Limbaugh Argument Against National Healthcare: Private Healthcare Takes Care of Dogs Just Fine....

He says "it works" because "It depends on your ability to pay."

And describes swank animal hospitals and dog kennels.

Hey Rush, what do you do to a dog when you can't afford to pay for their care?

Are you advocating for putting the sick poor to sleep?

The Myth of Canadians Flocking to the US for Healthcare:

Phantoms in the Snow...

U.S. ambulatory facilities survey. Almost 40 percent of the facilities we surveyed reported treating no Canadians, while an additional 40 percent had seen fewer than ten patients (Exhibit 1Go). Fifteen percent of respondent sites reported treating 10–25 Canadian patients, and only about 5 percent reported seeing more than 25 during the previous year (generally 25–75 patients; none reported more than 100). These findings were fairly consistent across the service categories. The overall response rate was 67 percent, and it varied across type of clinical facility from 56 percent for ambulatory surgery centers to 80 percent for cancer centers.

If we extrapolate these findings (assuming that nonrespondents show a pattern similar to that of respondents), these facilities in the three large metropolitan areas combined saw approximately 640 Canadian patients for diagnostic radiology services such as computed tomography (CT) scans or MRI and 270 patients for eye procedures such as cataract surgery over a one-year period. By comparison, the annual volume for CT scans and cataract extractions averaged about 80,000 and 25,000 procedures, respectively, in British Columbia alone during the mid-1990s.9 In Quebec the annual volume during the same period for CT scans and MRI averaged 375,000 procedures and 44,000 procedures, respectively

Wisconsinites Want Healthcare Reform

From an AARP survey:

• 49 percent say the state's health care system has major problems, and 13 percent say it is in a state of crisis
• 76 percent consider it important for the state to reduce the number of residents without health care coverage and 84 percent feel it should make health care more affordable for all
• 82 percent agree that all Wisconsinites should have access to the same basic health care coverage, and 76 percent agree that everyone should contribute to the health care system
• 56 percent say they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supported health care coverage for all Wisconsin residents

Nursing Home Care: Gov't does it better.

I had been meaning to post on this since the ratings come out, but the Northwestern beat me to it with

You've probably heard the mantra "Private business can do it better." But, when it comes to nursing homes, can it?

A new study and sweeping round of nursing home ratings sizing up more than 16,000 sites around the U.S. shows, in Wisconsin, it's our state-, county- and city-owned facilities earning the higher average overall grades, followed by nonprofit nursing home operators, followed by for profit operations. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently released its ratings, based on a new system. Some nursing homes are ecstatic with the findings. Others, a little baffled by them.

To be fair, any ratings glance is just that – a snapshot of a nursing home at a moment in time. Staff performance may have been uncharacteristically stellar or subpar during a rater's visit. There's a degree of subjectivity involved with any rating system. That said, a Northwestern analysis of the ratings statewide does back up the overall findings showing nonprofits and government nursing home operations are earning higher marks.

In Wisconsin, the average overall scores on the CMS's five-star scale for government-operated nursing homes was 3.76. That was followed by nonprofit operations' 3.42 average score and for profit operations' 2.57. Winnebago County's taxpayer-owned Park View Health Center (even before it opened its new facility north of Oshkosh) earned five-star marks, a testament to the quality of care delivered within these top-rated organizations, not just their physical environs.

It should be obvious that Govt would do a better job in nursing and senior care. There is no place for profit in providing this service on a large scale.

The customers are, as a general group, people who are either beyond their earning years, or unable to earn. Therefore the incentive to supply high-quality care to all but the most affluent families is not there. The profit incentive can only be in the cutting of costs (and therefore quality of care).

However, a public facility is not accountable to a profit margin, they are accountable, in the end, to voters and elected officials. As long as expenses do not get to out of hand, the incentive is to provide a high-quality product.

Let me repeat, as long as these facilities are respectfully frugal with the taxpayers dime, all of the incentive is in providing quality of care.

