Year-End Observations

Year-End Status

I just wrote the Year-End Status and placed it into the Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine! News.

Please go there to see the graph, the data and the conclusions about the status.

Summary:

• U.S. House support was a little under 19% 3 months ago; now slightly over 19%.
• U.S. Senate support is still at zero.
• U.S. Presidential front-runner candidates' support is still at zero.
• We, the citizens, need to exericse the power of the people with our notes and our votes to get the U.S. House, U.S. Senate and a new U.S. President to support the Will of the People..

Mind-Boggling Situation and Smiling Health Insurance Companies

ALL of the front-runner U.S. Presidential candidates have health care proposals that do the following for health insurance companies do one or more of the following actions:

• Help keep them in business (over 1500 of them)
• Increase their income from the mandates, forcing people to buy insurance
• Increase their income from government subsidies, since there will be an estimated $100 billion additional spending by the government to cover the uninsured, and much of that money will go to private health insurance companies

It's mind-boggling that this insult is occurring to our global competitiveness and to the financial impact on individuals and families. But I am sure that the health insurance companies are smiling.

Immediate Challenge to Supporters of U.S. Presidential Candidates

To get Health Care for All it would be best to have a supportive U.S. President.

Most U.S. politicians are waiting for U.S. citizens to communicate in an overwhelming manner to the U.S. Congress about the need to establish single-payer national health insurance.

To help, people can join: www.99oh9.org, then select Join. When joining, each person should check the box for receiving Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine! reminders ( four times per year ) for when it's time again to send a note to the person's U.S. Representative and two U.S. Senators.

During the month of January, as the U.S. Congress settles in after the Christmas holidays, they need to received thousands of notes of support for single-payer ... notes that are also copied to the campaign offices of the U.S. Presidential candidates.

***** What Actions to Take *****

Join here to indicate that you are ready to act to write notes to your U.S. Representative and U.S. Senators
http://www.ninenineohnine.org/pages/Join

As soon as you join you will be given the message with the necessary link necessary to take the action of writing to the U.S. Congress.

WHEN YOU WRITE your note ... also send a copy to the campaign office of whatever U.S. Presidential candidate you support.

Fifty more deaths every day

I went to the funeral of a friend yesterday. I thought of the average of 50 funerals that are held each day, every day, in the U.S. for people who had no health insurance. The National Institute of Health estimates the total as 18,000 per year.

I also thought of the hundreds of thousands who are in financial and emotional and physical stress due to the way health care is financed in America.

The average person in the United States has less health care and lower life expectancy ... at more than twice the cost per person ... as the average of ALL the other industrialized countries
of the world, who provide Health Care to All of their people.

Spaghetti Dinner Headlines

A few of the examples of headlines from only one small city of one state in the U.S. ... (with the last names only identified by the first initial)

• "Fund-raiser set for D. family" ... and the bills it must pay for Cameron's hospitalization and recovery (from a serious head injury)
• "Benefit dinner/dance for heart disease and car accident victim"
• "Tom W. benefit spaghetti dinner and bake sale"
• "Community benefit planned for W. tonight at BC High School"
• "4-H Club Hoping to Raise Final $4,000" ... for a Paws With A Cause dog for 19 year old with cerebral palsy
• "Benefit this Sunday for leukemia patient's family" ... to help offset medical and funeral costs
• "Saginaw native auctions off America's original 50-star flag" to help pay ... costs related to his diabetes and partial foot amputation.
• "Benefit Planned for A." ... to raise money to help the family.
• "Forget-me-not" "Auburn family, struck by troubles, gets a little help"
• "Benefit dinner planned to help Mc." ... to help with expenses accrued during cancer treatments
• "Fundraiser will help with dental work"
• "S. benefit planned" ... to pay for medical bills that are not covered by insurance.
• "Her 'special' arm"... puffy and swollen and has a hue of blue. Friends of the M. are holding a benefit for the family ...
• "A past of help, a present need" Friends and family of M. L. are sponsoring a benefit to raise money to help pay for medical bills and prescription costs associated with a second kidney transplant ... The ... bills are more than most people can comprehend ...
• ... and on ... and on ... and on ... just in one small city of one state of the U.S. as per the Midland Daily News of Midland, Michigan
  

Answer: the Profits!

Yesterday I gave two examples of the impact of single-payer:

• Decisions will be more in the hands of medical teams, referring to the 17-year old girl who died the night before
  
• Common sense will still apply regarding medical and economic factors
  

So ... if economic factors still apply, then what is the difference in what we will have with single-payer national health insurance.?

Answer: profits will not influence decision-making!

By having non-profit national health insurance we will no longer have people in private health insurance companies making decisions partly based these topics:

• their bonus checks in their income and
• how well their company performs in terms of its profits and its stock market price

Impact of Single-Payer --- Two Examples

Example #1 - When we have single-payer national health insurance, decisions will be more in the hands of medical teams

Last night, December 20, it was reported by the Associated Press, as seen in Forbes and MSNBC, that 17-year old Nataline Sarkisyan " ... died just hours after her health insurance company reversed its decision not to pay for a liver transplant that doctors said the girl needed."

Example #2 - When we have single-payer national health insurance, common sense will still apply regarding medical and economic factors

Do not think that single-payer national health insurance will mean that a patient can always get everything that he or she wants in terms of medical care. In fact, there is a chance that there will be even more of an uproar of complaints about medical care then compared to now. There are certainly complaints in other countries. However, the average person in those other countries reports a very high degree of satisfaction with health care. They know that they and all of their neighhors have access to health care.

