How Would Terrorist Reform Health Care? Would They Be Happy With 44,789 Dead Per Year?

by: Hillbilly

Tue Oct 20, 2009 at 00:08:28 AM EDT

Opinion
I'm not a terrorist, nor do I know how a terrorist thinks so putting myself in terrorist shoes and attempting to think like one may be flawed, but I can't help but think terrorist wouldn't change a thing with our current health care system. Let me make my case:
Terrorist like to kill folks. Mission accomplished. It's estimated that lack of health insurance causes 44,789 deaths annually and I suggest if we leave things like they are the death toll will surely rise.

Harvard Science
Nearly 45,000 annual deaths are associated with lack of health insurance, according to a new study published online today by the American Journal of Public Health. That figure is about two and a half times higher than an estimate from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2002.

Terrorist like to inflict misery and pain. Mission accomplished. Sixty-two percent of all bankruptcies filed in 2007 were linked to medical expenses.

Washington Post
Sixty-two percent of all bankruptcies filed in 2007 were linked to medical expenses, according to a nationwide study released today by the American Journal of Medicine. That's nearly 20 percentage points higher than that pool of respondents reported were connected to medical costs in 2001.
Of those who filed for bankruptcy in 2007, nearly 80 percent had health insurance. Respondents who reported having insurance indicated average expenses of just under $18,000. Respondents who filed and lacked insurance had average medical bills of nearly $27,000.

CNN
In a CNN interview with bin Laden in 1997, he said the ongoing U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia is an "occupation of the land of the holy places."
He left Saudi Arabia in 1991 after feuding with the Saudi monarchy, taking assets that had grown to an estimated $250 million with him, U.S. officials say.

Jay Rockefeller Roll Call
Insurance companies have seen their profits soar by more than 400 percent since 2001, while premiums for consumers have doubled. Right now, the insurance industry is profit-driven when it should be patient-driven.

Politifact
The researchers found that the collective profits of these insurance companies rose from $2.41 billion in 2001 to $12.87 billion in 2007 — a 466 percent increase, meaning that, over that period of time, Rockefeller would be right.

Forbes
David B Snow Jr  CEO Medco Health, $21.76 million, 5-Year Compensation Total $36.29 million.
Dale B Wolf CEO Coventry Health Care, $20.86 million, 5-Year Compensation Total $61.91 million. 
Michael B McCallister CEO Humana, $20.06 million, 5-Year Compensation Total $60.64 million. 
Ronald A Williams CEO Aetna $8.88 million.
Trevor Fetter CEO Tenet Healthcare $5.80 million, 5-Year Compensation Total $19.08 million. 
Stephen J Hemsley CEO UnitedHealth $4.00 million.
John H Hammergren CEO McKesson $44.91 million, 5-Year Compensation Total $94.59 million.
Miles D White CEO  Abbott Laboratories $44.76 million, 5-Year Compensation Total $76.47 million. 
William C Weldon CEO Johnson & Johnson $15.41 million, 5-Year Compensation Total $49.15 million.  
Jeffrey B Kindler CEO Pfizer $5.76 million.
John C Lechleiter CEO Eli Lilly & Co $5.13 million.
James M Cornelius CEO Bristol-Myers Squibb $5.06 million. 

Politicians love money and the health care industry loves giving money to the politicians.

Open Secrets
Health care PACs alone have already donated $4.9 million to federal candidates this year after contributing $49.3 million and $39.8 million in the 2008 and 2006 cycles, respectively. While medical professionals and the PACs and employees of insurance companies traditionally lean Republican, health care PACs have flipped dramatically in recent years. More than two-thirds of their donations so far this year have gone to Democratic candidates, while only a combined 34 percent of contributions went to the Democrats in the 2004 and 2006 cycles. In 2008, Democrats collected 55 percent of all the money that came from these PACs.