Now that we have seen real numbers as to how gov't can supply this nursing care, when will the public make the logical jump that it will be the same for general medical care?

Milwaukee Small Business Times: We Need Universal Healthcare

It is all here:

Business is just booming in Canada, eh. That message rang loud and clear at the Milwaukee World Trade Association's 44th annual Wisconsin International Trade Conference Tuesday.
...
In 2004, Ontario made automotive history when it surpassed Michigan as the largest automotive producing jurisdiction in North America, according to Ward's Automotive. While Detroit withers, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Suzuki and Toyota have shifted production plants to Canada.

I asked Ward why America is losing so much production and so many jobs to Canada. She did not hesitate with her answer. "Health care."

America has the highest health care costs in the world. I know it deeply disturbs many Wisconsin business leaders to hear it, but Canada's government-paid, universal health care system is an economic competitive asset, when compared with America's mish-mosh system that is part private, part socialistic and all redundant, inefficient and costly.

Ward also noted that Canada has a more tightly regulated mortgage banking system, so its economy has not been nearly as shell-shocked by the subprime collapse as the American economy has been.

Wisconsin Health Care Facts

From the Badger Poll:

• Approximately 45% of Wisconsin residents feel that the health care system in the state has major problems, 44% say it has minor problems, 7% say it is currently in a state of crisis and just 2% say there are no problems.
• 76% favored expanding the eligibility of existing government programs such as BadgerCare and Medicaid to provide coverage for more people without health insurance.
• 65% favored requiring every resident of Wisconsin to attain health insurance, either from their employer or another source, with government subsidies to low-income residents to help them pay for it
• 61% of residents favored replacing the current health care system with a new system administered entirely by state government that covers all Wisconsinites.
• When it comes to how responsible the State of Wisconsin and the Federal Government should be in making sure that all state residents have access to both high quality and affordable health care 44% said the State of Wisconsin should be extremely or quite responsible and 55% said the Federal Government should be extremely or quite responsible.

Healthy WI is here.

American Healthcare System Kills 100,000 People Yearly

EDITORIAL: Lack of health plan kills 100,000 a year

A report released last week on the quality of health care in the industrialized world attached numbers to a problem we already recognized.

America's health care system is killing us -- at least 100,000 of us every year.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine reviewed records on preventable deaths from 19 industrial nations and found our health care system to be the worst of the bunch -- well behind countries such as France, Japan and Australia that have universal health care policies.

It's not the quality of American care itself that causes 100,000 unnecessary deaths every year, researcher Ellen Nolte said. It's the inability of patients to get that care.

"I wouldn't say it (the last-place ranking handed to the United States) is a condemnation because I think health care in the U.S. is pretty good if you have access," she said. "But if you don't, I think that's the main problem, isn't it?"

Read the rest here.

UW Osh Economics Prof McGee: Universal Healthcare Needed

The entire column is here:

It's this simple – we need some system of universal, mandatory health coverage.

It could be a government run system like in Canada or England, or it could be a mandatory private insurance system like in Massachusetts or Switzerland. But staying with our current hodgepodge makes no sense at all.

Tomah Journal on VA Clinics

Even more fundamental is whether privatization, and the inevitable profit/loss calculations that come with it, is in the best interests of veterans or taxpayers. Treating veterans is an inherently unprofitable enterprise. Nearly all wounded veterans have complex medical traumas that far exceed their ability to pay. VA hospitals and clinics don’t exist to turn a profit; they exist to provide the best medical care possible for those who risked their lives in defense of their country. Their treatment is a public, not a private, function.

Tomah Journal Nails Healthcare

Opponents of policies designed to achieve universal health care coverage inevitably raise the bogeyman of “socialized medicine.” They peddle stories of patients in Canada, Western Europe or Japan who are denied critical care by government-run systems, even as these countries produce better health care outcomes (life expectancy, infant mortality rates, etc.) than the United States.

Well, here’s news: The United States is hardly innocent when it comes to denying life-saving care.

