By Thursday morning there were 13 official signatories to the letter calling for a reconciliation vote on the public option, and two additional Democrats that have expressed support for the idea.
The new signatories are Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Jack Reed (D-RI). Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) have also indicated their support.
Feinstein became the 11th senator to officially sign the letter on Wednesday night. In explaining her decision, Feinstein pointed to the insurer Blue Cross's projected 39 percent rate hike for Californians.
"I can think of no better example of why we need health insurance reform," she said, according to the Huffington Post. "And this kind of behavior is a stark reminder of why any reform plan should establish a rate authority to keep insurance rates affordable."
This is what the American people have been demanding. Without the Public Option we will never get real health care reform.
I have to admit I had just about given up hope that this would ever have a chance to make it into a health care reform bill, but now I have a little renewed hope that the Democrats will not let this historic opportunity pass them by.
I think it is time for EVERY American with a Democrat in the Senate to e-mail them and let them know how important the Public Option is to you and to our country. Believe me they are already hearing from the opposition. When I visited Mark Begich's office I was told that MOST of the e-mails they get are from Republicans telling them not to support the President or any of his policies. So our Senators need to hear from as many pro-health care reform supporters as possible.
Speaking of Senator Begich, here is his contact information. I was told he loves to hear from us so make sure to let him know exactly how you feel. And for those of you not living in Alaska, here is a place to find contact information for your senator. Don't be shy, remember this is for our future, and our children's future.
Sen. Bennet has a petition up
ReplyDeleteSave The Public Option
http://savethepublicoption.com/
Sorry Gryph - we agree on most everything, but this isn't one of them.
ReplyDeleteThe American public who believes a "public option" will relieve them of rising health care costs, and will remove insurance companies as a layer between their physicians and their health care are sadly mistaken.
Medicare is a prime example of how this is not so, but unless you actually work in the health care industry, most do not realize this.
Example: Physicians are no longer allowed to bill "consultation office visits" to Medicare. Why? Because the reimbursement for a consultation is higher than a "new patient" or established patient office visit. Is this really fair to physicians? No. Is it fair to the Medicare patient? No. Is it fair to the American taxpayer? Not really, because this will end up being cost-shifted to the private market, and ultimately still come out of our pockets.
Another Example: Procrit injections. Procrit is generally used to build up the red blood cell count for those who have cancer and are undergoing treatment, to be sure their immune systems are as effective as possible. Another use for Procrit is to give to a patient prior to a major surgery (like open heart surgery), also to boost the immune system and protect from post-surgical infection.
Medicare will not cover this injection unless it is strictly used for people with certain cancer diagnoses (not all cancers qualify). Your private insurance is likely to cover this with prior authorization, if given pre-surgery. There is no pre-authorization process for almost all Medicare services, so if a physician unwittingly gives this injection to a Medicare patient who does not have the appropriate cancer diagnosis, the claim will reject as non-covered, and poor Medicare person will end up with an approx. $1500-$2000 bill, as Procrit is very expensive.
You can find all of this amongst the THOUSANDS and thousands of pages of government run Medicare Billing Guidelines, if you know where and how to look for it.
Another example: I recently saw two exact treatment plans for someone with breast cancer, that included their office visits, labs, and chemotherapy costs. Under private insurance this treatment plan full billed charge was $118,000. You could expect there to be an approx. 30-40% discount off of this that private insurance would pay.
Same exact treatment plan, same patient, same provider, with the Medicare allowed rates, which the provider must accept as payment in full - Take a guess - a whole whopping $16,000 for the same thing. This is the prime example of why providers have to cost shift, and we all end up with the so-called "hidden tax" on our health care costs.
Please don't think that the government stepping into your health care under the guise of the "reform" that they are currently trying to do is going to solve the ills of our current system.
They went off the rails on this long ago. There are MANY more effective ways to help contain costs, AND curb private insurance abuse.
Be careful what you wish for......
With all the negatives going on with the Sarah drama this week, it was great to write a supportive letter to Senator Begich.
ReplyDeleteI am of the firm opinion, the only way to shut up Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sarah Palin is for us to win.
Healthcare Reform/Public Option is putting America First, and Country First. The Republicans have been spending money on unnecessary wars, and find money to help citizens in other countries. We need to be helpin' our citizens too, also. - duh. How can they be so retarded?
In reply to "anonymous" above, I agree that Medicare has its faults. However, in the case of the "public option", this option isn't Medicare based. It is another health insurance plan that will compete with the current insurance providers. It is only "government based", because it is similar to the insurance plan that our congressional servants have. Employers and individuals can continue their plans with their current providers. But, for folks who don't have insurance because they can't afford it, hopefully, the option will be affordable. At the very least, there won't be pre-existing clauses, which makes it difficult for people who lose their jobs (and insurance) to get on other insurance plans.
