Single Payer Gains New Ground In The Battle For Healthcare Reform In Pennsylvania - Society - Politics

Our grassroots organizing campaign to get an economic impact study to pass HB 1660, a Single Payer, guaranteed healthcare program for all Pennsylvanians, also called "Family and Business Healthcare Security Act" has reached higher groundas three separate events converge that bode extremely well for the eventual passage of the bill.

Here is a summery of these three events:

1) Independence Blue Cross of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh based Highmark Blue Shield were poised to merge and take over health insurance coverage here in Pennsylvania.

But both companies withdrew the merger for reasons that had to do with the fact that the merger would reduce competition for the health care dollar plus an unwillingness on the part of both companies to give up the "Blue Cross-Blue Shield" brand each company spend seventy years developing.

Bottom line, the merger was not going to be approved very likely because of activist opposition by groups such as Healthcare for All Pa.

The merger got lost in the squabble over all of these details.

Single Payer activists are confident that the failure of this merger will dramatically boost the prospects that the Pennsylvania State legislature will pass HB 1660/SB 300, Universal Healthcare, the "Family and Business Healthcare Security Act" that Governor Rendell repeatedly said he will sign.

Executive Director of Healthcare For All Pennsylvania, Chuck Pennacchio, responded to the January 22, 2009 news by saying," The dramatic defeat of the previously "untouchable" health insurance giants signals a power shift in Harrisburg that nobody saw coming., Added Pennacchio, "Healthcare for All Pennsylvania's 8,000 members have spent much of the last year fighting thismonopoly merger, while advocating for the proven Single Payer Solution--both on the basis of economics, human decency and simple common sense. Today we are victorious in blocking the expansion of an industry that causes the loss of 31 cents out of every healthcare dollar: an industry that profits off our suffering, and puts 95% of us at risk for medical bankruptcy should we experience a medical catastrophe. Having achieved the first of our two goals, we are now poised to enact the law called "Family and Business Healthcare Security Act."

The "Family and Business Healthcare Security Act " will establish a healthcare policy in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by the following terms: publicly-funded, privately provided, guaranteed, comprehensive, quality, affordable healthcare for all temporary and legal Pennsylvanian citizens, plus migrant farm workers and out of state students.

Every body In. Nobody out.

2) Philadelphia City Council unanimously voted to support HB 1660 and SB 300.

Passage of HB 1660/SB 300 would give the City of Philadelphia a estimated $500 million surplus, more than enough to cover Mayor Nutter's projected budget shortfall of 2 billion dollars over the next 5 years,

Additionally, HB 1660/SB 300 would guarantee access to comprehensive health care at much less cost than what average families are now paying, generate thousands of new healthcare delivery jobs, save an average business that provides healthcare, an estimated 25%-60% on health care costs a year, reduce property tax, (in theory) cut auto-insurance rates, (in theory) reduce worker's compensation costs, retainexisting businesses and encourage the development of new businesses, and reverse the physician and nursing shortages facing cities and rural areas all across the State.

3) Healthcare For All Pennsylvania are now organizing a state wide blitz to pass HB 1660/SB 300 legislation.

Eighteen local and regional organizers met last weekend at the Council of Churches Building in Harrisburg for training on how to pass theHB 1660 and SB 300.

We learned proven organizing stradegies and tactics at the meeting for enacting Pennsylvania's "Family and Business HealthcareSecurity Act."

Pennsylvania Senate Bill 300 and House Bill 1660 will soon be reintroduced in the legislature and enjoy unique political advantages, placing the legislation on the inside track among universal healthcare proposals across the nation.

Pennacchio said at the meeting, " Pennsylvania led the charge that established the nation's independence from British tyranny in the eighteenth century. Today we declare our independence from profit-centured health insurance company tyrants who systematically highjack health care decisions and funding to maximize profits, perks, and CEO salaries."

Workshops included education, organization, media and social media outreach, internal and external communication and fund raising.

Unique public advantages include: promised signature by Governor Rendell upon passage of the bill; funding authority contained within the legislation itself; bi-partisan co-sponsorship of the bill; overwhelming bi-partison support for an economic impact study on HB 1660/ SB 300; public opinion support of legislative goals (68%, 5/1/08, Quinnipaic Survey of Pa).

