GREGORY: Before you go, do you have any regrets about the way you have publicly battled with President Bush? Over the years, you’ve called him a liar, a loser, you’ve described him as quote ‘our worst President ever.’

REID: I wrote a book and I said that in the book several times. David, I am who I am. I’m going to continue to be who I am. You just have to call things the way you see ‘em. I really do believe that President Bush is the worst president we’ve ever had. I think his efforts to destroy Social Security were very bad. I think as we’ve looked now at what’s happened to the stock market, wouldn’t that have been a terrible thing to do, to privatize Social Security? Medicare, he's done it…he’s done his very best to destroy Medicare. Medicare, a wonderful program. Perfect? Of course not, but one of the best programs ever developed to take care of sick people.

 

O.K. Senator Reid. Now you've got my attention. Where you end the interview, is where we need to begin the year of healthcare reform in America.  Let's talk about a real "Good Fight".  The fight to expand and improve MediCare for all of us. Oh yes, we can! 

By the way, the American Public Health Association has given Senator Reid an 88% approval rating for his voting record on health care issues, indicating a pro-public health record. Perfect? Of course not. It's not enough for him to talk about how bad President Bush has been.  It's time for Senator Reid to lead, follow, or get out of the way of real health care reform! 

Mandate plans that masquerade as reform similar to those outlined by Senator Baucus, Senator Clinton, and Senator Daschle have failed repeatedly in the past.  They all have failed to reduce the number of uninsured or to contain costs. Their proposals don't regulate insurance premiums, they don't keep insurance companies from refusing to pay bills for medically necessary care, and they don't improve the existing defective products that are on the market now.

Senator Reid should begin to demonstrate leadership and translate his opinion of Medicare into action! He should persuade his colleagues to abandon their unworkable plans that put corporate profits ahead of the needs of their constituents. President-elect Obama is on record as saying he would sign single-payer legislation if Congress puts it on his desk.  Reminiscent of the challenge issued to reformers by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he seems to be saying, "I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it."  I guess that means, until we lead the way, we can't expect our leaders to follow. Nurses, physicians, and the public agrees, we should improve and expand Medicare to cover everyone.

Americans are afraid that they can't afford to get sick. Their fears are not unfounded.  Three quarters of those bankrupted by illness were insured when they first got sick.  With the recent economic downturn, the ranks of those without insurance are growing.  Allowing insurance companies to exist for profit at the expense of the sick and injured is wrong.  For those of you who think you have insurance, think again. We don't need mandates that require us to purchase defective insurance products.  We need health care! 

Everyday nurses see the devastating consequences of our broken and fragmented healthcare system.  This brings me back to a description of some of the patients I've helped to care for this past week.  The examples are composites of patients in the unit, without specific identifying information, to protect privacy.  Among them, a 54 year old disabled business woman, a 46 year old day care provider, and a 34 year old manager of a group home for dependent adults. As of this writing, one of them has died of the complications of a preventable disease.  Although suffering from different illnesses, the odds are overwhelming against the survival of the other two.  Treatable chronic conditions progressed to a critical, life-threatening illness because of a lack of access to affordable primary care.

Every day nurses and doctors care for patients who never imagined that they were one illness, injury, or paycheck away from losing their insurance coverage.  Every day we take care of patients like these whose jobs don't provide them with coverage, and they have to choose between paying for medicine and paying for food and housing.  Every day we care for patients whose length of stay will exceed the maximum number of days their insurer will cover. We see patients who will be forced out of their community acute care hospitals and transferred to rest homes and long term care facilities by "case managers" from their HMOs, or the hospital's own "utilization review" team.  They have their eye on the industry bottom line, instead of the care our patients deserve to restore them to their optimal level of health.  

Some people naively refer to such facilities as "nursing" homes, but they are often staffed with more housekeepers, maintenance workers, and unlicensed care techs than with enough RNs to provide patients with  ongoing assessments, intervention, and effective therapy.  RNs have substantial scientific knowledge, technical skill, and sophisticated education and experience that often prevents complications from the patient's disease or the medications used to treat the disease. 

Decreased reimbursements have led acute care hospitals to cut services like hospice and rehab. They are downsizing and creating more private rooms.  They have private hot-lines for physicians to schedule admission for wealthy patients and those who have "good" insurance, giving them priority over emergency room patients who often sit in crowded waiting rooms or languish on guerneys for 24 hours or more.  Many leave if they can; they give up and get sicker and may die. In the process, perhaps, they end up spreading contagious diseases to the public at large.  It's rationing based on ability to pay, rather than medical need, any way you look at it.  Patient's choices are restricted and provider's recommendations are often overruled by company bean counters. 

