Under a basic universal healthcare system (or public option), all Americans would be entitled to receive preventative and necessary healthcare by creating a program whereby recent graduates from all medical fields would be encouraged or required to serve 2 + years as "universal plan" providers (or "public option providers"). In other words, individuals choosing to enroll in a basic, public option plan would receive care primarily from younger, less experienced healthcare providers. Within these participating clinics/hospitals, there would be senior clinical supervisors overseeing and consulting with their younger associates. A monthly premium and/or copays could be determined as a percentage of annual income, with a cap.
KEEP SUPPLEMENTAL INSURANCE IN THE PRIVATE SECTORThose individuals who wished to receive more specialized and expanded care could purchase supplemental plans that would be privatized and outside of the government subsidized public option, just as we do today with employer or individual financed private insurance plans.This option is integral to ensuring that those who want their medical care to be more aggressive and intervention-based get that assurance.
For example, under the Universal Care plan (the public option), end of life care/prevention would have limitations so that elderlies' lives are not extended indefinately with various forms of life support. Many of us do not wish to have our lives extended in this artifical and costly way. However, for those who want a more aggressive approach to end of life care/extension, a supplemental policy could be purchased that would guarantee such care.Healthcare providers who opted into the universal system would be rewarded by student loan forgiveness programs and subject to contracted wages/salaries negotiated between healthcare providers and states/federal government. One way of making this more affordable to the government would be to have the government provide government-backed malpractice insurance that would have stricter caps on what and how much patients could sue for. Admittedly, this proposal does set up a two-tiered system, whereby public option recipients receive care from younger, less experienced practitioners. To me, this is the unavoidable way to provide lower cost healthcare to all, and it is superior to the current system where many go uninsured and without any healthcare whatsoever.Non-Profit Healthcare Co-opsThis idea is quite intriguing to many healthcare providers in Boulder County. I am interested in legislation that includes such clinics as an option to compete with private insurance plans, as long as the rules and fees for setting them up are not overly restrictive. These types of co-ops would require government assistance to help set-up in order for them to become a viable alternative to traditional employer-based healthcare. In my opinion, both the Public Option and Non-profit Co-ops should be included in healthcare reform legislation. It appears that Republicans are proposing this option in lieu of the Public Option because they know it will be much more difficult to establish on a large scale, in a way that would really compete with for-profit insurance companies in the same way that the Public Option would. That being said, if these co-ops are to be included in reform legislation, please ensure that these co-ops are designed to compete and succeed in the new system.
As an acupuncturist who has had the privilege of working in a community that is relatively integrative, my concern about the state of our healthcare crisis is somewhat unique. Healthcare is a basic human right, and all citizens should have access to healthcare, regardless of their ability to pay full market price. I believe that basic human needs such as water, energy, and healthcare should not be subject to profit-making or the unregulated domain of "Free Market Capitalism". I also believe that people who take responsibility for maintaining and enhancing their health should be given incentives, such as reduced premiums / copays or even better, including these healthy habits as a covered medical insurance benefit that is available to everyone.
NATURAL MEDICINE as FIRST RESORT
I work in a field (acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine) that has become most people's "last resort", when I believe our work is better suited as a "first resort": If we, as healthcare providers, must first pledge to do no harm, should we not proceed by offering the least invasive treatments first, before turning to the more risky options of surgery and drugs laden with potential side effects? If natural-based medicine and exercise therapies were covered insurance benefits, we would be able to reach many more people before they become so ill that they have no other options besides surgery and life-long drug therapies. Let me also clarify that in some cases, surgery and life-saving drugs are a godsend, and the most appropriate treatment for the patient. My patients are sometimes shocked to hear me say "I think you should go for the hip replacement", but I am committed to helping them choose medical solutions that work, and you can't "cure" bone-on-bone hip degeneration with needles and herbs. Some of the most enthusiastic proponents of hip replacements and other surgical procedures are themselves acupuncturists and providers of natural-based medicine.
In sum, I believe that the type of care covered by insurance is as important as the issue of universal coverage. I urge my fellow healthcare professionals and legislative advocates to adopt this issue alongside the very noble and worthy goal of universal healthcare.
According to a recent McClatchy poll, nearly seven in ten Americans approve of the way President Obama is doing his job, and he outpolls Congress by more than 30 points. He can also point to an uptick in the number of people who think the country is headed in the right direction even as a majority thinks the worst is yet to come in the economy.
Read on about how the Republicans are trying to combat his popularity and how to respond to their whines.
Department of Grassroots IDEAS and New Vision – free of the old paradigms
When people don’t believe there is a place for their ideas, ideas don’t surface.
Just hearing from Obama that “I WILL LISTEN TO YOU,” has already started to revolutionize the flow of creative ideas and the one-heart connection.
TWO images I’d like to share (see especially (B.)). They are visual:
(A.)
1. Creative solutions have been suppressed for a long time (e.g., alternative-fuel cars, suppressed because they would compete with oil and/or auto companies).
2. Creative solutions have been pouring out en masse the last few years, but HITTING A GLASS CEILING. 3. Obama administration in Washington remoes that cork; creativity and solutions flowing naturally. A RENAISSANCE.
