Senators Wyden and Bennett have introduced the first bipartisan, comprehensive health care reform proposal in almost 15 years. At the core of their proposal is a restructuring of the tax system that ends the current regressive treatment of health insurance, while providing revenue to help cover all Americans.
Duration : 1:13:1
RepDonnaFEdwardshttp://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/repdonnafedwardsNewsMaryland 4th District, Congress, Public OptionFloor Statement: Insurance Companies Fighting Comprehensive Health Reform 7-30
Duration : 0:1:10
Presented by Richard A. Epstein, James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law
The recent health care bill represents what is likely to turn out to be the most comprehensive health care reform ever, Medicare included. Yet many of its provisions were included in the last minute without serious discussion or debate. And those provisions that have been in all versions of the bill since the outset are likely to have profound, if unintended consequences. In this talk, Professor Epstein will explain why he thinks that the combined weight of these many programs is likely to produce a major implosion in health care services in both the short and the long run. He will also discuss the opportunities lost on health care reform, all of which involved some program of market liberalization with respect to such key matters as interstate competition for insurance, government mandates, and medical licensing and malpractice.
Duration : 1:0:29
Health care costs are spiraling out of control. More than 47 million Americans have no coverage at all. But instead of offering a plan to make sure everyone can get good health care, presidential candidate John McCain’s proposals would actually make it harder to get affordable coverage — and Las Vegas nurses, voters, and state legislators are speaking out.
“More and more working families can’t afford the rising cost of health care — and they don’t qualify for state programs because they make too much money,” said Sharon Kisling a supervisor with the Clark County Department of Family Services. “The middle class is getting squeezed.”
Sharon was among the speakers at a press conference in Las Vegas. In her work with Child Protective Services, she sees the effects on children who don’t have health insurance. “No child should have to go without health insurance,” she continued.
“Nurses like SEIU Nevada president Shauna Hamel work so hard every day to deliver the best care they can,” said State Senator Dina Titus. “But the system is broken. We need a reform plan that cuts costs for families and businesses, and helps ensure that every American can access high quality, affordable care.”
Yet, Sen. John McCain’s health care proposals would make it harder for Americans to get coverage, would do nothing to control costs and would erode consumer protections already in place. Speakers distributed a report detailing the shortcomings of McCain’s plan, and called for a health system that works for everyone.
“Nevada has seen what happens when unscrupulous clinics and hospitals put profits above patients,” said Shauna Hamel, RN and SEIU Nevada president. “SEIU Nevada members are committed to continuing to raise health care standards here in our hospitals, through our local Southern Nevada Health District, and in the election in November.”
The event was part of “The Road to American Health Care,” a national bus tour aimed at mobilizing voters around comprehensive health care reform. The bus tour is being organized by SEIU, the largest union of health care workers in North America, as part of a sweeping campaign to elect a new President and Congress committed to fixing health care — and then make sure those newly elected leaders immediately pass legislation that makes quality health care affordable for everyone.
Duration : 0:1:48
Republicans laid out their health care reform ideas at the White House Health Care Summit last week, emphasizing the need to abandon comprehensive legislation which Congress doesn’t do very well and instead move step-by-step in the right direction toward lowering health care costs without driving the country ever deeper into debt.
Duration : 0:2:31
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Congresswoman Doris Matsui and Congressman Charlie Wilson held a press conference on March 16th in the Capitol following a meeting with advocates for seniors on behalf of comprehensive health insurance reform legislation. The advocates included Bonnie Cramer of AARP and Trish Nemore of the Center for Medicare Advocacy.
