Sunday August 23, 2009, 7:12 am


Dear David Buchan,

If you have wondered what happened to the Obama that you voted for, wonder no more. George Lakoff persuasively explains that Obama's gift for unifying people and for giving complex messages in simple terms was destroyed when he allowed the policy wonks to take over health care messaging. Here is his article. (visit site)

The most interesting aspect of this argument is the notion that we progressives can do, but have failed to do, what conservatives do so well -- rile up the 'base.'

In an effort to spread the message that Language Matters More Than Substance in this debate (and who can deny that after seeing the DeathEater thugs at town hall meetings), I am asking each of you to send a new fax to Congress. Let's flood Congress and the White House with the message George Lakoff sends: Language Matters. Frame Health Care Reform as the Uniquely American Plan, Medicare For All.

Invite others to our mailing list. (please do?)

Click here (visit site) to send your free eFax to Congress.
It's quick and easy.

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In case you haven't been to the HealthJustice shop, click here (visit site) to see their T-shirts and bumper stickers promoting single payer. Each item you buy is priced as low as CafePress allows. When you buy something from the shop, they get a small piece of the purchase price. (and why not? They care, I care do you care?)

Here are some of the designs in their shop.

Insurance Premium (design by J. Jonik)

Our National Health Plan -- Don't Get Sick

Death Panels --Individual Insurance Companies named...

Click (visit site) to buy your T-shirt or Bumper Sticker today.

Quick Links...
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HealthJustice
Everybody In, Nobody Out Store - Show Your Colors
Simple Answers on Single Payer

Talking Points on Single Payer
Contact Information
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phone: 801-363-8888 clark.newhall@health-justice.org
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Well, that's about it folks...Do sign the petition...The tee shirt is your choice and not mandatory...Go for it people...If you care at all you will sign this fax to the Pres?

Sunday August 23, 2009, 7:33 am
Text of the petition you absolutely have to sign if you care about your fellow man/woman... :-)

Dear Mr. Obama and My Senators and Representatives,

I was impressed with George Lakoffs article in the Huffington Post on framing health care reform. I urge you to read it. In case you don't have the time, I have distilled his ideas into language you can use when talking about health care...

Medicare For All is a Made-in-American plan. It is the simple, patriotic and practical solution to the health care mess. Medicare is proven, it is efficient, and it is American. It is the most popular social program America has ever had bar none. Expanding Medicare to include all Americans, young and old, healthy or unhealthy, secures the future of Medicare and the future of America...

We have a Health Care Emergency. Americans are suffering and dying because of the failure of insurance companies in financing a decent health care system. We can't wait any longer. It's an emergency. We have to act now to end the suffering and death...

Health care is is a patriotic issue, not an economic one. You and I, American citizens together, are engaged in health care reform because Americans care about each other. You, my representative, must be the hero. Stand up, and speak up, for the uniquely American plan, Medicare For All. The insurance companies are spreading lies to maintain their profits and increase their taxpayer-funded bsilout...

You represent me, not the companies, and I will cheer you when you stand up and say that...

Doctor-Patient care can be better. This is what Medicare For All is really about. With Medicare For All, I can see any doctor and go to any hospital. Medicare For All puts care back into the hands of doctors and patients. Doctors and hospitals may complain that Medicare pays them too little, But if insurance companies pay doctors more, isn't that why health care is too costly in the first place?...

Doctors need to take care of patients, because that is their income and that is their calling. I am sure you have noticed: few doctors and no hospitals turn away Medicare patients. Doctors need patients just like patients need doctors. No one needs insurance bureaucrats...

Coverage is not care. Americans care about one another. Health insurance bureaucrats care about making money. We think we're insured, then find we are not because insurance companies lose money when paying for care and make money by denying care. That's what the administrative costs of insurance companies are all about - denying care...

Insurance companies govern our lives. They have more power over us than even governments have. They make life and death decisions. And so far they have not been accountable to me or even to you, as my representative. Make them accountable or make them wither away...

Insurance companies ration care. You know this is true. Ask me or any voter these questions: Have you ever had to wait more than a week for an authorization? Have you ever had an authorization turned down? Have you had to wait months to see a specialist? Does your primary care physician have to rush you through? Have your out-of-pocket costs gone up?...

Insurance companies are inefficient and wasteful. 20-30% of my health care dollar is not going for health care. This is not the kind of waste that the government should subsidize. You are my legislator and I have put you in charge of spending my tax money wisely. Don't give it to insurance companies, either by mandating insurance coverage or by subsidizing coverage. I want my money going to Medicare For All...

