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It has now been documented that acetaminophen is the most common cause in the U.S. of acute liver failure, which can result in death if a liver transplant cannot be done.
The Food and Drug Administration has recognized that acetaminophen poisoning is a public health issue and has slowly taken steps to educate the public to this popular drug's dangers. In April 2009, the FDA mandated a new warning label, which will say on 500-mg products (Extra Strength Tylenol and its generic equivalents): “Liver warning: This product contains acetaminophen. Severe liver damage may occur if you take more than eight tablets in 24 hours, the maximum daily amount.” It will also warn against using it with other acetaminophen products or with alcohol use of three or more drinks a day. The FDA rejected a request from the Tylenol manufacturer McNeil to water down the warning by removing the word “severe” and adding the word “overdose,” which the agency said could lead consumers to believe they had to greatly exceed the recommended dosage before jeopardizing their livers.
This warning won't take effect until spring 2010. FDA advisors first recommended such a liver warning in 1977.
In the meantime, an FDA advisory panel will meet in late June to consider other steps intended to make it harder to accidentally cause liver failure from taking too much acetaminophen. A "working group" of advisors has recommended among other things:
• limiting the single adult dose to a maximum of 650 mg, and limiting tablet size to 325 mg (down from the current extra-strength size of 500 mg and single dose of 1000 mg);
• lowering the maximum daily dose for adults from 4000 mg to no greater than 3250 mg (and less than that for chronic alcohol users);
• restricting pediatric liquid formulations to a single mid-strength concentration;
• eliminating acetaminophen from combination products.
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The more controversial claim is that Bourdieu draws on a very basic form of rational choice theory. If you read Introduction to Reflexive Sociology, Bourdieu is asked whether this is true and he just says the comparison is off base. I think Bourdieu is sort of wrong, but not totally. Specifically, he responds to Beckers rational choice theory and I think Bourdieu is correct in drawing the distinction. The homo economicus is very different than the mood driven habitus. Explicit calculation is simply not the main variable of Bourdieus theory.
On the other hand, striving for status and attention is an implicit, ecological view of strategic behavior. Field based actors do strategically try to defend their turf using their resources, even if they ways they do it are not always conscious or well articulated. I call this competition because biological and social ecology theories depict actors who must compete over space/resources with inherited traits/strategies that do emerge from conscious calculation.
The final claim of this post is that Bourdieu pretty much circumvents a fourth type of sociology the values/institutions/social structure stream associated with the old new institutionalists, Parsons, and network analysts. Its pretty obvious that hes not a big fan of functionalism or of any theory focusing on the links between values and orgs/networks/institutions. For him, the hierarchy is the principal model of social organization and hierarchies are just visible manifestations of who has the capital. Sociology is about explaining whos making and breaking these hierarchies and using the capital. If you really believe that, theres not much point in talking about networks, decoupling, logics, or any other stuff associated with the values structures branch of sociology, even though Bourdieu gets many respect citations from that crowd.
So, orgheads, a fair assessment of Bourdieu? Post your reactions in the comments.
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Recently, I began noticing a lump. Initially I didn't think much of it. I mean, who would? It's easy to just cruise along when you think you're an indestructible guy-- living it up as at the tender age of 21. The lump began to grow larger and larger and definitely caught my attention. I promised myself that I would head straight to the doctor after my Vegas trip. That's how I always thought--"I'll do that right after this..."
When I returned from Vegas, I went to see my primary doctor. I will never forget the look on his face as he examined the growing mass on me. He immediately stopped the examination and told me I needed to head straight to the emergency department to receive scans. I called up my family and told them what was going on. They went to the emergency room with me, unsure of what was about to unfold; unsure of how our world would be shaken off its foundation. After spending a few hours of waiting for my turn to go under the CT machine (I will save my frustrations from another post), I finally had my first scan of any sort, ever... While my family waited in the waiting room, I couldn't help but wonder how life-changing this scan may be. The culmination of 21+ years of experiences, relationships, thoughts could be changed with one scan.
