Web Business Blogger for ShoppingMallDC.com! It's packed full of Business Newsletters & Political advice!

Monday, November 9, 2009

Voices from Vermont and America

 

Issue June 30, 2009 - http://sanders.senate.gov

VOICES FROM VERMONT AND AMERICA

Our current private health insurance system is the most costly, wasteful, complicated and bureaucratic in the world. Dr. Susan Leigh Deppe of Colchester, Vt., speaks from firsthand experience. "It is inexcusable that over 30 percent of our health care dollar is wasted on bureaucracy," she wrote to Bernie. "It is tragic and wrong that over 20,000 Americans die each year and many more are injured and bankrupted because they lack insurance..." Theresa from Eagle, Idaho, spoke of her sad personal experience. "I can tell you a story about a beautiful, intelligent, hard working small business owner who died because she couldn't afford to buy health insurance. I will never forgive my county for allowing the greed of the insurance companies to limit her opportunity for preventable health care." Those were among thousands of e-mails about health care in America that, as the senator put it, "just hit you in the gut." Read more letters to Bernie here.

Health Care for All "Most Americans understand that our current health care system is disintegrating. Today, 46 million Americans have absolutely no health insurance, and even more are underinsured, with high deductibles and high copayments," Sanders said in a major Senate floor speech. "At a time when 60 million people, including many with insurance, do not have access to a doctor of their own, close to 20,000 Americans die every single year from preventable illnesses because they do not get to a doctor when they should." To read the entire floor statement on health care, click here.

The Public Option More than 38,000 of you have signed our online petition supporting a national single-payer system. Thank you. While that idea is considered radical in Washington, at the very least a public option like Medicare for everyone should be available to compete with private insurance companies. In Washington, there's even a big debate about that. Outside the beltway, it's a no brainer. A New York Times/CBS News poll found that 72 percent supported a government-administered plan like Medicare for those under 65. To read about the poll, click here.

Oil Prices There is mounting evidence that a year-long run-up in oil prices – and gasoline pump prices – has little to do with the fundamentals of supply and demand and everything to do with excessive speculation by some of the same Wall Street firms that received the largest taxpayer bailout in the history of the world. "They're back!" Sanders warned. He is the chief sponsor of a bill to make federal regulators use emergency powers to prevent speculators from artificially jacking up oil prices. To read more, click here.

Rx Drug Prices The high cost of prescription drugs and the huge gap in Medicare coverage for medicine for seniors should be addressed in health care reform. Sanders wants to close the gap popularly known as the doughnut hole. "Seniors simply cannot afford to pay the 100 percent of prescription drug costs that occur when they spend over $2,700 a year on prescription drugs," he said. "In my view, Medicare must negotiate lower drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry and use those savings to fill the doughnut hole."

Fraud and Abuse At a Senate hearing, Sanders recited example after example of fraud by private insurance companies, drug companies, and for-profit hospitals. Any serious health care reform, he said, must deal with the way corporations have bilked consumers and taxpayers out of billions of dollars. "What we have seen is the systemic fraud perpetrated by private insurance companies, private drug companies, and private for-profit hospitals ripping off the American people to the tune of many billions of dollars," Sanders said. To read the list, click here. To watch Bernie at the hearing, click here.

New Rules President Obama has proposed sweeping new rules for the nation's financial system. Sanders was among a group of senators – Newsweek dubbed them "The Insurgents" – who met with Obama to press for strong regulations. "Our current fundamentally broken system led us to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression," Sanders said. "While the president's plan is a step in the right direction, we should do even more to make sure the financial mess we are in today never happens again." To read the Newsweek article, click here.  

Please do not respond to this email, it is not a monitored email address. If you would like to send Senator Sanders a comment click here.

You are subscribed to Senator Sanders regular newsletter.

Vermont Teddy Bear

Followers