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Let’s face it. There is a lot of misinformation swirling around about the health insurance reform proposals pending in Congress. The Senate Democratic Policy Committee (DPC) has launched a new video feature, The Citizens’ Forum, to help Americans find the facts about health reform.
The series provides an opportunity for Americans to ask questions about health insurance reform, and to have those questions answered by members of the United States Senate. The DPC is the policy research and development arm of the Senate Democratic Caucus, so it is uniquely suited to answering questions about the new policy proposals being developed.
Our website also has a number of informative policy papers that will be helpful to those following this debate.
In the first installment of The Citizens’ Forum, Senators answer some basic questions about pending reform proposals: How will it affect those with pre-existing conditions? Will it promote prevention and wellness, or continue the current system’s focus on treating illness? What does it mean for young people? Will it be fiscally responsible?
For most Americans, the debate over whether our health insurance system is broken ended long ago. The question, now, is how do we fix it? Over 14,000 Americans lose their health insurance coverage every day. Millions more are just one pink slip in a troubled economy away from joining those ranks, too. And tens of millions more struggle to keep up with constantly and rapidly rising health insurance premium costs. The status quo is pretty hard to defend. It’s just not sustainable.
Those who do defend the status quo — with its arbitrary policy cancellations, coverage denials, and ever escalating costs — don’t have a lot of facts on their side. Some have resorted to scare tactics and dumping misinformation into the public discussion.
The DPC’s new video series, The Citizens’ Forum, aims to provide an alternative — a chance for Americans to ask direct questions and get direct answers.
I urge everybody to view this video series, and to submit questions.
We all have a lot at stake in this debate. I am confident that having accurate information and a robust exchange of ideas will help us reach the right conclusion.
60 Comments
Thank you, Senator Dorgan!
Brilliant! Thanks, Senator.
I guess I would like to hear about why the insurance companies seem to count for more than the citizens of this country when the Congress formulated this reform?
Sen. Dorgan, what is the status of your amendment on reimportation of pharmaceuticals from abroad? Will you be fighting for other pieces, like real bargaining for prescription drug prices?
Went to the site and sent this:
“Senator Dorgan, while the effort is noted, the equation is backward. People aren’t so interested in what Senators have to say but in having the Senators LISTEN to what their constituents are saying.
The whole paradigm of the Senators knowing better than their constituents is a ‘father knows best’ attitude that is disregardful the changes of information flow in this society.
Add to that what Senator Durbin said about the Senate being bought -which MOST American’s DO BELIEVE IS TRUE- and I suspect you will understand what I am sharing with you.
Between the lack of prosecutions for the fraud that brought our country to the brink-and the world with it-, the obvious backtracking of Obama on his campaign promises and his insistence on Goldman Sach’s individuals for his ‘financial team’and his obvious lack of courage in addressing the ‘tough’ issues, a health insurance reform effort that DOES NOT address the issue of ‘profits over people’,the unwillingness of Congress to address ‘main street’ issues (example the failure of TARP to meet the foreclosure crisis), a foreign policy that does NOT reflect our democratic values (example being Haiti and Honduras and NAFTA), the usage of mercenaries throughout our ‘defense’ endeavors,the lack of any MEANINGFUL regulatory reform concerning OTC derivatives, the round robin between Wall Street and Washington D.C. and D.C and the defense and lobbying industries,the lack of meaningful election reform, and I could go on but that should be enough for the DPC to see that the ‘Democrat brand’ is almost as sullied as the Republican.
As far as I’m concerned, the Senate needs many more Senator Sanders and Feingold’s and the House many more Marcy Kaptur’s and Brad Shermans before either body could be considered ‘representative of the people’.
Why do Americans pay more for drugs than Canadiens and Mexicans do? Why do foreign Drug Makers charge Americans more than they do Commies in Commie Countries!
Do the Drug Compaines Hate America! Are they Secret Commies! Why doesn’t Fox News Report the truth about the real Commies taking over America and even worse Over Charging Us!
It wasn’t immediately evident how to submit questions. Although my senator, Evan Bayh, isn’t interested in anything that doesn’t come from an insurance company executive and wrapped in $100 bills.
Thank you for taking the time to share The Citizens’ Forum with us.
With regards to your statement that Millions more are just one pink slip in a troubled economy away from joining those ranks, too.
That seems to downplay the number of folks in that situation. Perhaps you could make a stronger and more accurate claim. Just about everyone I know falls into that category.
Thanks again for your time and your concern.
Site difficulties I could not leave my question:(
Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) can you answer my question?
