Mayors Back Health Care!

[Towntalk]

Hospitals that are corporate “for profit” owned would be excluded unless they are prepared to throw their investors under the bus.

[ Note: See (2) Exclusion Of Certain Health Maintenance Organizations.]

H.R. 676

SEC. 103. QUALIFICATION OF PARTICIPATING PROVIDERS.
  (a) Requirement To Be Public or Non-Profit-
    (1) IN GENERAL- No institution may be a participating provider unless it is
    a public or not-for-profit institution.
    (2) CONVERSION OF INVESTOR-OWNED PROVIDERS- Investor-owned   
    providers of care opting to participate shall be required to convert to not-for-profit 
    status.
    (3) COMPENSATION FOR CONVERSION- The owners of such investor-owned 
    providers shall be compensated for the actual appraised value of converted facilities
    used in the delivery of care.
    (4) FUNDING- There are authorized to be appropriated from the Treasury such
    sums as are necessary to compensate investor-owned providers as provided for
    under paragraph (3).
    (5) REQUIREMENTS- The conversion to a not-for-profit health care system
    shall take place over a 15-year period, through the sale of U.S. Treasury
    Bonds. Payment for conversions under paragraph (3) shall not be made for
    loss of business profits, but may be made only for costs associated with the
    conversion of real property and equipment.

(Note: Nothing is said about compensating investors.)

This would also mean that companies that provide doctors for such things as Emergency Room services would be locked out.

    (2) EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN HEALTH MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATIONS-   
    Other health maintenance organizations, including those which principally contract to   
    pay for services delivered by non-employees, shall be classified as insurance
    plans. Such organizations shall not be participating providers, and are
    subject to the regulations promulgated by reason of section 104(a) (relating
    to prohibition against duplicating coverage).

(Note: Forum uses such a service in its Emergency Room.)

[Towntalk]

If I read the bill right at section 101 of Title 1 on page 3, this plan would allow illegals to apply for this coverage: “Each such individual shall receive a card with a unique number in the mail. An individual’s social security number shall not be used for purposes of registration under this section.”

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:h676ih.txt.pdf

There is no provision for proof of citizenship in the bill, all a person would have to do is apply for coverage at a participating providers office and fill out a two page form.

5 (b) REGISTRATION.â€"Individuals and families shall
6 receive a United States National Health Insurance Card
7 in the mail, after filling out a United States National
8 Health Insurance application form at a health care pro
9 vider. Such application form shall be no more than 2 pages
10 long.
11 (c) PRESUMPTION.â€"Individuals who present them
12 selves for covered services from a participating provider
13 shall be presumed to be eligible for benefits under this Act,
14 but shall complete an application for benefits in order to
15 receive a United States National Health Insurance Card
16 and have payment made for such benefits.

This sounds like a don’t ask, don’t tell situation with the taxpayers picking up the tab.

[irishbobcat]

U.S. Mayors Endorse Single Payer Health Care! Bob Hagan Did, But Bob Now is Silent

June 30, 2008

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, meeting in Miami, adopted a resolution
this morning in support of single-payer national health insurance.

The assembly, in unanimous vote, backed a resolution calling for the
enactment of the "United States National Health Insurance Act," H.R. 676.

The bill, which is also known as the "Improved and Expanded
Medicare for All Act," is sponsored by Rep. John Conyers of Michigan
And 90 other members of Congress.

"This is a major achievement, a qualitative change in the movement
for genuine health care reform," said Dr. David Prensky, a retired
dentist from Palm Beach, Fla., who helped promote the resolution. Prensky is
a member of the Chicago-based Physicians for a National Health Program
(PNHP).

"It shows that our country’s mayors now support the kind of approach
that every other industrialized country has â€" an approach that
guarantees health care for everyone at an affordable cost," he said.

"Mayors, in a very real sense, are closer to the people than most
elected officials," Prensky continued. "They are closer to the
grassroots, where their communities and constituents are suffering.
Meanwhile their city budgets are being shattered by health costs for
their own employees."

Conyers’ bill would guarantee everyone care for all medically
Necessary services, contain costs by slashing the administrative waste and
bureaucracy associated with the private insurance industry and assure
patients their choice of doctor and hospital.

The resolution was introduced by Mayor Lois Frankel of West Palm
Beach, Fla., and six other mayors from Baltimore to Santa Cruz, Calif.
Frankel worked in cooperation with the statewide advocacy group Floridians
For Health Care and the national group Healthcare-Now.

