Proposed legislation would allow states the freedom to choose their own healthcare system

Some hopeful news. A new bill is being drafted which would allow a clear path for states to develop their very own single-payer, universal health care plans. Representative McDermott (D-Washington) is currently planning to introduce the bill next week, although it would be an uphill battle to get it through the Republican-controlled House.

If this were passed and if states like California passed a universal health care bill, the funds currently allocated to states for Medicare and Medicaid would then be redirected into a state-run public insurance pool. Gone would be the constitutional issues the Affordable Care Act is currently facing, and gone would be the problems most Americans face with securing affordable, comprehensive insurance in an unsteady job market. The vast majority of studies show that states would save a significant amount of money with the implementation of single-payer healthcare plans, and would actually help business growth as much of the employer health insurance burden would be diminished. This would be a significant step towards a more fiscally responsible state government and a win for states' rights advocates.

The LA Times article is here.

One in Four Americans Went Without Healthcare in 2011

A recent study indicated that one in four Americans went without health insurance sometime in 2011, giving a total uninsured count of around 48 million people. The scary thing is, more than 40 percent of those who lost insurance had been covered by employer-sponsored plans. Nobody's healthcare in the US is secure, unless one is on Medicare or the VA, which are single-payer systems. In a country where we spend more money than any other country per person on healthcare, when a full quarter of all citizens go without it is a clear indicator of a severe problem of systemic deficiencies in healthcare distribution.


The article is here.

April Ghouls' Day

Thanks to everyone who made it out to Sunday's April Ghouls' Day march and rally in Downtown Los Angeles! 'Twas a truly scary reenactment of the horrors of corporate healthcare--bloodsucking fiends who would like your money for nothing in return, sick patients being chased to death by industry administrators-- a brainless, heartless system that makes fools of us all.

Check out a few photos from the event: http://www.flickr.com/photos/californianurses/sets/72157629720723815/

Medicaid cuts federal family planning funding to Texas

Women's health IS women's primary care. What a shame.

Texas loses entire women's health program over Planned Parenthood law - Huffington Post

The Contraception Debate

We don't need any more barriers between a doctor and patient. The fewer, the more efficient, the better. The thing about this contraception controversy is that it wouldn't even have been an issue under a single payer system.

The well-said perspective of a health provider:
The Contraception Controversy as Seen Through a Doctor's Lens

Reining in the Budget (a truly serious approach)

A good article about discretionary spending, federal debt, and how health care costs factor into all this.

I think the graph below from the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) explains it rather clearly.

We cannot fix the government deficit without first fixing healthcare. And no, Social Security is not a big issue. So when politicians keep hammering away at being "fiscally responsible," what they usually want to cut doesn't actually make an inch of difference in the long run, and in some cases, can actually make things worse long-term. Tackling health care costs is the only way to do it. And single-payer is the best method.

SB810 will live on

Senate Bill 810 has officially died... for now. With the conclusion of the Senate session, SB 810 went quietly, with no re-vote taken. We can only blame the Democratic senators who didn't vote "yes" when it was put up for a vote, and shame them for not pushing good legislation forward--especially legislation that would benefit their constituents. Shame on them for believing all the nay say about how expensive the bill is and worrying about less $$ flowing into their campaign coffers from insurance companies. That's basically blood money, in my opinion. For all the Republicans that voted no (ALL Republicans, in fact), shame on them for not understanding that the US Chamber of Commerce does NOT have the backs of small businesses and for not understanding basic economics. How many studies (not funded by partisan think-tanks) have to be published saying that universal healthcare systems WORK, SAVE MONEY, and have BETTER HEALTH OUTCOMES before politicians will vote for it? How many dollars will our state (and nation!) waste away before we realize that the only way to put our state on stable financial ground is to deal with healthcare? How many people have to die??

I suppose this could turn into a rather lengthy rant on politics in general, but I'll just repeat what Chris Brown, our Southern California President said in an email to all of us: "It's sad that the ACA will most disproportionately affect Latinos negatively out of other ethnic groups (Latinos are the majority of uninsured in California currently) yet Correa and Calderón, representing heavily Latino areas (Santa Ana--the city with the highest percentage of monolingual Spanish speakers in the US, and Montebello, respectively), voted NO on SB810, which we all know would provide healthcare to ALL Californians." Rubio, Padilla, and Vargas are also of Latino extraction. It's something to think about.