Dems Vs. Repubs: Should Health Care Be A Right, Or A Privilege

As much as Ralph Nader says there's no difference between the two parties, the facts say otherwise. Case in point, health care. Barack Obama is holding a conference today on what to do about our currently broken system. One thing is for sure about it, the President stated that the status quo must change. Entrenched business interests are frightened about losing the power to set rates, for if the people had a chance to have a real choice in what plans were offered, health care executives would either have to lower their obscene rates and exclusionary practices or lose customers. In this debate, it is important to know who has the people's interests at heart and those that back the wealthy insurers.

From ThinkProgress:

...In response, Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN) went on MSNBC to explain his opposition to Obama’s stated goal of comprehensive health care reform, arguing that health care is “a privilege,” not a right:

WAMP: Listen, health care a privilege. […]

MSNBC: Well, it’s a privilege? Health care? I mean if you have cancer right now, do you see it as a privilege to get treatment?

WAMP: I was just about to say, for some people it’s a right. But for everyone, frankly, it’s not necessarily a right.

Wamp went on to claim that many Americans are uninsured by choice because they “rejected” the insurance plan offered by their employers. Asked to respond to Wamp, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) remarked “Well my reaction is that it was said by somebody who has a really good health [insurance] plan as a member of the House of Representatives.” “More importantly than that [health care] is a right in this country,” Brown concluded.

In Wamp's view, if you can't manage to afford life-saving surgery or treatment, then too bad for you. Of course, he has no problem taking money from taxpayers for his own incredible insurance plan, but to Republicans like Wamp no matters in this world but him. I wonder how the people of his district feel about a statement like that? With a median income of less than $36,000 a year in the district and an 8.6% unemployment rate across the state (generally worse in the Applachian areas than the rest of the state), I'm sure there are at least a few people who might have a word or two with Mr. Wamp next time he visits the district.

1199 Challenges Paterson To Follow Obama's Instructions

For the state budget battle, no one is as big an "outside" player as GYNHA/1199 in pushing for a healthy amount of health are funding. Medicaid has taken a hit in Governor Paterson's budget proposal and the unions aren't having any of it. In fact, it seems as if one of their own that took a job in Obama's Administration tailored some of the President's words expressly to ensure that Medicaid is not cut in any way, shape or form.

From The Times-Union:

Addressing a group of governors at the White House two days ago, Obama said of the stimulus FMAP funding, “This plan will also help ensure that you don’t need to make cuts to essential services Americans rely on now more than ever.”

New York health care advocates were sending the quote around as soon as the White House press release came out. (Even then, we said that it would make a great tv ad).

But it was only words - not the same as getting the new (and popular) president on camera.

Lo and behold, yesterday a tv clip emerges. (Liz over at the Daily Politics posted the clip yesterday with the headline, 1199’s Next Ad?)

A source with knowledge of 1199’s strategy confirms that Obama’s sound bite will appear as the next round of ads.

(Imagine, a flattering picture of Obama - “President Obama wants to protect healthcare for New Yorkers” - cut to sound clip of Obama - cut to picture of the governor with the voiceover “but Gov. David Paterson just won’t listen….”)

And you know that 1199 will go there, especially after the ad they ran just a couple of weeks ago. Health care is big business in New York and a lot of people depend on Medicaid. With $2 billion in funds dedicated to our state alone, Governor Paterson better take heed or else he'll be losing even more friends as the primary season inches closer and closer to his doorstep.

Paterson Takes On NY GOP, Unions Take On Paterson

Tomorrow is the day that the special session in Albany begins, but from the way things are going thus far, it may not be a pleasant place between opening and closing gavels. Governor Paterson is lashing out at the current GOP majority for dragging their feet on spending cuts (though the Assembly is doing just as much). Meanwhile the big unions are attacking the Governor for his proposed cuts where it hurts the most.

From The Daily Politics:

A source close to 1199 said officials of the health care workers union met Friday to discuss Paterson's cuts and reports there was "a great amount of displeasure about whether the governor has forgotten where he's come from so quickly and has lost his moral compass."

