Americans spend more on health care than people do elsewhere, but somehow we spend more for less.
Most of us have no clue about the actual cost of our medical care until the bills arrive, because hospitals and doctors don’t publish their charges. The cost of insurance goes up and up, with fewer services covered. Millions of Americans needlessly suffer or die from preventable medical errors and infections.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Costs can come down and quality can improve if we stop letting the insurance companies run the show, make billing clear and simple, and focus on prevention and managing chronic illness better.
You can make a difference by taking our pledge and joining our effort to make health care a top priority for our nation’s leaders.
THE PLEDGE:
I want to join with other Americans to support action, answers and accountability. It is time to:
* Give my family security that we will have quality care when we need it at a cost we can afford;
* Make hospitals and doctors more transparent about the cost and quality of care they offer;
* Eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy between patients and the care they need;
* End long waits for care;
* Examine all solutions that will ensure all Americans access to quality, affordable care, with input from real people like me.
Sign pledge
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We signed the pledge for higher quality, lower cost health care!
# 29,059:
5:21 pm PST, Nov 20,Steven Pazienza, New York
# 29,058:
4:53 pm PST, Nov 20,Katelyn Hagey, Canada
# 29,057:
2:01 pm PST, Nov 20,Alicia Del Barrio Escribano, Virginia
Health care is recognised as one of the Uiversal Human Rigts. No one should be scared of losing health care when losing a job, no one should be scared of being rejected by insurers. The sustem of commerical health insurance has taken one of our democratic rigts and freedoms away from us.
# 29,056:
10:48 am PST, Nov 20,Joe Lilavois, Virginia
# 29,055:
9:57 am PST, Nov 20,Rosalie Miller, California
# 29,054:
8:07 am PST, Nov 20,Timothy Trost, California
Pass Health Care Reform NOW!!!
# 29,053:
7:19 am PST, Nov 20,Bethany Brown, Maine
# 29,052:
12:17 am PST, Nov 20,Anny Chianglin, Taiwan
# 29,051:
11:30 pm PST, Nov 19,Barbara Gardner, California
Insurance and drug companies are lining the pockets of our congresspeople and members of the Senate. Our population has exploded. Uneducated people (no high school diploma) are leaving their parents homes and not finishing their basic education. And, if they desire an education, prices recently went up here in CA. The governator is driving everything out of California. We need the Public Option. I will not vote for Elton Gallegy again (and I have voted for him). This wealthy old man has all the benefits and privileges ... the best. He is out of touch with his constituents.
It is amoral to make basic care a for profit business.
# 29,050:
6:44 pm PST, Nov 19,Cosmic Rhino Ranger, California
# 29,049:
2:16 pm PST, Nov 19,Seth Goldsmith, California
# 29,048:
1:26 pm PST, Nov 19,Claudia DiCosola, Arizona
# 29,047:
10:12 am PST, Nov 19,Christopher Pilot, Maine
Not everything in life should be profit driven. Certainly not health care! Please think with your hearts and not with your money.
# 29,046:
5:35 am PST, Nov 19,Courtney Osborne, Ohio
Right now, despite the fact that I have health insurance, I cannot afford to have to go to the doctor. I have glasses that are 8 years old and need replacing. But I am going to have to go to Wal-Mart and get the least expensive glasses because that's what I can afford. I have to spend $300 out of pocket before my medical/vision insurance starts covering things. This doesn't make sense to me. Everyone should be able to get the heath care they need and not have to save up to get it.
# 29,045:
2:47 am PST, Nov 19,BALDOVIN ELENA CRISTINA, Romania
# 29,044:
11:42 pm PST, Nov 18,Vinh Tran, Texas
# 29,043:
7:18 pm PST, Nov 18,Sarah Stirling, Massachusetts
# 29,042:
12:47 pm PST, Nov 18,Name not displayed, Illinois
we need to take care of all our citizens, especially children by offering affordable, quality healthcare. This is an achievable goal. We also need to put more emphasis on preventive healthcare.
# 29,041:
5:11 am PST, Nov 18,Joan Murphy, New York
I am on a fixed income as I am a retired 73 year old lady. I pay OVER $120/month for my Medicare Health Insurance plus another $140 a month for my private health insurance coverage that affords me prescription coverage. This new "Health Insurance" trying to get passed by Congress does NOT offer the same coverages, will be MORE EXPENSIVE, and older people's health coverage will be reduced because of their age. DO NO pASS
this current health insurance bill.
# 29,040:
6:19 pm PST, Nov 17,Ryan Lee, California
# 29,039:
5:47 pm PST, Nov 17,Carlyn Liebich, Idaho
# 29,038:
4:53 pm PST, Nov 17,Ellie Shain, California
# 29,037:
5:06 am PST, Nov 17,Tom Lyons, New York
# 29,036:
4:17 am PST, Nov 17,Laura Billings, North Carolina
Simply put me and my husband can not afford to go to the doctor. I am pretty sure I have high blood pressure and his mouth is so swollen from a tooth and we can not afford to go. Health care should be based on your income not the income the doctor would like to make!
# 29,035:
8:50 pm PST, Nov 16,Jesus Juarez, California
# 29,034:
7:24 pm PST, Nov 16,Cameron Schmidt, Washington
# 29,033:
4:47 pm PST, Nov 16,April Voliva, Indiana
Everyone should have access to quality, affordable health care! EVERYONE!
# 29,032:
3:36 pm PST, Nov 16,Regan Mullins, Idaho
# 29,031:
2:16 pm PST, Nov 16,Elizabeth Durand, Pennsylvania
I want to live
# 29,030:
1:12 pm PST, Nov 16,Melissa Pehrson, Michigan
My insurance is FINE - we need to get a handle on the costs associated with the care. Tort Reform, stop Big Pharma from advertising and wasting $$$. Don't treat me like an idiot who needs someone else to think for me.
