On Thursday afternoon, when President Barack Obama entered a room of 50 volunteers, with thousands watching via webcast, he was greeted with the campaign cry of "Yes We Can."
The President smiled, then removed his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. The symbolism was clear; that catchy phrase helped get us here, but now we need to work for it.
In a speech and Q&A session that lasted over an hour, Obama spoke to members of Organizing for America (OFA), an almost entirely volunteer organization charged with mobilizing the campaign's grass roots strength into a fighting force for health care reform. Before Obama spoke, the Deputy National Director of OFA rattled off some impressive figures to show just how well they were doing: OFA boasts 1.5 million active members who organized 11,906 local events across the country and collected 231,572 personal health care stories. Perhaps the most impressive statistic, and possibly the one with the greatest long term impact, concerned elected officials: OFA members have made 64,912 visits to their local Congressional offices, far outnumbering the protesters screaming at town hall meetings.
Those screeching protesters were on the minds of just about everyone who spoke. Virginia Governor and Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine led off the session and spoke of opponents to change resorting to "very extreme measures...rudeness, bizarre tactics, shouting." A Twitter-submitted question from Phoenix, Arizona spoke of "too many lies, like death panels" and asked the President "where is it all coming from?" adding: "America deserves to know the truth."
While the president's demeanor and words were reasoned and measured, he didn't shy away from addressing "those lies." Speaking to the question of where they were coming from, Obama said, without hesitation: "We know where these lies are coming from. I don't think it's any secret." He held out an imaginary remote control and continued, "If you just flick channels and stop on one," and he paused as the crowd nodded and chuckled a bit grimly, "you'll see who's propagating this stuff."
In the same calm way that he handled the talk of him palling around with terrorists, the President dispelled the lies one by one. "No plan covers illegal immigrants; let's dispel that. No plan is going to revoke existing prohibitions to pay for abortion. Nobody has proposed anything even close to government takeover of health care. Nobody is talking about getting between you and your doctor."
Obama was at his strongest as he destroyed the myth spread by the former Governor of Alaska: "As for this death panel idea, that's an interesting example of how misinformation spreads." He reminded the audience that Republican senators had proposed the exact same idea, of helping seniors pay for end of life counseling. "This used to be a sensible thing that everyone could agree on. It was once bipartisan," said the President. "For it to suddenly become death panels, that's just irresponsible."
Obama faulted the media for their coverage of the health care reform discussion, saying that by focusing on the few loud voices they were ignoring many others."You have twenty sensible town hall meetings, but if there's one where there's screaming you know what's going to get on the news. One loud voice can drown out all the sensible voices." When OFA volunteers are hosting those nearly 12,000 events to discuss health care reform Obama acknowledged that "the TV cameras aren't there." But he also reminded those in attendance that this is nothing new. He first recalled the reaction to the Iowa primary during the presidential campaign: he had the audience smiling as he recalled the "hand-wringing and teeth gnashing" that went on "when all of Washington said (his campaign) was over." He also recalled that it was about this time last year when the Republican presidential candidate selected his running mate, reminding them that some pundits were saying "Obama had lost his mojo." Obama joined in the general laughter and increased it when he added: "Something about August going into September, where everyone in Washington gets all whee-whee'd up."
As with many of his recent town hall appearances, President Obama made no new announcements. Most of his speech was a reiteration of the desperate need for health care reform ("Fourteen thousand people are losing their health insurance every single day... Health care costs are going up three times faster than wages") and a repeat of the basics of his position ("I think a public option is important, it helps keep insurers honest").
But if there was news made today, it was not in what President Obama said but how he said it. On display was the same steely determination often visible during the campaign but that some supporters thought the President lacked of late. When a person in the audience asked if (considering the level of rhetoric) he was still going to try and get bipartisan support for health care reform, the President reiterated that he was still committed to getting a good product that included Republican ideas. But he acknowledged the difficulties, saying Republican Senators working on health care reform "were under enormous pressure not to engage in any negotiations at all." But his final statement to the question left little doubt as to Obama's main priority: "My obligation to the American people is to get this done."
When the President completed the Q&A session the crowd once again spontaneously erupted with "Yes We Can." And the President himself seemed back in campaign mode as he curtly nodded his head and said, "Let's go get 'em."