Researchers from the American Cancer Society discovered that uninsured cancer patients are nearly twice as likely to die within five years as those with private coverage. Thirty-five percent of uninsured cancer victims died within five years, compared to 23 percent of privately insured patients.
...
Much of the health care debate is technical and complicated, but the moral issue is not -- it all comes down to whether everyone should have access to quality health care regardless of ability to pay. In the United States, millions don’t get the health care they need because of a privately delivered system that lets them fall through the cracks. To those who oppose plans for universal coverage, the question is simple: Do you even care?

(emphasis mine)

Read it all here.

Here is the MSNBC coverage of the cancer numbers:

Uninsured cancer patients are nearly twice as likely to die within five years as those with private coverage, according to the first national study of its kind and one that sheds light on troubling health care obstacles.
...
The new research is being published in Cancer, the cancer society’s medical journal. In an accompanying editorial, the society’s president repeated the organization’s call for action to fix holes in the health care safety net.

“The truth is that our national reluctance to face these facts is condemning thousands of people to die from cancer each year,” Dr. Elmer Huerta wrote.
...
They found those who were uninsured were 1.6 times more likely to die in five years than those with private insurance.

More specifically, 35 percent of uninsured patients had died at the end of five years, compared with 23 percent of privately insured patients.

Yet again, Republicans are on the wrong side: Poll shows majority support state-run health care in Wisconsin

A majority of Wisconsin residents favor a state-run health insurance system, but even more like the idea of expanding existing programs or investing in health savings accounts, according to a poll released Wednesday.

The results lend support to Democratic lawmakers’ efforts to pass a universal health care plan rejected by Republicans during this year’s budget negotiations.

Fifty-one percent of respondents support replacing the current health insurance system with one administered by the state government covering all residents, the University of Wisconsin Survey Center’s Badger Poll said.
...
Seventy-two percent favor requiring all people to have insurance, either from their employer or another source. And 82 percent support expanding existing state health insurance programs for low-income people.
...
*50 percent said the state’s health care system had major problems, 35 percent said there were minor problems, 12 percent said it was in a state of chaos and 2 percent said there are no problems.

WCDP Welcomes Sate Senator Kathleen Vinehout to Discuss “Healthy Wisconsin”

WCDP Welcomes Sate Senator Kathleen Vinehout to Discuss “Healthy Wisconsin”

For Immediate Release
November 1, 2007 920.203.6883 - jef@jefhall.com
Contact: Jef Hall, Chair
920.203.6883 - jef@jefhall.com

Oshkosh – Before their Nov 14th, 2008 meeting, the Winnebago County Democratic Party will welcome State Senator Kathleen Vinehout, who will discuss the details and benefits of the Healthy Wisconsin plan to provide affordable, quality healthcare to all Wisconsin residents.

“Wisconsin will lead the nation in providing real health care reform. Healthy Wisconsin is an innovative solution that expands coverage while reducing costs,” State Senator Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma) has said about the plan. “Every man, woman and child who now lives in Wisconsin will have access to affordable health care.”

“I am happy to bring Sen. Vinehout to Winnebago County,” said WCDP Chair Jef Hall. “I am excited to start the discussion about healthcare reform locally.”

“It is the Democratic Party that is leading the healthcare discussion with real ideas. Sen. Vinehout is a great example of Democratic innovation for the benefit of all Wisconsin.”

Healthy Wisconsin is a plan that will guarantee access to affordable, high-quality coverage through a provider of your choice to every resident of Wisconsin, except those covered by public programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Badgercare.

Healthy Wisconsin saves an estimated $1.76 billion a year by:

* cutting waste and streamlining administration
* lowering drug costs through bulk purchasing
* discouraging inappropriate use of the emergency room
* rewarding healthy lifestyles and preventive care
* closely coordinating care for the chronically ill,
* rewarding providers who deliver the most efficient and highest quality care

Senator Vinehout’s presentation will begin at 6:00PM, November 14th, 2007. The regular meeting of the WCDP will begin after the presentation.

The public is welcome to both the presentation and the monthly meeting.