Patients are not customers who can pick up and go shopping for a better deal. Health care is not a commodity, but an essential public service.  Every other industrialized country has some form of universal health care, and according to a recent Commonwealth Fund study, they have better health outcomes.  We do have a single-payer system in America that works.  It's Medicare.  But it's currently limited to insuring people over 65 and the disabled.  And while we may agree with Senator Reid that it's not perfect, Americans with Medicare are far more satisfied with it than those with private insurance.  By eliminating the waste and fragmentation of the private insurers, according to studies by the Congressional Budget Office and the General Accountability Office, we could save enough to cover all of the uninsured and upgrade coverage for everyone!

A single-payer, Medicare for All system is embodied in H.R. 676, sponsored by Rep. John Conyers and 92 other members of Congress.  It would have automatic enrollment for everyone and provide comprehensive services covering all medically necessary care and drugs.  It would help job growth and the entire U.S. economy by removing the burden of health costs from business.

The greed of a few has jeopardized the social, economic, and health care security of us all.  The gap between the rich and the poor in our nation is at its widest ever.  Universal access to health care or lack thereof, says something about our society's moral character.  At some point, rich and poor, young and old alike will need health care.  It's time to restore equality and assert that we are indeed, one people.  One nation, one plan.  Health care is a human right and in a democracy, it is incumbent upon all of us to affirm and defend that right.

Single-payer Medicare for All is the RIGHT answer.  It is right on choice.  It is right on efficiency. It is right on accountability.  It will be a public, nonprofit system that will respond to what patients need, not what corporate executives and stockholders want.

Join me in sending that message to Senator Reid and the Obama transition team!

 

Our own Cat Jarobe of our favorite Illinois Media Progressives rolls a ball during our "Bowling for Single Payer" holiday party at Diversey Bowl in Chicago.  Cat was pretty good at this.

And Jill Murray, mild mannered, single payer superwoman and professor of social work at De Paul University, also throws a pretty good strike ball.  OK, maybe she throws a pretty good spare ball.  But in any case, she was our friend and our fellow single payer warrior throughout 2008.

So while you're hosting those healthcare forums and discussions, set aside a little time to appreciate the wonderful people who stand together fighting for one another and for a better system.  Everybody in and nobody out.  Happy 2009 and onward.

President-elect Obama's transition team says they want to hear from us on healthcare.  So, the time has come to rise up and speak up as never before.  Let's contribute the single payer -- publicly funded, privately delivered -- healthcare message loud and clear. 

Go to the change.gov site to sign up and host a health care community discussion.

http://change.gov/page/s/hcdiscussion

If we're going to have a seat at the discussion table, we're going to have to invite our friends, neighbors and family, set the table and serve up the best option for this nation's healthcare mess --

By Donna Smith

CHICAGO -- While other devoted election workers and issue activists were taking a much deserved breather following the November 4th general election and planning their trips to celebrate their success in Washington in January, single payer healthcare reform activists stepped up their energy levels and gathered twice in national formations within just 10 days after the historic election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. 

The Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Healthcare met in Washington, DC, on November 10th and 11th, with leaders from the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee along with other labor organizations, faith-based groups, Healthcare-Now, Progressive Democrats of America, medical students, Physicians for a National Health Program and representatives from more than 20 diverse organizations.

Just three days later, in Chicago (see above), the committed activists from Healthcare-Now convened their 2008 National Strategy Conference with representatives from 23 states and the District of Columbia to pull together the various states organizations and member coalitions of Healthcare-Now and map out the immediate efforts to support HR676, Rep. John Conyers' national single payer bill.  Single payer is the publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare reform plan that addresses and repairs the lack of access and affordability issues facing millions of Americans.

Rep. Conyers attended both national meetings.  He assured both the group assembled in Washington and the folks gathered in Chicago that he will reintroduce HR676 in the 111th Congress and that his support is stronger than ever for the bill. 

First of all, I have to say I am grateful to the people at the National Public Radio's The Story with Dick Gordon for telling my story.

This has been a long journey and I have not posted on my blog for some months. I am now eight months post-op. I had Artifical Disc Replacement (ADR) in my lumbar spine at lumbar disc 4/5 and my health insurance company Blue Cross of California refused to pay for my surgery.

After many delays and postponements, I had surgery on March 11, 2008. I found out after my surgery from the hospital finance dept that my surgery was authorized but afterwards when the hospital contacted Blue Cross, the insurance company refused to pay for it as it was deemed "experimental" and "investigational".

