Showing posts with label grassroots activism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grassroots activism. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Letter: Take back health care from corporate interests
The health care system in the United States is rigged. We are the richest country in the world — and the only industrialized nation that does not provide universal health care to all citizens. Our health care financing system puts corporate profits ahead of people, working for millionaires but not for us. While patients suffer and die, United’s CEO is paid $66 million a year. Aetna recently abandoned the ACA health insurance exchanges, claiming that they were unprofitable, while posting $7 billion in overall profits last year. One-third of every dollar that we pay for premiums is spent on administrative waste, including exorbitant CEO salaries, shareholder profits, political lobbyists, and marketing campaigns designed to spread fear and lies about health care reform.
Our health care system is in medical, economic and moral crisis. In Colorado, 535 people die each year from causes that would have been avoidable if they could have afforded medical care. We spend nearly twice as much per capita than any other wealthy country, with worse outcomes. Medical debt is the greatest contributor to bankruptcies. There is a perverse incentive for profit-driven insurance companies to deny as much care as they can get away with in order to maximize profits for their shareholders.
It’s time for a Health Care Revolution! Health care should be a right, not a privilege, and the people of Colorado have a chance to lead the nation in saying “no” to the obscene profit-driven motives of insurance companies by joining together as co-owners of a cooperative health care financing system, ColoradoCare, with the motive of providing actual health care to all. ColoradoCare will cover all Coloradans, save billions and provide high-quality care. No more deductibles or narrow networks. This is not government-run health care; there will be transparency and accountability to us as owners of the cooperative, a proven business model. The system will exemplify high-quality medical care, fiscal responsibility and social justice.
It’s time to take back our health care from corporate interests. Learn more at www.coloradocare.org. Stand against the status quo of the robber baron pharmaceutical and insurance industry profiteers. Vote yes for Amendment 69 — ColoradoCare. Join the Health Care Revolution and Feel the Care!
Kathy Waller, M.D., Fort Collins
source
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Marrying for Health Benefits
AMERICANS RANK HEALTH CARE NEAR THE TOP OF THEIR ECONOMIC WOES, NEW POLL FINDS
Almost Four In 10 Report Serious Financial Burden Caused By Medical Bills; 7 Percent Say Someone In Their Household Got Married So They or Their Spouse Could Get Health Benefits
Menlo Park, CA – Health care costs rank among Americans’ top personal economic problems, and their struggles to deal with those costs have affected both their financial well-being and their family’s health care, a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds.
Conducted by the Foundation’s public opinion researchers, the April poll probes into the economic concerns facing Americans and the ways they have dealt with the cost of health care.
Across a series of economic concerns, health care costs rank near the top. Nearly three in 10 Americans (28 percent) report that they or their families have had a serious problem paying for health care and health insurance as a result of recent changes in the economy, behind paying for gas (44 percent) and about tied with getting a good-paying job or raise in pay (29 percent). Smaller shares report serious problems paying their rent or mortgage (19 percent), dealing with credit card or other personal debt (18 percent), paying for food (18 percent) or losing money in the stock market (16 percent).
Reports of families facing serious economic problems extend up into middle-income families, with almost three in 10 (28 percent) of those earning between $30,000 and $75,000, reporting a serious problem paying for health care or health insurance as a result of recent changes in the economy.
Health care costs are also having ripple effects on family budgets. In a separate series of questions asking about the personal economic consequences of medical bills, nearly four in 10 (37 percent) report at least one of six financial troubles over the past five years as a result of medical bills: having difficulties paying other bills (20 percent); being contacted by a collections agency (20 percent); using up all or most of their savings (17 percent); being unable to pay for basic necessities such as food, heat or housing (12 percent); borrowing money (10 percent); or declaring bankruptcy (3 percent).
“Many people view health and the economy as separate issues, but the cost of health care is a significant pocketbook issue for many families and paying for health care has become a key dimension of the public's economic concerns,” Kaiser President and CEO Drew E. Altman said.
The poll also finds that health benefits play a key role in people’s decisions to switch jobs or stay in their current job. Nearly a quarter (23 percent) say that, within the past year, they or a member of their household have either taken a new job or stuck with their current job (instead of taking a new one) primarily because of better health benefits.
