Yesterday, the CIGNA headquarters in Philadelphia was invaded by protestors led by the California Nurses Association. This sort of militant action against the most vicious industry in the United States is still rare in America, but it would become the norm, if John McCain was berthed at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
If God forbid, John McCain were able to steal this election (no way on earth he could be elected fair and square), Americans would be forced to take extraordinary actions against the predatory and criminal health insurance industry. Americans would be forced to routinely invade the predatory corporate offices because:
John McCain + THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY = MURDER BY SPREADSHEET
McCain's "reform" of the American health care system would provide big tax incentives for the crippled system to transition from being employer-based to one built on an even worse system of individual responsibility. This is Republican-speak for shift the costs onto your shoulders and mine. He would do this by eliminating the longtime personal tax exemption on employer-provided health insurance and replacing it with a $2,500 individual, and $5,000 family, tax credit for those who have health insurance.
Six days before the most important election in my lifetime, it was an auspicious moment to be standing in the lobby of this Murder by Spreadsheet factory..........
Read the bone-chilling tale at
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/30/866/11503/227/643528
(AP) An ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy is trying to lay the groundwork for a breakthrough on health care reform next year, though many believe the enormous undertaking has been made even more difficult by the troubled economy. Kennedy, aides say, has held several video conferences with lawmakers and staff in recent months as he fights from home to overcome brain cancer. His staff has held more than a dozen meetings in recent weeks with various advocacy and interest groups that will help influence the debate. "We're carrying it out in his absence, but this is his doing," said an aide who was not identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly. "He's in constant touch with leaders in this effort. This is Senator Kennedy at the helm." The story was first reported by The Washington Times. Kennedy doesn't want to repeat the steps that some say doomed health care reform under former President Clinton. That means acting quickly when Congress returns to Washington after the election and the holidays. "There were at least two major factors in the failure of the '93 effort," the aide said. "One was jurisdictional fracturing within the Congress and the other was the time after the inauguration to get a proposal together. Senator Kennedy's analysis is that we need to avoid both of those features." Kennedy is chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Sen. Barack Obama's health care plan will be the starting point in Kennedy's efforts. That's a big assumption given that the presidential race is far from over. The Obama plan features many changes that Massachusetts enacted in 2006, such as greater use of government subsidies to help people afford coverage. However, Obama would not require adults to buy health insurance, as Massachusetts did. Obama does have a requirement that children be insured. Aides would not say where there has been agreement and disagreement among the various interest groups participating in the meetings. Health care changes under both presidential candidates would be expensive, and the federal government is expected to generate an enormous deficit next year even without incorporating those changes. However, Obama is not letting economic woes deter him. "It's not a question of arithmetic or accounting, it's a question of priorities," an aide said. "When AIG needs the money, somehow the money is found. When Freddie and Fannie need it, somehow the money is found. The theory is they're too big to fail. It can certainly be argued that the health care system is too big to fail, but it's failing for millions of people every day." Kennedy, 76, underwent a risky, 3½-hour surgery in June to remove as much of a tumor as possible. He has been steadily increasing his public activity since undergoing six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
From www.cbsnews.com
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/24/health/main4543666.shtml?tag=lowerContent;homeSectionBlock204
© MMVIII The Associated Press.
Driving around this city today, I decided it looks more or less like a string of strip malls, 45 minutes northeast of Anchorage. I couldn’t help but think that being mayor of a place like this would be something akin to running a large neighborhood watch.
The main highway that runs through town is lined with new big-box stores, including a Target and a Wal-Mart. A handful of fast-food chains as well as some local restaurants also sprinkle the main drag. Breathtaking mountains, the peaks still lightly dusted with snow, create a striking backdrop. Despite the chain stores, this small city feels distant from the rest of the world. I’d have guessed Palin would have run the city with a “we’re in this together” theme.
It turns out she had a somewhat different approach. If a small-town mayor ever ruled with an iron fist — it was Palin. Eleven days after taking office in 1996, she mailed letters to each of the city’s top managers requesting that they resign as a test of loyalty.
The Anchorage Daily News at the time reported the strange events: (via Nexis)
Mayor Sarah Palin sent the resignation requests Thursday to Police Chief Irl Stambaugh, public works director Jack Felton, finance director Duane Dvorak and Mary Ellen Emmons, the head of libraries. A fifth director — John Cooper, who oversaw the city museum — resigned earlier this month after Palin eliminated his position.
