Alter-Abled News

Thank you Ron Wyden for voting yes on the public option amendment even if it didn't pass. Here is a statement from his website.

The legislation before us currently does not offer enough real competition to keep Americans from continuing to be abused by health insurers and held captive by large employers. Without the ability to hold insurers accountable for their costs and quality of service, without the ability to get a better deal and stop the ongoing erosion of wages, most working families will be no better off after this bill passes than they are today. While I have some concerns about using Medicare reimbursement rates for the public option, I have far deeper concerns about the current shortage of real choice and real reform in this health bill. I cast my vote for public option as a vote for choice and reform.

On Democracy Now today, Paul Hochfeld, an emergency room doctor from Corvallis, Oregon was featured. Dr. Hochfeld and a group of Oregon doctors are on a "Mad as Hell Tour" promoting single payer health insuance. Why is he mad as hell?

Well, a group of Oregon doctors are really dismayed and disgusted by the healthcare reform debate that’s not happening in Washington. And what we’re mad about is that our legislators are partnering, really partnering, with the industry to manipulate public policy so it’s more about profits than health.
We have a completely dysfunctional healthcare system, that to the—non-system. To the extent that it’s designed, it’s designed to service the insurance industry and the drug industry. And we waste 20 percent of all of our healthcare dollars on insurance activity, manipulating money, and fighting over money, and it doesn’t add anything to the product. The insurance companies don’t add anything to health. They complicate the lives of providers. They waste 20 percent of all of the money. DemocracyNow Link

The Mad As Hell Doctors, "where the rubber gloves meet the road" will be hosting a Rally in Washington DC on Septemebr 30th. Link