care reform. Forty –seven years ago, Lyndon Johnson signed the Medicare bill on July 30, 1965. Medicare was implemented into law on July 1, 1966. July 25, 2012 is National Call Day Birthday wishes to Congress for improved & expanded Medicare. 202-204-2431. Make the call.

Since 1966, seniors have enjoyed the security of an affordable package of guaranteed health care benefits. What would a GOP plan to end Medicare, in favor of tax breaks to big oil, hedge fund billionaires, huge corporations and corporate jet owners, mean??????  To date, this is the plan Romney would put in place of                    “Obama Care.”

It would end affordable benefits to 42 million elderly, Americans, 65 and older, plus people with disabilities. It would double their out-of-pockets expense. There would be an immediate increase in the cost of prescription drugs.

Just Say No To The Ryan Plan!  MITT ROMNEY THINKS IT IS A MAGNIFICANT PROPOSAL!

According to Health Care- Now, Paul Ryan’s Budget Proposal WILL ELIMINATE MEDICARE.

THE CHANGES WILL IMPACT THE MOST VULNERABLE AMERICANS; THE RICH RECEIVE TAX BREAKS.

Those who are eligible for Medicare will receive a voucher with a predetermined amount for the difference between the voucher and the rise in insurance premiums. The problem is, the voucher will not keep up with health care spending, and the coverage will be unaffordable to the participant. This will force seniors and beneficiaries into the private for profit insurance market to purchase insurance, which is the intended goal to increase profits for CEO’s and stockholders who buy the elections through campaign contributions and media spending.

Those under fifty –five years of age will not be eligible for traditional Medicare. The age of eligibility will increase by 2 months per year until it reaches 67.

The Ryan proposal WEAKENS MEDICAID by eliminating the existing matching fund financing structure of Medicaid in 2013. Instead, each state will receive a pre-determined block grant.
According to CBO, states will be forced to reduce spending, lower the size of Medicaid programs by cutting payment rates for doctors, hospitals, and nursing homes. They will be forced to reduce the scope of benefits covered to limit eligibility.
THE OBAMA AFFORDABLE CARE ACT DID NOT CUT ANY GUARANTEED MEDICARE BENEFITS
According to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Affordable Care Act makes Medicare stronger and puts money back into senior’s pockets. Insurance premiums, that seniors pay, are reduced by 16%. It closes the gap in prescription drug coverage. Additional preventative services are provided, for screenings such as cancer, cholesterol and annual wellness checks, at no extra out of pocket expense to the senior. Hospitals are receiving new incentives to improve care by reducing hospital infections, increasing patient safety and lowering costs. New laws invest more resources to fight Medicare fraud.

1.5 million baby- boomers are enrolled in Medicare each year. The number of people receiving Medicare is higher than those paying into the system. It is predicted that the age of eligibility will have to be increased to 67 in the future. We need representatives in Washington who will work together to continue to strengthen Medicare.  The funding is unsustainable and does not resolve the issue of the overall high health care costs.

Without the Affordable Health Care Act, the Medicare system would have been broken within 4 years. Now the program has enough money to last 12 years.  In promoting the public good, the ACA provides millions of low income Americans with comprehensive health insurance, while some moderate income Americans, who cannot afford comprehensive insurance, are left on their own. More measures need to be taken to make a more just and equitable system.

Link: http://www.healthcare.gov/index.html this website is a tool to help you understand how the insurance reform, Affordable Health Care Act will help you. You can learn more about the many wellness & prevention services that insurers are supposed to cover by Aug. 2012. You will find contact information for the Consumer Assistance Program to get help with questions and problems.

JUST KNOW WE HAVE HAD A PROVEN, PERMINANT SOLUTION ALL ALONG

                                               REDUCE SPENDING THAT IS NOT MAKING AMERICA HEALTHIER 

Build on the benefits gained through the Affordable Health Care Act. 20 million Americans are still without health care, because many in Congress wanted to keep the cost under a trillion. If you do not see health care as a human right, just do the math and see where the waste is. The good measures of the Affordable Health Care Act should not be repealed. How would a good businesswoman balance the budget? She would trim the fat. Would she over pay for her families’ needs? The government’s relationship with the “for profit” insurance industry should come to an end. We have more control of government, at the voting booth, than we do over the greed of private corporations.

