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Preview - all this in less than 10 pages
Quality Affordable Health Care for All Washingtonians
Public Support for Public Campaign Financing
A New Federal Public Campaign Financing Bill
Darcy
Burner Would Have Won If . . .
5th
Legislative District Democrats Discuss Family Values
Lake Hills Newsletter
– Vigiling to Bring Our Troops Home Alive
Upcoming Events
Friday, March 23rd at 6:30 PM at
Saturday, March 24th
at 9:15 AM - Join the Center for American Progress Action Fund and SEIU for the
nation's
first Presidential forum on health care. You'll be able to watch a live
video webcast of the forum, submit
questions for the candidates in real
time, follow along with live
blogging by ThinkProgress, and voice
your opinions about the candidates.
All Democratic candidates are expected to attend.
Saturday April 28 at 10 AM at
Sound Transit East Link
Project
Public Workshops – RSVP by
clicking here
Friday, March 27 at 4-7 PM at
Saturday, March 28 at 5-7 PM at Rainier
Wednesday, April 4 at 5-7 PM at Community
Center at Mercer View (
Thursday, April 5 at 4-7 PM at
Tuesday,
April 10 at 4-7 PM at
Editor’s Notices
Please
use my DavThom@att.com address instead of
my Comcast address.
To provide better coverage of such issues as labor, Hispanics,
gays and lesbians, civil rights, health care, education, environment, peace and
others, I am seeking correspondents to report and review my reporting before publication.
Quality Affordable Health Care
for All Washingtonians
Thanks to
Americans spend $6,280
per capita per year on health care, compared to $3000 in
In
Our American Health Care consists of
1. care provided by the government (Military and Veterans
care)
2. care provided privately and paid for by the government
(Medicare, Medicaid and federal and state employees)
3. care provided privately and paid for by private health
insurance purchased by employers
4. care provided privately and paid for by private health
insurance purchased by recipients
5.
care provided
privately and not paid for (except by cost shifting to others)
The following factors make our health care
enormously expensive:
1. administratively expensive private health insurance
2. inadequate bargaining to lower escalating costs of
pharmaceuticals, medical technology and other providers, often ones with little
competition
3. expensive end-of-life care for an increasing aged
population
4. payment for uncoordinated treatment, instead of for
outcomes based on coordinated prevention and treatment (including poor
management of chronic diseases)
5.
delayed care in
emergency rooms by uninsured patients
Comprehensive health care reform must
address these issues.
1. Everyone must be provided inexpensive access to health
care paid for by our government (called single payer or Medicare-for-all).
2. To control costs, it must eliminate private health insurance
coverage (except as an optional add-on to government-paid-for coverage).
3. Our government must bargain costs with providers and
often pay based on population-based outcomes.
4. To stay within budgetary limits, treatments must be
ranked by cost-benefits and coverage limited to those most cost-beneficial
treatments which together don’t exceed the budget.
5.
Proactive (including
prevention and treatment) coordinated evidence-based care can best be provided
by managed care providers, which may be private profit, private non-profit or
public. Treatments and outcomes should
be monitored to implement improved services.
Major opposition
comes from those who would be harmed by #’s 2, 3 and 4, including private
insurers, some providers (including pharmaceuticals) which charge excessive amounts,
and some recipients who now receive enormously expensive short-term-benefit
care.
When we have a train
wreck, we need to bandage the victims.
We also need to fix the tracks. A major strategy issue is how much
attention should be paid by
Approaches which Extend Private Health Care
Insurance.
Our governor’s Blue Ribbon
Commission on Health Care Costs and Access report expresses a vision, 5
goals, 4 strategies and 16 recommendations.
These address prevention, evidence-based medicine, coordinated
management, and recommend limited expansion of coverage by private insurers. These
do not address the major cost control factors necessary to long term reform.
Washington Can! is a consumer
advocacy group and coalition
which includes labor, faith, business, provider and community
organizations. Community Health Network of Washington is a
statewide network of community health centers which sponsors the grassroots
advocacy campaign Save Health Care
in Washington. Like the governor’s
commission, Washington Can! and Save Health Care in
Bills
based on this approach include
1.