It took two hours for the radiology department to produce results for the ER doctor. The doctor came into my room and closed the door somberly. I knew this would be a moment I will remember for the rest of my years. He sat down beside me and explained everything: "You have masses all over your abdomenal area. While this may not be malignant, it does not look good. Would you like me to break it to your family?" I sat there stunned, upset, and downright broken. Somehow I gathered the strength to utter, "No, I will tell them." He ushered my family into the room and closed the door as he left. In my 21 years of life, this was the most difficult situation I had ever encountered. Without hesitation, in Taishanese, I told them I might have cancer. My mom and my brother began to cry hysterically. All I could do was shed a stream of tears that enveloped the lower portion of my face. In that moment, I lost everything. All I had were my tears.
I spent the next week in the oncology ward. They performed multiple biopsies to check for malignancy. While I held out hope that the process that was causing these lumps was not cancer, I knew the chances were slim (to none). Around the fourth day in the oncology ward, the doctor, a graduate of my beloved UC Berkeley, came into my shared room and sensitively said, "The reports have shown that your masses are malignant. To make things worse, they are unable to determine what type of cancer you have, which makes creating a treatment plan extremely difficult at this point. However, we will run further tests to figure out the primary for this cancer. I'm sorry." This time I didn't cry. Over the past few days, I prepared myself mentally and emotionally for this moment. I was tired of feeling sorry for myself the day after my initial visit to the ER. I realized that feeling sorry for myself was counter-productive. While I was stranded in the oncology ward for a few more days, I was strangely calm. While my side of the room had no windows, I took walks into the hall and stared out of the sixth floor window at the beautiful San Francisco skyline. Admiring the lush views of the bay and the awe-inspiring buildings of The City, I vowed to myself that if life were to give me one more chance, I would do it right this time. I would take time to appreciate everyone and everything around me.
While this is far from a fairy tale, life actually began to send signs of resurgence. On the day the doctor told me the biopsy reports confirmed that I had cancer, my brother called me after returning home. He said I had received a letter in the mail from UCSF, my dream school. I asked him to open it and to read it to me. Life can be funny and cruel at the same time: I had received an invitation to interview at my dream school. When the future became muggy and despondent, this letter became my glimmer of hope. The interview was scheduled to occur two months from that day. In another slice of bittersweet reality offered by life, my new oncologist came into my room an hour after that phone call. The previous day, he came in and told me, "I don't know what's going on right now. All I know is that you will not die today. You will not die tomorrow. You will not die two months from now." However on the next day, he backed down from that promise after completely reviewing my scans and reviewing the biopsy report. In a very rehearsed fashion, he said, "You will not die today. You will not die tomorrow." What happened to two months from now? Two months! That's when I was scheduled to interview at UCSF! My mind was dashing at 100 miles per hour with no end in sight. Before I was able to let his prognosis sink in, I was again offered a glimmer of hope, "The good news is that we have narrowed your primary down to rectal or anal. We are pretty sure it is most likely rectal cancer." With that statement, I finally had a treatment plan. In one day, I was given two earth-shattering, life-altering realities. I could die within the next two months. Or I will survive and be given a chance to pursue the future I had always imagined for myself--a chance to make good on that vow by the window.
How will this story end or ascend? How will my life unfold or fold? I hope I will be able to share with you my many journeys as I venture on with my so-called life.
Oh! By the way, this is now 5 months, 9 rounds of chemotherapy, 1 UCSF interview, and 1 UCSF acceptance later. My health, my energy, and my view of life are improving. A good life indeed.
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When I was a little kid my favorite baseball player was Reggie Jackson. I first really started following baseball in 1977. My memories are a touch foggy as I didnt turn six until September of that year (when I entered the first grade though today I would just be starting kindergarten at that age) It was a busy year. It began in Liverpool, NY, just outside of Syracuse. My father was transferred to Connecticut. While he started his new job and started house-hunting my mother and I stayed with her parents and brother in Brooklyn, NY. Pretty much everyone in that house was a baseball fan. My mom despised the Yankees, originally having been a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. But my uncle was a Yankees fan, betraying the family tradition. He and my grandfather taught me all about baseball extra innings, batting averages, strikeouts, walks, etc. These were all things that meant nothing to me at the start of the year. By the time my mother and I settled in Connecticut with my father I already had a favorite player, Reggie Jackson. I was unaware of all the clubhouse-conflicts around him I had little realization that ballplayers were not demigods.
