BRING CHANGE!! ONLY THEN CAN WE BRING HOPE!!

The wheeling, the dealing , the arm bending on the left and the right of the Democratic Party, the absolutely disgusting and uncaring fillibuster attempt by the Republican Party – it’s incredible that Senator Reid can talk about a health care bill and for others within his own party to know which one he’s referring to.

Having been savaged by Senator Leiberman of a public option and expansion of Medicare to 55 year olds, having made concessions to Senator Nelson on abortion and medicaid, having got other Democrats on board with their own State black male requirements, deep divisions within the Democratic Party are threatening to derail the Bill at the very same time the White House is lauding it as the most comprehensive piece of  health care legislation since social security.

And these divisions are coming from the base of the Democratic Party, most notably spearheaded by Vermont Governor, Howard Dean, who up till last night was stating quite publicly that he would kill the bill if he had the vote.

So , what exactly is in this Bill that has allowed (so far) for a yes vote from the 60 Democratic and Independent Senators?

Ezra Klein, a columnist at the Washington Post neatly hi lites the changes, and to me looks like a decent start to health care change in America.

In fact it is so decent, I believe that Howard Dean has finally caved under pressure from the White House to get the legislation through.

Until just a couple days ago Dean stated “This is a bigger bailout for the insurance industry than AIG, & a very small number of people are going to get any insurance at all, until 2014, if the bill works.” “This is an insurance companies’ dream, this bill,” Dean added. “This is the Washington scramble and I think it’s ill-advised.”

And John Gibbs, White House Press Secretary attacked Dean and said that he did not know what piece of legislation Dean was reading.

Now things have gotten a lot more cordial between Howard Dean and the White House

The White House  is now praising Howard Dean with a “we respect him so much” op ed by Joe Biden in the NY Times and in remarks by David Axlerod on NBC this morning cooing “I respect Howard Dean,” describing him as “passionate” about the issue.

Meanwhile, also on NBC, Dean conspicuously declined to say that Obama had failed to fight hard enough for core liberal priorities. Asked about this line, Dean reiterated his substantive criticism of the bill, but added: “He certainly tried very hard.” And he declined to call outright for the bill to be killed.

The bottom line is that I sadly support the Bill, even though it won’t stop discriminatory practices against my pre-existing condition by the insurance industry for another five years. Which is practically a life time for those people with chronic and progressive disorders such as myself.

But having read the latest bullet points, I cannot say – “all or nothing” . When the Bill calls for immediate halt to discrimination against children with pre-existing conditions, I cannot say – no, children with pre-exiting conditions may have to ..wait forever possibly,  if no new legislation gets passed and the insurance industry wins.

The Bill calls for accountability for excessive rate increases. A health insurer’s participation in the Exchanges will depend on its performance. Insurers that jack up their premiums before the Exchange begins will be excluded – a powerful incentive to keep premiums affordable.

Again, this must surely be a good thing. Some oversight and accountability has got to be better than no oversight and accountability at all.

The biggest tragedy is that Progressive Liberals dared hope for real change, the very mantra that got Barack Obama elected. But not doing anything about health care would play right into the hands of the insurance industry and Republican objectives, which we know would be tantamount to political suicide and the dashing of hopes of the silent majority, who are dying and going bankrupt because of the current state of our health care system.

YouTube remains the number one destination of choice for video clips of momentuous occassions, such as Republican Senator Joe Wilson criminally outrageous “You Lie” outburst during the presidential joint address to Congress on September 9th.
However, for a constant up to the minute streaming source of material debating the proposed changes (or lack of) to healthcare  reform,  CNN recently hilited some of the best twitter streams to follow. 

See the list after the jump

In no particular order:

PolitiFact. (@politifact) A Pulitzer-Prize-winning news group, which is part of the St. Petersburg Times, sorts fact from fiction on the health care debate and other topics. That “You lie!” comment, for instance? A lie, Politifact says. With over 5000 followers, @politifact likes to tweet on a micro level, such as fact checking whether the Baucus healthcare bill would tax medical devices such as X-ray tests and surgical needles!

SusannahFox. (@susannahfox) Fox’s Twitter feed is packed with anecdotes and statistics about how social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are changing doctor-patient relationships and the state of health care at large. With over 3000 followers, one example tweet is the fact that according to Fox 38% of internet users look online for information about hospitals or other medical facilities. (not a particularly earth shattering tweet IMO)

kevinmd. (@kevinmd) Blogger and doctor Kevin Pho offers up commentary on his life as a physician and the health care system. With over 15,000 followers, Kevin offers a unique insiders’ perspective to inform outsiders ( you & me)

whitehouse. (@whitehouse)  The official White House Twitter feed covers a slate of topics, but heath care has been especially big on the administration’s recent tweeting agenda. Not surprisingly, given how ugly and the agenda has become. With over 1.5 million followers, by far the largest audience of all the tweeters mentioned by CNN.