 Expanding Medicare for all would fund the system, to protect its sustainability, by pooling taxes of all Americans who already pay taxes into Medicare and Social Security. The benefit of the government “not for profit”, central collection agency, (which already exists through the Medicare Administration), is that  instead of a thousand insurance companies creating over head cost up to 31 %. Over head costs would be reduced to less than 5%. For most Americans there would be no increase in the amount of taxes that are already taken from their pay check. Insurance premiums would be eliminated altogether.
Ask a 5^th grader what would be more cost effective and efficient? So who are the politicians working for concerning the US citizens’ right to affordable health care? Without your voice, the answer is the big money special interest groups, the Corporate Mafia, who pay salaries to Washington lobbyists in the disguise of letting the free market work. One might ask, “For whom does the free market work”?                                                                         

Get Two for One
Improve Medicare for All. Solve our health care crisis & improve our economy!
Don’t Be Duped….. You Can Be Your Own Lobbyist ….. Law Makers Need To Hear From You

Tell the governor of your state that you support the Affordable Health Care Act and to accept the federal funds that the ACA provides to give care to low income citizens. Vermont has been a leader in Single-Payer for years. ACA funds their system paving a way for them to more easily move their system to a Single Payer/ Medicare for all system.

Join the “Million Letter Campaign” at www.medicareforall.org to receive a monthly reminder to down load a prewritten letter to sign and mail to your representative(s). Keep in mind 900 paid lobbyist nationally are trolling the halls of our capital representing the big money interest, insurance and pharmaceutical companies. The lobbyists are not looking out for your best interest. They are on the wrong side of the issue for a pay check. Collectively, the ‘Million Letter Campaign” creates a million dollars worth of advertising each month. There are 435 Congressional districts. The goal is to have 2 thousand plus letters from each district sent to Congressional and Senate leaders every month on a consistent basis, to let our representatives know there is a public will for the Single Payer System, improved and expanded Medicare for all.  Please log into the website, so that campaign success can be tracked.

Please sign up for the campaign at www.medicareforall.org. Keep the conversation among Americans about Medicare for all going. Without the voice of the people, Congress doesn’t believe there is a demand. The website has more detailed information about Single Payer and the campaign. Help the campaign website go viral by linking to face book, twitter or your favorite online social forum. Print or forward the newsletter to your friends, family and co-workers.

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  Medicare 4 all Newsletter

Why are we not “mad as hell” about our health care system?

Maureen Gill, a columnist for the Journal Tribute, wrote that in 1943, President Roosevelt proposed a Second Bill of Rights declaring “freedom from want” to be an essential human right that includes “the right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.” The United nations embraced FDR’s vision in 1948 and drafted the Universal  Declaration of Human Rights, which states, “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself and one’s family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care.” The opportunity for adequate medical care is best accomplished through a not for profit Universal Health Care system. Call on Congress to recognize that right. Join the Million Letter Campaign at www.medicareforall.org   

Congressman John Conyers (D- MI), co-sponsored with Denise Kucinich (D- OH), wrote the United State National Health Care Act HR 676, an expansion of Medicare for all citizens. The only Single Payer, Universal Health Care Bill to be introduced to the House of Representatives, having 93 congressional co-sponsors, is now supported by 558 organized unions in 49 states and 60% of the physicians across the US. HR 676 was denied a place in the discussion during the policy debate in 2009.The public option was taken off the table, as well. Thus, the Affordable Care Act, (ACA), was rushed into passage. Conyers reintroduced HR676 in 2011 with 76 congressional co-sponsors.

 The ACA is a step in the right direction, in terms of a few regulations for the insurance industry and providing care to more people, but does not do enough to reign in the costs, nor is it true health care reform. 27 million Americans remain uninsured until 2016 and beyond. The policy is still about profit first, health care second.

We have the best doctors, hospitals and health care technology in the world, but a poor delivery system. The US spends over twice as much on health care than any of the industrialized nations, who have some form of Universal Health Care. For the same money spent in the US, we could have a system that covers everyone, with the choice of doctors in private practice and private hospitals with in a system that reduced administrative overhead. By eliminating the government’s relationship with big insurance corporations, connected to the stock market for investment and profit, billions would be saved. We have such a proven system right now; it is called Medicare.

