An American Way of Death

Healthcare is not really heath care, is it? It is actually sickness maintenance. It’s theoretically about providing resources for sickness: Drugs, medical devices, doctors and nurses. You only need those things when you’re sick. If you actually wanted to ensure people’s health you would make sure they did healthy things, like breathe fresh unpolluted air, drink fresh unpolluted water, eat organic carcinogen free foods. You’d ensure that people got exercise, took yoga classes, or that they maintained a stress free life as in doing meditation every morning and evening. You’d keep them out of stressful polluted traffic every day. You’d have them walk daily. You’d make sure they had respirators or masks in air polluted areas. If insurance did those things, it would be health insurance. It would be sickness prevention.

In America sickness is a profit center. Cancer alone is a multi-trillion dollar industry. Consider all the money required to maintain a person through cancer treatments. It easily averages over a million dollars (about the same amount required to support each troop in Afghanistan for a year). Industries profit on that. The insurance industry, the medical device industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the nursing home industry (and of course the war profiteers), all profit from Americans’ pain, suffering, and death. Call it PSD.

We have a lot of people who complain about the sick industries and the expense of PSD. People pay a lot for insurance. Even if a claim is honored, people have co-payments. They fight daily to get hospital bills paid by their so-called insurance. There is a profit incentive for the insurance industry to deny care. Their business model is to find ways to avoid paying claims and to take in as much in premiums as possible. They know that Americans willingly pay for insurance. Even when they raise their rates by double digit percentages, Americans pay. Even if insurance companies deny claims and people suffer and die for lack of care, they will still pay. Tens of thousands of Americas continue to die annually but they still pay for insurance. It’s an incredibly profitable industry that easily takes in a 30% margin over its costs, and makes huge profits. Very few industries do that.

Americans are conditioned like lab rats to pay hundreds every month, thousands every year, for questionable and often worthless insurance. Obamacare got more people to buy insurance. Authored mainly by Elizabeth Fowler, a prior insurance company executive, either Obamacare is a genius piece of legislation or it’s taking Americans for a ride (depending on if you’re an investor or not). Now millions more Americans pay for questionable sickness insurance. When they get sick, you can bet the first order of business for their insurers is to find ways to deny their claims. And now the government requires by law that all people pay for sickness insurance or they will be fined. So if you have insurance you pay to be denied sickness coverage, and if you don’t have insurance, you pay government fines.

The theory is that if people don’t have insurance, they will be taken care of anyway and everyone else will have to pay for it. That’s only true for legislators, government officials, and the active military who are all 100% covered by government funds at no cost whatsoever. For everyone else this would be true if insurance companies actually paid to help people through sickness. But they don’t. The reality is the opposite, which is to say insurance companies don’t pay. People with insurance suffer and die for lack of care because insurance is not care. It is a business. People without insurance also suffer and die, but at least they don’t pay premiums. They pay government penalties.

And what do we do to insure health? Nothing. Healthy Americans are a liability for the American PSD industries and their stockholders. Those industries depend on pain, suffering and death for their livelihood and profits. In fact PSD enterprises comprise about one sixth of the national economy. Without PSD our country would suffer a great monetary impact. Entire industries could go out of business. Do you work for the insurance industry? Do you willingly work for blood money? Those who have pain, who suffer, or die for lack of sick care, do so for our protected PSD industries to maintain high profits. It’s a uniquely American way of death.

Big Problem with the Universal Healthcare Movement or WTF is Single Payer?

"Single Payer" is some anonymously coined term (as far as I know) that supposedly describes the concept of a single government entity, such as a national government healthcare agency (not unlike the Veterans Administration), which would replace all commercial healthcare insurance companies. More accurately it has been called Medicare for All, which, in fact, is the title of a piece of legislation that has been kicked around for years in Congress, yet never killed. And why? Because the government in its infinite wisdom must appease any growing outcry from all the little people out there so they can continue to receive "campaign contributions" from the sickness industries. It is my considered opinion that the term was coined, probably well thought out in advance, by our paranoid little government in its never ending fear of losing control over all its people, as if it ever owned all its people.

Who came up with the ridiculous phrase? Some secret think tank or New England university choir boys group who decided that mommy and daddy's never ending money supply might be in danger of deflating by a few percent due to a few undesirables who have a problem with being considered dispensable for the sake of the multi-trillion dollar sickness industries in America, that's who. Tens of thousands die annually in America due to the lack of real heath care. They suffer and die for corporate profits. And insurance proves time and again that it is not health care. It is the denial of care. It is a profit center. 