HB1071/ SB5093 expands access to health services by children
2.
SB 5930 governor’s
bill studies financing of catastrophic insurance for low-income employees in
small businesses
3.
HB 1460 requires
mental health parity measures be extended to individual and small business
insurance
4.
HB 1088 expands
mental health services for children
5.
HB 1201 expands
Medicaid access to 21 year olds
6. HB 1569 simplifies and improves the purchasing of health insurance for individuals and employees of small business. For more information about HB 1569.
Approaches which Extend Public Insurance
Nationally,
Congressmen Conyers, Kucinich, McDermott and Christensen have proposed HR 676 to provide
Medicare for all. Our
Physicians for a National Health
Program – Western Washington, Health
Care for All - Washington (HCFA-WA) and Health Care That Works (HCTW)
have formed a coalition to propose a Washington
Health Security Trust (WHST) to provide quality care, cost-controls and
universal access. The strategy is to move
toward national universal health care
coverage with an incremental State-by-state approach. This strategy has advantages over
proposals that incrementally add at-risk populations to existing costly and complex
health care financing mechanisms. WHST
bills (HB 1886 and SB 5756) didn’t pass, but the coalition will continue to
work for passage next session.
Affordable health care requires rationing. Oregonians have attempted for many years to
implement cost-controlled health
coverage for all, in which types of illness-treatments are ranked by
cost-benefit, with treatments for illnesses offered up to the point in which
the budget money has been spent.
Rationing is thus by eliminating non-cost-beneficial treatments instead
of by eliminating access to people that can’t afford coverage.
OUR CURRENT SYSTEM IS RAPIDLY
DETERIORATING. Costs are skyrocketing. Employers are becoming less competitive as
they pay more to cover their retired former employees who haven’t reached age
65 to receive Medicare. Employers are
paying for less coverage with more costs passed to employees and retirees. Employees and others are purchasing less coverage. The proportion of Americans not covered is
increasing. Those of us who aren’t
covered are foregoing or delaying treatment, allowing our illnesses to become
more severe and expensive to treat, if possible. Uncovered medical bills are a major contributor
to bankruptcy. INCREMENTAL REFORMS WILL NOT RESOLVE OUR MANY HEALTH CARE CRISES, especially
ones which go in the wrong direction by expanding the number covered by private
insurers.
My suggestion is that we expand the number of people who are covered by
Medicare, starting with young children and increasing the age limits, and
starting with age 64 and reducing the age limits as funds can be found. Some funds could be found by bargaining with
providers to obtain equitable prices, without the unreasonable regional
differences which occur today. Some by
providing medicines to seniors the same way we provide other health services,
instead of through private health insurance as in Medicare Part D. Some by eliminating expensive end-of-life
coverage. Recipients of Medicaid should
also be transferred to Medicare.
Employers should be allowed to purchase Medicare for their
employees. Individuals should be
allowed to purchase Medicare coverage.
The money that
For
more information. See Health
Advocacy Groups listed on our Website.
Affordable
Transportation
Democratic candidates from the Eastside always emphasize
education and transportation and often responsible budgeting and spending. Yet since our revenues are insufficient, meeting
both education and transportation needs is impossible within our budget. Meeting transportation needs is rendered even
more difficult, when most proposals by city, county, regional and state
officials are enormously expensive. Our officials
ignore or block less expensive alternatives suggested by citizens groups. For examples:
It would have been cheaper than alternatives to serve
transportations between southwest Seattle, downtown
Eastside Rail Corridor
The present rails used by the Washington Dinner Train
could be quickly and inexpensively adapted for use by rapid transit, with
improvements made over time. See All Aboard Washington. Yet the various transportation authorities
are proposing much more expensive and delayed rapid transit.
Flexible Daily Carpool System.
Imagine that we put toll gates on both Lake Washington
bridges, I-5 just north and south of I-405 and on state highways feeding into
I-405 (open at least during congested times).