My allegiance stayed with the Yankees until around 1981 when they faced the Dodgers in the World Series. I was in fifth grade. After this both New York teams were pretty mediocre and my allegiances switched to the Mets this was before the era of Dwight Gooden, Daryl Strawberry, Gary Carter, and the rest of the 1986 Mets.
Last Friday night my brother and I made our first trip to Citi Field to see the Mets play Nationals. It was a long trip, as we both live in Massachusetts now. It is a beautiful ballpark. Im way too young to have any memories of Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds, but Im familiar enough with them to really appreciate how elements of those ballparks have been incorporated into Citi Field. And Citi Fields modern amenities are quite simply awesome. Im not a huge beer drinker so when I do drink beer I like it to be good stuff I take my influence from my brother who is a self-proclaimed beer snob. And they had some awesome beers. Belgian, Czech, and local Brooklyn beers in abundance. Awesome food including some excellent Blue Smoke BBQ products. And it feels like a ballpark. No one will be playing football or soccer in it. It is made for baseball. It was an incredibly enjoyable evening. Especially with all the stresses of the real world. My brothers company just had a 40% layoff, mine has instituted a pay cut, according to the news theres danger of a flu pandemic. Nothing like a baseball game to get away from troubles for a few hours.
To take us full circle brings us to Jackie Robinson. The main entrance to Citi Field is the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. When I first heard about it I was concerned it was lip-service so they would not take any heat for not naming the entire ballpark after him. But having visited it in person I can say it is an amazing tribute to Jackie Robinson. I must confess to a certain level of amusement in the way in which the Mets have hijacked much of Jackie Robinsons legacy from the Dodgers. But hey, the Dodgers betrayed us by packing up and leaving Brooklyn. Dem Bums! The Mets were built from the start to reclaim the legacy of the departed Giants and Dodgers. And without Robinson there would be no Reggie Jackson for me to idolize. Yes, I suppose some ballplayer would have been the first to cross the color barrier of 20th century baseball (as it turns out in the 19th century there were black ballplayers but they were excluded from the Major Leagues by the 20th century). But Robinson was the one who did it. And he did it with class. And Robinson himself said he hadnt thought the color barrier would be crossed in his lifetime.
While I always had some appreciation for what Jackie Robinson did, I did wonder sometimes if he might have been a touch . But having learned more about what he accomplished, I dont think that was the case at all. Yes, someone had to him to play in the Majors. And in this case that person was Branch Rickey, General Manager and part-owner of the Dodgers. Rickey was an interesting character in his own right, pioneering the modern farm system and encouraging the use of modern equipment and statistical analysis in baseball. For Rickey, integrating baseball came down to two things: it was the right thing to do and it was the profitable thing to do.
Robinson himself had a brutal role to take. He was a man more than capable of standing up for himself. For example, while an officer in the army he refused to go the back of a military bus when the driver thought he was talking with a white woman. He faced court martial for this incident and was acquitted. But what Rickey asked of him was to not fight back. When the slander, the racial slurs, the deliberate hits from pitchers came at him, he was asked to stand tall but not retaliate. Which is what he did. He gave his critics no cause to judge him for anything save his performance on the field. This despite the enormous pressure he was under. He was well aware what a symbol he was, how some would view any failure on his part as indicative of a failing of the entire African-American race. And he succeed, both as a symbol and a ballplayer. He won over many of his critics. His teammates, many of whom initially had no desire to play with an African-American, began to respect, appreciate, and stand up for him. He won white Dodger fans over. There were many whites who believed a black man would be mentally inferior, unable to stand up to the pressure of the Major Leagues. But Jackie Robinson stood up to greater pressure, game after game, than any other player has had to face and all for the color of his skin, something neither he nor anyone else has any control of. But in so doing he forced many whites to analyze their own feelings on race, from his teammates to the Dodgers play-by-play radio announcer.
It seems impossibly distant, in this nation with an African-American president, that we were once a nation that question if a black man could compete at professional baseball. Im glad that we live in a nation where a little white boy could idolize an African-American baseball player. Robinson breaking the color barrier was a step, one of many, in our nation overcoming its ugly original sin of slavery. Weve still got a ways to go. But we now live in a nation where my oldest daughter can idolize an African-American president. Well get there I believe.