Cancer alone is a multi-trillion dollar annual industry. But you won't hear "Single Payer" advocates or activists (as they think of themselves); you will rarely ever hear them refer to an American sickness conglomerate of industries or the fact than even just one arm of it profits in the trillions on the sickness, suffering, and deaths of their so precious free American co-citizens. No, you will never hear that. Why? Because the US government ultimately controls activist groups and has notoriously infiltrated each and every activist group in this country. This is a known fact regardless of whether you call it conspiracy theory or not. American agencies place infiltrators at the highest levels of activists groups. That is why there are ridiculously misunderstood terms like "single payer" used to describe the crux of activists' concern. No. That is not their concern. Their concern is human life, the forsaking of human life for profit. Greed rules America. People die. Insurance is not healthcare. Those are the concerns.

Now if so called activists really wanted to end this criminality, this forsaking of life, this outrage that flies in the face of American freedom, this dispensing of people for profit; if indeed they wanted to be true activists, they would drop all their insurance polices. They wine and moan about how the insurance industry denies care, costs so much overhead, allows people to die and what do they do? They willing buy insurance from the criminals they fight.  Ludicrous. And then when they need insurance they get denied. They too suffer. Wake up! You are educated people. Think for yourself. Your money is your control.

If you want to go up against big insurance, you drop your insurance. You don't pay. You don't pay outrageous bills. You vote with your feet and your wallet. You allow yourself to get bad credit ratings because that's what true activists do. Going to a sit-in at the local insurance tower and getting arrested is not a sacrifice. That's a show with minimal effect. Forsake your credit ratings. Show your true power and commitment. Until you do that you will never have respect. Because money is all they understand. Nothing else matters. Not life. Not politics. Not freedom. Not this country or its ideals. No way in hell does any of that matter to American industry. All that matters is money. And the people have the power to cut off the money. You have that power. It's your money! You are funding your own doom. Are you freaking nuts? Or are you an investor in suffering and death? My mistake then.

How many activists out there still have insurance policies. Raise your hands. Yes. 99% of you. You aren't really activists are you.? You're spineless! Yes you work hard and I respect that, but your energy is misplaced and misspent. Work smart. Do something that matters. If a real movement were afoot to drop insurance you can bet it would change things in an instant.

News flash! Change does not happen in government. You will not find a champion to elect in government that gives enough of a flying fart about your life over their own. Would they risk embarrassment? Would they risk making waves? Would they risk their own credit ratings? Their reelection? Their job? Being ostracized? No! You think peoples' lives matter to anyone in government compared to the millions of dollars in donations they can get from industry? You are whacked out of your mind if you do.

Change happens when Martin Luther King marches, or when Rosa Parks gets on a bus, or when Bruce Springsteen drops a concert. It never happens when government signs a bill, because government will never sign a bill until someone forces their hand. Force their hand! Do not pay for insurance. Do not pay ludicrous health costs. Don't do it! It's criminal. 

Two Cents.

Hollywood would Never ever give this Information a Forum

Got Healthcare? (the question of the century) is a 90 minute documentary film. This stream of conversation documentary is a passionate energetic discussion on the various issues that continue to surround health care reform in America and the world. Doctors, nurses, and activists (both pro and con on reform) seemingly converse in a give and take of ideas compared and contrasted through editing. It was shot beginning in 2009 during the height of street protests, as formation of the current U.S. law was debated. The film contains updated reactions to the new law from as late as 2012. The film focuses on the issue of a single payer (Medicare for all) system, unlike any other health care related films that are currently prominent. Out in the Street Films is happy to have Maureen Cruise, RN, join their team as an executive producer for distribution. Maureen was one of the main activists interviewed in the film, and upon seeing the final cut became enthused about having the film widely seen. She has a wealth of experience in politics and as a retired public health care nurse in Los Angeles County. She is a walking encyclopedia on all issues concerning healthcare reform. The stream of conversation film style uses interviewees to tell the story and explain concepts instead of the more traditional high profile "name" actor with cute graphics. The film was shot on a very low original production budget of about $3,000 and without a production crew by producer-director-photographer, Jon Raymond. Jon also edited the film. The final effect is an unpolished gritty street reality look, as much out of necessity as by choice. Current global corporate pressures threaten to to water down or remove social and economic benefits in numerous Euro nations, including healthcare. A recent United Kingdom news article titled, Fury as first privately run NHS hospital racks up £4.1m loss (Oct 28 2012 by Nick Dorman, The People) indicates that the NHS (Britain's National Health Service) failed at an attempt to privatize health care with patient satisfaction down from 1st to 14th place. As you may know, Europeans are very aware of what happens in the US, often incredulous even, and rightly so. Understanding our very sick system, might prepare worldwide audiences for any such moves on the part of their increasingly right-of-center veering administrations. A clear unapologetic view of the US for-profit system and it's criminality (45,000 Americans die annually for lack of healthcare according to a Harvard study) should scare the pants off anybody who understands and enjoys healthcare as a human right. It is a shocking situation, and non Americans will be astounded by the facts in this film. Maureen, a long time street activist and independent film lover applauds Got Healthcare? as follows: My office file is full of amazing indie films made by one or few persons with no budget, yet who provide very interesting, well researched and sensational knowledge that I appreciate having. I see these films at forums and issues conventions. Hollywood would never ever give this information a forum. Their focus is entertainment not information. And it is star driven. My celebrities are the people in the street. HOORAY! So I am thrilled that many people are making documentary films and disseminating what corporate media has not only ignored but also drowned out with glossy schlock. The questions for me are: Does this interest people? Does it reveal information? Does it strengthen our human bond? Do people like it? - Maureen Cruise Maureen is also a member of PNHP (Physicians for a National Health Program) and CNA (California Nurse Association). PNHP, CNA and member doctors and nurses are prominent throughout the film, among the 65 street activists interviewed. Maureen has promoted the film at various activist events where it has been screened and well received as the following typical testimony indicates: I watched the movie and it's excellent! Especially liked the way you traced the trajectory of Obama's downfall from single-payer preference to the mess that is PPACA. The woman who defined Socialism as a shortage of toilet paper is, alas, a classic. I've met many like her. The American public has so much to learn..... We're grateful for your efforts, and hope to spread the word far and wide. - Carol Tvaroh