Why does Joe Lieberman still enjoy a Chairmanship?
Health care in Israel is both universal and compulsory, and is administered by a small number of organizations with funding from the government. All Israeli citizens are entitled to the same Uniform Benefits Package, regardless of which organization they are a member of, and treatment under this package is funded for all citizens regardless of their financial means. According to a 2000 study by the World Health Organization, Israel has the 28th best health care in the world.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Israel
A question for Sen Joe Lieberman We give Israel Cash, Aid, Weapons etc but they have healthcare and we don’t.
It seems Wrong to me to give a country aid when they got better than we got!
Regarding the number of people one pink slip away, I’m looking for numbers on the Googel.
I found that Harry Reid said this on the 24th, “And I am most concerned that the Party of No has shown no interest in helping the 50 million Americans who are not insured, the 20 million more who are underinsured, and the millions more who are paying too much for a health care plan they could lose with just one pink slip, one accident or one illness.”
from: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/24124.html
Dear Sir; thanks for coming to the Lake. We all have different concerns. Mine is this. Why will our government not insist on bringing health care into the 20th Century? All other civilized nations have health care that is free, or very close to it based on tax revenue. There is no substitute for a Medicare for everyone, no extenuating circumstances, no recission, no opt out, no co op, no insurance.
I know how hard it will be to cut all those people that work for insurance companies might be, but some of them are quality employees that the government could hire very fast to do a job similar to the one they do now, without denying everyone!. Then the upper ranks of the insurance companies will drift into history as a sad reminder to how our congress allowed organized crime figures to write their own ticket for stealing everything the American consumer has. How many homes that were foreclosed do the Health care folks own now? How is their relationship with the banks that are insolvent, yet can’t fail?
The inequity and absurdity should be addressed at some point, or do you think that is asking too much?
thank you.
Senator Dorgan isn’t with us in comments, he dropped the post and split. Mostly it looks like his folks are repurposing old senate floor speeches to fit questions they get from constituents. Pardon my rudeness, but this seems like it is just more one way communication on their part, and it could as easily have been done as a diary at DKos.
Why hasn’t Harry Reid threatened to close down military bases in states where the Senators don’t vote for healthcare?
So we can still shock them with our questions look at my comment @ 6 I doubt any Senate Speech could answer that one:)
Site seems to be working now
lolol, you funny Things
Better yet why doesn’t he threaten to close bases in Spain, Germany, France, Italy and about a dozen other countries if the Rethugs don’t toe the line.
I assume any Senator who votes against Healthcare for Americans will vote against aid of any kind for Israel as long as they have universal, compulsory and government funded Healthcare!
If Harry Reid was a Real Senate Leader Base closings to save money would be discussed the second Blue Dogs and GOPers start talking about paying for healthcare.
Oh, my guess is that is some techno glitch, since David’ not here either and I guessing he pulled some strings to book this interview/thread.
You got a question, in case things change?
Real Good point Spain is pretty far from Russia I wonder how much we could save if we start closing down unnecessary military bases. I would love a post where we could look at the Federal Budget and cut or add funding
Think of it as an educational game?
How come the Senate never asks where the Money to pay for fighting two wars will come from but for Healthcare the cost Must be paid for!
Yeah, somehow I think asking my dog questions about health care legislation will be about as effective as posting them to Dorgan’s site. I suspect my dog’s responses will actually be more on-point.
Yeah, I’ve posed that question to my Blue Dog rep whenever he makes claims of fiscal responsibility.
He’s a deficit hawk as long as the money is spent to benefit We the People, but find a big black hole in the Mid-East, and he can’t shovel the money in there fast enough.
Rota is the home port for a sub tender, or used to be, and boomers go there for maintenance rather than having to cross the Atlantic for Norfolk.
We send in responses they get ignored however every congressional aid that gets stuck answering our questions must research the answers and after doing all that research they get educated on the issue. Sure the Senators made be bought but their aides will know the truth, to control the boss convince his Secretary and Staff.
There’s also (or was) a huge Naval Air Station there for the patrol planes that hunted submarines in the Med and Atlantic.
Must pile on Israel even though the US is mostly responsible for Israel give-aways. Money handed over to Israel goes directly to their health care and military stuff.
Unless we plan on taking over the world with the USSR gone why do we need these bases? Somali Pirates which we are not doing much about are the only Naval threat I see.
They must have expanded the little strip since I was there in 65-66. I learned to fly a T-38 trainer there. DC-3s were the largest aircraft I saw fly in. Used to hop all over Europe and the boss liked to fly to Morocco.
