« How many are willing to give this documentary a chance? | tpmgary's Blog | Nate Silver's analysis of lobbyist influence over Senators on public health care option. »
Health care questions I've never heard journalists ask your Senator.
Just a few, really:
Senator______________. Have you ever been denied access to quality affordable health care?
Senator______________. Did you know that the number of Americans without access to health care exceeds the entire population of Canada?
Senator______________. Since you receive government-funded health care, you have first hand experience. What do you think, does it work? Or do you find that Washington bureaucrats make it impossible for you to get quality care?
Senator______________. If you believe that plans in the private insurance market are are all equally affordable and competitive, would you be willing to switch your own taxpayer funded healthcare for one of them?
Anyone else have a few they want to add?
Advertisement
I don't have any to add at the moment, but is it alright if I pilfer these excellent questions and incorporate them in an op-ed I'm sending to the local newspaper?
June 17, 2009 10:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Flower, feel free to pilfer. The subject is too serious to hold back.
Pilfer boldly:)
June 17, 2009 11:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Senator are you aware of the number of Americans who die every day due to lack of health insurance?
Senator are you aware of the number of Americans who die every day in this country due to the denial of coverage by their own health insurance of claims?
Senator if you are able to keep a government bureaucrat from coming between the doctor and the patient, would you still not have a bureaucrat from an insurance company between the doctor and the patient?
Senator, who is paying you monies to keep Americans from receiving adequate health care? And, as a follow up question, what if we raised your salary; I mean would you forgo the bribes you are currently receiving from the health care industry and do the right thing.
Senator, do you realize that you no longer have to suck on the funny bone of the repub party anymore and that you can do the right thing just once in your miserable career?
June 17, 2009 10:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Like the questions, DD.
BTW, is there a webpage or database that has how much money each Representative or Senator has received from the health care or health insurance industry? That would be pretty telling.
June 17, 2009 11:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/06/on-health-care-whos-hooked-on-special.html
June 17, 2009 11:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks Grouch. Awesome chart.
Isn't it strange that the Senators who get less money seem generally a lot more for a public option than those who get more money from Health Industry PACs? Who would have thunk? It's as if money had something to do with their position or something....
June 17, 2009 11:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
ALWAYS FOLLOW THE MONEY. HA!
June 17, 2009 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm glad to see where our Senator Amy lands on that chart, aren't you, DD?
June 17, 2009 3:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
84 aint bad. Say Grouch, I am really happy to see this 538 guy still workin' The only guy really to get the election right.
June 17, 2009 3:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've often wondered about that. I think anyone who receives more than $10,000 a year from any lobby, be it healthcare or the NRA should have to recuse him or herself from a vote on that issue.
June 17, 2009 6:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not a bad idea. Did you see that the ones with the most Healthcare PAC fundage were often the ones on the health care committees? WTF is wrong with that picture?
June 18, 2009 10:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks DD, especially like the silent "a-hole" salutation that comes at the end of each of your questions:)
June 17, 2009 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, yes. It's the "Senator, are you a freaking hypocrite?" question.
June 17, 2009 11:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
How about this one:
Senator___________. You cite a recent survey that says 75% of Americans are satisfied with their health insurance. Are the 20,000 people who died last year due to insufficient coverage included in that percentage?
Or is there a separate survey for dead people to fill out?
June 17, 2009 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
(ziing)
June 18, 2009 7:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
yup
June 18, 2009 10:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
A must read in THE NEW YORKER on health care debate.
The Cost Conundrum
What a Texas town can teach us about health care.
by Atul Gawande
June 17, 2009 12:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well done Gary.
I will just add a link to Oleeb's blog about other 'easy, effective things you can do:
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/oleeb/2009/06/some-easy-effective-things-you.php?ref=reccafe
June 17, 2009 12:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
thanks for adding the link, synch ( rhyme unintentional:)
June 17, 2009 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love your logo. Did you paint it yourself?
June 17, 2009 7:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
tpmg and everyone,
The issue that will at the very least, get a public option, is POST CLAIM UNDERWRITING! This is perhaps the most sadistic of all the Health Insurance scams going down even as I type.
Excuse me, Senator________ do you approve of "post claim underwriting"?
June 17, 2009 12:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
is there a simpler explanation for this thing you call post claim underwriting? :)
If we send a list of everyone's questions to Rachel or Chris or KO, I would want to make sure viewers know exactly what this is.
June 17, 2009 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
This should provide some background on post-claim underwriting. All too common particularly in the low-end coverage market.
June 17, 2009 5:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
that link doesn't work, but thanks. I'll use the google.
June 17, 2009 8:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry tpmg, here it is :
http://law.freeadvice.com/insurance_law/insurers_bad_faith/recoginize-post-claim-underwriting.htm
June 17, 2009 9:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gary:
I might add one more little stinker.
Senator_________. When you were first elected did you, or any of your immeidate family, have a pre-existing condition for which your government paid health insurance has now refused to cover and you are therefore firced to pay extremely high premiums for suplemental coverage?
June 17, 2009 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
workinstiff--that is a great question. I would fall off of my chair if someone asked one of these 'public service' a question like this.
