Kucinich creates petition "establishing healthcare as a civil right"

Submitted by Eternity on Sun, 09/13/2009 - 21:16.

Whereas, Universal Health Care was proposed by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1912; and

Whereas today, nearly 100 years later, 47 million Americans are uninsured and another 50 million are underinsured bringing great social and economic harm to the American family; and

Whereas, HR 676, authored by Congressmen John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich provides for Medicare for All, a universal, single payer, not-for-profit health care system which means the end of premiums, copays and deductibles; and

Whereas we are already paying for a universal standard of care but are not getting it because one of every three dollars in the health care system goes to the activities of the for-profit insurance system; and

Whereas HR676 firmly establishes health care as a Civil Right, consistent with the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States and Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution which defines a purpose of government "to promote the General Welfare," now therefore,

I HEREBY EXPRESS MY STRONG SUPPORT FOR HR676, SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE, AND THE PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMIC JUSTICE FOR WHICH IT STANDS:  Click here to sign

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The Text of HR676

Submitted by lmcshane on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 04:42.

  Here is the text of HR676 and in PDF here.
 

if he lived in parts of the pacific northwest he'd be a hero

Submitted by noner on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 07:14.

 This is why people "from these parts" call Kucinich crazy.

If he lived in parts of the pacific northwest he'd be a hero - with a progressive vision and the ability to carry it through. Unlike many of his constituents here, they would understand the concept of health care as a fundamental human right, an issue of human decency.

In any other developed, civilized society the idea of making a profit from someone else's illness is abhorrent.

But we here just continue our irrelevent debate over corrollary issues, conveniently ignoring the basic solid fact that no one in this country should suffer because of lack of healthcare - but our greed (and foolish stupidity - ooh! bright lights!) has determined otherwise.

Kucinich is an honorable man

Submitted by Eternity on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 15:43.

For the time being, the ignorant schmucks, with their "borg" mentality are the ones hogging up the dialog (as in FOX news) screaming the loudest with their message of delusion, disinformation, terror, paranoia, hate, hysteria and fear.  I'm not quite sure if that crowd is evil or just ignorant?  Ummm, it's probably both.  Nonetheless, there are those like Kucinich who wish to join the rest of the democratized world; offering healthcare as the basic human right that it truly deserved and sorely needed. 

It's the "see, let me 'splain it to ya" morons, who ain't got a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of, that are all up in the mix talking copious amounts of shit...like they really got some answers up in here. 

NOT!!!

From Canada to the UK to Japan and everywhere in between, industrialized nations offer tax-funded healthcare, as well as primary and secondary education to the citizenry.  But in the world's lone superpower, the supposed greatest nation on planet earth, we prefer to line the pockets of the already rich with even more money, so that they can kick us to the curb and make us feel like shit. 

And rest assured, there's and endless supply of wacky rationalizations to back up the swill.

Iran has public healthcare, Venezuala has public healthcare, Sweden has public healthcare, South Africa has public healthcare, etc., etc., etc.  And unbeknownst to a lot of FOX news [Max laughing his ass off] fair-and-balanced Americans, Cuba has one of the most excellent healthcare systems in the world.  That little, po-dunk island is celebrated around the world for it's top-of-the-line doctors and well-heeled medical infastructure.

Contrary to the FOX news white supremacy whitewash, empathetic, socratic white people and people of color ARE known for doing great and mighty things.  Yes indeed!

So, I understand--many Americans understand.  You get it, and undoubtedly the entire Western world (save the US) gets it.

Kucinich qualifies as a true American patriot; an honorable man--a hero in every sense of the word!

If only there were more like him.

Eternity

btw - since you're not from these parts...

