From Jim Corson, Green Seattle Forest Steward:
We at the Friends of the Burke Gilman at Sand Point would like to thank you for coming out on the worst day, I have ever seen on one of our work parties on the Burke Gilman Trail. Cold, blowing winds and heavy rain. It was above and beyond the call of duty and perhaps common sense, but we planted 600 plants and moved our project along immensely. Thank you! Thank you!
If you were wondering about the semi-organized chaos, we were expecting about 60 people and our final count was 129. So we had periodic shortages of shovels, which slowed things down periodically. Our oldest planter was 85 and our youngest was almost 2 years old.
From here, we need to finish clearing the stretch of trail from Metropolitan Market at 40th NE up to Princeton Bridge and then do a more limited planting in that area since there are a lot of native plants there already. After that, we hope to move north to the stretch of trail between NE 65th and NE 70th.
I was on a conference call with KIVA last week. Kiva recently made loans to US borrowers available. A large group of disgruntled Kiva lenders is protesting this new development on the ground that Americans are not poor enough. They claim to represent over 500 lenders and 16,000 loans. According to this contingent, KIVA should limit its program to the third world, because, according to them, Kiva's mission is limited to helping the most destitute and Americans don't fall into that category.
Many--probably most--of the US borrowers are minorities, including Latinos and Latinas.
Kiva is trying to figure out what to do. A recent poll showed 48% in favor of the US program, 42 against, and the rest undecided. Those in favor of the US program feel that if you don't want to make a US loan, you don't have to.
Kiva has statistics that show that since it started the US program, its rate of new lenders has grown and that the new lenders who made their first loan to a US borrower then turned around within the next 30 days and made a loan to a non-US borrower.
If you are a Kiva lender and have an opinion on this issue, one way or the other. go to http://www.kiva.org/about/help/email to send Kiva a message.
On June 30, Washington Public Campaigns sponsored a public forum on achieving health care for all. Panelists included a public health academic, a community health representative, a labor union leader, a citizen activist, a state legislator, and a public campaign finance activist. The program will be broadcast at some point on the Seattle Channel. Here are some highlights.
We spend $2.3 trillion on health care: every single $ is someone's income. For affordable health care, health care providers/vendors are going to have to make less. In other western countries, health care systems have two common characteristics: (1) they insure everyone, no exceptions, and (2) the government controls most of the money going into the system. In contrast, in this country, (1) not everyone is covered, and (2) thousands of different entities have a piece of the pie, are accountable only to themselves, not to the system, and therefore can simply pass the problems on to others. The current system allows people to make money, but is not so good for patients.
Community health centers are part of the solution. Massachusetts' experience, however, shows there are not enough primary care physicians. Congress seems to recognize this. Each proposal being considered contains incentives for medical students to go into primary care.
We have grown to 16 members, who have loaned a total of $1,125! Four borrowers--three borrowing groups from Tanzania, Peru, and Bolivia, and a woman from the Ukraine-- have repaid their loans in full. Twenty-one other borrowers have begun repayment.
The lending team has made loans to borrowers in Bolivia, the Ukraine, Mexico, Ghana, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Lebanon, Mali, Palestine, Togo, Nicaragua, Uganda, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Benin, Peru, the Sudan, Rwanda, Pakistan, and the United States. Kiva just launched US loans.
One of the borrowers--a woman from Mexico is delinquent-- but her microfinance institution (MFI) appears to be in trouble due to the worsening of the global economy and the devaluation of the Mexican peso. MFI's are the local agencies that Kiva uses to obtain borrowers and otherwise administer loans. Kiva says it is working with the MFI to develop new payment plans for their clients that will enable them to repay the loans. In the meantime, Kiva has developed a new practice to help borrowers deal with fluctuating currency rates, without putting lenders' funds too much in jeopardy.
If you have $25 to lend to a person who seeks to grow their own business and escape poverty, please join our lending team. www.kiva.org/team/65th_street_change_gang
May 16, 2009, Town Hall, Seattle, Washington
Presented by the 65th Street Change Gang, a neighborhood manifestation of hope and change
and
Brought to you by Radio AM 1090
The following is a summary of presentations made at the Town Hall event.