Follow Marlene H. Phillips on Twitter: www.twitter.com/msmp
If President Obama wants to better understand why America's discomfort with end-of-life discussions threatens to derail his health-care reform, he might begin with his own Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). He will quickly discover how government bureaucrats are greasing the slippery slope that can start with cost containment but quickly become a systematic denial of care.
Last year, bureaucrats at the VA's National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, "Your Life, Your Choices." It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA's preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes. After the Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues, the VA suspended its use. Unfortunately, under President Obama, the VA has now resuscitated "Your Life, Your Choices."
Who is the primary author of this workbook? Dr. Robert Pearlman, chief of ethics evaluation for the center, a man who in 1996 advocated for physician-assisted suicide in Vacco v. Quill before the U.S. Supreme Court and is known for his support of health-care rationing.
In regards to the public option:
The President has said that the public option is just one option, is just a facet, a sliver of health insurance reform.
That doesn't mean it can be broken off. That doesn't mean it isn't essential.
You can't take a facet off a jewel. It's an inseperable aspect of the thing.
The public option is optional in the sense that Americans have the option to pick the public option, but they also have the option to choose their own private plan.
As the public option doesn't have to spend money on such matters as executive compensation, the private plans will have to become more competitive - better service, less waste, lower costs.
You don't even have to take any insurance option. You can choose not to have insurance.
The job of the media is to make mountains out of molehills and use semantics to derive any possible translation of language that best fits their story.
There will be no health care reform without the public option.
With respect,
Alex Brant-Zawadzki
Regional Communications Coordinator
Organizing for America
In a 2006 American Customer Satisfaction Index report on the Department of Veterans Affairs' medical system, veterans rate their VA care much higher overall than the general population rates its hospital experiences. Vets consistently give VA doctors and nurses high scores for responsiveness (83 out of a possible 100), courtesy (90 out of a 100), and "respect and dignity afforded patients"
In regards to the public option:
The President has said that the public option is just one option, is just a facet, a sliver of health insurance reform.
That doesn't mean it can be broken off. That doesn't mean it isn't essential.
You can't take a facet off a jewel. It's an inseperable aspect of the thing.
The public option is optional in the sense that Americans have the option to pick the public option, but they also have the option to choose their own private plan.
As the public option doesn't have to spend money on such matters as executive compensation, the private plans will have to become more competitive - better service, less waste, lower costs.
You don't even have to take any insurance option. You can choose not to have insurance.
The job of the media is to make mountains out of molehills and use semantics to derive any possible translation of language that best fits their story.
There will be no health care reform without the public option.
With respect,
Alex Brant-Zawadzki
Regional Communications Coordinator
Organizing for America
“As an American who has been living in Europe for most of the last 20 years, one who has visited doctors numerous times in four different countries, whose two children were brought into this world in European hospitals (France and England), who has himself spent a week in a public British hospital, and who underwent an operation in a private British clinic, I think I can say a thing or two about health care in Europe.
“Our out of pocket expenses for the births? Zero, even though in France my wife spent 5 days in the hospital after the birth, which is standard, by the way.
“During the three years we lived in England, we never once paid for medicine for our children. Visits to the GP are free for everybody.
“My expenses for the week in the NHS hospital? Zero.
“The cost of the operation in the private clinic? Zero.
“In Western Europe you would never be forced to sell your home in order to pay for your medical bills.
“In short, in the US, you pay more, get less, and die younger than we do in Europe. What part of that don’t you understand?
“My fellow Americans, you have nothing to fear except those who would use fear to keep you enslaved to the myth of the might of the American health care system.â€
Jeff Degan
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
The price you pay comes in the form of TAXES.
What happens when the COST of your wife giving birth goes up? Either the Taxes go up or the treatment is scaled back. So that means that when the taxes are maxed out you are screwed.
Why? Pivate Practice is outlawed, so you have zero choices.
enough to take everything you have." Thomas Jefferson
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
George Washington
According to Obama's op-ed in today's paper, he is focused on 4 things:
1) If you don’t have health insurance, you will have a choice of high-quality, affordable coverage that will stay with you whether you move, change, or lose, your job.
No one can argue with this as a goal. But he doesn't say how it can be accomplished. It involves the "public plan" which is going to be subsidized by the government. Where is that money coming from?
2) Bring "skyrocketing" health care costs under control by cutting "waste and inefficiency" in Medicaid and Medicare and "unwarranted subsidies to insurance companies".
Again, this seems like a great idea, but does it requires new legislation? If there is waste and inefficiency, isn't there already someone in charge who should fix that?
