Dick Gephardt caught my attention last night. So flame me.

I was watching Gephardt on Leno last night and he really impressed me as a person as well as his policy proposals for the nation. What got me excited the most was his promise to deliver a national health care system that covers everyone. He is the only one to bring this up.

This nation is being suffocated by health Insurance and pharmaceutical companies who are robbing us blind. I am on COBRA and am paying $300.00 a month for Health Insurance and the service is crappy through Kaiser Permanente, taking months to get appointments made and procedures done. In fact, This exact scenario is the argument that was used against a national health care system by Republicans back when the Clintons tried to give us all health care.

I can still here the republicans whining as I write this,"You will have to wait months to see the doctor, or to get anything done". That's what I have to go through now and am paying big bucks to be treated poorly. Something has got to give here, this nation is being held hostage by these special interests who do not have our special interests in mind.

What Gephardt needs to do now is couple the emotional aspect of the health care crisis with the financial burden that the current way of providing health care weighs on American business. Imagine the fantastic growth that we would have in this country if we could lift this burden off of American businesses?

I would be willing to pay as much as 100.00 a month for a national health care system coming straight out of my check. The current system is corrupt, broken and needs to be gotten rid of. It is a burden on this country that far out weighs any other social program. These health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and the AMA need to be disbanded and if i had my way they would be prosecuted for causing countless deaths and untold miseries.

This reason alone is why at this time I am throwing my support behind Gephardt. I won't settle for the piece meal offering that Dean put on my plate, I demand the full course.

bringing up health care for everyone?

Question, do you watch anyone besides gephardt?

Edwards, Dean, Clark. If They had a chance i would love to see a Sharpton kucinich ticket because that is more aligned with my politics. But this issue here is enough to put me in someone's camp.

Gep the only one talking about health care for everyone? You sure about that?

But none have addressed the financial gains to this country if we were to go to a single payer system.

Are you saying that Dean said "Can't offer you much"? That's what quotation marks are for. Share a link to that quote please?

We won't go to a single payer system. Just admit you're wrong to claim that Gep is the only one.

BTW, Dean ACCOMPLISHED his health care plan. Geps been in congress for how long and how many health care bills has he ever introduced?

Show me who else has said that they would implement a national health care system, other than Dean's paltry promise.

You don't se quotes to report BASLICALLY what a person said. That's called paraphrasing. Healthcare is one thing. I think you could benefit more from Dean's EDUCATIONAL platform.

Have I insulted you? Seeing the type of rabid idiocy coming from the Dean camp, it sure does not make me any more tempted to partake in what appears to be blind allegiance.

Yes, you insulted me when you suggested that I am stupid enough to believe that Dean said what YOU claim he said.

Vote third party for all I care. It's not like you seem to value integrity.

I never suggested anything of the sort. You are now being dis-honest.

I'm not being dishonest. You said Dean said something that he never said. At least you have yet to prove it. So back it up or take it back. None of this, "HE Basically said" BS.

185% of the poverty rate pays 50$ does not go far enough.

Did I spell that right? Anyhow, I heard her say it.

Quotes are often used to indicate that the words are NOT a quote, but the writers paraphrasing of what the person said.

so why would he as President, with a (likely) Republican Senate and House to deal with?

Look, I like Gep. He has impressed me more than any other Dem in the debates. But he is a political dinosaur who has had his day and failed, IMO.

That after they passed the Clinton/Gore economic plan where they raised taxes on the rich(Did away with trickle down). After that, the rich were out to get the dems, they spent a lot of money to put Republicans in the House and Senate. And as you know, they spent a lot of money to put Bush in the White House.

I don't blame dick for losing the house. I think that the enemy is ubelievably powerfull with resources far and wide.

diplomatic.

But he wasn't very effective in Congress.

A democratic president, a democratic house how could he... uh, wait. Nevermind.

but we wouldn't want to give credit to a Democrat...

i have for you is: do not expect to have your procedures and appointments sooner in a single payor system, they do not have them sooner in canada. we are a nation of entitled patients and we want our mris yesterday, until we as a people in this country value justice in health care delivery more than fast food results we could not possibly sustain a single payor system here

No where did I say that I would expect any better treatment. That was the argument used against single payer system. But Here I am paying 300.00 a month(Not to mention the co-pay, and this does not even include my wife) and are getting treated just like they said I would on the sinlge payer system.

