PUBLIC (OPTION) ENEMIES: BLUE DOGS

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DEMOCRATS-IN-NAME-ONLY SCUTTLE AMERICANS' HEALTHCARE

REPUBLICANS IN & OUT OF DEMOCRATIC CLOTHING
WORK FOR BIG HEALTHCO AGAINST YOUR HEALTH

Could The Problems With Our Political System Be Any More Obvious?

OK, you can relax now. Put your pants back on. You're not getting healthcare for your tax dollars or your consumer dollars. Just another finger wave. All you'll get is exactly what you've always gotten: Whatever was left over after non-medical "insurance" middlemen and rich greedy Healthco's took as much profit as humanly possible, and then some. That's the purpose of the American healthcare "system": To make a few people rich while millions get sick and even die for lack of healthcare, including those who PAID for private health insurance. That's why we need a "public option." And that's why we're not getting one. Not a real one, anyway. Not ever, under the current political system. Because your "representatives" don't work for you. They work for the corporations; in this case, Big Healthco's.

Yeah, you thought with all this "CHANGE" you bought at the ballot box with your precious vote last November, you would AT LEAST get immediate single-payer universal national healthcare, right? Well, bullsh*t. That's all you're getting. B-U-L-L-S-H-*-T.

Who's to blame for this? Republicans. Conservatives. And their allies: "Moderates," "Centrist" DINO's and other right-wing -ssh-les and wh-res in the pay of Big Healthco's. Just read the lists below, and see if your "representatives" are on it.

Democratic President Obama and his Bush & Clinton staff and appointees just can't seem to put into action the will of 85% of the American people. Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi just can't seem to wring a simple voting majority out of her overwhelming legislative majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives. Democratic Senate Majority leader Harry Reed is unable to get his 60-vote majority to back the Democratic Party's Number One Priority. The public option be damned. No matter what the public wants.

Are we not a democracy? No? Why not? Because Obama, Pelosi and Reed are part of and/ or beholden to a small group of obstructionist, traitorous right-wing so-called Democrats who deliberately take the side of multinational healthcare companies against the side of their own voters and other constituents. They do this because they are bought and paid for by those same healthco's, publicly and unashamedly. The healthco's "political contributions" to the Blue Dogs are all out in the open and on the record. The biggest wh-res get the most money. And it's all perfectly legal. Well, look who wrote the laws. The very same crooked sc-mbags who benefit by them financially.

So, it's time for Step Three of our "CHANGE." In Step One, we kicked many of the Nazi-wannabee Repukelickin's out of Congress. In Step Two we kicked even more of them out, and kept them from holding on to the White House. In Step Three, we clean out the closet-Republican Blue Dogs. In Step Four, we dump Obama, if he doesn't get his sh-t together. Four simple steps to a real democracy. Oh, and we MUST eliminate all corporate money from our political system. Money is NOT speech. And plutocracy is NOT freedom. Change it now.

Here's the public data on the Big Healthco Ho's In Congress. Gawd only knows what else they get under the table. Tip of the iceberg, much?

Anyone with career-damaging information on these Blue Dogs please post it. Everywhere. Pictures of them with live naked boys or dead naked girls a plus. Photoshopping is OK. Just Do It.


NY DAILY NEWS
"'Blue Dog' Democrats ignoring Americans' pain in resisting Obama health care plan"
Are ya SICK, yet?

' You know the Blue Dogs: They're the conservative Democrats who are dragging their paws on President Obama's wish to pass a law by September to give all Americans health insurance. The Blue Dogs used to be called Yellow Dogs, because they were so loyal to the Democratic Party that they'd "vote for a yellow dog if it was on the ticket." They changed to blue after feeling "choked blue" by the liberals. The 52 Blue Dogs are linked to the Republicans. They want to "reduce the subsidies lower-income Americans will get," The Wall Street Journal says. As it is, medical bills cause half the personal bankruptcies in the U.S., even for people with health insurance. We called Alpha Blue Doggie Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas to ask if he wants poor Americans to get less health care than rich Americans. He didn't call back. The Blue Dogs also want to know how we're going to pay for insurance for the 46 million Americans, including 8 million children, who don't have any. Maybe their fear is fueled by the $508,000 their political action committee got from the health care sector - up 90% from two years before. Oh, well, since Congress is going to recess before doing anything... '

THE BALTIMORE SUN
"Blue Dogs: Fiscally responsible or corporate tools? "
Tools.

' Brad DeLong says: The Blue Dogs have been bought and paid for. They do not want a fiscally-responsible bill. They want to please their masters from the health insurance industry by trying their best to keep there from being a bill at all. '

THE NATION
"Ain't Nothing Centrist About Them"
Centrist? They're freakin' closet Nazi's!

' The Nation -- At this moment -- when 72 percent of the nation supports a public plan option and 14,000 people lose their healthcare every day -- the House Blue Dogs and conservative Democratic Senators are doing just about everything they can to cripple real health care reform. So why does the media keep ceding them the label of "centrist" or "moderate" as if they are the guardians of mainstream values? The danger is that promoting the view that these conservative Democrats are somehow at the center of our politics plays into the hands of those who would like to marginalize progressives as far outside of the mainstream. (And I have no doubt K Street is advising Republicans to constantly refer to their Democratic allies as "moderate" and "centrist".) It also misrepresents what most Americans want from the government in these times. As Drew Westen, professor of psychology at Emory University, founder of Westen Strategies, and author of the invaluable The Political Brain, told me: "The average American, according to all available data, has largely moved slightly left of where it was in the Reagan years, and with changing demographics, it will be far left of Reagan and Bush in twenty years. So to call Democrats who are substantially right of the center of the electorate (let alone of their party), like Heath Shuler, 'moderates,' is both to misrepresent the center of political gravity in the general electorate and in the Democratic Party." How we tell the story of this battle for health care reform matters and will impact whether the battle is won or lost. So-called "centrists" are far from the center of this debate. They are, in fact, out of touch and out of the mainstream -- like the rest of their conservative brethren. '

US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: BLUE DOG COALITION WEBSITE
"The Blue Dog Coalition: 15 Years of Leadership "
You tax dollars at work, f**king YOU. If your Congressperson is on this list, work to defeat him or her next time he or she runs for office.

' Blue Dog Leadership Team
Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Administration
Rep. Baron Hill (IN-09), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Policy
Rep. Charlie Melancon (LA-03), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Communications
Rep. Heath Shuler (NC-11), Blue Dog Whip
Blue Dog Members
Altmire, Jason (PA-04)
Arcuri, Mike (NY-24)
Baca, Joe (CA-43)
Barrow, John (GA-12)
Berry, Marion (AR-01)
Bishop, Sanford (GA-02)
Boren, Dan (OK-02)
Boswell, Leonard (IA-03)
Boyd, Allen (FL-02)
Bright, Bobby (AL-02)
Cardoza, Dennis (CA-18)
Carney, Christopher (PA-10)
Chandler, Ben (KY-06)
Childers, Travis (MS-01)
Cooper, Jim (TN-05)
Costa, Jim (CA-20)
Cuellar, Henry (TX-28)
Dahlkemper, Kathy (PA-03)
Davis, Lincoln (TN-04)
Donnelly, Joe (IN-02)
Ellsworth, Brad (IN-08)
Giffords, Gabrielle (AZ-08)
Gordon, Bart (TN-06)
Griffith, Parker (AL-05)
Harman, Jane (CA-36)
Herseth Sandlin, Stephanie (SD)
Hill, Baron (IN-09)
Holden, Tim (PA-17)
Kratovil, Jr., Frank (MD-01)
McIntyre, Mike (NC-07)
Marshall, Jim (GA-03)
Matheson, Jim (UT-02)
Melancon, Charlie (LA-03)
Michaud, Mike (ME-02)
Minnick, Walt (ID-01)
Mitchell, Harry (AZ-05)
Moore, Dennis (KS-03)
Murphy, Patrick (PA-08)
Nye, Glenn (VA-02)
Peterson, Collin (MN-07)
Pomeroy, Earl (ND)
Ross, Mike (AR-04)
Salazar, John (CO-03)
Sanchez, Loretta (CA-47)
Schiff, Adam (CA-29)
Scott, David (GA-13)
Shuler, Heath (NC-11)
Space, Zack (OH-18)
Tanner, John (TN-08)
Taylor, Gene (MS-04)
Thompson, Mike (CA-01)
Wilson, Charles (OH-06) '

HUFFINGTON POST
"SENATE BLUE DOGS"
Makin' a list, checkin' it twice...

