Single payer health care - with private enterprise removed from the equation - is our best chance at affordable, quality health care in the U.S.

by Rady Ananda (182 articles, 374 quicklinks, 49 diaries, 1718 comments [201 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Friday, Feb 15, 2008 at 3:05:08 PM

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Without personal responsibility it doesn't matter what kind of healthcare is provided.

With our current Farm bill it doesn't matter what kind of healthcare is provided.

But, you've missed the point. Healthcare is NOT an issue.

Illegal Immigration is not the issue.

And none of our problems will ever be solved until big money is taken out of the election/legislative process.

So lets stop bickering about liberal & conservative issues & just come together as Americans to take America back, institute publicly funded elections, end the American nightmare & restore the American dream.

FOR  MORE:   www.votestrike.com

by chris rice (111 articles, 147 quicklinks, 35 diaries, 233 comments) on Friday, Feb 15, 2008 at 3:33:03 PM

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I favor taxing the rich to death first.  Then we we can limit their catch and stop them from fishing out every lake.

But, there are plenty of other avenues of attack from socialized medicine to national banking, to legalizing illegal drugs to non-profit media, etc. etc.

There is nothing sadder than a rich crook who has lost some of his rackets.

Do we have enough black hatred to do the job?

by John Hanks (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1763 comments [39 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 at 8:58:21 AM

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I agree we need elections that are completely publicly financed and this must apply to candidates from all political parties not just the Democrats and Republicans. The neoliberal free market nutcases won't support this however because it violates their free market principles. According to free market fanatics like Ron Paul, eliminating private funding of elections violates people's freedom of speech. Neoliberals equate donating money with free speech. According to neoliberals individuals, businesses, PACs, and other special interests all have a fundamental right to make political donations. I believe strict ballot access requirements must be eliminated and political candidates must all have free and equal access to the media. It must also be illegal to exclude political candidates from debates. Each candidate must also be given equal speaking time in the debates. We also need free and fair elections with all paper ballots.

by Ty (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 888 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 at 9:09:24 AM

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Every  four  years  we  have  two  options.

1. We  can  line  up  like  sheep  at  the  voting  booth  &  give  our  consent  to  four  more  years  of  corruption,  mismanagement,  pork  &  high  taxes  or

2.  Stay  home  &  complain  that  our  vote  doesn't  count.

What  I  am  proposing  is  a  third  option.  Because  the  rules  have  changed  &  our  vote  has  been  hijacked  by  privilege  &  special  interest.

We  must  find  new  ways  to  be  heard,  to  wrestle  control  of  our  government  out  of  the  hands  of  big  business  &  corporate  lobbyist.

What  I  am  proposing  is  that  we  don't  act  like  sheep  on  election  night  &  we  don't  sit  at  home  &  complain.  What  I  propose  is  that  we  stand  up  like  men  &  say  enough  is  enough!

This  proposal  was  born  when  I  saw  voters  come  together  &  effectively  stop  the  legislation  known  as  the  Comprehensive  Immigration  Reform  bill.  How  did  they  do  it?  So  many  voters  called  the  senate  switchboard  that  it  overloaded  the  switchboard  &  it  had  to  be  shut  down.

They  stood  up  &  said  enough  is  enough,  we're  mad  as  hell  &  we're  not  going  to  take  it  anymore!

We  need  to  do  the  same  thing  on  election  night.

          JUST  SAY  NO  TO  CORPORATE  (FUNDED)  POLITICIANS!

For more:   www.votestrike.com

by chris rice (111 articles, 147 quicklinks, 35 diaries, 233 comments) on Sunday, Feb 17, 2008 at 11:58:33 AM

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There is too much money to be made on sick people. Encouraging the population to maintain their good health while they still have it saps profits away from AMA doctors and big pharma. Why do you think when you go to a doctor with a weight problem, they put you on pills or staple your stomach? They are not allowed to you that the secret to weight loss is to eat less and exercise more, that's why. There's no money to be made off that simple advice. Why do you think herbal remedies are outlawed and those who attempt to administer them are charged with practicing medicine without a license? Many natural remedies have a long history of being effective, sometimes more effective than prescription medications, but because they are derived from a natural source and can't be patented, big pharma and the AMA will not allow them to exist.

by Watching (0 articles, 1 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 313 comments [1 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 at 11:35:11 AM

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You are 100% correct. That is the problem-$$$.

We must break the system, to fix the system!

We (the people) already know what the problems are & if America really is a democracy then why do we allow fringe groups & corporate lobbyist to run our country????????????

by chris rice (111 articles, 147 quicklinks, 35 diaries, 233 comments) on Sunday, Feb 17, 2008 at 11:41:27 AM

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sounds like an apologist for the ama and big pharm companies, the profits are OBSENE, we need more controls on licensing drugs not less

universal health care is eminently feasable and will work

the other platitudes so what begs the issue entirely, conscious spreading of misinformation to lull progressives

SHAME ON THIS AUTHOR I SAY

joab

by MITYOJAB (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 26 comments [1 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 at 11:53:17 AM

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How will any healthcare system work when you don't have enough doctors or nurses now. And your going to add how many millions of uninsured patients?

