my paper printed my ltte on health care reform in the Sunday addition

[w8liftinglady]

http://www.thedailylight.com/articles/2010/02/20/opinion/doc4b80c82b06eab982192250.txt
To the Editor,

A recent article in The Daily Light announced the expansion of Hope Clinic, as their patient load had gone from 2,000 patient visits to 11,000 patient visits in one year (2009). This is a wonderful program for the uninsured in Ellis County, but it highlights the need for a national health plan. For those skeptics out there, I’d like to share a few facts about the health of the residents in Ellis County.

Ellis County exceeds the national average in several areas, according to The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.We lead the area in deaths from coronary heart disease, lung cancer, strokes and suicide.We have the highest level of pregnancies under the age of 18. We had twice the expected cases of infectious diseases such as syphilis, chlamydia and hepatitis A and B. Many of these health conditions could have been avoided/alleviated by access to adequate primary health care and medications. The percentage of Ellis County residents with no insurance is 26 percent. Many of those same people have no paid sick leave or are unemployed, further complicating their ability to seek health care. Only 5 percent of Ellis County adults are eligible for Medicaid.

According to Physicians for a National Health Plan, 31 percent of current health spending is squandered on administrative tasks related to our fragmented payment system with hundreds of different health plans rather than invested in patient care. Over $350 billion – about half of the money currently wasted on overhead and bureaucracy – could be saved with simplified single-payer administration, enough to cover all the 46 million uninsured.

Of course,the major insurers and pharmaceutical companies have paid dearly to broadcast their propaganda demonizing a national health program. They decry a tax increase, when the truth is that any increase in taxes would be offset by a reduction in health spending and premiums. We need to examine why we are the only industrialized nation that does not have a national health plan, why we rate 23rd in infant mortality and 43rd in life expectancy. It must be our superior access to health care.

[DailyGrind51]

1. This cancer-survivor thanks you!

[w8liftinglady]

2. the thing I don't get-many of these people suffering are teabaggers

who have seen their family members die because of lack of access to doctors,medications and mental health services.

[maryf]

5. One reason many are referring to it as Improved Medicare for All

HR 676 is actually a fiscally conservative act...we have to keep that in mind when talking to them, plus remind them we are paying for the uninsured already through increased premiums and medical bills..

[DailyGrind51]

9. "Medicare for All" is simple enough for even the most clueless teabagger!

[maryf]

3. Fantastic!!

Hope you shared it with www.pnhp.org and www.healthcare-now.org . They love to see individual actions!

[w8liftinglady]

4. no-but I will...thanks

[1776Forever]

6. If you never knew it guess whose company made millions off billing for Medicaid?

EDS - Ross Perot's company - And that is just the tip of that iceberg:

Florida, EDS sign Medicaid deal
◦By Ethan Butterfield
◦May 18, 2006

http://gcn.com/articles/2006/05/18/florida-eds-sign-medicaid-deal.aspx

The Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration has awarded a $308 million contract to EDS Corp. to develop and operate the state's next Medicaid Management Information System.

Under the six-year, nine-month contract, EDS of Plano, Texas, will install its federally certified interchange system and customize it to meet Florida's specific requirements. The system will perform fiscal agent services for the state's 65,000 Medicaid providers and its 2.2 million Medicaid recipients.
...........

Not only did they make millions on Medicaid contracts check this out:

EDS' Failure to Wipe
By Bob Brewin 06/09/09

http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2009/06/eds_failure_to_wipe.php

EDS, which runs the Navy Marine Corps Intranet under a 10 year, $10 billon contract, serves about 650,000 folks.
..........

And this from the comment section:

"ACS was formed by a split off "brain trust" from EDS. EDS is currently owned by HP. EDS is a quasi-government/shadow-government bureacracy-a big bloated operation entrenched in patching together (jerry-rigging) archaic and glitch-prone 'legacy' systems-mostly used by large, status-quo protecting, systems such as government. EDS is part of the bogging-down of everything it touches. Take its 40 year old government 'insider' status (thanks to Ross Perot's early ties to the military) and combine it with its low-budget standards (typically hires temps in to do often complicated work with sensitive data) and you get these sorts of blunders.

.........

EDS is now owned by HP Enterprise Services:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Enterprise_Services

HP Enterprise Services is a global business and technology services company, previously known as Electronic Data Systems (EDS), headquartered in Plano, Texas that defined the outsourcing business when it was established in 1962 by Ross Perot. General Motors acquired the company in 1984, spun it off again as an independent company in 1996, and became an EDS client.

On May 13, 2008, Hewlett-Packard Co. confirmed that it had reached a deal with Electronic Data Systems to acquire the company for $13.9 Billion.<1> The deal was completed on August 26, 2008. EDS became an HP business unit and was renamed EDS, an HP company. Ronald A. Rittenmeyer remained at the helm, reporting to Ann Livermore until his retirement.

As of 23 September 2009, EDS began going to market as HP Enterprise Services, a name change which came one year after HP announced the acquisition of EDS and was a critical milestone as the integration of EDS into HP neared completion. <2>

As of 2008, EDS employed 139,000 employees in 64 countries, the largest locations being the USA, India and the UK. It was ranked as one of the largest service companies on the Fortune 500 list with around 2,000 clients.

[w8liftinglady]

7. this will probably be my last for a while-I'm glad they published it.

[w8liftinglady]

8. some resources to use in YOUR ltte

http://communityhealth.hhs.gov/AccessToCare.aspx?GeogCD=48139&PeerStrat=15&state=Texas&county=Ellis