The union is particularly unhappy about what it see as Paterson's "constant willingness to victimize low-wage healthcare workers" while steadfastedly ruling out raising taxes on wealthy New Yorkers - the one area where the governor finds himself in agreement with the Senate Republicans.

Might 1199 and the GNYHA, which have a history of running successful multimillion-dollar ad campaigns to block significant Medicaid cuts proposed by Paterson's predecessors, Republican Gov. George Pataki and Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer, be gearing up to do the same this time around?

I certainly hope they are. The Governor will be feeling considerable pressure from unions like 1199/SEIU and GYNHA as well as many others that believe health care for the disadvantaged should come before keeping the tax rate low for the wealthiest New Yorkers. Until he begins to change his position and look into tax increases for the few thousand that can afford it, he can kick and scream all he wants but there will have to be a compromise at the end of the day or nothing will be done this week in Albany.

David Paterson should be ashamed of himself for the way he is conducting himself with the budget. These are tough times I agree, but much tougher for the middle class and those that live in his former Senate district. It is sad to see he has forgotten the neighborhoods from where he was raised. The reformer New York used to know has wedded himself to the status quo, at least for the budget's sake.

Oy! Hillary Caught Lying Again!

With so many actual horror stories from the world of American health care, why on Earth would a Presidential candidate talk about something fictitious? Leave it to Senator Clinton to repeat a story that isn't true and to say it enough times that the hospital in question has to make the issue public. I just do not understand why everything has to be embellished? Is she trying to make her campaign fall harder and faster than Bill could back in January?

From The NY Times:

Over the last five weeks, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has featured in her campaign stump speeches the story of a health care horror: an uninsured pregnant woman who lost her baby and died herself after being denied care by an Ohio hospital because she could not come up with a $100 fee.

The woman, Trina Bachtel, did die last August, two weeks after her baby boy was stillborn at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, Ohio. But hospital administrators said Friday that Ms. Bachtel was under the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with the hospital, that she was never refused treatment and that she was, in fact, insured.

"We implore the Clinton campaign to immediately desist from repeating this story," said Rick Castrop, chief executive officer of the O’Bleness Health System.

The Clinton campaign thus far has made a pitiful excuse to defend their defamation of O'Bleness Memorial Hospital. Not having a chance to vet a story does not fly on the Presidential campaign circuit. That is a rookie mistake and at this level rookie mistakes can be major blunders.

Obama Responds To Hillary's Negative Ad

I think this spot pretty much explains itself:

Clean The Blood Off When You're Done

Emergency Rooms across the country (that can afford it) will be introducing brand new technology into their hospitals in the coming months. It isn't for the operating table or a new toy for nurses. The machines are for you and me to use. Long waiting times have plagued ERs for quite some time, resulting in the deaths of many under-served would-be patients.

When you arrive at the hospital, you might think you are at an airport ready to check yourself in for a flight. Well if you can manage an airport then maybe you can check yourself into the hospital with the same technology. Though this solution does not go to the heart of the problem, it is a fancy band-aid at least for ERs.

From the AP:

DALLAS (AP) — An emergency room might be the last place you'd think would have do-it-yourself check-in.

But Parkland Memorial Hospital has three self-service computer kiosks, similar to those used by airport passengers and hotel guests. And so do a handful of other hospital ERs, where the long wait in line to register and explain symptoms can be grueling.

True emergency cases — gunshot or car crash victims with serious injuries — are still rushed in for treatment. But patients like Rickey Washington, a diabetic concerned about numbness in his hands and feet, find it fairly simple to sign in by computer.

So gunshot victims can still get preferential treatment but ordinary folks can skip the lines. Well if you can get an airline ticket, why not one to a doctor? And of course, let an orderly sop up the mess you made, you are paying for the service.....dearly.

Giuliani Tells Voter To "Leave My Family Alone," Rudy's Family Leaves Him Alone Instead

Up in New Hampshire citizens take their Presidential politicking seriously. One likely Republican got up to give Rudy some praise, but then asked about why his family isn't supporting him. The other week his daughter Caroline had informally announced her support for Barack Obama on her Facebook page. Of course Rudy couldn't give a good answer since any truthful reply would look pretty damn bad. So instead he attacked the questioner and then gave the audience some bullshit about health care.