You can take the blue pill & go back to sleep & when you wake up you can believe whatever you want to believe

or you can join me for a frank discussion on this nations problems at:

www.votestrike.com

by chris rice (111 articles, 147 quicklinks, 35 diaries, 233 comments) on Sunday, Feb 17, 2008 at 11:46:13 AM

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Why can't the practice of medicine not be modelled on the practice of dentistry? Have you ever seen a poor dentist? Yet dentists practice preventative care. My two sons who are 25 and 22 have never had a cavity because they go to the dentist twice a year for cleaning and checkups and are sternly warned to practice good dental hygiene. Why can't this work for doctors and patients? We have universal healthcare in Canada and it works wonderfully for all concerned including the doctors. They are able to live up to their Hippocratic oath and never turn away a person in need and they know they will be paid. Their overhead is kept as low as possible having to only bill one party. It works, try it.

by Archie (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1761 comments [112 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 at 12:00:22 PM

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Yes, we need preventive care.

But in this country kids here also see their dentist twice a year & are warned to use good dental hygene but still end up with a mouth full of cavities, obese & with diabetes.

Why? High fructose corn syrup. Which our Farm bill of the last 50 years has been subsidizing, which makes it cheap & therefore is used in everything. Making good health care impossible.

For more:  www.votestrike.com

by chris rice (111 articles, 147 quicklinks, 35 diaries, 233 comments) on Sunday, Feb 17, 2008 at 12:08:45 PM

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Dear Sir: My health care cost me $28 dollars a month was 30 years until it was taken off the market. I have a rare lung diease called Young's Syndrome which is a form of Cystic  Fibrosis; which, a drug called Tedral gave me a life I thought I would never have because I was told for the first 15 years of my life that I would die by my 16 birthday! The concept of hopelessness was a;ways in the back of my mind even to this day. Why should I get married when I am going to die! But, Tedral was like a breath of fresh air after suffocating for a long time. It was like insulin to a diabetic!This drug was not taken off the market because it was not a good drug. My pharmacist said he sold tons of the drug. In my research, I found out that our FDR is a corrupt institution with a revolving door of economic hitmen for the pharmaceutical industry. A entire line of drugs in 1985-88 was taken off the market because it lost its profit margin. Tedral was made by to many companies while the drug had lost its patent protection like so many drugs during this time period. Tedral cost me $28 dollars for a 100 pills to keep me alive for one month so I could work. In less than one year the drug went from $28 dollars to $85 dollars for a 100 pills for one months to keep me alive so I could work to support myself to keep my own dignity. Why did this drug go so high if the drug was no good! GHW Bush is on the board of Eli Lilly was still lobbying for the pharmaceutical Industry while he was the Vice President of the United States to get the drug industry in the Virgin Islands a tax free existence which is against then law! He was reprimanded  by the Supreme Court and told to stop! His future Vice President Dan Quayle is on the board of Eli Lilly which has done work for the CIA. They made LSD 125 for the CIA. His family has a great deal of stocks in Eli Lilly as well as the Bush family. The doctors of America were deceived into speaking up against my drug. The only reason they were against Tedral was because the FDA, before the Republicans destroyed the FDA, put Tedral over the counter! I was standing in my drug store when I saw my drug on the counter. I asked my pharmacist if this was the same drug that he was filling. He said yes and that I could buy 25, 100 250 , 500 pills at one time. It was the last I went to the doctor to get 60 pills for paying a doctor $40 dollars at a pop; while taking off of my job that cost me money coming and going! The doctor lost my $40 dollars a month times 12 for 30 years. I did not have to put his kids through college! I used that money to put my own kids through college! It was pure greed that the only drug that kept me well was taken off the market! No other drug works. I used to buy this drug in Mexico until the drug companies exercise their power to have it taken off the market in Mexico. Tedral cost me $28 dollars. Advair cost me $400 dollars and it does not work. My drug bill now per month because I am now disable is about a $1,000 dollars a month. I am always ill thanks to GHW Bush desire for more money for his stocks. The fluid in my lungs is like glue! Every bone in my body is killing me because of the lack of circulation. I have zero energy-physically and mentally. In all of my life my blood vessels have always bulged out. My blood veins in my arm was like a road map. Now, all my blood vessels have shrank. One can not see the blood vessels in my arms or any where else. In fact it is very painful too take blood out of me. I have circulation problems all over my body. My feet constantly hurt. I have 4 bones in my feet that just broke for no reason other than walking in the same place on both feet. All the blood vessels have shrank all over my body/ My heart use to have a good contraction. Now, I feel like I have a 8 inch circle that is a hole in my chest where it feels like I have no heart. When I took Tedral in the morning I would get that crunching feelings when my heart would take a strong contraction that started a chain reaction that would hydraulically push my blood through out my body to the very end of my fingers and toes. My blood pressure was always normal. My BP was 120-75. I could take the deepest breath I could imagine. The feelings of feeling good and health can not be described. I hate being disable. It angers me beyond all description that greed is why I am ill! If I dont get this drug in 5 years I will die because of Eli Lilly and the others in the drug industry. A hole will punctured my lung from the constant infections I get. The doctor will start cutting out entire section of my lung in the name of F-ing mankind; until I have no lung to cut out. I will heard those ungodly words of perversion, " I sorry MR Hood. I can't help! You are in Gods hands. I am sorry! Unless you can get a lung transplant, you will die any time now! Good luck, I have to go play golf now. I see you tomorrow!" I am going to die because the FDA and Washington will not give a $28 dollar drug that I took for 30 years that allowed me to walk on water, to play sport, to work all the hours I had to work, to go to college, and to enjoy all the wonderful beautiful benefits God has given to us all. As I write this letter, I am listening to John McCain talk on and on and on on the same thing diabetes. He knows nothing about what he is saying. He says the same thing the Republicans always complain about tort reform. It was the Republican party and their revolving door of corrupt Republican appointments to the FDA who have destroyed the federal institution that the FDA is worthless. My drug could be put back on the market in the rare drug market. I qualify! But, I dont have any money to bribe the FDA, a Senator or Congressman to plead my cause that I have done since 1986. The FDA says that it can be compounded but no one will do it. I wrote the FDA back to tell me who will do it. They never wrote back! The FDA does not understand that they are public servant. They think that they are my master that they don't work for me! The lack of concern by the FDA is going to kill. Personally, I accuse the FDA of slowly murdering me in cold blooded malice without any remorse. I accuse Washington to be a co-conspirator whom by taken Tedral made by Park-Davis drug off the market to have conspired with the drug companies who have made me expendable by eliminating all drugs off the market that will not make a profit. I am being crucified by the powers that be who are stealing the very breath of my life from my very soul who have robbed me of the sweat of my brow, whom like Cain who hated his brother killed him in his wrath because he could not live in the garden of paradise in spite of his fathers sins has condemn me to death because the wealthy want to live at the expense of the non-wealthy who have put the food on their table who have feed their children from the sweat of our brow whose future has been condemn so the wealthy can enjoy the good life at our expense. I have lost $500,000 dollars since I have become disable! Three years ago I had to turn down a job who offered me $38 dollars an hour plus $50 dollars a day in per Diem while working 7-12 hours a day! I was to ill to work! I would be in Iraq today making the big money! I am the kind of guy who will, go any where on Gods green earth even the moon; if the money is right! I love to work if I had Tedral made by Park-Davis today I will be working in about 3 months. I get calls all the time for work. By it pisses me off that I got to tell them I am disable! I am in hell so GHW Bush can have more money at my expense! There is no hope. All is lost! I hate my life! I can thank the Republican party and Sodom and Gomorrah.

