By Fred Goldstein, International Action Center, March 24, 2010
Tens of millions of people in this country were hoping to be delivered from the clutches of the ruthless profiteers who control the health care system and were hoping for universal health care. But the very opposite has happened.
The latest so-called health care reform bill, signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, has consolidated and legalized the position of the health care profiteers as the central force in the system of health care — under minimal supervision and regulation by the capitalist state.
Furthermore, this bill has been passed by bargaining away women’s reproductive rights and the rights of undocumented and documented immigrants. Its effect is to destroy solidarity while it turns its back on millions of mostly poor women and immigrants.
A statement by Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, explained that one of the bill’s effects is to make public funding of abortion impossible and private funding almost impossible. She wrote that the bill “imposes a bizarre requirement on insurance plan enrollees who buy coverage through the health insurance exchanges to write two monthly checks (one for an abortion care rider and one for all other health care). Even employers will have to write two separate checks for each of their employees requesting the abortion rider.”
O’Neill also wrote that the “bill imposes harsh restrictions on the ability of immigrants to access health care, imposing a five-year waiting period on permanent, legal residents before they are eligible for assistance such as Medicaid, and prohibiting undocumented workers even to use their own money to purchase health insurance through an exchange. These provisions ... are there because of ugly anti-immigrant sentiment, and must be eliminated.”
Those who stubbornly and valiantly fought for some form of universal national health care were shunted aside by the Democratic Party leadership and the Obama administration. Single payer was pushed off the agenda and substituted with the miniscule provision for a “public option.” This was mainly a sop in order to change the subject. The Obama administration had early on negotiated with the health care industry and agreed that there would not be a public option.
Thus health care is still to be sold as a commodity on the capitalist market for profit, instead of being the right that it should be. It is in stark contrast to the socialized health care in Cuba, for example, where despite a U.S. blockade that has impoverished the country for decades, health care is free and accessible to everyone. This is because Cuba’s socialist system means people’s needs are a priority, not profits like under capitalism.
One of the features of this bill is that the masses have been kept in the dark about the process and the bill itself from the beginning to the end. Only the politicians and the lobbyists from the various health care industries and medical professions were able to follow the inner course of the negotiations. Now that it is over, various bourgeois experts have surfaced to “explain” the bill.
Workers to wait until 2014 while 45,000 a year die
The details that are buried in the bill will only come out over time, if ever. Here are some of the major features of the bill that have come out.
To begin with, even the most optimistic estimates project that 23 million people will still be uninsured in 2014.
The bill imposes onerous conditions on millions of uninsured who, starting in 2014, would be forced to buy health insurance from an insurance company or face a fine. This is the bill’s version of giving wider coverage. It was the result of a deal cut with the insurance companies to widen their diminishing customer base, which has suffered during the economic crisis as millions lost their jobs and their insurance, and to ensure future billions in profit.
In 2014 workers and the middle class are to be thrust into one of 50 state-run exchanges. This further atomizes the working class by leaving the burden on the individual to find “affordable” insurance on the Internet. Even when insurance premiums are affordable, the co-payments and deductibles can be in the thousands of dollars and make it unaffordable to actually use the insurance.
Medicare Advantage, home care and hospital payments are to be cut by $200 billion. This is a threat to seniors and the disabled, despite assurances that nothing will be cut. Cuts will be made in the reimbursement to the private insurance companies that work through Medicare Advantage; they will surely reduce services.
Adults with pre-existing conditions will have to wait until 2014, when they can no longer be denied coverage. Poor families of four earning less than $29,327 — 16 million people — will have to wait five years to be covered by Medicaid. Meanwhile 45,000 preventable deaths take place every year because of lack of insurance, according to Harvard Medical School. Half of all bankruptcies are due to medical costs.
The bill, of course, has some positive elements that cover the most outrageous and universally hated practices of the insurance companies. Any positive elements should be closely studied by the workers and taken full advantage of. Many of the practices to be eliminated were exposed in Michael Moore’s popular and widely viewed film, “Sicko.”
In the short run, the insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage if you are sick. They will not be able to put a lifetime cap on coverage. And they cannot deny children access because of a pre-existing condition. Youth up to 26 years old can stay on their parents’ insurance plan, although there may be an additional premium.
But millions of workers will still have to rely on their bosses to get their health care. If you lose your job, you still lose your health care. In this era of layoffs, mass unemployment and underemployment, there is an epidemic of people losing their employer-based coverage. And if you are allowed to keep your health care after you are laid off, few can afford to pay a group rate, let alone an individual rate.
Most important is that the insurance companies will be in charge of the immediate review process. The Department of Health and Human Services will eventually have a higher level of review. But the companies are expert at lying, manipulating and, in the long run, suffering fines in order to avoid giving coverage that is more expensive than the fines. It is a case of the fox retaining the right to guard the chicken coop.
Social Security and Medicare
The conventional wisdom being touted by the Democratic Party leadership is that this health care bill is in the tradition of the establishment of Social Security and Medicare.
In fact, the opposite is true. Marxists must try to understand the difference, not just in terms of personalities or parties, but in seeing the objective circumstances in which these different pieces of legislation were passed and what the class differences are. The most important factor is to view the relationship of class forces that existed then and that exist now.
The Social Security bill was passed in 1935 as part of the Franklin Roosevelt “New Deal.” But it was passed only after a period of mass struggle against unemployment, the famous veterans’ Bonus March in Washington, D.C., and the break up of the veterans’ encampment by federal troops in a pitched battle. It followed the general strikes in San Francisco, Minneapolis, Minn., and Toledo, Ohio, in 1934.
Even at that, it was a compromise in which the bosses wound up having to pay only half of Social Security, with workers paying the other half. But it became a working-class right. The money was held by the government for the workers and paid out every month by the government.
The Medicaid bill was passed in 1964 and the Medicare legislation was passed in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” program. These bills were not passed because the capitalist government suddenly became socially conscious. They came after 10 years of the Civil Rights movement, massive rebellions in the streets of Harlem, N.Y., and Los Angeles, and a growing national liberation movement right here in the U.S.
Just like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid became a legal and political right of the working class and the poor. They were not turned over to private companies and put on the capitalist market as commodities.
The present health care bill reflects the fact that the working class movement, including the movement of the oppressed, has been on the defensive for a long time and has not yet begun to fight back.
Consequently, the fate of the health care bill was really fought out by different factions within the ruling class and their two political parties without any significant intervention by the masses. Secret deals were made with the pharmaceutical and hospital lobbies as well as with elements in the health insurance industry. When these deals became known, there was no mass response. The bosses had their way, relatively unobstructed by any threat from below. The labor movement leadership restricted itself to minuscule protests and lobbying. And the communities and the political movement were unable to mobilize, despite militant attempts by various single-payer groups.
Fight racist, right-wing counterattacks
But this should lead into the next phase of the struggle. The great problem for the workers’ movement is that the health care bill, as minimal as it is, has been fought tooth-and-nail by the Republicans and the extreme right-wing Tea Party movement, which encompasses outright fascists. The Republicans and the corporations have in fact worked with the Tea Party movement to fan the flames of racism and anti-gay and anti-immigrant sentiment.
There was a fascist-like display at the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the day the bill was passed, when a mob shouted racist epithets at African-American representative and former civil rights leader John Lewis of Georgia and spat on another Black legislator. The mob then accosted Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, who is gay, and hurled anti-gay slurs at him. It is notable that this mob was allowed by the Capitol police to get right up in the faces of the lawmakers.
The right wing tried to bring down the Obama presidency over the health care bill. There is already talk among the Republicans of trying to overturn the bill and start up a new town-hall-style, ultra-rightist mobilization.
This fact does not make the bill any better. But it does mean that the workers’ movement, the progressive and revolutionary movement, must work together to assertively combat any reactionary and racist counterattack by the right while at the same time demanding real universal health care.
It is not known at this time if right-wing elements will succeed. But the progressive movement was taken aback during the town hall campaign last fall, when the first right-wing assaults were launched against the health care bill while whipping up a racist campaign against Obama.
Forewarned is forearmed. The fight for health care can be carried into the struggle against the right without having to abandon a working-class, progressive position. Fighting the racists and getting in their face while demanding universal quality health care and Medicare for all can and must be done. “Health care is a right!” should become the battle cry of the movement, along with pro-immigrant, pro-abortion rights, anti-racist slogans and so on. This is the way to resist any right-wing, racist mobilization based on opposition to the health care bill.
The Democratic Party leadership has given in all along the line. The workers, oppressed communities, students and youth all have a stake in this struggle. It can be united with the struggle for jobs, against the budget cuts and foreclosures, and to save public education. All these fronts in the class struggle form the basis to come together in People’s Assemblies or other organs of popular power to unite to launch a powerful, anti-capitalist movement.
Showing posts with label healthcare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healthcare. Show all posts
The Health Care That Equals "I Don't Care"
By Mumia Abu-Jamal, Prison Radio, Written 8/29/09, Recorded 8/30/09
Listen To Audio Column: Full Version | Short Version
As the White House and Congress square off on health care, take care, because the deals with the big dogs have been made -- and the people will be -- once again -- left holding an empty bag.
That's because in the opening hours of this drama, the central issue -- single payer -- was given away, in an attempt to attract the support of big insurance companies. A pre-pay-off, if you will, to show them that neither their profits nor future growth would be impaired.
Truly, this is change that they can believe in, for it means more clients, more funds flooding their tills, and legislative protection for their dwindling pay outs (for sick people.)
Single-payer means that all doctors and hospitals would have been paid for their services by a single government agency -- spelling the end to the immense profits garnered each year by hundreds of insurance companies -- now costing at least $350 billion annually.
Now, that amount of money would've paid for much of the nation's health care needs, instead of private business profits, and executive bonuses.
With the deal made, that money is gone -- and so are the hopes of millions for a fix of the nation's broken health care system.
Do you really think the insurance companies donated millions to Obama and select members of Congress because they liked their looks?
They'll give dough to Democrats, Republicans -- hell, even communists if they think it'll buy them more profits.
And it looks like they have.
There's an old American saying, 'You get what you pay for.'
Well, they've paid the politicians -- and they're about to get the payoff!
There's considerable coverage on the recent passing of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, a long time advocate of universal healthcare. While his brain cancer undoubtedly shortened his days, it's also likely that this adept politician, seeing the horse trades being made to sell out the people on health care, caused him to die from a broken heart.
Oh -- and about those town halls? It's much ado about nothing, or as Shakespeare once wrote, it's 'sound and fury, signifying nothing.'
Most of them are people who didn't even vote for Obama, and who call him a 'socialist' for using 'the guvamint to interfere with Medicare.' Nutty as a Snickers bar. Many still believe he was born in Kenya, East Africa!
And yes, a bill will pass, and Obama will sign it, but it'll mean less, not more health care. It'll mean higher co-pays (really prepays, or deductibles), less services, and more profits for their campaign contributors. There will be celebrations and TV PR people will praise it like American Idol -- but it'll be a sell-out -- pure and simple.
Unless -- unless -people really raise hell -- and demand single payer -- and universal health care -- before the door slams shut.
--(c) '09 maj
***************
The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia!
URGENT Need for Petition Signatures at: http://www.iacenter.org/mumiapetition/
Audio of most of Mumia's essays are at: http://www.prisonradio.org
http://mumiapodcast.libsyn.com/
Mumia's got a podcast! Mumia Abu-Jamal's Radio Essays - Subscribe at the website or on iTunes and get Mumia's radio commentaries online.
Mumia Abu-Jamal's new book -- JAILHOUSE LAWYERS: PRISONERS DEFENDING PRISONERS V. THE USA, featuring an introduction by Angela Y. Davis -- has been released! It is available from City Lights Books: http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100448090
If you are planning to organize an event or would like to order in bulk, you can also receive a 45% discount on any bulk orders of 20 copies or more. The book retails for $16.95, for orders of 20 copies or more the discounted price would be $9.32 per book, plus shipping and handling. Prepayment would be required and books are nonreturnable. If you or your organization would like to place a bulk order, please contact Stacey Lewis at 415.362.1901 or stacey@citylights.com
Let's use the opportunity of the publication of this brilliant, moving, vintage Mumia book to build the momentum for his case, to raise the money we desperately need in these challenging economic times, to get the word out – to produce literature, flyers, posters, videos, DVD's; to send organizers out to help build new chapters and strengthen old ones, TO GET THE PEOPLE OUT IN THE STREETS … all the work that we must do in order to FREE MUMIA as he faces LIFE IN PRISON WITHOUT PAROLE OR EXECUTION!
Please make a contribution to help free Mumia. Donations to the grassroots work will go to both INTERNATIONAL CONCERNED FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL and the FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL COALITION (NYC).
WWW.FREEMUMIA.COM
Please mail donations/ checks to:
FREE MUMIA ABU JAMAL COALITION
PO BOX 16, NEW YORK,
NY 10030
(CHECKS FOR BOTH ORGANIZATIONS PAYABLE TO: FMAJC/IFCO)
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
215 476-8812
212-330-8029
Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:
Mumia Abu-Jamal
AM 8335
SCI-Greene
175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370
WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!
Subscribe: mumiacolumns-subscribe@topica.com
Read: http://topica.com/lists/mumiacolumns/read
Subscribe ICFFMAJ email updates list by e-mailing
icffmaj@aol.com!
www.FreeMumia.com
Listen To Audio Column: Full Version | Short Version
As the White House and Congress square off on health care, take care, because the deals with the big dogs have been made -- and the people will be -- once again -- left holding an empty bag.
That's because in the opening hours of this drama, the central issue -- single payer -- was given away, in an attempt to attract the support of big insurance companies. A pre-pay-off, if you will, to show them that neither their profits nor future growth would be impaired.
Truly, this is change that they can believe in, for it means more clients, more funds flooding their tills, and legislative protection for their dwindling pay outs (for sick people.)