SUPPORT SB 810 California Universal Healthcare Act of 2011

The following is an email from Maureen Cruise RN (retired) 


SB 810  "The California Universal Healthcare Act of 2011 has been reintroduced in the California legislature.  Healthcare is a human rights issue.  People are really suffering with premium hikes, increased copays, and denials of payment.  These problems will not change with the recently enacted ACA federal reform.  SB810 is advancing to the next logical step.

The State Senate Health Committee  will consider SB810  on April 27th, 2011

Important and crucial measures to support SB 810 RIGHT NOW:

#1.  Send letters from yourself,  a business, any group/organization     http://www.healthcareforall.org/action-center/organizing  has sample letters for individuals , businesses organizations and lots of information to educate oneself.
     1. Sign on as an individual supporter of SB810 and send letter to your legislators.
     2. Any group can send a letter from the organization or  any business.
     3. Encouraging your legislators to co-endorse.

Identify your own State Senator and Assemblymember online by visiting http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html

Also send any copies of support /endorsement letters to:

Senator Mark Leno
c/o Sara Rogers
State Capitol, Room 5100
Sacramento, CA  95814
(916) 445-4722 FAX

And to the State Senate Health Committee before April 27th
The Honorable Ed Hernandez
Chair, Senate Health Committee
State Capitol, Room 2191
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: (916) 319-2197

#2 SIGN the online PETITION http://CaliforniaOneCare.org

#3 Download information/ fliers and educate the public.  Set up a table at any public site. In front of a bank or post office or any public corner or sidewalk .  Educate people.  http://www.singlepayernow.net
http://www.healthcareforall.org/
http://CaliforniaOneCare.org

Additional info on federal and state universal healthcare:
www.pnhp.org  Physicians for National Health Program
http://www.nationalnursesunited.org
http://www.laborforsinglepayer.org
www.PDAmerica.org

Be well,
Maureen    
Despair is a greater deceiver than hope.

Sample Letter of Support for SB 810
The California Universal Healthcare Act

Please send letters of support by fax or mail to your State Senator and State Assemblymember and cc Senator Leno’s capitol office.

Identify your own State Senator and Assemblymember online by visiting http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html

Please cc:
Senator Mark Leno
c/o Sara Rogers
State Capitol, Room 5100
Sacramento, CA  95814
(916) 445-4722 FAX


(Date), 2011

The Honorable ___________
State Capitol, Room ____
Sacramento, CA  95814

Re: Support for SB 810 (Leno)

Dear Senator/Assemblymember _____________:

I am a voter in your district and I am writing in support of SB 810 (Leno) the California Universal Healthcare Act.  It’s time for universal healthcare in California!
The single greatest problem facing California’s healthcare system and California’s economy is the growing cost of health insurance.  The number of uninsured Californians has now reached 20%, and most of the newly uninsured are from middle-class families.  It’s easy to see why.
Health insurance premiums have increased over 90% since 2000, with the average employee contributing 143% more to their company-sponsored health insurance. Meanwhile wages have only increased 20% over this time period.  Health care costs have outpaced increases in wages by a ratio of 4:1 since 2000.
Under the single payer finance system in SB 810, the money spent now on health care is enough to provide every resident of the state with excellent healthcare, ensure fair and reliable reimbursements to doctors, nurses and other providers, and guarantee a high quality of care for all.
SB 810 (Leno), the California Universal Healthcare Act would provide fiscally sound, affordable healthcare to all Californians, provide every Californian the right to choose his or her own physician and control health cost inflation.
This plan does five things:

1. It covers everyone.
2. It’s affordable.
3. It guarantees our money goes to care not administration.
4. It provides real choice.
5. It improves quality.

Californians want access to this kind of high-quality, affordable health care.  Please take a stand in support of truly universal health care.

I strongly support SB 810.