If youre interested in more details about Jackie Robinsons breaking of baseballs color barrier, a wholeheartedly recommend Jonathan Eigs Opening Day.
Note to the Dodgers: Come home. All will be forgiven.
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One dietary characteristic that was readily apparent in the traditional primitive cultures of Weston A. Prices studies was the lack of modern, processed foods. There was in these cultures a widespread use of foods high in nutrient content and comparatively low in calories. When processed foods replaced traditional foods, physical deformities and ill health followed. This pattern of less consumption of nutrient-dense foods and greater consumption of processed modern foods has happened in the United States just as it has in the primitive cultures of the world.
A look around the American population with Dr. Prices discoveries in mind quickly reveals the state of health in our country today. It's common for modern Americans to require braces and other dental corrections, as well as frequent visits to the doctor due to general illness, such as flu, colds, and other symptoms of lowered immunity. As Dr. Price noted in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, it only takes one generation of men and women who regularly displaced their native foods with processed foods to give birth to children displaying physical irregularities and exhibiting lowered immunity to disease. These deteriorations are now commonly observed in modernized societies, like the United States, where a large proportion of the foods eaten are processed and devitalized.
Comparing American eating and disease patterns in 1900 to those in 2000, one can find several significant changes that have taken place over the last century. In 1900, Americans ate mostly whole foods, although substantial amounts of processed foods were eaten as well. The whole foods eaten by turn-of-the-century Americans included untrimmed meats from pasture-fed animals, fresh vegetables and fruits, grains, and fats like butter, lard, and coconut oil. Of course, this diet differs significantly from the foods Americans eat today: vegetable oils, refined and grains, simple starches, sugar, and factory-reared grain-fed meats (in a few words: fast food). Table 1 provides an overview of the changes in American disease patterns before (1900) and after (2000) these processed foods fully crept into the food supply.
Table 1. Leading Causes of Death in 1900 2000*
1900 % Total 2000 % Total
Tuberculosis.......................11.3.
Pneumonia.........................10.2..
Diarrheal Diseases..............8.1............Str
Heart Disease......................8.0........
Liver Disease.......................5.2.......
Injuries................................
Stroke..................................4.5.
Cancer..................................3.7.
Bronchitis............................2.6.
Diphtheria...........................2.3.
*Adapted from Food Politics (Nestle 2002, 32)
In Table 1, it can be seen that the shift in American health over the last century has been one of major transition. In 1900, many deaths were due to infectious diseases or injury (6 of 10). This was an era when hygiene was not fully understood and such untimely deaths were commonplace. Heart disease and cancer -- the diseases of modern man -- are seen occurring in moderate percentages during this time. Flash forward to 2000, following many years of processed food consumption, and a very different picture is painted. Almost all of the top diseases (8 of 10) causing death at the time of the millennium are chronic degenerative conditions. The numbers for heart disease and cancer top the list, increasing by four and six times respectively compared to 1900.
The drastic changes in American disease patterns require a broad perspective to fully comprehend. As stated before, in addition to dietary changes, many environmental changes (crowded living conditions and an inadequate food supply) no doubt had a prime role to play in the shift in health that took place over the last hundred or so years. This is one reason why the average lifespan in the United States in 1900 is commonly believed to be far less than it is today. The average lifespan data during this time is also influenced by untimely deaths, such as infectious disease, injury, lack of food, and miscarriages.
Stay tuned for the next post titled, "Were Early Americans Really Living Shorter Lives.
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For additional content, visit Anthony Lee's blog.
DISCLAIMER: All content in General Medicine is intended to satisfy your curiosity about various medical topics. They are not a substitute for seeking medical attention from a physician.
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...As I mentioned in my first healthcare letter, we do not have the money to pay for our current nationalized healthcare experiments, which we call Medicare and Medicaid. To open yet another financial wound, we do not have the money to fund Social Security over the next 30 years. So before you buy something expensive, it would seem wise to ask if you can afford to maintain it. The unfunded liabilities for Medicare and Medicaid alone have been estimated at $47-trillion dollars. This is the cost of insuring 30-million Americans. We do not have enough money for these existing programs, much less to expand these services to cover the lives of 304 million Americans.
