Health Care Ad

[pauliney49]

I don't no how to really start this being i am a totally peed off at are medical system .I live in Michigan I have a 21 year old daughter that has been having kidney problem for a few years .She has been to every Er downriver and some in Detroit .They have told her she is not an emergency .she has been peeing blood if thats not an emergency what is .i have to belive there are doc.out here that care for more then the mighty dollar .please please if any one can help she is only 21 i put my email.

[Dacktyl]

You Economic Royalists won't stop until the late, great, middle class are permanently relegated 2 compliant Serfdom. U JUST LIE & LIE & LIE! U want NO REGULATION ON YOUR GREED so you can ride the dumb Serfs to the bank unfettered by that pesky government of WE THE PEOPLE. Will ENOUGH EVER BE ENOUGH for you greed-centered bastards? You elevate Malignant Narcissism to an ART but you have nothing but the insatiable need 2 suck us all of profit like a parasite feeds off a host & discards a husk.

[Novaessrussia]

"Sicko" was a downright lie! Moore lives in a fantasy world.

[theoperateacher]

JUST PLAIN LIES !

[mhansonsanrrcom]

Don't let he government stand between you and your doctor? The right wing promoters of this deceptive ad prefer the status quo -- having your insurance company stand between you and your doctor. This DOES happen. I know because on the cusp of receiving life-saving cancer treatment, the insurance company stood between my husband and his doctors. Fortunately we and our advocates were able to get this overturned, and he's still beating the odds. Many aren't so fortunate and we need reform now!

[theoperateacher]

American brothers ! DO NOT let the politics of health leave you with nothing but the created interests of Insurance companies and their puppets politicians and organizations like this. I am Canadian and very proud of our universal health system !!VERY! no one - NO ONE - is left without health care in Canada, the rich and the poor get exactly the same treatments and services ! and we can choose our doctors and we DO NOT have to come to the US for health care, this is nothing but a straight LIE !

[mysticradio]

SICKO told the truth. did you see how France takes care of people.. how CUBA to '' evil' regime CARED for you american patients..... how England gave people taxi fare home. lol.....MEDICAL COMPANIES DONT CARE ABOUT PEOPLE... JUST MAXIMIZE REVENUE...... makes me wanna spit blood

[mysticradio]

MY HEART GOES OUT TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BEING DUPED BY COMPANIES WHO WANT TO PROTECT THEIR BANK ACCOUNTS..... hugs to the american people...its so sad you're being ripped off. Saw a show once that some medical insurance company charges like 6-10 bucks for a bandaid.

[mysticradio]

im a Canadian. and I wish these companies would stop telling people we wait for a year for surgeries ITS NOT TRUE.. i had heart surgury and I waited 3 weeks... YOU'RE SCARED OF OUR SYSTEM so you have to scare your people... FOR MONEY.....to cover your own asses. SAD SAD SAD.

[FuseNote]

Come on Americans . . . think for yourselves . . . don't allow organizations like this to use sleight-of-hand to distract you from the facts. I have long-time friends in Canada who have nothing but excellent things to say about their health-care system. Our system is broken . . . and as long as insurance companies remain in a position to write our legislation, it will remain broken and continue to be the single most expensive "healthcareless" system on the planet.

[FuseNote]

Don't be fooled, people! These videos are nothing but right-wing propaganda. This so-called "Patients First" organization is part of AFP (Americans For Prosperity). Their mission is one of suppression and distraction when it comes to health-care reform and "green issues" . . . They even have the audacity to claim that global warming is merely hysteria. One of the directors at AFP trains conservative grass roots activists on how to lobby legislators.

[jessied44]

There are enough lies in this commercial to keep Pinnochio's nose at arms length for the next decade.

[xylin3]

It seems like we have devolved into a 3rd world protest nation.

So sad.

[RadioUpnorth]

We are a 3rd world nation in terms of healthcare, that is a fact.

We are a vibrant democracy with an evolving body politic where intelligent people are mobilizing to push back against the fascist health care robber barons. Their power to retain their river of revenue with bought and paid for politicians like Blue Dog Democrats and Republicans will end.

The politicians will fear the voting power of constituents like they do in France. France, that has a universal health care system.

[xylin3]

people are starting to get hurt too.

[RadioUpnorth]

Starting? Starting?

Don't you think that the people with no insurance or underinsurance have long been getting hurt by this fascist health care system protecting the rivers of revenue flowing into the hands of insurers, health care providers and drug companies.

Anyone who hasn't considered the reality of the current system is dumb as a box of rocks.

Anyone who is so young as to still consider themselves immortal should try on an intelligent brain cap to consider the long term view.

[xylin3]

You people really need to go to rachel maddows website.

you can see them working these poor misguided people up with propaganda.

no shame.

[RadioUpnorth]

Rachel Maddow needs clarity on health care reform just like the bought and paid for Blue-Dog, blind pig Democrats who damned well know a slow down in health care system puts it all at risk for defeat.

When you have the enemy on the ropes, the worst thing you can do is to give them a chance to rest, regroup, rearm and come back out.

There will be war in this country if these Blue dog Democrats, aka Republicans, aka bribed politicians don't get a health care program for all of us.

[nichols44nancy]

Free healthcare exists. Every year, UVA provides $ and volunteers to help out with the annual free clinic. These clinics are out there everywhere. My family (4 doctors & 1 nurse (mom) have participated in clinics locally & worldwide w/ other professionals taking their vacation time &money to offer free healthcare. Tax payors don't pay our salaries for this & the patients don't either. I offer 1-2 cinics per yr (FREE) for paps exams in the middle of nowhere. Why don't more people turnout?

[RadioUpnorth]

How many clinics in how many locations? Convince me they "are out there everywhere". Give me statistics. Give me place names.

1-2 clinics per year for paps exams assumes men need such service, that young poor women will respond or that old women will feel comfortable with this kind of exam and seeking transport to get to it.

Why don't you advertise and arrange to go to peoples houses.

I think you are a propagandist working for an insurer profiteering health care fascist organization.