From the AP:

The questioner, Derry mother Katherine Prudhomme-O'Brien, opened by thanking Giuliani for how he handled the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and introduced him to her 5-year-old daughter, Abby, who was playing on the floor next to the platform where Giuliani stood.

Prudhomme-O'Brien, 36, wasn't certain about Giuliani's answer.

"If a person is running for president, I would assume their children would be behind them." she said. "If they're not, you've got to wonder."

She said the issue is a question mark that is "going to stay there for a lot of people."

(snip)

Giuliani wants to give families a $15,000 tax credit to buy insurance privately rather than through employers and he proposes that any money left over from the credit be kept in tax-free health savings accounts.

Prudhomme-O'Brien is on to something. Your family should support you, regardless of divorce or separation, especially when it is your own daughter. After Rudy snarled in self-defense, he talked about his health care "policy" that would give tax credits only to people that could actually save $15,000 on their taxes. If you are in the working class and pay little taxes already, you won't save a dime. No wonder his family won't support him, no one can trust the garbage that comes out of his mouth.

Rudy's Health Care Hot-Air

Rudolph Giuliani is one of the top tier candidates for the Republican nomination because of one thing, 9/11. Yet to run for President one should have detailed policy positions for a whole host of different issues that are important to Americans. Health care is without a doubt an important concern for voters and Rudy is willing to talk about it, but only to bash Democrats, not to actually provide real answers to the problems that millions of people face, no matter if they are insured or not.

From The American Prospect:

I'm supposed to be writing about Rudy Giuliani's health care plan today. And I would, if Rudy Giuliani had a health care plan. But Rudy Giuliani doesn't have a health care plan. What he has is a pretext with which to attack the Democrats. Indeed, just about all you need to know about Giuliani's thoughtfulness on the issue can be summed up by the following: In the speech introducing and detailing his new health care proposal, Giuliani refers to the "Democrats" six times. "Single-payer" is said eight times. "Socialized medicine," or some variant thereof, makes nine appearances. "Uninsured" is never uttered -- not once.

But we'll get to the speech in a moment. First, it's worth wondering why anyone is even crediting Giuliani with a health care plan. The New York Times headlined their story "Giuliani Seeks to Transform U.S. Health Care Coverage," before telling us, in the tenth paragraph, that "Mr. Giuliani's speech offered very little in the way of specifics. He said his goal was to outline his 'vision,' with more details to come in the fall." I guess the headline "Giuliani Seeks to Transform One-Seventh of Economy, Couldn't Be Bothered to Offer Details on How" wasn't snappy enough?

Failure of the press aside, let's examine this "vision." What Giuliani offered is this: A tax exclusion of up to $15,000 for families, and $7,500 for individuals, to help pay for health care. What Giuliani is relying on is people reading those numbers -- $15,000 and $7,500 -- without noticing that they don't denote the amount of money he's offering them, but the amount of money he's not taxing them on. And when we plug it into my magical Rudy Translation Machine (constructed with the help of friendly neighborhood economist, Dean Baker), we can watch how $15,000 can easily become … zero.

Zero is the number on a scale of one to ten the amount of time Giuliani spends thinking about providing a real plan to fix our nation's health care crisis. The numbers he touts are misleading at best and most likely intentional distortions to make an appearance of having a plan. It seems he is more concerned about raising money from the industries that want to keep the status quo. In fact, he has raised almost a million dollars from health industries alone.

Expect more hot air out of his mouth, while his campaign bank account is fattened by corporate America that loves to hand him cold hard cash.

Michael Moore Responds To Rudy

YouTube Debate Brings Americans Closer To The Candidates

Tonight's debate between the Democratic aspirants was an interesting one that veers from the typical Q & A brought forth from a media figure moderator. The questions were from ordinary people who have real issues they want answered.

