The last time I officially responded to Dr. Cutler in a public forum, I was defending my shaky doctoral dissertation. Fortunately, health reform is in better shape, and is only slightly more delayed in its arrival.

Like Dr. Cutler, I am optimistic that the President and Congress will enact health reform into law this year. It won’t be easy. Ezra Klein said it well when he identified James Madison as the true enemy of health reform. Madison is the villain of the piece because he designed a political system that so strongly favors the defense over the offense in passing major legislation. Our healthcare system is a $2.4 trillion colossus that touches every interest group in America. We must make difficult tradeoffs and bargains. Healthcare reform means different things to different people. Personally, I am most passionate about creating a health system that protects people against catastrophic medical bills and that more-effectively promotes public health. Others feel the same about the need to restrain escalating costs, the need to improve quality and cost- effectiveness, the need to help low-income workers, the need to achieve universal coverage. Every one of these goals is important and challenging.

President Obama presents a broad vision that speaks to each concern. He has presented eight essential principles. He has wisely left it to Congress to provide specific legislative details. The major Democratic plans have important differences. They share many common elements that line up well with the President’s principles.

No single constituency will get everything it wants. We all know that. One positive change since 1993/94 is the emergence of a more chastened, pragmatic, and yes more civil approach by the major stakeholders. No one--not providers, not patients, not employers, not even private insurers--is particularly well-served by our current system. We miss many opportunities to make Americans healthier. We provide lower-quality care than Americans have a right to expect. Despite all we spend, our healthcare system fails to treat people with the dignity and the humanity they deserve.

Like millions of others, my life has taken a turn in which I spend much time in hospital waiting rooms and other facilities caring for loved ones who face serious medical concerns. I wrote about some of these experiences during the campaign season. Every time I posted something, I would receive heart-rending responses from MS or cancer patients facing medical bankruptcy, from disabled people piling up bills during the Medicare waiting period, from people denied coverage due to preexisting conditions, and from countless others. The individual stories were sometimes complicated. They collectively describe a healthcare financing and delivery system that often responds incompetently and meanly to people in great need.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Many of us have worked hundreds of hours during the campaign and after to reach this point. We must keep going. It’s that important, and it’s that possible.

Now is the time to fight for the reforms we must have if we want to re-shape the American economy into the 21st century.

The cost of Healthcare is bankrupting families and putting mom and pop's stores out of business. Big industries, like auto manufacturing, were feeling health costs help drag them down even when the economy was more solid. Now that the economy is tanking, businesses feel backed up against a wall.

With one out of six Americans without any care and an estimated over 50% under-insured, how can we expect America to compete in a global market where every other industrialized country offers a public option?

Now is the time. We must take advantage of what we have learned and create a truly American solution that provides coverage for all, not just those who can afford it.

This time can indeed be different for health reform if we use the grass roots network that the President galvanized during the campaign.  In 1993, all the action was in Washington DC.  There was relatively little input coming from ordinary Americans but plenty of input coming from organized interest groups who could gain or lose from health care reform.  Imagine what might happen this time if hundreds of thousands of calls and emails poured into various Congressional representatives and Senators over the importance of health reform? Or if we got on the phone and responded to radio talk show hosts who might be stirring up opposition? Of if we educated our neighbors and family? Or if we used the power of the internet?  As Cutler and Pollack point out, everyone is going to have to give up something in order to make this work.  But even more important than organized interest groups is the voice of ordinary Americans who have nothing to gain other than the opportunity to purchase health coverage at an affordable price.  We responded to Obama's call for action during the campaign.  Can we generate that kind of energy again?

This time is different.  We have learned through the Obama campaign that each voice matters.  We also learned to study the various opinions and compare them to our own experiences and our best judgement.  The same people who held the ground against improved health care are still there holding their positions again, but we no longer believe "they" will take care of it.  We must take care of it.  We have learned a lot from the failures of the past, we have embraced an empowered voice and we can have better health care plans that are equitable.  We shouldn't have to be rich to have health care. We have a right to decide what kind of a country we want to live in and more power to demand it than we ever knew.  Thank you, Dr. Cutler.