Thanks to Chuck Pennacchio for providing me the information to write this article! And thanks to Chuck for his never-ending persistence in achieving healthcare to all Pennsylvania citizens.

Thanks also to all members of Healthcare For All Pa, and a special thanks to Jerry Policoff, who with Chuck, pioneers this crucial and important work.

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Rural Republican Caucus Public Hearing About Guaranteed healthcare For All/Single Payer In PA - Business

Healthcare for All Pennsylvania held a public hearing on HB 1660: the Family and Business Healthcare Security Act on 3/18/09 at the State Capitol Building in Harrisburg, PA.

Our audience was the Pennsylvania Rural Republican Healthcare Caucus, per invitation of caucus chair Representative Kerry Benninghoff, Republican of Centre County, Northern Pennsylvania.

The testifiers were Dr. Bill Davidson, (cardiologist), Alan Jacobs, (business leader), Janice Horn, (League Of Women Voters), Wes Fisher, (medical student), Chuch Pennacchio (Executive Director Of Healthcare PA), and me, Kate Loving Shenk, (Nurse Healer).

Everyone gave eloquent testimony and the Caucus was intensely interested, leaning forward, and listening and nodding.

Dr. Davidson said, "The American people need to send a clear message to our legislators. In order for people to speak with a clear voice, they must grow wise to the propaganda that has distracted and divided them in the past.

"For instance, is providing healthcare to everyone a Communist Plot or simply a good idea that appeals to everyone of good will?

"Do we understand that as in Canada, where most of the care is delivered by private physician, a single payer system here would give everyone their choice of privately practicing physicians in hospitals? "Do we allow the pharmaceutical industry to hold us hostage with exorbitant prices or do we group negotiate with them like the Veteran's Administration, who get medicines for 40% less?

"Do we accept the mantra that raising taxes is always a negative, or do we look at the bottom line that shows that after eliminating premiums, co-pays, deductibles etc, most of us will pay less that we do now?

"Do we accept the lies about waiting lines causing premature deaths in other countries or examine the facts that show that the medical outcomes in these countries are no worse than ours while their elderly live longer and their infants are healthier?

"Do we accept that the loss of a job means you lose your medical insurance and go bankrupt, and that often, we lose a job when we are sick and most in need of health insurance? Or do we provide a system like the rest of the industrialized world where employment is not connected to health insurance, and being stuck in a dead end job because of "health benefits" is not a reality nor was it ever considered a necessity?

"Do we accept the notion that the government can't do anything right including Medicare with a 3% overhead or stay with Blue Cross and Aetna with their 20% overhead, multimillion CEO's and pre-existing conditions?"

Dr. Davidson finished by saying that the medical insurance industry is hard at work to control the dialogue regarding healthcare reform in this country. Any discussion that leaves out Single Payer will also be leaving out middle America.

The choice is ours but the longer we delay, the more we suffer.

Medical student Wes Fisher is the regional director of AMSA, American Medical Association, which is an independent association for medical students in this country.

Amsa stands behind Guaranteed Healthcare For All. It has specifically supported a publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare delivery system.

A large number of medical students commuted to the State Pennsylvania Legislature twice in 2008 to rally and lobby for HB 1660 and SB 400.

Wes said he has accumulated a $300,000 debt. This debt combined with the infamous malpractice suit reputation in PA makes it easy for many if not most of our medical students to leave PA and take jobs elsewhere. The retention rate of medical students is quite low, around 7%.

Wes said he would happily stay in Pennsylvania with passage of HB 1660/SB 400, as would many if not all of his student colleagues, due to real tort reform already spelled out in the bill(s) and a system which provides healthcare including dental care to all.

My testimony included the many scenarios I have encountered over the years as a practicing RN and CRNP (Certified Nurse Practitioner).

One night I was working in a Trauma Unit, when a recently retired man came in after suffering from a major stroke when he stopped taking his blood pressure medicine.

He stopped taking it because his health insurance inexplicably dropped him due to a glitch in the system right after he retired.