What I am telling you is that Medicare and Medicaid will run out of money. The system will go bankrupt. It will be like AIG, which was "too big to fail", but which has failed despite pouring billions into it. People in my generation, and those younger, are "investing" in a Medicare system which promises to pay big dividends in healthcare dollars during our retirement. However, the politicians running the plan understand that this is a fiscal impossibility. It is dishonest. That money will not be there for us. It will be all used up by the time we reach age 65. The reason is that there will not be enough young workers to fund the Medicare system and keep it going for the aging baby boomers. Does this scenario sound familiar to you? Have you recently read about other people who have set up scams like this? You guessed it. Medicare is a Ponzi scheme.
...So why is a doctor like me engaging in "politics" or going on a rant about the healthcare dollar? Because money is a necessary part of the discussion! When you try to buy something on a credit plan that you can't afford, it is only a matter of time before that something is repossessed. Before we scrap private healthcare and open another credit card for nationalized healthcare, we should think about what we will do when we can't afford the payments. The answer is that people won't get the medical care they need, which is what happens in Canada. In all seriousness, I'd start putting away some extra cash in the bank for the day when Bernie Madoff or his sons reject your request for an MRI of the brain. You'll need that extra money to travel to Dubai for your MRI or your knee replacement - to purchase quality healthcare in a free-market system that is not dominated by a government rationing panel.
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While the article isnt exactly on the same topic, the flavor of it lends itself to I think the bigger issue: mandated universal health care. I can foresee that this policy is likely to become a reality with Obama being the driving force behind it.
Drug testing should be written into the contract as well. Providing health care to individuals without taking into account behavior that poses health risks, is subsidizing said behavior. Im not sure anyone is for subsidizing drug use, legalizing maybe, but subsidizing no. The media is going to frame the health care issue another way (the plight of the poor), but make no mistake, the unintended consequence of this action is to reduce the costs of engaging in drug use. People should be free to make that choice, but they should also face the full costs of their decisions, not the rest of us.
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the essential source for progressive ideas. Explore The American Prospect's award-winning investigative journalism and provocative essays in a free trial issue. Continue receiving The American Prospect at only $19.95 for a one-year subscription - a savings of 60% off the newsstand price.
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This same guy - working, I suppose, and for a decent wage - is spending his money and spare time buying guns and ammunition, and reading such uplifting and inspiring things as Stormfront.org and Glenn Beck.
So far, so good. Stay with me now.
He starts saying things about Obama wanting to impose martial law and confiscate guns (something that doesn't appear to have any truth to it, and I haven't seen any legislative push for gun control - the economy, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, nukes, etc. are all somewhat more important, I guess) and inveighing against the Zionists running the government and the Jews running everything else.
Then he starts getting all paranoid, thinking and saying that "They" are coming to get his guns, so he decides, apparently, to take matters into his own hands. So he calls a friend and basically tells him that he plans on dying today, picks a fight with his mother over the dog to draw the police up to his house, then ...
Tragedy ensues.
Dressed in body armor he shot two of the officers as they entered the house, and a third when he tried to save his brother officers. Then he was wounded, and shot himself.
So, let's review.
Here we have a disgruntled, violent, racist, cranky loser with authority issues, body armor and a home arsenal, who reads and listens to a constant spew of paranoiac hatred directed at government and various ethnic groups and was convinced that the Big and Evil Gummint was about to take away his guns.
How many more of these walking bombs are there?
And how many of them are next door to you, right now?
The real terrorist threat facing America today is not people named Achmed or Mohammed. The real threat is people named Bob, Gary and Tim.
And is there anyone who still feels as if they should dispute my assertion that the National Rifle Association should be considered a terrorist organization.
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There IS a cure for cancer yet thousands of people die from this horrible disease every year. The United States government has known about a cure since 1974. Richard Nixon was furious at a young generation of activists that had turned America against him and who flaunted the use of marijuana in his face.
In 1974. wanting to find damaging evidence that marijuana is harmful, researchers at the Medical College of Virginia, were funded by the National Institute of Health to find evidence that marijuana damages the immune system. SURPRISE! They discovered instead that THC slowed the growth of three kinds of cancer in mice -- lung and breast cancer, and a virus-induced leukemia.