' The Leadership Team:
Senator EVAN BAYH Indiana
Senator BLANCHE LINCOLN Arkansas
Senator TOM CARPER Delaware
Members:
Senator MICHAEL BENNETT, Colorado
Senator MARK BEGICH, Alaska
Senator KENT CONRAD, North Dakota - Chairman, Senate Budget Committee
Senator KAY HAGAN, North Carolina
Senator HERB KOHL, Wisconsin
Senator MARY LANDRIEU, Louisiana
Senator JOE LIEBERMAN, Connecticut
Senator CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missiouri
Senator BEN NELSON, Nebraska
Senator BILL NELSON, Florida
Senator JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire
Senator MARK UDALL, Colorado
Senator MARK WARNER, Virginia '

CAMPAIGN DIARIES
"Of the power of conservative Senate Democrats"
Rats in the House, more rats in the Senate.

' Before becoming Majority Leader, Harry Reid was known as a moderate Senator, and it is possible that he would have been part of Bayh’s caucus had he not been part of the Democratic leadership. (The last time I wrote about Bayh’s group, I was only able to identify 12 other Senators: Landrieu, McCaskill, Lieberman, Lincoln, Pryor, Warner, Bill Nelson, Ben Nelson, Klobuchar, Shaheen, Casey and Begich. A recent NYT piece adds 5 names to the list: Tom Carper, Mark Udall, Michael Bennet, Kay Hagan and Herb Kohl. This is one of the first times Hagan has signaled she could cause trouble for progressive causes; Kohl’s presence helps explain why he is one of the Democratic hold-outs on EFCA.) '

538.com
"On Health Care, Who's Hooked on Special Interest Money?"
Who's feeding these rats?

' The AMA, however, is hardly the only player in the health player game. Based on data collected from OpenSecrets.org, I've tallied the amount of contributions that each of the 99 current senators have received from Political Action Committees -- PACs -- from the health care industry since 1989. This includes PACs associated with pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, HMOs, health services companies, medical supply companies and physicians', dentists' and nurses' groups. It does not include any money collected from individual contributors -- only money collected from PACs.

Share of Campaign Contributions from Health Industry PACs 1989-Present '

TALKING POINTS MEMO.COM
"Update: List of Dem Senators Who Don't Support the Public Option"
Is YOUR Senator opposed to the public option? Check the list below.

' Strongly Opposed (2)
Mary Landrieu (LA)-
Joe Lieberman (CT)- Both Lieberman and Landrieu have specifically opposed a public option.
Opposed (9)
Bill Nelson (FL)- Sits on the Finance committee, does not want to embrace the public option but has avoided openly opposing it.
Tom Carper (DE)- Co-sponsored the public plan-free Healthy Americans Act with Wyden. Wants co-ops.
Mark Warner (VA)- Deftly avoiding having to confront the public plan issue.
Mark Pryor (AR)- Blue dog senator who has kept quiet on the public option. I'll take that as secretive opposition. Again, if anyone else has better knowledge on a senator's position, let me know.
Ron Wyden (OR)- Frequent target of pro-reform ads, sponsor the Healthy Americans Act, which does not include a public option.
Mark Begich (AK)- Very little available about his opinion on the public option. He's from a weird state (sorry Alaskans). His next election isn't until 2014. I'm going to put his as a conditional tough sell until I learn more.
Jon Tester (MT)- I couldn't find much on his position, either. Maybe someone more familiar with his political tendencies can fill me in, but I'm going to fill him in as a tough sell.
Evan Bayh (IN)- Fiscally conservative Democrat. Wants to shift the focus away from public option, though he hasn't openly opposed it.
Diane Feinstein (CA)- Seems determined to avoid outright opposition to the public option, though it's clear she does not like it. Gets lots of $$ from insurance companies. Says criticism from left does not bother her. She has reason to worry, though, as her constituency is very liberal and probably very passionate about a public option.
Cajoleable (9)
Michael Bennet (CO)- Prefers the co-op idea, but said he could support a public option.
Max Baucus (MT)- He's been trying to compromise with Republicans by offering them compromises that don't include a public option, but he has said the public option is 'on the table', and he said he opposes the public option merely because it won't get enough votes, not on substance.
Maria Cantwell (WA)- Offered support for a public option, but was vague about what that means. She should be in a position to vote for the final bill.
Kent Conrad (ND)- Main reason for opposing the public option because it didn't have the votes, not because of its substance. If momentum picks up, I think he'll jump aboard.
Byron Dorgan (ND)- Said he would support public option if it doesn't put private insurers out of business.
Ben Nelson (NE)- Initially called the public option a 'deal breaker,' but recently claimed he would not support a filibuster.
Blanche Lincoln (AR)- Wrote a column today saying "Options should include private plans as well as a quality, affordable public plan or non-profit plan that can accomplish the same goals as those of a public plan." The nonprofit concept almost certainly won't be included in the final bill.
Robert Byrd (WV)- Very old and very sick.
Kay Hagan (NC)- Recently caved to overwhelming criticism and said she would support some sort of public option, though she was vague on details.
Recent converts (2)
Harry Reid (NV)- Looks like Harry Reid has decided to take some leadership.
Mark Udall (CO)- Said he supports a public health care option. '

(Cross-posted at The Smirking Chimp by cosanostradamus.)


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HEALTHCARE: FAILURE IS AN OPTION

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BUT IT WILL MEAN THE END OF POLITICS AS USUAL

GET READY TO LOSE YOUR HEALTHCARE,
AMERICA: AND THAT'S A GOOD THING

Republicans Are Openly Against Us, Democrats Are Just Not For Us Quite Enough

The best thing that could happen in the current political set-up is for single-payer universal national healthcare to go down to a glorious defeat, spattering all the anti-progressive players with mud. Let the Blue Dog "moderates," aka Democrats In Name Only, and the suddenly "fiscally conservative" Republicans join together to kill our health care, and wallow in their last victory. Let that kill their extreme right-wing movement for a corporatist America, where we're all just cash cows and cannon fodder for them. It's over, once and for all.

Let the weak, wishy-washy "liberal" Democrats do what they have always done: Compromise, compromise, compromise until everything they promised to do fails miserably. And then let us progressives kick their non-fighting asses out of our Democratic Party and take it over once and for all, banning all corporate money and influence from the whole political process forever. That is the only solution to the healthcare problem, and all the other problems caused by corporate corruption of our government. Now is the time to clean our house.

It's crunch time, Demosaurs. You're either with us or against us; we, the progressive majority of the American people. If the money from a handful of multi-national healthco's means more to you than the well-being of 300,000,000 voting, taxpaying, long-suffering American citizens, then you are out on your fat asses in November 2010, 2012 and 2016. Maybe you didn't get the message we sent in November 2006 & 2008. Maybe you thought we really bought your line of bullsh*t. Maybe you thought that we were all just so much in love with you that you could sh*t all over us once we put you in office. F**k no. We're watching you just like we watched Gingrich and Cheney, and we'll sh*tcan you just like we did them. Fail us once, shame on you. Fail us twice, shame on us.

Anything less than full single-payer universal national healthcare will be a complete failure, and we will regard it as such. Just as your Wall Street bailout has all too obviously failed to help anyone on Main Street, your imminent failure on healthcare is plain to us all. Progressives are watching you every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year. We see everything you do. We know who is doing what for whom and to whom and why. If you screw us, we will punish you at the ballot box. Count on it. Your gravy train stops here.

(cross-posted at CoffeeHouseStudio by cosanostradamus)
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WHORING HEALTH CARE

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CORPORATE PIMPS ABOUT TO SCORE BIG

YOUTUBE: HBO: REAL TIME
"New Rules with Bill Maher, Ronald Reagan and Greed are NOT Good 5/29/2009"
Cousin Bill gives 'em Hell.


WHY NOTHING GOOD WILL COME OF OBAMA'S HEALTH PLANS

The Whole Political System Is Rotten, And Must Be Reformed In Order To Get Anything Done

When I was involved in real estate in New Jersey back in the 1980's, I met quite a few doctors who were investors in property. They didn't spend much time with patients. They were hustlers, not healers. They built professional suites and office condo's, labs and hospitals, clinics and medical centers, and managed and staffed them with healers, many of them junior hustlers, all working to enrich themselves, not the lives of their patients. This was the new corporate America, soon to be ruled by the CEO's of giant multi-national conglomerates and their lawyers, accountants, MBA's and "creative" financiers. Everything became about money, nothing had any value except in terms of money, not even peoples' lives. If you couldn't put a price on something, then it had no value. These people would do anything for money, and everything was valued solely in terms of money. It was the beginning of the pimping of America. It just seemed the most shocking in medicine, which used to be a humanitarian calling, not a giant whorehouse.

Here we are almost thirty years later, and the prostitution of America is almost complete. The government is now entirely under the control of the corporate pimps. They are about to finish corporatizing medicine with the help of their whores in government. Our very lives will be in their hands on a daily basis, and huge amounts of our money will be directed to the profiteering corp's by Federal law. Quality, accessibility and cost will all get worse, and there will be no effective oversight. We will have no say in how our money is spent. The pimps will rule. Universal single-payer national health care is "off the table." Only private profiteering remains.