Cooper initially resisted resigning, but to no avail. Palin also later fired the police chief, saying she knew in her “heart” that he did not support her. She left the head of libraries a letter saying she was out — though Palin later decided to spare the librarian after being convinced that she would tow the line.
The whole saga is unusual — considering Palin prides herself on being independent and seems to enjoy butting heads with her own party. But, this sounds like she requires fierce loyalty of those who work for her.
I’m still reporting on Palin’s time as mayor. More to come soon.
http://washingtonindependent.com/3767/palin-involved-in-ousting-scandals-from-the-start
Doctors and other health care providers work in extraordinary times and have unrivaled abilities, but increasingly our health care system gets in the way of their sound medical judgment. Increasing uncompensated care loads, administrative rules, and insurers' coverage decisions inappropriately influence the practice of medicine. Washington sends dictates but no help.
We need health care reform now. All Americans should have high-quality, affordable medical care that improves health and reduces the burdens on providers and families. Reform must emphasize prevention, not just treatment of the sick; reduce medical errors and malpractice claims; and make the practice of medicine rewarding again. I believe that by working together we can make these goals a reality.
My health care plan has three central tenets. First, all Americans should have access to the benefits of modern medicine. Once and for all, we must ensure that this great country lives up to its ideals and ensures all Americans access to high-quality, affordable health care. Second, we must eliminate the waste that plagues our medical system — layers of bureaucracy that serve no purpose, duplicative tests and procedures that are performed because the right information is not readily available, and doctors providing unnecessary care for fear of being sued. Third, we need a public health infrastructure that works with our medical system to prevent disease and improve health.
We can work together to achieve guaranteed access to medical care during my first term in office. I talk to hardworking Americans every day who worry about paying their medical bills and getting and keeping health insurance for their families. In addition to this daily injustice, it is just plain costly and inefficient to care for people only when they get very ill. I have been committed to correcting this problem since I first started in public life, and I am determined to see it through.
Under my plan, if patients like the insurance they have, they keep it and nothing changes, except the costs are lowered. For those who are left out or have substandard insurance, my plan will offer a choice of affordable health insurance plans. Through a national health-insurance exchange, people without employment-based insurance or who work in small businesses will have a choice of private insurance policies at rates similar to those offered through large firms. To promote competition among insurers, we will also give patients a new public-plan option, providing the same coverage that is offered to members of Congress and their families.
All insurance companies will have to take everyone, regardless of medical history. Like too many Americans, I watched my mother argue with insurance companies while she was in bed dying of cancer; that should not happen.
To make insurance affordable, we will give families income-related tax credits to expand access and streamline plan enrollment and transactions to reduce the administrative burden. I will also expand Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program immediately to cover all children who don't have private coverage. And I have specified how I will pay for it — by cutting out waste in the system and redirecting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to help middle-class families afford health insurance.
Unlike some, I do not believe that Americans have overly generous insurance, so I would not impose a new tax on employer-based health insurance, giving employers an incentive to drop coverage and send tens of millions of Americans into the individual insurance market, where insurers cherry-pick healthy enrollees, administrative costs are high, and coverage is less comprehensive and cost sharing is greater. Such a plan would be disastrous.
Health care reform will not succeed unless we create a health care delivery system of which we can be proud. Report after report has pointed out the flaws in the way our system is organized and financed. Clinicians face huge administrative burdens that add to the cost of care and rarely improve its quality. Our reimbursement structure rewards procedures and the use of technology but not time spent with patients or coordinating care. There is little incentive for young physicians to enter into primary care. And U.S. physicians practice with constant concern about malpractice lawsuits.
I am committed to making the fundamental changes necessary to modernize the system to streamline medical practice with the goal of improved patient outcomes. My plan calls for investing $10 billion per year over 5 years in health information technology. This commitment is not just financial: we will ensure that physicians have the technical support they need to implement new systems for patient records and billing. By reducing medical errors and unnecessary duplication of tests, this investment will lead to a long-term reduction in our health care system's overall cost.
