Health Justice Predicts the Future of Healthcare…"Goodbye"

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~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

Yesterday (Friday, March 19) I sent in my check for my Medicare Supplement insurance, a nice hefty sum well over $4,000.

Just to rub salt into the wound, the full-court press on the Obama Health Insurance Protection Act is in full swing and will be voted on this weekend.

It’s a pile of crap.

For many months I’ve been subscribed to the Health Justice newsletter and have sent my share of emails and faxes in support of a single-payer system.

Yesterday’s missive was entited “Goodbye“; it predicts the future path of health care in this country. Even if half comes true, it’s still disheartening to think about.

Visit Health Justice at the link below for moral support and lots of good material to cry over…

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http://www.1payer.net/

Here’s the email:

Dear ……,

This is a requiem for the idea that all Health Care in America is a Human Right.  The likely passage of Obama’s health reform joke will mean that health care and money are powerfully bound together.  From now on, having money means being healthy and having less money means being less healthy and having no means — well, you get the idea.

You can also say goodbye to America as the world’s greatest power.  We won’t have the money to pay off our debts to the Chinese and we won’t be able to make the money because no one will be brave enough to go it alone — no job will equal no health care.

You can also say goodbye to the power of the vote.  From this point on, it will be received wisdom that money can buy anything, including the White House and the entire Congress.

So folks, say Goodbye.  Don’t look for a brighter future for your American-born kids.  It won’t happen.

What Will Happen to Health Care?
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As even the more “liberal” Republicans recognize, the health insurance industry is dying.  There is no way that a family making 100,000 dollars in 2014 can pay a 25,000 premium for health insurance with a 25,000 deductible and a 30% copay.  So the health insurance industry will contract, indeed has even begun to do so.  Insurers will shed their individual policies and compete fiercely only for the largest and most well-heeled companies who can afford to stiff their workers on pay in return for providing what everyone wants but can’t have — health insurance.

At the same time, those who are younger or healthier or bolder will go without health insurance and pay the fine (or not), then will sign up for an expensive policy when they get sick.  Insurers will try every way possible to avoid signing these people up — usually by claiming that they were defrauded when the newly insured person didn’t include a cold that he had ten years before he applied.

As the price rises for health insurance, fewer and fewer people will buy it and more and more will take the bolder approach.  The price will rise faster.  The insurers will consolidate because only the biggest will survive.  Eventually there will be three health insurers nationwide who will only insure people that work for Microsoft or Google and will have figured out a way to avoid insuring anyone else.

Those on Medicare or Medicaid will not be able to find a specialist, although there will be plenty of impecunious pediatricians, internists and family practice docs who are trying to scrape by on the measly payments by Medicare and Medicaid, which have cut year by year to pay the insurers to insure the middle-class employed person at ever higher prices.

Eventually, this will cut into the hospitals’ and the high-paid specialists’ bottom line and they will gradually start to see fewer and fewer patients, limiting their patients to those who can pay by some guaranteed manner.  Only the most infected and infested practices will be left for those who cannot guarantee payment.

And through all of this, Mitt Romney and fellow Republicans will be telling Americans that everything will be fine if they just eat right and exercise more.

But by that time (prediction: 2020), the Chinese will have essentially foreclosed on their loans to the US and will own most of our industrial base.

Another prediction:  buy Wellpoint/Anthem — it will own one-third of the market by 2015.  But wait to buy until the stock hits bottom after the Obamination passes.

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HealthJustice | 57 W. 200 South, Suite 101 | Salt Lake City | UT | 84101

The Past Week May 3-9, 2009 (Chicago Suits Pressure Wells Fargo; Push for a Single-Payer Advocate at Baucus Table; David Cameron Interview Re: British Politics One Year Away from Election)

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

Early in the week, my mother mentioned how Hart Schaffner Marx, the suit maker based in Chicago, were on verge of going under because Wells Fargo no longer wanted to back them.

My immediate reaction was that there’d be pressure put on Well Fargo.

