No Debating Congress' Lavish Health Care
A woman uses an ATM cash point machine at a branch of the Bankia bank in Madrid, Wednesday, June 6, 2012. The Spanish economy is in recession for the second time in three years as the damage from a housing bust persists. Foreclosures are rising, Spain's banks are in worse financial shape and the government's deficit is hitting worrisome levels. The impact of the budget cuts has been brutal and unemployment has swelled to nearly 25 percent. Among people under age 25 it is a staggering 52 percent . (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza) / Daniel Ochoa de Olza
As members of Congress debate a "public option" for health care coverage, they remain safe and secure in their own generous health plan.
CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports it's subsidized by millions of your tax dollars annually. The government doesn't even keep track the total cost.
What exactly does Congress get? Sen. Lindsey Graham agreed to show CBS News first hand, flashing his Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance card.
Blue Cross Blue Shield is one of five plans offered to members of Congress. Most Americans, 74 percent are offered only one plan - if their employer offers insurance at all.
And members of Congress earn $174,000 a year - triple the income of the average working-age household. Yet their premiums are about the same.
Special Report: Health Care Reform
For them, there's no coverage limit - a major factor for the American families bankrupted or thrown into poverty by health care costs.
Pre-existing conditions? No problem for congressmen and women. The rest of us are out of luck.
And the elected officials get still more perks most Americans can only dream of. Got a cold? You probably have to take time off work and wait to see a doctor.
Not Congress.
"We're able to access that health care 24 hours a day when we're in Washington," Graham said, leading us to the Attending Physician's Office, a clinic inside the U.S. Capitol. They don't even have to leave the office.
About half of the members of Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, use the Attending Physician benefit. For $42 a month, they can get all the primary care they need - physical therapy, X-rays, minor surgery, specialists and a pharmacy for emergencies - no appointment needed.
They also get VIP hospital treatment from the best doctors at Bethesda Naval Hospital. And they have a reserved spot at the elite Ward 72 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where the late Sen. Strom Thurmond spent a lot of time.
Outpatient care is free. Well, free for them. Your tax dollars pick up the cost.
Graham says in the current climate, it's just not fair.
"If we pass a law that says a public option will be made available, I think people like myself should get out of this plan and go into the public option," he said.
That's unlikely. Congress has voted down all proposals that would switch them to a public option.
Even if you're mad enough to vote out your representatives, they still won't have to stress over health care. Their plan is portable. Until Medicare kicks in, they can keep the generous coverage for themselves and their families at the same low cost, still subsidized by your tax dollars.
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports it's subsidized by millions of your tax dollars annually. The government doesn't even keep track the total cost.
What exactly does Congress get? Sen. Lindsey Graham agreed to show CBS News first hand, flashing his Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance card.
Blue Cross Blue Shield is one of five plans offered to members of Congress. Most Americans, 74 percent are offered only one plan - if their employer offers insurance at all.
And members of Congress earn $174,000 a year - triple the income of the average working-age household. Yet their premiums are about the same.
Special Report: Health Care Reform
For them, there's no coverage limit - a major factor for the American families bankrupted or thrown into poverty by health care costs.
Pre-existing conditions? No problem for congressmen and women. The rest of us are out of luck.
And the elected officials get still more perks most Americans can only dream of. Got a cold? You probably have to take time off work and wait to see a doctor.
Not Congress.
"We're able to access that health care 24 hours a day when we're in Washington," Graham said, leading us to the Attending Physician's Office, a clinic inside the U.S. Capitol. They don't even have to leave the office.
About half of the members of Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, use the Attending Physician benefit. For $42 a month, they can get all the primary care they need - physical therapy, X-rays, minor surgery, specialists and a pharmacy for emergencies - no appointment needed.
They also get VIP hospital treatment from the best doctors at Bethesda Naval Hospital. And they have a reserved spot at the elite Ward 72 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where the late Sen. Strom Thurmond spent a lot of time.
Outpatient care is free. Well, free for them. Your tax dollars pick up the cost.
Graham says in the current climate, it's just not fair.
"If we pass a law that says a public option will be made available, I think people like myself should get out of this plan and go into the public option," he said.
That's unlikely. Congress has voted down all proposals that would switch them to a public option.
Even if you're mad enough to vote out your representatives, they still won't have to stress over health care. Their plan is portable. Until Medicare kicks in, they can keep the generous coverage for themselves and their families at the same low cost, still subsidized by your tax dollars.
But it always amazes me that Americans mistake Health Care for Health Insurance. The two are poles apart. Health Care is the delivery of actual medical care. Health Insurance is nothing more than a lottery; you are not paying for the delivery of a service but instead purchasing the possibility that the insurance company (after taking a substantial profit, of course) might pay for some of your medical bills. One is a service, the other is a profit-taking corporation who certainly doesn?t have the interest of the patient as its bottom line. Seems pretty hard to confuse the two. Yet in his attempt to reform America?s Health Care system, that?s exactly what President Obama has done.
Obama has not only let the insurance corporations set the terms of the debate, he?s invited them to the table. And not unpredictably, the result is a Health Care Reform bill that does not serve the interests of the American people or their health. The bill that has currently escaped the Senate Finance Committee is worse than useless. It takes a discussion of America?s health care needs and turns it into a wrangle over corporate monopoly. It is a sop to the insurance companies and a burden to those it was meant to help. And without the ?public? plan option, the Health Care Reform bill is meaningless, because it simply doesn?t address what?s actually broken in the American Health Care System: for decades, decisions about the health of Americans have been at the mercy of out of control profit-taking corporations.
What?s broken about the American Health Care System is that American does not have a not-for-profit system that delivers medical services to all its citizens, and that is responsible to those citizens, not to a board of investors whose sole motivation is corporate greed. What?s broken about the American Health Care System is that it doesn?t have one. What America has is a number of companies that prey on its citizens in their hour of desperate need, and Obama?s current Health Care Reform Bill doesn?t change that.
In the film, ?The American President?, there is a telling exchange between two of the characters over a crime bill the Chief Executive has just sent to the floor:
President: ?Government is choosing, government is prioritizing; I made no secret of the fact the Crime Bill was my top priority.?
Sydney: ?Well then, congratulations! It?s only taken you three years to put together crime prevention legislation that has no hope of preventing crime!?
President: ?Sid, please, I don?t wanna lose you over this.?
Sydney: ?Mr. President, you got bigger problems than losing me. You just lost my vote.?
Congratulations, President Obama. You have just put together Health Care Reform legislation that has no hope of delivering Health Care to the American people. And, Mr. President, you?ve just lost my vote.
If the politicians worked for minimum wage you can bet there would be alot less career politicians ! I say computerize the government and run it by the people via electronic computer votes , not by biased greedy political salesmen !
How does an entity that doesn't produce anything justify the expense? Oh, thats right, it's for the public; it's for the greater good; it's for health and safty; it's for stealing from some and giving to others. I don't know you, I am sure I can do without 80-90% of my so-called government, can you?
Give me a plan that I can afford WITH a public option. Government employees get a public option. Who do you think pays for their plan? Me, the public. I want the same thing.
We are seeing a surgeon on Monday for my 14 year old son. I will have to pay every dime of his surgery. Without a doubt it will take me years to pay off. Meanwhile, my taxes will continue to help fund their public option.
I'm just saying.
Then go to Healthcare-now.org to support healthcare reform. They make it easy to get involved and contact congress. NOW is the time to get involved! Everyone that is complaining here needs to let Congress hear their voice. They are voting on this now. Please get involved.