Now's the time to finally realize
we the people must make some choices!
If we want single payer health care,
now's the time to raise our voices
'til they hear US in the halls of congress
& behind the white House door.
That we're sick & tired of gettin' sold out
and won't take it anymore!!!

Now's the time for single payer!
Now's the time to wake up this nation!
Now's the time for single payer! Now's the time!
Our tomorrows will depend on what we do today
You don't stay the course on a horse that's goin' the wrong way!
"Health Care for All!" by Bob Wickline.

Thom Hartmann: No, not a good plan, and that’s what we have is a horse that’s going the wrong way. Again, this is the ad, I’m going to start playing this every damn day. This is the ad that CNN refuses to run, and they refuse to run it because it’s calling out the real problem which is CEO’s, like the CEO of the parent company of CNN, making obscene amounts of money.

"Why do the health insurance companies and Republicans want to kill President Obama’s health insurance reform? Because they like things the way they are now. Ed Hanway, CEO of insurance giant CIGNA, makes $12.2 million a year. That’s $5,883 an hour. Ed makes more in one day than the average worker makes all year long. Now Ed's retiring with a $73 million golden parachute. The Republican prescription for the health insurance crisis? Be as rich as Ed. You'll be happy too."

Yeah, there you go. Well, a number of us are mad as hell and Dr. Paul Hochfeld is one. He is an emergency room physician, MadAsHellDoctors.com is the website. Also, Adam Klugman is here with us, he’s the creative director of Mad As Hell Doctors, and Adam, in fact, son of Jack Klugman

Adam Klugman: Yes.

Thom Hartmann: One of my favorite, I used to love The Odd Fellow, or Odd Couple rather and some of, much of your fathers work, late father.

Adam Klugman: Thanks. No, he’s still here.

Thom Hartmann: Oh, he is! Oh I’m sorry.

Adam Klugman: He’s tough, he’s not going anywhere.

Thom Hartmann: My apologies! And Paul Hochfeld, Dr. Hochfeld.

Paul Hochfeld: Glad to be here.

Thom Hartmann: Glad to have you with us. We were talking just before we came on the air about how we don’t have a healthcare system in the United States, we’ve got a scam. We’ve got a for profit hustle. We’ve got a business deal that makes money on sickness. You’re mad as hell about this, tell us your thoughts on this.

Paul Hochfeld: I’m mad, what I’m really mad as hell about, is what you’re mad as hell about, which is that our political process, our public policy is being hijacked by the industry to manipulate public policy. So we have a healthcare policy that’s more about profits than health. In healthcare, we have a healthcare industry that reasonably, by any description, is there to serve the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry and doctors are unhappy about it, and patients are unhappy about it, and we’re not providing good care. Not only is it breaking the bank. Not only is it driving our industry, our economy to bankruptcy, and breaking the bank of our federal and state governments, but we’re not providing good care for people because of the perverse incentives in the system, a lot of people are getting too much care. And because they’re getting too much care, bad things are happening to them, and they’re actually suffering more. And at the same time…

Thom Hartmann: This is the situation where, like the New Yorker exposed down in Texas where these docs set up their own labs to do tests, imaging, and things like that and all of a sudden they’re referring patients to the wrong labs and they’re making a fortune.

Paul Hochfeld: That’s part of it. And then there's the other subset of people that aren’t getting the care that they really need to prevent them from getting sick, so they’re suffering. And when they do get sick, all of us pay their bills, so it’s costing us money. And then you’ve got this, there’s this talk about how there’s all these people that are happy with their insurance. Well, the people that are happy with their insurance, that go to bed at night not worrying about how to pay for Johnny’s broken arm, are happy about it because they haven’t had to use it.

Thom Hartmann: Right. Yeah.

Paul Hochfeld: If they had to use it, they would realize that they were under-insured.

Thom Hartmann: Right. Well when surveys are done of people who actually use their health insurance, Medicare and the Veteran’s Administration come out on top.

Paul Hochfeld: Absolutely.

Thom Hartmann: Of all systems in the United States in terms of patient satisfaction. Adam Klugman, you’re working with Mad As Hell Doctors, we’ve got a Mad As Hell Doctor here at the studio that we just heard from. What’s going on? How are you guys doing this? What are you calling for specifically, and how are you organizing?

Adam Klugman: Well, it’s really pretty exciting what’s going on. The story of how it came about is kind of worth telling briefly. Gary Jelinek who was Dennis Kucinich’s campaign coordinator in 2004 came to me and said, you know, I’ve got a lot of docs who are angry. And I said well what are they angry about? Well they’re angry that we’re really not having a discussion about single payer. You know, we’ve described the problem, but there really is a solution. The solution is single payer. And we’re not having that discussion. So the goal of the campaign and what we’re trying to do with MadAsHellDoctors.com is to raise that issue. We’ve got 24 cities, ocean to ocean, coast to coast that are setting up Mad as Hell town hall meetings for us. We’ve bought an RV, we’re going to set up, we’re getting in the caravan and we’re going across the country. We’re doing it grassroots style, and we’re going to ask people to join us in the caravan, and we’re going city to city.

Thom Hartmann: Starting when and where?

Adam Klugman: We start September 8th. We leave Portland and we end up in DC on September 30th. And we’re going to have a demonstration on the steps of Congress.

Thom Hartmann: That’s great, starting September 8th. We will track that and keep track of that and uh, this, just the system is absolutely melting down.

Adam Klugman: It's broken.

Thom Hartmann: And this memo now that came out of the White House this morning. Dr. Hochfeld, we’ve just got a few seconds, but quick thoughts?

Paul Hochfeld: Um, what’s being proposed by Obama and Congress is basically part Medicare part d revisited. They’re going to throw more money at a disfunctional healthcare system and they’re going to use government money to do it and it’s not going to solve the problems.

Transcribed by Suzanne Roberts, Portland Psychology Clinic.