As someone who advocated to make the Clinton health care bill the most perfect law for consumers, I can attest that the discussions around health care reform are different in 2009. Everyone involved - consumer advocates like me, health care providers, business groups, insurers - recognizes the need to take action to fix our health care system. More important, everyone recognizes that there are commonalities of interest among the different groups. I fully believe that over the last decade and more, we all have come to recognize that no interest can expect to achieve its ideal health care system. When we strive for the perfect we get nothing, and to quote President Obama, "The status quo is not an option."

If, as Dr. Cutler says, we all can talk to each other with respect and hear each other's concerns, then we should be able to devise a system that extends affordable, quality health care to all Americans while reducing out-of-control health care costs. This task is not as daunting as it sounds. This is what consumers, health care providers, businesses and insurers want, and now is the time to work together to achieve our common goal.

I, like Dr. Cutler, am cautiously optimistic that this time we finally may turn the corner on health care reform.  But we will do so only if we accept the bitter truth that better is the enemy of good, and best is a formula for certain disaster.  Good spin makes for bad policy.  What we desperately need is a common understanding of the problems we face and the discipline to address them without resorting to rhetorical excesses that damn every potential solution but our own.

The current economic meltdown can be attributed to American business adopting the dysfunctional practices of American health care.  The only financial instrument that is less comprehensible than a derivative consisting of nearly worthless collateral is a hospital bill for an inappropriate admission.  Almost unlimited power to risk other people’s money with no personal financial accountability parallels uncontrolled demand for medical care of marginal worth when third parties foot nearly all the bill.  Payment of large fees and bonuses for facilitating questionable financial transactions appears to have resulted in the same excesses as unrestrained fee-for-service health care reimbursement.  And large organizations both in financial services and in health care have become lost in their big picture activities while individual lives are torn asunder by their bad decisions and ill-considered actions.

So the link between our economic dilemma and our health care crisis may be even more profound than Dr. Cutler has indicated.  At the very least, sound market principles require: (1) good information that links prices paid to benefits received, (2) market discipline that restrains profligate squandering of precious resources, (3) alignment of incentives to reward quality and efficiency, and (4) sensitivity to how individual lives are affected by highly leveraged private and public policies and procedures.  Surely these principles will resonate both with progressives and with free market conservatives.

Yes, it is time to change direction.  It is time to realize that if we are to remain the greatest, most productive, most fortunate nation on earth, we cannot afford the luxury of partisan bickering and one-upsmanship.  We certainly know what won’t work, because we’ve been there and done that.  And as Winston Churchill correctly noted: “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.”

No, he is doing just right.
Health care reform is now on the front burner.

Some of the posts above have noted the very real human costs of our dysfunctional health care system. It's easy to get overwhelmed by statistics, but here is one that jumped out at me recently: 

21% of Americans -- that is, more than one out of every five people -- could not pay for needed health care or medicine at some point last year. Other studies have put that number even higher.

Just think about that for a minute... One out of every five people unable to pay for their medical needs. And with the recent economic news, that number is sure to increase. Put simply, it's a national disgrace.

We need health care reform now. And as many people have written, the economic recession only makes health care reform a more urgent priority.

Indeed, this time is different. People have spoken loud and are heard clear. An election was won and a new President is in. One cornerstone of that successful campaign is fundamental healthcare reform, which is no longer a question of if, maybe how, but really when.

No one is against healthcare reform per se, at least openly, because it has been so broken for so long. Special interests treating the current dysfunctional system as their cash cow aside, some supporters may not fully agree to the extent and speed of the reform yet. Particularly, the current economic crisis unfolding is taking a daily toll, both physically, and psychologically, on the nation. How bad is this crisis going to be? Or even, can we ever get out of it? How to best fit healthcare reform in the mix? Well the short answer is this crisis will be overcome, as all others before and in the future, once we mend fences and seize the real culprits. For one, the broken healthcare system has to be fixed now for us to truly emerge from this crisis, as other insightful comments here also stated. As a key integral component of the economy, healthcare is 16% of GDP, and fast rising, except that the cost benefit ratio is still getting worse. Moreover, a successful reform will definitely be timely and valuable to help stimulate, support, and sustain the transition into a new sound economy. Economic crisis come and go, healthcare is forever.

