B'Man's Revolt
Single Payer Action
The 99er’s
WTF are people supposed to do?? Hell, I wish my Grandfather was here so I could get some insight as to how to navigate through times such as these!!! He was born in 1898. I did listen to him when he spoke about the Depression– but I sincerely would like to of heard the deep ‘how tos’. God Bless those fromback then– and God Bless us from today!
Michael A. FletcherWashington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 TOMS RIVER, N.J. — Even before his unemployment checks ended, Dwight Michael Frazee’s days were filled with the pursuit of any idea that could earn him a buck. But few are working out, and now his nights are filled with dread.
In the coming weeks, the Senate is expected to resume its debate about whether to extend the emergency jobless benefits that were passed in response to the steep increase in unemployment caused by the recession. But people like Frazee, who have suffered the longest in the downturn, will not be part of that conversation. They are among the 1.4 million workers who have been unemployed for at least 99 weeks, according to the Labor Department, reaching the limit for the insurance. Their numbers have grown sixfold in the past three years.
The 99ers are glaring examples of the nation’s most serious bout of long-term joblessness since the Great Depression. Nearly 46 percent of the country’s 14.6 million unemployed people have been out of work for more than six months, and forecasters project that the situation will not improve anytime soon. Currently, the Labor Department says there are nearly five unemployed people for every job opening.
Frazee, 50, has applied for work at more places than he can remember since he lost his construction job two years ago. He has tried car dealerships, Kmart, Home Depot and the funky shops on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights, near Toms River. He looked into becoming a commercial crabber, working in title insurance and as a bail bondsman. But no dice.
While searching for work, he lived on $585 a week in unemployment payments. But the checks were cut off in May when he reached 99 weeks. Now Frazee, who is married and has a 5-year-old daughter, is in a financial free fall with no safety net.
“My life has been total stress. I sleep maybe four hours a night, worrying about money,” he said. “I understood the president and Congress had to stabilize the banks, get Wall Street going. I figured something would be done for middle-class Americans, that they couldn’t abandon us. But I was wrong.”
Since the recession began in December 2007, lawmakers have passed several extensions that stretched the normal 26-week limit for unemployment benefits to as long as 99 weeks in the hardest-hit states. In the Washington area, only workers in the District, where unemployment is 10.4 percent — well above the 9.5 percent national rate — qualify for the longest-term unemployment benefits. Virginia and Maryland residents can receive benefits as long as 86 weeks, including 60 weeks of federally financed benefits. The Labor Department has no statistics on the number of workers in each jurisdiction who have exhausted their benefits.
With the federal extensions now up for renewal, Congress has shown decreasing enthusiasm for them amid increasing concern about the ballooning deficit.
On several occasions, Senate Republicans have said they would not vote for stimulus bills that included unemployment extensions, saying any new spending must be offset by cuts elsewhere. With the extensions expired at least temporarily, more than 2 million Americans have lost their unemployment benefits, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research organization. A report by the House Ways and Means Committee estimated that 21,700 Virginians, 12,300 Marylanders and 5,200 D.C. residents lost their benefits when the extensions ended.
Congress’s inaction has been accompanied by a growing sentiment among lawmakers that long-term unemployment benefits create a disincentive for the jobless to find work.
“Workers are less likely to look for work, or accept less-than-ideal jobs, as long as they are protected from the full consequences of being unemployed,” said Michael D. Tanner, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “That is not to say that anyone is getting rich off unemployment, or that unemployed people are lazy. But it is simple human nature that people are a little less motivated as long as a check is coming in.”
That was disputed by Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, who cited a recent study ordered by congressional Democrats. “These benefits do not inhibit job seekers from vigorously looking for or accepting work,” she said.
The growing backlash against unemployment insurance has left the 99ers with few political advocates. President Obama, buffeted by GOP criticism of his economic policies as unemployment rates hover at their highest levels in 28 years, has been struggling to win support for renewing the extended jobless benefits. Consequently, any help for the 99ers is off the table, at least for now — leaving them angry at their political leaders.
