Stone Cupid Real - blog

Call you Senators to insist on the Public Option

noreply@blogspirit.com (Julie CHRISTENSEN) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:20:00 -0700

It is NOT too late.

Snowe Job? Insider Says Senator Is "Disingenuous or Naive"

Thursday 15 October 2009

by: Greg Palast, t r u t h o u t | Report

Wendell Potter tells Greg Palast health insurers' dirty secret. (Photo: Fighting Bob Fest)

Special Feature: Listen to Greg Palast's exclusive interview with health insurance company whistleblower Wendell Potter. Press play below to hear the clip.

Also, read Greg Palast's expert analysis,
The S-Word and Dr. Kevorkian's Accountant. •

Former insurance executive Wendell Potter tells Greg Palast, in an exclusive interview for Truthout.org, that "the system's rigged" to kill off so-called "health cooperatives." Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine cast the only Republican vote on the Senate Finance Committee for the Obama health care plan, but only on the condition that Democrats drop their demand for a "public option" insurer in favor of private doctor/hospital cooperatives.

Earlier today, Potter told Truthout.org that the senator's plan is "disingenuous or naive," because, in most states, "the system's rigged" to lock up all patients under one for-profit monopoly. While a publicly-funded insurer might succeed in forcing insurers to cut premium charges, Snowe's cooperatives "don't stand a snowball's chance" of competing against the for-profit monopolies.

Potter, once vice president of CIGNA, told Truthout.org that, "The insurance industry, if it were honest" would admit that it "loves" the Senate Finance Committee's version of the health care legislation as the bill provides nearly half a trillion dollars ($461 billion) in subsidy payments directly from the Treasury to the industry.

I'm so done with hearing stories like this...

noreply@blogspirit.com (Julie CHRISTENSEN) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:46:00 -0700

Real "Norma Rae" Dies of Cancer After Insurer Delayed Treatment

Monday 14 September 2009

by: Sue Sturgis | Facing South

Thanks of course to t r u t h o u t

A screenshot of Sally Field in the film "Norma Rae." The North Carolina union organizer who inspired the movie died on Friday of brain cancer. (Photo: shavawnmarie / Flickr)

The North Carolina union organizer who was the inspiration for the movie "Norma Rae" died on Friday of brain cancer after a battle with her insurance company, which delayed her treatment. She was 68.

Crystal Lee Sutton, formerly Crystal Lee Jordan, was fired from her job folding towels at the J.P. Stevens textile plant in her hometown of Roanoke Rapids, N.C. for trying to organize a union in the early 1970s. Her last action at the plant -- writing the word "UNION" on a piece of cardboard and standing on her work table, leading her co-workers to turn off their machines in solidarity -- was memorialized in the 1979 film by actress Sally Field. The police physically removed Sutton from the plant for her action.

But her efforts ultimately succeeded, as the Amalgamated Clothing Workers won the right to represent the plant's employees on Aug. 28, 1974. Sutton later became a paid organizer for the union, which through a series of mergers became part of UNITE HERE before splitting off this year to form Workers United, which is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union.

Several years ago, Sutton was diagnosed with meningioma, a type of cancer of the nervous system. While such cancers are typically slow-growing, Sutton's was not -- and she went two months without potentially life-saving medication because her insurance wouldn't cover it initially. Sutton told the Burlington (N.C.) Times-News last year that the insurer's behavior was an example of abuse of the working poor:

"How in the world can it take so long to find out [whether they would cover the medicine or not] when it could be a matter of life or death," she said. "It is almost like, in a way, committing murder."

Though Sutton eventually received the medication, the cancer had already taken hold. She passed away on Friday, Sept. 11 in a Burlington, N.C. hospice.

"Crystal Lee Sutton was a remarkable woman whose brave struggles have left a lasting impact on this country and without doubt, on me personally," Field said in a statement released Friday. "Portraying Crystal Lee in 'Norma Rae,' however loosely based, not only elevated me as an actress, but as a human being."

