"We're Number 37"

For all you music lovers out there I heard about this sign along video on Twitter and just had to share.

Sicko Documentary

The Golden Rule Has Been Downgraded

Being raised a Christian I thought I knew what the "Golden Rule" was. Both the church I attended and my parents taught me to, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." And neither my parents nor the church used any qualifiers to restrict me from applying that rule to everyone I met.

As I grew older I discovered that Christians were not the only people who had this philosophy and that it could be found in almost every religion. Of course the other religions used their own words like, "That which is hateful unto you, do not impose on others" (Judaism) and "Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you" (Confucianism).

Today however I learned that there are now several golden rules. There is a Golden Rule savings rate, a Golden Rule (fiscal policy), Fermi's golden rule and Ronen's golden rule for cluster radioactivity. And what I used to call the Golden Rule is now called the ethic of reciprocity.

Now to be sure I knew the correct new name I searched online and found several places that defined the ethic of reciprocity as:

The ethic of reciprocity, more commonly known as the Golden Rule, is an ethical code that states one has a right to just treatment, and a responsibility to ensure justice for others. Reciprocity is arguably the most essential basis for the modern concept of human rights, though it has its critics. A key element of the golden rule is that a person attempting to live by this rule treats all people, not just members of his or her in-group, with consideration.

It looks like the Golden Rule has been downgraded from a religious Rule to a moral Ethic!

Now I have a few issues with this downgrade.

1. Did anyone get their God's permission?
   
   
2. Where as God's rules have to be obeyed or you suffer the consequences, ethics is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions about morality and often change significantly over time.
   

Of course making the Golden Rule an ethic does offer some benefits. People now control it's definition and

1. They can control who it applies to. In other words they can say the ethic only applies to people like themselves..
   
   
2. They can change it's definition to something like, do more for those who have the most in the hope they'll give you some.
   
   
3. They can decide it's no longer an moral ethic since it no longer applies to anyone.
   

I read somewhere that only those without power and those who have sympathy for them have moral ethics. And while I didn't initially believe this, the more I think about it the more I tend to agree.

Take the current arguments over health care reform that are going on right now. As I see it the arguing camps are:

1. Those who have health care and don't care about anyone else. (See number 1 above.)
   
   
2. Those who don't have health care and think things will get better if we leave our health care system alone. (See number 2 above.)
   
   
3. Those who do/don't have health care and think everyone should have it. (The current ethic of reciprocity.)
   
   
4. Those who make the decisions about health care and think keeping it a major, for-profit business is the most important issue. (See number 3 above.)
   

So I'll go back to one of my questions about making the Golden Rule an ethic -

Did anyone get their God's permission to make this downgrade?

If no one did then those who aren't following the rule are in big trouble and need to start preparing for their consequences.

Susan

Canadians talk to Americans about health care

So how bad is Canada's health care system? Watch the video to hear what the people using it think.

The right to life does not stop at birth

On July 6, 2009, Badtux the Snarky Penguin wrote a short article titled "The right to life does not stop at birth." The article is about Eric De La Cruz who died because he needed a heart transplant.

And while the article is very good and I encourage you to read it, I found Badtux's answer to 1 of the most common misunderstandings about how our country's and other countries' health care systems work to be outstanding.

So rather than re-post the article I'm posting 1 of the comments where the misconception that " government healthcare has more exclusions and limitations than private insurance" is cited as a good reason for not having a universal health care system in America. Below the comment you can read the response left by Badtux where he refutes this arguement with solid facts.

The Comment:

"I don't understand why you advocate government run healthcare when you simultanously evoke the memory of Eric De La Cruz? I hope you realize that entities like Britain's NHS and Canada's Single-payer system are known to deny procedures that private insurance carriers commonly approve. In other words, government healthcare has more exclusions and limitations than private insurance.

Additionally, in a single payer system, you cant turn anywhere else after a denial. At least in a private healthcare industry there is redundancy and overlap, which reduces the amount of people who "fall through the cracks."

My concern is that you equate government run healthcare with GUARANTEED healthcare, and this is sadly not the case. Not by a longshot. When nations collectivize food production, people get hungier, not fatter. When nations collectivize transportation, more people have to walk or bike to work. When nations collectivize housing, more people end up homeless. And when nations collectivize healthcare, more people will die of medical conditions."

Badtux's Reply:

"Eric would have gotten his heart transplant under the Canadian system. The Canadian system does *not* ration healthcare. There are waiting lists for voluntary procedures, but critical procedures are done immediately -- indeed, 50% of ALL procedures are done immediately. See BC health service website for example of the reality.

