National-State News

Like father & son: It’s a Big Sky bond

By Jason Horowitz
In addition to the comments below on health care, Montanans for Single Payer co-founder Gene Fenderson is also quoted in this Washington Post article.

…..This past summer, the White House again tasked Messina to work his former boss, this time on the health-care bill before the finance panel. But the legislation lingered as Baucus courted Republican senators such as Iowa’s Charles Grassley, despite the protests of liberals on his committee and White House officials, who suspected the Republicans of passive-aggression. By early September, Obama, who had taken a beating in August town-hall harangues, decided enough was enough and took his health-care overhaul message over Baucus’s head and to a joint session of Congress.

“It is fair to say that I expressed frustrations with how long it took, but also it’s fair to say that after working for 15 years on the committee, I understood the personalities,” said Messina, who said that Baucus’s response to his urgings to hurry things up was ” ‘I’m trying.’ ”
In October, Baucus’s committee eventually passed a health reform bill similar to what Obama had requested in October, with the support of one Republican, Olympia Snowe of Maine. Baucus argued that he continued to play a critical role in the molding of the legislation after it left his committee and entered the jurisdiction of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. According to Baucus’s office, the senator continues to hold regular meetings with Finance Committee Democrats, and is constantly on the phone with fellow moderates, including Sens. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, whose votes are critical for Democrats to break a Republican filibuster. Even as Baucus has dealt with other senior White House officials, he has kept a wide-open line of communication to Messina throughout the process, affording the White House a real-time assessment of the deliberations.
Read entire story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/19/AR2009111904275.html?referrer=emailarticle

It’s Simple: Medicare for All

By George S. McGovern
Sunday, September 13, 2009
For many years, a handful of American political leaders — including the late senator Ted Kennedy and now President Obama — have been trying to gain passage of comprehensive health care for all Americans. As far back as President Harry S. Truman, they have urged Congress to act on this national need. In a presentation before a joint session of Congress last week, Obama offered his view of the best way forward.
But what seems missing in the current battle is a single proposal that everyone can understand and that does not lend itself to demagoguery. If we want comprehensive health care for all our citizens, we can achieve it with a single sentence: Congress hereby extends Medicare to all Americans.
Those of us over 65 have been enjoying this program for years. I go to the doctor or hospital of my choice, and my taxes pay all the bills. It’s wonderful. But I would have appreciated it even more if my wife and children and I had had such health-care coverage when we were younger. I want every American, from birth to death, to get the kind of health care I now receive.
Removing the payments now going to the insurance corporations would considerably offset the tax increase necessary to cover all Americans.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/11/AR2009091102406.html

Single-payer advocates kick off campaign to “buy back Baucus”

By JESSICA MAYRER Chronicle Staff Writer

BIG SKY – Montana’s senior senator held a “Camp Baucus” fundraiser here Friday and a single-payer advocacy group took advantage of the event to kick off its “Buy Back Baucus” campaign.
Montanans for Single Payer wants to raise enough money, its members say, to compete with special interests for a seat at the health care-reform table.
“We want Max to know his job is on the line, he needs to represent his constituents,” said single-payer advocate Linda Kenoyer.
U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is in a unique position to influence the outcome of the reform efforts in Congress.
Kenoyer and about 40 others who support government-managed health care gathered under gray skies at a gravel turnout just before the Big Sky Mountain Village, where Camp Baucus took place. The camp offered fly fishing, golfing, hiking and a chance to mingle with Baucus staffers in exchange for a suggested donation of $2,500 for individuals or $5,000 per political action committee.