Insurance premiums equal Private Taxation. Insurance companies tax us unmercifully. When 20% - 30% of premiums go to denying care and profiting from it, that is taxation without representation. We can't vote out the insurance bureaucrats who have taxed us. Medicare For All is the efficient alternative to inefficient and onerous private taxation...

The health care failure is an insurance company failure. Why keep a failing system? If anyone believes that competition and the free market can work in health care, then let insurance companies compete with the uniquely American plan, Medicare For All...

Sincerely (your signature)

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There is a time to give, a time to lose...This is YOUR time, please make the most of it and sign the petition?

Sunday August 23, 2009, 7:46 am

"Thank you, your fax has been sent! A copy of your fax is below."

Thank you, David!

Sunday August 23, 2009, 8:05 am
You Do Not Have Health Insurance


http://www.truthout.org/080709A?n

The Baseline Scenario: "Right now, it appears that the biggest barrier to health care reform is people who think that it will hurt them. According to a New York Times poll, '69 percent of respondents in the poll said they were concerned that the quality of their own care would decline if the government created a program that covers everyone.'

Since most Americans currently have health insurance, they see reform as a poverty program - something that helps poor people and hurts them.

If that's what you think, then this post is for you. You do not have health insurance.

Let me repeat that. You do not have health insurance. (Unless you are over 65, in which case you do have health insurance. I'll come back to that later.)"




So, thanks to Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), Speaker Pelosi says she will bring a vote to the floor on single-payer after the recess. Are you all ready to make those phone calls and write those letters?


Nancy's contact info..http://speaker.house.gov/contact/

Send our speaker an e-mail of encouragement.

Sunday August 23, 2009, 8:11 am
Action taken. Thanks David.

Thank you! Your fax has been sent.

Sunday August 23, 2009, 8:12 am
Did you enjoy getting me banned from care2 Carole...Or was it not you???

Sunday August 23, 2009, 8:18 am

WUT???

For your information, David, I just got done posting this article in all my groups!

(You're welcome.)

Sunday August 23, 2009, 8:28 am
Thank you! Your fax has been sent.

You do a wonderful job, dear David!

Sunday August 23, 2009, 8:52 am
Signed and sent.

I've been following Dr. Lakoff and agree we need to frame HCR as the American Plan. I encourage everyone to cut and paste the text of the petition as posted by David above. Otherwise, you will need to correct the text at the sign, which is cumbersome. You want the finished letter to look presentable so these people will read it.

I appreciate that this site has copied the networks as well as the White House and representatives.

Good job, David!!!

Sunday August 23, 2009, 8:54 am
"Otherwise, you will need to correct the text at the sign"

Correction: Otherwise, you will need to correct the text at the "site":

Sunday August 23, 2009, 9:41 am
Noted. "Thank you! Your fax has been sent." Thank you, David!

Sunday August 23, 2009, 10:11 am
Signed and sent the fax, but it feels like shoveling smoke against the corporate winds.

Sunday August 23, 2009, 10:19 am
Fax sent TY David

Sunday August 23, 2009, 10:21 am
Shovelling smoke Casey?...If the wind chills, the smoke will fall to the ground and be picked up by those that matter?...They will see your message lying in the dust, pick it up and act upon it?...Why not?...All is not lost?

Sunday August 23, 2009, 1:59 pm
Thank you David I faxed!

Sunday August 23, 2009, 2:47 pm
Right on Davd...Universal Care for All, or Single Pay is the Only Way.

Sunday August 23, 2009, 3:06 pm
He's Baaaaack! Glad to see you Brave heart! You and I, and some others, who have signed, and "Dare" signed again and again, though some of US do have healthcare, "We" "Dare" show our concern for those who do not!

If Medicare works, and just about everyone on it says it does and it's run by the Government, then why would a similar program to cover all who wish it, not work? Granted it will need fine tuning! I have experienced, first hand, how poorly and abusively the insurers version has worked, NOT!

There are no guarantees in life! All will at some point fall ill and or die.That's a given. As a person of conscious it is my deepest wish to see all have affordable healthcare so they may have an opportunity to enjoy their time doing other things not wondering how they're going to pay for healthcare. Not fighting with an insurance company because they are being denied or excluded.
Often sent to the insurers doctor who will say "Nothing wrong with this person". Hearings and Appeals waste precious time in the life of someone ill or injured. Obama has said, Enough! I say, enough! Those who empathize with the uninsured know that it's cruel and unusual punishment.

No ones health should be held ransom. Not one single America should have to beg for a doctor or an emergency room to see and care for their child...Healthcare should not be treated as a commodity. It should not be treated as another get rich scheme. Take the money, profits, out of healthcare and you will see a healthier people. Anxiety creates heart attacks and other maladies. What do you suppose a mother goes through when her child is ill and there's no room at the inn because she has no healthcare..There are so many viable reasons to have a single payer system. It's the humane thing to do.

Note: A little insight to someone who had insurance. Paid into it for years never using it once until her child was in need. A mother of a child who had cancer was now doing everything within her power to save her child. She worked for years, had what she thought was security in her healthcare program. She soon found out different. The insurer cancelled her policy while her daughter was in the middle of treatment. Her husband broke under the pressure and he left! This women, who worked all her life, paid off a home but now had to sell her home to save her child.. Need I go on?????? SINGLE PAYER!

Sunday August 23, 2009, 4:06 pm
There are death panels: The insurance industry runs them
Columnist Froma Harrop's experience with a "death panel" involved her husband, who had cancer. It didn't involve a government bureaucrat. It was run by their private insurer, and the experience was not a pleasant one.

Syndicated columnist

"Death panels"? I'll tell you about death panels. My husband faced one some years ago, and it didn't involve any government bureaucrat. It was run by our private insurer, the sort of corporate entity that foes of health-care reform say will give you anything you want. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2009685301_harrop19.html
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Barbara/founder/dtdn

Sunday August 23, 2009, 5:06 pm
We have an imperfect 'single payer' scheme in Oz...But EVERYONE IS COVERED WITH HEALTHCARE FOR FREE (Including the unemployed, the homeless and everyone who cannot afford 'private' insurance)...And I sure as hell would not swap it for the ugly US non existent healthcare for all...That is exactly why you are reading this...Can an Australian not dabble in US politics if it is of some use to a wonderful bunch of downtrodden people?

Sunday August 23, 2009, 5:09 pm

Well, David . . . I, too, once questioned why you concentrate on the U.S.

But, after much thought, I understood -- It's because people SHOULD focus on the hypocrisy!

(Thank you.)

Sunday August 23, 2009, 5:15 pm
Aye Barbara...Ye can take my life but ye canna take my freedom!...And so isn't it time you guys stood up to your government and DEMAND healthcare for all?...Obama is a great guy with, I have no doubt, the best of intentions for you all but currently hobbled by the ridiculous right (and the 'blue dogs')...The time to revolt is now?

Sunday August 23, 2009, 5:41 pm
"We have an imperfect 'single payer' scheme in Oz...But EVERYONE IS COVERED WITH HEALTHCARE FOR FREE (Including the unemployed, the homeless and everyone who cannot afford 'private' insurance)...And I sure as hell would not swap it for the ugly US non existent healthcare for all...That is exactly why you are reading this...Can an Australian not dabble in US politics if it is of some use to a wonderful bunch of downtrodden people?"

The situation in the US is so ridiculous I have to laugh...from hysteria.

For over 400 years, the "ruling class" in America has shrewdly focused on creating lies, laws and barriers to prevent minorities (native americans, african americans, hispanics and all others) from civil, social and humanitarian rights. These have all been fought for...through blood, sweat, tears and death. MLK, JFK and others were killed over it (only to be martyred by the same villains after death...talk about sick...). Keeping these disenfranchised groups including their own poor from health care is the last hold out for power, money and greed. It is not spoken of, but it is understood quite well by almost everyone who can talk.

And those are the "citizens" I am referring to above. I haven't even started on the health care industry and republicans in Congress...

Health care reform...the American Plan...whatever you want to call it, will be made law by the end of the year. However, racism, hate and ignorance is the underlying disease that cannot be surgically removed by any doctor. If we were to resolve that disease, men and women could sit at the table and make rational decisions over what is best for this country. Until then, it is as though dinosaurs have resurrected and run this country...

Sunday August 23, 2009, 6:11 pm
Please research the difference between PUBLIC OPTION and SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE.

Sunday August 23, 2009, 6:11 pm
Please research the difference between PUBLIC OPTION and SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE.

Sunday August 23, 2009, 6:12 pm
http://healthcare.change.org/actions/view/healthcare_debate_single_payer_vs_public_option

David e. Delk, Alliance for Democracy - Portland Chapter

First, let me say that the national Alliance for Democracy has taken a firm stand in favor of Single Payer Healthcare (www.thealliancefordemocracy.org).

