Bush Trying to Kill Child Health Care
By Amy Goodman, King Features Syndicate
Congress is considering bipartisan legislation that will cover poor children in the U.S. The major obstacle? President Bush is vowing to veto the bill.

Inside "Sicko": The Cuba Trip [VIDEO] By Adam Howard   In a sneak peak at "Sicko" broadcast on "Oprah", we see some politically charged footage of how "sick" our healthcare failure really  is...

Support Equity in Women's Health Coverage Women in this country are being denied basic health care coverage, a situation that seriously compromises their health and violates anti-discrimination law. Insurance plans routinely cover prescription drugs, but fail to cover prescription contraceptives. Read more or take action right now!

Why Cuba Is Exporting Health Care to the U.S. By Sarah van Gelder, YES! Magazine The Cuban health care system is producing a population that is as healthy as those of the world's wealthiest countries at a fraction of the cost. And now Cuba has begun exporting its system

When one of us hurts, all of us hurt. That's the message in Collateral Damage: Bad Medicine in Tennessee, a compelling 25-minute film by Julie Winokur of Talking Eyes Media. Collateral Damage captures the suffering caused by the single largest Medicaid cuts in history. It exposes the injustice of a ruthless health care policy that refuses to regulate the managed care organizations and puts people's lives at risk. In 2005, when Governor Phil Bredesen of Tennessee announced he would reform his state's Medicaid program, people took him at his word. Little did they know that Bredesen's idea of reform meant cutting 170,000 people off the program almost overnight. The size and speed of the cuts were unprecedented; the suffering they caused was immeasurable. The sickest, neediest people were denied medical care while the nation sat by and watched. Meanwhile, the Governor boasted to other heads of states about his success reigning in the rising cost of health care. This intense, moving film asks how, in the richest nation in the world, people can die every day because they lack access to health care. Bad Medicine: Ruthless Health Care Policy in America  (watch the video) Collateral Damage: Bad Medicine in Tennessee, a new film by Julie Winokur, explores the single largest Medicaid cuts in history -- a failed "reform" attempt that left 170,000 people without care almost overnight. Posted on May 29, 2007

We would like to thank you for making the Candlelight Vigil such an incredible success.

But our work is not done. We need the top management of Providence to hear from each and every person who attended the vigil.  You made your voice heard at the vigil and this is your chance to make your voice heard directly to Providence.  Call, Fax or Email the CEO of Providence Health System-Oregon, Russ Danielson, and tell him that Providence workers deserve access to free and fair union elections.

Russ Danielson   Phone: 503-215-4802   Fax: 503-215-4703
Email: russell.danielson@providence.org

Thank you again for your support!

                                    Healthy Kids Plan

Health Care Is Finally a Priority By Jacob S. Hacker, TomPaine.com Leading Democratic presidential candidates made clear on Saturday that "stay the course" is no longer a viable strategy on the health policy battlefield.

These two bills are coming up for vote in the State legislature:

Contact Elected Officials  

Baker City Herald - Baker City,OR,USA
In an early coup, the Bates and Westlund plan has won support from a diverse group that includes small business leaders, labor unions and public health ...
See all stories on this topic

Everyone deserves adequate health care.  It is a prerequisite for the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness which we propose is our legacy. If we cannot take care of our own people's health, as the richest country in the world, there is something seriously wrong.

If we had not spent 1.5 trillion lining the pockets of George Bush's sponsors while creating five million refugees and killing more than a million people, we could afford to provide health care for every American.

If our people were healthy, secure, and at peace we could survive, endure, prosper, flourish, and excel. It is time to let the transnational economic cartels hire their own mercenaries while we care for our own.

"Paying More but Getting Less: Myths and the Global Case for U.S. Health Reform":

Americans are The Healthiest People in the World.
 
FACT: Citizens of 34 nations live longer than Americans.
The U.S. is the Best Place to Get Sick.
FACT: The World Health Organization ranked the U.S. 37th in the world
for health system performance. Countries like Australia and the United
Kingdom rank above the U.S. Americans have lower odds of surviving
colorectal cancer and childhood leukemia than Canadians who do have
national health care. Americans also experience greater problems in
coordination of care than the previously mentioned countries and New
Zealand.
Covering All Americans Will Lead to Rationing.
FACT: Same-day access to primary-care physicians in the U.S. (33%) is
far less available than in the United Kingdom (41%), Australia (54%)
and New Zealand (60%). Per capita spending for health care averaged
$2,696 in countries without waiting lists and $5,267 in the U.S.
Global Competitiveness is Hampered in Comprehensive System.
FACT: "Health care costs are not just a burden and barrier to care for
individuals; they are taking a heavy toll on American businesses." The
strain on employers in 2005 was staggering. "The average total premiums
for an employer-based family plan was $9,979 in 2005 ..." Most of our
competitors in the world markets finance their systems outside
corporate taxes and employer mandates. Without Medicare for Everyone,
the U.S. will continue to hemorrhage jobs.

