Obama Asks For Your Questions On Health Care
Please take action for Single Payer healthcare by submitting a question to the President by Wednesday, July 1.
You have to upload your video question to YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook.
According to the White House:
“President Obama is scheduled to hold an online town hall on Wednesday to discuss health care and the White House is asking people to get involved by submitting their questions about health care reform via video. The White House’s blog says that in this instance “we are engaging online networks outside of WhiteHouse.gov, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.”
If you are a Twitter user, you can also ask your question with this hashtag: #WHHCQ or head to Facebook and ask your question there.
Yes, I’m glad you posted this… And I would have loved you to have posted this news item earlier so it would reach more people. I posted my reply here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oN0ZWHyd5A
Why do we seem to be close to last when universal heath care is involved? Also why can nobody in Washinton D.C. see the fact that the failure of ethical thinking at AIG and other insurance companies is the primary cause of our heath care crisis, They should stay out of the Health care industry. Universal Health care is a must and should be listed as a right in our constitution.Other countrie have done it and done it well , why then can’t we?
We want Obama to stand up for the American people, and call for a complete overhaul of the health “care” industry. . Without removing the insurance/HMOs from the equation there will be no cost containment, or genuine health care reform. We need to get rid of the parasitic health insurance monopoly, and not make this another bailout for the corporations. Single Payer is the only real solution. 60 Americans die every day from lack of health insurance. Americans cannot change jobs without fear of losing their health care. Americans are limited in their choice of doctors, hospitals, treatments by the health insurance industry.
Single payer is the only health care reform that will simultaneously cover everyone and control costs. We need expanded Medicare for all, not subsidies for the insurance industry.
Nothing I can think of in American history has made the reality of class warfare clearer than single payer health care and which class both political parties serve.
Congress and our legislators are violating our human rights by keeping Single Payer reform off the table, and not allowing the Congressional Budget Office to compare the costs of various reform bills (which would clearly show that single payer is the best for the country economically). Our legislators have sold out to corporate interests to the detriment of the health and lives of the rest of us. Pres. Obama do you think that health care is a human right? If so, why aren’t you demanding genuine health care reform by supporting a Single Payer- Medicare for All, rather than regressive mandates, “exchanges”, and more of the same failed policies that will not provide comprehensive health care for all Americans, nor contain skyrocketing costs. We need and deserve Single Payer NOW!
Why aren’t you leading the way in calling for cancer prevention? So far all we have heard or seen in regards to your cancer plan, is an emphasis on diagnosis and treatment, but hardly any mention of prevention. It is beyond dispute that environmental and occupational exposures to carcinogens are the primary cause of non-smoking cancers. Since passage of the 1971 National Cancer Act, the overall incidence of cancer in the U.S. has escalated to epidemic proportions, now striking 1.3 million, and killing about 550,000 annually. The median age for the diagnosis of cancer is 67 in adults, and six in children. Why aren’t you calling for real health care reform, and, in particular, cancer policy reform? For example, Mammography screening is a profit-driven technology posing risks compounded by unreliability. In striking contrast, annual clinical breast examination (CBE) by a trained health professional, together with monthly breast self-examination (BSE), is safe, at least as effective, and low in cost. International programs for training nurses how to perform CBE and teach BSE are critical and overdue.
Contrary to popular belief and assurances by the U. S. media and the cancer establishment- the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and American Cancer Society (ACS)- mammography is not a technique for early diagnosis. In fact, a breast cancer has usually been present for about eight years before it can finally be detected. Furthermore, screening should be recognized as damage control, rather than misleadingly as “secondary prevention.”
DANGERS OF SCREENING MAMMOGRAPHY
Mammography poses a wide range of risks of which women worldwide still remain uninformed. See: http://www.preventcancer.com/patients/mammography/ijhs_mammography.htm
Forget bipartisanship. Universal health care can
pass with 51 votes. You can get 51 votes if you give up on trying to
persuade a handful of Republicans to cross over. Eight years ago George W.
Bush passed his huge tax cut, mostly for the wealthy, by wrapping it in an
all-or-nothing reconciliation measure and daring Democrats to vote against
it. You should do the same with health care. Single Payer- Medicare for All.
I really hope progress is made with today’s town hall. I will be all ears. If you’re going to be at work during the town hall, the app I always use on my iPhone for White House updates will be streaming it, so you can listen to it conveniently here: http://www.iheartradio.com/whblive. Hoping for the best today.