There are 50 million people without health coverage. In addition to these, 25 million more are underinsured—they have insurance but it is so inadequate that they would almost be better off without it.
We say that we have the best health care in the world, but the U.S. is 37th in the world in health outcomes such as infant mortality, longevity, etc. In 2005 we spent $6600 per person for health care. For half that, Canada covers everyone, and Canada is not alone.
The percentage of health care offered by employers has fallen 9%. Between 2000 and 2005, the number of Americans with health insurance has fallen by 1%, but employment with health insurers has gone up 32%.
Recently health insurers claimed that they would agree to save $2 trillion, but are now trying to backpedal from this representation. We can’t count on the insurers; they know they have to come to the table because something is going to happen.
The last time health care reform was tried was in 1993. The insurance industry ran the Harry & Louise ads, making the public afraid. But today even the insurers are calling for reform. Rep. McDermott is guardedly optimistic.
The best health care system in the world is in France. The French spend 50% of what the US does. There is 1 physician for every 430 persons in France; in comparison, in the U.S., there is 1 physician for every 1230 persons.
As people live longer, there are a lot more chronic illnesses. The right people to manage chronic illnesses are primary care physicians. We can’t increase the number of primary care physicians until we alleviate the problem of the crushing cost of going to medical school. Doctors drive debt in the system. They’re the ones who make the decisions. Because of the debt they incur in medical school, they gravitate toward specialty practices to pay off the debt. Medicine has become a profession where people think of dollars all the time.
Representative McDermott has submitted a bill that would make medical school tuition free. Forty-five thousand enter medical school annually. They would get free tuition in return for 4 years of public service in the medical field. Assuming President Obama is reelected, during the remaining 7 years of his administration, there would be 315,000 new primary care physicians. That would change the profession drastically.
Advocates of the single payer system would like to get reform in just one step. Obama, however, saw what happened to Hillary Clinton when she tried that. Obama has thus adopted the two-step approach: the President has told us that if you have insurance and you like it, you can keep it, and we’ll do something for everyone else.
The something else is the public option. What are we going to get with the public option?
Five hundred thousand families each month are losing health insurance because of unemployment caused by the bad economy. So when we talk about the public option, we’re not talking about “them”, we’re talking about “us.”
What’s going to go into the public option? Insurance companies want to put everyone in the public option who is sick or who would cause problems. They want to make the public option a dumping ground.
Reimbursement levels are an issue. Currently, we don’t pay doctors to talk with the patients. Doctors are instead paid for tests and procedures. We have to rethink how doctors are paid to change this system.
The father of modern medicine said, “Listen to the patient—he will tell you what’s wrong”, but that is not what is happening.
To get reform, we need to keep the pressure on. Pay attention to what’s going on. Let your representatives know what you think. Before this, business, the medical profession, and even some unions weren’t interested in changing the health care system. Now they are. But to get it done, we need to keep the pressure on.
You do your part, and I’ll do mine.
B. Dialogue Between Rep. McDermott and Rev. Bev Spears, Moderator
Q. You’ve met with President Obama?
A. The Progressive Caucus met with him. Two or three made presentations to the President about the need for a strong public option, one designed for everyone. The President said he wants a public option. He has a lot of political capital and will need to spend some of it to get things changed. The insurance and pharmaceutical companies do not want change.
Q. The House version has a public option, the Senate seems more tenuous.
A. It’s not going to be easy. It will be a tough job bringing people together. Leadership says there will be a bill by 6/1, and that it will be on the floor by July. But congressional committees get caught up with infighting. We need to keep people focused. We know something has to happen. The factors are present that will make people drive to a compromise.
Q. The public option as a bridge. Is that because single payer isn’t going to happen?
A. Once the president told people with health insurance that they didn’t have to change, that cemented the insurance industry into whatever happens.
The single payer system is not complicated. Single source—everyone gets coverage. But once the insurers are in it, costs go up. There are many insurers, which means many different forms and procedures—it’s a reason why we pay more. If there is a good public option, that will wither away.
When FDR came to power, unemployment was at 25%. But it still took him 2 years to enact unemployment compensation. So the current timetable may be too ambitious, but we need to keep pushing and eventually we’ll get there.