by matt (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 16 comments) on Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 at 2:42:11 PM

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Your reply brought me to tears, maybe because you remind me of myself, because I am working all the time or maybe because I know I'll never be offered $38. an hour.

Either way everything you have said is true & accurate. Now what do you plan to do about it? It sounds like you've resigned yourself to crying & accepting eventual slow & painful death. But if I'm right & you are like me you won't take this lying down!

I watched me ex battle city hall over ADA laws that are already on the books.

I watched her contact congressmen, senators & even the president trying to get protection for children from pedophiles, mentally-ill parents & parents who abandonden their own- as she went through.

Only to get the run-around.

When she got tired of chasing her tail she asked for my help & we created  www.votestrike.com.

I hope that you will check it out. I believe that we can take this country back, we can institute publicly funded elections, end the American nightmare & restore the American dream.

Everyone is pissed & rightly so. But that creates an oppurtunity that has never existed before. How? Because it has always been the poor or the minorities who the government screwed & those people have no power. But now the government has given us a rare oppurtunity because the middle class now has issues that go largely ignored every four years, the middle class is shrinking & this maybe their last oppurtunity to take this country back because the powers that be are eroding what power the middle class has left.

If you like what you see at the site, we have 9 months to blog, write letters to the editor, threads, op-eds, advertise in local papers, print & pass out flyers, etc.

And you'll find like the Polish throwing out the Communist or the fall of the Berlin wall that it's really not that hard to overthrow corrupt governments when they have no public support.

We start off with a majority because there are more non voters than voters. These people are so pissed off they won't even participate. Edwards, Kucinich & Ron Paul supports don't like the remaining choices. Repulicans don't like any of their choices & we still have 9 months to go.

WE can stop this election & take America back!!!!!!

FOR MORE:   www.votestrike.com

by chris rice (111 articles, 147 quicklinks, 35 diaries, 233 comments) on Sunday, Feb 17, 2008 at 1:00:49 PM

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"The individual is the starting point for good health care." Most certainly, and it is the individual who is responsible for all his/her (hir) actions. All persons are *not* born equal.
"Great harm was caused [in the Declaration of Independence] by not making it very clear that what was meant was that all men have equal rights [under the law], not identical characteristics and equal abilities, nor even that all men ought to be treated as if they had identical characteristics and equal abilities, since in fact humans are highly unique both in genetic endowment and after lengthy separate development." [http://selfsip.org/critiques/declarofindepen.html ]

It is the individual who is responsible for hir own life, not anyone else once s/he is past childhood and during which time s/he is the responsibility of hir parent(s). It is up to hir to make the choices among those available that best promote hir own well being, since the goal of each person's life is to optimize hir own lifetime happiness. (This is so even if a person does not consciously recognize it.) The current society is one in which the available choices are severely limited by the nature of the system. Governments with their regulations/laws decrease the availability of possible choices, not just from what is now possible but also by not enabling countless products and services from ever coming into being.

I definitely agree that probably the vast majority of (?all?) politicians see health care issues as merely another way of getting more power or, at least, maintaining the power they already have. Politicians by their very nature are paternalists - they view others as children or mentally deficient and therefore persons who need to be guided/maneuvered/forced into doing what those politicians have decided is best for those lesser beings. Many, likely, don't even pretend - when alone - that they are out for anything but power and their own aggrandizement.

And many of the ordinary people - including many writing here at OpEdNews.com - do not realize that the lack of self-responsibility for one's own health in a system of government redistribution will always result in lowering of quality and reduction in availability. Prevention of illness/disorder only has real meaning when done by each individual, with those who choose not to do so, bearing the responsibility for their choices and actions.