Single-payer means that all doctors and hospitals would have been paid for their services by a single government agency -- spelling the end to the immense profits garnered each year by hundreds of insurance companies -- now costing at least $350 billion annually.
Now, that amount of money would've paid for much of the nation's health care needs, instead of private business profits, and executive bonuses.
With the deal made, that money is gone -- and so are the hopes of millions for a fix of the nation's broken health care system.
Do you really think the insurance companies donated millions to Obama and select members of Congress because they liked their looks?
They'll give dough to Democrats, Republicans -- hell, even communists if they think it'll buy them more profits.
And it looks like they have.
There's an old American saying, 'You get what you pay for.'
Well, they've paid the politicians -- and they're about to get the payoff!
There's considerable coverage on the recent passing of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, a long time advocate of universal healthcare. While his brain cancer undoubtedly shortened his days, it's also likely that this adept politician, seeing the horse trades being made to sell out the people on health care, caused him to die from a broken heart.
Oh -- and about those town halls? It's much ado about nothing, or as Shakespeare once wrote, it's 'sound and fury, signifying nothing.'
Most of them are people who didn't even vote for Obama, and who call him a 'socialist' for using 'the guvamint to interfere with Medicare.' Nutty as a Snickers bar. Many still believe he was born in Kenya, East Africa!
And yes, a bill will pass, and Obama will sign it, but it'll mean less, not more health care. It'll mean higher co-pays (really prepays, or deductibles), less services, and more profits for their campaign contributors. There will be celebrations and TV PR people will praise it like American Idol -- but it'll be a sell-out -- pure and simple.
Unless -- unless -people really raise hell -- and demand single payer -- and universal health care -- before the door slams shut.
--(c) '09 maj
***************
The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia!
URGENT Need for Petition Signatures at: http://www.iacenter.org/mumiapetition/
Audio of most of Mumia's essays are at: http://www.prisonradio.org
http://mumiapodcast.libsyn.com/
Mumia's got a podcast! Mumia Abu-Jamal's Radio Essays - Subscribe at the website or on iTunes and get Mumia's radio commentaries online.
Mumia Abu-Jamal's new book -- JAILHOUSE LAWYERS: PRISONERS DEFENDING PRISONERS V. THE USA, featuring an introduction by Angela Y. Davis -- has been released! It is available from City Lights Books: http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100448090
If you are planning to organize an event or would like to order in bulk, you can also receive a 45% discount on any bulk orders of 20 copies or more. The book retails for $16.95, for orders of 20 copies or more the discounted price would be $9.32 per book, plus shipping and handling. Prepayment would be required and books are nonreturnable. If you or your organization would like to place a bulk order, please contact Stacey Lewis at 415.362.1901 or stacey@citylights.com
Let's use the opportunity of the publication of this brilliant, moving, vintage Mumia book to build the momentum for his case, to raise the money we desperately need in these challenging economic times, to get the word out – to produce literature, flyers, posters, videos, DVD's; to send organizers out to help build new chapters and strengthen old ones, TO GET THE PEOPLE OUT IN THE STREETS … all the work that we must do in order to FREE MUMIA as he faces LIFE IN PRISON WITHOUT PAROLE OR EXECUTION!
Please make a contribution to help free Mumia. Donations to the grassroots work will go to both INTERNATIONAL CONCERNED FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL and the FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL COALITION (NYC).
WWW.FREEMUMIA.COM
Please mail donations/ checks to:
FREE MUMIA ABU JAMAL COALITION
PO BOX 16, NEW YORK,
NY 10030
(CHECKS FOR BOTH ORGANIZATIONS PAYABLE TO: FMAJC/IFCO)
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
215 476-8812
212-330-8029
Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:
Mumia Abu-Jamal
AM 8335
SCI-Greene
175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370
WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!
Subscribe: mumiacolumns-subscribe@topica.com
Read: http://topica.com/lists/mumiacolumns/read
Subscribe ICFFMAJ email updates list by e-mailing
icffmaj@aol.com!
www.FreeMumia.com
Health Care Rallies All Across NC on Saturday, August 29th
The novelty of the news coverage of the rowdiness of the health care reform debate is wearing off. And as the dust settles, we realize that the lies about reform didn't stick and that there are more people in North Carolina who support real reform than opponents who don't.
Our numbers have always been larger than the side fighting against reform, but at the beginning of Congress' August recess, opponents were more visible. That is not the case any more, and we need to end August with a real display of public support so our Senators and Representatives remember what they are working for when they return to Washington.
Come to the rally and listen to our speakers who include:
You are not going to want to miss this event!
We need as many people as possible to come and show their support, but we also need volunteers. Click here to volunteer to gather signatures on letters or petitions to Senator Kay Hagan. We also need people to help clean up after the event. If you want to be a member of the Green Crew and make sure we leave the Capitol as nice as we found it, please click here.
Here are the Details About the Events Happening This Saturday:
RALEIGH HEALTH CARE CAN'T WAIT RALLY
WHEN: Saturday, August 29, 10:00 am - 11:30 am
WHERE: State Capital Building (south side)
FOR MORE INFO: Debra@ncjustice.org, 919.856.2169 or NC Fair Share 1.866.302.0031
ASHEVILLE HEALTH CARE CAN'T WAIT RALLY
WHEN: Saturday, August 29, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
WHERE: Pritchard Park on Patton Avenue
FOR MORE INFO: Leslie Boyd, 828.243.6712
GREENVILLE HEALTH CARE CAN'T WAIT RALLY
WHEN: Saturday, August 29, 10:00 am - 11:00 am
WHERE: Corner of Charles Blvd. & Greenville Blvd.
FOR MORE INFO: Frank, 252.327.8843
CHARLOTTE HEALTH CARE REFORM EDUCATIONAL FORUM
WHEN: Saturday, August 29, 2009 3:30 - 6:00 PM
WHERE: Greater Mount Sinai Baptist Church
1243 West Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28208
WHAT: To inform, educate, and provide facts to the citizens of Charlotte about Healthcare Reform
FOR MORE INFO: Gautami Desai at 704.779.9250 or gdnclt1@gmail.com.
Because of advocates like you, we will win health care reform! Thank you for all that you do, and bring a friend with you!
Warm Regards,
Pat McCoy and Lynice Williams
on behalf of the NC HCAN Steering Committee
p.s.- If you live in Eastern North Carolina and would like to come to Raleigh for the Rally, please see the information below:
2 FREE Bus Pickups in Wilmington
1- 6:00 AM Longshoreman Union Hall
2 - 6:30 AM Independence Mall
NC Kay Zwan -NCFS organizer is the coordinator for the Eastern NC Bus that will stop in Pender, Duplin, and Cumberland Counties please call her 713.267.2792. Let us know if you need transportation from your county.
Our numbers have always been larger than the side fighting against reform, but at the beginning of Congress' August recess, opponents were more visible. That is not the case any more, and we need to end August with a real display of public support so our Senators and Representatives remember what they are working for when they return to Washington.
Come to the rally and listen to our speakers who include:
* Rev. Dr. William Barber of the NC NAACPAlso, there will be a choral performance from the great folks at Fruits of Labor and a skit from Billionaires Against Health Care Reform.
* MaryBe McMillian of the AFL-CIO of NC
* Bob Jackson of the AARP
* Margarida Jorge, National Field Director for HCAN
You are not going to want to miss this event!
We need as many people as possible to come and show their support, but we also need volunteers. Click here to volunteer to gather signatures on letters or petitions to Senator Kay Hagan. We also need people to help clean up after the event. If you want to be a member of the Green Crew and make sure we leave the Capitol as nice as we found it, please click here.
Here are the Details About the Events Happening This Saturday:
RALEIGH HEALTH CARE CAN'T WAIT RALLY
WHEN: Saturday, August 29, 10:00 am - 11:30 am
WHERE: State Capital Building (south side)
FOR MORE INFO: Debra@ncjustice.org, 919.856.2169 or NC Fair Share 1.866.302.0031
ASHEVILLE HEALTH CARE CAN'T WAIT RALLY
WHEN: Saturday, August 29, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
WHERE: Pritchard Park on Patton Avenue
FOR MORE INFO: Leslie Boyd, 828.243.6712
GREENVILLE HEALTH CARE CAN'T WAIT RALLY
WHEN: Saturday, August 29, 10:00 am - 11:00 am
WHERE: Corner of Charles Blvd. & Greenville Blvd.
FOR MORE INFO: Frank, 252.327.8843
CHARLOTTE HEALTH CARE REFORM EDUCATIONAL FORUM
WHEN: Saturday, August 29, 2009 3:30 - 6:00 PM
WHERE: Greater Mount Sinai Baptist Church
1243 West Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28208
WHAT: To inform, educate, and provide facts to the citizens of Charlotte about Healthcare Reform
FOR MORE INFO: Gautami Desai at 704.779.9250 or gdnclt1@gmail.com.
Because of advocates like you, we will win health care reform! Thank you for all that you do, and bring a friend with you!
Warm Regards,
Pat McCoy and Lynice Williams
on behalf of the NC HCAN Steering Committee
p.s.- If you live in Eastern North Carolina and would like to come to Raleigh for the Rally, please see the information below:
2 FREE Bus Pickups in Wilmington
1- 6:00 AM Longshoreman Union Hall
2 - 6:30 AM Independence Mall
NC Kay Zwan -NCFS organizer is the coordinator for the Eastern NC Bus that will stop in Pender, Duplin, and Cumberland Counties please call her 713.267.2792. Let us know if you need transportation from your county.
Friday: Crucial Vote on Single Payer Healthcare - Calls needed
One week ago, we eagerly anticipated a crucial vote on single-payer Medicare for All (H.R.676) in the House Energy & Commerce Committee, sponsored by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY). But then seven BlueDogs waged a highly-publicized war against a "robust public option" and the vote was delayed for a full week.
We just learned the vote will be today ( Friday ). Based on all of your calls, we have nine single-payer Democrats: Tammy Baldwin, Michael Doyle, Eliot Engel, Anna Eshoo, Gene Green, Edward Markey, Janice Schakowsky, Anthony Weiner, and Peter Welch.
Five more Democrats are leaning toward single-payer but still uncommitted. Please call each one and give them one crucial reason to support single-payer from our petition:
http://www.democrats.com/single-payer-petition?cid=ZGVtczQ3NTdkZW1z
(Be sure to sign our petition and forward it if you haven't already.)
Lean Yes
Diana DeGette CO01 202-225-4431
Jane Harman CA36 202-225-8220
Christopher Murphy CT05 202-225-4476
Frank Pallone NJ06 202-225-4671 @FrankPallone
Bobby Rush IL01 202-225-4372
Be concise and practice in advance so you can speak quickly (or leave a voicemail) because they are getting swamped. Report the results of your calls here:
http://www.democrats.com/single-payer-committee-whip
If you have more time, these 14 Democrats support a "public option" at best. But that "public option" (a new government program to compete with private insurance) was disastrously weakened this week by the BlueDogs. They banned the use of Medicare pricing to reduce costs and thereby expand availability. Try to persuade these 14 to vote for single-payer instead of a worthless BlueDog "public option."
Public Option Only (or Won't Say)
Rick Boucher VA09 202-225-3861
Bruce Braley IA01 202-225-2911
G.K. Butterfield NC01 202-225-3101
Lois Capps CA23 202-225-3601
Kathy Castor FL11 202-225-3376
John Dingell MI15 202-225-4071
Charles Gonzalez TX20 202-225-3236
Jay Inslee WA01 202-225-6311 @RepInsleeNews
Doris Matsui CA05 202-225-7163
Jerry McNerney CA11 202-225-1947
John Sarbanes MD03 202-225-4016
Bart Stupak MI01 202-225-4735
Betty Sutton OH13 202-225-3401
Henry Waxman (Chair) CA30 202-225-3976
Don't let anyone tell you single-payer can't pass: the Kucinich Amendment for a single-payer "state option" passed by a shocking 25-19 bi-partisan majority in the House Education and Labor Committee on July 17. The Weiner Amendment will pass on Friday if enough Democrats vote for it!
A victory on the Weiner Amendment would make a huge difference. Please call as soon as you get this - night or day.
Thanks for all you do!
Bob Fertik
Democrats.com
We just learned the vote will be today ( Friday ). Based on all of your calls, we have nine single-payer Democrats: Tammy Baldwin, Michael Doyle, Eliot Engel, Anna Eshoo, Gene Green, Edward Markey, Janice Schakowsky, Anthony Weiner, and Peter Welch.
Five more Democrats are leaning toward single-payer but still uncommitted. Please call each one and give them one crucial reason to support single-payer from our petition:
http://www.democrats.com/single-payer-petition?cid=ZGVtczQ3NTdkZW1z
(Be sure to sign our petition and forward it if you haven't already.)
Lean Yes
Diana DeGette CO01 202-225-4431
Jane Harman CA36 202-225-8220
Christopher Murphy CT05 202-225-4476
Frank Pallone NJ06 202-225-4671 @FrankPallone
Bobby Rush IL01 202-225-4372
Be concise and practice in advance so you can speak quickly (or leave a voicemail) because they are getting swamped. Report the results of your calls here:
http://www.democrats.com/single-payer-committee-whip
If you have more time, these 14 Democrats support a "public option" at best. But that "public option" (a new government program to compete with private insurance) was disastrously weakened this week by the BlueDogs. They banned the use of Medicare pricing to reduce costs and thereby expand availability. Try to persuade these 14 to vote for single-payer instead of a worthless BlueDog "public option."
