Switzerland's example of universal healthcare

By GottaLaff

Gee, I hope it's okay to talk about Europe in a positive light. Specifically, Switzerland. I know it's wrong. I know it's unAmerican. But I just. Can't. Help myself. Can you ever forgive me? Yeahwhatever:

At least one country already has a healthcare plan roughly similar to the one President Obama and the Democrats have proposed, with universal coverage, a mandate that everyone buy insurance and a major role for private insurance companies: Switzerland. [...]

Here's how the Swiss system works: Everyone is required to buy basic health insurance from one of several private companies; the government subsidizes the cost for low-income families. Consumers can choose any insurer and go to any doctor -- more choice than most Americans now enjoy. The government prescribes what the policies will cover, sets the price and tells doctors what they can charge for every medical procedure. Doctors are free to do whatever they feel is called for, order up any test and prescribe any approved medication. But if a doctor's billings exceed the regional median by too much, he or she will get a "blue letter" -- a bill from the government demanding the return of some of those fees.

By world standards, Swiss medicine is very good. [...] Swiss patients don't wait long for treatment either. "If you need an MRI, I can arrange one tonight or tomorrow," Meile said. And they pay a lot less than we do. [...]

The unrelenting rise in costs has been the single biggest disappointment in the Swiss universal coverage system [...]

Here's what struck me most about Meile's practice: All of his patients have the same basic insurance policy [...] None of them has to worry about going broke because of medical bills.

And here's what struck me about his clinic: [...] No billing department, no bookkeepers. [...]

One lesson of Switzerland's experience is that near-universal coverage is possible without a government-run "public option." Swiss health insurance is provided entirely by private companies, even for the elderly. [...] By law, the basic insurance plans are nonprofit, but companies use them to attract customers to their for-profit lines of business.

Another lesson: Cost containment is very, very difficult [...]

A third lesson: Don't expect miracles. [...]

Still, they get medical care as good or better than ours, at a cost that's significantly smaller. They must be doing something right.

I hear that Switzerland is just a stone's throw from France. Zut! There goes the neighborhood.

I left out a lot. Go here for more.

Oh, and IMHO, three words: Medicare for all.

TPC Commenter: "Being Canadians, we have the RIGHT to universal health care"

By GottaLaff

I hope it's okay with the Commenter who posted this that I am putting it out front, but it was something I thought was well worth sharing with everyone. The post was in response to Keith Olbermann's hourlong Special Comment:

I was impressed with Keith's commentary. It put a lot of things about the American garbage system into perspective.

Being Canadians, we have the RIGHT to universal health care. Despite the chorus of lies rampant in the United States, we know that we have a superior health care system, in large part because it is universal, to what the vast majority of people have in the United States.

I have the same health care as the Premier of my province and as my Member of Parliament. The number of Americans who have the same health care as the Governor of their state and their Senators, I suspect, would be quite small. This defines the Canadian health care system and we have more rights and freedoms than Americans have.

We also have more disposable income after taxes (including health care- 82%) than Americans have as disposable income after taxes+ health insurance+copays (81.8%)

My mother had bypass surgery at age 72 within 3 days, yet many Americans lie about long waiting lists for such things. It would have been sooner than 2 1/2 days had it not been the opinion of the cardiologist that they should take the time to stabilize her further, since in her initial condition, she probably would have died on the operating table. My mother survived for a further ten years one month and one week after the bypass, before her heart finally failed at age 82 in 1997.

I've had four surgeries myself, in 4 days, 6 days for serious (not urgent) ones and 10 days and 16 days for two that were not serious. This is how things REALLY happen in the Canadian health care system.

Canada does NOT have "socialized medicine", except in the MISUSE of the term by most Americans. Canada has a "social insurance" system for health care.

Before 1962, there was no social insurance for medical needs in Canada. My father took sick with a rare and serious blood disease at age 40 in 1958. By the time he died, at age 41 in 1959 (when I was 7 years old), he had accumulated $6000 in medical bills. While it sounds to us today that $6000 in medical bills could be handled in short order, what it really meant is that my mother, as a teacher, in 1959 had an annual income of $3800 a year and had these $6000 in medical bills.

The Canadian system since 1962 has completely removed the worry of health care debt.