To realize feasible and affordable universal healthcare for all Americans is the objective of this endeavor. As a touch stone of our value and priority, healthcare encompasses three aspects: certainly a right because it is a moral imperative; a responsibility because it is only practical if each participant take up shared responsibility; a privilege because almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day. Full of challenges and opportunities, it will take the best of our leaders and rest of us to navigate the complex landscape and achieve most health benefit for most people before this year is out.

I watched the launch of the space shuttle Discovery last week. This country once put the first man on the moon. It took no less, and probably much more, ingenuity, courage, and conviction; there was pride and of course that optimism we shall not settle for half way.

President Obama has said: "So let there be no doubt: healthcare reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year."

Let us all take a giant step for better healthcare. I only wish December 31, 2009 were today.

Why? Because the "PEOPLE" are finally sick and tired of being sick and tired, and I might add dying and poor!

If We the PEOPLE want it (real healthcare reform) , it shall be so.  It is really up to us and are we up to it? Or will we keep doing what we've been doing and getting what we've always gotten, which is less than what is needed?

The challenge is ours.

... is a closed membership group. So much for engaging in some honest open transparent dialogue with those folkies.

In the Democratic Party you're not allowed to have closed meetings, period. Closed meetings happen in elitist liberal organizations. DFA is a progressive organization.

Healthcare Advisor's Blog
National (online)
20 Members

The blog for Amercia
National (online)
Million + Members

Welcome to the family. :) I do hope you all have a very good pair of walking boots. The next election is just around the corner. I do believe there is one happening in NY in about 8 days, that is if anyone would like to travel to Glen Falls to help GOTV.

Democracy for America is our nation's largest progressive political action community. ... DFA is a grassroots powerhouse working to change our country and the Democratic Party from the bottom-up. We provide campaign training, organizing resources, and media exposure so our members have the power to support progressive issues and candidates up and down the ballot. Join us in delivering results for a progressive America!

There is a broad network of independent DFA grassroots organizations across the country who are all engaging in people-powered politics and taking action locally. These DFA Groups and National DFA Partners unite our progressive movement and work together to move America forward.

A few of our accomplishments: http://democracyforamerica.com/accomplishments

The DFA Campaign Academy mission is to focus, network, and train grassroots activists in the skills and strategies to take back our country, manage successful campaigns or run for office themselves.

Our Campaign Academy weekends are 16 hours of interactive workshops that bring hundreds of local activists, campaign staff and candidates together for 2 days of intensive campaign training. Experienced campaign professionals lead sessions in voter contact, fundraising, communications, on-line organizing and much more to empower progressive activists with the skills to win.  Attendees also meet with dozens of local progressive candidates and learn about exciting job and volunteer opportunities in their area.  And of course, everyone receives their own copy of DFA's 180-page Campaign Training Manual.

Year after year, the DFA Campaign Academy is building a grassroots infrastructure of skilled progressive activists in all 50 states.

March 23, 2009
 
Democratic Central Committees and Regional Directors
 
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
 
Please ask your Central Committees and Clubs to endorse the enclosed Resolution which has been submitted to the Resolutions Committee of the State Democratic Convention by the Sonoma County Democratic Central Committee.  I realize that it is most likely too late to submit a formal Resolution, therefore I am asking you to mail letters to the Resolution Committee showing your support for the Sonoma County Resolution. 
 
Health Care for All—California (HCA) will have a table at the convention with further information, petitions, literature, etc.  The goal at the Convention is to seek support from each Caucus and to recruit Democrats to become participants in the 2009-2010 campaign for single payer health care.  Please consider dropping by HCA’s table at the convention.
 
In Solidarity,
 
Mike Smith
Legislative Committee
Sonoma County Central Democratic Committee

-----
 

RESOLUTION TO STATE CONVENTION SUPPORTING AND ENDORSING

 

THE CALIFORNIA ONECARENOW CAMPAIGN FOR UNIVERSAL AFFORDABLE SINGLE PAYER LEGISLATION

 

WHEREAS - the 2006 Democratic Party State Convention passed a resolution supporting a single payer health care system in California and the California Democratic platform advocates legislation to create a single payer health care system, and

 

WHEREAS - the California OneCareNow 2009-2010 Campaign's goal is to build a grassroots movement of labor, seniors, providers and community groups strong enough to pass single payer legislation in 2010, and

 

WHEREAS - the California OneCareNow 2009-2010 Campaign will be organizing a series of activities and event in every community in California in order to pass single payer legislation in 2010,

 

THEREFORE, BE IT SO RESOLVED that the Democratic Party endorse and support the California OneCareNow 2009-2010 Campaign and encourage Democratic Central Committees, Democratic Party Clubs and all Democrats to participate in the California One Care Now Campaign to pass single payer legislation in 2010, and

 

THEREFORE, BE IT SO RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be provided to the members of the Democratic Caucus of the California State Legislature.

