I just received a letter from the great folks at Health Care for All PA and, to the say the least, I was shocked and excited. First, for some background on Health Care for All PA. HealthCare4ALLPA is a group of dedicated citizens in, obviously, Pennsylvania who are working tirelessly to achieving single payer health care. Next, the content of the letter and the shocking news after the break.
My campaign manager recently drafted a letter to discuss my electability. Recently, we had a strong showing at the precinct caucuses, surprising the pundits who said we didn't have a chance.
As the Chief Author of the Minnesota Health Plan, I've picked up over 70 co-authors on the bill. As Minnesota's next Governor, I will push for real change. I am committed to passing the Minnesota Health Plan.
I look forward to hearing any questions or comments on this matter.
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE PASSES THE MINNESOTA HEALTH PLAN!
~The Minnesota Health Plan passed on a voice vote in the Senate Judiciary committee Thursday, February 11th. The hearing focused on issues of data-privacy, legislative audits, investigations of fraud and abuse and other matters under the jurisdiction of the committee. The bill passes next to the Senate State and Local Government Operations and Oversight Committee.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE AND CHAIR OF HEALTH POLICY COMMITTEE SIGN AS CO-AUTHORS OF THE MINNESOTA HEALTH PLAN
~Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and Rep. Paul Thissen, Chair of the Health and Human Services Policy Committee, signed on as co-authors of the Minnesota Health Plan (HF 135/ HF2256) at the start of the legislative session. Both are DFL candidates for Governor. There are now 73 co-authors on the bill, House and Senate combined, well over 1/3 of the legislature.
LET'S KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING
~Grow the movement by helping to organize events in your or a neighboring district. The MUHCC - http://www.muhcc.org - Community Organizing Committee is looking for enthusiastic volunteers to join our efforts.
I always enjoy posting here at Minnesota Progressive Project. Please see my following response to President Barack Obama. I'd love to hear what you think. Imagine having a governor who fights to put in single-payer healthcare! Imagine the example that Minnesota could provide for the other 49 states?
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
The Minnesota Universal Health Care Coalition -- http://www.muhcc.org -- recently distributed a health care survey to 10 DFL candidates and 5 GOP candidates for governor. Responses were provided to MUHCC in December 2009/January 2010.
Read complete answers to all survey questions here -->
http://www.muhcc.org/sites/def... *Note - not all candidates answered every question, and a candidate may have marked more than one response.
This is how the candidates responded to one of the questions:
Q: As governor would you sign the MN Health Act if it passed in the legislature?
The Minnesota Universal Health Care Coalition is a non-partisan organization working to enact single-payer health care for the state of Minnesota. We do not endorse candidates. Our efforts, the Campaign for the Minnesota Health Plan, are focused on passage of the Minnesota Health Act (SF 118/HF 135). We believe it is important for our members and the general public to know where the gubernatorial candidates stand on health care.
As a peace advocate, we have learned to pace and continue advocacy for a lifetime. So I am quoting (with permission) Dick Bernard, renown Minnesota peacemaker in maintaining active pressure:
I'm noticing more "sky is falling" commentaries from those who share my view on Health Care Reform: the "He (Obama)shoulda done this, or that, or its too late, or its all over". Obama is toast, I start to hear, and failure will be his fault.... And this comes from his friends.
I've said often that I relate with Obama, since my background is in organizing, as was his. I have also said that I supported Hillary Clinton, strongly, until Obama was nominated. I support Obama very strongly now. What I see happening at this moment is what I saw, in a minute sort of way, back when I was a teachers union representative.
Back in the good old days of teacher organizing I and my colleagues often had to deal with assorted organizing dilemmas.
Once in awhile, the dilemma was the possibility of a teacher strike, never a desirable option, but sometimes a possibility. Once in awhile I was in the middle of one of these events. Once, even, I was president of a union that went on strike our employer, which happened to be a union.
In these situation, always, there were two dominant and competing emotions: abundant anger, and equally abundant fear.
People like myself were enlisted to try to manage to its conclusion something which had no certainty whatsoever, except that we knew, someday, that the issue would be settled...you don't have permanent strikes.