ADR surgery is not "experimental" or "investigational", two terms that insurance companies like to throw out, because it is FDA-approved. Other insurance companies routinely cover single level disc replacement and Blue Cross has also approved the surgery for other patients, but not me.

Currently, there are two FDA-approved lumbar artificial discs and they are Charite (2004) and ProDisc (August, 2006). I had ProDisc. There are other discs that are not yet FDA-approved, but people have received them in clinical trials. There are also other discs that have been implanted in patients in Europe and in other countries.

Secondly, my fight against Blue Cross has not been a lone pursuit. The California Nurses Association (CNA) has given me invaluable help. I remember feeling like I had no where to turn and people at CNA offered me help. Also people on the internet have been my support system and the "Insurance Warrior", Laurie Todd, has given me advice that I used in my appeals to Blue Cross. I want to make a point of this because without these people I would have stopped fighting BC and had fusion or decided to live my life on disability and not been able to get off the narcotics because of the pain.

My church family, who paid for a baby-sitter for my three-year-old son for the first six weeks after I came home, has been great and supportive of my family and I. Also my friends and my siblings kept me going when I was going to stop from frustration.

I also have to point out that surgery is not a slam dunk ever and should only be undertaken when it is emergent or like with my case, the pain is so bad that you are prevented from living your life.

Thirdly, I am so happy I had the surgery, even though I have had to battle my insurance company. I am in a lot less pain and have been able to get off the heavy narcotic medications I was taking for months. My thoughts are much more clear now. My surgeon and me wanted ADR because with ADR there is about a third the chance of developing disease in adjacent discs than with fusion.

I am eternally grateful to my surgeon for his skill and care. As I continue to heal from this major surgery, I look forward to being able to do more things. Last weekend, I went to the movies and was able to sit for the whole movie. That is not something I could do before my surgery.

Still, it amazes me that Blue Cross has denied ADR surgery for so many people. BC has not "approved" my surgery but I believe I have made some inroads to getting them to approve it. Who knows, maybe they will wake up and see how less expensive ADR surgery is over the long run.

Like I said in the radio program, my health is more important than anything and I will not let some insurance company dictate what is best for me over what my doctor says is best.

We need to put health care decisions back in the hands of doctors.

For those out there fighting insurance companies, I have one thing to say, "Keep Fighting".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday, I listened to brief media reports about DHL’s layoffs of up to 9,500 people in their US operations in advance of the holiday season.  I also listened to much, much more media coverage of the White House visits.  I expected that – not surprising in light of our wonderful, national celebration of the election results and our shared hope for change – real change.

In particular, I listened yesterday for any news about what two leaders of this nation – my current President and my future President talked about in that hour together.  The economy and the international scene were their topics for discussion, I learned.  But what I really hoped to hear in this season of hope and this season of change was more direct and more substantial – from both men.

Nearly 10,000 Americans – many in that “battleground”  Ohio we loved so just one week ago – will lose their jobs in the DHL layoff alone, and do either of these fellows actually know how that will play out in the glorious season for those good and decent citizens they are elected to serve?

I can tell you that it hurts to lose one’s job during the holidays in ways unspoken.  It isn’t just the smaller celebrations or the scaled-back expectations.  It is the incredible disconnect somewhere in-between peace on earth and goodwill to men and the overdue gas bill, the unpaid mortgage, the late credit card payment and the impending loss of health benefits.  It just flat hurts.  And it hurts the nation too.

So, did I hear some swift and concrete plans yesterday to help those losing their jobs during this exciting time and the hundreds of thousands more that will lose their jobs in the immediate post-holiday season?  No, I did not.  Did I hear anyone say that we’d take action – let’s say in this same Congress that just a month ago was so worried about the Wall Street collapse that they acted with lightning speed to commit my funds and your funds and my children’s funds and my grandchildren’s future funds to bailing out the big boys?  No, I did not.  I heard lots of squishy talk about how damned concerned they all are about the economy.  Really?

I have a thought.  How about making sure these families – these hard-working, good Americans – losing their jobs in this downturn and who qualify for unemployment benefits also know that the instant they are approved for those benefits they will also be eligible for Medicare coverage?  Emergency healthcare benefits along with the small weekly unemployment checks might keep some families afloat through the months ahead rather than forcing them to either pay huge COBRA benefits (often $1,000/month or more for a family) or go bare for medical coverage.  Why not start now to really put our money into shoring up some people who through no fault of their own are being raped by this downturn so fueled by the powerful who didn’t care one lick about “Main Street?” 

An emergency aid package for average Americans put forward and passed as quickly as the bail-out was would send a really strong message – and it should be done now and by both parties’ leadership.