AmerMedicalAssn (@amermedicalassn) This doctors’ group tries to spice up the health care debate with  tons of newsy updates on the latest votes, disputes and developments.  Pretty interesting tweets too and over 5000 followers.

As war veterans they give their life due to lack of health care. Over 2200 veterans lost their lives last year due to lack of access to care coverage according to a Harvard research report issued on November 10th. That figure is more than 14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2008!

Using their recently published findings in the American Journal of Public Health that show being uninsured raises an individual’s odds of dying by 40 percent , they arrived at their estimate of 2,266 preventable deaths of non-elderly veterans in 2008.

The report continues, and I am quoting verbatim: “Like other uninsured Americans, most uninsured vets are working people – too poor to afford private coverage but not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid or means-tested VAcare,” said Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a professor at Harvard Medical School who testified before Congress about uninsured veterans in 2007 and carried out the analysis released today [Tuesday]. “As a result, veterans go without the care they need every day in the U.S., and thousands die each year. It’s a disgrace.”

“Its a disgrace”??

Its so unacceptable that a “disgrace” cannot describe the palpable anger I feel towards anyone and everyone who is responsible for the status quo and lack of healthcare for each and every veteran from “deployment to grave”

It is an indictment on American society that it even abandons those that give their lives to protect it.

Ladies and gentlemen,

When I began this site back in 2007,I shot an interview with a student who was teaching me videography 101. I asked him whether he had health insurance. His response says it all, and you can see the interview under the interview tab.

I shot the video in a hope to document the tragedy that is America and its 48 million uninsured.

Not in my wildest dreams could I have foreseen the upheaval in American society, a society where the majority of the people voted for a liberal leaning black President. A president whose entire legitimacy is based upon his campaign promise to deliver health care for all.

Right now, the health insurance lobby and the Republican Party is fighting tooth and nail to destroy any hope of a public option.

It is my intention to document as many people as possible whose own lives or the lives and deaths of their loved ones have scarred them for ever, either through crippling debt, disability, bankruptcy and death  due to existing health care (or lack of) laws.

As such, we are in the process of putting together a team of investigative journalists, videographers, bloggers and most importantly, you, our readers, to spread the word that a right to life is really more urgent than the right to bear arms or the right to an attorney.

America needs to join the rest of the developed world and offer SOME TYPE of public healthcare option that would allow its citizens to go about their daily business knowing that suffering an illness, be it short term or chronic and progressive, in all cases , someone is there who CARES about their health and who is able  to do something about it.

So we are going into stealth mode for a small amount of time, but we will be coming back very soon, and through the power of every single person, we can indeed effect change; true change.

Yes, Sarah Palin gets herself in the news every now and again with her brain dead comments regarding healthcare and other social issues of our times.

Yet Palin, with a Down Syndrome child  of her own, should understand the plight of so many people who are turned down by the insurance companies with the “you’re fucked” clause, otherwise known as the pre-existing condition.

This standard bearer excuse of insurance company profit machines would be illegal in most developed countries since in most developed countries, healthcare is a birthright, not a privilege of those who can afford it.

Yet, Palin’s comments are old news. I am bringing it up (throwing it up?) because of all those who have taken over where she has left off.

Fox News has stopped pretending to be fair and balanced and has moved the psychotic Glenn Beck to prime time with his madness by giving him not only the 5.00pm slot, but have now also given him an almost daily chin wag with Bill Orielly on The Factor at 8.00pm. Hannity continues his own crusade, no doubt upping the ante in case the Glenn Beck shadow gets cast upon his show.

And finally, you have the head of the republican party, Limbaugh, deciding policy for the far right.

We need to understand the stakes here. There has to be a public option to bring America into the 21st century. Many of its own citizens view America with disdain as the insurance companies run roughshod over so many people’s lives when the train wreck of an illness hits the uninsured, the underinsured and those with pre-existing conditions.

Its time to stand up and be counted. Now more than ever.

Yes, smiling senators inform the world that they have come up with the largest bailout plan in living history to buy up “toxic” mortgage backed securities and “hopefully” save a Wall Street collapse and the ensuing carnage that would result on Main Street.

But lets be clear, from the miserable brokers who pressure sold no doc loans, to the reckless homebuyers who bought homes they could ill afford, to the investment banks that bought this bad debt knowingly and sold it on to other banks – all made up the basic ingredients of this unfolding crisis……

So no wonder most tax payers are outraged at this bail out. THIS SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED……

And yet there remains 48 million uninsured, 100 million underinsured  and 1.8 million a year insured who still have to declare bankruptcy because of overwhelming out of pocket expenses……

These are the people who deserve our taxpayers money. Its called a right to life.