(your legal name)
(any organizational affiliations you wish to include)
(your address)

Wolfowitz Sees Corporate Health Mogul as Egyptian Transition Leader

Hossam Badrawi

Today President Obama released a statement to the press that the U.S. will do all it can to support the orderly transition of Egypt to a [corporate oligarchy]. In a recent article in The American, Paul Wolfowitz states he sees a new transition figure emerging in Egypt; Dr. Hossam Badrawi, "a board member and strategic shareholder in Nile Badrawi Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in Cairo." Dr. Badrawi also "started the first healthcare management organizations (HMO) company in Egypt which is currently one of the largest HMOs in the private sector." And we all know how well HMOs work in America.

So it would appear that Egypt's current government run healthcare system, in which "nearly all Egyptians have access to healthcare," is a prime candidate for American style corporate wealthcare. America must stop that healthcare for all nonsense and get Egypt back to American values where we make sure at least 15% of the citizens of the country have no healthcare insurance, because they can't afford to pay for it. After all, how can we expect American based corporate healthcare industry to take a foothold in Egypt if they can't see at least 30% profit margins like they do in the US.

The RAM: Helping Third World Countries like the USA

Medical Students to Senate Republicans: Repeal Is Not the Solution to Our Health Care Crisis

While I agree with the students here, I question what part of the PPACA (Affordabl­e Care Act) will actually survive to do any good. We've already seen the provision that blocks rates to increase repealed. With rate increases already in effect (or taking effect 1/1/2011) insurance companies now have raised rates by as much as 39% to make up for having to put 26 year olds back on their parents plans (among other things).

Plus they have now made new restrictio­ns on what meds and services are covered. It's business as usual in the suck Americans' health dry for profit game.

The cumulative effect is that PPACA has decreased health care and made things much worse. By 2014 it will require all Americans to buy insurance and submit to this mandated corporate oligarchy, giving Americans less coverage, with continued denial of care and pre-existi­ng condition exclusions at higher costs, guaranteei­ng the corporate oligarchy a steady stream of government mandated corporate welfare to the insurance industry.

Repealed or not, that is exactly what will happen. The difference is that with repeal, people just might get pissed off enough to take to the streets and refuse to pay for health care insurance (and you can bet repeal will not reduce any rates), which amounts to corporate graft. It is naive to think that PPACA will have any positive effect. It is a 2000+ page monster health care legislatio­n written by and for the corporate health insurance oligarchy that runs America.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Along the Road with the Mad as Hell Doctors for Medicare for All—the lost part: the Third travelogue

By Marc Sapir

Marc Sapir is a primary care physician in Alameda County, CA and graduate of the Stanford University School of Medicine, M.D. 1970. He has been traveling with the Mad as Hell Doctors on their 2010 California tour. He sent out the following account of his trip.

Dr. Sapir also appears eloquently in the upcoming release of my documentary film, "got healthcare yet?"

Berkeley, Nov 2, 2010 ~ The Mad as Hell Docs tour ended 3 weeks ago today and part IV of my 2010 CA travelogue is long gone. But I promised to find a little part III and here it comes bubbling up:

The MAHD 2010 California tour covered about 2,500 driving miles (though those intrepid Oregon guys—Paul, Mike, Phillip--drove well beyond 3,500 miles in the 18 days). In 2009 the first MAHD tour drove 6,000 miles through the “heartlands” on the way to D.C. Complementing this year’s 2,500 miles, MAHD played to a combined California audience of 2,500 folks, beginning and ending with large audiences (in Arcata—250-- and Chico--300). With the larger audiences the enthusiasm and Mad doc mirth became infectious. In the 18 days running there were, I believe, 28 events. Three or four of these were small group interactions and a slide show that Mike Huntington put together for med students. A few outdoor events—such as at Pasadena and San Diego--precluded showing of any video clips (no socialist plot to protect our homes from fires could be screened). About 22 events were the full bore program. No, not boring, I said “full bore,” at least according to this reporter’s perspective.

The MAHD moderator always asks himself out loud: “self, why are we preaching to the choir?” and gives the answer that “we’re trying to be sure the choir is well armed to make the case for Medicare for All/Single Payer, fully understands how weak the PPACA reform is and how badly the public option would have fared; to help people gain confidence to talk with neighbors, friends, and Uncle Joe (who is a Tea Bagger) at Thanksgiving”. And we’re there to motivate and excite people. That sounds right over here at my desk, but what a number of organizers of events have also reported is that they have actually recruited good numbers of new members to the local organizations from these events, including the smaller ones. Let’s hope the new members’ enthusiasm translates into a lot of activity for those organizations.

Pretty much at every MAHD event there were 2 local docs or a doc and a nurse on the stage as part of the panel (in a few cases there were 3 local health professionals on stage). Audiences particularly appreciated hearing from their own community people. That changes the typical U.S. medical equation of “docs at a distance”. Some of these local docs were true heroes which we learned about only as we heard of their life’s work. In some cases they had set up clinics for people without resources, or successfully gotten smoking removed from prisons and been able to promote health education, or done battle with local institutions to pressure them to provide more services for people who needed them most, and so forth. And in some places, like Chico, by the time we left the locals were already talking about launching their own local mini tours to various outlying communities, towns, cities. Do it, guys.

