healthcare

North Carolina's own Elizabeth Edwards has teamed up with with MoveOn.Org and Emily’s List to promote electing more women to Congress.

In an email sent today, Elizabeth writes:

Health care is an issue that is really close to my heart. And I know it matters to a lot of Americans, particularly mothers. But time and again, Republicans have blocked progress on expanding health care—most recently the expansion of the children's health insurance program—and on so many other important issues.

That's why we need to elect more progressive women in Congress in 2008, to stand with President Obama on healthcare and other key issues.

A fiscal analysis of SB 840 (Kuehl), which would establish in California a single-payer health care system and its companion financing mechanism. (PDF)

Fiscal Projection Overview. We estimated the revenues and costs of the [single-payer plan] for 5.5 years.. Our estimate indicates that that the SPP would result in a net shortfall of $42 billion in 2011-12 (the first full year of operations) and $46 billion in 2015-16.

Wow. Single-payer in California will cost the state $42 billion in its first year, this is much different than the analysis done five years ago by The Lewin Group where the program rolled out as cost neutral. What happened and is it the death knell of single-payer in California?

Veritas.

This Latin word for Truth is dead, but is its meaning? It very definition implies an honesty we rarely see in our own lives let alone in politics.

Today's Quote of the Day, from Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP) deals with two types of markets and their relationship to health care. It is based on an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The theory of the various market systems is not my specialty, however, this articles does a good job of simplifying the competing market models.

Individual resources and choices determine the distribution of health care, with little sense of collective obligation or a role for government. Known as market justice, this approach derives from principles of individualism, self-interest, personal effort, and voluntary behavior. The contrasting approach, social justice, allocates goods and services according to the individual's needs. It stems from principles of shared responsibility and concern for the communal well-being, with government as the vehicle for ensuring equity.

Now, I actually think that Ayn Rand did a good job of "imagining" the worst case scenario in the social justice market in Atlas Shrugged. If you are looking for the worst-case scenario in the market justice model, look no further than health care in America.

Software development - I believe in market justice. Auto manufacturing - I believe in market justice (more so than many Democrats and Republicans that feel we should prop up Michigan's failing auto industry). A system which decides the very life and death of people - not so much.

...Social justice in health care requires universal coverage and ensured access to care, whether through social insurance, private insurance, or some combination.

World AIDS Day occurs on Dec. 1. It’s a time to celebrate the lives of the estimated 29,500 North Carolinians who live with the disease each day. It’s also a day to reflect on how much more we have to do in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.

North Carolina Democrats are committed to making each day count by passing a state budget this year that provides:

• More than $235,000 to expand public health lab testing, including HIV testing for pregnant women.
• $2 million for local health departments, historically black colleges and universities, and other community organizations for HIV counseling, testing, and early medical interventions.
• The $2 million also includes money for three community-based programs that handle case management, outreach, transportation, referrals for housing and medical care, and other services.
• $500,000 for funding to support peer-to-peer counseling efforts

Cross posted (stolen) from Progressive Pulse

A new report from the Center for Economic Policy Research indicates that working and middle class families are continuing to hurt by the economy. This is the result of Republican efforts to serve the extreme rich at the expense of ordinary Americans.

The new report, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Job Quality in the United States over the Three Most Recent Business Cycles" finds that

The US economy has created fewer good jobs in the 2000's than was the case over comparable periods in the 1980's and 1990's. The report analyzed annual data from the March Current Population Survey for the years 1979 through 2006 and shows that while the current business cycle has seen an increase in the share of jobs that pay at least $17 an hour, this gain has been more than offset by a decrease in the share of jobs that offer employer-provided health insurance (down 3.1 percent points) and pension coverage (down 4.9 percentage points).

Republicans will try to tell you that the American economy is not in trouble. And indeed, multinational corporations and the extreme rich aren't hurting a bit. But for the average American it's a different story . . .

Health Care for All NC, along with co-sponsors, NC Community Health Center Association, NC Nurses Association and the NC Pediatric Society will hold a series of 3 regional forums to seek public input and active participation in the strong need for systemic change in our health care system.

Health Care for All is coming. Polls show that the public is strongly in favor of systemic change. Currently, only the health insurance industry is well funded and focused on influencing the outcome. The rest of us need to identify our priorities and speak with a unified voice. The time to begin these efforts is now. The most effective time to affect change is between General Assembly Sessions.

Who Should Attend:

§ Members of our sponsoring organizations

I regularly receive the RWJF News Digest: Health Insurance Coverage from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation . Today I was sad to see the following title heading up their coverage:

Health Care Industry Gives More to Democrats Despite Fears of Their Proposals

But, as I read through this article, there was a glimmer of hope. That glimmer? John Edwards. More after the break.

Votes against Key Domestic Priorities for North Carolinians

Last night North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole voted to slash billions for vital domestic priorities in the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education spending bill. Dole voted for a motion that would have cut $9 billion from the appropriations bill that funds research on cancer, diabetes, and heart disease as well as programs such as Head Start, Pell Grants and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

“Elizabeth Dole is willing to give George Bush a blank check to spend billions of dollars in Iraq, but refuses to meet our commitments to provide quality healthcare and education here at home,” DSCC spokesman Matthew Miller said. “With this vote, Dole proved once again that her misplaced priorities are out of step with North Carolinians.”

Frontpaged by Anglico.