[nichols44nancy]

This is from The Market Oracle politics section (a Brit publication): "NHS GP's have no real incentive for effective diagnoses and treatment of patients, hence illnesses not being effectively diagnosed until the later stages of the disease. The sooner the patient is recognised as coming first, the better it will be, and the only way that can happen is for Britain to make the move to a market orientated healthcare system, rather than the inefficient state run monopoly that exists today.

[nichols44nancy]

Brits system costs a bundle to run and the output is pennies. The Brits envy the healthcare in the US.. Read what the Brits think about their NHS: Market Oracle economics: "every extra £1 spent on the NHS only generates barely 10p in increased output, where Britain spends 3 times the amount on the NHS per capita than most Eastern European States that still somehow manage to delivery a better health service and leaves Britain languishing at the bottom of the European Health leagues."

[RadioUpnorth]

The output is pennies? How do you claim that when the output is national health?

The Brits are horrified by the healthcare system in the U.S. that leaves 50 million people uninsured and underinsured and growning at 14,000 people a week.

The Brits are horrified at the costs of mediations in the U.S.

The Brits prefer their system of healthcare that does not required them to be at risk for bankruptcy if they become sick or are injured.

For a claimed doctor, you're dumb as a box of rocks

[RadioUpnorth]

How many people go bankrupt in Brit due to health care costs paid to doctors who charge exorbitant fees.

Does effective diagnoses result from being held liable for malpractice if a doctor is not effective?

How soon does a patient seek care in this country if they can't afford it? How many die because they don't timely seek treatment or get it in this country?

The Brit system is more efficient that for the 50 million people in this country who are uninsured or underinsured. You're a Nazi

[RadioUpnorth]

Has danemommd gone to the rural medical camps such as held in her neighbor state West Virginia at Wise County Fairgrounds to give 3rd world medical care free to people in need?

Look at 'Rural Medical Camp Tackles Medical Gaps' at the July 27th 2009 NPR website.

Or is danemommd just sitting at home with her great danes seeing they have good medical care in the hope they will protect her from the coming angry crowds who resent her hyposcrisy if there is no health care enacted by legislators?

[nichols44nancy]

Free health clinics are super because they don't cost the tax payor since we (the folks in healthcare) volunteer our time/money to make these things work. Many folks don't take advantage of these free services. Interestingly enough I see many (NOT all) folks at these events with SUVs that cost more than my car, professionally done tatoos, and packs of cigarettes...can't afford healthcare or just find life on workerscomp, disability, welfare easier than (big 4 letter word) WORK!

[RadioUpnorth]

How do you know who owned the SUV's? Could they have been someone transporting these people who didn't otherwise have jobs?

If you are really in healthcare, how can you criticize someone who has been work injured or is disabled. What are you looking to do, push them off the cliff because they are useless.

Work can cause a loss in those few benefits they may be able to have. Would you pay those food stamps, medicaid and energy assistance for them if they get some kind of job? You're a Nazi.

[RadioUpnorth]

See the article at the July 26, 2009 article in the Observer about a health care insurer whistleblower person named Wendel Potter. The article by Paul Harris is titled,

"Whistleblower Tells of America's Hidden Health Nightmare for it's Sick Poor".

[RadioUpnorth]

Mumbling Republican website blog says it all

[danemommd]

If we turn to socialized med & the govnmt. takes away roughly 40% of what I make in a day (when I look at projected taxes)....what do you think my incentive to keep working hard will be? In Britain, physicians close up shop at 4-5 pm M-F.... They don't hand around any later. Why should they? You can be seen in my practice till 9pm. What will motivate  (physicians) to keep working if the gov. makes an even stricter algorithm for treatment options & takes away my incentive to work???

[RadioUpnorth]

Why are you in medicine at all? Does the hippocratic mean anything to you?

Or did you take the hypocritic oath?

We should have a flat tax system in this country. That would stop your whining about your "right" to make a river of revenue driving the country and your fellow human beings into bankruptcy.

The current algorhythm retroactively denies coverage and lays heavy financial burdens on those least able to pay.

What is their incentive to work?

Quit and walk away if thats better

[RadioUpnorth]

Health care is a core right of which we are in violation under the Charter agreements of the United Nations.

Minimum core obligations (of UN members, of which the US is one)

9. Violations of the Covenant occur when a State fails to satisfy what the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has referred to as "a minimum core obligation to ensure the satisfaction of, at the very least, minimum essential levels of each of the rights.

It's crimes against humanity for defeating care.

[danemommd]

Radioupnorth will have to know why I'm taking a long wkend and posting here again. I have a great dane show to go to.. .

Contrary to what someone has posted here, many doctors (PCP's) will take walk in patients WITHOUT insurance. My clinic does. We try to encourage these patients to apply for a medicaid or apply for charity care. Maybe everyone in the US doesn't have insurance, but EVERYONE has access to medical care. Insurance is not a right guaranteed by the constitution.

[RadioUpnorth]

Insurance is not a right that is required. National Health Insurance that eliminates profit motive, high priced CEO and Boards Of Director salaries, bribes to blind pig politicians and payoffs to health care professionals is the cost containment required.

You and me and the Devil represented by these kinds of fascists make three. The profit Devil needs to be eliminated.

Medicaid requires bankruptcy. Charity is subsidized by those still having insurance and taxpayers. You need to see truth

[bleatherwood]

By the way, try making a massive medical bureaucracy accountable. Right now, several hundred pts at a VA may have contracted hepatitis C from faulty equipment cleaning but so far very little investigation. Before we rush into passing HR 3200 we need to have everyone read the bill first. Right now its only 1500 pages long. Fix Medicaid and Medicare First. It is one thing for you to want public health care for yourself, but please don't condemn me with you.

[RadioUpnorth]

Why is national health care condemning you? Is it your money stream? Grow up!!

Medicaid and Medicare are subsidized by govt and insurers. It is creative cost shifting. The real growing costs are still there.

Those program revisions are part of the needed overall solution. To piecemeal it won't make the black hole of the current system disappear.