There has never been a truly free market in the US or anywhere in the world. While many of your suggestions would definitely improve the lives of most living in the US, they cannot even come into being under the present system of government interference in the interactions of those who seek to trade to mutual benefit. A paradigm shift in thinking of the type described in "Social Meta-Needs: A New Basis for Optimal Human Interaction" must first occur in large numbers of people. This is not at all impossible, but that change must occur first or any alterations as you suggest will simply degenerate into more of the same that exists now, or even worse.

--
**Kitty Antonik Wakfer

MoreLife for the rational - http://morelife.org
Reality based tools for more life in quantity and quality
Self-Sovereign Individual Project - http://selfsip.org
Self-sovereignty, rational pursuit of optimal lifetime happiness,
individual responsibility, social preferencing & social contracting

by Kitty Antonik Wakfer (26 articles, 28 quicklinks, 9 diaries, 163 comments [15 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 at 4:19:02 PM

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< your ideas would benefit most Americans but could never be implemented in our current system.

you're right! lets get rid of the system that is killing us.

lets get rid of a system that limits our choices.

Let's get rid of this system, once & for all!!! 

FOR MORE: www.votestrike.com

by chris rice (111 articles, 147 quicklinks, 35 diaries, 233 comments) on Monday, Feb 18, 2008 at 10:14:14 AM

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Dear Sir: Our nation is at war! The document that says we are at war is the Constitution and the declaration of Independence. Our grievances are written in the Bill of Rights. Their has been a massive distribution of wealth in  this country from the wealthy to the wealthy with the trickle up economics. The rich are stealing for the non-wealthy. What they have given they have taken back! We the people are being put back on the plantation to where we are becoming sharecroppers on our own country. Our nation is being given away piece by piece by corporate America that is a non-identity, who does not vote or does not exist, who have no loyalty or no country to call their own; that if a massive rebellion was to break out and the military refuse to obey the orders of the President to fire on Americans in protest, they would just move their wealth and their family to Communist China or Switzerland.  We are a nation of 300 million people with a government for 100 million people. All of our federal agency are a failure. They have just enough money to turn on the lights. All of our elected officials are hypocrites. They make sure that their checks are cash first. They make sure they have the benefit that a CEO of a large company gets; while they don't deserve what a CEO makes. They have forgotten that they are public servants. I can not see how they can give themselves healthcare; while telling the nation that they have to suck it up and suffer. America must stand together or we will die separately. I am very good at history. I know that we the people have been sold out by our elected officials and the wealthy with their army of special interest have been waging class warfare. We the people are being used by the wealthy and Wall Street as a slush fund to bail out the Ken Lay's of the world by a system who refuse's to be regulated. When the house is own fire they cry for the tax payers to bail them out. Sub prime needs to be called what it is! Its loan sharking or usury. It is forbidding by God in the Torah. Christ is against loan sharking! Loan sharking is money that is not earned. It does not exist. It a fabrication of money that leads to injustice.   Health care is a civil right as long as congress has healthcare. How is it that we are being force to pay for healthcare for those in government by "we the people" are denied the same benefits. It feels like Stalin is in power.  The millions of people who have no healthcare is because of our governments who has waged war against the unions and organized labor. Senator Robert Kennedy constantly attacked all the unions.  Personally, we got more from organized crime than we ever did from our own government. In the non-union  news letter I read on the Internet, all they say is that Unions are ran by organized crime. They are all criminal institutions. It all they do is slander the unions. That is why we have no healthcare. When my union died by the unmitigated war that Dow Chemical and the petrochemical waged against all the Unions in Freeport, Texas. The first thing that was thrown out the window was our healthcare. The non-union companies in order to get qualified skilled craftsman to work for them was to offer healthcare. If they didnt, they did not get any people to work for them! In 1981 the Union had its throat cut by Dow Chemical and friends, who gave the non-union companies special privileges in bidding on jobs, who gave them maintenance contracts, and allowed them to use illegal aliens knowingly with full knowledge, to drastically reduce their labor cost. In less than 6 months I went from a $15 dollar an hour union job with full benefits to a non-union $10 dollar an hour with no benefits with the heavy saturation of illegal Mexicans nationals invited by Dow Chemical. With in 2 years not one company offered heath care. They did not have too. Who is going to make them! A man by himself can do nothing! Dow did not play by the rule nor did they a bid by the law. The only way they could beat the unions was by the deceit of the Kennedy's, who had a huge war chest, who broke the law, and who had all the politicians in their back pockets. Corruption at highest. Texas as become a plantation of share croppers were those in the high paying construction jobs that require great skills are barley paid above minimums wage. With the death of organized labor no one is left to fight for the working man. US Contractor and many other non-union contractors now live in multiple million dollar homes as well has their family. Nepotism has become king where the dumb-ass of the family with the IQ of 10 can be your boss! All the money is in supervision; which is were all the family member have been assign. They all have healthcare; except for their employees, who put the food on their table. Slave labor has return to Texas with all of the illegals who have turned Texas into little Mexico. Dow Chemical is complaining now that they can not get any body to work their high paying construction jobs. What Dow Chemical and the petrochemical does not tell is that they have become is a police state with all of their drug testing, who tells you how to live with their social engineers like they did in the day of Henry Ford and his social workers and prohibition. All of the local talent has left the state to work out of state all over the country. I worked out state for 15 years until I got sick. It was the only way I could get a raise. It was better for me to drive 26 hours to California to make $5 dollars an hour more an hour than to work locally.  People are buying travel trailers and going on the road to work in other states  because they are tired of being lectured by their employers, who are behaving like communist, who wont stay out of their business, who expect you to go to church and to give to charity and to be the kind of employee they want to have. F-them. I have seen to many good craftsman just quit the trade because they are tired of all the damn Mexicans they get for helpers who can not read or speak English. They are more trouble than what they are worth! That is not being a racist! If you can not read or speak English in a petrochemical plant you are a danger to everyone of blowing us up! Dow Chemical has destroyed the once proud trade of working in the petrochemical industry. If they love Mexicans that much because they work for nothing then hire them all! I dont care if one white man applies for one job at Dow Chemical. I found out 15 years ago that Dow is no longer king! All those racist bastards who used the illegal Mexican to destroy the Unions then they can hire all of them; until all the white people move to another state. Just do not follow us! Freeport can become another Mexico. That is why we have no healthcare! The government did nothing when we all complain! The government was bought off!

by matt (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 16 comments) on Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 at 4:49:30 PM

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Everything you've said is true, so just reveiw your own comments & think about what you've said. The same people who have been screwing you (all of us) are not now going to give you something for nothing, why should they?

Our medical system is broke in more ways than one. A real Universal Healthcare system would address all of those problems not just the uninsured. because if you have a system like our medical system where we already have a nurse shortage & a coming doctor shortage than how is adding more patients going to give you more care. It won't. It can't.

Our healthcare system is broke. Our government is broke.

When your car stops working you get out & fix it. Our government has stopped working (is broke), it is the duty of the citizens to fix it.

For more: www.votestrike.com

by chris rice (111 articles, 147 quicklinks, 35 diaries, 233 comments) on Monday, Feb 18, 2008 at 10:46:19 AM

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“First, Sen. Hillary Clinton doesn't give a damn about the uninsured “

Maybe. But it’s also possible that she does. What allows you to choose the more cynical option? There is nothing that I’m aware of to make me agree or disagree with that statement other than it’s been an issue of interest to her since the early Clinton years.

“Politicians care about their big fat cat campaign contributors, not us. “

This is too often true. A few, however, care about both, at least to some degree.

“Big Pharmaceuticals see huge profits in the uninsured & the under insured if government will guarantee their profits on your dime. “

That’s probably true. It still doesn’t constitute an argument against insuring the under- and uninsured. It’s an argument for a new relationship with the pharmaceutical companies and pharmaceuticals. For example, the United States should employ the same kind of people as industry and develop drugs owned by the public and sold at cost.

“Hospitals have been losing billions of dollars every year treating the uninsured & the undocumented in hospital emergency rooms across the nation”

Is this still an argument against universal coverage?

“it won't work. Here's why. The health care crisis seems to be on everyone's mind today. Politicians have unique solutions to sell you with the objective being your vote. “

It can be made to work or fail. It works elsewhere. If done properly, it definitely can work here too. Politicians with workable solutions deserve my vote.

“Getting your vote is, unfortunately, not what good health care is really about.”

This comment is ridiculous. I’m beginning to wonder what your agenda is. Good health care is not the issue. Access to health care and efficient rationing of health care resources are the issues. They are both dependent on many factors, such as adequate insurance coverage for all citizens and maintaining adequate numbers of practitioners

“The medical care crisis is real and it is multi-faceted. While we mainly focus on cost and the uninsured, the real concern should be about availability.”

Insurance and availability are tightly correlated. Adequate health care is not available to those who cannot pay for it

“The number of doctors over age 55 is significant. When those doctors retire, the question will not be about cost of medical care but instead it will be about the rationing of medical care.”

The number of doctors over 55 was significant in 1980, 1960, 1940 and 1920. Lawyers, too. That’s not a problem. What may be more significant is the number of doctors under 40 and the dwindling numbers of people that want to become doctors. Doctors are treated shabbily in this country, and it has consequences. I know. I’m one, and I have been treated shabbily. It doesn’t matter if you agree. It matters what I, my colleagues, and potential future colleagues think. It determines how many physicians and of what quality you will have. I notice that you haven’t addressed physician needs and complaints. That’s par for America. I know very well that my needs are of no interest to America until the patients are affected. Medicare will continue cutting our pay for as long as well tolerate it. If physicians understood that, they would refuse to see Medicare patients now based on over fifteen years of pay cuts and laws that assure that more will be coming. We narrowly and temporarily escaped a ten percent pay cut this year. Ten percent. In one year. On top of 25-30% and greater cumulative pay cuts in recent years. The unfairness of it is of no concern to America. When you can’t find us, then you’ll take interest. That’s obvious. We need to make that time come now, not after another 10 or 20 or 30% additional pay cuts.

“The shortage of practicing nurses is already well known but the shortage of doctors is only now becoming a focus of discussion.”

But not the reason why. Physicians have been subjected to the same type of steady disinformation as liberals have for so long now that we’re perceived just as negatively. Doctors, you are told, have it too good, and their complaints are just greedy people whining for more. You’ll pay for that attitude just as conservative “value voters” will pay for having been trained to disesteem the liberals among them. Conservatives know for a fact that we hate economic success and love terrorists, hate God and love taxes just like you know for a fact that we are killing you in our hospitals with rafts of stupid drug errors and are greedy, overpaid and spoiled. It’s how it’s done. It’s how you disempower a group. I’m beyond expecting compassion and understanding from America as a physician as surely as I am as a liberal. Neither will ever be respected again in my lifetime.

When physicians are in crisis (and we’re pretty nearly there), next you will be in crisis. Will we have your interest before then or do we have to suffer progressively more until we crumble and you begin to feel it too? Let me answer that for you. I'll begin with this fact. If Medicare cuts my rates again, I’m closing my doors to new Medicare patients, and I’m giving my existing Medicare patient’s less time than they get now to make up the economic loss with more volume (but not longer hours). And if you want me to do anything that isn’t medicine, like fill out insurance forms, then that’s your appointment. Clinical or clerical – your choice.

“ We cannot continue to rely on drugs or surgery to reverse years of poor health habits and poor diets. The true solution to our health care crisis is personal responsibility.”

Easy to say. You probably don’t know the degree of inertia among patients and the degree of resistance that is offered by the corporatocracy.  And even if you succeeded, you wouldn’t solve existing problems, just future ones. Is that your plan? To tell people to eat right and exercise? I know a little about that. Good luck. Don’t forget to tell them to quit smoking, too. It’s also 10 –20% effective for six months.

“In the shorter run, our health care system must emphasize wellness and not illness. “

That’s not a job that the health care system can do. We’re trying. Your culture obstructs us. Change your culture. I already emphasize wellness. It’s a mostly wasted effort in this culture.

“At present, the emergency room is the physician of choice for many Americans at great cost to all.”

That’s because the ER is the only universal coverage in America. It’s the only place where the uninsured can get treatment. You’ll solve that problem when you have universal coverage for offices, too.

“It is important to allow nurse practitioners, physician assistants and nurses greater autonomy in providing medical care. Not all medical issues require a doctor.”

It’s already been done and overdone in my community. I send a patient for a rheumatology consult because I need an expert, and the nurse practitioner gives me the consult, routinely not as good as one I could have done myself. I’ve never had a patient helped by a nurse practitioner that didn’t have an obvious diagnosis for which there is a safe and standard treatment. They’re great for vaccines and diets and the flu, for allergic rashes and heartburn and bladder infections. Not so good with fatigue or dizziness or shortness of breath. They are not diagnosticians. But they are already being given those jobs in consultation. What’s important is that whoever is delivering medical care has sufficient medical training and incentive to render it efficiently, which means to be good at it and to be treated with dignity.

I think that I have to cut this off here because it’s already long. Too bad, because I would have loved to critique your second half as well. Thanks for trying, but you’re an amateur at health care reform, and it’s not a hobby for the interested. In my opinion, you don’t understand the problems, and you’re not even close to a remedy for it with these suggestions.

by Yaybob (12 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 174 comments) on Sunday, Feb 17, 2008 at 12:03:36 AM

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This thread speaks volumes to the state of liberal America today. Thread is a misnomer inasmuch as that word implies connection or continuity. What you’ve got here are eleven comments, only one a reply. There are ten people that have come by here and left opinions, and in each case, the author was just writing as an exercise. Zero conversation. Even the author couldn’t be bothered to review the comments and reply. This is about as fragmented as the left, which has no organization and therefore no voice in America. Let’s admit this much: if even we, the people who read liberal web sites and comment there cannot start up a conversation, the remainder of America, which on average is much less politically astute, sure isn’t networking. This is an ominous prognostic sign for those who are hoping for some kind of response to the neocon infection.

Here’s the situation: America, was once the world’s foremost liberal state, at the vanguard of liberal thought. Every core American value and principle is the liberal extreme among available choices. Forms of government range from extreme concentrations of power (autocracy) to extreme diffusion of power (democracy). Governments range from having unlimited power and jurisdiction to being maximally limited, transparent, partitioned and subject to a watchdog press. Governments range from secretive and opaque to transparent. Social status and mobility ranges from rigid class structures to egalitarianism with the possibility of social mobility. Common people range from peasants subjects to free and empowered citizens. Religious freedom ranges from none to the secular state and the guaranteed right to religious freedom. The law ranges from unequal or no application to the privileged to the rule of law applied evenly (equal protection). Right down the line, whatever parameter you discuss, be it elections or economic opportunity or education or the press, America advocated for the extreme liberal position. That was then.

Who could have guessed that every bit of that would be b!tch-slapped by the Tories back to the Middle Ages with barely a peep of public conversation or other response? The power of the government is concentrated again into one branch of a powerful central government run by a handful of people who operate in secret and are apparently above the law. Your human and civil rights are all gone. Just as a medieval British monarch could throw you into the Tower of London on a whim without cause and deny you justice, Bush can do just that. He spirit me away tonight with out cause to be tortured, without charges, without allowing me a defense, without telling my family, without ever producing me, and nobody could help me. Liberalism has gone from our dominant ideology to being perceived as an infection and a form of moral turpitude. The press is a eunuch. Congress is a eunuch. The government serves the corporations with illegal wars and no-bid contracts, and exploits rather than serves American citizens. America’s elections are banana republic-style, utterly crooked.

All of this change has occurred without a detectable national response. There is no protest. There is no unrest. Only a few of us seem to have noticed. There is no peace movement. There are no special investigations. There is no outrage. Seven years later, there’s still no organized response. There are almost no liberal voices being heard. Instead of Abbie Hoffman and Malcolm X, or Thomas Paine, the only significant liberal American voices heard by ordinary people are Gore and Moore, maybe Olberman. You used to be able to include Sheehan. The most powerful force opposing this is not Congress or a special prosecutor, not an anti -Vietnam style war movement or an underground railroad or a new political party, it’s MoveOn.org and OpEdNews. After seven years, no sign of a response. No organization. No organized activism. And this thread is a perfect epitome of that nonresponse. Look at how we converse. Not at all.