Q. The budget crisis in the State. You got the Basic Health Plan enacted and now 40,000 have to be cut from that program.
A. Washington State has tried as hard as anyone. I did, Phil Talmadge did, Mike Lowery did. The health care system in Canada began in British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Once it was established there, it spread until the entire country had it 20 years later. But in our country, one problem with starting on a state-by-state basis is ERISA. That federal law says that multistate companies can’t be forced to do anything by individual states. We could do a public option at the state level if we were willing to do something about ERISA, but that would be very difficult.
Q. It seems that minorities have more health care barriers.
A. It’s the right of all Americans to be covered and that has to be there from the start. Some countries have the right to health care in their Constitutions. We need to spend more dollars on preventative care, which would cut down later on more costly problems. We could use alternatives to MD’s, such as nurse practitioners, physician assistants, etc. We need more primary care level practitioners of various types to deal with the volume.
Q. What about immigrants, including people without papers?
How can you run a hospital and refuse somebody?? In Germany, you’d be in. And children, how can you refuse children? It would be un-American.
If you have something you want to change, put your foot in the door, then your knee, then your leg, and pretty soon you’re in the door.
We won’t get everything we want, but life isn’t that way. You only get out of the political process what you push your representatives to do.
I recommend a book entitled, “Do Not Resuscitate” by John Geyman.
C. Question/Answer Session (audience questions)
Q. What about alternative health providers?
A. We need to change the way we pay people to emphasize the preventive aspects. Fifteen minutes and a few pills could prevent $15-$20,000 episodes. The emphasis has to be on primary care.
Q. How committed is the President to universal care and how come he is not pushing single payer?
A. He wants to be sure we get this thing going and not get undermined. He had to tell people, if you like what you have, you can keep it. The President decided not to take on everything all at once, but in pieces. It’s like you can’t eat the whole elephant all at once. You have to go bite by bite.
Q. Medicare and Medicaid are limited. Will the public option also be? And what about dental?
A. To have a real public option, you have to have generous benefits the private options have—about 20% more than Medicare. That’s why Medicare recipients have to buy Medigap policies.
Even if you have insurance that pays 80%, what if you have a $500,000 bill, which is hardly unusual. You’d still be stuck with a $100,000 bill you’d have to pay out of your own pocket.
The public option has to cap out of pocket expenses. And if there’s no dental care, that can lead to medical problems. The public option needs to provide at least a basic dental plan. What Congress has, by the way, is not as good as some of the private plans.
Q. What are the differences between your bill and the Congress’s bill?
A. The Congressional bill puts everyone into Medicare. My bill requires each State to have the same benefit package, but gives each state the funds to create their own delivery plans. For example, Washington State has Group Health, but not everyone does, so each state has to figure out how to deliver the services.
Q. What about funding?
A. Financing is always the question. In 1993 we spent $950 billion on health care. A suggestion was made for a 10% payroll tax. Most businesses were spending 12-13% for their health care plans. Only Chrysler was interested in the 10%. Now businesses are paying 16% and realize that that will continue to increase.
We need some sort of tax according to ability to pay, for example, like the Social Security tax. The system is going to cost money. It will not be for free. Right now, the employer pays and gets a tax writeoff. The employee gets benefits and also gets a tax benefit.
It’s better to have the pubic decide how to finance the plan, rather than have the insurers, who will run up the premiums.
D. Rachel Berkson, SEIU
There will be a May 30 march, which will be part of a national network of demonstrations in April and May, culminating in Washington, D.C. on June 25. Go to www.may30march.org. We must achieve health care reform in 2009. There are 150 organizations sponsoring the march. Five thousand are expected at the minimum, but we need more to make sure the politicians hear us. Each person should bring 10 persons. It begins at Pratt Park and goes to Westlake Center. There will be big name speakers.
E. Panel Discussion
Teresita Batayola, CEO, International Community Health Services
We’re in a fight for survival. It has been a crisis for many decades. Community health services have existed for 30 years and funding has been extremely limited at times, but especially now. Reform has to take place now because they’re in survival mode for the next 2-3 years.
Forty thousand will lose coverage under the Basic Health Plan. These are the working poor. Under the Basic Health Plan, they pay premiums and copays; it isn’t a give away. And Basic Health, like Medicare and Medicaid, isn’t perfect. These coverages are all limited.
