Healthcare In Crisis: Sponsor of Presidential Health Care Forum Has a $4 Billion Conflict of Interest: Kucinich

The sponsor of tomorrow night's Presidential forum in Iowa focused on health care reform has "a $4 billion vested interest in preserving the role of private, for-profit insurance companies in the health care industry," Ohio Congressman and Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich said today.

According to published reports, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) "will net AARP $4.4 billion over seven years from the insurance giants United Healthcare and Aetna" with whom the organization signed agreements earlier this year. Under the AARP brand name, the organization will promote Aetna insurance policies to its members between the ages of 50 and 64 and United Healthcare policies for Medicare-eligible members.

Kucinich, the only Democratic candidate proposing a national, not-for-profit health insurance plan that would eliminate for-profit insurers from the health care system (HR 676), was specifically excluded from tomorrow's forum by AARP.

"It's clear that they didn't want me upsetting their multi-billion dollar applecart," Kucinich said. "The health care plans of the invited candidates preserve and promote the interests of for-profit insurance and pharmaceutical companies at the expense of tens of millions of everyday Americans who either can't afford coverage or are being over-charged for the inadequate coverage they struggle to afford."

Kucinich said AARP's sponsorship of the Presidential forum "is like having Haliburton or Blackwater sponsor a Presidential forum on doing away with no-bid government contracts to private contractors; or an oil company sponsoring a forum on reducing the world's dependence on oil."

Statistics Collection

80 percent of the hospital closures nationwide occured in states that didn’t expand Medicaid. 2019
About 75,000 patients with hospital-related infections died in 2011.
A recent study conducted by the Kresge Foundation and published in Health Affairs found that treating children who are exposed to air pollution, toxic chemicals and other pollutants costs a staggering $76.6 billion dollars a year. The study also found that children with existing allergies to common airborne allergens are even more vulnerable to chemical pollutants than others.
About 27.8 million people without coverage are working, either part or full time.
The rate of prescription drug use for the American South, with West Virginia the worst off, is higher than the rest of the country. West Virginia filled 17.7 prescriptions per capita compared to a national average of 11.5.
Nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year -- one every 12 minutes -- in large part because they lack health insurance and can not get good care, Harvard Medical School researchers found
Insurance and HMO Industries Spend Nearly $700,000 Per Day to Kill Health Care Reform.
86.7 million Americans were uninsured at some point in 2007 and 2008.
About 67 percent of medications dispensed in 2007 were generic drugs — up from 63 percent the year before. Generics can cost as little as one-third the price of brand-names.
Health care continued to take up a greater share of the economy in 2007, as spending on hospitals, doctors and other services increased 6.1 percent to $2.2 trillion.
Several major U.S. insurance companies, like Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina and southern California are now considering sending patients overseas for surgeries. (5/07)
Experts predict that the medical tourism industry will grow to $40 billion by 2010.
An estimated 500,000 Americans travel out of the U.S. every year for some type of medical care. Care they can't afford here.
rising costs and deteriorating coverage cause more than one-in-four (28 percent) to go without needed care because they can't afford it.
In 2007, 75 million working-age adults were either uninsured or underinsured, up from 61 million in 2003.
It is estimated that, nationwide, 18,000 adults between the ages of 25 and 64 died in 2000 because they did not have health insurance. Subsequently, The Urban Institute estimated that at least 22,000 adults in the same age group died in 2006 because they did not have health insurance.
In 2006, nearly 5,000 community hospitals provided uncompensated care costing $31.2 billion
Roughly one-half of America's hospitals operating in the red
Bad debts for hospitals in 2004 were estimated to be between $26bn and $30bn, representing about 12 per cent of their revenue and rising.
The administration of the health care system today consumes approximately 31% of the money spent for health care.
The American Hospital Association, which represents 5,000 hospitals and health care systems, spent $7.3 million in the first half of 2007 to lobby the federal government, according to a disclosure form.
Record numbers of Americans are travelling abroad for medical treatment to escape the American healthcare system – with 100,000 patients expected to fly out this year for cosmetic surgery alone
Half the nation's 47 million uninsured workers are employed by small businesses.
47 million uninsured in 2006 up from 44.8 million uninsured in 2005. 17.1 million people under age 65 were underinsured in 2003, including 9.3 million people with employer-based insurance.
A recent New America Foundation white paper estimates the average family pays about $1,186 a year in "hidden taxes" through health insurance premiums to cover the uninsured.
15.8% of Americans are uninsured, that's one in 6.
In the US more than a million people go bankrupt each year because of illness or medical debt. 29 million Americans -- 14 percent of all adults -- are in serious medical debt.
As few as 44,000 and as many as 98,000 people die in hospitals each year because of preventable errors.
There are about 1.7 million hospital-acquired infections a year in the United States, and 99,000 deaths annually as a result.
From 2003-2005 there were 247,662 potentially preventable deaths in U.S. hospitals.
The excess cost to Medicare associated with patient safety incidents was $8.6 billion from 2003 to 2005.
At the heart of the shortage is the difference between typical reimbursements for primary care doctors and specialists. The former can expect to earn $160,000 a year, according to national data, while obstetrician/ gynecologists earn an average $230,000 and dermatologists $300,000.

Healthcare In Crisis

Monday, September 24, 2007

Sponsor of Presidential Health Care Forum Has a $4 Billion Conflict of Interest: Kucinich

No comments:

About Me

.

Blog Archive

Blogs:

Links:

Labels

Statistics Collection