Imagine that: Worry-free health care. Now imagine this: The Rushpublics and Blue Dogs see that as a threat. .sdrawkcaB

Tommy Thompson 2004: Universal care is right for Iraq

By GottaLaff

Flashback!

Time: 2004.

Place: Iraq.

Rushpublic hypocrite: Tommy Thompson.

Fresh from a two-day weekend visit to Iraq, the Bush administration's top health-care official defended the $950 million that will be spent to help Iraq establish universal health care.

Congressional Democrats have criticized the administration for helping Iraq to establish universal health care without doing the same for U.S. citizens.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said yesterday there are major differences between the two countries that defy simple comparisons.

"Even if you don't have health insurance," said Thompson, who toured medical facilities in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Tikrit on Saturday and Sunday, "you are still taken care of in America. That certainly could be defined as universal coverage. Every American's health care is far superior to what the health care is in Iraq."

Universal coverage as in... the emergency room, Tommy? Oohh, I need some Tylenol. I wonder if it's covered by COBRA. It should be for $20,000 a year.

Meantime, it's good to know the Iraqis were looking to us for better health care reform ideas.

Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, ranking Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, responded yesterday, saying the U.S. system doesn't sufficiently meet the needs of 44 million uninsured Americans.

Welcome back to 2004. The more things change...

And I miss Uncle Teddy.

H/t: schnaity

Cartoon of the Day

Click to enlarge, via.

Poll: Americans Favor Universal Healthcare, Just Not for Illegal Immigrants

The haters have done such a good job of boogeymanning the immigrants that they just don't get that we would pay for their health care anyway.

• 65: Percentage of voters who believe that every American should have access to quality healthcare
• 22: Percentage of voters who disagree
• 12: Percentage of voters who aren't sure
• 80: Percentage who oppose providing healthcare for illegal immigrants
  
• 11: Percentage who support healthcare for illegal immigrants
• 22: Percentage of the uninsured 46 million who live in the U.S. illegally

Read more Data Points

Sources: Rasmussen

Socialist healthcare horror story

I've been meaning to get this out there for you guys to read, since it really hit the mark for me. I'll be emailing it around today, and if you like it, you should too. Here is what I consider the nut graph about Jerome's childs illness, but the whole thing is here.

So, we did not have to spend a single cent. We got support to be available for him. He gets top notch treatment. We never had to wait for anything. And this is available to absolutely everybody in France, irrespective of your job, age or family situation. If you are badly sick or injured, you simply do not have to worry about money at any time, nor about lack of care.

Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) says he is "agnostic" about having a public health care plan

WALLACE: But the one big concern a lot of the private sector has is the president, in his program, has as a — supposedly as a provider of last resort a government program, and the concern is they’ll be able to do it so much more cheaply, or at least in terms of the cost, that everybody will end up in the government program.

BAYH: Well, it’s a debate we need to have, Chris. And I’m agnostic on that as we sit here this morning.

Any ideas on who we could primary Bayh with 'cause I'm just about over this crap.

"Center Right"? Not quite... when it comes to government health care

By GottaLaff

President Obama, it's time to be a little less reachy-outy. Who matters more, 3 Republicans or 59% of America? A CBS News/New York Times poll reveals that that whole "America is a 'center right' nation" is just one more example of myth-information.

Via DKos:

The healthcare question reveals that Americans are much more likely to desire government-sponsored health insurance than they did in 1970.

HEALTH INSURANCE: PRIVATE ENTERPRISE VS. GOVERNMENT?

1979
Private Enterprise: 48%
Government - All Problems: 28%
Government - Emergencies: 12%
Don't know: 12%

2009
Private Enterprise: 32% (-16%)
Government - All Problems: 49% (+21%)
Government - Emergencies: 10% (-2%)
Don't know: 9% (-3%)

So there you have it. Private industry loses 16% and a full government healthcare solution gains 21%. A full 37% swing. Take note, Democrats.

Gupta vs. Moore

I had forgot about this until Gotta reminded me. Sorry, my head is somewhere else this afternoon.... h/t Ben.

Kennedy Makes Last Push for National Health Care

A perfect way to end his career.

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), battling a deadly brain tumor, is "moving fast to align the U.S. Congress and special interest groups behind a comprehensive health-care plan that Barack Obama can support soon after he takes office," Bloomberg reports.

