Health Care Plus

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It's a little blustery in Prairie Country these days. A lot of hot air coming out of the special interests on the right, and the RPMs [Republican Propaganda Machine], as they try to enshrine their candidate in North Dakota's only seat in the House side of Congress.

Rick Berg's been as elusive as Sharron Angle, and that Nazi dresser in Ohio that John Boehner's meeting up with at country Republican headquarters in Ohio to promote. Funny, he sneaked in and out of Fargo for Berg. Is this the best we can do?

One of the biggest lies has been about health care reform. So it's refreshing to see plainspoken North Dakotans who are our caregivers and healers speaking with gentle grace against the screaming hordes of Republican distortion.

Give a listen. And then, vote Dem. Because elections have consequences.



And you can judge a man by the company he keeps.
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Prairie Recommends: Taibbi on Healthcare Debacle

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If you've had the growing suspicion that the so-called health care reform effort making its way through the well-$oiled machinations of Washington would end up working out very well for everyone BUT those who need it most, namely patients and their families, then maybe you don't need to read Matt Taibbi's Rolling Stone article, Sick and Wrong, How Washington is screwing up health care reform....

Or his follow-up blogpost on Maria Bartiromo as a case study of how the media elite just add further to the screwing of everyday American health care patients and families.

During the two weeks Mr. Sunshine and I spent at Mayo this summer, talking with people about those machinations, the greatest fear of families and medical personnel alike was that Washington would end up making things worse, much worse, instead of better.

And given that health care reform has reduced all of us to mere pawns getting rooked on the giant partisan/profiteering game board, I'm seeing that greatest fear growing ever more likely.

I recommend Taibbi's article to you not because I'm usually of a mind to just engage in preaching to the choir, but because as one voter, one constitutent, one liberal voice in a Blue Dog red state, one wife, one survivor, one widow of one patient, at the very least, Taibbi articulates for me in no uncertain terms the labels that should be pinned on each of their craven political or media souls. And scoundrel is the least of them.
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crossposted at firedoglake's The Seminal

Open Call

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Since Congress has made such a point of telling us they can't possibly keep working on health care reform through the August recess because they absolutely positively gotta get back home and talk to their constituents...

sidebar: is it just me, or do you also think that maybe they should have started the process by talking to—and listening to!!!—the constituents, the voters, the patients, the families, the healthcare professionals back home, instead of closeting themselves with the lobbyists and the cronies and campaign contributors?

I hereby request on behalf of North Dakotans and Minnesota's 8th Congressional District that all our local/statewide media, as a public service in furtherance of their responsibility as free press, tell us all just where we can find our Congresspersons and Senators to talk to us.

Yep, I want to know. Are they here back home ready to listen? Or junketeering their closed minded, pockets bulging with campaign cash selves?

Seems to me, everyone should want to know.
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Prairie Recommends: Sherrod Brown on Countdown

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Now this is what a Democratic Senator committed to health care reform for We, the People sounds like. The junior Senator from Ohio and the HELP Committee is unequivocal in his advocacy for the public option and real health care reform.

Not the weaselly "bipartisan" whining we're hearing from the Finance and Banking Committees that the media have been obsessing about as if there's no other option.

So I wanna know: can Sherrod Brown be my Senator? Because this is what leadership looks like.
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crossposted at firedoglake's The Seminal

Time Off?

It's almost the weekend. It's almost the August recess the Congress is still pussy-footin' around taking instead of getting their work done on health care reform.

So just in case we might forget, mcjoan at dailykos reminds us:

And, because you just can't see this one enough, three weeks of delay means:

* 143,250 people will lose their health insurance coverage [pdf]
* 53,507 people will file for bankruptcy because they can't pay their medical bills
* 1,265 people will die [pdf] because they lack coverage

mcjoan has the links on all these stats. Don't believe 'em? Don't care? Too lazy to go over and follow the links to learn? There's been enough of that... before you start your weekend, just consider what life can abruptly hand you when you least expect it....

And then consider...are you really all that thrilled with what MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan has dubbed our Russian oligarch-style health care system?
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Prairie Recommends: Can't Do Blue Dogs

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Harold Meyerson in the Washington Post takes a pointed look at the Blue Dogs and the Congress and dubs us a Can't Do nation.
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Enough is Enough

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On his last living day in North Dakota, my Mr. Sunshine broke through the fog that newly transforming acute leukemia tried to envelop him in. Our old friend, dear friend, came to the hospital to bid him well, godspeed, take care, see you soon.

And ran into the Linc-n-Sand tagteam determined to tell him to relay to Kent and Earl and Byron how important it was that they get health care reform right. That the status quo could not go on. That health care reform, real reform, is about patients first, people first. With the public option.

