Senate Healthcare Bill still too Weak

If you watched Rachel Maddow last night you may be feeling as uneasy about this as I. The opt out feature is not good (though Medicare had this same feature and no state opted out), but that individuals who have crappy insurance can't opt in to a better public plan is worse. And 2013 is too long to wait. As Senator Ron Wyden said, we progressives have to stay at this and demand to get more. Keep calling, writing. It's not over.

Several friends have taken the Facebook Universal Healthcare poll, Are you in favor of a government run healthcare system? Yes. No. Maybe.

The poll puts me in a quandary. I commented to a friend's voting yes:

Government run? Like the Veteran's system? I'm more in favor of government PAID healthcare: single payer -- an expanded and improved Medicare for all. And I would consider the public option as a compromise position. What I do know is I want insurance companies OUT. The profit motive has no place in healing. And the health industry is paying $1.3 million a day in lobbying that it keeps its greedy hold over peoples lives. If I take the poll I have to lie and say yes or my vote would likely be misinterpreted. We absolutely need affordable comprehensive healthcare for all -- and it really shouldn't be tied to jobs. Now let's all call Congress and tell them so including Blue Dog Dem Mike Ross from Arkansas. Thanks for caring, Brandon!

So now, do I take the poll to build momentum and misrepresent my position? I am not opposed to the Veterans Hospital system -- I don't think we need it over-all. Just expand and improve Medicare, congress! Now, to contact congress AGAIN. (And maybe I will call Mike Ross who needs to know his Blue Dog naysaying is affecting us all.)

Tell Media: Include Single-Payer in Healthcare Debate

Tell Media: Include Single-Payer in Healthcare Debate

This is such an important issue -- the public option cannot be a realistic compromise without mention of Single Payer which is really the best solution to our healthcare crisis. The fact that this story is also slow on Diggs shows the effectiveness of the corporate media blackout. People aren't aware. This story so needs to be unburied. I've signed FAIR's petition (and I love their CounterSpin podcast, fyi). I firmly recommend you do likewise. Thanks!

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Bill Maher Panel Highlights - June 19, 2009

HEALTHCARE is the main focus of much of this (followed by a great quotation by Paul Begala about 7 minutes in re Catholics and sex.) Why is the US spending so much more than everyone else to be #37 in healthcare? Blame the health INDUSTRY, including the AMA, which is only 25% of the doctors, mind you. SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE NOW -- the public option is the COMPROMISE -- and it must be affordable and comprehensive. NOTE: We should accept NOTHING LESS.

Senator Bernie Sanders for Single Payer

Senator Bernie Sanders: "How does it happen that after we spend twice as much per capita on healthcare as any other nation we end up being the only major country in the world that does not guarantee healthcare to every man woman and child in a comprehensive way? ...

"The way that we [should] move is to say:

• Every American is entitled to healthcare
  
• It has got to be comprehensive healthcare
  
• The function of healthcare is not to make money for private health insurance company but to provide cost effective healthcare to all Americans....

"The only conclusion that you reach is that a Single Payer system is where we need to go as a nation....The function of health insurance companies is not to provide healthcare, it is to deny healthcare because every dollar they don't spend on healthcare is another dollar that they are making in profits."

-- [As heard on Ring of Fire Radio, May 30 and 31st, Air America Radio, available by podcast via iTunes, but current show playable here.]

Sen.Sanders: Private Health Care Companies are NOT about Supplying Healthcare

Senator Bernie Sanders has this right. Insurance companies are about profit, not healthcare. They deny needed services and put road blocks in the way of those they purport to serve. We must get the profit motive out of healthcare. Make a living, yes, but not a killing!

"The function of healthcare is not to make insurance companies rich. It's to provide the best quality healthcare at the lowest possible price to all of our people." -- Senator Bernie Sanders, on Thom Hartmann, 03/27/09

Phil Donahue Spells Out A Few Things For Hannity pt.1

Phil Donahue speaks out for peace, against our being a warrior nation with bases in over 150 countries. THAT is where our money is really going, to feed the war machine. Even Hannity showed some respect to Donahue. PART 2, here. For more progressive insight, see video clips at http://earth2obama.org/ and http://votersthink.org/.

Aggie's Amazin' Beans

I have to find more vegetarian recipes to enjoy without cheese in them :-) From Nutrition Action Healthletter I got Aggie's Amazin' Bean recipe, one of my favorites:

1 can of Goya Black Beans (rinsed)
Juice from one lemon
2 cloves of garlic (smashed)
Fresh parsley and/or
Fresh cilantro (To taste -- I use a handful of BOTH green types)
Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

Let the beans marinate in the mixture at least a half an hour then HEAT a portion for a minute or two in the microwave. WOW -- yummy. The recipe says it can last a week in your refrigerator but it won't because you will EAT it. It is good cold, too, but
delicious and healthy and easy to make.

FYI: Lemons juice easier if you first plop them into hot water and then ROLL them on the counter. You can then make a small hole and squeeze -- or use a juicer if you prefer. (I have one of those orange plastic juice knobs that you insert into the lemon and then squeeze.)

Dip Tip

The information-packed Nutrition Action Newsletter put out by the Center for Science in the Public Interest is worth the subscription price for the healthy recipes alone. The Dec. 2007 issue gives this dip recipe as the Tip of the Month:

Quick and Easy Dip

Puree in a food processor:
15 oz can of Great Northern, Navy or other white beans
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Yummy!!