Read the rest at t r u t h o u t

A Neutral Report on Health Care Reform

noreply@blogspirit.com (Julie CHRISTENSEN) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:39:48 -0700

Vetting the Health Care Rhetoric

Sunday 23 August 2009

by: Meghan McCarthy, Drew Armstrong and Alex Wayne | Visit article original @ The Congressional Quarterly

Groups attending town hall meetings across the country hear conflicting claims about health care reform. (Photo: AP)

As politicians and interest groups try to shape the outcome of the health care overhaul, they've offered interpretations that are so wildly different that truth sometimes seems to be taking a vacation.

Some - like the contention that a House health care overhaul (HR 3200) would create "death panels" that decide end-of-life care - are false. Some are misleading, and others are true.

Many of the claims are being floated by advocacy groups, then amplified on the Internet and at town hall events hosted by members of Congress. Lawmakers have contributed to the rhetoric, as well.

The majority of the claims deal with the House bill that awaits floor action in September. The Senate is not as far along in the process with its legislative proposal. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has approved a draft bill, but the Finance Committee is still working on its version. The lack of a unified Senate approach has led proponents and opponents to focus much of their criticism on the House measure.

The following examination of health care claims and their sources is not comprehensive but provides an overview of the commonly recited talking points in the debate.

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Claim: The House bill would create a government committee to decide what treatments or benefits patients may receive in a retooled health care system.

Source: The office of House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, made the claim in a news release. It also was found in a Web publication by the group Family Security Matters.

Misleading. A committee would make recommendations on what sorts of minimum benefits insurers should be required to provide, but these standards are a floor, not a ceiling. Insurers could offer more benefits if they chose, perhaps to gain a competitive advantage to draw customers, but they could not offer less.

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Claim: Under the House bill, health care will be rationed, especially care for seniors.

Source: A number of congressional Republicans and conservative groups have made this claim. It's been repeated online and in some television advertisements by groups such as Patients United Now, which is funded in part by another right-leaning interest group, Americans United for Prosperity.

False. The House bill says almost the opposite - that insurers can't charge patients more than $5,000 a year for an individual or $10,000 for a family toward the cost of their own health care. It does not set limits on how much the plans can spend on each patient, however. As for seniors, they would still be covered by Medicare, and the bill does not set any benefit limits for that program.

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Claim: Employers will have to automatically enroll their workers in the public plan, according to the House bill.

Source: This assertion originated from…

Amnesty International Pulls out of Concert Fund

noreply@blogspirit.com (Julie CHRISTENSEN) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:14:00 -0700

Amnesty International Withdraws from Leonard Cohen's Israel Concert Fund

by PACBI & NYCBI ( info [at] nycbi.org )
Tuesday Aug 18th, 2009 1:58 PM

Amnesty International has announced today that it will abstain from any involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert in Tel Aviv and will not be party to any fund that benefits from the concert's proceeds. A number of media accounts had reported that Amnesty International was to manage or otherwise partner in a fund created from the proceeds of Cohen’s concert in Israel that would be used to benefit Israeli and Palestinian groups. Amnesty International’s announcement today followed an international outcry over the human rights organization’s reported involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert fund, and an earlier international call for Cohen to boycott apartheid Israel.

PALESTINIAN CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACADEMIC AND CULTURAL BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL (PACBI) & NEW YORK CAMPAIGN FOR THE BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL (NYCBI)

Amnesty International Withdraws from Leonard Cohen’s Israel Concert Fund

Media Contacts: pacbi [at] pacbi.org, info [at] boycottisraelnyc.org

New York, NY, August 18 – Amnesty International has announced today that it will abstain from any involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert in Tel Aviv and will not be party to any fund that benefits from the concert's proceeds. A number of media accounts had reported that Amnesty International was to manage or otherwise partner in a fund created from the proceeds of Cohen’s concert in Israel that would be used to benefit Israeli and Palestinian groups. Amnesty International’s announcement today followed an international outcry over the human rights organization’s reported involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert fund, and an earlier international call for Cohen to boycott apartheid Israel.