Public Option Only (or Won't Say)
Rick Boucher VA09 202-225-3861
Bruce Braley IA01 202-225-2911
G.K. Butterfield NC01 202-225-3101
Lois Capps CA23 202-225-3601
Kathy Castor FL11 202-225-3376
John Dingell MI15 202-225-4071
Charles Gonzalez TX20 202-225-3236
Jay Inslee WA01 202-225-6311 @RepInsleeNews
Doris Matsui CA05 202-225-7163
Jerry McNerney CA11 202-225-1947
John Sarbanes MD03 202-225-4016
Bart Stupak MI01 202-225-4735
Betty Sutton OH13 202-225-3401
Henry Waxman (Chair) CA30 202-225-3976
Don't let anyone tell you single-payer can't pass: the Kucinich Amendment for a single-payer "state option" passed by a shocking 25-19 bi-partisan majority in the House Education and Labor Committee on July 17. The Weiner Amendment will pass on Friday if enough Democrats vote for it!
A victory on the Weiner Amendment would make a huge difference. Please call as soon as you get this - night or day.
Thanks for all you do!
Bob Fertik
Democrats.com
Whistleblower tells of America's hidden nightmare for its sick poor
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
Paul Harris, The Observer, July 26, 2009
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 news conference. It is the sort of event usually reserved for a moment of deep national crisis, such as a terrorist attack. But Obama wanted to talk about healthcare. "This is about every family, every business and every taxpayer who continues to shoulder the burden of a problem that Washington has failed to solve for decades," he told the nation.
Obama's plans are now mired and the opponents of reform are winning. The Republican attack machine has cranked into gear, labelling reform as "socialist" and warning ordinary Americans that government bureaucrats, not doctors, will choose their medicines. The bill's opponents say the huge cost can only be paid by massive tax increases on ordinary Americans and that others will have their current healthcare plans taken away. Many centrist Democratic congressmen, wary of their conservative voters, are wavering. The legislation has failed to meet Obama's August deadline and is now delayed until after the summer recess. Many fear that this loss of momentum could kill it altogether.
To Potter that is no surprise. He has seen all this before. In his long years with Cigna he rose to be the company's top PR executive. He had an eagle-eye view of the industry's tactics of scuppering political efforts to get it to reform. "This is a very wealthy industry and they use PR very effectively. They manipulate public opinion and the news media and they have built up these relationships with all these politicians through campaign contributions," Potter said.
Potter was witness to the campaign against Michael Moore's healthcare documentary Sicko. The industry slammed the film as one-sided and politically motivated. Secret documents leaked from the American Health Insurance Plans, the industry's lobby group, detailed the plan to paint Moore as a fringe radical. Potter now says the film "hit the nail on the head". "The Michael Moore movie that I saw was full of truth," he admits.
Potter was also working for Cigna when it became embroiled in the case of Nataline Sarkisyan, whose family went public after Cigna refused to pay for a liver transplant that it considered "experimental" and therefore not covered by their policy. Cigna reversed this decision only hours before the Californian teenager died. "I wish I could have done more in that case," Potter said.
Such sentiments are rare in an industry that has given America a healthcare system that can be cripplingly expensive for patients, but that does not produce a healthier population. The industry is often accused of wriggling out of claims. Firms comb medical records for any technicality that will allow them to refuse to pay. In one recently publicised example, a retired nurse from Texas discovered she had breast cancer. Yet her policy was cancelled because her insurers found she had previously had treatment for acne, which the dermatologist had mistakenly noted as pre-cancerous. They decreed she had misinformed them about her medical history and her double mastectomy was cancelled just three days before the operation.
Last month three healthcare executives were grilled about such "rescinding" tactics by a congressional subcommittee. When asked if they would abandon them except in cases of deliberately proven fraud, each executive replied simply: "No."
To Potter that attitude has a sad logic. The healthcare industry generates enormous profits and its top executives have a lavish corporate lifestyle that he once shared. Treating patients for their expensive conditions is bad for business as it reduces the bottom line. Kicking out patients who pursue claims makes perfect economic sense. "It is a system that is rigged against the policyholder," Potter said. The congressional probe found that just three firms had rescinded more than 20,000 policyholders between 2003 and 2007, saving hundreds of millions. "That's a lot of money that will now go towards their profits," Potter said.
A lot of that money also goes into contributions to politicians of both parties - $372m in the past nine years - and in lobbying groups to run TV ads slamming Obama's plans. Many of these ads deploy naked scare tactics. One report said that the industry was spending $1.4m a day on its campaign. In the face of that, it is perhaps no wonder that the Senate has delayed its vote, dealing a massive blow to Obama. "I have seen how the opponents of healthcare reform go to work... they are trying to delay action. They know that if they keep the process going for months, and turn it into a big mess, then the political impetus behind it will lessen," Potter said.
Potter, who now works at the Centre for Media and Democracy in Wisconsin, says the industry is afraid of Obama's reforms and that is why it is fighting so hard. It wants to deal him the same blow as it did Bill Clinton when it scuppered his attempt at reform in the 1990s. Potter admits that he is worried the industry might win again. "I have seen their tactics work. I have been a part of it," he said. He knows he has no chance of ever working again for a major firm. "I am a whistleblower and corporate America does not tend to like that," he said. But there is one thing Potter is not sorry about: leaving the healthcare industry and speaking out. "I have absolutely no regrets. I am doing the right thing," he said.
Comprehensive healthcare reform in the US has been an ambition of many presidents since the early part of the 20th century. None has succeeded in creating a system that gives all Americans the right to coverage. Barack Obama, below, is desperate to avoid the same fate.
Finding a cure
What is the current system?
It is a complex mish-mash of systems. Millions of Americans have their own private healthcare plans, either individually or through their employer. About 47 million Americans have none. However, systems do exist to cover the very poor and the old. The system is fiendishly complex and full of loopholes, so even those with coverage can have it withdrawn.
How bad is it?
US hospitals are the best in the world if you can afford them. Many cannot, and an accident or sudden illness can often bankrupt someone.
How does it compare with other countries?
It depends how you measure things. The US spends about 16% of GNP on healthcare, far more than France and Germany, which spend 11 to 12%. Yet those countries provide universal care.
What is the biggest problem?
Critics say the biggest issue is the profit motive that drives US healthcare. This ensures that costs are always rising as the incentive is there to provide expensive treatment. It also gives health insurers the incentive to refuse treatment to claimants, by seeking to withdraw their cover.
What is Obama's solution?
Obama has asked Congress to draw up a government option, allowing all Americans to get some sort of cover. The sheer size of the state plan should theoretically allow it to drive down costs by economies of scale.
What's happening now?
Obama has put his reputation on the line to persuade wavering Democrats and moderate Republicans to vote on legislation by August. The Senate has said this will not happen. That's a major blow, as it puts off the debate until September and could see the political momentum stall.
Paul Harris, The Observer, July 26, 2009
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 news conference. It is the sort of event usually reserved for a moment of deep national crisis, such as a terrorist attack. But Obama wanted to talk about healthcare. "This is about every family, every business and every taxpayer who continues to shoulder the burden of a problem that Washington has failed to solve for decades," he told the nation.
Obama's plans are now mired and the opponents of reform are winning. The Republican attack machine has cranked into gear, labelling reform as "socialist" and warning ordinary Americans that government bureaucrats, not doctors, will choose their medicines. The bill's opponents say the huge cost can only be paid by massive tax increases on ordinary Americans and that others will have their current healthcare plans taken away. Many centrist Democratic congressmen, wary of their conservative voters, are wavering. The legislation has failed to meet Obama's August deadline and is now delayed until after the summer recess. Many fear that this loss of momentum could kill it altogether.
To Potter that is no surprise. He has seen all this before. In his long years with Cigna he rose to be the company's top PR executive. He had an eagle-eye view of the industry's tactics of scuppering political efforts to get it to reform. "This is a very wealthy industry and they use PR very effectively. They manipulate public opinion and the news media and they have built up these relationships with all these politicians through campaign contributions," Potter said.
Potter was witness to the campaign against Michael Moore's healthcare documentary Sicko. The industry slammed the film as one-sided and politically motivated. Secret documents leaked from the American Health Insurance Plans, the industry's lobby group, detailed the plan to paint Moore as a fringe radical. Potter now says the film "hit the nail on the head". "The Michael Moore movie that I saw was full of truth," he admits.
Potter was also working for Cigna when it became embroiled in the case of Nataline Sarkisyan, whose family went public after Cigna refused to pay for a liver transplant that it considered "experimental" and therefore not covered by their policy. Cigna reversed this decision only hours before the Californian teenager died. "I wish I could have done more in that case," Potter said.
Such sentiments are rare in an industry that has given America a healthcare system that can be cripplingly expensive for patients, but that does not produce a healthier population. The industry is often accused of wriggling out of claims. Firms comb medical records for any technicality that will allow them to refuse to pay. In one recently publicised example, a retired nurse from Texas discovered she had breast cancer. Yet her policy was cancelled because her insurers found she had previously had treatment for acne, which the dermatologist had mistakenly noted as pre-cancerous. They decreed she had misinformed them about her medical history and her double mastectomy was cancelled just three days before the operation.
Last month three healthcare executives were grilled about such "rescinding" tactics by a congressional subcommittee. When asked if they would abandon them except in cases of deliberately proven fraud, each executive replied simply: "No."
To Potter that attitude has a sad logic. The healthcare industry generates enormous profits and its top executives have a lavish corporate lifestyle that he once shared. Treating patients for their expensive conditions is bad for business as it reduces the bottom line. Kicking out patients who pursue claims makes perfect economic sense. "It is a system that is rigged against the policyholder," Potter said. The congressional probe found that just three firms had rescinded more than 20,000 policyholders between 2003 and 2007, saving hundreds of millions. "That's a lot of money that will now go towards their profits," Potter said.
A lot of that money also goes into contributions to politicians of both parties - $372m in the past nine years - and in lobbying groups to run TV ads slamming Obama's plans. Many of these ads deploy naked scare tactics. One report said that the industry was spending $1.4m a day on its campaign. In the face of that, it is perhaps no wonder that the Senate has delayed its vote, dealing a massive blow to Obama. "I have seen how the opponents of healthcare reform go to work... they are trying to delay action. They know that if they keep the process going for months, and turn it into a big mess, then the political impetus behind it will lessen," Potter said.
Potter, who now works at the Centre for Media and Democracy in Wisconsin, says the industry is afraid of Obama's reforms and that is why it is fighting so hard. It wants to deal him the same blow as it did Bill Clinton when it scuppered his attempt at reform in the 1990s. Potter admits that he is worried the industry might win again. "I have seen their tactics work. I have been a part of it," he said. He knows he has no chance of ever working again for a major firm. "I am a whistleblower and corporate America does not tend to like that," he said. But there is one thing Potter is not sorry about: leaving the healthcare industry and speaking out. "I have absolutely no regrets. I am doing the right thing," he said.
Comprehensive healthcare reform in the US has been an ambition of many presidents since the early part of the 20th century. None has succeeded in creating a system that gives all Americans the right to coverage. Barack Obama, below, is desperate to avoid the same fate.
Finding a cure
What is the current system?
It is a complex mish-mash of systems. Millions of Americans have their own private healthcare plans, either individually or through their employer. About 47 million Americans have none. However, systems do exist to cover the very poor and the old. The system is fiendishly complex and full of loopholes, so even those with coverage can have it withdrawn.
How bad is it?
US hospitals are the best in the world if you can afford them. Many cannot, and an accident or sudden illness can often bankrupt someone.
How does it compare with other countries?
It depends how you measure things. The US spends about 16% of GNP on healthcare, far more than France and Germany, which spend 11 to 12%. Yet those countries provide universal care.
What is the biggest problem?
Critics say the biggest issue is the profit motive that drives US healthcare. This ensures that costs are always rising as the incentive is there to provide expensive treatment. It also gives health insurers the incentive to refuse treatment to claimants, by seeking to withdraw their cover.
What is Obama's solution?
Obama has asked Congress to draw up a government option, allowing all Americans to get some sort of cover. The sheer size of the state plan should theoretically allow it to drive down costs by economies of scale.
What's happening now?
Obama has put his reputation on the line to persuade wavering Democrats and moderate Republicans to vote on legislation by August. The Senate has said this will not happen. That's a major blow, as it puts off the debate until September and could see the political momentum stall.
White House invited med industry execs in early
By SHARON THEIMER, AP, BusinessWeek, July 23, 2009
Washington - Administration officials began talking privately to major players in the health care industry within a few weeks of President Barack Obama's inauguration, a newly released list of White House visitors shows.
Obama on Wednesday night released the list of visits by health care executives after a government watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, announced it planned to sue to try to get White House visitor logs. Only names and dates were released, not the visitors' titles or employers.
So far, the Obama administration is following a Bush administration policy of refusing to release the logs, which are maintained by the Secret Service.
The list shows that Richard Umbdenstock, president of the American Hospital Association, was at the White House on Feb. 4 and has been back at least a half-dozen times since then, most recently May 22. Other industry executives making February visits included health insurance company chief executives Angela Braly of WellPoint Inc. and Jay Gellert of Health Net Inc.
Gellert, a $500 donor to Obama's presidential campaign, was there Feb. 10, twice in March and on May 11, while Braly visited on Feb. 13.
In recent weeks, the White House has announced agreements under which hospitals and the pharmaceutical industry promised cost savings in return for an expanded base of insured patients. The deals were struck in private meetings, drawing comparisons to Vice President Dick Cheney's secret talks with the energy industry as he helped President George W. Bush draft a national energy policy. Cheney's 2001 meetings were criticized by Democrats throughout the Bush years.
During his presidential campaign, Obama promised to hold lobbyists at arm's length and make his administration the most transparent ever.
Obama was asked at a news conference Wednesday night about his administration's refusal to say who has been to the White House to discuss a national health care overhaul.
"On the list of health care executives who visited us, most of time you guys have been in there taking pictures," he told the assembled reporters, "so it hasn't been a secret. And my understanding is we just sent a letter out providing a full list of all the executives. But, frankly, these have mostly been at least photo sprays where you could see who was participating."
CREW said it was pleased that the White House had provided the list but that it didn't consider it a sufficient response to its Freedom of Information Act request for the visitor logs themselves. It plans to continue pressing for them.