Eric would have also gotten his heart transplant under Medicare For All. Heart transplants are covered by Medicare. So once again he would have been saved by Medicare For All.

My preferred system is the French system, which is roughly Medicare For All plus Medigap. That is, Medicare covers all critical/expensive procedures, and you can buy Medigap to cover anything not covered by Medicare. This both gives you health care choices and assures that there are no more Erics. And they do this WHILE providing all the same advanced treatments as the US system, for 40% LESS MONEY!

As for the British, nobody proposes the British system for America. In the British system, all doctors are salaried employees of the state, and all hospitals are owned by the state, and private insurance is illegal. It is cheap -- 1/3rd the cost of the U.S. health care system -- but that is all that can be said for it.

As for your assertion that government-run healthcare will impoverish the people and result in more deaths, that has not happened in any of the other 19 OECD states that have adopted universal healthcare systems. Indeed, they pay much less of their GDP in healthcare costs -- see the OECD statistics. I fail to see how paying less for health care can IMPOVERISH a people. It just makes no sense.

- Badtux the "Facts are facts" Penguin"

I applaud Badtux for his great article and his even better response.

Susan

Which State Has the Lowest Health Insurance Premium?

Good question and the answer may surprise you.

According to the state affordability reports by the HealthCareforAmericaNow, Hawaii has the most affordable health insurance premiums. And in case you're wondering how they arrived at this incredible discovery, I've listed where they got their information at the bottom of this article.

But just in case you're not living in Hawaii and not planning to move there soon I've compiled the date from all 50 state reports so you can see how your state is doing. And because the charts are too small to read you can click on them to see a larger version on a new browser window.

The 1st chart shows how much of your income dollars were being spent on health insurance premiums in 2006. And while this data is a few years old the next chart shows how much health insurance premiums have gone up from 2000 to 2007 for each of the states.

Remember the good old days when health insurance costs were less than 30¢ per $1 of income?

Click on images to see a larger version.

And while the rates don't look too bad for 2006 here's a graph of US health care costs vs time (2000 - 2007).



Now you may think that these rate increases are understandable because of inflation. And as the cost of things went up so did our wages.

The 3rd graph shows how much our incomes went up from 2000 to 2007.



And while the last 2 graphs may depress you, putting them together as I have in graph 4 is worse.




And now for the really bad news.

The country is now in a state of economic crisis where we have a high unemployment rate, a high home foreclosure rate and millions of people who can't afford health insurance. And while more and more are losing their jobs or taking cuts in pay, prices, including health insurance premiums, continue to rise.

With the current state of the economy, knowing how to project health care costs is uncertain. So while these costs may not continue to rise as much as they have in the past, I haven't seen any indication that they won't. In fact, because they continued to rise this year even when the average income fell, I think the following graph that projects how much of your income dollar will go to health insurance premiums may be optimistic.




As you can see, the projected cost for health insurance is still lower in Hawaii that the other 49 states. So maybe everyone living where health insurance premiums are going to be taking 50% or more of their income (Alabama, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia) should move to a state where health insurance premiums are less.

Not ready to move and think the insurance rates should be the same for everyone? Well, I don't know how we can convince the insurance companies to have an across the state rate but if we did it would be 45.5% of your income. And that 45.5% is on top of the federal, state, county, social security and Medicare taxes!

Now the 1 thing I forgot to mention about all these health insurance charts is that all the numbers are based on employer sponsored insurance. And that's important to know since there are so many unemployed right now and non-employer sponsored insurance rates are higher.

To Your Good Health,
Susan

Reference Material Used By HealthCareforAmericaNow to compile these health insurance statistics:

1. Kaiser Family Foundation, “Health Insurance Coverage of the Total Population, states (2006-2007), U.S. (2007).” Accessed at
   http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparebar.jsp?ind=125&cat=3.


2. United States Department of Labor, “Economy at a Glance,” 2009. Accessed at http://www.bls.gov/eag/.


3. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “The Employment Situation: May 2009,” June, 2009. Accessed at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm.


4. Kaiser Family Foundation, “Kaiser Health Tracking Poll,” February, 2009.
   Accessed at http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/upload/7866.pdf.


5. Todd P. Gilmer, Richard G. Kronick, “Hard Times And Health Insurance: How Many Americans Will Be Uninsured By 2010?” Health Affairs, 2009, 28, no. 4, 573–577.


6. Families USA, “Premiums versus Paychecks,” September 2008. Accessed at
   http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/publications/reports/premiums-vs-paychecks-2008.html.


7. New America Foundation, “The State of State Health: The Cost of Failure (2007).” Accessed at http://statehealth.newamerica.net/.


8. Peter Harbage, Ben Furnas, “Health Care in Crisis,” Center for American Progress, May 4, 2009. Accessed at
   http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/05/working_uninsured_map.htm


9. The State Health Access Data Assistance Center, “State Profiles,” Robert Wood Johnson Program. Accessed at http://www.shadac.org/content/state-profiles.


10. Families USA, “Premiums versus Paychecks,” September 2008. Accessed at
    http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/publications/reports/premiums-vs-paychecks-2008.html.


11. Kaiser Family Foundation, “Health Insurance Coverage of the Total Population, states (2006-2007), U.S. (2007).” Accessed at
    http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparebar.jsp?ind=125&cat=3.


12. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Local Area Unemployment Statistics.” Accessed at
    http://www.bls.gov/web/lauhsthl.htm.


13. David Himmelstein, et al., “Medical Bankruptcy in the United States, 2007: Results of a National Study,” The American Journal of Medicine, 2009. Accessed at
    http://pnhp.org/new_bankruptcy_study/Bankruptcy-2009.pdf.


14. US Bankruptcy Courts, “Table F2: Business and Nonbusiness Bankruptcy Cases Commenced, by Chapter of the Bankruptcy Code: During the Twelve Month Period Ending Dec. 31 2008.” Accessed at
    http://www.uscourts.gov/bnkrpctystats/statistics.htm.

Tie (or Tape) a Blue Ribbon On Your Trees, Mailbox, Door, etc.

Just yesterday I was mentioning to my daughter that singlepayer health care supporters needed a way to show their support for health care reform all the time. You know, like the yellow ribbons used to support our troops coming home and the breast cancer awareness pink ribbons.

Today I got an email from the Health-Justice.org that included this.

A couple of weeks ago, Rick Ford in Florida proposed that supporters of single payer start wearing a blue bandana as an armband to rallies. In Washington DC on June 25, all the single payer people that came with HealthJustice wore blue armbands. We put blue armbands on hundreds more of the people there. We used strips of blue cloth, but even better, we used blue painters' masking tape. It's just the right color, it's cheap and it goes anywhere without leaving a mark when removed.

Go to home Depot or the local hardware store today. Buy a roll of blue painters' masking tape. Tape a few turns around every tree, maibox or lamppost in your neighborhood. And when people ask, tell them it symbolizes the demand for REAL health reform. It means single payer Medicare For All. Without REAL health reform, we will all have the 'HealthCare Blues."

This is exactly what I was talking about!

So today I'm off to get my rolls of painters tape to show my support and will be giving some to those I see so they can show their support too.

Let's show everyone how may of us there are that support a REAL health care reform.

Susan

Tennessee Health Care Workers Speak Out

Don't you agree?

Susan

Healthcare Providers Join Forces to Rally for Quality Health Care For All

Learn more about the Physicians who support a National Health Program.

Susan

Health Care '09 - We Can't Wait

Everyday more and more people are being touched by our broken health care system.



We need quality health care for America Now!

Susan

HAARM.org - Community Outreach

HAARM.org - Message Strategy Session

“Pirates of the Health Care-Ibbean”

"The United States Has One of the Best Health Care Systems in the World"

Whenever you read an online article or hear a discussion about the current health care system in the United States someone always points out that we Americans "have the best health care system in the world." And since one of the indicators used to judge how well a health system works is life expectancy I've decided to point out just exactly how good ours in when compared to other countries.

Below I've included information from 3 sources about the life expectancy in the United States compared to a few other countries. I've included the link to the resource that provided the information and you may click on all the charts to see a larger image.

Set 1: 2008 Estimates from the CIA World Factbook

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2102.html

Life Expectancy

These charts represent this data:

Set 2: List by the United Nations (average for the 2005-2010 period)
http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpp2006/WPP2006_Highlights_rev.pdf

Life Expectancy

These Charts represent this data:

Set 3: 2008 Estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/tables/09s1295.pdf

This chart represents this data:

Not quite what I expected but we are within a few months of the countries where their life expectancy is longer. Well, except for the number from our Census Bureau where people in Spain are expected live more than a year longer than we do. But since no one ever compares the health care system in Spain to ours we won't bother to mention it either.And I wonder why the CIA gives us less time with 78.06 as compared to the Census Bureau's 78.1 and the UN's 78.2. (Think they know something we don't?) Anyway there's not much difference in the U.S. results since .06 is 21.0 days, .1 is 36.5 days and .2 is 73 days. And using this data I think we can all hold our heads up high and say that the life expectancy for the babies born in the U.S. this year is a little more than 78 years.