Omar Barghouti from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) commented, “We welcome Amnesty International’s withdrawal from this ill-conceived project which is clearly intended to whitewash Israel’s violations of international law and human rights. By abandoning the Leonard Cohen project in Tel Aviv, Amnesty International has dealt Cohen and his public relations team a severe blow, denying them the cover of the organization’s prestige and respectability.”

A statement confirming Amnesty's withdrawal has now been posted on the Amnesty International website.

After reports in late July that Amnesty International would manage a fund from the proceeds of Leonard Cohen’s concert in Israel, groups in occupied Palestine and around the world mobilized to pressure Amnesty International not to participate in such a fund. The Palestinian Non-governmental Organizations’ Network (PNGO) called in an August 11th letter on Amnesty International to reject management of a fund that is to be created from the proceeds of Leonard Cohen’s planned September concert in Israel. The West Bank village of Bil’in had made a similar appeal to Amnesty International. An international campaign of about one thousand letters to Amnesty International called for Amnesty’s withdrawal from the Cohen concert initiative. The only Palestinian organization that was claimed to be a recipient of the fund had previously announced that it was not involved in the project. Additionally, a representative…

Ok, I'm going to think postive and stay active.

noreply@blogspirit.com (Julie CHRISTENSEN) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:51:00 -0700

But I still fear that Washington "progressives" will cave to these bellowing fools that show up at the town halls. Some of those people are domestic terrorists, making death threats and painting swastikas on public property, all in the pursuit of damning their own best interests. Those are people who have talk radio blaring at them in their workplace or home and who, understandably angry at the status quo, have been duped by propaganda from the very insurance companies and big pharma that are ripping them off currently. The health care plans are not perfect, and the "public option" needs to remain in place to create a competitive environment. I'm going to post a couple of positive links here, in hopes of putting THAT in the universe instead of my nagging fear for our country.

Here's the White House page with videos answering questions:

And here's an article from an optimist:

Three Reasons Why a Strong Public Option Is Likely to Be Part of Health Insurance Reform

Tuesday 18 August 2009

by: Robert Creamer | Visit article original @ The Huffington Post

A primary care physician meets with patients at the Barron Center in Portland, Maine. (Photo: Emilie Sommer / USA Today)

Hasty headlines to the contrary, it is very likely that a strong public option will be part of a final health insurance reform bill when it finally passes Congress this fall. There are three reasons:

1). A Public Option is the most elegant and politically viable solution to a major practical problem. Three basic models have been adopted by Western industrial nations to provide universal health care to their populations.

The government can directly employ doctors and hospitals to provide service. That is the system they have in Britain where they spend 40% less per person on health care than in the U.S. and get pretty good reviews from their citizens. It's the same system that we use to provide health care to veterans through the Veterans Administration.

The government can provide heath insurance for everyone as it does in Canada - or as we do in the U.S. with Medicare. Medical practices and hospitals are in private hands, but the health insurance fund is managed by the government. Again, that system seems to work quite well and also does a good job at controlling costs.

The third approach is to require individuals and businesses to purchase insurance and leave it to private insurance companies to provide that coverage. The problem with this approach is that requires some mechanism to control costs. That is particularly true in the United States where insurance companies are one of only two industries (Major League Baseball being the other) that are excepted from the anti-trust laws that are aimed at insuring competitive markets. In fact, most major health insurance markets are dominated by two or three companies so there is no real competition - particularly with respect to price.

Once everyone is required to buy insurance, the companies can have a field day…

I heard they scuttled the public option.

noreply@blogspirit.com (Julie CHRISTENSEN) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:06:56 -0700

The Brutal Truth About America’s Healthcare

Saturday 15 August 2009

by: Guy Adams | Visit article original @ The Independent UK

On the first day of the clinic, Remote Area Medical founder Stan Brock, left, announces the ground rules for participants. (Photo: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

They came in their thousands, queuing through the night to secure one of the coveted wristbands offering entry into a strange parallel universe where medical care is a free and basic right and not an expensive luxury. Some of these Americans had walked miles simply to have their blood pressure checked, some had slept in their cars in the hope of getting an eye-test or a mammogram, others had brought their children for immunisations that could end up saving their life.

