How to Compete in the World: With Single Payer Health Care
Much press is given aging Baby Boomers who send their children to college and in many cases, take care of their aging parents at the same time.
In my own case, my mother died after a stroke after a two month decline in 1987. I just graduated from my Nurse Practitioner program and came home on Father’s Day.
This was the same day my mother had her stroke.
My father’s gradual decline spanned over thirteen years. He had Alzheimer’s Disease and was in and out of consciousness for most of that time. I dealt with Nursing Home administrators, and had to move him from one nursing home to another when he “ran out of money.”
These kinds of experiences where you feel powerless to help the one person whom you love deeply from earliest memory, can teach lessons of surrender and a giving up of all past memory for a simple acceptance of that which is seen and unseen in this very moment.
My dad died seven years ago. I am reconciled with everything that ever happened between us, and all members of my family.
Enter Marybeth Kuznik, Executive Director of Vote Pa. She is dedicated to bringing voting (machine) reform to the state of Pennsylvania. She was one of the people who went to Ohio for the final vote count in Ohio in the 2004 election.
She verified what I have known since that time: G.W. Bush stole that election.
Marybeth and I met at the State Democratic Committee Meeting where our group, Progressives For Pennsylvania, held our health care reform conference in order to educate the State Democratic Party about HB 1660 and SB 300: The best state single payer plan in the country, at this time.
The conference was a success! People are excited by the Bill. As Michael Moore said in a recent conference call I was privileged to attend, the people are ready for it. Getting it through the legislative process is the challenge.
We were collecting health care delivery nightmare stories, and Marybeth gave us the most wrenching story I have ever heard, one that will soon be on You Tube and on our website, Progressives 4 Pennsylvania, as well as our P4P blog.
Merle Kuznik, Marybeth’s 89 year old mother, broke her right hip after suffering a major stroke on her left side. The nursing home she was in, Wood Haven Care Center in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, insisted that Merle Kuznik apply for Medicaid to pay for expenses not paid by Medicare.
When the paperwork was not completed in a timely fashion, local Constables showed up to her nursing home room, with guns visible but in their holsters, and told her she would have to go to jail for 3 days, if she did not pay.
Marybeth, the savvy person that she is, went to KDKA TV and told the story.
Our bill, HB 1660 and SB 300 pays for long term care.
If our bill was in place NOW, Marybeth and Merle wouldn’t be going through this degrading experience.
The question is, how many other of our elderly are experiencing similar experiences that are the worst kind of abuses in what we know is NOT a civil society until we get a single payer system instituted in our country?
How many suffer silently because, like Merle Kuznic, they cannot speak, or move because they are paralyzed? or worse, because they are mentally incapacitated?
This story underscores the reason why I fight tirelessly for a single payer health care delivery system.
Watch the video related to health care reform bill
September 21, 2009 3:17 am 
By Tracy Turnblad, September 21, 2009 @ 3:59 am
First of all, Obama wants to make insurance more available to all and change the system so that it is cheaper. He also wants change so that the insurance companies find it harder to get out of paying for treatment. The system he is proposing looks similar to that which works in Holland and Switzerland where private companies are involved in providing insurance.
Second, of course universal health-cover sucks. That is why we in Western Europe have it. We think, hmm, our healthcare system sucks. I know, lets keep it. I guess that is the same with Japan and Canada as well.
Third, Obama campaigned on reforming the healthcare system. He said he wanted to make insurance more available and he was elected by the American people to do this.
FACT – the US has higher death rates for kids both for kids aged under one and those under five than western European countries with universal health coverage.
FACT – American insurance companies push up prices and work to stop paying out claims on those they cover.
FACT – the USA spends more on healthcare PER PERSON than any other nation on the planet.
That means that a dead American four year old would have had a better chance of life if they were born in Canada, France, Cuba, Germany, Japan etc, all of which have universal health coverage.
Last of all if you do not like the policies that Obama was elected to bring in, he can always be voted out of office in 2012.
By TomStar81, September 21, 2009 @ 4:07 am
Yes you are talking about TORT reform. the Democrats do not want to touch the Lawyers. it seems the Lawyers are in the democrats pocket.*
By Youtube Downloader, September 21, 2009 @ 3:33 am
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By URL Shortener, September 21, 2009 @ 3:44 am
dude, you own! this looks identical to a photograph
By Anonymous, September 21, 2009 @ 5:26 pm
HOLY CRAP! Comparing this to the original picture, they’re identical!
By Short, Fast, and Loud, September 22, 2009 @ 5:25 am
Obama does not have a bill. He has only given guidelines to what he wants. His last address made it more specific.
The bills in congress are not healthcare bills. They are health coverage bills. The government is trying to take control of a large portion of our economy. They are trying to make it so the government is a single payer source (I know i will get thumbs down for this, but follow hr3200 to its logical conclusion).
The current bills want to cover everybody in the US (Illegals too, there is nothing in these bills to prevent illegals from being covered. Amendments to ensure citizenship were tabled)
The federal government wants to punish you for not having insurance (they will get your money one way or another)
The government wants to regulate what care you will get. (When the system becomes overblaoted as any government system does, they will have 2 options increase taxes or ration care)
I know that there are a lot of people that will disagree with this. If they actually read the bills, and follow to there logical conclusions, in 10 years we will be a whole lot worse of than we are now. So doing nothing would actually be cheaper.
Reform must actually deal with the underlaying problems. HR 320o does not. Obama gave lip service to 1 of them.
By The Conservative Resistance, September 22, 2009 @ 8:57 am
Under any Democrat President in history, the same M.O. emerges.
The Democrats "identify" a "crisis" and whip the people up into a frenzy about it. They proclaim themselves the carriers of the elixir that will heroically save all mankind from this "crisis.'' When Republicans seek to oppose the spending it will take for this elixir, they are automatically called hate mongers and obstructionists.
Clinton tried it with school lunch menus. He whipped that whole thing into some kind of "crisis." The Democrats wanted to raise the program by 10% and the Republicans wanted to raise it by 7%. That got reported in the media as a 3% CUT by Republicans. Only when a Democrat is President could an INCREASE be reported as a CUT. Just to make Republicans look bad, but too many people buy into the bullshit.
Al Gore, who wasn't even President, tried it with global warming and it didn't work. Today, it's health care. What'll it be tomorrow? The whole "world is ending in 2012" thing, or what?
By URL Shortener, September 22, 2009 @ 9:21 am
awesome stuff man,….ama practice hard to get to yo level!
By skinnyblink7, September 24, 2009 @ 12:36 pm
the new york times has an interactive feature which is actually very clear to understand. check it out.