Disqus - Latest Comments for The_Facilitatrix

Re: Reach Out for Single-Payer on June 6!

The_Facilitatrix — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:49:24 -0000

Roberta McNair, WA06 CDPP, IOT Web pages coordinator

I attended a blatantly single-payer OFA event in Port Orchard, WA, which had as its aim taking action to move Congress toward single payer rather than any doomed-to-failure hybrid plan. We were the choir and didn't need a preacher, so we decided to have a demonstration in Tacoma on June 29, 2009, in front of our representative Norm Dicks's office. If we get enough people at the demonstration, we plan to overflow directly across the street in front of Sen. Maria Cantwell's and Sen. Patty Murray's office building.

I brought eight different handouts to the meeting, including the PDA Healthcare NOT Warfare Flier, talking-point info on HR 676 and its benefits, and how the private insurers take 30% of every healthcare dollar for profits, not healthcare. Everyone took some to pass out to other people. It was a pretty well-informed group, but there were some things that were new and they were glad to learn, either to share or to use to refute opponents.

We were a small but varied group, and what we shared was anger at how OFA is trying to manipulate Democrats who supported Obama, keeping us busy and at hand until the next presidential campaign. We didn't like it that a 'them and us" situation is developing, fed by what single-payer advocates see as an incomprehensible willingness to accept not just compromise but capitulation by groups like MoveOn and TrueMajority.

It's not a happy thing to see the hope that came with Obama's election turn to dismay, with each one-eighty on campaign pledges. So we were glad to be able to take action, not only to achieve single payer, but also to assuage our anger and disappointment.

From what I've heard, this is a more-common reaction than not. I'm actually grateful to OFA for having these events, because it's been a galvanizing force for many who didn't know there was something definitive they could do. It would be great if this was somehow Obama's master plan, but I fear not. That's just a dream I had.

Re: The Secret Right-Wing Strategy on Health Care—Exposed!

The_Facilitatrix — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:07:09 -0000

Remember, also, that the GOP Doctors Caucus uses its cachet as physicians to tell people they know what's best for all of us: http://murphy.house.gov/New.... And, of course, what's best is keeping the private insurers.

Its members are John Boozman, Charles Boustany, Michael Burgess, Paul Broun, Bill Cassidy, John Fleming, Phil Gingrey, John Linder, Tim Murphy, Ron Paul, Tom Price, Phil Roe, Mike Simpson.

Roberta McNair

Re: Give Everyone Healthcare By Shutting Down Insurance Companies

The_Facilitatrix — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:51:02 -0000

When I was preparing a mailing for the PDA members in my district today, I did a little research on the kind of money that the health care industry gives to federal candidates for their campaigns. Even though I'm pretty well informed about this stuff, I was shocked.

According to OpenSecrets.org, Health Services and HMOs donated over $13 million in the 2008 election cycle, up from $8 million in 2006. Hospitals and nursing homes gave $22 million in 2008, up from $14 million in 2006. Big Pharma gave $29 million in 2008, up from $19.5 million. And Health Professionals, as they are termed, gave (take a breath) $95 million in 2008, up from $54.5 million in 2006. That's a whopping $159 million for the 2008 election cycle.

And from whence did that money come? From our premiums and copayments, as well as from our tax dollars that went to "reimburse" the private insurers and others for those things that would cost likely an eighth of what they charge if we had a single-payer system.

If anyone still needs an argument to convince them of the evils of the private insurance companies, and their costly tentacles, they need only read the story of Rick Scott, whom Donna Smith dealt with too kindly in her recent post on PDA's home page. While with HCA, Scott achieved the dubious honor of getting his company the largest federal fine for health care fraud in history: $1.7 billion for over-billing Medicare and Medicaid. He did this, in part, by "unbundling" lab tests, so that rather than having tests that are done in a panel charged as one test (which it is, since there's only one specimen), they would be charged as individual tests for each analysis. And the analyses were automated, so it made no difference in actual costs to the labs.

Is Rick Scott unique in the private healthcare world? I doubt it. He's one of the guys who got caught, due to his arrogance. But that hasn't stopped him since, because he's heading up CPR—Conservatives for Patient Rights, a name that could be used as a definition for oxymoron. And they're fighting like hell to keep the private insurers in business.

It's going to take each and every one of us pushing our representatives and senators to ignore the big donors and pay attention to their constituents to get single payer in this country. And it's going to take pushing Obama to the wall and making him come through with his promise to do the right thing if we "make him." Few of them are going to do it on their own, so we've got to be loud and not let up on it. Make the politicians—and the media—pay attention to what this country REALLY wants and needs!

Roberta McNair

Re: Why Doesn’t MoveOn and Democracy for America Support Single-Payer Healthcare?

The_Facilitatrix — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:02:08 -0000

Dean said that he doesn't understand why people think that single payer is off the table. He said that the public option being proposed is single payer. But he also said that he thinks people should keep their private insurance if they want it.

They asked for comments to be put into the Senate record by John Kerry tomorrow, and I wrote sum, that if there's private insurance for the same things that the public plan covers, that sets up a class divide that is already too pervasive in America. I said I saw it the same way as if those who could afford it could have private access to the police, fire services, and the armed forces (and there are arguments to be made that they already do). I said that's an ugly picture of America, when what should be basic rights and protections are bought and sold.

Re: Why Do So Few Speak Up for Gaza?

The_Facilitatrix — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:27:48 -0000

I think there's a racial component, conscious and unconscious. Much of the colonial mentality that made "backwards" societies in Africa, Asia, and South America open season for Western domination had much to do with those people being different racially and, by perception, less human than Westerners. Post-Holocaust awareness has made Jews humans on a par with white Christians, but Arabs (therefore, Palestinians, as well) still are lumped with the rest of the third world.

I keep getting the feeling that those in power in the US really don't value an Arab or Palestinian (or African or Thai or Indian or Aborigine or Amerind) life as much as a European-derived one. Before WWII, maybe Jews were lumped in with the rest, but they aren't now. PR goes a long way.

Re: Oppose Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General

The_Facilitatrix — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:14:12 -0000

I went to the Accent Health Website and found this on their "Custom Promotions" page:

"AccentHealth offers several in-office promotional programs that maximize your presence in the physician's office-keeping your brand message top-of mind before consumers speak to the doctor, and before they go shopping!"

Disgusting.

Re: Leaked: ABC’s Stephanopoulos interviews John McCain

The_Facilitatrix — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:26:46 -0000

Senator, given that al Sadr is now threatening all-out war against the Iraqi, that's IRAQI, not US, government, please tell me again how our staying in Iraq is helping, when coalition forces that are aiding al Malaki are a major source of al Sadr's belligerence against the sitting government?

Re: Leaked: ABC’s Stephanopoulos interviews John McCain

The_Facilitatrix — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:26:46 -0000