Our entirely unscientific, just-for-fun Web site poll results are in for the month of May, and our online viewers overwhelmingly sided with universal health care for every American by a 72- to 28-percent margin.
Do you support a universal health care system that covers every American?
Results:
| Yes |
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| No |
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VOTE in our June poll right now!
For a extensive overview of the draft health care legislation released by the house, head here.
For a New York Times article discussing a recent, scientific poll of Americans − that said a staggering 85 percent of Americans believed our health care system needs to be fundamentally changed or rebuit − click here.
Here are a few of Congressman Rangel's most recent words on the matter:
"President Obama issued a call to action to reform our nation’s health care system and the House Committees have answered in an unprecedented way, working as one to produce a draft that will help control costs, preserve and expand coverage and strengthen Medicare and Medicaid. In the coming weeks, we will continue working with our colleagues and stakeholders to move this draft forward so we can create a new day in American health care that will benefit our nation for generations to come."
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The American taxpayer can no longer afford to subsidize
healthcare plans that have proven ineffective and costly. Just ask Massachusetts. We need single payer now and I ask for your support. With just 1% of the GNP needed to fund it, it is the cheapest way to cover everyone. No other plan can promise this. Single payer is the only real solution to our healthcare mess. Thank you.
The government is broke, that means a huge burden to you and me, the taxpayer. Social Security is funded with I.O.U.s. Medicare and Medicaid are underfunded. And many doctor's will no longer take Medicaid due to poor reimbursement and bureaucratic snags. And we are suppose to trust the government to implement another costly program?? People - WAKE UP! Why should taxpayers take on yet another huge debt? There is no money to pay for this trillion+ dollar bill. Only the truly poor should receive some assistance if they ask (it is called charity). There was a time in this country when it was an embarrassment to ask for a handout -- now everyone wants to line up for one. Problem is the government is not a separate entity that can just dole out magically made money. The government comes from you, me, and your neighbor. And we are out of tax money! Please, don't take my word for it, do your research and do not remain ignornant of the path this country is going down.
This "public option" health insurance is just their first step to an entirely government-run and controlled health system. For a while, you can keep your Blue Cross and Blue Shield or whatever you have, but eventually, these companies will go out of business because there will be this "free" option that they can't compete with!
This is the goal of progressives like Charlie Rangel, President Obama, and Hillary Clinton.
Do you like going to get an Xray if you think you need one? How about a strep throat test? How about antibiotics, radiaton, physical therapy, root canals?
You will only get what the politicians say you can get if this goes forward. Please wake up! This country is going to drastically change VERY soon. Please, let's vote out these career bureaucrats who WILL NOT HAVE TO TAKE PART IN THIS PUBLIC PLAN EVER, SINCE THEY TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES WITH Private elected-official plans.
Dear Congressman Rangel,
With the well-off having become even more well off due to governmental largess during the Bush years (essentially through a wealth transfer in the form of forgone government revenues in favor of those with higher-incomes), it is now only fair and timely for the well-off to share in the equity of financing health care coverage for all.
I commend your forthright leadership in this regard by announcing Friday (7/10/09) the determination of the Democratic caucus of the House Ways and Means panel that House Democrats are planning to pay for vitally needed health-care legislation for everyone with a very modest tax increase on wealthy households, aiming to raise $540 billion over the next decade with a package of surtaxes on families making $350,000 or more.
This is welcome news to those of us who have for too long endured the constraint of a tight personal budget in making health care coverage choices, and is welcome also to those who have forgone coverage or who have been denied or been without coverage under a privately-controlled status quo that each day severely rations the availability of coverage based on a lack of affordability and/or on the presence of pre-existing medical conditions.
Government has coddled the wealthy for far too long. It is now time to balance the scales for the common good.
John de Clef Piñeiro, Esq.