"The actual visitor records likely would indicate with whom each official met, the administration official who requested clearance for the visitor, the time of the meeting, the duration of the meeting and, in some cases, the purpose of the meeting. In addition, no information was provided regarding any visits to the vice president's residence," CREW said in a written statement.
Gregory Craig, White House counsel, told CREW in a letter that the White House was continuing to review the group's open-records request, "as well as the White House's general policy governing the discretionary release of visitor records."
Other health care industry representatives named in the list and the dates they visited were:
--Registered lobbyist Billy Tauzin, a former Louisiana congressman who heads the drug industry lobby, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. He went to the White House on March 5, the day of a summit on health care, and again on May 11, 19, June 2 and June 24.
--Registered lobbyist Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry trade association, March 5, 6 and 11, May 11 and June 30.
--Dr. J. James Rohack, president-elect of the American Medical Association, March 25, May 11, and June 22 and 24.
--William Weldon, CEO of Johnson & Johnson health care product and pharmaceutical company, May 12.
--Jeffrey Kindler, CEO of drug maker Pfizer Inc., March 5, May 6 and June 2.
--UnitedHealth Group Inc. chief executive Stephen Hemsley, May 15 and 22.
--George Halvorson, head of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc., March 27, May 11 and June 5.
--Thomas Priselac, chief executive of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, April 3 and May 11.
--Richard Clark, CEO of the Merck & Co. pharmaceutical company, March 24 and May 11.
--Wayne Smith, chief executive of Community Health Systems, June 4.
--Registered lobbyist Rick Smith, a senior vice president of PhRMA, May 11 and 19 and June 2.
--David Nexon, senior executive vice president with trade association AdvaMed, May 11.
------
On the Net:
White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington: http://www.citizensforethics.org
Washington - Administration officials began talking privately to major players in the health care industry within a few weeks of President Barack Obama's inauguration, a newly released list of White House visitors shows.
Obama on Wednesday night released the list of visits by health care executives after a government watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, announced it planned to sue to try to get White House visitor logs. Only names and dates were released, not the visitors' titles or employers.
So far, the Obama administration is following a Bush administration policy of refusing to release the logs, which are maintained by the Secret Service.
The list shows that Richard Umbdenstock, president of the American Hospital Association, was at the White House on Feb. 4 and has been back at least a half-dozen times since then, most recently May 22. Other industry executives making February visits included health insurance company chief executives Angela Braly of WellPoint Inc. and Jay Gellert of Health Net Inc.
Gellert, a $500 donor to Obama's presidential campaign, was there Feb. 10, twice in March and on May 11, while Braly visited on Feb. 13.
In recent weeks, the White House has announced agreements under which hospitals and the pharmaceutical industry promised cost savings in return for an expanded base of insured patients. The deals were struck in private meetings, drawing comparisons to Vice President Dick Cheney's secret talks with the energy industry as he helped President George W. Bush draft a national energy policy. Cheney's 2001 meetings were criticized by Democrats throughout the Bush years.
During his presidential campaign, Obama promised to hold lobbyists at arm's length and make his administration the most transparent ever.
Obama was asked at a news conference Wednesday night about his administration's refusal to say who has been to the White House to discuss a national health care overhaul.
"On the list of health care executives who visited us, most of time you guys have been in there taking pictures," he told the assembled reporters, "so it hasn't been a secret. And my understanding is we just sent a letter out providing a full list of all the executives. But, frankly, these have mostly been at least photo sprays where you could see who was participating."
CREW said it was pleased that the White House had provided the list but that it didn't consider it a sufficient response to its Freedom of Information Act request for the visitor logs themselves. It plans to continue pressing for them.
"The actual visitor records likely would indicate with whom each official met, the administration official who requested clearance for the visitor, the time of the meeting, the duration of the meeting and, in some cases, the purpose of the meeting. In addition, no information was provided regarding any visits to the vice president's residence," CREW said in a written statement.
Gregory Craig, White House counsel, told CREW in a letter that the White House was continuing to review the group's open-records request, "as well as the White House's general policy governing the discretionary release of visitor records."
Other health care industry representatives named in the list and the dates they visited were:
--Registered lobbyist Billy Tauzin, a former Louisiana congressman who heads the drug industry lobby, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. He went to the White House on March 5, the day of a summit on health care, and again on May 11, 19, June 2 and June 24.
--Registered lobbyist Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry trade association, March 5, 6 and 11, May 11 and June 30.
--Dr. J. James Rohack, president-elect of the American Medical Association, March 25, May 11, and June 22 and 24.
--William Weldon, CEO of Johnson & Johnson health care product and pharmaceutical company, May 12.
--Jeffrey Kindler, CEO of drug maker Pfizer Inc., March 5, May 6 and June 2.
--UnitedHealth Group Inc. chief executive Stephen Hemsley, May 15 and 22.
--George Halvorson, head of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc., March 27, May 11 and June 5.
--Thomas Priselac, chief executive of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, April 3 and May 11.
--Richard Clark, CEO of the Merck & Co. pharmaceutical company, March 24 and May 11.
--Wayne Smith, chief executive of Community Health Systems, June 4.
--Registered lobbyist Rick Smith, a senior vice president of PhRMA, May 11 and 19 and June 2.
--David Nexon, senior executive vice president with trade association AdvaMed, May 11.
------
On the Net:
White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington: http://www.citizensforethics.org
Lawmakers Reveal Health-Care Investments
Key Players Have Stakes in Industry
By Paul Kane, Washington Post, June 13, 2009
Almost 30 key lawmakers helping draft landmark health-care legislation have financial holdings in the industry, totaling nearly $11 million worth of personal investments in a sector that could be dramatically reshaped by this summer's debate.
The list of members who have personal investments in the corporations that will be affected by the legislation -- which President Obama has called this year's highest domestic priority -- includes Congress's most powerful leaders and a bipartisan collection of lawmakers in key committee posts. Their total health-care holdings could be worth $27 million, because congressional financial disclosure forms released yesterday require reporting of only broad ranges of holdings rather than precise values of assets.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), for instance, has at least $50,000 invested in a health-care index, and Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), a senior member of the health committee, has between $254,000 and $560,000 worth of stock holdings in major health-care companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck.
The family of Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee drafting that chamber's legislation, held at least $3.2 million in more than 20 health-care companies at the end of last year.
The reports come on the eve of what is sure to be a dramatic health-care debate in Congress, beginning with a key Senate committee hearing Tuesday. With several proposals floating on Capitol Hill, the legislative battle could overhaul an industry that represents nearly 20 percent of the national economy.
While no congressional rules bar members from holding financial stakes in industries they regulate, some ethics experts suggest that it often creates the appearance of a conflict of interest, particularly if there is a chance that the legislation could result in a personal financial boost.
"If someone is going to be substantially enriched by the consequences of the vote, particularly if it represents a meaningful amount of their net worth, then there is a problem," said Harlan Krumholz, a professor of medicine at Yale University. "This is such important legislation that you don't want to be tainted by any conflict."
But many legal experts say the health-care industry is so predominant that it is impossible for lawmakers to avoid financial ties to that sector, suggesting that the best antidote is a clear disclosure system that makes every lawmaker's finances publicly available. Robert L. Walker, a Washington lawyer and former House and Senate ethics counsel, said that in many cases, members of Congress are "simply one of perhaps thousands or more" investors in a single corporation and such investments are not "prohibitive conflicts."
In many cases, the lawmakers' health-care holdings represent a small fraction of their assets. Harman, whose husband, Sidney, is the founder of electronics-maker Harman International Industries, is one of the wealthiest members of Congress, with a minimum net worth of almost $120 million.
The new data come from yesterday's release of financial disclosure forms for the House and Senate, though most of the House forms were accidentally posted online Wednesday, and subsequently the data were captured and posted online by congressional watchdog LegiStorm.
The first big congressional moment on health care comes Tuesday in the Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which will consider a liberal-leaning proposal that includes the creation of a "public plan" meant to be a government-administered alternative to private health insurance.
On that 22-member panel, at least eight senators have financial interests in the health-care industry worth a minimum of $600,000 -- and potentially worth as much as $1.9 million. The investors include Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), a senior member of the panel, who holds at least $165,000 in pharmaceutical and medical stocks, and freshman Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), who holds at least $180,000 in investments in more than 20 health-care companies.
The hearings will be led by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who is filling in for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), the committee chairman, who is battling brain cancer. Dodd's wife, Jackie Clegg Dodd, serves on the boards of four health-care companies, receiving more than $200,000 in salary and stock from her service in 2008, according to the Associated Press.
Dodd's aides say his wife's financial interest will not have any impact on his leading role in the health-care debate, noting that she is not a lobbyist and has never represented clients before any branch of the federal government.
"Jackie Clegg Dodd's career is her own; absolutely independent of Senator Dodd, as it was when they married 10 years ago," Bryan DeAngelis, Dodd's spokesman, said in a statement. "The senator has worked to reform our health care system for decades, and nothing about his wife's career is relevant at all to his leadership of that effort."
Reid's aides also said he could be a fair arbiter of the legislative debate, pointing to a letter enclosed in his disclosure from his investment manager at Wells Fargo declaring that neither the senator nor his wife has any role in choosing financial moves. "All decisions on purchases, sales and retention of assets in the above mentioned investment management accounts . . . were made in the sole discretion of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., without input from Harry and Landra Reid," the letter said.
Later this month the Senate Finance Committee will take up the debate, with at least a half-dozen senators on the panel holding stakes in health-care companies. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and his wife, ketchup heiress Teresa Heinz Kerry, hold at least $5.2 million in companies such as Merck and Eli Lilly.
Sen. Michael D. Crapo (R-Idaho), one of the few lawmakers who listed the specific values of his stock holdings, held $16,879 worth of stock in companies such as St. Jude Medical at the end of last year.
Health care is not the only industry that is both heavily regulated by Congress and heavily invested in by lawmakers. As The Washington Post reported Thursday, more than 20 members of the House leadership and the House Financial Services Committee hold investments in companies that received more than $200 billion in federal bailouts.
On the Senate banking committee, at least a half-dozen senators had significant investments in companies that benefited from the $700 billion bailout legislation that the panel helped draft last fall. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) reported $18,000 to $95,000 in investments in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bonds, and also that he sold at least $15,000 in Fannie "step-up" bonds at the end of last year. The committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Miss.), reported holding $260,000 to $850,000 in money market and retirement accounts with Countrywide, Citigroup and Wachovia.
Staff writers Dan Eggen, Garance Franke-Ruta, Carol D. Leonnig, Sarah Lovenheim and Ben Pershing, along with research editor Alice Crites, staff researcher Madonna Lebling and graphics editor Karen Yourish, contributed to this report.
By Paul Kane, Washington Post, June 13, 2009
Almost 30 key lawmakers helping draft landmark health-care legislation have financial holdings in the industry, totaling nearly $11 million worth of personal investments in a sector that could be dramatically reshaped by this summer's debate.
The list of members who have personal investments in the corporations that will be affected by the legislation -- which President Obama has called this year's highest domestic priority -- includes Congress's most powerful leaders and a bipartisan collection of lawmakers in key committee posts. Their total health-care holdings could be worth $27 million, because congressional financial disclosure forms released yesterday require reporting of only broad ranges of holdings rather than precise values of assets.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), for instance, has at least $50,000 invested in a health-care index, and Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), a senior member of the health committee, has between $254,000 and $560,000 worth of stock holdings in major health-care companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck.
The family of Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee drafting that chamber's legislation, held at least $3.2 million in more than 20 health-care companies at the end of last year.
The reports come on the eve of what is sure to be a dramatic health-care debate in Congress, beginning with a key Senate committee hearing Tuesday. With several proposals floating on Capitol Hill, the legislative battle could overhaul an industry that represents nearly 20 percent of the national economy.
While no congressional rules bar members from holding financial stakes in industries they regulate, some ethics experts suggest that it often creates the appearance of a conflict of interest, particularly if there is a chance that the legislation could result in a personal financial boost.
"If someone is going to be substantially enriched by the consequences of the vote, particularly if it represents a meaningful amount of their net worth, then there is a problem," said Harlan Krumholz, a professor of medicine at Yale University. "This is such important legislation that you don't want to be tainted by any conflict."
But many legal experts say the health-care industry is so predominant that it is impossible for lawmakers to avoid financial ties to that sector, suggesting that the best antidote is a clear disclosure system that makes every lawmaker's finances publicly available. Robert L. Walker, a Washington lawyer and former House and Senate ethics counsel, said that in many cases, members of Congress are "simply one of perhaps thousands or more" investors in a single corporation and such investments are not "prohibitive conflicts."
In many cases, the lawmakers' health-care holdings represent a small fraction of their assets. Harman, whose husband, Sidney, is the founder of electronics-maker Harman International Industries, is one of the wealthiest members of Congress, with a minimum net worth of almost $120 million.
The new data come from yesterday's release of financial disclosure forms for the House and Senate, though most of the House forms were accidentally posted online Wednesday, and subsequently the data were captured and posted online by congressional watchdog LegiStorm.
The first big congressional moment on health care comes Tuesday in the Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which will consider a liberal-leaning proposal that includes the creation of a "public plan" meant to be a government-administered alternative to private health insurance.
On that 22-member panel, at least eight senators have financial interests in the health-care industry worth a minimum of $600,000 -- and potentially worth as much as $1.9 million. The investors include Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), a senior member of the panel, who holds at least $165,000 in pharmaceutical and medical stocks, and freshman Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), who holds at least $180,000 in investments in more than 20 health-care companies.
The hearings will be led by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who is filling in for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), the committee chairman, who is battling brain cancer. Dodd's wife, Jackie Clegg Dodd, serves on the boards of four health-care companies, receiving more than $200,000 in salary and stock from her service in 2008, according to the Associated Press.
Dodd's aides say his wife's financial interest will not have any impact on his leading role in the health-care debate, noting that she is not a lobbyist and has never represented clients before any branch of the federal government.
