Artur Davis HEALTH CARE SUMMIT in Birmingham -- MONDAY @ 5:30 pm

Health Care fear (4.00 / 1)

A reader suggests fears of a massive influx of new people are unfounded:

40 plus million people entering the health care system all of a sudden would be a problem but the whole point is muddled. a lot of those people are in the system, so to speak.  they go to emergency rooms in multitudes. at the UofA med facility on governors drive people come in and tell the receptionist they dont have insurance. they arent sent away.

some uninsured pay out of pocket what they can (or are willing to or are forced to), so, while there are milions of uninsured and under-insured who lack care, medication, treatment, there are millions of others among that 40 plus million of uninsured who are in the system and getting at least some care and treatment. it's not like the day it would be signed into law 40 plus million of uninsured people would make a first trip to a doctor.

 

it would be a problem, but with good planning, manageable.

I agree.  But even unfounded fears are very real to those who have them, and Republicans are awfully good at appealing to our worst instincts, including fear.  Get ready for some opponents of health care reform to be exaggerating the consequences should 48 million (poor and unwashed!!) new people suddenly have health care.  Why, they might all go to the Emergency Room just a the moment your husband is having a heart attack!  Like they don't already use the ER for primary care.

 

Work harder and work smarter!

---

by: mooncat @ Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 07:50:09 AM CDT

the Roundtable (4.00 / 2)

sounds great - unfortunately, I won't be able to attend (have to work), but I'm hopeful someone from LiA will take notes for me :) Somehow, I'd rather not hear it only from the B'ham News.

Aside from Alabama Arise, and perhaps the Nurses, Congressman Davis will have his hands full, no doubt. Hope the lefties will show up in more force than they did in Huntsville.

Basically, this bunch looks like a good sampling of everyone who profits from the status quo in the state - from the AMA  to Blue Cross, HealthSouth, they're all there...

Never underestimate the AMA. They mounted the most vicious campaign against national health the world has ever seen, way back in the FDR/Truman era, when they were seriously considering the idea. "Socialism!!" they cried...lol

The Insurance Lobby is gearing up for the biggest firefight yet, and since their pockets are loaded with the millions they collect from average workers, we are pretty outgunned.

The Devil is in the details...just as he was when Big Pharma managed to get rid of the notion that Uncle Sam might be able to negotiate on the price of drugs (you know, just like THE REST OF THE WORLD DOES)...they got that bit out of the legislation, and went home happy.

So, in our "free market" economy, some of the fattest capitalist cats on the planet managed to convince the American Public that a bit of horse trading was 'Unamerican'...I'm  still scratching my head over that one....lol

When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends.---Mark Twain

---

by: julie @ Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 08:41:12 AM CDT

re the 48 mil (4.00 / 1)

It wasn't always 48 million...that number grew over time when employers suddenly figured out that 2 workers on 36 hours a week with no benefits were a lot cheaper than 1 worker with a 'full-time' job.

trying to keep the American financial boat afloat, and the illusion of real profit constant, has been mostly smoke and mirrors for a long time...and it's been coming from the pockets of the working class.

You can only suck your own blood for so long! Sooner or later you have to produce something, but that was all shipped out ages ago.

It seems to be a pretty constant cycle...like Western Europe, when the economy flowers and seeds, and the jobs move away, you're left with a social contract to care for your people, and allow them to make a living somehow. Serious manufacturing died in Europe a while back, and now they are 'socialist'.

That's exactly what's going to happen here.

 The real 'producers' will be all those Third World countries we've been so busy 'exploiting'. They will have the cash and call the shots. The folks who engineer these sorts of things will be just fine. They make money no matter who builds the widget...they just move it around from time to time.

When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends.---Mark Twain

---

by: julie @ Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 08:58:54 AM CDT

...and maybe that is the inevitable evolution of the human condition (4.00 / 1)

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead  

---

by: piggieheart @ Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 09:09:08 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

maybe (4.00 / 1)

although I'd say rather that it is the inevitable evolution of Capitalism. That's a shark that has to keep swimming :) Its adherents say that gradually everyone will be better off. Perhaps they are right.

When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends.---Mark Twain

---

by: julie @ Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 09:22:14 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Davis gave a health care interview this morning (0.00 / 0)

To Fox6 News in Birmingham.  He touched on taxing health care benefits (opposes it), choice for consumers and competition -- for both of those.  Watch the video here.

Near the end, the reporter asks him about Ron Sparks' education lottery proposal and Davis says he wouldn't oppose it if the Legislators and the voters approve a lottery, but it's another way to reach into the pockets of low wage working class people instead of taxing corporations and out of state companies that own land here.  That's what's been going on in Alabama since at least 1901. 

 

Hat tip to Booker Rising. 

Work harder and work smarter!

---

by: mooncat @ Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 15:20:01 PM CDT

Why don't we do both? (4.00 / 2)

Why not have an education lottery and tax corporations and out of state companies that own land here?

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.~Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D. MA)

---

by: Redeye @ Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 15:31:10 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

One caveat on lotteries (4.00 / 1)

if we have one, I sure hope they don't put Kay in charge! :P

When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends.---Mark Twain

---

by: julie @ Tue Jul 07, 2009 at 08:33:39 AM CDT

[ Parent ]