The candidates agreed that over forty million Americans without health insurance is a problem that needs to be fixed. They agree the war should end and a few took shots at each other. That's the usual stuff to be expected 15-16 months before the election. The addition of a public forum is what made it interesting, especially with this question.

From Crooks and Liars:

The mother of a soldier who is on his second tour in Iraq brought the heat to the Democratic candidates. She asks the candidates if the Democrats are putting “politics before conscience” in failing to fight harder to end the occupation of Iraq. She points out that more than 800 members of the military service have died waiting for them to get serious. This was a fantastic question and one of the best questions that could have been asked at this debate.

Download (730) | Play (907) Download (315) | Play (594)

So many more will die in the months to come. This is the most pressing issue in our country today. Save for the President and the rest of the die-hards, we all know the war is a lost cause. The only things to be achieved from it is higher casualty figures and a nation deeper in debt where the money flows faster and faster to defense contractors like Halliburton. The people that are looking for that are seriously disturbed. The ones that believe that and are in a position to end it must be shown the door, either nicely or by force. Our country needs a real change in course as soon as we can possibly get it.

Telling It Like It Is

Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) calls a spade and a spade, saying that the George Bush does not care about health care for our nation's children:

Michael Moore Rips Wolf A New One

CNN's Wolf Blitzer had Michael Moore on his show yesterday to talk about SiCKO, but not before "fact-checking" his work with their own Sanjay Gupta. Much like in the article from a week and a half ago, CNN says Moore is somewhat right, but with a lot of smudging of the facts. Well that lit Moore's fuse and he fired off salvo after salvo at Blitzer and CNN as a whole.

From RawStory:

"That report was so biased, I can't imagine what pharmaceutical company's ads are coming up right after our break here," said Moore. "Why don't you tell the truth to the American people? I wish that CNN and the other mainstream media would just for once tell the truth about what's going on in this country."

Moore argued that CNN has such a lousy track record of reporting the truth about the war in Iraq and asking tough questions, that Americans should be skeptical of their reporting on health care.

"You're the ones who are fudging the facts," said Moore. "You've fudged the facts to the American people now for I don't know how long about this issue, about the war, and I'm just curious, when are you going to just stand there and apologize to the American people for not bringing the truth to them that isn't sponsored by some major corporation?"

Blizter grew defensive and backed up his fellow CNN employee, saying that he would stand behind correspondent Sanjay Gupta's record on medical issues. Moore, in response, vowed to post a rebuttal to his website, MichaelMoore.com, showing that Gupta's facts weren't accurate.

Wolf was on the defensive from the start and never recovered. He tried to redirect the conversatioin, but Moore wasn't having any of that. Since Michael hasn't been on the show in three years, he laid it into Wolf about the war and their free pass for Dick Cheney. He demanded an apology from Blitzer to him and the American people for their shoddy journalism on the war and on the health care crisis. After he left Jack Cafferty had a pity party for Wolf, saying that CNN doesn't pay him enough.

Oh please, save the pity and do your jobs. I'll give Cafferty some credit on his reporting as of the last few months, but Wolf has done nothing but crap on television. Remember when he promised great questions for the Democratic debate a while back? He had nothing of the sort, in fact it looked like more of a conservative hit job than being a moderator.

I would personally like to thank Moore for attacking Wolf yesterday. He has had it coming for a long time. I would have loved to lambast Blitzer on the air, but since the likelihood of myself being interviewed on CNN is pretty much slim to none, Michael took care of it for me.

Fighting Counter-Attack, Moore Challenges HMOs To A Debate

The Health Care industry is justifiably afraid of the impact that SiCKO can have on the American public. The multi-millionaire CEOs know that their policies kill thousands of people every year. Being the greedy bastards that they are, there is an effort to circumvent Moore by counter-attacking his assertions in the movie. However, Michael seemed to get his hands on a document that outlines the beginnings of a strategy.

From RawStory:

Oscar winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has published a memo written by a health insurance company executive on how to respond to his new film, 'Sicko,' which criticizes shortcomings in America's current system of private medical insurance.