Expect 900,000 to be uninsured by the end of this year.
Access for all is the first and foremost principle. Also we are interested in comprehensive and preventative care. Access for all to the ER is not enough. Any solution should include community-based care that includes a healthy environment, etc.
Quality of care is also important. And we need cultural and linguistic competence.
Recently the State cut $1 billion from health care. Community health centers are consequently seeing a massive increase in patients. They cannot be turned away, but where will we get the resources?
Private insurers are not interested in the most vulnerable, who can’t afford it anyway.
David McLanahan, M.D., Physicians for a National Health Program
Single payer activists—the Baucus 16—were arrested at the Senate Finance Committee. A majority of Americans support single payer, but the powerful have a chokehold on politicians. To change this, we need campaign financing reform.
The change we need must come to Washington, not from Washington. The President has punted to Congress.
Still, we have taken a significant step forward for single payer. The Baucus committee protest has engendered much publicity and now Ed Schulz of MSNBC is promoting it.
The medical industrial complex says it will voluntarily reduce costs, but where are the changes in their business practices to offer to the sick, not just to the well? There are no specifics, or enforcement, or accountability. Is this a smoke screen behind which Congress can hide? Is it the death knell to the public option?
After Watergate, Congress reformed presidential campaign finance, but not congressional campaign finance. Kerry and Obama didn’t even take public money. Only the people can get campaign financing done. Congress won’t do it. It will have to be done locally, by initiative.
F. Questions from the audience:
Q. How should the state and the federal governments work together on health care reform?
A. Senate Bill calls for implementation by 2013. You have to keep the heat on Congress. You need to make full use of the Internet to keep the pressure on. The demise of newspapers is a real problem. We need investigative reporting. And it has to be beyond just the state level. California keeps trying, but hasn’t made it yet. Community organizations around the country have to band together to keep pushing.
Both Washington senators, Murray and Cantwell, head key committees for health care reform. The Governor needs to work with them. But each person must learn what’s going on and contact their congress/senate representatives.
The original goal was 2012, now it’s 2014. In the last two years, single payer bills have been introduced, but now we have the budget crisis, and although still on the table, they’ve been sidelined.
We’re in a situation where it’s “pay me now, or pay me later.” There has to be a federal income tax increase on the wealthiest. Making medical school free is an investment. We can nvest in highways, but not in people.
The first two lending team loans have been paid back in full.
Huk Sunqulla Group Food Production/Sales, Peru Paid Back 100% repaid
AMIGAS POR SIEMPRE Group Services, Bolivia Paid Back 100% repaid
Of the remaining 23 loans, 16 are making repayments so far. The remainder are not scheduled for repayments yet.
As a lifelong moderate Republican, I've found it harder and harder to stick to my old party and have voted Democrat in the last several national elections. Periodically, I've written to the GOP to see if any sense can be knocked into them. Here are my last two letters:
4/11/09, to Mainstream Republicans of Washington:
I am proud to call myself a Dan Evans Republican. I worked on Governor Dan's 1972 campaign. I was an extern in his office. I attended the Cascade Conference in its early days. I worked on Norm Maleng's first campaigns. I gave money to Lois North and continue to give money to Sam Reed and I voted for Dan Satteberg and Rob McKenna.
I have just received my invitation to the 2009 Cascade Conference. The failure of the letter to even be able to spell our President's name correctly is unbelievable and insulting.More importantly, it appears that the Mainstream Republicans should no longer call themselves Mainstream. The letter is simply full of the "just say no" type mentality of the RNC and the congressional Republicans. Have you seen the latest polls? America doesn't exactly hold Republicans in high esteem and rightly so. I voted for President Obama even though I still consider myself to be a Republican. I am generally pleased with what he has done thus far Throwing the words "radical" and "socialism" around is inaccurate and irresponsible and merely demonstrates that your organization is just as radical as the radical right Republicans.I joined the party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, Dan Evans and Joel Pritchard. But as far as I'm concerned, the Republican Party over the last several yearshas repudiated everything those great Americans stood for. Now the so-called Mainstream Republicans have done the same. I beg of you to divorce yourselves from the path to destruction being taken by the RNC. Being the loyal opposition doesn't mean Republicans have to trash everything President Obama does or says. Rather, it means working with the President to get this country's problems solved. I believe the president when he says he's open to considering new ideas, no matter who they come from. But I see no new ideas coming from the GOP. Nor, it appears from the Mainstream Republicans.