We also need to change the way we reimburse for patient care. We should start paying adequately for care coordination, case management, and innovative care-delivery models, such as team-based care and electronic communication. Doctors should be paid fairly by private insurers and by Medicare. Payment reform should improve patient outcomes and should lower overall costs by removing incentives for unnecessary care and rewarding the right care, provided at the right time, for the right reasons. Unlike my opponent, I voted against the recent reduction in physician payments. We can't start health reform by penalizing doctors.
Our medical training institutions are the finest in the world, but we need to ensure that doctors have ready access to the best information on medical advances throughout their careers. The best source of information on the value of a drug or a new technology is not the company that produces and markets it, but rather a careful and independent evaluation of patient outcomes. I will develop an independent national institute to work with the medical community to evaluate and disseminate information on the comparative effectiveness of drugs, devices, treatments, and procedures.
I will invest in programs, including loan repayment, training grants, and improved provider reimbursement, to give young doctors incentives to enter primary care. I will also renew our commitment to investing in biomedical research, which suffered a major lapse under the Bush administration.
Finally, I will address medical malpractice with the central goal of preventing medical errors in the first place. Through substantial investment in information and decision-support technology and other patient-safety initiatives, we will reduce the types of medical errors and oversights that lead to lawsuits. And I am open to additional measures to curb malpractice suits and reduce the cost of malpractice insurance. We must make the practice of medicine rewarding again.
Prevention is also a central part of my reform plan. Health care providers can do only so much; patients, employers, and communities all have a role in helping us to start out healthy and maintain our health. Patients need to step up their efforts to stop smoking, start exercising, and eat right to maintain a healthy weight. Employers need to invest in healthy workplaces and help their employees maintain an active, healthy lifestyle.
Government has a role, too. I will make new funding available for community-based programs aimed at priority public health problems such as smoking and obesity. I will also reward school and workplace health-promotion and prevention initiatives that increase vaccination and exercise and make healthy foods available in cafeterias and vending machines. Finally, I will work with state and local governments to create a coherent, coordinated national public health strategy.
This election will have enormous consequences for health care in our country. As president, I will modernize our health care delivery system and ensure that all Americans have access to high-quality, affordable medical care. I believe that with help and collaboration, especially from those who work so hard to keep us healthy, we can make health care reform a reality.
Source Information
This article (10.1056/NEJMp0807677) was published at www.nejm.org on September 24, 2008. @ 2008 The New England Journal of Medicine.
Op-Ed Columnist McCain’s Radical Agenda - Health Care
By BOB HERBERT Published: September 15, 2008
Talk about a shock to the system. Has anyone bothered to notice the radical changes that John McCain and Sarah Palin are planning for the nation’s health insurance system?
These are changes that will set in motion nothing less than the dismantling of the employer-based coverage that protects most American families.
A study coming out Tuesday from scholars at Columbia, Harvard, Purdue and Michigan projects that 20 million Americans who have employment-based health insurance would lose it under the McCain plan.
There is nothing secret about Senator McCain’s far-reaching proposals, but they haven’t gotten much attention because the chatter in this campaign has mostly been about nonsense — lipstick, celebrities and “Drill, baby, drill!”
For starters, the McCain health plan would treat employer-paid health benefits as income that employees would have to pay taxes on.
“It means your employer is going to have to make an estimate on how much the employer is paying for health insurance on your behalf, and you are going to have to pay taxes on that money,” said Sherry Glied, an economist who chairs the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
Ms. Glied is one of the four scholars who have just completed an independent joint study of the plan. Their findings are being published on the Web site of the policy journal, Health Affairs.
According to the study: “The McCain plan will force millions of Americans into the weakest segment of the private insurance system — the nongroup market — where cost-sharing is high, covered services are limited and people will lose access to benefits they have now.”
The net effect of the plan, the study said, “almost certainly will be to increase family costs for medical care.”
Under the McCain plan (now the McCain-Palin plan) employees who continue to receive employer-paid health benefits would look at their pay stubs each week or each month and find that additional money had been withheld to cover the taxes on the value of their benefits.
While there might be less money in the paycheck, that would not be anything to worry about, according to Senator McCain. That’s because the government would be offering all taxpayers a refundable tax credit — $2,500 for a single worker and $5,000 per family — to be used “to help pay for your health care.”
You may think this is a good move or a bad one — but it’s a monumental change in the way health coverage would be provided to scores of millions of Americans. Why not more attention?