Maintaining the Cold War military structure is mucho profit for the war industry.
A couple deck mounted .50 calibre machine guns would make short work of the Somali pirates.
Its not piling on I want the same Healthcare Israel has Holy Joe has no problem giving my tax dollars to Israel so they can have better healthcare than I do. Thats Wrong.
Its not Israel bashing when you want to be treated equal to an Israeli. It is America Bashing for an American Senator to Treat Israeli’s better than Americans.
Wasn’t it just the other day David was asking for name suggestions for a continuing post about labor?
I think your “the boss liked to fly to Morocco.” is a winner. It does say a lot, doesn’t it?
I know what your saying however it seems such a waste that money could be spent more productively elsewhere.
The Israeli govt wasn’t getting any US funds when the Stern Gang, Irun and Haganah were murdering Palestinians. Once Haganah was turned into the Israeli
TerroristDefense Force then the military aid started flowing into Israel.What other industry only submits to business practices regulation once it is granted a captive customer base coerced by the government?
If it can improve transparency, then this could be a solid move out of the stagnation and gridlock (and corruption) that seem to underlie so many problems these days.
Here’s hoping…
If the status quo is so bad, then why does this legislation keep so much of the status quo intact and actually strengthens some of the worst aspects of the status quo?
Not a fan of Ross Douthat. However, this recent idea by him on the public option really isn’t a bad idea, and is better than the one currently being bandied about:
For profit health insurance is probably the biggest cause of excessive health care costs, among many causes, in America. Insurance should not ‘pay for” health care and add in extra cost to do so. It should insure people against real harm. This is what “insurance” is supposed to mean, and what makes it make economic sense. Under our current patterns, it makes very little sense.
Hence why catastrophic insurance makes sense if the government is going to provide some coverage for everybody — because at the same time it would remove the need for this element for everyone, and make everyone far less beholden to their health insurance providers, should they even choose to get health insurance for run of the mill costs that are far better given to one’s doctors than to insurance companies.
This would also not impeded low cost care for those with real need, and make it much easier, because it would drive costs down while not hurting the quality of care a bit. (And, it would free up doctors to actually practice medicine, and remove the insurance barrier between patients and doctors that as apractical matter exists now.)
This is not to promote Douthat. His recent column on Christianity having a “foe” in Islam that it needed to “push back” against is atrocious.
But other NY Times columnists, while not as frightening, are more illogical than Douthat. Take David Brooks, for instance, TODAY.
Still, it does not yet seem clear how the actual excessive health cost issue is being addressed, or how adding to the need for insurance, rather than reducing it, will help in this regard.
We already have a system for catastrophic health losses–it’s called the bankruptcy courts. In bankrupty, everyone has to chip in. The individual forfeits assets, the health care industry has to eat its losses, and the government reimburses the hospital for part of the uncompensated care.
The system you describe puts lower-income Americans on a payment plan inside of letting them have the fresh start that bankruptcy allows. The financial burden is shifted off of powerful interests and onto working families. Most seriously ill workers would still end up declaring bankruptcy in the end. This is not progressive reform.
Thank you for advising us of this new communications tool from the Democratic Policy Council. I too am interested to know if you will introduce your reimportation amendment to the current health care bill on the floor. Will you also introduce an amendment to allow medicare to negotiate drug prices? Will we ever see an end to the absurd twisted messages on our airwaves about pharmaceuticals? Can direct-to-consumer advertising be stopped? Will seniors ever be relieved of the doughnut hole in their drug buying?
Lotsa questions, hope you or another has some answers. Thank you again for joining us in this forum, and thanks for the video venue as well.
I suppose that one thing that is evident from the good Senator’s post on this site, is that it has become influential. That he merely made a brief appearance means I guess that he is not paticularly interested in what we have to tell him.
However from going through the list of how destructive insurance companies have become he inadvertantly makes a damn good case for doing away with them altogether. It is really hard to see how anyone could want to empower them even further.
I gues deception really comes easily to these guys.
Well done, ubetchaiam
This one gave me a chuckle. -:) Thanks.
The second they start talking about deficits you mean. Another thing, one should immediately start talking about is re-introducing Eisenhower era marginal tax rates. That ought to get a rise out of them.
Senator Dorgan,
who is superior to you, says
fwuc u/
Typical blue dog. They’re hypocrites. Only tough on the spending they don’t like, but don’t have the guts to oppose straight up.