4/28/09 to the RNC:
I see that the GOP continues on its lemmings' journey over the cliff. Now the party has forced Arlen Specter into the Dems. There is no more moderate GOP.
I'm a college graduate. If you hadn't noticed, most college graduates voted for Obama, including me even though I still consider myself to be a Republican (but just barely). Yet the Republicans seem to gravitate toward nearly illiterate, astonishingly ill-informed persons like Joe the Plumber, Sarah (I can see Russia) Palin, and Bobby (spending money to monitor volcanoes is frivolous) Jindal. Lincoln, TR, and DDE are rolling in their graves. I'll be an independent soon if the GOP keeps going this way . . . .
The 65th Street Change Gang Kiva Lending Team, 14 members strong, has now loaned a total of $800 to 24 different groups or persons in 20 different countries (Bolivia, Tajikistan, the Ukraine, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Togo, Uganda, Palestine, El Salvador, Vietnam, Peru, Pakistan, Tanzania, Ghana, Lebanon, and Mali). Sixteen borrowers have begun repayments, and 4 have repaid more than 50% of their loans. No one is delinquent or in default. Lending team members who have made more than one loan are beginning to make additional loans with the repayments.
Kiva is a well-known internet microfinance organization that enables anyone with $25 to join with others around the world to make small loans to small businesses in need. For more info, go to www.kiva.org.
The 65th Street Change Gang Kiva Lending Team is open to anyone who wants to make a difference in the world. Join us!
URL:http://www.kiva.org/team/65th_street_change_gang
The Change Gang's Kiva Lending Team now has 12 members, including three from outside the Change Gang. We've made microloans (with a total of $625 coming through the lending team) to 17 different borrowers, 10 of whom have begun making repayments. The other borrowers' first loan repayments are not yet due. The borrowers come from Peru, Bolivia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, the Ukraine, the Dominican Republic, Tanzania, Mexico, Ghana, Viet Nam, El Salvador, Lebanon, and Palestine.
Check out the 65th Street Change Gang lending team, and learn more about lending teams on Kiva in general, by clicking here: http://www.kiva.org/team/65th_street_change_gang&_isc=e0acfecc-5188-102c-afbd-fac2dafc63f8&_te=tr. You don't have to be a member of the 65th Street Change Gang to be a member of our lending team! And if you're already giving to Kiva, consider joining our lending team!
Kiva founder, Matt Flannery, spoke at Town Hall on Thursday before a crowd of more than 500. Turns out he's originally from Gig Harbor! Not at all like your stereotypical Silicon Valley guy, he was very unassuming, yet incredibly inventive and thoughtful. He talked about the origins of Kiva (in his spare time, funneling loan money from his family through his personal bank account while working at Tivo), moving the operation into the neighborhood donut shop, and then finally hitting the big time. His stories about Kiva's growing pains were great (for example, the call from the Defense Department after they began loaning to borrowers in Iraq). Seattle Channel will be running a video of the event many times between 3/17 and 3/29. Here's a link to the TV schedule:
http://www.seattlechannel.org/schedule/programDetails.asp?title=5200906
Well, worth watching! And the big news is that Kiva will be making US loans available soon (starting with borrowers in the NE US and California)!
I just sent the following to Governor Jindal:
Your suggestion that spending for volcano monitoring is frivolous is way off base. Some of us Americans do live near active or dormant but not dead volcanoes. People died when Mt St. Helens erupted in 1980. Some of the towns near Mt. St. Helens hold periodic volcano drills so that they can practice getting out of the way of the expected mud flows. How would the citizens of Louisiana feel if the federal government stopped hurricane monitoring? Please issue a public apology.