Just two days ago, December 19, the following Associated Press article was reported by MSNBC:

Very obese less likely to get kidney transplant

"Very obese people who need a kidney transplant are far less likely to get one than normal weight people, and when they do, their wait is an average of a year to 18 months longer, a new study found.

The reason seems to be both economic and medical. Very obese people have a greater risk for complications, and the transplant centers often must bear the additional cost of treating those problems."

For more information, see the remainder of the article.

Complexity of Current Health Care Financing -- Unimagineable

This morning I added the following list to "Single-Payer: Comparison to the Current System" under "Complex with Many Costs":

• The medical component of:
• Workers compensation programs
• Medical malpractice premiums
• Auto insurance

And I had thought the previous list was already long about where our tax dollars and out-of-pocket dollars are going for health care. It is truly unimagineable, a word not in the dictionary, but it should be!

Worker compensation programs are, of course, part of the complexity of covering health care, since that is a primary purpose of those programs.

Some people cry out about malpractice premiums. National health insurance automatically eliminates a major portion of the number of dollars for a possible lawsuit claim. Since health care for life is automatically provided, one cannot sue for "health care for the rest of the life of the injured party."

Inputs from others have been helpful. Yesterday as I was spreading the word, someone
strongly suggested that I look on my automobile insurance bill for the words "coordinated medical benefits" for a sizeable portion of my insurance bill. (He was correct!) He also pointed out that this additional health insurance will not likely pay anything if I have to go to the hospital due to an automobile accident. Why? Because this is secondary, not primary, health insurance. Not only that, some people might not even think to submit their health care bills to the automobile insurance company.

I tried a few years ago to document on a flow chart where all the money flows among the private health insurance companies and government programs. I didn't get very far; it was overwhelming. We need to move from complex to simple for the financing of health care!

Here is the link to the above web page.

Raul Grijalva [AZ-7] - U.S. Representative cosponsor of H.R. 676

To U.S. Representative XRaul Grijalva, Arizona 7th District:

Thank you for being a cosponsor for U.S. House Resolution 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act.

When I spoke with three of your staff members in June 2007, they made it very clear that you are a strong supporter of single-payer national health insurance.

Your support is now documented at the at the Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine! web site report regarding Arizona's 7th District.

Regards, Bob Haiducek, Health and Health Care Advocate
Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine! campaign, part of the Health Care for All Movement

Tip: people can channel their energy

As part of my "Spread the Word" effort, I spoke this afternoon, December 18, with a lady who looks forward to seeing the movie SiCKO, but she then expects to be both very mad and very sad afterwards.

She very much liked my suggestion that she use the energy of being upset in a useful way by taking positive actions to get non-profit national health insurance. Then I briefly mentioned the value and importance of writing a personally-composed note. I also mentioned that sending notes via the mail-box is fine, that I met with a mail-room supervisor in Washington, D.C. in early November and learned that there is often no hold-up of the mail at the mailroom.

Xavier Becerra [CA-31] - U.S. Representative cosponsor of H.R. 676

To U.S. Representative Xavier Becerra, California 31st District:

Thank you for being a cosponsor for U.S. House Resolution 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act.

You are very clear in your excellent audio [mp3] (Health care is a right, not a privilege.) that you support a single payer, universal health care and the reasons why.

Your support is now documented at the at the Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine! web site report of California's 31st District, including a link to your excellent audio.

Regards, Bob Haiducek, Health and Health Care Advocate
Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine! campaign, part of the Health Care for All Movement

Tammy Baldwin [WI-2] - U.S. Representative cosponsor of H.R. 676

To U.S. Representative Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin 2nd District:

Thank you for being a cosponsor for U.S. House Resolution 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act.

Your strong advocacy of single-payer national health insurance is clear from my research, which included finding the following quote of yours, which has been documented at the at the Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine! web site report of Wisconsin's 2nd District:

“We must form a health care for all movement that matches Martin Luther King’s movement for civil liberties,” Baldwin said. – Beloit News 1-16-07

It is my hope that the Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine! "Notes and Votes" campaign will build into a firestorm of inputs to the U.S. Congress that will help to achieve single-payer quickly and, therefore, help to minimize the civil disobedience that may expand from an ever-worsening of the health care situation for an ever-increasing number of Americans.

Regards,

Bob Haiducek, Health and Health Care Advocate
Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine! campaign, part of the Health Care for All Movement

Sanford Bishop [GA-2] - U.S. Representative cosponsor of H.R. 676

To U.S. Representative Sanford D. Bishop Jr., Georgia 2nd District:

Thank you for being the newest cosponsor for U.S. House Resolution 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act. The support level in the U.S. House is now at 20%, as seen at the chart of the Single-Payer Support Monitor.

Thanks for clearly stating at your web site what your position is: “I believe that no American should ever be forced to make a choice between a doctor’s visit and food for his or her family. Health care should be a right, not a privilege for the elite few or a financial obstacle for small businesses. We in government have an obligation to put an end to the disparity.”

Both your support and your quote have been documented at the Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine! web site report of Georgia's 2nd District Supporters.

Regards,

Bob Haiducek, Health and Health Care Advocate
Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine! campaign, part of the Health Care for All Movement

Internet addresses registered for Health Care for All NOW

Yesterday I discovered that the registration for the following internet domain names was available, so I registered them:

• www.healthcareforallnow.org
• www.healthcareforallnow.com

After all, the movement is Health Care for All.

After all, when do we want Health Care for All? Now!

For now, these domain names automatically forward to www.ninenineohnine.org