Warning: Constant ABSPATH already defined in /home/public/wp-config.php on line 27
HR-676 v. HR-3200 — Why Now?
On-line Opinion Magazine…OK, it's a blog
Random header image... Refresh for more!

HR-676 v. HR-3200

by Bryan

Physicians for a National Health Program Comparison [PDF]:

HR-676 Single-Payer HR 3200 As Written
Universal Coverage Yes. Everyone is covered automatically at birth. No. More than 20 million remain uninsured and tens of millions remain underinsured.
Full Range of Benefits Yes. Coverage for all medically necessary services. No. Insurers continue to strip-down policies and increase patients’ co-payments and deductibles.
Savings Yes. Redirect $400 billion in administrative waste to care; no net increase in health spending. No. Increase health spending more than $1 trillion over 10 years. Add further layers of administrative bloat to our health system through the introduction of a regulator / broker “exchange.”
Cost Control / Sustainablity Yes. Large scale cost controls (negotiated fee schedule with physicians, bulk purchasing of drugs, hospital budgeting, capital planning, etc.) ensure that benefits are sustainable over the long term. No. Uncontrolled costs ensure that any gains in coverage are quickly erased as government is forced to hike spending or slash benefits.
Choice of Doctor and Hospital Yes. Patients would be allowed free choice of their doctor and hospital. No. Insurance companies continue to deny and limit care and to maintain restrictive networks.
Progressive Financing Yes. Premiums and out-of-pocket costs are replaced with a progressive income contribution. 95 percent of Americans pay less. No. Continues the unfair financing of health care whereby costs are disproportionately paid by middle and lower income Americans and those families facing acute or chronic illness.

Another comparison: HR 676 is about 30 pages in the standard House format, while HR 3200 requires an additional 1,000 pages to accomplish less.

This is a reminder of what we could be discussing instead of Max Baucus’s sellout to the corporate leech cartel.

4 comments

1 The Rude Kitty { 09.16.09 at 9:34 pm }

HR-676 seems like it would make a lot of sense. Which is why it can’t happen. You’re expecting sense? Out of Americans? Where 61% of the population prefers believing in a buncha superstitious mumbo-jumbo rather than the plain hard facts of biological evolution? Where 54% don’t know Medicare is a government program and trot around with signs saying “keep your government hands off my Medicare”?

Talk about making a rude kitty yowl with laughter!

2 Bryan { 09.16.09 at 11:09 pm }

HR 676 is what the majority of Americans want, and what the American economy needs, but it doesn’t provide huge profits to the health care corporate leeches, so the “representatives of the people” who actually work for corporations, don’t want it to happen.

This is the reality of American politics.

3 hipparchia { 09.17.09 at 12:49 am }

while HR 3200 requires an additional 1,000 pages to accomplish less.

nonono! it accomplishes a great deal more! the corporate leech cartel [i like it] is a many-headed hydra, and all of them need to be fed very special, carefully balanced diets. thus the many many pages of instructions.
.-= last blog ..dog-liek tyeping detected =-.

4 Bryan { 09.17.09 at 2:34 pm }

Lots of dead trees to support political bribes.