"[T]he impact on small business decision makers, our members, the community, and our employees could be significant," wrote Barclay Fitzpatrick, Vice President of Corporate Communications at Capital Blue Cross. "Ignoring its impact might be a successful strategy only if it flops, but that has not been the history of Moore's films ... If popular, the movie will have a negative impact on our image in this community."

(snip)

"As a health care industry educated viewer it is easy to pick out where Moore is cultivating misperceptions to further a political agenda, but you will also recognize that 80%+ of the audience will have their perceptions substantially affected," he wrote.

Fitzpatrick ends his memo by including a set of talking points written by the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Association to rebut key claims in Sicko. He was particularly concerned with the lumping of the not-for-profit Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurers in with for profit providers like Kaiser Permanente and Humana.

Moore has other ideas though. He called on Fitzpatrick to bring out his CEO to debate him in public on the facts. If they feel so strongly that Moore is misleading the public, then it should be a no-brainer to come out and assert their truth. Of course back in the land of reality, I doubt that day of debate will ever come.

SiCKO More Than Just A Flick

Michael Moore's latest documentary is a masterpiece that simultaneously heartbreaking, humorous and has the ability to stir the passions of human sympathy. While it's critics try to dispute the facts, many Americans know Moore is speaking the truth, the question is what will it do besides draw people to the theater?

Fortunately there are signs that the effect won't stop at the box office.

From Common Sense:

Moore generated much attention last month when joined the California Nurses Assocation and called for a single-payer system for the Golden State. But the filmmaker himself doesn't need to drop in to every town for citizens to step up the fight for affordable, quality, universal health care.

In Connecticut, The Universal Health Care Foundation is campaigning around the film to highlight how the state legislature failed to enact a comprehensive plan for universal coverage.

In Ohio, SiCKO has kickstarted a petition drive by the Single-Payer Action Network to put a "Health Care For All Ohioans" plan on the ballot in 2008. And there's increased attention on Pennsylvania's proposed single-payer plan, which the governor has pledged to sign if passed by the legislature.

Vermont Health Care For All gave away free SiCKO tickets to the uninsured and led a petition drive for a federal single-payer system.

This is just the beginning. The need for a better health care system in America is more important than just waiting for politicians to do the work for us. People want action and they want it now. Moore doesn't give all the answers, he just presents the facts. It is the citizens of our nation that must take the necessary steps in order to combat the Health Care industry and break the status quo. It is happening in the states listed above, is it happening in yours?

CNN Spurred By Michael Moore To Report On Health Care Crisis

Of course the media is too busy reporting on John Edwards hair, Paris Hilton and the latest missing white woman to spontaneously be journalists and examine the state of our health care system...for the most part. To CNN's credit, they did look at the facts about our health care crisis, but only to try and discredit Michael Moore's new documentary, SiCKO. As you can tell from the article, they are desperately trying to put holes in the accuracy of Moore's substantial work.

From CNN:

Moore covers a lot of ground. Our team investigated some of the claims put forth in his film. We found that his numbers were mostly right, but his arguments could use a little more context. As we dug deep to uncover the numbers, we found surprisingly few inaccuracies in the film. In fact, most pundits or health-care experts we spoke to spent more time on errors of omission rather than disputing the actual claims in the film.

Whether it's dollars spent, group coverage or Medicaid income cutoffs, health care goes hand in hand with numbers. Moore opens his film by giving these statistics, "Fifty million uninsured Americans ... 18,000 people die because they are uninsured."

For the most part, that's true. The latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say 43.6 million, or about 15 percent of Americans, were uninsured in 2006. For the past five years, the overall count has fluctuated between 41 million and 44 million people. According to the Institute of Medicine, 18,000 people do die each year mainly because they are less likely to receive screening and preventive care for chronic diseases.

Oh my, Moore is off by a few million people, he's obviously not qualified to report on the truth of our health care system.The piece goes on to highlight the good parts of the American system such as low wait times for elective surgery (meh) and that countries with universal health insurance can get supplemental insurance while there are planned out wait times for the basic care.