Copnsider the welfare of your patients who increasingly fall into the black hole of finanancial ruin with delays and then defeat of this plan.

[danemommd]

Hello--- I AM danemommd aka nichols44nancy the Internal Med doc in WV. Intresting to see that RadioUpnorth just assumed you were me...that individual has lots of Axis II crap (per DSM IV). I'm glad you left some comments on this video. It's amazing how many folks who have medicaid seem to think the gov. has done a great job in orchestrated that program and they are more than happy to sign up for more of the same. What they don't realize is that what they are supporting is far worse.

[RadioUpnorth]

What's your GAF score? Obviously it must be high with your conflicting morality mix of maintaining your get rich, leave the current dysfunctional health care system alone while you claimed patients drop off because they can't pay the medical bill anymore.

How do you know what's proposed is worse when it will cover 47 million uninsured and underinsured people.

It's amazing how many people think the current system is better when they do not have to worry about health care.

Take an MMPI.

[danemommd]

Google this site: politicalmath.wordpress

The video section is incredible.

One last thing I would add, as an IM doctor and from working in the ER, alot of folks use emergency transport for ridiculous reasons:They use the ER for sore throats. If a patients comes to the ER complaining of chest pain, I'm obligated to admit them to avoid litigation. Also, to avoid litigation, they will have a stress test. All of this is abuse & increases costs of all forms of insurance.

[RadioUpnorth]

Overuse is an issue.

But that has been criticized as a point where the government is getting between the doctor and the patient and their right to decide.

There will need to be a traffic cop at the source of service that will decide, just like the HMO's have now, but that won't be a cost containment bully at the same time, just like insurers are.

But that is a risk that must be taken. The decision in the hands of private insurers have not worked. Government accountability can work best

[RadioUpnorth]

UnitedHealth profit soars 155%

The Minnetonka-based insurer loses commercial members but gains in its public-sector work.

For the quarter ended June 30, UnitedHealth said net earnings were $859 million -- a 154.9 percent increase from $337 million a year earlier, when earnings were dragged down by big lawsuit settlement costs.

Just think what their profits could be if they didnt have incompetent doctors practicing in the best health care system in the world without uninsured people

[danemommd]

This is quoting the CBO, a nonpartisan organization. Taken from Wallstreet Journal Politics Section 7/17/09 ---"We do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health pending by a significant amount," Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, told the Senate Budget Committee. "On the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health-care costs," he added."

[RadioUpnorth]

And the trajectory of current costs will continue to exceed the costs of any proposal currently in congress.

Medicare non negotiated contracts have to be opened up for negotiations. The 2003 Bush II Medicare legacy cannot stand.

[RadioUpnorth]

Health care payoffs: Sen. Max Baucus (D-MN) $3,973,485S Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) $1,565,088 Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) $2,154,200 Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)$1,749,887 Sen. John Kerry (D-MS) $8,944,077 Sen. Joe Leiberman (D-CN) $3,308,621 Sen. Ben Nelson (D-UT) $2,214,775 Rep. Mary Landrieu D-CN $1,653,943

Were these the ones for slowing things down?

What are the other Senators and Representatives getting from the Health Care Fascists?

Who represents us, the people

[RadioUpnorth]

Ted Kennedy in Newsweek:

Change system that rewards doctors for the sheer volume of tests/treatments to reward quality and positive outcomes. Medicare today: 18 percent of patients discharged from hospital are readmitted within 30 days, a cost of more than $15 billion in 2005. Most are unnecessary. We don't reward for preventing them.

What I haven't heard the critics discuss is the cost of inaction.

End the disgrace of America that doesn't guarantee health care for all of its people.

[AirborneIdentity]

i think too many corporate shills hate the american people.

if wall street didn't control congress we would have had universal healthcare passed years ago.

USA is corrupt and only cares about insurance companies not the people

[RadioUpnorth]

The questions are simple:

1. Do you have any morality?

2. If so, do you think that having health care is a human right?

3. What plan would you offer for health care for all of the people in the U.S.?

These are the questions to be answered by those who oppose the current public health care plan put forward in DC.

[AirborneIdentity]

I think the problem is, those who oppose a public healthcare system also oppose empathy.

That is, they support the rich and the advantaged, and hate the poor.

[danemommd]

One last thought for today: Pelosi calls upper middle class/ upperclass a system that can fund healthcare. We arent even PEOPLE! Read what she said: "To the extent that we can squeeze more out of the system for savings reduces the need for the (costs), but it will be at the high end, and not touch the middle class," Pelosi said. "We're trying to squeeze all the savings that we can out of this system first." Think, what class will get the squeeze next?

[RadioUpnorth]

If you are reducing this to class warfare, you will lose. As the arrogant, upper class blue blodded don't-touch-me, you are going to lose.

If not, there will be insurrection and you will be like the Will Smith character in 'I Am Legend' trying to survive in a post societal chaos. Good luck there.

Pelosi is trying to do you a favor and give you a chance to survive. Don't buck it up.

[danemommd]

This is danemommd or nichols44nancy. Please take a look at the NHS 18wks (just google it) If you want to see the British NHS works. They now are able to START your treatment pathway within 18 weeks! Anybody can come to the practice I work at, walk-in up to 9pm and START treatment. The other issue: Medicaid/care don't work & they were US government plans; why trust the gov. to start another plan? Private insurance reform would be better; let capitolism reform the system not socialism.

[danemommd]

Somebody wanted to know why I am taking time to post comments here? I started doing this over a 4 day wkend now I've decided to try and help with a flow of facts people can look up further information about. Isn't that the point of learning? Please read the bill on healthcare reform...there's copies online at AFP there's a link.

Please see comments below on the Sur-tax for individuals and couples filing jointly. These taxes are NOT refering businesses. There'll be more of that too.

[RadioUpnorth]

Why is this so important to you that this has become your cause of life?

Are you so young and immortal that you see no need to worry about the 47 million uncovered american?

The tax starts at 1% for single per incomes of $280,000, $350,000 for married, graduating upwards at different income points for each reaching a maximum of 5.4% at income over $1 million.