Would-be drivers register to receive a number, destination cards, and
rider sign-in forms. Riders sign in. Drivers don’t pay tolls and/or perhaps
receive money for signed-in riders. Single
occupant drivers would pay tolls, but little other public revenue would be
necessary. Why not a trial soon? Maybe it’s too inexpensive and doesn’t
provide enough work for transportation planners, engineers and contractors. Maybe we don’t trust each other as much as
occurs in
A favorite expression (used by Representative
My
guess is that our enormously expensive transportation packages proposed for a
fall ballot will fail to pass. At some
time, our officials are going to have to face the fact that they must propose
less expensive projects, which can’t remove the necessary reality that people must
not drive single occupancy vehicles so much.
As Representative
Are the Cynics Right?
Last summer, members of Lake Hills Liberals spent 225
hours canvassing 1200 houses (containing previously unidentified voters) to
identify 600 which contained 1000 likely Democratic voters. For every 20 people we met, 10 vote for
Democrats, 8 vote for Republicans, 1 wasn’t qualified to vote and 1 was a
cynic. We quickly left the Republicans,
hoping they would forget there are elections.
We also quickly left the cynics because early experience showed they
love to argue and don’t change their minds.
By cynic, we mean those who say: “Politics is
dirty.” “All politicians are
crooks.” “There isn’t any difference
between the parties.” I strongly
disagree with all three of these statements.
I believe that people first run for office because they want to
contribute to bettering their community, state or nation. Most give up easier jobs with better salaries
to seek office.
Unfortunately under our present system of private
campaign financing, I can’t prove that the cynics are wrong. It is almost impossible to prove that any
official votes for or against legislation in exchange for a campaign donation,
unless the official has written an account of the exchange. But it is also impossible for a candidate (who
receives a donation from a donor who wants a certain vote) to prove that he or
she didn’t vote in exchange for the donation.
The only evidence usually is in the candidate’s head. Our present private campaign donation system
makes cynicism easy. All the candidate
can say is “Trust me without verification.”
Whether or not there is sin (as Representative Rodney Tom called it),
there is the appearance of sin.
Most officials may be trustworthy, but the fact that
donors with special interests donate sizable amounts of money and these
interests are often satisfied against the expressed interests of the public
suggests at least some officials aren’t trustworthy. An official may be telling the truth that he
or she is honest, but the official cannot demonstrate that all of his or her
colleagues are honest. Only a few
dishonest office holders are enough to justify eliminating the advantages that
candidates achieve through private campaign financing.
Public
campaign financing may not reform congenital cynics, but it may make it more
difficult for them to defend their views of politics and politicians.
Behind-the-Scenes
Lobbying
Much is made of the importance of public hearings. Many advocacy groups rally their members to
attend and testify. Testimony is often
passionate, especially concerning social issues. But for many bills, the real action takes
place away from public purview.
Lobbyists seldom testify at House and Senate committee
public hearings. Not wanting to attract
public attention, they usually contact legislators individually and
privately. Legislators often make up
their minds concerning a bill based upon what lobbyists tell them more than
upon what they hear at public hearings. Committee
chairs poll their members to decide what bills to bring to a vote. If the bill isn’t brought to a vote, our
public never knows how many and who supported or opposed it, much less the
factors which influenced their vote.
There is perhaps no easy solution to this lack of
transparency. One possibility is to
allow a few committee members to demand a vote, even if they are not a
majority. Another possibility is to
require lobbyists to indicate the bills they support or oppose and the contacts
they make with legislators concerning these bills. Without some solution, democratic action is
often ineffective.
The
next time you see your legislator, you might ask him or her to identify the last 5 lobbyists from which he or she
obtained information.
Public
Support for Campaign Financing
In
June 2006,
Federal
Public Campaign Financing Bill
On March 20, 2007, Assistant Senate Majority
Leader Richard Durbin (D-IL) and sponsor Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA)
introduced the bipartisan Fair Elections Now Act. Modeled on the successful systems in
This is a
historic day in the fight to take control of our elections. Please join them in signing on as
a citizen co-sponsor of this groundbreaking legislation!