That’s what I wanted to hear come out of the past few days and certainly from the White House yesterday.  But I suspect those kinds of chats will plod along with no real urgency while families suffer through job and income loss, then benefit loss, then home losses and ultimately down the financial tubes to bankruptcy waiting for the polite politicians and the powerful pundits to take any real notice.  The pain is unfolding and will accelerate – on Main Street – because those on Pennsylvania and Congressional Avenues don’t really get it, or worse, don’t really care to get it.

Some family values, folks.  Some peace on earth, sisters and brothers.  I hope someone on the transition team and someone on the current team take note and show some leadership now – let’s not wait until January 20.  Let’s be humane and smart now.  Helping America’s families and hard-workers is good for us all and what a wonderful message it would send.

I am sitting in the Capital Hilton writing this.  That, in itself, is more than I could have hoped for or dreamed of just one year ago.  You see, I am one of those failed American dreams.  I am one of those dirty, awful Americans who went bankrupt.  And I don’t care what reason – medical crisis or other unearned calamity – I may have suffered, we still have a bias and distrust of those individuals among us who cross that legal and financial line.  But I am blessed to have a wonderful job now working for a wonderful organization that does get it.  But I remember.  Oh God, how I remember.  And I will work twice as hard and twice as long for the rest of my life to try to undo the image of me as a failure.

I don’t want the horror I remember to be what we do to this newest batch of American economic refugees.  I’d like to see us do what is right, what is just and what lifts us all.  The big boys – and a few big girls – can still celebrate and ponder the power and bask in the moment in history.  Helping those on the brink will not burden or injure those lining up for their place in power.  In fact, I expect it would make the view from the mountaintop a bit more sweet.

 

Today on Daily Kos,  a diarist  reminded us that  on Tuesday, the people of Massachusetts,  voted against Romneycare and overwhelmingly for single-payer. It would be a tragedy, if Romneycare became the law of the land.  We have waited far too long for what would amount to a huge gift to the insurance industry and nothing for the American people.

And though the  New York Times  thinks that the deep recession will force President Obama to curtail healthcare reform, many believe we have a once in a generation opportunity to extend affordable and guaranteed healthcare to every single citizen in the United States. This is the change the American people voted for.

Here's where we would be headed if President-elect Obama invited me to join his healthcare transition team. Keep in mind, these are all common sense (non radical or, heaven forbid, socialist) changes.

1. President Obama would sign an executive order freezing or even better rolling back the healthcare extortion premium many of us pay. To what level?  I'm not sure, but a significant price reduction. I know, ain't happening, but it should.  My Congressman pays less than half of what you and I pay.

2. An additional executive order would prohibit insurance companies from discriminating against sick people. It would make community rating and guaranteed issue the law in all fifty states. It would prohibit insurance company cherry picking (insuring only the young and healthy), underwriting and all pre-exisiting condition exclusions.

3. Another executive order would prohibit the crime of retroactive recission which the insurance industry pursues with abandon in the state of California. It would make the practice of retroactive recission a crime punishable with significant time in jail.

4. Insurers would be prohibited from second-guessing doctors. If a doctor orders a test, medication, surgical procedure, the insurer cannot overrule this--ever.

5. Medicare Advantage which is nothing more than a taxpayer giveaway to the insurance industry, is thrown in the garbage can.

6. Within the first 100 days, President Obama would send Congress real prescription drug coverage for senior citizens, our most vulnerable. Congress would immediately kill Medicare D and replace it with authentic drug coverage with no doughnut holes.The legislation would require Medicare to negotiate for the lowest prices with the pharmaceutical industry.

7. Another executive order would prohibit Congresspeople from ever working for K Street or any industry they have supervised as a member of Congress.

8.On his first day in office he eliminates the taxpayer subsidies for all Congressmembers and Senators on their FEHBP health benefits. This would mean, they'd just be paying the same rates extortion as the American people.

9. Affordable and guaranteed dental care would become an integral and non-negotiable part of the ultimate health reform package.

10. Doctors should be paid what they're worth, which is a hell of a lot more than the .20 cents on the dollar most insurers reimburse.

11. If doctors must accept such woefully inadequate reimbursement, then medical school should be free or heavily subsidized.

12. Caps on the salaries of health insurance industry executives, and a  swift  immediate phase out of the for-profit insurance industry as the country replaces the dangerous, failed and corrupt for-profit model with single payer.

13. President Obama would use the bully pulpit and his enormous popularity to champion HR 676 and single payer healthcare. He will use his huge mandate to explain to the American people that single payer is a simple and elegant solution--private delivery of healthcare, paid for by a single government entity.

