Health Care and the ME and WE Parties

A pandemic is coming, yells Governor Perry of Texas. Send help. I need anti-viral drugs from the US government. Close the boarder he demands. Bring in the troops--US Army of course. I will secede he clamors. But wait. Your help is needed Uncle Sam. I will secede later. The same mantra echoes from the mouths of right wing conservatives that includes virtually all of the Republican Party in the USA, and many Democrats too. Government is too big--until I need the Federal Government to help. What does the Republican Party and conservative Democrats represent? Seems to me the answer is: "What's good for ME at the moment". The Republican Party is not the party of "no". It is now the party of "me, me, me". Whatever I need when I need it is what counts and nothing else. Give ME health care, give ME anti viral medicines, give ME , give ME, give ME. WE others have become the victims of more than 8 years of "ME" thinking and action perpetrated by the ME Party, euphemistically referred to as the Republican Party with some shady Democrats under their umbrella. But "Republic--ans" or "Republicrats" or whatever you may call them the are really the ME Party. The ME Party is only focused on what is good for me. To hell with everyone else.

Most of the rest of us belong to the WE Party and it is time to speak out and let all politicians know that WE demand the right of Health Care for all citizens. WE, the only real party of the people demand action to provide universal health care underwritten by our taxes not doled out by insurance companies who fatten their profits by denying coverage and charging exorbitant fees that few can afford. WE demand a health care system that is based upon the Hippocratic Oath, not the "Bottom Line, $$$$$$, Oath" that demands huge profits for the private Health Care insurance companies who pay themselves (their executives) many many millions of dollars compensation plus bonuses for their ability to gouge WE.

Just as the ME Party allowed the financial and investment corporations to manipulate and deceive the WE Party (composed of the working Americans and their families), they are now defending their ME approach to health care. If they, the ME Party, gets their way WE will continue to lose health care and be forced to pay their profit driven Insurance Company fees or be denied even rudimentary health care.

WE must tell President Obama and those who we elect to make the health care decisions in Congress that the Insurance Companies health care dominance is over. WE demand action now to provide universal, single-payer health care for all of our citizens. The United States is the only advanced country in the world that does not provide non-profit single-payer health care for all their citizens. Why? The ME party (including many Democrats and virtually all Republicans) are beholden to the Insurance Corporations and their lobbyists who donate money for their political campaigns so that their vote against single-payer universal health care is assured by legal bribery. The same corporations attempt to scare the public at large with lies and distortions similar to the Financial Corporations blatant distortions that preceded the economic debacle we are now mired in. WE must awaken and recognize deception and greed for what it is. Tell the ME Party that WE are no longer accepting the "bs" and WE demand non-profit health care for all citizens NOW.

Do Words Have Meaning President Obama?

From the moment we begin speaking as infants in our mother tongue we accept the obvious reality that words do mean something. Each word in every language has a specific or range of meanings that become accepted by the general population. When we speak to one another we can determine what is meant and if there is any uncertainty can have it clarified. Likewise the content of the written word generally enable us to understand what the meaning "is". Except when "it depends what "is, is?", as a past US president said when he was caught with his pants down.

For the last eight years ambiguity of language and the written word has flourished as our government attempted to justify our nation's apparent disregard of the meaning of the Geneva Convention Treaty governing humane treatment of enemy combatants who are captured. We have been told that the Geneva Convention does not apply to suspected terrorists even when they are called enemy combatants. We are being told now by ex-Vice President Cheney that all torture is acceptable if an appointed lawyer or he says so, and he says so. What then do these word from the Geneva Convention Treaty mean, Mr Cheney?

"Captured combatants and civilians who find themselves under the authority of the adverse party are entitled to respect for their lives, their dignity, their personal rights and their political, religious and other convictions. They must be protected against all acts of violence or reprisal. They are entitled to exchange news with their families and receive aid. They must enjoy basic judicial guarantees."

Whatever the consequences of violating these words are or should be is up to the judicial process to determine. Mr. Cheney admits that the words of the Geneva Convention were disobeyed by him and others in the Bush Administration. The meaning of the Geneva Convention is indisputable. There is no acceptable reason to claim misunderstanding of these simple words. The laws flowing from the violation of the Geneva Convention are also as clear as can be and those of us who are old enough remember the Nuremberg Trials at which many Nazi leaders were convicted of war crimes and sentenced to long imprisonments or executed for violations of the Geneva Convention Treaty.

Words do mean something Mr. Cheney and you are certainly aware of that fact. Your admission of our Country and you yourself violating the words of the Geneva Convention should have judicial consequences.

It is now up to the Obama administration to mean what Candidate Obama so often said: "There must be accountability for actions." Individuals in the bush Administration violated the Geneva Convention Treaty that is law in over 190 of the counties on Earth, including the USA. The meaning of the words in the Geneva Convention Treaty are not ambiguous. The words mean exactly what they state in any language on Earth.

If the individuals in the Bush Administration violated the Geneva Convention Treaty, as Mr. Cheney admits, then the guilty individuals must be tried for crimes against humanity just as were the Nazis at Nuremberg.

The Obama Administration cannot ignore what took place during the Bush Administration and simply brush it off by saying "let by gones be by gones". By so doing he would admit that words have no meaning and they are always subject to interpretation and exception. If so how can your words, President Obama, be relied upon and judged?

