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Written by Administrator
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Saturday, 19 January 2008 |
Health Care Crisis:
From 2000 – 2005 in Pennsylvania the employer share for premiums for individuals went up 65.8% and the employees share increased 104.7%. For family coverage the employer share went up 73.2% and the employee share went up 85.6%. In this same period the number of Pennsylvanians receiving health insurance through employment decreased by an estimated 450,000 people.
The numbered of uninsured Pennsylvanians rose by an estimated 291,000 from 2000 to 2005 to 1,196,000. An undetermined number were underinsured.
More than one-third of all hospitals in Pennsylvania are in significant distress, and two-thirds are performing at levels considered below long-term economic viability.
Doctors have the license to practice medicine, but they are told what treatments can be given patients by bureaucrats whose job it is to increase the bottom line of the health insurance industry. The current health insurance industry is focused on profits, which is maximized by denying health care to millions of Americans.
From 2001 to 2005, the total profit realized by Pennsylvania health insurance companies grew from almost $462 million to $810 million. The percentage of dollars these companies spend on health care decreased from 87.08% to 50.85%.
Surpluses, not funds needed for claims, maintained by Pennsylvania’s health insurers grew nearly $5.6 billion in 2001 to $8.5 billion in 2005.
FACT: The Market is setting the value of human life and limb.
Tobacco Use: In 2004, health care costs related to tobacco use in Pennsylvania topped $5 billion.
Health Care Solution:The Family and Business Health Security Act is currently in the Pennsylvania House as HB 1660 and in the Pennsylvania Senate as SB 300. It is a Doctor and Patient Run Health Care System. These are the highlights:
1. All Pennsylvanians will receive comprehensive coverage that will include:
Medical Hospitalization
Dental Care Prescription Drugs
Mental Health Physical Therapy
Emergency Transport Hospice Care
Addiction Treatment Long-Term Care
Preventive Medicine
No Co-Pays or deductibles. Patients will choose their doctors. Doctors will be in charge of care.
2. The wasteful/welfare payments to the inefficient health care insurance industry will be REPLACED. Businesses will pay 10% of payroll and citizens 3% of earnings. See examples below.
Business Payments Individual/Family Payments
Payroll $ 50,000 = $ 5,000 Earnings $ 10,000 = $ 300.00
Payroll $100,000 = $10,000 Earnings $ 50,000 = $1,500.00
Payroll $1,000,000 = $100,000 Earnings $100,000 = $3,000.00
The revenues go into a Public Fund which cannot be raided for any other use. The doctors, hospitals and other health care providers are all paid from this Public Fund. Gone are the (in some cases hundreds of) different insurance forms creating a huge overhead cost for the health care professionals.
3. The thousands of employees who will be displaced as the health care industry is replaced will be given compensation for two years and will receive help with retraining. They will find plenty of jobs waiting as hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians will finally be able to get their annual exams, have dental work and a myriad of medical services that were not previously available to them. No longer will we have the have-nots standing with their faces pressed up against the window, forced to beg for help when they are ill.
4. To address the growing need for volunteer firefighters and EMTs in our rural areas, this bill will give a $1,000 tax rebate for PA taxes to active volunteers.
5. To address the need to spend the taxpayers money wisely, the plan will initiate a Certificate of Need program. Hospitals and health care providers who are in close proximity to others will need to justify spending funds on expensive equipment that may be readable available to patients at other institutions, while rural areas may receive funding to help them provide this same equipment to their patients.
6. Funding of a 21st century digital medical record system that will be cost-efficient, eliminate redundant testing, and will reduce prescription and treatment errors.
7. Establish a culture of wellness through:
A fully funded K – 12 health education and physical fitness curriculum.
Identifying and eliminating environmental health risks.
The Family and Business Health Security Act currently has 33 sponsors in the House (need 102) and 6 sponsors in the Senate (need 26).
Political Will: There are many elected officials from the local levels to those running for President of the United States who have said that there is no political will to truly fix our health care system. Governor after Governor has turned his back on providing health care to everyone with the savings derived from eliminating the wasteful/welfare program that is our health insurance industry. They say that this industry is too powerful, that their lobbyists armed with cash will defeat any true reform. So instead they make their deals on behalf of us citizens, businesses and doctors and hope it stays glued together.
YOU, THE VOTERS ARE THE POLITICAL WILL. What do you say?
Are you ready to support real change?
Are you ready to give our doctors the freedom to practice medicine?
Are you ready to give our businesses the freedom to help pay for employee health care costs while remaining competitive?
Are you ready to combine the cost saving system of pooling all our health care dollars into one pool so that all can receive?
Are you ready to see our government agencies from school board to county to state lower their employee health care costs making it possible to reduce taxes?
If you are ready to show the Powers-That-Be that you are the Political Will that is ready to finally take a stand to fix our broken system:
1- Call your local State Representative either:
Flo Fabrizio at 455-6319
John Evans at 734-2793
Pat Harkins (thank him for co-sponsoring the bill) at 459-1949
John Hornaman at 835-2880
Curt Sonney at 897-2080
Senator Mary Jo White
2 - On November 4th Vote for me for Senate in the 49th District (most of Erie County).
Before I am sworn into office in January of 2009, I will contact the Senate and let them know that on my first day of work
I will, on behalf of you and all my fellow Pennsylvanians, sign onto the bill. |
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 20 January 2008 )
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