As long as private profit is the primary motivating factor in our health care system, there can be no reform. Until public health and making good quality care accessible to all are the dominant motivating factors, the system is never going to work, except as a cash machine for the rich and the corporations they hide behind. It's the basic outlook, the underlying philosophy, the political economics of the thing that are wrong, and nothing will change until those things change.

It has already been demonstrated on a daily basis over many decades that the so-called free market cannot or will not provide good quality healthcare for all. I'm sure that major healthco's all have a chart or a graph showing exactly where the lines are: Those above a certain income level, "A," can afford the best coverage and provide the most profit, if the smallest volume of business. Those below that down to the next lower level, "B," can afford some coverage, at less profit but higher volume. At the very bottom level, "C," the government picks up the tab, but only up to certain income or age levels; but it can be finagled and boondoogled and shortchanged as long as there are no major audits or crackdowns, so it can be very profitable.

All those who fall into the gray area, "D," between B and C simply are not a source of profit to the healthco's, and will not be served. That's where the breakdown really occurs: Those tens of millions of people get sick but don't get treatment. They slow down or drop out at work, and make other people sick around them. They go to emergency rooms at the few remaining public hospitals as a last resort and receive the least effective care at the highest price, which they frequently fail to pay. The taxpayer ends up paying for himself as well as for the poor, the elderly, and the uninsured. Since our tax system has become more regressive, those who earn the most and can afford the best healthcare are the only ones really benefiting from this system, along with the healthco's. In effect, we have a national healthcare plan now, funded by the taxpayers. It just doesn't work for anyone, except the rich and the healthco's.

So it's us, the underserved, over-taxed and overcharged majority, against them, the inefficient, overfed, undertaxed minority. Politically, it would seem to be a no-brainer, if this were actually a democracy. But, as the Courts have accurately noted, corporations are people, in fact a higher class of people, and money is speech, the corporations' speech. So the minority has outvoted the majority consistently for many years and we do not have a healthcare system that benefits everyone today, as a result. Nor are we ever likely to, until we get corporate money out of the system.

That isn't going to happen until we get the corporate whores out of our government and our political Parties. Anybody who thinks that our mean old corporate Daddies are going to let us have just this ONE big lollipop, real universal single-payer national healthcare, or anything like it, is crazy. The corp's have no reason to give in. They own the whole system. Until we change that, there will be no substantive positive change in any area.

What we are really just about to initiate here is the biggest government boondoggle since the permanent war began in 1941. The same kind of Treasury-milking blank check that "defense" has gotten for almost seventy years will now go to the big healthco's. The result will not be free or affordable quality healthcare for all, but some scheme that commits us all to everlastingly ensure the profits of the healthco's by requiring us all to become their customers and pay whatever they require, directly to them and/ or indirectly through the government. There will be no efficiencies enforced or economies of scale, any more than there have been in the defense industry. The "public-private" model will only mean public moneys going for private profits, with questionable benefit for the taxpaying healthcare consumer.

Without universal single-payer national health care, there will be the opposite of reform. But it doesn't matter right now if single-payer or any other idea is on the table or not: As long as mixed-market democratic socialism is off the political table in this country, and as long as corporate money is on that same table, there will never ever be any real reform.

We're going to lose this. And that's a good thing. It will serve as a rallying point to re-take and restructure our political Parties and our political system. It will clearly identify those who are with us, the progressive majority of the American people, and those who are corporate whores. If our political system cannot do the job for us, then it will have to be changed. That will take time, and it will require a lot of effort by a lot of people. But if all those who are now working so hard to patch and prop up an unworkable system turn their attentions to remaking the system itself, there is a vast number of Americans who will be right behind them. This is a fight we CAN win. It is a fight we MUST win.


THE SEMINAL: JASON ROSENBAUM
"The Public Option and Real Health Reform"
From your lips to Big Healthco's ears, Bubbie!

' If we don’t get health care costs down, health reform will not work. People will still go bankrupt, we will still ration care based on ability to pay, and we will still have a health care crisis. And when you get down to it, health care costs are about how much and what medicine your doctor orders for you. Conservatives will accuse those in favor of health reform of taking the easiest way out, in a sense. Health care costs are up? Ok, let’s ration care and drive those costs down. But that’s not what we’re proposing. And, as Gawande so eloquently points out, driving down health care costs and increasing the quality of that care actually can be one and the same. So that’s some pretty good news. One thing about this article leaves me puzzled, though. Gawande seems to set up a conflict between advocacy for a public health insurance option and what he apparently considers “real” health care reform, which is setting up incentives for doctors to provide better care, not just more care. Maybe he’s just reacting to the media coverage around health care reform, which has been largely centered around a public health insurance option. And maybe I’m biased, seeing as I’ve been working to shape that media battle. But I really don’t think it’s either/or. Actually, I think Gawande’s point makes the public health insurance option more critical. I agree with Gawande that we could end up with a public health insurance option that doesn’t foster the right incentives to control costs, and that wouldn’t be a big victory. But while Gawande is proposing some kind of outside board to control these incentives, I wonder if the public health insurance option isn’t the place where these reforms are put into action. '

THE NEW YORKER: ATUL GAWANDE
"The Cost Conundrum"
"Medicine has become a pig trough." And troughs attract pigs, not doctors; businessmen, not healers; profiteers, not care-givers.

' McAllen has another distinction, too: it is one of the most expensive health-care markets in the country. Only Miami—which has much higher labor and living costs—spends more per person on health care. In 2006, Medicare spent fifteen thousand dollars per enrollee here, almost twice the national average. The income per capita is twelve thousand dollars. In other words, Medicare spends three thousand dollars more per person here than the average person earns. The explosive trend in American medical costs seems to have occurred here in an especially intense form. Our country’s health care is by far the most expensive in the world. In Washington, the aim of health-care reform is not just to extend medical coverage to everybody but also to bring costs under control. Spending on doctors, hospitals, drugs, and the like now consumes more than one of every six dollars we earn. The financial burden has damaged the global competitiveness of American businesses and bankrupted millions of families, even those with insurance. It’s also devouring our government. “The greatest threat to America’s fiscal health is not Social Security,” President Barack Obama said in a March speech at the White House. “It’s not the investments that we’ve made to rescue our economy during this crisis. By a wide margin, the biggest threat to our nation’s balance sheet is the skyrocketing cost of health care. It’s not even close.” ... “Come on,” the general surgeon finally said. “We all know these arguments are bullshit. There is overutilization here, pure and simple.” Doctors, he said, were racking up charges with extra tests, services, and procedures. The surgeon came to McAllen in the mid-nineties, and since then, he said, “the way to practice medicine has changed completely. Before, it was about how to do a good job. Now it is about ‘How much will you benefit?’ ” ... The first hospital I visited, McAllen Heart Hospital, is owned by Universal Health Services, a for-profit hospital chain with headquarters in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and revenues of five billion dollars last year. I went to see the hospital’s chief operating officer, Gilda Romero. ... She wasn’t the only person to mention Renaissance. It is the newest hospital in the area. It is physician-owned. And it has a reputation (which it disclaims) for aggressively recruiting high-volume physicians to become investors and send patients there. Physicians who do so receive not only their fee for whatever service they provide but also a percentage of the hospital’s profits from the tests, surgery, or other care patients are given. (In 2007, its profits totalled thirty-four million dollars.) Romero and others argued that this gives physicians an unholy temptation to overorder. ... But they really didn’t know the big picture of what was happening. And, I realized, few people in their position do. Local executives for hospitals and clinics and home-health agencies understand their growth rate and their market share; they know whether they are losing money or making money. They know that if their doctors bring in enough business—surgery, imaging, home-nursing referrals—they make money; and if they get the doctors to bring in more, they make more. But they have only the vaguest notion of whether the doctors are making their communities as healthy as they can, or whether they are more or less efficient than their counterparts elsewhere. A doctor sees a patient in clinic, and has her check into a McAllen hospital for a CT scan, an ultrasound, three rounds of blood tests, another ultrasound, and then surgery to have her gallbladder removed. How is Lawrence Gelman or Gilda Romero to know whether all that is essential, let alone the best possible treatment for the patient? It isn’t what they are responsible or accountable for. ... There was no sign, however, that McAllen’s doctors as a group were trained any differently from El Paso’s. One morning, I met with a hospital administrator who had extensive experience managing for-profit hospitals along the border. He offered a different possible explanation: the culture of money. “In El Paso, if you took a random doctor and looked at his tax returns eighty-five per cent of his income would come from the usual practice of medicine,” he said. But in McAllen, the administrator thought, that percentage would be a lot less. He knew of doctors who owned strip malls, orange groves, apartment complexes—or imaging centers, surgery centers, or another part of the hospital they directed patients to. They had “entrepreneurial spirit,” he said. They were innovative and aggressive in finding ways to increase revenues from patient care. “There’s no lack of work ethic,” he said. But he had often seen financial considerations drive the decisions doctors made for patients—the tests they ordered, the doctors and hospitals they recommended—and it bothered him. Several doctors who were unhappy about the direction medicine had taken in McAllen told me the same thing. “It’s a machine, my friend,” one surgeon explained. ... About fifteen years ago, it seems, something began to change in McAllen. A few leaders of local institutions took profit growth to be a legitimate ethic in the practice of medicine. Not all the doctors accepted this. But they failed to discourage those who did. So here, along the banks of the Rio Grande, in the Square Dance Capital of the World, a medical community came to treat patients the way subprime-mortgage lenders treated home buyers: as profit centers. ... When you look across the spectrum from Grand Junction to McAllen—and the almost threefold difference in the costs of care—you come to realize that we are witnessing a battle for the soul of American medicine. Somewhere in the United States at this moment, a patient with chest pain, or a tumor, or a cough is seeing a doctor. And the damning question we have to ask is whether the doctor is set up to meet the needs of the patient, first and foremost, or to maximize revenue. There is no insurance system that will make the two aims match perfectly. But having a system that does so much to misalign them has proved disastrous. As economists have often pointed out, we pay doctors for quantity, not quality. As they point out less often, we also pay them as individuals, rather than as members of a team working together for their patients. Both practices have made for serious problems. ... The lesson of the high-quality, low-cost communities is that someone has to be accountable for the totality of care. Otherwise, you get a system that has no brakes. You get McAllen. ... "Medicine has become a pig trough here,” he muttered. Dyke is among the few vocal critics of what’s happened in McAllen. “We took a wrong turn when doctors stopped being doctors and became businessmen,” he said. '