Dear Prez
It seems to make sense that we can go back to the basic medical coverage. It appears that pharmacutical companies are in the hospitals and doctors office in line to pump their prescription medications on to their patients thus getting a certain percentage if they do. I think these companies need to be delt with for their explotation of their drugs. Group insurances are good for employees and their families, but the group rates for employess are so expensive until an employee cannot afford to purchase the insurance. There are some physcians who will not see a patient unless he or she have insurance coverage. Example, I bring home 928.00 bi-weekly, insurance coverage for a family of 4 is 298.00 bi-weekly which gives a single parent 600.00 to live off for the next 2 weeks. Its almost impossible to survive. Therefore, I choose to not use the compnay insurance plans. I think the personal payer would be one of the best. PS I would like to know how some countries have free health plans and free prescriptions?
Mr. Obama, you recognize that single payer health care is the best system if we are starting from scratch. Our non-system is so broken that we are in fact starting from scratch. But Congress says single payer is not politically feasible. Americans don’t believe that. Only you can make Congress understand that single payer is politically feasible and the right way to enact REAL reform the first time. If you go to the American people, we will back you up and cheer you on. Please, won’t you do the right thing for Americans? Make single payer politically feasible for Congress.
And, how about working to End revolving door employment between the FDA and Big Pharma; fire current FDA employees and advisors with past financial ties to Big Pharma.
As well as Requiring full disclosures of financial conflicts of interest of FDA managers, scientists and decision panel members. Moreover, Guarantee the right of consumers to sue drug companies and medical device manufacturers for damages caused by unsafe products.
It was mentioned on Bill Moyers (May 22- PBS) that Arnold vetoed Single Payer twice. However, it is crucial to point out that the bill would have saved the state an estimated $14 billion per year, enough to erase the state debt within two years AND cover everyone far more reliably and comprehensively than they are now. Instead Arnold substituted a sham plan of his own that would have fed the BEAST THAT IS THE PROBLEM and cost (not saved) an additional $12-14 Billion. With states’ populations already suffering from mounting unemeployment, foreclosures, high costs of rent and food, and an ever worsening recession/depression- the drive has been to impose the burden of the budget crisis on the backs of the working class and poor. Why won’t you Mr. Obama step up to the plate and help alleviate the crisis? How can you and Congress proclaim to be reforming health care by starting off with sweeping cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, and eliminating healthcare programs for those most vulnerable? Single Payer- Medicare for All would be a major stimulus for the US economy, and would be a tremendous boost for individual states.
The question has to be asked: “What are we insuring — health care access or the bottom line?” What good is insurance if you can still be left bankrupt with medical bills?
“Single-payer TRICARE military health plan most popular in South
In this year’s health reform debate, Congressional Democrats quickly took proposals for a single-payer system off the table, claiming it was “unrealistic.”
But more than 9 million people in the U.S. have already signed on to a single-payer system that’s proved both workable and popular: TRICARE, the Department of Defense’s program for active-duty military and retirees.
Even more interesting: According to a Facing South analysis, nearly half of TRICARE beneficiaries live in the South — states where Congressional leadership has been most vocal in opposing public involvement in health care.
Last week, a top-rated diary at DailyKos by a person claiming to be “an active duty obstetrician/gynecologist in a major medical facility on the East Coast” noted that:
9.2 Million active duty and retired uniformed service member and their families receive their healthcare from the federal government. My family and I receive free healthcare from the federal government … I am struck however that nobody has brought up the simple fact that the government already provides free healthcare in a single payer model to over 9 million of its population.Overall, six of the 10 states with highest number of TRICARE beneficiaries are in the South. This makes sense given the high number of military bases in Southern states, as well as the concentration of active-duty and retired military in states like Virginia.
The high Southern enrollment in government-run TRICARE, where the military pays private doctors in a single-payer system, seems at odds with the vocal opposition of Southern lawmakers to anything smacking of public involvement in health care”. For more info: http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/07/single-payer-tricare-military-health-plan-popular-in-southern-states.html
The LADY with Cancer and Tumors @ the Meeting Yesterday ? Well I was sprayed for 7 years with MALITHION I lived at the back of the Airport in Humboldt Tn and the Dept of Human Services tells me I do not Qualify because I have no children and or I am not illegal ..in 2 states I am told this …I do not qualify for anything and if I could afford health care I cant make the payments …I would be back in the hole I am in now ..I want to know what President Obama does for this lady ..I want the same care as she gets ! I have Twitterd Lary KING because tonight he wil talk about Jackson ..I keep asking him to talk about Health Care and the National Health Computer ..because Mr.Jackson would still be ALIVE if we had this …or someone would go to jail ! Where would he get the drugs ? Either way someone would go to jail ! ELIVIS would BE ALIVE and Jackson and many others …ONE big reason people with Health Care dont want us to have this Universal health care ? They will be stopped by the NATIONAL Computer from Getting SCRIPTS of VALIUM and XANAX and HYDROCRODONE from SEVERAL DOCTORS and they CANT LIE when they go to ANOTHER DOCTOR for MORE DRUGS !!! It will all be ON A NATIONAL COMPUTER !!! Please someone here find out what happens to the Lady @ the TOWN HAll Meeting ???? I need HELP just like her ! Please ?
I ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT BELIEVE YOU PEOPLE!!!!!! WTF is it that makes you think you’re entitled to free anything? Is this the new “American” way …… Demand WELFARE handouts? The “single payer” in this plan you want – WHO do you think that’s going to be? Where do you think that money will come from? Your socialist savior? NO. It comes from TAXES. You have to pay IN to the system in order to get anything in return. The only people who are NOT concerned with tax increases are the freeloading lazy f’ers that don’t pay taxes in the first place and THEY are not entitled to the benefits that taxes pay for. You people have some seriously f’d up issues.
Tori, May I say that what you are stating is very shallow and hateful, and it doesn’t make any sense considering that Obama has handed over trillions of taxpayer funds to the banks and financial institutions with no strings attached. Where is the bailout for the American people? Is it okay that corporations in the US pay very little taxes? Loopholes are built in by the government for them to avoid any tax burdens. Since you are talking so much about taxes- is it okay with you that Obama is planning to impose taxation on employer based health insurance policies, as well as forcing people to buy defective insurance policies that provide no real health security? Based on your critique you seem to think that big money interests are innocent of any wrongdoing, while placing the BLAME on the working class and poor. Something right out of Rush Limbaugh and company- pitting people against each other. You seem to support ‘Socialism for the rich’, and forced austerity measures for the working class and poor, which is exactly what is taking place in the US as we speak. In California, the seventh largest economy in the world, we are now entering economic meltdown, and Arnold’s solution is to cut social programs while maintaining low tax responsibility for big businesses. As of today, California has begun to issue billions of dollars of IOUs to its creditors. Meanwhile, the US is embroiled in perpetual and expanded wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Pakistan- all on Obama’s watch. In CA if Arnold hadn’t veteod Single Payer twice, the state would be in much better financial shape, and, more importantly, all CA citizens would be guaranteed quality health care as a human right, not a commodity to be bought and sold.
Based on your logic, what is it that makes you think big businesses are entitled to bailouts?
Is it the “American” way for Banksters and Wall Street Shysters to demand handouts when they should be in jail for wrecking the economy?
The money for the Single Payer Health Plan will come from the exorbitant amount of money thats currently being wasted going to the health insurance industries coffers. Thats right, the money will come from taxes, just as for our police force and the fire department. You don’t seemed to get that the real ‘freeloaders’ are Wall Street crooks and Banksters, and the parasitic health insurance industries. In reality, the Single Payer Health Plan will lessen the financial burden of the American people. The taxes collected to support this system will come from the existing funds that are going to the insurance industries’ exorbitant profit, and everyone will have health care, regardless of their economic status. No one will be tured away due to pre-existing conditions. People won’t be forced into filling bankruptcies because their existing insurance policies does not cover catastrophic illnesses, which is what we have now with our current ‘for profit’ health care system.
Please, I beg you and people such as your mindset to seriously research the health care subject before you make spilled your ‘reactionary’ diatribe. It’s pure stupidity and suicidal.
Tori, Americans are already paying more for health “care” than any other developed country, but are not receiving the quality care we need and deserve. A Single Payer would be much more equitable, and every American would have comprehensive health care as a human right, rather than a privilege reserved for only those who can afford to pay. Health care in the US is rationed now accordingly, and denied to those who have pre-existing conditons, and other barriers.
The product of health insurance is to provide medical coverage when needed.
Unlike other businesses that need to provide a product to make money, health insurance companies make more money when they restrict and do not pay claims.
In other words, they make more money when they do NOT provide the product that you have paid them for.
Read the 50 to 70 pages of your health insurance contract.
Pay particular attention to the section entitled “limitations and exclusionsâ€.
People’s health is not a product that needs to be left to the whims of money motivated CEO’s and stockholders.
If that is your thinking, you might as well have your police and fire department protection based on insurance premiums you pay.
Then you can go to the police and fire protection insurance page for ˜limitations and exclusions” on whether or not the police or fire department would come out to your house in the event of an emergency.
The point is, you would never think of discriminating against another citizen if he/she was the victim of a fire or crime.
So why would anyone be ok with health insurance companies discriminating against fellow citizens who have pre-existing medical conditions? Single Payer is not socialized medicine, it is civilized health care. It is about time the US catch up with the rest of the world in providing quality health care for all their citizens as a human right.
What happened to Obama’s pledge for every American to have the same health care as our congressmen? If we all end up having to go on a single payer program then it must be required of all congressmen and the president.