President Obama, in his OH campaign speech said,” The free market is not for people to take what they want no matter how they get it.” I think he was referring to the corruption on Wall Street that brought on the economic crisis that rang around the world. However, that could be said about the health care crisis, where 18,000 people die each year, simply, because they lacked health insurance, yet just one insurance CEO’s salary in 2005, could have covered twice as many people. Before the Affordable Care Act, 50 million citizens were uninsured and 50 million were under insured. While Republicans want to cut spending on education, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security for the poorest and middle class Americans, the insurance industry is protected at a time the country faces an economic and health care crisis due to unemployment and the out of control costs of health care. There are more reasons to end the relationship between the government and insurance companies than to maintain it.

 Single Payer Health Care ~ An Economic Stimulus ~ A Job Creation Solution

The private sector does not build bridges, roads or sewer systems; they do not police our streets, put out fires or teach our children in public schools. The decline in employment is due to the cuts in government spending, on the local and state level, of the public sector, for the police, fire, teachers, municipal worker and the like.

The Single Payer Health Care system would save the public schools and municipalities millions of dollars, each year, from health care premiums that could be redirected to improve education and to hire teachers, police and fire fighters. The antiquated sewage systems, bridges and roads could be updated, paving the way for business development. The best thing of all is that we would be caring for the societal well-being. Everyone would have the health care they need; our educational system would improve, as would our public safety and employment opportunities.

A Single Payer system reduces the cost of doing business in the US, by reducing health care costs for employers, which will attract jobs that re-located overseas. Part of the failure that was experienced in the auto industry was related to health care benefits paid out to retired workers and the rising cost of insuring their current employees. Employees who get laid off from jobs, also, lose the health care benefits employers were providing.

Changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act will not address increasing cost of health care; it is just a cost restructuring financial plan. Many employers have considered dropping benefits entirely, opting to pay the penalty for not providing health care to employees.

Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize Winning Economist, commentator on MSNBC and author of, End This Depression, say that spending is the cure to the recession. Putting money in the pocket of Americans, either, through government stimulus to create jobs or through small tax measures on those making over $200,000 annually, as President Obama tried to propose. Hiring teacher, police, fire fighter and city workers who will spend improves the economy, not austerity measures to end educational and social programs.  

The Arm Chair Activist  

Universal Health Care is a goal worthy of a commitment. A committed person brings energy and passion  to accomplish a goal, but the Medicare For All Campaign needs the “arm chair activists,” who are enrolled in the campaign to do something each month. The goal of the Million Letter Campaign is for 2 thousand letters to reach congressional representatives, each month, from each of the 435 congressional districts. This action creates a million dollars worth of advertising every month to let Congress know there is a public will for Single Payer Health Care in a big way. Tell President Obama to move FORWARD, improve and expand Medicare for all.

Knowledge and numbers is important to any campaign. The public needs to be informed about the Single Payer option, its benefits, efficiency and cost effectiveness. The website, www.medicareforall.org has all the details about the campaign and education concerning Medicare for all. Numbers are important, because our representatives have to do the will of the people if they want re-elected. As citizens we must provide our input on a consistent basis about the public policy we support.

When you join the Million Letter Campaign at www.medicareforall.org, you will be sent a monthly email remainder, to log into the website, to download a pre-written letter to date, sign and send to your congressional district representative. The campaign would like to track the progress they are having, so please sign in to join.  

Keep asking for reform to be done the most efficient and effective way!             

Medicare 4 All Newsletter May Issue

The Million Letter Campaign

Be informed and sign up!             Be heard above the 900 paid lobbyists against health care reform!

Regardless of the Affordable Health Care Act and a mandate, the 2 trillion dollar cost of health care needs reduced and more people need included in the system. The relationship between the government and the “for profit” industries, which are adding to the enormity of the national debt, not your health care it- self, needs to end. Pressure from grass root organizing during a campaign year is a real opportunity to move President Obama to take more extensive action on health care.