* The demonstrators waved signs saying, “Max Baucus, the best senator money can buy,” and “Health Care Hearing,” with a sketch of the senator sticking his fingers in his ears.
Single-payer health care, also known as “Medicare for all,” calls for the government to serve as the sole health-insurance provider in the country. The plan hasn’t garnered much political support in Congress, although an amendment introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, which made its way through the House Education and Labor Committee this month, could open the door to single-payer plans at the state level.
“Montanans, of course, need to get a hold of our two senators and congressman and say they want the single-payer option in the states,” said rally organizer Gene Fenderson.
Single payer hasn’t gotten a fair shake, so far, because Baucus is beholden to deep-pocketed insurance and health-care industry lobbyists, Fenderson said.
“He absolutely refused to give us a seat at the table,” he said. “I guess that money does mean something.”
Money raised at Camp Baucus will go to the senator’s Glacier PAC, which supports other democratic candidates. And while Baucus hasn’t released a list of camp attendees, 40 percent of donations to Glacier PAC between 2005 and 2010 came from the insurance and health industries, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
But Baucus’ office points to several incidences in which the senator has voted against campaign donors’ interests, including negotiating lower pharmaceutical payments for seniors on Medicare and closing loopholes in hedge fund industry regulations.
Ultimately, the senator and single-payer advocates share the same goal, Baucus spokesperson Ty Matsdorf said, and that’s making sure every Montanan has access to quality, affordable medical care.
“At the end of the day, Max is confident that this is the year that long overdue health-care reform will get done,” Matsdorf said.
But single-payer advocates remain wary.
“I’m here because I can’t understand why single-payer health care isn’t on the table,” said Margot Kidder, holding a red-and-white “Baucus for sale” sign. “And it enrages me that I have to pay an enormous sum of money to an insurance company that denies my claims anyway.”
Kidder, a Livingston resident who played Lois Lane in the “Superman” movies, waged her protest in a Statue of Liberty crown and a foam green gown, alongside five other Lady Liberties from Montana Women For, a group aiming to get women involved in democracy.
Although some critics maintain a government-run plan would lead to rationed medicine, Kidder, who grew up in Canada with socialized medicine, said that’s not the case.
“The propaganda has been so extreme, not only from the industries directly, but from the politicians that they’ve bought,” she said. “I think it’s immoral.”
Nearly 50 million people in this country can’t afford insurance, and 20,000 Americans die every year because they can’t get medical care, said Don McLarty from Pray.
“I got involved with this, because it’s the right thing for everybody,” McLarty said.
But not everybody agrees on what’s right.
Single-payer opponents maintain that if the government takes control of health care, driving down reimbursement costs to doctors, care would suffer.
Dan Connelly helped bring his father-in-law here from Poland after he developed cancer so he could get medical treatment, he told single-payer advocates.
“He’d have been dead 15 years had he been there,” Connelly said, clearly agitated.
Socialized medicine, which rations medicine, sacrifices the elderly, who can’t access treatment, Connelly said. And while people may struggle to purchase care in a privatized system, some people can’t get care at all in the public arena.
“There are clinics that take care of the poor,” Connelly said of options in this country. “The poor get taken care of.”
That statement riled single-payer proponent Rick Meis, who argued with Connelly.
“The private companies shouldn’t even be dealing with insurance,” Meis said, holding an oversize tin “coffee cup” to collect campaign contributions so he, like the insurance industry, would garner Baucus’ ear.
As they day wore on and the clouds started to clear, Reed Howald, a soft-spoken man with white hair and beard, slowly picketed on the side of the road.
“I have a little hope in the back of my mind that we might make some difference,” he said. “What we’ve got to do is convince them.”
Jessica Mayrer can be reached at jmayrer@dailychronicle.com or 582-2635.

Activists protest at Baucus fundraiserBuy Baucus Back – Big Sky, MT July 31, 2009

By JOHN S. ADAMS Tribune Capitol Bureau • August 1, 2009
BIG SKY — Cold and rainy weather Friday didn’t deter about three dozen health care activists from protesting the arrival of big-dollar political donors to Max Baucus’ 10th annual “Camp Baucus” fundraiser at Big Sky Resort.
Frustrated with the pace and progress of health care reform led by Montana Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, protesters donned Statue of Liberty costumes and T-shirts that read “Max Baucus: The Best Senator Insurance Companies Can Buy.” They also held signs bearing slogans such as “Say No to For-Profit Insurance Companies.”
Protesters milled about the entrance road to the resort, waving their signs at passing cars, sometimes drawing honks and waves — and occasionally less appreciative gestures.
According to the invitation for Camp Baucus, the event is billed as “a trip for the whole family” where attendees will “enjoy Big Sky’s fly fishing, golf, horseback riding and great hiking.” The minimum requested contribution to Glacier PAC — Baucus’ primary political action committee — is $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for PACs.
Baucus’ staffers wouldn’t comment on who is attending Camp Baucus this year. According to the campaign finance Web site opensecrets.org, health professionals, pharmaceutical/health products, insurance and hospitals/nursing homes were the industries that topped Glacier PAC’s donor list in 2008, giving $470,000 to the campaign committee that year.
Protesters, mostly supporters of a single-payer, Medicare-for-all solution to health care reform, said they are angry that Baucus has taken so much money — more than $3 million from 2003 to 2008 — from the industries his committee is attempting to regulate through health care reform.
“Any hope we have for truly meaningful health care reform will have to come out of the House,” said Gene Fenderson, one of the organizers of Friday’s protest.
Baucus aides say the senator has been an ardent supporter of campaign finance reform and, in June, his office adopted a policy of refusing contributions from health care PACs until after Congress passes a reform bill.
Read the remainder of the article at: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20090801/NEWS01/908010309/1002/Activists-protest-at-Baucus-fundraiser?GID=ci5HzNBR6/WrfH1MdV9CVIGVM4CvEgwZMq1yIErOe4k%3D
Reach Tribune Capitol Bureau Chief John S. Adams at 442-9493, or jadams@greatfallstribune.com

