**Jefferson's Parlor**

A Place for Contemplation of Democratic Political Philosophy and Its Meaning for Democratic Parties.......Now with Added Social Science!

Parlor image courtesy of Robert C. Lautman/Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc.
To the Remembrance of Neda Agha-Soltan
My Photo
Name:

EDUCATION: Master’s Degree in Sociology; WORK EXPERIENCE: Case Worker, Researcher, Teacher, Supervisor, Assistant Manager, Actor, Janitor, Busboy, Day Laborer; COUNTRIES I HAVE VISITED: Austria, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Egypt, Thailand, China, Taiwan, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay; FAMILY: Father from Ukraine, Mother from USA, wife from Colombia, one brother and one sister; LANGUAGES: English, Spanish and German [although my German is "rusty"]; CITIZENSHIP: USA. My wife, who is an artist, drew the picture at left in 1996. I had hair on top back then. Now it grows out of my ears and nose instead. OF ALL THE THINGS I HAVE DONE IN MY LIFE, I am proudest of this blog. I hope someone reads it!

Support The Campaign for America's Future,www.ourfuture.org

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Kudos to Sanders, Clyburn and Wyden!

The more I read about the Sanders-Clyburn-Wyden Amendment to the health care reform bill, the more hopeful I become regarding the future of the U.S. healthcare system.

Apparently a system of "Federally Qualified Health Centers" already exists, based on legislation initiated long ago by the late Senator Ted Kennedy. Such health centers reportedly provide "primary health care, dental care, mental health counseling and low-cost prescription drugs for about 20 million Americans...basic services like prenatal care, childhood immunizations and cancer screenings...for patients covered by Medicaid, Medicare and private insurance as well as those who have no insurance."

Senator Sanders' initial amendment was to include $10 billion for community health centers around the country, which he projected would bring primary health care to 25 million more Americans and serve 10,000 more communities. It is also said to include provisions for loan repayments and scholarships, to "create an additional 20,000 primary care doctors, dentists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and mental health professionals." Representative James Clyburn intends to increase the proposed funding to $14 billion, and Senator Ron Wyden is said to be editing the bill to provide waivers for states that want to provide more health care to their citizens.

There are financial benefits to this plan, in addition to the physical benefits. Senator Sanders said that a university study concluded that this amendment would save Medicaid $23 billion over five years by reducing emergency room use and hospital costs. Furthermore, services cost substantially less at community health centers than elsewhere.

This amendment actually exceeds what I contemplated in an earlier post, and I hope it survives and flowers during the Congressional reconciliation process. For me, this would be change I could believe in: a resource I could count on in the event I lost my job or start that export business I am thinking about. I would call it a "public option" and be happy with it. And I will be grateful to all of the legislators who make it a reality.

Alex Budarin
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Labels: , , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home