"Whatever the final plan may look like, people involved in forming it say Kennedy is the glue holding together an often- quarrelsome group of special interests."

Said Adam Clymer, the author of an excellent biography on Kennedy: "This has been the cause of Kennedy's life, and it's clear he sees this as a great opportunity."

Waxman grants Dingell lead role on health care

By GottaLaff

Universal health care just got a boost:

California Rep. Henry A. Waxman has cut a deal with the man he dethroned last month as chairman of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, in a bid to diffuse leftover tension from that bitter contest.

Under terms announced Thursday, Michigan Rep. John D. Dingell will take the lead on all major health care initiatives before the committee in the next Congress and have a say in personnel matters as part of an agreement worked out with his successor.

In addition, as chairman emeritus, Dingell will have "a suitable staff to assist with his work" on the panel, according to a joint release from the two lawmakers issued Thursday night. [...]

By granting Dingell a role as "the lead sponsor" of whatever national health care legislation the committee considers, Waxman is giving the Dean of the House the chance to cap his historic career by realizing his father's goal of universal health care coverage - Dingell's father, a former House member, first introduced legislation creating national health insurance in 1943.

Health care: Think big

By GottaLaff

Awhile ago I posted about Obama's aiming for a New Deal-supersized approach, justifying his choices of surrounding himself with experienced "old hands" who could reliably accomplish such a huge undertaking.

Ezra Klein points out, “you don’t tap the former Senate Majority Leader to run your health care bureaucracy. That’s not his skill set. You tap him to get your health care plan through Congress.”

Since former President Clinton was the last Democrat who could provide that experience to so many, this is where (and why) many of Obama's picks have come from Clinton's team.

Think Progress has a great post on Obama's/Daschle's comprehensive approach to solving the health care crisis. Daschle, like Obama, is thinking big:

Incremental change in our system is no longer a viable option. Instead we need comprehensive reform. In growing numbers the American people are demanding that we do something. Our goal should be to build what current and retired members of Congress have today, and make that available for all Americans.

Here are a few of his ideas (way more details here):

- Expand the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), or create a group purchasing pool like it: Participants could choose their own provider and would have the security of knowing they could never lose their coverage. [...]
- Subsidize coverage for those who need it: The government would provide financial help on a sliding scale so nobody has to pay more than a certain percentage of their income for health insurance. [...]
- Strengthen Medicaid: Simplify and extend Medicaid to cover everyone below a certain income level. [...]
- Concentrate on the value of care: Strive to get more for our health care money by promoting research that compares drugs and treatments to determine which ones deliver the best bang for the buck. Daschle also proposes promoting prevention that would reduce the number of chronic conditions.
- Improve health care infrastructure: Adopt health information technology to lower expenses and allows rural residents to connect electronically with medical providers.

Plus, there's this:

Aside from supporting the basic principles of progressive reform, however, Daschle also proposes a Federal Health Board that “would resemble our current Federal Reserve Board for the banking industry.”

And Rahm Emanuel "challenged chief executives and other business leaders Tuesday night to join the new administration in a push for universal health care, saying incremental increases in coverage won't be acceptable."

I'm feeling healthier already. This is the kind of change we can believe in, and the kind we voted for.

Key Senator Prepares for Health Care Push

I like this strategy- push Obama to the extreme and hopefully he'll settle a little further towards "Universal" healthcare than he planned.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, "will release a sweeping proposal to overhaul the health-care system that largely reflects President-elect Barack Obama's vision, increasing the chances for action next year," the Wall Street Journal reports.

"There is one important difference between the initiative coming from" Baucus and the plan Obama "laid out during his presidential campaign: Mr. Baucus would require all Americans to have health insurance, while Mr. Obama has rejected the idea of a mandate."

Said Baucus: "I believe -- very strongly -- that every American has a right to high-quality health care...and I believe Americans cannot wait any longer."

Cliff Schecter on Fox TV: Universal health care edition

By GottaLaff



Cliff held his own beautifully today with a host who wouldn't let him get two words out without trying to "Gotcha" him. They discuss universal health care. Actually, Cliff tries to discuss it, Fox Guy does his Fox thing.

NOTE: Due to a glitch in the timing of my DVR recording, the video ends with the words "Delete Recording"/"Don't Delete Recording". My apologies. My computer is in the shop and I have no way of editing that out for at least 5 days.