Knitting, Singing, the Universe and all....

Please follow this link to support the Weiner Amendment extending MEDICARE for ALL to the Health care Bill in front of Congress. The link take you to a fax you can send from your computer- and gives you phone numbers for your representatives as well as the major players, and the White House. Let your will be known! Here's the scoop: Breaking news from PNHP (Physicians for National Health Plan). The Weiner amendment 'could' come to a floor vote on Friday or Saturday with maybe a 20 minute debate allowed. Your calls and faxes were instrumental in making this happen. Now is the time to push hard on your congressperson to vote for the Weiner amendment. Even if it fails, it is very important to show that it has support. If the entire health reform bill fails, as it very well may, then Medicare For All has a real shot at enactment when Congress realizes it MUST address health care. Here's the link to the FAX YOUR REPRESENTATIVE page. Here's the link where yo...

" Be not simply good, be good for something ." -Thoreau Contact your congress people and representatives! Email, web sites info, and ground address for US Senators/Representatives can all be found here . And here is NY Congressman Anthony Weiner's site, Countdown to HealthCare, where you can sign petitions, get up-to-the-minute informatin on what and how things are moving through congress. I am tempted to move to NY state, just to claim Weiner as my rep! Don't you wonder how a Democratic President, elected on a platform of reform, with over whelming Democrat majorities in the House and the Senate can take a hugely popular social program and turn it into a corporate give away? This is about as good for us as Medicare part D (which essentially gave billions of dollars to the pharmaceutical companies!) That's just what's happening with the "HealthCare for America" act recently introduced by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. the way it reads, right out of ...

Speaking about HealthCare.... I believe the polls that state that a large majority of Americans are so sick of how health insurance companies control the delivery of services, that over 60% (many plls place the figure more than 10 points higher!!)of us want - NEED!- a Public Option - (Medicare for All - type option!). Take a look at what has happened to just that type of program in Wisconsin - it is TOO popular, and the state is about to stop enrolling citizens! On June 15th of this year, Wisconsin began experimenting with a public health option, BadgerCare, to adults without children in a program called BadgerCare Plus Core Program. It is very basic, has a one-time enrollment fee, no monthly premiums, small co-pays, and covers primary care and generic medications. So many adults have signed up for the program that as of October 6th, sign-ups will be suspended and those who sign up after that day will be put on a waiting list . The Wisconsin legislature approved (it's essentia...

Food for Life.... Did you know that if you eat the RIGHT kind of chocolate you increase the odds of preventing skin cancer! - fortunately for us "foodies" Callebut is frequently in the cupboard! Lifelong learning..... About the furor over PRESIDENT (just reminding you, he IS the President - some people seem to have forgotten this already!) Obama's speech to School Kids this next week, I have a few things to say. Firstly, Just about every President in past 30 years has given a similar speech (Bush 43's speech might not be seen as so inspirational) Here's a little "helping people remember" news video: Secondly, I believe that much of the Neo-Conservative back-lash we are seeing right now, is because there is rampant, unacknowledged RACISM still operating in our country. Think about it - when people say (or yell, as is happening more frequently!) that they "want their country back" or "he's not my president, and I don't have to liste...

Guess what?! Ted Kenndy's Healthcare Plan had been called "Medicare for All". And that's just what he was trying to get passed for several years: read about the KENNEDY AND DINGELL Bill here Universal coverage in 5 years with a 3 stage phase-in. Kennedy's HELP (Health Education Labor & Pensions) Committee PASSED his bill this July and it is ...where?! ... in front of Congress. It's titled " The Affordable Health Choices Act " - click the link to read both the announcement and the text of the Bill. Amazing. We need it now! Call, Write, Email, PESTER your representatives into sincere consideratin of this bill!!

Thom Hartmann blogged, quite clearly!, about Medicare-for-All recently, here . A highlight: Just pass a simple bill – it could probably be just a few lines, like when Medicare was expanded to include disabled people – that says that any American citizen can buy into the program at a rate to be set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which reflects the actual cost for us to buy into it. So it’s revenue neutral! It could be made revenue-neutral , simply by making it available to any citizen who wants to purchase it! Now, that's very similar to what I was saying earlier this week... to be able to purchase Government sponsored, single-payer, basic health coverage would lighten our financial burden significantly... so much so, that we might even consider purchasing additional coverage from some Insurance Company, since we would not have to spend so much for basic coverage!!! Want to let your representatives know w...

" Under the greatest adversity there exists the greatest potential for doing good, both for oneself and others ." ~Dalai Lama And one of Montana's Methodist Ministers, Joan Uda, wrote an editorial for the Great Falls Tribune this week, asking essentially, What would God think of this? Here's a small excerpt: I'm startled by the frenzied opposition to health care reform. Are these good people Christians? Do they recall that Jesus will judge us not by how well we've kept our earnings for ourselves but by how we have cared for "the least of these"? Matthew 25:31-46. This is a matter of salvation. I don't believe God supports any particular solution for health care. But I do believe God wants everyone, even the least, included. And I believe Jesus Christ calls us to display our best Christian virtues in the debate on these issues. Here's George Lakoff's perspective on how language influences the discussion on Health Care policies this seas...