los anjalis to anjuquerque

This week I wrote two posts for LAist, check ‘em out:

Schoolhouse Rock and the Health Care Reform Bill, where I discussed some of the background on the bill’s tortuous history and the senate shenanigans (filibustering, cloture, politics).

and ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas and All Through the Senate, about the historic health insurance reform vote passage in the Senate on Christmas eve. I discussed fantastical nerdy Senate history (the history of the filibuster, the last time the Senate ever met on Christmas eve, etc).

WOAH. Even 50% of Republicans favor the government offering everyone the option of a govt administered public health insurance option like Medicare that would compete with private health insurance plans. Now to hold our elected officials accountable to (and more in-touch with) us. Check out the full NYTimes piece including the actual questions and percentages of responses.

2 orgs i recommend checking out:
Health Care for America Now coalition (sign up!)
National Physicians Alliance (most vocal doctors org in the HCAN coalition)

I recently made my nth trip (of the past few years) to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where my friends run an amazing, innovative, and quite revolutionary medical clinic (fair-priced; integrative; acupuncturists and naturopaths and midwives in addition to docs and NPs) for the uninsured. I’ll write more about that experience, but I may move to ABQ, NM to work in this clinic (and at a rural hospital). So this news, caught on my twitter feeds, piqued my interest:

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — About half of Hispanics and Native Americans in New Mexico were without health insurance for at least a month and up to two years in 2007 and 2008, according to a new study from Families USA.

The study states only 28 percent of whites said they were uninsured during that same period.

Families USA, a health reform advocacy group, says 49.5 percent of Hispanics were without health coverage at some point over the two years.

And 56 percent of people who described themselves as Native American or as members of more than one ethnic group said they went without coverage sometime during the period studied.

New Mexico Human Services Department spokeswoman Betina Gonzales McCracken said the department recognizes that ethnicity does play a role in the uninsured.

(From KOAT local news in ABQ)

These are absolutely shocking statistics. The Families USA document that’s referred to can be found here (.pdf file).

(Cross-posted at Cure This)

It’s so exciting that health care is receiving top attention in the presidential election this year. The past few weeks have shown an unprecedented focus on the two major party presidential candidates’ visions of health care issues.

The fire quotes of this past week on health care were these two by Senator Obama. On McCain’s health care plan:

It’s like those ads for prescription drugs. You know they start off, everybody’s running in the fields, everybody’s happy. Then there’s the fine print that says, “Side effects may include…”

And on right vs privilege:

I think every single american has a right to affordable, accessible health care.

Of note, this statement received the largest roar of support from the crowd he was speaking to. Some video footage of a speech Obama gave last week:

Some things that Obama mentioned:

Senator McCain wants to pay for his plan by taxing your health benefits for the first time in history…

But the Wall Street Journal recently reported…it turns out Senator McCain would pay for his plan by making drastic cuts in Medicare — $882 billion worth. $882 billion dollars in Medicare cuts to pay for an ill conceived, badly thought through health care plan…

Time and again he’s opposed Medicare. In fact, Senator McCain has voted against protecting Medicare 40 times.

When you’ve worked hard your whole life, and paid into the system, and done everythign right, you shouldn’t have the carpet pulled out from under you when you least expect it…

The Republican Presidential CNN/YouTube debate is just around the corner (November 28th).  As with the Democratic Presidential debate hosted by CNN/YouTube, Americans are submitting videos of questions they have for the candidates. 

Above, the national leaders of the American Medical Student Association framed the healthcare debate with a well-crafted question for the candidates.  Friends, these are the future leaders of American organized medicine, and there are thousands of them, and thankfully, they’re progressive, patient-centered, and dedicated to the public health of America.

Hope comes in many forms, and this is just one of them…

(cross-posted at Cure This).

…where I’m surrounded by 30 amazing progressive and passionate doctors, at the National Physicians Alliance board and committees meeting!We’re having some serious discussions and strategizing together on health care issues, advocating for our patients and the public’s health, and building a more robust organization in the process.