Have you signed up to help promote Medicare for all at www.medicareforall.org? Be informed; you can find a wealth of education on house resolution HR 676 and details about the Million Letter Campaign at the website. Show Congress there is a political will for HR 676, Single Payer Health Care.

Debunking Myths

Myth #1, “It will cost too much!”

Polls show that 50 percent of Americans support HR676, Single Payer Health Care. The other half of the country is influenced by the many wrong ideas circulating about the universal health care systems. It is important to be armed with the correct information when confronted with this misinformation. 

For instance, it is often stated that Canada has a terrible system that increase tax rates to an astronomical proportion. The fact is that thirty-one cents out of every US dollar goes to the over head costs of administering health care and to pay CEO bonuses in the amount of tens of millions of dollars each year for a failing system. In Canada only one cent from every dollar goes to over head costs. Also, in Canada only 10 percent of the GPD goes toward health care and no one is denied care. In America, 17 percent of the GDP goes to health care and only eighty-five percent of the citizens are provided health care. Here is the biggest myth of all that people love to tell, taxes will be so increased that we will hate it.  After taxes were all averaged out Canadians only pay .1% more, after having a lower overhead and GDP, compared to Americans. With a Single Payer system in the US, everyone would be included, from the cradle to the grave, including long term care, regardless of income, job status, and age or pre-existing conditions.

 As it is, we allow 18,000 people to die each year because they have no health insurance. Just one CEO’s salary from the United Health Group in 2005 could have insured twice as many people. His salary was the 3^rd largest paid in this country, 122.7 million dollars that year. There are over a thousand insurance companies in the US.

There is a faction in this country that cares more about profit than people.  Americans are not heartless; they need to know where the propaganda is coming from and to debrief themselves of all the misinformation circulating by those who want to protect the investment and profit machines. Health care is a human right and service not a commodity for investment and profit.   

Myth #2, “It is socialized medicine!”

 With improved and expanded Medicare for all, HR 676, doctors will remain independent in private practice and hospitals will be operated by private or non-profit charitable groups. You will choose your own doctors which will increase competition between providers, not an insurance company deciding where you will receive care among their providers.

The improvement will come from providers sending their claims to one “not for profit place” to get paid for the health care service they provided, instead of a thousand of different insurance companies. 

Talking points

47- 50 million people are uninsured in the US. If all the uninsured resided in one place, they would occupy the largest state in the union, CA and the state of Ohio. Another 50 million are underinsured. The cost of health care is going up so much employers are not able to keep up with the cost of providing coverage for employees. The average price tag for the family policy is $12,000 a year. Since 1990 the cost of insurance has gone up 131 percent; the cost of drugs has gone up 500 percent.

Excuses, Excuses, excuses !

The drug companies claim they have to cover the cost of research and development though increased cost of medications. The real truth is pharmaceutical companies spend billions more on unnecessary marketing. Under improved Medicare, the government will have tremendous purchasing power to negotiate lower prices from the pharmaceutical companies.  

                                  MARKETING                    RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Pfizer                         $16.90 billion                                  $ 7.68 billion                

Hoffman La Roche      $  7.24     "                                           $ 4.01   "

Johnson& Johnson      $15.86    "                                            $ 5.20   "

GlaxoSmithKline          $12.93    "                                            $ 5.20   ''                                                          

           

           

       

What Politicians Don't Want You To Know

The best comprehensive and affordable health care system for the US would be to expand and improve Medicare for all.  A Single Payer system such as HR676 modeled after the success of Medicare, addresses the social injustice from the moral and pragmatic perspective. The private insurers bureaucratic night mare undermines health care with hundreds of insurance plans, each with their own rules creating costly administrative waste. More than 25 % of that waste could be eliminated, saving the public 4 billion dollars each year. There is no lack of money to fund a system that would provide basic fundamental health care to every US citizen, that they are entitled to, regardless of their income, employment or health status, age or gender. These links provide knowledge every citizen needs to be informed about the health care plan special interest groups, lobbyists and politicians do not want you to know about.

www.HR676.org                                       www.unionsforsinglepayerHR676.org                                                                                                                                                                                           www.healthcare-now.org             http://guaranteedhealthcare4all.org                                                                                       www.businesscoaliton.net            www.wearetheunisured.org