[CitizensTruth] Riddle

[Chuck Minne]

Riddle: What do you call a young adult cancer victim with health insurance? See answer at bottom.
 
From:  http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/09/12/president_says_uninsured_ameri.html?hpid=politics
President Says Uninsured Americans Are More Common Than You'd Think
By Anne E. Kornblut

President Obama, continuing to mount a fresh surge on health care, argued Saturday in his weekly address that nearly half of all Americans under age 65 will lose their health insurance within the next decade.
 
"We're talking about middle-class Americans," Obama said. "In other words, it can happen to anyone."
 
Treasury officials released the findings of a 10-year study that bolsters the president's case. Based on a sample of more than 17,000 respondents from 1997 to 2006, the study - "The Risk of Losing Health Insurance Over a Decade: New Findings from Longitudinal Data" - found that 48 percent of Americans are uninsured at some point in a 10-year span and that the number jumped, to 57 percent, when taking people under age 21 into account.
 
In a conference call Friday with reporters, Treasury officials, who would speak only on condition of anonymity, repeatedly emphasized the universal nature of the danger - saying it is a "misperception" that the uninsured represent only a small slice of the population. In fact, they said, the report found that many more people, inclnuding in the middle class, went for stretches without insurance over the years.
 
"If you're under the age of 21 today, chances are more than half that you'll find yourself uninsured at some point" over the next decade, Obama said in the address, prepared for radio and Internet broadcast. "And more than one-third of Americans will go without coverage for longer than one year."
 
He continued: "I refuse to allow that future to happen. In the United States of America, no one should have to worry that they'll go without health insurance - not for one year, not for one month, not for one day. And once I sign my health reform plan into law - they won't."
A link to the Treasury report is here, and a link to the audio of the president's address is here. 

Obama hits the road Saturday, heading to Minnesota to attend a health care rally. 

 
 
From: Congressman Kucinich on Health Care
 
"The hotly-debated HR3200, the so-called "health care reform" bill, is nothing less than corporate welfare in the guise of social welfare and reform. It is a convoluted mess. The real debate which we should be having is not occurring. 

"Removing the "public option" from a public bill paid for by public money is not in the public interest. What is left is a "private option" paid for with public money. Why should public money be spent on a private option which does not guarantee 100% coverage nor have any cost controls? A true public option would provide 30% savings immediately which would then cover the 1/3rd of the population who presently have no healthcare. 

"Unfortunately, under HR3200, the Government is choosing winners and losers in the private sector; proposing to spend public funds on subsidizing insurance companies who make money not providing health care. This process wil insure only one thing - the expansion of profits. Gone is the debate over cost. 

"As a result of current negotiations, the Medicare Part D rip-off will continue for another decade, further fleecing senior citizens. Drug importation has been dropped, so no inexpensive drugs can be accessed from other nations. 

"Instead we are told the pharmaceutical companies will accept a 2% cut in the growth rate of their profits - this they call cost control! "
 
An older Kucinich page of DK info is here:
 
http://www.ontheissues.org/2004/Dennis_Kucinich_Health_Care.htm


      
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