Seems history and perspective is another thing Trump enthusiasts lack. :down:
This Day in Truman History
November 19, 1945
https://www.trumanlibrary.org/anniversaries/healthprogram.htmPresident Truman's Proposed Health Program
On November 19, 1945, only 7 months into his presidency, Harry S. Truman sent a Presidential message to the United States Congress proposing a new national health care program. In his message, Truman argued that the federal government should play a role in health care, saying "The health of American children, like their education, should be recognized as a definite public responsibility." One of the chief aims of President Truman's plan was to insure that all communities, regardless of their size or income level, had access to doctors and hospitals. President Truman emphasized the urgent need for such measures, asserting that "About 1,200 counties, 40 percent of the total in the country, with some 15,000,000 people, have either no local hospital, or none that meets even the minimum standards of national professional associations. "
President Truman's plan was to improve the state of health care in the United States by addressing five separate issues. The first issue was the lack of doctors, dentists, nurses, and other health professionals in many rural or otherwise lower-income areas of the United States. He saw that "the earning capacity of the people in some communities makes it difficult if not impossible for doctors who practice there to make a living." He proposed to attract doctors to the areas that needed them with federal funding. The second problem that Mr. Truman aimed to correct was the lack of quality hospitals in rural and lower-income counties. He proposed to provide government funds for the construction of new hospitals across the country. To insure only quality hospitals were built, the plan also called for the creation of national standards for hospitals and other health centers. Mr. Truman's third initiative was closely tied to the first two. It called for a board of doctors and public officials to be created. This board would create standards for hospitals and ensure that new hospitals met these standards. The board would also be responsible for directing federal funds into medical research.
The most controversial aspect of the plan was the proposed national health insurance plan. In his November 19, 1945 address, President Truman called for the creation of a national health insurance fund to be run by the federal government. This fund would be open to all Americans, but would remain optional. Participants would pay monthly fees into the plan, which would cover the cost of any and all medical expenses that arose in a time of need. The government would pay for the cost of services rendered by any doctor who chose to join the program. In addition, the insurance plan would give a cash balance to the policy holder to replace wages lost due to illness or injury.
President Truman's health proposals finally came to Congress in the form of a Social Security expansion bill, co-sponsored in Congress by Senators Robert Wagner (D-NY) and James Murray (D-MT), along with Representative John Dingell (D-MI). For this reason, the bill was known popularly as the W-M-D bill. The American Medical Association (AMA) launched a spirited attack against the bill, capitalizing on fears of Communism in the public mind. The AMA characterized the bill as "socialized medicine", and in a forerunner to the rhetoric of the McCarthy era, called Truman White House staffers "followers of the Moscow party line".* Organized labor, the main public advocate of the bill, had lost much of its goodwill from the American people in a series of unpopular strikes. Following the outbreak of the Korean War, President Truman was finally forced to abandon the W-M-D Bill. Although Mr. Truman was not able to create the health program he desired, he was successful in publicizing the issue of health care in America. During his Presidency, the not-for-profit health insurance fund Blue Shield-Blue Cross grew from 28 million policies to over 61 million.** When on July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Medicare bill into law at the Harry S. Truman library & Museum, he said that it "all started really with the man from Independence".**
See the full text of Harry S. Truman's November 19, 1945 address to Congress]
Read Harry S. Truman's remarks at the National Health Assembly Dinner of 1948
*Poen, Monte M.,"National Health Insurance," in Richard S. Kirkendall (ed.), The Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia (Boston: G.K. Hall & Co, 1989): 251
**Ibid
What's the problem, why can't anyone get it done???