(B.)
1. Picture what a NEXT STEP could be for us: Picture the videos you’ve seen of nerve cells firing in the brain. Picture those flashes of illumination as creative IDEAS FROM THE GLOBAL GRASSROOTS. Provide a place to send their ideas (the Obama administration, believed to be LISTENING).
2. A flash of light as one individual has and communicates a creative idea/solution. The inspiration is immediately sent
a. BY EMAIL CENTRALLY to a carefully-selected DEPARTMENT in the Obama administration which has been CHARGED WITH EVALUATING AND SORTING OUT THE MYRIAD IDEAS supplied by the world population.
b. BY CAUSAL WORD-OF-MOUTH outward (analogous to “Play it Forward”), passing on if potentially viable - creating other flashes of light and SPAWNING MYRIAD OTHER IDEAS that the original idea stimulates.
What a day we had at the NxNW Longmont staging location, with at least 100 volunteers coming through our doors. It was a honor to work with great folks like Phyllis, a natural healing arts practioner who was an Obama Fellow, Jamey who came from California to help us, Tom whose experience with the local Dems guided us so well, Jonathan was a DNC delegateg at age 29 and then lead our team on election day, and the Obama guys Matt, Andy, Dan, and especially Jacob, our Field Organizer who grew so much in stature and leadership during our months of work together. Thanks to all the volunteers, like Trish, Aynshet, Ben, and all the others who canvassing weekly leading up to the election, and those who came in at the end for the big push. Thanks to our neighbors - it was such a joy to meet other local folks and to feel rooted in our community in a way we've never felt before, and to those who came up from Boulder to help out, and those who travelled from California and elsewhere. Thanks big time to Ira, the love of my life, with whom I shared this incredible ride.
Obama, God bless you and good luck! I'll be here, with the others, holding you accountable in the organizing tradition that you respect, and expect.
I'm going to bed. I just read some upbeat stuff here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/02/latest-presidential-polls_n_140177.html
Feels like I've done all I can. I even think I've worried all I can, at least for today.
I am so sorry Obama's grandmother didn't make it a couple more days. Sort of like Moses not making it into the Promised Land, I guess. Mythologically speaking. Or however you view those things.
This evening, I received an email from Barack (we all did) asking me to vote and help others do the same. I couldn't help myself--I replied to that email (it hasn't bounced) asking him to please, please, please win this election. I told him:
Yes you can! Yes you can! Yes you can!
You want one word to sum up the mood among Obamacans today? Don't look for it in Webster's--look in Weinreich, the Yiddish dictionary: You've got shpilkes, everybody -- plain and simple.
Shpilkes (pronounced: SHPILL-kuhz) is a case of nerves + excitement + anticipation that knows no bounds. No English word even comes close. 'Pins and needles' and 'sitting on tenterhooks' are poor second cousins to real shpilkes (the kind we have now).
Okay, you admit you've got shpilkes--the first step in any self-help campaign. What do you do about 'em?
The more energy you spend for the Obama-Biden Campaign, the less energy you'll have for those shpilkes.
So, get out there and volunteer -- one last time!
John McCain may claim fame as a campaign finance reformer, but he sure knows how to get around his own reforms. In recent disclosure statements, the McCain campaign revealed that McCain-Palin coffers were boosted by hefty contributions from a married couple named Hassan Alaghband and Farah Asemi. The couple allegedly resides in Colorado (though no evidence of that was turned up in an Internet search) and each contributed $70,100 to the GOP presidential campaign.
Why is are these people contributing over $140,000 to the coffers of campaign finance maverick John McCain and his running mate Sarah “we’re-both-mavericks” Palin? This, in spite of the $2,500-per-person limit of McCain-Feingold?
It is not easy to gather information on the politically philanthropic couple; but Hassan’s father Vahid Alaghband is the well-known Iranian-born businessman and Chair of the Balli Group; and Hassan is a director of the largely-family-run company. According to the company’s web site, Balli is among the world’s largest privately-owned, independent commodity traders. Headquartered in the United Kingdom but running operations out of a global network of offices including some in the US, the Group specializes in the trading of primary industrial and consumer commodities, including steel and other metals, chemicals, and agricultural products. Balli Group enjoys sales exceeding $1billion (US), not including sales from its subsidiaries.
According to Internet sources at www.prnewsnow.com, one subsidiary, Balli Real Estate group operates in the UK and UAE (yes, that’s United Arab Emirates). This company’s $3.5 billion portfolio (http://www.balli-re.com/property-portfolio.htm ) includes major real estate projects in Dubai.
As much as I do not want to participate in the xenophobia follies stirred up by the GOP’s low-road campaign tactics, I would LOVE to attend a Palin town hall meeting just to throw a couple of burning questions at that over-zealous, manipulative-but-charismatic hypocrite, like “When you talk to your base about the “true Americans” you want to “fight” for, are you talking about your campaign’s sugar daddies, Hassan Alaghband and Farah Asemi?
When mega-donors like the Alaghbands are busily protecting their billions in off-shore investments by funnelling large amounts of cash into the campaign chest of John “Country First” McCain, I can't help but conclude that McCain and Palin are a pitiful pair of frauds.
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