The NPA does not accept ANY money from pharmaceutical companies, AND advocates strongly against physicians and physicians’ organizations having an unhealthy relationship with the pharmaceutical industry.

In addition, we’re discussing our access to health initiatives, building our global health workforce initiative, responding to the SCHIP insurance cuts crisis, and developing our race/medicine and institutional racism (undoing racism) analyses.

It’s nothing less than a party. With ideas. And energy. Of a positive future of integrity in medicine. And the coffee is being drunk like the wine it is at meetings like this.

You’re going to be moved by this one.

At the AFL-CIO democratic presidential candidate debate this past week, retired union member Steve Skvara asked a simple health care question of the candidates.  In response, he received a STANDING OVATION from thousands of audience members in the stadium.  This is phenomenal, it is amazing how front-and-center health care is in the peoples’ minds, during this election.  Check out the video:

And Mitt Romney was challeneged on health care while giving a stump speech in a restaurant, where he mentioned his desire to export “healthcare diplomacy” to other nations, and a waitress really prodded him on the american health care system.  Video below:

Exciting.  Also related, not to health care but to the use of these technologies — the CNN/YouTube republican presidential candidate debate is coming up (september 17th).  Thanks to Pop and Politics for sharing sharing two YouTube videos that americans have submittedthese two videos submitted by viewers — good, solid, hard-hitting questions:

I’m so absolutely fascinated by videoblogging, YouTube, and other video/audio technologies, and especially with their use in politics and health.

In the meantime, I’ll be participating in tomorrow’s Great LA Health Care Rally sponsored by OneCareNow and other organizations, in support of universal health care in California, and hope to post some video footage from that event!

[cross-posted at Cure This]

Don’t front. It *is* the GREAT LA health care rally. This coming Saturday. A few doctor folks will be participating, showing our solidarity as providers uniting for universal health insurance, by wearing our very sexy white coats. YOU should come participate in this historic event. But if you laugh at us in our sexy white coats, or hide your children from us, I’ll come after you :>

More info at the One Care Now website. Yes, it’s being hailed as the LARGEST rally for single payer universal health care in U.S. history. Given it’s Los Angeles and there are SO many interesting things to do on a saturday afternoon, I really hope it can stay true to that claim.

A few of us are going to try to interview some folks there, participants and passersby, to document their stories. Perhaps we’ll share some of these videos on Cure This! (email me or write a comment to this post if you’d like to join in on this piece of the participation).  So, see you there, maybe? You wouldn’t want to miss the largest health care rally in the U.S., now would you? :>

Barbara Ehrenreich has a piece in today’s Huffington Post (“Health Care vs the Profit Principle”) on the debate over expansion of health insurance for children (S-CHIP or the State Health Insurance Program). In the midst of the movie SiCKO’s popularity, and in the midst of Americans building ever more energy around health care issues, the Bush administration has boldy gone where no administration has gone before, to make this yet again an ideological battle. Barbara Ehrenreich on the matter:

It’s always nice to see the President take a principled stand on something. The man formerly known as “43,” and now perhaps better named “29″ for his record-breaking approval rating, is promising to battle any expansion of government health insurance for children — and not because he hates children or refuses to cough up the funds. No, this is a battle over principle: private health care vs. government-provided health care. Speaking in Cleveland this week, Bush boldly asserted:

‘I strongly object to the government providing incentives for people to leave private medicine, private health care to the public sector. And I think it’s wrong and I think it’s a mistake. And therefore, I will resist Congress’s attempt … to federalize medicine…In my judgment that would be — it would lead to not better medicine, but worse medicine. It would lead to not more innovation, but less innovation.’

Ehrenreich finishes off with a bang:

If government insurance for children (S-CHIP) isn’t expanded to all the families that need it, there is no question but that some children will die — painfully perhaps and certainly unnecessarily. But at least they will have died for a principle.