At USC the audience at the School of Social Work forgot to show up. Maybe that was because MAHD event was set up with only a few days notice and came during exam week (duh!). But we corralled several students coming to and from classes and study groups and held extended one on one or one on 3 discussions in front of the school with our banners splayed all over the place. The response was very positive (I guess that with the word “social” in their line of study they must be just another bunch of damned socialists like Barack Obama); MAHD promised the Rev. Dr. Peter Sabey (the host) not to worry but MAHD will be back, with better notice and collaboration next time.

Back home now, I’ve been wondering where this all leads to. If you heard my own 4 minute talk you may remember words to the effect of turning the Single Payer movement outward and re-creating a good old fashion civil rights movement, like in the 60s, to rejuvenate Martin King’s call to arms on health care. Mike mentions civil disobedience tactics. That is part of the broadening of vision, I think, but a social movement isn’t just about tactics. It’s about culture and strategy--seeing the Single Payer connection between politics and culture, between politics and class, between our goals and racism. I’m ready to get arrested more than once if would help achieve Medicare for all in the U.S. But I know there’s a big difference between symbolic civil disobedience and planning a movement that can use it to great effect. At the present moment I don’t believe that tactics are as important as figuring out how to merge our efforts with the rights struggles of undocumented immigrants, the unemployed workers, youths who are frequently gunned down unarmed by cops in Black urban communities and who gravitate toward gangs for self-preservation, people who are still being evicted and have no place to live, no way to survive, workers who would choose a union but have been denied the Employee right to choose act, and so on. That means first off figuring out how to join the struggles of people of a different class, by and large, and prove to them that their wellbeing is what our cause is about, not just when it comes to access to health care as a right. On the tour I talked with a few HCA/Single Payer chapter leaders who believe as I do and have already tried that kind of outreach, with somewhat mixed and marginal results. It ain’t easy. But what I think I detected from them is that we are usually working from the perspective of trying to get those reached out to “to join us” when it may be that the question is how do we learn how to join them, so that they can then join with us or how to create a broader context.

Since 1994 I have not forgotten that Proposition 186, the California Single Payer initiative campaign which failed dismally at the polls, was not led by people most effected by the lack of access to care. There were docs and union leaders and other mostly white middle class folks carrying out the campaign. And in the final analysis 186 was led by people who could not see the importance of standing firm on inclusion of all—including the undocumented—in their press statements. It was a campaign that did not reach out in any meaningful way to the Black, Latino and Philippino communities, churches, and other organizations. And as I reflect upon how we might move Medicare for All efforts in the right direction and center stage, I never cease believing that now, not later, is the right time to make the turn we could not make in 1994, the turn that King’s echoing words call out to us--to forge a multi-ethnic leadership by using the call to a new civil rights movement that can unite us on multiple rights demands and issues. Sure, doing that practically won’t be easy. But we can do this if we all agree that it’s something that must be done just as much as supporting any particular piece of legislation.

Until we meet again.

IMDb Video: Got Healthcare?

Protesters on various sides of the recent health care insurance reform issues, actively debated around the U.S. in the summer of 2009, are depicted as people at street rallies, protests, and town hall meetings give their views to filmmaker Jon Raymond. The film is not formally narrated but instead uses the interviews as a sort of narration and ongoing dialog that explains various aspects of the issues involved, from the question of socialism, to reports of people dying for lack of health insurance, to arrests of protesters at sit-ins.

A new 90 minute (festival cut) DVD is now available.

Watch the trailer:

The Fallacy of Political Balance

I generally am skeptical about the "name" pundits and media stars like Olbermann, Maddow and all the experts they have on their shows that they repeatedly call on to explain things. Even though I generally agree with them, their shows always end up balancing the political spectrum as if the true place where the world should exist is somewhere between the right wing nut tea baggers and the progressives who want universal health care and an end to all war.

Think about that for a minute. What kind of world is it where we agree to accept war just to balance the political spectrum? Why isn't war horrifically wrong and something that should never ever be resorted to as long as people can talk things out. It's not like the middle ages where in order to negotiate you have to travel thousands of miles to meet with your foes. Every nation in the modern world has an open dialog with every other one. The fact that we attack territories like Iraq or Afghanistan to rid ourselves of "terrorists" is absurd. No group of people or enemy lives within the borders of any single country. If you attack them, they simply pick up and move to another territory, just as Al Qaeda exists in countries all over the world.