Submitted by noner on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 17:50.

 if you hear someone talking about how Kucinich "bankrupt" the city of Cleveland while he was mayor:

you know you are either talking to a liar or someone unknowledgeable.

when kucinich was mayor, the playas wanted our muni electric. kucinich wouldn't sell - it was a publicly held electric company and kucinich recognized the value of it. the playas decided to call in their bonds. principle among these was ameri-trust bank (roldo knows this guys name and its on RealNEO somewhere). 

so it was this stand-off and kucinich refused to be blackmailed so in true cleveland greedy fucker fashion, the banks refused to renew their bonds and the city defaulted.

because the playas rEAlly CARE about cleveland.

then the media touted the whole thing as kucinich's fault and the lie has followed him for years.

I read it, I agree with

Submitted by None on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 10:46.

I read it, I agree with it.

But it ignore the transition, it does not make private insurance illegal it just makes it unnecessary.

It makes it free to everyone who asks for it, with no restrictions other than what is medically necessary.

Then you get into the real issues, like the cost of all that and were that comes from. He says a tax on the top five percent. That’s a cost; the total operating cost of all nonprofits divided amongst that top five percent equitably based on their income.

Nobody will buy what is offered for free, they will for a while but eventually all employers will stop offering health care.

The top five percent will police the fed, and demand accountability for the tax. They will likely lobby them to change the funding.

But the real unaddressed issue is all the capital tied to health insurance, and the loss of that as commerce. Being able to manage that damage is the crucial element that is missing. What happens to all those jobs? What happens to all the investments in that. It is huge and far reaching.

Then there is that issue of Medicare and what it pays in response to a bill, when I processed medical billing they used to pay less than what the hospital charged. They can and will put the squeeze on hospitals and that will force them to cut costs. I am fine with that as well.

I personally go to metro and have health care, I have to wait in line in a clinic I have to wait for an appointment, but they are good to recognize what is urgent and what is not. We have more than enough facilities and the clinic would really benefit from this system because anyone can come here for treatment.

In fact most all of our health systems are not-for-profit. Locally you could ask the clinic how would all of your revenue be affected if all of your patients were primarily billed to Medicare?

Then all that is details the big elephant in the room is insurance and if you shot it will it fall over and take the rest of the economy with it. That’s why some see Dennis as crazy because his ideas ignores the fallout of that, he pretends like it is irrelevant and it is not. It could be severely consequential. I think that is difficult to understand that the money in the insurance industry would not go into the health care it would simply vanish. In fact just saying that this bill will pass will make it begin to disappear. That’s good because it would be investors pulling out, but some of that investing is in some of our pensions. Its just not that easy and just not that simple. But I am thinking we need to do this and then just take what comes and deal with that as it happens. How much imaginary money for spending do we have left?

 

How did insurance companies

Submitted by ward14resident on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 17:39.

How did insurance companies get so powerful in the first place?  How did this all happen right under our noses and no one even saw it?  Why did we allow insurance companies to take our health care dollars?  It is not like insurance companies provide any health care services to anybody.  What were we thinking when we allowed this to happen? 

money

Submitted by westward on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 17:52.

It is a lucrative industry and one that only grows both in need and the latest technology. Most of the tech initiatives are funded by people like you and me through government grants, tax credits, all sorts of subsidizes. The company that invents it owns it though, and uses the U.S. taxpayer to develop it.  Today I received my semi-annual investment report from the company that manages the 401K for us at work. Stock investments to choose from in the health industry are : biotechnology, health care equipment and supplies, health care providers & services, health care technology, and pharmaceuticals. The amount of stock invested through this brokerage firm (a small one) in the above health care stocks are 2 billion dollars.

Maybe it is a good thing to

Submitted by ward14resident on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 19:18.

Maybe it is a good thing to tax the top 5% to get the money that is needed to provide health care to all. 

top 5% taxed

Submitted by westward on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 19:26.

and  it would be enough to provide health care and a lot more. we need an overhaul of our health care system and the patients need an education of what real medicine is, not this expensive defensive, high tech medicine on demand for those with insurance while the rest of us wither are nickeled and dimed to death by the insurance companies or just go without.