Darcy Burner
Would Have Won If . . . .
We have suggested priorities for winning 2008 legislative
elections. These were to re-elect
Democrats who won by less than 54%, replace Republicans who won by less than
54%, elect a third Democrat in districts with two Democratic legislators, elect
a second in districts with one Democratic legislators, with the lowest priority
being the solidly Republican districts.
Darcy Burner in her visits this week to the 41st,
5th and 48th Districts has noted an exception. Because no Democratic legislative candidates
ran in the 5th District in 2006, well over 10,000 Democratic voters
didn’t vote. Had they voted, they would
have provided enough votes for Darcy to have won her 8th
Congressional District race. To win the
8th Congressional seat in 2008, a high priority is to offer
Democratic candidates for all legislative positions, including the three 5th
Legislative District positions.
If you know anyone in the 5th
Legislative District (From east Issaquah to
Fifth Legislative District
Democrats Discuss Family Values
5th Legislative District Democrats have identified their values as Freedom, Family, Jobs and Justice. At their March 21st meeting, they discussed Family values. Well organized conservative Christians snuck up on us to define family values in a restrictive doctrinaire way which often contradicts our definition of family values. Believing in freedom for all, we Democrats include a wide variety of Americans with a wide variety of opinions; but within our big tent, we can find and act upon those things we agree on.
We note that families consist of a wide variety of combinations of men, women and children of various generations. The common feature is that family members live together and care for each other on a long term basis. Realizing family values includes assisting them to care for each other with opportunities for health, education, jobs, income and retirement. We will struggle to enable our government and other agencies to provide these opportunities.
For more information about family values.
How about John and Elizabeth Edwards family as an example of great family values? The top 9 Democratic presidential candidates have had 9 marriages and none are known to have committed adultery. The top 4 Republican presidential candidates (Guliani, McCain, Gingrich and Romney) have had 9 marriages and 3 committed adultery.
Quick Topics
Washington State Labor Council’s
Tracking of Bills They Support
Food Prices Rise
Due to Ethanol Production for Fuel
Gays in the Military
A new
Newsweek poll shows that 63 percent of Americans believe that gays and lesbians
should be able to serve openly in our military.
A Zogby poll reported 58% of members of our military agreed that gays
should serve openly or were neutral.
More than 100 House members have signed a bill to repeal ‘don’t ask,
don’t tell’. But not wanting to appear
too liberal before the 2008 election campaign, the bill may not be put up for
passage.
Ken Delay Slams GOP
Colleagues
Don’t you live conservative food fights? Ken Delay’s new book No Retreat, No Surrender calls President Bush compassionate, but no
conservative. Gingrich is vain, was an
ineffective speaker of the House, unable to translate his ideas into
legislation and unsure how to advance the Republican agenda. Armey was so blinded by ambition that he was
useless. DeLay writes that “Republicans
have long been right on the issues and terrible at communication.” How about wrong on the issues and effective
communicators. Luckily DeLay offers
nothing that will strengthen the Republican Party.
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton’s autobiography (My Life) was long (950 pages) but very readable. If you don’t have a life, this is a book to
read, which may take much of your life. It
is a biography which views everything from
I am astounded that he met and remembered thousands of
people dating back to his early childhood, apparently considering hundreds to
be close personal friends. Winning
friends through charm and persuasion was important to him. He seldom threatened his opponents, giving
them a free ride to attack him and they did.
His
book focuses upon his attempts to help people, get people to support his
efforts, get elected, and pass legislation.
Yet he pays little attention to obtaining power. For him, power was a means to an end, not an
end in itself. How dramatically
different from his Republican opponents. He led us through 8 years of peace and
prosperity, yet he did not leave a strong Democratic party. His natural state was optimistic and
enthusiastic, with several exceptions when he lost his second governors race
and when his affair became public.