To provide for a basic human right, a basic human morality, to oppose a national health care is a fascistic enterprise of control

[RadioUpnorth]

If you do not have healthcare, you are turned away. If you go to ER, you will be billed until bankrupt. Then the public taxpayer will be billed.

If you are below $1000 in assents, bankrupted, you will get medicaid. Most states have decent coverage, Most states! There, private insurers subsidize the coverage.

That wait time is not the issue. The issue is coverage in the first instance, and affordability in the second.

[Smartassawhip]

The USA has the ... "BEST SPECIALISTS" ... but our Health Care System stinks and is ranked as the Low 37th on a World Scale !! It's like saying "THE USA WON THE MOST GOLD MEDALS IN THE OLYMPICS ... SO THE ENTIRE AMERICAN POPULATION IS MADE OF TOP ATHLETES !!

[RadioUpnorth]

FINALLY!!!

AN ENDORSEMENT FOR THE BRITISH PLAN. I'M DAMNED PROUD OF YOU!!!!

If your side won't guarantee portability without COBRA stick 'em up prices for unemployment or reduced employment situations, then the current plan proposed will provide coverage under a public plan.

Any fool can see the good of that.

[danemommd]

Obama said we'd be able to keep our private insurance & NOT be required to switch to the Public plan. See Page 16 of the proposed bil it --summarized, it states that if you already have private insurance at the beginning of the year in which the bill is passed that you can keep it BUT if you don't have private insurance, you must join the public plan. If you change jobs, you must then go to the public plan.

Even in Britain a person can choose btwn private ins and NHS.

[danemommd]

Check this out from the NY Times July 13 Money & Policy sec.: "The sur-tax would apply to any adjusted gross income exceeding $280,000 a year for an individual and $350,000 for a couple filing a joint return. The tax rates would range from 1 percent to 5.4 percent." This refers to individual tax payer, NOT businesses. Where's the incentive to put in a 12 hour work day? I don't think I should have to pay for another persons health care any more than I should pay for their car insurance.

[danemommd]

LA times July 13 Money& Co section: "

House Democrats today unveiled their massive healthcare reform proposal and detailed how they would pay for it. Included in the bill are proposed tax increases on high-income earners that are bigger than what was rumored last week.The proposal calls for a 1% surtax on modified adjusted gross income between $350,000 and $500,000...The income figures are for married couples filing jointly." This refers to people, not businesses!!!

[RadioUpnorth]

This refers to businesses who are run by people. If you earn over $350,000 net profit, you can take it and buy a yacht to sail the Caribeann, maybe sunning off Cuba where they do have National Health Insurance for many years.

The motorcyclist 1 per centers are preferable to the tax paying 1 per centers. If there is no health care coverage that rips control out of your money grubbing hands, you had better live in a guarded community because the 99 per centers are coming after you and yours.

[RadioUpnorth]

Okay, here's the deal doctro, aka ?

People who won't work are the people you are paying for anyway. And you will pay more for these people accelerating towards a screaming end of the financial system in this country, whether or not you pay taxes.

You know why? They cannot go to work at any job because once they earn over $50 a month, they start to lose their GA/MAC benefits, primarily Medicaid.

So, which persona are you wearing today?

[RadioUpnorth]

How many times does it take for politicians to cut deals before the line between righ and wrong disappears?

Sens Ben Nelson (D-Neb), Joe Lieberman (R-Conn), Olympia Snow and Susan Collins (R-Ma), Rep Mary Landieu (D-La) and Ron Wyden (D-Or) have lost their way.

Wrecking healthcare now will wreck their political careers in front of the voters.

[RadioUpnorth]

Don't believe critics who say the surtax will harm small business. According to the Center for Tax Justice, it would hit only 5 percent of small-business owners -- realistically defined as taxpayers for whom small-business income makes up at least half of their adjusted gross income income (from schedule C businesses, partnerships, family farms and Subchapter S corporations).

[danemommd]

This is quote from the Washington post on how they are proposing to pay for Obamacare. See July 15th edition " ...much of the rest of the money would come from a new tax on families earning more than $350,000 a year and individuals earning more than $280,000. The taxes, which would take effect in 2011, would affect about 2.1 million taxpayers, The surtax would drive the top federal tax rate to 45 percent, the highest level since lawmakers rewrote the tax code in 1986.

[RadioUpnorth]

Absolutely not accurate.

This is for small businesses. And at a net, NET, profit of $350,000, this tax will then start to be applied on a graduated basis. No reason to suppose that taking a tiny sliver of the incomes of the top 1 percent will reduce all that much of their ardor to invest, innovate and hire in the future. If this tiny sliver means affordable preventive healthcare to thereby stay healthy and productive, the positive effect on the American economy is likely to be far greater

[RadioUpnorth]

How long as a "doctor" is your recovery from a procedure expected to last? It is hard to believe that as healthy as you appear to be on this blog, you cannot work hard to earn your salary and pay your taxes as you should.

But then, if you feel you are immortal and do not need healthcare it is easy to understand why you oppose it without any morality.

Either that, or you are a dishonest purveyor of drug companies and insurers and other health care interests opposed to national healthcare.

[RadioUpnorth]

The problem is, the people against health care who post here are young, don't need health care and are arrogant in their attitude against health care. They are not concerned about anything more than preaching fear and loathing thinking it will preserve their accumulation of wealth.

Also, they oppose a Federal Reserve board overseeing wasteful practices driving up the costs of health care.

The "tax" on small businesses would start at profits of $350,000. That's not small and is affordable.

[bleatherwood]

I would like to "volunteer" you first in the nationalized health care. A few months ago, I was asked to provide anesthesia for a Canadian patient. We knew the patient's son so the hospital and I were going to do it for free. Unfortunately, his cancer was too big. During the year he was in Canada waiting to get a CT scan and tests and being delayed by medical bureaucrats, his cancer had grown. This man had been a healthy independent. Now he is going to die. This is nationalized health care

[RadioUpnorth]

Okay, I accept. Thank you for your endorsement at long last.