I said to the nurses there, "Is this a rare event, people getting cut off health insurance after they retire?"

And they said, "It happens all the time."

I told this story to the caucus, as well as many other shockers.

I also told the caucus that this is not a political issue.

It is good for business.

It is good for the economy.

And it is the right thing to do.

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The Health Care We Deserve - Health

The Health Care We Deserve

The givens: our country over decades has jerry-built a health care "system" that is unfair and inefficient. We pay far more for far less care than any other industrialized nation. And we have forty million people uninsured for whom a major illness can mean mortgaging a home, not sending a kid to college, or worse.

Now the country is finally beginning to address health care reform in a meaningful way, in what could well be the most important domestic policy debate since the New Deal.

Key elements in this debate are competition, costs-and courage.

Competition. A huge point of contention is defining what additional role, if any, government should play in health care. As we see, this argument quickly descends from policy to ideology, which is why it is so difficult.

Many Americans favor a "single-payer" national health care system run by the Federal government-a huge shift from the current system managed by private insurance companies whose primary goal is to turn a profit. Statistics show that the single-payer systems used by most other industrialized countries are more equitable and efficient than the hodge-podge we now have here.

But single-payer is not on the table in 2009, shelved by strategists in the White House and in Congress who fear the power of the health insurance lobbies to scuttle any reforms that contain it. Single-payer could put health insurance companies out of business and they will fight to keep that from happening.

There's a compromise afloat-the so-called "government option" in which a government-run health care plan would be just one option for consumers, competing with private plans to enroll members. The plan or plans that worked best for lowest costs would gain customers, forcing others to either improve or leave the market. Sounds like classic capitalism, right?

But even this thoroughly sensible idea is in under attack because the insurance companies are afraid that they would lose such a competition, forcing them to either better meet peoples' needs-or lose business. They are already arguing that the playing field would be tilted against them. Unlike the government, for example, health insurance companies find it difficult to pressure themselves to use their leverage to contain costs-because those costs add to their own profits. They also argue that they have expenses that the government doesn't-like the billions they spend on advertising and inflated CEO salaries.

The arguments against a government option would collapse of their own weight were it not for the support of lawmakers eating at the trough filled by the health insurance lobby. As President Obama put it last week to Republican lawmakers: "Why is it that the government, which private insurers say can't run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That's not logical...they should be able to compete."

Cost-containment. Three of the best new ideas:

- Focus more attention and dollars on prevention, which costs far less than treatment, especially treatment in ERs.

- Put more attention and dollars on expanding primary care, which is a low-cost way to keep people healthy and reduce the number of higher-cost interventions.

- Create a national electronic database of medical records, which would drastically cut administrative costs while reducing medical accidents.

But that's the "easy" stuff. There can be no serious effort to cut health care costs in this country until we as a people accept that we can't have it all. We can't have an MRI machine in every clinic and we can't provide unlimited options for treatment and at the same time complain that our health care costs are too high.

Medicare paid for expensive exploratory surgery for my dying 94-year old mother that, even had it succeeded, would have given her only a few more months. Her case is hardly unique. Studies show that, overall, adding expensive high-tech options does little or nothing to improve health care outcomes.

But do I want a government bureaucrat telling me whether or not I can have a certain medical procedure? No, I do not, but even more I don't want an accountant in an insurance company making that decision. I want a doctor helping me and my family choose options. And if those options are limited, at least I want them limited by some sensible parameters created by experts who have no economic stake in the outcome.

Means testing is another difficult cost-containment option. My mother left an estate of $250,000. Her final illness cost $35,000, yet her estate paid not a dime of it. In my view, Medicare should have taken all or part of that $35,000 from her estate.

Courage. No health care reform will succeed until the White House and the Congress are finally willing to stand up to the health care lobby. The shameful hold on Congress by that industry must end; the names of legislators beholden to it must be widely publicized, so voters can assess who's listening to the money, not the needs of the people.

Government must use its enormous bargaining power to lower the costs of the health care it pays for, such as Medicare and Medicaid. It was outrageous for Congress in 2003 to forbid Medicare from negotiating lower drug costs with pharmaceutical companies.