Industry Cash Flowed To Drafters of Reform

Key Senator Baucus Is a Leading Recipient

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
As liberal protesters marched outside,  Sen. Max Baucus sat down inside a San Francisco mansion for a dinner of chicken cordon bleu and a discussion of landmark health-care legislation under consideration by his Senate Finance Committee.
At the table on May 26 were about 20 donors willing to fork over $10,000 or more to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, including executives of major insurance companies, hospitals and other health-care firms.
“Most people there had an agenda; they wanted the ear of a senator, and they got it,” said Aaron Roland, a San Francisco health-care activist who paid half price to attend the gathering. “Money gets you in the door. The only thing the other side can do is march around and protest outside.”
As his committee has taken center stage in the battle over health-care reform, Chairman Baucus (D-Mont.) has emerged as a leading recipient of Senate campaign contributions from the hospitals, insurers and other medical interest groups hoping to shape the legislation to their advantage. Health-related companies and their employees gave Baucus’s political committees nearly $1.5 million in 2007 and 2008, when he began holding hearings and making preparations for this year’s reform debate.
Top health executives and lobbyists have continued to flock to the senator’s often extravagant fundraising events in recent months. During a Senate break in late June, for example, Baucus held his 10th annual fly-fishing and golfing weekend in Big Sky, Mont., for a minimum donation of $2,500. Later this month comes “Camp Baucus,” a “trip for the whole family” that adds horseback riding and hiking to the list of activities.
To avoid any appearance of favoritism, his aides say, Baucus quietly began refusing contributions from health-care political action committees after June 1. But the policy does not apply to lobbyists or corporate executives, who continued to make donations, disclosure records show.
Baucus declined requests to comment for this article. Spokesman Tyler Matsdorf said the senator “is only driven by one thing: what is right for Montana and the country. And he will continue his open process of working together with the president, his colleagues in Congress, and groups and individuals from across the nation to get this legislation passed.”
Baucus’s fundraising prowess underscores the enduring political strength of the health-care lobby, which led all other sectors in donations to federal candidates during the last election cycle and has shifted its giving to Democrats as the party has tightened its control of Congress.
The sector gave nearly $170 million to federal lawmakers in 2007 and 2008, with 54 percent going to Democrats, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in politics. The shift in parties was even more pronounced during the first three months of this year, when Democrats collected 60 percent of the $5.4 million donated by health-care companies and their employees, the data show.
Many of these contributions have been focused on Baucus,  Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and other senators in the moderate camps of their respective parties, whose votes could prove crucial in a final health-care reform deal, as well as the leaders of five key committees leading the debate. Grassley, the Finance Committee’s ranking Republican, received more than $2 million from the health and insurance sectors since 2003. House Ways and Means Chairman  Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) took in $1.6 million from the health sector and its employees over the past two years; ranking Republican  Dave Camp (Mich.) received nearly $1 million.
But Baucus, a senator from a sparsely populated and conservative Western state who is serving his sixth term, stands out for the rising tide of health-care contributions to his campaign committee, Friends of Max Baucus, and his political-action committee, Glacier PAC. Baucus collected $3 million from the health and insurance sectors from 2003 to 2008, about 20 percent of the total, data show. Less than 10 percent of the money came from Montana.
Top out-of-state corporate contributors included Schering-Plough, New York Life Insurance, Amgen, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield; individual executives such as Richard T. Clark, chief executive and president of drugmaker Merck, have also made regular donations. Most of these companies, particularly major insurers, strongly oppose a public insurance option, which is favored by President Obama and top House Democrats but has not received support from Baucus’s committee. Read the remainder of the article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/20/AR2009072003363_2.html?referrer=emailarticle&sid=ST2009072003679#

Over 44,000 People are Losing Healthcare Each Week

With each passing week that meaningful health care reform is not enacted, more families in every state are losing health coverage:
44,230 more people are losing health coverage each week.
191,670 more people are losing health coverage each month.
2.3 million more people are losing health coverage each year.

Click here to see the full report

Dr. Peter Gott: Universal health insurance vital but costly

July 11, 2009

Q: All we seem to read about in our local newspaper is suggestions for health-insurance reform. Each person, from the man on the corner to the president of the United States, has opposing views. That’s not even taking into consideration the CEOs of countless large corporations who earn oodles of money while running the rest of us into the ground with their perks and golden parachutes.