The Canadien patient refugees are always the myth of how tough it is in Canada. Yet you never hear of how many have died in this country because they can't get health care and/or are left bankrupt by the experience.

With 47 million people with growing numbers without health care due to the economy. Is that better?

With the worst health care of industrialized countrie with highest infant mortality, does that make you proud?

[RadioUpnorth]

Another question for you, bleatherwood, aka danemommd, aka nichols44nancy:

If the American Health Care system is so good, why have so many people risked prosecution by going over to Canada to get required medications?

[RadioUpnorth]

If health care is not a human right that we should have in this country, why do you give a damn about a Canadian patient wasting good resources that could have been paid for by U.S. citizens?

You are confused in your message of health care morality.

[bleatherwood]

I don't know what to tell you other than from personal experience as an anesthesiologist. I am not dannemond, etc. Before you think nationalized healthcare will solve problems, you need to be a patient at the VA or the county hospital. That is govt healthcare at its worst. Or go to South TX to see the billions of medicare and medicaid waste. Right now Medicare reimburses anesthesiologists less than 30% what private insurers will pay.

[RadioUpnorth]

I don't doubt your personal experiences. I question your maleable memory. Current health care is a black $ hole in this country swallowing more people every day.

VA and county hospitals are what they are based on insurer and inadequate govt funds. As such, the fractionalized system could benefit from MedCap.

Medicare has to be renegotiated. I do not expect health care professionals to starve, nor get richy-rich.

The 07/20/09 Oregonian had a resident in Britain endorsing the Brit Plan.

[danemommd]

I worked at the VA in the ETUC at night. I was the MOD after residency. I pulled 16 hour shifts. It sucked. My 1st night, a guy came in with a massive MI. STelevation in all leads. No relief with TNkase. The nearest VA w/ cardiology in Pittsburg was full. I had to beg the Chief of Staff to permit me to transfer the man to a local hospital. The guy died the next morning. I have tons of stories like this on how the gov. run VA system was a failure. It worked alot like the NHS in Britain!

[danemommd]

The taxes that are being proposed are making alot of doctors talk about taking cash only.....going on strike....forming unions. You can read about this on Medscape one of the better free resources on medicine on the web. This health care reform will raise taxes for those that pay them. I'm working 12 hours today. 1/3 of what I will earn today goes directly to taxes....Will taxes return to the Pres Carter standards of almost 50%???? Taxes are going up up up. Hihohiho it's off to work I go

[RadioUpnorth]

Reagan busted the ATC's. The government should take med students, pay their school loans and allow them to practice medicine according to the hypocratic oath of caring for the patient while doing no harm such as denying treatment

Taxes are better paid to the government where voters have some control that taken, stolen by insurers, doctors and drug companies causing bankruptcies and ultimately death from denied care.

Those doctors not treating patients should be charged for racketeering.

[RadioUpnorth]

The issue of income taxes is that the more you earn, the more you pay. What's not fair about taxes is that the lower economic strata pay more real taxes such as sales, gasoline, etc, fees, etc. The real import of the entire tax system is it's regressiveness.

When you take the costs of healthcare, whether insurance premiums, being dropped when you get sick or paying the medical bill yourself, the "tax" for that is brutal under the current system.

The current system is killing off people.

[danemommd]

It seems to really bug a few people responding to this video that not only am I a doctor, but I also raise great danes. I do have 2 screen names, one on the computer at work and this one at home. I don't think that's odd. I graduated in the US from medschool, but did some training in Britain. Please see my comments on the British NHS. Healthcare is an important issue to me. This proposed health reform for the US only serves to undermine quality care for patients

[RadioUpnorth]

Some people who claim to be doctors are college students, perhaps with a parent who is a doctor.

Others sit at their keyboard defending the insurers using personas as doctors.

The current health care system run by insurers is one of cost containment based on making good money for CEO's Boards, and stockholders. It requires convoluted paperwork by the insurers unless you are an HMO into care denial of patients with hired doctors.

Some people just don't realize how transparent they are.

[BloggyG]

Trust Washington with your life? Well, yeah, it's called the U.S. Department of Defense. This ad is an obvious Straw Man.

[RadioUpnorth]

You've got it!

Might as well have fun confronting these buffoons.

[danemommd]

Why even consider the UK version of healthcare?? There's not a successful model for socialized med. Here's an Excerpt from the NHS site bragging on the shorter waits for care--now down to 3months

"In the early 1990s waits of over

six months for your first outpatient

appointment were not uncommon

and tens of thousands of you waited

over two years for your operation.

By December 2008, the longest

you will wait from being referred

by your GP and starting your

treatment will be 18 weeks."

[RadioUpnorth]

nichols44nancy, aka danemommd, is not credible. She changes her name thinking noone will notice.

She has been regularly writing for weeks claiming to be a doctor trained in Britain.

Sad charlatan.

I have made another appointment for a different specialist. I won't get in until the end of September. That is typical for American healthcare, if you can afford it or still have insurance that woh't drop you.

In Britain, they don't have people going bankrupt from the medical bills.

[renaissanceman21c]

Warning to all regarding RadioUpnorth:

Don't reply to this person. You can't reason with the irrational. He's just trying to intimidate people. Silence toward this type of person will drive him mad (in the psychological sense). (Although, he's pretty much there already for those who haven't picked up on that yet.)

[RadioUpnorth]

Taking your ball and going home.

Quitter, eh? Just like you goodess Palin?

If you can't debate, you can't relate.

If you can't relate, just meet you fate.

[nichols44nancy]

Medway Maritime hospital has a website take a look. It's not up to par with any US hospital in the same size category. They do offer MRI now but here's the quote off there website so you can get an idea of how socialized medicine views your urgent healthcare needs. " A full range of neurological examinations MRI and CT scanner with pump contrast enhanced angiographer. Current waiting times for routine lumbar spine or brain is 5 weeks and urgent 2 weeks". In the US, urgent is w/in 24hours!