But our leaders need our support if we expect them to make tough decisions like these. There won't be meaningful health care reform if citizens remain frightened, insular and uninformed. All of us need to:

Accept that health care reform must happen, even though it may mean changes we think might be risky or that reduce treatment options the nation can no longer afford.

Accept that covering all Americans is going to cost a lot of money upfront; many of the best cost-containment measures may take years to implement.

Wake up. Giving for-profit companies the primary power to manage our national health care pleases libertarian and rightwing ideologues, but it's not a policy that can ever lead to efficient and equitable outcomes. If for-profit companies are to continue to play a role, it must be tightly regulated, as it is now in the popular plan enjoyed by Federal employees.

Be prepared to stand up to Harry and Louise. The more capable we are of making informed decisions, the less vulnerable we are to the simplistic scare tactics sure to be thrown at us by the protectors of this woeful status quo.

We deserve better than what we have. We deserve better than what the health care industry is willing to give us. We deserve better than a weak compromise from Congress described as victory.

We will have to fight for it.

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Why The US Needs A Public Option For Health Care - Society - Politics

The United States' health care system currently ranks #37 in the world. The US is #50 in life expectancy. The only thing that the US ranks #1 at is how much money the country spends on health care!

Clearly there's something wrong with our current system. The status quo is completely unacceptable (and the status quo is exactly what the Republicans/health insurance companies are fighting for.)

Not only do 50 million Americans not have health insurance but many of those who do have health insurance are "under-insured" and because so many people depend on their job for their health insurance, they would be out of luck in a hurry if they lost their job (and due to the recession just about anyone can lose their job these days.)

Thousands of people die every year because of the faults of our current health care system and many hundreds of thousands go bankrupt. The US has a bankruptcy rate of nearly 20 times that of the UK (which has a national health care program just like every other western country in the world) and that is almost entirely because of our health care system.

At the rate things are going now, our country will be bankrupt because of the health insurance industry scam (and that's exactly what it is, a scam.) The idea that we can continue down this road without huge reform is absolutely insane, yet that's exactly what the Republicans want us to do.

They don't care how many people die because they can't afford insurance or because their health insurance company takes away their insurance when they need it most (and this happens very frequently, if this aspect was in the news more perhaps people would understand the importance of health care reform?) All they care about is if their fat cat health insurance CEO buddies can keep making millions of dollars every year at the expense of sick people.

This all leads us to why we need a "public option" included in health care reform. While a "single payer" system (true universal health care) would be ideal, I think a strong "public option" is a reasonable compromise.

It will help bring down costs while insuring many millions more people. It will help make the private insurance companies more "honest" because they'll have some real competition.

Everyone wins with the "public option" except for the private health insurance industry. They will lose some of their profitability because they won't be able to gouge their customers and take away their health care and all of the other dirty tricks they've been up. Personally, I don't think that's a loss!

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Can Fitness Gadgets Help You Build Muscle and Lose Weight?

Losing weight and staying fit is a goal for many. New technologies are always coming along to help us with our goals. With so many fitness gadgets on the market, the big question becomes which are good (because they can actually help you build muscle and lose weight), which are bad, and which are just plain crazy. Let's have a look at a few fitness gadgets these from each category.

The Good

The good can help you build muscle or lose weight. Some can even do both, depending on the gadget.

Nintendo Wii - If you though the Nintendo Wii gaming console was just another game machine you'd be wrong. This revolutionary game console offers some terrific fitness programs, including Cardio Boxing, Wii Fit, and Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum to name just a few. Yoga, Pilates, cardio, strength training, and sports are all just a disc away in your home. Many a couch potato has become a fitness buff since the Nintendo Wii.

Walk Vest - If you haven't heard of the walk vest, it's a heavy black vest that comes with eight pounds of weight up to sixteen pounds in the biggest vest. You increase the weight of the vest by placing weights in the pockets. It also includes a workout CD. It may not be pretty but it definitely makes your walk more effective.
IPod Shuffle - If you don't consider the iPod shuffle a fitness gadget you'd be wrong. It's a great way to take your mind off your taxing workout and keep you pushing on. After all listening to your favorite music can be energizing in itself.