The DEA quickly shut down the Virginia study and all further cannabis/tumor research, according to Jack Herer, in his book, "The Emperor Wears No Clothes ." In 1976 President Gerald Ford who replaced the disgraced Nixon as president, put an end to all public cannabis research and granted exclusive research rights to major pharmaceutical companies, who set out -- UNSUCCESSFULLY -- to develop synthetic forms of THC that would deliver all the medical benefits without the "high." The synthetic marinol simply doesn't work.
This was not the only medical research that has produced such exciting results. In 2000 Dr. Manuel Guzman of Complutense University in Madrid Spain re-discovered that THC destroys tumors with no negative side effects whatsoever. His team also irrigated healthy rats brains with high doses of THC for seven days and again found no negative results. Cannabinoids kill cancer cells by cutting off their blood supply but not to the healthy cells. These results have since been duplicated around the globe with many other cancers as well.
In 2005 Dr. Xia Zhang of the University of Saskatchewan found that THC actually promotes the growth of brain cells bringing new hope for head trauma and stroke patients. The same year the Scripps Institute reported that THC was a superior inhibitor of the plaque that causes Alzheimers. Unfortunately we hear little of any of these findings.
In 2008 researchers in Italy and the U.K. found that cannabinoids have germ killing activity against MRSA and kill bacteria in a different way than current antibiotics, meaning they might bypass bacterial resistance. MRSA's are becoming more and more prevalent and new treatments are desperately needed.
Even now, more medical evidence continues to mount around the world as more tests are conducted that the main chemical in marijuana appears to aid in the destruction of brain cancer cells, offering hope for future anti-cancer therapies, researchers in Spain wrote in a study released Thursday.
The authors from the Complutense University in Madrid, working with scientists from other universities, found that the active component of marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), causes cancer cells to undergo a process called autophagy -- the breakdown that occurs when the cell essentially self-digests.
The research, which appears in the April edition of US-published Journal of Clinical Investigation, demonstrates that THC and related "cannabinoids" appear to be "a new family of potential antitumoral agent." The authors wrote that the chemical may prove useful in the development of future "antitumoral agents."
The scientists conducted their research on mice, first stimulating the growth of cancer in the lab animals, then injecting them with a daily dose of THC near the site of their tumors. The researchers also analyzed the tumors of two patients in an experimental trial looking at the effects of THC on a highly aggressive form of brain tumor, and saw findings "in line with the preclinical evidence" first observed in the laboratory mice.
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Nothing is going to stop the new Princess of Pop, Lady GaGa Not even the police! The Poker Face singers often risque outfits have gotten the Lady in a bit of trouble, especially with the police. The popo everywhere keep stopping GaGa for her lack of clothes. She says, s not that I dont like pants, I just choose not to wear them some days. Most recently she says an incident took place in Chicago when she headed out in a small pair of hotpants. She reveals, I guess they werent really pants at all, but it was really funny because all you saw was this half-naked girl on the street yelling at some cop s fashion! Im an artist! It was fun. So whats the the no pants thing???.
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Snippets from Dr. McCannes answer to the question: Is there anything valuable that private insurance brings to the table which, with far more muscular federal regulation, would enhance an American universal health care system?
Dr. McCanne: Our private plans are based on a business model designed to ensure success in the health care marketplace. Success is defined by the medical loss ratio, spending the least they can on health care. Much of their profound administrative waste is due to their elaborate efforts to avoid paying for care.
The plethora of private plans merely demonstrates the insurers’ innovations in restricting benefits – preventing payment for non-covered services; increasing deductibles and other forms of cost sharing – erecting financial barriers to care; contracting with limited lists of providers – penalizing patients who need care outside of the restricted lists; selective marketing to healthy populations – especially the healthy workforce and their young, healthy families; using underwriting and rescissions to avoid paying for essential care; and on and on. These are great business tools, ensuring success of the insurers, but they are anathema to the more egalitarian goals of social insurance systems. They defeat the insurance function of pooling risk by segregating out the low-cost healthy into their own market, and dumping the high-cost sick onto taxpayer funded programs.Suppose we heavily regulate our private insurers and require guaranteed issue of plans that actually include all necessary services, and remove barriers to care such as restrictive lists of providers and unaffordable deductibles. This would require a massive, revolutionary transformation of the missions, goals, and administrative functions of our business-model private plans designed to prevent paying for care, into social insurance private plans designed to remove the financial system as a barrier to care.