In the week that Britain's National Health Service was held aloft by Republicans as an "evil and Orwellian" example of everything that is wrong with free healthcare, these extraordinary scenes in Inglewood, California yesterday provided a sobering reminder of exactly why President Barack Obama is trying to reform the US system.

The LA Forum, the arena that once hosted sell-out Madonna concerts, has been transformed – for eight days only – into a vast field hospital. In America, the offer of free healthcare is so rare, that news of the magical medical kingdom spread rapidly and long lines of prospective patients snaked around the venue for the chance of getting everyday treatments that many British people take for granted.

In the first two days, more than 1,500 men, women and children received free treatments worth $503,000 (£304,000). Thirty dentists pulled 471 teeth; 320 people were given standard issue spectacles; 80 had mammograms; dozens more had acupuncture, or saw kidney specialists. By the time the makeshift medical centre leaves town on Tuesday, staff expect to have dispensed $2m worth of treatments to 10,000 patients.

The gritty district of Inglewood lies just a few miles from the palm-lined streets of Beverly Hills and the bright lights of Hollywood, but is a world away. And the residents who had flocked for the free medical care, courtesy of mobile charity Remote Area Medical, bore testament to the human cost of the healthcare mess that President Obama is attempting to fix.

Christine Smith arrived at 3am in the hope of seeing a dentist for the first time since she turned 18. That was almost eight years ago. Her need is obvious and pressing: 17 of her teeth are rotten; some have large visible holes in them. She is living in constant pain and has been unable to eat solid food for several years.

"I had a gastric bypass in 2002, but it went wrong, and stomach acid began rotting my teeth. I've had several jobs since, but none with medical insurance, so I've not been able to see a dentist to get it fixed," she told The Independent. "I've not been able to chew food for as long as I can remember. I've been living on soup,…

Teeming Masses without Healthcare

noreply@blogspirit.com (Julie CHRISTENSEN) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 08:25:00 -0700

Interesting that the US media blackout on rational "public option" or "single payer" health care means that we have to get this article from the UK. --J

Whistleblower Tells of America's Hidden Health Nightmare for its Sick Poor

Sunday 26 July 2009

by: Paul Harris | Visit article original @ The Observer

The Remote Area Medical clinic in Wise, Virginia provided free medical care. (Photo: Getty Images)

When an insurance firm boss saw a field hospital for the poor in Virginia, he knew he had to speak out. Here, he tells Paul Harris of his fears for Obama's bid to bring about radical change.

Wendell Potter can remember exactly when he took the first steps on his journey to becoming a whistleblower and turning against one of the most powerful industries in America.

It was July 2007 and Potter, a senior executive at giant US healthcare firm Cigna, was visiting relatives in the poverty-ridden mountain districts of northeast Tennessee. He saw an advert in a local paper for a touring free medical clinic at a fairground just across the state border in Wise County, Virginia.

Potter, who had worked at Cigna for 15 years, decided to check it out. What he saw appalled him. Hundreds of desperate people, most without any medical insurance, descended on the clinic from out of the hills. People queued in long lines to have the most basic medical procedures carried out free of charge. Some had driven more than 200 miles from Georgia. Many were treated in the open air. Potter took pictures of patients lying on trolleys on rain-soaked pavements.

For Potter it was a dreadful realisation that healthcare in America had failed millions of poor, sick people and that he, and the industry he worked for, did not care about the human cost of their relentless search for profits. "It was over-powering. It was just more than I could possibly have imagined could be happening in America," he told the Observer

Potter resigned shortly afterwards. Last month he testified in Congress, becoming one of the few industry executives to admit that what its critics say is true: healthcare insurance firms push up costs, buy politicians and refuse to pay out when many patients actually get sick. In chilling words he told a Senate committee: "I worked as a senior executive at health insurance companies and I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick: all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors."