"By taking this action," said Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator
of PNHP, "the mayors have put, in the boldest way, single-payer national
health insurance on top of the domestic agenda, squarely in the
middle of the legislative and presidential elections."

The U.S. Conference of Mayors is a nonpartisan organization of mayors
representing cities with a population of 30,000 or more. It currently has about 1,100 members.

Text of Resolution adopted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, June 23:

Resolution in support of the United States National Health Insurance
Act, H.R. 676

Submitted By:

The Honorable Lois J. Frankel, Mayor of West Palm Beach, Fla.

The Honorable Wayne J. Hall Sr., Mayor of Hempstead, N.Y.

The Honorable Carolyn K. Peterson, Mayor of Ithaca, N.Y.

The Honorable John E. Marks III, Mayor of Tallahassee, Fla.

The Honorable Sheila Dixon, Mayor of Baltimore, Md.

The Honorable Becky Tooley, Mayor of Coconut Creek, Fla.

The Honorable Ryan Coonerty, Mayor of Santa Cruz, Calif.

WHEREAS, every person deserves access to affordable quality health
care; and

WHEREAS, the number of Americans without health insurance now exceeds
47
million; and

WHEREAS, millions with insurance have coverage so inadequate that a
major illness would lead to financial ruin, and medical illness and
bills contribute to one-half of all bankruptcies; and

WHEREAS, proposals for "consumer directed health care" such as Health
Savings Accounts or Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs) would only
worsen this situation by penalizing the sick, discouraging prevention
and saddling many working families with huge medical bills; and

WHEREAS, managed care and other market-based reforms have failed to
contain health care costs, which now threaten the international
competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers; and

WHEREAS, administrative waste stemming from our reliance on private
insurers consumes one-third of private health spending while the
single
payer Medicare system has administrative costs of less than 5 percent;
and

WHEREAS, U.S. hospitals spend 24.3 percent of their budgets on
billing
and administration while hospitals under Canada’s single payer system
spend only 12.9 percent; and

WHEREAS, Harvard researchers estimate that more than $300 billion
could
be recovered by replacing private insurance companies with a single
public payer, enough to cover the uninsured and to improve coverage
for
all those who now have only partial coverage; and

WHEREAS, entrusting care to profit-oriented firms diverts billions of
dollars to outrageous incomes for CEOs and threatens the quality of
care; and

WHEREAS, The United States National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 676)
would assure universal coverage of all medically necessary services,
contain costs by slashing bureaucracy, protect the doctor patient
relationship, assure patients a completely free choice of doctors,
and
allow physicians a free choice of practice settings; and

WHEREAS, most polls show that the majority of Americans support
universal health care; and

WHEREAS, as of the date of this resolution, the majority of American
physicians (59 percent) believe that Single Payer is the best method
of
securing universal health care; and

WHEREAS, The United States National Health Insurance Act (H.R. 676)
will
guarantee every mayor that all residents and employees of his/her
city
will be fully covered for health care and save millions of taxpayer
dollars now spent on premiums to provide less than full health
insurance coverage for government employees; and

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the United States Conference of Mayors expresses its support for The United States National Health Insurance Act (H.R.676), and calls upon federal legislators to work towards its immediate enactment and further urges the adoption of a process to insure that health care providers justify any increase in health care costs.

Are you resolved? Current State Representative Bob Hagan was involved at the beginning. Now Bob Hagan remains silent on the Single-Payer Health Care as he takes Lobbyist and Corporate PAC monies from Medical Mutual and other Health Care providers.

Seriously... any organization you belong to... any labor group, religious group, social or community organization that you belong to can do an endorsement.

Also you can check to see if your congressperson has signed on as a co-sponsor.

Ask your congressperson to sign-up as a co-sponsor of HR-676!
Get any organization you belong to -- civic, religious, labor,
community, etc. to pass an HR-676 endorsement resolution: Here is how
to do that via a non-physician group.

OH Single-Payer Action Network: http://www.spanohio.org/

OH PNHP Ohio http://www.pnhpohio.org/

OH Health Care for All Ohio http://healthcareforallohio.org/

As the Independent Green Party Candidate for State Representative for the 60th District, I support Payer-Health Care and the Health Care for All Ohioans Act!

Dennis Spisak-Independent Candidate for State Representative-60th District

Http:votespisak.tripod.com

Check out our links page on health care……