“President Obama talks a lot about making the victims of the gulf disaster whole, but what about the victims of this economic disaster?” Frazee said. “Nowadays, he seems mostly concerned with image. Now, he doesn’t want to be seen as a big spender. But people need help.”
A 34-year-old resident of Vienna, Va., named Brian, who withheld his last name because of his embarrassment about being out of work, worked in corporate finance for nine years before being laid off three years ago. He exhausted his unemployment benefits long ago and has been living off savings and credit. “Before this, I figured that if you can’t find a job in two years, you’re not looking,” he said. “But I keep looking and jobs just are not there. The economy is not recovering. It’s being propped up by government spending. But when that ends, I think this whole mess is not over with.”
Here in Toms River, Frazee has not earned a regular paycheck since working as a $75,000-a-year laborer during the construction of the Borgata hotel in Atlantic City. That was in July 2008, just as the economy was imploding — and just after he was returning to health after having a cancerous appendix removed.
Since then, he has not worked, save for a recent four-day stint cleaning up a construction site at a nearby state college. He has fallen behind on mortgage payments for his sunny townhouse, and he is staring at the prospect of foreclosure even after negotiating a loan modification with his lender, Wells Fargo.
Most of the time, Frazee said, he has been confident that things would work out, if only because they always have. He started as a construction worker after his father’s endorsement helped him land a spot in the Laborers’ International Union Local 415 shortly after he graduated from Toms River South High School in 1978.
When he wasn’t working construction, he had jobs on oil rigs off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., and in the Gulf of Mexico. He also was a bounty hunter. “I’ve never been one to feel sorry for myself,” he said. “I’ve always worked.”
Until now. The longer he is out of a job, the more unemployable he feels. He suspects that potential employers are turned off by his age and by the fact that he has been out of work for so long. But he is moving near the top of the hiring list for his union. And in the meantime, he has been buying mail-order children’s quartz watches from China and selling them on consignment at local convenience stores. He clears close to $3 per watch.
“I’m a union construction worker, but I think I can be a hell of a salesman,” Frazee said. “A lot of the stores around here are owned by Indian Americans, and they like me. They’re taking my watches. Maybe India and China are going to help me out of this jam if my country won’t.”
All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BuehlahMan’s Redstate Revolt or WordPress.com
It’s Always July 4th!
video:
http://www.sermonspice.com/product/32960/i-fought-for-you
Remember— teach it— celebrate it.
Start with 1776…
Donated by the Citizens of the United States of America
Camp is empty report and video link
I watched the report on this on BBC. This camp is empty because AGAIN the haitian Government is elitist and corrupt. The ‘weathly’ folks who used to live in fine Starter-Castles and McMansions said they wouldn’t live there. And AFTER the USA donated these tents, bathrooms, watering stations etc.. the Haitian government built this camp for the RICH folks who will not live there. They demand the government TEAR THEM DOWN and build them their big homes again on that level land!!! Meanwhile, starving poor folks who have nothing are across the road in a slum camp seeing this camp and are not allowed there. I tell you what, I think the poor folk need to revolt!! and march their starved asses over to the new camp… and squat. Ok I know, they would most likely be killed… but damn it this makes me so friggin mad. THIS IS EXACTLY wtf has been wrong in haiti all along. Its not that other countries haven’t helped… but their government keeps the donations and goods for the upper elite [as if they are really classey folk! ]… geeeece.
Space shuttle, the MOVIE!
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=KZrFC988Thc
6 weeks in thousands of seconds! way cool
Stopping The Health Insurance Give-away Bill
Dennis the Chamberlain, don't forget to grab the train of the King's robe
Should we trust Dennis ever again?
Nope. He sold his soul to the devil, himself.
As Kurt Nimmo writes at Infowars:
Meanwhile, Obama managed to arm-twist one-time totalitarian care opponent Dennis Kucinich into backing the plan Democrats say they will enact without votes in Congress. Obama had summoned Kucinich to Air Force One and Dennis kissed the ring. “Even though I don’t like the bill, I’ve made a decision to support it in the hope that we can move to a more comprehensive approach once this legislation is done,” he told reporters.