14. Another executive order making illegal the practice of charging women more than men for the identical health insurance policy.

15. And probably most important, single payer advocates would have as many seats at the negotiating table as all the AHIP stakeholders.

And 1-15 is just for starters.

How's this for lukewarm congratulations?

This was all the enthusiasm the monsters lobbyists at AHIP could muster.

AHIP Congratulates President-Elect Barack Obama
   
Washington, DC – Karen Ignagni, President and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), today issued the following statement congratulating President-elect Barack Obama:

“We congratulate President-elect Barack Obama for his historic victory last night.  Now is the time for health care reform, and we look forward to working with the Obama administration and the new Congress to develop workable solutions to the health care challenges facing the nation.  We support coverage for all Americans, coverage they can afford, and coverage they can keep.  We will work collaboratively with other stakeholders to achieve these objectives."

Change is coming--and they know it.

 

 

So the American people finally took control.  We sent  the loudest possible message to politicians across the land that we have had enough. Enough! Yesterday, as we waited on long lines to cast one small vote to which each of us is entitled,  the people voted overwhelmingly to overhaul the U.S. Congress.

The 110th Congress has proven its members are unfit to serve. Since we now know that the 111th Congress will be composed of incumbents' challengers, each will arrive in Washington with a clear mandate from an American electorate dedicated to taking this country back and making it work for the people not the special interests.

And on a personal note, the Democrats also won a majority in the  New York State Senate, which has been controlled by Republicans since 1962.

The Repuglican state senate in New York has been very successful for many long bleak years in blocking progressive state legislation.

This is a great day for America and a great day for the working people of New York.

For the last several days, the blogosphere has been awash with a single admonition. A single plea.

Stay in Line.

"Don't think for a moment that power concedes."

Stay in line.

In many states the wait to vote could extend through the day. Stay on line.

In many states minorities, first time voters, and even the elderly will encounter all manner of obstructions. Stay on line.

If an elderly person needs assistance, work together with the people around you to provide whatever help you can. But please, stay on line.

Please, no matter the hours, the weather, the heat, the need for a toilet, or a sip of water, please, stay in line.

I just voted. I waited. I stayed in line. I'm one of the lucy ones, my line was only about an hour and a half.  My friend, who votes in a different election district, got up at 4AM and was on his line at 5, the polls open in New York at 6AM, he voted right before 8AM.

We stayed on line and so must you. No matter what.

Vote like you life depends on it, because it does.

STAY ON LINE. STAY IN LINE. NO MATTER WHAT.

If you don't know where to vote, click this link, it will direct you to your polling station.

By Donna Smith

CHESAPEAKE, Virginia --  Perhaps it would have been more logical to wrap up this road show in the nation's capital, grab the "money" shots and head for home.  But that wouldn't be quite the usual style of the brave and hard-working nurses of the National Nurses Organizing Committee or the California Nurses Association.  So long as there were voters to educate and healthcare "hero" candidates who needed support, the nurses worked on.

In Chesapeake, Virginia, Congressional candidate Andrea Miller of Congressional District 4 has been working hard and talking to her future constituents for several months, and she sure was thrilled to see the healthcare road show bus, complete with the RNs' candidate report card, in her district.  CNA/NNOC president Geri Jenkins shared some rally time with Andrea and wished her well in tomorrow's election.

While the presidential race is often the sexiest from a media perspective, nurses know that when they look for legislative support for making their profession stronger, it is often the people who hold Congressional office that are the most critical.  So on this long road show, the bus made its way to five of the Congressional districts where RNs identified healthcare heroes -- candidates who support single payer, publicly funded and privately delivered healthcare.

So, the road show wrapped up its 10-state run in Virginia.  It seemed like everywhere we went there were volunteers working on Get-Out-the-Vote efforts and infusing energy into the election process.  As we bid farewell to the road, the nurses were set to head home to their home states -- but not to put their feet up and rest.  The nurses were heading home to knock on doors, serve as poll watchers, give rides to polling places, make phone calls and continue the work so vital to this democracy.

Tomorrow, the work begins anew.  There is no rest so long as Americans are dying due to the lack of accessible healthcare.  Those deaths do not stop on election day or simply because one party or the other scores a win.  Yesterday, today and tomorrow, more than 60 American families will bury a loved one because our healthcare system is so very broken.  And unless our new leaders -- both our President and our new Congress -- launch into real healthcare reform efforts with all appropriate haste, the death toll will keep mounting.  Changing that reality would be the nurses' true victory.