[nichols44nancy]

In Britain, they had large wards sometimes housing 10-20 people. The new Medway Maritime hosp. website states that they are planning on splitting these wards into SINGLE sex wards. Where in the US when you are hospitalized would a person share a room with more than one other person (if that)? I encourage you to look at this typical Socialized med facility and get a feel for what happens when gov. takes over healthcare. Someone asked why Brits call NHS the "national treasure" I don't know.

[RadioUpnorth]

danemommd, see above, has changed her name. Therefore, she is not credible.

[RadioUpnorth]

danemommd, see above, has changed her name. Therefore, she is not credible.

[RadioUpnorth]

You are a child and/or talk like a child. A doctor would not have discussed these issue as you have. If you think you are a blue blood, arrogant in the belief that masks your greed from thecurrent healthcare, you are a corrupt person allied with drug companies and insurers.

If national health care is denied to people, these people will rebel, capture uncooperative doctors and be imprisoned for the healthcare. If these doctors make any mistake, they will be killed.

Just like in Afghanistan.

[renaissanceman21c]

"...capture uncooperative doctors..." and have them "imprisoned" and "killed"? How dare you make such statements! I'm glad you can't afford health care, you don't deserve it. And if people of your character ever have government seize control of it on your behalf, you deserve the medical care of the hacks that such a system will produce. The good health care providers should go on strike. May you be damned.

[RadioUpnorth]

If doctors are going to kill us by not treating without huge payments, careers must end. Go be bankrupt

How dare YOU be so hypocritical in Your position. You should be dragged out to be hung for your lack of sensitivity to the 47 million uninsured people.

The health care provider should go on strike so they can be identified.

You can go straight to hell and do not collect $200 when you pass go.

The hacks with blind pig politiciansthat control care now will have their control ended.

[RadioUpnorth]

You assume I have no health care coverage.

You assume I am not an administrator working in the heart of the health care system.

You assume that I don't well know the hypocrisy of a system driven by money.

You assume I am not totally aware of the immorality of the current system.

Do not act like a dolt.

[RadioUpnorth]

Better plan:

Since the right wing is the problem, take uncooperative doctors and pharmacists, and drug company and insurer CEO's and tie them to a chair. Then pour gasoline on their right foot telling them that "now they are going to understand what it is like to have an accident or chronic health problem with no health care coverage.

Light the foot on fire, videa tape the screaming and send it to their families to watch.

Save these people for more later. They have other limbs

[danemommd]

If anybody has real questions about socialized medicine and wants to know more about my experience in medicine in Britain and how it compares to what we have currently in the US. Feel free to post questions. But just bantering back and forth with "oh yeah,in your eye" type comments doesn't really help anybody .

[RadioUpnorth]

Why is this such a deal for you? Is it cutting into your ability to earn a big salary driving your patients into bankruptcy?

[danemommd]

It's a huge deal because I care about my patients and the quality of health care offered. For that matter, I even care about your health care. I 'm pretty busy so I won't have time to make any more replies, but I hope that you will look into these matters more. I just wanted to provide you with another view. I am certain that you are like me and just hoping that if the healthcare system is modified, it will benefit the most important aspect of the medical system, the patients.

[RadioUpnorth]

Socialize medicine is far better than fat cow medicine and bankrupted people and bankrupted country.

You and your type fear government because it means cost containment of you river of revenue.

What is your specific plan for caring about patients that won't bankrupt them?

Better to play with facts than banter bullshit.

[danemommd]

I'm a rural internal med doc in WV. As it stands, the obama care program isn't just about insurance, it will limit my ability to make decisions about my patients health. I will have to refer to the decisions of a central Gov. board that will dictate how I handle my patients cases based on their age. The diagnostic & treatment options will be tighter than what medicaid/care currently permit.. You'd better find out what I'm talking about before you make your decisions. (Just trying to help)

[RadioUpnorth]

Cite your source for saying you will have to consult a government board to get approval. That is plainly not true.

[danemommd]

Thats just how the NHS worked in Britain.

[RadioUpnorth]

If so, if so, that is Britain. It does not speak for the system we will have here.

[RadioUpnorth]

And why does Britain call their health care system a national asset?

[keikoasmom]

What a pack of lies. You won't lose your healthcare if you have good healthcare. But for the rest of us, who have none, we will have a choice! My husband has worked for 31 years, is a VietNam era Vet and we have nearly NO healthcare. Our kids, who are self-employed, have NO healthcare. With Obama's plan, we will have choices. Find out the truth! This ad is a smear campaign. The AMA is afraid that doctors will lose money if the new plan succeeds. They are not in business to heal people.

[danemommd]

I worked at the VA Clarksburg when I first finished residency. You are right in the VA care is not the best, BUT, I can say what Obamacare proposes will be worse. As it is right now, you can get charity care at any university hosp. This will be discontinued if obamacare is instituted.. Hospital will be penalized for this. I have quite a few patient that I see on charity care; most private clinics do. I also have been able to provide med samples thanks to the pharmaceutical companies.

[RadioUpnorth]

Why are you sarcastically calling it Obamacare. It is national health care insurance. Voters want a public pay option for the 45 million voters who do not otherwise have health care.

Charity is paid for by taxpayer support of your hosptial. It is not pro bono out of your pocket.

The drugs you prescribe also give you a kickback from the drug companies, don't they. Are you then prescribing these higher priced medication, some of which aren't necessary are more costs to patients?

[danemommd]

Health care is available to all people in the US. No publicly funded university ER can legally turn a patient away. Although charity care is pulled from state resources, I do offer pro-bono services alot. My father, an oral surgeon did alot of pro-bono work. There's no kick back from drug companies. That would be unethical and stopped some time in the late 1980's. They can even give us plastic writting pens anymore.  I use the walmart $4 list for prescribing to save pts money.

[RadioUpnorth]

No. Healthcare is not available to all people in the U.S. If you go to the ER, you will only get free care IF you apply for medical assistance. If your assets are over $1,000, you pay the bill yourself. If you can't, you go bankrupt.

Beyond that, you die or you turn to crime to pay the medical bill.

