Healthcare shares rose on Monday as a bill to reform healthcare passed the first critical test in the Senate . . . Shares of Cigna rose 5.3 percent to $37.69. Shares of Aetna Inc rose 5.84 percent to $34.41. Humana Inc rose 3.79 percent to $45.17 and United Health Group Inc rose 5 percent to $33.14. Shares of Wellpoint Inc rose 3.8 percent to $60.51. —Reuters

A recent, much-quoted Harvard study estimated that 45,000 Americans die every year due to lack of health insurance. Either the insurance they had turned out to be inadequate to cover their needed care, or their longterm lack of insurance caused them to miss early medical treatments that would have prevented subsequent fatal illnesses.

In the Democrats push to persuade people like Howard Dean to sign on to their awful bill, they’ve used this issue often: How can any good dem or progressive not want to help the 45,000 people who will die this year without reform?

Of course, the fact that most of the people pushing the bill have more than adequate insurance already, and that many who oppose it, like myself, are longterm uninsured should be a clue.

But here’s the real problem: the benefits from the proposed bill do not kick in until 2014. That’s four more years of the rapidly deteriorating status quo. Given the tanking economy and more people losing their jobs/insurance and the fact that the insurance companies will be continuing their profit-seeking ways, likely more than 45,000 per year will die while waiting for the miracle bill to take effect.

In four years, that’s 180,000 dead Americans. The President and Senate have decided that, sadly, nothing can be done for them. Wouldn’t want to upset the insurance industry.

And Wall Street is happy, happy, happy.

Michael Sky | CommonHealth

Now, the only beneficiaries from passing this healthcare reform bill will be the corporations that the democrats serve, who will in turn shovel vast sums of money into democrat coffers. It’s a nifty get-rich scheme that has nothing to do with the American people.

Jane Hamsher and the folks at FireDogLake have nicely summed things up:

Top 10 Reasons to Kill Senate Health Care Bill
1. Forces you to pay up to 8% of your income to private insurance corporations – whether you want to or not
2. If you refuse to buy the insurance, you’ll have to pay penalties of up to 2% of your annual income to the IRS
3. Many will be forced to buy poor-quality insurance they can’t afford to use, with $11,900 in annual out-of-pocket expenses over and above their annual premiums
4. Massive restriction on a woman’s right to choose, designed to trigger a challenge to Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court
5. Paid for by taxes on the middle class insurance plan you have right now through your employer, causing them to cut back benefits and increase co-pays
6. Many of the taxes to pay for the bill start now, but most Americans won’t see any benefits – like an end to discrimination against those with preexisting conditions – until 2014 when the program begins.
7. Allows insurance companies to charge people who are older 300% more than others
8. Grants monopolies to drug companies that will keep generic versions of expensive biotech drugs from ever coming to market.
9. No re-importation of prescription drugs, which would save consumers $100 billion over 10 years
10. The cost of medical care will continue to rise, and insurance premiums for a family of four will rise an average of $1,000 a year – meaning in 10 years, your family’s insurance premium will be $10,000 more annually than it is right now.

For documentation on all of these issues and more, go to FireDogLake.

For a healthcare system that works, go to Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain……….

Michael Sky | CommonHealth

In other words, it uses the power of government, the force of law, to give the greatest gift imaginable to this industry — tens of millions of coerced customers, many of whom will be truly burdened by having to turn their money over to these corporations — and is thus a truly extreme advancement of this corporatist model.

It’s undeniably true that the bill will also do some genuine good, as it will help many people who can’t get coverage now to get it (though it will also severely burden many people with compelled, uncontrolled premiums and will potentially weaken coverage for millions as well).  If one judges the bill purely from the narrow perspective of coverage, a rational and reasonable (though by no means conclusive) case can be made in its favor.  But if one finds this creeping corporatism to be a truly disturbing and nefarious trend, then the bill will seem far less benign.

Glenn Greenwald | Salon

Let’s say that, after giving a fiery speech on the floor assailing the evils of government-run health care, a lawmaker gets gaseous or has a tongue cramp. He or she can pop right into the OAP for — yes! — some government-run health care. No appointment needed, no pesky insurance forms to fill out, no co-pay — just care.

