Write your representatives

Add a drop to the bucket.

Senator Casey, Senator Specter, and Representative Doyle,

I am writing to express support for reform of the health insurance industry. On this issue I trust the judgment of my father, an emergency room physician, and his conclusion after significant research that a single payer health care system would be the best way to cut costs and ensure basic care for everyone in this country who needs it. Unfortunately, a single payer system does not appear to an option at this time, nor does a government run health insurance option. Of the remaining reforms on the table, I wish to express my support for the following requirements for private health insurance coverage:

1) Mandatory minimum benefits that guarantee anyone with health insurance easy access to basic preventative care;

2) Elimination of denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Additionally, I wish to express my support for the establishment of a national standard for digital medical records.

I feel that the Democratic party, with control of both houses of congress and the support of the President has no excuse not to implement these badly needed reforms.

That you for your consideration.

Nick McCullar

Not sure what to make of this

Here's a bottle of hot sauce I found in a grocery store in North Carolina.



The back says:

"Democrats have caught fire under Barack Obama and it is a well-known fact that Democrats love hot and spicy food. They will be building bridges, highways, tunnels, & new schools all across our nation. Join this heat wave of historic proportion by enjoying as much of the Democrats on Fire Hot sauce as you can. Do your part by adding fuel to the fire in this great cause!"

If I were a hyper-sensitive Democrat I might think that this was an inside joke between conservatives trying to suggest that the Democratic leadership ought to be in hell, or at least on their way there by way of a large publicly fueled fire. Of course, the language on the label is really pretty mild and even the charicatures on the front are pretty complimentary, except for Pelosi. So for now I'm pretty sure this is just trying to take advantage of the Obama brand.

Les Mis = Iran

After the 4th of July weekend Ashley and Mom and I went to see the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera's production of Les Miserables. Ashley taught "Can You Hear the People Sing" in French last year (she insists on pronouncing it "A la volonte de POOP"), and I think she's been teaching Gavroche's "Little People" song ("isn't that supposed to be sung by Napoleon?" I asked). Also, one of her co-workers was in the cast (and did a great job), so we had every excuse to go see it, and our impulsive decision was well rewarded by a great production.

Ashley said the staging was toned down a bit because they couldn't afford the expense of a rotating stage, but it was very effective nonetheless. Some of the leads were veterans of the original Broadway cast and all of the other performers lived up to their standards, I think, except for Eponine who sang a little too pop-style for my taste, and the kids, who I shouldn't be too hard on even if Cosette swapped some words around and Gavroche's song had to be abridged. Also, M. Thenardier was HUGE, easily 6' 6", towering over Jean Valjean, who was himself of appropriate size to lift carts etc.

I'd never seen a production before, but as the music started I realized that I had listened to it repeatedly on tape cassette decades back when it was one of Maya's favorites. I think she even had the poster up in her room after she came back from college.

But watching the show the theme that came constantly and depressingly to my mind was Iran. I need to read a little bit of the backstory for Les Miserables (actually, I just bought the whole book) before making comparisons about the actual events depicted in the story, but based on the stage production it is hard to miss the parallels.

The rebellion by the students is one thing, maybe just striking because they are starting to seem young to me. The French students drinking in the taverns is parallel to the secret parties held by Marjane Satrapi, her friends, and her parents in "Persepolis". The young and rebellious find their own space away from the government to be themselves and make their plans for life and for change.

Les Mis hints at some of the difficulties of even knowing what is going on in the chaos of a revolution. There is the infiltration of the rebels by the policeman Javert and his eventual mock execution. Who can be trusted? Who is informing on who? There is the escape of Jean Valjean through the sewers. Who really died? What happened to the body? Those are the foggy uncertainties which the twitterers were working to dispel, and which still shroud the backstage maneuvering of the political leadership in Iran.

The big difference of course is that the Iranian opposition is not violent, and doesn't hope to oppose the regime by force. The rebels in Les Mis had the violent examples of the French Revolution and American Independence as the mechanisms for change in society, while we have the more civilized examples of Gandhi, Mandela, and King. In both cases the willingness to face lethal violence, either certainly or just probably, is shared.

But the biggest parallel is between Eponine and Neda, young women carried along by the revolution but not at its heart, and killed as collateral damage of the government's suppression of dissent. In Les Mis Eponine's death is tragic because it is forgotten. The rebellion fails, and Marius runs off happily with Cosette, and Eponine lies dead and unclaimed.

Hopefully the Iranian political conflict will be decided by public opinion within Iran and without and will not be wiped out by a Stalinist purge. If it remains a primarily political conflict then hopefully Neda will be able to remain, however tragically and unintentionally, a symbol of the evils of violent repression and a tool for the reformation of Iranian government and society.

Single Payer Health Care

Here's the e-mail Dad sent out about Single Payer Health Care

Friends,

Americans have the world’s most technically advanced hospitals, the best educated doctors and health care workers, we spend twice as much per capita on healthcare as any other nation, but we rank 37^th (same as Cuba) in overall quality of health such as life expectancy and infant mortality. We are not getting our money’s worth.

I am writing to ask you to support Single Payer Health Care as introduced in the US House of Representatives in HR 676 and in the US Congress as Senate Bill 703. These bills are similar and if passed would provide health insurance for all citizens and legal immigrants and designate Medicare to be the single payer of health care bills: Medicare for everyone. Medicare's overhead expenses are 4%. Private insurance companies overhead is between 20-30%. The change to ‘Medicare for everyone’ alone would save about $350 billion a year, more than enough to insure all the currently uninsured. Patients will still choose their own physicians as they do with Medicare now. The physicians work for themselves as they do now. The only thing that changes is that the 20% of the health care dollar that now goes to profits for private insurance companies will go instead to insuring the uninsured.

President Obama has moved away from Single Payer Health Care. He has not given his reasons but I suspect he wants to cooperate with big insurance companies rather than battle them. It is time to remind him and his administration that Single Payer health care is the best option. The majority of physicians support this plan. In March 2008, the University of Indiana Medical School surveyed physicians around the country and found 59% supported single payer health care. Many studies have shown that the majority of physicians want a change in health care insurance system as do the majority of Americans. Physicians for a National Health Plan has online resources and information to answer any questions about how this plan would work. For interviews with some of the nations top health policy thinkers please watch the informative documentary “Health, Money and Fear” available online.

Please write to your Congressman, Senator and President Obama and tell them that the American people want to join the civilized world by making affordable health care available to all Americans.

If you live in Oregon the links to our Congressmen and President Obama can be found below. For those of you in other states I have enclosed a link to help your find your Congressmen.

Please pass this letter along to others concerned about healthcare in America.

Frank McCullar

Senator Ron Wyden

Senator Jeff Merkley

Representative David Wu

Representative Greg Walden

Representative Earl Blumenauer

Representative Peter A. DeFazio

Representative Kurt Schrader

President Barack Obama

To find your Representative try this link.

To find your Senator try this link.