Potter's claims are at the centre of the biggest political crisis of Barack Obama's young presidency. Obama, faced with 47 million Americans without health insurance, has put reforming the system at the top of his agenda. If he succeeds, he will have pushed through one of the greatest changes to domestic policy of any president. If he fails, his presidency could be broken before it is even a year old. Last week, in a sign of how high the stakes are, he addressed the nation in a live TV…

Taking us Down the Drain

noreply@blogspirit.com (Julie CHRISTENSEN) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 21:35:00 -0700

The Great Tax Con Job

Tuesday 21 July 2009

by: Thom Hartmann | Visit article original @ OpEdNews.com

Ruper Murdoch. (Photo: Jamie McDonald / AFP)

Republicans are using the T-word - taxes - to attack the Obama healthcare program. It's a strategy based in a lie.

A very small niche of America's uber-wealthy have pulled off what may well be the biggest con job in the history of our republic, and they did it in a startlingly brief 30 or so years. True, they spent over three billion dollars to make it happen, but the reward to them was in the hundreds of billions - and will continue to be.

As my friend and colleague Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks pointed out in a Daily Kos blog recently, billionaire Rupert Murdoch loses $50 million a year on the NY Post, billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife loses $2 to $3 million a year on the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, billionaire Philip Anschutz loses around $5 million a year on The Weekly Standard, and billionaire Sun Myung Moon has lost $2 to $3 billion on The Washington Times.

Why are these guys willing to lose so much money funding "conservative" media? Why do they bulk-buy every right-wing book that comes out to throw it to the top of the NY Times Bestseller list and then give away the copies to "subscribers" to their websites and publications? Why do they fund to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year money-hole "think tanks" like Heritage and Cato?

The answer is pretty straightforward. They do it because it buys them respectability, and gets their con job out there. Even though William Kristol's publication is a money-losing joke (with only 85,000 subscribers!), his association with the Standard was enough to get him on TV talk shows whenever he wants, and a column with The New York Times. The Washington Times catapulted Tony Blankley to stardom.

"Fellowships" and other forms of indirect sponsorship of right-wing talk show hosts have made otherwise-marginal shows and their hosts ubiquitous, and such sponsorships of groups like Norquist's anti-tax "Americans for Tax Reform" regularly get people like him front-and-center in any debate on taxation in the United States.

All so they could run a tax con on the American people, thus keeping Moon and Murdoch and Scaife and Anschutz (and others) richer than you or I could ever even imagine.

All of this money was spent - invested, really, since it's been more than saved back in low income tax rates on millionaires and billionaires - to convince Americans that up is down and black is white when it comes to income taxes. Here's how it works:

Rich Person's Tax Effect

If a person earns so much money that he doesn't or can't spend it all each year, then when his taxes go down your income after taxes goes up. This is largely because there's little to no relationship between what he "needs to live on" and what he's "earning."

Somebody living…

Telling it like it is.

noreply@blogspirit.com (Julie CHRISTENSEN) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:41:12 -0700

Some Choice Words for "The Select Few"

Sunday 12 July 2009

by: Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

The green hue of money in Washington, DC. (Photo: Getty Images)

If you want to know what really matters in Washington, don't go to Capitol Hill for one of those hearings, or pay attention to those staged White House "town meetings." They're just for show. What really happens - the serious business of Washington - happens in the shadows, out of sight, off the record. Only occasionally - and usually only because someone high up stumbles - do we get a glimpse of just how pervasive the corruption has become.

Case in point: Katharine Weymouth, the publisher of The Washington Post - one of the most powerful people in DC - invited top officials from the White House, the Cabinet and Congress to her home for an intimate, off-the-record dinner to discuss health care reform with some of her reporters and editors covering the story.

But CEOs and lobbyists from the health care industry were invited, too, provided they forked over $25,000 a head - or up to a quarter of a million if they want to sponsor a whole series of these cozy get-togethers. And what is the inducement offered? Nothing less, the invitation read, than "an exclusive opportunity to participate in the health-care reform debate among the select few who will get it done."