ReplyDeleteSenator Bennet's website is great! This is what he wrote explaining the petition noted by commentor above:
ReplyDeleteAs you know, I've been a strong advocate for a public option since we were just starting the health care reform debate this summer in the Senate.
The reconciliation process has been used for just this kind of urgent, publicly-mandated legislation before: it was used when we passed the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Medicare Advantage, and the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA).
Those pieces of legislation have proven critical to our children, our seniors, and some of the most vulnerable members of our society. Today, the millions of American families struggling with health insurance deserve us to fight for them too.
Now is the time to make our stand -- join my call to include a public option in our health care reform legislation by signing onto my letter to Majority Leader Reid today.
--- Sen. Michael Bennet
Save The Public Option
http://savethepublicoption.com/
I disagree with Anonymous at 7:54: I have been in a government runnned health care system for over 30 years; it is called the Military; I love it. So, a government runned or some combination can work. It is a lot better than what C-America offers.
ReplyDeleteMy senators (Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer) have received letters of support. As Gryphen said, now I have a little renewed hope. This country needs to join the modern era with health care reform. The forces aligned against it are formidable.
ReplyDeleteSorry Gryphen, but here's the way it works and you can take it from a Canadian. In Canada we don't have a public option, we have putlic healthcare. A public option for you would immediately do a lot of good because government could start to control prices and the people would flock to it. That would begin to destroy the huge profits of the insurance companies. But when big money is being threatened, the big money interests fight back. That's why we in Canada are so conscious of not letting them get their foot in the door. Yet! Although the conservatives are trying very hard to do just that. And of course their goal is to destroy our public healthcare system.
ReplyDeleteSo, I'm afraid that the American mindset is far from ready to make the big jump that will end the suffering. Big business has too many methods at their disposal which can short circuit the best efforts of a public option plan. To begin with, the big companies can afford to bring their prices down in the short term in order to create a two tier system. The point in doing that is to bring the quality of the government system down, which it will do.
Until Americans start to understand that government run healthcare is the only way and that when it comes they have to demand in the majority that there will be not unfair attempts to derail it, the future of any government reforms will be derailed.
There's so much more to say about it but perhaps it could be a permanent topic for discussion and some Americans can search out the correct solutions. If anybody is really interested they need to look into Canada's successful system or some of the other successful systems. What one will see immediately if they start looking for it is big money trying their hardest to destroy it. It's not an "option" that's needed, it's no option and universal healthcare that's needed and mechanisms to keep the big company leeches from squirming in to wreck it.
Another Example: Procrit injections. Procrit is generally used to build up the red blood cell count for those who have cancer and are undergoing treatment, to be sure their immune systems are as effective as possible. Another use for Procrit is to give to a patient prior to a major surgery (like open heart surgery), also to boost the immune system and protect from post-surgical infection.
ReplyDelete~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The coverage for Procrit is not limited because of its cost, rather it is because the FDA issued a Black Box Warning on the treatment.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/71876.php
May 23, 2007
CMS proposes that ESA (ESAs are anti-anemia biologics, distributed as Epogen and Aranesp and as Procrit.) treatment is only reasonable and necessary under specified conditions for the treatment of anemia in certain cancers.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced today its proposed decision to limit coverage of erythropoiesis stimulating agent (ESA) treatment for beneficiaries with certain cancers and related neoplastic conditions, either because of a deleterious effect of the ESA on the beneficiaries' underlying disease or because the underlying disease increases their risk of adverse effects related to ESA use.
Example: Physicians are no longer allowed to bill "consultation office visits" to Medicare. Why? Because the reimbursement for a consultation is higher than a "new patient" or established patient office visit. Is this really fair to physicians? No. Is it fair to the Medicare patient? No. Is it fair to the American taxpayer? Not really, because this will end up being cost-shifted to the private market, and ultimately still come out of our pockets.
ReplyDelete~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your statement is misleading.
Medicare has changed the Consultation CODES for Medicare Part B fee for service because they found that physicians were not using consultation codes properly. Medicare WILL return paperwork that is not properly submitted to reflect correct coding. This has nothing to do with payment. It is about more efficient reporting by the physicians medical coding billing department.