That is the fact. That is how it works

Many hospital have and do turn away patients if they have not taken Federal Hill-Burton funds for their construction.

[danemommd]

If you want to see a physician's thoughts on this issue, please see my comments below. Thanks, danemommd

[irisojects]

Truth! Can you imagine the bill for the hospital stay they can write at 3:00 AM. 16,000 dollar's for a couple of stitches. Do we Trust Nancy and Friends. Never!

[RadioUpnorth]

Do we trust insurers and pharmaceutical companies who won't bring to market promising new drugs because they can't make enough profit.

NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[RadioUpnorth]

Your belief is your mantra that keeps your fat salary, doctors for missprescribing drugs for kickbacks, drug companies for this flooded river of prescriptions and denying drugs that cure, the insurers get to charge double digit inflating annual premiums to keep this golden cow while paying off congress to be blind pigs in any effort for cost containment and quality control to assure healthcare.

Healthcare is a human right and based on christian morality.

Without government, taliban tribes.

[irisojects]

Governments role is to protect our sovereign borders and then to provide a safety net for those that can not provide for them selves, due to medical,age or mental issues. Infrastructure and public safety. They are unable to resist the urge to tinker socially. Therefore they should NEVER be allowed to run health care. Government is too easily corrupted. Look at it now. It is a ship of fools. Honestly you think they can run a system and make health decisions better than trained Doctors?

[RadioUpnorth]

Only robber barons like drug companies, insurers and doctors have the right to tinker socially and do not corrupt the rest of the system.

COME ON!!

Doctors who do not see a national healthcare system with cost containment to halt bankrupting people and the country should be flushed out of the system for their corruption of the hypocratic oath.

I think government has more successes than the current inefficient and ineffective system. You need to say where you work and what you really do.

[irisojects]

Radioupnoth I work for a Pharmacy, just like I told you on your comment section. I also told you I think that Doctors should be allowed to practice medicine. No mandates from some lumbering bureaucrat and government tinkering. Socialism NEVER works, it leads to Fascism . Its simple. If the gov takes control of health care how long before eugenics rears its ugly head ? I think not long.

[RadioUpnorth]

Eugenics is already here with people who die with untreated and unaffordable health problems.

Social Security has worked. Unemployment has worked. Police and fire protection, etc, etc have worked.

Untinkering lets robber baron drug companies and pharmacies leave people in poverty without drugs that could have been brought to market.

1. Are you a Christian?

2. Do you believe health care is a human right?

3. Do you think this country can continue to afford this inefficient system?

[renaissanceman21c]

1. No

2. Health care is not a right. Rights cannot impose an obligation on others.

3. The reason health care has become so expensive is because of government intervention into the industry. In a moral society, government needs to be out of it entirely. With respect to inefficiency of the system, proponents of socialized health know that government health care is an abysmal joke. They don't care. They advocate it because their twisted morality makes them think it's the right thing to do.

[RadioUpnorth]

1. Your morality is making as much money as you can. You will be brought down.

2. If healthcare is not a right, your right is practice your form of medicine is not a right.

Healthcare is expensive because it does not have controls. A "moral society" assures the sick and elderly are not pushed off a cliff. Otherwise, we do not need police to protect you from people needing drugs.

The current system is a sick joke, and you well know it.

If politicians don't get it, they will be outed.

[nichols44nancy]

I agree. health care is not a right, but many people believe it is. Some people have; some people have not. I put myself through undergrad and thru medical school. I lived in the student ghetto at USF , worked after school and rode a bicycle to school. I went thru all that and then 3 years of residency to reach my goals. Why should I work the way I have only to pay for the living expenses of people who won't work?

I'm happy to give to others, but I'm taxed coming & going!

[RadioUpnorth]

Do you honestly think that because you paid you're dues to get through school, assuming that to be true, that other people have not tried and been brought up short with their attempts to get ahead.

That is an arrogant position and typical of right wing politics without morality.

"Won't work" or can't work due to no jobs, accident or injury?

Who isn't taxed coming and going. Serve cheese and crackers with your whine.

[danemommd]

I agree with you. I don't think that government should be so involved in healthcare/insurance. Medicaid and Medicare have been HUGE flops for the patients and the providers. Example, I had a patient 62 YOM that had persistant abdominal pain +HCV, and history of abnormal CT. I put in for pre-auth for MRI/MRCP of abdomen as cancer was high on my list. They denied my request since he'd had the CT with/in the year. So I had to tell my patient to wait 6mo for the MRI and live w/the pain.

[RadioUpnorth]

Medicaid has different preauthorizations in different states. Medicare has been driven by questions of status triggered by getting getting worse. Medicare gap insurance is required on top of Medicare to cover the other situations.

The health care system we have does not work. That is why it has to be changes.

[irisojects]

danemom Doctors should never have Uncle Sam looking over their shoulders. I think tort reform, retail emergency care, and more preventive medicine is the answer to the health care crisis. At the Pharmacy we have to destroy returned drugs. People could benefit from them,yet good ole Uncle Sam mandates they be destroyed. Most people do not understand that the Gov by being just who it is has driven health care costs up. Now they are going to "fix it"? Sure

[RadioUpnorth]

And to enjoy double digit healthcare costs with more and more people dying at the edges without coverage.

Oh SURE!. As long as you get paid.

Government needs to regulate robber baron industries. Always has been required to avoid a complet meltdown.

In exchange for malpractice, a recovery to cover costs of screw up with a 3 strikes you're out policy of malpractice.

Retail ER and preventative medicine assumes a way to pay. How?

Old potentially corrupted drugs destruction is good.

[AirborneIdentity]

i think this ad is a front by the insurance companies.

i personally think profits in healthcare should be banned

[renaissanceman21c]

If that were the case, I think doctors should go on strike--permanently!

[AirborneIdentity]

well of course they would, their bread is buttered by the insurance companies. :D

[RadioUpnorth]

If doctors refuse to endorse a national health care program, then they will be subject to kidnapping and made to provide treatment for those with not other options.