Perhaps surprisingly, health coverage is also a factor in some people’s decisions to get married. Among all adults, 7 percent say that, in the past year, they or someone in their household decided to get married in order to have access to their spouse’s health care benefits, or so their spouse could have access to their benefits.
The high cost of health care also caused a significant number of Americans to delay or go without medical care. When asked about the impact of costs on their families’ health care, more than four in 10 (42 percent) say that, within the past year, they or a family member living in their household have experienced at least one of five specific consequences due to cost: put off or postponed getting needed care (29 percent); skipped a recommended medical test or treatment (24 percent); not filled a prescription (23 percent); cut pills in half or skipped doses of medicine (19 percent); or had problems getting mental health care (8 percent).
People generally are more likely to report taking these actions now than in the past – for instance, 24 percent now report skipping a recommended medical test or treatment in the past year because of the cost, up from 17 percent in 2005.
Kaiser also released the results of its April Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008, the seventh in a series tracking voters’ views about where health care fits as an issue in the 2008 presidential election, as well as their views on potential approaches to health reform. The latest survey finds voters are most likely to name the economy as one of the two most important issues for the candidates to discuss, followed by Iraq and health care. The three issues rank in the same order among Democrats, Republicans and independents. Early polls in the series have also looked at the ways health care costs contribute to voters’ concern about the economy.
source
Almost Four In 10 Report Serious Financial Burden Caused By Medical Bills; 7 Percent Say Someone In Their Household Got Married So They or Their Spouse Could Get Health Benefits
Menlo Park, CA – Health care costs rank among Americans’ top personal economic problems, and their struggles to deal with those costs have affected both their financial well-being and their family’s health care, a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds.
Conducted by the Foundation’s public opinion researchers, the April poll probes into the economic concerns facing Americans and the ways they have dealt with the cost of health care.
Across a series of economic concerns, health care costs rank near the top. Nearly three in 10 Americans (28 percent) report that they or their families have had a serious problem paying for health care and health insurance as a result of recent changes in the economy, behind paying for gas (44 percent) and about tied with getting a good-paying job or raise in pay (29 percent). Smaller shares report serious problems paying their rent or mortgage (19 percent), dealing with credit card or other personal debt (18 percent), paying for food (18 percent) or losing money in the stock market (16 percent).
Reports of families facing serious economic problems extend up into middle-income families, with almost three in 10 (28 percent) of those earning between $30,000 and $75,000, reporting a serious problem paying for health care or health insurance as a result of recent changes in the economy.
Health care costs are also having ripple effects on family budgets. In a separate series of questions asking about the personal economic consequences of medical bills, nearly four in 10 (37 percent) report at least one of six financial troubles over the past five years as a result of medical bills: having difficulties paying other bills (20 percent); being contacted by a collections agency (20 percent); using up all or most of their savings (17 percent); being unable to pay for basic necessities such as food, heat or housing (12 percent); borrowing money (10 percent); or declaring bankruptcy (3 percent).
“Many people view health and the economy as separate issues, but the cost of health care is a significant pocketbook issue for many families and paying for health care has become a key dimension of the public's economic concerns,” Kaiser President and CEO Drew E. Altman said.
The poll also finds that health benefits play a key role in people’s decisions to switch jobs or stay in their current job. Nearly a quarter (23 percent) say that, within the past year, they or a member of their household have either taken a new job or stuck with their current job (instead of taking a new one) primarily because of better health benefits.
Perhaps surprisingly, health coverage is also a factor in some people’s decisions to get married. Among all adults, 7 percent say that, in the past year, they or someone in their household decided to get married in order to have access to their spouse’s health care benefits, or so their spouse could have access to their benefits.
The high cost of health care also caused a significant number of Americans to delay or go without medical care. When asked about the impact of costs on their families’ health care, more than four in 10 (42 percent) say that, within the past year, they or a family member living in their household have experienced at least one of five specific consequences due to cost: put off or postponed getting needed care (29 percent); skipped a recommended medical test or treatment (24 percent); not filled a prescription (23 percent); cut pills in half or skipped doses of medicine (19 percent); or had problems getting mental health care (8 percent).
People generally are more likely to report taking these actions now than in the past – for instance, 24 percent now report skipping a recommended medical test or treatment in the past year because of the cost, up from 17 percent in 2005.