Apparently Kucinich no longer consider Obama’s totalitarian care plan a sham. In October, he said the entire legislative package was “a bailout for insurance companies.” The American people are “being mandated to buy private insurance. If you read the bill, the people are going to end up paying — the insurance companies can raise rates 25 percent right off the bat, if you read the bill,” said Kucinich.
Dennis Kucinich, one of a very small number of Democrats who originally opposed Obamacare, now apparently believes it is fine and dandy for the government to force the commoners to buy health care insurance at gunpoint. He also believes large insurance corporations deserve a monopoly in partnership with the government.
Should we ever trust Dennis Kucinich again? I think not.
Dennis tried to defend his indefensible traitor action (piece of shit, lying scumbag), presented at AfterDowningStreet
Single Payer advocates explain reality to the Corporate whores, Howard Dean and John Conyers. h/t SinglePayerAction
And we also get the benefit (read as “sham”) of having the senate protect the health insurance premium double digit increases.
There may be but one way to stop this horrendous bill: Wait until the individual states sue.
Raw Story explains that Virginia will sue
(not that you would think it is a good idea from the Dem party sycophants commenting there)
Or maybe Idaho (thanks to AfterDowningStreet) for the link:
Idaho on Wednesday became the first state to pass a law saying no thanks to part of President Obama’s health care proposal.
The Idaho Health Care Freedom Act says in part, “every person within the state of Idaho is and shall be free to choose or decline to choose any mode of securing health care services without penalty or threat of penalty.”
Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, a Republican, said Wednesday he signed it because he believes any health care laws should ensure people are “treated as an individual, rather than as an amorphous mass whose only purpose in this world is to obey federal mandates.”
Several other states may follow suit.
And of course, the obvious next step in the plan is to abolish Medicare and Medicaid. Walgreens in Washington State will stop accepting medicare payments for meds (which will be the last day my family will ever shop in their stores in TN or anywhere else, for that matter)
Effective April 16, Walgreens drugstores across the state won’t take any new Medicaid patients, saying that filling their prescriptions is a money-losing proposition — the latest development in an ongoing dispute over Medicaid reimbursement.
The company, which operates 121 stores in the state, will continue filling Medicaid prescriptions for current patients.
In a news release, Walgreens said its decision to not take new Medicaid patients stemmed from a “continued reduction in reimbursement” under the state’s Medicaid program, which reimburses it at less than the break-even point for 95 percent of brand-name medications dispensed to Medicaid patents. (h/t PrisonPlanet)
If you want to see a non-corporately owned person explain the truth in opposition to the flip-flopping Kucinich at Democracy Now. Watch as Nader says the truth about the bill and how Dennis cannot explain himself without admitting he had to kowtow to corporate pressures.
Dennis, you know that Obama is not going to help real America. Ralph knows this and is unapologetic in explaining it.
The video at the Democracy Now link is one of the most important you can see that not only tears Dennis a new asshole, but explains exactly what is happening in this bill. Dennis, however, is owned and indebted to the Corporately owned Democratic party. And as far as I am concerned, he can have them and suck on them and do whatever it is he needs to do to kiss their ass. At least Ralph didn’t.
At the end, Dennis shows his true colors and that his dedication and motivation is to protect Obama and the Dem Party.
This, in and of itself, is enough to write him off as I have.
BBC Starts In Tennessee…
… to see what is obvious to the rest of us.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/the_p_word/newsid_10000000/newsid_10002600/10002666.stm
Story and audio at above link…
Barack Obama was elected on 4 November 2008 after a campaign that promised change.
One year on, BBC’s Newsbeat traveled across the country to find out how people feel in Obama’s America.
In the first of five reports, Jonathan Blake travels to Tennessee where unemployment is highest among young people to see how he’s trying to fix the economy.
