Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Healthcare Battle Update, With articles videos and news......


Photo from President Obama's event in AZ
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Click Here to tell the President The Public Option is NOT Optional
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We now truly appreciate that we are in for a battle, please do keep calling DC and your reps at home offices while they are on recess. Please do keep writing letters and do share the responses that you get. Do work FB, Twitter, and other social networks.It matters that we stay informed and spread information. Over the weekend the Public Option almost got snatched away on a sleepy summer Sunday afternoon, it was internet vigilance that resuscitated it. Do share these articles below, I will update during the day.

First off late last night after many hours of Silence Key Democrats did start to Voice Concern about the Fate of The Public Option calling it Essential to the Reform bill. This Wash Post article from late Monday night has more. Secretary Sebelious on Sunday had said it was Not Essential on CNN and yet on another show she had said Something else, all the while touting the benefits of a Co-op Plan.

This article has more about Pelosi's stand on the Public Option and about how the House Dems stand on it. at this juncture there are also 64 Dems that have announced they will not vote for a Bill without the Public Option. Here is more about the key Dems position on the Public Option.

Today Russ Feingold: "I am not interested in passing health care reform in name only. Without a public option, I don't see how we will bring real change to a system that has made good health care a privilege for those who can afford it."

One of the things we learned yesterday was that Conrad has been pushing and promoting his Co-Op Idea, which has not been fully explained or even in the dialogue until Sebelius started pushing it in recent weeks. Here is a HUGE WSJ tidbit that needs to be spread far and wide, Conrad's Co-op Idea at best would ONLY provide Some Care to 12 Million. And that is only basic care, this is not covering Complicated illness or disease issues. We have estimates of atleast 35 to 40 Million that would still therefore be left with NO Healthcare.

Finally Do you need a Quick and Easy Primer to explain the HR3200 Bill to the UnInformed ? Print it out and share with your friends and neighbors and help educate them, it really simplifies it. Excellent Source. And when you talk with people remember to point out that we don't just have an UnInsured Problem, we have an UnderInsured Problem as well that this TIME article explores further.

And finally we need to start reading and learning about other Healthcare Systems, and share that information. The GOP has spent much time and effort bashing systems abroad. Today I am providing Links to the Facts about the UK System. First this article that breaks Down the Facts of their Healthcare, Facts vs Fiction of the Level of Care they provide to ALL Citizens, it will amaze you. And here is more from a British Doctor about his Country's Medical Care as told to NPR.
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2PM Update::
Great OpEd NYT about Reform and what it needs and what it means...
5PM Update :::
NYT points out that the Co-op Idea is nothing but a muddied mess that is not big enough or detailed enough for our Healthcare Crisis.
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6PM Update:
Politico tells about the House Dems who will NOT support Plan without The Public Option.
And NOW ABC released this today, Information about that Health Experts say that the Public Option would drive costs down.
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Raging Celt got a response that is worth seeing, after he wrote to his senator.
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Ed Schutlz has posted the MSNBC Video of Dean telling Obama to stand firm on the Public Option, worth seeing and reading, Let me know if this link fails, got it off Twitter.
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Healthcare Reform Supporters are NOW Outnumbering the "Critics' at Rallies..( keep it up folks).
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Donald Sutherland really writes an amazing article about healthcare on Huffpost, MUST READ.
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Please do scroll down for Contact Information of WHO and HOW to call and contact, and also you can read my Letter to the President if you need ideas what to write. And just below the letter is the post I did on the RAM Medical Event that is providing Medical Care to Thousands in LA this past week at the LA Forum. I will have more final updates in that event in next few days. If you have news for me do email me enigma4everATearthlinkDOTnet.

8 comments:

enigma4ever said...

2:30 PM
I am watching Gibbs presser, and he is explaining Competition in the market place by talking about diners- great our healthcare has been compared to diners....

Chuck Todd is asking again about the Public Option that it is Essential and preferred according to the Pres.

Gibbs is being asked about the DHHS sec saying the Essential Word- and Gibbs is being an ass about the Word Essential ( and sadly it is a big deal- not just an issue of Semantics)

Question:
IS the Coop plan an alternative ?

Gibbs::
we have not seen a plan or enough to even answer that.

Q::: Jake is mumbling and I can not hear him something about a letter

Q:::
ACLU question about detainees ? and transperancy ?

Gibbs:
I have not seen the letter.

NBC question about the Public Option:::
Public Option is not a deal breaker ? what does that mean - it does not mean much comfort to many ?
she was cut off

( 3 people followed it with trying to get an answer and pointed out that is Not what he said to AMA)

SusannaH::
So is the Pres saying that the Public Option is Optional ?

( shit can we get this clarified IN English ??? Why all this hedging and everytime it comes up we get a bunch of gibberish about" competition" - shit - we are talking about Millions WITH NO Option!!!)

( my apologies- my head is about to explode.....)

enigma4ever said...

WH Presser continued...

More mumbo jumbo about costs and competition etc, nothing about the DEM's concerns ....or answering her question ...

