This weekend was a testimony to the strength of the community as a whole when organizing pools all the local resources. The Health Care Rally effort led by Organizing for America was joined by practically every local democratic club and organization including the Travis County Democratic Party and the strength of Texans for Obama. The success was particularly due to the additional support lent by our elected officials, Chair Andy Brown, Senator Kirk Watson, Mayor Lee Leffingwell, Congressman Lloyd Doggett, Council Member Sheryl Cole, Former Representative Ann Kitchen, who all put their names and support behind this important issue. I'd like to think that the rest of us, the candidates, grassroots organizers and volunteers who also supported this effort helped to build the crowd which has been estimated between 600 to 1000. This was the biggest rally in the country, again proving to the Obama administration that you can't mess with Texas.
In addition to the incredible success of this rally, I personally worked with friends in a rummage sale to benefit an Austin family in dire need due to health care crisis. The outpouring of support was awe-inspiring. We had hoped to raise about $1K at best, but when the day was done, it became clear that we more than doubled our expectations and was able to give $2400 to this very needy family. The donations poured in, the street was packed for 2 blocks in each direction, and we were all shocked and amazed all day by the generosity and love in this community.
In one day, I witnessed the very best of our community. I am very proud to be a Texan.
If you want to know what's in the health care bill currently being considered by Congress, the best thing to do is to read the bill.
Now, the bill (H.R.3200, otherwise known as "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009") as introduced in the house is very large, but since the most controversial part of this is a provision for a "public option" for health care coverage, that is the part we examine here.
Where to Find It The public option for health care coverage is found in Title II, Subtitle B of H.R. 3200.
The Context of Title II Title II itself establishes a Health Insurance Exchange. Within Title II, Subtitle A defines the Exchange, Subtitle B defines the Public Health Insurance Option, and Subtitle C defines Individual Affordability Credits which help reduce the premium cost of individuals based on their income.
My family have lived in Texas for a century, I went to college there, and I'm not sure any of us would have predicted that the Lone Star State would become one of our nation's real unionizing hotspots.
But it has.
Over the last few years, a genuine national nurses movement has coalesced, giving RNs a collective voice at long last. 150,000 nurses have come together in a new form of patient advocacy.
And now Texas nurses are building their own nurses movement, from the ground up, with NNOC-Texas, the National Nurses Organizing Committee-Texas. Texas has become one of the real hotspots for the national nurses movement, and so far over 10,000 RNs (!!) have participated in some form of activism, whether that's organizing their facility, marching on the state Capitol, or phonebanking legislators.
Fresh on the heels of his successful 50 state strategy, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean has today launched a nationwide drive to get grass-roots Americans activated to support real health care reform. Contrary to what the health insurance industry would have you believe, millions of Americans want and need the option to buy-in to Medicare-type insurance coverage because they can't get or can't afford private health insurance coverage. Dr. Dean clearly stated that without the Medicare option for any American, we won't have meaningful health care reform. Health insurance rates have escalated dramatically for years now, and many Americans who have lost long-held jobs, or whose medical history is not pure enough have found themselves unable to qualify for any comprehensive coverage or else they simply cannot afford the monthly premiums or the high deductibles.
As President Obama has stated many times, if you like your present health insurance policy, you can keep it. Neither The President nor Governor Dean are opposed to your right to keep your current insurance policy. But if you need a different choice-better coverage or a more affordable option, a Medicare-type policy provided by the Federal Government should be available for you and your family.
Tonight, I spent two or three minutes on-line at Dr. Howard Dean's new web site
www.standwithDrDean.com and I signed his petition to demand a public healthcare option like Medicare for any American who needs it. You can watch his video on-line and read the petition, but I hope for your sake that you will sign his petition and join thousands of Americans in demanding the option that will make health insurance affordable again for every working American. You don't have to contribute any money and you don't have to volunteer anything, but I hope you'll feel the same way I do...This is one of the most important issues facing Americans, even in this year of crisis upon crisis. I contributed to Dr. Dean's organization and I signed up to volunteer because I'm sick and tired of having my health and my family's health and my ten employee's health jeopardized by some insurance company's greed.