 

Endorsed by:

Sonoma County Democratic Party

Region 7, California Democratic Party (region includes 11 very rural and several urban counties in Central California)

Hi Susan,

Thank you for actively participating in our discussions. We need everyone. I want to assure you that ‘healthcare advisor’s blog’ is not an exclusive club. It is only closed so that we could manage the weekly agenda. For all practical purposes, you are already a member because you are contributing a lot. Please stay with us and also invite your friends and family to join this national movement to secure the Federal health reform, which will also cover your health care for all agenda. It does not really matter who you supported in the last election. That was then but now we have one President and millions of our fellow citizens do not have access to healthcare services. If we all work together, yes we can bring changes and healthcare for all.

We have local folks who work for our local Counties and State Children's Health Insurance programs who have become chain smokers because of this insipid idea.  Now that the counties and the state are so broke because of Enron and Arnold they are raiding these programs' rain day funds to pay off debt. These programs were designed to assist poor children and their young families. 

...The federal government recently approved a tobacco tax increase of almost 62 cents per pack. When it goes into effect on April 1, it will bring the total federal tax on a pack of cigarettes to $1.00, to help fund the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Anger Management
Source: Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School is hosting seminars in April and November to teach "Public Relations, Communications and Media Strategies for Dealing With an Angry Public." They'll be teaching techniques for dealing with people who "are angry because you've let them down" or who "want to embarrass you publicly," as well as "environmental groups threatening you" over issues such as "the use and disposal of toxic materials." You can visit their website for details. A flyer announcing the seminars carries endorsements from officials with the U.S. Air Force, Federal Aviation Administration, ConocoPhillips and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. If you're angry at any of the above, or even if you're just outraged by the price of the seminars themselves ($1,950 per attendee), you know who to call.

If you make the simple decision to adopt health care as a right,a basic human right then any systemic fix that doesn't seek to be universal falls short.

I like the addition of all childred to Medicaid, and the opening of a public insurance pool for Medicare to everyone else, and then use every tool of cost containment by that giant pool to keep everyone elses costs in line to compete, but by all means let people choose if they want to throw their own money away. This is America, it is in our genes to do that.

National Retirees Legislative Network

 

NRLN Grassroots Network members are asked to immediately email letters to Washington, DC to oppose the talk about taxing recipients of employer-sponsored health care benefits.  The NRLN has provided a sample letter for you to email to your members of Congress and President Obama. 

 

Let your elected officials know it is a BAD idea to tax our benefits!!

 

Please Take Action! http://capwiz.com:80/abtr/issues/alert/?alertid=12989076&PROCESS=Take+Action

20th Birthday of the Exxon Valdez Lie
by Greg Palast   

The petite Eskimo-Chugach woman gave me that you-dumb-ass-white-boy look.  

"Gail, Gail. STICK YOUR DAMN HAND IN IT!" 

She stuck it in, under the gravel of the beach at Sleepy Bay, her village's fishing ground. Gail's hand came up dripping with black, sickening goo. It could make you vomit. Oil from the Exxon Valdez.

It was already two years after the spill and Exxon had crowed that Mother Nature had happily cleaned up their stinking oil mess for them. It was a lie. [...]

EPA Says Global Warming a Public Danger
H. Josef Hebert, The Associated Press

"The White House is reviewing a proposed finding by the Environmental Protection Agency that global warming is a threat to public health and welfare. Such a declaration would be the first step to regulating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act and could have broad economic and environmental ramifications. It also would likely spur action by Congress to address climate change more broadly."

[...]

The EPA action "signals that the days of ignoring this pressing issue are over," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., whose Senate committee is working on a climate bill.

[...]

The decision was announced Tuesday by EPA administrator Lisa Jackson....

It could delay 150-250 permits being sought by companies wanting to begin blasting mountaintops to access coal.