But back to the media pundits. Paul Krugman is one that I find a little less "balanced." That's a good thing. He attacked Obama for the selection of the same assholes that brought down our economy as the people to run our treasury and economics. He was left out to dry by the media for that, which indicates to me that he was doing something right. The media is owned by conservatives, even MSNBC, the one thought of as progressive. Olbermann and Maddow take their stories from their higher ups at MSNBC based on what is marketable to the progressive leaning audience. The fact that MSNBC is bent as far as it is toward progressives, indicates that progressives are actually close to center and not on an extreme end of the political spectrum. But when Olbermann talks about Limbaugh or the Fox News dickheads, he's just giving them free advertising. If he truly thought they were as of little importance as they really are, he'd ignore them completely. They are nonentities and don't exist in my world.

Now the Senate just passed a healthcare bill and Krugman is applauding that as a great step forward. Is Krugman trying to get back into the media spotlight by going middle of the spectrum here?

Krugman writes in the New York Times article, Tidings of Comfort, about the split of people into three distinct areas of the political spectrum: the far right teabaggers, the fiscal conservatives and the progressives, as if this defines left, right and center.

First, there’s the crazy right, the tea party and death panel people — a lunatic fringe that is no longer a fringe but has moved into the heart of the Republican Party. In the past, there was a general understanding, a sort of implicit clause in the rules of American politics, that major parties would at least pretend to distance themselves from irrational extremists. But those rules are no longer operative. No, Virginia, at this point there is no sanity clause.

A second strand of opposition comes from what I think of as the Bah Humbug caucus: fiscal scolds who routinely issue sententious warnings about rising debt. By rights, this caucus should find much to like in the Senate health bill, which the Congressional Budget Office says would reduce the deficit, and which — in the judgment of leading health economists — does far more to control costs than anyone has attempted in the past.

But, with few exceptions, the fiscal scolds have had nothing good to say about the bill. And in the process they have revealed that their alleged concern about deficits is, well, humbug. As Slate’s Daniel Gross says, what really motivates them is “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, is receiving social insurance.”

Finally, there has been opposition from some progressives who are unhappy with the bill’s limitations. Some would settle for nothing less than a full, Medicare-type, single-payer system. Others had their hearts set on the creation of a public option to compete with private insurers. And there are complaints that the subsidies are inadequate, that many families will still have trouble paying for medical care.

Unlike the tea partiers and the humbuggers, disappointed progressives have valid complaints. But those complaints don’t add up to a reason to reject the bill. Yes, it’s a hackneyed phrase, but politics is the art of the possible.

The truth is that there isn’t a Congressional majority in favor of anything like single-payer. There is a narrow majority in favor of a plan with a moderately strong public option. The House has passed such a plan. But given the way the Senate rules work, it takes 60 votes to do almost anything. And that fact, combined with total Republican opposition, has placed sharp limits on what can be enacted.

There may not be a Congressional majority in favor of single payer, but there is (I think) a popular majority among all Americans in favor of it, or would be if they understood what it really is and were not misinformed by conservative owned media.

And that's at the heart of what's wrong in the U.S. government. It doesn't act on the will of the majority. It's not representative. This is one fact that pretty much all of these three groups agree on. Taxation without representation is alive and well.

The other point here is that progressives are painted as far left of center, when in fact they are more middle. With the extreme right moving into the spotlight in the Republican party it makes progressives perceived as being far right only because of a popular obtuse sentiment that these two groups have to be balanced.

Nothing could be farther from reality. Progressives don't balance with right extremists any more than right balances with wrong. You might think that right does balance with wrong, and if so then you exemplify my point. If right balances with wrong then we should allow just enough crime to balance with the good that people do. If a hero saves a life then it should be OK to murder someone for balance.

And so for Obama and others to say we have to compromise and balance the political spectrum is completely absurd, irresponsible, and morally corrupt.

Mammogram Media Blitz is a Right Wing Attack Tactic

Dan Pfeiffer writes, "One of the hallmark tactics from opponents of health insurance reform has been to grab onto any convenient piece of information and twist it into some misguided attack on reform, no matter how unrelated it may actually be..... and Fox News obliges them with the headline 'Critics See Health Care Rationing Behind New Mammography Recommendations.'" He says the media outlets feed on this kind of opportunistic "controversy." Ya think?

Gee, how did the mainstream media miss this statement coming from the White House?

Pfeiffer continues that it's ironic that the the right would spin this government agency recommendation as "health care rationing" that is part of the insurance reform movement. In fact health care reform proponents want to see increased preventative measures, as do most doctors.

One very basic problem with U.S. healthcare is that we have a policy of only providing free health care to people when they are in an emergency or at risk of death. By that time it's often too late, especially in cancer cases. Staunch reform proponents want socialized medicine for all people to have health care as they need it, when they need it, for all ages - Medicare for all.

So the right is spinning this (what I would call suspicious) recommendation from the independent U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

Note the word "independent."

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius had stated that she expects no changes to take place in the government or in the health insurance industry as a result of this (independent) USPSTF report. In fact she stated Wednesday that women should continue to get checked at age 40. Yet the right wing liars, as per usual, keep saying this stuff will be part of health care reform.