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.

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SUPPORT OUR TROOPS: BRING THEM ALL HOME ALIVE, NOW!

DEMAND SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE NOW

.
TELL HEALTHCO WHORE MAX BAUCUS TO GET OUT OF THE WAY:
MONTANA DEMOCRATIC SENATOR HAS DOCTORS ARRESTED,
HEARS ONLY HEALTH INDUSTRY LOBBYISTS ON UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE

YOUTUBE: DEMOCRACY NOW
"DN! Doctors, Activists Confront Senate on Single-Payer Healthcare"
Anti-Democracy Inaction.


CORRUPT POLITICIAN SHUTS OUT AMERICAN MAJORITY,
WELCOMES CORPORATE CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTERS

YOUTUBE: WILLIAM HUGHES
"Dr. Flowers on Health Care"
The why's & wherefores of Single-Payer, in a nutshell.


Rocky Mountain Whore Takes Corporate Money, Screws You

This is why the DINOs have to go. Max Baucus and other so-called Blue Dog Democrats are helping corporate Republicans destroy your health care. They want your money to go to their corporate campaign contributors, not your doctors. They want profiteering corporate middlemen, insurance company lawyers and HMO bean counters to decide whether you get treatment or not. They don't care if your Mom or Dad, son or daughter, brother or sister die for lack of health care. They are evil corporate whores and they need to be rooted out and ejected from Congress.

Today starts the fight for single-payer universal national health care. This means we all get together to manage our own health care, and see to it that everybody gets coverage. Anybody who wants to keep getting bled by insurance companies and health maintenance organizations is free to do so. Nobody will be prevented from seeing their own doctor or going to their choice of clinics or hospitals. Ignore all the lies spread by corporate thieves and their extreme right-wing whores, like Max Baucus.

Single-payer means exactly what it says: One mighty army of American taxpayers negotiating from unity & strength, saving money and getting better more affordable health care by working together, the same way we save at Costco or Sams Club, only moreso. Ain't nothin' "socialist" or "foreign" about it. Saving money and getting a better product is as American as cherry pie with Cool-Whip.

Contribute to this campaign for single payer. Add your voice to the experts: Doctors, nurses and other health care professionals who are fighting today for your right to health care. Start working now to get rid of the right-wing corporate whores that are standing in the way of this in your State. The list below targets those whores.

Write Max Baucus right now and let him know you are a voter in his State, and you are mad as Hell at his exclusion and ARREST of single-payer medical experts at his US Senate Finance Committee hearings. Be sure he understands that this will be his last term in Congress if he doesn't stop selling out to the Health Care Industry that is bleeding us all dry. Do it now. Please. Thanks.

SIGN THE PETITION FOR UNIVERSAL SINGLE-PAYER NATIONAL HEALTH CARE IN 2009

LABOR NOTES
"Single-Payer Advocates Have to Get Arrested to Get Heard"
The Healthco Mafia beats up on doctors, nurses & patients.

' Eight doctors and other advocates of a national single-payer health care system–which would improve and expand Medicare to everyone–were arrested yesterday when they disrupted a Senate committee meeting on health care reform. The single-payer advocates wanted to know why experts representing their position were being excluded from the roundtable of 15 witnesses speaking before the Senate Finance Committee's roundtable on health reform. Donna Smith, a community organizer for the California Nurses Association, explained to Labor Notes why single-payer advocates had to get arrested to get heard in Washington. Donna Smith: "Our feeling is that it’s purposeful to shut out the single-payer position. National health insurance is the position advocated by about 60 percent of the public in independent polls, and almost 60 percent of physicians. There are millions of people who support single payer but it’s the one position that doesn’t bode well for the private insurance industry. And the private insurance industry contributes mightily to campaigns throughout the nation. They spend a lot of money ensuring their position in the system. These people [who were arrested yesterday] weren’t saying, ‘give us single payer.’ They were saying, ‘give us a witness!’ Give us a voice in this testimony being taken for this nation. We’ve never been afraid of that before. If these elected leaders aren’t hearing from all positions, how can they make the best decision? '

MONTHLY REVIEW
"Doctors, Single Payer Activists Arrested, Make History at Senate Finance Roundtable"
Corporate government & corporate media join forces to supress dissenting majority voices.

' It has finally happened right here in the United States. Citizens who believe healthcare is a human right have been arrested and are being processed like criminals through the Southeast District of Columbia police station. Their crime? Asking for single payer healthcare reform -- publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare -- to be discussed during the Congressional hearings on reform. Doctors and other single payer activists were handcuffed and went to jail today speaking up for single payer to be at the table in the Senate Finance Committee's roundtable discussion on healthcare access and coverage. In stark contrast, Karen Ignagni, head of the industry lobby group America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), was escorted into the room like royalty by staff members of the Senate committee. Clearly, the position of the United States Senate is not with the majority of Americans who support a national, public insurance system. While neither the Finance Committee nor the press allowed their proceedings to be disrupted for very long, the air in the room and the atmosphere had changed -- the giddy and gleeful assembly of industry lobbyists who had been chattering in rapt anticipation of the coming of their carefully chosen witnesses could not deny that some brave and patriotic fellow citizens had just been hauled out for arrest for nothing more than demanding that a point of view held by a majority of patients, nurses, physicians, and other healthcare providers be included in the national discussion. The protestors were stoic and respectful but direct. One by one they stood. One by one they asked why single payer reform was not 'at the table' of 15 witnesses Senator Max Baucus and his Finance Committee gathered to map out what sort of coverage Americans might expect in the Senate reform bill now being crafted. Sen. Baucus eventually spoke and indicated that he was respectful of those who believe in single payer -- as he acknowledged many of his constituents in Montana do -- but he made no attempt to explain why no single payer voice has been included in any Senate discussion to date. He urged any others in the audience who might have any designs on speaking up like the protestors did to not do so, and then he moved on to his roundtable discussion. The press seated comfortably at the press table first looked amused and then puzzled by the procession of protest in the chamber. The C-SPAN cameras fixed on both the Committee's table at the front of the room and the witness table directly across from them could have easily picked up the protests but the network chose to keep their cameras fixed only on Chairman Baucus -- though the protestors' words could be heard in the audience. Only two reporters of the 20 or so assembled were curious enough or industrious enough to rise and exit the room to see the arrests being carried out in the hallway. '

OP ED NEWS
"Interview with Dr. Margaret Flowers, Arrested Tuesday at Senate Roundtable on Health Care"
The Doctor speaks for herself. Is anyone allowed to listen?

' I have with me Dr. Margaret Flowers, co-chair of the Maryland branch of the 16,000-member Physicians for a National Health Program. She is a pediatrician, and mother of three teenagers, who left the practice of medicine about two years ago to work on health care reform full time. She spends a lot of time speaking to legislators, both local and congressional, and to the public about health care reform. Dr. Flowers explains, “I got involved because I saw how private insurers were making medical decisions that were inappropriate and because I felt like I (and others) couldn't practice quality medicine because of the tricks that insurers use to avoid paying for health care. It is wrong and people are suffering and dying because of it.” Welcome, Dr. Flowers. You must be exhausted after your ‘adventures’ on Capitol Hill Tuesday. Tell us how you and your colleagues came to be rounded up by the police. "It started last week. We, meaning some of the people who advocate for a national health system based on single payer financing, learned who the Senate Finance Committee had invited to the Roundtable on the Expansion of Health Insurance Coverage and it wasn't very reassuring. Those invited represented either a conservative viewpoint or the interests of the private insurance industry and big business. None of them represented single payer – the most efficient way to expand coverage by expanding Medicare to everyone. Several of the national groups organized call-ins to members of the committee by constituents in their states. Other groups organized having faxes sent. Despite thousands of phone calls and faxes, we learned on Monday that Sen. Baucus's office had said that there would be no more invitations to speakers for the event. The Roundtable was planned as a public event, but the public was not allowed to speak or to ask questions. In addition, it was the type of event that you must get to early and stand in line for hours just to get in. It sounded like it was going to be one more in the series of very scripted and controlled events that has characterized this "health care debate." Shortly before the meeting started, one of the people in our group, Russell Mokhiber, stood up and said something to the effect that there were no people representing single payer at the table and that there were doctors in the room who were willing to take a seat. He was arrested. Following that, we rose, one by one, and spoke out for single payer. Each of the eight of us were arrested. We were handcuffed and held for around seven hours. We were charged with Unlawful Conduct and Disruption of Congress. Our first goal was to have a seat at the table. That has been a request to Congress throughout this year, really since the presidential election. All we've asked is that when the government looks at options for health care reform that single payer is given equal attention. We would like the Congressional Budget Office to review the cost of improving and expanding Medicare to everyone. We know that this is an affordable way to provide health care to everyone. If we couldn't get a seat, at least we could expose the insincerity of the current attempt at health care reform and show that single payer was actively being excluded. And I know that we could solve these problems by creating a national health system that is based on health care as a human right. The public wants a national health system and providers want a national health system, but the Senate won't listen and actively excludes our voices. '

PHYSICIANS FOR A NATIONAL HEALTH PROGRAM
"What is Single Payer?"
The truth about single-payer. From your doctors.

' Single-payer is a term used to describe a type of financing system. It refers to one entity acting as administrator, or “payer.” In the case of health care, a single-payer system would be setup such that one entity—a government run organization—would collect all health care fees, and pay out all health care costs. In the current US system, there are literally tens of thousands of different health care organizations—HMOs, billing agencies, etc. By having so many different payers of health care fees, there is an enormous amount of administrative waste generated in the system. (Just imagine how complex billing must be in a doctor’s office, when each insurance company requires a different form to be completed, has a different billing system, different billing contacts and phone numbers—it’s very confusing.) In a single-payer system, all hospitals, doctors, and other health care providers would bill one entity for their services. This alone reduces administrative waste greatly, and saves money, which can be used to provide care and insurance to those who currently don’t have it. All Americans would receive comprehensive medical benefits under single payer. Coverage would include all medically necessary services, including rehabilitative, long-term, and home care; mental health care, prescription drugs, and medical supplies; and preventive and public health measures. Care would be based on need, not on ability to pay. '

NATIONAL NURSES ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
"Tell Congress to Support Single-Payer Healthcare for Everyone in America!"
Help America's nurses help you get better, more affordable universal health care. Send the email, provided:

' You and your family could have guaranteed health care today, complete and comprehensive just as is available to families in other industrialized countries. Health coverage that won't bankrupt you if you get sick, discourage you from seeking preventive care because of high out-of-pocket costs, or put you at the mercy of insurance companies who will deny treatment you need because they don't want to pay for it. America's nurses see patients harmed and dying unnecessarily every hour of every day. Why? Because the insurance companies give big money to our politicians. The result -- reform proposals that protect the insurers instead of the rest of us. There's a better way, expanding and updating Medicare to cover everyone. It's the most comprehensive, cost effective, reform of all. With guaranteed choice of doctor and provider, no co-pays and deductibles, real cost control that eliminates waste and fraud, and comprehensive benefits for less than we and our employers pay now. They may have the money but we have the votes. But the nurses need your help. Please send a message to Congress today: '

HEALTH CARE NOW
"May 30: National Day of Action - Nationwide Rallies for Improved Medicare for All"
Join the party! Get up, get out, get busy. Speak now or forever hold your peace.

' Join thousands of single-payer supporters in a nationwide week of action to support improved Medicare for all (HR 676). Single-payer activists will be gathering all over the country to say, "Healthcare, yes; Insurance companies, no," and to show solidarity with demonstrations at the AHIP (American Health Insurance Plans, a private health insurance lobby) conference in San Diego. If an action isn't already in your city, plan your own day of action! It can be a town hall meeting, demonstration in front of a local insurance company, film showing, vigil, or your own unique idea. Let us know what you'd like to start planning by contacting info@healthcare-now.org. '

OPEN SECRETS.ORG
"Power Players: With Health Sector's Money Supporting Him, Baucus Offers Prescription for Reform"
The Grand Whore Of Montana: Healthco Slut Max Baucus by the numbers.

' Position: Baucus will continue to be chair of the Senate Finance Committee, a position he has held since 2007 (he was also chair of the committee when Democrats controlled the Senate from June 2001 until January 2003). This committee has jurisdiction over the nation's largest public welfare programs, including Medicaid and Social Security. Any major reform to health care or Social Security will need Baucus's support to be successful. Money Summary: Since 1989, Baucus has raised $24.8 million and spent $22.5 million of that. In the last 20 years, individual donations have comprised 47 percent of his money. Geographically speaking, Wall Street is a big boon to the Montana senator: the New York metro area, center of commerce and finance, has contributed more to Baucus than any other region, with DC, home to many finance lobbyists, not too far behind. Campaigns Donors: Despite having no serious opponent in the 2008 election cycle, Baucus raised $11.6 million for his campaign, nearly twice the amount ($6.7 million) he raised for his previous re-election bid in which he faced a challenger with some real financial clout. Most of Baucus's top 10 contributors have remained the same since the 2002 election--predominantly health and finance-related industries--but nearly all ramped up their contributions this cycle, in the midst of an economic crisis and in preparation for impending health care reform. Absent a threat to his elected office, Baucus's surge in contributions is most likely a reflection of his rise to chair of the Finance Committee, a position that many industries will need to push in order to see their desired policy changes implemented. '

US SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE
"Public Comment On Health Reform"
Tell the Committee what you think. NOW, Goddammit!

' To submit comments on the Senate Finance Committee’s Health Reform Policy Options email PDF or Word files to
Health_Reform@finance-dem.senate.gov
The deadlines for public comments are: Delivery System Reform Policy Options, May 15, 2009; Coverage Reform Policy Options, May 22, 2009; Financing Reform Policy Options, May 26, 2009. '

US SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE
"Senate Finance Committee Members"
Email your Senator today

' DEMOCRATS:
MAX BAUCUS, MT
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@baucus.senate.gov
PHONE: 202-224-2651

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, WV
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@rockefeller.senate.gov
PHONE: 202-224-6472

KENT CONRAD, ND
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@conrad.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-2043

JEFF BINGAMAN, NM
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@bingaman.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-5521

JOHN F. KERRY, MA
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@kerry.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-2742

BLANCHE L. LINCOLN, AR
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@lincoln.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-4843

RON WYDEN, OR
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@wyden.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-5244

CHARLES E. SCHUMER, NY
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@schumer.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-6542

DEBBIE STABENOW, MI
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@stabenow.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-4822

MARIA CANTWELL, WA
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@cantwell.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-3441

BILL NELSON, FL
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@nelson.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-5274

ROBERT MENENDEZ, NJ
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@menendez.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-4744

THOMAS CARPER, DE
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@carper.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-2441


REPUBLICANS

CHUCK GRASSLEY, IA
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@grassley.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-3744

ORRIN G. HATCH, UT
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@hatch.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-5251

OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, ME
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@snowe.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-5344

JON KYL, AZ
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@kyl.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-4521

JIM BUNNING, KY
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@bunning.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224.4343

MIKE CRAPO, ID
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@crapo.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-6142

PAT ROBERTS, KS
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@roberts.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-4774

JOHN ENSIGN, NV
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@ensign.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-6244

MIKE ENZI, WY
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@enzi.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-3424

JOHN CORNYN, TX
Corporate Campaign Contributors
Contact form
EMAIL: senator@cornyn.senate.gov
PHONE: (202) 224-2934 '

If your representatives are not on the lists above, find them & email them here:
EVERY U.S. SENATOR'S & CONGRESSMEN & -WOMEN'S EMAIL ADDRESSES

Email the White House:
Whitehouse.Gov.