Do you have any views you will consider sharing?

A: Yes, I do. I feel health insurance should be a shared responsibility between each person and the federal government. While I can appreciate that some people may not have a source of income or might be existing on extremely limited funds, I am referring to the average Joe who has a means of supporting his family. Perhaps we can base it on individual earnings in excess of $50,000 annually. It goes something like this:

Working on a calendar year similar to Medicare, each individual will be out of pocket up to a check or money order for $2,000 for medical expenses incurred.

Beyond that, the individual will be required to hold private health insurance bridging the gap from the check or money order for $2,000 up to $5,000 should medical expenses be incurred. This coverage would be reasonably priced and universal throughout all 50 states.

Read more:http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/lifestyles/gott/1661305,1_5_GOTT_S1-D9R-090711.article

Reid to Baucus: Stop Chasing GOP Votes on Health Care

By David M. Drucker and Emily Pierce
Roll Call Staff

July 7, 2009, 5:35 p.m.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday ordered Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to drop a proposal to tax health benefits and stop chasing Republican votes on a massive health care reform bill.

Reid, whose leadership is considered crucial if President Barack Obama is to deliver on his promise of enacting health care reform this year, offered the directive to Baucus through an intermediary after consulting with Senate Democratic leaders during Tuesday morning’s regularly scheduled leadership meeting. Baucus was meeting with Finance ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) Tuesday afternoon to relay the information.

According to Democratic sources, Reid told Baucus that taxing health benefits and failing to include a strong government-run insurance option of some sort in his bill would cost 10 to 15 Democratic votes; Reid told Baucus it wasn’t worth securing the support of Grassley and at best a few additional Republicans. READ MORE: http://www.rollcall.com/news/36546-1.html

Follow the money in politics

By Independent Record – 06/28/09
There is nothing simple in the current discussion about the health care reform taking place in Washington, D.C. How can health coverage be more accessible? How can it be more affordable? Is health care best delivered by private entities, the federal government or both?
They are all complex questions and none come packaged with easy answers.
Adding to the challenge of meaningful health care reform is the reality of the political process that exists in our nation’s capital and in many other seats of government around the country. In many aspects of American society, money talks. In American politics, especially on the national stage, money often shouts from the rooftops.
Montanans got a none-too-pleasant look at the tangled world of money and politics just two weeks ago, through the reporting of Mike Dennison of the Lee Newspapers State Bureau. In a front-page story in the Independent Record and in other newspapers across Montana, Dennison spelled out how several key players in the health care debate, including Montana Sen. Max Baucus, have received wads of campaign money from health and insurance industry interests. Both sectors have a huge stake in how health care is delivered and paid for in the United States.
In case you missed the story, Dennison reported that Baucus, a Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and his political action committee have garnered about $3.4 million in campaign-related contributions over the last six years from groups and individuals associated with drug companies, insurers, hospitals, medical-supply firms, health professionals and others.
Of course, Baucus is not alone in landing such largesse.    READ MORE: http://www.helenair.com/articles/2009/06/28/opinions/top/irview_090628.txt

Missoulian

Missoula residents tell their health care stories to President Obama
Posted on June 27

By MICHAEL MOORE of the Missoulian
Meg Sarnecki sees and hears health care nightmares nearly every day.
Hardly surprising, given that she’s a doctor at Missoula County’s Partnership Health Center, which serves uninsured and underinsured patients.
“You see something remarkable almost every day,” she said. “And not in a good way.”
On Saturday morning, Sarnecki was collecting health care stories again. But this time she was doing it as part of a nationwide effort to provide information to President Barack Obama and congressional representatives working to reform the nation’s broken health care system.
“I see what’s wrong with our system every day, and I know we can do better,” she said. “Ninety percent of the people I see don’t have insurance, and they’ve delayed getting care for so long that they’ve often gotten themselves into pretty bad shape.”  READ MORE: http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/06/27/bnews/br65.txt

Missoula
Independent

Free Thinking
Ochenski

Buying power: Health care reform shows the corruption of Congress

By: George Ochenski
Posted: 06/18/2009

“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

Those words, written by Thomas Jefferson at the birth of our nation, ring true more than two centuries later. The proof is in the on-going health care debate and the undue influence being exercised by insurance, medical and health management corporations—influence bought and paid for by hundreds of millions in campaign contributions to members of Congress. Now, more than ever, the corruption of Congress has been laid bare for the people to see, and a sorry sight it is.

