LTE Slams SiCKO and MM - Take a peek at the email addy!

[Dirty Hippie]

Reminds me of those stupid criminal stories...

From The Tallahassee Democrat


Single-payer system
is not the answer

With Michael Moore's new film “Sicko” out in theaters, the health-care reform discussion has been raised to new levels. Unfortunately, rather than learning the facts about what a single-payer system would really mean for Americans, many are blindly following Mr. Moore in his quest bring this flawed government-run system to our country.

Under a single-payer system, the government would have a monopoly over health-care coverage, offering only one insurance plan option with no alternatives. So, if the government decides to reduce funding for a procedure or deny coverage for new medical technologies deemed too costly, Americans would either have to forgo those potentially life-saving procedures or finance them out of their own pockets. We need and deserve a system that encourages quality and innovation among health-care providers, not one of limitations.

No one is denying the need for health-care reform or the moral imperative to provide health-care access to all Americans. However, a government-run system should not be the way we get there. We need to seek alternative health-care reform solutions, such as free-market competition, and just say no to single-payer.
MIRIAM WATKINS
[email protected]

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070715/OPINION02/707150311/1022

[Ian David]

1. Fucking duck.

[zabet]

2. aflac - ROFL

Wonder if the duck had any input?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

3. The email address quacks me up!!!!! lol!!!!! eom

[baldguy]

4. If only every piece of corporate propaganda was as obvious.

"News" reporters would be decked out like NASCAR drivers.

[glowing]

5. I'm not sure why the duck would be offended... as it is isn't the duck

an added insurance that helps offset costs that keep you out of work and pay you for regular check-ups. I would still carry my duck policy with universal healthcare. I don't think the gov't is going to pay me a sallary if I'm laid up from an accident for 6 weeks.

[conscious evolution]

11. Good luck getting the duck to pay

I have known several people who have had that so called insurance try to file claims.Only one managed to get any money from them.The rest did not meet the 'criteria' for recieving any money.
Granted,that was many many years ago since I worked anywhere that offered that insurance so maybe things have changed.But I doubt it.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

16. A friend of mine recently had a similar experience with a worker's comp claim.

AFLAC is fighting her tooth and nail, demanding more and more seemingly irrelevant documentation, and, so far, not one cent has been forthcoming.

MKJ

[glowing]

26. Well, I have the duck for cancer, and they pay for my fun Dr. and I have

another for accident... they've paid.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

28. I can only speak of this one anecdotal experience. I'm glad to hear you've got coverage.

It's a rare commodity these days, and something for which to be grateful.

MKJ

edit for spelling.

[Subdivisions]

6. AAAAFFFFFLLLLAAACCC!

[annabanana]

7. Poor Miriam

She's just trying to keep her job...

"Hey Miriam! I'm sure there's something ELSE you could be insuring!"

[Deja Q]

10. Don't worry. One day she'll be jobless just like everyone else.

:shrug:

[DemoTex]

8. Dumb sitting ducks

[wakeme2008]

9. Hmmm see my post about a Australian friends heart attack and surgery

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3377821&mesg_id=3377821

But Mriiam would not like what really happens in other countries.

[Coexist]

12. alternative health-care reform, such as free-market competition?!

Is she serious? The only thing free-market has gotten us lately is wealthy CEO's and American jobs sent overseas.

Give me a fucking break, AFLAC lady.

[Bread and Circus]

13. Here's the response I sent Miriam, via email

Here's my response to your News Article in the Talahassee Democrat:

Single-payer system is not the answer

----A single-payer system may not be the answer to all problems, but is likely the best answer. A more efficient and more egalitarian answer than the patchwork of "for profit" insurances that we now deal with that leave 47,000,000 people in the cold and cripples many of our businesses and families because of very high premiums. Medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US.

With Michael Moore's new film “Sicko” out in theaters, the health-care reform discussion has been raised to new levels.

---This is a very good thing. It's the benefit of free speech, guaranteed in the First Amendment.

Unfortunately, rather than learning the facts about what a single-payer system would really mean for Americans, many are blindly following Mr. Moore in his quest bring this flawed government-run system to our country.