We Cannot Afford to Cover All Americans.
FACT: We already spend enough to have universal health care. "The truth
is, we cannot afford to not reform the health system." We spend about
50% more than the next most expensive nation and nearly twice per
person what the Canadians do. On May 1, 2006 Paul Krugman explained in
Death by Insurance how incredibly wasteful the current system is. The
doctor he referenced has two full-time staff members for billing, and
two secretaries spend half their time collecting insurance information
on the 301 different private plans they deal with. This type of waste
is easily 20%. Also consider that 98% of Medicare funds are spent on
medical care.
IMPORTANT: The hackneyed -- and inaccurate -- mantra of Republicans
when universal health care is introduced is to blame trial lawyers and
malpractice cases for our lack of national health care. In fact, 0.46%
of our total health spending is spent on awards, legal costs, and
underwriting costs -- about the same as Canada and the United Kingdom
and about the same amount we spend on dog and cat food each year. While
"defensive medicine" may drive up the price, it hardly accounts for our
stunning health care costs. The belief that citizens should give up
their right to fair legal redress for legally proven medical mistakes
in exchange for lower health care costs rings as true as the promise
that if we must give up our civil rights to be safe from terrorists.

Even those with coverage too often pay exorbitant rates. The current
profit-driven system, dominated by private insurance firms and their
bureaucracies, has failed.

We must establish streamlined national health insurance, "Enhanced
Medicare for Everyone." It would be publicly financed health care,
privately delivered, and will put patients and doctors back in control
of the system. Coverage will be more complete than private insurance
plans; encourage prevention; and include prescription drugs, dental
care, mental health care, and alternative and complementary medicine.

Perhaps the clearest and most eloquent explanation of the
Conyers-Kucinich National Health Insurance Bill was given on February
4, 2003, in Washington, D.C., by Dr. Marcia Angell in introducing H.R.
676. Backed by over 14,000 doctors, this is the future of American
medicine.

"We are here today to introduce a national health insurance program.
Such a program is no longer optional; it's necessary.

"Americans have the most expensive health care system in the world. We
spend about twice as much per person as other developed nations, and
that gap is growing. That's not because we are sicker or more demanding
(Canadians, for example, see their doctors more often and spend more
time in the hospital). And it's not because we get better results. By
the usual measures of health (life expectancy, infant mortality,
immunization rates), we do worse than most other developed countries.
Furthermore, we are the only developed nation that does not provide
comprehensive health care to all its citizens. Some 42 million
Americans are uninsured (nearly 46 million today -- updated figure) --
disproportionately the sick, the poor, and minorities -- and most of
the rest of us are underinsured. In sum, our health care system is
outrageously expensive, yet inadequate. Why? The only plausible
explanation is that there's something about our system -- about the way
we finance and deliver health care -- that's enormously inefficient.
The failures of the system were partly masked during the economic boom
of the 1990s, but now they stand starkly exposed. There is no question
that with the deepening recession and rising unemployment, in the words
of John Breaux, "The system is collapsing around us."

"The underlying problem is that we treat health care like a market
commodity instead of a social service. Health care is targeted not to
medical need, but to the ability to pay. Markets are good for many
things, but they are not a good way to distribute health care. To
understand what's happening, let's look at how the health care market
works ... "

"Mainstream" writers like Ph. D. economist and columnist for the New
York Times Paul Krugman now agree with those doctors and Dennis that
"covering everyone under Medicare would actually be significantly
cheaper than our current system." They all recognize that we already
spend enough to provide national health care to all but lack the
political courage to make the tough decision that doctors, nurses, and
medical professionals must run our health care system -- not
"for-profit" insurance companies, who make money by denying health
care.

It is time to recognize that all the civilized countries have a
solution that we must adapt to this country. American businesses can no
longer be competitive shouldering the entire cost of health care.
Health care is a right that all Americans deserve.


~~~We all deserve health care and an education. Not as a gift, but as a right. We paid for it.