Obama's Health Reform Programs:
Health Reform: Contact

The Democratic Party:
Contact: Issues

.
.

TO POST A COMMENT: CLICK ON "COMMENTS," "Post a Comment" or "# of COMMENTS" just below the SOCIAL BOOKMARKING LINKS (Digg, Delicious, etc), about three inches down from here. Please do comment. Thank you.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM YOUR BLOGGERS:

Suggestion Box & Tip Jar We would like to make over this blog to make it easier to access, to read and to comment on. We would also like to serve our readers better by providing more of what you need and want to see. All serious suggestions will be considered. We hope to move to our own domain in the near future, and we would like to ask for your financial assistance in doing that, and in upgrading our hardware & software. Small one-time donations and larger long-term subscriptions are welcome. Exclusive advertising is also available. If you think we are wasting our time in doing all this, please let us know. If you wish to help us, now is the time. As always, negative bullsh*t from right-wing trolls will be sh*tcanned. Thank you to everyone else. Please send feedback & PayPal contributions to cosanostradamusATexciteDOTcom. Thanks.

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS: BRING THEM ALL HOME ALIVE, NOW!

SWIFTBOATING NATIONAL HEALTH CARE

.
CROOKED REPUBLICAN MILLIONAIRE LAWYER USES OWN MONEY, STOLEN FROM YOU, TO KEEP YOU FROM GETTING HEALTH CARE

NEW MEDIA FIRM
"Health Care For America Now Ad: Rick Scott"
What a DIRT BAG!


DISGRACED HEALTHCO CEO WANTS TO KEEP HIS HANDS IN YOUR POCKETS - FOREVER

His Television Commercials Start The Lies Rolling, Trying To Scare "Harry & Louise" With "Foreign Socialism" And "Government Rationing"

The funny thing is, this scumbag made all the money for these lying horsesh*t ads by rationing health care himself. Companies like his make money by milking the healthy people and killing the sick ones by denying treatment. They routinely deny patients coverage and refuse to cover millions who are too poor to pay their outrageous premiums, but not poor enough for Medicare. As a result, thousands of hard-working Americans die every year due to lack of medical care. All because some greedy rich people and the corporations they hide behind want to keep getting richer and richer and richer, no matter who it hurts.

This is the kind of person that gets a seat at the table in deciding whether we get universal single-payer national health care or some taxpayer-funded corporate healthco boondoggle. This is the sort of corporatist greed-head that now surrounds the President, and pulls the strings of Congress. This is the type of thief and liar we want kept out of the decision-making process.

The healthco's have come forward with a pathetic little proposal that might -might- save a family of five up to -up to- five hundred dollars a year -a year, not a month- after five years -five years. That will only happen if all the healthco's agree on streamlined paperwork, and then implement a whole new system. So, the healthco's big offer is, maybe we can save some chump change if you let us keep ripping you off for trillions of dollars.

Obama seems to be going for it, even though it won't make a dent in the price of his health care plan, which aims to keep feeding the rich by milking the middle classes. Instead of providing government health coverage, or requiring employer health coverage, Obama is going to require you to buy your own private health coverage, just like you are required to buy no-fault car insurance now. How's THAT workin' out for ya? Or are you one of the up to 50% of American drivers who can't afford any car insurance? Or maybe you're one of their victims, still paying extra out of your own pocket.

OK, America, it's time to put a stop to this. Sign the petition below and then click on the links provided to write Obama and your representatives in Congress. If you don't, you or your loved ones may die some day for lack of medical care in the richest country in the history of the world, the one you helped build but got shut out of by these corporations. Do it now. This is happening right now, and you can have an impact if you speak out against it.


SIGN THE PETITION FOR UNIVERSAL SINGLE-PAYER NATIONAL HEALTH CARE IN 2009

LINKS TO EMAIL THE WHITE HOUSE & CONGRESS

THE WASHINGTON POST
"Ex-Hospital CEO Battles Reform Effort"
Money is speech. Thank you, US Supreme Court!

' The television ads that began airing last week feature horror stories from Canada and the United Kingdom: Patients who allegedly suffered long waits for surgeries, couldn't get the drugs they needed, or had to come to the United States for treatment. The effort has alarmed many Democrats and liberal health-care advocates, who are pushing back with attacks highlighting Scott's ouster as head of the Columbia/HCA health-care company amid a fraud investigation in the 1990s. The firm eventually pleaded guilty to charges that it overbilled state and federal health plans, paying a record $1.7 billion in fines. In an ad broadcast in the Washington area and in Scott's home town of Naples, Fla., last week, a group called Health Care for America Now says of Scott: "He and his insurance-company friends make millions from the broken system we have now." The group's national campaign manager, Richard Kirsch, said: "Those attacking reform are really looking to protect their own profits, and he's a perfect messenger for that. His history of making a fortune by destroying quality in the health-care system and ripping off the government is a great example of what's really going on." One senior Democratic staffer involved in the health-care debate said the arguments by Luntz, Scott and others are "distractions" that rely on distortions of the actual debate taking place in the House and Senate. Reform advocates note that many of the problems highlighted by Scott, such as long waits and shoddy care, are already major problems in the United States under the private insurance system. '

YAHOO NEWS
"3 options mulled for gov't health plan"
The more public, the more people covered. The more private, the less people covered.

' The three approaches being discussed are: _Create a plan that resembles Medicare, administered by the Health and Human Services department. _Adopt a Medicare-like plan, but pick an outside party to run it. That way government officials would not directly control the day-to-day operations. _Leave it up to individual states to set up a public insurance plan for their residents. But many key details would still have to be fleshed out. Among them is whether the public plan would be open to everyone, or be limited to small businesses and individuals purchasing coverage on their own. Senators on the Finance Committee will consider the proposals during a closed-door session scheduled for late next week. Committee leaders want to bring a bill to the Senate floor this summer. It's unclear whether a public plan in any form will emerge from Congress. If the public plan were open to all employers and individuals — and if it paid doctors and hospitals the same as Medicare — it would quickly grow to 131 million members, while enrollment in private insurance plans would plummet, the study found. By paying Medicare rates the government plan would be able to set premiums well below what private plans charge. Employers and individuals would rush to sign up. But the results would be far different if the government plan was limited to small employers, individuals and the self-employed. In that smaller-scale scenario, the public plan would get from 17 million to 43 million members, the study said. It found that a government plan could be effective in reducing number of uninsured. '

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
"Republicans and the 'Public Option' "
Even the piggies admit that universal single-payer national health can can work, and is inevitable.

' This new entitlement -- like Medicare but open to all ages and all incomes -- would quickly crowd out private insurance as people gravitated to heavily subsidized policies, eventually leading to a single-payer system. So Democrats are trying to seduce diffident Republicans with a Potemkin compromise. A "soft" public option would limit enrollment only to the uninsured or those employed by small businesses, or include promises that the plan will pay market rates. As recently proposed by Chuck Schumer, it would pay claims entirely with premiums and co-pays. But if the plan can't force down reimbursement rates through brute force, and doesn't get taxpayer dollars, why bother to "compete" with private plans? Medicaid was intended as a last resort for the poor but now covers one-third of all long-term care expenses in the U.S. -- that is, it has become a middle-class subsidy for aging parents of the Baby Boomers. Schip was pitched a decade ago as a safety net for poor kids, and some Republicans helped sell it as a free-market reform. But Schip is now open to families that earn up to 300% of the poverty level, or $63,081 for a family of four. In New York, you can qualify at 400% of poverty. Any new federal health plan will inevitably follow the same trajectory, no matter how much Republican Senators might claim they've guaranteed otherwise. The Lewin Group consultants estimate that 119 million people who now have private insurance could potentially be captured by the government under the Obama public option. This is on top of the 90 million already in Medicare or Medicaid. '

ARIZONA DAILY STAR
"A single-payer plan would take greed out of the health-care business"
Here's why we can't continue to feed the healthco's.

' All profit immensely from the present system, which has ratcheted up costs to the point where the United States now spends twice as much on health care as other industrialized countries — $7,129 for every man, woman and child. While the other advanced nations provide excellent medical coverage for all of their citizens, our nation falls shamefully short. More than 47 million Americans — including 9 million children — have no health-care insurance. The two major reasons for this gaping disparity between consumer spending and actual services are the inefficiencies inherent in a system that involves thousands of delivery agents and, sadly, outright greed. The vast private insurance bureaucracy and the forests of paperwork they produce vociferously consume 31 cents of every health-care dollar consumers shell out, according to the advocacy group Physicians for a National Health Program. Funneling that money into a single system run by the federal government would save more than $350 billion per year — more than enough to provide comprehensive health care of the highest quality for all Americans. Some experts believe that the savings from eliminating the pervasive greed in the current system might double that amount although they acknowledge there's no way to calculate that. Ironically, it appears that President Obama and congressional health-care leader Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., may be about to give the insurers the type of reform they have spent millions of dollars lobbying for — despite their posturing as champions of rational change. The proposal by America's Health Insurance Plans would mandate that the federal government force everyone to purchase private health insurance. All Americans would be covered under this scheme, but the feds would step in and subsidize those with health risks that are extremely costly to treat. The idea is to continue to let private health insurers reap obscene profits and continue to make large campaign contributions to compliant candidates. '

YAHOO NEWS
"Health care cost cuts could kick-start reform"
Here's who's bought a seat at the table. And they're trying to stop us from getting "cost-effective" health care, i.e., medicine that works and doesn't kill us, financially.

