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 3rd
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 & DEVELOPMENTPfizer $16.90 billion $ 7.68 billion
Hoffman La Roche $ 7.24 " $ 4.01 "
Johnson& Johnson $15.86 " $ 5.20 "
GlaxoSmithKline $12.93 " $ 5.20 ''
