It is a common theme from the folks on the right to say that Americans have the best health care in the world. I can't dispute that we have the best healthcare in the world. But, what's the point of having the best care in the world if a large number of people can't or don't take advantage of it because of the cost? What's the point of having the best healthcare in the world if people pass on seeing one of the best doctors in the world and let what might be a simple diagnosis and simple cure turn into a major illness and maybe even an incurable disease?
What's the point of having the "best in the world" if access is based on an ability to pay? We can have the best anything if we have the ability to pay. The problem we have is that tens of millions of Americans don't have affordable access to basic health care, let alone access to the best.
(Bumping this one again; will be referring to it on the radio tonight! - promoted by TwoPuttTommy)
{I'm bumping this back up to the top -- please call today. The Big E]
The MN House and Senate passed a bill to reprieve the poor, elderly and mentally ill from absentee Governor Tim Pawlenty's unallotment of the healthcare they receive through General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC). This bill passed the House 125-9. 38 Republicans voted on Friday to protect the poorest and those least able to take care of themselves.
Of course, Pawlenty faxed in his veto from out of town (CPAC convention in Washington, DC). Now, these 38 are being pressured to hold Governor Teabags veto as his presidential ambitions are more important than Minnesota's poor, elderly and mentally ill.
The most interesting members of this list are Governor candidate Marty Seifert, MN State Auditor candidate former Secretary of State and current State Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer, and House Minority Leader Kurt Zellers. Jim Abeler bucked Governor Gutshot and was one of the Override Six, so this wouldn't be his first time standing up for what's best for Minnesota.
Here's the complete list of Republicans who voted for the GAMC deal that passed the House on Friday. Just click on their name, I've linked to their House pages. Please call these legislator and urge them to support overriding Pawlenty's GAMC veto.
Actually everyone will be dying from lack of emergency care if a disaster hits because the hospital capacity will be gone, from repeated cuts. When 35W bridge fell, we had the hospital capacity to handle this. I lived in California when even normal emergencies caused ambulances to call ahead searching for a space. I was pregnant and I was not certain of hospital admission, even with health care. Disasters don't just affect poor people, so these GAMC cuts affect the health care of everyone.
We've been talking about Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and how little she's done for the people in her district. Compare and contrast with Senators Al Franken (D-MN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Representatives Jim Oberstar (D-MN) and Tim Walz (D-MN). The email announcement came out on Friday, but I figured why bury this on a late Friday afternoon news dump when nobody's paying attention?
Today [last Friday] U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken and Representatives Jim Oberstar and Tim Walz announced that Minnesota will receive $18.7 million to create jobs and train unemployed workers in industries that are being transformed by technology and innovation. The grants are funded through the Department of Labor (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act).
When you consider that obstructionist conservatives like Bachmann and Rep. John Kline (R-MN) incessantly talk about eliminating pork, I wonder what they'd say about this grant to help the people suffering the most from the Republican economic policies of the Bush era?
The Centre Cannot Hold, The Blood-Dimmed Tide is LoosedShare
Today at 1:30pm
I have quoted it so often these past eight months or so, I tire myself. Turning and turning in the widening gyre... The great warning from the great William Butler Yeats: Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity...
So my feeling as I watched the health insurance struggles turning and turning in the widening gyre...The falcon, cannot hear the falconer... No, he cannot. Or will not, the net effect is the same. Yeats was writing about watching the planet succumbing to the Great War, not knowing it would only be World War I, still believing it would be the War to End All Wars. So, I understand if some think I'm overreacting. What mere anarchy? What blood-dimmed tide? What loss of innocence?
"We're not on health care now(1) ," Senator Reid said. "We've talked a lot about it in the past." Tick Tock Mr. Reid. "There is no rush," said the Senator observing that Congress still had the balance of year to work on the health bills passed in 2009 by the Senate and the House. Tick Tock Mr. Reid, the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere, the ceremony of innocence is drowned.
You see Mr. Reid, people don't stop getting sick, or dying, just because we close our eyes, or decide to cool our jets, or when the falcon, cannot hear the falconer. Take a short walk down the Mall Mr. Reid, it's just under a mile. You will find the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. There are just over 58,000 names of precious, irreplaceable people on those walls. It took us 20 painful years to put them there.