It's up to you! Do you deserve decent health coverage? Are you sick and tired of being jerked around by some faceless insurance company bureaucrat? Don't be fooled by the insurance lobby, this isn't about socialism, it's democracy in action! Step up, demand real reform! Demand a REAL CHOICE! Sign the petition!
The tragic end of medical insurance as we know it is upon us if John Conyers' HR 676 is passed. Representative Conyers proposes to provide health care to all whether they have proven themselves worthy by having a job with a company large enough to have health benefits or not. The proposal will weaken America since no American adult or child will have the character building experience of having to forgo health care because they can't pay for it.
What's worse about the proposal is that thousands of insurance company claims deniers will be out of a job and heaven forefend given priority in federal hiring as claims processors handling payments. On top of that Congressman Conyers proposes to pay for this debacle by raising our payroll taxes 3.3% while eliminating the insurance premium. A small tax increase in place of a large insurance premium; why that's positively Socialist.
I urge all readers to contact their congressman to demand that he reject HR 676 on the grounds that America needs healthy insurance companies more that it needs healthy citizens.
(Dr. Sophia Yen of the Stanford University Medical Center weighs in on one of the biggest issues in this year's primary. I am sure this will start a heated comment war but I promoted it because, in the midst of the horse race talk we all love to read about it, health care is one of the principal policy distinctions between Senator Obama and Senator Clinton. - promoted by David Mauro)
As a physician and patient advocate, I know the problems with healthcare. Universal healthcare in which everyone is covered and we get rid of the middle-man (the insurance companies) is the solution. But the 2nd best solution is at least "everyone is in the system." The 3rd best solution is "everyone has the option to be in the system." The least optimal is what we have now. Barack chose the 3rd best solution. Edwards and Hillary chose the 2nd best.
The key question is whether to let people opt out. Scholars in the field and physicians who study the problem know that in order to do good, you cannot let people opt out. Otherwise, it increases the cost to the taxpayer via people going to the ER and we having to bail them out of bankruptcy when that happens, and those with insurance sucking up the cost of their ER visits.
Dallas Fort Worth Concerned Citizens Panel ? 2504 W. Park Row Suite B5, Box 128 Pantego, TX. 76013 ? dfwccp@gmail.com
Are Dallas and Fort Worth Hospitals Safe?
Is Profit Placed Before Care?
Does Your Hospital Have Safe Ratios?
If you can not answer all three of these questions then you and your family need to come to the public hearing on safe nurse to patient ratios. Dallas Fort Worth Concerned Citizens Panel is holding an open public hearing on the issues of safe nurse to patient ratios to answer the three questions above and to openly discuss this issue.
The organizations invited to provide testimony are The Texas Hospital Association, Dallas County Hospital Board, Tarrant County Hospital Board, Dallas Regional Health Center Mesquite, National Nurses Organizing Committee, RNs, and Both Dallas and Tarrant County Commissioners Courts. The National Nurses Organizing Committee and several area RNs have accepted the invitation to testify and will testify at this hearing on safe-patient ratios. It is important for citizens to show up and hear the testimony and why our hospitals are unsafe. Citizens are welcome to submit testimony on problems they or their family has had at hospitals.
Come hear why RNs are in constant threat of termination for simply standing up on behalf of their patients in the name of providing the best quality care.
The Hearing will convene at 10 am on Aug. 15th 2007 at 1527 North Galloway Drive in Mesquite, Texas at the Mesquite Fine Arts Center. The Panel will take testimony from 10am-1pm at the latest and the will deliberate for until around 2 pm and render an opinion. During panel deliberations, Registered Nurses and NNOC Representatives will take questions and comments in a town-hall style public forum. This will be an excellent opportunity for the public, Nurses, and the NNOC to examine ways in which we can make sure that patients get the optimal care that they deserve.
The Children's Health Insurance Program is that rarest of government creations -- a joint federal-state effort that actually works to reduce the number of uninsured children in our country. No wonder Congressional leaders are trying to expand it -- and the White House is trying to dismantle it.
The question for us is this: will our Congressman join the bi-partisan effort to strengthen CHIP? Or will he stick with the short-sighted ideological opposition of the Bush Administration and leave millions of children without health insurance?