If they provide spurious treatment then, then they will be whacked.

Punishment for going on strike and not getting the revenue steam will certainly not happen.

[WinChicken]

why don't you just move to the USSR then....oh thats right that system doesn't work, unless maybe you could tell everyone where it has worked

[AirborneIdentity]

i think USSR has a weak centralized government. places healthcare is universal and works well are like canada and uk

[danemommd]

Healthcare does not wok well in the UK or Canada. I am an internal medicine physician who trained for 18 months at a 1200 bed hospital in Medway, Kent, England. One of the patients I followed who was healthy except for MVR waited a month for a cardiac cath. . I can go on and on with what I saw. My husband was Canadian also trained in England. He's a Neurologist and would agree. We have the best health care in the US already!

[AirborneIdentity]

stop lying, insurance company shill.

[RadioUpnorth]

I have heard great stories of healthcare in so many of these countries.

I have waited for over 3 months to see a specialist 110 miles away. Our local clinics have discontinued insurance from 2 insurers who won't cover costs taking away the doctor care wanted.

High premiums don't gaurantee coverage. High copays still exist. Bankruptcies regularly occur from medical bills. Desparation caused crime to pay medical bills. Or people die.

Radio UpNorth

[danemommd]

Waiting 2-3 months is not unheard of in rural situations it takes that long in WV as we only have one Level I trauma center Ruby Memorial and it is the "Mecca"

. If you think it's hard to get into a specialist now, it will be harder with Obamacare. The plan is to cut specialists and have more PCPs.

In Britain, 1 pulmonologist provides care to 250,000 . Imagine waiting 6 months to see a specialist. The big joke when I trained in Kent was it took 9 months to get a pregnancy test .

[RadioUpnorth]

Why do you sarcastically call it Obamacare? It is National Health Care.

There is no plan to cut specialists. Cite your source. To say that is not honest.

Cite your source for 6 month waits.

Why didn't you buy a pregnancy test kit at the drugstore?

Do you think it better your patients be driven into bankruptcy to pay your high priced salary that supposedly brought you to the U.S.

If you're not satisfied, go back to Britain.

[danemommd]

Oh my.. I'll try to answer your questions. I am an American from Florida who trained for 18 months in England at Medway hospital in Kent approx 1200 beds. My husband, a neurologist and I chose to practice in a rural area. If national health care is based on a Brit type system, the ration for specialists is about 250,000:1. . They have about a six month wait. The refernce re: the preganancy test was a British joke I wasn't pregnant.

[RadioUpnorth]

I don't know about the British ratio for specialists.

It is not a mandate under the proposed National Healthcare Program for this country.

Cost containment will be required because the costs of insurance, the costs of uncovered services, the costs of unnecessary referrals and overprescriptions of multiple sources is too wastefull

An indictment of this last is deaths here of pain and antidepressant opiates killing people.

We need reform.

[RadioUpnorth]

Medway/

That's part of the Harry Potter series of stories, isn't it?

[danemommd]

Could be, isn't it a fictional children's story?..

Medway is a hospital in Kent, England outside of Rockchester. It's about 1200 beds with full outpt clinics. They had IM, limited Cardiology.. No MRI but 2 CT 16 slice scanners. No Neurosurgery...No Cardiac Caths, but strangely enough they did offer Cardiophys, pacer placement,etc....was any of this in your Harry Potter books? I'd be interested to know if they included any details about the hospital. Hope this helps.

[RadioUpnorth]

If it was so limited, why did you choose to go there for your training?

Why, if you are so busy caring for people, do you have such regular attention to comments here.

I don't have Potter books. Never read them. But it does sound like you are providing the "details" from your maleable memory like not getting a "drug pregnancy kit" then changing it to reference to a "British joke".

Joke is your inability to provide rationale to convince voters here the failure of healthcare is fiction.

[danemommd]

I'm a licensed physician in WV in Internal Medicine. I usually don't have time to read blogs, watch TV etc. I underwent a procedure 4 days ago and am home recovering. (I'm the patient this time!) The Brits joke is about the serum BHCG test not OTC urine test. I did 18 months of medical school training in England to be with my husband who is Canadian, a neurologist, who trained thru a British school. It was fantastic clinical training, but choices for patients wasn't like the US.

[danemommd]

I wish I could do more to help people understand how the direction healthcare has taken in England, Spain, etc hasn't proved to be the best option for patients, but unfortunately, I just won't have the time to post here any more. I will say this, I'm worried that what is being considered for the future of healthcare will take away the patients options for treatment. Medication formularies will be restricted further. The Walmart $4 med list may become a thing of the past.. Regards, danemommd

[RadioUpnorth]

Why would the joke even exist when the OTC gives the same answer?

Why is your husband not practicing in Canada? Better money here?

Why are the choices for patients better in the U.S.? Money steam more lucrative?

[RadioUpnorth]

Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, to name a few western countries, INCLUDING, INCLUDING, the USSR compared to our bloated fat cow healthcare industry bankrupting individuals and this country.

[RadioUpnorth]

Danemommd just gave the British system an endorsement.

Just look way below.

[RadioUpnorth]

Do we trust insurers who can retroactively deny coverage, drop coverage or deny coverage?

How much for monthly premium for someone with serious pre existing condition. Do they need to come to your house, whack you and take your money to pay for the health care needed?

[AirborneIdentity]

I think it is time for Republicans to stop being lazy and start contributing. We need them to unite with us against the drug companies and join the patients.

The scaremongering words like "rationing" and "bureaucracy" do not work on us anymore; GOP has little credibility.

We need their votes or we will kick them out of office for the next hundred years.

[RadioUpnorth]

Straight on!!

That goes for Blue Dog Democrats too.

The reality is getting National Health Care Insurance coverage or political heads will roll.

[AirborneIdentity]

Agreed. I think the reason Yellow Bellied Democrats oppose it is because they are funded by drug companies.

The main reason GOP opposes it is because once it is passed they will have trouble explaining exactly why they hate Americans.

[RadioUpnorth]

For a better debate on health care, go to mumbling republican.