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( 3.1 / 29 )Thanks to Carl for passing this one along:
http://pol.moveon.org/insurance_execs/? ... Vx&t=2
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( 3 / 34 )In a unanimous vote, the AFL-CIO yesterday endorsed the Single Payer Medicare for All approach to healthcare reform as the "most cost-effective and equitable way to provide quality healthcare for all." The resolution caps a successful effort led by the Labor Campaign for Single Payer (LCSP), the Labor Caucus for HR 676 (a coalition of national unions) and the All Unions Committee for Single Payer Health Care to put the Federation on record rejecting private insurance and in support of a social insurance model for healthcare reform.
Over 70 resolutions were submitted to the Convention on this subject--more than on any other single issue in the history of the AFL-CIO. Submissions came from a diverse range of labor organizations including 5 national unions, 7 state labor federations and over 60 central labor councils. Yesterday's Convention actions came as a direct result of the mobilization efforts of hundreds of labor bodies, state federations, central labor councils and local unions.
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( 2.9 / 30 )You can send a free fax to Obama and Congress at www.1payer.net.
Here's mine:
Dear Mr. President and My Legislators,
Rep. Anthony Weiner will introduce an amendment to HR 3200 to replace it with a single payer system. I urge your support. Please pay close attention during the promised floor debate.
Ask yourself this question: Why Do We Have Health Insurance Companies? What has a health insurance company to do with your health? They don't do a single check-up. They don't do a single exam, they don't perform an operation. They only exist to make profits for their stockholders and CEOs. They only exist to deny you health care. The real question is not “Why do we need a public plan?” but “Why do we have a private plan?”
The proposed restrictions on private insurers would be a marginal improvement over the current system, but with the current national crisis, marginal improvements aren't good enough. The only true solution is to get rid of private insurance companies.
Single Payer Expanded and Improved Medicare For All, as in HR 676 and in the expected Weiner amendment, is uniquely American, it is simple, it is equitable and it saves us all the 30% overhead we now pay for rationed care and death panels that insurance companies have created.
Please pay attention -- listen to the debate -- learn the facts -- represent the people, not the insurance companies -- vote for the Weiner amendment to HR 3200. It's not too late.
Health care is a human right. Enact a single payer system now.
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( 2.2 / 12 )There's an interesting article here about Obama's previous health reform effort, in Illinois. In the end, the bill set up a commission to investigate different options. Insurance industry representatives were allowed to sit on the commission! It's no wonder they ignored their own analysis showing single payer was the best option, and recommended a watered down compromise plan based on a mandate to buy insurance. You can read their preliminary evaluation of proposals here . The table summarizing how each option scored starts on page 86, with the totals on page 91. Single payer scored highest, with 85.4 out of 100. The hybrid plan that they ultimately recommended scored only 76.3. Interestingly, they left the comparison table out of the Final Report . I guess facts would have gotten in the way of their politics-based decision process.
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( 3 / 4 )Please do not stand in the way of true health insurance reform. We need a public option now. Private insurance companies have had plenty of time to get it right. There's no need to give them any more chances. All Americans should have the opportunity to choose a plan run by the government with their health, rather than stockholder profits and executive bonuses, as the primary goal. What you do will affect the whole country. Please don't make us wait any longer for a chance for healthcare security. Thank you.
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( 3.1 / 8 )Here are pictures from the Public Option We Can't Afford to Wait events last week:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/moveon/set ... 3554/show/
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( 3.3 / 6 )http://listics.com/200908275002
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( 2.9 / 16 )An open letter reminds the president of the major campaign vow that got him into the White House.
August 27, 2009
by Anne Lamott
I am afraid there has been a misunderstanding since that election in 2008, during which 66,882,230 Americans cast their votes for you. Perhaps one of your trusted advisors has given you bum information. Maybe they told you that we voted for you -- walked, marched, prayed, fund-raised and knocked on doors for you -- because we hoped you would try to reunite the country. Of the total votes cast that long-ago November day, I'm guessing that about 1,575 people wanted you to try to reconcile the toxic bipartisanship that culminated in those Sarah Palin rallies.
The other 66,880,655 of us wanted universal healthcare.
You inherited a country that was in the most desperate shape since the Civil War, or the Depression, and we voted for you to heal the catastrophic wounds Bush inflicted on our country and our world. You said that you were up to that challenge.
We did not vote for you to see if you could get Chuck Grassley or Michael Enzi to date you. The spectacle of you wooing them fills us with horror and even disgust. We recoil as from hot flame at each mention of your new friends. Believe me, I know exactly how painful this can be, how reminiscent of 7th-grade yearning to be popular, because I went through it myself this summer. I did not lower my bar quite as low as you have, but I was sitting on the couch one afternoon, thinking that this adorable guy and I were totally on the same sheet of music -- he had given me absolutely every indication that we were -- and were moving into the kissing stage. Out of nowhere, I thought to ask him if he liked me in the same way I liked him.
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( 3 / 7 )I'm a little behind on my Democracy Now! listening, so I just heard this today:
Advocates for universal healthcare are calling for a boycott of the grocery chain Whole Foods over the views of its CEO, John Mackey. This week Mackey wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal criticizing President Obama’s plan to create a government-funded public healthcare option and dismissing the single-payer healthcare system of countries such as Canada and Britain. Mackey said he doesn’t believe in “an intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter,” which he said are best provided through “market exchanges.” On Thursday, the group Single Payer Action released a letter calling for a boycott of Whole Foods.
You can read about the boycott or watch video on the Single Payer Action website.
You can contact Whole Foods here .
Here's what I wrote:
I was horrified to learn that Whole Foods CEO John Mackey had written an editorial opposing universal healthcare coverage. It was bad enough when Whole Foods came out against the Employee Free Choice Act! I stayed away for a few months, but when EFCA wasn't in the news anymore, I started shopping again. What was I thinking? Now I have even more proof of the right-wing reactionary viewpoint of Whole Foods leadership.
Anyone who can stand up and argue against a right to healthcare at a time when Americans are getting sick, going bankrupt, and dying in record numbers because they can't afford healthcare is obviously lacking any heart, soul, or human decency.
I can't believe Mr. Mackey is proud of providing health "insurance" to his workers that makes them pay the first $2500 in medical costs. That's a lot of money for someone trying to make a living on a grocery store salary!
And I was dumbfounded to hear Mackey repeat the Republican lies about healthcare rationing in the UK and Canada. What about the amount of time people in the US wait to get an appointment, and more importantly what about all of the Americans who can't get an appointment at all because they can't pay? Besides, the United States pays much more for healthcare right now than the UK or Canada. We could spend less than we do now and still provide better care, if we moved to a single-payer system.
If all of this isn't bad enough, Mackey says the government should not regulate what services insurance companies cover. As the CEO of a major company, there is no doubt in my mind that he knows insurance companies will prey on consumers by eliminating lifesaving benefits they really need in exchange for a marginally cheaper plan. Buyers won't realize the fatal shortcomings of the plan they've chosen until it's too late. For Mackey to advocate for private insurance companies in this way shows me he cannot be trusted to run a company, participate in the public debate, or provide the food I'm putting in my body.
I will not shop at Whole Foods until Mackey retracts his editorial and apologizes for his regressive position on healthcare, or is removed as CEO. I'm sure the organic farmers and co-ops in my area will welcome the business.
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