Just across the street, across Constitution Avenue, from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, is the Institute of Medicine. Stop by and have a chat. They will be able to tell you how we fill four and a half of these walls every year. One recent study has found that readily preventable medical errors have more than doubled in the past decade and now account for more than 200,000 deaths per year(2). Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. Based on figures from 1988-1994 surveys, dated to be sure, a very conservative study estimates 45,000 American adults die due to a lack of medical insurance alone(3). A blood-dimmed tide by anyone's standard. We have the highest infant mortality rate in the industrialized world, 6.9 deaths/1000 live births. That amounts to 15,000 unnecessary infant deaths per year(4). The ceremony of innocence is drowned.
Together, that adds up to more than 260,000 American deaths every year. Tick Tock. So far. That is four and a half Vietnam Veterans Memorials. So far. Mere anarchy. A blood-dimmed tide. Innocence drowned. Can the falcon hear yet? Tick Tock. But you say, "There is no rush." While real people suffer and real people die. A very conservative estimate of 260,000 each year. A blood-dimmed tide indeed.
The total number of US dead from WWI was 117,465 precious irreplaceable souls, Korea, 36,516 Vietnam, 58,236. A running total there of 212,217. WWII is still the death and destruction winner with 418,500. OK, our conservative health care death toll will catch up with our total war dead since 1917 (630,717) in a mere two years and five months. Tick Tock, Mr. Reid.
And, for the record, you may ask why I call this a conservative estimate. First of all, none of this includes deaths due to "access issues", the inability to utilize care, even if you have insurance; remember, insurance does not equal care. There are many, many access issues, cost is but one. The Commonwealth study showed that 37% of Americans do not access recommended care due to cost issues. In Canada that number was 5% There can be no doubt that there are health implications here, including fatalities, we just don't have the actual estimates yet. Mortality data take time to accrue. Tick Tock.
Finally, scientists are conservative, by nature, you see. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. So, they put the data to tough tests. They exclude information, and countable people, where the interpretation may be arguable, no matter how tenuous the argument. They control for factors that may account for the observed mortality, even when those factors may have been ameliorated by health care, had insurance been available. The claim of 45,000 deaths per year due to uninsurance by Wilper et al is conservative in that:
1.The data are dated; access to care for the uninsured has dramatically lessened in the intervening years from when the data were collected, leading us to believe that the actual situation is much worse.
2.It excludes those under 17, and we have the highest infant mortality in the industrialized world, SCHIP, the public insurance program for children did not exist in this time frame, even now its implementation is spotty at best.
3.The effects of partial insurance aren't known as people drop out of the insured pool or have had spotty life histories of insurance this affects mortality.
4.Those who die prematurely because of a lifetime of poor care due to uninsurance, yet are over 65 (on Medicare) at the time of their deaths don't get counted .
5.Corrections are made for health status factors which are shown to be effectively treatable by participation in the health care system.
Alright, well, not alright. Apply the same logic to the other estimates. And the fact that we don't have a mortality estimate for access issues. And we are up to 260,000 unnecessary deaths per year at last count. Tick Tock.. And this doesn't include the wounded, and the unnecessary financial cost. Tick Tock. And now we are being told we have time, not to rush. Tick Tock.
I remember people taking to the streets in the 60's and the 70's, to end the Vietnam War. I remember when we said we had had enough.
I don't know where everyone went.
Tick Tock.
Notes
(1) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01... (2)HealthGrades, news release, April 8, 2008
(3)Wilper AP, Woolhandler S, Lasser KE, McCormick D, Bor DH, Himmelstein DU. Health insurance and mortality in US adults. Am J Public Health. 2009 Dec;99(12):2289-95. Epub 2009 Sep 17.
(4)Method: Calculated by estimating the current number of estimated infant deaths per year in the US, given the most recent infant mortality rate figures. Then, examining the comparable infant mortality figures for matched industrialized nations and asking, what if the US had the average infant mortality rate of its peers, instead of being a really bad outlier? So, take the US out of the distribution and find the average of the remaining infant mortality rates, apply this to the number of US births. Subtract this from the estimated US infant deaths. This gives us the estimated excess US infant deaths. We're not looking to excel here, just to be average.