Those permits are issued by the Army Corps of Engineers, an agency that has been criticized by environmental groups. The Corps has been sued for failing to thoroughly evaluate the environmental impact of mountaintop removal, during which forests are clear-cut and mountaintops are blasted apart to expose coal seams; the rock and dirt left behind is dumped into adjacent valleys, affecting the course and health of waterways.

watch it: http://thedirtylie.com/

Healthcare Advisor's Blog leads one to ask: who IS the Healthcare Advisor?  Or a typo?

Dr. Howard Dean was on Morning Joe this morning defending the need for health care reform.  He made the salient point that in the reform effort we need to put the doctor-patient relationship first.  Obvious, but often forgotten in this flurry of discussions.  We have plenty of people opposing health care reform as Obama sees it, we need to support him and his efforts.  Yes we can have a good health care system that serves its primary purpose and helps to create a better economy at the same time.

For a country that likes to believe it is exceptional, we are definitely slow at finding the best answer to healthcare. Why would you want to walk ten thousand miles with a weight on your back filled with useless papers and unnecessary terms, when you could throw the weight off and run not walk. I see the insurance companies as that unnecessary weight which we must eliminate. The Republicans are already arming themselves to fight a hybrid plan. Why don't we just draw the battleline now and fight for the best plan for all, single payer? We can be exceptional now. This is a fight that we must undertake and win. Everyone human being deserves healthcare from birth to death. Let's do it.

Insurers Offer to Soften a Key Rate-Setting Policy

WASHINGTON — The health insurance industry said Tuesday that it was willing to end the practice of charging higher premiums to sick people if Congress adopted a comprehensive plan requiring all Americans to carry insurance. [...]

Interesting that the medical insurance companies are now showing a willingness to extend coverage to those with preexisting conditions and not at a higher premium rate.  I wonder if those wall street guys are really concerned that a real national health care plan could actually become a reality. In truth, their new deal making reminds me of what the California state legislators got suckered into passing for our less than adequate current state budget because the Democrats needed 3 Republicans votes and Arnold's signature. (btw, Arnold is a BUSH Republican, period and he has been an awful governor.)

Let us hope that this congress refuses to allow the insurance lobby (who have funded all those Republican-lite DLCer's and Blue Dog's political campaigns) to hold the American people hostage again.  I sure do hope that Obama's healthcare reform legislation is just not more of the same that we have gotten in California, which is nothing but a bunch of media attention for the politician's re-elections.  If it is their (DNC, DCCC & DSCC) plan to use the American voting public's huge support for a national single payer health care system over the insurance companies heads just to wheel and deal more political campaign contributions out of them, well, that is definitely not a very good way for the Democrats to get re-elected in 2010 and 2012. The American people have waited long enough for change. Obama and this new Democratic majority had better deliver and it had better be sooner rather than later. Now is the time.

Also let us remember that every member of congress, their staff and all their families all ready receive free national healthcare, a very good pension and all their kids get a free a college education. All that free stuff sort of makes the electeds and their congressional staffers look like a rather elitists class of folks, doesn't it?  All that free stuff reminds me of all those goodie bags full of merchandise from corporations that are given away to the Stars who attending the Oscars. What they (DNC, DCCC & DSCC) need to remember about their work related free stuff is that it's getting paid for by American taxpayers who vote. The corporate lobby pay for their political campaigns, tropical vacations, hair dos and golf games but the corporations don't get to vote or do they. The corporations do like giving away BIG bonuses to those folks (which also includes all those religious organizations and charities) who work for them.   Corporations know that throwing out a bonus or two keeps their workers around and begging.

Real government reform is clean money elections but that will not happen until universal single-payer healthcare becomes law.

FDR was a very good President but I think that it was his wife who was the visionary and who got things done. She believed in the spirit of humanity and knew it well.

Negotiations and Ultimatums

As is very clear from Dr. Cutler’s blog and the commentary that has followed, there is a fundamental divide in the health care debate.  Contrary to popular opinion, it is not between progressives and conservatives.  Instead, it is between those who are prepared to negotiate with people who hold opposing views and those who believe so passionately in the truth of their convictions that only ultimatums will serve.

