UPDATE #2:Copied from Tom Paine dot com, I get their daily newsletter and you can, too.
Can't make this stuff up
Submitted by Rick Perlstein
October 4, 2007
As everyone knows by now, our president declared yesterday, Wednesday, to be "National Veto Child Health Day." What you may not know is that the president declared Monday a very special day too:
For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryOctober 1, 2007
* Child Health Day, 2007 *
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America
Our Nation is committed to the health and well-being of our youth. On Child Health Day, we reaffirm our commitment to helping children develop good nutrition habits and active lifestyles, so that they can grow into healthy and productive adults....Goes on like that for another five paragraphs. Then:
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Monday, October 1, 2007, as Child Health Day. I call upon families, schools, child health professionals, faith-based and community organizations, and State and local governments to reach out to our Nation's young people, encourage them to avoid dangerous behavior, and help them make the right choices and achieve their dreams.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-second.
GEORGE W. BUSH
No, you can't make this stuff up.
Comments included:
Do you think this may have something to do with October being National Sarcasm Month.
Nothing new here folks.
He's been doing this kind of thing since January 2001.
If he visits your factory for a photo-op, get ready to start looking for a new job, because there is always some back-room deal being worked out to screw you.
Same with the school kids. Photo-op on Monday. Wednesday your special ed programs get cut.
Outrage? Certainly. Surprise? Nah.
My comment:
This week's headlines on the American Medical Assoc. News: "Health Insurance premiums up 6.1%, fast outpacing inflation and wages."
The cool graphic is a chart that shows that over the past 6 years health insurance premiums have seen a cumulative growth of 78%* !!! Extrapolate that, folks!*
source: Kaiser Family Foundation Sept. 2007
The Kaiser spokesman said "we are witnessing a slow but certain long-term erosion of our employer -based system." Only 59% of firms with under 200 employees offer health benefits of any kind, down from 68% in 2001.It's a race to the bottom. Trickle down economics is drowning the middle class, and God know what the poor are going through. Page 2 gets worse, as comparisons are made between the increasing premiums for workers and employers using different plans as examples. Of course low wage workers and small business employers are feeling the most pain in trying to meet the rising costs. But, but, but insurance corporation PROFITS are up!
This is criminal, America.
When 'Sicko' comes out on DVD, please get it.Michael Moore may have made you mad in the past, but this time he will make you weep. And, to warn you in advance, in this movie he wasn't even addressing the needs of the uninsured. The things you will see are happening to the insured. This health crisis in America is not the fault of hospitals or doctors, it is the fault of the private insurance corporations and our elected politicians.
By the way, the AMA news writes: "The AMA, as part of the Health Coverage Coalition for the Uninsured, supports offering tax credits for buying health insurance and improving enrollment both in Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program." It's a start.
UPDATE #1:Well, The Compassionate One vetoed the bill. He punishes little children for the sins of their parents ... Being born without a tax free inheritance is just not de rigueur, is it, bunkie?Here's a hint to the Democrats: don't use the language of the Republicans. When they deride socialized medicine, tell them you don't want THAT, but MOST parents would like a little help with their medical INSURANCE. Here's for socialized INSURANCE. It's the least we can do for the least among us.
Both the U.S. House and Senate have voted with overwhelmingbipartisan majorities to give 10 million children health care.
This was welcome news to hard-working families across thecountry who simply can't afford insurance--and can only prayeach night their kids don't get sick or hurt.
President Bush is set to veto the bill, calling this necessaryinvestment in children's health "excessive."
Yet, as he was threatening to kill the bill, Bush announced an additional $200 billion in spending for the war in Iraq.
The president wants to spend as muchin about one month of the war in Iraqas it would cost to cover 10 million childrenfor one year.
Click this http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/md1u3l619ci1/ link to tell President Bush to get his priorities straight.
The overwhelming majority of the House and Senate--not tomention the American public--understands that the StateChildren's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is vital forchildren and families here at home.
Children enrolled in the SCHIP programare much more likely to have regular doctor visits and have lower rates of unmet needs for medical care.The choice for Bush is simple: veto the bill or give 10 millionchildren a better chance for a healthy life.
Tell Bush to get his priorities straight and sign this bill to provide health care coverage to 10 million children.
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Monday, October 08, 2007
Friday, August 31, 2007
You Got That Right, Bob
Bob Herbert: Holding Kids Hostage
The governors of New York and New Jersey were upset and not trying to hide it.
“We had zero forewarning,” said New Jersey’s Jon Corzine. “It was sprung at 7:30 on a Friday night in the middle of August, the time when it would draw the least fire.”
He was talking about the Bush administration’s latest effort to thwart the expansion of the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program. Governors in several states are trying to include more youngsters from the lower rungs of the middle class and have vowed to fight the president on this issue.
