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Will Supreme Court Give Occupy a Chance to End Wall Street Health Care?
Whatever the Court Decides Occupy Needs to Work for Improved Medicare for All
First Step: Drop Two Words "Over 65" and Make Medicare Available to Everyone in the United States
If the Supreme Court finds the individual mandate, that part of the law that forces people to purchase private insurance or pay a penalty, unconstitutional, then we say that the fastest way to solve the health care crisis is to drop 2 words, “over 65,” from the Medicare law and expand Medicare to everyone. We can then take time to improve Medicare such as making it more comprehensive and removing out of pocket expenses.
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Whatever the court decides, there is a missing piece. Whether healthcare continues to be the golden goose of the insurance industry, or this is the first step on the long road to single-payer, universal healthcare there is a missing piece. And, whether we arrive at universal care or not, there will still be a missing piece.
The missing piece is the consumer. Healthcare advocacy organizations, good as they may be, are still not We The Consumer. We do not sit at the table, and until we do we are missing the piece we really need to make our healthcare system a healthcare system for the people that use it. I know Dr. Flowers knows this. I think Keven knows this.
How do we put the consumer at the table? The only suggestion I have ever heard for doing this is the one I proposed years ago - Health Care Consumer's Unions (HCCUs). The proposal sketch is still at https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=163490327031138
I'm somewhat disappointed that I have never heard from a single advocate or HC professional who seriously considered the matter. I did get one reply sometime ago that said they were too busy with Obamacare to consider the matter. I'm sure they didn't think much about it. Otherwise they might have noticed that HCCUs are very likely to add considerable grass-roots pressure (left & right) to the drive toward universal health care, and to shorten the arrival time considerably. Who better to insist their health care system do the right thing, than the consumer? For that matter, HCCUs could be open to people currently without healthcare - why not?
Anyway, I'm hoping someone will someday look it over closely, think about it, and see that some form of HCCU ought to be front¢er in our thoughts about health care. Or, just write me to say its a "crackpot idea" and won't work. I'm open to going away - it's just that silence doesn't inform of anything, one way or the other.
my healthiest regards to all, Red