California Nurse's Association & PNHP on Obama's healthcare speech

[debbierlus]

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/09/09-18

OAKLAND, Calif. - September 9 - The nation's largest union and professional association of registered nurses tonight welcomed the renewed call by President Obama for comprehensive healthcare reform.

"But sadly, the President's prescription for reform still falls short of the full reform that is needed to solve our ever escalating healthcare crisis," said Deborah Burger, RN, co-President of the 86,000-member California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.

"The President made a renewed call for a public option, but a public option should at least be a 'Congressional option' at least as good as the benefits Congress members get.

"The biggest problem with his approach, however, is not the public option, it's the private option. Private insurers are the principal cause of skyrocketing healthcare costs, and the disgraceful denials of care for people with insurance.

"Nothing in this plan will end insurance denials - and insurance companies are denying nearly one-fourth of all claims in California alone, according to data the insurers themselves report to the state.

"Second, we heard again pledges to end the health insecurity faced by so many American families; yet the promise of effective cost controls remains elusive. Insurance premiums, co-pays and deductibles will continue to skyrocket with little in this plan to end their price gouging practices.

"President Obama said tonight 'We are the only advanced democracy on Earth - the only wealthy nation - that allows such hardships for millions of its people.' That's true. The reason is that all those other countries have a national healthcare system, such as our Medicare program, and don't barter human lives for profit. Ultimately that is the most effective way to actually guarantee healthcare for all Americans, control costs, and improve quality. That would be the change we could all believe in." .###
The California Nurses Association, and its national arm, the National Nurses Organizing Committee, is one of the nation's premiere nurses' organizations and health care unions. One of the fastest growing health care organizations in the U.S., CNA/NNOC presently has 80,000 members in 50 states, representing nurses at scores of hospitals, clinics, and home health agencies.


Physicians for a National Health Care Program on Amy Goodman Democracy Now:

"He gets an A-plus for diagnosis. He gets a D-minus for treatment. As he said himself, this public option, which is the line in the sand, is a false dichotomy. Perhaps five percent of the potential users would be in it. That leaves 95 percent out. It has already been emphasized, the problem with the American health system is crystal clear: it’s the private insurance companies. And if the Obama proposal is as I heard it, actually enhances the insurance presence, all these 45 million uninsured will be held up, with the government and other kinds of subsidies, to go into the private insurance market and all that that implies, with denial of care, pre-existing disease exclusions. We know the terrible pitfall we’re in now. And the answer continues to be clear-cut, like Medicare is: single payer for all.

"And the good news is that there’s going to be a chance for the Congress to express itself in the House. Speaker Pelosi has assured Anthony Weiner, … a Democrat from Brooklyn, that his motion to substitute single payer for the administration’s bill will come to a vote. And this … is precisely the time to let our Congress people know we don’t want them to be bought and sold by the insurance lobby, we want them to vote for single payer, so we can join the rest of the world of democratic industrial countries and have healthcare for all the people and end this nightmare of denial and bankruptcy and suffering."

http://www.olyblog.net/tags/weiner-amendment

There is NO real public option on the table. A true public option would allow enrollment of everyone, tie rates to Medicare rates and be available within a short period after legislation is signed. This isn't in any of the bills. We have to STOP this endless circular debate about the public option while the health care legislation is written and defined by the insurance companies that brought the system to its knees.

It is WAY past time we demand real health reform and there ACTUALLY EXISTS legislation that could change the system. The Weiner Amendment would replace language in HR 3200 with a language from HR626 - Medicare for All.

Learn more about the Weiner Amendment here and follow the links for actions you can take to push for real health care reform.

http://www.pnhp.org/amendment/