[Singlepayernews] How Libby, Montana, got Medicare for All (new 10 minute video)

[riversedge]

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[Singlepayernews] How Libby, Montana, got Medicare for All (new 10 minute video)
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singlepayer-editor [e-mail] via lists.mayfirst.org

Feb 6, 2022, 6:17 PM (2 days ago)

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How Libby, Montana, got Medicare for All (new 10 minute video)

In 2009 when Washington was debating Obamacare, Montana Democratic Senator Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said everything was on the table — except for single payer. When doctors, nurses and others rose in his hearing to insist that single payer be included in the debate, Baucus had them arrested.

But when Senator Baucus needed a solution to a catastrophic health disaster in Libby, Montana, and surrounding Lincoln County, he turned to the nation’s single-payer health care system, Medicare, to solve the problem. Baucus slipped into the Affordable Healthcare Act (Obamacare) a provision that gave Medicare to everyone exposed to asbestos in Libby. He did it without a single hearing, without a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score, and without a single cost offset. That's how Libby, home to one of the worst man-made corporate environmental disasters in American history, became the only town in America with Medicare for All.

Recently, the pro-labor group, More Perfect Union, went to Libby to make a video that showed how covering everyone in Libby with Medicare has radically changed the lives of local residents and even changed the mind of Senator Baucus about single payer.

Enjoy and share!

Distributed by:
Kay Tillow
Coordinator
All Unions Committee for Single Payer Health Care
P. O. Box 17595
Louisville, KY 40217
[phone]
[e-mail]
https://www.unionsforsinglepayer.org/
02/07/2022

https://shadowproof.com/2011/06/15/how-libby-montana-got-medicare-for-all/

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/health/policy/21healthcare.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp
_______________________________________________


Attachments area
Preview YouTube video The Only Town in America With Medicare For All | The Class Room

[ancianita]

1. I'm sorry, but Max Baucus is a throwback to Big Pharma capture. We have to face this.

His anti-single payer stance was bought and paid for by his owner donors. We've dragged this health care solution along long enough. What Pramila Jayapal is doing is the least a progressive can do to get the framework in place for public health.

Max Baucus was a wrench in Obama's health care plans. I will never forgive him for that.

He gets no cookie for his calculated move to keep votes from Montana while not suing polluters of Libby.

Baucus has been criticized for his ties to the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, and was one of the largest beneficiaries in the Senate of campaign contributions from these industries.[45] From 2003-08, Baucus received $3,973,485 from the health sector, including $852,813 from pharmaceutical companies, $851,141 from health professionals, $784,185 from the insurance industry and $465,750 from HMOs/health services, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.[56][57] A 2006 study by Public Citizen found that between 1999 and 2005 Baucus, along with former Senate majority leader Bill Frist, took in the most special-interest money of any senator.[58]

Only three senators have more former staffers working as lobbyists on K Street, at least two dozen in Baucus's case.[58] Several of Baucus's ex-staffers, including former chief of staff David Castagnetti, are now working for the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries.[59] Castagnetti co-founded the lobbying firm of Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti, which represents America's Health Insurance Plans Inc, the national trade group of health insurance companies, the Medicare Cost Contractors Alliance, as well as Amgen, AstraZeneca PLC and Merck & Co. Another former chief of staff, Jeff Forbes, opened his own lobbying shop and to represent the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Advanced Medical Technology Association, among other groups.[citation needed]

A statistical analysis of the impact of political contributions on individual senators' support for the public insurance option conducted by Nate Silver has suggested that Baucus was an unlikely supporter of the public option in the first place. Based on Baucus's political ideology and the per capita health care spending in Montana, Silver's model projects that there would be only a 30.6% probability of Baucus supporting a public insurance option even if he had received no relevant campaign contributions. Silver calculates that the impact on Baucus of the significant campaign contributions that he has received from the health care industry further reduces the probability of his supporting a public insurance option from 30.6% to 0.6%.[60]

In response to the questions raised by the large amount of funding he took from the health care industry, Baucus declared a moratorium as of July 1, 2009 on taking more special interest money from health care political action committees.[61] Baucus, however, refused to return as part of his moratorium any of the millions of dollars he has received from health care industry

[The Jungle 1]

2. So once again corporate America gets socialist corporate welfare.

Corporate America caused this healthcare crisis. Why are they given a pass????
They knew and they did not care about the Americans they were KILLING
W.R. Grace was given a big fat pass.
This is not capitalism. Capitalism would hold Grace responsible for killing these Americans.

Here in Pa we have 5000 miles of dead streams because of coal mine acid waste. These streams will never be fixed. The coal barons have never paid a DIME.
Our Attorney General Josh Shapiro was forced to sue our EPA because they were not making the filthy frackers obey our environmental law. He also prosecuted 44 filthy frackers. Corporate America is not always given a pass when they pollute OUR country. However most of the time they are.
Shapiro is running for Governor of Pa. He will get my support.