Monthly Archives: August 2009

Wendell Potter: How insurance firms drive debate

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Wendell Potter spent 20 years as a corporate public relations executive, and last year resigned as head of communications for CIGNA.  He knows what he’s talking about.

CNN

Having grown up in one of the most conservative and

Republican places in the country — East Tennessee — I understand why many of the people who are showing up at town hall meetings this month are reacting, sometimes violently, when members of Congress try to explain the need for an expanded government role in our health care system.

I also have a lot of conservative friends, including one former co-worker who was laid off by CIGNA several years ago but who nonetheless worries about a “government takeover” of health care.

The most vocal folks at the town hall meetings seem to share the same ideology as my kinfolks in East Tennessee and my former CIGNA buddy: the less government involvement in our lives, the better.

That point couldn’t have been made clearer than by the man standing in line to get free care at Remote Area Medical’s recent health care “expedition” at the Wise County, Virginia, fairgrounds, who told a reporter he was dead set against President Obama’s reform proposal.

Even though he didn’t have health insurance, and could see the desperation in the faces of thousands of others all around him who were in similar straits, he was more worried about the possibility of having to pay more taxes than he was eager to make sure he and his neighbors wouldn’t have to wait in line to get care provided by volunteer doctors in animal stalls.

Absolutely stunning.

A man standing in line for free medical care, like cattle lined up for vaccinations, is opposed to health care reform because he might have to pay more taxes.  Somehow, I think that if he’s forced to stand in line for such medical care, he’s not in the $250,000 or more earnings bracket.  And if HE’S standing in that line, I know his children are standing in that line, and opposing a brighter, healthier future for his children is criminal.  These free health care fairs are not a one time deal, they take place annually.  Thank goodness, right?  But we can change the status quo so these fairs are not necessary.

Mr Potter ends with this:

So the next time you hear someone warning against a “government takeover” of our health care system, or that the creation of a public health insurance option would send us down the “slippery slope toward socialism,” know that someone like I used to be wrote those terms, knowing it might turn many of the very people who would benefit most from meaningful reform into unwitting spokespeople for the industry.  (Emphasis added)

Believe me, I’m not happy when I call the town hall screamers “Useful idiots.”

Read the rest of Wendell Potter’s commentary here.

HT:  Briseadh na Faire

The Watering Hole: August 19

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A break in the storm

A break in the storm

Photo by Zooey

This photo was taken from just outside the Sylvia Beach Hotel dining room.  there had been an awesome storm overnight, and another was moving in.  Very exciting.

This picture kind of represents my mood lately.  Stormy, with touches of sunlight, and then back to stormy.

This is your daily open thread, brought to you by the letters P and O, which stand for Public Option and/or Pissed Off.

The Watering Hole: August 18

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Oregon Coast

Oregon Coast

Photo by Zooey

The Oregon Coast is my happy place.  I love the smell of the air, the sound of the pounding surf, the feel of the cold air, the starving seagulls, and the thrill of seeing the occasional whale spout in the distance.

I stay at the Sylvia Beach Hotel, where there are no phones, no televisions, no radios, no clocks, and no computer access.  What they do have are thousands of books (in case you forget yours), hundreds of games and puzzles, lots of cushy chairs for reading, napping, or quiet conversation, and hot spiced wine at 10 p.m.

I’m spending Thanksgiving Week there again this year.  Is it November yet…?

Where is your happy place?

Is The Public Option Dead? (No.)

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The question everywhere today seems to be whether Barack Obama is backing away from the public option. The main piece of evidence in support of this theory is HHS Secretary Sebelius’ statement on Meet the Press over the weekend that the public option is “not essential.” I basically agree with Ezra on this point. I’ve heard similarly fence-straddling statements out of various administration officials for pretty much the entire time this issue has been discussed.

I like Howard Dean’s take on this (starts around 3:00 mark, but the whole, interview is good). He should really be a major face in this campaign (and it’s a shame he doesn’t have a presence in this administration):

It makes sense, seems completely do-able, and it’s pretty easy to defend the public option provision on budgetary grounds. Get it out of the Senate and into conference, which is what Obama has been telling leaders all along — “just get me to the table” — put the public option back in, and pass it under reconciliation in the Senate. A little messy, but it gets us where we need to go.