The Ab Wheel - The ab wheel has you grab the handles located on each side and then you roll it along the floor as you stretch out. It's a simple idea. Whether there's any real value is debatable since the same benefit could be enjoyed from a crunch, but it may get a beginner going who might otherwise not get a great ab workout.

The Bad

While they may work, they just seem like a bad idea all around.

The Fitness Cube - The sales pitch is around how it will transform your body and take up little space in your home. It can be used as a chair, and hides a variety of accessories. Whether it's got any real value appears to be a negative, although the infomercial is pretty funny.
< br />The Perfect Pushup - If you thought the pushup was above being improved, you'd be wrong. The perfect pushup is a device with rubber bottoms and swivel handled mounts. The grip rotation lets you take your pushup to a new level. The question is whether there's any real fitness value and the answer is no.

The Crazy

What fun would it be if we didn't mention a couple of the crazy fitness ideas that have come to be.

iGallop - The iGallop is designed to simulate a horseback ride, working the thighs, lower back, and abdomen. That said Pilates are a much better workout.

Shake Weight - The object to Shake Weight is to have inertia tighten and tone your arms using vibration. Whether it works or not is really unknown but logic would say no. It is however one of the craziest devices we've seen.

There you have it. The good, the bad, and the crazy. It would seem that while fitness gadgets can certainly help build muscle and lose weight, they can also do nothing. Before wasting your money on something you won't use--or that will break the first time you try it--it's important to do some research. Read reviews online and follow your favorite health and fitness blogs. If you choose your fitness gadgets carefully, you might have a tool that can help you reach your goals; if you don't choose carefully, you'll just end up with more clutter that will end up in the garage.

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How to End Your Emotional Health Problems Including Insomnia

The stresses and strains of everyday life can bring with it a variety of emotional health problems. These can include depression, anxiety, insomnia, irritability and panic attacks. In this article I write about each of these potential problems and suggest solutions to overcome them.

Depression

I am sure that we all become depressed at different times of our life, I certainly do. It is easy to let things and people get us down. We can start to feel sorry for ourselves and to think that the world is working against us.

The brain has two halves, positive and negative. In these periods of depression the negative side assumes control and it can become very hard to get out of this rut.

I see the positive side of my brain as an apple and the negative side as a pear. If I only ever eat pears, I will not be able to experience the joy of eating apples. In short I have to give the positive side a chance to help me to reach a state of happiness and I need to learn to ignore the negative.

Anxiety and panic attacks

At times people start becoming anxious about their future or even about their present situation. This can in certain cases even lead on to panic attacks.

In my opinion worrying does not help the situation, it only makes things worse. I have to say that I do worry and that the cloud of doom does descend over my life at regular intervals. When this occurs I try very hard to break the cycle and I even talk to the demons in my head. I have a battle of wills with them. I tell them that they will not win and that I will not stress anymore. This is not that simple but is what I try to do.

Insomnia

Having trouble with sleeping at night can happen for a number of reasons, the main one of which is stress. Other causes are snoring, an intake of too much caffeine, a noisy environment or depression.

I have written about stress and depression already, it is also time to cut down on the coffee. A simple suggestion in potentially solving insomnia, is to read a book in bed before attempting to get to sleep. This book should help you to get your mind away from any anxieties you may have, it should relax your body and should also tire your eyes.

Irritability

When people lose sleep or work to hard they can become over tired and this can lead to irritability. This can cause people to have a higher pulse rate, making their muscles feel tight and can leave people also feeling anxious and lethargic.

It is important to therefore ensure that you obtain a good amount of hours sleep per night (at least seven)and that you only work a certain amount of hours per week. Money is important to people, however in my opinion health should be the priority.

Solutions to these emotional health problems

I have come to realise that I need to treat myself from time to time. I have always found it difficult to relax and would often feel stressed and under pressure.

I now use various methods at different times of the year to help me to chill out a bit and to reward my body. These include aromatherapy, using herbal products, attending tai chi lessons and I have even tried Yoga. I must admit I could never get to grips with Yoga, however have heard it can prove to be very beneficial to people who can.

