The Ojai Post

whoaa ... four 'Town Hall' posts and counting! the Ahi Post server is on the fritz today.

must be those living raindrops and atmospheric electrici-mind, spirits playing with our sterile technology ....

Sorry I won't be able to make it, I'll be in Sacramento with thousands of others trying to shut down some of the rogue california agencies that are bankrupting the state and putting teachers out of work. Like C.A.R.B. California Air Resources Board.
killcarb.org
This year they sucked over $800 million dollars out of the state. They've caused countless damage to the state including the poisoning of our ground water with the poison MTBE.

Don't worry Brian, I'll be there with Minnie, Goofy,Snow White and everyone else in Ojai who wants something for nothing...

"I'll be there with Minnie, Goofy,Snow White and everyone else in Ojai who wants something for nothing..."

Since when did getting what you have paid for become "something for nothing"?

If you paid your phone bill, and the phone company cut service and demanded more money, then cut service again when you paid more, then did it again ad infinitum, so that despite paying your bill on time in ever-increasing amounts for years and years, every time you actually tried to make a phone call an operator came on and said, "sorry, we've cut your service, if you'd like to complete this call pay us $XX more," then you'd have something more like our health insurance system in this country.

Now, if you were the phone company in that circumstance, I suppose it's understandable that you would oppose any change in that system. And if you were a broken, absolutely immoral shill who will do anything for money, I suppose you would pipe up and defend the phone company when people tried to fix it.

In most developed countries, of course, executives of a health insurer that behaved as ours do would be in prison. Here, we don't even consider that option, and instead even consider letting them continue their "business" as usual.

Of course, in most developed countries (and even many less developed ones), more people get better health care for less money.

I wonder if there could be a connection?

Kris, if "reform" does not include a public option, and does include a mandate that everyone buy private insurance at pain of federal fine or prosecution, do you still support it? Should we still support it? Why?

Lost in this debate over health (disease) care reform is the poor elephant in the room: helping people be well and stay well. Without addressing this fundamental issue we will still be paying a tremendous percentage of our GDP to big pharma and big agra.

So much energy is now being spent on deciding who our paymasters will be: Big Insurance Companies or Big Government and very little is being heard on the subject of "wellness" and preventative care. The Health Insurance industry has zero incentive to encourage wellness because of a business model which expects clients to change insurers frequently and their idea of preventative care is vaccinations for just about everything. A single payer option could at least theoretically incentivise wellness but really folks it all comes down to taking personal responsibility for our health and well being. Lets include this in the current debate and start a'learnin ourselves how to live right.

The Health Ranger is hosting a petition to get these topics on the table: It begins...We, the People of these United States of America, hereby call for revolutionary changes in our health care system that encourage health and prosperity instead of disease and corporate profit.

Take a look here:

www.HealthRevolutionPetition.org

i'll answer your questions for myself, #5:

just as many members of Congress are now saying, "reform" without a public OPTION is not reform and will not be signed nor sent to the President's desk. to me, the public option IS the reform, and a mandatory penalized buy-in is not how i define "option", so i would not support it. i don't think anyone's seriously floating that idea...do you know differently?

also, i'm compelled by THIS ARTICLE from the VC Star, written by a highly respected physician friend with FIVE additional local physicians co-signing. Compelling?

evan, according to the New York Times, all of the proposals passed out of committee in Congress include individual mandates, with federal fines and penalties if you don't buy the insurance.

Here is a comparison of the various current proposals:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/08/12/us/politics/0812-plan-comparison.html#tab=0

At present, there is still a public option in the most likely proposals, but numerous reports are indicating that it is likely to be watered down or abandoned.

The VC Star article is great, but it does not appear to address the plans that are actually the ones presently on track to get passed. We need a strategy to make the Conyers Medicare for all bill the number one proposal. But at present, it appears more likely that we are all going to get excited for "reform" that will end up being a federal requirement that we purchase the failed private insurance product, at pain of fine or prosecution.

This is the opposite of single payer, and a recipe to make things worse IMHO.

