Thread: Bill to improve health care…in Mexico!- McCain's Plan

I did a search but didn't see this posted. If it has been, I apologize.


Bill to improve health care…in Mexico!
February 6th, 2008

The health care mess in the United States is a top concern of voters. Too many Americans find that, despite their best efforts, they are unable to provide quality health care for their families. Too many Americans live in fear that an illness might leave them destitute. Too many Americans spend years sacrificing to pay skyrocketing premiums only to discover that, when the need arises, their policies offer protections that are next to worthless.

Most of us agree that it’s simply not right that so many Americans, sincerely trying their best to provide for their families, are at the mercy of a phalanx of greedy insurance companies, medical malpractice lawyers, health care corporations, and other profiteers that have used decades of influence in Washington to institutionalize their chomp hold on the public jugular.

What would Americans think, then, of a member of Congress who introduced legislation, not to improve health care in the United States, but to improve health care in Mexico?

Insane? Drunk? Unworthy of public office?

What would Americans think, then, of a bill introduced in Congress that required federal agencies to come up with a plan, not to expand health coverage in the United States, but to expand health coverage in Mexico?

Impossible? Unthinkable? Wildly irresponsible?

What would Americans think, then, of the motives of a senator, who not only introduced a bill to improve Mexico’s health care system and extend coverage to a growing population of 120 million people, but gave health insurance companies the right to help devise the plan?

Blatantly corrupt? Grossly indifferent to the well-being of the American people? Downright treasonous?

Unbelievable as it may seem, the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005 contained a provision giving insurance companies the right to help devise a plan for extending US health care to Mexico (Sec. 1004. BINATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE AND HEALTH INSURANCE).

Even more unbelievable, the senator who sponsored the bill is not on the verge of being thrown out of office for this odious piece of legislation. No, the senator who introduced the bill, Senator John McCain of Arizona, is on the verge of locking up the Republican nomination to be our next president.

Damn! How come you didn’t know that before you voted for John McCain on Tuesday, you ask?

You’ve been watching the all-day-every-day TV news coverage of the primaries.

You’ve been reading your local newspaper’s daily coverage of the races for the parties’ nominations.

You are an above-average-informed voter.

You know that

large majorities of young people and black people support Barack Obama,
a majority of white women over the age of 40 support Hillary Clinton,
a majority of Christian evangelicals support Mike Huckabee,
John McCain’s Republican supporters are moderates,
Barack Obama has doubled his support among southern white males since South Carolina,
Mitt Romney has financed much of his own campaign,
Iowa is lily-white,
Fox News cable television didn’t have enough room in its studio to include Republican candidate Ron Paul in a debate between the Republican candidates it televised,
Republicans hope Hillary wins,
McCain is the only Republican who can win in November, and everyone, even Democrats, respects his history as a POW,
Rudy Giuliani’s strategy to skip the first few primaries and focus on Florida was a bad one,
Oprah Winfrey supports Barack Obama, and not just because he’s African-American,
Arnold Schwarzenegger supports John McCain, but his wife supports Barack Obama,
Robert DeNiro supports Barack Obama because Obama makes him "believe,"
Ron Paul raised a record amount of money one day a couple of months ago,
large majorities of Latinos support Hillary Clinton,
Mitt Romney unhiply riffed on "Who Let the Dogs Out," and
the top vote-getting position for an American presidential candidate this year is to be for "change."
But you didn’t know that the only clear front-runner in the race to be our next president proposed, in the last session of congress, a bi-national health care system to be devised by insurance companies. To be devised by insurance companies, for crying out loud.

Eight years of George W. Bush, Karl Rove, and the Wall Street Journal’s “GOP stalwart,â€

People opposed to any sort of nationalized healthcare complain that they would not have the freedom of choice they now have, or that potential waiting could be unbearable or even deadly. They fear that the bureaucracy might become unwieldy and inpeneterable. Well founded fears, I agree.

Yet through private insurance we end up financing the lifestyles of agents, adjusters, actuaries and CEOs. Our drug cost goes sky high so we go to Canada or contract Pharmacies in India to save. Hospitals specify unnecessary and even harmful tests because they fear litigation by trial lawyers. We should be spending money to devise minimally invasive treatments, or exploring nanomedicine--to reduce the recovery time or avoid surgery altogether---instead of lining the pockets of the insurance industry.

But we need to prevent abuse. I don't know all the answers. Perhaps a steep copayment--$200/visit?--would prevent people from going to the ER for simple problems. Limiting access to US citizens only. Also having nurse practitioners or physician's assistants handling many problems instead of a real doctor. Preventive treatments would help.

I'm not confident that Obama, Hillary or McCane could devise a fiscally sound strategy--but something should enable hardworking Americans to be free from fear that an unexpected illness or condition could ruin them.

FOLLOW UP ARTICLE

Bill to improve health care…in Mexico!
McCain article I posted Thursday dugg, then challenged
February 9th, 2008 · No Comments

The article I posted Thursday, Bill to improve health care…in Mexico!, was favorited at digg.com (thank you all who dugg it). An appearance on digg.com means many more readers, and that’s good. Voters really should have as many alternative news sources and hear as many differing opinions as possible.

