Extend Medicare to Everyone
Approximately 47Million Americans are estimated to lack adequate health care. The New York Times said the working poor are the majority, about 30M people. Most can’t get medications or go to the doctor. The town hall harangues are often between middle class people who are being conned by the Insurance/ the AMA/ pharmaceutical industries and their shills, or maybe set up by them.
An old paradigm hovers in the background. I earn my health care, and if we give it to everyone, it’s socialism. This is what the Republicans are charging. Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor of The Nation calls them “the Party of No-- which once opposed Medicare and Social Security. Now they’re fostering fear mongering about government takeovers and socialism coming to America.” Yet even Bush recognized the need for change: "When it comes to healthcare, the government has an obligation to care for the elderly, the disabled, and poor children.”
Reframe the debate. It’s not between republican and democrats. It’s between those holding on to a profitable self-serving system based on maximizing income, not health versus the basic tenet of serving the needs of all people with compassion.
Andrew Weil, MD, reported that a 2002 University of North Carolina study showed doctors who own imaging equipment sent patients for roughly two to eight times more imaging tests than those who don't own them. Allow everyone to go for checkups treatment, tests, and this will eliminate the extreme testing, some of it very radioactive, now being done for profit by Drs or to avoid lawsuits. Regular health care (not insurance) will eliminate the need for so many expensive drugs and surgery. Take Doctors out of the profit motive and let them again “Do no harm.”
The solution: give all people what seniors have. Give all people what the President and Congress have (and why can’t they find the courage to act?) Give Medicare to everyone. Do away with the age limits. Extend the coverage to include pre-existing conditions. EVERYONE. We all pay already through our taxes—even the poor. The system is already in place. Give Medicare to everyone, a public health plan worthy of a country who brags about being the best but in actuality has a terrible record of health care compared to other “developed” nations. According to Marcia Angell, former Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, nearly every other advanced country has a largely nonprofit national health system that guarantees universal care. Angell believe our best bet now would be to extend Medicare gradually to the rest of the population. She suggests we begin by lowering the eligibility age from 65 to 55, then after a few years, drop it to 45, and so on. ?Medicare is the most popular part of our health system which offers free choice of doctors, it covers all eligible beneficiaries for a uniform package of benefits, regardless of medical history or how much care is needed, and it cannot be taken away by job loss or illness.” Let Medicare be an option for everyone. Not everyone has to use it. Some can opt to have a private health plan.
Angell says there is now a bill in Congress that calls for exactly that -- H.R. 676 ("Expanded and Improved Medicare for All"), which was introduced by Rep. John Conyers of Michigan and has many co-sponsors. Unfortunately, given the power of the health industry lobbies, it's unlikely to make it out of committee without strong public pressure.
That’s you. And me. And everyone we know. Contact every member of Congress you can. Today. And President Obama who is waffling.
"The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on,” Make Sure Kennedy’s Dream Shall Never Die.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, September 26, 2008
It terrifies me to think that after 40 years of working for women's right, after the years that Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony struggled so women could vote, after the marches, the Pentagon women going to jail, and the untold numbers who in their way made women's lives better, that any intelligent person could think Sarah Palin represents the end result, the promise of our historic struggle is unbelievable. She is a throw back, an anachronism, and an insult.
Don't be fooled by her gender and vote for her just because she's a woman. She is a mockery of women, who represents all that millions of women have struggled against,including a woman's right to choose. As mayor of Wasilla, rape victims were required to pay up to $1,200 for the cost of processing the police evidence (called "rape kits") in their cases.
She is homophobic, anti science , an enemy of our precious natural world, shooting wolves, refusing the polar bear protection in this endangered time, denying global warming is caused by humans. She supports oil and natural gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife refuge.
On library books she doesn't like:
"What would your response be if I asked you to remove some books from the collection?"
--October 1996 conversation with librarian Mary Ellen Emmons, Anchorage Daily News
Please be outraged with me. McCain has played a dirty trick on us--dont get fooled.
register at least one person to vote--take them to the polls if necessary
Santayana was right--"Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it." For many now history is the limited present represented by tv, media, movie stars, computers. They are without a sense of history, especially women's history. we are way past 1984, but people are too caught in big brother to even know they are not free. freedom is not a marketing decision. Get involved in whatever way you feel comfortable. Work for freedom. For hope. For change. Fight like hell for the living--you know who said that!!
Don't be fooled by her gender and vote for her just because she's a woman. She is a mockery of women, who represents all that millions of women have struggled against,including a woman's right to choose. As mayor of Wasilla, rape victims were required to pay up to $1,200 for the cost of processing the police evidence (called "rape kits") in their cases.
She is homophobic, anti science , an enemy of our precious natural world, shooting wolves, refusing the polar bear protection in this endangered time, denying global warming is caused by humans. She supports oil and natural gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife refuge.
On library books she doesn't like:
"What would your response be if I asked you to remove some books from the collection?"
--October 1996 conversation with librarian Mary Ellen Emmons, Anchorage Daily News
Please be outraged with me. McCain has played a dirty trick on us--dont get fooled.
register at least one person to vote--take them to the polls if necessary
Santayana was right--"Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it." For many now history is the limited present represented by tv, media, movie stars, computers. They are without a sense of history, especially women's history. we are way past 1984, but people are too caught in big brother to even know they are not free. freedom is not a marketing decision. Get involved in whatever way you feel comfortable. Work for freedom. For hope. For change. Fight like hell for the living--you know who said that!!
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Monday, November 5, 2007
After only 1 month here, I realize I've entered a speeded up
worm hole place of transformation, spirit, and politics where the deer wander freely and the humans go at warp speed at the foot of the 14ers--enormous 14,000 foot peaks whose granite silence is reflected everywhere.
I work as a free lance writer and am trying to get back on a schedule doing my own writing. Ah, that the two could mesh and I could earn my living by my readings and creative writing.
worm hole place of transformation, spirit, and politics where the deer wander freely and the humans go at warp speed at the foot of the 14ers--enormous 14,000 foot peaks whose granite silence is reflected everywhere.
I work as a free lance writer and am trying to get back on a schedule doing my own writing. Ah, that the two could mesh and I could earn my living by my readings and creative writing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
