Do you have a link to the group's release?
Blog: http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html Blog: http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html
--- On Mon, 3/22/10, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> Subject: [lbo-talk] PNHP on The Bill
> To: "lbo-talk" <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
> Date: Monday, March 22, 2010, 11:20 AM
> [from a release by Physicians for a
> National Health Program]
>
> The hype surrounding the new health bill is belied by the
> facts:
>
> * About 23 million people will remain uninsured nine years
> out. That figure translates into an estimated 23,000
> unnecessary deaths annually and an incalculable toll of
> suffering.
>
> * Millions of middle-income people will be pressured to buy
> commercial health insurance policies costing up to 9.5
> percent of their income but covering an average of only 70
> percent of their medical expenses, potentially leaving them
> vulnerable to financial ruin if they become seriously ill.
> Many will find such policies too expensive to afford or, if
> they do buy them, too expensive to use because of the high
> co-pays and deductibles.
>
> * Insurance firms will be handed at least $447 billion in
> taxpayer money to subsidize the purchase of their shoddy
> products. This money will enhance their financial and
> political power, and with it their ability to block future
> reform.
>
> * The bill will drain about $40 billion from Medicare
> payments to safety-net hospitals, threatening the care of
> the tens of millions who will remain uninsured.
>
> * People with employer-based coverage will be locked into
> their plan's limited network of providers, face ever-rising
> costs and erosion of their health benefits. Many, even most,
> will eventually face steep taxes on their benefits as the
> cost of insurance grows.
>
> * Health care costs will continue to skyrocket, as the
> experience with the Massachusetts plan (after which this
> bill is patterned) amply demonstrates.
>
> * The much-vaunted insurance regulations - e.g. ending
> denials on the basis of pre-existing conditions - are
> riddled with loopholes, thanks to the central role that
> insurers played in crafting the legislation. Older people
> can be charged up to three times more than their younger
> counterparts, and large companies with a predominantly
> female workforce can be charged higher gender-based rates at
> least until 2017.
>
> * Women's reproductive rights will be further eroded,
> thanks to the burdensome segregation of insurance funds for
> abortion and for all other medical services.
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