The Okcitykid – A Peaceful Vet

Paul Barrow sent a message to the members of United Progressives.

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Subject: Statement By Dr. Margaret Flowers From the Press Conference on Single Payer Today

Good Morning! I am Dr. Margaret Flowers. I am a pediatrician and the Congressional Fellow for Physicians for a National Health Program. I also serve on the steering committee of the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care and on the board of Healthcare-Now, a national single payer grassroots organization.

Members of Physicians for a National Health Program (known as PNHP) educate and advocate for a single payer national health system, also known as Medicare for All. PNHP performs ground breaking research on the health crisis and the need for fundamental reform and contributes scholarly articles to peer-reviewed medical journals. PNHP takes pride in providing information that can inform legislators and the public about the reasons why Medicare for All is the optimal solution to provide necessary medical treatment to everyone in a way that controls health care costs. PNHP does not take a position on how congress members should vote on the legislation that is currently proceeding through congress. We do provide information to members about whether the legislation is likely to be effective and how it compares to a national single payer health system.
We share the growing sense of desperation among patients and providers across the nation, desperation which has been heightened by the economic crisis. Like you, we are hungry for change. We believe that we should act based on the evidence of what types of health reform have been most effective in the United States. Review of the current health insurance reform legislation reveals that it resembles health reforms that have recently been tried and have failed at the state level.

It is for the reasons listed below that we ask our legislators to start from scratch in order to create health reform that addresses the fundamental problems with health care in this nation and creates a health system that is of similar quality to those in the top industrialized nations.
1. During the time that it will take for the health insurance legislation to begin (2013 in the House version and 2014 in the Senate version), tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Americans will die.
2. Once the insurance reform takes effect, people will still be left without health insurance. Whether it is the 17 million left out of the House version or the 24 million left out of the Senate version, we find this unacceptable. We know that the actual number of uninsured people is likely to be higher than these estimates and we know that people without insurance have a 40% higher risk of death than those who have insurance.
3. Medical bankruptcies will continue to occur as families will face out-of-pocket costs on covered services of up to $10,000 in addition to the cost of premiums and the cost of uncovered services. The average medical debt that causes insured families to become bankrupt is $18,000.
4. People who are uninsured will suffer the further indignity of being forced to pay a fine which may be as high as 2.5% of their income (House version).

5. The number of people who are underinsured will increase with this legislation. People will be required to purchase health insurance or face a penalty. There is no guarantee that premiums will be affordable even for those who qualify for federal subsidies. Health insurers have already predicted that the cost of premiums will rise because they are being required to stop the practices of excluding pre-existing conditions and rescissions. The public insurance is estimated to be more expensive than private insurance plans. A similar reform in Massachusetts has resulted in a rise of patients who forego needed care because they cannot afford the co-pays and deductibles once they have paid for their premiums.

6. People will continue to be consigned to only receiving the quality of care that they can afford. Instead of a standardized benefit plan that covers all necessary care, people will have to choose from a tiered set of plans. The least expensive plans will cover only 60% of necessary care and patients will be required to pay the balance.

7. The legislation will not control health care costs and will in fact increase the waste in health care spending. The regulation of insurance companies, which has failed to date and is predicted to fail again by industry whistleblowers, will be expensive to enforce. And the “exchanges” will have to be created from scratch. The exchange will add another level of bureaucracy which in Massachusetts has added a 4% charge to each insurance premium. Unfortunately, this legislation does nothing to reclaim the hundreds of billions of dollars that are currently wasted on administration, paperwork and marketing for the hundreds of health plans in existence.

8. The legislation transfers hundreds of billions of public dollars to private insurance companies. People will be mandated to purchase health insurance whether they can afford it or not, so the insurance companies benefit by having millions of new enrollees. In addition, between $447 and $605 billion in public dollars (depending on the senate or house version) will be given to the private insurers in the forms of subsidies to help people purchase their defective product.
9. The legislation protects the outrageous profits of the pharmaceutical corporations. The majority of Americans will not see any improvement in the costs of medications and the pharmaceutical corporations have already raised prices on brand name prescriptions by 9% this year. Biotech firms receive a windfall 12 year patent on new pharmaceuticals.