"Jackie Clegg Dodd's career is her own; absolutely independent of Senator Dodd, as it was when they married 10 years ago," Bryan DeAngelis, Dodd's spokesman, said in a statement. "The senator has worked to reform our health care system for decades, and nothing about his wife's career is relevant at all to his leadership of that effort."
Reid's aides also said he could be a fair arbiter of the legislative debate, pointing to a letter enclosed in his disclosure from his investment manager at Wells Fargo declaring that neither the senator nor his wife has any role in choosing financial moves. "All decisions on purchases, sales and retention of assets in the above mentioned investment management accounts . . . were made in the sole discretion of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., without input from Harry and Landra Reid," the letter said.
Later this month the Senate Finance Committee will take up the debate, with at least a half-dozen senators on the panel holding stakes in health-care companies. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and his wife, ketchup heiress Teresa Heinz Kerry, hold at least $5.2 million in companies such as Merck and Eli Lilly.
Sen. Michael D. Crapo (R-Idaho), one of the few lawmakers who listed the specific values of his stock holdings, held $16,879 worth of stock in companies such as St. Jude Medical at the end of last year.
Health care is not the only industry that is both heavily regulated by Congress and heavily invested in by lawmakers. As The Washington Post reported Thursday, more than 20 members of the House leadership and the House Financial Services Committee hold investments in companies that received more than $200 billion in federal bailouts.
On the Senate banking committee, at least a half-dozen senators had significant investments in companies that benefited from the $700 billion bailout legislation that the panel helped draft last fall. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) reported $18,000 to $95,000 in investments in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bonds, and also that he sold at least $15,000 in Fannie "step-up" bonds at the end of last year. The committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Miss.), reported holding $260,000 to $850,000 in money market and retirement accounts with Countrywide, Citigroup and Wachovia.
Staff writers Dan Eggen, Garance Franke-Ruta, Carol D. Leonnig, Sarah Lovenheim and Ben Pershing, along with research editor Alice Crites, staff researcher Madonna Lebling and graphics editor Karen Yourish, contributed to this report.
Call Now for Single-Payer Healthcare Vote
By David Swanson, AfterDowningStreet.org, July 22, 2009
Congressman Anthony Weiner (D., N.Y.) has introduced an amendment in the House Energy and Commerce Committee that would replace the convoluted please-the-public-and-the-insurance-companies-at-the-same-time healthcare bill with the single-payer plan found in HR 676 and backed by 86 members of Congress. The vote has been delayed beyond Wednesday, support for the measure is growing, people are phoning in constantly, and a whip count is being kept online.
Please help make a few phone calls now:
http://democrats.com/single-payer-committee-whip
An amendment introduced by Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D, Ohio) was passed last week by the House Education and Labor Committee that will allow states to create single-payer systems if the federal government does not. So, if Weiner's amendment fails, we could still achieve single-payer state by state, and eventually nationally, if we are able to persuade congressional leadership not to strip Kucinich's amendment out behind the closed doors of a conference committee.
But it is entirely possible that Weiner's amendment will pass, and even if it does not pass the support it musters will nonetheless serve to improve the bill and maintain a useful public option. Weiner is a supporter of the existing bill and the public option, but clearly sees a value in pushing for something better both as a bargaining position and as an attempt to achieve a solution that we can be more confident would really solve our healthcare crisis. Weiner's column in the Politico today is worth reading in its entirety. After reading that, please come back here and watch this video of Weiner addressing the concerns of Republicans in the Energy and Commerce Committee.
While Weiner doesn't say this, I will: Everybody now knows that Republicans will oppose any healthcare bill. Worsening a bill in order to win over a few of them provides not a single person with better healthcare. Republicans are not needed and have nothing to add. But of course to pass healthcare reform you do have to win over all of the Democrats. And are you more likely to do that with a bill that wastes public dollars on an inefficient for-profit system, or with a bill like HR 676 that guarantees significant savings? While HR 676 is an approach that forces congress members to go against the wishes of health insurance and drug companies, the mixed-bad approach allows legitimate criticism of wasting money, and the insurance and drug companies still hate it.
Whichever approach you favor, we're going to be better off with a significant show of support for single-payer. With it, a useful public option becomes a compromise. Without it, the compromise to win over the worst Democrats has to begin with the current bill and move down from there. So keep the phones ringing.
Please help make a few phone calls now:
http://democrats.com/single-payer-committee-whip
Americans consistently tell pollsters that they want single-payer. And this is true in Blue Dog districts and Republican districts too. Single-payer is not a tough sell with the public, only with certain Congress members.
Other nations that have public health coverage (government spending on private or public healthcare) provide their people with better care. The U.S. system is ranked 37th by the World Health Organization. The United States is 24th in life expectancy and 29th in reducing infant mortality. Infants who do not survive the U.S. system do not get a chance to enjoy the free market and glory in the absence of socialism.
A single-payer system would cover everyone at all times with no exceptions, allow completely free choice of doctors, invest in preventive care, allow patients and doctors to make their own decisions free of insurance company restrictions, reduce the 30 percent waste in the current system to the 3 percent overhead in Medicare, and create a net gain of 2.6 million jobs, $317 billion in business revenue, and $100 billion in wages. Single-payer is a real economic stimulus, something Washington has been looking for in all the wrong places. Imagine being able to make that argument. We can if we pass Congressman Weiner's amendment.
Congressman Anthony Weiner (D., N.Y.) has introduced an amendment in the House Energy and Commerce Committee that would replace the convoluted please-the-public-and-the-insurance-companies-at-the-same-time healthcare bill with the single-payer plan found in HR 676 and backed by 86 members of Congress. The vote has been delayed beyond Wednesday, support for the measure is growing, people are phoning in constantly, and a whip count is being kept online.
Please help make a few phone calls now:
http://democrats.com/single-payer-committee-whip
An amendment introduced by Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D, Ohio) was passed last week by the House Education and Labor Committee that will allow states to create single-payer systems if the federal government does not. So, if Weiner's amendment fails, we could still achieve single-payer state by state, and eventually nationally, if we are able to persuade congressional leadership not to strip Kucinich's amendment out behind the closed doors of a conference committee.
But it is entirely possible that Weiner's amendment will pass, and even if it does not pass the support it musters will nonetheless serve to improve the bill and maintain a useful public option. Weiner is a supporter of the existing bill and the public option, but clearly sees a value in pushing for something better both as a bargaining position and as an attempt to achieve a solution that we can be more confident would really solve our healthcare crisis. Weiner's column in the Politico today is worth reading in its entirety. After reading that, please come back here and watch this video of Weiner addressing the concerns of Republicans in the Energy and Commerce Committee.
While Weiner doesn't say this, I will: Everybody now knows that Republicans will oppose any healthcare bill. Worsening a bill in order to win over a few of them provides not a single person with better healthcare. Republicans are not needed and have nothing to add. But of course to pass healthcare reform you do have to win over all of the Democrats. And are you more likely to do that with a bill that wastes public dollars on an inefficient for-profit system, or with a bill like HR 676 that guarantees significant savings? While HR 676 is an approach that forces congress members to go against the wishes of health insurance and drug companies, the mixed-bad approach allows legitimate criticism of wasting money, and the insurance and drug companies still hate it.
Whichever approach you favor, we're going to be better off with a significant show of support for single-payer. With it, a useful public option becomes a compromise. Without it, the compromise to win over the worst Democrats has to begin with the current bill and move down from there. So keep the phones ringing.
Please help make a few phone calls now:
http://democrats.com/single-payer-committee-whip
Americans consistently tell pollsters that they want single-payer. And this is true in Blue Dog districts and Republican districts too. Single-payer is not a tough sell with the public, only with certain Congress members.
Other nations that have public health coverage (government spending on private or public healthcare) provide their people with better care. The U.S. system is ranked 37th by the World Health Organization. The United States is 24th in life expectancy and 29th in reducing infant mortality. Infants who do not survive the U.S. system do not get a chance to enjoy the free market and glory in the absence of socialism.
A single-payer system would cover everyone at all times with no exceptions, allow completely free choice of doctors, invest in preventive care, allow patients and doctors to make their own decisions free of insurance company restrictions, reduce the 30 percent waste in the current system to the 3 percent overhead in Medicare, and create a net gain of 2.6 million jobs, $317 billion in business revenue, and $100 billion in wages. Single-payer is a real economic stimulus, something Washington has been looking for in all the wrong places. Imagine being able to make that argument. We can if we pass Congressman Weiner's amendment.
First-of-Its Kind Study: Medicare for All (Single-Payer) Reform Would Be Major Stimulus for Economy
First-of-Its Kind Study: Medicare for All (Single-Payer) Reform Would Be Major Stimulus for Economy with 2.6 Million New Jobs, $317 Billion in Business Revenue, $100 Billion in Wages
California Nurses Association, Press Release
Establishing a national single-payer style healthcare reform system would provide a major stimulus for the U.S. economy by creating 2.6 million new jobs, and infusing $317 billion in new business and public revenues, with another $100 billion in wages into the U.S. economy, according to the findings of a groundbreaking study released today.
The number of jobs created by a single-payer system, expanding and upgrading Medicare to cover everyone, parallels almost exactly the total job loss in 2008.
"Through direct and supplemental expenditures, healthcare is already a uniquely dominant force in the U.S. economy," said Don DeMoro, lead author of the study and director of the Institute for Health and Socio-Economic Policy, the NNOC/CNA research arm.
"However, so much more is possible. If we were to expand our present Medicare system to cover all Americans, the economic stimulus alone would create an immense engine that would help drive our national economy for decades to come," DeMoro said.
Expanding Medicare to include the uninsured, and those on Medicaid or employer-sponsored health plans, and expanding coverage for those with limited Medicare, would have the following immediate impacts:
Healthcare for all far less than the Wall Street bailouts
Adding all Americans to an expanded Medicare could be achieved for $63 billion beyond the current $2.1 trillion in direct healthcare spending. The $63 billion is six times less than the federal bailout for CitiGroup, and less than half the federal bailout for AIG. Solely expanding Medicare to cover the 47 million uninsured Americans (as of 2006 data on which the study is based) could be accomplished for $44 billion.
The IHSP projections build from an econometric model of the current face of healthcare – applying economic analysis to a wide array of publicly available data from Medicare, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and other sources.
It is the first known study to provide an econometric analysis of the economic benefits of healthcare to the overall economy, showing how changes in direct healthcare delivery affect all other significant sectors touched by healthcare, and how sweeping healthcare reform can help drive the nation's economic recovery.
Healthcare presently accounts for $2.105 trillion in direct expenditures. But healthcare spreads far beyond doctor's offices and hospitals. Adding in healthcare business purchases of services or supplies and spending by workers, the total impact of healthcare in the economy mushrooms to nearly $6 trillion.
Overall, every direct healthcare dollar creates nearly three additional dollars in the U.S. economy. In current form, healthcare:
Medicare for all has numerous other benefits, of course, noted Jenkins, from a streamlined system with tens of billions less in private insurance administrative waste, guaranteed choice of physician and hospital, no loss of coverage when unemployed, and no one denied coverage due to age or health status.
"Only a single-payer, expanded Medicare-for-all approach ends the current disgraceful practice of insurance companies refusing to pay for medical treatment or engaging in rampant price gouging that discourages patients from going to the doctor, seeing specialists, or getting diagnostic procedures in a timely manner," said Jenkins.
The IHSP has conducted research for members of Congress and state legislatures as well as NNOC/CNA, and received international renown for research studies on cost and charges in the hospital industry, the pharmaceutical industry, hospital staffing, and other healthcare policy.
Robert Fountain, a frequent economics consultant for the California Public Employees Retirement System (Cal-PERS), served as a consultant on the study.
California Nurses Association, Press Release
Establishing a national single-payer style healthcare reform system would provide a major stimulus for the U.S. economy by creating 2.6 million new jobs, and infusing $317 billion in new business and public revenues, with another $100 billion in wages into the U.S. economy, according to the findings of a groundbreaking study released today.
The number of jobs created by a single-payer system, expanding and upgrading Medicare to cover everyone, parallels almost exactly the total job loss in 2008.
read the full study | view more charts"These dramatic new findings document for the first time that a single-payer system could not only solve our healthcare crisis, but also substantially contribute to putting America back to work and assisting the economic recovery," said Geri Jenkins, RN, co-president of the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association, which sponsored the study.
"Through direct and supplemental expenditures, healthcare is already a uniquely dominant force in the U.S. economy," said Don DeMoro, lead author of the study and director of the Institute for Health and Socio-Economic Policy, the NNOC/CNA research arm.
"However, so much more is possible. If we were to expand our present Medicare system to cover all Americans, the economic stimulus alone would create an immense engine that would help drive our national economy for decades to come," DeMoro said.
Expanding Medicare to include the uninsured, and those on Medicaid or employer-sponsored health plans, and expanding coverage for those with limited Medicare, would have the following immediate impacts:
* Create 2,613,495 million new permanent good-paying jobs (slightly exceeding the number of jobs lost in 2008)Further, moving to the new system comes with an unexpectedly low price tag, given the economic benefits and the far-reaching consequences of genuine healthcare reform, DeMoro noted.
* Boost the economy with $317 billion in increased business and public revenues
* Add $100 billion in employee compensation
* Infuse public budgets with $44 billion in new tax revenues
Healthcare for all far less than the Wall Street bailouts
Adding all Americans to an expanded Medicare could be achieved for $63 billion beyond the current $2.1 trillion in direct healthcare spending. The $63 billion is six times less than the federal bailout for CitiGroup, and less than half the federal bailout for AIG. Solely expanding Medicare to cover the 47 million uninsured Americans (as of 2006 data on which the study is based) could be accomplished for $44 billion.
The IHSP projections build from an econometric model of the current face of healthcare – applying economic analysis to a wide array of publicly available data from Medicare, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and other sources.