Recent experience has demonstrated that attempts to ram ultimatums down the throats of one’s vilified opposition can have disastrous unintended consequences.  In foreign policy, it has resulted in counterproductive military adventures.  In domestic policy, it has resulted in a hollowed-out government that was incapable of protecting our financial institutions against themselves.  So now it is the progressives turn to see if we can harness everyone’s truth and all pull together, or whether we will continue the opposition’s policy of our way or the highway.  That is the choice Dr. Cutler so eloquently framed.

If it is to be all or nothing, then there is little to debate.  Either we have the power or we do not.  If we do not, then all we can do is attempt to undermine any and all efforts to find something a majority can support and important minorities can accept.

If we are prepared to negotiate, the discussion becomes more complex and more interesting.  What are our deal-breakers?  What are fair exchanges?  What will advance our cause and what will undermine our principles?  How can we frame our proposals so they will win the support of others who may not be entirely in our camp?

The Healthcare Advisors’ Blog was created as a vehicle to foster discussion among people who believe that good politics is the art of the possible and that movements succeed only when participants are prepared to give up some of their hearts’ desires to achieve a higher end.  Michele Obama shared this insight with a group of Women for Obama during the dark days of the summer of ’07.  And as she so astutely pointed out, she and her husband are community organizers who know how to do this.

Some of the preceding comments very much remind me of my first year in medical school. Our class unanimously voted to reject complimentary stethoscopes from a pharmaceutical company. This ethical stand felt good at the time when $92,000 of drug related advertising was being spent on each and every physician in the country annually. Since then I've learned that there is, unfortunately, much more gray than black and white in challenges that we face. Despite our best intentions and decisions, much more is often needed to effect meaningful change. It was this lesson and the message of change that led me to Iowa two winters ago to knock on doors and engage others to support then Senator Obama.

Returning to David Cutler's original topic of this blog: Why This Time is Different

"Neither right nor left should be demonized; indeed, it's sometimes hard to tell the two apart on some issues. If we listen with respect, talk to each other and not past each other, and be prepared to face tough problems together, we can finally make reform the better thing to do. Decades of failure make me optimistic -- if we all decide we are in it together."

Let us not get caught in the rigid dogma of our own inflexible thinking nor caught in the cynicism of the past. It's clear from today's NY Times article that there is much important work ahead for all of us. Start now.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/health/policy/25medicare.html?ref=health

Yes, we should focus our energy on why this time is different and important.

Its great to see such an informed, interactive blog post here at DFA. Universal Healthcare is certainly a buzz topic right now because we can achieve real change. If you do not plan to already, please join us this evening (Wednesday, March 25th) at 9pm Eastern on our 5th Birthday Conference call.

We have big plans for the coming weeks, and we want you to be the first to hear about what is in store. Governor Dean will lay the groundwork for progressive action-- be ready and be on the call tonight!

Follow the link below to call in, or listen live online.

http://democracyforamerica.com/birthdaycall

We'll talk to you tonight!

Great birthday party!

Dr. Dean was right on target when he identified Obama's proposed public plan as the critical fault line in the upcoming legislative efforts to achieve meaningful health care reform.  The bad news for many is that mandated single payer appears to be a non-starter.  The good news for progressives is that former opponents of health care reform now appear ready to accept federal legislation that (1) outlaws denial of coverage because of preexisting conditions and (2) requires adoption of community rating to make health care affordable for people with serious chronic conditions.  So if we want to achieve real health care reform and not merely change the insurance system, we'll have to focus on making sure that mechanisms are in place to keep the private insurance system honest.  And the best way to achieve this is to create a public plan that can offer real choice to people who are unhappy with what private insurance companies are willing and able to offer.

We cannot adequately address all of our health care issues by simply conflating health care with health insurance. Health care is a cultural affair. Strong public school systems help our children be healthier, addressing immigration issues will help hospitals bear the financial burden of too many uninsured births. We are in it together.

Your Congressional Representative and their DC Staffers need to attend this briefing on your behalf. The Chair of this forum is Congressman Eric Massa [NY-29] who was a DFA-List Candidate in 2008.

Please call, politely invite them and then ask for a report to be sent to you after they have attended this important briefing.

Thank you.

Important Universal Healthcare Briefing in Washington D.C. Please Invite Your Member of Congress to Attend!

This briefing is organized by the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Healthcare, and presenters are from Physicians for a National Healthcare Policy. Sponsored by Progressive Democrats of America...