10. The legislation continues to allow discrimination based on age and immigration status. Older enrollees can be charged up to twice as much as younger enrollees. And enrollees will be required to prove citizenship in order to receive subsidies. Non-citizens will be required to bear the full cost of purchasing insurance.

The current health insurance reform legislation passing through Congress amounts to a massive bailout of the profit-making health industries, which will enrich them and increase their ability to lobby and otherwise influence legislators in the future. At the same time, patients will receive little in the way of long-lasting protection or ability to afford needed health care. The legislation is designed to fail and in the meantime, will waste billions of dollars and delay the process of creating effective health reform.

We call on Congress to start from scratch. We believe that we have the resources in the United States to create a national health system that will improve the health of the people of our nation. We believe that being ranked 37th in the world for health outcomes is unacceptable and that we, as a nation, can do much better than this. We believe that improving and expanding Medicare to all people is the simplest and quickest way to achieve our goal of universal and financially-sustainable health care.

As far as the health insurance legislation in congress goes, we support Senator Sanders’ substitution amendment which will substitute public financing for the current complicated and wasteful patchwork of financing. We urge our senators to vote “yes” on the Sanders’ amendment.

No matter what happens in Congress this year, we will continue to build the Medicare for all movement until we reach the day when all who live in the United States receive the same health security that is a right in other industrialized nations. We look forward to the day when doctors are free to focus on the needs of their patients without interference by health insurance administrators. We welcome all people who support health care reform to join with us in this movement. Together, we will succeed.

For Those of You on Your Way to Church This Morning …a note from Michael Moore

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

Friends,

I’d like to have a word with those of you who call yourselves Christians (Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Bill Maherists, etc. can read along, too, as much of what I have to say, I’m sure, can be applied to your own spiritual/ethical values).

In my new film I speak for the first time in one of my movies about my own spiritual beliefs. I have always believed that one’s religious leanings are deeply personal and should be kept private. After all, we’ve heard enough yammerin’ in the past three decades about how one should “behave,” and I have to say I’m pretty burned out on pieties and platitudes considering we are a violent nation who invades other countries and punishes our own for having the audacity to fall on hard times.

I’m also against any proselytizing; I certainly don’t want you to join anything I belong to. Also, as a Catholic, I have much to say about the Church as an institution, but I’ll leave that for another day (or movie).

Amidst all the Wall Street bad guys and corrupt members of Congress exposed in “Capitalism: A Love Story,” I pose a simple question in the movie: “Is capitalism a sin?” I go on to ask, “Would Jesus be a capitalist?” Would he belong to a hedge fund? Would he sell short? Would he approve of a system that has allowed the richest 1% to have more financial wealth than the 95% under them combined?

I have come to believe that there is no getting around the fact that capitalism is opposite everything that Jesus (and Moses and Mohammed and Buddha) taught. All the great religions are clear about one thing: It is evil to take the majority of the pie and leave what’s left for everyone to fight over. Jesus said that the rich man would have a very hard time getting into heaven. He told us that we had to be our brother’s and sister’s keepers and that the riches that did exist were to be divided fairly. He said that if you failed to house the homeless and feed the hungry, you’d have a hard time finding the pin code to the pearly gates.

I guess that’s bad news for us Americans. Here’s how we define “Blessed Are the Poor”: We now have the highest unemployment rate since 1983. There’s a foreclosure filing once every 7.5 seconds. 14,000 people every day lose their health insurance.

At the same time, Wall Street bankers (“Blessed Are the Wealthy”?) are amassing more and more loot — and they do their best to pay little or no income tax (last year Goldman Sachs’ tax rate was a mere 1%!). Would Jesus approve of this? If not, why do we let such an evil system continue? It doesn’t seem you can call yourself a Capitalist AND a Christian — because you cannot love your money AND love your neighbor when you are denying your neighbor the ability to see a doctor just so you can have a better bottom line. That’s called “immoral” — and you are committing a sin when you benefit at the expense of others.

When you are in church this morning, please think about this. I am asking you to allow your “better angels” to come forward. And if you are among the millions of Americans who are struggling to make it from week to week, please know that I promise to do what I can to stop this evil — and I hope you’ll join me in not giving up until everyone has a seat at the table.

