I don't know what really is in the Health Care Bill that Congress is looking at, and neither do the members of Congress. The House Bill has over 1,900 pages, while the Senate's Bill has over 2,000 pages.
I do know what isn't in the bill, and that is a "Single-payer Plan. Here is one definition of Single-payer:
Single-payer health care is a public service financing the delivery of near-universal or universal health care to a given population as defined by age, citizenship, residency, or any other demographic.
Single-payer health insurance collects all medical fees and then pays for all services through a single government (or government-related) source.[1] In wealthy nations, this kind of publicly-managed health insurance is typically extended to all citizens and legal residents.
Australia's Medicare, Canada's Medicare, the United Kingdom's National Health Service, and Taiwan's National Health Insurance are examples of single-payer universal health care systems. Medicare in the United States is an example of a single-payer system for a specified, limited group of persons within a country.
There are a lot of Americans who think a single-payer system would be good for our country, but Congress won't even consider such a plan. The following is a column from Common Dreams by Russell Mokhiber on how the single-payer backers want the bills before Congress stopped. They don't think they are worth voting on, and they want the whole process started over again.
To me, starting over again is a great idea. You see, enough time has passed that the American people have some idea of what Congress is doing because they have educated themselves. That is why the Democrats are pushing this bill through so fast. They know the American people are catching on, and they want to lock their plan into law before the people have a chance to complain loud enough to stop them.
Published on Monday, November 23, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Single Payer Activists to Congress: Defeat Democratic Health Bill
by Russell Mokhiber
The Democratic health care bill is a massive bailout of the private health insurance industry.
It is convoluted and complicated.
And it should be defeated.
That's the take of a number of leading single payer activists.
They will hold a press conference the day before Thanksgiving.
And call on Congress to defeat the more than 2,000 page bill.
Start from scratch.
And pass single payer, Medicare for all, national health insurance.
The press conference will be held in the Murrow Room at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 10 a.m.
The press conference is being organized by Single Payer Action.
Speakers include:
- Russell Mokhiber, Single Payer Action.
- Dr. Margaret Flowers, Physicians for a National Health Program.
- Kevin Zeese, Prosperity Agenda.
- Dr. Carol Paris, Physicians for a National Health Program.
Mokhiber, Flowers, Zeese and Paris are four of the Baucus 8—the eight protesters who were ordered arrested and charged with "disruption of Congress" by Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) in early May 2009 after they rose to ask Baucus why single payer was taken off the table by the Democrats.
Baucus had scheduled 41 health care experts to testify over three days of hearings of the Senate Finance Committee.
Not one of the 41 experts was an advocate for a single payer system
Like I said, the American people have been educating themselves on health care and what Congress is trying to do. Earlier in the year, nearly 50% of our citizens were in favor of what Congress was trying to do to change our health care system. Today that number has fallen to just 38%. A Rasmassen Poll taken yesterday reports that number. The poll also states that 56% of Americans oppose what Congress is trying to do.
That means the rush is on. Congress, and the Democrats are only taking a week off for Thanksgiving so they can get right back to passing their bill before all Americans wake up from their turkey dinner.
From the Rasmassen Poll:
Just 38% of voters now favor the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That's the lowest level of support measured for the plan in nearly two dozen tracking polls conducted since June.