MY KEY POINT IS THIS, AND THAT'S WHY I'M 'SHOUTING' IT! A KEY WORRY IN EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THESE MAJOR EVENTS WAS THE BUSINESS OF "PEAKING". IF THE POTENTIAL STRIKERS PEAKED TOO SOON, THEY LOST...THE NECESSARY ANGER WOULD DISSIPATE INTO FEAR OR LETHARGY. ON THE OTHER EXTREME, IF THE POTENTIAL STRIKERS PEAKED TOO LATE, THERE WOULD NOT BE A STRIKE OR EVEN POSITIVE RESOLUTION FOR THEM...THE COLLECTIVE GROUP WASN'T READY, EVEN THOUGH THE KEY LEADERS WERE, AND THE OPPOSITION EXPLOITED THIS LACK OF READINESS.
THE TRICK WAS TO TRY TO PEAK EXACTLY AT THE RIGHT TIME SO THAT THE ACTION WOULD HAVE THE MAXIMUM EFFECT.
THE IDEAL ACTION WOULD BE A REASONABLE SETTLEMENT BEFORE THE EMPLOYEES HAD TO WALK OUT THE DOOR TO AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE.
Courtesy of Susan Mattes, who recommends that we all read this:
Phrases that Work
• "Health care reform will be a uniquely American solution."
• "It's time to stop playing politics and solve the health care crisis." This is more effective than talking about bipartisanship and taps into the solution-oriented frame.
• "You will be guaranteed the choice of keeping your current plan including keeping your current doctor, or choose another private plan, or choose a quality public health insurance plan." Or alternatively, "You will have the freedom to choose to keep your current plan including keeping your current doctor, or choose another private plan, or choose a quality public health insurance plan."
• "You will have the choice of a QUALITY affordable public health insurance plan." The word quality is important when talking about the public health insurance plan option.
• "Health care reform will stop the insurance companies from denying coverage for an illness you had 5 years ago, or another pre-existing condition, or because of your age." Pre-existing condition reform is the top insurance company reform for people.
• "You and your doctor will make health care decisions rather than insurance company CEOs." It helps to go after insurance company CEOs and their profits.
• "With health care reform, heath care will be AFFORDABLE-it will cost less and you will get more. The goal is quality affordable health care for all Americans."
• "You will have the peace of mind of knowing you will always have quality, affordable health care."
Phrases that Don't Work
• Politically polarizing language such as talking about the Republicans' failure to address the health care crisis or using phrases like "unregulated greed" to describe insurance companies (references to "excessive profits" are better).
• Don't say "universal" health care. Talk about "quality, affordable health care for all."
• Don't compare the U.S. to other countries, or assert that America does not provide quality health care. (i.e. Do not cite statistics that say the U.S. is 37th in the world in health outcomes).
• Don't just say "public plan" because it sounds too much like "welfare." Say "Choice of quality, affordable public health insurance plan."
• Don't just remind people of insurance company bureaucracy. It is much more effective to invoke the specter of insurance companies DENYING care based on an illness you had 5 years ago, or based on your age.
• Don't just say "Bring costs down." It is better to say "health care reform will make heath care AFFORDABLE-it will cost less and you will get more."
Our health care discussions have frequently focused on cross country comparisons. A key issue has been how do Britons really feel about their health care. I think that we can trust the perspective of a British politician who has to be popularly elected.
It is one of the most popular institutions in nation and always has been!
So I am looking for information about other country's systems. When I was running children's activities for an organization in two countries, I realized that Canada did not have so many rules as the US because the US was afraid that a child would get hurt and someone would be sued! The health care problems even restricts what children can do! So my experience confirms this video:
In the spirit of truth, my friend Matte Black (@Shoq on Twitter) and his brother took their video camera to Canada on vacation to interview Canadians about their health care system. When we talked about it, I asked him to try to get negative views with specifics for balance. Here is the result. It has been edited for brevity, but the negative views were not removed, because there were none. He could not find one Canadian who thought they should kill the system. These are everyday people. They have no agenda at all other than being patriotic Canadians.(US Health Crisis)
Peter Denny, is an American, who was originally from Australia. Peter Denny considers medicare-for-all, single-payer and the public option to be equivalent. I asked Peter how Australia felt about their plan. He said:
If they ever tried to take the public option away from Australia, there would be civil war!