(5)http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Surveys/2007/2007-International-Health-Policy-Survey-in-Seven-Countries.aspx
What rough beast slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity. Surely so
revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
- WB Yeats's "Second Coming"as first printed in 1920
I haven't read any blogs on Health Care Reform recently. I figure it dropped off the table since no one's really paying attention to it and nothing important has happened to the political landscape lately. So, I figured, hey - I can write my own!
Okay, seriously, I have three random comments I want to throw out. Three things that I just haven't really heard anyone discussing (disclaimer: I'm rather lazy), but yet seem to be pretty big glaring holes in the discourse.
Before we ask ourselves who should be the next governor, we need to ask ourselves what questions we should be asking to make that decision. Do we ask ourselves: "Who do I like? Who represents my hopes? Who can I relate to? Who is best for me?" Yes, maybe we can do that. Or maybe, just maybe we can ask "Which candidate is the best candidate for the most people?"
Without a doubt, I would have to say that candidate would be Entenza because he comes with a disposition and political history that sees the dignity, value, and worthiness of all people- be it the GLBT communities, racial and ethnic minority groups, the employed, the unemployed, the youth, the elderly, the poor, the forgotten, and the unwanted.
He is a listener, and a deep thinker. It means a lot to me that he initiated the Minnesota 20/20 think tank group to ascertain and focus on the issues that are of greatest concern to all of us, and has used that knowledge to formulate policy, legislation, and strategy to develop plans and realistic goals to rebuild this state so that all of us, in whatever corner of the state we reside in, can begin to hope that the future will be better, and that we each carry a dignity no matter who we are, how we were made, and how much we have in our pocket. This is a candidate who sends a message that we all matter. We are all equal and deserving of fairness, safety, healthcare, good educations, good opportunities and we are all welcomed participants in a stronger and healthier Minnesota.
While many candidates are talking about the need for better healthcare, better schools, more jobs, and more opportunities, Entenza is the only candidate who has bridged these hopes with a sound economic plan that will allow us to realize these hopes. We can talk all day about what's wrong with Minnesota, and what needs to be fixed, who is responsible for breaking it, and how hard it is to be living like this, but talk won't change things. If we want a better future, we need a strong economy, and our government needs to rebuild a strong tax base to support our values and our goals for better schools, healthcare, and opportunities.
Entenza has well-developed plans for a new clean energy economy that has the ability to translate into immediate action through policy and initiatives that can take place when he takes office. He's not talking about pipe dreams ten years down the line. He's talking about what can happen now. His strategy will have short-term and intermediate steps to a recovery that will build a stronger and more stable Minnesota economy that can support his vision that we all matter, that we are all welcomed to share in the benefits of a better Minnesota, and that we can do this together.
We can do this together by collectively saying "Yes" to hope. When our friends and neighbors are biting their nails about the economy and joblessness, or when our siblings or parents are worried about how they are going to deal with their health issues, or when our children are worried if they can afford to stay in college, or whatever conversation or encounter that you have that begins to pry open yet another dialogue with despair, send them a link to Entenza's website, and talk to them about what you have read, and do your part to spread the word that our time is now, and that our vote and support for this exceptional candidate really truly matters more than ever.
Rep. John Kline (R-MN) released a press release the Friday before last that I didn't notice until now. First of all, this is understandable. It's not like Kline is bat**** crazy like Michele Bachmann -- His eye's don't burn with an unquenchable fire and he doesn't say demonstrably insane things. It's just that he never does anything or stand for anything. When he does he's just regurgitating the same old Republican lies you'd expect him to spray.
But this one takes the cake. It takes a couple of digs at the Dems without providing anything substantive. Like what he and his Republican colleagues would do. Completely and utterly vapid.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) had quite a year. In 2009, she stepped even further to the forefront of the conservative movement. She appeared frequently on Fox News and right wing radio and often headlined conservative rallies. She was nominated for Lie of the Year and featured on Keith Olbermann's World's Worst Person segment 10 times. The only people Olbermann featured more frequently were nationally-known figures like Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs and Bill O'Reilly.