As for concerns that there might not be even 50 votes for the public option in the Senate? I’m aware that there were at last count fewer than 50 committed votes, but it’s easy to not support the public option in theory, quite another to be one of those responsible for killing the bill once it hits the floor out of conference.

Frankly, I think this bill without a public option is better than no bill at all (I wouldn’t want to see progressives kill it, even though they’re right about the usefulness of the public option), but I see no reason to believe that it’s not possible to get this bill (public option included) to the president’s desk. And Obama gained more than enough trust from me during his campaign (and on the balance has kept it during his tenure so far) that I will allow him the opportunity to play this out without me screaming “betrayal” at the top of my lungs. Which is really all I have to say on this subject until something comes out of conference.

Political dissent = life sentence

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Burma’s junta unlikely to buckle

The intervention by US Senator Jim Webb to secure the release of American prisoner John Yettaw from Burma can be assessed in one of two ways.

The first is that it indicates a new and softer approach by the Burmese junta.

The second is that the release was a tactical manoeuvre by the junta to ease international pressure on itself.

If so, it could be seen as similar to the reduction in sentence on Aung San Suu Kyi for giving refuge to Mr Yettaw on his unauthorised visit to the house where she is held on detention.

In the absence of real evidence that the junta is changing course, the second assessment is probably the most realistic one.

Dictators often like to make concessions to well-connected and influential foreigners who beat a path to their door asking for a favour. It does not mean to say that these dictators are about to change their ways.

Read on…

All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol’s World

Fight for the Public Option

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Shem Walker Leto receives dental care from a volunteer dental hygienist, Marie Ekins, at the massive Free Clinic at the Forum in Los Angeles on August 11. (Photo: Genaro Molina / The Los Angeles Times)

Shem Walker Leto receives dental care from a volunteer dental hygienist, Marie Ekins, at the massive Free Clinic at the Forum in Los Angeles on August 11. (Photo: Genaro Molina / The Los Angeles Times)

By Marc Ash, Truthout

As August comes to a close, one of the most important debates in American history will come to a point of decision making. Will Americans have the option to support their own health care system if they choose?

It will not only be important as a political precedent or as policy statement; it will be a landmark moment socially. Will we as Americans care for Americans in illness and need? The conflict could not be more stark, the stakes any higher.

The horror of the drowning of New Orleans played out in media images before a disbelieving nation. The enormity of what we were seeing a rational mind had to view as an anomaly, an aberration. An entire US city left to die with more than adequate resources standing by to have saved so many lives? Why? How could this be? But in places like Wise County, Virginia, and Inglewood, California, scenes hauntingly reminiscent of crowds at the New Orleans Superdome, new crowds of uninsured Americans, desperately hoping for services, thronged to open air or poorly sanitized mass clinics, hoping for any chance at health care, any chance to receive medical attention.

What we need is not “change”; we need tradition. An American tradition of fortitude and caring. It can no longer be the responsibility of the corporations or the government; the community must lead. The time has come to fight for the public health care option.

The dialog must be broad enough and creative enough to include moderate conservatives and religious conservatives as well. Moderate conservatives have been pushed to the margins too long, their voices cowed along with liberals. If the conservative movement is to recover, it must be prepared to re-embrace social responsibility.

Not since Eisenhower’s warning of the perils of an increasingly powerful “military-industrial-complex” in his 1961 farewell speech, has moderate conservatism really held the moral high ground. There is an overnight political resurrection to be realized if moderate conservatives can be rallied to act for public health care. Religious conservatives are, in fact, already on the move, scheduling what are being called prayer vigils in cities across the country.

Conversely, a newly revitalized Democratic majority stands to squander the political capitol they gained in the past two elections by reneging on their promise to bring about meaningful progress on health care reform. There is a notion often floated that any bill passed on health care will pass as progress, as reform. But it will not. The large health care conglomerates are corrupt and ruthlessly so. Legislation that allows those policies to continue must not be allowed to go unchallenged.

When Hillary Clinton mounted a meaningful attempt at health care reform in the early ’90s, the health care industry and their political allies on Capitol Hill were quick to point to her defeat as the final nail in her political coffin and the coffin of public health care. It wasn’t dead, however, it was just buried under a Bush. Low and behold, both Hillary Clinton and public health care have risen again.

The reason that public health care will not go away is that it’s bigger than politics, bigger than policy and bigger than financial profit. There are tens of millions uninsured and more than half the population paying, but receiving substandard care. The problem is gigantic and growing rapidly.