The Malady of Effervescent Greed Must be Stopped

The financial and unemployment turmoil that we are in the midst of is a symptom of a disease that if allowed to spread will become an incurable plague. The financial turmoil originated when banks were allowed to participate in unregulated investment ploys that amounted to Ponzi schemes that makes Maddoff seem like a piker. Most banks allowed no down payment loans assuming that the prices of real estate would never decline and their loans would always be covered by foreclosures. Then banks and insurance companies participated in another scheme to make money that was even more baseless. They sold insurance or derivatives to individuals that assured payoff even if the loan borrower defaulted. This madness was akin a disease that spread to the brains of everyone participating causing effervescent greed to froth from the mouths of the avaricious money mongers. The average person who is now wallowing in debt and unable to find work represents the innocent victim of this hoax that they believed in because as we have all been told by our leaders that more is better, and the more that you consume the better. Well, the bankers and investment gurus swallowed their own propaganda as did the politicians, and led us all down an unregulated path of economic misery. Can tweaking the system that caused the disease change the outcome? Maybe for the short term, but not for the long haul.

We cannot cure the disease of greed by turning off one spigot while allowing many others to continue to spew polluted water. Temporary measures will slow the greed disease in banking and investments, but only long enough to curtail the economic decline. Then the cycle will resume because we have been conditioned to the not so subliminal message that more consumption cures everything. In other words, the more you spend the better, unless what it costs is greater than all your asset values combined. Then you are told that you are not qualified. I am referring to the priceless asset, your health. If you are destitute or barely below the poverty line, you may get rudimentary health care, if you can find it nearby. If you are middle class and have lost your job and depend upon unemployment insurance you are probably unqualified for Medicaid or equivalent care. The millions of recently unemployed who had rudimentary health care will soon have nothing.

Our health care system that denies life-saving and preventive care to at least one quarter of our people, and rations it (by having HMO administrators decide the care you are entitled to, not doctors telling you what you need) to most of the rest of us, is another example of effervescent greed that is about to cause the next great crisis in the USA.

Medical care in our country use to be available to virtually everyone when family doctors provided care and non-profit hospitals dominated the scene. Doctors made house calls and took care of the poor and needy even if they could not pay. Then, in the late 1950's the practice of medicine started to change. Corporate entities and insurance companies decided that they were missing a gargantuan profit opportunity. Health Maintenance Organizations started to replace the family doctor and profit-making hospitals replaced non-profit ones. Medical specialization grew exponentially and even doctors decided that more profit was very nice. House calls ceased. The needy and poor were left to get sick and were denied life-saving treatments that they could not pay for. As the profit making motive drove medical care the price consumers paid for treatments and care also increased at a rate that far exceeded the general rate of inflation. Prices for doctors and hospital care escalated by at least twice the compounded rate of general inflation.

The escalating costs to companies who offered health care benefits to their employees became too expensive for the employers so they introduced co-payments and monthly deductions from pay checks to help cover their costs and loss of profits.Some companies dropped health plans completely. Retiree health benefits were often eliminated even though they were promised upon employment. Wile all these changes occurred fewer people were able to pay for their medical care and the state and federal government provided aid for those who could not pay. Eventually government aid became insufficient to overcome the profit-driven medical industry prices that had the most influential lobby in Washington DC and state capitols.

The CEO's and executives of the major HMO's and pharmaceutical companies thrived as did their top executives and large stock investors as the profits ballooned. HMO executive pay and bonuses went sky high as they are now. Some of the highest paid corporate executives are CEO's of HMO's many of whom are paid over $100 million dollars annually plus stock options and bonuses. The health care industry is now one of the most profitable businesses in the USA simply because it has morphed from care based upon the Hippocratic oath to care based upon maximizing profits. Major corporation control doctors who are often paid bonuses by restricting the extent of care. Most doctors are now employees or managed by HMO's and insurance companies whose real purpose is to generate profits, and health care is secondary.

The consequences of this transformation of health care in our country is that about 100 million of our people are provided inadequate medical care or no health care at all, and the number is growing daily. This is the result of the same effervescent greed that has devastated our economic wellbeing. We are on the precipice of becoming engulfed in an even more devastating disaster, one that truly determines the balance between life and death: affordable health care for all citizens. If greed is allowed to continue to dominate health care as it has for banking and investments we will soon see our sick country becoming sicker and more destitute than any financial upheaval could ever cause.

What can the average citizen do to prevent profit from deciding your health? Stop the HMO's, drug companies, and their armies of lobbyists from dictating the future of health care. Demand that the profit motive be removed from our health care delivery system and insist that a universal health care plan be created that provides health care for all citizens regardless of economic status. Return health care to the days when the Hippocratic Oath was the driving force and the purpose of medicine. Stop profit making corporations and organizations from spreading the "Malady of Effervescent Greed" that has already done irreparable harm to many millions of our people. Millions more will soon lose whatever health care coverage they had as Cobra is terminated or becomes too expensive to pay for without a job.

Act now. Call your elected representatives in the House and Senate. Contact President Obama. Start organizing and participate in a "People's March on Washington for Universal, Non-Profit, Health Care". Tell the politicians that you won't allow any more back-room deals with the health care lobbyists and their profit-driven health-care corporations! We the people must win our right to have Universal Health Care without greedy profit making corporations determining your eligibility and amount of care.