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As Congress goes back into session this week following a month-long break, a group of area residents marched in Sag Harbor on Saturday to demand reform of the nation’s health care system.
More than 70 people marched 3 miles, from Bay Point to Marine Park, in support of the much-debated public option under consideration by Congress and proposed in America’s Affordable Health Choices Act. The march ended with a rally at Marine Park, where speakers called for a government-run plan to compete with private insurers and control rising health care costs.
“We need competition for the health insurance companies,” said retired Brooklyn Health Network Chief Financial Officer Mike Anthony, a speaker at the rally and a former Southampton Town Democratic Committee chairman. “What we need to make [health care] more affordable is a public option. I think we need a robust public option.”
Sag Harbor Concerned Citizens for Health Care Reform, a group led by John Hooker and Harriet Sawyer Demato, organized the march, which coincided with hundreds of similar rallies across the nation assembled by MoveOn.org Political Action and other organizations.
Conservative factions opposed to the proposed health care reform did not make an appearance at Saturday’s rally.
Most marchers were middle-aged and older, and when speaker Janine Carter of Sag Harbor asked marchers to raise their hands if they have health insurance, nearly all raised their hands.
Health Insurance Plan of New York subscriber Maxine Kleendorfer, 62, a resident of Baiting Hollow, said she was marching for people who cannot access affordable health insurance or are denied insurance because of a pre-existing medical condition. She said her daughter, Laura, who had a heart attack two years ago at the age of 40 and later got insurance through her employer, was denied coverage for cardiologist visits because the insurer said her heart attack was a pre-existing condition.
“I would like a public option so that people have the choice to go into another type of organization rather than just private insurance,” Ms. Kleendorfer said.
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Again the GVT has painted yet another part of the private sector, the Ins companies as the demons. Lets get to ... more the root of the problem...cost of care. That should be addressed first. What reform can we put in place to help reduce the cost of care.
Total comments by razza5350: 256
Total comments by hamptons surfer: 79
The insurance companies deny claims every single day. United Health is said to have ... more denied upwards of 30% of ALL claims. Insurance premiums have skyrocketed over 30% in the last few years and are expected to go even higher. The CEO of United Health, with salary, stock options and bonuses makes $106,000.00 and hour. That is not a typo.
Insurance companies do NOT exist to keep you healthy, they exist to profit form your illness. If that does not make them demons, then I don't know what does.
Do not be fooled by lies and propaganda. The only people who win by defeating health reform are those in the insurance industry and those right-wing follower of glen beck and rush limbaugh who cry "socialism" to protect corporate interests. These are, by the way , the same people who send their kids to public schools, depend upon the fire and police departments, recieve or will receive social security, recieve or will recieve medicare - all, by definition, socialist programs.
Total comments by peoplefirst: 289
Total comments by number19: 56
1. It is true that if you do not continue coverage under cobra or NY state continuation or you have not have had coverage within the last 63 days that the insurance conmpanies will deny coverage. The reason IS no one would pay for coverage until they got sick. It is your responsibility to get the coverage. To help unemployed Obama put into effect a plan to have the GVT pay for 65% of your cobra premium for 9 month if you were termed from employment involuntarily.
2. ... more I am not sure where you got the info about United health denial of claims but you have checks and balances with insurance. An insurance company denies a claim (as does medicare from time to time) and you can appeal to the NY state insurance department. Who can I appeal to when the GVT denies a claim a GVT run advisory board?
3 Yes insurance companies do exist to make a profit. To make a profit they need to offer the best product at the best price. we need find ways to lower the cost of care and hopefully the free market will take care of the rest.
4. 10,000 physicians are protesting in washington today. They want to improved claims procedures, medical malpractice reform, better representation on helath care reform and yes insurance reform. I am very curious to hear there ideas because we need all of these things NOT health care run by the GVT
Total comments by razza5350: 256
We will get health care reform this year and that will be the base upon which we can build further reforms until the day that, as Bill Moyer said, "Health is not a commodity, but a condition."
To ... more razza, if you really think that insurance companies are even close to offering the best care at the best price then you are entirely out of the loop. Health care should NOT be about profit. Have you ever tried to appeal a denial? Come on. In the interest of full disclosure, do you work in the insurance or medical industries?
Total comments by dagdavid: 192
Rejecting medical claims
California's top health plans reject an average of 1 in 5 claims for treatment -- 45.7 million claims over the last seven years. Here's how their rejection rates compared during the first six months of 2009:
PacifiCare: ... more 39.6%
Cigna: 33%
Health Net: 30%
Anthem Blue Cross: 28%
Kaiser Permanente: 28%
Aetna: 6.5%
Blue Shield: Data not available
Total comments by peoplefirst: 289
The site is Physicians for a National Health Program. Their mission: Single Payer National Health Insurance. That's right - SINGLE PAYER. Their membership includes 17,0000 medical professionals. Not just that, but overall 59% of all physicians support single payer.