Thanks for listening. I’m off to Mass in a few hours. I’ll be sure to ask the priest if he thinks J.C. deals in derivatives or credit default swaps. I mean, after all, he must’ve been good at math. How else did he divide up two loaves of bread and five pieces of fish equally amongst 5,000 people? Either he was the first socialist or his disciples were really bad at packing lunch. Or both.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

Drinking my bottle of wine and feeling fine.

I’m not supposed to, but what the hell, it’s a drug.  No different than the drugs that those people with degrees give you when you’re feeling bad.

Love, get caught and you’ll do time.  Don’t dare tell no one, because it’s a crime.  What kind of FUCKING world do we live in.  Not the kind of world I want to live in.  A place where people hurt you when you are kind.  Because they don’t like themselves, so it’s not fine that you like them, to them, its a crime.  Fine, I’m a criminal, lock me up, please.

I don’t want to live in this world, but I ain’t got no choice.  Tried to die but lived anyways.

Ok, it will be ok.  It’s just going to take some time.  You probably don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, that’s ok, this too will pass.

Love

Roger

The Self Righteous
And The Righteous

There will always be earthquakes
Rainstorms and hurricanes
Changing the earth we are living on
But the inside
stays the same

And we
On the outside
Change constantly
Making ourselves
What we want others to see
But the inside
stays the same

Who accepts their feelings
and lives them out
Who hides them inside
trying to snuff them out
Who’s wrong
And who’s right

The body gets old and dies
But the feelings last forever
for all of us

By: Roger Harkness

One Hundred Times

If I fell in love one hundred times
I would be hurt one hundred times
But I would learn one hundred things
Be one hundred times stronger
And be one hundred years older

Love is a process of learning
Turning and changing
Growing and knowing

It’s an adventure out at sea
Fighting a freggin storm
Trying to keep her on course
It’s a million different stars in the sky
Seeing both sides of a rainbow
Landing ashore in a foreign land

There is no way
I would turn love away

By:  Roger Harkness

God Is Near

Lying in the darkness of midnight
I’m suddenly gripped with fear
I know that God is near
My heart begins to pound
My chest beings to hurt
And I wonder if I’m gonna be taken away
Don’t really know why I’m afraid
Maybe because you’re so great
Or maybe because I’ve made a few mistakes
But as Jesus sat with the sinners
Please stay with me
For as long as you may
Because I know as long as you’re with me
I’m okay
Knowing that you love me
And would do nothing to hurt me

By:  Roger Harkness

******************************

Written in Antarctica, second time I have had this experience, first time was on Afterlookout, have poem about that too.

As A Child

This is a great big world
So much to feel
So much to learn
All I want to do is have fun
A rainbow is magnificent
A dark pit has something to be feared
I just want to explore
Learning to dance
I love to sing
Wishing everyone was my friend

Everybody can’t have everything
Toys aren’t for free
But if you cant have everything
You can learn everything
Before you lies life’s lesson plan
Explore it like a child

By:  Roger Harkness

********************

I wrote this in Antarctica about 1988.

A Horse Called Pride

I saw a horse
Went by the name of “Pride”
So sick inside

Prancing across the sky
Couldn’t see
Blind to reality
Figured he was all there was
Being independent
That was his confinement
Putting himself up
Laid him down

I saw that horse called pride
So sick inside
I watched it die

By: ?Roger Harkness

**********************************************

This was one of the first poems I wrote. I believe I was 15 when I wrote this, which was a long time ago unfortunately.

I would say that this was a good bit of imagination, but actually, this is simply a dream I had and I wrote it down just about the way I dreampt it. I interpreted the dream to mean that pride will make you sick and die and us men unfortunately have a real problem with pride and I was to recognize this and not let it rule my life.

Where Does The Love Go

Love is not what you think it is
and braking up never really is
Like the water that rises in the sky
and comes down again
The rain only stops
but never goes away
and always comes back
another day
And it is without the rain
the earth becomes lifeless and dry
Though it might hurt you
and make you cry
Be thankful for the rain
without it you might die

You might think it is over
until you discover
it comes over you again
And don’t you fret
if it makes you wet
It is the moisture
that most all of life grows by

By: ?Roger Harkness

************************

I wrote this last night attending my son’s graduation with my x wife.? Trust me when I say that Love is not something we make.? We vainly believe that we love other people but the truth is, the love was always there we just decided to notice.? Because love is not a person, place or thing and its not something we do, but something that comes over us.

