In Obama's recent speech, he equated the movement to extend Medicare to all Americans with the Canadian single-payer.

There are those on the left who believe that the only way to fix the system is through a single-payer system like Canada’s where we would severely restrict the private insurance market and have the government provide coverage for everyone.” ...such a plan “would represent a radical shift that would disrupt the health care most people currently have.

He also reminded his "progressive friends" what apparently the real driving force behind health reform has been about all these years:

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Marcia Angell, former Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, doesn't like where health insurance reform is going.  She claims the current reforms being discussed by the White House and Democrats in Congress(clearly, Republicans are too busy creating Obama's Waterloo moment to worry about the rapidly rising cost of health care, much less the plight of the uninsured and underinsured) amount to "throwing good money after the bad".  Angell makes a strong argument for reforms by targetting what doesn't work, and building on what does.  She lays out the argument opposing current proposals for health insurance reform from the left of the left of the left.

She's just going to scare the old folks to death.

Via Big Tent Democrat:

Really bringing the stupid - the new leader of the idiots - Sarah Palin:

As more Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we’re saying not just no, but hell no!

. . . The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

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The birthday was last week of course, July 30, and the champion is none other than Representative Anthony Weiner, so just because I can, here is the video again, in which he challenges Republicans to get rid of Medicare.

I just wish he'd said I double-dog dare you.

Now, about that money in the bank....

Tomorrow is the anniversary of this event:

Larry Dewitt has written an account of how Medicare came to be passed, with information gleaned from the LBJ tapes to give more background and insight into LBJ's thinking. I've posted this excerpt before, but on the eve of the anniversary I think it is good to reflect on it again.

Dean Baker:

As part of his health care package, President Obama proposed creating an independent commission of medical experts [IMAC] that would determine the medical procedures for which Medicare will pay. The reason is that patients now receive many costly procedures that provide little or no medical benefit. If we can reduce this waste, we can have large savings, while possibly even improving health outcomes. President Obama describes this as promoting good medicine.

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Gee, I wonder why? Politico (via alert reader MOBlue at TalkLeft):

After weeks of talk, the White House began circulating draft legislation Wednesday spelling out President Barack Obama's proposal that Congress surrender much of its authority over payment rates for Medicare to a new executive agency.

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The hijacking of health reform

Headlines in the Berkshire Eagle recently proclaimed that Berkshire Health Systems (BHS) is cutting the equivalent of 65 full-time jobs, and will lose $3 million this year. This is neither good for employment nor for the health of our population in the Berkshires. The culprits are the cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, the programs that cover 70 percent of the BHS population.

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The Center for American Regress [yeah, i stole that from paul krugman] Progress has basically been the Third Way In Exile, waiting for the return of [the corporate wing of] the Democratic party.

[the three principles]

Having been a patient healthcare consumer once or twice myself, I've had occasion to see how the insurance companies intrude in the practice of medicine, and how much time they suck out of the doctor's day.

But don't believe me, let a family doctor detail one of his workdays for you.

Just one anecdote, and a mild one at that. I know: the plural of "anecdote" is not "data". So take it as you will.

My Mom is enrolled via Medicare part C in an HMO whose name will be changed to protect the people working for it who bent the rules a bit. I'll refer to it as MPCHMO. Mom is mostly pretty much happy with MPCHMO. Bear that in mind as you read.

Mom recently found herself suffering from a bewildering array of vague symptoms which were reducing her quality of life dramatically. Age-related? She decided to check it out.

Somewhere in comments, lambert asked about this post at a doctor's blog, about an article in the NY Times, Doctors Are Opting Out of Medicare.

NYT:

You know you are being lied to when you see the construction some say or anything like it. Take today's assault on Medicare in Isvestia:

Some doctors — often internists but also gastroenterologists, gynecologists, psychiatrists and other specialists — are no longer accepting Medicare, either because they have opted out of the insurance system or they are not accepting new patients with Medicare coverage. The doctors’ reasons: reimbursement rates are too low and paperwork too much of a hassle.

I give up--I'm joining the single payer camp

On Single Payer Healthcare

As a candidate you have promised to treat issues in a truly bipartisan manner. On most issues this has clearly been the case.