On the other hand we should indeed keep watch that the health insurance industry doesn't try to sneak in this kind of cut back on preventative services which would benefit them and which they could blame upon reformers with this kind of media spin. This is all out media warfare. The pen is mightier than the sword.

Pfeiffer's blog continues with the following clarification FAQ:

Will Medicare now stop paying for breast cancer mammography for women because of this recommendation?

Women who are currently getting mammograms under Medicare will continue to be able to get them. There are no plans to change that. The law states that in order to change Medicare coverage of mammograms a formal rule making process must be undertaken and that is not happening.

Isn’t this the first step toward denying coverage for mammograms?

No. The Task force is an independent panel of experts in prevention and primary care that evaluates available evidence and makes recommendations about effective clinical preventive services based on scientific information. Under the health insurance reform legislation, the USPTF would have no power to deny insurance coverage in any way. Their recommendations would be used in health reform to identify effective clinical preventive services.

How will this recommendation affect private health insurance coverage?

The Task Force does not address insurance coverage and payment issues; it focuses on the science of the clinical services it evaluates. Each insurance company is different and makes its own coverage decisions. The Task Force recognizes that clinical and policy decisions involve more consideration that this body of evidence alone. Clinicians and policymakers should understand the evidence but individualize decision making to the specific patient or situation.

Tommy Thompson said the Task Force recommendations were the official position of the U.S. Government. Is that your position?

We have tremendous respect for the Task Force and the work they have done. They are an independent scientific body that makes recommendations based on scientific evidence; however they do not set official policy for the federal government. Under health reform, their recommendations would be used to identify preventive services that must be provided for little or no cost.

Won’t the USPSTF be used to ration care under health reform?

Absolutely not. The USPSTF, an independent task force made up of some of the nation’s top doctors and scientists provides science-based recommendations regarding the most effective preventive, treatment and screening services. The Task Force’s recommendations would be used to help determine the types of services that must be provided for at little or no cost and the Task Force would have no power to deny insurance coverage in any way..

What do these recommendations mean for the current health reform bills?

While the bills are still being drafted and debated in Congress, health insurance reform legislation generally calls for the Task Force’s recommendations to help determine the types of preventive services that must be provided for little or no cost. The recommendations alone cannot be used to deny treatment.

CIGNA Kills Girl, Doctor Arrested

Grigor Sarkisyan tells us of his daughter who was denied treatment and died because of it, as Dr. Matt Hendrickson MD and others get arrested and protesters chant "CIGNA profits, people die, arrest the real criminals." This happened in Glendale CA as similar sit-ins at health insurance companies take place around the country. Over 900 people have signed up to risk arrest at these ongoing sit-ins including a number of doctors. They do not accept the public option as the answer to this problem. Only a single payer system that covers all Americans at affordable costs is acceptable and these rallies and sit-ins will continue until that happens.

Margaret Flowers MD, seen in this video after a Senate hearing this summer, was arrested Thursday 10/28/2009 and remains in custody vowing to stay there until she gets a meeting with the CEO of CareFirst 3401 Boston St &1501 S Clinton St, Canton Crossing, MD.

In Louisville KY seven occupied the Humana lobby for over 24 hours. Humana allowed them to stay as long as they wanted and stated they too want health care reform.

In Warwick, CT, sit-protesters, including Robert Darling, a cancer patient being denied care, occupied the United Health Care office, demanding that the insurer cover Robert’s bone marrow transplant immediately. The CEO was unavailable but the PR manager talked with them and promised to meet with Mr. Darling within a week to answer him.


40 risked arrest at a San Francisco sit-in while 200 rallied in support and 30 others blocked entrances to Blue Shield offices. Protesters advocated a “single-payer” system in which the state or federal government would create one system of health insurance to cover everyone, as would be created by Rep. John Conyers’ H.R. 676, which would improve Medicare and expand it to cover everyone. The California legislature has twice passed bills creating a similar single-payer system on the state level, but Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed both these bills.

In New York nine were arrested at a Welpoint sit-in. Simone Morse, a 19-year old student at Hunter College, was the first to be handcuffed and pulled up from the floor this morning at 1 Liberty Plaza in lower Manhattan, the corporate offices of WellPoint, one of the largest health insurers in the United States.

Cameron Gibson, a 23-year-old medical student at SUNY Downstate, was one of the next to go, followed by Frank Broadhead, a 67-year-old senior on Medicare, who was carried out on his back and deposited into a nearby police van by two members of the New York Police Department. In total, nine protesters were arrested on Wednesday morning on charges of disorderly conduct and/or trespassing, according to an NYPD officer on site who spoke off the record.

“My name is Matt Hendrickson, I am an Emergency Physician and a member of Physicians For A National Health Program.

I am sitting in at Cigna tomorrow to ask Cigna why the health insurance industry is denying health care.Why are they charging America a 25% tax on all healthcare transactions to support a system that avoids the sick? Why has the number of physicians grown by 200% in the last 40 years while the number of insurance administrators has grown by 3,000%? Why does their industry have 1 million administrators, while there are half as many physicians and Medicare only has 15,000 employees?