In a tremendous piece of reporting last weekend, Lee Capitol Bureau reporter Mike Dennison exposed the ugly truth of money and influence in an article titled, “Senator Baucus backed heavily by health interests: Montana senator received nearly a quarter of all campaign funds from health, insurance groups.”

Dennison took the time to look through Baucus’ campaign contributions since 2003 and the results were nothing short of astounding. “In the past six years, nearly one-fourth of every dime raised by Sen. Baucus and his political action committee has come from groups and individuals associated with drug companies, insurers, hospitals, medical supply firms, health-service companies and other health professionals. These donations total about $3.4 million, or $1,500 dollars a day, every day, from January 2003 through 2008.”

To put that in perspective, the average per capita income in Montana for 2007 according the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, was $32,458. That means every three weeks our senator took the same amount in political contributions from insurance and health care special interests that average Montanans—his constituents—spent a full year trying to earn.

Baucus’ good friend and Republican counterpart on the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Charles Grassley, raised even more than Baucus, raking in 23.5 percent of his total campaign funds from health, insurance and pharmaceutical drug industry sources. Together, Baucus and Grassley control the committee that is currently seeking to “reform” America’s broken health care system.

When you consider these stunning numbers—and they are being discussed more widely in more venues than ever before—it’s easy to see why single-payer, or universal health care, is “off the table” according to Baucus and Grassley. The whip, as they say, has been cracked over their heads by their corporate contributors and the last thing the insurance, drug and medical companies want is government-sponsored universal health care that virtually all developed nations make available to their citizens.

In a pitiful attempt to deflect Dennison’s findings, Baucus spokesman Ty Matsdorf is quoted in the article saying: “No matter the issue, Max always puts Montana first. Max will continue to do what’s right for our state, and groups like SEIU and AARP wouldn’t line up in support of his health care reform effort if this wasn’t true.” What Matsdorf neglected to add is that AARP, the

Association of American Retired Persons, is also a health insurance company—and AARP, like most health insurance companies, would undoubtedly see their profits crumble or disappear entirely should America enact universal health care for its citizens.

It is no secret that Baucus has been getting hammered in his home state for the last month on his refusal to consider single-payer health care as a viable option to America’s health care crisis. When the anger of Montanans first began to bubble up, Baucus sent out his staffers to hold “listening sessions” statewide to supposedly hear what Montanans, whom Baucus called his “bosses,” had to say. What they said was simple—give us universal health care, not mandated insurance. A week later, Montanans for Single-payer staged rallies at Baucus’ offices statewide, drawing hundreds of citizens to once again restate their preference for universal health care with no co-payments, no deductibles, no exclusions for pre-existing conditions and no huge profit margin for insurance companies. That message came across loud and clear, but it was not what our senator wanted to hear. Instead, Baucus continues to claim that single-payer health care has no chance in Congress, so there’s no use in pursuing it. Even worse, Baucus has started to push back against his own constituents, trying to convince us that we are wrong.

What we have been offered instead is a growing mish-mash of incomprehensibly complex options, virtually all of which keep the insurance industry firmly between Americans and their doctors. The latest incarnation in this game of corporate-sponsored musical chairs is a phony health co-op scheme to set up government-sponsored co-ops that would merely add to the confusion, cost and inefficiencies of our current system instead of actually providing a real solution to our nation’s health care woes.

It is obvious that the corporations have targeted the Senate with good reason. Any individual senator—and there are only 100 in our nation of 300 million citizens—wields tremendous power compared to their counterparts in the House. Why try to influence 434 House members when having a senator or two in the corporate corner is all you need to stop almost any legislation from passing?

Over in the House, where HR 676, the single-payer health care reform bill, continues to make progress, things are a little different. Far from saying, “It can’t pass,” the measure now has some 82 co-sponsors and has had a hearing where single-payer advocates made their case. While all the murky details of the Senate’s mumbo-jumbo continue to linger in the dark, the white light of single-payer, something people can understand, moves ahead.

That America’s senators find themselves under increased scrutiny is well deserved. But here’s something those same deep-pocket senators might want to consider: A short time ago the CBC held a contest to name the Greatest Canadian in history. Guess who won? Tommy Douglas, the politician who brought universal health care to his nation. Are you listening, Max?

Helena’s George Ochenski rattles the cage of the political establishment as a political analyst for the Independent. Contact Ochenski at opinion@missoulanews.com.

Bozeman Daily

Chronicle

Serving Southwest Montana Since 1911

Monday, June 15, 2009

There Is No Place for Health Insurance in Our Health Care

Our framework for providing health care in this country is seriously flawed.  We have some of the best medical care in the world; that’s not the issue.  The problem is that the insurance industry controls health care in this country-and it shouldn’t.  Here are the key points.  First, insurance does not improve health care.  Second, the cost of health care should not be the responsibility of employers. Third, we need a single-payer system to provide coverage and reduce costs.