Guess Who Is Blocking Single Payer Healthcare?
Man, I MUST give Russell Mokhiber at SinglePayerAction another major nod of approval. He is not letting up and I must say is becoming one of my heroes on this subject. Please visit and sign up. There should be 300,000,000 people rushing there to get on board and support them. There is 1 MILLION, already. What are YOU waiting on? The Insurance Companies to get wealthy?
John Kerry: Single Payer Would Put Insurance Companies Out of Business
Here’s your average Democratic liberal on single payer:
I’m personally for single payer.
But we don’t have the votes for it.
John Kerry said the same thing today.
Wouldn’t it be a crying shame if he didn’t have the votes to win his next election?
POS.
This reminds me of the reTHUGlicans who tell their constituency that Obama is a Socialist or Muslim or born “over there”, yet when actually held accountable, they change their tune.
Yes, it is high time we vote these corrupt bastards out of office.
Oh, and did I ever tell you to Follow The Money to know what the REAL reason is why we aren’t getting Single Payer, Not-For-Profit HealthCare?
The health sector was the No. 1 overall sector, spending $133 million during the second quarter of 2009. And within the 100-plus industries that CRP tracks, the pharmaceutical/health products industry was again the top dog on K Street, spending roughly $68 million during the quarter.
Several of the businesses and organizations within the health sector fronted multi-million dollar lobbying operations. The biggest spenders in this arena are:
Pharmaceutical Rsrch & Mfrs of America $6,150,000
Pfizer Inc $5,580,000
Blue Cross/Blue Shield $5,171,929
American Hospital Assn $4,160,000
American Medical Assn $4,115,000
Eli Lilly & Co $3,590,000
Amgen Inc $3,400,000
GlaxoSmithKline $2,280,000
Sanofi-Aventis $2,213,000
Merck KGaA $2,110,000h/t OpenSecrets
Now for something a little different: a view into another blogger’s view of the subject. Seems like Chip sees that the Criminals who get their money from those listed above are “dumping us”. Can you imagine? How dare these people do what they always do: fuck Americans?
Any thinking person knew this was coming, or worse.
Chip links to Ralph Nader’s thoughts on the subject and explains that there is a massive Single-Payer rally tomorrow in DC (Want to wager on how much press this gets?):
Their campaign-money-greased minions on Capitol Hill and the corporatist Think Tanks and columnists are seizing on President Obama’s aversion to conflict and repeated willingness to water down what he will fight for.
The loud and cruel baying pack comes in the form of William Kristol (“This is not time to pull punches. Go for the kill.”), Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) (“If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”), and Charles Krauthammer yammering wildly about medical malpractice and tort law. Krauthammer does not substantiate his claims or mention the many victims of malpractice as he gleefully predicts “Obamacare sinking.”
All these critics have gold-plated health insurance, of course…
…
Single payer health insurance is supported by a majority of the American people, majority of physicians and nurses, and nearly ninety members of the House of Representatives. (See H.R. 676 and singlepayeraction.org.)
A clear replacement of the private health insurance companies with federal insurance, as Medicare for the elderly did in 1965, allows for clear language. Twenty thousand people die in America each year because they cannot afford health insurance, according to the Institute of Medicine. Hundreds of thousands more suffer because they have no insurance to treat their diseases or injuries.
Single payer means everyone is covered from birth, as is the case now in every western nation. Imagine no lives lost or suffering due to no health insurance.
Fuzzy proposals, regularly altered and over-complicated due to the hordes of avaricious corporate lobbyists, make politicians like Obama very susceptible to lurid descriptions and lies by his vocal, well-insured opponents. Finally, the Obama people are using “health insurance reform”, rather than the misnomer “health care reform” which opened them up to charges that government would take over health care. All proposals, including single payer, are based on private delivery of health care…
…
In 1950, when President Truman sent a universal health insurance bill to Congress, the American Medical Association (AMA) launched what was then a massive counterattack. The AMA claimed that government health insurance would lead to rationing of health care, higher prices, diminished choices and more bureaucracy. The AMA beat both Truman and the unions that were backing the legislation, using the phrase “socialized medicine” to scare the people.