The whole idea of the McCain plan is to get families out of employer-paid health coverage and into the health insurance marketplace, where naked competition is supposed to take care of all ills. (We’re seeing in the Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch fiascos just how well the unfettered marketplace has been working.)
Taxing employer-paid health benefits is the first step in this transition, the equivalent of injecting poison into the system. It’s the beginning of the end.
When younger, healthier workers start seeing additional taxes taken out of their paychecks, some (perhaps many) will opt out of the employer-based plans — either to buy cheaper insurance on their own or to go without coverage.
That will leave employers with a pool of older, less healthy workers to cover. That coverage will necessarily be more expensive, which will encourage more and more employers to give up on the idea of providing coverage at all.
The upshot is that many more Americans — millions more — will find themselves on their own in the bewildering and often treacherous health insurance marketplace. As Senator McCain has said: “I believe the key to real reform is to restore control over our health care system to the patients themselves.”
Yet another radical element of McCain’s plan is his proposal to undermine state health insurance regulations by allowing consumers to buy insurance from sellers anywhere in the country. So a requirement in one state that insurers cover, for example, vaccinations, or annual physicals, or breast examinations, would essentially be meaningless.
In a refrain we’ve heard many times in recent years, Mr. McCain said he is committed to ridding the market of these “needless and costly” insurance regulations.
This entire McCain health insurance transformation is right out of the right-wing Republicans’ ideological playbook: fewer regulations; let the market decide; and send unsophisticated consumers into the crucible alone.
You would think that with some of the most venerable houses on Wall Street crumbling like sand castles right before our eyes, we’d be a little wary about spreading this toxic formula even further into the health care system.
But we’re not even paying much attention.
Full story at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/opinion/16herbert.html?em
@ 2008 The New York Times Company
(A version of this article appeared in print on September 16, 2008, on page A29 of the New York edition.)
Buy Change We Can Believe In at the best independent bookstore in America - Powell's Books, a UNION shop in Portland, Oregon! Go to www.powells.com, or paste this direct link to your browser:
http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9780307460455-0
(I am not affiliated in any way with Powell's, just a huge fan!)
"It seems that John McCain's vice presidential pick Sarah Palin is not squeaky clean. In fact, she may be as corrupt as pretty much every other still living Alaskan Republican to have held statewide office (the Murkowskis, Ted Stevens, Don Young pretty much covers it). It seems that in 1997, she almost got recalled as mayor of Wasilla? What led to this? Seems she fired the city police chief and library director........"
See full post at the "Hat Thief" Blog - Vetting Sarah Palin: Cronyism (blog post)
Link: http://hatthief.blogspot.com/2008/08/vetting-sarah-palin-irl-stambaugh-walt.html
Looks like McSAME has put his own Ann Purzner a heartbeat away from the White House!
This new music video from Dave Stewart (formerly of the Eurythmics) will blow you away!
"American Prayer"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVi4rUzf-0Q
(paste this link to your browser)
This new music video from Dave Stewart (formerly of the Eurythmics) will blow you away....
Be warned that the McSAME campaign is resorting to increasingly desperate tactics to push their fearmongering agenda. Their Karl Rove-ish tactic is to launch McCain operatives onto public blogs, as well as on Obama e-mail lists and blogs, in order to spread fear, doubt and confusion about the firm and forward-thinking positions of our outstanding candidate. Here is an article from democrats.org on this "new" pathetic attempt at division and distraction:
John McCain seeks to be the next commander-in-chief, but he's already got the spammer-in-chief contest all locked up:
Sen. John McCain's campaign is urging supporters to spam blogs and forums with official talking points, according to the Washington Post. If you do a good job, you can even win prizes. "That, in essence, is the McCain campaign's pitch to supporters to join its new online effort, one that combines the features of 'AstroTurf' campaigning with the sort of customer-loyalty programs offered by airlines, hotel chains, restaurants and the occasional daily newspaper." "People who sign up for McCain's program receive reward points each time they place a favorable comment on one of the listed Web sites (subject to verification by McCain's webmasters). The points can be traded for prizes, such as books autographed by McCain, preferred seating at campaign events, even a ride with the candidate on his bus, known as the Straight Talk Express."
"That, in essence, is the McCain campaign's pitch to supporters to join its new online effort, one that combines the features of 'AstroTurf' campaigning with the sort of customer-loyalty programs offered by airlines, hotel chains, restaurants and the occasional daily newspaper."