I think I’m pretty smart when it comes to love but I only know a portion of the basics.? It astounds me and catches me off guard.? It is my guess that love is a force that binds life together and that is just a guess.

“She asked me if I still drink herbal tea and I said some, but mostly just coffee as I pretended not to notice that she was remembering the first night we spent together, a conversation I don’t believe her current husband would appreciate.”

Basically, we don’t decide to love someone and live with them happily ever after and if any of you out there have failed at this fairy tale that we have been taught?? They might tell you that you have personality problems, issues with your parents, a problem with commitments.? Well, don’t beat yourself up, I’m here to tell you they are full of SHIT.? Any of you out there who have succeeded with this fairytale, well I’m happy for you and hope you are happy and you’re not staying together because you’re supposed to, and if you are happy, you are the blessed exception. When it comes to love, there are no rules, when we understand this, we can live more peacefully together, throwing out the fairytale and not blaming ourselves and each other for not abiding by the rules that someone else created for us, because LOVE, my fellow readers does not follow rules.? When we throw out the fairytale, we might actually have fewer divorces.? You know, because when you love someone else, you’re supposed to get a divorce because you can’t love two people, for some crazy reason that’s a crime and THEY will tell you that you have to make a choice.? What they want us to do is pretend and not be real, that’s what they’re telling you.? I’m telling you, they are insane, they are the ones who need mental help, they are fucking crazy, I’m sure there is a pill for this mania of theirs. Be real, be yourself, and don’t beat yourself up for it or anybody else.? Stand up for your right to be you and for those who don’t like it, that’s their problem, don’t make it yours.

Dear Roger,

$7.76 Trillion.

That is what Bloomberg reports has been committed on behalf of the American taxpayer to bailout America’s finance system. This includes spending by the Treasury, Federal Reserve and FDIC.

- The amount is equal to half the value of everything produced in the United States last year.

- It is $24,000 for every man, woman and child in America. That is nearly $100,000 for a family of four.

- It’s nine times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

- It is enough money to pay off more than half the country’s mortgages, but bankruptcies have continued despite the bailout.

We do not even know where all of those funds have gone. The taxpayer is putting up a King’s ransom and not being told who is receiving it. We guarantee the debts of banks and are not being told what collateral is provided or who is receiving the funds. Before receiving the bailout funds, Treasury Secretary Paulson promised transparency. But, Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke says that such transparency would be “counterproductive.”

All of this money and yet foreclosures, bankruptcy and unemployment are all up; the stock market, consumer spending and housing prices are down. Pouring tax dollars into banks is not working.

We don’t know where the bottom is. There is no evidence that the bailout is working and already, as Barry Ritholtz, author of “Bailout Nation,” points out, the bailout has cost more than the Marshall Plan, Louisiana Purchase, moonshot, S&L bailout, Korean War, New Deal, the Iraq war, the Vietnam war, and NASA’s lifetime budget – COMBINED! In fact, the bailout is almost double:

- Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion

- Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion

- Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion

- S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion

- Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion

- The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)

- Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion

- Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion

- NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion

You’d think for $7.7 trillion we’d get health care for all, tax relief or free college education! But Americans got none of that. Is this a wise use of tax dollars? Are there better ways to use this money? Will this trickle down approach work this time, even though it has failed in the past?

We’re doing two things:

First we are working to break the bailout. Join us at BreakTheBailout.com and pledge to help Break the Bailout. On December 7, we take the first step toward taking back our economy and transforming it into an economy that puts the people’s interests first. Pledge today and help build a movement that will stop trickle down Wall Street economics and build the economy from the bottom up.? If you have already pledged – forward this email to your friends, colleagues and neighbors and urge them to get involved.

Second, we will out forward a Prosperity Agenda – a vision of what kind of economy America should have – and we will advocate for it.? We would like your thoughts on what you want out of the economy. We are at a crossroads where a new energy economy is going to be developed. How should it be different than the current economy? Give me your thoughts at KZeese@earthlink.net.

Acting alone, we can achieve nothing; acting together, we can change everything. We need to act together because change is urgently needed.

Sincerely,

Kevin Zeese

Executive Director