Fifty-nine years later, “corporatized medicine” has produced all these consequences, along with stripping away the medical profession’s independence. Today, the irony is that the corporate supremacists are accusing reformers in Washington of what they themselves have produced throughout the country. Rationing, higher prices, less choice, and mounds of paperwork and corporate red tape. Plus, fifty million people without any health insurance at all.
On Thursday, July 30, 2009, there will be a mass rally for a single payer system in Washington, DC. It is time to put what most Americans want on the table. (See www.Healthcare-Now.org for more information.)
BTW: Chip lists the folks who are screwing us and gives links and numbers so you can contact them.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, from left, stands with House Democratic “leaders” Steny Hoyer, Pete Stark, Henry Waxman, Charles Rangel, and John Dingell to announce health-care legislation on Tuesday. These guys are dumping us. Email or call them NOW!!
Pelosi
Hoyer
Stark
Waxman: 1-800-828-0498
Rangel
Dingell:1-800-828-0498
Email President ObamaClick here for complete list of Congressional email contacts
Now, what are you waiting on?
The Bait and Switch, Single Payer Pussies, And Single Payer Works
For those “Progressives” (read as “Ass Kissing Sycophants”) out there who are lovin’ the “Public Option”, let me be the first to call you America’s Biggest Patsies. What is a patsy, you ask? The ones that fall for the ‘Bait and Switch’:
BAIT AND SWITCH ON THE ‘PUBLIC OPTION’
Kip Sullivan, Physicians for a National Health Plan – The people who brought us the “public option” began their campaign promising one thing but now promote something entirely different. To make matters worse, they have not told the public they have backpedalled. The campaign for the “public option” resembles the classic bait-and-switch scam: tell your customers you’ve got one thing for sale when in fact you’re selling something very different.
When the “public option” campaign began, its leaders promoted a huge “Medicare-like” program that would enroll about 130 million people. Such a program would dwarf even Medicare, which, with its 45 million enrollees, is the nation’s largest health insurer, public or private. But today “public option” advocates sing the praises of tiny “public options” contained in congressional legislation sponsored by leading Democrats that bear no resemblance to the original model.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the “public options” described in the Democrats’ legislation might enroll 10 million people and will have virtually no effect on health care costs, which means the “public options” cannot, by themselves, have any effect on the number of uninsured. But the leaders of the “public option” movement haven’t told the public they have abandoned their original vision. It’s high time they did.
“Public option” refers to a proposal, as Timothy Noah put it, “dreamed up” by Jacob Hacker when Hacker was still a graduate student working on a degree in political science. In two papers, one published in 2001 and the second in 2007, Hacker, now a professor of political science at Berkeley, proposed that Congress create an enormous “Medicare-like” program that would sell health insurance to the non-elderly in competition with the 1,000 to 1,500 health insurance companies that sell insurance today. . .
Hacker predicted that his proposed public program would so closely resemble Medicare that it would be able to set its premiums far below those of other insurance companies and enroll at least half the non-elderly population. These predictions were confirmed by the Lewin Group, a very mainstream consulting firm. In its report on Hacker’s 2001 paper, Lewin concluded Hacker’s “Medicare Plus” program would enroll 113 million people (46 percent of the non-elderly) and cut the number of uninsured to 5 million. In its report on Hacker’s 2007 paper, Lewin concluded Hacker’s “Health Care for America Plan” would enroll 129 million people (50 percent of the nonelderly population) and cut the uninsured to 2 million. . .