Meditation

My favourite form of relaxation is by meditating. I do this by sitting on a straight back chair and by basically concentrating with my eyes closed. I pay particular notice to my breathing and it has certainly helped me to see things in a much clearer way.

In conclusion there are many ways of reducing emotional health problems and with determination you are able to see your way to a better and brighter future.

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The Latest Three Calamities From Obama Care

For a while back in June, it seemed like every week brought another unforeseen calamity in the making from Obama Care. One week we found out that the law, as written, mistaken made about 3 million non-needy and non-poor Americans eligible for free Medicaid health insurance, funded by the taxpayer. The next week we found out that the law, as written, discriminated against working Americans vs. comparable Americans who were on Social Security by making the working American group pay 50% more for insurance in Obama Care's insurance exchanges than those that were not working.

These disasters were combined with several other Obama Care disasters that have already been exposed:

We could go on and on but it is pretty obvious that this is one sorry, dangerous piece of legislation. However, it gets worse, as this week we have come across not one more Obama Care calamity but three.

Let's start with a new study done by researchers at the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University in Boston. This research analysis examined the effects of the state wide health care reform law that was implemented in 2006 in Massachusetts. That state-based health care reform effort was very, very similar to Obama Care. The law forced all state residents to purchase health care insurance, it placed health care insurance mandates on all businesses in the state with more than 10 employees, it expanded Medicaid coverage, it created a pool of money to subsidy the purchase of health care insurance, and it created health insurance exchanges for those less fortunate people who could not afford insurance company policies. All of these components exist in one way or another in Obama Care.

So, five years after its implementation, what has happened to the health care situation in Massachusetts:

Great, rather than learn and adjust an existing model, the political class in Washington went down almost the same road of disaster as Massachusetts. Einstein once said something to the effect that the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. When comparing the Massachusetts health care reform effort to Obama Care we can now see that Einstein was right.

The second calamity comes from a survey of small businesses that was conducted by the National Federation Of Independent Business (NFIB) that addressed the opinions of small business owners:

Same type of results to what happened in Massachusetts. Currently covered small business employees are already losing health care coverage just one year after Obama Care was passed. The cost to the Federal government is likely to be substantially higher than expected as 1) low wage employees go to the heavily subsidized exchanges for coverage and 2) small businesses drop health care coverage for their remaining employees who do not leave for exchange coverage, resulting in more Americans without coverage, the exact opposite effect that Obama Care was supposed to prevent.

The third calamity comes from a new report out ofCornell University by economist Richard Burkhauser and others. The findingsfrom the Cornell analysis found involves how the government originally interpreted the law (family plan thresholds vs. individual plan thresholds) and estimated how many people would opt out of their employers' insurance program and go to the government subsidized insurance exchanges.

Given what is likely to happen, which is not the way the cost of Obama Care was figured, the Cornell analysis estimates that many more workers will end up in the exchanges than was expected, adding an additional $50 billion a year to the national deficit and national debt. If their assumptions and calculations are correct, over a ten year period, about half a TRILLION dollarswould be added to the national debt as a result of Obama Care. Thus, whatever dream/hope/fantasy the political class had of reducing the national debt over the next tens years as a result of this legislation is pretty much gone by now.

Even worse, the researchers think this may be the best case. Obama Care has made it so attractive for employers to shift workers out of their own programs into the exchange programs, they may find it advantageous to shift ALL of their workers out of their health care plans, shutting them down, and forcing all employees to get insurance exchange coverage. If that happens, then it is likely that a full TRILLION dollars would be added to the national debt in the next ten years.

Three different analyses, three different approaches, three different organizations, all coming up with the same conclusion: Obama Care will be detrimental to those that already have health care insurance, will significantly increase the national debt, will not reduce overall health care costs, will likely result in tens of millions of Americans losing their current health care insurance coverage, and will be an administrative nightmare to manage.

Outside of these three new calamities, and the numerous others we have discussed, is there any doubt that this piece of garbage needs to be taken off of life support and put to permanent rest? Time to start over before the legislation kills us all.

Can hardly wait to see what calamities await us next week. Stay tuned.

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