Now you may have noticed that some of the countries we compare our health system against aren't shown on the above charts. That's because their numbers didn't appear on these charts close to ours. So to save space I just included the countries with the numbers closest to ours.

But since we all want to be able to talk about how our health care system compares to those in Canada, England (United Kingdom), France and the Netherlands I've put their numbers for overall life expectancy along with ours in the following table. Since the UN numbers seem to be in the middle of the other 2 sources I've use their data and just for the fun of it I've included
Australia.

No! Those numbers can't be right! I'll use the Census Bureau's number to prove the United States has the best health care system.

I give up. Maybe life expectancy isn't the way to prove the U.S. health system is the best in the world since all the countries we compare ourselves to have a longer life expectancy. Of course we could start comparing our system to countries like Kuwait, Mexico, Albania and Poland because it is better than theirs. Or maybe next time I'll use a different criteria like infant mortality rate. Since we are 1 of the most technically advanced nations in the world the number of infants that die in America has got to a lot lower than everyone else.

Hope all the kids born in the U.S. this year don't mind living 1 to 3 years less than those "other" countries.

Susan

P.S. And in case you're wondering if the life expectancy of Australia is the longest, it's not. According to the UN and the Census Bureau Japan beats everyone with an expectancy of 82.6 and 82.1, respectively.

The Health Care Debate Is Not A Real Debate

The follow is a the complete comment I wrote for "McCain: "Scrap" Health Care Bill And Start Over" that appeared on June 16, 2009. I didn't post the complete comment there since it's so long however I did post the first few lines along with the url of this blog.

I'm getting tired of all the debate over health care reform
since everyone just keeps reciting the same words over and over again.

As far as I can see we have arguments from:

* Those with money who have insurance and can afford to use it. Most of them don't care about anyone else's health care and just want to keep
everything the same. They argue against doing anything to change the system
because it's working for them and they will lie to keep it.

* Then there are those who have health insurance but can't
always afford to use it. Some of them know they can't afford to go to the doctor
but keep their insurance in case of a major medical expense. Fortunately most of
them never need that major medical coverage however those that do find that with
all the things not covered either all their savings are gone or they have to
take bankruptcy to cover those uncovered costs. This group is divided on the
health care reform issues depending on how much they actually know about how the
health care system works and how blindly dedicated they are to their own
political affiliation. Those who know the real situation try to relay the truth.
Those who don't just repeat the words from their party leaders - truth or lies
is makes no difference because that's the party stand.

* And then there are those who have no insurance for 1 reason or another. These people don't show up as commenters very often since many don't have internet access, even those who are not homeless cannot afford phones or internet access. We only know about these people from news and commentaries and it's the views of the article writer that is stressed in the article not a broad representation of the group being written about. The representatives for this group usually have health care coverage and can afford to use it. This group is also divided in their stand on health care reform and don't always recite facts to support their opinion. They usually give examples of how our current health system is working or not working.

As for why I'm tired of the debate. Well, it reminds me of the Goldwater election just before we got into Viet Nam. Anti-Goldwater people kept
reciting, "A vote for Goldwater is a vote for war." Johnson defeated Goldwater
by a landslide since no one wanted a war in Viet Nam. Of course after Johnson
became president and we had a "military action" in Viet Nam and the few who had voted for Goldwater started reciting, "I guess the war's my fault since I voted for Goldwater and we have a war."

The same mindless rhetoric of that election is being used in this debate. No matter what happens it's a lose - lose situation. If we get "real" health care reform somebody must lose something. If we don't get "real"
health care reform another group will keep losing and this group is getting larger everyday in our current economy. And just like the Goldwater election somebody is going to be able to say, "I did/did not support a complete change in our health care system and our taxes went up."

I'm not going to give you examples of why I support a complete overhaul of our current health care system because it won't change anyone's mind. Instead I am asking that everyone find out the real facts before they repeat things that they can't prove as real facts. Don't just look for information supporting your opinion. Look for the facts and then base your opinion on what you find. If you can prove or disprove the current system is working for everyone in America let's see some facts from reliable sources that everyone will believe. Those are the types of comments we need to have a real debate and that's what is missing right now.