For this, members pay a flat fee of $503 a year. A year! You and I are taxed to cover the real costs of this elite service. And that’s not the end of public health benefits for lawmakers — if they need a specialist, an operation, therapy, rehab or other pricey procedure, it’s all free at the government’s Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval hospitals.

If it’s good enough for them, why not us? The public deserves what the Congress has, and any member who opposes extending it to us should automatically be stripped of their privileges.

Jim Hightower | Creators Syndicate

In an historic vote, the democrat-controlled House of Representatives managed (barely) to pass sweeping healthcare reform that will in no way affect the god-given profit margins of the insurance and pharmaceutical companies nor the fat dividends of their Wall Street investors.

Phew. America seemed perilously close to enacting policies that evinced compassion, effectiveness, and common sense.

But not to worry.

Thirty percent of every healthcare dollar will continue to be sucked up by the heathcare profiteers.

Even better, LESS healthcare will go women and their reproductive bothers, thanks to the dick-brained efforts of a bunch of democrat representatives.

Importantly, they kept the whole thing employer-based, so as unemployment keeps rising so will the ranks of the uninsured, making the loss of one’s job a veritable death sentence, to be served soon after one’s personal bankruptcy.

All of these glorious changes will take another year or two to take effect, so, as with the foreclosure problem, we’ve made it clear that when the rich are troubled they get instant mega-bucks solutions, but when it’s the rest of us, sorry, but these things take time, and money is tight.

And the best news of all? Now it has to go through the Senate, giving the corporate lobbyists, religious nuts, tea-baggers, and spineless legislators more time to do their tawdry best.

Said it before, I’ll say it again: American, heal thyself.

Michael Sky | CommonHealth

Not long ago, the idea was that taxpayer-funded subsidies were to be used only for the public option. But now the entire concept has been hijacked by and for the private insurance industry. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it on October 8, private insurance companies “are going to get 50 million new consumers, many of them subsidized by the taxpayers.”

Pelosi was making the argument that the least the insurance industry could do, in return, would be to accept a higher level of taxation. But her comment was a telling acknowledgment that all the “public option” proposals now provide a massive funnel from the U.S. Treasury to the insurance conglomerates. The individual mandate is a monumental giveaway to private insurance firms.

The specter of “healthcare reform” that requires individuals to stretch their personal finances for often-abysmal insurance coverage is the worst of all worlds — government intrusion for corporate benefit without any guarantees of decent health coverage.

In effect, the individual-mandate requirement tells people that obtaining health coverage is ultimately their own responsibility — and the quality of the coverage is beside the point. In essence, when it comes to guaranteeing quality healthcare for all, the gist of the policy is: “Let’s not, and say we did.”

The predictable result is reinforcement of vast — and often deadly — inequities in access to healthcare.

Norman Solomon | CommonDreams.org

Swine flu leads the news. You can die from swine flu, or should we say H1N1, even if you have no underlying health conditions. Young people have died, and pregnant women are at risk. People are lining up to be vaccinated. Health professionals are at risk due to poor preparations at some health facilities. As many as 1,000 deaths have occurred due to this flu outbreak. It’s scary out there.

But the swine flu is no match for the killing going on at the hands of the for-profit healthcare system in these United States. We bury kids, pregnant moms, babies, teens, young fathers, mid-lifers and older folks too without even batting an eye in the chambers of power in this nation.

Donna Smith | CommonDreams.org

The Harvard Medical School researchers found that an uninsured person’s risk of death is 40 percent higher than his or her privately insured counterpart. Looked at another way, every 12 minutes a person dies unnecessarily because he or she doesn’t have health coverage. –Dr. Deb Richter

We’re losing more Americans every day because of inaction … than drunk driving and homicide combined. –Dr. David Himmelstein

Forty-five thousand Americans die every year due to their inability to pay for decent, timely medical care.

America took a one-time murder of 3,000 citizens to justify an eventual expenditure of trillions, coupled with two wars and the ensuing deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. You might think we would show a sense of urgency, if not high moral outrage, at the fact that the same number die every month, and millions more experience severe financial distress, simply because we refuse to adopt a rational and compassionate healthcare delivery system.

Though the politicians drone on about how difficult the problem is, in fact there are plenty of examples of working systems in the world, including (since we are constitutionally incapable of learning from other nations) two in America — medicare and the VA.

