Talk about a bailout… if Congress adopts a Massachusetts-like healthcare reform plan, that will be a windfall of unprecedented proportions for the usual rogues’ gallery of healthcare corporate interests.  So as Sen. Ted Kennedy holds his meetings to craft legislation, rest assured, no patients will be asked the really critical questions – I’m betting some providers and professional caregivers – carefully selected to stay on-message – are part of these meetings, and I would guarantee that the money interests in insurance, pharmaceuticals and such are right there too. 

So while the American people may think the plans of the presidential candidates are the main options for reform and that work will begin after we know who will be president and who will be in the new Congress, the decisions are well underway. 

Read about Sen. Ted Kennedy’s work, touted as secret, but obviously not so very secret: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/24/kennedy-secretly-crafts-health-care-plan/

But I decided to day and told the audience at C-M University that I would hope there would be a “Sen. Ted Kennedy- citizen Donna Smith cancer patient litmus test” for any new legislation offered, and here’s how that litmus test should work.

I’d like any patient who hears the words “You have cancer” to be afforded the same decency and dignity as Sen. Kennedy was given as a cancer patient when he learned of his illness.  And I guarantee Sen. Kennedy’s first thoughts when he learned of his illness were not about money and insurance and who would pay for his care or if he would even be able to get care or if his family would be bankrupted by his care or if he’d be better off dead than bankrupting his family.  That was my reality when I learned I had cancer.  And according to the RNs I have spoken to, it is the reality for many, many patients in this nation.

So, that is how I told the audience I believe the new Congress should evaluate their work on a new HR676 draft or any other healthcare reform legislation:  Does every cancer patient upon diagnosis have the same right to treatment as Sen. Ted Kennedy did upon diagnosis?    If not, why not?  And if a plan with treatment disparities is to be our law, then let’s be honest about whose life is determined to be most valuable and whose is determined to be most expendable and who deserves to be made to suffer their way through cancer treatment.  A check-off system of possible life-value ratings could and should become a transparent part of a treatment plan if Sen. Kennedy’s legislation makes one cancer patient eligible for more care than another or subject to the financial whims of the insurance companies.  Full disclosure, folks, full disclosure.

This is what happens to insured Americans now: http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2008/10/28/medical-debt-sending-many-over-financial-brink.html

So if the new Kennedy effort doesn't stop this sort of financial and emotional assault and battery by the for-profit healthcare system, then the new legislation should not become law.  I do not think he'd want to leave broken lives labeled with his law.

And I would bet you my next paycheck that the draft legislation already circling the DC Beltway wouldn’t even come close to meeting that cancer patient litmus test I suggest.  Patients have a right to know if the plans being drafted are simply meant to make a few legislators feel less guilty about the most glaring disparities we now have in access to care or if the plans truly start wiping away those biases. 

I’d guess as we are seeing insurance companies anxiously awaiting the new plans, we aren’t moving toward better things for most patients.  And if Sen. Kennedy truly wants to leave a legacy of a better health system, then he can walk a mile in the shoes of fellow cancer patients before he wraps his arms around a healthcare industry bailout cloaked in phony promises of reform. 

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"It's not that we didn't have good healthcare through all of this. My husband works for one of the largest corporations in the U.S. and we have some of the best healthcare coverage in the country. However, healthcare only seems to work in this country if you never get sick. The system failed us and as the bills piled up and we got more and more behind. We just can't seem to get caught up. We are now in a position that I have to go back to work so that we do not lose our home and we can afford to put food on our table." Robyn adds. In today's for-profit health insurance environment, the Winters family is not alone.

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Sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

Eighty-two percent of Americans think the U.S. healthcare system should be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt (Commonwealth Fund, Aug. 7, 2008). America's nurses know that only single-payer, improved and expanded Medicare for all will fix our broken system and the tragedy of our devastated families. HR 676, by U.S. Rep John Conyers, is the most comprehensive, cost effective way to achieve guaranteed healthcare for all.

For more information, or to contact this patient: Liz Jacobs, RN 510/273-2232.

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"Desperate to save my daughter, my family rallied public support to shine a spotlight on CIGNA's policies. On Dec. 20, the Armenian community, and the California Nurses Association organized a protest to pressure CIGNA to approve the transplant. It eventually did that same day, but it was too late. Nataline died that evening."

"My beautiful girl passed away when our insurance company CIGNA denied our insurance. This demonstrates what is so fundamentally wrong with our healthcare system. Insurance companies have a stranglehold on our health. Their first priority is to make profits for their shareholders – and the way they do that is by denying care which means denying people healthy lives and sometimes life itself."

—————————–

Sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

Eighty-two percent of Americans think the U.S. healthcare system should be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt (Commonwealth Fund, Aug. 7, 2008). America's nurses know that only single-payer, improved and expanded Medicare for all will fix our broken system and the tragedy of our devastated families. HR 676, by U.S. Rep John Conyers, is the most comprehensive, cost effective way to achieve guaranteed healthcare for all.

For more information, or to contact this patient: Liz Jacobs, RN 510/273-2232.

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Author:
Ian Wright

Article:
A vehicle insurance claim is given when you are searching for
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When you file a claim against your auto insurance, you may be
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guilty of causing this to happen, there is a chance that you may
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not be too much and it will not be something that goes on
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the event to your insurance firm and they find out that it has
occurred by requesting a history of your driving record, they
are likely to increase your rates maybe even higher and they
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When you are a risk to a firm, the insurance firm could likely
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"It's not that we didn't have good healthcare through all of this. My husband works for one of the largest corporations in the U.S. and we have some of the best healthcare coverage in the country. However, healthcare only seems to work in this country if you never get sick. The system failed us and as the bills piled up and we got more and more behind. We just can't seem to get caught up. We are now in a position that I have to go back to work so that we do not lose our home and we can afford to put food on our table." Robyn adds. In today's for-profit health insurance environment, the Winters family is not alone.

—————————–

Sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

Eighty-two percent of Americans think the U.S. healthcare system should be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt (Commonwealth Fund, Aug. 7, 2008). America's nurses know that only single-payer, improved and expanded Medicare for all will fix our broken system and the tragedy of our devastated families. HR 676, by U.S. Rep John Conyers, is the most comprehensive, cost effective way to achieve guaranteed healthcare for all.

For more information, or to contact this patient: Liz Jacobs, RN 510/273-2232.

Go to Source

Above is Deborah Burger, RN, CNA/NNOC Council of Presidents, shares a light moment when she returned to the bus on Monday following a press visit earlier in the day.

Below we see members of the United Steel Workers and Working America as they listen to Geri Jenkins, RN, also of the Council Of Presidents, and Deborah Burger, RN, addressing the group about what is a stake in the fight for single payer.

Before the day was over, some of the nurses went inside the Obama rally held at the Mellon Arena while others chose to attend a debate featuring single payer candidate for the U.S. Congress, Steve O'Donnell of suburban Pittsburgh.  As it has been on the other road show days, the RNs' work continues late into the evening and yet no one complains — ever. 

And after watching this sort of devotion, I can say without any doubt at all, this truly is the work of the angels. I also know that when the nation finally comes to its senses and passes single payer healthcare, it will have been educating efforts like this that garnered the sort of citizen knowledge and support that will be required to turn dreaming and educating into reality.  And the nurses will have been the constant pressure required to push the immovable force of political will into action. I am blessed to be along on this journey.

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