Recommended
Books
Bill Clinton, 2004, My Life
Lake Hills Liberals Newsletter
Lake Hills in
Enhancing Freedom,
Bring Our Troops Home
During this past 5 weeks, some
of us have been vigiling for peace, including members of Lake Hills Liberals,
MoveOn, Eastside Reconciliation for Peace and Eastside Liberals for John
Edwards. Several times a week, 2 to 4 of us hold signs at a 4-way stoplight one
mile south of the main Microsoft campus. On a stake, each 12" x 17"
sign says `Bring Our Troops Home Alive'. Below signs carried by his supporters
is a 4" x 12" sign which says `John Edwards'.
We stand there from 4:30 to 5:30 PM. About 500 cars
pass by slowly as they wait their turn at the intersection. About one out of
five indicate their approval by waving, thumbs up, flashing their lights or
honking, About the same proportion are talking on cell phones. Contact
Events
Calendar
Every Thursday 7-8:30 PM in Crossroads Mall near the large chess board
at table with red checkerboard patterned tablecloth – Conversation Café –.
Participants (mostly Lake Hills Liberals) use a discussion format with
each participant addressing an issue in turn with listeners respecting what
they say. A great way to learn
different understandings and opinions, while presenting and modifying your own.
Every Thursday at 7:00pm, Valhalla Bar & Grill (
Every first Wednesday at 7 PM at
Every third Tuesday at 7:00 at Lake Hills Clubhouse next to Lake Hills
Library – Lake Hills Neighborhood
Association
Every third Wednesday at 7 PM at
Every third Wednesday at 7 PM at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church (
Every fourth Friday at 6:30
PM at
Activities
and Services
Our Neighborhood Enhancement
Interests and Activities include:
block parties; welcoming new neighbors; cooperation among home owners and
apartment tenants; environmental enhancement (recycling exchange), crime
prevention, disaster response, school and youth services, military concerns,
family financial security, and elder support task groups; and free
advertisements for members.
Our Political Actions include: displaying yard signs and bumper stickers, letters-to-editors
and government officials, campaign support for liberal candidates, canvassing
to identify liberal voters and stimulate them to vote, and encouraging
formation of liberal groups in other neighborhoods. Our newsletter stimulates networking of
liberals throughout our
Our Personal Enhancement
Efforts include: educating liberals
(our newsletter, commentaries and discussions; website; and reading list),
healthy living (walking groups), and arts and crafts fair.
· Our Lake Hills
Liberals Walks – M & F 5:15 PM and Sat at 7:30 AM at Lake Hills Library
parking lot by dumpster. Slow Pokes Walk. – W 5:15 PM Bring your cane or walker to walk a short
distance to
· .In keeping with our principle of not competing with
existing services, we won’t add a blog capability to our website. See www.nwprogressive.org/portal to
examine many northwest liberal blogs.
Our liberal spirit
commentaries (which sometimes accompany our newsletter) address mutual respect
and cooperation of religious and secular
liberals. They also address changing our
mindsets (such as not bringing our experiences to consciousness,
insensitivities, resentments and cynicism) which restrict our ability to take
advantage of our freedoms and activities.
The major restrictions on our freedom and opportunity may be in our
head. These can be changed.
Hire Our
Neighbors
·
Private Piano Lessons (students must have a piano),
afternoons - Anna Khosrowian (378-7938), price negotiable
·
Housekeeper, price negotiable –
·
Psychotherapist, accepts insurance - Sandy Mathews (462-7889, www.sandramathews.com)
·
Babysitting for infants (occasional evenings and weekends) -
$5 per hour-
·
Data Entry- $10 per 12 font, double spaced page-
·
Home Repair- prices vary, depending on job-
·
Auto Repair, price varies depending on job (but
always fair), Jaime Speicher (AAS Auto Repair Technician) (425-746-2353)
·
Home Repair and Remodeling,
·
Life Support Therapies,
Volunteers
and Donations Wanted
· Healthy Start needs women volunteers to mentor young
mothers –
· Head Start at
·