It is the first known study to provide an econometric analysis of the economic benefits of healthcare to the overall economy, showing how changes in direct healthcare delivery affect all other significant sectors touched by healthcare, and how sweeping healthcare reform can help drive the nation's economic recovery.
Healthcare presently accounts for $2.105 trillion in direct expenditures. But healthcare spreads far beyond doctor's offices and hospitals. Adding in healthcare business purchases of services or supplies and spending by workers, the total impact of healthcare in the economy mushrooms to nearly $6 trillion.
Overall, every direct healthcare dollar creates nearly three additional dollars in the U.S. economy. In current form, healthcare:
* Generates 45 million jobs, directly and in other industries.All those numbers would rise dramatically through comprehensive healthcare reform. But a single-payer system would produce the biggest increase in jobs and wages. The reason, DeMoro said, is that "the broadest economic benefits directly accrue from the actual delivery and provision of healthcare, not the purchase of insurance."
* Accounts for 10.5 percent of all U.S. jobs and 12.1 percent of all U.S. wages.
* Totals 9.2 percent of the nation's Gross National Product.
* Contributes about 25 percent of all federal tax revenues. Federal, state, and local taxes from the healthcare sector in 2006 added up to $824 billion.
Medicare for all has numerous other benefits, of course, noted Jenkins, from a streamlined system with tens of billions less in private insurance administrative waste, guaranteed choice of physician and hospital, no loss of coverage when unemployed, and no one denied coverage due to age or health status.
"Only a single-payer, expanded Medicare-for-all approach ends the current disgraceful practice of insurance companies refusing to pay for medical treatment or engaging in rampant price gouging that discourages patients from going to the doctor, seeing specialists, or getting diagnostic procedures in a timely manner," said Jenkins.
The IHSP has conducted research for members of Congress and state legislatures as well as NNOC/CNA, and received international renown for research studies on cost and charges in the hospital industry, the pharmaceutical industry, hospital staffing, and other healthcare policy.
Robert Fountain, a frequent economics consultant for the California Public Employees Retirement System (Cal-PERS), served as a consultant on the study.
The Human Rights Situation in Occupied Palestine
By Stephen Lendman, GlobalResearch.ca, May 25, 2009
On March 15, 2006, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly 170 to 4 (with only the US, Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau against) "to establish the Human Rights Council (HRC), based in Geneva, in replacement of the Commission on Human Rights, as a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly....responsible for promoting universal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal manner."
HRC "is an inter-governmental body within the UN system made up of 47 states responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe."
At its tenth session this year, HRC prepared a report titled: "Human Rights Situation in Palestine and other Occupied Arab Territories" and delivered it on March 20. It deals mainly with grave human rights violations in Occupied Palestine, especially due to Operation Cast Lead against Gaza.
It states that the "Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly the Gaza Strip, has been affected by protracted conflict and occupation policies for decades." However, Operation Cast Lead caused "a dramatic deterioration of the living conditions of (a) civilian population" already reeling under an oppressive "20-month-long" siege. An estimated 80% of Gazans, especially women and children, were already dependent on humanitarian aid prior to the conflict's onset.
When it ended, an estimated 91% needed help as it gravely exacerbated current conditions for all 1.5 million Gazans with regard to food, health, housing, education, transportation, electricity and gas, agriculture, and virtually all other aspects of life. Even after the January 18 ceasefire, attacks continued, the siege remained, and free movement restrictions hampered recovery efforts and a return to normalcy. Gazans still suffer gravely in the aftermath of a three-week conflict worsening an already catastrophic humanitarian situation compounded by continued hostilities and a complete blockade - in gross violation of international law.
The Territory's complete dependence on external aid, by whatever means and in whatever amounts obtainable, makes Gazans vulnerable to political manipulation and a deepening crisis of poverty and desperation.
International Humanitarian Law
This writer discusses it often, especially the binding standards under Fourth Geneva relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Also the Hague Regulations, obligations under Geneva's Common Article 3, and principles of distinction and proportionality:
-- distinction between combatants and military targets v. civilians and non-military ones; attacking latter ones are war crimes except when civilians take direct part in hostilities; and
-- proportionality prohibitions against disproportionate, indiscriminate force likely to cause damage to or loss of lives and objects.
In addition, parties to a conflict must make take all precautions to avoid and minimize incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, and damage to non-military sites. To alert civilians, "effective advance warning" must also be given, under Fourth Geneva; "neutralized zones" must be available to protect them as much as possible; and using human shields is strictly prohibited.
Other Fourth Geneva provisions prohibit:
-- collective punishment "for an offence he or she has not personally committed;"
-- the destruction of private or public property unrelated to military operations;
-- torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment at all times, under all circumstances, with no allowable exceptions;
-- assuring the population of adequate food and medical supplies and providing relief by all available means; and
-- allowing free passage of all "consignments" intended for civilian purposes.
Israel is a signatory to major human rights treaties relevant to the current situation and thus bound by their strict provisions:
-- Article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights obligates parties to respect and ensure the rights of all persons in a territory;
-- according to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), applicable also are the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child among other binding laws;
-- UN human rights treaty bodies also affirm that as a party to international laws, Israel must fulfill its human rights obligations in Occupied Palestine as long as it maintains jurisdiction; they include ensuring free movement; various economic and social rights, especially the right to food, medical care, the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, adequate housing, education, and freedom from discrimination.
Gaza's Deepening Crisis
Years of Israeli incursions and blockade devastated Gaza's infrastructure, environment, and lives of 1.5 million people. The World Bank estimates that 98% of industrial operations are inactive, and around 70,000 workers lost their jobs since 2007. In December 2008, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that 18 months of siege caused a 50% rise in unemployment, especially for women with only 11.5% of them employed in 2007, one of the world's lowest rates.
Suspending financial aid and tax transfers and revenues interrupted regular salary payments. Also, restrictions on currency transport caused a liquidity crisis enough to disrupt basic social services deliveries, forcing people to survive by any means possible.
During Operation Cast Lead, Israel inflicted destructive terror against a defenseless civilian population affecting vast numbers of non-military sites - hospitals and other health facilities, water and sanitation infrastructure, land and cellular communications networks, schools, universities, mosques, residential and government buildings, factories, commercial enterprises, farms, fishing boats, roads, bridges, transportation, power, UN buildings, and any living being that moved - all in gross violation of international laws.
Israel also willfully obstructed humanitarian personal leaving the poor, injured, and others without basic food, medical, and other essential services - crimes of war and against humanity under international law. Also, after hostilities ceased, the IDF continues obstructing humanitarian aid by maintaining its siege and restricting the work of civil society and human rights organizations.
HRC states that for Gaza and its population to revive, "all of (its) entry points must be opened to ensure freedom of movement for all, the free inflow of industrial and agricultural inputs and cash and the export of products" to buyers outside the Territory. Also that urgently needed fuel, construction materials, spare parts, and other essential supplies and services be allowed to be received normally.
Further, recovery depends on Gazans having income-generating work, including inside Israel and the West Bank as available, and access to education at all levels at home and abroad. The many thousands of injured, homeless, and displaced require special attention and aid, so far not forthcoming because Israel won't allow it and international leaders are silently complicit.
Besides the above-listed needs, HRC stresses that "to improve the lives of (Gazans) living in poverty, psychosocial support....is urgently needed," especially for children who've been severely traumatized by months of deprivation and conflict. "The rights of the victims of human rights violations to have access to remedy and reparations must also be respected.
Adequate Housing As Part of An Acceptable Standard of Living
Inadequate housing far predates Operation Cast Lead in Gaza and the West Bank - characterized by overcrowding, lack of sanitation, exacerbated by repeated incursions, home demolitions, construction restrictions, an oppressive military occupation, and the willful targeting of thousands of residences during the recent conflict. Destroyed were 4240 houses with another 44,300 damaged and mostly uninhabitable without extensive rehab - in total, over 20% of the Territory's housing affecting up to 90,000 people left homeless, many forced to live in the open.
Numerous Gazan communities are virtually uninhabitable. In urban areas and several refugee camps, entire neighborhoods were destroyed. The vast amount of damage gravely reduced the housing stock, remaining unrehabed because Israel prohibits the import of essential construction materials.
HRC expressed deep concern about "persisting impediments to the entry of reconstruction material," either by prohibition or protracted administrative delays, at a time when "international support for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of homes and neighborhoods is urgently needed." As a result, destitution and human suffering are deeper and the cycle of violation exacerbated.
The Fundamental Human Right to Food
Israel gravely violates this right while, at the same time, Dov Weisglass, advisor to former prime minister Ehud Olmert, talked of "putting Gazans on a diet" and deputy defence minister Matan Vilnai spoke of "a bigger shoah" to starve them - referring to the Nazi holocaust against the Jews. Against Muslims it's "acceptable."
According to various human rights organizations on the ground, Gaza's farmland and greenhouses were extensively bombed. The result was a devastating impact on the population to produce enough food for sustenance or trade. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimated that Operation Cast Lead damaged around 80% of agricultural land and crops. Also, sewage spills and toxic munitions contaminated vast areas of arable land.
OCHA reported that extensive destruction disrupted commercial enterprises and public infrastructure, including Gaza's largest flour mill and food processing plants. These are grave international law violations, exacerbated by Gaza remaining under siege. Border crossings are blocked. Little of anything gets in or out, and, as a result, severe shortages of everything afflict the Territory and people. A nutritional crisis and starvation affect a sizable per cent of the population and little is done for relief.
Currently, "the number of hungry people without access to basic food necessary" to survive remains at dangerously high levels. According to a December 18, 2008 Palestine Monitor Factsheet, 75% of Gazans eat less overall and 89% survive on less nutritious, cheaper diets than pre-siege and before food prices rose sharply in 2008. As a result, chronic malnutrition is rampant, especially for children. Up to half of them under age two suffer from anemia. Two-thirds of them are vitamin A deficient, and stunted growth affects 10% of them. Gazans are slowly being starved to death while world leaders collude with Israeli crimes.
The Right of Everyone to the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health
The long-standing Israeli-Palestinians conflict, Gaza siege, and Operation Cast Lead "resulted in grave violations of the right to" achieve adequate food and nutrition, clean water and sanitation, proper housing, and a healthy environment.
Gazans are trapped and gravely vulnerable to deteriorating physical and mental health as well as outbreaks of highly infectious diseases such as measles, polio, and hepatitis - exacerbated by Operation Cast Lead's destruction of vast infrastructure, including medical personnel and facilities:
-- 16 medical workers were killed and another 25 injured;
-- 15 hospitals, 43 primary health centers and 29 ambulances were targeted and destroyed; and
-- only 44 of 56 primary health care centers still operate.
As a result, basic facilities are inadequate for public needs, and the WHO estimates that 40% of chronically ill patients have no health care centers available for help. Nor is it available abroad as border crossings remain closed with entries and exits blocked.
The Right to Education
The siege and recent conflict severely impaired education - within and outside Gaza. School facilities suffered extensive damage and destruction, and minimal repairs only are possible as long as Israel blocks construction materials from entering.
UN schools were also hit. So was the American International School near Beit Lahiya and the Islamic University's science and engineering labs, Gaza's oldest and largest higher education facility, affecting over 20,000 students.
During the three-week Operation Cast Lead period, schools at all levels shut down, causing 540,000 students to miss nearly a month of classes. Then for many, there was no school to attend.
Even before the conflict, conditions were grossly inadequate with the Territory under siege:
-- overcrowding caused restricted school hours to accommodate morning and afternoon shifts for 450,000 students;
-- 200,000 refugee camp children at UN schools were especially impacted;
-- according to UNICEF, power shortages meant no heat or electricity for classrooms, and the blockade caused shortages of everything, including books, paper, pencils, chalk, and other essential materials and teaching aids; and
-- as a result, enrollment rates dropped, effective teaching was impaired, and student performance suffered hugely - with failure rates of 80% in grades four to nine and for mathematics up to 90%.
Causes and Consequences of Violence against Women
HRC called the "scale of civilian deaths, injuries and destruction during (Operation Cast Lead) unprecedented by all accounts," including its affect on women:
-- 116 killed and another 800 injured.
Women suffered critical injuries from bombings, artillery shells, rockets, live ammunition, willful targeting at chose range, being shot in their homes, and from use of illegal weapons like white phosphorous. Some injuries caused maiming and amputations, and for 40,000 pregnant women endangerment to their unborn and numerous cases of premature labor and delivery because of trauma from continuous bombing and shelling. Also, a UNFPA finding showed a 40% rise in miscarriages, a 50% increase in neonatal deaths, and a sharp increase in premature births.
A UNFPA February 2009 survey highlighted the psychological impact on women:
-- extreme fear and insecurity;
-- depression and sadness;
-- overall debilitation making them feel unfit as mothers and care-givers; and
-- vulnerability to violence and depravation in a "precarious and traumatic environment."
The Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons
For nearly 42 years, Israel's occupation policies have gravely harmed the human rights of Palestinians and caused "large-scale forced displacement....within the Occupied Palestinian Territory," even prior to Operation Cast Lead. Displacement results from:
-- incursions;
-- military clearing operations;
-- home demolitions and evictions;
-- land expropriation;
-- settlement expansions;
-- the Separation Wall;
-- settler violence and harassment;
-- closures, barriers, and checkpoints that deny free movement;
-- revocation of East Jerusalem residency rights; and
-- denial of construction permits to build on one's own land.
Operation Cast Lead alone left about 72,000 persons displaced, according to a shelter/Intern Development Programme preliminary report - conducted in 45 Gaza localities several days after the conflict ended.
International law prohibits forced displacement, yet Israel caused it by targeting densely populated areas with bombings, shellings and ground assaults. Thousands fled to UN shelters in terror. They, too, were then attacked.
Currently tens of thousands remain displaced because their homes were destroyed, and no materials are available to rebuild them. As a result, they're staying in poor, overcrowded areas in the open, or when possible, with members of extended families - already overstretched by impoverishment, inadequate food, water, electricity, and basic non-food items and facilities like mattresses, blankets, and enough space for new arrivals. The overall humanitarian situation is far more dire than before hostilities began given the vast amount of destruction, deaths and injuries over the three-week period.