   

"In this same time frame our youngest daughter and my husband had asthma attacks which required missing work and school. My husband finally got a new job that has good health insurance but at a $30,000 a year pay cut.  We are uninsurable on our own due to the nature of our health problems. 

"Keith's employer went to a Health Savings Account though Blue Cross.  We have a $7,500 deductible which includes our medications.  After calling every pharmacy in our area, it is going to cost $1,700 per month if we buy all of our medications.  We wrote the drug companies asking for help.

"With all these expenses, we have put off having other life saving tests.  In March 2008 I turned 46. I had a mammogram for the first time ever and paid $1,200 out of pocket. They found lumps that need to be monitored every six months. I found a clinic to do this service, but it only pays for a mammogram to be done once a year.

"Last month we missed our first house payment. We don't want to lose our home on top of the other stresses that our family has to deal with.

"We want to stay in our home—it was built it with our own two hands."

------------------------------

Sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

Eighty-two percent of Americans think the U.S. healthcare system should be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt (Commonwealth Fund, Aug. 7, 2008). America's nurses know that only single-payer, improved and expanded Medicare for all will fix our broken system and the tragedy of our devastated families. HR 676, by U.S. Rep John Conyers, is the most comprehensive, cost effective way to achieve guaranteed healthcare for all.

For more information, or to contact this patient: Liz Jacobs, RN 510/273-2232.

And what could we say on the steps of the Capital Building?  That we want HR676, publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare for all?  Well, yes, that would be what this proud and stoic nurses' union has fought for and struggled for and committed to as the way to fulfill its goals and mission.  Single payer healthcare -- as advocated by the nurses -- is by far the most responsible, respectful and reasonable plan for our nation.  And the nurses will keep bringing it on in their home states and nationally until every patient, every citizen, every human being is granted the basic human right of healthcare when he or she is ill.

Then we saw actors' troupes and children's groups and senior citizens, all devoted to an ideal -- that this nation is one of diverse people with common aspirations and common human rights.  And until those rights -- including the right to healthcare -- are granted, the nurses will march onward.  From a bus parked in front of Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nearly two weeks ago to the steps of the seat of power in this democracy, the nurses drafted another chapter in the history of this land and its recognition of healthcare as a basic human right.

With the historic election on Tuesday, may this nation enter a new phase of listening to its heroes -- the nurses -- who stand beside every patient, on foreign or domestic battlefields, to advocate and to educate and to heal. Because if we think for one moment that the healthcare crisis is not a battle, then we will have dishonored the struggle of 80,000 nurse-warriors who know otherwise. 

"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

 

 

We've formed a powerful bond on the bus.  But the more important bonds have been formed from the beauty of the Maine coastline to the rolling hills of rural Pennsylvania and in every state where our bus has stopped as nurses reached out during this historic week for our nation to make sure citizens had the information they need about healthcare reform.

We're in this together -- on the bus and in the nation.  We cannot be a strong and healthy nation if we allow our fellow citizens to suffer and die without access to healthcare. So the next time anyone wants to know what it's like to be on a bus tour with the nurses, I think I can honestly say it is transforming for those they visit and for those they educate.

 

By Donna Smith

PORTLAND, Maine -- She's a nurse's daughter and mother of a state legislator.  Chellie Pingree is running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine's 1st Congressional District.  Today the nurses of the Maine State Nurses Association, the National Nurses Organizing Committee and the California Nurses Association brought their healthcare report card bus to the town square for a rally with Chellie.

Chellie talked about HR676 and single payer healthcare with those assembled and expressed her desire to get going on her work to help fix this broken system.  The bus, the nurses and Chellie attracted print, radio and television press from the area just as Chellie prepares for her last weekend of campaigning before the Nov 4 election.

Tomorrow, I'll feature a wrap up of some of the less serious moments this week as we prepare for our final four days on the road.  We'll leave Maine for New Jersey and then arrive in Washington, DC, on Sunday.  Energy out in the communities we have visited is high surrounding this election, and we are thrilled to be visiting the communities where our endorsed candidates -- our 2008 healthcare heroes -- are running fantastic campaigns and standing firm on single payer.

"But, alas, Great-West is paying just under one-third of my total costs, using 'average contracted rate' as the reason. Health insurance shouldn't be this complicated – these companies should have forms that are easier to decipher. And they should live up to what they promise in their glossy promotional literature that has you believing they're 'there for you.'"

"Right now I feel like I'm in the movie SiCKO - I am continuing to make my insurer explain, and pushing for accountability with the help of a consumer group."