All Winnebago County Democratic Party monthly meetings are held at the Delta Family Restaurant - 515 N Sawyer St - Oshkosh, WI.

For more information, contact Jef Hall, Chair: 920.203.6883 or jef@jefhall.com.

Quote of the Election Cycle...

From Krugman the Great (quoting Ezra Klein)...

“The Republican vision is for a world in which the sick and dying get to deduct some of the cost of health insurance that they don’t have — and can’t get — on their taxes.”

Bush the Hero...?

The Great Krugman on Healthcare:

Most disturbing of all, the number of Americans without health insurance jumped. At this point, there are 47 million uninsured people in this country, 8.5 million more than there were in 2000. Mr. Bush may think that being uninsured is no big deal — “you just go to an emergency room” — but the reality is that if you’re uninsured every illness is a catastrophe, your own private Katrina.

Just a Thought (About Healthy WI)

How can the Republicans complain about the great benefits that state workers get, yet in the next breath say that Govt will never be able to manage healthcare for it's residents?

Business Group Meets to Discuss Healthy WI

For Immediate Release

Grassroots Business Group takes Wisconsin Health Reform Plan to Pewaukee

www.BusinessCoalition.net/wisconsin.htm

Contact:

Keith Schmitz/414-963-0847/ schmitz1@ameritech.net

(Milwaukee, WI) -- Local businesspeople are invited to attend a meeting to organize grassroots business support in the Milwaukee area for the proposed Healthy Wisconsin plan which passed in the State Senate last week. This organization, the Business Coalition for Single Payer Healthcare, will be part of similar groups throughout the state.

The second of three meetings in the area will take place at 5:30pm on Thursday August 2nd at the Machine Shed at I94 and Hwy 164 (exit 294, northeast corner, west of hotel)

Cash bar and optional appetizers or dinner

The meeting will feature a presentation by Institute for One Wisconsin regarding the details on the Healthy Wisconsin plan, followed by a discussion of possible action that can be taken to support the plan.

The meeting is being organized by Jack Lohman, a retired business owner, Keith Schmitz an owner of public relations firm and a grassroots organizer, and C.J. Brown, a local business consultant. This will be the first of three meetings that will be held in the Milwaukee metro area through August.

Although Families USA reported that Healthy Wisconsin will create 13,000 new jobs and $1 billion in new business activity, existing business groups including WMC have opposed the proposal. That, even though the plan will provide all businesses and their employees with the healthcare coverage they need at a cost for many companies below what they are paying now for healthcare insurance. The plan promises to make Wisconsin businesses more competitive and ultimately make Wisconsin an attractive place to do business.

Space at this event is limited so please RSVP to Keith Schmitz at schmitz1@ameritech.net. You can call 414-963-0847 for more details.

Bush's 'Let them eat cake' Moment

President Bush yesterday rejected entreaties by his Republican allies that he compromise with Democrats on legislation to renew a popular program that provides health coverage to poor children, saying that expanding the program would enlarge the role of the federal government at the expense of private insurance.
...
"I support the initial intent of the program," Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post after a factory tour and a discussion on health care with small-business owners in Landover. "My concern is that when you expand eligibility . . . you're really beginning to open up an avenue for people to switch from private insurance to the government."

The 10-year-old program, which is set to expire on Sept. 30, costs the federal government $5 billion a year and helps provide health coverage to 6.6 million low-income children whose families do not qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford private insurance on their own.

About 3.3 million additional children would be covered under the proposal developed by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Republican Sens. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) and Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), among others.

The entire story is here.

Healthy WI Overview

Click here for an overview of the Healthy WI plan.

Jessica McBride: "Poor people do not deserve healthcare."

Here is the money quote from her opinion piece on the Senate health plan:

(Healthy WI) ...would give everyone in the state health care like that enjoyed by the legislators and the governor. Why should a $7-an-hour worker get benefits the same as the governor?

Tell me if there is a different way to interpret that statement?

Thank you, Jessica, for the clear window into the Republican soul (or lack thereof...).