The Senate is moving to kill the public option as part of healthcare reform, thanks to a minority of "moderate" republicrats. Firedoglake.org is organizing to petition President Obama to not allow the first real opportunity to reform healthcare in this country in a decades. Failure to provide a worldclass viable healthcare system in the US now will kill any real reform for a generation or more.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) October 25, 2009 “ The United States' healthcare system wastes between $505 billion and $850 billion every year, according to a Thomson Reuters report released on Monday. Yes thats BILLION, a third of the US' annual healthcare spending.

"America's healthcare system is indeed hemorrhaging billions of dollars, and the opportunities to slow the fiscal bleeding are substantial," the report reads.

"The bad news is that an estimated $700 billion is wasted annually. That's one-third of the nation's healthcare bill," Robert Kelley, vice president of healthcare analytics at Thomson Reuters said in a statement.

House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio (one of the worst hit recession-states) apparently lives on another planet... or is just so damn isolated from the 70+ percent of the American population that he claims to have never met anyone (other than Congress-types) in favor of the public option.

Us NoJobSurvivors are replying: "Step down and back to your crater, man ~ you are not welcome here!"

"I'm still trying to find the first American to talk to who's in favor of the public option, other than a member of Congress or the administration" said Boehner, whose sole recent foray into a public discussion of health care reform was a tea-party-style event in Ohio a few weeks back.

"I've not talked to one and I get to a lot of places," he told reporters at his weekly press availability.

"I've not had anyone come up to me -- I know I'm inviting them -- and lobby for the public option."

"This is about as unpopular as a garlic milkshake."

As told to politico.

Tell Boehner what you think. Sign the petition. Oh and here is his telephone number, (202) 225-6205.

September 25, 2009 A solid majority of Americans favor a public health insurance option to compete with private health insurance plans according to a poll published yesterday by CBS and the New York Times.

More Republicans favor a public option than oppose and a very strong majority of Democrats favor the public option.

Q: Would you favor or oppose the government offering everyone a government administered health insurance plan -- something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get -- that would compete with private health insurance plans?

	Total	Rep	Dem	Ind
Favor	65	47	81	61
Oppose	26	42	12	30

The poll echoes the results of earlier surveys taken by AARP and Survey USA which also showed very strong support for the public option.

Healthcare executives are well paid but did you know the CEO of Cigna in addition to his $12,2 million 2008 compensation he received the use of a company car with a driver, in-office meals, and emergency assistance services relating to medical exams,

If that isn't enough:

• his salary is $12.2million,
• he lives in a $13.6million, beach house in Avalon, NJ,
• his other houses include houses worth $435,000 and $900,000,
• his 5 year compensation was $120.5 million enough to cover out-of-pocket healthcare costs for the population of Providence, RI,
• Hanway will retire with a $73 million golden parachute this fall,
• Cigna operates two corporate jets at a cost of $68.5 million, one hour's worth of jet fuel is equivalent to nearly 5 people's yearly premium costs,
• The three largest insurance companies saved $800,000,000 in the last five years by dumping the sick,
• Profits for the top 10 insurance companies has risen 418% while U.S. worker' out-of-pocket medical expenses have risen 93% since 2000.

All this while refusing treatment. Remember the goal of a health insurance company is to maximize shareholder value NOT provide healthcare.

If those factoids do not outrage you enough watch this Brave New Films 5 minute documentary.

A majority of doctors are in favor of a public option as proposed by the Obama administration according to a recent survey published by the New England Journal of Medicine.

A majority, 62.9%, of Doctors surveyed supported including a "public option" to compete with privately run health insurance and and 9.6% supported public option only reform. A significant minority of 27.3% supported private health insurance options only.

Also a majority of surveyed doctors (58.3%), supported the expansion of medicare to include 55-65 year olds.

Click here for a larger graph of the NEJM survey results.

The other major constituents in the healthcare debate, patients, support the public option by an overwhelming majority as published in several surveys published in August.

So what is stalling a public option in healthcare reform? Maybe healthcare corporations and lobbyists and blue dogs. What do you think?

Two recent surveys conducted recently show overwhelming support for a healthcare public option, one survey conducted on behalf of the AARP by the AARP conducted by Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates and one conducted by SurveyUSA. Both surveys show nearly 8 in 10 Americans in favor of a government run alternative to corporate run health insurance.