Duration : 0:4:40
April 5, 1993 http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FChristopher-Hitchens%2Fe%2FB000APSKR0%3Fqid%3D1278211708%26sr%3D1-2-ent&tag=doc06-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325
Watch the full program: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/08/christopher-hitchens-on-first-100-days.html
The Clinton health care plan was a 1993 healthcare reform package proposed by the administration of President Bill Clinton and closely associated with the chair of the task force devising the plan, First Lady of the United States Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Bill Clinton had campaigned heavily on health care in the 1992 U.S. presidential election. The task force was created in January 1993, but its own processes were somewhat controversial and drew litigation. Its goal was to come up with a comprehensive plan to provide universal health care for all Americans, which was to be a cornerstone of the administration’s first-term agenda. A major health care speech was delivered by President Clinton to the U.S. Congress in September 1993. The core element of the proposed plan was an enforced mandate for employers to provide health insurance coverage to all of their employees through competitive but closely-regulated health maintenance organizations.
Opposition to the plan was heavy from conservatives, libertarians, and the health insurance industry. The industry produced a much-talked-about television ad, “Harry and Louise”, in an effort to rally public support against the plan. Democrats, instead of uniting behind the President’s original proposal, offered a number of competing plans of their own. By September 1994, the final compromise Democratic bill was declared dead by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell. Opponents of the plan continued to deride it in future years as “HillaryCare.”
Before President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in March 2010, the United States was the only wealthy, industrialized nation that did not provide some form of universal health care, other than Medicare. Although the United States has never had a universal health care system, it does have certain publicly funded health care programs that help to provide for the elderly and disabled (via Medicare), military service families, veterans (via the Veterans Health Administration), and some of the poor (via Medicaid), and children via S-CHIP. Additionally, federal law guarantees public access to emergency services regardless of ability to pay. Bill Clinton had campaigned heavily on health care in the 1992 election. The 1993 Clinton health care plan is sometimes called “HillaryCare” by opponents.
Hart declined to run for re-election to the Senate, leaving office when his second term expired with the intent of running for president again. In January 1987, he was the clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in the 1988 election.
Hart officially declared his candidacy on April 13, 1987. Rumors began circulating nearly immediately that Hart was having an extramarital affair. In an interview that appeared in the New York Times on May 3, 1987, Hart responded to the rumors by daring the press corps: “Follow me around. I don’t care. I’m serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’ll be very bored.” The Miami Herald had been investigating Hart’s alleged womanizing for weeks before the “dare” appeared in the New York Times. Two reporters from the Miami Herald had staked out his residence and observed a young woman leaving Hart’s Washington, D.C., townhouse on the evening of May 2. The Herald published the story on May 3, the same day Hart’s dare appeared in print, and the scandal spread rapidly through the national media. Hart and his allies attacked the Herald for rushing the story into print, claiming that it had unfairly judged the situation without finding out the facts. Hart said that the reporters had not watched both entrances to his home and could not have seen when the young woman entered and left the building. The Miami Herald reporter had flown to Washington, D.C. on the same flight as the woman, identified as Donna Rice. Hart was overwhelmed with questions regarding his views on marital infidelity. His wife, Lee, supported his position that the relationship with the young woman was innocent. A poll of voters in New Hampshire for the New Hampshire Primary showed that Hart’s support had dropped in half, from 32% to 17%, placing him suddenly ten points behind Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis.
Duration : 0:5:35
Marches toward socialism, death panels and health care rationing, oh my! If you’ve been watching the news these days you know that few people seem interested in having a serious debate about our health care industry in America. It would be funny to watch if it weren’t for the fact that 45 million Americans don’t have insurance and the 200 million who do are finding it more difficult to afford. It would be hilarious if we weren’t beholden to the Robber Barons of health insurance monopolies and their shills on Capitol Hill. Are you sick and tired of this mockery that we call a debate? Watch this video and find out what you can do to make sure we get the comprehensive health care reform we need!
Duration : 0:9:11
This morning, the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee held a forum to highlight the urgent need for comprehensive health insurance reform. Thomas Priselac, AHA President, offers his opening remarks.
Duration : 0:5:34
In testimony before the House Budget Committee, Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) pressed Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. about President Bush’s proposal to increase taxes on millions of Americans with comprehensive health insurance.
Duration : 0:6:10