The invitation reminds the CEO's and lobbyists that they will be buying access to "those powerful few in business and policy making who are forwarding, legislating and reporting on the issues …

"Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No." The invitation promises this private, intimate and off-the-record dinner is an extension "of The Washington Post brand of journalistic inquiry into the issues, a unique opportunity for stakeholders to hear and be heard."

Let that sink in. In this case, the "stakeholders" in health care reform do not include the rabble - the folks across the country who actually need quality health care but can't afford it. If any of them showed up at the kitchen door on the night of this little soiree, the bouncer would drop kick them beyond the Beltway.

No, before you can cross the threshold to reach "the select few who will actually get it done," you must first cross the palm of some outstretched hand. The Washington Post dinner was canceled after a copy of the invite was leaked to the web site Politico.com, by a health care lobbyist, of all people. The paper said it was a misunderstanding - the document was a draft that had been mailed out prematurely by its marketing department. There's noblesse oblige for you - blame it on the hired help.

In any case, it was enough to give us a glimpse into how things really work in Washington - a clear insight into why there is such a great disconnect between democracy and government today, between Washington and the…

This guy is on "our side"

noreply@blogspirit.com (Julie CHRISTENSEN) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:22:30 -0700

Southern Poverty Law Center Urges Congress to Investigate Extremism in the Military

Friday 10 July 2009

by: | Visit article original @ The Southern Poverty Law Center

Ignoring their own regulations, US military recruiters enlisted Iraq veteran Forrest Fogarty in spite of his neo-Nazi, white supremest tattoos and views. (Photo: Matt Kennard)

The Southern Poverty Law Center today urged Congress to investigate growing evidence that racial extremists are infiltrating the US military in order to ensure that the armed forces are not inadvertently training future domestic terrorists.

In a letter to committee chairmen with oversight over homeland security and the armed services, the SPLC said it recently found dozens of personal profiles on a neo-Nazi website where individuals listed "military" as their occupation - the latest evidence of extremist infiltration gathered by the SPLC. It also cites FBI and Department of Homeland Security reports supporting the SPLC's concerns.

"Evidence continues to mount that current Pentagon policies are inadequate to prevent racial extremists from joining and serving in the armed forces," SPLC founder Morris Dees wrote. He added, "Because the presence of extremists in the armed forces is a serious threat to the safety of the American public, we believe Congressional action is warranted."

The letter was sent to the chairmen of the House and Senate committees on Homeland Security and Armed Services. The SPLC has raised its concerns with Pentagon officials since publishing a report in 2006, but no apparent action has been taken.

In recent months, SPLC investigators found approximately 40 personal profiles that listed "military" as an occupation on the Internet forum New Saxon, which is operated by the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement. One individual, who claims to be serving in Afghanistan, lists as his favorite book "The Turner Diaries," which was written by neo-Nazi leader William Pierce. The book served as a blueprint for the Oklahoma City bombing by Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh. Another individual said he was about to be deployed overseas and was looking forward to "killing all the bloody sand niggers." Still another spoke of his hatred for undocumented immigrants.

The SPLC has been involved with this issue for more than two decades. In 1986, the SPLC presented evidence to Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger that Marines were participating in Ku Klux Klan paramilitary activities and urged him to prohibit all military personnel from being members of, or participating in, the activities of white supremacist groups. Although Weinberger issued a directive addressing extremist activity, it ultimately proved inadequate.

The SPLC again brought the problem to the attention of Pentagon officials again in 1996, after three neo-Nazi soldiers stationed at Fort Bragg murdered a black couple in North Carolina in a ritualistic, racially motivated slaying. Pentagon regulations were strengthened following an investigation by an Army task force and hearings by the House Armed Services Committee.

But a decade later, military recruiters, under intense pressure to meet quotas for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, appear to have lowered recruiting standards, according to the SPLC's 2006 report.…