Once again Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone knocks it out of the park. Read this article if you really want to know what's happening with health care reform in the congress. Unfortunately it's not available in full online, you'll have to get the magazine or go to the library.

Anon #10, it appears you are exactly correct on the mandates.

A mandate for medical insurance, without a public option, doesn't sound good to me.

The importance of health and wellness is not lost on many of us; many of us are currently focused on trying to initiate change so that we can get to those issues.

My question is, of course, who's coming to the Town Hall Meeting on Friday the 28th at 7 PM? And who is bring 5 other people? My experience is that it is so much easier for most folks to talk about it, post about it, but can't quite get to doing something about it; even the folks that are really upset.

Come out! It would be really great to have 500 people show. I'll be there.

Well gosh Kris, if the proposed reform actually on the table is not something you or anyone besides an insurance company can support, why do we want to be heard in large numbers showing support for it?

Seems like the call to action should be very specific: Show up with five additional people, each with signs proclaiming some form of the message "Single Payer Now!" "No Mandates!" "Give Me Single Payer or Give Me Death!" "I Demand My Insurance CEO Be Put In Prison!" "No More Insurance Companies Getting Away With Murder!" "Prosecute Insurance Companies That Deny Care for MURDER!" "No More Business As Usual - Outlaw Private Health Insurance!" "Congresspeople - Take Money From The Health Insurance Lobby, and Lose My Vote Forever!" "Are Health Insurers Worse Than Tobacco Companies?" "Free My Doctor From The Grip Of Insurance Companies!""We Cannot Afford One More Day of Private Health Insurance - SCRAP IT!" "How Can We Allow Insurance Executives To Make Billions In Profit By Denying the Coverage We Paid For? JAIL THEM NOW!" "We Imprison Drug Dealers and Forfeit Their Profits - Why Not Health Insurers?" "I SUPPORT MANDATORY MINIMUMS FOR INSURANCE EXECUTIVES!"

Showing up to support the current proposals is pretty hard to feel good about.

For those who are interested, here is an article about the current proposals and process:

http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/142172/it%27s_robbery%3A_health_care_proposals_in_congress_look_more_like_a_rip-off_than_reform/?page=entire

“It will basically be a government law that says you have to buy their defective product,” says Dr. David Himmelstein, a professor at Harvard Medical School and a founder of Physicians for a National Health Plan... "The conditions that have now been set for the plans include a hobbled public option. Under the best-case scenario there will be tens of millions [who] will remain uninsured at the outset, and the number will climb as more and more people are priced out of the insurance market.”

Kristofer - have you arranged to have anyone on your panel who favors change, but opposes single payer?

Have you arranged to have anyone on your panel who favors change, but opposes single payer?

With all due respect, there isn't anybody who is both informed and respectable who advocates that position. Single payer is the proven solution. Anything else is either simply a shill plan for industry profits, without any intention to fix what's broken, or, if honestly well-meaning, no more than an experiment aimed at attempting to achieve the results of single payer through a market solution. Won't work, for reasons that should be obvious. It should be telling that every market-based experiment to date around the world has failed to deliver the results of single payer.

I know the insurance industry shills would like to have people engage their "ideas" for "market-based solutions," but we need to call a spade a spade.

#15, you are not only anonymous, you are an idiot. And simply another freeloader.

Kristofer - is Chaparral auditorium rented? If so, who is paying?

I don't see how single PAYER translates to freeloader.

When I hear Healthcare i think of preventieve care. getting off toxic mediacl drugs. eating pesticide free,organic,high quality fresh food, a relaxed lifestyle with time to smooze with friends and family,reflect on the lifes we live,dancing,singing having fun,living with dignity.Clean air and water.Or free medial care an presciption drugs that ask after a while for more drugs until we are even sicker from all the drugs ?
How about people coming together ,and do exchange with preventive healthcare providers (Chi gong, yoga, hypnosis or counseling for finding underlying emotional problems i.s.o.trying to drug down our feelings.

i just found THIS CARTOON describing our need for universal health-care, which admittedly doesn't include whether the current proposals are viable solutions for achieving that goal, but it's nice to check in with why it's a good idea to pursue.