' Hospitals, insurance companies, drug makers and doctors planned to tell Obama on Monday they'll voluntarily slow their rate increases in coming years in a move that government economists say would create breathing room to help provide health insurance to an estimated 50 million Americans who now go without it. Although the offer from the industry groups doesn't resolve thorny details of a new health care system, it does offer the prospect of freeing a large chunk of money to help pay for coverage. And it puts the private-sector groups in a good position to influence the bill Congress is writing. The industry groups are trying to get on the administration bandwagon for expanded coverage now in the hope they can steer Congress away from legislation that would restrict their profitability in future years. Insurers, for example, want to avoid the creation of a government health plan that would directly compete with them to enroll middle-class workers and their families. Drug makers worry that in the future, new medications might have to pass a cost-benefit test before they can win approval. And hospitals and doctors are concerned the government could dictate what they get paid to care for any patient, not only the elderly and the poor. Obama has courted industry and provider groups, inviting their representatives to the White House. There's a sense among some of the groups that now may be the best time to act before public opinion, fueled by anger over costs, turns against them. '

NY DAILY NEWS
"President Obama to receive $2 trillion health care reform proposal"
Wow! $40 in health care savings a month! And maybe $200 a month in the very distant future! MAYBE!! That only leaves a couple thousand dollars a month to spend for the average family's health care! WHAT A F**KIN' DEAL!!!

' Medical and insurance trade groups and unions will present President Obama with a plan Monday to save families $500 a year in health care costs initially and at least $2,500 annually after five years through mostly administrative changes, senior aides say. Aides are revealing few details, but hint some savings would come from insurers adopting unifclaim forms and other documents. Annual savings to families would grow from $500 to $2,500 within five years as the plan is phased in, aides said. Among the participants at the meeting with Obama will be the American Medical Association, American Hospital Association, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Service Employees International Union, Greater New York Hospital Association and California Hospital Association. '

SIGN THE PETITION FOR UNIVERSAL SINGLE-PAYER NATIONAL HEALTH CARE IN 2009

HEALTHCARE NOW
"I Support HR 676"
Please take two minutes right now. Thanks.

' Whereas: We spend over $2.3 trillion, or $7,500 per capita, for healthcare in the US, yet 42 percent of people under 65 have inadequate or no insurance coverage;

Whereas: The healthcare coverage in the United States is ranked #37 in the world by the World Health Organization and yet we spend almost twice as much as any other country, enough to cover everybody with excellent comprehensive healthcare;

Whereas: A bill has been proposed in Congress, HR-676, non-profit Medicare for All, that outlines a national healthcare program that will provide guaranteed, comprehensive, and affordable quality healthcare and prescription drugs to everyone in the country;

Whereas: Over 59 percent of physicians now support a national, single-payer health insurance system for everyone;

Whereas: HR 676 has been endorsed by 463 union organizations in 49 states including 116 Central Labor Councils and Area Labor Federations and 39 state AFL-CIO’s;

Whereas: Under this proposed plan, we can pay for a comprehensive national health care program with the same money we are now spending by removing insurance companies — and cover every single person in the United States;

And Whereas: The bill provides money for retraining and giving priority to those whose jobs as administrators in the insurance industry would be lost as a result of this shift;

Be it Resolved That: We call on our members of Congress to pass HR 676, non-profit Medicare for All, so our people and our nation can have the excellent healthcare system we deserve. Healthcare is a human right, and we call on our members of Congress to recognize that right. '

click here to sign

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COSANOSTRADAMUS PREDICTS

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PROGNOSTICATIONS FOR THE MULTITUDES

HEEL, MULTITUDES! SIT! ROLL OVER! BEG! BEG FOR YOUR HEALTHCARE!!! MUAHAHA!!

We Will Now Reveal To You Tomorrow's Headlines Today. And The Comics.

1. Both Google and Microsoft will fail to survive the next major economic downturn. The new force in computing is now called Hang-Seng Silicon Noodles, Kowloon, China.

2. Madonna will adopt Angelina Jolie. But not Brad Pitt, breaking up the set.

3. Conan O'Brien will divorce his wife and marry David Letterman in a secret ceremony in Provincetown, Mass. His ratings will still suck.

4. Nancy Pelosi will reveal that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich regularly used botox during his tenure. On his dick.

5. Barack Obama will appear at an Alabama town hall meeting wearing a Nazi SS uniform, and promise to round up and gas only liberals if Republicans vote for his healthcare holocaust. Republicans are tempted, but still won't vote for it, despite their natural attraction to holocausts, in which they claim not to believe.

6. Glenn Beck will be found to be an actual escaped mental patient with delusions of cable grandeur. Rupert Murdoch will give him a raise.

7. The New York Times and the Washington Post will merge and then quietly go out of business, cursing this new-fangled blogging thing.

8. Kathy Griffin will be found in Margot Kidder's back yard, doing something completely sane. Police will tase her, causing her to make the "C" list. (I told you it would work, Kathy.)

9. Silvio Berlusconi will fly around Florence's Old Bridge in Leonardo DaVinci's aerial screw on Assumption Day. It sounds better in Italian.

10. One of the surviving Beatles will die. Eventually.
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SOYLENT GREEN IS WHITE PEOPLE!!!

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PICTURES PROVE: OBAMACARE LEGALISES CANNIBALISM

WHITE WOMEN WILL BE EATEN FIRST

Recycling Takes A Nasty Turn

It turns out the Birthers & Deathers were both right: Barack Obama is in fact an African, from a cannibalistic tribe near Mount Kilimanjaro, and Obamacare does include "death panels." But the meat will not be wasted. Citing new levels of hunger in America, and an overpopulation of Caucasoids in the Red States, liberal Democrats in Congress have included a secret provision in their pending healthcare legislation that could cut the population of all Republican-majority States by up to half over the next twenty years. The resulting human remains will be processed in the same manner as cows, sheep and pigs who have fallen ill, and mixed with soybeans and lentils to make a tasty treat known as Soylent Green™, prepared as veggiemeaty™-loaf and veggiemeaty™-burgers.

President Obama has taken to the town hall circuit across the country to push his healthcare plan. He denies categorically the inclusion in the legislation of any provisions aimed at marginalizing or nutritionalising conservatives. "This is a bipartisan bill: Everyone will be eated trequally, er, treated equally." Chief spokesman for the White Community, Newt Gingrich could not be reached for comment. His aides claimed that he fell suddenly ill two days ago, and was picked up by a USDA truck. He has not been seen since. The FDA is recommending that all shipments of pork-flavored crackers be withdrawn from store shelves.

This blog has obtained comic strips which prove conclusively that Barack Obama is an alien being from another galaxy who came to Earth during the era of the "Counter-Culture," landing in Africa, searching for human flesh to feed on. We have them right here in this envelope we are holding in our hands...


(click on photo's to enlarge)































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Please send feedback & PayPal contributions to cosanostradamusATexciteDOTcom. Thanks.

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REPUBLICAN COMEBACK IN 2010?

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UNLIKELY BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA CENTER FOR POLITICS
"Voter Turnout In Presidential And Midterm Elections"
A ten to fifteen per cent drop in voter participation from Presidential to "off-year" Congressional midterm elections:



WHY VOTE DEMOCRAT IF THEY'RE JUST LITE REPUBLICANS?


YOUTUBE: OBAMA IN SOCAL FOR DEMOCRATIC FUNDRAISER
"Obama: I've Done as Much as FDR"
""One of them said, 'Obama keep your promise,’ " the president said. "I thought that’s fair. I don’t know which promise he was talking about." Ha-ha! "



Why Vote At All If Obama Doesn't Keep His Promises On Gitmo, The War, Healthcare, Cardcheck, Etc, Etc, Etc?