Do you see the problem?  Visit a doctor for a minor issue and the doctor’s office has to submit insurance claims to one of the 20,000+ health insurance plans.  Imagine the administrative cost.  Maybe you see a doctor for a less common condition.  Your insurance company limits or denies your claim. You go back and forth with them in an attempt to get them to pay for what your policy covers.  Repeated denials incur additional costs-they do nothing to improve health care itself.  In fact, health insurance intentionally limits available medical care by restricting or refusing coverage.  Maybe you have a “pre-existing condition”, care your insurance excludes.  Since health issues commonly recur, does this exclusion make sense from a health perspective?  It does not.  Yet it does from a business perspective; insurance companies consider payments for medical care as corporate expenses and exclusions and denials as a means to increase profit.  It is commonly acknowledged that insurance-related paperwork adds over 30% to the cost of the actual health care.

If you have no health insurance, you may attempt to pay for medical care out-of-pocket, or put care off until the condition becomes critical.  Studies have shown that uninsured individuals frequent emergency rooms, which are the most costly forms of receiving medical care.  This unnecessary use of emergency services contributes to increased health costs.  More problematic is that millions have no access to health care as they cannot afford or are denied affordable insurance.

Another systemic problem is that the cost for health care is primarily employment-based.  Some or all of your health insurance is probably paid by your employer.  As health insurance costs increase dramatically in this economy, employers struggle to cover these costs, let alone retain employees.  Employers reduce insurance coverage and increase the co-payment.  Furthermore, some can’t leave a job because they can’t afford to lose their insurance.  Employment-based health insurance is simply not a viable means to pay for health care.

Currently, over 60% of personal bankruptcy filings result from personal health crises.  These bankruptcies often involve those with health insurance-people not covered for a particular catastrophic condition, who surpassed the limits of their insurance coverage, or who had a legitimate claim denied by their insurance company.  Is it right to forfeit everything to pay for medical care?  Shouldn’t we all have access to health care?  With our taxes, we fund fire and police protection, schools and libraries.  We should do the same for health care.  Instead of giving money to insurance companies so they can profit, we should set up a system to make payments to the government, who would pay the largely private medical practioners who currently provide our excellent health care.  This framework is called a single-payer system.   This plan would largely do away with the health insurance industry.  This plan would be fully funded by monies currently spent on health care. It would not restrict your choice of physicians.

As Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Baucus is currently leading health care reform in Congress.  He has repeatedly stated single payer is not an option.  It’s not an option for the insurance industry-but it is the option favored by the majority of Americans and the majority of doctors and nurses who provide health care. Contact your Senator now and tell him there is only one option for a health care solution.  Give him the political capital to support single-payer.

Dale Miller, a Bozeman business owner for 25 years, is a representative of Montanans for Single Payer at http://montanansforsinglepayer.org/.

Listed below are two opinion pieces from the Missoulian newspaper. The first one, June 7 makes important statements and asks important questions. The second opinion piece, June 14 avoids answering these questions.

Opinion

Include all options in discussion for comprehensive health care reform

- Sunday, June 7, 2009

A national debate over real health care reform is taking shape, with our own Montana Sen. Max Baucus in the thick of things.

Unfortunately, Baucus got off on the wrong foot by announcing that he was not willing to consider all options. That effectively leaves Americans with only one option: his.

As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and author of the version of national health care reform now on the table, he has that power. Clearly, though, Americans want to be part of the health care solution, whatever that ultimately looks like. Some people want to talk about litigation or pharmaceutical reform as part of the solution, and some want to talk about universal or single-payer health care.
Baucus’ blanket decision to ignore these discussions is coming across as exclusionary and arrogant, but worse, it has had the frustrating effect of derailing the national conversation at a critical time. Everyone wants to see our health care system fixed – but nobody wants the solution to give us a worse system than what we have now.

In mid-May, Baucus directed the arrest of single-payer advocates who showed up at a Senate Finance Committee meeting to protest their exclusion from high-level reform discussions. Then he announced his staff would organize a series of public listening sessions in Montana. These 20 public listening sessions brought plenty of supporters for single-payer, but also many who simply wanted to see constructive reform to a broken health care system.

However, their pleas had no discernable impact on Baucus’ health reform plans.