The forum, "National Lessons for Health Reform: An Examination of US Health Insurance", will be held on April 1, 2009, 2pm - 4pm, 2226 Rayburn House Office Building.

Witnesses will include:

. Louis Balizet, MD, Oncologist
. Marilyn Cawthon, ICU RN, Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals
. Leonard Rodberg, PhD, Professor and Chair of Urban Studies Queens College
. Annette Ramirez de Arellano, DrPH, Health Research Group, Public Citizen
. Cindy Young, Senior Health Policy Advisor California School Employees Association
. David L Rabin MD, MPH, Professor of Community Medicine, Georgetown University Medical Center

The witness panel will address topics highly relevant to the debate over national health reform,

. How well does US health insurance work for doctors, nurses, and their patients?
. What problems do those with insurance have in accessing care?
. Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan, is it a model for national reform?
. What has the fragmented US health insurance system meant for minority populations?
. If, as many believe, employer-based insurance is broken, what is buttressing it?
. Has private insurance within Medicare met expectations?

All Members of Congress are invited to participate in the forum by listening to witness testimony and asking questions of the panel. Congressman Eric Massa [NY-29] will chair the forum. The forum will be web-cast live.

The Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care is a coalition of doctors, nurses and other health care providers; labor unions; nonprofit agencies; reform advocates and faith-based organizations working to achieve guaranteed comprehensive, high quality, and affordable health care coverage for everyone. The coalition specifically advocates for a publicly funded and privately delivered national health care system structured around a single-payer financing mechanism.

This briefing is intended for Members and staff but is open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. For headcount purposes, please RSVP to Jessica Yarbrough, jyarbrough[at]calnurses[dot]org, (202) 974-8300.

Susan:

Thanks for this information.  This looks timely and important for all our representatives to attend.  I would suggest that organizing to call Congressional representatives and alert them to this would be very worthwhile.

Joe A.

Sowing Change: A Highway to Health in the Central Valley

Two weeks ago on a bus in Bakersfield, Susana De Anda of the Community Water Center held up two bottles of water. One was a murky brown and the other crystal clear. “Which do you think is more dangerous?” she asked. The answer seeming so obvious, many of us were shocked to learn it was actually the clear water that was dangerous to drink. Nitrates, which are invisible to the naked eye, pollute the local water at such high levels that infants can die from drinking even small amounts and pregnant women are put at risk of having stillborn babies.

Traveling across the expansive landscape of the Central Valley for two days, 30 funders from California and across the nation were on the Sowing Change van tour, sponsored by the Women’s Foundation of California and The California Endowment. The tour was an opportunity to learn from the many extraordinary women creating solutions to the health challenges their communities face daily. Pollution created from fertilizers, pesticides and animal factories are byproducts of industrial farming, the economic backbone of the region. In this stretch of California where corporate agriculture is tied to everyone’s wallets and one-quarter of families with children live in poverty, I ask myself, “How are leaders like Susana De Anda ensuring their communities are protected from toxins that affect their health?”  [...]

full article HERE.

If one reads back through President Obama's commentary on healthcare, he has stated, that if he were designing a system from scratch, he would choose a single payer system because it makes the most sense in terms of efficiency of administration, cost and ability to provide universal coverage.  That said, he has very accurately assessed the political climate and what health care reform has the best chance to succeed given where we are right now.  Building on the strengths of the medical technology, delivery system, and quality of care available now and making it available to all Americans in the most cost effective manner is his goal using an incremental strategy.     

Unyielding, non-negotiable demands will most likely result in the same outcome as in 1993; no change.  Which is better, no change or significant change in a positive direction?  

Many physicians have closed their practice to new Medicare patients or do not see Medicaid patients because in some cases, reimbursement does not cover the cost of providing care.  It's a sad state of affairs resulting in a lack of primary care and speciality services for those in the current government "single payer" system or those without insurance.  A solution to both these problems will be important going forward.

As a long-time veteran of the health care reform wars, dating back to the days of the Pepper (later Rockefeller) Commission, I find this blog somewhat discouraging.  Like some here, I believe we need a single-payer and eventually will get one.  I supported President Clinton's Health Security Act precisely because it provided a path to a single-payer through state experiments.  The failure of Clinton's plan primarily showed what happens when advocates of universal coverage, which is really the central issue, fight among themselves--namely, we all lose.  We cannot afford to have this happen again.