You’ve got it. Joe’s anti-American. And I’ll bet most of the israelis don’t like him much either.
Actually, the Israelis were getting a lot of private fund from the US. But it’s debatable whether the Haganah were murdering Palestinians. The Irgun and the Stern Gangs are another matter, of course. Also, another matter is the murder of Jews by Arabs during this period on the orders of the Grand Mufti. There’s certainly plenty of blame to go around.
Dorgan’s among the more honest of these folks. I’d be interested in seeing how he answers your questions.
Why is it that a person who makes $10.00 an hour and is a single mother has to pay $480.00 a month for insurance and have a $10,000 a year deductible??? While the insurance companies make record profits and their CEOs get richer?
Why are there not a 30% import taxes on anything coming into this country?
and why isn’t companies actually producing products in the U.S.A given breaks on taxes?
As a nurse I work in the trenches of health care. How many people have you told they are terminally ill or see the faces of their family when they find out their loved one is terminal because they waited too long to see a doctor because they couldn’t afford it?
Yet no senator or congressman blinks when we give money for the war or too
foreign countries to rebuild or to bribe them.
Money, Dollars and the potential for outside employment after congress and for currently for spouses.
The problem is that it is at the catastrophic level that many of the insurance industry denial of claims take place. That is where the rescinding takes place. It also ignores the fact that many catastrophic conditions are preventable or at least treatable if caught early. If for monetary reasons I wait until symptoms are unbearable to go to the doctor then I am probably going to be dealing with hospitaization. That actually makes health care more costly, unless the insurance company committs fraud and denies care.
The system I describe does not put lower income Americans on a payment plan, it covers them for catastrophic costs, along with everyone else. What should be covered.
As for the idea that “bankdruptcy” should cover catastrophic costs (that is, they are “not covered and then we involve costs and more layers of costs) that is an astounding suggestion.
“Catastrophic” by the way does not have to mean tens of thousands of dollars. It should mean that which will put undue burden on those involved. It is precisely the protection for this, rather than simply “payment of bills” that insurance is supposed to provide. Instead, insurance has turned into a third party multi layered high over head cost plus profit margin plus additonal health care provider (doctors offices,etc) expenses addtion, and it is wasteful. Any plan that simply expands that (let alone mandates more of it) is not going to solve the problem.
I agree with you totally on the importance of prevention. Our entire system is set up to simply treat problems rather than prevent them. This also leads to enormous waste, (and worse health, overall).
The fact is, health care in this country DOES NOT operate under capitalism now. no one bargains with their doctors. few have the chance to compare costs. most are hostage to their insurance companes. If there is goin to be insurance, and the government is going to be involved spending hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money (as it does now) it has to be non profit. And more limited. (Catastrophic coverage by the government still makes more sense as well to supplement this.) And it has to focus on prevention as well.
That is only more reason in support of some form of what was suggested as one potential route above. That is, the whole point was for this coverage to be provided by the government, rather than all health insurance. That minimizes the need for (and cost) of regular health insurance,which is an enorous part of the problem. Health insurance is not efficient, in the least. They add extraordinary coss onto the system. on top of that, they often deny care,they often deny tests that may be needed, leaving people who have given their money to insurance companies instead of for direct medical treatment, with little practical recourse, and they often lead to skewed consumer decisions, both over and under utilization of proper medicare care, on the part of consumers).
I’m not saying that catastrphic coverage by the government is the answer. I AM SAYING that any reform that increases overall for profit health insurance, is only contributing to the problem, and any actual helpful reform (whether to lower costs, improve the quality of care, increase consumer choice, decrease even government cost in the matter even, and/or ensure that all Americans have some basic level of protection) has to lessen the roleof health insurance,andin particular for profit health insurance.
The fact is, health care reform is tricky. Getting to the first step, and seeing what the main problem is — our system of private health insurance — when consumers under our current system are not really making real choices anyway in an area which may not be perfectly suitable for only capitalistic choices anyway because of the moral compulsion aspect of the government’s role (and our enormous expenditure therein, which as taxpayers should not be going to make insurance and other companies wealthy but simply to provide adequate health protection alone), its fundamentally critical and overriding nature(if you don’t have your health you have nothing) etc — is not.
But we have not even done that. Whether that is because the quality of our debate and dicussion continues to go down in America as more and more misinformation is disseminated as “news” (as we then debate whether or not there are “death panels”) and the ongoing influence of the ridiculously manipulative and even more foolishly tolerated Fox station that poses as a news channel, or because of lobbying influence, don’t know. Seems to be both.