The key to all such systems? Healthcare is viewed as a primary human need and therefore every citizen’s right. Everyone involved in the delivery of that right is fairly compensated for their work, but nobody rakes in unearned profits, and no payments at all go to those who do not in some way contribute to patient care.

In America, healthcare is viewed as a commodity to be bought and traded in the so-called free market. As with most commodities, there are middlemen involved — corporations and investors who don’t contribute in any way to the delivery of care, yet slice off a chunk of the healthcare dollar (as much as 30%) for themselves. Payments to these healthcare profiteers naturally result in a more expensive commodity.

Because corporations are legally bound to increase profits for their shareholders, healthcare profiteers will always grab for as much loot as they can. And even if the government were to regulate their profits, the fact remains that they do no actual work to contribute to patient care. They are money-sucking parasites and will always be the reason our system costs so much and delivers so little.

A strong majority of Americans understand this and favor a single-payer system that cuts all of the profiteers out of the picture. Even most Democratic politicians understand, including the President.

Unfortunately, the only thing sicker than America’s healthcare system is it’s legislative process. Both are dying from the same illness: unregulated and unabashed greed.

Michael Sky | CommonHealth

Message to America, Obama, and the handful of congressfolk who don’t have their ears stuffed up with industry bribes: despite the fact that they do nothing to improve the health of Americans, the insurance industry insists on grabbing 25% of every dollar spent on healthcare.

They are greedy, pure and simple, all eyes to their profits, with no concern for the health of the nation, nor compassion for suffering citizens.

Robert Reich points us in the right direction:

Now’s the time for Senate Finance Committee and the White House to say to the insurance industry: You want to play hardball? Okay. We’ll play it, too. You didn’t want a public insurance option. That was one of your conditions for supporting the bill. You wanted gigantic profits from having thirty million new paying customers and the market to yourself. We agreed because we wanted your support and were afraid of the negative ads and hurricane of opposition you could finance. But you’re even greedier than we imagined. And now you’ve demonstrated that greed to the American people. They don’t want to turn over even more of their hard-earned money to you. So, insurance companies, we’ve got news for you. We’re going to make sure Americans have the freedom to choose a public insurance option that’s cheaper and better, and you’re going to have to work hard to keep them your customers. –Robert Reich, Salon

Alas, like Obama, Reich doesn’t go far enough. It is time — way past time — to cut the insurance companies out of the process.

Medicare for All. Now.

Michael Sky | CommonHealth

Just before the Senate Finance Committee wrapped up for the long weekend, members debated one of Sen. Jon Kyl’s (R-AZ) amendments, which would strike language defining which benefits employers are required to cover.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) argued that insurers must be required to cover basic maternity care. (In several states there are no such requirements.)

“I don’t need maternity care,” Kyl said. “So requiring that on my insurance policy is something that I don’t need and will make the policy more expensive.”

Stabenow interrupted: “I think your mom probably did.”

This little slice of Senate life goes right to the heart of America’s healthcare crisis.

Extensive maternity care for all — from family planning through delivery — is an essential proponent of any sensible healthcare system. Nations with universal coverage typically include generous maternity leave prior to and after birth, providing the new parents with several layers of support.

The benefits to the parents are obvious: they receive all the care they need and they are able to spend time with their new baby, away from work, and without having to worry about money.

The benefits to society are just as important: expectant mothers who do not receive essential care have poorer outcomes, in part because of the missing care, and in part because of the disabling force of financial stress. A society peopled by a significant percentage of “poorer outcomes”  suffers a range of ill effects, including unhealthy citizens who need far more medical care/spending than was “saved” by scrimping on maternity care.

Most everywhere but America they’ve figured this out and have better medical outcomes while spending less money.

Mr. Kyl and his buddies call this socialized medicine, a pronouncement that can stop all rational thought and serious discussion in America. They prefer instead the practice of Anti-Social Medicine, where everybody is on their own, where nobody should have to care about anyone beyond their own family, and where sickness profiteers make everything so expensive that only the rich get decent care.

Senator Stabenow’s reply did not go far enough: we shouldn’t insist on full and generous maternity benefits in all coverage plans because our mothers, wives, and daughters might need it, but because when we do not extend equal care to every newborn we violate the principles that inspired America — all are created equal and are equally endowed….

Michael Sky | CommonHealth