UPDATED October 5, 2009 During the very noisy and often fact free debate over healthcare reform, lets remind ourselves who is one of the villains of the debate and why they are spending millions a day lobbying congress against reform and the public option.

• Health Insurance companies have made $60 Billion, yes billion, in profits the last 8 years.
• Health Insurance Premiums have risen 4 times faster than wages in the last 8 years.
• CEO's of the ten largest insurers made an average of $8.5 million in pay last year - about $4,100 per hour.
• CEO of Cigna's Edward Hanway will retire with a $73 million golden parachute this fall.
• Health care firms boosted their lobbying efforts in the second quarter of this year by $133 million, becoming the largest industry spender on lobbying. And Karen Ignagni, the chief lobbyist for the health insurance trade association, made $1.65 million in 2007.
• WellPoint's affiliate, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, is suing the state of Maine for refusing to guarantee it a profit margin in the midst of a painful recession. As if Mainers didn't have enough to worry about just struggling to put food on the table, WellPoint is intent on forcing them to cough up 18.5% higher premiums on their insurance policies.
• We began wars and spent more than $1 trillion when nearly 3,000 people were killed on 9/11. Yet about the same number of Americans die from our failed insurance system every three weeks.

Isn't it time for non-profit health insurance?

What do you think? Can you add some of your favorite factoids?

Click for Robert Creamer's Huffpost, "Why Health Insurance Reform Will Pass This Fall -- It's the High Political Ground."

Despite the inability of the Republicans in Congress to come up with an alternative and viable heathcare reform plan and their "just say  no" policy,  they are not the impediment to getting a the job done. The Democrats have the votes the repubs claim, and if it wasn't for the so called Blue Dog Democrats, they would be right.

Blue Dog Dems have delayed any agreement on healthcare reform legislation through the summer leading to what may become an acrimonious fall session in congress.

The Democratic Party's Blue Dog Coalition received more than half its $1.1 million in campaign contributions came from the healthcare, energy and fiannce industries including Health Insurance, Pharmaceuticals, Hospitals and Nursing Homes, according to watchdog organisations like Center for Public Integrity.

Healthcare executives are well paid but did you know the CEO of United Healthcare group has in his posession three quarters of a billion in unexercised stock options? If that isn't enough:

• his salary is $3.2million,
• lives in a $7.8 million, 9 bedroom house,
• a few years ago 1 in every 700 dollars expended on healthcare went to pay United Healthcare's CEO,
• during 2009, Stephen Hemsley earns $819,363.10 every day,
• UnitedHealth has spent over $12.6 million since 2007 to lobby against healthcare reform - this could cover the average healthcare cost of 992 families of four for one year

If those factoids do not outrage you enough watch this Brave New Films 5 minute documentary.

Perhaps you liked Michael Moore's Sicko ... or maybe you had an issue with the way he seemed to contrive situations. Regardless, one has to admit it was a compelling story. If you would like to see a more measured and journalistic approach, check out the Frontline Documentary Sick Around the World by T.R. Reid who uses his many years as an International Correspondent to produce a far more compelling indictment of the US healthcare system by comparing it to the the systems of 5 capitalist countries, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and Taiwan (ROC.)

Watch here.

John Mathson had been paying about $550 a month to continue his health insurance coverage after the 63-year-old Eureka man got laid off in October after 39 years at the Evergreen Pulp mill. 

For Mathson, who is undergoing chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had knee surgery in September, the news got worse last week. The mill, which shut down, informed him it could no longer afford to offer health or welfare programs to any employees or retirees as of Jan. 1.

Two years short of Medicare eligibility and beset by health problems, Mathson's options for health care are limited and expensive.

"There is insurance out there, but they're like $1,000 a month and they don't pay anything to speak of," said Mathson, whose wife receives coverage through Medicare due to a disability. "You still have to come up with all this money out of your pocket. You're basically left out there, high and dry."

With the recession and the expectation that job losses will get worse next year, a growing number of American workers will find themselves not only out of a job, but without access to affordable health coverage. Already, about 46 million Americans have no health insurance.

Last month, U.S. employers slashed 533,000 jobs - the most in 34 years - as unemployment rose to a 15-year high of 6.7 percent. In California, the jobless rate rose to 8.4 percent in November, the third-highest in the country, with cuts in nonfarm payroll positions of 41,700, according to the state Employment Development Department.