http://www.hematology.org/News/2009/4701.aspx
In the 2010 final Medicare Physician Fee Schedule the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that Medicare will no longer recognize consultation codes for Medicare Part B fee for service payment. CMS directs providers to report other evaluation management (E/M) codes in lieu of the consultation codes. In place of the consultation codes, CMS increased the work relative value units (RVUs) for new and established office visits, increased the work RVUs for initial hospital and initial nursing facility visits, and incorporated the increased use of these visits into the practice expense (PE) and malpractice calculations. CMS also increased the incremental work RVUs for the E/M codes that are built into the 10-day and 90-day global surgical codes
Hey, Gryph, breaking now:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/18/austin-plane-crash-office_n_467264.html
And his long suicide note is at:
http://embeddedart.com
Loads of speculation on HuffPo as to whether he was a Teabagger or not--I'm sure whatever his political leanings are, they'll surface eventually, but it could be an interesting discussion here. Some of the things he mentions ("...violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer" and his anti-govt. and IRS angst) is fueling the Teabagger suspicions above. To me, it sounds as if the guy had a shitload of bad luck and wanted to check out with a BIG statement. He did.
Obama is smarter than the average republemminng. I think he is playing rope-a-dope with the party of no. He gave them a year, all they did was say no no no no. he is setting them up be blamed for doing nothing. Sucker tham in, then blast them.
ReplyDeleteMy senator, Tom Udall, just signed on!
ReplyDeleteYay!
Sen. Feinstein signed the letter yesterday. I emailed Sen. Boxer and asked her to show her leadership on the public option...which she did today. I like to think my email helped.
ReplyDeleteI've thanked both senators today by email and phone.
Hmmm. What will Begich do?
While our anonymous poster from Canada may have some good points about the Public Option, at this point PO is the best chance we have right now of getting something even remotely equitable. I too would prefer Single Payer (which what I THINK anon is advocating) but that is off the table and if we do not get SOME reform NOW, we never will. I, for one, am not willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater in the hopes that the tub will refill will perfect golden utopian healthcare. Cause it's not gonna happen that way anyway.
ReplyDeleteI wrote Senator Begich, signed the petition, and thanked Michael Bennet. Nothing is going to be perfect about a health care bill out of the gate, so I’m signing on even though this is not the magic bullet. Gov’t run health care (Medicare) also has many issues to fix, but in mind nothing is going to force the private companies to regroup except competition (even so – so competition) for starters.
ReplyDeleteAnd…I did health care billing for the local government and after that experience, I realized that it’s not all the insurance companies’ fault even though I grew to detest them. There are medical care issues as well from doctors, practitioners and hospitals which have grown to mind boggling proportions as well – sloppy, incomplete, inaccurate and poorly planned care and billing by the profession all add to the problem. We have many areas to fix, and so I’m jumping on the wagon to just get the ball rolling.
If there is no bill, there is nothing to improve on over the years. And the current situation will only get worse, not better, with the medical insurers and practitioners because the whole system is fracking retarded. Since the obstructionist liars aren’t going to sit around while we make the first bill perfect, just get it started and we’ll deal with the rest.
I also emailed both Feinstein and Boxer. And good for Udall!
ReplyDeleteThis thing in Austin is beyond tragic. Crooks and Liars has his entire suicide note published. It is heartbreaking indeed that this man obviously had such hard luck and apparently no one to turn to at all. And yes, he did make a big statement. Very big.
Sorry - not in USA, but in socialist Australia (with my universal health care). Just wondering how many signatures would make this happen, or if Reid could still choose not to use this form of a vote.
ReplyDeletethanks
@LoveandKnishesfromBrooklyn
ReplyDeleteNah, this guy is not a Teabagger. His problems started many many years ago from the first time he tried to "game" the IRS to recent times when, apparently, through the fault of his accountant, undeclared income of his wife was left off his income taxes. And, if life was so tough for him, how was he able to afford a plane? It's not a cheap hobby.
He created his own problems and expected innocent people to pay for them through his vengeful act.
Check HP Caroline Myss. I think you will find interesting. That is, if it is not quickly taken down.
ReplyDelete@LoveandKnishesfromBrooklyn
ReplyDeleteThis guy is no Teabagger. His tax problems predate the Tea Party by decades. His issue is with the IRS whom he feels has given him a hard time. Yet, after reading his diatribe, he seems to have been trying to get "over" the IRS from the time he was young.
HEY Gryphen
ReplyDeleteCheck out page 8 of the latest legal filings.
Tripp is 1/8 Native therefore gets PUBLIC OPTION healthcare. Government run healthcare
How is that for irony!
I've written letters, sent emails and made calls. Organizing for America needs our help to get this bill rolling and public option back on the table. We've got to keep up the momentum and let them know where we stand.
ReplyDeleteI guess the Insurance Industry was a little short-sighted and pulled the trigger too soon.
ReplyDeleteTheir abusive, obscene rate hikes are just the incentive for the Dems to not only reinstate the Public Option, but to pass it through reconciliation.
And the outrage of the public will support them in this.
Let the Grand Obstructionist Party try to justify their NOs now.