While there were many candidates for her most astounding moment, the jaw dropper was her behavior at a anti-healthcare reform rally in Colorado. She thought nobody would be paying attention as she was so far from DC and her home district.
"This cannot pass," the Minnesota Republican told a crowd at a Denver gathering sponsored by the Independence Institute. "What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn't pass."
So join me at the intersection of Bizarro Blvd and False Witness Lane for an in-depth review of 2009 for Michele Bachmann.
I must admit that I felt that the health care bill had gotten to the point of doing more for the profits of health INSURANCE companies than helping people with health care. However many good people still think the bill has merit. I, like Big E, feel not so joyful this season.
We've all compromised on many fronts but the bill we have before us is real reform and deserves our support," said Sen. Franken. "The bill deserves our support because Minnesotans and Americans can't wait any longer."
The latest Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) viral video has to do with Al calling Sen. John Thune (R-SD) to task for omitting certain facts when discussing healthcare reform.
"We are entitled to our own opinions, we are not entitled to our own facts."
Thune claimed that the benefits of the HRC bill currently being considered by the Senate wouldn't kick in until 1800 days (2014) after the bill becomes law. Franken disagreed and pointed out numerous examples.
"I stand here day after day after day and I hear my colleagues, my good friends on the other side says things that are not based on fact."
I first noticed the streaming banner Fox News ran over Bachmann while looking into her nomination as a finalist for PolitiFact.com's "2009 Lie Of The Year."
Here's that screenshot, once more, from Bachmann MotorMouth Overdrive's appearance on Faux News' Sean insHannity Show:
Check out that caption, above Bachmann: "Universal Nightmare."
I couldn't agree more; Michele Bachmann is indeed a "Universal Nightmare."
Then, I was watching Bachmann MotorMouth Overdrive's latest appearance on Faux News' Sean insHannity Show, and there it was again, scrolling over Bachmann!!!
Bachmann is indeed a "Universal Nightmare" - and a finalist for PolitiFact.com's "2009 Lie Of The Year"!!!
Of all the lies, told by all the politicians, all across the country, all last year, Bachmann MotorMouth Overdrive is a finalist for "2009 Lie Of The Year" - the balloting ends today at 11:00 CST, so link here to vote now!
Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-MN) continued ethical lapses are getting noticed. Bachmann had used her House website to promote her rally against healthcare reform. Now Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) want an investigation into this lapse.
Watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has requested an investigation into whether Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) broke House rules in organizing an anti-health care reform rally on November 5.
In a letter sent to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), CREW contends that Bachmann violated House rules by using her official member's website to garner "grassroots lobbying" for the health care protest in question.
The Members' Handbook specifies: The content of a Member's Website... [may] not include grassroots lobbying or solicit support for a Member's position." CREW argues that Bachmann broke this rule.
(Huffington Post)
Rep. John Kline (R-MN) appeared on Esme Murphy's Sunday morning show to discuss healthcare reform. Kline repeatedly lied about the bill that the Democrats passed out of the House. Murphy apparently does not do any research and never once questioned Kline's assertions or numbers. This is despite the fact that all of his numbers have been debunked or he's simply making them up.
Click on image to watch for yourself
Kline told the follow lies during this brief interview:
"This should have been a bipartisan process from the very beginning where we had a blank piece of paper and said what can we agree on that will help lower the costs of healthcare and allow more Americans to be insured and not place a burden on the taxpayers."
Bill is expensive and adds to the deficit.
Bill increase healthcare costs.
Bill slashes Medicare.
Bill endangers seniors.
Bill is going to cost jobs.
Bill will leave millions uninsured.
While it isn't surprising that a "journalist" like Murphy wouldn't do her research, it is disgraceful. If she would have bothered to do a half hours worth of research on the veracity of the Republican healthcare talking points, this would have been a very different interview.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) had quite a year. In 2009, she stepped even further to the forefront of the conservative movement. She appeared frequently on Fox News and right wing radio and often headlined conservative rallies. She was nominated for Lie of the Year and featured on Keith Olbermann's World's Worst Person segment 10 times. The only people Olbermann featured more frequently were nationally-known figures like Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs and Bill O'Reilly.