I wrote that comment because we all have our opinion now it's time to prove to other's we've made the right choice.

If you have any "real" proof that you've made the right choice please leave a comment and share it so we can all be aware of the provable facts.

Susan

P.S. Sorry about the choppy formating but I had trouble getting the Blogger editor to work with me.

How To Spread The Word With Twitter

Because both Twitter and non-Twitter users think cutting the cost of health care in America is a top priority and because non-Twitter users don't know how to use Twitter, I've found a great Youtube video that explans the 4 online ways Twitter users communicate with each other.

However before you can communicate on Twitter you do need to create a Twitter account. This is done easily by:

1. Go to Twitter.com and click the big "Get Started - Join" button.


2. Enter your real name if you want people to know who you are however you can use only your first name or a pen name.


3. Enter your username - this is the name that is seen on your Twitter page.


4. Enter a password and be sure to remember it so you can login to Twitter to read future messages from those you are following.


5. Enter a valid email address because you will be getting a verification message from Twitter and you'll have to use the link they send you for your account to become active.


6. Prove you are a real person by typing in the stange number and/or letter groups in the last box.


7. Click "create my account".


8. Wait a few minutes and check your email for your Twitter verification message. Click the link to verify and you're done.

After your account has been created you can now follow other Twitters like HealthCareCosts and read their updates when you login to your account. You can always login at Twitter.com.

To follow Twitter groups you use the "follow" button. If you are logged into your account, you'll see the big follow button at the top of the group's twitter page. If you are not logged in when you see their page, you will be asked to login. After you login you'll go back the the group's page and you will then be able to click the follow button.

As for all the setting inside your Twitter account you don't really need to worry about them unless you want to get people to follow you. If that is your desire there is a lot of free information already available online. Just go to Youtube and search for videos about how to use Twitter.

As I said at the beginning of this article there are 4 ways to communicate on Twitter. And because cutting health care costs is important to us we need to communicate with each other. So here's a brief video that shows you what the 4 ways are and how to use them. The presentation isn't that great however the information is very good.

1 person alone can not get our governement to step up and tackle the raising health care costs and the denial of quality medical care to all its citizens. Only by talking to each other, sharing information and spreading the word to others can we make our voices loud enough to get the attention of our government.

Let's stay in touch both here and on Twitter,
Susan

Tags: health care, cutting health care costs, how to use twitter, action for quality health care

Do You Want Healthy Americans?

Many people think that 1 of the reasons Obama was able to capture the attention, raise the funds and get elected president is because he redefined American politics with his new approach to reach the dissatisfied masses. He knew what people were unhappy about. He knew he needed a slogan. He knew he needed to have a powerful and attractive campaign. And most importantly he knew he could get his messages to the people quickly and inexpensively through the use of the internet and the big social media sites.

It's been almost 6 months since our president has been inaugurated and we've gotten exactly what he promised so far. He said things would get worse before they would get better and ... they have. However I still have some hope.

Unfortunately we all know that hoping for something doesn't make it happen, That's why I'm starting this blog and have set up a Twitter group. I'd like everyone who is like me and thinks affordable quality health care should be available to every American to let their voices be heard once again.

Now unlike Obama I don't have the dollars to spend to hire people to do all the things he did and I'm not asking for money. Instead I'm asking for something much more important.

I'm asking you to join with me on this blog and in my Twitter group and to spread the word so others will join. I'm also asking that you take the polls and sign the electronic petition so we can show our country's leaders that a large number of people haven't forgotten the campaign promise of affordable quality health care and aren't willing to accept it as another broken promise like we have done in the past.

Remember last November when we voiced our desire to see many changes in how our country does things. We voted against mud slinging. We voted against jobs going overseas. We voted against corporations cheating their employees of their retirement savings and jobs while paying huge bonuses to the ones doing the cheating. We voted against the policies keeping America on a downward spiral. And we voted against a health care system that doesn't work for the majority of Americans.

Now it's time to once again voice our concerns about the broken and unfair health care system in our country. It's time we let our policy makers know that we are still here and watching them. It's time to tell them we need a new health care system because a band-aid won't fix the broken one we have now.

So please join with me and voice your concerns about the problems with our health care system in a comment. Follow me on Twitter and tell your followers to do the same. Only by working and sharing together can we make a difference.

Will you join me?

Susan

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