It is time that we privatize those SOCIALIST (hiss) Fire Departments? Why just anyone can get fire protection without paying for their own insurance is beyond me. Even renters and immigrants just automatically get fire protection. Fire departments don't even ask to see a passport or a birth certificate before attending to a fire. What is the world coming to?
1 Million Strong Against our SOCIALIST Fire
For too long now, fire departments across the United States have been socialist organizations, resulting in taxes on the American people.
FACT: Most Americans never use the socialized services of the fire department. The Obama administration has been very clear about keeping the status quo when it comes to taxpayer-funded fire departments.
It is time to open the fire department up to private industry. We have the best fire departments in the world in the US, but that doesn't mean that anyone (even non-US citizens) should be able to dial up and have fires put out, etc. There are private companies (Halliburtion, Etc.) who could step in tomorrow and take over every fire department in America and charge the consumer directly.
This is AMERICA. NO FREE FIRE SAFETY.
"Better DEAD than fire truck RED."
-member D.J. Hostettler
I am a proud member, you too can join here, if you have the courage!
There is a measure of how awful our private insurers are, the measure is called:
The medical-cost ratio -- also called the medical-loss ratio or medical-care ratio -- is the key number for health plans in terms of their level of profitability. That ratio, simply, is the percentage of dollars the companies spend on health care, including physician reimbursement.
This is the measure of how much our private medical insurance steals from health care. I say steals because the private insurance provides noservice for the cost. The government already provides a risk pool for the very sick and could easily provide risk pool for everyone. Private insurance cherry picks the healthy to make profits. Then the private insurance takes a huge slice of the health care dollar.
The medical loss ratio: This statistic describes the percentage of dollars that a health insurance company takes in from its premiums that it uses to actually pay for medical services. For example, back in the 1990s - when the health care insurance industry was quite profitable - the figure was generally in the mid-90s. In other words, about 95% of all dollars collected in premiums were used to pay for medical services.
Since then, structural changes in the health insurance industry have led it to focus more on profits - as a Wall Street mentality took hold. Since the 1990s, the medical loss ratio has dropped significantly. Today it is in the mid 70s to low 80s - meaning $20 to $30 of every $100 paid in insurance premiums is not used to provide the services paid for. These profits - and the quest to increase such profits - has led to the health insurance industry becoming more like a Wall Street financial firm - with massive bonuses to its top executives and large dividends to shareholders as they skim greater profits from a rising bubble in the field in which it operates in. Our health insurance system is run by Wall Street tycoons.
Really a medical loss ratio of 70 is awful because we could have 98, meaning 98% of every dollar is spent on health care and only 2% on administration.
How does Medicare do on the issue of administrative cost?
Medicare is very efficient. About 98 to 99 percent of their revenue goes out in paying claims.
Some politicians have suggested that we make Medicare available to people of any age if they can't get private insurance.
Insurers, drug makers, doctors' associations and hospitals are spending more than $1 million each day on lobbying. Most of these groups oppose the idea of government-provided health care.
There is no doubt that the health sector is trying to buy influence:
Federal lawmakers collected about half a million dollars more from the health sector between April and June of this year than they did in the first quarter of the year -- a total of $15.3 million for 2009. This slight boost is likely the result of the increased intensity of the health care reform debate.
So how much influence is that money buying and specifically how much is our Minnesota senators and representatives being affected?
One way to look at financial influence is by selecting out the health care industry for both individual and PAC contributions. From being at health care forums, I can tell you that Al Franken, Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum are supported by many health care professionals who want the public option in health care. Note the John Kline gets most of his funding in health care from health care insurance and pharma, the "private wealth creation" focused industries. James Oberstar can not be said to be financially influenced by health care industries in any way!
It is time that we privatize those SOCIALIST (hiss) Fire Departments? Why just anyone can get fire protection without paying for their own insurance is beyond me. Even renters and immigrants just automatically get fire protection. Fire departments don't even ask to see a passport or a birth certificate before attending to a fire. What is the world coming to?