Break it down further, one survey found that 83 percent ... more of psychiatrists, 69 percent of emergency medicine specialists, 65 percent of pediatricians, 64 percent of internists, 60 percent of family physicians and 55 percent of general surgeons favor a national health insurance plan.
Further, Michelle Mello, a professor of Law and Public Health at Harvard. “If you were to list the top five or ten things that you could do to bring down health care costs that (tort reform) would not be on the list."
Total comments by peoplefirst: 289
the majority of physicians actually WANT some kind of Gov reform. This based on published surveys (latest in April 09, Ann Int Med). The number is 59%. Those that do not, are usually the better paid ones (they stand to lose more, usually they do expensive sub-specialty procedures). However nearly all docs absolutely loath the constant fight with the insurance companies. Many now do not accept ANY insurance - you just pay cash. This is the trend and it is advancing very ... more fast. If you kill reform that is what you will get: a big cash bill.
The checks and balances do not work. There are way too many people that are losing their insurance coverage, incl. my 89 year old mother in law! Just because the midwest insurance company she has, through her deceased husbands job, is struggling and decides to cut the more expensive (older) customers. She has been paying for this supplementary insurance (over and above medicare) for 24 years while she was younger and healthier...
This will happen in every family if the current system continues.
The free market does not work in the medical field - there is nothing free about it: you get sick and go the closest hospital, you see whoever is on call, they do tests that they select, your insurance is often selected by your employer and changed when they find a better bargain... where do you see a free option to shop around, I mean as for a car or a TV set? Nearly a half-century ago, Stanford economics professor Kenneth Arrow, convincingly argued that medical care cannot conform to market laws because patients are not ordinary consumers and doctors are not ordinary vendors. For his work on the economics of medical care he received a Nobel Prize.
Oh, by the way, fire departments in NYC used to be private companies 100+ years ago. They made a royal mess of it, so that the population really wanted a gov take over. Would you like to propose private fire departments here in East Hampton. How do you think that would work? A bit like the taxi service?
Not only do private insurances make a huge profit, they have huge admin costs. As a country we waste about 90 billion for health care admin (5% of total HC costs per year) based on McKinsey:
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Health_Care/Strategy_Analysis/Why_Americans_pay_more_for_health_care_2275?gp=1
I have nothing against tort reform (the rep mantra of health care reform). The thing is, that even if you eliminated all tort (which you can not do) the savings would be a mere 2 - 10% according to you believe. And 30 states have adopted various degrees of tort reform over the past 8 years without any dent in the rising costs of health care both overall or specifically in those states.
If you really want to read some smart (and critical) publications I suggest you delve in to
The Obama Administration’s Options for Health Care Cost Control:
Hope Versus Reality,Theodore Marmor, PhD; Jonathan Oberlander, PhD; and Joseph White, PhD, Annals of Internal Medicine Medicine and Public Issues, www.annals.org on 3 March 2009.
The New York Review of Books:
VOLUME 56, NUMBER 11 · JULY 2, 2009
The Health Reform We Need & Are Not Getting
By Arnold Relman (19 pages)
You will find that these authors think we are just tinkering with a broken system and for the country to survive economically, a much more aggressive reform is needed. Enjoy!
Total comments by doc4reform: 1
Total comments by razza5350: 256
I like it...I disagre but an intelligent response.
1. I agree we need health care reform. I feel most people do. I would like to point out that Meidcare and Medicaid are lowering reimbursement which is causing doctors to drop then as well. II believe that is true that we need a universal claim form and increased underwriting procedures to help reduce administrative expenses.
2. I am sorry to hear about your mother in law. I do not about texas state laws but that can not happen ... more in NY. They should try and adopt rules that apply on the federal and not state level
3. Medicare and Medicaid are in near bankruptcy. No matter who runs it the GVT or Insurance some one has to pay for it. I am for the bucket option as long as it doesn't include a public option. I have more confidence in the free market to keep costs down and help improve innovation the GVT which can be a stagnant bereaucratic mess.
4. insurance companies waste about 90 billion a year in health care administration? I'm at a loss on that one. How much money does the GVT waste a year. We are operating at a 1.6 TRILLION dollar defecit and 10 TRIllion in debt. I wouldnt call thateffecient would you?
Total comments by razza5350: 256
Total comments by peoplefirst: 289
Total comments by razza5350: 256
Total comments by peoplefirst: 289
Total comments by yearrounder: 148
Total comments by peoplefirst: 289
Total comments by razza5350: 256
Stupid is as stupid writes. If you think your inanities are clever retorts, you should go kiss yourself in the mirror. You are truly representative of most of the people unhinged by having a black president, who can not explain their opposition to the health care public option, except by rote cliches they receive from shock jocks. I challenge you to be intellectually honest and read the 2 articles recommended to you. If you can be honest.
Total comments by mo: 25
Total comments by razza5350: 256
Total comments by thetruthhurts: 21
who became capitalist pigs. rather contradictory - don't you think ??
i do however, appreciate their right to
protest.
Total comments by morris the cat: 2
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