# 29,029:
12:55 pm PST, Nov 16,Grace Gentry, Louisiana
# 29,028:
10:30 am PST, Nov 16,Rui Guimarães, Portugal
# 29,027:
7:43 am PST, Nov 16,October Calkins, Ohio
# 29,026:
7:35 am PST, Nov 16,Diane Cromer, Florida
Every citizen of the "greatest country in the world" deserves quality and affordable health care, now!
# 29,025:
6:18 am PST, Nov 16,Barbara Branson, Mississippi
# 29,024:
5:45 am PST, Nov 16,Sandra Corbett, Pennsylvania
If we don't get it back in our own hands, we will have higher cost and lower quality or NO quality as we get older. WE are people. WE know when WE need to see our doctor. WE know which doctor WE are comfortable with and have confidence in. That should be OUR decision, not the government bureacracy's. The only thing we will be getting if the government takes over is drastically high cost for next to no care. Research will be at a standstill, doctors and nurses will stop, there will be a dirth of doctors to even go to, hospitals will shut down, need I go on? WE NEED TO CONTROL OUR OWN HEALTHCARE AND COST THEREOF!!!
# 29,022:
6:06 pm PST, Nov 15,Susan Kaiser, California
It is all about the health of our entire nation. We need to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of how we face health issues and who gets to decide about them... We should all be covered; this should be a basic human right.
# 29,021:
4:40 pm PST, Nov 15,Kathy Kilduff, Florida
# 29,020:
10:52 am PST, Nov 15,Dona Massa, New Jersey
# 29,019:
10:53 pm PST, Nov 14,Name not displayed, Russian Federation
# 29,018:
10:43 pm PST, Nov 14,Carla Mellander, California
I believe we all need health care because it is the right thing a modern developed society needs to have in order to be modern. Spend less on war and more on quality of life areas. People without medical insurance are dangerous to the safety of all. I vote for a strong public medical plan like medicare for all.
# 29,017:
10:25 pm PST, Nov 14,David Lee, Alabama
I am getting ready to retire and as everyone knows the older you get the easier it is to get sick/hurt. So. like everyone else I want to have as good or better health care.
# 29,016:
6:28 pm PST, Nov 14,Name not displayed, Ohio
# 29,015:
5:31 pm PST, Nov 14,Linda Akes Farnes, Florida
Our current system which allows an elite few to amass unimaginable wealth by exploiting the misery and suffering of millions of hard-working people is inherently immoral and opposed to core American values. This is not free enterprise, it is feudalism. Profit-driven corporate health care giants have shown themselves to be cruel and inhumane stewards over our nation's health and should not be allowed to dominate it one minute longer. Big business has no business in health care. America needs universal coverage.
# 29,014:
3:41 pm PST, Nov 14,Gail Yazersky, New Jersey
I am unemployed and want REAL health care reform! Reduce corporate profits significantly, add alternative medicine to ALL options (it's no longer an alternate for many but a necessity) and utilize options from the California reforms. Also, must have a public option! As an industrialized country our health system is worse than many others. Must be TRUE reform. To benefit the everyday hardworking Americans not the corporate stockholders.
# 29,013:
2:35 pm PST, Nov 14,Robert L. Tompkins, Colorado
# 29,012:
10:48 am PST, Nov 14,ART SCHOTT, Louisiana
# 29,011:
7:04 am PST, Nov 14,Name not displayed, Texas
Presently, I am unemployed and my budget does not allow me to pay for insurance.
I am for the public option that those people who need health care will be able to have access to quality care.
Call your US Senators and agree with the Kennedy Bill it insures and helps more people at less then the House. Also the HR 3200 is very important I hope the US Senate will vote yes for this.
# 29,010:
5:54 pm PST, Nov 13,Thomas Skelton, South Carolina
My health insurance cost has gone up more than it should have given my health. However, this does not mean that I want government run health care. I also do not want me or anyone else told that they must buy coverage. This plan that the House is trying to foist off on us is unconstitutional and I am against it.
# 29,009:
3:07 pm PST, Nov 13,Mary Weyant, Texas
What is important to me is that the House and the Senate stop this political BS and really start to address the issues. America health care system has been in trouble for a long time. We can not continue to let it be high jacked by the special interest groups.
# 29,008:
1:38 pm PST, Nov 13,Diane Devine, Pennsylvania
# 29,007:
9:22 am PST, Nov 13,Sarah Roessler, California
Because financial considerations should not play a part when trying to save someone's life.
# 29,006:
7:48 am PST, Nov 13,Mary Ann Straughn RN, Maryland
Many of my patients are unable to afford their prescription meds because of co pays, or other limitations. These are "insured" working poor, who are struggling through the day to day, and need to decide if the kids get clothes, or they take their meds or get screening mammograms. This is an abomination to me, and should be to every American.
# 29,005:
7:33 am PST, Nov 13,Keala Fung, Hawaii
# 29,004:
6:52 am PST, Nov 13,Amanda Philpott, Maryland
# 29,003:
5:51 am PST, Nov 13,Theresia Cronan, California
Do what is right!
# 29,002:
5:04 am PST, Nov 13,Federico Fiorani, Argentina
# 29,001:
1:31 am PST, Nov 13,Janet Lyman, Massachusetts
being a single mom, i know how important it is for people like me especially who don't have any child support and only work part time need lower cost health and dental insurance right now. am fortunate to live in massachusetts where it's manditory, but not including dental which many need, but are foregoing due to not being able to afford it!