But recently in conversation with some other AfD members here in Portland, I learned that confusion exists as to the difference between single payer and the public option being advocated by Pres. Obama. This note is to go into some of those differences.

I think that most if not all of us would agree to the need for healthcare reform. The present system leaves million of American without health insurance. In 2002, the number of uninsured was 43.6 million; in 2007 that number had climbed to 47 million, representing almost 16% of the American population. (http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/567737). Of personal bankruptcies, about half were caused by illness and health related expenses. Almost 3/4 of those were people who had health insurance indicating that large number of peoples have inadequate insurance. While they had health insurance, they were underinsured.

I think that the first most important difference is that single payer is an actual proposed law (HR 676) whereas the Public Option is an idea, an idea which is very fluid. It has no specific legislation yet. We cannot evaluate it on its merits because we don't really know what it is or will be.

That having been noted, lets compare what we do know.

Single Payer would pay all the healthcare costs of all Americans without payment of co-pays, deductibles or premiums.

Public option will pay healthcare costs of Americans who choice to use it. Those people would have to purchase the public option much as they now buy private health insurance and they would be subjected to the co-pays, deductibles and premiums as they are now with private insurance.

Single Payer would guarantee coverage for everyone; public option allows people to buy either private insurance or buy into the public option plan. Some people may not be able to afford to buy into it. There would still be people who are not covered.

Single Payer eliminates the healthcare insurance company and saves about $350 billion dollars which is currently administrative waste. Single Payer will have no net increase in health spending.

Public Option will keep the insurance companies in place and will increase health spending more than $1 trillion over 10 years according to the Obama administrations' estimates. Other estimates put that figure even higher.

Single Payer saves money; first by eliminating $350 billion in administrative costs, then by negotiating fee schedules with physicians, budgeting with hospitals, bulk purchases of pharmaceuticals, rational planning. Public Option adds layers of administrative expenses by the introduction of a Health Care Exchange.

Oregon has experimented with providing healthcare to all its citizens by gradually adding more people into a public healthcare program (The Oregon Health Plan). Yet today thousands of Oregonians remain without health care. This just ended legislative session enacted another reform which will add 100,000 children to the plan and a few more adults. Still, thousands will continue to have inadequate care or none at all except the very expensive emergency room.

It is time for the reform that will cover everyone with equal access, no deductibles, no co-pays, no gaps in coverage. That system is single payer and it can be enacted by our representatives in Washington DC. Please call your Oregon or Washington senator or representative and tell them you want single payer. You want them to support HR 676.

Here is a link to write Obama and your Congressmen:
http://action.nwlc.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Find_Your_Elected_Officials

Americans, please support HR 676!!! much love and peace...namaste, dar

Sunday August 23, 2009, 6:16 pm
HEALTHCARE

Sunday August 23, 2009, 6:17 pm
I apologize for making multiple comments for one thing, heh. I am not as talented as blue with these links...

Sunday August 23, 2009, 6:52 pm
Maybe not as talented as Blue Dar but you make your point perfectly, are gorgeous and that covers it all...Fickle old fart aren't I :-)

Seriously though...I really do find it mind boggling that America is so far behind in giving it's citizens single-payer for all...#37 in the backward world I believe?...Time to take action?...YOU are a citizen of the world...Be one to not deny yourself of a humanitarian right belonging to all US citizens!...Why not?...The government you elected to look after you does not care about your healthcare plight...Money, Money, Money!

Monday August 24, 2009, 12:42 am
Thank you! Your fax has been sent.

Care about health care?
Who, me?
Well, let's see..................
No income, no insurance, no money,
no doctor, progressive diseases that
will likely kill me before I can turn 50 in
less than two-and-a-half years, UNLESS
I can get genuine medical care.....
Me, care about health care, David?
Naaahh.....not much.
God bless you, brother! *******
noted.

Monday August 24, 2009, 7:20 am
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/08/20/is-national-health-insurance-constitutional/

Monday August 24, 2009, 8:26 am
All other civilized countries cover EVERYONE, at half the cost and with higher quality than we have here in the USA. This is sad but true... On ABC this morning, an author went to all of these other developed countries and confirmed this is true. He paid an average of 0-$14 for a doctors visit in fourteen different countries, and he was not even a citizen, just visiting.

We are the laughing stock of these countries. They make fun of our dis-ease uncaring system, where 47 million are not covered or cared for.