June 17, 2009 3:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
This might be a good question:
Senator_____________. Would you support a 111th Congress/Constituent Health Insurance Parity Bill that would guarantee that every one of your constituents receive the same access to health care as you do? No more, no less?
June 17, 2009 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Senator_____________. Do you happen to know why health care cost increases have so far outstripped inflation for so long and why have health care costs gone up by just shy of 50% in the last seven years?
Senator_____________. Health care requirements in the general population are a statistical predictable known so why can't the industry provision care to meet demand at a reasonable cost in a supposedly competitive marketplace?
Senator_____________. Why do interns work 60 or 70 or more hours a week when it is well known that fatigue leads to mistakes? Truckers can't work more hours than is safe for the public. Why can doctors?
June 17, 2009 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dear Senator Amy,
We know you are a working mom! Did you know that:
"seven out of every 10 working-age American women (64 million women) either had no health insurance, insufficient health care coverage, trouble paying medical bills or a lack of access to needed health care due to cost.
Overall, 52 percent of working-age women surveyed said they had problems accessing needed health care due to costs, compared to 39 percent of men. For example, prohibitive costs meant that women often did not fill a prescription, did not see a specialist when recommended, skipped a test or treatment or follow-up visit that was recommended, or did not see a doctor or other health-care professional even though they had a medical problem."
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_84100.html
June 17, 2009 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
thanks bluebell, good info.
June 17, 2009 8:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why don't you support offering your plan's coverage to every American at the same price you pay (or, less, since the risk pool would be larger with everyone participating)?
June 17, 2009 6:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why don't you cut defense spending so we can afford healthcare?
Why can't we have a progressive income tax system so the middleclass isn't responsible for providing healthcare for both themselves and the poor?
Why are the wealthy exempt from sacrifice?
June 17, 2009 6:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Senator_______________. Which do you think is spreading faster in this country, cancer or access to quality affordable health care?
June 17, 2009 8:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Senator, _____________, Can you tell the moms out there the difference between a breast cancer diagnosis at stage 1 and and a breast cancer diagnosis at stage 4?
June 17, 2009 9:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Geeez Bluebell, you caught me on that one. Life is so harsh. And our health care industry is not much help.
June 17, 2009 9:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm pretty raw on this topic lately because I know 3 people in that situation right now. I don't care what the polls say I don't think you can win on this issue just talking about costs in dollars without talking about the human costs.
If you are a child you probably get healthcare though not always. If you are elderly you are covered. But what about all those moms and dads out there? You think when one of them goes down it only impacts them alone? How do you measure the costs to the entire extended family when a critical health need goes unmet?
June 17, 2009 10:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bluebell, you made me stop and think about my own perspective and how I approach discussing health care in America. I had to check back over my questions, just out of curiosity, to see if I used any specific economic cost/benefit analysis.
I don't think I did. And I think that means I instinctively look at it in terms of human costs, like you do.
I guess if talking about it in terms of money convinces enough people to change the system, I'm all for it.
June 17, 2009 10:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey Gary!! This afternoon I saw this and was going to post about it but your post was perfect. Check it out though, MSNBC finally asked Eric Cantor how much he loves his government run health care and he doesn't make any sense what so ever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnPnF8IRAp8
Enjoy!
June 17, 2009 10:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
thanks Jennie, I'll have to take a look tomorrow morning. Good catch.
June 17, 2009 11:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Si I tweted this question to about 150 different federal politicians (From @barackobama to @zachwamp) that are actually on twitter:
Since you receive government-funded health care, Rep/Sen X, you have first hand experience. What do you think, does it work?
2 hours and absolutely ZERO replies.
June 17, 2009 11:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
OOPS: "So I Tweeted"
June 17, 2009 11:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I doubt a response will be forthcoming. The glaring inequality of health care between what members of congress receive and what citizens have available isn't a dialog they want to have.
Unfortunately, public sector employment comes with a benefits package that generally is superior to anything in the private sector. The differential has lessened somewhat over time but is still notable just the same.
One difference that I am very upset with is our county / state court system operates on a 36 hour work week. The disparity between the benefits and what is asked of employees in this regard is more than a little disturbing.
Across all employment, the range of total compensation specifies a level of inequality that is certain to give rise to conflict and isn't helpful in the overall scheme of things.
Where all persons subsist within the same economy, compensation has to be associated with that unity of cost. It isn't. I don't begin to know how to address the societal ethical dilemma where one group manages comfortably working 36 hours a week while others are scraping by working 60 or 80 hours. Somehow or other we need to adjust our value proposition so it has a connection to reality.
June 18, 2009 6:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
3 hours. Still ZERO replies.
June 18, 2009 12:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
suddenly, it would seem none of them know how to use Twitter anymore:)
June 18, 2009 9:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
thanks for all the great questions!
kind of reminds me of a former uber conservative coworker who would happily tell me about the great mortgage rate he got from the navy bank (his father was in the navy), how much he enjoyed his superior savings account..from the navy bank, and on and on and on. but don't forget, socialism is evil!
June 18, 2009 10:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Senator_____________. Our military is taxpayer funded and its the most advanced in the world. Why can't we have a taxpayer funded health care system that is the most advanced in the world?
June 18, 2009 11:56 AM | Reply | Permalink