---Ok, now your duty is to present "the facts" although all you do is follow-up with are just empty, alarmist assertions.

Under a single-payer system, the government would have a monopoly over health-care coverage, offering only one insurance plan option with no alternatives.

---That's not true, there will always be a secondary market for supplemental or alternative private insurance. This occurs in many of the advanced countries that offer a universal healthcare system. Are you saying the private industry "can't compete" with the government?

So, if the government decides to reduce funding for a procedure or deny coverage for new medical technologies deemed too costly, Americans would either have to forgo those potentially life-saving procedures or finance them out of their own pockets.

---First off, private insurance is more likely to deny coverage than the government. As a physician, I can tell you with 100% certaintly that it is often more difficult to get things approved by insurance companies as compared to medicare. No rational system of any kind would "forgo life-saving procedures". Unfortunately, the private profit-motive takes alot of rationality out of the equation.

We need and deserve a system that encourages quality and innovation among health-care providers, not one of limitations.

---You are right. And the current insurance system often does exactly the opposite. 64 slice CT scans of the heart to evaluate for coronary heart disease is cutting edge diagnostics, yet many insurances tell me they won't cover them for my patients. They say it's "experimental", which is just not true. Also, the vast majority of medical research (basic biomedical, pharmaceutical, and applied medicine/surgery) occurs at Public Universities that are at least in part funded by Federal and State dollars in one way or another. We have great Medical Technology because we invest in Great Universities and the medical researchers there, be they doctors, nurses, or scientists. The private insurance industry has little place taking credit for this.

No one is denying the need for health-care reform or the moral imperative to provide health-care access to all Americans.

---That may be rhetorically true. However, the problem of the underinsured and the uninsured is not new. Dating back for decades, millions of people have been left behind. Yet your privatized system has not stepped up and fixed the problem. It's time to try something new, something well-tested with resulting success in other countries that do as well or better with their healthcare system than we do. One of the reasons it is a true crisis now is that costs have ballooned way out of control, which is a failing of the private industry (and for the past 15 years this comes from ballooning drug costs).

However, a government-run system should not be the way we get there.

---Why not? You mentioned something about facts but have not provided anything other than the talking points of the vested financial interests of the insurance industry. If you would do your homework, you will find essentially all other advanced industrialized nations have a single-payer national health system, often with great success.

We need to seek alternative health-care reform solutions, such as free-market competition, and just say no to single-payer.

---Again, you are basically reiterating the same, baseless point over and over, without presenting any real perspective on the issue. You are non-believable and basically serve as an agent for "more of the same", something that is not working.

---Here's a few basic things you can research and find out for yourself. Americans pay more per capita (around $7,000 per year per person) in adjusted dollars for healthcare than the vast majority (if not all) of other advanced nations that have a national healthcare system (they pay more like in the range of $3000 to $5000). Also for the past 2 to 3 decades our costs have risen at a much higher rate than theirs. This is easily obtained invormation w/ an internet search. Yet, we rank lower than alot of them in the WHO healthcare system rankings. In many ways, we pay more and don't get the return for our dollar. The faulty patchwork of private insurances that we now deal with neither more efficient nor more effective.

---Thanks for your time.

[The River]

14. Excellent Response

I'm afraid Miriam is just doing what her employer
asked all their employees to do. I think maybe she missed the part
about NOT sending their LTTE's on company email accounts....!
LOL

[cascadiance]

29. The Problem is that Miriam isn't JUST an employee at AFLAC, she is AFLAC's District Sales Coord...

... in Tallahassee.

Check out this link, where she is also the marketing chair of the Big Bend Society for Human Resource Management.

http://bbshrm.shrm.org/webmodules/webarticlesnet/templates/?z=2&a=131

So, it would seem, given her position in Tallahassee, that we can perhaps legally interpret her comments here as being more an "official" position of AFLAC?

[many a good man]

18. You can remove the "(if not all)"

Otherwise, fantastic response. No one pays more per capita for health care than the US.

[Maestro]

20. Great response!

Nicely written.

[devilgrrl]

27. Posts like this call for a "Greatest Post" or "Recommended Post" feature!

Excellent response! Great post! Kicked and Recommended!