Seems history and perspective is another thing Trump enthusiasts lack. :down:
This Day in Truman History
November 19, 1945
https://www.trumanlibrary.org/anniversaries/healthprogram.htmPresident Truman's Proposed Health Program
On November 19, 1945, only 7 months into his presidency, Harry S. Truman sent a Presidential message to the United States Congress proposing a new national health care program. In his message, Truman argued that the federal government should play a role in health care, saying "The health of American children, like their education, should be recognized as a definite public responsibility." One of the chief aims of President Truman's plan was to insure that all communities, regardless of their size or income level, had access to doctors and hospitals. President Truman emphasized the urgent need for such measures, asserting that "About 1,200 counties, 40 percent of the total in the country, with some 15,000,000 people, have either no local hospital, or none that meets even the minimum standards of national professional associations. "
President Truman's plan was to improve the state of health care in the United States by addressing five separate issues. The first issue was the lack of doctors, dentists, nurses, and other health professionals in many rural or otherwise lower-income areas of the United States. He saw that "the earning capacity of the people in some communities makes it difficult if not impossible for doctors who practice there to make a living." He proposed to attract doctors to the areas that needed them with federal funding. The second problem that Mr. Truman aimed to correct was the lack of quality hospitals in rural and lower-income counties. He proposed to provide government funds for the construction of new hospitals across the country. To insure only quality hospitals were built, the plan also called for the creation of national standards for hospitals and other health centers. Mr. Truman's third initiative was closely tied to the first two. It called for a board of doctors and public officials to be created. This board would create standards for hospitals and ensure that new hospitals met these standards. The board would also be responsible for directing federal funds into medical research.
The most controversial aspect of the plan was the proposed national health insurance plan. In his November 19, 1945 address, President Truman called for the creation of a national health insurance fund to be run by the federal government. This fund would be open to all Americans, but would remain optional. Participants would pay monthly fees into the plan, which would cover the cost of any and all medical expenses that arose in a time of need. The government would pay for the cost of services rendered by any doctor who chose to join the program. In addition, the insurance plan would give a cash balance to the policy holder to replace wages lost due to illness or injury.
President Truman's health proposals finally came to Congress in the form of a Social Security expansion bill, co-sponsored in Congress by Senators Robert Wagner (D-NY) and James Murray (D-MT), along with Representative John Dingell (D-MI). For this reason, the bill was known popularly as the W-M-D bill. The American Medical Association (AMA) launched a spirited attack against the bill, capitalizing on fears of Communism in the public mind. The AMA characterized the bill as "socialized medicine", and in a forerunner to the rhetoric of the McCarthy era, called Truman White House staffers "followers of the Moscow party line".* Organized labor, the main public advocate of the bill, had lost much of its goodwill from the American people in a series of unpopular strikes. Following the outbreak of the Korean War, President Truman was finally forced to abandon the W-M-D Bill. Although Mr. Truman was not able to create the health program he desired, he was successful in publicizing the issue of health care in America. During his Presidency, the not-for-profit health insurance fund Blue Shield-Blue Cross grew from 28 million policies to over 61 million.** When on July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Medicare bill into law at the Harry S. Truman library & Museum, he said that it "all started really with the man from Independence".**
See the full text of Harry S. Truman's November 19, 1945 address to Congress]
Read Harry S. Truman's remarks at the National Health Assembly Dinner of 1948
*Poen, Monte M.,"National Health Insurance," in Richard S. Kirkendall (ed.), The Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia (Boston: G.K. Hall & Co, 1989): 251
**Ibid
What's the problem, why can't anyone get it done???
But the health care system in the US is set up to make a profit not provide the best care to the greatest number possible. It's so expensive for the same reason diamonds are, an artificial shortage of health professionals and treatments is created then arbitrarily high prices set to make the maximum profit from the nations population as a whole. Just enough real care is given so there isn't open revolt, but there's never going to be widely available quality health care in the US as long as it's for profit.
Just look at what's being done with life saving medication right now.
Take a medication that was developed over 60 years ago and is still one of the most effective at fighting parasitic infections in people with impaired immune systems that cost cents per pill to make and not long ago were retailing at $1 per pill and jack the price up to $700 a pill then laugh as people who can't afford it die. And then move on and do the same with other life saving drugs.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/martin-shkreli-the-most-hated-man-in-america-is-raising-the-price-of-another-form-of-drug-a6770661.html
The man who increased the cost of an effective HIV drug by 5,500 per cent has now increased the price of another form of medicine.
Martin Shkreli has now increased the price of a medicine used to treat Chagas disease, a parasitic infection that can cause heart failure.
Mr Shkreli’s company, Turing Pharmacuticals, previously acquired the rights to the anti-HIV drug, Daraprim, before increasing the price from $13.50 to $700.