On February 9, 2009, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that international agencies faced "unprecedented denial of access" to Gaza since the previous November, and that condition hasn't abated.
Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions
HRC reported that "All killings during the Gaza conflict that violated applicable human rights and humanitarian law norms come within the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions." Best estimates put the number at around 1440 people, the great majority being civilians.
Further, "strong and credible reports" indicate grievous war crimes and other international violations occurred that beg for accountability. None so far are in prospect. The alternative is de facto impunity that "mocks the international legal order, makes hollow the international obligations undertaken and reaffirmed by the parties, increases the likelihood of more flagrant (future) violations, and poisons the prospects for an eventual solution to the conflict."
Disturbingly, that's where things now stand with Israel absolving itself of war crimes and refusing to cooperate when HRC investigators arrive in the region to begin their independent work. In a May 8 issued statement, the Richard Goldstone headed team said:
HRC Recommendations
Briefly they include:
-- Israel's cooperation with HRC investigators;
-- ending the siege;
-- allowing unimpeded access and safe passage for humanitarian aid, including food, medicines, fuel, agricultural inputs, construction materials, and whatever else is needed to sustain, rebuild, and revive the shattered Territory;
-- let sick and injured persons be treated abroad and in Israel;
-- let those wishing to do so travel and study abroad; and
-- end all violations of binding international laws and commit no breaches thereof - to include:
*********************
Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday - Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on major world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy listening.
On March 15, 2006, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly 170 to 4 (with only the US, Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau against) "to establish the Human Rights Council (HRC), based in Geneva, in replacement of the Commission on Human Rights, as a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly....responsible for promoting universal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal manner."
HRC "is an inter-governmental body within the UN system made up of 47 states responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe."
At its tenth session this year, HRC prepared a report titled: "Human Rights Situation in Palestine and other Occupied Arab Territories" and delivered it on March 20. It deals mainly with grave human rights violations in Occupied Palestine, especially due to Operation Cast Lead against Gaza.
It states that the "Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly the Gaza Strip, has been affected by protracted conflict and occupation policies for decades." However, Operation Cast Lead caused "a dramatic deterioration of the living conditions of (a) civilian population" already reeling under an oppressive "20-month-long" siege. An estimated 80% of Gazans, especially women and children, were already dependent on humanitarian aid prior to the conflict's onset.
When it ended, an estimated 91% needed help as it gravely exacerbated current conditions for all 1.5 million Gazans with regard to food, health, housing, education, transportation, electricity and gas, agriculture, and virtually all other aspects of life. Even after the January 18 ceasefire, attacks continued, the siege remained, and free movement restrictions hampered recovery efforts and a return to normalcy. Gazans still suffer gravely in the aftermath of a three-week conflict worsening an already catastrophic humanitarian situation compounded by continued hostilities and a complete blockade - in gross violation of international law.
The Territory's complete dependence on external aid, by whatever means and in whatever amounts obtainable, makes Gazans vulnerable to political manipulation and a deepening crisis of poverty and desperation.
International Humanitarian Law
This writer discusses it often, especially the binding standards under Fourth Geneva relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Also the Hague Regulations, obligations under Geneva's Common Article 3, and principles of distinction and proportionality:
-- distinction between combatants and military targets v. civilians and non-military ones; attacking latter ones are war crimes except when civilians take direct part in hostilities; and
-- proportionality prohibitions against disproportionate, indiscriminate force likely to cause damage to or loss of lives and objects.
In addition, parties to a conflict must make take all precautions to avoid and minimize incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, and damage to non-military sites. To alert civilians, "effective advance warning" must also be given, under Fourth Geneva; "neutralized zones" must be available to protect them as much as possible; and using human shields is strictly prohibited.
Other Fourth Geneva provisions prohibit:
-- collective punishment "for an offence he or she has not personally committed;"
-- the destruction of private or public property unrelated to military operations;
-- torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment at all times, under all circumstances, with no allowable exceptions;
-- assuring the population of adequate food and medical supplies and providing relief by all available means; and
-- allowing free passage of all "consignments" intended for civilian purposes.
Israel is a signatory to major human rights treaties relevant to the current situation and thus bound by their strict provisions:
-- Article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights obligates parties to respect and ensure the rights of all persons in a territory;
-- according to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), applicable also are the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child among other binding laws;
-- UN human rights treaty bodies also affirm that as a party to international laws, Israel must fulfill its human rights obligations in Occupied Palestine as long as it maintains jurisdiction; they include ensuring free movement; various economic and social rights, especially the right to food, medical care, the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, adequate housing, education, and freedom from discrimination.
Gaza's Deepening Crisis
Years of Israeli incursions and blockade devastated Gaza's infrastructure, environment, and lives of 1.5 million people. The World Bank estimates that 98% of industrial operations are inactive, and around 70,000 workers lost their jobs since 2007. In December 2008, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that 18 months of siege caused a 50% rise in unemployment, especially for women with only 11.5% of them employed in 2007, one of the world's lowest rates.
Suspending financial aid and tax transfers and revenues interrupted regular salary payments. Also, restrictions on currency transport caused a liquidity crisis enough to disrupt basic social services deliveries, forcing people to survive by any means possible.
During Operation Cast Lead, Israel inflicted destructive terror against a defenseless civilian population affecting vast numbers of non-military sites - hospitals and other health facilities, water and sanitation infrastructure, land and cellular communications networks, schools, universities, mosques, residential and government buildings, factories, commercial enterprises, farms, fishing boats, roads, bridges, transportation, power, UN buildings, and any living being that moved - all in gross violation of international laws.
Israel also willfully obstructed humanitarian personal leaving the poor, injured, and others without basic food, medical, and other essential services - crimes of war and against humanity under international law. Also, after hostilities ceased, the IDF continues obstructing humanitarian aid by maintaining its siege and restricting the work of civil society and human rights organizations.
HRC states that for Gaza and its population to revive, "all of (its) entry points must be opened to ensure freedom of movement for all, the free inflow of industrial and agricultural inputs and cash and the export of products" to buyers outside the Territory. Also that urgently needed fuel, construction materials, spare parts, and other essential supplies and services be allowed to be received normally.
Further, recovery depends on Gazans having income-generating work, including inside Israel and the West Bank as available, and access to education at all levels at home and abroad. The many thousands of injured, homeless, and displaced require special attention and aid, so far not forthcoming because Israel won't allow it and international leaders are silently complicit.
Besides the above-listed needs, HRC stresses that "to improve the lives of (Gazans) living in poverty, psychosocial support....is urgently needed," especially for children who've been severely traumatized by months of deprivation and conflict. "The rights of the victims of human rights violations to have access to remedy and reparations must also be respected.
Adequate Housing As Part of An Acceptable Standard of Living
Inadequate housing far predates Operation Cast Lead in Gaza and the West Bank - characterized by overcrowding, lack of sanitation, exacerbated by repeated incursions, home demolitions, construction restrictions, an oppressive military occupation, and the willful targeting of thousands of residences during the recent conflict. Destroyed were 4240 houses with another 44,300 damaged and mostly uninhabitable without extensive rehab - in total, over 20% of the Territory's housing affecting up to 90,000 people left homeless, many forced to live in the open.
Numerous Gazan communities are virtually uninhabitable. In urban areas and several refugee camps, entire neighborhoods were destroyed. The vast amount of damage gravely reduced the housing stock, remaining unrehabed because Israel prohibits the import of essential construction materials.
HRC expressed deep concern about "persisting impediments to the entry of reconstruction material," either by prohibition or protracted administrative delays, at a time when "international support for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of homes and neighborhoods is urgently needed." As a result, destitution and human suffering are deeper and the cycle of violation exacerbated.
The Fundamental Human Right to Food
Israel gravely violates this right while, at the same time, Dov Weisglass, advisor to former prime minister Ehud Olmert, talked of "putting Gazans on a diet" and deputy defence minister Matan Vilnai spoke of "a bigger shoah" to starve them - referring to the Nazi holocaust against the Jews. Against Muslims it's "acceptable."
According to various human rights organizations on the ground, Gaza's farmland and greenhouses were extensively bombed. The result was a devastating impact on the population to produce enough food for sustenance or trade. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimated that Operation Cast Lead damaged around 80% of agricultural land and crops. Also, sewage spills and toxic munitions contaminated vast areas of arable land.
OCHA reported that extensive destruction disrupted commercial enterprises and public infrastructure, including Gaza's largest flour mill and food processing plants. These are grave international law violations, exacerbated by Gaza remaining under siege. Border crossings are blocked. Little of anything gets in or out, and, as a result, severe shortages of everything afflict the Territory and people. A nutritional crisis and starvation affect a sizable per cent of the population and little is done for relief.
Currently, "the number of hungry people without access to basic food necessary" to survive remains at dangerously high levels. According to a December 18, 2008 Palestine Monitor Factsheet, 75% of Gazans eat less overall and 89% survive on less nutritious, cheaper diets than pre-siege and before food prices rose sharply in 2008. As a result, chronic malnutrition is rampant, especially for children. Up to half of them under age two suffer from anemia. Two-thirds of them are vitamin A deficient, and stunted growth affects 10% of them. Gazans are slowly being starved to death while world leaders collude with Israeli crimes.
The Right of Everyone to the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health
The long-standing Israeli-Palestinians conflict, Gaza siege, and Operation Cast Lead "resulted in grave violations of the right to" achieve adequate food and nutrition, clean water and sanitation, proper housing, and a healthy environment.
Gazans are trapped and gravely vulnerable to deteriorating physical and mental health as well as outbreaks of highly infectious diseases such as measles, polio, and hepatitis - exacerbated by Operation Cast Lead's destruction of vast infrastructure, including medical personnel and facilities:
-- 16 medical workers were killed and another 25 injured;
-- 15 hospitals, 43 primary health centers and 29 ambulances were targeted and destroyed; and
-- only 44 of 56 primary health care centers still operate.
As a result, basic facilities are inadequate for public needs, and the WHO estimates that 40% of chronically ill patients have no health care centers available for help. Nor is it available abroad as border crossings remain closed with entries and exits blocked.
The Right to Education
The siege and recent conflict severely impaired education - within and outside Gaza. School facilities suffered extensive damage and destruction, and minimal repairs only are possible as long as Israel blocks construction materials from entering.
UN schools were also hit. So was the American International School near Beit Lahiya and the Islamic University's science and engineering labs, Gaza's oldest and largest higher education facility, affecting over 20,000 students.
During the three-week Operation Cast Lead period, schools at all levels shut down, causing 540,000 students to miss nearly a month of classes. Then for many, there was no school to attend.
Even before the conflict, conditions were grossly inadequate with the Territory under siege:
-- overcrowding caused restricted school hours to accommodate morning and afternoon shifts for 450,000 students;
-- 200,000 refugee camp children at UN schools were especially impacted;
-- according to UNICEF, power shortages meant no heat or electricity for classrooms, and the blockade caused shortages of everything, including books, paper, pencils, chalk, and other essential materials and teaching aids; and
-- as a result, enrollment rates dropped, effective teaching was impaired, and student performance suffered hugely - with failure rates of 80% in grades four to nine and for mathematics up to 90%.
Causes and Consequences of Violence against Women
HRC called the "scale of civilian deaths, injuries and destruction during (Operation Cast Lead) unprecedented by all accounts," including its affect on women:
-- 116 killed and another 800 injured.
Women suffered critical injuries from bombings, artillery shells, rockets, live ammunition, willful targeting at chose range, being shot in their homes, and from use of illegal weapons like white phosphorous. Some injuries caused maiming and amputations, and for 40,000 pregnant women endangerment to their unborn and numerous cases of premature labor and delivery because of trauma from continuous bombing and shelling. Also, a UNFPA finding showed a 40% rise in miscarriages, a 50% increase in neonatal deaths, and a sharp increase in premature births.
A UNFPA February 2009 survey highlighted the psychological impact on women:
-- extreme fear and insecurity;
-- depression and sadness;
-- overall debilitation making them feel unfit as mothers and care-givers; and
-- vulnerability to violence and depravation in a "precarious and traumatic environment."
The Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons
For nearly 42 years, Israel's occupation policies have gravely harmed the human rights of Palestinians and caused "large-scale forced displacement....within the Occupied Palestinian Territory," even prior to Operation Cast Lead. Displacement results from:
-- incursions;
-- military clearing operations;
-- home demolitions and evictions;
-- land expropriation;
-- settlement expansions;
-- the Separation Wall;
-- settler violence and harassment;
-- closures, barriers, and checkpoints that deny free movement;
-- revocation of East Jerusalem residency rights; and
-- denial of construction permits to build on one's own land.
Operation Cast Lead alone left about 72,000 persons displaced, according to a shelter/Intern Development Programme preliminary report - conducted in 45 Gaza localities several days after the conflict ended.
International law prohibits forced displacement, yet Israel caused it by targeting densely populated areas with bombings, shellings and ground assaults. Thousands fled to UN shelters in terror. They, too, were then attacked.
Currently tens of thousands remain displaced because their homes were destroyed, and no materials are available to rebuild them. As a result, they're staying in poor, overcrowded areas in the open, or when possible, with members of extended families - already overstretched by impoverishment, inadequate food, water, electricity, and basic non-food items and facilities like mattresses, blankets, and enough space for new arrivals. The overall humanitarian situation is far more dire than before hostilities began given the vast amount of destruction, deaths and injuries over the three-week period.
On February 9, 2009, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that international agencies faced "unprecedented denial of access" to Gaza since the previous November, and that condition hasn't abated.
Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions
HRC reported that "All killings during the Gaza conflict that violated applicable human rights and humanitarian law norms come within the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions." Best estimates put the number at around 1440 people, the great majority being civilians.
