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Ref.: Civic Events
Ref.: Arts & Education Events
Ref.: Public Service Notices
01.13 Hawaii, the Unique State
01.24 Can Apple “Rescue” US Education? (Graphics)
01.23 What You (Really) Need to Know
01.22 How to Forecast Weather Infographic w/Simple Explanations
Ref. : Letters to the editor
02.10 LET’S REMAKE THE WAY WE MAKE THINGS
02.09 Cancer rates triple among New York police officers who responded to 9/11
02.08 The seed emergency: The threat to food and democracy
02.07 Bill Gates backs climate scientists lobbying for large-scale geoengineering
02.04 Your Day at the Beach Could Soon Lead to a Night at the Hospital
02.03 Obama Won't Touch Climate With a 10-Foot Pole
02.03 Komen reverses decision to cut Planned Parenthood funding
02.03 Reforming EU Deep-Sea Fisheries Management
02.02 By defunding Planned Parenthood, the Susan G Komen Foundation betrays women
02.02 Ohio Tries to Escape Fate as a Dumping Ground for Fracking Fluid
01.31 Eleanor Smeal dissects Obama vs. Catholic Church controversy over birth control coverage - video
01.30 Scientists Call on Obama Administration to Use Science as Guide for Arctic
01.28 Universal health care proposal stalls in California Senate
01.27 Apple, Electronics and Environmental Ills
01.25 Solar Cheaper Than Diesel Making India’s Mittal Believer: Energy
01.24 Sounding an Alarm on Birds and Mercury
01.24 Why Don’t We Have Abundant Solar Power? Blame Financing, and Industry, not Science
01.22 The Money Traps in U.S. Health Care
01.22 Looking Inside the Twinkie
Ref. Dollars for Doctors - How Industry Money Reaches Physicians
Ref. 2010 Comparative Price Report Medical and Hospital Fees by Country - Graphics
Ref. Health at a Glance 2011 - OECD Indicators
Ref. : Why is Healthcare Absurdly Expensive in USA (Part 2) [Graphics] (Part 1 is here)
Video Health Care Systems in Less Corrupt Countries
02.07 Did Obama make the economy worse? Not according to most statistics
02.02 ABC's Iran Propaganda
02.02 The Ongoing “Foxification” of the Wall Street Journal
01.30 While temperatures rise, denialists reach lower
01.29 Fox News psychiatrist: Newt Gingrich's affairs 'mean he might make a strong president'
01.22 ‘Shocking victory’: With SOPA shelved, Markos Moulitsas on a way forward for Internet policy - video
Daily The Daily Howler
02.05 Why the AGs Must Not Settle: Robo-signing Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
02.04 THE CAGING OF AMERICA
02.03 Senate Votes To Ban Its Members From Insider Trading... Kind Of
01.31 Senate clears way for vote on insider-trading ban
01.25 Why all the robo-signing? Shedding light on the shadow banking system
01.25 In Iraq, Haditha case is reminder of justice denied
01.22 Still Not Clear on SOPA & PIPA? Infographic w/Simple Explanations
02.10 The Cancer in Occupy
02.10 How Opus Dei Influenced Rick Santorum
02.10 People Are Not Leaving the Labor Force
02.09 Obama, Explained
02.09 OPED: The White Underclass
02.09 EDITORIAL: A Terrible Transportation Bill
02.09 THE OBAMA MEMOS
02.06 Are Conservatives More Fearful Than Liberals?
02.04 Soaking the Poor, State by State
02.04 Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian's Rosy Outlook On The Future of Politics