The last developed country to make the switch was Switzerland, which used to have a for PROFIT healthcare system just like ours. Because the insurance companies kept kicking people out due to 'pre-existing conditions' and other excuses, just like here in the good ol USA, they passed a law covering everyone and making the whole system non profit...

Bottomline; you cannot make a profit morally and cover only the rich, the healthy, and the politically connected (all our representatives and goverment/military) while leaving the sick and poor naked by the side of the road, ignored and kicked out of the system.

Monday August 24, 2009, 12:23 pm
How "Developed", or "Civilized" is a country that does not
include ALL citizens in a public health care system???

Monday August 24, 2009, 12:27 pm
You go, David. You are one person here on Care2 that I can't wait to note when I see one of your articles posted! It's sad that, YES, my beloved country is so darn backa$$ed when it comes to healthcare, and many, many, many of us citizens are truly hurting & dying because of it. And the worse part of it all? I don't know when it's going to improve with all this arguing over how/when we can save us all when it comes to agreeing on how to save us!

Monday August 24, 2009, 1:00 pm
I sent 4 emails, very short one-liners, to Obama & representatives regarding HR 676. Hope it helps. Thanks everyone.

Monday August 24, 2009, 1:46 pm
How about this? Remove the prohibition of interstate commerce of health care. Eliminate the mandates that killed cafeteria health care plans (that change costs my little company about $800 /yr and my employees about $120 each). Eliminate mandates that force me to pay $83/mnth to provide high-risk maternity coverage to a female employee in her 40s who is biologically unable to conceive or carry a child just because a married female employee in her late 20s who can and wants to have a child wants and needs maternity coverage (the law says that either everyone or noone has maternity coverage). Eliminate legal prohibitions against multiple small businesses to pool together into a qualified health insurance “group” thereby lowering their costs to be more competitive with large businesses with large risk pools forming their groups. Eliminate mandates that force me to provide drug/alcohol treatment, mental health care, life insurance and other coverage along with basic health coverage (see cafeteria plans above). Privatize Medicare/Medicaid and provide subsidies to those who need it and let the others enter the insurance pool.



Basically, the best way to have health care reform is for the federal government to get the hell out of the way and let the insurance companies, businesses and individuals compete for effective, needed coverage for themselves and their employees. Steele is as clueless as the dems.

Monday August 24, 2009, 5:37 pm
Noted and signed, thanks David. I'm so glad your back with us!

Monday August 24, 2009, 11:09 pm
"Basically, the best way to have health care reform is for the federal government to get the hell out of the way and let the insurance companies, businesses and individuals compete for effective, needed coverage for themselves and their employees. Steele is as clueless as the dems."...

Oh my God NE L...No doubt, you are only concerned about your profits and to hell with the sick...

Some people here care about healthcare for all...Not just your profit margin!...

Do take the time to quietly sit down and contemplate exactly what your position on healthcare for those who cannot afford your doubtlessly 'wonderful' progam? is...(foget the money, we are talking life and death here. Money has NO value)...

One day it may well be you, with no money and no choice...Would you prefer to have your government ignore you and have to rely on your insurance company to support you in your hour of need?...Get real my friend!...Your "pre-existing illness" is NOT covered!

Monday August 24, 2009, 11:41 pm
David, your contributions are most valuable. Health insurance tied to the employer is reminiscent of the bygone days of owing one's soul to the company store. It's time for the parasitic dinosaur health insurance industry to become extinct! Thanks, Judy C.

Tuesday August 25, 2009, 12:58 am
Thanks David. Faxed to rep and Senators!

Tuesday August 25, 2009, 10:51 am
Compassion not Greed. Health care reform for all people with a public option!

Tuesday August 25, 2009, 2:15 pm
I agree, Jamie. Maxine Waters breaks it down...

Wednesday August 26, 2009, 2:21 am
David, Thank You for a great opportunity!!!

Friday August 28, 2009, 1:08 pm
Veterans For Common Sense: Veterans demand an apology from the Republicans and FOX for lies about the VA

Thursday September 3, 2009, 10:42 am
* Largest Medicare fraud fine ever: "Top aides in the Obama administration announced a $2.3 billion settlement on Wednesday with the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. over the company's illegal promotion of its now-withdrawn painkiller, Bextra."

Thursday September 3, 2009, 4:08 pm
The way the people in congress look at things like Health Care is the same way they run the Government. Badly!!!
The only way the American people will ever get a bill to cover everyone is to vote out anyone who votes against a bill to have Health Care! "Indian Boy"