“Senator Baucus and people advocating for a single payer system share the same goal: providing quality, affordable health care to every American,” Baucus spokesman Ty Matsdorf told the Missoulian’s editorial board. “And at the end of the day, Senator Baucus is confident that the United States Congress will pass, and President Obama will sign into law, comprehensive, meaningful health care reform which will make this goal a reality.”

That is indeed a laudable goal, and one we all share. How we arrive at that goal, however, is another matter entirely.

It is also difficult, if not impossible, to trust that Baucus has Montanans’ best interests at heart when others have such a firm hold on his wallet. And the senator has not appeared to be too concerned about squandering this trust.

It has not escaped the public’s attention that Baucus has developed rather close ties to health care interests. For one thing, several of his former staffers have gone on to become lobbyists for major prescription drug companies. For another, he has accepted a lot of campaign money from the pharmaceutical industry, health insurance companies, hospitals and other influential organizations in the health care industry.

Instead of leading a national discussion about health care reform, Baucus’ actions have instead diverted the discussion, from fixing health care to problems with the process and his ties to industry money.

We cannot forget that the health and well-being of tens of millions of Americans depends on meaningful reform. And we cannot allow our congressional leaders to forget it, either. At this point, the conversation should be open to all.
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/06/17/opinion/opinion52.txt

Don’t doom reform

Sunday, June 14, 2009
By MAX BAUCUS

Health care in America is in crisis. I could point to any number of statistics that back this up, like the hundreds of billions of dollars our economy loses each year because of workers’ poor health, or the $2,100 hidden tax Montanans pay on their insurance premiums, or the fact that premiums have risen five times faster than wages in the last few years.

But folks don’t need statistics to tell them that health care is in crisis. They see it every day on the news, they experience it when they are left on hold for hours with insurance companies, and they feel it when they balance their checkbook at the end of the month.

It’s clear we must act, because every day we delay reform, thousands of people across the country feel the pain of a broken system. If we delay reform for even a day, a family’s life savings will be wiped out. If we delay reform for even a day, a child won’t get the treatment they need to live a full, healthy life. If we delay reform for even a day, a senior will have to choose between prescription drugs and food.

That is why we must enact health care reform now. Like President Obama has said, health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.

The question that remains now is, what does health care reform look like? Over the last few months, hundreds of Montanans, some very passionately, have voiced their opinion on how they feel best to achieve reform.

While we all agree that every Montanan should have quality, affordable health care, we all slightly differ on how this should be achieved.

Many people believe that there is only one way to achieve health care reform. And while I appreciate their passion, this is just not practical. If we draw a line in the sand and say, “it’s this or nothing at all,” we will get nothing at all.

And surely we can all agree that to doom health care reform would be a tragedy of epic proportions. To doom health care reform would mean that families would continue to be driven into bankruptcy, children would fall victim to treatable illnesses, and seniors would spend their golden years racked with panic about how they are going to be able to afford their medications. To doom health care reform would be a failure that would haunt all of us for years to come.

That is why we must find a common sense solution that will achieve all the goals we have laid out. We must find a solution that will increase quality, decrease cost, and make sure that every Montanan has access to quality, affordable health care.

We must find a solution that will be supported by folks across the country. We must find a solution that will be durable and will stand the test of time. It is tempting to try and ram legislation through, but Montanans don’t want that, and the American people don’t want that. They want legislation that is good for our entire state, and our entire nation. And that is what I am committed to doing.

In the coming weeks we are going to begin marking up legislation in the Senate Finance Committee that will tackle health care reform. I’ve been working on this for more than a year. I have met with thousands of Montanans, worked with groups that represent unions, and seniors, and countless others, and taken ideas from the listening sessions my staff held, to write legislation that will bring real, comprehensive health care reform to Montana.

But we are a long way from the goal line. There are going to be challenges and obstacles that we can’t even foresee right now. And that is why we must stay focused on the goal at hand: making sure every Montanan has quality, affordable health care.

Our economy needs help. Families need help. Small businesses need help. We need to make sure that people with pre-existing conditions aren’t being denied coverage. We need to make sure that Montana businesses can afford to provide coverage for their employees. We need to make sure that folks who like the coverage they have can keep it.

The next few months are going to change history. While we have a lot of things to figure out, I am confident that by the end of this year President Obama is going to sign into law a bill that will get our economy back on track, ease family budgets, provide health care to millions of Americans and leave a lasting legacy for generations. And that will be a day that makes all of us proud to have been part of the process.

U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/06/17/opinion/guest/guest65.txt

Senator Baucus backed heavily by health interests

By MIKE DENNISON IR State Bureau – 06/14/2009
As Sen. Max Baucus has taken the lead on health-care reform legislation in the U.S. Senate, he’s also become a leader in something else: Campaign money received from health- and insurance-industry interests.