---------------------------

Sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

Eighty-two percent of Americans think the U.S. healthcare system should be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt (Commonwealth Fund, Aug. 7, 2008). America's nurses know that only single-payer, improved and expanded Medicare for all will fix our broken system and the tragedy of our devastated families. HR 676, by U.S. Rep John Conyers, is the most comprehensive, cost effective way to achieve guaranteed healthcare for all.

For more information, or to contact this patient: Liz Jacobs, RN 510/273-2232.

 

By Donna Smith

PORTLAND, Maine -- Today we've been through Connecticutt, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.  And as you might imagine, at that pace, we aren't exactly wasting time on the ground.  Every stop, every step is one taken to reach toward our objective:  educating our fellow citizens about healthcare reform and about HR676, single payer, guaranteed healthcare for all.

Seems like we end up reaching lots of people in diners and coffee shops where they don't really seem to mind too much if a nurse walks up to offer some information and then engages in conversation about the problems related to healthcare that everyone has in within their families or circles of friends.

Today we joined with nurses from five states: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts, New York and California.  The RNs share common frustrations about what they face every day in being advocates for their patients, and they share the goal of making sure the system is fixed before thousands more patients die.

Everybody in the diner needs healthcare: cooks, wait staff, owners, customers.  All are sure to find that if they give these nurses a moment, they'll be much better informed about the best way to clean up the mess in this nation's for-profit healthcare system.

We shared lunch with other labor folks also working to spread the word during this election season.  Though some citizens seem a bit campaign-fatigued in some ways -- especially in the battleground states -- most are still more than willing to take a peek at the RNs report cards on healthcare reform and learn a bit more.

Generally, citizens are energized and anxious to get on with the election and then continue their work on the issues they find most important.  But in recent days, along with some challenging interactions with a very few folks who have closed minds and hearts, nurses have been able to break through all the noise with their message. 

Tomorrow, Bangor, Maine... as we embrace nurses in Maine and reach out to folks still wondering what to think about all the women in red scrubs getting off that big, shrink-wrapped bus, and why these nurses care enough to travel so far. 

"She became very ill with the flu three years ago and her breathing problems were exacerbated. She ended up in the ER, unable to breathe, and was put on a unit for cardiac monitoring due to an erratic heart beat. Ultimately, her insurance refused to pay it and said they weren't aware of her preexisting condition. The bill was approximately $15,000. The hospital sued her, sent her into collection, and now they are garnishing her wages. She works in a nursing home as a nurse's aide, so you can imagine how little she is paid to begin with. I am horrified that the healthcare industry can ruin the life of someone who is already an underdog. I wish I could do something to help her."

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Sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

Eighty-two percent of Americans think the U.S. healthcare system should be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt (Commonwealth Fund, Aug. 7, 2008). America's nurses know that only single-payer, improved and expanded Medicare for all will fix our broken system and the tragedy of our devastated families. HR 676, by U.S. Rep John Conyers, is the most comprehensive, cost effective way to achieve guaranteed healthcare for all.

For more information, or to contact this patient: Liz Jacobs, RN 510/273-2232.

 

One of the young men “flipped off” Hilda and Krikor – with gestures on both hands.  We all let out a collective scream of disbelief.  The young man quickly retreated from his perch.  It was a moment I do not think any of us will ever forget.

A Cigna employee obscenely gestures parents of a dead teenager and guess what?  Cigna called the police to have the protesters removed from the lobby.  The young man in the blue shirt who spoke for Cigna with his assault of Hilda and Krikor was not the target of the Cigna police call.  The parents were deemed the threat.  Parents and patients who need treatment and thereby spend company profits are threatening to Cigna and all other insurance companies.  These are not the people who can be trusted with our healthcare or that of our children.

 Either this was a young man thinking it somehow cute to defend his company by assaulting these parents or he was actually doing so on behalf of the company.  No matter what explanation we could imagine, none makes it OK that Cigna allowed this to happen in their offices and did not protect these parents – instead they protected themselves.

And they would do so again and again and again – as grieving, begging families who pay for their insurance premiums find themselves burying children, other loved ones, friends and neighbors. 

As I stood holding the shaking ribs of a father too strained with grief to stand alone, I wondered why anyone would ever want a company like Cigna in the mix.  Family values don’t have a chance on this company’s agenda; life is devalued and only the almighty dollar holds the power.

Cigna, as one of the nation’s largest and proudest insurers, stands as a representative of an industry gone mad on its own power and greed.  And as such, they handled this very poorly.  But they handled it as might have been expected.  Take heed.  The only insurance these companies provide is to protect their own wealth and status – not the nation’s, not your child’s and certainly not your own.

