health care

Greetings all! Health Care for All NC has begun its short-session "Two Over Ten" push, but this time it is not focused on Verla Insko's "Health Care for All" bill. Instead, this session the push is for House Bill 1897, which creates a Healthcare Policy Council that would make recommendations to the General Assembly on how to integrate public and private healthcare services to form an effective, coordinated system of healthcare for North Carolina.

The AP is reporting that the universal health care plan put forward by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Robert Bennett (R-UT) could be operational by 2012 and be budget-neutral by 2014. A budget-neutral item brings in as much revenue as it costs. The kicker to this plan and one of the reasons it has a host of Republicans as co-sponsors is this:

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., one of the plan's co-sponsors, said the report showed it is possible to provide health care coverage for all Americans — including the estimated 47 million people who are uninsured — without a large tax increase. "We can get everyone in America health care coverage without breaking the bank," he said.

Universal Health Care without tax increases? How is it possible and where is the catch?

Shouldn't $1.6 million dollars of your hard earned North Carolina tax money give you the right to know and refuse exposure to hazardous pesticides, herbicides, and chemicals? If Governor Easley can spend $1.6 million tax payer dollars on a pesticide plan to protect farmworkers shouldn't the plan also include protecting the citizens of North Carolina as well. The plan should be comprehensive and not discriminate between industries, companies, workers, and citizens. Tell the Director of the State Office of Rural Health and Community Care, Mr. John Price to implement a plan that protects everyone's right to know when being exposed to hazardous pesticides, herbicides, and chemicals.

J.D. Power and Associates is a name you are probably familiar with from automobile ads, touting their consumer satisfaction and reliability. But, J.D. Power has also undertaken the second of its surveys on consumer satisfaction in the health care industry. Factors studied are: "coverage and benefits; choice of doctors, hospitals and pharmacies; information and communication; approval processes; claims processing; insurance statements; and customer service."

Foxx replied as she often does, throwing numbers into an equation attempting to validate her stances and to justify her voting record.

Frontpaged, though the title might be better phrased "Foxx on Not Health Care." Thanks for staying up late to write this.

When did it become acceptable for Americans to allow

Torture? Yesterday, after congress failed to override a presidential veto of a bill outlwaing "Torture". The president referred to "Torture" as a valuable tool in America's ability to fight terrorism. Now it is absolutely our national policy.

Rendition; Where was the outrage?

When we all learned about the Secret prisons, where we took people to be tortured and that our President and Vice President had approved them; Why was our President not impeached?

The Breast Care Center at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center is going to help save and improve the lives of many women. As the son of a breast cancer survivor, I appreciate and understand how important these efforts are to breast cancer screening and treatment in Fayetteville. Nevertheless, I think about my father and two brothers. According to recent cancer statistics,1 in 2 men will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, and 1 in 6 will have prostate cancer. To make matters worse, North Carolina has one of the highest rates of prostate cancer in the nation. Locally, Fayetteville Mayor J. L. Dawkins lost his repeated battle with prostate cancer in 2000. My only conclusion is that Fayetteville needs a companion Prostate Care Center for men.

Democrats Dissatisfied With Democratic Leadership and Congress

cross-posted from The Progressive Pulse.

Max Borders.

Borders is a policy analyst and media coordinator at Art Pope's Civitas Institute, and contributes to their blog Red Clay Citizen. He published a hate piece recently on our own Adam Searing, titled Mandate Mania: Does Adam Searing Hate People? Max implies that, yes, Adam does hate people. In addition, Max knows this about Adam: he lies to himself, he wants you to pay for things you don't need, he wants poor people to be uninsured (an odd accusation against the Director of the North Carolina Health Access Coalition), he hates freedom, and finally, Max knows that "Adam thinks he's smarter than you."

Adam is too much of a gentleman to rebut Borders' vitriolic post.

But I'm not.

Cross-posted from The Progressive Pulse

If Paul Krugman is right and passing health care legislation should be the number one priority of Progressives, then this is welcome news.