Anyone who believes that this would be a simple transformation needs to have a conversation with insurance executives with their nine-figure compensation packages or with the large institutional investors who have fared extremely well under our market-based health care financing system.As if that weren’t enough, there is one more unique problem in the United States. Our health care costs are much higher than in any other nation. If we were effective in covering everyone with a choice of private plans, whether with or without a public option, and if those plans covered the necessary care that people actually need, imagine the premium that would have to be charged.
There is massive, intense opposition to the public option by the same elements that have been successful in defeating reform in the past. AHIP, PhRMA, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Republican members of Congress, and many others are all opposed to the Medicare-like option.
You are encouraged to follow the debate this week (only four questions) and provide your comments (http://healthcare.change.org/). Tim, Jason and I are very interested in your thoughts, and hopefully the policymakers will be as well.
Read the entire piece on PNHP.org: www.pnhp.org/news/2009/march/blog_debate
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Saturday, August 11, 2007 at 1:00 pm, Los Angeles City Hall, South Lawn
Lily Tomlin, SB 840 Advocates, Labor Leaders to Appear
What is anticipated to be LA’s largest-ever health care rally, calling for California leaders to eliminate for-profit health insurance companies and to guarantee universal coverage for all residents, will take place at 1:00 p.m., Saturday, August 11, 2007 on the south lawn of L.A.’s City Hall at First and Spring Streets.
Organized by a new coalition of grassroots, faith and community groups and labor unions, the rally will be the 365th day of a record-setting one-every-day educational program that has been held throughout the state for SB 840 (Kuehl). The Healthcare for All/OneCareNow (HCA/OCN) campaign was launched when the bill, passed by a majority of the California Assembly and Senate last August, was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger in September, 2006. The August 11 Event will be used to reveal plans for “veto-proofing” the current SB 840 bill which was reintroduced this year by its author, State Senator Sheila Kuehl, and now has 43 co-authors.
The rally, which starts at 1:00 p.m., will begin at the arrival of a procession of “hearses,” which will have proceeded from Santa Monica to City Hall, representing the estimated 50 persons in the U.S. who die because they lack health coverage. The event will include entertainment with Lily Tomlin, live music, celebrity hosts, California reform leaders and victims of the health care crisis. Scheduled speakers include Senator Kuehl, Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, Dolores Huerta, Maria Elena Durazo, and Andrew McGuire of the OneCareNow campaign and leaders of the State Strategy Group for SB 840.
Encouraged by the timing of the release and message of Michael Moore’s new film “SiCKO”, that for-profit insurance is the major cause of today’s health care crisis, the Los Angeles event has become the focus of the state-wide campaign, and will be promoted and supported by many groups including the League of Women Voters, California Alliance for Retired Americans, California Physicians’ Alliance, Older Women’s League, American Medical Student Association, California Council of Churches and many other political, health advocacy and community groups.
Organized labor’s support is lead by the California School Employees Association (CSEA), California Federation of Teachers, California Nurses Association, California Teachers Association (now all co-sponsors of SB 840). The United Teachers Los Angeles, Calfornia Faculty Association, California Faculty Association and the Labor Task Force for SB840 will all be supporting the rally.
The Great LA Health Care Rally Steering Committee is co-chaired by Jim Hilfenhaus (Laborers’ Local 300), Jose Morales (CSEA) and George Savage (HCA/OCN).
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Besides raising new questions about a possible quid pro quo between Blagojevich and Burris, Ruff also recalled Lebed telling him hed had discussions about Burris interest in the seat with Blagojevich representatives as far back as October. That claim by Ruff contradicts what Burris said in a Jan. 5 sworn statement that is now part of a state perjury investigation.
At the time, I just didnt give that much thought to it because I did not believe they would agree to do any pay-for-play politics for that Senate seat, Ruff said. But then Roland said down in Peoria, I attempted to raise money but was just unsuccessful. My thoughts sort of raced back to that moment and realized there was something more nefarious, perhaps, that had been involved here.
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