I wrote a provocative post and didn’t get a comment. If anyone reads this, they may feel compelled to comment only because I have pointed out what I have pointed out. As I said, there are ominous prognostic signs. If America can be compared to an organism, like a person, it’s overrun with infection and unable to mount an immune response. Its immune system is nonexistent. America has the political equivalent of AIDS, and it has been parasitized by an opportunistic pathogen that has beset and crippled every organ system without a fight. The metaphor is strikingly apt. In medicine, we call that end stage terminal disease refractory to intervention. We bring in hospice and provide comfort care as the patient slips into oblivion. Liberal America (whatever that is) is useless, essentially nonexistent. We here embody that beautifully.

I had hoped for somebody to find my description of medicine from a physician’s perspective surprising and objectionable. But instead, indifference. Ladies and gentlemen, the feeling is mutual. You’ve got a hostile, dispirited and frightened medical community, and you still talk about our Hippocratic oaths and how much more we can do for you to rescue the health care sector. The old deal is dead, the one where you give me minor deity status, high pay, authority and autonomy, and I give you my heart and soul, my 24 hour availability, my maximum commitment to academic excellence in education and selfless service. Not for what you offer me today. Like I said, if you treat me like a K-Mart, don’t look for Nordstrom’s service. You clearly aren’t interested in your physicians, and guess what? The feeling has become mutual. When Medicare announced a ten percent cut in physician reimbursement for 2008 (stayed at the last minute), I was looking for how to give you ten percent less service. The solution was to close the doors to new Medicare patients (we had already announced it) and go from five twelve minute slots an hour to six ten minute slots. This author expects America’s physicians to lead the effort to solve America’s health care problems. I laugh when I read how we physicians need to take more time and do more careful histories, give more personal attention, teach more, emphasize wellness, change lifestyles, to stay on top of the latest developments and honor my selfless Hippocratic oath. I refuse to read medical journals and texts any more. I haven’t gotten even a cost of living increase in fifteen years. You’re paying me 1990 fees. If I can avoid malpractice, I’ve done enough.

by Yaybob (12 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 174 comments) on Sunday, Feb 17, 2008 at 9:09:18 AM

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Sorry. I can't begin to comment individually, yet, because there's so many good comments & I haven't had the time to read them all. I did start to answer "Publicly Funded Elections" comment but got called away- I'm at work. When I got back I found a book had been written & it sounds like everyone's plenty pissed off, good. Anger is good because for a while I thought I lived in a nation of zombies. Now that we are all pissed off, lets do something constructive with that anger:

Every  four  years  we  have  two  options.

1. We  can  line  up  like  sheep  at  the  voting  booth  &  give  our  consent  to  four  more  years  of  corruption,  mismanagement,  pork  &  high  taxes  or

2.  Stay  home  &  complain  that  our  vote  doesn't  count.

What  I  am  proposing  is  a  third  option.  Because  the  rules  have  changed  &  our  vote  has  been  hijacked  by  privilege  &  special  interest.

We  must  find  new  ways  to  be  heard,  to  wrestle  control  of  our  government  out  of  the  hands  of  big  business  &  corporate  lobbyist.

What  I  am  proposing  is  that  we  don't  act  like  sheep  on  election  night  &  we  don't  sit  at  home  &  complain.  What  I  propose  is  that  we  stand  up  like  men  &  say  enough  is  enough!

This  proposal  was  born  when  I  saw  voters  come  together  &  effectively  stop  the  legislation  known  as  the  Comprehensive  Immigration  Reform  bill.  How  did  they  do  it?  So  many  voters  called  the  senate  switchboard  that  it  overloaded  the  switchboard  &  it  had  to  be  shut  down.

They  stood  up  &  said  enough  is  enough,  we're  mad  as  hell  &  we're  not  going  to  take  it  anymore!

We  need  to  do  the  same  thing  on  election  night.

          JUST  SAY  NO  TO  CORPORATE  (FUNDED)  POLITICIANS!

(MY  REPLY TO: Publicly funded elections)

FOR  MORE:  www.votestrike.com

I will reply to every message left, but please be patient, thanks. And to the doctor please please critique the second half, the part you critiqued is a quote, thanks.

by chris rice (111 articles, 147 quicklinks, 35 diaries, 233 comments) on Sunday, Feb 17, 2008 at 11:09:12 AM

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"I know very well that my needs are of no interest to America until the patients are affected. Medicare will continue cutting our pay for as long as well tolerate it. If physicians understood that, they would refuse to see Medicare patients now based on over fifteen years of pay cuts and laws that assure that more will be coming. We narrowly and temporarily escaped a ten percent pay cut this year. Ten percent. In one year. On top of 25-30% and greater cumulative pay cuts in recent years. The unfairness of it is of no concern to America. When you can’t find us, then you’ll take interest. That’s obvious. We need to make that time come now, not after another 10 or 20 or 30% additional pay cuts."

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a non-partisan professional association of physicians in all types of practices and specialties across the country.

Since 1943, AAPS has been dedicated to the highest ethical standards of the Oath of Hippocrates and to preserving the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship and the practice of private medicine.

Our motto, "omnia pro aegroto" means "all for the patient."

Read our "Principles of Medical Ethics"

Read our "Patients Bill of Rights"

[MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION] We welcome all physicians (M.D. and D.O.) as members. Podiatrists, dentists, chiropractors and other medical professionals are welcome to join as professional associate members. Staff members and the public are welcome as associate members. Medical students are welcome to join free of charge. All are welcome to sign up for our e-mail alerts.

I am pleased to be an Associate Member of AAPS in the struggle to *preserve the one-on-one patient-physician relationship*. This membership level is for Patients and Other Interested Members of the Public, although my first career was that of a registered nurse, which would be included in the Professional Associate Membership, specifically for other Medical Professionals.

