Lessons from the Health Care Meltdown

I think you are right to say that the health insurance sector has made short-term gains its priority rather than the health and well-being of its customers. As noted this mirrors the actions of the finance industry where we have seen over enthusiasm for personal gain lead to the ruination of many lives across the nation.

We need to be careful that a similar focus in the medical world does not lead to a similar adverse impact - the nations health.

In this respect the HCA mission,to protect consumers — and have the authority and accountability to make sure that consumer-protection regulations are written fairly and enforced vigorous, is essential. I hope that someone is monitoring their performance. The words read great but need to be mirrored by action.

There is greater problems forthcoming to America.
Big hospitals are shutting down and insurers are increasingly squeezing the fee schedules down by two ways: reject the claim right away first and allow payments for appeal process only which can delay some form of payments for as long as 90 days or push patients to pay higher co-pays making doctor visits prohibitive in nature.

Also, Congress and Obama have not done their jobs respect to current health care problems. Public option is needed in the US. By making private insurers to cover all the uninsured basically Obama and congress have handed the medicare money to private insurers... This is not solving a problem...this is taking from a deep pocket to give it to someone else.

Government has been complaining that Medicare cost is going up but is there any accountability of any funds from medicare funds being used for other purposes??? Also medicare is a fund paid almost 45 years ahead its start use date... But, Government claims there is enough funding to sustain medicare...

This seems very strange in my view....Where is the money anyhow...stop blaming doctors and patients let's start looking what government has done with our funds!

This is in response to Mr. Potter's Huffington Post remarks of late December.

I'm sorry Mr. Potter (how Christmassy is that statement?) but by your own admission this is a gift to the industry and you haven't made any convincing arguments that:

1. The bill can or will be fixed any time in the next 5 years through more legislation
2. That the Kennedy vision that you cite can be reconciled with this awful bill

Unfortunately your post is mostly (unsubstantiated) hope that things will improve and understandable but misguided emotionalism from the stories you've heard and the people you've met. If you regularly read HuffPo you will notice numerous, lengthy, well-reasoned posts about the unlikeliness of the improvements here like those we saw to landmark civil rights bills.

You of all people should know that the industry doesn't care, doesn't cave, and how it manipulates and the end-runs they'll do to avoid the weak enforcement mechanisms in this bill. Your post would have done a greater service if you exclusively talked about the ways they WILL do all those end-runs. At least that way we have a better chance at anticipating future battles and how this will play out.

And you stayed COMPLETELY away form the failure of the president and key congressional leaders to push for anything remotely close to the Kennedy vision/a bill that will FORCE the industry to compete against a powerful govt run option. Maybe you care more about quicker results than entrenched corporatism but some of us do worry about an unholy alliance. This bill will increase and entrench that industry power which makes your reference to their deep pockets and resources all that much more troubling. You say the corporatized system is broken/corrupt yet you advocate strengthening it.

>> progressives can't merely brush off their hands, move on to other issues and hope the stars will align again for "real" reform.

This is a little insulting. This was THE key issue among progressive volunteers I worked with and explains their rage. Besides, the so-called "kill the bill" folks have done nothing of the sort. They're saying either insist that certain things be fixed or walk away and START OVER with a congressional RECONCILIATION bill and a better chance to get a much stronger bill. No one's brushing off anything. No one's consulting an astrologer. Also, since you glibly put "real" in quotes, yes, this is not "real" reform by the standards YOU YOURSELF previously stated.

I understand your sense of urgency to save lives. Frankly, your post sounded a bit like you were burned out. Given that many aspects of this bill don't kick in until 2013 it's clear that this bill doesn't share that urgency. Perhaps a re-crafted bill could be more immediate. In fact, a serious expansion to Medicare or the VA system could be implemented FAR quicker than the current bill and save lives quicker and over timer in greater volume.

I'm also saying to you that the President has sold us out. I worked hundreds of hours to elect him but I won't be fooled. I'm sure you know the level of donations he's gotten from your former industry. Don't enable this bad behavior. Don't copy it. If another legislative go-round is necessary and happens it's especially important that people like you publicly push back against him, Reid and anyone else. He's already lied that he never supported the Public Option. He must not only be pressured by people like you, he must be forced to pressure people like Lieberman which he apparently didn't bother to do.

Please, your previous words were well-informed, insightful, strong and encouraging. Giving up now is not.