The same was done with epi-pens, a few years ago in the US they were selling for less than $100 for a two pack. Now they're $600, there's no way to justify this other than by saying gross profits for a few individuals completely outweighs the greater good. It's like Ayn Rand has come back from the dead and is now running America.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/debra-b-whitman-phd/epipen-price-gouging-affe_b_11915790.html
A huge amount of public resources has gone into creating the health care system in the US in the first place from baseline science funded with public dollars, infrastructure, to public funds supporting academic institutions that supply the professionals for the field. And yet when it comes time to give something back the industry as whole just turns it back on Americans. I think the medical field in the US is far worse and takes far more lives than the NRA. It's right up there with the tobacco lobby for contempt of life.
But the health care system in the US is set up to make a profit not provide the best care to the greatest number possible.
Seems to me that can be found at the heart of most all our problems. The American ideal is to maximize profits, minimize expenditures, disregard maintenance or longer term consideration. I bet there's not one field that can't be decomposed in that light.
Building trade, everyone profits from "more is better" mentality, so monstrous houses are built that are economically insane when looked at from the perspective of sustainable affordable enjoyable living. I'm helping put finishing touches on a fancy prefab house - StyroFoam sandwiched between pressboard, cut to size presto. Well that's what the manufactures promise - though "condition in the field may change".
Instead of planning as modest an arrangement as possible, folks of course, try to max everything and go for it. Then the reality comes in, things take longer, lessons must be learned, this, that and the other and stress, and more stre$$ that these good people really didn't need or deserve, but damned if they didn't set themselves up for it.
So sad. I've seen a million plus house being finished and the owner/"contractor" totally freaking out on a painter at the tail end of a job, over a very reasonable $5,000 estimate. Really hassling and haranguing and trying to low ball this poor painter that had already taken pitty and kept his estimate low. But the entitled fat cat prick thought everyone else was responsible for his string of idiot over the top choices and expectations that of course cost him more than he's anticipated. Surprise, surprise. But he was angry not at himself, but at others were were just trying to do their work and earn a living wage.
Of course, a couple years later when guys gotta climb onto the steep fancy gabled roofs, no one thought about emplacing safety hooks for easy hook up, so you gotta spend a couple hours figuring out how to tie off with ropes going from trees over roofs and weird shit like that, because no one considered anything other than how the place looks from curbside. Thinking on it now, the AC unit was placed in a stupid place and was damaged by falling ice and needed to get redone next spring. I've got dozens such stores from personal experience.
Or the snow slide that tore off a well placed but oh so cute 2nd floor deck. Ironically a few of us had already eyeballed that deck as being placed in a very stupid vulnerable place. A few laughs were had that winter, though not by the owner, but hey he and his "architect" thought it would look cute, what do the silly carpenters know.
And now I've had a taste of workers comp and those malicious fraudulent bastards and the games they play. Boy do they know how to dodge claims and make profits and bonuses. Fortunately, with a bit of tenacity and a lot of luck with getting in front of a decent Administrative Judge I got the bitches to admit to what was obvious from the first initial investigation that should have been settled a year ago. And mine was about as simple and straightforward as you could get. God Bless America.
It’s total zero sum game thinking, we have it here as well. An institutionalized mindset that, “If someone else gets that thing then I lose”. You see some posters like that here, climate change denial is classic zero sum game thinking. Unfortunately there are people who define themselves almost completely by how much more they have than others, the greater the difference the greater “value” they have. Look at the lunatic they just elected President and all the people who still buy into this insanity.
It is possible to find ways to balance individual interests and the common good…it just makes it very hard for the sons of bitches out there to glom everything and lord it over the rest of us when sustainability and sharing common resources in sane ways sets policy. They love the, “every person for themselves” world they work so hard to create. Trump is an artist at this, look at how many different groups he played off against each other to divide then conquer. Things are not going to get better any time soon if we keep selecting the most dysfunctional, self-centered and in some cases psychopathic among us to “lead”.
The benefits of creating a basic baseline health care system so that people aren’t getting seriously ill in the first place are so great within a society that they totally outweigh any claim of a for profit imperative. Instead of primary care to keep people from getting sick, most of the US health care system is devoted to crisis management and Americans pay far more per capita than most places.
The simple fact is that the people that run the health industry in the US and the politicians that they lobby to get their way aren’t interested in the slightest in making available good primary care that reduces illness across the board. They make so much money from the systemic illness in the US population that their interest is in keeping many Americans sick. This is why primary health care needs to be a strictly regulated and cost controlled right. Things aren’t perfect here in Canada, but we pay less than half what Americans do per capita and coverage is universal. Health care really needs to be treated as a right as well as shelter, food and water. There is more than enough beyond that for the profit minded to do their stuff.