*******
For those who want to contact the Governor, use the following link:
http://www.gov.state.la.us/index.cfm?md=pagebuilder&tmp=home&navID=5&cpID=28&catID=0
Hurray, thanks to Heidi's help, I'm back to blogging again. The 65th Street Change Gang Kiva Lending Team continues to help others throughout the world. We now have 8 members (including one outside the Change Gang) who have loaned a total of $475 to 11 different people or groups. The borrowers are from Peru, Bolivia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, the Ukraine, the Dominican Republic, Tanzania, Mexico, and Ghana. Out of the 8 Seattle-based lending teams, we're third based on the amount loaned! Check out our team's Kiva webpage to find out more about the borrowers and the loans.
http://www.kiva.org/community/viewTeam?team_id=4189
The 65th Street Change Gang Kiva Lending Team is growing. We now have 6 members who have loaned a total of $225 to 5 separate groups/persons. The two latest loans are to:
1. Tajikistan: Ayubjon Sultanov, 42 years old, is married with two children. An energetic man who loves agriculture, he has farmed for 10 years. He lives in Isfara, a semi-urban area about 110 kilometers away from the center of Sugd region – Khujand city. With this, his first loan from KIVA, he hopes to grow more crops and have a better overall yield. In so doing, he will contribute to the betterment of his family's living conditions. While the people of Tajikistan are working to improve its agricultural production and manufacturing sector, nearly two-thirds of the population still live in abject poverty.
2. Dominican Republic: Elena Santa is wonderful lady with a loving heart. She is happily married and has three wonderful children. She runs "Schucks Auto Supply," which stocks parts for cars and motorcycles. She will use part of this loan to pour a cement floor in her home. Her husband will contribute a portion of his wages to help her repay this loan.This loan is made through Esperanza, former Seattle Mariners Dave Valle's charitable organization.
The 65th Street Change Gang Kiva Lending Team has 5 members so far--4 who are in the 65th Street Change Gang and one through outreach. I left the lending team open to whoever wants to join to see if we could promote Kiva to others. Please encourage interested friends and family! Anyone can participate for as little as $25! And if anyone needs help in joining the lending team or participating in a Kiva loan, let me know!
So far, the team has contributed with other Kiva members to make loans to three different women's groups. Each member of the particular group agrees to guarantee repayment of other members' loans.
1. Peru: The Huk Sunqulla ("One Heart" in Quechua) Village Bank is made up of fifteen women from the Paucará community of Acobamba Province in central Peru, about 3200 meters above sea level. The area has a chilly climate suited for growing grains and tubers. Most members of the community raise livestock or farm, while others sell merchandise in local markets. Norma and Martina are just two members of Huk Sunqulla. Norma is requesting a loan of 600 soles (US$200) to buy a wider variety of merchandise to sell at her market stall. Norma's dream is to buy a car and for her children to graduate with professional degrees. Martina is married with two children who are 18 and 12 years old. Martina sells lamb soup and chicken soup in local markets. Martina is requesting a loan of 600 soles to buy more lamb to make soup to bring to other local markets. Her dream in life is to build her own house and to open her own store. The total loan amount to the entire group is $3000, payable over 5 months
2. Bolivia: The group Amigas por Siempre (Friends Forever) is in their second loan cycle and are represented by Mrs. Edith Julia. In general, the members work selling appliances, clothing, athletic shoes, backpacks, food, and toys and the men work in service or public transport businesses. The loan from the Agrocapital Foundation will help them purchase products and ingredients to stock their businesses with high quality materials and to repair their tools. The total loan amount to the entire group is $4375, payable over 5 months.
3. Pakistan: Shamim Akhtar baji is 53-year-oldgroup leader for some more woman from her locality. The mother of an 8-year old son in kindergarten, she stays at home and sews clothes, taking orders from her neighbors. She shares a part of her income with her husband, who runs a local medical store. Because inflation is increasing rapidly and it’s difficult for a single person to bear the expenses of the family, she is applying for a loan to buy medicines for her husband’s store. Zareena baji wants a loan to buy milk to re-sell. Jinda baji wants a loan to buy mason's tools. Zulaikha baji wants a loan to buy groceries for her grocery shop. Maqbool baji wants a loan to buy goats for her animal-selling business. Irshad baji wants a loan to buy clothes for her clothes-selling business.The total loan amount to the entire group is $1125, payable over 11 months.