Yes. This is how we must frame health care issues. It’s the way we have to, especially when republicans are also talking smack like this:

John Hart, a spokesman for Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, said Mr. Coburn saw the Democratic plan as “part of an effort to bring everyone into a socialized health care system, a clarion call for Hillary Care, part two,” referring to the Clinton administration plan for universal coverage. Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, shared that view.

HillaryCare! Boo! Scared, yet?

Let’s not forget to mention that Senator Tom Coburn is a doctor. Who elected the doctor who wants to limit health care for children?

Lastly, we know there is no accountability to our government when the very people we elect (and the people they appoint) are anti-government themselves. A few regional directors at the Department of Health and Human Services sent “letters to newspapers, warning against ‘a government takeover of the health care marketplace‘”. This is a prime example of the government flushing the government down the toilet. And what’s a department of health and human services doing playing partisan politics (letters to the media!) on childrens’ access to health?

So back to the framing. We need to improve our framing of these important issues. If the opposition can bring back “HillaryCare”, we can be creative (and true) too. So, let’s say it all together now — Bush hates children. Republicans who are against expanding health insurance for children hate children. Any other ideas for framing this issue? I’m in favor of gathering together a list of congresspeople who eventually vote against this bill and figuring out how to affect their re-election based on their hatred of kids. You know, holding elected officials accountable to their decisions. And let’s strip the Republicans of the ownership of the term “family values”.
And what can we do? Families USA has a nicely organized education and action campaign in place, check it out (i’m sure other organizations do too). The issue is being decided upon this week. Let’s get to it.

(cross-posted at Cure This)

We are adaptable creatures, and while that is generally good, sometimes it’s a problem. We have no difficulty taking prompt action when faced with a sudden calamity, like a bleeding head wound, say, or a terrorist attack. But we are not good at moving against the creeping, more insidious threats — whether a slow-growing tumor, waistline or debt.

It’s as true of societies as of individuals. We did not muster the will to reform our long-broken banking system, for example, until it actually collapsed in the Great Depression.

This is, in a nutshell, the trouble with our health care crisis. Our health care system has eroded badly, but it has not collapsed. So we do nothing.

For at least two decades, polls have shown that most consider our health system seriously flawed. With family insurance premiums now averaging $12,000 a year, the insured fear it will become unaffordable, and businesses regard health benefit costs as their single greatest obstacle to competing globally.

People without insurance are proven to be more likely to die, and 28 percent of working-age Americans are now uninsured for at least part of a year. Emergency rooms, required to care for the uninsured, have become so full they turned away 500,000 ambulances last year. As a result, large majorities support the idea of fundamental change…

from Atul Gawande’s commentary “Can this Patient be Saved?” NYTimes May 5,2007. (thanks to Donkey O.D. for sharing the full piece, which is otherwise on the payola-only section of the Times website).

The bolded section above (emphasis mine) is a pet peeve of mine — we’ve put billions and billions into disaster preparedness and bioterrorism work in the past few years, and we’ve taken billions OUT of more insiduous killers like chronic disease programs, integral public health mechanisms, and such basics as housing, food, transportation, etc.

I work at a county hospital and clinic in Los Angeles, where we mostly treat the uninsured, underinsured, or undocumented.  We’re the safety net hospital in the area.  However, we’ve been packed to the brim and have had to say no to ambulances (channel them to other county or non-county emergency rooms) over and over and over again. Now that’s what I call scary.  Spillover from a safety net hospital.
Also — the cost that Gawande mentions for health insurance for a family isn’t overstated.  Even in California, individual health plans are more than $4500 a year, and family plans are definitely more than $12,000 a year.  And what’s minimum wage, in California or in the U.S.?  You do the math.  (Obviously this cost is too high even for middle-class folks!) That’s f***’ed up.  Where’s our revolution?