Why does Medicare pay their chief executive $150,000 while Cigna pays Ed Hanway $12 million? Why is their industry raising premiums for small businesses by 15% a year? And then diverting 15 cents off every dollar to deny care to their paying customers.

I'm going inside Cigna today to ask these questions. I’m going to bring some pictures with me. Some of the faces will be familiar to Cigna.Like Nataline Sarkisyan who lived in Glendale until she was 17 when she died because Cigna denied her transplant. But they may not know Jenny Fritts who was 24 when this picture was taken with her two-and-a-half year old daughter Kylee. She was also seven and a half months pregnant with her second child- a beautiful baby girl. Jenny is dead. Jenny’s unborn baby is dead. They died because she was turned away for appropriate care from a for-profit hospital due to lack of insurance.

I want Cigna to know about this young woman, seen here at her two-year-old son’s birthday. She came to my ER with a mole behind her ear and a swollen lymph node. Her husband had recently lost his job when their tech firm downsized.

We recommended she get a biopsy. The family used part of their savings to get the biopsy done promptly by paying cash. The biopsy revealed metastatic melanoma. Now the Thomas family has no income, depleted savings and the mother of their three young children has an invasive cancer with no health insurance.

If Cigna won’t let me inside their offices, I’ll sit down outside and wait to speak to them. If police won’t let me wait, I will be arrested. It is my duty as a physician and my honor as a citizen to be speak out for My patients who are losing their savings, losing their homes and losing their lives because of the existence of the private insurance industry.

America cannot wait any longer. Our uninsured cannot wait. Our small businesses cannot wait. Our middle class cannot wait.

This is just the beginning Cigna. Other physicians are risking arrest today. And there will be more next month, and the month after that. We will not stop speaking out for our patients and stating unconditionally that private health insurance must go.”

Matt Hendrickson, MD MPH
Vice Chair, PNHP/CaPA LA
Chair, LA Single Payer Coalition

Single Payer is NOT Off the Table

Los Angeles 10/15/09 – 12 arrested for a sit-in at Anthem Blue Cross offices as Maureen Cruise, Public Health Nurse, explains why single payer is not off the table. Along with a contingent of doctors, Cruise believes universal health care (a.k.a. single payer or medicare for all) is the only option. As Dr. Jo Olson recently told me, single payer is the only fiscal and moral solution. She has been working for a single payer system for the past five years. Nurse Cruise was an L.A. public health care nurse at numerous clinics until they all closed with the recent economic downturn. As she explains, over 100 people die every day for lack of health care in the U.S. More die every day because they are denied health care from insurance companies despite paying their high premiums. Yet we see public free clinics closing. People are forced into medical debt and foreclosure to pay for health care, unlike every other country. “What kind of country does this to it’s people?” she asks.

Nurse Cruise goes on to say that Pelosi’s announcement to the world that single payer is off the table was a ploy to make everyone forget about it and go for a public option instead, a public option written by and for the insurance industry, which spends over a million dollars per day lobbying Congress. The public option, as she says, is an insurance industry bailout, because with our economic downturn and the insurance industry’s annal retentive (my words) policy of raising rates to make up for losses, they are losing customers and so they look to the deep pockets of our government in the corporate welfare state we call America. But as long as we don’t have a viable health care system without the for profit insurance factor, and as long as we don’t have universal health care, people will continue to rally.

It’s interesting that the right tea baggers agree with the left in this area. Both sides agree that government bailout spending is wrong. But the right has been deluded by the right wing bumper sticker mentality media propaganda into believing that it is an Obama socialism agenda at fault. in fact it is a Wall Street corporate socialist agenda, since as cruise and many others agree, Wall Street owns Congress, and seemingly the Presidency as well.

But the bottom line is that, by law and on paper, this is still a democracy for and by we the people, not the corporations; and so the people have taken to the streets, lead by doctors and health care professionals like nurse Cruise, Dr. Olson and many others. They hold rallies and sit-ins around the country and get arrested in protest. Dr. Susie Baldwin calls the public option a government insurance industry jobs program, which leads me to wonder, why can’t the insurance industry make an honest living selling a service that people need? Why must they resort to living off the government, pushing Congress to make laws forcing people to buy their worthless product which amounts to a mafioso payoff to keep their useless thug industry alive. Why must the insurance industry live on government corporate welfare? Are they too lazy to get a real job and pay their way like the rest of us?

As Dr. Paul Papenek told me, people don’t need actuaries or claims adjusters. People need doctors and nurses. Shouldn’t we forsake the misguided careers of insurance professionals, not only for the 45,000 lost lives every year for lack of health care, but also for the high cost and fiscal deterioration of our country due to the exorbitant waste, fraud and spending on health care due to a corrupt monopolistic health insurance industry.

Parts of this clip will be included in a feature documentary, Got Healthcare?