[In response to a post on Docudharma.com by Something The Dog Said:

' ...There has been a lot of talk about the demise of the Republican Party. The Dog has, himself, been part of this talk. Whenever this topic comes up there are those that point out the various times where the Republican Party or even the Democratic Party were down and looked as though they might be out, then have come back in with surprising swiftness. These arguments are true as far as they go but one of the major failings the Dog always finds with these comparisons is they only look at the results and fail to take into account the circumstances which allowed these changes of fortunes for the Party. One of the major influencers has been the direction of the nation over time. This is often ignored by folks making the come back argument. Over the last 30 years we have been seeing a general trend towards a more conservative point of view. This coincides with the aging of the Baby Boomer generation. It is a sociological fact that folks tend to be come more conservative as they age, so the fact that the biggest generation, to that point, in American history were all moving towards middle age at the same time it make sense that the conservative point of view would gain traction. As the Generation Y citizens have grown up and become more politically active in their 30's they are overcoming the conservatism of their parents the Baby Boomers. This combined with the consequences of eight years of Republican rule is how we have gotten to this place where the Democrats control both Houses of Congress and the White House. But a big part of our electoral victory was the ability of our Party and President Obama in particular to articulate a positive vision for the future. In the 2000 election, then Governor Bush had this positive message on two fronts. First he and his campaign talked about returning honor and dignity to the White House. We can see from this vantage of 2009 how completely hollow that message was, but at the time the nation was tiered of the controversies (real and fabricated) of the Clinton Presidency. This made the returning honor and dignity message an appealing one. The other positive vision was the "Compassionate Conservative" meme. It was just what independents who leaned Republican wanted to hear, a Republican Candidate who was not tied to the perceived meanness of the Republican culture warriors. These two factors combined were enough to get President Bush close enough for the Supreme Court to award the Presidency to Mr. Bush... ' (continues)]

I would agree with Somethingthedogsaid (now I know why he chose that name: He doesn't want people to say that, or to agree with him) on some points. But, on others, I think he is way off base. It is far too early to count the Republicans out. Wishful thinking will not win us any votes. We have to look at this realistically, and never underestimate the power of the corporate & redneck Right. Also, keep in mind, Americans like divided government, generally speaking, and most voters no longer give permanent allegiance to any Party. Plus, we like to punish our Presidents in the midterm Congressional elections. The Democrats could gain in the midterms, but they could lose if they fail to get out the people who normally don't vote, but did vote in 2008. That won't happen if Obama keeps heading to the Right.

Having said that, let me address some of the "The Dog"s points. It will take up too much space on his website, so I will include a link to the bulk of it on my own blog.

Trends: If what Dog says is true about the "boomers," then we're headed for a more conservative era as they all retire and keep hanging on well into their 80's & 90's: 30-40 years for the youngest "boomers." Meanwhile, the oldest "boomers" oldest kids are getting near their 50's, so, more conservatism, according to Dog.

"Conservative. "Liberal." "Democrat." "Republican." "Boomers." "Gen-X." We need to take a big old Q-tip and clean all this nasty old label sh*t out of our ears, here. We're people, not robots or trendoids or demographics or electoral units or partisan acolytes. America never has been and never will be an ideologically-driven country. We're not much for partisan politics, either. We're pragmatists and all we expect from government is to be protected from the bad guys, i.e. foreign & domestic enemies both military and economic; to not be impoverished and otherwise to be left alone. It's only the tiny minorities on the fringes that give a sh*t about all these philosophical "issues" that just don't concern the vast majority of us.

What the last 40 years have shown us (based largely on bread & butter and certain hot-button issues) is that the vast majority, though economically & socially center-Left more and more, will still cross Party lines back and forth at will. The Democratic majority of Kennedy & Johnson shifted very slightly to a thin Republican majority for Nixon and Ford, based on the contracting economy and inflation, as well as racial issues and Vietnam. That majority shifted again to the Dems with Carter, and back again to Republicans Reagan & Bush, on money, race & "national security." Then back to Clinton on "the economy, stupid."

The Republican "victories" have in fact been largely Electoral College anomalies: Without Third Party candidates like Wallace and Anderson, the Right could not have won: Nixon won by a squeaker in the popular vote in 1968, and so did Reagan in 1980. Without Perot, Clinton might not have won, but in all these elections, the majority have leaned toward the center-Left, where the Democrats are (or should be), rather than the extreme Right, where the Republicans increasingly live. Only by virtue of these electoral tricks, i.e., covert support of splinter candidates, etc, has the Republican minority been able to win the White House.

It wasn't any "meme" or stylistic affectation that won Bush the White House. Nader cost Al Gore the White House in 2000, along with much help from Bush's brother in the Florida Governor's mansion, and Cheney's friends on the Republican Supreme Court. Bush then had the advantage of incumbency and war in 2004, plus voting-machine manufacturer Diebold's chairman running his Ohio campaign; but he still barely beat Kerry. He never had any kind of a "message." And there were no meaner culture warriors than Bush's brain, Karl Rove, and his boss, Dick Cheney. Nobody outside of his majority among rich people and Red State idiots could even stand Dumbya. He was a ridiculous, inarticulate, crude little moron and everybody who was paying attention knew that very well. He never represented anyone or any "vision" but those of the very rich and the very redneck, both minorities in this country, as Rush constantly laments. That's why Nixon, Reagan and both Bush's had to cheat.

Even after eight years of Clinton-bashing, people were still ready to vote for Gore. Bill Clinton was still wildly popular with the center-Left in 2000, thanks to a great economy and all those years the Repukelickin's wasted in bashing him, which only made him a martyr. If Gore had accepted Clinton's help campaigning, he probably would have won despite all the cheating by Bush. On that, and on the fight over the cheating, Gore screwed up. He actually still won the election, but then he lost the fight over it for lack of trying.

It wasn't ideology or "vision" that drove all this: It was electoral trickery and voter fatigue. Negative campaigning worked for the Republicans for years, right on up until the the point when the economy collapsed in the middle of McSame's campaign. In previous elections, up to 60% of those eligible to vote simply failed to do so, year after year. Negative campaigning was a large part of that failure to turn out, and that was its' goal. What was there to vote for? Wimpy, wonky Democrats trying to look like Republicans-Lite? Rich racist Republicans trying to look like good old boys? What a joke! That left it up to the 20% of actual voters who were hard-core Dems and the 20% hard-core Repub's to battle it out over the last couple of percentage points-worth left of those few who bothered to vote at all. But in this last Presidential election, it was money, not "vision" that won.

What Obama did was not ideological. Obviously, if you did look at his campaign website, or his Cabinet & staff choices, he's not a progressive, or even a liberal on many issues. But he did tap into a sentiment among the 40%-60% of those eligible to vote who frequently do not vote, and it was enough to counter any Republican dirty tricks. It seemed like he might actually be different on money issues that matter to the majority, if you didn't look too close. He wasn't ruling out things like healthcare, like McBush, who also stupidly admitted he was lousy on the economy. Mainly for economic reasons, many in the non-partisan majority voted for Obama, and for the "center-Left" issues we care about.

Certain very real bread & butter issues that the majority actually cares about are finally coming to a head now after more than forty years of suppression. Number one is health care. So far, Obama has effected little or no change that favors unions, gays, the anti-war movement, secularism, and other "leftist" causes. He will lose those people in 2010 & 2012 if that doesn't change very soon. If he continues to pander to the big healthco's and drops the ball on what the majority wants, universal single-payer national healthcare, then that 40%-60% is likely to sit out the next two elections in record numbers.

By energizing their own base, and discouraging the already disappointed Democratic base, the Republicans could not only stem any losses, but make some gains in the next election. This has been the pattern in mid-term Congressional elections for a long time. Democratic over-confidence, Obama's pandering to the corporations & the religious Right, and his Bush-lite stands on civil liberties and militarism may exacerbate this trend next year.

Don't count on Gen X or Y: If the economy is not back on its' feet well before NOV 2010, many of them could be unemployed, bankrupt and even homeless. They may very well register a protest vote with a Green, a Libertarian, a "reasonable-sounding" Republican; or None Of The Above, the real majority Party, by not voting at all. If they choose to stay home in large numbers next election day, Republicans can win, and they know it. That's been their very effective strategy for over forty years now.

All media bullsh*t and wonky "memes" aside, Barack had better watch his back and start producing for us, the center-Left majority, economically, or he could end up like Carter or Clinton. With all that inherited wealth and international corporate money behind them, the Republicans are not going away any time soon. And don't even THINK of another 9/11. The first one is murky enough: The next one could succeed in decapitating the government. Personally, I wouldn't trust the military or their friends the Republicans if Obama were to be sitting in the White House when a plane or a missile hit it, or Capitol Hill. Don't even THINK of it!


WIKIPEDIA
"United States midterm election"
"Midterm elections are sometimes regarded as a referendum on the sitting president's and/or incumbent party's performance. They usually don't turn out well for the party of the president; over the past 17 midterm elections, the president's party has lost an average 28 seats in the House, and an average 4 seats in the Senate: TABLE:"



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