3) Make Medicare more efficient and make sure it doesn't just "enrich insurance companies".
Ditto on the good idea. How does Medicare enrich insurance companies? This implies raising premiums, lowering the coverage options, or lowering the amounts paid for care - which are already lower than doctors can bear in most cases.
4) Add new regulations on insurance companies related to pre-existing conditions, removing caps on payouts, coverage of preventive care and screening.
If the bill was just about this, it would already have passed. No one can argue with the need and sense of this kind of reform.
Don't believe me, check 538...
We are a nation of health care serfs. I am sick of being a health care slave. Life is more than health care. Life is more than paying all our disposable income to health insurance companies! What a scam!
If a catastrophic illness hits you or your family, that's it. Eventually you will be ruined. If you are no longer able to work and must pay COBRA costs to maintain your health insurance, it is out of this world. Is that all there is to life? Working solely to pay insurance and drug companies?
I submit too that most of the naysayers are social security and medicare recipients already. Please shut up and accept your GOVERNMENT-sponsored programs. Anyone who doesn't have a Living Will already in place is ignorant and asking for trouble and pain at the end of the line.
Are you an Atheist or an Agnostic?
Do you believe in the Theory of Evolution? Natural Selection? If so, maybe we need to cull the herd a bit. We have too many sick stupid people on this planet.
As to the other attendees, how are they able to spend their days at town halls? Are they unemployed? If so, in many states they can get medicaid, another public option..Either that, or most of them have tenured jobs which they are certain will never go away..How nice for them. I guess the rest are independently wealthy, have no preexisting conditions and plan on never being sick, or having an accident. How nice for them too.
And the town hall attendees may be retired but the younger ones are probably just unemployed. Obama is more interested in spending your tax money on the biggest social welfare program in the history of the planet than he is in finding a way to let the economy right itself so the unemployed can find new jobs.
Feel free to take a stab at it in the comments here: http://ellipticalpress.blogspot.com/
The current debate adds to the fragmentation. Complex formulary of insurance and funding only makes the healthcare system more cumbersome and inefficient, adding further irrationalities and alien motivations within the system. And good patient care is lost in the shuffle.
It is the front-line of medical care (physicians, nurses and allied medical professionals) that will make-or-break the new comprehensive healthcare. The old medical adage of "captain of the ship" is an important principle, even in the 21st century; and the one who should be held responsible to "bend the cost-curve."
Short-term, significant savings (i.e no additional dollars needed) can be achieved through reforming payments to insurance and drug companies; as well as providers (doctors and hospitals) by using "Best Practice" paradigms. For more info write to glawrenc@mvnhealth.com
We need to turn up the heat! Time to put more pressure on! Please sign this petition to have paid health care removed from our representatives in Congress until such time as they reform health care - to include a strong public option - for 'we the people' who they are supposed to represent. Then spread the word to anyone and everyone you know!
http://www.petitiononline.com/PubOp676/petition.html
Government takover of health care. How does having an extra choice take away your choice to keep what you have-unless you are admitting that the health insurance co's are so bloated that they can't compete.
Covering Illegal Aliens-This plan only covers them the same way we already cover them, hospitals charge everyone else more so they can provide free care to illegals.
Interfering in doctor choice-Ask someone who turns 65 whether medicare or their private plan gave them more doctor choice???
Cutting medicare benefits-medicare is a seperate program, financed by a 1.45% tax on wages, with an equal employer tax on wages. If the program was expanded to cover additional people (e.g. everyone over 55), the tax rate would go up, perhaps to 1.65%. No one is proposing changing benefit levels. There is a discussion of changing the reimbursement formula to allow the trust fund to keep buying T-bills for a few more years, blame Bush for running up the deficit to the point that we need to borrow from Medicare to keep the gov't afloat.
I can go on, and on, and on...
Beware people, the misinformation is nuts out there. A friend of mine, who used to be a medical professional, actually sent me one of them, and I told her that if she sent me another such TRASH piece she was never, ever going to stay at my home and mooch when she comes to town.
This is what reassured me. I'm glad you pointed that out.
He's not discouraged! We shouldn't be discouraged!
He continues to see the bigger picture while all of us keep harping on the unimportant. His premise is the same. The details will get worked out as we go. The foundation is what is important right now. Focus on the facts.
enough to take everything you have." Thomas Jefferson
A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.
Thomas Jefferson