Rendell Encounters Rosie, the Single Payer Activist

April 12, 2007

On 4/12/07, Skostouf@aol.com wrote:
Following is background and an encounter I had with Gov. Ed Rendell on Wednesday, 4/4/07, at the Health Care Forum at F&M sponsored by the Lancaster based Progressives 4 PA.
Rosie

The panel included 2 physicians, an economist, an employee benefits executive, HelpFundPA Executive Director Chuck Pennacchio, and arriving late and leaving early, Gov. Ed Rendell. The governor breezed in when Chuck, the last of the 4 previous speakers, was wrapping up. He therefore missed the fact that the 2 physicians and the economist provided evidence supportive of the single payer plan (Family and Business Health Care Security Act of 2007, SB300) that Chuck so eloquently promoted. Rendell’s pejorative tone toward Chuck and those of us who support the Family and Business Health Care Security Act of 2007, as well as his contradictory statements regarding a single payer plan, was exactly the kind of rhetoric that gives politicians a bad name. Rendell exhibited contempt for the people and physicians but sheer adoration for insurance companies. At one point he joked, “I’d like to wake up tomorrow and comb my hair in a pompadour, but that’s not gonna happen. And passing a single payer health care bill isn’t gonna happen.” The governor accused those of us supporting the single payer bill of engaging in a Quixotic tilting at windmills. When he finished speaking, the governor entertained a few questions and then HAD to leave. Since I had not been given a chance to present my comments/questions, Rendell said I could talk to him on his way out of the building, so I did.
Here’s how that went— lightly paraphrased:
ROSIE: Governor, your political prowess is legendary. If you were to push SB300(single payer) it would have a good chance of passing.
GUV: It can’t work at the state level, only at the national level.
ROSIE: Have you read the bill (which Rendell has in the past said he’d sign if it passes the legislature), because if you had you’d realize that it will work in PA.
GUV: I’ve read it. It can’t work at the state level.
ROSIE: The Harrisburg Patriot and the Philadelphia Inquirer have endorsed our single payer plan.
GUV: It can’t work at the state level.
ROSIE: In your address tonight you stated that during a period of years when inflation rose 16%, health insurance premiums increased 75%. Why would you continue to reward these irresponsible insurance companies who have contributed to our health care crisis.
GUV: ( Not much by way of comment ; changing the subject) The health care plan proposed by presidential candidate John Edwards is a good one .
ROSIE: The Edwards plan is pretty good, and it does lead to a single payer plan.
GUV: Does not!
ROSIE: Does too!
GUV: Does not!
ROSIE: Does too!
Well, you get the idea. As we neared the door, I made one last comment referring to his earlier pompadour remark:
ROSIE: Governor, get yourself some Rogaine, grow that pompadour, and give us single payer health care!!!!!!!!!

For more on single payer see improved site: http://www.HelpFundPa.org

And now, for double-speak(1984) and Rendell-speak…from John Morgan……

Subj: Rendell-speak….single payer…and Rosie’s encounter w. the Guv!
Date: 04/12/2007 10:36:13 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Skostouf
To: Skostouf

from John Morgan’s http://www.thepennsylvaniaprogressive.com

Rendell’s Dishonesty on Health Care

Ed Rendell likes to say he’d sign a single payer, comprehensive health care bill providing universal coverage but he’s parsing his words. He’s being dishonest because he’s implying he supports such a bill when he does not. The Governor is actually doing everything within his power to stop Senate Bill 300, an actual single payer, comprehensive, universal health care bill, from being introduced and enacted into law.

We caught him lying his way through a health care forum last week in Lancaster when he claimed such a bill has no chance of being passed and that no such a bill has yet to pass anywhere. It did pass in California but they have the exact same obstacle to overcome as here: the Governor. The fact is that unless Ed Rendell wakes up and becomes a real Democrat fighting for the people he’ll never be able to able establish a legacy of taking care of the people much less be able to comb a pompadour.

The fact is if the Governor supports the single payer bill it can be passed and he can sign it into law. Rendell falsely claimed the bill has no Republican support but if he’d bothered to stick around or bothered to listen to the other participants at the forum, or allowed any of them to respond to the questions asked he would have discovered he was wrong about that.

Rendell sold out to the health insurance industry. He took $183,000 from their PAC’s and thousands more in individual contributions from executives of AmeriChoice and other companies preying on the citizenry. They’ve bought off the Governor and now he’s determined to give them what they want: a state requirement that every resident MUST purchase health insurance from one of their companies.

He isn’t telling you that part of the deal however. He’s going about giving lip service to the benefits of single payer while siding with the other side. Instead of realizing he doesn’t have to run for office again and being freed from any obligations he might feel indebted to and doing the right thing for the people of Pennsylvania he’s trying to screw everyone instead. Instead of making his final term in public office about taking care of the people he’s taking care of health insurance companies.

I circulated his petition last year and voted for him in November. Now I regret having done that. It’s a good thing he isn’t running again because as the word gets out about his dishonesty regarding this issue he’ll be losing considerable support. I believed the Governor when he told us he’d sign a single payer bill. I mistakenly thought that meant he supported true health care reform. He doesn’t and he isn’t. His words cannot hide his actions and his actions speak louder than his words. When he announced his plan and the CEO of Highmark was standing beside him we all knew this was nothing more than a corporate welfare program for the health insurance industry.

Rendell said his plan covers mental health but it doesn’t. His own proposed bill says only that all benefits are “limited.” It says nothing about comprehensive care. It also requires health care providers to continue establishing and documenting their indigent care practices which acknowledges his plan doesn’t provide universal coverage. Don’t believe anything Rendell is telling you about his plan or his support for different plans. Read the bills and see for yourself what’s covered and what isn’t.

People are suffering and dying every day at the hands of the insurance industry. These corporations are legally required to serve their shareholders rather you, the insured. That is the fundamental flaw in this system. Our legal system mandates they deny you care so they can maximize profits, that’s how capitalism works. The reason we have government is to take care of the people where private business cannot and health care should be one of those fundamental government operations. Where lives are at stake, where safety nets are crucial, government needs to be there to insure care and treatment, not private business.

The single payer system proposed here is not socialized medicine. No doctors, nurses, aides, or any other care provider would be employed by government. They all remain privately employed. Hospitals and other providers remain private businesses. What we change is the collection of premiums and the disbursement of payments to providers. Instead of these private companies in business for profit or to enrich their financial reserves at your expense, a single state agency collects payroll taxes and a personal income tax (in lieu of a premium) from individuals then uses those funds to pay doctors and hospitals for your treatment. The 20-25% of current health care costs being spent on advertising, CEO salaries and agent commissions is enough to cover all the uninsured. It’s time for a real solution to this crisis and a real solution can never be achieved unless we deal with the biggest obstacle to universal coverage: the insurance companies.

Rendell loves to talk and talk and talk about cutting waste from the system. He goes on and on about emergency rooms and nurses not being allowed to sew stitches, about hospital acquired infections and all that. What he neglects to mention is the biggest single waste of health care dollars: the vast bureaucracy of adjustors, auditors, claims specialists, actuaries, etc. duplicating each others efforts in hundreds of different insurance companies. That’s the largest source of waste in the system and the Governor’s plan does not deal with that problem. Until you do Guv, STFU.

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