When I choose to consult with a health care provider, I do not want the government to be a part of that relationship. I, and husband Paul Wakfer, choose to be self-pay patients on the rare occasions that we have need of medical consultation. We take care or our health by aggressively practicing prevention measures of many types. By not paying insurance premiums we save money that is then available to us for those rare occasions when we decide that a medical consultation is in our best interest. (And we do save money, rather than spending all our monetary resources.) The last time I did use a physician (for other than a pap smear) was in January 2003 for an emergency ureteral calculi. I wrote about this at a Kitty Reflects at MoreLife

by Kitty Antonik Wakfer (26 articles, 28 quicklinks, 9 diaries, 163 comments [15 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Feb 18, 2008 at 9:30:01 PM

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<“First, Sen. Hillary Clinton doesn't give a damn about the uninsured “

<Maybe. But it’s also possible that she does. What allows you to choose the <more cynical option? There is nothing that I’m aware of to make me agree or <disagree with that statement other than it’s been an issue of interest to her since <the early Clinton years.

How about the fact that if she gave a damn about the uninsured she wouldn't be offering them the false hope of entering a broken medical system that can't take care of the people who are already in it.

If she really gave a damn she tried to fix what's broken before putting more people into it.

<“Politicians care about their big fat cat campaign contributors, not us. “

<This is too often true. A few, however, care about both, at least to some , <degree.

That is a misconception, a belief born out of the benefits that we recieve from their service to their campaign contributors.

Just like  Universal Healthcare, corporations want the governments money, our money, how do they get it, through Universal Healthcare, Defense spending, subsidies, etc. Do some of these things wind up helping some voters, sure, but only by accident, not because the politician found the best ways to serve both his business & citizen constituents.

But here's your best comment: it can work if it's done right.

Do you see our government doing anything right?

Won't the right wing sabotage this like everything else, won't it go under funded like every other government agency. Making it impossible to work.

I'm truly amazed that with all the education doctors have to go through the same government that is screwing you has you so well duped.

Your patients are forced onto medi-cal because their unions have been destroyed & there is no more employer funded health insurance. Now the government is destroying your union & depressing your wages & what is your solution? You're going to take it out on your patients & give them sub standard care.

Why don't you stand up like a man & say enough is enough, before it is too late, or would that be useless too???

This whole conversation can be useless or we can turn it into a national debate, end the charade of the two-party system & the third-party myth, end the American nightmare & restore the American dream!!!

for more:  www.votestrike.com   

by chris rice (111 articles, 147 quicklinks, 35 diaries, 233 comments) on Monday, Feb 18, 2008 at 11:12:10 AM

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I agree completely. Do you know how much a McDonalds heart-attack waiting to happen on a bun would cost if we didn't subsidize the beef, the water, the feed & the land? About $20.00 U.S. dollars, instead of .89 cents. Do you know how many vegans have heart-attacks? 4% compared to 32% for meat-eaters. Do I expect doctors to prevent patients from making themselves sick? NO. Do I expect people to give up their meat addictions? NO.

I do believe however that by stopping the subsidies to things like high fructose corn syrup via our Farm bill we can return to a healthy diet, similiar to what our grandparents enjoyed. Corporations like McDonalds won't be able to sell trillions of fast-food death.

Warning labels would allow children to know that their parents fast food habits are deadly.

Taxing unhealthy foods would create a fund in which people who choose to continue their poor eating habits could recieve periodic check-ups for blood pressure, blood clots, etc.

I think it's incredible that because the government is forcing you to take a pay cut you would take it out on your patients & their health. My wife was seeing a doctor like that in Apple Valley. Had so many patients lined up they had to wait outside. When the wife finally got to see the doctor she was told her bp was at stroke level. My wife not understanding the gravity of the situation convinced the doctor that she started exercising & dieting, & that would take care of it.

The doctor let my wife leave, she should of been hospitalized. Shortly there after she suffered a severe brain stem stroke at age 35, she's been paralyzed ever since.

Lets not take what the government does to us out on each other, it's counterproductive.

Instead,

   whenever  any  Form  of  Government  becomes  destructive  of  these  ends,  it  is  the  Right  of  the  People  to  alter  or  abolish  it,  &  to  institute  new  Government,  laying  its  foundation  on  such  principles  &  organizing  its  powers  in  such  form,  as  to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  effect  their  Safety  &  Happiness.  Prudence,  indeed,  will  dictate  that  Governments  long  established  should  not  be  changed  for  light  &  transient  cause;  &  accordingly  all  experience  hath  shown,  that  mankind  are  more  disposed  to  suffer,  while  evils  are  sufferable,  than  to  right  themselves  by  abolishing  the  forms  to  which  they  are  accustomed.  But  when  a  long  train  of  abuses  &  usurpations,  pursuing  invariably  the  same  Object  evincesa  design  to  reduce  them  under  absolute  Despotism,  it  is  their  right,  it  is  their  duty,  to  throw  off  such  Government,  &  to  provide  new  Guards  for  their  future  security".

U.S.  Declaration  of  Independence,  July  4,  1776

The  issue  today  is  the  same  as  it  has  been  throughout  all  history,  wether  man  shall  be  allowed  to  govern  himself  or  be  ruled  by  a  small  elite.

The  only  title  superior  to  president  in  our  democracy  is  citizen.

FOR  MORE:   www.votestrike.com

by chris rice (111 articles, 147 quicklinks, 35 diaries, 233 comments) on Sunday, Feb 17, 2008 at 11:35:10 AM

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