Consumers Union: Tell the new prez we need smart health biz

"If you know of friends and family who have put off their dreams for fear of losing their health insurance, or got sicker because they couldn't afford health care, please forward this message on to them. The big banks, insurance companies and automakers are lining up at the new President's door; let's make sure Americans' need for quality, affordable health care is heard, too."

This is what it's all about, to me. I am a living example, and there are many many many out there, of someone the business side of the health care system has failed, simply because it has maintains the agenda of profits over care. Insurance and health coverage companies, legislators, and perhaps even drug companies (as C.U. maintains) are screwing us over for massive profits. When a person cannot afford to see a doctor, that person will get more sickly.

Someone could lose a job because they cannot afford to care for themselves. It happens; it happened to me, not long ago. I worry today, without health insurance since I am currently between jobs, that something might ruin my day, big time. Nobody cares, and nobody can do anything about it, except if I demand that an ER give me basic care. That is the default answer in a broken system -- ERs are not meant for basic care! I don't want to subscribe to that, but I will probably need to at some point. There is NOTHING for unemployed people, even if they served in the military (the deal is a bit less brutal, then), and I didn't. I don't want to go down that road of visiting the ER for every little issue.

I will be on the road to the Capitol if it doesn't start getting on the right path with health care. I don't specifically want some universal health care program -- namely, if the government runs it, I don't want it! -- but I will be awfully loud and clear with my opinions if the system, private-run, lawfully fair to humans and not just investors, is not reinvented. It has been this poor an overall system for health care in the U.S., for at least a decade or more, based on my personal knowledge. If the system's failures mean I might die too soon, too needlessly, then I hope the Capitol has good security, because I will try to righteously take a few lame Congressmen with me. Ridding of a few large stains on our Democracy will at least be one thing I was able to do before I leave. OK, maybe that's a bit severe. Perhaps I'll just throw eggs at them, or golf balls. See http://middleclassparty.wordpress.com. The "Tee" Party for America -- yeah!

The big banks, insurance companies and automakers are lining up at the new President's door looking for help. Let's make sure that real people like us are heard too! I just sent an email to the President-elect urging him to make affordable, quality health care coverage a top priority along with the economy. Would you take a moment to do the same?

We can't expect our economy to recover unless we make sure families aren't going without needed health care or going bankrupt just to pay for it. We saw what happened when our leaders let Wall Street run amok. We can't afford to continue to let the big insurance and drug companies dictate our health care. Rising premiums and higher co-pays and deductibles are the result, and our care isn't getting any better.

The President-elect campaigned on improving our health care system along with our economy. Let's make sure he knows we want him to follow through on that promise.

You can join me and send an email at: http://www.prescriptionforchange.org/

Thank you!

- jR

MoveOn announces 'most important campaign ever'

MoveOn announces 'most important campaign ever'

Impressive. MoveOn.org says they're going after the lobbyists. Who would believe this who is not a full-fledged liberal Kool-Aid drinker? I frankly find it hard to believe.

It's obvious, it is true: We need to get rid of myopically motivated, morally questionable corporate-agenda-floggers to achieve legitimate progress and improvements in a wide variety of areas. There are many people seeking sway in Washington, though. MoveOn.org is of course omitting many in this email from their tiny little far-left liberal CentCom in NYC.

I think MoveOn.org is invested in blockading others so that special-interest liberal lobbyists -- those who favor and fund Democrats -- will have more room to proceed. It is that simple, I would gamble. They ought to be called on it.

They are speaking to a pack of amateur activists with little use for in-depth facts, perhaps, but their omission of the more powerful lobbies needs to be brought out, loud and strong. Notice that there is no mention of education lobbies -- which are steadily eroding the value of our public education with the watering down (and filtering all leaders from fed to state to local) with interest to protecting bad teachers and apathetic education leaders, the broad reach and influence of labor lobbies (a wide range, they give members' money to liberal ideals only, and force-feed influence about liberal agendas to their members), and the state and local government employee lobbies (these guys fund more politicians than anyone and are around 98% Democrat-funding, which makes me thoroughly suspicious of every government worker statewide and locally). There's the common joke, for government workers, that they would have to kill their supervisor to lose their job, generally. There's a logical motivation for that absurd comment, and the monstrous lobby machine for gov't workers is clearly party to that problem.

See for yourself at OpenSecrets.org -- the "Heavy Hitters" lists shows who is leading among cash cows for political parties.

When grouped, these labor and employee and teachers' unions are vastly more influential than any energy or medical field lobbying groups. Yet, we moan and groan -- liberals do -- about the industry lobbyists. How is it we are going to change energy and health care, but not teaching and labor, and that is ? That is a clear agenda that is not mindful of everyone, but of liberal groups.

I am for excellent teachers and effective workers. I am one. Or, I have thought so. I.Q. of 130, business educated, helped start three companies and I find myself a bit off the tracks right now. That's unfortunate for me and my wife, but no one else. But the lobbying problem is a bigger, broader problem.

It seems there is a goal with lobbyists to level the playing field not for excellence, but for the mundane and uninspired to excel in teaching, but gaining ridiculously high incomes for very nontechnical jobs, and other offensive things that are ruining education, manufacturing, and more. If the lobbies, all lobbying groups, were at all balanced in their motivations, it would be a good thing. They prove they do not have any balance -- they are not only self-serving, but vacuously so.

Begin forwarded message:

There are literally tens of thousands of lobbyists in Washington, funded by countless millions from corporations and industry groups. The oil and coal companies. The pharmaceutical industry. The HMOs. The telecoms. They're all gearing up right now to stop any bold health care bill or energy plan dead in its tracks.

They're going to fight Obama at every step. We have to be prepared to fight back harder.

That's why we've launched a huge campaign to flood Washington with the voices of real Americans who are crying out for change. On TV, on billboards and buses, in district offices and the halls of Congress, we're going to amplify the voices of MoveOn members and make Barack Obama's progressive mandate impossible to ignore.

Our plan is really ambitious. And it'll take serious money. MoveOn doesn't have Exxon or Pfizer to go to—we only have each other. Can you chip in $15 per month to fund this big campaign? It's easy—we bill your credit card each month, and you can cancel any time. Just click here:

https://pol.moveon.org/donate/gobig.html?id=15164-6281706-tz9M5jx&t=3

After the election, MoveOn members felt strongly that we needed to keep the momentum going and continue organizing for change.

Right now, volunteers are gathering hundreds of thousands of stories and photos and signatures of the real Americans who are hungry for change. We'll deliver them to our representatives in Washington in January, in the biggest day of grassroots action MoveOn has ever organized.

Obama won a powerful mandate, and we're going to make sure nobody forgets that.

Even with volunteers doing almost all the work, we'll still need money to pay organizers, print materials, and run ads. Can you help out with a monthly contribution of $15?

https://pol.moveon.org/donate/gobig.html?id=15164-6281706-tz9M5jx&t=4

Thanks for all you do.

–Peter, Ilyse, Justin, Wes and the rest of the team