Kaiser also released the results of its April Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008, the seventh in a series tracking voters’ views about where health care fits as an issue in the 2008 presidential election, as well as their views on potential approaches to health reform. The latest survey finds voters are most likely to name the economy as one of the two most important issues for the candidates to discuss, followed by Iraq and health care. The three issues rank in the same order among Democrats, Republicans and independents. Early polls in the series have also looked at the ways health care costs contribute to voters’ concern about the economy.
source
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Health costs hit farmers - Woodland, California
In light of a new report on the increasing burden of health care costs on California's family farmers and ranchers, Yolo County policymakers are discussing ways to better protect area residents and the agriculture-dominated local economy.
At a meeting in Woodland on July 31, a group of 14 individuals that included three county supervisors, as well as the county's health department director and its agricultural commissioner, gathered to learn more about the report and start brainstorming ways to ease the financial burden on the ag community.
The report was issued in May by the Access Project, a Boston-based group that works with cities and counties around the country to promote health access. The findings were based on a survey last year of nearly 1,800 family farmers and ranchers throughout California, where 98 percent of farms are family-owned and operated.
The authors found that roughly one-third of the respondents have no access to group health coverage and do not qualify for government sponsored programs, and must therefore purchase insurance through the individual market. Among those whose principal occupation was farming or ranching, that figure jumped to 48 percent.
Those numbers are significantly higher than the national average; a mere eight percent of insured Americans purchase individual insurance.
Buying direct comes at a significant cost: The survey found that families with non-group health coverage spent nearly $4,700 more per year on premiums and out-of-pocket expenses than those who got their insurance through employment outside the family farm or ranch.
"These costs end up eating up a family's savings, increasing their credit card debt or taking away from their retirement funds," said Bill Lottero, the Access Project's field director and a co-author of the report, which was funded by the California Endowment, a private health foundation. "When I speak to young people from farming families, they name this as a barrier to getting into farming."
California's family farms produce $32 billion per year in value and support 1.1 million jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the California Farm Bureau Federation.
Lottero, who led the Woodland discussion, noted that farm and ranch operators have higher incomes and are insured at much higher rates than the general population; 90 percent of the respondents to Lottero's survey said all members of their household had been continuously insured during the previous year.
Yet 13 percent of respondents said they were saddled with medical debt and some families reported that as much as 44 percent of their income went toward health care-related expenditures. In addition, 16 percent of respondents said they or a family member had delayed seeking medical care, mainly because they could not afford the anticipated cost.
Woodland farmer Robert Ramming, whose family owns and operates Pacific Star Gardens, an organic "U-pick" farm and fruit stand, is all too familiar with the financial burden of health care, which costs him roughly $8,000 per year, he said. His family of six purchased health insurance through the individual market, and insurance premiums alone eat up about $6,000 annually, he said.
"Our family is in good health and we have a high-deductible policy, and even so, we're spending a huge amount of money on premiums," he said. "If we had anything like a preexisting (medical) condition or a string of bad luck, we'd be up a creek."
Ramming, who is 52, said he hopes that when he and his wife turn 65, Medicare will still be there to take care of them. Then, he said, they can finally start putting some money into a retirement fund - a fund that is currently nonexistent, thanks to the family's health care bills and other pressing business and personal expenses.
The pain of individual farming families like Ramming's trickles outward through the economy, said John Karatzas, the California project director for the Small Business Majority, a national nonprofit organization of business entrepreneurs.
"Research tells us that most small businesses are getting killed by health care costs," he said. "It's going to stifle economic development. We really can't survive this way."
Yolo County Supervisor Helen Thomson expressed concern that prohibitive health care costs would harm not only patients but also local health care providers and clinics.
"The situation is becoming very scary," she said at the Woodland discussion, held at the county health department headquarters on N. Cottonwood Street.
Lottero said he viewed the informal gathering as a jumping-off point, a way to raise concern among local policymakers and spur them to take action on behalf of Yolo County's large - and profitable - agricultural community. Local farmers and ranchers produced more than $370 million worth of goods in 2006, according to the Yolo County Farm Bureau.
Lottero also encouraged the attendees to reach out to other influential individuals and groups, including the farm bureau and state-level lawmakers, some of whom have important health care reform bills pending in the Legislature.
Ultimately, Lottero said, he hopes to see California's agricultural businesses community connect with the broader small business community and come together for a statewide health care summit about a year from now. He plans to continue meeting with county leaders around the state to help make that happen.
