Healthcare Advocacy - May 17, 2023
News and Actions
Happy Wednesday Healthcare Advocates
Please send research suggestions to me by clicking the comment button at the bottom of the page. Items in work include rural healthcare, prison healthcare, and pharmacological costs.
Highlights of the May 16th Town Hall
Yesterday there was a town hall meeting at the Capitol visitor center in Washington D.C. hosted by Sen. Sanders (VT) and Rep. Jayapal (WA). Both of them will be introducing their Single Payer Universal Healthcare bills to Congress today. The visitor center was filled with medical providers in their white lab coats or scrubs. I was glad to see students in the audience as well as seasoned practitioners.
There were presentations by the president and vice president of Physicians for a National Health Plan, the head of the New York Nurses union, a representative of the interns and residents union and a very sick nurse who has been horribly mistreated by UnitedHealthcare.
Some of the data that I learned was that doctor’s spend about $80,000/year arguing with insurance companies for coverage for their patients. Remember that there are many medical coding descriptions and that hitting the right combination is sometimes an art to make sure that what the patient really needs is covered.
I learned that major hospitals often spend a quarter of their income on staff to address insurance related issues, such as claims processing, denials, and resubmissions. Some major hospitals reported having 200 people on staff to handle these.
Increased preventive care will be a driver in lowering costs when the bills are enacted. Right now there are about 80 million uninsured and underinsured people in the US and they delay care because of cost and that increases the cost when they finally decide they can no longer avoid medical treatment. As an aside, an article released in the Journal of the American Medical Association today described a study at Yale regarding lower quality medical outcomes for black people as opposed to white and attributed a significant portion of the problem to the delay of care, especially for children. Here is a link.
Of course, the $400 billion in health care dollars wasted on overhead, per the Congressional Budget Office in 2020, was mentioned as a huge cost savings for Single Payer Healthcare. I also learned that the US spends about twice what our peer nations with Universal Healthcare spend both per person and as a percent of GDP.
Some of the other facts were 68,000 families per year have to declare medical bankruptcy, that will stop.
An interesting and unpleasant fact was that about 27 million people lost their jobs during the pandemic and then lost their healthcare because health insurance is tied to employment for about half the under 65 population. That will stop.
There was a discussion about increasing the number of providers by making school more affordable and less of a debt burden as well as assisting the rural medical infrastructure.
As soon as the text is available I will report on these.
Healthcare News Today
Arguments begin today at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding, Texas Federal Judge Kacsmaryk’s decision to block Mifepristone use in the United States. recall that that drug is used as part of abortion care as well as to treat a number of other conditions like fibroids. The three judge panel is made up of Republican appointees and the case will likely make its way to the Supreme Court, no matter the outcome.
It is wholly inappropriate for third parties to stand between patients and healthcare providers. It does not matter if they are legislators, prosecutors, or insurance companies. Doctors take an oath to help their patients the best they can when they put on that white coat in medical school. None of these people have any business inserting themselves in those private discussions. It is big brother intrusion at its worst. If you think I’m out of line keep in mind that Clarence (what ethics) Thomas has said he would like to hear a case involving the legality of contraception.
ACTION
Remember that our representatives have to believe their jobs are on the line so we have to let them know, over and over, what is important to us.
Call or email your Representative and Senators and and the President and tell them to take care of women’s health care, the attacks on the authority of the FDA, and to support Universal Healthcare. Here is a sample text or use the Resistbot below to send an email with this text. Links for elected officials are in the reference section below.
“I am your constituent in [zipcode]. The Mifepristone case is in front of the 5th Circuit Court today. I am tired of this uncertainty. No one should stand between a patient and their doctor. The doctor is supposed to know what is best, not the legislature, not the court, not the insurance company. I want you to support and pass the Women’s Health Protection Act to enshrine reproductive rights. I want you to support and pass the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH) Act to ensure reproductive choices can be paid for and I want you to cosponsor and support Universal Healthcare as proposed today by Representative Jayapal and Senator Sanders. It is a lot to ask but so many lives are on the line. I need you to do this.”
RESISTBOT (see links in references about how it works)
On your cell phone Text SIGN PFXXAE to 50409 to send the message above to your Congressperson, Senators and the White House.
References
Find My Elected Officials
Contact the White House https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Contact State and Federal Representatives
https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/addr/
Important Healthcare Resources
League of Women Voters Healthcare Reform Toolkit
Our Newsletter resources including reproductive healthcare
Healthcare Advocacy Reading List
Organizations to Contact
NARAL - Pro Choice America
Planned Parenthood
Physicians for a National Health Plan
Claims Denials and Appeals & What to Do
Appeal a Healthcare Decision
Appeal/Negotiate a Hospital Bill
Save Democracy
Chop Wood, Carry Water by Jessica Cravens
RESISTBOT
Link to the RESISTBOT site to learn more
Link to Chop Wood, Carry Water Resistbot write up