The time has come to say no. It must be said clearly and directly at all times in all places. Any health care legislation that does not include a public option is a fraud. There are members of Congress who are committed to preserving the public option; they need all the support they can get.

This is a fight whose time has come.

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This article is re-printed in full with the expressed permission of Marc Ash to TheZoo.

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Contact President Obama at the White House here.

Contact your Senator from the list here.

Contact your Representative from the list here.


This is the time to act, we cannot wait any longer.  Write the President and your Congress people.  Do it now, and do it often.  Be polite, but be clear, and don’t leave any question as to what you’re asking of them.

The Watering Hole: August 17

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Basalt columns, Snake River

Basalt columns, Snake River

Photo by Zooey

I think basalt columns are some of the most interesting geological formations on the planet.

During the cooling of a thick lava flow, contractional joints or fractures form. If a flow cools relatively rapidly, significant contraction forces build up. While a flow can shrink in the vertical dimension without fracturing, it cannot easily accommodate shrinking in the horizontal direction unless cracks form; the extensive fracture network that develops results in the formation of columns.

Go here for some really amazing photos of basalt columns all over the world.

Sunday Op-Ed roundup

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Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment regarding Quitter Palin and her dangerously irresponsible “death panels.”

The only ‘death panels,’ Ms. Palin, are the figurative ones you have inspired with such irresponsible, dangerous, facile, vile, hate speech. The death of common sense. The death of logic.The death, perhaps, of Democracy, at the hands of mob rule.

William Rivers Pitt, Howl

If you’ve ever wondered what lurks at the very bottom of the American political barrel, look no further than the scenes that have been playing out in health care town hall forums across the nation over the last couple of weeks.

Cenk Uygur asks, Is Obama Just Another Politician?

I understand the value of compromise, diplomacy, bipartisanship, etc. But if you compromise on everything, then what do you have left? It’s a balancing act, of course. You have to know when to compromise and when to stand firm. So, that gets us to the question of the day? The central question of the Obama presidency.

Ray McGovern, Pundits Try to Help Cheney Avoid Jail

The stenographers of the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM) are missing the most obvious explanation for former Vice President Dick Cheney’s widely reported “disappointment” with former President George W. Bush on the issue of pardons — self-interest.

Eugene Robinson, How Bad Things Might Have Been

Yes, until recently we had an administration that didn’t believe in niceties such as due process and rule of law. Our nation asserted the right not just to detain suspects indefinitely, but also to abuse them, to torture them, to make them “disappear” like victims of some banana-republic junta.

The British Fight Back

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The UK has tired of the United States trashing their universal health care system and are speaking out.

Contrary to what Americans are being told, the British love their universal health care system.  I used to work for a British owned corporation and my counterparts in the UK always received good health care and never complained about how they were treated.

How many countries are clamoring for our health care system?  If our health care was so great, other countries would be eager to switch from their universal coverage to our “you’re not covered” system.  Do keep paying your premiums because the insurance companies might change their minds, maybe, and cover your treatments (if you are lucky).

Health Care Reformed: Same Insurance, New Name

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Apparently ready to abandon the idea, President Barack Obama’s health secretary said Sunday a government alternative to private health insurance is “not the essential element” of the administration’s health care overhaul.

The White House indicated it could jettison the contentious public option and settle on insurance cooperatives as an acceptable alternative, a move embraced by some Republicans lawmakers who have strongly opposed the administration’s approach so far.

Insurance Companies, some who have received taxpayer bailout money by the truckfull are succeeding in protecting their ability to rape the American people. Their contributions (of our tax money, funneled to them through Bush’s TARP) have secured solid support amongst Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats who now have campaign coffers stuffed with cash and a ready outlet through Fox News to all but guarantee re-election.

Obama, for whatever his promises and good intentions, is unable to prevail against Corporations who have billions at their disposal (AIG, for example, received $70 billion from us taxpayers).

Being able to buy insurance on the open market through a “insurance cooperative” won’t help the unemployed. In July, that number stood at 14.5 million people.

Next on the agenda will be “tort reform” to eliminate your right to be compensated when that pill you took destroys your health because it wasn’t properly tested before you saw that wonderful TV ad.

The ultimate irony, of course, is the fact that those people issuing death threats to protect the status quo will in turn be killed by the status quo.