Ramming, who attended the Woodland discussion and took extensive notes, said he hoped to see fewer policy meetings and more concrete action in the coming months and years.
"The local 'powers that be' seem to be on same page understanding the problem," he said in a phone interview Monday. "They seem to be realizing that the problem (of health care costs) isn't just affecting underemployed people, lower-income folks. It has expanded to the middle class and the upper-middle class, and something has to be done."
At a meeting in Woodland on July 31, a group of 14 individuals that included three county supervisors, as well as the county's health department director and its agricultural commissioner, gathered to learn more about the report and start brainstorming ways to ease the financial burden on the ag community.
The report was issued in May by the Access Project, a Boston-based group that works with cities and counties around the country to promote health access. The findings were based on a survey last year of nearly 1,800 family farmers and ranchers throughout California, where 98 percent of farms are family-owned and operated.
The authors found that roughly one-third of the respondents have no access to group health coverage and do not qualify for government sponsored programs, and must therefore purchase insurance through the individual market. Among those whose principal occupation was farming or ranching, that figure jumped to 48 percent.
Those numbers are significantly higher than the national average; a mere eight percent of insured Americans purchase individual insurance.
Buying direct comes at a significant cost: The survey found that families with non-group health coverage spent nearly $4,700 more per year on premiums and out-of-pocket expenses than those who got their insurance through employment outside the family farm or ranch.
"These costs end up eating up a family's savings, increasing their credit card debt or taking away from their retirement funds," said Bill Lottero, the Access Project's field director and a co-author of the report, which was funded by the California Endowment, a private health foundation. "When I speak to young people from farming families, they name this as a barrier to getting into farming."
California's family farms produce $32 billion per year in value and support 1.1 million jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the California Farm Bureau Federation.
Lottero, who led the Woodland discussion, noted that farm and ranch operators have higher incomes and are insured at much higher rates than the general population; 90 percent of the respondents to Lottero's survey said all members of their household had been continuously insured during the previous year.
Yet 13 percent of respondents said they were saddled with medical debt and some families reported that as much as 44 percent of their income went toward health care-related expenditures. In addition, 16 percent of respondents said they or a family member had delayed seeking medical care, mainly because they could not afford the anticipated cost.
Woodland farmer Robert Ramming, whose family owns and operates Pacific Star Gardens, an organic "U-pick" farm and fruit stand, is all too familiar with the financial burden of health care, which costs him roughly $8,000 per year, he said. His family of six purchased health insurance through the individual market, and insurance premiums alone eat up about $6,000 annually, he said.
"Our family is in good health and we have a high-deductible policy, and even so, we're spending a huge amount of money on premiums," he said. "If we had anything like a preexisting (medical) condition or a string of bad luck, we'd be up a creek."
Ramming, who is 52, said he hopes that when he and his wife turn 65, Medicare will still be there to take care of them. Then, he said, they can finally start putting some money into a retirement fund - a fund that is currently nonexistent, thanks to the family's health care bills and other pressing business and personal expenses.
The pain of individual farming families like Ramming's trickles outward through the economy, said John Karatzas, the California project director for the Small Business Majority, a national nonprofit organization of business entrepreneurs.
"Research tells us that most small businesses are getting killed by health care costs," he said. "It's going to stifle economic development. We really can't survive this way."
Yolo County Supervisor Helen Thomson expressed concern that prohibitive health care costs would harm not only patients but also local health care providers and clinics.
"The situation is becoming very scary," she said at the Woodland discussion, held at the county health department headquarters on N. Cottonwood Street.
Lottero said he viewed the informal gathering as a jumping-off point, a way to raise concern among local policymakers and spur them to take action on behalf of Yolo County's large - and profitable - agricultural community. Local farmers and ranchers produced more than $370 million worth of goods in 2006, according to the Yolo County Farm Bureau.
Lottero also encouraged the attendees to reach out to other influential individuals and groups, including the farm bureau and state-level lawmakers, some of whom have important health care reform bills pending in the Legislature.
Ultimately, Lottero said, he hopes to see California's agricultural businesses community connect with the broader small business community and come together for a statewide health care summit about a year from now. He plans to continue meeting with county leaders around the state to help make that happen.