Here is what the CBO had to say about the HELP committee bill:
The new draft also includes provisions regarding a “public plan,” but those provisions did not have a substantial effect on the cost or enrollment projections, largely because the public plan would pay providers of health care at rates comparable to privately negotiated rates – and thus was not projected to have premiums lower than those charged by private insurance plans. (page 3)
Obviously the “public option” in the Senate HELP committee bill (zero enrollees; 34 million people left uninsured) and the “public option” in the House bill (10 million enrollees (maybe!); 17 million people left uninsured) are a far cry from the “public option” originally proposed by Professor Hacker (129 million enrollees; 2 million people left uninsured).
h/t UNDERNEWS
And let me address those of you who think Single Payer is the best option, but find agreement with those who say, “We don’t have the votes”. You are a pussy, just like this chicken shit pussy:
Single Payer Action Confronts Congressman Barney Frank
And the sad fact is, you spineless chicken shit pussies, is that Single Payer actually WORKS, as opposed to the lies and propaganda you swallowed; just like the way you swallow that load of shit emanating from Barack Obama’s assmouth whenever he speaks:
Neil R. Hughes: Single-payer health care works
A brief letter on the front page of the Banner-Herald’s Sunday opinions section decrying the possibility of a public health-insurance option in this country included the admonition, “To find out what government-run health care is all about, look at the U.K. and Canada … (Random Thoughts, ‘Don’t touch health care’).”
I say “right on,” but when you do look, make sure you’re looking at the facts and not the gross exaggerations, oversimplifications and downright propaganda about those systems that have been shoved down your throat by the U.S. health care industry and other vested interests for the past 40 years.
I grew up in Canada an insulin-dependent diabetic from the age of 8, and I had excellent care. My parents chose my specialist (still the norm there), I got the most up-to-date care available anywhere in the world (still true), and my parents didn’t pay a penny beyond the low quarterly premiums charged by Alberta’s provincial government. When I moved to North Georgia in 1986, my diabetes specialist in Atlanta marveled at how healthy I was, considering I already had been diabetic for 23 years by then.
My father had successful quintuple-bypass heart surgery in the late 1980s, and again, didn’t have to pay anything out-of-pocket. And we enjoyed a middle-class lifestyle that many of America’s uninsured millions of people would envy.
Of course there are problems in the Canadian health care system, including too-long waits for some elective procedures. But for every serious problem one may find in the Canadian system, I can point out 100 here in the United States, which actually has no “system” at all. A government-run, single-payer system can work, if we’re smart enough to do it right.
Neil R. Hughes
Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Saturday, July 25, 2009
And for you blithering ReTHUGlican idiots who would rather suck off Howdy Doody than get the straight facts, read this (you bunch of ignoramuses):
33.7 million Canadians are not Shona Holmes
To my American friends: I sincerely hope you’re not taken in by the GOP propaganda featuring Canadian Shona Holmes trashing our system of universal healthcare. The problem is both that Ms. Holmes and her Republican masters misrepresented her condition and that the tactic itself is reprehensible. The GOP can’t produce any logical argument against a system that is entrenched in every Western society except yours, so they resort to fear-mongering and lies, claiming that one Canadian’s skewed view trumps the experiences and beliefs of the rest of us.
There are almost 34 million Canadians and it’s true, not every one of them supports universal healthcare. It’s not a perfect system and we too debate its reform and worry about its cost. But it is also integral to our identity as Canadians. Ask what makes us a people and the majority will cite government-administered, publicly funded healthcare. Along with the French fact, it is also what differentiates us from you – though we wish, for your sake, that it didn’t.
Like our Conservative Party, your Republicans really do take the people for fools. The GOP expects you to believe that one woman denigrating Canadian healthcare speaks for all of us. Even if her story were factually accurate – and apparently it is not – opponents of healthcare reform have claimed that her experience is typical. It’s a surreal if sadly unsurprising experience to watch Republicans in Congress stand up and outright lie about my country, but that’s what’s happening. So if you have the sense that Canadians routinely rush to the U.S. for MRIs and that those who don’t are dropping dead on a daily basis, well, think again.