If you make 150% of the poverty line or less, your healthcare would run about $50 for a family of four per month.

SO what? No one is talking about premiums

Do you think that someone could afford $50 for health care? There is not enough coverage in Deans plan. I have been thinking that Dean being a doctor is not necessarily a good thing. It's like letting the fox guard the hen house.

Let's not forget that the AMA and doctors are also part of the problem.

saving lives and all. There IS enough coverage in Dean's plan. Look at Vermont. Tell me, what has Gep DONE? Where is his health care bill? When did he submit it? Why did it fail?

No one said "doctors are evil". S/he said that doctors are "part of the problem"

Instead of arguing that or defending Dean, you go for the "Attack the critic, ignore the issue"

He's the only one bringing up health care that covers everyone?

sorry I missed this, sounds like he did a good job.

$100 billion for homeland security over 5 years. Thats how we protect ourselves.

Aside from Kerry and Dean having an endorsement or two from a labor union, most of labor is behind Gephardt, thus, I am behind Gephardt. He has spent decades fighting for labor in Congress. He fought against NAFTA while in the Democratic leadership.

Labor is the backbone of the Democratic party. Labor is weak nowadays, thus the Democratic party is weak and has been lurching rightward. When labor is weak, or when the Democrats lose their focus, everything else goes out the window. The backbone of labor is needed to do all of the progressive things the Democrats are known for - including measures that are for working people, instead of wealthy heirs like Paris Hilton.

It's been reported that Bush is more scared of Gephardt than anyone - a God-fearing Midwesterner who has labor behind him, and who will not seem weak on national security despite a desire to take foreign policy in a different direction than Bush. I think "NASCAR dads" could vote for him with no qualms - AND he is firmly with labor, so we'll see little of this DLC new Democrat type stuff in terms of labor and the economy hopefully.

Wow. Interesting. I wonder if yo'd be marginalizing the SEIU, AFSCME, IUPAT, and CTA (very large and diverse unions) if they had endorsed YOUR guy.

You know, you don't have to adopt Gep's idiotic, malicious tactic of lies and distortion just because you support him. You CAN be among the few HONEST Gep fans.

OK, it wasn't one or two. It was four. BFD

I believe Gephardt's 21 unions represent a little over 5 million people.

OK, it wasn't one or two. It was four. BFD

I will never forget it.

What's affecting my life right now is the high cost of poor health care. He is addressing that.

is affecting my life in a big way too.

That is why I am supporting Dean, who has the best healthcare program. Gephard has had years to prove what he can do and he has proven squat.

He is a weak, weak representative and there is no reason to trust he will change.

I NEED healthcare! My life literally depends on it.

Anyone that stands shoulder to shoulder to whistle ass can not be trusted on anything.

What does your picture have to do with this thread?

on the war and some other issues such as a tepid opposition to Bush by all accounts he is a decent individual.

thanks to the 100s of billions we're spending on the war he wanted.

(Every comment about candidates carries disclosure: KERRY supporter here.)

GEP was so calm, self-assured, composed--------he had LENO scurrying and scampering, LENO ending with, "I think you are a good and decent man."

There was not one unnecessary, extra movement from this campaign-hardened specimen. He was totally focused, projecting that he has answered every question thousands of times, yet keeping on keeping on. He himself covered his daughter's Gayness, saying simply, "We all love our children," like, what is there to say about it. When LENO tried to saddle him with the D.C."insider" baggage, GEP said that politics is the only profession where people claim they want somebody with NO experience, that dismissing his 26 years of officeholding experience is like asking a plumber, "But you haven't DONE this before, HAVE you?"

The experience, the knowledge of the game, the honing of the campaign trail all showed through. He *is* a good and decent individual, but then, almost all Dems always are.

for using the word "preternatural" correctly. :-)

They've all proposed total health care coverage. Other candidates come close, but it's true that of the leading candidates, Gephardt's actually does offer health coverage that's not connected to work or anything else and will be for absolutely everyone. But it's so expensive and is going to have to go up against the socialized medicine stuff; I don't know if it would pass.