In the past six years, nearly one-fourth of every dime raised by Baucus, D-Mont., and his political-action committee has come from groups and individuals associated with drug companies, insurers, hospitals, medical-supply firms, health-service companies and other health professionals.

These donations total about $3.4 million, or $1,500 a day, every day, from January 2003 through 2008.

Baucus, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee that is drafting a major health care reform bill this month, insists this cavalcade of money is not unduly influencing his work.
Read more: http://www.helenair.com/articles/2009/06/14/top/65st_090614_baucus.txt

Baucus Meets with Single-Payer Advocates!

Today’s meeting of the nation’s leading single payer activists with Sen. Max Baucus was historic, and a recognition of the power of the tens of thousands of nurses, doctors, and grassroots activists across the country who have been turning up the heat on the policy makers in Washington.

Make no mistake – your voices are being heard. And, the protests and pressure will continue.

As Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, told Baucus, “there is a groundswell” across the country that will continue to press for single payer reform, and Baucus and other policy makers in Washington “are going to get to know us very well.”  READ More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/3/738531/-Inside-the-Baucus-Single-Payer-MeetingWhat-Was-Said,-Whats-Next

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20090603/NEWS01/90603013/1002/news01

Baucus soothes single-payer backers

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) told leading advocates of a government-financed health care system that he made a mistake by not giving their proposals more consideration in the reform debate, according to participants in a meeting Wednesday.
He also vowed to use the “power of his office” to make sure charges are dropped against about a dozen people who protested after advocates of a government-backed plan were excluded from recent Finance Committee hearings, the participants said. “That was concrete movement. Unfortunately, there was not very much in the way of other concrete movement,” …read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23293.html

Sen. Max Baucus got some not-so friendly advice from his Montana constituents last week as he works to reform the health care system: You’re doing it all wrong.

Baucus, the chair of the Finance Committee and the leader of reform efforts in the Senate, scheduled 20 town hall meetings with constituents across the state to talk about the future of health care. The Senate was out of session, but Baucus, a Democrat, didn’t personally attend. Instead, he sent staff and a video-recorded message.

“I really want to hear from all of you,” Baucus said on the video, according to local media. “You’re my employers. You’re my bosses. You’re the people I work for. I’m just the hired hand. I want to hear what you want to see in any legislation we pass in Washington, D.C.”

He got what he asked for.

Five separate accounts of the meetings, published in four different local papers, show Montana voters were downright hostile  Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/01/baucus-battered-by-voters_n_209865.html

Health care reform supporters arrested for protest

By MIKE DENNISON - IR State Bureau - 05/15/09

Physicians, nurses and other advocates of a national, single-payer health system are vocally protesting their exclusion from high-level reform talks at the committee chaired by Sen. Max Baucus – and getting arrested while doing it.

“If you asked me a few weeks ago if I’d be arrested, I never would have dreamed that,” said Dr. Margaret Flowers of Sparks, Md. “But it became clear that (Baucus and his colleagues) wouldn’t give us a seat at the table, no matter what we did, so we had to have our voice heard somehow.”

Flowers was among eight people arrested last week as they protested before the Senate Finance Committee, which is preparing to craft major health-reform legislation.

On Tuesday, five more people were arrested at a Finance Committee meeting… Read more: http://helenair.com/articles/2009/05/15/top/80st_090515_healthcare.txt

Single-Payer in the News

The press is responding to the populous support for single-payer. Both Bill Moyers Journal and Diane Rehm covered single-payer on their recent shows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVPt7j1jR4U

The Chicago Sun Times on single-payer here:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/terry/1573936,CST-EDT-terry14.article

Contacting main stream media outlets and demanding coverage of single-payer is working. Keep up the great work.

Doctors protest exclusion of single-payer at Senate Finance Committee

After many attempts to get a representative of single-payer at the table of the Senate Finance Committee Roundtable on health care reform, several doctors attended the meeting to ask why Chairman Baucus would not allow a single-payer representative to have a voice in his committee. Senator Baucus’s response was to have the police arrest the doctors and have them removed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zOShsL4UJo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQtq0e4N2Dg&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5vhTtxad30&NR=1

MSNBC:  Why is Single-Payer Not at the Table?
(May 7, 2009)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30629823#30629823

Montanans for Single-Payer in the News

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2009/04/26/news/state/27-health.txt

http://www.clarkforkchronicle.com/article.php/20090422085538908

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/04/27/news/mtregional/news07.txt

Why is Single Payer System not being Considered?

http://billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/12/01/news/state/35-why.txt