[Yael]

30. BRAVO!!!

That was excellent. Thanks for sharing!

:applause:

[Toasterlad]

15. How Is Her Problem With Government-Controlled Health Care Different Than What We Have Now?

Her argument is that the government could decide to withdraw support for a treatment or refuse to fund something too costly. That happens all the time NOW! And you can't "shop around" for health care; at least, I can't. At any job I've ever had, you pick your health insurance, and are stuck with them until the next "cycle", when you can change. In the meantime, if your carrier makes changes, you're SOL. And if you wait it out, and try get coverage from a different carrier, they'll say you have a pre-existing condition, and will refuse to cover you anyway.

Her letter makes no sense at all. At least with a federally controlled health care system, we'd have a way of putting pressure on the system, through our representatives, to get the coverage we want. Now, we have no recourse whatsoever.

[truedelphi]

19. Your summary explains the reality - hers the fantasy

Miriam: Be very very afraid of what this single payer plan would lead to.

You might not get to choose your own doctor <gasp>
You might not get to have an appointment for five or six weeks <gasp>
The name of your health insureer would be out of your control <gasp>

Miriam, Honey, all that is already what many of us live with - but we have to pay inane amounts of money for such an inane system. And we are immediately without even that when we lose our jobs

[many a good man]

22. A great thing about single payer is that it is democratic

The people (thru our representatives) can decide how much we want to pay for health care and what it will cover. If we want wait times for non-elective surgeries reduced from eight weeks to six weeks we can calculate that it will cost x billion dollars. Then we decide if the extra costs are worth it.

[Horse with no Name]

24. And with specialists schedules these days

The wait ends up being around 4-6 weeks anyway.
I had to wait close to 6 weeks for my elective knee surgery.
I really don't see much difference.

[Horse with no Name]

17. Listen here...and listen good

ANYONE that qualifies for Medicare doesn't get an "alternative plan" to choose from.(Supplementals don't count because if we had single payer healthcare, those would be unnecessary).
ANYONE that qualifies for Medicaid doesn't get an "alternative plan" to choose from.
VERY FEW that have group insurance get "alternative plans", other than an option to take less coverage for less money.
So that leaves the self-employed--who basically are limited to what they can afford, so very few options exist here.

SO, tell me again...WHO EXACTLY GETS ALTERNATIVES (other than less coverage for less cost)? I'll tell you who.
The same people that DO NOT WANT single payer insurance. The wealthy.

[NMMNG]

23. Don't you get it?

The wealthy are the only ones who count. The poor deserve to rot and die with inadequate (or no) health care, as they're unworthy simply because they are poor. If they wanted to be treated as worthy they should have been born rich. :sarcasm:

[spanone]

21. They probably had a LTTE contest in the office.

[xchrom]

25. this is america. no single payer system -- nationalized healthcare -- will keep

people from buying aflac type extra insurance..

like great britain and others.

why do people cast hypothetical fear mongering around like magic spells?

[Katherine Brengle]

31. omg lmao

ridiculous

[MLFerrell]

32. Um, projection much?

"So, if the government decides to reduce funding for a procedure or deny coverage for new medical technologies deemed too costly, Americans would either have to forgo those potentially life-saving procedures or finance them out of their own pockets."

Why does that sound familiar?

"Under a single-payer system, the government would have a monopoly over health-care coverage, offering only one insurance plan option with no alternatives."

I'd rather have no choice of 'which plan' than my current situation of having no insurance. God forbid I should get seriously injured, I'd have to tell paramedics to fuck right off and keep their bills that I could never afford to pay.

[in_cog_ni_to]

33. Only out of the mouth of an insurance agent! QUACK! QUACK!

dumb ass broad.

[Gelliebeans]

34. Here is the response I got from MIRIAM

This is my short and sweet email to her yesterday;

AFLAC?
Say no more Miriam, we understand your view perfectly and those of the corporation you shill for.

Save it.

From,
(XXXX) Gelliebeans

And today I received this response;


This is my view not the view of my company. My company does not take a view.

mmmkay...