Ramming, who attended the Woodland discussion and took extensive notes, said he hoped to see fewer policy meetings and more concrete action in the coming months and years.
"The local 'powers that be' seem to be on same page understanding the problem," he said in a phone interview Monday. "They seem to be realizing that the problem (of health care costs) isn't just affecting underemployed people, lower-income folks. It has expanded to the middle class and the upper-middle class, and something has to be done."
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Organization calls for quality affordable care for all Americans
TRENTON-- A national grassroots effort kicks off for an American solution that will guarantee family healthcare based on "need" and not "ability" to pay. One organization is calling on our next elected president and congress to make healthcare legislation the first order of business in 2009.Tuesday afternoon in Trenton and in 52 other cities across the country, a new national campaign, "Health Care for America Now", has begun bringing together millions of Americans in demanding affordable healthcare.
"It's time we had an American solution... that provides quality and affordable healthcare for everyone," said Ev Liebman, Director of New Jersey Citizen Action.
"Working Americans are being choked... yet still nothing gets done," said Rex Reid, Political Representative, AFSCME Council 1.
"As a doctor, I come across patients everyday who can't access care... because they can't afford it," said Dr. Snehal Bhatt, New Jersey Vice President, Committee of Interns and Residents/SEIU.
So this grassroots effort is calling on legislators and citizens to answer just one question...which side are you on? The side where patients are at the mercy of private insurance companies or on the side where every patient has an equal and affordable choice for insurance?
"Few of us anymore can count on quality affordable healthcare when we need it in our communities," said Jeanne Oterson, Public Policy Director, Health Professionals and Allied Employees.
"No one should have to choose between paying for medicine... or putting food on the table... no one should have to choose between going to the doctor... or paying their electric bill," explained Dr. Bhatt.
So what they propose is a guarantee of standard comprehensive benefits that meet patients' needs with no exclusions.
"Justice demands healthcare be provided based on need and not simply a person's ability to pay," said Reverend Bruce Davidson, Director, Lutheran Office of Government Ministries.
So they are calling on our new president that will be elected this fall and congress to make affordable healthcare the very first priority in 2009.
"We will be demanding of our elected representatives and candidates in this year's election... that they tell us what side they're on so we can tell information to voters... so they can make decisions when going to the polls," said Liebman.
The campaign will host events in 42 other cities across the nation and between now and election day, the group will ask every legislator and each American to make a choice.
Earlier today Governor Corzine signed a bill expanding a government health insurance program that is the first step in requiring that all New Jerseyans have health insurance by 2011.
"Health Care for America Now" supports the states efforts and is pushing for more to happen on the federal level.
source
Healthcare For America Now website
Healthcare for America Now
KFYR-TV Bismark, ND - 7/8/2008
NDPeople.org says the health care system in America needs to be changed. Today the organization announced it`s joining 95 national and local groups to fight for quality, affordable healthcare for everyone.
The campaign, called `Healthcare for America Now` is being launched not only in Bismarck, but also in 42 other state capitals. The idea behind it is to bring together young people, seniors, and everyone in between to demand a healthcare solution that covers everyone.
"When you go to the doctor or healthcare provider, the question that is not asked first is what`s going to make me healthy," says Don Morrison, the executive director of NDPeople.org. "The question that is asked first is, `What does my insurance cover?` So we`re tied into this bureaucracy, this expensive bureaucratic system run by private insurance companies."
The campaign says affordable healthcare is not only a political issue, but also moral issue because people`s lives are impacted and lost due to inadequate healthcare.
source
NDPeople.org says the health care system in America needs to be changed. Today the organization announced it`s joining 95 national and local groups to fight for quality, affordable healthcare for everyone.
The campaign, called `Healthcare for America Now` is being launched not only in Bismarck, but also in 42 other state capitals. The idea behind it is to bring together young people, seniors, and everyone in between to demand a healthcare solution that covers everyone.
"When you go to the doctor or healthcare provider, the question that is not asked first is what`s going to make me healthy," says Don Morrison, the executive director of NDPeople.org. "The question that is asked first is, `What does my insurance cover?` So we`re tied into this bureaucracy, this expensive bureaucratic system run by private insurance companies."
The campaign says affordable healthcare is not only a political issue, but also moral issue because people`s lives are impacted and lost due to inadequate healthcare.
source
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