The false profits, false prophets, the golden calf crowd of medicine, must not conduct business as usual. The ghouls and vampires who suck the lifeblood from the healthcare system, the deniers of treatments, the rationers of healthcare, the profiteers, the predators, must not be rewarded, enabled, bailed out. Not any more.

Our old friend, dear friend, can bear witness, attest this is true.

We went to Mayo Clinic/Methodist Hospital in crisis. Grasping for one last chance. A chance that was not meant to be. But in the going, we found what Mr. Sunshine's doctor called medical utopia.

Patients first.

Expertise. Caring. Heck, even computers in every unit's visitor's lounge. A brother-and-sisterhood among families and patients and doctors and medical teams and nurses and the woman at the checkout in the cafeteria and....

We found something else.

Fear. That the reform will be screwed up. And while a medical person talks in outraged tones about the greedy hyperpriced cost of the medicines of treatment. And you read on the faces of families, the shadows under their eyes, the brimming tears, the hopefulness, the sorrow...

The fear...

We're seeing the partisan lines being drawn. The predictable weasels being their weaselly worst... the DeMinted cackling about causing pain for Senators, for Obama, not looking in the mirror and seeing the rot of their own souls... the cowards cravenly hanging on to their own socialized healthcare while denying us ours....

And we're seeing hope...

That maybe, just maybe, this time, if enough voices are raised, if enough people refuse to settle for the same ol' same ol', then maybe, just maybe, this time...we'll get it right.

I understand Frank Ricci now. I understand Cindy Sheehan now. Some fundamental values, principles, rights, demand us speaking out. No matter how inconvenient the timing.

I'm conflicted. I'm mourning my Mr. Sunshine right now. It would be oh, so easy to sit back and say someone else can shoulder the load. But if not me, then who? Will it be you?

Words are my tears now.

It's not just Senator Kennedy who believes healthcare reform is the cause of a lifetime. It's the medical community at Mayo, it's the small town and urban patients and families who fill its halls, their Minnesota license plates dwarfing the abundance even from across these United States and those who fly in for Mayo care.

It's good enough for sheiks and princes and Bushes... and for the 85-year-old woman from Sioux Falls, and the retired RVer from Rockford, and the Sunshines from Fargo...

It's up to the Senators and Congress now. Will it be good enough for the rest of US?
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Crossposted at firedoglake's The Seminal and Prairie in Dakota Territory, hosted by Fargo's Forum newspaper

Prairie Recommends: The Cause of My Life

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From Newsweek, Ted Kennedy on "The Cause of My Life."

Me, too, Senator. Me, too.

The time is now.
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Elizabeth Edwards Goes Public

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You have to sympathize with the demonstrable resilience of Elizabeth Edwards as she slogs up 'til last night through the obligatory book tour round of public appearances and the oh-so-smarmy blunt and subtle questions about her marriage and he-who-shall-not-be-named.

Last night on The Daily Show—admittedly the first and only of her tour appearances I've actually watched, not being in need of a fix of gossipy innuendo and titillation, I do have a life, thank you very much—Elizabeth had the opportunity to advocate that the new health care program must include a public option in order to function in the best interest of the American people.

I've a hunch she's put up with a lot of the media b.s. of late just so she could make that point. Kudos to her.

And Kudos to Jon Stewart for treating her with the respect she deserves. And the rest of us in the audience, as well.

Too bad the "journalisticalwrestling" contingent who look down their noses at such as bloggers and comics can't rise to the same standard.

UPDATE: PLEASE READ AND TAKE ACTION FOR THE PUBLIC OPTION:

Democracy for America is urgently calling for phone calls to Congress. Please read this email they’re sending and add your voice in support of the public option. While DFA provides suggestions and the national switchboard, I’ve always found it more effective to call homestate offices and speak for myself in my own words.

DFA says:

Republicans have figured out that they can’t beat us on healthcare reform if they fight inclusion of a public option head on. So, instead they are looking for different ways to kill a public option without actually calling it that.

This week they launched their first real attempt and it is already picking up a bit of steam among so-called Senate moderates.

They call it “the trigger.”

They want Americans to keep the same broken system we have now and give the insurance industry one more chance to fix it on their own. Then, if insurance companies fail, the bill would “trigger” the public option — you know, in like 7 years or so.

We need to act right now. Call your Senators and tell them that a so-called trigger is a no go.

Senate Switchboard
(202) 224-3121

Suggested script:
“I oppose the healthcare trigger. Please ask the Senator to stand up against the insurance industry and the so-called ‘trigger’ for a public option. We need the choice of a public healthcare option now, not more of the same broken healthcare system for years to come.”

REPORT YOUR CALL NOW

The real fight has begun. We need to act fast, make our position clear and fight for real reform. Please make your calls right now.

Tell Congress we didn’t vote to wait — We voted for change.

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crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette