Thank you, Wendell, for the heads-up on the Co-op-flavored Kool-Aid. I so fear that the Nevilles like Messina (Rahm's assistant; Baucus's erstwhile toy-boy) in the Administration are unfurling a giant and as faux Mission Accomplished banner for the ceremony signing some bogus Bill over which the Insurance Corporations will slaver.
I think that $24-million-dollar-per-year Aetna CEO Ron "Silver-Forked-Tongued" Williams has mesmerized Prez O. Williams sounds so earnest and caring and convincing -- and neglects to say that he gets All Those Bucks for instituting the brilliant (& evil) computerized Rescind the Sick systems.
The 8th National Conference on Nuclear Science and Technology opened in the coastal city of Nha Trang, in the central province of Khanh Hoa on August 20.
Source:
http://english.vovnews.vn/Home/National-conference-on-nuclear-technology-opens-in-central-city/20098/107067.vov
Thank you Wendell for being you and coming around when it was time to do so. I have been on the health care band wagon from as far back as I can remember. I am a 45 year old single woman that has been self employed my whole life with the exception of 1 1/2 yr. So I have always had to purchase my own policy at the average cost of $400.00 per month, but high deductable so only used it once in 25 years of having a private policy, when i needed surgery 10 years ago. I am too scared to ever show my ins card at the doctors office for fear of it, and my ailment being on my record and haunting me for life. So I have always paid cash for all appointments, and not bothered to send or file a claim.But being self employed and not making over 100K, some years I did my taxes, I had 5K in insurance policy bills and another 3 or 4 K in doctor and drug charges. That was 10% of my income right there. And I'm a healthy woman!!!! Go figure. So my most recent plight/gripe is this. I moved from Illiois to California and back again 4 years later. All the while carring a Blue Cross policy (never used) Had a 1 1/2 'job' in CA that offered health ins. I knew I was going to move back to Il so I kept my individual policy ( on the recomondation of Blue Cross) for ease of transer when I returned. So I come back to Il, call Blue Cross, am informed that I have to apply for new coverage because I'm in a different state. So I think, "no problem" I've had them for 8 years. And guess what?? They (Blue Cross) denied me coverage because i have PMS!!!!!!!! Yep< I'll send you the letter if you like. So 8 years of unused premiums, and denied for PMS. I was blown away to say the least. Do the math and 8 years at $400 dollars a month is WAY more than I have in my retirement fund. Can I get that back since it was never used?? So then in the midst of moving, I found a lump in my breast. Knowing now that I had to find a new Policy, I lied on the application and told my doctor not to worrie about it or put it in my records. So I found the lump about 9 months ago while looking for a new policy. I am 4 months into my new Individual Health Group policy and am patiently waiting the 6 month mandatory waiting period before I can see a doctor. So here I am, a single tax paying ( and having paid a minimun of $140,000 in health ins premiums - unused) fully insured woman, walking around with a lump in her breast for 9 months now waiting for the day I can get this looked at. And people ask and wonder and fight that nothing is wrong with our health care system. For the life of me ( and it may be my life) i don't understand the ignorance of my fellow Americans. And as I sat here with my 'plight', my boyfriends nephew from Texas came to visit. He is 23 years old, living in Denmark for last 2 years, studing Glass Blowing. He got hit by a car, broke his collar bone, rushed to the ER for surgury, and you know what? Not one bill, not one form, no paper work, no nothing. NOTHING. All taken care of. And he's never even paid a dollar into the tax system in Denmark. He's just a student. So as he's telling his story, I have my hand on my breast lump, thinking how nice it would be to live in Denmark, where I could just go to the doctor. This is also why I voted - for the first time in my life- for Obama. I really believed he was in on this. It brakes my heart to see him wavering in the shadow of "the big corporations' now. They are my enemy. I hate them. And yet they have all my money. I thought Obama could change all this. I really believed he was strong enough. Please help him Wendell.
Wendell,
I have been following your writings and interviews very closely, and I must say that your revelations about the inner workings of the health care industry and the industry's attempts to sabotage health care reform are a wake-up call. However, I am confused by the "hard-wired" comment you made in this latest interview. Having worked in PR, an industry that works to shape/manipulate public opinion, it would seem ironic that you would think the beliefs and world views of others are hard-wired. Also, just your own history seems to contradict this idea, being an example of how powerful the environment is in influencing people's behaviors.
Anyway, I do not know that you can entirely mean what you said because you have done a great duty by arming people with the information that you have in your speaking out, allowing us to enter into the critical debate on healthcare fully prepared. Your information even helped me to step out on the front porch the other day to talk someone knocking on doors to solicit signatures for a letter to Congress AGAINST healthcare reform. After making the person sweat bullets by challenging all of the old talking points that you once took part in disseminating, it seemed as if I was able to raise some level of doubt before we parted with a hand shake. I cannot know if that really influenced anything, but in any case I felt good about the encounter.
Thank you so much for stepping up to "do the right thing." Please continue to keep us informed as it is helping people everyday to become more informed about "the system." Being among the nearly 50 million who are without healthcare, I will not forget it.
Dan
Dear Ms. Piety--
I really appreciated your thoughtful response to my blog posting.
I share your outrage that corporate practices in denying people coverage without any real public or democratic accountability is far more troubling than what had been a well-intentioned bipartisan provision, initiated by Senator Isakson (R-GA), to ensure that family consultations with doctors about the most difficult decisions they will ever face would be covered by the reform plan. It's too bad it was subject to such misleading demagoguery by severely uninformed elected officials like Senator Grassley (R-IA) and the former Governor of Facebook, I mean Alaska.
Alas, we all have a lot of work to do to have meaningful dialogues with one another that pierce through this fog of confusion and misinformation. Lisa
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