Now a question about something that I missed ?
something about pharm...

Tomorrow another message from the Pres about Healthcare about "cutting costs" ( boy this has all turned into cost- I guess all of us that are underinsured and uninsured we are just a burden on the system.......)

I am going to walk the dog...
I have had it listening to this and trying to find Something Positive to scrape from this presser....

enigma4ever said...

Linda Douglas was on with Ed Spewing a bunch crap- Unreal- she keeps saying that there is NO problem- unreal- we are not in session - what a crappy ass job she did cleaning up this mess....

I am Sooooo dissappointed with this display of mess and they can not even get their message straight...sheeehs-

Go Ed- you tried to ask WTF and you got the a lot of manure shoved your way

enigma4ever said...

From Dennis Kucinich at 8 PM:::
HEALTH CARE WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE

The masquerade is over! The "public option" is ... dead.

Health care reform is now a private option: WHICH FOR PROFIT INSURANCE COMPANY DO YOU WANT? You have to choose. And you have to pay. If you have a low income, under HR3200 government will subsidize the private insurance companies and you will still have to pay premiums, co-pays and deductibles.

The Administration plan requires that everyone must have health insurance, so it is delivering tens of millions of new "customers" to the insurance companies. Health care? Not really. Insurance care! Absolutely. Cost controls? No chance.

You will next hear talk about "co-ops." The truth is that insurance company campaign contributions have co-opted the public interest.

I need your help to spread the word and rally the nation around true health care reform which covers everyone and maintains fiscal integrity without breaking our nation's bank! Your contribution will empower our efforts to continue to fight for the single-payer, not-for-profit health care bill, HR676 "Medicare for All," which I co-authored with Rep. John Conyers. The bill now has 85 sponsors in the House.

The hotly-debated HR3200, the so-called "health care reform" bill, is nothing less than corporate welfare in the guise of social welfare and reform. It is a convoluted mess. The real debate which we should be having is not occurring.

Removing the "public option" from a public bill paid for by public money is not in the public interest. What is left is a "private option" paid for with public money. Why should public money be spent on a private option which does not guarantee 100% coverage nor have any cost controls? A true public option would provide 30% savings immediately which would then cover the 1/3rd of the population who presently have no health care.

Unfortunately, under HR3200, the Government is choosing winners and losers in the private sector; proposing to spend public funds on subsidizing insurance companies who make money not providing health care. This process will insure only the expansion of profits. Gone is the debate over cost.

As a result of current negotiations, the Medicare Part D rip-off will continue for another decade, further fleecing senior citizens. Drug importation has been dropped, so no inexpensive drugs can be accessed from other nations.

Instead we are told the pharmaceutical companies will accept a 2% cut in the growth rate of their profits - they call this cost control!

If the matter were not so serious, it would be farcical: The executive branch pretends that the proposed health care reforms are something they are not. The legislation is being attacked for something it is not. Congressional leadership and the White House defend the legislation, pretending it actually is the very proposal that is being attacked. But it is not.

A commonsense government health care reform policy would insure that every single American has full access to health care by expanding Medicare to cover everyone under a Single Payer System. We are already paying for a universal standard of care, it is just we are not getting it.

I need your help to spread the word and rally the nation around true health care reform which covers everyone and maintains fiscal integrity without subsidizing insurance and pharmaceutical companies and breaking our nation's bank!



Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Enigma, first, thanks for your tireless efforts for the cause. Yes, I sympathize when you say your head is about explode -- and not only because of my recent brain tumor ;), but because this whole mess is truly mind-boggling. Co-ops?! Are they f****** kidding us? What a joke.

If we can't get the decent and humane and so absolutely necessary health care (not just health insurance) reform done now, with a Dem prez who ran on that very platform, and the Dems majority in Congress, then, well, we are doomed for the next several decades. At least. It's unconscionable. And that's the mildest adjective that comes to my mind these days.

My blog has been taken over by this issue 24/7 as well -- not by my design, but because there is no other more important decision facing Americans right now. And it drives me nuts to think that we may screw it up again. How many times will it take? How many lives? Does it even matter to our "representatives"?

Alright, enough venting. I could go on and on (and I do, on my blog, obviously).

Second, do you have the link to the Kucinich's message? I'd appreciate it.

Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

Co-ops. The truth is that insurance company campaign contributions have co-opted the public interest.

That's the best definition of co-ops I have seen so far. Indeed. That's what it boils down to.

enigma4ever said...

Hey there lady- hang in there, we can do this- we need to keep at it...New Update for wed is up.

( and yeah- there is nothing good I can say about "coops" I worked at the one in Seattle...it was nicknamed " Group Death" need I say more ???)

thanks for all that you do- keep at it..

enigma4ever said...

Hey there lady- hang in there, we can do this- we need to keep at it...New Update for wed is up.

( and yeah- there is nothing good I can say about "coops" I worked at the one in Seattle...it was nicknamed " Group Death" need I say more ???)

thanks for all that you do- keep at it..