Insurance Industry, "Don't Let The Government Get Between You And Your Doctor

RawStory: Attempting to make sense of what he called “scary-looking, disingenuous healthcare reform pop-art” on Thursday night, Daily Show host Jon Stewart zeroed in on perhaps the best analogy so far for the Republicans’ latest anti-health reform strategy: "A dildo rolled in glitter." Stewart was speaking specifically about the nonsensical, intentionally confusing “flowchart” created by the GOP, which they say illustrates the complexity of President Obama’s proposals.
On Wednesday night, the President delivered a prime-time address about why delay is simply not an option. He mentioned, Republican Senator Jim DeMint attempt to rally opposition to healthcare reform by declaring that stopping reform would "break" President Obama. Instead, hundreds of thousands are signing up in support of healthcare reform.

Add your name to stand up for the President's real health insurance reform in 2009. Adding your name right now will have real impact. And every time a new supporter stands up with the President, they in turn reach out to others and the movement grows.

The President's goal is to reach the one million signatures in support of health insurance reform before Congress casts the first crucial votes as early as next week. It will send a clear message that the American people will not stand for playing partisan politics with our lives and livelihoods -- and that we won't settle for anything less than the real health insurance reform America so desperately needs this year.

Download .mp3 | .mp4 | transcript

Obama used his weekly radio address to insist that small businesses had a lot to gain from the healthcare overhaul, based on a report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Small businesses, he said, would be able to purchase health insurance through an "insurance exchange."

He described that as a "marketplace where they can compare the price, quality and services of a wide variety of plans, many of which will provide better coverage at lower costs than the plans they have now."

"Small businesses that choose to insure their employees will also receive a tax credit to help them pay for it. If a small business chooses not to provide coverage, its employees can purchase high quality, affordable coverage through the insurance exchange on their own," said Pres. Obama.

For Republican leaders and special interests, the health insurance debate is just another political game. GOP spinmeisters Frank Luntz and Alex Castellanos supply GOP talking points that healthcare reform is bad for America while Republicans like Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe say their party will "stall" President Obama's health care initiative just to ensure a "huge electoral gain" in the 2010 election. [crooksandliars.com] To win elections in 2010 Republicans support:

1. 50 Million Uninsured in America
2. Another 25 Million Under-insured
3. Employer-Based Coverage Plummets Below 60%
4. Employer Health Costs to Jump by 9% in 2010
5. One in Five Americans Forced to Postpone Care
6. 62% of U.S. Bankruptcies Involve Medical Bills
7. Current Health Care Costs Already Fueling Job Losses
8. 94% of Health Insurance Markets in U.S Now "Highly Concentrated"
9. Dramatic Decline in Emergency Room Capacity
10. Perpetuating Red State Health Care Failure

For millions of American businesses and families, the cost of inaction is economic ruin and deteriorating care for the ones we love.

Out-of-control health care costs are breaking the budgets of families, businesses and government -- and every day that Congress refuses to act, 14,000 Americans lose their coverage entirely. (Note: Health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group Inc. reported a soaring second-quarter profit last week.)

Texas has the highest percentage of those without health insurance in the entire country. A U.S. Census Bureau report released last August showed that nearly 25 percent of Texans (just over 5.5 million residents) lacked insurance (compared to a national average of 15.5 percent). A Families USA report released in March found that the number of uninsured in Texas throughout 2007 and 2008 is much higher, around 9.3 million:

The report went further to say that 7.5 million Texans were uninsured for six months or more during that same time period and about 82.6 percent, were in working families, either working full or part-time.

An estimated 5,550 Texans are losing their health coverage each week, Families USA says in another report out in July 2009. “Rising like a deadly tide, escalating health care costs will have caused 866,580 Texans to lose their health coverage between January 2008 and December 2010,” the organization says.

Texas’ population has a higher percentage of uninsured citizens than any other state. While California comes in first for most uninsured people, at 5,360,940, making up 24 percent of the population, Texas’ 4,214,860 — according to the Texas Medical Association — is a full 30 percent of the state’s people.

Additionally, “one in five children living in Texas is without health insurance — the highest in the nation, according to a report released by Families USA,” noted The Austin Business Journal.

“The study, ‘Left Behind: Texas’s Uninsured Children,’ found that 1.4 million children, or 20.5 percent of the population aged 18, under were without health insurance in the three years from 2005 to 2007,” the paper continued.

The Journal added that almost 90 percent of the uninsured children in Texas live in households where at least one adult works “a year-round, full-time job.”

See more links to learn about Healthcare Reform in the left-hand sidebar of this blog....

Also read:

• Why We Need a Public Health-Care Plan
• The Battle For Healthcare Reform