Health Care: What YOU Can Do

ICHC FTW!

Fight the good fight. That's right. The fight is on, people. The President gave Congress plenty of time to write a decent bill. He even gave them guidelines for what he would accept.

They've been fucking around for too long. Bernie Sanders put forth a good bill, but will it get considered when House and Senate attempt reconciliation to create the final bill? Meanwhile, Max "Blue Running Dog" Baucus of the Senate Finance Committee has put forth a "bill" written by — not Maxie himself, but by one Liz Fowler, former VP for Public Policy and External Affairs at WellPoint, a health insurance company which is the largest member of Blue Cross and Blue Shield. WellPoint has aggressively lobbied against health reform, especially a public option. WellPoint has also recently come under fire for pressuring its employees to lobby against health care reform, claiming reform would cause “…tens of millions of Americans to lose their private coverage and end up in a government-run plan.”

Well, here's what Matt Taibbi has to say about this whole health care reform scam. While La Casa de Los Gatos doesn't always agree with Taibbi, we think he's brilliant and his take on these events is a point of view well worth reading.

For those of a more religious bent, or surrounded by those of a more religious bent, with whom you're trying to argue yet, here are some excellent points from a Christian blogger who advances an irrefutable argument.

Although we've always held that religion makes you crayzee, this lady is a clear exception to the rule. It's possible to be religious without losing your critical faculties, reasoning powers, logic, and rational thought. Thank you, Lisa!

In the meantime, please note that the yammerati on TV and in the press are yawping on endlessly about The Lewin Group's studies that show bla de bla bla bla. Well, folks, the Lewin Group are a fucking bunch of shills. They're nothing but a subsidiary of health insurance giant UnitedHealth. How convenient, eh? They do the "research" and feed it to Congress and the people, and nobody bothers to disclose the fact that they're actually part of one of the groups that stands to profit from failure to reform the broken healthcare system. Next time you hear someone yawping "But the Lewin Group says ...," please interrupt them with, "But the Lewin Group is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth." Or whatever you feel is appropriately scathing in the circumstances.

We don't even need to discuss the Baucus bill, or, more correctly, the WellPoint bill. It's bad, it's wrong, it's going to cost taxpayers more for less and penalize people who want health care and small business while giving billions of our money away to corporate greedbags. Firedoglake has all the dirt and details. The MSM, or corporate media, if you prefer, is giving Ms. Fowler a virtual tongue-bath for her "dedication to health care reform," without hardly mentioning her years spent raking in the bucks as a corporate VP for one of the worst greedbags in the health "insurance" business. Fuck 'em.

Here is a scorecard, created by HealthCareNow, which rates single-payer versus public option. We want single payer, we need single payer. Baucus/Fowler's bill won't even give us public option. Instead, it will force us to buy expensive insurance, with a penalty of nearly $4,000 for those who don't/won't/can't afford it. Businesses who refuse to buy health insurance coverage for their employees will get fined a whole whopping $400. Which of these entities can better afford the larger sum, a business, or an individual?

So we need to tell Baucus to roll up his bill and stick it where the sun don't shine. He's getting public health care, why won't he share it with us? Notice that neither he nor Fowler are rushing to get off their publicly-funded health care and rush to the loving arms of WellPoint? Baucus has taken nearly $4 million from the health care industry. Gee, where do you suppose his loyalties lie?

Over at HuffPo where the debate is raging strong, I found several comments that inspired me. I'd like to share them with you:

Commenter CtTransplant:

Never ever ever give up!!! Folks, do not forget the marches on September 13th!!!
If not now, when? If not us, who?

Kennedy was one of our greatest champions of health care reform. He carried the torch for a long time...and now it is up to us to continue to carry it!

Our elected officials in Congress receive health care mostly paid for by us tax payers, yet many are trying to make it impossible for us to purchase an affordable plan of our own :

While many of us are struggling to afford medical insurance/medical bills.
While Congress people try to stop healthcare reform.
While Congress people accept large contributions from lobbyists to prevent health care reform.

Please sign these petitions - and by all means, spread the word! Thank you!

http://www.petitiononline.com/PubOp676/petition.html
http://www.democrats.com/honor-ted-kennedy?cid=ZGVtczQ0MTA5OGRlbXM=
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5649/t/4922/content.jsp?content_KEY=2763&tag=hk1_typ-e1

Absolutely. Sign the damn petitions. Maybe it won't mean doodly-squat. And maybe it will. If enough voices shout out loud, our cowardly pathetic weaseling politicians will no longer be able to say, "We didn't know you felt that way." Maybe the bastards will at least be forced to buy a little lube for the next public screwing they have planned.

Commenter IzzyCA:

We are organizing marches and rallies all over the country to support health care reform and the public option on Sunday, September 13.

Want to join our marches/rallies?
Facebook: March for Healthcare group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118144661546#/group.php?gid=118144661546
Wiki: http://healthcaremarch.pbworks.com/FrontPage#view=page
Website: http://www.march4healthcare.com/

That's SUNDAY, people. It's a day off from work. Take that day to go out onto the streets and show our politicians that we're not fooled by their dodging and ducking. The media has been slow to cover the REAL news. They like to take videos and photos of angry screaming loons at town halls because that sells airtime, or column inches.

Well, fuck that shit. If enough bodies turn out on the streets, some senior editor is going to say, "For fuck's sake go out there and find out why the cops are out and traffic is blocked and bring me back a goddamned story and some damn good pitchers or your ass is grass."

So, c'mon, y'awl. That's something you can do WITH your kids, for free. Take them out to a health care rally. That way, if we lose this fucking fight, you can at least say, hey kids, remember when? I did my bit. But we won't lose, if enough of us fight back.

For those going to DC, details are here.

The bill in the house that contains the provisions we want and need is Conyers' HR-676. In the Senate, it's Bernie Sanders S.703. In the event, it sure as hell is not going to be the Baucus/Fowler bill. DO NOT WANT!



To find out where the closest health care rally is, go here. Create an account, or if you already have one, log in. Scroll down the right side of the page and click Find an Event, and you'll be directed to an event being held closest to the zip code that you entered when you created your account.

And remember, if health care is not reformed and soon, it's going to end up breaking the slowly-recovering economy. We pay more than double what our Canadian neighbours do, for less health care. If people tell you, "Well, Canadians come here for their health care all the time," point out to them that the number of Canadians who come here for their health care is way way less than even one per cent of their population; most Canadians are very happy with their health care; and lots of Americans go over there for health care, too.

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