Acting during a Congressional recess, and making a distinct effort to stay beneath the radar of the news media, the administration enacted insidious new rules that make it much harder for states to bring additional children under the umbrella of the program, known colloquially as CHIP.
The program is popular because it works. It’s cost effective and there is wide bipartisan support for its expansion. But President Bush, locked in an ideological straitjacket, is adamant in his opposition.
In addition to the new rules drastically curtailing the ability of governors to expand local coverage by obtaining waivers from the federal government, the president has threatened a veto of Congressional efforts to fund a more robust version of the overall program.
“It’s stunning,” said New York’s Gov. Eliot Spitzer. “He says he’s going to veto health care for kids because it’s too expensive at the same time that these continuing resolutions for the war, where we don’t even know what the cost is, are going through unabated. This is insanity.
“Everybody agrees this is the right thing to do except the Bush administration.”
Health coverage for poor children is provided by Medicaid. CHIP was originally designed to cover the children of the working poor. That has worked well, but there are still huge numbers of families who need help.
“The reality,” said Governor Spitzer, “is that there is an enormous proportion of American society above the poverty level but in the lower middle class that simply can’t afford health coverage.”
Wherever there are large numbers of families without coverage, you will find children who are suffering needlessly and, in extreme cases, dying. They don’t get the preventive care or the attention to chronic illness that they should.
“That has not only an immediate effect on their development,” said Mr. Spitzer, “but a long-term cost to society that is incalculable.”
Several states, including New York and New Jersey, have used federal waivers to raise the family income ceiling for eligibility to participate in CHIP. New Jersey, for example, offers coverage to the children of families with incomes as high as 350 percent of the official poverty rate for a family of four, which is $20,650 a year. New York has an upper limit of 250 percent of the poverty rate and is trying to raise it to 400 percent.
State officials said the onerous new rules would make it all but impossible to offer coverage beyond 250 percent of the poverty level.
Administration officials have argued that the CHIP program should adhere closely to its original intent of limiting coverage to families only slightly above the official poverty line. They said there is a danger that families with higher incomes would begin substituting CHIP for private insurance coverage.
The reality is that under the administration’s approach enormous numbers of children in families without a lot of money will be left with no coverage at all, private or otherwise. The expansion of CHIP is the most efficient, cost-effective way of reaching those youngsters.
Denying CHIP to such families forces them to seek out hospital emergency rooms when medical treatment can no longer be postponed. “I see it every day,” said Governor Corzine. “If you’re uninsured, particularly with children, if you don’t have a place to go, that’s where people show up.”
What’s happening is cruel. Children who should be eligible for CHIP are being held hostage to policies driven by a desire to protect the big insurance companies and an ideology that views CHIP, correctly, as yet another important step on the road to universal health care.
Ronald Reagan, one of the tribunes in the fight against Medicare and Medicaid back in the ’60s, pumped up the warnings against “socialized medicine” by saying that if Medicare becomes a reality “you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”
I wonder what crazy things the ideologues think would happen if CHIP is expanded to cover the children who have no health insurance today.
The governors of New York and New Jersey were upset and not trying to hide it.
“We had zero forewarning,” said New Jersey’s Jon Corzine. “It was sprung at 7:30 on a Friday night in the middle of August, the time when it would draw the least fire.”
He was talking about the Bush administration’s latest effort to thwart the expansion of the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program. Governors in several states are trying to include more youngsters from the lower rungs of the middle class and have vowed to fight the president on this issue.
Acting during a Congressional recess, and making a distinct effort to stay beneath the radar of the news media, the administration enacted insidious new rules that make it much harder for states to bring additional children under the umbrella of the program, known colloquially as CHIP.
The program is popular because it works. It’s cost effective and there is wide bipartisan support for its expansion. But President Bush, locked in an ideological straitjacket, is adamant in his opposition.
In addition to the new rules drastically curtailing the ability of governors to expand local coverage by obtaining waivers from the federal government, the president has threatened a veto of Congressional efforts to fund a more robust version of the overall program.
“It’s stunning,” said New York’s Gov. Eliot Spitzer. “He says he’s going to veto health care for kids because it’s too expensive at the same time that these continuing resolutions for the war, where we don’t even know what the cost is, are going through unabated. This is insanity.
“Everybody agrees this is the right thing to do except the Bush administration.”
Health coverage for poor children is provided by Medicaid. CHIP was originally designed to cover the children of the working poor. That has worked well, but there are still huge numbers of families who need help.
“The reality,” said Governor Spitzer, “is that there is an enormous proportion of American society above the poverty level but in the lower middle class that simply can’t afford health coverage.”
