The Energon Pub

I would greatly like to share this with you:

"At least 30% of the $3.2 trillion spent annually for
health care in the United States goes to the
for-profit system, while 50 million Americans, many of
them working, are without health insurance. About $660
billion goes for corporate profits, executive
salaries, stock options, advertising, marketing, and
the cost of paperwork. If we took all that money and
we put it into a public health system, a national
health care plan, we would have enough money to cover
everything for everyone."

"It's time we ended the thought that healthcare is
privilege. It is a basic right, and it's time to end
this control that the insurance companies have not
only over health care, but over our political system."

-Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich on his bill,
HR676

Half of all bankruptcies in America are the result of
people's inability to pay their immense healthcare
expenses. People are losing their homes over the cost
of something that is free in every other
industrialized nation. Statistics show that Americans
live sicker and die younger than citizens of any other
developed nation. HMO shareholders get rich depending
on how well the HMOs can deny paying for your health
care. Does a for-profit health care system even sound
moral to you?

This is very important for our economy. There are
many businesses that want to insure, but can't because
they can't afford it. Ford and GM are running
multi-billion dollar deficits because they can't
afford the cost of health insurance in our for-profit
system.

I wanted to share this brief clip with you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-3DI7_7V8M

The problem with Kucinich's platform is that the
majority of Americans have no idea who he is or what
he stands for. Top executives at Disney (which owns
CNN and ABC) have made huge contributions to the
"leading" candidates (who have all taken money from
medical lobbyists) and omit Kucinich from debates and
polls. I'm doing my part to see that everyone knows:

-Kucinich is the only candidate for Not-For-Profit
Single-Payer Universal Health Care. Other plans keep
insurance companies wealthy (and politicians) and cost
taxpayers more.

-Kucinich is the only candidate who, in all his years
in public office, has never taken one dollar in
special interest contributions! No strings attached!!

-Kucinich is the only candidate who voted against the
Iraq war, and has always voted against funding it. His
plan, H. Res. 1234 will start withdrawal immediately,
ending the occupation. (This war costs us $127
million/day, and we are in the largest deficit in
history. Let's use this money to pay for Social
Security and Medicare to HEAL our people instead of
KILL other people. Baby boomers, you need this!)

-Kucinich is the only candidate who will do away with
NAFTA, GATT, and the WTO, which have sent American
jobs overseas to countries that use slave labor and
follow no environmental standards.

-Kucinich is the only candidate for marriage equality.

-Kucinich did not vote for the Patriot Act, and as
President, will repeal it. (The Patriot Act permits
the arrest, deportation, imprisonment, and brutal
torture of Americans without reasons given, and many
times based on racial profiling).

-Kucinich has proposed the Department of Peace as a
means to communicate and negotiate with leaders of
other nations, rather than resorting to force.

-Kucinich has filed H. Res. 333, Articles of
Impeachment against V.P. Dick Cheney on war crimes.

-If he wins in the primaries, for a running mate he
will take a REPUBLICAN, Presidential candidate RON
PAUL... and vice versa. Wow, a Democrat and a
Republican on the same ballot!

He's not the best-looking, or the youngest, or the
tallest, or the coolest, or the richest, or the most
famous. But he's a true humanitarian. He has won
every internet poll where people vote on their stance
on the issues instead of the candidates' name.

I'm voting with my heart. I'm voting Dennis Kucinich.
He DOES have a chance if we talk about it and give
him one. Thanks for listening.

ooh boy. now come the heated political discussions

A little early, don't you think? No one really has the nomination yet.

The healthcare issue is a bad one, and I'm thankful I don't have to worry about medical expenses. I don't know what my four day stay in the hospital back in September cost, because my insurance covers everything. I'd probably pay for it for years if I had to.

I guess the good thing that comes with for-profit health care is that they are forced to compete, and therefore constantly improve healthcare. Unfortunately, that is only if you can afford it. Because our family needs healthcare, we'll probably stay in the army for the time being simply because we couldn't afford to pay for civilian healthcare.

Moonbase2 wrote:I guess the good thing that comes with for-profit health care is that they are forced to compete, and therefore constantly improve healthcare. Unfortunately, that is only if you can afford it. Because our family needs healthcare, we'll probably stay in the army for the time being simply because we couldn't afford to pay for civilian healthcare.

The German Health care is forced to compete and it's cheap for you, and it too keeps standards up and improves them.

Dudes this guy sounds good, I hope you guys get him as your chify.

i just read the part that if he is elected, he'll take ron paul as his running mate, and vice versa. i am SO there, seeing that i am planning on voting for paul. (it's odd being able to support a dem. and rep. candidate at the same time!)

I will never understand American policies on this matter. I mean, you guys have billions to spend on blowing up Arabs why the hell cant' you fellas pay for kids to be treated for cancer and what not.

Of course, NZL is by no means perfect, I will be first in line to attest to that!

But American mental health care is a real concern - I met an American MH Nurse the other day and he had horror stories to tell. Down here if you have an "episode of care" you're in the inpatient until until you're better or not a danger to anyone.

And we have laws to ensure they stay put.

The problem with health care/insurance is that it's basically a "captive audience" sort of thing.

In regards to the care, it's not like you can pick and choose what you get sick with and thus what treatments you need. The question of which treatment or drug you get is based on what you're ill with and your body's personal quirks, not which is cheaper or looks prettier or what have you. You also can't control which diseases are more common and thus more "lucrative" than another. So the usual benefits of corporate competition, forcing companies to find ways to supply demand better than their competion, don't really apply here because the demand is so variable and the needed solutions are not in the control of the "customer".

In regards to the insurance, most people are pretty much just stuck with whatever insurance their employer offers whether they like or not, since covering insurance costs yourself is insanely expensive. And as for which companies the employers pick... again, how much can you really compete on? Health treatments cost what they cost, and require what they require, so the price and service to the customer is going to be pretty much the same from place to place.

In short, having privately run health insurance/care is massively stupid because the very nature of health care has jackall to do with normal consumer products. When the question of what health care a given person will need is - barring accidents due to negligence - mainly controlled by the whim of Mother Nature, how can the typical business model of competition based on freedom of consumer choice apply? Instead all it does is ensure that the crucial matter of staying healthy lies in the hands of corporations who follow the typical attitude of the least service for the most money.

Personally, I would like to see a better healthcare program here in the US. I have had diabetes 26 years out of my 28 year life. Just the supplies I go through in a month is about $150. Add to that the cost of three other medications that I need to take (about another $90, after insurance). Then add the cost of cobra insurance, another $160 each month. My unemployement checks just barely covered my health expenses.

I don't get health insurance through the temp agency I have been using, and most places that I have had interviews with don't even have it as one of their benefits.

I pray I never have a hospital stay again. The last one I had about 12 years ago was insane. They wouldn't let me use my own medications or supplies. They charged $8 for one shot of insulin, I take 3 to 4 a day. I can buy a whole bottle for about $20, and that can last me almost a month.

I feel like I'm being raped every time I have to do with anything related to our healthcare system. It's not like what I have will ever just go away, I'm forced to buy this stuff so I can just stay alive. OK, rant over.

Grahf wrote:Personally, I would like to see a better healthcare program here in the US. I have had diabetes 26 years out of my 28 year life. Just the supplies I go through in a month is about $150. Add to that the cost of three other medications that I need to take (about another $90, after insurance). Then add the cost of cobra insurance, another $160 each month. My unemployement checks just barely covered my health expenses.

In Kucinich's not-for-profit healthcare plan, all of that would be covered. Eliminating profits from the equation puts $660 billion into actual healthcare, which would cover EVERYONE for EVERYTHING.