When our new Congress goes to work on healthcare reform next year, Cigna and the likes of them cannot be in play.  And no matter who says private insurance is good for the nation, it is a lie – it is a rude and abusive and destructive lie as delivered clearly and concisely today.  Even if we want to trust well-intentioned people who believe insuring more people is the way to the promised land, we must all recall today and that the insurance company representative allowed an assault on Hilda and on Krikor – and all the rest of us who trusted them to provide what they said they were providing.

Our gesture in response must be to end this madness.  For-profit, private insurance can never substitute for single-payer, publicly funded, privately delivered care – and doctors and nurses and patients must be deciding together what the best course of treatment may be – not an insurance company employee whose overwhelming urge to “flip-off”  the patient will guide the decision.

Horrifying, illuminating… and only offset by wrapping these parents in the love and support of 80,000 nurses who would never, ever demean their loss.

"At the present time, I am unemployed, looking for a job, yet still have to maintain payments to the collection agency as well as an Emergency Physicians Group. This has been the most horrendous experience of my life! I always had health insurance. Now, I have none. What a system we live in."

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Sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

Eighty-two percent of Americans think the U.S. healthcare system should be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt (Commonwealth Fund, Aug. 7, 2008). America's nurses know that only single-payer, improved and expanded Medicare for all will fix our broken system and the tragedy of our devastated families. HR 676, by U.S. Rep John Conyers, is the most comprehensive, cost effective way to achieve guaranteed healthcare for all.

For more information, or to contact this patient: Liz Jacobs, RN 510/273-2232.

 

Talk about a bailout… if Congress adopts a Massachusetts-like healthcare reform plan, that will be a windfall of unprecedented proportions for the usual rogues’ gallery of healthcare corporate interests.  So as Sen. Ted Kennedy holds his meetings to craft legislation, rest assured, no patients will be asked the really critical questions – I’m betting some providers and professional caregivers – carefully selected to stay on-message – are part of these meetings, and I would guarantee that the money interests in insurance, pharmaceuticals and such are right there too. 

So while the American people may think the plans of the presidential candidates are the main options for reform and that work will begin after we know who will be president and who will be in the new Congress, the decisions are well underway. 

Read about Sen. Ted Kennedy’s work, touted as secret, but obviously not so very secret: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/24/kennedy-secretly-crafts-health-care-plan/

But I decided to day and told the audience at C-M University that I would hope there would be a “Sen. Ted Kennedy- citizen Donna Smith cancer patient litmus test” for any new legislation offered, and here’s how that litmus test should work.

I’d like any patient who hears the words “You have cancer” to be afforded the same decency and dignity as Sen. Kennedy was given as a cancer patient when he learned of his illness.  And I guarantee Sen. Kennedy’s first thoughts when he learned of his illness were not about money and insurance and who would pay for his care or if he would even be able to get care or if his family would be bankrupted by his care or if he’d be better off dead than bankrupting his family.  That was my reality when I learned I had cancer.  And according to the RNs I have spoken to, it is the reality for many, many patients in this nation.

So, that is how I told the audience I believe the new Congress should evaluate their work on a new HR676 draft or any other healthcare reform legislation:  Does every cancer patient upon diagnosis have the same right to treatment as Sen. Ted Kennedy did upon diagnosis?    If not, why not?  And if a plan with treatment disparities is to be our law, then let’s be honest about whose life is determined to be most valuable and whose is determined to be most expendable and who deserves to be made to suffer their way through cancer treatment.  A check-off system of possible life-value ratings could and should become a transparent part of a treatment plan if Sen. Kennedy’s legislation makes one cancer patient eligible for more care than another or subject to the financial whims of the insurance companies.  Full disclosure, folks, full disclosure.

This is what happens to insured Americans now: http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2008/10/28/medical-debt-sending-many-over-financial-brink.html

So if the new Kennedy effort doesn't stop this sort of financial and emotional assault and battery by the for-profit healthcare system, then the new legislation should not become law.  I do not think he'd want to leave broken lives labeled with his law.

And I would bet you my next paycheck that the draft legislation already circling the DC Beltway wouldn’t even come close to meeting that cancer patient litmus test I suggest.  Patients have a right to know if the plans being drafted are simply meant to make a few legislators feel less guilty about the most glaring disparities we now have in access to care or if the plans truly start wiping away those biases. 

I’d guess as we are seeing insurance companies anxiously awaiting the new plans, we aren’t moving toward better things for most patients.  And if Sen. Kennedy truly wants to leave a legacy of a better health system, then he can walk a mile in the shoes of fellow cancer patients before he wraps his arms around a healthcare industry bailout cloaked in phony promises of reform.