Wherever there are large numbers of families without coverage, you will find children who are suffering needlessly and, in extreme cases, dying. They don’t get the preventive care or the attention to chronic illness that they should.
“That has not only an immediate effect on their development,” said Mr. Spitzer, “but a long-term cost to society that is incalculable.”
Several states, including New York and New Jersey, have used federal waivers to raise the family income ceiling for eligibility to participate in CHIP. New Jersey, for example, offers coverage to the children of families with incomes as high as 350 percent of the official poverty rate for a family of four, which is $20,650 a year. New York has an upper limit of 250 percent of the poverty rate and is trying to raise it to 400 percent.
State officials said the onerous new rules would make it all but impossible to offer coverage beyond 250 percent of the poverty level.
Administration officials have argued that the CHIP program should adhere closely to its original intent of limiting coverage to families only slightly above the official poverty line. They said there is a danger that families with higher incomes would begin substituting CHIP for private insurance coverage.
The reality is that under the administration’s approach enormous numbers of children in families without a lot of money will be left with no coverage at all, private or otherwise. The expansion of CHIP is the most efficient, cost-effective way of reaching those youngsters.
Denying CHIP to such families forces them to seek out hospital emergency rooms when medical treatment can no longer be postponed. “I see it every day,” said Governor Corzine. “If you’re uninsured, particularly with children, if you don’t have a place to go, that’s where people show up.”
What’s happening is cruel. Children who should be eligible for CHIP are being held hostage to policies driven by a desire to protect the big insurance companies and an ideology that views CHIP, correctly, as yet another important step on the road to universal health care.
Ronald Reagan, one of the tribunes in the fight against Medicare and Medicaid back in the ’60s, pumped up the warnings against “socialized medicine” by saying that if Medicare becomes a reality “you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”
I wonder what crazy things the ideologues think would happen if CHIP is expanded to cover the children who have no health insurance today.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
THE issue that separates the truly compassionate from the liars
Ask them, ask the politicians and your neighbors, and anyone you meet... about "nanny state socialism" that would allow us ALL to live with health care.
Health care is a basic human right. If we need to write it into the Bill of Rights, then let's do it.
Any politician or voter who paints themself as "compassionate" needs to be on the correct side of this issue.
It is a litmus test.
Meanwhile, census figures reveal that this year two and two tenths million (2.2 million) more Americans entered the rank of uninsured just in one year, up to an unprecedented 47 million uninsured.
You call this first in the world?
I say we self-described compassionate ones have not followed the Golden Rule or the Sermon on the Mount, or loved our own brothers as we love ourselves.
This is third world behavior, folks. Dog eating dog.
The triumph of capitalism, indeed.
You ought to be ashamed, America.
Get this folks, one million of these newly uninsured are full time workers.
Where's their American Dream, America?
And this should kill ya, if you have a conscience, folks. The number of newly uninsured children rose by 600,000.
Why is any child in America being left behind?
How can we say "equal opportunity for all" when some are being hobbled from birth?
Children, America.
Eleven percent of the children in America are not covered by health insurance.
You ought to be ashamed.
Are we in a race to the bottom?
How can you still support these lying clowns in our political leadership?
Or should I characterize them as wolves, human wolves.
But hope dies last: Kucinich and Edwards are both talking seriously of what Senator Cornyn called "the mythical little guy." We ain't mythical, and we would be the big guy if we got together on this one. Fairness, it should begin at conception.
Health care is a basic human right. If we need to write it into the Bill of Rights, then let's do it.
Any politician or voter who paints themself as "compassionate" needs to be on the correct side of this issue.
It is a litmus test.
Meanwhile, census figures reveal that this year two and two tenths million (2.2 million) more Americans entered the rank of uninsured just in one year, up to an unprecedented 47 million uninsured.
You call this first in the world?
I say we self-described compassionate ones have not followed the Golden Rule or the Sermon on the Mount, or loved our own brothers as we love ourselves.
This is third world behavior, folks. Dog eating dog.
The triumph of capitalism, indeed.
You ought to be ashamed, America.
Get this folks, one million of these newly uninsured are full time workers.
Where's their American Dream, America?
And this should kill ya, if you have a conscience, folks. The number of newly uninsured children rose by 600,000.
Why is any child in America being left behind?
How can we say "equal opportunity for all" when some are being hobbled from birth?
Children, America.
Eleven percent of the children in America are not covered by health insurance.
You ought to be ashamed.
Are we in a race to the bottom?
How can you still support these lying clowns in our political leadership?
Or should I characterize them as wolves, human wolves.
But hope dies last: Kucinich and Edwards are both talking seriously of what Senator Cornyn called "the mythical little guy." We ain't mythical, and we would be the big guy if we got together on this one. Fairness, it should begin at conception.
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