Health Care's "Perfect Storm"
Yesterday, the Washington Post reported on a recent survey by The Commonwealth Fund on the increasing strain that the cost of health care is placing on working families.
The study reports that 79 million American adults have accrued health care-related debt or are struggling to pay their medical bills and that 28% of Americans were uninsured for some time during the previous year. What the study's authors call a "perfect storm" of economic troubles affects all income levels, but hits families making under $20,000 per year the hardest-- over half in that income bracket reported going without health insurance.
The lack of affordable health care is not just a problem for the growing number of Americans facing the choice between paying for a doctor's visit and paying for food or mortgage payments-- it is a problem we must all tackle, head on. We deserve guaranteed health care coverage, and I will continue to push for it everywhere I go.
To read the study by The Commonwealth Fund, click here.
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The problem is
That this Country has NO "Health Care System.." What we have is an "Illness Maintenance System" Any Health Care System worthy of the name would emphasize prevention above palliation, and CURE over "Treatment." There exist cures for every human ailment, and every one of them is denigrated or denied application by the "Poison, cut and burn" E$tabli$hment. Witness the fact that there are a dozen or more well-known modalities for curing cancer, and the cancer establishment will not only not use them, but denigrates their use and will go so far as to punish physicians who have the temerity to cure the disease with an unapproved method. The problem we have is that there is no money in cures. The money is all in palliatives. If you treat a symptom and suppress it, the chemical you use may cause other symptoms characteristic of a different ailment, et cetera. So, by the time that a person reaches my advanced age (if he is so lucky), he is taking, on the average, over THIRTY prescription drugs, one of which may well kill him, or the combination may destroy his mind as it did my mother's. The fact is that insurance is a losing game entirely. As structured, it delivers you bound into the hands of the plutocrats whose interest is in keeping you sick!
A real health care system would emphasize healthy lifestyle and discourage junk food and destructive life choices. It would authorize EVERY healing modality and discourage palliatives. Of course, with the current emphasis on the almighty dollar, that is impossible, but merely allowing total Health Freedom, authorizing all forms of complimentary and alternative medicine and using the ancient Chinese system (publication of results!) would go a long way toward making the Nation a more healthy one. The fact that we spend more on so-called "Health Care" than any other Nation, and are dead last in overall health should tell anyone who is interested that we have something hitched up backwards. I could go on for a book length tirade, but I won't. The fact is that in order to stay healthy, keep yourself out of the hand$ of the Medical - Pharmaceutical E$tabli$hment! Universal Health Care is a laudable goal, but delivering the citizenry bound into the hands of ONE brand of treatment, one which emphasizes palliation and suppression of symptoms over cure, is a losing proposition.
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"White Paper" Drafted before NIE even Requested
PR Push for Iraq War Preceded Intelligence Findings
"White Paper" Drafted before NIE even Requested
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 254
Posted - August 22, 2008
For more information contact:
John Prados - (202) 994-7000
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I M P E A C H
If Pakistan Can... Why Can't America?
We can - - -
But we won't. I am afraid that Felix Rohatyn, who owns the Speaker of the House, and God alone knows how many other Democrats, wants the destruction of the United States as a viable Nation, and so favors an attack on Iran, which will lead to our demolition. I am a singularly fortunate individual. I was born before the depression, and lived through the glory days of the United States, when we were the envy and ideal of the World, before we turned our government over to the plutocrats and oligarchs. Had we had total Federal financing of all Federal Offices, we might have escaped the evil effects of the monetarization of politics. As it is, every one of our Representatives is bought and paid for by special interests, and very few of these interests are in the Public Interest. I don't have too many years left, and I feel that although I may witness the destruction of the Nation I love, at least I will not have to live too many years after it sinks to third world status, or is totally destroyed by an unwanted war. It's been a good life, and I've enjoyed it - up until 2001. Even Nixon had some regard for the Country! Bu$h, however, is either completely insane, or is consciously working for the destruction of the nation he allegedly leads.. Nancy Pelosi, being a slave to Rohatyn, is complicit in the degradation of the Country. But now it is much too late for her to remove anyone from tthe committee chairmanship, so now is not too late to start the impeachment process. A President who is being impeached is not in position to wage stupid wars, but the impeachment has to come first so that there will be no backlash by supporters of the Nation who confuse the Nation with its chief executioner. Now would be a good time to start impeachment proceedings, because it would defuse a lot of the crap that the Rethuglicans are dishing out - don't wait until we have more blood committed in SWasia, and definitely do not wait for $10.00 a gallon gasoline, which would be the immediate result of an attack on Iran.
Go suck an egg asshole.
In a nation where societal capital determines if, and/or, when your 9/11 call is responded to, it is no longer about "coverage", it's about class. Who cares if you have coverage when your 9/11 calls go unanswered?
I received another phone call last night from a friends family, asking what they can do about the fact that they called 9/11 four times to inform them that my friend Kevin Cook was having his second heart attack in two weeks. Finally, they called a cab who showed up within a minute.
By imbedding Franklin County's 9/11 system in the same building as our local gestapo, they've created a system that allows them to profile the callers who seek help. If you've been a pain in the ass, a criminal, or any other type of undesirable, you will probably die like my friend Kevin.
Is this the type of "coverage" you're talking about Mr. Conyers? It wasn't a lack of coverage that killed Kevin, it was the fact that healthcare and emergency personel weren't about to get off their lazy asses for the sake of someone like him.
No wonder America's military has no problem justifying the retribution bombing and killing of innocent Afghan women and children.
But what can we expect? Practically speaking, with Democrats like Conyers/Pelosi in charge of legally deterring this type of activity, we can expect a lot more innocent victim class Americans to die.
BTW, the 9/11 workers who ignored Kevin's calls for help, have their offices in a building that is a stone's throw away from the prison where an inmate was ignored as he had seizures for two days, then died. At least in that case, the nurse who laughingly declared that he was faking, lost her nurses license for three years, and is no longer allowed to "practice nursing" in the prison.
Personally, I think she should have been charged with criminally negligent homicide. But since her boss was the Daddy of my County's DA, she'll probably receive the local version of America's Congressional Medal of Freedom Award.
Forcing Americans to tythe to whatever politically well connected insurance company pays Congress the most bribe money, is only part of the equation.
The hardest part will be forcing the healthcare industry to stop looking at poor people as a threat to their way of life, and start treating them with the compassion they show to their race horses.
If you kick a horse or a dog, you can and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But allowing a human to suffer for two days as you listen to him die, is A-OK?
Once upon a time, the judiciary committee would have been offended by professionals like these. But that was before a man named Conyers goosestepped his way to the chairmanship.
What good is coverage if the educated elitists in charge of healthcare, look at us as an impediment to their future happiness? It isn't in THEIR best interests, for US to live.
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