"People who sign up for McCain's program receive reward points each time they place a favorable comment on one of the listed Web sites (subject to verification by McCain's webmasters). The points can be traded for prizes, such as books autographed by McCain, preferred seating at campaign events, even a ride with the candidate on his bus, known as the Straight Talk Express."
Commanding an army of spammers on the internet: now that's leadership you can believe in.
More signs of the massive enthusiasm gap between Senator Barack Obama and "Exxon John." I guess oil money pays for a lot of over-the-top television ads but not much "grassroots" support. The McCain camp's "online outreach" is reduced to bribing web surfers with prizes to AstroTurf blogs with pro-McCain comments.
See the full post at http://www.democrats.org/a/2008/08/john_mccains_on.php
We will need to step it up to get the truth out about this disgraceful new attempt at Swift-Boating our Democratic candidate. These spam operatives will seriously need a new hobby after November 4 - let's make sure that we give them the opportunity!
Obama Spends Morning at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Meets Patients
Leisa Zigman, NewsChannel 5 St. Louis:
(KSDK) -- Senator Barack Obama rolled up his sleeves and joined 26-year-old nurse Kate Marzluf as she made her rounds at Barnes-Jewish Hospital Tuesday.
Inside Ray Bisher's room, the Senator learned the retired police officer from St. John takes about 30 pills a day. The medicine is covered by his wife's insurance. But, his wife works two jobs to make ends meet.
Obama says his health care plan will help the Bisher's and all Americans.
"We'll cut the cost of family health care by 2,500 per year by investing in prevention and stopping disease before they get so bad it's too expensive to treat," Obama said. "We'll invest in a paperless system to cut administrative costs and by covering every single American and making sure they can take healthcare with them if they lose their job."..........
full story at
http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=147903&catid=3
This six-minute video from St. Louis is a must-see! Obama outlines his plans for health care and tax policy ,and contrasts them with McCain's:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/amandascott/gG5G9N
To read Obama's outstanding health care plan, go to http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/
and for details on McCain's disastrous proposal that would leave tens of millions of Americans uninsured and make it MORE difficult for the rest of us to get coverage, go to www.americansforhealthcare.org
As an Obama volunteer and supporter since the beginning, I would like to thank Senator Clinton for her outstanding display of unity in encouraging our country to come together for real CHANGE in November! Please join me at the link below to send her a message of thanks:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/thankyouHRC?source=feature_thankyou?source=feature_thankyou
This is our time.... let's follow Senator Clinton's lead and come together to revive our country and heal our planet! Here is an outstanding blog to Clinton supporters:
Post from Kimberly Russell's Blog: To Clinton Supporters
By Obamakim (aka kimberly H Russell) - May 11th, 2008 at 1:28 pm EDT
For Clinton supporters coming to this blog, I want to tell you-
I know how you feel.
As wholeheartedly as I support Barack Obama, I know you feel the same about Hillary Clinton. Politics is not for the faint of heart, I know because it's broken mine more than once.
You've put all of your effort, heart, soul (and money) into supporting your candidate. You believe that your candidate is the only person for the job and you don't understand why everyone else doesn't feel that way. You've focused on getting them elected to the exclusion of almost everything else. And when it's over, and you feel empty.
I have sat in a daze in front of the TV waiting for a mistake or fraud to come to light that would change the outcome of the election. I have kicked the wall and sprained my ankle (and put a hole in the wall). I have cried myself to sleep in complete misery. I have felt hatred in my heart,
My mom was the one that finally put an end to my blue funk. She told me that I should be proud of myself for becoming involved and not let the loss by my candidate make me lose sight of why I got involved in the first place. I got involved to make a difference. I got involved because so many things were wrong on our country that I could no longer sit on the sidelines and just watch anymore.
So, be proud of yourself for all that you've done. It is ALL of our continued involvement that will force our government to truly be OUR government. It is OUR involvement that makes our country a DEMOCRACY. Remember why you got involved in the first place, remember the big picture.
We need to bring our troops home & take care of them, we need to strengthen our economy & create good jobs, we need to become less energy dependent & improve our environment. We need to educate all of our children & provide affordable accessable healthcare for all, we need to speak to our friends & our ememies and improve our battered image around the world.
We have so many important things to accomplish and we can only do it if we work together.
Welcome & Thank You,
KIm
