Saturday, May 23, 2009

Single Payer Health Care

I wanted to share this wonderful discussion on single-payer health care that was on Bill Moyers Journal last night, but couldn't find it on Youtube. While I was hunting for it, though, I found this very well done video. Well worth the ten minutes it takes to watch.


6 comments:

peppylady (Dora) said...

I didn't get to watch Bill Moyers last night but usual I do.
I been hearing a lot about the single payer heath care.
It about time and I would encourage everyone to contact there elective officials and give them the green light for this wonderful step.


Coffee is on.

gabrielle said...

Baucus has held two hearings so far and has refused to allow advocates for the most popular reform — a single payer national health policy — to even testify. Single payer, improved Medicare for all, is favored by more than 60% of Americans as well as majorities of doctors, nurses and economists. It is the most cost-effective and efficient way to provide health care to all Americans.
Why aren’t single payer advocates allowed to testify before Baucus’ committee? Follow the money. Campaign donations explain why and demonstrate that the Senate Finance Committee should not be in charge of health care. .
Here’s why Baucus is not doing the peoples business:
According to OpenSecrets.org over his career he has taken donations from:
The Insurance Industry: $1,170,313
Health Professionals $1,016,276
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products Industry $734,605
Hospitals/Nursing Homes $541,891
Health Services/HMOs $439,700
That is a grand total of $3,902,785

And, it is not just the chairman of the committee who has received massive donations. The full Finance Committee is an embarrassment of campaign pay-offs. In 2008 the committee received a total of $13,263,986 from industries affected by health care reform. Can we trust this committee to put the interests of the people before their donors?

They have the money. We have the numbers. If you agree that all US residents should have access to comprehensive health insurance coverage email and call your representatives and urge them to pass HR 676.

Thanks, Raven for posting this informative video. Bill Moyers is wonderful. I'm so glad he's back.

Raven said...

Thanks for writing the post I should have put up in your comment. You include much of the information from the Bill Moyers discussion. I think those industries own the media also (along with big oil) because this information remains available only through sources like Moyers.

Dr.John said...

A good and open discussion would be a wonderful thing but not possible because people don't want to discuss they want to prove their position is better. You have a position that is absolute. Conservatives have a different absolute position. People who know they are right don't listen for truth they listen to prove they are right. Anybody holding a different position is a bad guy or ppaid off by the bad guys. The media is slanted when it ever it doesn't agree with your position or they see it as slanted when it doesn't agree with their position. In the end we end up calling each other names which never advances truth.

gabrielle said...

What are your thoughts on the topic of health care?

Raven said...

Hi John... Did you take the time to listen to the Moyers' piece? It's quite informative. I actually think the media is slanted when it doesn't present meaningful conversation that offers discussion of both sides... or anything but sound bites on weighty subjects. I think that one of the reasons that the public likes Obama is because he speaks in long sentences and puts meat onto his view of subjects. I don't always agree with him, but I know what he thinks and why he thinks it. I appreciate that.