For all the political and economic uncertainties about health reform, at least one thing seems clear: The bill that President Obama signed on Tuesday is the federal government's biggest attack on economic inequality since inequality began rising more than three decades ago.
Over most of that period, government policy and market forces have been moving in the same direction, both increasing inequality. The pretax incomes of the wealthy have soared since the late 1970s, while their tax rates have fallen more than rates for the middle class and poor.
"House Republicans have a "plan" to reform gov't top-to-bottom but won't disclose it until Gov. Nixon stands with them to announce it."
Considering that the Republicans think that removing campaign donation limits increases openness in elections, who knows what they could do with reforming the Missouri State Government.
This would be courtesy if the plan can be checked out by both sides before agreeing to an announcement. But keeping a Government reform plan under wraps seems suspicious.
A report released Thursday entitled, "Lives on the Line: The Deadly Cost of Delaying Health Reform," sheds light on the real moral issue at the heart of America's national debate on health care: people needlessly dying because they don't have access to preventive or primary medical care.
At a current rate of 68 deaths each and every day, the Families USA report cautions that without immediate action on health care reform, the body count will grow to a shocking 84 people a day in 2019: this is over 30,000 dead each year; a far more conservative estimate than the well-known Harvard study claiming 45,000 unnecessary deaths are happening each year.
Bottom line: not only are we facing an economic emergency in regard to our need for health care reform, but with this level of inhumanity and carnage associated with the status quo, for political actors to not face this head-on shows a certain moral depravity and unwillingness to break out of a political death spiral. As Republicans dissembled at the summit, they continued on their way down.
The President explains that while he continues to focus on jobs, it is also profoundly important to address the problems that created this economic mess in the first place. He commends the House of Representatives for passing reforms to our financial system, including a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, and blasts Republican Leaders and financial industry lobbyists for their joint "pep rally" to defeat it.
Let's take a look at how members of the House from Missouri voted on the bill:
FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 968
(Democrats in roman; Republicans in italic; Independents underlined)
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius held a conference call on health care reform for regional media early this afternoon. Part of the purpose of the conference call was to promote reports released by HHS on the status quo of health care in each of the fifty states. After her opening remarks Secretary Sebelius took questions from media in on the conference call.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius: Good afternoon everybody. And, um, I appreciate you joining us today. Um, as you know, here in Washington people are working hard to push forward health reform and we know that there's some urgency about this from citizens across this country.
Um, since two thousand health insurance premiums have doubled and health care premiums are growing three times faster than wages. But unfortunately quality of care is going down as those costs continue to rise. So, even with, for people who have, uh, access to health care, uh, all it takes is a stroke of bad luck to become one of the nearly forty-six million uninsured or the millions who have health care and are having trouble affording it.
Today, uh, at the Department of Health and Human Services we've released fifty new reports on the health care status quo in every state around the country. The new reports are available on our web site, www.healthreform.gov. And they pretty clearly outline the challenges that we have. Um, the reports include statistics on the percentage of residents in each state without insurance, the increase in the costs of premiums, and the overall quality for health care in each state. And they use some of the most current data available.
Uh, unfortunately the reports are a clear demonstration that there are problems with health care in every state. Whether they're rural, urban, East coast, West coast, it really doesn't matter. The health crisis impacts all of America. The additional reports out today are from our Agency for Health Research and Quality. And frankly states get a pretty mixed review for the quality of care they provide.
Uh, these are more than just numbers and facts, more than statistics on a page. They represent real people and families in states across the country who are struggling. Uh, what we know is every day in America families are being crushed by the high cost of health care that threatens their financial stability, leaves them exposed to higher premiums and deductibles, and puts them at risk for possible loss of health insurance as employers struggle to provide adequate health coverage.
So now Americans are demanding reform that protects what works and fixes what's broken. And in Congress, um, a number of members of the House and Senators from both sides of the aisle are working hard to make reform a reality. We were encouraged that just yesterday a bipartisan group of leading Senators, including the top Democrat and the top Republican on the Finance Committee, Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley, recommitted to working together on health reform this year.
So I'm confident that we are gonna get a bill passed and to the President's desk. And the statistics that we're releasing today should help to inform people about the serious challenges that we face and why we can't wait for reform to happen.
Um, again the reports are on our web site healthreform.gov. And they are a state by state look at what's going on in quality and cost. So with that I'd, I'd be willing to, um, answer some questions. I think we have about...