Dennis Kucinich has brought healthcare to the table again and again. He has not negleted his congressional duties while campaigning, infact he has introduced legislation to create the very system of healthcare he is now campaigning on! He is said in every debate, in every interview, in every speech: "Universal Single Payer healcare! Medicare for all!" If healthcare will get you in someones camp, then Dennis's is the place to be!

"The Kucinich plan is enhanced 'Medicare for All' -- a universal, single-payer system of national health insurance, carefully phased in over 10 years. It addresses everyone's needs, including the 40 million Americans without coverage and those paying exorbitant rates for health insurance. This approach to healthcare emphasizes patient choice, and puts doctors and patients in control of the system, not insurance companies. Coverage will be more complete than private insurance plans, encourage prevention and include prescription drugs.


Health care is currently dominated by insurance firms and HMOS, institutions that are more bureaucratic and costly than Medicare. People are waiting longer for appointments. Fewer people are getting a doctor of their choice. Physicians are given monetary incentives to deny care. Pre-existing illnesses are being used to deny coverage.


Over time, the Kucinich plan will remove private insurance companies from the system -- along with their waste, paperwork, profits, excessive executive salaries, advertising, sales commissions, etc -- and redirect resources to actual treatment. Insurance companies do not heal or treat anyone, physicians and health practitioners do ...and thousands of physicians support a single-payer system because it reduces bureaucracy and shelters the doctor-patient relationship from HMO and insurance company encroachment.


Non-profit national health insurance will decrease total healthcare spending while providing more treatment and services -- through reductions in bureaucracy and cost-cutting measures such as bulk purchasing of prescriptions drugs. Funding will come primarily from existing government healthcare spending (more than $1 trillion) and a phased-in tax on employers of 7.7% (almost $1 trillion). The employers' tax is less than the 8.5% of payroll now paid on average by companies that provide private insurance.


This type of system -- privately-delivered health care, publicly financed -- has worked well in other countries, none of whom spend as much per capita on healthcare as the United States. "We're already paying for national healthcare; we're just not getting it," says Kucinich. The cost-effectiveness of a single-payer system has been affirmed in many studies, including those conducted by the Congressional Budget Office and the General Accounting Office. The GAO has written:
"If the US were to shift to a system of universal coverage and a single payer, as in Canada, the savings in administrative costs (10% to private insurers) would be more than enough to offset the expense of universal coverage."


Over the years, groups and individuals as diverse as Consumers Union, labor unions, the CEO of General Motors, the editorial boards of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and St. Louis Post Dispatch, and Physicians for a National Health Program have endorsed a single-payer approach. It is sound economics -- what actuaries call 'Spreading the Risk' -- to extend Medicare to younger and healthier sectors of our population, thereby putting everyone in one insurance pool. It permanently saves and improves Medicare, while eliminating duplicative private and government bureaucracies.


While enhanced Medicare for All makes economic sense, it has not made political sense to some, due to the power of the private insurance lobby. The streamlined Kucinich plan is very different than the 1993 Clinton HMO-based plan, a complex proposal that left big insurance firms in a central role. After Clinton's 'Managed Competition' plan failed without coming up for a vote, talk-radio host Jim Hightower asked President Clinton why he hadn't put forward a "simple, straightforward" single-payer plan "instead of all this bureaucracy." Clinton replied, "I thought it would be easier to pass" a bill that left the insurance industry in place. "I guess I was wrong about that.""


http://www.kucinich.us/issues/universalhealth.php

Thank you for educating me. i love Kucinich and he would be an amazing President, but i don't know why he isn't making any waves. no one takes him seriously. I do think that Clinton blew it in the beginning of his presidency. We had every house in his first two years, but he spent the whole time trying to appease the Republicans.

He blew it.

He is a stick in the mud who wants bandaids on the current employment based system, period. Gephardt is proposing dumping more public money into the same insurance companies who are ripping us off. Please! Get informed!

Kucinich has an actual universal health care propposal, and Sharpton and Braun favor one.