Well, Chicago Correspondent Leslie sent this along which proves me right…although it wasn’t very difficult in today’s climate to think of this scenario. From WBBM 780 Chicago:

DES PLAINES, Ill. (AP) — Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias is threatening to pull state business from Wells Fargo & Co. unless the bank stops trying to liquidate a company that makes suits for President Barack Obama.

Giannoulias made the ultimatum outside a Hartmarx Corp. factory in Des Plaines Thursday. Chicago-based Hartmarx is the nation’s largest maker of men’s tailored clothing.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Jan. 23. It employs about 3,000 workers represented by the Service Employees International Union.

Giannoulias spokesman Scott Burnham says Wells Fargo is custodian of an $8 billion state portfolio.

We’ve explored Giannoulias’ actions in the past here at IA. See:

IL State Treasurer/Obama Ally Giannoulias Planning to Challenge Roland Burris–Report from Our Chicago Correspondent; Medicare Musings

Parts 1 & 2–The Lineup: A Who’s Who of The Associates of Barack Obama

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The folks over at HealthJustice continue pushing for single-payer to be included in the discussion about the “reform” of healthcare.  Their latest update:

Fax The Finance Committee Again
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fax The Senate Finance Committee is hearing about health care reform, insurance-company-style, once more on May 12.  Thanks to courageous protests by the Baucus 8, there is a better chance that a single payer advocate will be at the table.  Three names are proposed: Rose Ann deMoro of CNA, Dr. Marcia Angell and Dr. Steffie Woolhandler.  Sen. Schumer of New York has tentatively agreed to ask Sen. Baucus to inslude a single payer voice if — and here is the rub — another senator will also ask.  The Senators to target are Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Kerry of Massachusetts and Rockefeller of W.Virginia. So crank up those fax machines once more, especially if you are from these states, and lets blast the faxes to the White House and to the Senate Finance Committee members this weekend.  We have sent 27 thousand faxes to Congress so far.  Let’s send another 27 thousand just this weekend. Go to this page on 1payer to send your free fax. Send one. Send all.  Demand a seat at the table.

This game about needing to ask another senator has been pulled before, course.  We needed one Senator to get the ball rolling to fight the “selection” of Bush in 2000, remember?

Anyway, I’ve been emailing and faxing courtesy HealthJustice and I hope many readers will do the same!

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The Independent (UK) has an exclusive interview with the probable successor to Gordon Brown, Tory David Cameron.  It’s an interesting read and the next year before the election should be fascinating to see how it all unfolds.

…To the Tory leader and his party, this must be what waiting for power is like.

As it stands, Gordon Brown’s Government is reeling from setback after setback. The Prime Minister’s authority appears to be draining away. He is openly ridiculed by members of his own Cabinet, his expenses claim left open to question, his Government’s policy dictated to a minister by Joanna Lumley, the economy trapped in recession.

SNIP

It is Thursday 7 May, and in exactly a year’s time, if the polls are right and if Mr Brown is not ejected from office before then, Mr Cameron could be standing on the steps of 10 Downing Street having overnight brought to an end 13 years of Labour government.

Let’s recall how Obama and Cameron met during Obama’s summer tour of Europe.  At the time, this happened:

Breaking: Tory Leader David Cameron “Hearts” Obama, Talks about “Progessive Goals” Achieved by “Conservative Means”

At the time I wondered “Are Cameron and the Tories following Obama’s lead, or is it the other way around?”

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THE PAST WEEK

Saturday Sanity: The Antidote to the Madness (May 9, 2009) ROADRUNNER in the Yard!

A Black Blogger’s Take on Obama’s Ambivalence toward the Real Problems in the Black Community

Tidbits from the 100 Days Debacle/Join the W.A.M. ACTION Against the Mainstream Media

Kurdish Women “Bend It Like Beckham” Pursuing Freedom

The Past Week: April 26-May 2, 2009 (Cap & Trade Speed Bumps; Tiny Houses; Obama’s Unchecked Spending Could Doom Health, Energy Plans)