Seems history and perspective is another thing Trump enthusiasts lack. :down:
This Day in Truman History
November 19, 1945
https://www.trumanlibrary.org/anniversaries/healthprogram.htm
[Clipped]
What's the problem, why can't anyone get it done???
Republican recalcitrance. They prefer their own health plan: Pay up or die. It's neat, efficient and doesn't raise taxes--the important thing. They will always vote against the governmemt being involved in health care. If they thought they could get rid of Medicare, they'd do it in a heart beat.
Doug and Citizen's Challenge are right. If profits would be taken out of the equation or even reduced, they'll vote against it.
The Republicam way.
Lois
We were fortunate here, we had politicians who were actually working for the people…not just talking about doing so…at some point…when they got around to it…maybe.
Like Actor Kiefer Sutherland’s grandfather Tommy Douglas.
To make it clear, the medical establishment in Canada didn’t want it either.
Medicare was born in Saskatchewan on July 1, 1962. It would be the first government-controlled, universal, comprehensive single-payer medical insurance plan in North America. It was a difficult birth. The North American medical establishment and the entire insurance industry were determined to stop Medicare in its tracks. They feared it would become popular and spread, and they were right. Within 10 years all of Canada was covered by a medical insurance system based on the Saskatchewan plan, and no serious politician would openly oppose it.
The same interests that tried to prevent Medicare and are continually trying to destroy it in Canada have mostly succeeded in stopping similar progress in the United States. After more than half a century of struggle, the American Medical Association (AMA) and the private insurance industry still control the US medical system despite minor steps forward like Medicaid for the very poor and Medicare for the elderly. The latest plan passed by Congress and endorsed by the private insurance industry amounts to public subsidies for the insurance industry.
It is not surprising that the first breakthrough would be in Saskatchewan. The province, which was the home base of “agrarian socialism," had been governed since 1944 by the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) led by T.C. (Tommy) Douglas. The CCF had originally intended to socialize much of the economy but, like social democratic formations elsewhere, had retreated from this position and by the 1950s concentrated on building a welfare state within a mixed economy. Medical care had always been a centerpiece of its welfare state program and by 1959 considerable strides had been made. The initial innovation was universal hospital insurance which was introduced as early as 1947, and by 1958 had been adopted nationally as a federal-provincial jointly funded program. This is what made it financially possible for Douglas to announce in 1959 that the province would be launching a universal medical insurance plan.
It's amazing that more Americans don't understand just how badly they're being screwed, by who and for what reason.
It's amazing that more Americans don't understand just how badly they're being screwed, by who and for what reason.
That is the super scary part. Some people tell me about all the protests, I don't know did any of them do more than vent steam.
Why aren't all regular American aghast at Trump outrageous business entanglements. Why aren't they demand that investigation and disclosures happen now. America always needed a President that was first and foremost f'n President. We have handed our government to people who are okay with a part-time President who's a Russian and Chinese Obligate. So few seem to actually care. The boobtube has certainly done it's job well.
Thank god I'm over sixty and hiding in Colorado, so far so good. But it's weird for someone like me who's spent his entire life learning about the full breath of Earth's evolution, human evolution and the evolution of society with all its cascading wonders and consequences. For untold centuries humans have searched for answers to where we come from, where we're going and how it will end. My friend Doug, you and I are among the few who will be cognizant of being privileged enough to have seen the entire show.
What humans don't manage to destroy themselves in the next decades, our changing weather and sea levels certainly will put the finish to. Over the 21st century should some people still survive in unique pockets where basic survival remains possible, there will still be the reality of an Earth utterly impoverished. The good times are over.
They wanted someone who can help them pretend it’s all going to be alright and work out in the end, the irony is Trump leads us all further towards the abyss…
It's amazing that more Americans don't understand just how badly they're being screwed, by who and for what reason.
That is the super scary part. Some people tell me about all the protests, I don't know did any of them do more than vent steam.
Why aren't all regular American aghast at Trump outrageous business entanglements. Why aren't they demand that investigation and disclosures happen now. America always needed a President that was first and foremost f'n President. We have handed our government to people who are okay with a part-time President who's a Russian and Chinese Obligate. So few seem to actually care. The boobtube has certainly done it's job well.