You should get your facts straight. The "well off" as you put it already pay the majority of taxes. The top 1%of wage earners currently pay 40% of all federal income taxes collected, the top 50% pay 97% while the bottom 50% pay just 3% of all federal income taxes. These percentages will skew even more dramatically when the Democrats allow the current tax rates to increase next year. In addition, in an attempt to close gaping budget deficits, many states increased taxes on the top earners this year. Now you believe this same group, a group who already pays a huge percentage of federal income taxes, should foot the entire bill for the nation's healthcare? How is that equitable? What you term as a "very modest tax increase" is actually quite a lot of money (I guess it's easy to call it modest if you don't have to pay it.) and, as Congressman Rangel indicated, will likely increase in 2013. If people believe that healthcare needs to be reformed then they should be willing to help pay for it. You cannot expect to pay for every government initiative on the backs of the same small group of taxpayers.
This is exactly the kind of behavior Republicans were warning about during the election last year (and I am not a Republican). This attitude that whenever something needs to done, we'll just raise taxes. It also seems to lend more credibility to the "socialism" and "redistribution of wealth" characterizations. Regarding the economy, it cannot be a good idea to increase taxes so dramatically at a time when you're trying to stimulate the economy and get people spending again.
Additionally, what makes you think Congress has any idea how to run a healthcare system? They can't even do what they're supposed to do competently. Think of all the money appropriated for the Iraq war that has been wasted or stolen. There is a staggering and heartbreaking amount of waste and fraud in every government run program.
Finally, the reason we're in such a difficult situation regarding healthcare is because of skyrocketing costs due to things such as unnecessary testing, waste in hospitals, and malpractice laws that need to be reformed. Throwing more money at the problem won't solve it. Much has been made about how the Democrats have gotten all the players(insurers, doctors hospitals, etc.)to come to the table and buy into reform but too much has been given away in the process. These groups got much more then they gave and in the end it will be the taxpayer who makes the biggest sacrifice.
I do not earn anywhere near $350,000 and am never likely to but I oppose the Healthcare Reform bill that is being rushed through Congress. We cannot pay for it and it gives healthcare as a gift and when what many of us really need is to grow up and learn to care for ourselves and our families. It takes away from doctors and will cost us doctors and other medical professionals. It robs those who work hard and succeed. In too many ways, it will harm all the citizens of this country. Please don't support this bill. Thank you.
Hi Congressman Rangel,
Thanks for your efforts in health care legislation. I know you want to do the right thing for this great country. Here is a link to a fantastic article put out by Reader's Digest on 18 ideas to reform health care, from top experts. Hopefully, the final legislation will include many of these ideas. Thanks!
http://www.rd.com/living-healthy/18-ideas-to-reform-health-care-now/article101364.html
we strongly favor health care reform with a govt option. seems the debate centers about how to finance any new program. we have a good suggestion -- add a one penny per share surcharge to each share of stock or bond traded. sounds so simple, but it would produce a lot of additional funds without targeting any particular income group. we have tried submitting this suggestion to senate finance comm. , house finance comm. and others, but no response. ple let us know what you think of this idea. many thanks, thelma issman and reuben spector
I would like to respectfully urge you to support president Obama’s healthcare overhaul.
Let me respectfully remind you that as a senator you and your family are enjoying health coverage for the rest of your life provided by a government run system, I found this extremely hypocritical that some senators do not thing that average Americans deserve the same coverage as they and other government employees enjoy, why would you rather have the average American to be at the mercy of privately run insurance company and see their coverage cancelled or their premium increased dramatically if they are diagnosed with a disease or they have a heart attack, forcing them to bankruptcy and losing all they have including their home, which is more expensive to our society at the long run than the expense of universal health coverage. Why do we even concern our selves with the survival of privately run insurance companies, they are in it just for the money.
No plan will work without the following improvements.
1. Pay for performance. In other words you pay only if the doctor helps your problem.
2. Have a rating of doctors so the public can choose one that has good odds of not doing malpractice.
3. Make insurance non profit like electric coops.
4. Fix the FDA, as it stands now they work for the drug companies.
5. Do away with Medicare and Medicaid replace them with non profit coops funded with the same FICA money.
6. Take the power away from the AMA to control medical schools.
7. Control the pay of specialists to the same level as general practitioners.
8. Get the lawyers and legal system out of the medical business. Let a judging panel decide disability payments for people injured by doctors.
9. Limit the drug companies spending on marketing, lobbying and doctor rewards. Fix the drug research testing problems, require all raw data and let public scientists analyze it.
10. Support well care and charge people for poor health practices. Smoking, over weight, drugs, etc.