02.03 SUPERBOWL XLVI: Are You Ready for Some Football???
02.03 Buffett rules: Sheldon Whitehouse introduces the Paying a Fair Share Act - video
02.02 Secrecy Shrouds ‘Super PAC’ Funds in Latest Filings
02.01 Rich Patrons Are Major Source of Romney’s Cash
01.31 How Newt Gingrich Crippled Congress
01.30 Corporate Rule Is Not Inevitable
01.30 Clashes in Oakland: 400 Arrests, Tear Gas, Flash-Bang Grenades
01.30 A European look at the US primaries - video
01.29 Obama’s Faux Populism Sounds Like Bill Clinton
01.25 Inside Romney’s Tax Returns: A Reading Guide
01.24 ILLUSIONS: Being Led Down the Primrose Path...???
01.24 Science Bulletins: Whales Give Dolphins a Lift - video
01.24 THE OBAMA MEMOS
01.22 Three Takeaways From South Carolina
02.10 This is no bailout for Main Street America
02.10 Why the Foreclosure Deal May Not Be So Hot After All
02.10 Matt Taibbi assesses the $26 billion settlement designed to aid victims of foreclosure fraud - video
02.10 Foreclosure Deal to Spur U.S. Home Seizures
02.08 Banks Paying Homeowners to Avoid Foreclosures
02.07 App Stores Create 500,000 U.S. Jobs
02.07 The Payroll Tax Fight
02.07 Obama super PAC decision: President blesses fundraising for Priorities USA Action
02.06 How Privatizing Government Shovels Cash to Parasitic Corporations and Undermines Democracy
02.05 We’re More Unequal Than You Think – Graphic: Unequal rise in income
02.03 PRIVATE INEQUITY
02.02 The New American Divide
02.02 American Airlines proposes to end all four pension plans
02.01 Economics 101
01.30 New Strategy, Old Pentagon Budget
01.30 Where Did All the Workers Go? 60 Years of Economic Change in 1 Graph
01.29 The Apple Boycott: People Are Spouting Nonsense about Chinese Manufacturing
01.29 Made in the World
01.28 Sugar daddy Adelson could save $500 million in taxes if his boy Gingrich wins - video
01.28 How Swedes and Norwegians broke the power of the ‘1 percent’
01.27 Unemployment in Spain Rises to 22.9%
01.27 Chinese Company Continues Plan To Replace Workforce With 500,000 Robots
01.27 Details Emerge of New Financial Fraud Unit
01.27 Not all jobs are equal
01.27 The Shift from Manufacturing to Service Economy - Graphic
01.25 Billionaires Occupy Davos as 0.01% Bemoan Inequality
01.24 Germany has the economic strengths America once boasted
01.23 State Capitalism: The visible hand
01.22 How Big Money Bought Our Democracy, Corrupted Both Parties, and Set Us Up for Another Financial Crisis - video
01.22 How U.S. lost out on Apple's iPhone work
02.03 What the Occupy movement must learn from Sundance
02.02 US plans to halt Afghan combat role early surprise Kabul
01.31 TABLE TALK
01.30 With its deadly drones, the US is fighting a coward's war
01.30 UN panel aims for 'a future worth choosing'
01.26 Iran is ready to return to nuclear talks
01.24 Reagan’s Hand in Guatemala’s Genocide
You can also mail a check to:
P.O. Box 42581
Baltimore, MD 21284-2581
TO YOUR HEALTH:
Single-Payer FAQ
What else has Single Payer been called? Medicare for all. Canadian-style health care.
How is the current non-system organized? The health care insurance industry's sole reason for existence is to make a profit for its owners, its stockholders. The best way to maximize profits is to provide as little actual health care as possible. Sell a product (health care) but deliver as little of it as possible. Insure only healthy people. Drop those who have chronic illnesses or develop catastrophic health problems. Use these profits for obscene executive salaries. Advertising. Administration. Lawyers. Clerks. Accountants. Denial experts. Stock dividends. Lobbyists. Campaign contributions. They call these expenses "overhead."
How much does this overhead add up to? Up to 30 per cent or more, which means that only 70 cents of every dollar spent for health insurance is available for actual health care. With a Single Payer system, these costs could actually be used for health care. The savings amount to about $630 billion per year, which is way more than enough to provide comprehensive health care for the 54 million uninsured and under-insured.
Well, aren't these overhead costs just the cost of doing business? No. Medicare's overhead is in the 1 to 2 percent range. This means that 98 cents on the dollar is available for health care.
How do other countries deliver their health care? The U.S. stands alone among all modem industrialized nations in not having a system for providing health care for all of its citizens.
What do we actually pay for health care in the U.S.? Up to twice as much as most of the rest of the industrialized world, approximately $7,129 per person per year.
Well, don't people without insurance get care in our emergency rooms and through Medicaid? Yes, some do, but under circumstances that may delay, postpone or actually avoid care that is needed.
So what? Study after study has shown that care that is delayed, substandard or outright avoided results in suffering, disability and death. Not to mention the excess costs for care that is provided in emergency rooms, or by hospitalizations that could have been avoided by earlier diagnosis and care—costs that all of us pay by increased taxes and increased premiums.
How would Single-Payer work? A public agency would be created to organize health care financing, collecting money and paying the bills. Government is very good at these two tasks. The health care insurance industry would be eliminated as we currently know it. Insurance companies currently intrude as a barrier between the patient and the doctor. Health care costs would be controlled by a process of negotiation with drug companies, hospitals, doctors and other providers, creating a system that would be reasonable and fair to all.
Can we afford such a system? Recapturing the overhead lost in the current "non-system" and making it available for actual health care would mean that we can afford comprehensive care for everyone—including drugs, dental, mental, doctors, hospitals, vision, long-term care, medical equipment, medical devices, etc.
Would my doctor or hospital be assigned to me? No. You would be free to choose any doctor or hospital or other service that you need.
Well, if it is that simple and that great, why don't we already have such a system? Good question. Maybe the best question yet. Lack of political will—a situation created in part by huge lobbying efforts and the expenditure of huge amounts of money to perpetuate the current dysfunctional medical-industrial complex and maintain power and profits at the expense of everyone else. Tradition. Inertia. Fear of change. Successful advertising and propaganda. Remember the "Harry and Louise" ads opposing the minimal efforts at reform proposed during the Clinton years?
How can I learn more? There are websites that you can explore for more information; among them are: MD PNHP (Maryland Physicians for a National Health Program and MD UHCAN (Maryland Universal for a National Health Program).
What can I do to help? Join MD PNHP or MD UHCAN or other organizations active in this cause. Become more informed. Commit time, energy and money to help the efforts to convince legislators that the time has come for Single Payer reform. Don't be passive, indifferent or give up hope. Remember the quote from Winston Churchill when he was asked early in WWII, "Where are the Americans?." He said: "You can always depend on Americans to do the right thing, after they have tried everything else first." We have tried everything else. It is time to do the right thing and provide quality, affordable health care for everyone.
Republication or redistribution of Baltimore Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent.
This story was published on July 31, 2007.