Unfortunately, among the hundreds of comments the article generated, some charged that the article was inaccurate. They buried it, and now there is a big red

Warning: The Content in this Article May be Inaccurate
above the title.


The article was about Section 1004, "Binational public health infrastructure and health insurance" of Title X, "Promoting Access to Health Care," of the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005, sponsored in the Senate by the man who now calls himself the presumptive Republican nominee for the office of the presidency, Senator John McCain.

In my view, having access to the important information contained in the article would help a voter make a more informed decision about whom to support in the voting booth next November. It’s very unfortunate, I think, that a few people were able to torpedo the article with the charge of inaccuracy. Particularly, since the article is accurate.

As near as I can tell, those who labeled the article inaccurate did so either because they misread the plain language of the bill, for purely partisan reasons, because they accidentally looked up the wrong bill, or
because they don’t understand the way Congress works.

SEC. 1004. BINATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE AND HEALTH INSURANCE.
(a) Study-

(1) IN GENERAL- The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall contract with the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (referred to in this section as the `Institute’) to study binational public health infrastructure and health insurance efforts.

(2) INPUT- In conducting the study under paragraph (1), the Institute shall solicit input from border health experts and health insurance companies.

(b) Report-

(1) IN GENERAL- Not later than 1 year after the date on which the Secretary of Health and Human Services enters into a contract under subsection (a), the Institute shall submit a report concerning the study conducted under subsection (a) to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the appropriate committees of Congress.

(2) CONTENTS- The report submitted under paragraph (1) shall include the recommendations of the Institute on ways to expand or improve binational public health infrastructure and health insurance efforts. For example, some of those who buried my article noted that the text of the bill only authorizes a study of binational health care. They were like, so what? It’s only a study.

This strikes me as being unaware of the way things work in Congress. By itself, the authorization of a federal study is a good first step toward creating a new program.

But the McCain bill didn’t stop with just a study of binational health care. The bill required the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies to submit recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and to the relevant committees in the House and the Senate for
finding ways to expand or improve binational public health infrastructure, and finding ways to expand or improve binational health insurance.

The McCain bill didn’t even stop there. The bill explicitly granted seats at the table to the insurance industry and to border health experts (whatever border health is). That’s pretty amazing, when you consider that the insurance industry is arguably a major reason US health care is already in crisis.

Moreover, as it stands now, the insurance industry isn’t exactly on the outside looking in.

Over the last ten years, the insurance industry has purchased nearly one billion dollars worth of influence through its lobbyists in Washington. A substantial portion of the influence was purchased directly from the Department of Health and Human Services (Center for Responsive Politics). Though HHS was created to operate 100 percent with our best interests at heart, it now operates with some portion of itself having the best interests of the insurance industry at heart (we still pay for 100 percent of HHS’ operations, however).

Hiring lobbyists to bend public policy away from the public and towards its own profit isn’t the only means by which the insurance industry wields power in our democracy. By itself, for example, the insurance industry has already injected over $15 million so far in direct contributions to candidates in this presidential race, according to an analysis of FCC data published one week ago by the Center for Responsive Politics (check out their awesome new networking tool, the MoneyWeb, at OpenSecrets.org, and see "Cost of ‘08 Presidential Race Already Tops All Elections Prior to ‘04")

Spreading that kind of cash around Washington ensures the insurance industry lots of clout. But John McCain wanted to give the industry even more clout. His bill explicitly granted health insurance companies a place at the table during the federally funded process of finding ways to expand and improve health insurance in the US/Mexico region.

What do you suppose the industry could add? Pay special attention to paragraph 4, below from the Findings section of the 2007 incarnation of the McCain/Kennedy amnesty:

(c) Sense of Congress Regarding Bilateral Partnership on Health Care-

It is the sense of Congress that the Government of the United States and the Government of Mexico should enter into a partnership to examine uncompensated and burdensome health care costs incurred by the United States due to legal and illegal immigration, including–

(1) increasing health care access for poor and under served populations in Mexico;

(2) assisting Mexico in increasing its emergency and trauma health care facilities along the border, with emphasis on expanding prenatal care in the United States-Mexico border region;

(3) facilitating the return of stable, incapacitated workers temporarily employed in the United States to Mexico in order to receive extended, long-term care in their home country; and

(4) helping the Government of Mexico to establish a program with the private sector to cover the health care needs of Mexican nationals temporarily employed in the United States.

McCainese
-helping the Government of Mexico
to establish a program with the private sector to cover the health care needs
of Mexican nationals
-temporarily employed
in the United States.

US English
-using the tax money of American wage-earners
-to buy a group health insurance plan from US insurance corporations
for foreigners
-imported as cheap labor by US
corporations and driving down the wages
of American wage-earners in the United States

Can John McCain really be the front-runner? My God.

http://opensourceactivist.org/2008/02/0 ... d/#more-34