Health care reform of any kind will be extremely difficult.  Anyone who doubts this should go to Maggie Mahar's brilliant blog Health Beat (http://www.healthbeatblog.org/).  While the conservatives have been temporarily weakened, they learn from their mistakes, and we can be sure they will be back in force, sowing their usual doubt and confusion.  It is clear that their primary target is the public option advocated by President Obama.  Precisly for this reason, this is what progressives should be working to defend. 

While a public option approach is not perfect, it seems to me that it is our best, and perhaps only, path to universal coverage.  Howard Dean is right--health care reform without a public option is not health care reform (http://tiny.cc/TPanP).  We could also use the public option as a stepping-stone to a single-payer.  In any event, I find it disconcerting that some progressives would be willing to join conservatives in opposing this approach and President Obama. 

I know some progressives hold out hope that a populist backlash will fuel support for a single-payer.  However, this will be difficult given that President Obama, the current leader of progressive populism, opposes a single-payer.  We should also keep in mind that public opinion can turn very quickly.  If President Obama fails to achieve health care reform, and the economy does not recover quickly, we could witness the emergence of a right-wing populism aimed at the president and progressives, i.e., us.  This would be a disaster. The two sides of this universal coverage movement should put aside their differences and fight for the public option.

I feel a little bit helpless as what to do about moving this issue forward. I wrote a letter to President Obama. I will send a note to my congressman about the healthcare briefing, but what is the most effective way to get healthcare for all a reality?

I'm a very concerned with all the negative talk I am reading here about HR 676, the single-payer bill now in Congress.  Not that people think it's a bad idea, just that they feel we can't possibly get the votes so why try. 

It makes me wonder why the right wing even bothers to campagn against us when we're so good at defeating ourselves.

The time to compromise is ten minutes to midnight when you're two votes down and the session is about to end.  Now, we fight.

Here's an idea:

There are 45+ million people without health care in this country.  Another roughly equal amount are under-insured.

What if we ask them to fax Sen. Max Baucus on May 1st and tell him they support HR 676.  Call it "Mayday on May Day"

If one in ten, even one in a hundred did it, the Hart office building would be filled with paper. 

The insurance lobby is well funded, but only represents a fraction of one percent of the population. Let's give them the same reception Sitting Bull gave General Custer. We can win this.

Senator Max Baucus
511 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-2651(Office)
(202) 224-9412 (Fax)

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http://democracyforamerica.com/blog_posts/28118-single-payer-plan 

Single Payer Plan

Written by: Tom Alba on Apr 7, 2009 12:42 PM PDT

We are not exactly on the same page as HCAN. Recently, I received notification of the 4/4 rally at the Ben Franklin bridge in Philadelphia, which I attended. The focus of this campaign and rally was stated as a push for a single payer system.

I went to the HCAN web site on 4/2 to verify some of the details but found that the event had been removed from HCAN's calendar, even though some traces of it were evident on a blog that contained a link to the events calendar, and also at http://healthcareforamericanow.org/page/event/detail/rallyandmarch/wrwz

On the evening of 4/2 I attended a MontCo DFA meeting at which Dr. Walter Tsou spoke. He emphasized his support for the single payer system and mentioned the 4/4 rally in Philly, which was to be focused on that option. He also showed an image of the letter from the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), to Sen. Reid and Rep. Pelosi, advocating the single payer plan.

It is now apparent that HCAN is supporting the Obama approach. The web site pops up his image. The literature handed out at the rally focuses on the Obama plan only, as did the rally speakers, with no mention of the single payer alternative.

I ran into Dr. Tsou on the bridge and discussed this situation. He was downright surprised at all that I have mentioned above, and verified my perceptions of his positions on the issue, as presented on 4/2. This is really strange when one considers that Dr. Tsou is a founding member of HCAN.

Single payer is what we should be striving for. It is what 54% of those polled favor (stat from Dr. Tsou's slide), what will work best and what this country truly needs. If we strive for the best, we may end up with a compromise, which may be improved over time. If we strive for a compromise, we may wind up with an even bigger compromise, which would take longer to fix.

WE are the ones who must strive for the ideal. If not HCAN and us and the CPC in unity, then who?