The Ojai Post

Wow, this is wild video - GOP obstruction and a Lois Capps cameo. (hat-tip: Andrew Sullivan)

No more free choices when it comes to your life and health care, BIG GOV makes ALL the decisions on what goes on with your bod, who gets treated, who doesn't, who is expendable and can be eliminated, what's the cheapest way to cut costs and control everybody's lives. SOCIALISM at work. Waiting in line behind 1000s of people for medical services. Great. I hope the H1N1 that I am in day 10 with takes me away fast. I couldn't get the vaccine even though I am immuno compromised, I couldn't even find a clininc but every uninsured mex in this state knew where one was!

One effect of universal coverage, if we ever get it, is that it frees the mind and time of more people, who can then go out and explore and learn more about this world. And so, if we get universal coverage, as in other countries that have enjoyed it for decades, one thing we can look forward to is not just better health, but an accompanying general atmosphere of less ignorance, hate and stupidity.

What do you think, Cara?

Cara, I'd rather have anyone other than an insurance company deciding what's best for me.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich, after voting against H.R. 3962, explains why he voted NO, stating:

"We have been led to believe that we must make our health care choices only within the current structure of a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not providing health care. We cannot fault the insurance companies for being what they are. But we can fault legislation in which the government incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening, of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the problem. When health insurance companies deny care or raise premiums, co-pays and deductibles they are simply trying to make a profit. That is our system."

"Clearly, the insurance companies are the problem, not the solution. They are driving up the cost of health care. Because their massive bureaucracy avoids paying bills so effectively, they force hospitals and doctors to hire their own bureaucracy to fight the insurance companies to avoid getting stuck with an unfair share of the bills. The result is that since 1970, the number of physicians has increased by less than 200% while the number of administrators has increased by 3000%. It is no wonder that 31 cents of every health care dollar goes to administrative costs, not toward providing care. Even those with insurance are at risk. The single biggest cause of bankruptcies in the U.S. is health insurance policies that do not cover you when you get sick."

"But instead of working toward the elimination of for-profit insurance, H.R. 3962 would put the government in the role of accelerating the privatization of health care. In H.R. 3962, the government is requiring at least 21 million Americans to buy private health insurance from the very industry that causes costs to be so high, which will result in at least $70 billion in new annual revenue, much of which is coming from taxpayers. This inevitably will lead to even more costs, more subsidies, and higher profits for insurance companies - a bailout under a blue cross."

"By incurring only a new requirement to cover pre-existing conditions, a weakened public option, and a few other important but limited concessions, the health insurance companies are getting quite a deal. The Center for American Progress' blog, Think Progress, states, 'since the President signaled that he is backing away from the public option, health insurance stocks have been on the rise.' Similarly, healthcare stocks rallied when Senator Max Baucus introduced a bill without a public option. Bloomberg reports that Curtis Lane, a prominent health industry investor, predicted a few weeks ago that 'money will start flowing in again' to health insurance stocks after passage of the legislation. Investors.com last month reported that pharmacy benefit managers share prices are hitting all-time highs, with the only industry worry that the Administration would reverse its decision not to negotiate Medicare Part D drug prices, leaving in place a Bush Administration policy."

"During the debate, when the interests of insurance companies would have been effectively challenged, that challenge was turned back. The 'robust public option' which would have offered a modicum of competition to a monopolistic industry was whittled down from an initial potential enrollment of 129 million Americans to 6 million. An amendment which would have protected the rights of states to pursue single-payer health care was stripped from the bill at the request of the Administration. Looking ahead, we cringe at the prospect of even greater favors for insurance companies."

"Recent rises in unemployment indicate a widening separation between the finance economy and the real economy. The finance economy considers the health of Wall Street, rising corporate profits, and banks' hoarding of cash, much of it from taxpayers, as sign of an economic recovery. However in the real economy - in which most Americans live - the recession is not over. Rising unemployment, business failures, bankruptcies and foreclosures are still hammering Main Street."

"This health care bill continues the redistribution of wealth to Wall Street at the expense of America's manufacturing and service economies which suffer from costs other countries do not have to bear, especially the cost of health care. America continues to stand out among all industrialized nations for its privatized health care system. As a result, we are less competitive in steel, automotive, aerospace and shipping while other countries subsidize their exports in these areas through socializing the cost of health care."

"Notwithstanding the fate of H.R. 3962, America will someday come to recognize the broad social and economic benefits of a not-for-profit, single-payer health care system, which is good for the American people and good for America's businesses, with of course the notable exceptions being insurance and pharmaceuticals."

Please know the struggle for real health care reform will continue. Contribute, we can make a difference.

Thank you.
The Re-Elect Congressman Kucinich Committee

(Posted by Suza)

DK has an uncanny ability to shoot himself in the foot--again.

Dennis Kucinich has an uncanny ability to speak the truth no matter how many of his so-called liberal friends turn on him for doing so.

Congrats to Dennis Kucinich for having the integrity to say no for the right reasons.

This bill is currently being trumpeted as a major victory for Obama. Once Americans get the bill - in the form of fines if they do not buy the ever-soaring insurance premium, in the form of higher premiums that come with this bill, in the form of massive medical bills if they ever need healthcare, because this bill does nothing to incentivize insurers to actually pay out on a claim, and in fact disincentivizes them from paying out on claims - it will be the swan song of the Administration. What a moronic blunder. What an historic betrayal. The very real crisis in health care in this country is now used to massively transfer wealth from the poor and middle class to the least deserving of the wealthy. In return for nothing. With a supposedly "progressive" President as the instrument of this fiasco. Good grief.

When mainstream America found out, over the last eight years, that conservatism really means bigger government, bureaucratic incompetence, endless war, massive deficits, fiscal mismanagement, crony capitalism, bubble economics and massive bailouts for the rich, conservatism was destroyed as a credible philosophy for at least a generation.

If mainstream America finds out that progressivism means government compelling us to pay higher taxes, so that money can be given away to the most corrupt and irredeemable among us, and now, even means compelling us to actually directly buy the product of these fraudulent and irredeemable companies at whatever price they want to charge, at pain of fine - all while continuing the "conservative" program of endless war and massive bailouts for the rich - that similarly will be the end of progressivism for a generation. Strangled in the crib in this case.

Just as Bush/Cheney destroyed conservatism as a political philosophy, this bill threatens to destroy progressivism. Kucinich is right to distance himself from it. All Americans who are interested in adopting intelligent policies for the common good, for the improvement of this country, should do the same.

(I suspect they are, in fact. Quietly, of course, since the press does not cover such folks.)

Well said, Anonymous.

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

no 'health', no 'care', and no 'reform' in this ... nor has there ever been any legislation on behalf of the public ... this is simply more of what they 'ram' down upon us as willing slaves, guinea pigs, soldiers, body parts ...

for the benefit, as Kuchinovich notes, of Wall Street ... and the Pharmo/Doctor/Corporate Murder Machine ...

One effect of universal coverage, if we ever get it, is that it frees the mind and time of more people, who can then go out and explore and learn more about this world...

Well said, if you can get that learnin' whilst waitin' in line, and, if you don't die first. How many horror stories does one have to hear from the countries that have it before we wake up. Read comment #5 again - whose gonna pay for all this?

can i make a comment without having my identity revealed? i heard the editor sometimes lets people know people's identities who are anonymous. thank you.

Oh, have you "heard" from "people" that I do that "sometimes"?

I've done it once.