How good of CNN to finally devote some time to health care in America. Of course it is meant to attack Moore while giving him some credit for statistics they could not refute. They also agree things need to change, but that a movie won't do it. Well CNN.....it is people like Michael that are spotlighting the crisis that we face. If CNN and the rest of the media would regularly report on the greed of the HMO brass profit off of regular people's misery instead of devoting hours upon hours to Paris Hilton and her finding god in jail, maybe we could move the national debate a little faster so that we can in fact foster real change in how health care is administered to more than 300 million Americans.

Big Pharma Strikes Back At Moore

As Michael Moore's new movie is making headlines across the country and even the world, do not expect Big Pharma to take this assault to their operations lying down. They have all known that Moore was filming this documentary and have been preparing to fire back at whatever Moore puts on the screen. Pfizer, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Amgen and the rest do not care that SiCKO has received a tremendous and well-received response. All they care about is their profits and for the system in Washington that rewards them to stay exactly how it has been going since Richard Nixon approved Kaiser Permanente's HMO system in the early 1970s.

The New York Sun reports on the counter-offensive:

"If you're in the policy business, your job is to find these teachable moments," the Cato Institute's director of health policy studies, Michael Cannon, said.

Cato has scheduled a breakfast symposium on Capitol Hill tomorrow featuring clips from "Sicko" and other movies documenting the health care industry. The event is expected to draw 170 guests, including congressional staffers. The "robust" turnout forced a change of venue three times to accommodate a growing list of attendees, Mr. Cannon said. "It's a nice problem to have," he said.

Cato scholars began last year writing Web log entries and op-eds on Mr. Moore's film, as well as posting pod casts to the Institute's Web site.

According to SourceWatch, a left-leaning group that tracks groups shaping public policy, several organizations staging responses to "Sicko" receive funding from pharmaceutical companies, including the Manhattan Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Pacific Research Institute.

Out of all these groups, none represent patients and consumers of the health care industry. This is all about the industry and their friends on Capitol Hill. The only people interested in fighting Michael Moore are those that profit off of the horror stories you learn about in SiCKO. For these people greed comes before humanity, and if they think they can refute the tidal wave of information from Moore with their well paid pails lobbyists, they have another thing coming.

Hillary Fan Begged Moore To Spare Her In SiCKO

After seeing SiCKO the other night, I can understand why Hillary's supporters would not like a certain scene that trashes her health care reputation. For those that pay attention to health care lobby money, it is common knowledge that Mrs. Clinton is one of top recipients of their blood money. It is especially painful for her when voters find this out because she is perceived as trying to fight the industry because of her work as First Lady back in 1994.

From The Washington Post:

Moore said after the premiere that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, a personal friend and supporter of the Clintons whose company financed the film, "begged" him to remove a scene exposing Hillary Clinton as the second-highest recipient of campaign donations from the health-care industry.

"I said, 'No, Harvey. I gotta do the right thing.' He understood."

Moore said he didn't know whether the Clintons asked Weinstein to make the call.

The film describes her as "sexy" and "sassy" as photos of Clinton over the years are splashed on the screen.

After her health-care overhaul plan failed, Clinton went "silent" -- as Moore put it -- on the need for health-care changes. And then she began raking in the dough -- big time -- from the industry when she started running for office.

Good for Michael Moore. He did do the right thing by telling the story. This isn't Michael Moore's doing, the blame lies solely on Hillary and her ethics. The truth of the matter is that Hillary's credentials on health care don't amount to anything anymore.

Mr. Moore Goes To Congress

Michael Moore got a huge reception on Capitol Hill Wednesday when he talked about our health care crisis and what we can do about it.

SiCKO Premiere In Sacramento

Michael Moore was invited to introduce his film at a premiere in Sacramento this week at the behest of House Speaker Fabian Nunez of the California State Legislature. When you see the movie after it opens on June 29th, you probably won't get to see Moore live on stage, so take a look right here:

Michael Moore On Hillary Health Care

After Michael Moore's SICKO debut at Cannes Film Festival, Harvey Weinstein and Moore sat down to talk about Hillary Clinton. Moore admired her back in the 1990s but now she seems to him to be another part of the problem.