This is the oral cavity of an angry American.

This American can't afford routine dental care much less those shining white veneers sported by the blowviator class.

So they listen to John McMoron wax eloquent on who's rich in America--the five million dollar a year and over class, and they get even angrier.

This American quite frankly doesn't give a rat's ass about what's-his-name and his eight Olympic gold medals.

This is a middle class American, in the nation's largest city, New York. This is an American who needs to see a dentist, but hey, he can't afford to do so.

This is an American for whom dental care is a long forgotten luxury.

This, "my friends" is America.

This morning a variety of single-payer healthcare advocacy organizations including
Progressive Democrats  of America, Healthcare Now, PNHP and All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care are petitioning MoveOn.

I've been asked to explain to Daily Kos readers what's happening and ask you to support single-payer healthcare in the United States by signing the petition to MoveOn.

Here's a link to the MoveOn petition we hope you will sign.

 Please visit Guaranteed Healthcare and write about your healthcare and insurance horror stories.

This morning Paul Krugman writes about health care in the New York Times.

He asks: Can it happen here?

That he must pose such a question is chilling.

That we as a nation continue to have a discussion which revolves around the concept of whether a human being in pain is entitled to be relieved of his suffering is horrifying.

Do we really require additional verification or another study to further substantiate our national shame?

Well like it or not, here it is. This time from the august Annals of Internal Medicine.

Millions With Chronic Disease Get Little to No Treatment

Millions of Americans with chronic disease like diabetes or high blood pressure are not getting adequate treatment because they are among the nation’s growing ranks of uninsured.

A National Study of Chronic Disease Prevalence and Access to Care in Uninsured U.S. Adults (Annals of Internal Medicine)That is the central finding of a new study to be published Tuesday in the medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

http://www.nytimes.com/...

Where indeed is the shame?

Cross posted on Guaranteed Healthcare

What follows will help you understand how and why your health insurance claims are routinely and regularly denied, and why they must be denied for our for-profit system to thrive.

I'm going to take you inside one company, TC3 Total Claims Capture and Control which functions solely to deny and underpay health insurance claims.  Remember a denied claim goes right to the bottom line.

The insurance industry in the United States has a single purpose, to provide a stream of profits to shareholders who own the stock of healthcare companies. Guaranteeing the healthcare needs of the American people is not even an afterthought.  Our private, for-profit insurance industry is a huge, sophisticated and dangerous denial machine.

The first concept you need to understand is the Medical loss ratio.  You and I are losses in insurance industry lingo.