Thank god I'm over sixty and hiding in Colorado, so far so good. But it's weird for someone like me who's spent his entire life learning about the full breath of Earth's evolution, human evolution and the evolution of society with all its cascading wonders and consequences. For untold centuries humans have searched for answers to where we come from, where we're going and how it will end. My friend Doug, you and I are among the few who will be cognizant of being privileged enough to have seen the entire show.
What humans don't manage to destroy themselves in the next decades, our changing weather and sea levels certainly will put the finish to. Over the 21st century should some people still survive in unique pockets where basic survival remains possible, there will still be the reality of an Earth utterly impoverished. The good times are over.
All "regular" Americans, meaning rational ones, ARE aghast at Trump's outrageous business entanglements AND his dangerous political ideas. This is what you get when people vote for someone who doesn't"t have a minute's experience in governance and who is also a complete dimwit when it comes to politics.
Will the rest ever come to their senses? Will it be too late?
And now without massive popular action trump will manage if not destroy it, at least vandalize that legacy as much as possible. It’s like these oligarchs have made it their mission to lay waste to every humanitarian aspect of our government - oh, unless it’s to control and deny a woman’s right to self-determination and self-defense.
The ability to so, so - what is the opposite of empathy? Beside sociopathic… did regard the well being of others. And more than that, the ability to put one’s own interest so much above others - complete disregard for humanity,
It’s phenomenal watching this US horror unfold. :down:
Help
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/trump_medicaid
Donald Trump is trying to do by administrative fiat what his Republican enablers in Congress could not: Destroy Medicaid as we know it.1
The Trump administration recently announced that states could impose labor requirements on people who receive health care through Medicaid. Not only does this rip the heart out of Medicaid’s coverage guarantee, it robs health care from people who cannot work because of a chronic condition or because they care for loved ones.2
Some states have declared they will refuse to help Trump destroy Medicaid, but others – like Kentucky – are jumping on board.3 We desperately need to convince our nation’s governors that they will face a backlash if they collaborate with Trump to end Medicaid.
Tell governors: Don’t help Trump destroy Medicaid.
All Trump has done is open a loophole big enough to drive a truck through. States still have to choose to impose labor in return for health care. That is where we come in: If we can demonstrate that people are as outraged by this sneak attack as they were about Republican attempts to end Medicaid through Trumpcare, even some right-wing governors could decide it is not worth the political trouble.
Make no mistake, Trump is trying to destroy Medicaid. The core of Medicaid’s mandate is to make sure even people trapped in poverty can access doctors, medical care and long-term health care coverage. Imposing labor, which Republicans euphemistically call “work requirements," undermines Medicaid's mission. It is also a backdoor attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which expanded Medicaid access.4
Worst of all, these changes will kill people. Losing health care coverage results in people losing their lives. Republicans are trying to demonize Medicaid as welfare even though nearly all participants are already working. Recent studies prove that "able-bodied" Medicaid participants who are not working are either providing care for a loved one or are actually disabled – since states can choose to ignore some chronic conditions or mental illness in their definitions of "able-bodied."5
Right now, governors and state legislatures are weighing whether requiring labor in exchange for health care helps or hurts them politically. We need to remind them that doing so is not just politically foolish, it is absolutely immoral.
Tell governors: Don’t help Trump destroy Medicaid.
Past Democratic and Republican administrations have agreed that states, which administer Medicaid programs, cannot force people into labor. But suddenly, Trump is trying to change all that. In fact, the new administrative guidance strongly implies that this administration will authorize any labor requirement, no matter how stringent. States could decide that people with long-term conditions have to work, anyway. Or, they could steal health care coverage from people who cannot work because they serve as caregivers for loved ones – a move that could disproportionately hurt women of color, who are more likely to care for family.6
Donald Trump is leaning on false, racialized stereotypes about lazy welfare beneficiaries to gin up hatred and steal health care from countless Americans. The ultimate goal is to leave Americans dependent on big corporations and cruel bosses for their very survival. We cannot let that happen.
Tell governors: Don’t help Trump destroy Medicaid.
Thank you for speaking out.
References:
1. Dylan Scott, “The Trump administration’s plan for Medicaid work requirements, explained," Vox, Jan. 12, 2017.