Further, "strong and credible reports" indicate grievous war crimes and other international violations occurred that beg for accountability. None so far are in prospect. The alternative is de facto impunity that "mocks the international legal order, makes hollow the international obligations undertaken and reaffirmed by the parties, increases the likelihood of more flagrant (future) violations, and poisons the prospects for an eventual solution to the conflict."
Disturbingly, that's where things now stand with Israel absolving itself of war crimes and refusing to cooperate when HRC investigators arrive in the region to begin their independent work. In a May 8 issued statement, the Richard Goldstone headed team said:
"In the course of its work, the mission intends to conduct visits to affected areas of southern Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including Gaza, and has requested the cooperation of Israel in this regard."Goldstone stressed he would take a "law-based approach," not a political one to achieve "an objective assessment of the issues....in the interest of all parties (to) promote a culture of accountability (that can) serve to promote greater peace and security in the region."
HRC Recommendations
Briefly they include:
-- Israel's cooperation with HRC investigators;
-- ending the siege;
-- allowing unimpeded access and safe passage for humanitarian aid, including food, medicines, fuel, agricultural inputs, construction materials, and whatever else is needed to sustain, rebuild, and revive the shattered Territory;
-- let sick and injured persons be treated abroad and in Israel;
-- let those wishing to do so travel and study abroad; and
-- end all violations of binding international laws and commit no breaches thereof - to include:
(1) abiding by the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution;HRC also calls on UN entities to assess Palestinian needs and contribute to the wide-scale reconstruction of Occupied Palestine, including the vast amount of damage done to Gaza. It also asks the international community for help through the Security Council, International Court of Justice, and UN human rights mechanisms - and for all states to abide by international humanitarian law and work to restore a battered Palestine. Holding Israel accountable for its war crimes is a good way to start.
(2) ending the killing of civilians;
(3) no longer using human shields;
(4) ending extrajudicial assassinations;
(5) terminating the use of illegal weapons like white phosphorous; and
(6) prohibiting attacks on medical personnel, ambulances, hospitals, schools, civilian infrastructure, UN buildings, and other non-military sites.
*********************
Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday - Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on major world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy listening.
Hope Convoy finally makes it into Gaza
by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies, May 26, 2009
The European Hope Convoy carrying aid to Gaza, managed to enter the Gaza Strip, on Monday evening, via the Rafah border terminal, after reaching an agreement with the Egyptian Authorities who initially refused to allow the aid convoy into the coastal region.
Rami Abdo, coordinator of the Hope Convoy stated that the forty trucks, including 12 ambulances, managed to enter the Gaza Strip via the Rafah terminal after Egypt allowed them through under the condition that a limited number of activists would accompany the convoy into Gaza.
Egypt allowed nearly 22 out of more than a 100 activists, including some European parliamentarians, to enter Gaza.
Convoy members initially decided to head back to Europe after the Egyptian Authorities refused to allow them into Gaza, and ordered them to leave the terminal.
Updated From;
Hope Convoy decides to return to Europe after Egypt denies it access to Gaza
Tue, 26 May 2009 00:42:59
Organizers of the “Hope” aid convoy decided to return to Europe after the Egyptian Authorities denied the convoy access to the Gaza Strip, and after pressuring the participants into leaving the Rafah border terminal between Gaza and Egypt.
The 40-truck convoy carried medical necessities for physically challenged Palestinians, and other essential medical needs in an attempt to deliver them to the residents of the Gaza Strip.
Dr. Arafat Madi, head of the European Campaign to Lift the Siege on Gaza, said that the organizers of the convoy decided to head back to Europe due to Egypt’s pressures and demands that they leave Egyptian soil and head back to Europe.
The participants stated that it is unbelievable that the aid convoy, carrying essential medical aid to the Palestinians, would be blocked from entering the Gaza Strip.
It took two months to prepare for the convoy which includes 20 mid-size trucks, and 12 ambulances filled with aid meant to be delivered to Palestinians with special medical needs.
The aid convoy is headed by Italian senator, Fernando Rossi, and includes twelve parliamentarians from Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Ireland, the UK, and other European activists.
The convoy was prepared by several European institutions, hundreds of individuals and officials.
Convoy members expressed disappointment over the Egyptian position as the country should have facilitated the entry of aid to the Gaza Strip placed under tight and deadly siege for the third consecutive year.
The Committee said that it conducted all needed arrangement and all legal issues to ensure that the convoy makes it into the Gaza Strip, yet Egypt refused to allow the aid into Gaza.
The committee added that humanitarian aid supplies should make it into Gaza by sea or land, and that nobody has the right to block its delivery.
It is worth mentioning that several protests are to take place in front of Egyptian Ministries in several European countries.
http://www.imemc.org/article/60532
**********************
click here for information on two U.S. delegations to Gaza in June 2009
The European Hope Convoy carrying aid to Gaza, managed to enter the Gaza Strip, on Monday evening, via the Rafah border terminal, after reaching an agreement with the Egyptian Authorities who initially refused to allow the aid convoy into the coastal region.Rami Abdo, coordinator of the Hope Convoy stated that the forty trucks, including 12 ambulances, managed to enter the Gaza Strip via the Rafah terminal after Egypt allowed them through under the condition that a limited number of activists would accompany the convoy into Gaza.
Egypt allowed nearly 22 out of more than a 100 activists, including some European parliamentarians, to enter Gaza.
Convoy members initially decided to head back to Europe after the Egyptian Authorities refused to allow them into Gaza, and ordered them to leave the terminal.
Updated From;
Hope Convoy decides to return to Europe after Egypt denies it access to Gaza
Tue, 26 May 2009 00:42:59
Organizers of the “Hope” aid convoy decided to return to Europe after the Egyptian Authorities denied the convoy access to the Gaza Strip, and after pressuring the participants into leaving the Rafah border terminal between Gaza and Egypt.
The 40-truck convoy carried medical necessities for physically challenged Palestinians, and other essential medical needs in an attempt to deliver them to the residents of the Gaza Strip.
Dr. Arafat Madi, head of the European Campaign to Lift the Siege on Gaza, said that the organizers of the convoy decided to head back to Europe due to Egypt’s pressures and demands that they leave Egyptian soil and head back to Europe.
The participants stated that it is unbelievable that the aid convoy, carrying essential medical aid to the Palestinians, would be blocked from entering the Gaza Strip.
It took two months to prepare for the convoy which includes 20 mid-size trucks, and 12 ambulances filled with aid meant to be delivered to Palestinians with special medical needs.
The aid convoy is headed by Italian senator, Fernando Rossi, and includes twelve parliamentarians from Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Ireland, the UK, and other European activists.
The convoy was prepared by several European institutions, hundreds of individuals and officials.
Convoy members expressed disappointment over the Egyptian position as the country should have facilitated the entry of aid to the Gaza Strip placed under tight and deadly siege for the third consecutive year.
The Committee said that it conducted all needed arrangement and all legal issues to ensure that the convoy makes it into the Gaza Strip, yet Egypt refused to allow the aid into Gaza.
The committee added that humanitarian aid supplies should make it into Gaza by sea or land, and that nobody has the right to block its delivery.
It is worth mentioning that several protests are to take place in front of Egyptian Ministries in several European countries.
http://www.imemc.org/article/60532
**********************
click here for information on two U.S. delegations to Gaza in June 2009
Medical aid convoy stranded on Gaza border
BBC News, May 25, 2009
Only 16 of the group of 130 Europeans were permitted to enter, leaving trucks laden with wheelchairs, medicines and a dialysis machine stuck at the border.
UN agencies say the Gaza blockade appeared to have been tightened in recent months.
Separately, a desert marathon runner was also denied access to the Strip.
The Hope for Gaza convoy, organised by a range of small, Europe-based humanitarian organisations and other groups, had traveled from Milan over the past month.
Its UK-based coordinator, Rami Abdu, claimed the Egyptian authorities had said they would be allowed access and had even stamped the whole group's passports to allow them to exit Egypt.
But they were told "high instructions had... suddenly" been received and only 16 of the convoy participants would be allowed to enter, he said.
It is the latest of several attempts by activists and NGOs to break the blockade. Previously groups have brought ships into Gaza by sea.
Mr Abdu said the aid deliveries were co-ordinated with hospitals and rehabilitation centres in Gaza, some of which were private, some run by the Hamas administration.
'Tightened restrictions'
Under Israel and Egypt's joint blockade of the strip, little more than humanitarian basics are allowed in.
International organisations say the Israeli authorities have tightened restrictions, after the flow of aid increased in the wake of Israel's military operation in January.
"These restrictions have again become severe and excessive," said Tony Laurance, acting Head of World Health Organization in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Although medicines and medical equipment do enter Gaza, the process of getting permission for many items is "slow and cumbersome", he said.
The WHO said that, as of mid-May, stocks were short of 82 different drugs, with less than a month's supply left.
Mr Laurance said there had been problems ensuring that medical donations matched needs, and inappropriate or out-of-date medicines having to be destroyed.
At the weekend, the UN relief agency Unrwa said the blockade was intensifying the deteriorating health situation in Gaza.
Unrwa said the number of different "essential" items allowed into Gaza had gone down from 4,000 before the Israeli military operation in January to about 40.
'Run for Love'
A spokesman for the Israeli Defence Ministry disputed the claim and said the policy had not changed.
He said there was no list of banned items, but "luxury items" and items which could be used for military purposes were still restricted.
The blockade was tightened after Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007 and in response to rocket fire into Israel.
The spokesman said militants were still firing rockets into Israel and there had been no movement on the release of the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Separately, Italian marathon runner Max Calderan, was denied access from Israel into Gaza.
He had been planning a Run for Love covering 335 miles (540km) from Ramallah in the West Bank to Jerusalem, through Gaza to the summit of Egypt's Mount Sinai.
Unrwa, which had been due to provide security for the Gaza leg, said the Israeli authorities had told him they would let him in.
The Defence Ministry spokesman said he was unaware of Mr Calderan's request for permission until he arrived at the crossing.
Unrwa said the number of different "essential" items allowed into Gaza had gone down from 4,000 before the Israeli military operation in January to about 40.A convoy bringing medical aid to Gaza is stranded at the border with Egypt, after most of the activists and volunteers with it were denied entry.
Only 16 of the group of 130 Europeans were permitted to enter, leaving trucks laden with wheelchairs, medicines and a dialysis machine stuck at the border.
UN agencies say the Gaza blockade appeared to have been tightened in recent months.
Separately, a desert marathon runner was also denied access to the Strip.
The Hope for Gaza convoy, organised by a range of small, Europe-based humanitarian organisations and other groups, had traveled from Milan over the past month.
Its UK-based coordinator, Rami Abdu, claimed the Egyptian authorities had said they would be allowed access and had even stamped the whole group's passports to allow them to exit Egypt.
But they were told "high instructions had... suddenly" been received and only 16 of the convoy participants would be allowed to enter, he said.
It is the latest of several attempts by activists and NGOs to break the blockade. Previously groups have brought ships into Gaza by sea.
Mr Abdu said the aid deliveries were co-ordinated with hospitals and rehabilitation centres in Gaza, some of which were private, some run by the Hamas administration.
'Tightened restrictions'
Under Israel and Egypt's joint blockade of the strip, little more than humanitarian basics are allowed in.
International organisations say the Israeli authorities have tightened restrictions, after the flow of aid increased in the wake of Israel's military operation in January.
"These restrictions have again become severe and excessive," said Tony Laurance, acting Head of World Health Organization in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Although medicines and medical equipment do enter Gaza, the process of getting permission for many items is "slow and cumbersome", he said.
The WHO said that, as of mid-May, stocks were short of 82 different drugs, with less than a month's supply left.
Mr Laurance said there had been problems ensuring that medical donations matched needs, and inappropriate or out-of-date medicines having to be destroyed.
At the weekend, the UN relief agency Unrwa said the blockade was intensifying the deteriorating health situation in Gaza.
Unrwa said the number of different "essential" items allowed into Gaza had gone down from 4,000 before the Israeli military operation in January to about 40.
'Run for Love'
A spokesman for the Israeli Defence Ministry disputed the claim and said the policy had not changed.
He said there was no list of banned items, but "luxury items" and items which could be used for military purposes were still restricted.
The blockade was tightened after Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007 and in response to rocket fire into Israel.
The spokesman said militants were still firing rockets into Israel and there had been no movement on the release of the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Separately, Italian marathon runner Max Calderan, was denied access from Israel into Gaza.
He had been planning a Run for Love covering 335 miles (540km) from Ramallah in the West Bank to Jerusalem, through Gaza to the summit of Egypt's Mount Sinai.
Unrwa, which had been due to provide security for the Gaza leg, said the Israeli authorities had told him they would let him in.
The Defence Ministry spokesman said he was unaware of Mr Calderan's request for permission until he arrived at the crossing.
Call-In During National Nurses Week
Join the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care as we celebrate National Nurses Week!
Our allies, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee have been a longtime leader in the fight against corporate medicine to get insurance company bureaucrats out of our health care. Nurses are on the frontline defending our health in the medical system as well as in the movement for meaningful health reform.
On Wednesday, May 13th, 500 Nurses with activists by their side will be rallying from noon - 2pm at Upper Senate Park in Washington DC. Afterwards, the single-payer movement will take to Capitol Hill to lobby their Senators and US Representatives for single-payer national health care.
Join for the rally by getting on the phone for a National Call-In Day to Congress. We saw Senators laugh at peaceful demonstrators at the Senate Finance Committee Hearing last week, as 8 single-payer advocates were removed one-by-one from the Hearing and arrested. We need to make sure these elected officials hear from the movement.
Remember we have HR 676 in the House with 75 cosponsors and S703 in the Senate with no cosponsors.
See our call-in page for further information on contacting your Congress person.
Thanks for all that you do,
Healthcare-NOW! National Staff
PS. Remember, May 30th is the National Day of Action for Single-Payer Healthcare. We're organizing rallies in over 20 cities around the US.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)