IntimiNation - Health Industry Sabotages American Town Halls

Not by a long shot.

Ninety-six percent of the people still under private insurance, with no limits on what these private companies can charge for premiums? You can't possibly be serious.

That same Congressional Budget Office you mentioned has also said that even under the most robust of the plans being considered by Congress, we'll still have 36 million uninsured and 10 trillion in new expenses after 10 years.

What you're talking about is not reform, Mr. Doggett. It's the status quo pig with cheap lipstick.

Doggett:
"We need to be firm and committed to a strong public plan."

Expanding Medicare (an already existing single payer system) to cover everyone is a strong public plan that will not only save us $400 billion dollars every year, and is not only far more efficient and far less restrictive than the private health insurance industry, but is also preferred by the majority of Americans, including the majority of doctors and nurses.

Why are you ignoring this "strong public plan," Mr. Doggett?

Doggett:
"We need to be steadfast in our commitment to learn from those who have legitimate concerns and criticisms."

I couldn't agree more. Why don't you start by listening to Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, primary care physician in Cambridge, Massachusetts, one of the founders of Physicians for a National Health Program and co-author of the first nationwide study on the medical causes of bankruptcy:

"Only single-payer national health insurance can make universal, comprehensive coverage affordable by saving the hundreds of billions we now waste on insurance overhead and bureaucracy. Reforms that expand phony insurance - stripped-down plans riddled with co-payments, deductibles and exclusions - won’t stem the rising tide of medical bankruptcy."

Certainly her concerns and criticisms are legitimate. As are those of Leonard Rodberg, PhD, Professor of Urban Studies at Queens College/CUNY and Research Director of the NY Metro Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program:

"There is little reform, and no serious cost control, in the health care reform plans that President Obama and the Congress are proposing. Most people will continue to get their coverage through private insurance companies and will be forced to buy insurance of questionable value.

Employer-based insurance will continue unchanged, with employers free to change coverage at any time, insurers free to change their physician and hospital networks, and employees still locked into their jobs if they want to keep their coverage.

While the uninsured will be mandated by law to purchase health insurance, the Congressional bills place no limit on what the private insurance companies can charge for premiums or how great their deductibles and co-pays can be.

The structure of health care finance is in no way changed, and no serious cost control measures are built into these plans. These plans are not reform; they are little more than a placebo, a detour from the path to true reform of our health care system."

Here's their website:
http://www.pnhp.org/

How about it, Mr. Doggett? Why don't you stop wasting time playing right into the hands of the corporate propaganda machine and show us all that you're serious about healthcare reform?

Talking Truth the Talking Heads Can't Handle:
SINGLE PAYER: Listen to the Doctors!