Guaranteed Healthcare

There's an interesting article in Politico which makes the case for a possible 60 seat filibuster proof Democratic Senate.  An unthinkable dream only a few short weeks ago, is now being discussed as the electoral landscape looks increasingly dire for the thoroughly discredited Republican Party. Should this happen, such a miraculous turn of events, would be further fallout of the economic catastrophe Mr. Bush created and now bequeathes to his successor.

Certainly, a sixty seat Democratic Senate, would also be the ultimate referendum on the last eight years of the worst and most corrupt administration in the history of our nation. Finally, a neutered and defanged Republican Party. 

If this happens, will we see great progressive legislation? Will we see at the top of the list, universal, affordable and guaranteed healthcare reform? Will such historic legislation move with lightening speed through the House and the Senate and be signed into law by President Obama? 

Many analysts believe the financial crisis will worsen dramatically (despite the bailout of Wall Street) between now and January 20th. The collapse of the U.S. healthcare system seems poised to be the next shoe to drop in the pyramid scheme legacy of the Bush Administration.

As Rose Ann DeMoro states in The Nation, "If only the federal government could be mobilized so quickly to solve the nation's healthcare crisis."  Perhaps the repercussions from the bailout, and a 60 seat Senate will give us an unprecedented historic opportunity to enact sweeping healthcare reform.

What must single-payer activists do between now and then, to prepare for a possible 60 seat Democratic Senate? 

The meltdown of the U.S. economy has Americans deciding between milk and medicine. We won't get a second chance to make healthcare the top domestic priority of the Obama Administration.

President Obama will of necessity, hit the ground running. His economic team has some mess to deal with. 

Will we too be ready? 

A government takeover? 

The collapse of the U.S. financial system may present single-payer advocates with a strategic advantage.

What until recently was only whispered about behind closed doors--a government takeover of the U.S. healthcare system is now being openly discussed.

Two new studies The New York Times is reporting on today are causing renewed new alarm that the United States is facing another perfect storm, the full meltdown of the healthcare system. One study is from the Kaiser Family Foundation, the other from the Center for Studying Health System Change.

Two studies released Wednesday morning provide further evidence of the toll health care is increasingly placing on working families, even for those who have health insurance. And as employees are paying more medical expenses out of their own pockets, they are having a harder time coming up with the money.

The studies, by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Center for Studying Health System Change, were completed earlier this year before the financial markets reached their current state of crisis. But policy analysts say the findings underscore the mounting additional strain that medical care is placing on working Americans.

The video you've just watched is an American tragedy.

A citizen of the richest country on the planet, evidently an immigrant from Spain, asking John McPalin why she was compelled to bring her ill relative, a "so-called uninsurable", home to Spain to die?

And McPalin's rambling, disjointed and utterly pathetic response.

The traditional media didn't see fit to make these chilling remarks public.  You should do yourself a favor and look at the man  shameless con artist who hopes he can lie and three card monte his way into becoming the 44th President of the United States.

Why is John McCain hiding? Why is John McCain hiding Sarah Palin? Why is John McCain hiding his grotesque record from the American people?

This video ought to make it very clear.

He's going to tax your precious employer health benefits. And if that doesn't sit well with you, he'll give you a tax credit and send on your own into the merciless and unregulated individual insurance cesspool. Once in that toxic waste heap, "my friend", you'll be on your own.

Here's what Joe Biden had to say yesterday about healthcare in Missouri a very critical swing state. These voters will decide who will be the 44th President of the United States.

Did you see this yesterday on the news?  Did you hear about this yesterday? Do you think John McCain wants you to know anything about his healthcare "plan"?

Should we add knowledge, information, and an informed electorate, to the list we call casualty of the day?

Would someone wake me when it's over?

You can't make this stuff up.

John Goodman, the architect of McMoron's healthcare "plan" had this to say today regarding the news that Texas leads the nation in the number of uninsured.

But the numbers are misleading, said John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-leaning Dallas-based think tank. Mr. Goodman, who helped craft Sen. John McCain's health care policy, said anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort. (Hospital emergency rooms by law cannot turn away a patient in need of immediate care.)

"So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime," Mr. Goodman said. "The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.

"So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."

I (that's me, nyceve) have nothing to add except. . .

God help us.

 Today we celebrate Obama-Biden

On November 5th, 2008, the fight  for the heart and soul of America, and the re-education of team Obama-Biden begins in earnest.

Our vice presidential nominee may be the Chairman of the Foreign Relation Committee, but he doesn't have a clue about healthcare reform.

To make the plan less prone to attack from those who fear "socialized" medicine, Biden said, "I don't want a whole new bureaucracy."

I'm starting a periodic  journal highlighting some of our grim American health news.

This will help me stay focused as we fight for the election of Barack Obama.  But make no mistake, electing Obama is just the first step in what will be a long and intensely diificult battle for guaranteed, affordable and hopefully single-payer healthcare.

That said, what follows are some current realities about life in the richest country on the planet.

 Before I address what Paul Krugman had to say this morning, I urge you to hear what Elizabeth Warren has to say about healthcare and bankruptcy.

This morning Paul Krugman writes about health care in the The New York Times

He asks: Can it happen here?

That he must ask such a question is chilling.

That we as a nation continue to have a discussion which revolves around the concept of whether a human being in pain is entitled to be relieved of his suffering is horrifying.

 But this time, he was alone, there was no Joe Lieberman to whisper in his ear. McSame doesn't have a clue about the economy, Iraq, Sunni, Shia, the Anbar Awakening--now add to the McSame catalogue of cluelessness, the collapse of the U.S. healthcare system. 

The mind reels at Mr. McSame's ignorance, and Lance Armstrong should be ashamed of himself for not vigorously challenging him.

I've spent the morning reviewing some video clips of McSame's appearance at the Lance Armstrong Cancer Summit.

It's a treasure trove. This one The entire event should inspire fear in the hearts of all Americans.

Either the "presumptive nominee" had another senior moment, or just add the collapse of the U.S. healthcare system to the long list of catastrophes this moron doesn't have a clue about.

"No limits on premiums", you really said this, McSame?  You bet, just ask any American, we all know about no limits on premiums. I pay $686.00 a month for junk insurance. The American people don't need a tired has-been like John McSame telling us about "no limits on premiums.

Preach it  President Obama.

At a town hall meeting on health care at Virginia High School, a 95-year-old voter gave Senator Obama our beloved Democratic nominee a maple walking stick.

Obama thanked the man, who’d carved the stick himself, and then, admiring his gift, said, “If members of Congress don’t pass my health care plan, I’ll whup them, I’ll whup them. That’s right, don’t mess with me, I’ll have my stick.”

Newsday is reporting that Obama has reaffirmed this historic pledge, and we will hold him to it. Healthcare negotiations will be broadcast to the American people via CSPAN, they will not be conducted under cover of darkness.

The American people will watch the sausage being made.

He stressed that he would have open discussions with the American people -- about 46 million have no health insurance -- vowing that negotiations over his health-care plan would be aired on cable TV's C-SPAN.

Watch the video, Obama means business.

Memo to Members of Congress:  Don't cross Barack Obama. The American people are watching you.