Single payer is the one single issue that transcends all politics of the American people and they are almost all (65%) clearly in agreement with.

We all want single payer health care.

In the last couple of years I have seen fundraisers for 4 local people in order to pay for their health care because either their insurance refused to cover legitimate costs or they had absolutely zero coverage.   Read more…

And your state is sure to be suffering:

“Medicaid rolls are surging, by unprecedented rates in some states, as the recession tightens its grip on the economy and Americans lose their employer-sponsored health coverage along with their jobs.” In many states, Medicaid rolls grew by 5 to 10 percent in the last year, often double the growth the previous year. Congress is likely to extend Medicaid aid to states in the upcoming stimulus package.

And, as early as March, Obama will be moving forward on health care reform, according to the Politico:

The move signals Obama’s intent to keep one of the most ambitious and politically crucial campaign promises at the top of his agenda. On the campaign trail, Obama pledged to provide universal health care by the end of his first term, but the severity of the economic downturn has raised doubts about how quickly he can deliver on that promise. Obama and his point person on health care, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, have staffed up like they plan to push forward with it, lining up a roster of communications and policy strategists to assist in the effort.

I wrote last week on a Tom Daschle statement that could be taken as a signal of which way Obama wants him to go:  Read more…

Milwaukee Business Journal

U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Janesville) is introducing a proposal Wednesday that he says would establish universal health care, shore up Social Security and Medicare, and provide a simpler alternative to the current tax code.

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Saul Friedman, writing for Newsday:

Here's a question for Medicare beneficiaries and those who will soon become eligible: Why should you care about the estimated 47 million American men, women and children who have too little or no health coverage?

The answer: Because there is some danger that Medicare and the 45 million older and disabled people it serves could become caught in a generational conflict in the coming campaign to extend health coverage to the uninsured - a conflict between those who have and those who have not. What part, if any, will Medicare play in the health care reforms? Medicare's needs may simply get lost in the smoke of battle. ...

CQ Health Beat News

House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Pete Stark , D-Calif., never shy about attacking industry profits, also issued a statement slamming the private health plans in Medicare, known as Medicare Advantage plans, for making big money at the expense of taxpayers and health plan enrollees.

Now we know who is going after Pete Stark.
Anonymous Industry Sources Control Congress

I think we can be fairly certain that no “Medicare for all” bill will be forthcoming.

We'll see about that.

Medicare's Poison Pill

Constituents denied entry to Congressman’s Office following Medicare Birthday Party :

Following the celebration, Rosemary Prostko, a senior citizen and volunteer with the Western PA Coalition for Single-Payer Healthcare, headed south to the Mt. Lebanon district office of her U.S. Representative, Tim Murphy, where she was joined by three other supporters. Their goal: to deliver an enormous “Happy Birthday Medicare/Support Improved Medicare for All” cookie, visible through hard plastic, along with single-payer information and an over-sized Medicare Birthday card containing hundreds of signatures in support of single-payer legislation.

What follows is Rosemary Prostko’s account:

Birthday Party for Medicare 30JUL2008

You are invited to join me, Barabra DeVane, at Congressman Boyd's office at 11AM on Wednesday, July 30 for a birthday party complete with cake and noisemakers (that would be our Healthcare coalition calling for Boyd to sign on to HR 676).

We will celebrate the 43rd birthday of Medicare and ask Congressman Boyd for his support in extending Medicare to All through Universal Single Payer Healthcare--HR 676.

Boyd is very conservative, so they have their work cut out for them.

Means Testing, for Medicare

Shorter version of this article, the biggest items in our federal budget are entitlement programs, therefore they must be cut, therefore we need to means test Medicare, which really means turn it into Medicaid. And we should not move to single payer because it lacks transparency. At no time does the author express an interest in providing quality healthcare to all Americans.

Forum set Thursday on reforming health care

A free public forum on reforming health care in California will be held Thursday at 7 p.m. in Mountain View's City Hall, 500 Castro St.

Local health care experts and advocates for a new "single-payer" system for the state will discuss accessibility problems of today's health care and a "Medicare-type" plan designed to make health care more accessible.

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