As former Liberal health minister Ujjal Dosanjh has pointed out on CNN, the Canadian system is not run by nameless, faceless bureaucrats who decide whether or not you are worthy enough to receive treatment. Actually, that sounds rather closer to a description of how your HMOs operate. In Canada, where healthcare is not private enterprise, medical decisions are made by doctors. Of course, when you or a loved one is sick, it’s a scary time, and everyone would prefer to be treated right away. And I know from personal experience that if your life is in danger, that’s exactly what happens.
Half a lifetime ago, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her doctor did not put her on a waiting list. She did not go south to receive more timely, better treatment in the U.S. Instead, she was diagnosed late one Monday afternoon then had a mastectomy the very next day. That’s the way it works in Canada: her condition was deemed so serious that she received immediate care – and of course her operation, stay in hospital, and subsequent treatment were paid for by the state. No one asked if my mother had insurance or ran a credit check to ensure she could afford to stay alive.
The Canadian healthcare system is not flawless. Particularly in rural areas, we have shortages of doctors. It can sometimes take a while to get an appointment if your condition isn’t acute. We don’t do a great job of promoting preventative medicine. But despite what you’ve heard from Shona Holmes, most Canadians believe that our system is one of the best in the world, and we’re rather horrified that millions of Americans are uninsured.
As a proud Canadian I’m sick and tired of the lies Republicans tell about our healthcare system to avoid reforming yours for ideological and partisan political reasons that we consider perverse. They did the same thing when the Clinton administration made its attempt, and alarmingly, the tactic seems to work: Bill and Hilary failed in ‘94 and now polls are indicating that Obama’s popularity is slipping, that his push for reform is stalling.
It wasn’t any easier for us to muster the political will needed to implement universal healthcare in Canada. In the 1960s both provincial and federal administrations faced determined opposition; in Saskatchewan there was even a doctor’s strike. But both the Saskatchewan government of Premier Tommy Douglas and, subsequently, the Canadian government of Prime Minister Lester Pearson persevered to the benefit of all Canadians. Now doctors are among the most vocal supporters of universal healthcare.
Don’t squander the opportunity to do what’s right because of Shona Holmes. Shona Holmes does not speak for Canadians. I’m sorry the woman was sick, but that doesn’t make her an expert on healthcare or give her the right to condemn our system. I don’t know Ms. Holmes personally so I can’t really comment on what motivates her, but rest assured, the other 33.7 million of us Canadians are not Shona Holmes. The Republicans paid that woman to lie to Americans about Canada, and both of us deserve better than that.
h/t Beyond The 140, The Political Carnival and yes, one of the semi-sane ones at C&L.
Baltimore Sun Explains Why Our Government Is Stopping Single Payer Healthcare
The Baltimore Sun has a piece that dissects and explains why our government, especially the Demorats and the House Leader is saying no to Single payer, not for profit healthcare. Please read the entire piece, but here is a snippet:
The House plan is not set to go “live” until January of 2013. No, that is not a typo.
If I told you that in less than a year after the historic Medicare legislation was signed into law, the program was up and running, and millions of older Americans had been enrolled and were getting health care with hardly a hiccup, wouldn’t you wonder why it’s going to take so long to get essential elements of this version of reform in place? Wouldn’t you wonder why the elements that are designed to help the millions of uninsured are the ones that are going to take the longest to implement?
Or, maybe, you wondered if there’s a political reason why the plan won’t be fully operational until 2013, like the fact that we will have a presidential election in November of 2012, and it might not be good for the fortunes of the current president or the senators and representatives up for re-election if a new health care system is not going well or is not all it was advertised to be.
The rest explains exactly the reason (and below is the tag line). Political posturing while protecting the Health Insurance Companies:
What this is really all about, where the focus should have been from the start, is health care, not insurance. Having a shiny new insurance policy will not help if the out-of-pocket costs are such that people still cannot afford to see the doctor or get the medications they need.
And yes, that is the reason. It is about protecting Health “Insurance” and they care little about Health “Care”. Please think about the timing here. Think about the fact that they want to force people to buy insurance they can’t afford as it is.
I hope you all wake up to this, especially those of you who have clout.
